Occasionally, we'll do whole smoked chickens and pull the meat for BBQ. This here is 21 of those carcasses, and about 7 pounds of aromatics (onions, carrots, celery, garlic, jalapeno, tomato, herbs, random bits and pieces, etc.) tossed in the oven together for a bit, then scraped off into the biggest pot I could scrounge up (about 20-25 gallons) and filled to the brim with cold water. That Saturday afternoon before I left for the day I put it over a steady bit of fire until the barest of simmers began. In as dainty a manner as could be achieved (I struggle to maintain my girlish figure at 6'4", 370#) I transferred the pot to the top of our char-grill (like the song says "...beans don't burn on the grill. Took a whole lottta tryin'..."), turned the dial to low heat, and walked away.
The above picture is what remained at the end of the next day, a little thing I like to call Caldo 21. I use a very similar stock when I make Little Stevie's Ass-kickin' Wicked Chicken Elixir during the cold and flu season, but once I tasted the way the smoke played into the flavor I knew that this stock was destined (DESTINED!!!) for something greater. So began one of the Great Labors of Stevecles, The Clarification of the Smoked Chicken Stock.
The first part was simple. Gently,(any disturbance in the Force at this point just muddles the clarity) separating the solids from the liquid and transferring it (the liquid) to vessels for cold storage, the wider the better. I used two, six inch deep, full hotel pans. Chilling the stock this way overnight allowed bits to settle to the bottom and the fat to rise to the top and solidify in an easily removable "sheet". The stock underneath the fat layer had achieved a nice jello-like consistency, making it much easier to separate from the sediment that had settled in the bottom of the pans. With roughly 5 gallons of chicken-jello on hand, the next stage of the journey was ready to begin.
Back into a pot goes the chicken-jello!
Back onto the fire goes the pot of chicken-jello!
Back to a simmer does rise the heat of the pot of chicken-jello!
Back to the back corner of the stove goes the pot of simmering chicken-jello, now bubbly and liquefied!
Aback was I taken at the sight of my sadly still too cloudy stock!
Now, it had been many moons since I'd clarified stock to the degree which I desired, and the occult mysteries of using egg whites/albumen/ground protein "boats" were obscured by indistinct visions of long ago causing me to prematurely add them before I'd achieved a rolling boil. Mistakes were made but collateral damage was kept to a minimum and ultimately resulted only in the loss of an obscene number of industrial sized coffee filters and everything within a three foot radius of me & the strainer being coated in a tacky film of drying stock. Thus ended this labor of the mighty Stevecles...
Armed now with a beautifully clarified stock, I returned to the scene of the "Egg Boat Failure" and brought what was now about 4.5 gallons of stock once again to a simmer, shifting it a final time to the back corner of both the stove and my mind, places to be seldom frequented over the next few hours. As I wrapped up my evening I slid the pot from stove to counter to discover:
I slipped a chunk (it is an EXTREMELY firm gel) into the filling for a batch of Buttermilk Biscuit Topped Roast Chicken Pot Pie, but I'm saving the rest (in deep freeze) for something special. I'll have to get back to you on that one...
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