Bone and meat stock are a foundation ingredient in the kitchen. While the words “stock” and “broth” are used interchangeably, they are not the same thing culinarily. a stock is usually made with meat and is cooked over a shorter period. A broth is made with bones and is cooked for a longer period.

We make both but a bone broth is the one we make the most often. Meat stock is used in our home as a base for soups and stews. We use bone broth as an everyday drink with lunch or dinner, especially during the cold season. We also use leftover bits to feed our chickens.

We grind up the very soft bones from our bone broths for our chickens and sometimes serve them the leftover broth or stock if we don’t manage to get to it all before the next batch is made.

This Programmable Slow Cooker can keep food cooking for up to 26 hours.

Here are the basics of how we make ours:

For stock, place the meat pieces, water, celery, carrots, onion, and herbs in a slow cooker.

Cook on the medium setting for 6-8 hours. Strain out the meat and vegetables before using, and discard vegetables. The meat may be removed from the bones, and used in soup.

For broth, we save the bones and roast them in the oven for bone broth.

The same process is repeated, only with bones instead of meat and usually we put it on low for 10-12 hours.

The bones are then blended up with some water or leftover broth or stock from the previous week and fed to our chickens.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. We sometimes have an overabundance of bones or meat, usually around holidays. At those times, we make several batches and freeze it, labeling it “chicken broth” or “beef stock” and the date. Then we can have it available when we come home from a short vacation or take it with us when we take a trip.

One of our favorite recipes to make with stock is a butternut chickpea coconut curry. We also adore chicken and dumplings.

What is your favorite recipe to make with stock or broth?