Couldn't snap the bones in my chicken stock
I followed Alton Brown's recipe for stock in which he gave a rough estimate of 8-9 hours at a low simmer to extract maximum flavor. At one point, he said, paraphrased, "How will you know you've extracted the maximum amount of nutrients from your bird? Well..." at which point he fetches a rather large leg bone from the discarded remains and easily snaps it in half. Alas I couldn't do that. I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if my results are typical.
I had a half carcass including wings, neck, back, gizzards, skin, and bones. They were raw and I froze them. For the stock, I gathered 3 carrots, 3 ribs celery half a bulb of garlic, and some thyme. I skipped on any salt or acids. I threw these with the frozen chicken into cold water, brought it up to a low simmer, and left it as such for 9 hours. The flavor was tremendous. Certain smaller bones became mushy toward the ends. However, I couldn't snap my bigger bones.
Best Answer
With all respect to Alton Brown, "snapping" the bones is not a test I have ever heard of. He does not mention that in the official recipe on the Food Network site.
I just watched the entire episode on youtube, and he does show the snapping thing with a very frangible bone. I think this result will depend on the age of your chicken and the size of the bone.
In general, the thinner bones and younger chickens may be somewhat rubbery when a chicken stock is done.
8-9 hours also seems excessive for poultry stock, although that is actually in his recipe. You should get the vast majority of the flavor (and nutrition) in 3-4 hours (plus maybe a little bit to thaw, if you are starting from frozen), especially if you have chopped your carcass up into pieces or chunks (which he did not discuss in the episode).
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Should you break bones when making stock?
Big beef or lamb bones can be cooked for up to eight hours, or overnight. Chicken bones are more like four to six. Veggies give up all their flavor in about an hour. So if you're making a meat stock, use only bones and water for the majority of the cooking time.Should you break chicken bones for stock?
As the stock cooks, the collagen breaks down into gelatin, if your not seeing this, you may need to cook the stock for longer. Obviously if you don't break the bones, the marrow cannot be released.Can chicken stock be overcooked?
Simmer Your Bones Long Enough, But Not Too Long Yet, if you cook your broth too long, it will develop overcooked, off-flavors that can become particularly unpleasant if you've added vegetables to the broth pot which tend to break down, tasting at once bitter and overly sweet.A Reece Couldn't Ft Emtee Official Music Video
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Answer 2
I wouldn't hold too much stock (pun intended) in the snap the bones thing. Chicken breeds vary, some bones may be stronger depending on breed, size of the chicken, and whether it was frozen or not. The important thing is you liked the result. If smaller bones were getting mushy that's a pretty good indication that they'd been cooked plenty.
Answer 3
If you can't snap the bones, you may simply have a good chicken! I've certainly noticed a big difference in bone strength between cheap battery-farmed and more expensive free-range chickens, when breaking up chicken carcasses to make stock; I've had to get the cleaver out to fully break down a good strong well-fed chicken skeleton.
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