I’ve made stock with the CSA chickens we get (yeah, I’m in SF too) that come equipped with heads and feet a couple times and it really is amazing stuff. The floating head bobbing around in there thing is a little freaky, but at the same time it feels respectful. We’re definitely getting every last bit of nutrition out of these noble little beasts as we can.

Secret ingredient that my caterer/foodie inspiration pal swears by: a little white vinegar. Apparently it helps the bones let go of the good stuff, I don’t know or remember the details.

KM: Thanks for the picture praise.

I think you’re onto something with the DIY chiller, although I wonder if the thermal shock of immersing frozen liquid into hot stock might crack the glass.

Another way I quick-chill stock is to take the frozen contents of last few bags of the previous batch and toss them into the hot stock. It’s not nearly as swell as the chiller, but it does speed things up. And moving the strained stock into a cool pan or bowl is also a big help.

Kalyn: Isn’t the stock chiller a swoopy tool? It’d great for sauces and other hot liquids you make in bulk, too. The day I first saw one used (at school), I marched straight to the restaurant supply and bought one for home. I only wish I had enough freezer space to keep it filled and frozen all the time.

I’ve eaten chicken feet before, but I can’t say I get the appeal. To me, their cartilage is much better spent in stock than stuck in my teeth.

Annalise:
I try very hard to be a thoughtful omnivore, and I appreciate your being a respectful vegan. Your bitch reflex is very well behaved, although I can guess that I must have struck a nerve because you aren’t responding to what I wrote, exactly.

Although I went pretty far out on my narrative limb, I never said I thought my young picky-eater self was self-absorbed (although I certainly was in many other ways, at that age), merely squeamish and spoiled. And I also was never a vegetarian by any means — I just refused to eat meat that looked like body parts. I very deliberately meant to say (even if I didn’t get the point across) that ‘getting over myself’ involved overcoming my denial regarding my food choices and my omnivore status.

I’m a strong believer that if and when a person chooses to eat meat, they have an obligation to be honest about where it comes from and all of the collateral effects — to the food-animal, to the environment, to their bodies — that they’re complicit in. Meat that comes in nuggets or unrecognizable blobs on a styrofoam tray is part of the problem, in about a dozen ways I can think of off the top of my head. I’m guessing that, as far apart as we are in our food choices, we can agree on that much at least.

Thanks for the photo compliment, by the way.

I’m having trouble suppressing my bitch reflex at the moment.

Anyway. What I came here to say is, the photo with the silver pot is really beautiful.

I remember being given the chicken heart as a treat when my Mom roasted chicken. She’d boil up the giblets/heart for the cat, and fish the heart out of the boiling brew and give it to me to eat. I loved it. Recently I saw some at Berkeley Bowl and bought a few, but at the same time I remember thinking, “if I had to approach those now, as an adult, I’d think twice about chowing down on chicken hearts.”. Luckily I didn’t know any better as a kid, and luckily that was prior to my Mom going vegetarian. Mmmmmmmmm….

Glad to know I wasn’t just imagining the heads-in-bags. I don’t think I could bear putting them in the pot, not so much the idea of seeing them bobbing about so much as unearthing the little skulls at the end.

(Rocky, are you laughing at me yet?)