How much time do you have, hm, Cookie?

Okay, pathetic attempt at transcribing a NY Bubbe, aside, it is mostly time. There are perfectly good quickie soups, but they don't have that thing.

I don't know how to simplify this in writing, because I don't know what bits are obvious to you and what you need to know, so here's the whole brain download:

You've been saving your giblets and backs and necks and everything, right? No? Then buy a couple of good chickens. Or one. One good sized chicken would be plenty for the two of you and everyone at your table. I usually make about 12 quarts of stock at a time, which would be double what you probably need (i.e., two chickens). This is not the thin, chefy stock made from bones and vinegar to leach the minerals out of them. It's rich, concentrated, yummy Jewish chicken stock.

So, figure one chicken complete with giblets and other spare parts, but remove the kidneys and gizzard, or the same amount of spare parts--four pounds?--for an eight quart pot. Trim off all of the fat you can get at and wash the chicken normally, pulling all the pin feathers, etc. Cut it open, or piece it, depending on what fits best. That's just for ease in the pot. All the good of the chicken will be in the stock. Don't expect there to be anything to eat at the end, so just make it in easy to stir shape. By "chunked" below, I mean, again, cut into convenient portions. A couple of inches, maybe. Don't work too hard at the cutting.

N.B., chicken feet are very good. They're full of collagen and excellent in a rich stock for feeding up sick people, but too many of them will make the stock gel up and it isn't desirable for most soups.

In an 8-qt. pot (bigger is fine, just be careful of the amount of water or the stock will be thin):
1 chicken and/or spare parts
1 large white or yellow onion quartered
1 small to medium rutabaga chunked
1 small celery root, trimmed and cleaned, and chunked
1 celery heart, or 2-3 large stalks, chunked
3-4 horse carrots (those big fat woody ones), scrubbed or peeled and chunked
1 parsnip, peeled or scrubbed and chunked
(optional) 1 small turnip, chunked, if you want a little pungency

DO NOT season. When you concentrate the stock the seasoning doesn't lessen. Additionally, if you're going to freeze, salt will lower the freezing temperature.

It's the carrots that make it yellow.

Fill the pot with good water that you like to drink (tap is fine if your tap water is nice). Bring to a boil and let it roll for about 20 minutes then turn it down to a moving simmer (i.e., bubbling just a little but not boiling). Cook about six hours, adding water as needed. Give a good stir every 15 minutes to keep things from sticking to the bottom and scorching.

When everything, including the chicken, has boiled down to strings and mush with no real there there any more, it's ready. Put your biggest...

Thank you!!! Especially for all the details. Will report on my results. Maybe bialys next.... We lived near a bialy bakery when I was a toddler and would visit whenever in NYC.

My mom used to play with the chicken feet. before soup - pulling the tendons to make them flex. Sentimental for her - icked me right out. I will ask my sister's neighbor (the chicken butcher) for some feet and other bits for stock.
Thanks again, Amanda

Why do you have to cook the matzoh balls for four hours?

You're welcome, Amanda.

To be clear, it's the other parts you want, not the feet unless they come with your chicken, for matzah ball soup. Go for the feet for soup to nurse up someone who's sick.

LPink, I know people have a trick to making matzah balls in less time, but I don't know what it is unless they just like hard matzah balls. This is my mother's way of making them and it always works for me. If they don't cook long enough to sink then float, instead of being light and delightful, they're rubbery and dense. That's just what it takes to get the middle cooked.

I'm going to edit above to say don't overhandle the dough. Try not to squish the eggwhites while folding the mixture together, and when you roll the ball between your hands, don't use pressure. You don't want to squeeze--just smooth and tighten the outside.

Edit: I also added that there might be more pepper than you want. These are peppery. Adjust to suit yourself. Some might want more salt, as well. Also a clarification that the solids that are strained out of the stock are garbage. Use new if you want chicken and veg pieces in your soup.

JC

This post was edited by plllog on Sat, Sep 20, 14 at 16:39

The manischewitz matzo balls and soup mix says to mix the balls and chill in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Cook in boiling soup. cover tightly and reduce heat and simmer uniil thoroughly cooked, about 20 minutes. end

Easy and tasty. Oh? too easy?

Amanda, greetings from the Holy Land, where one of our best chefs devised this gourmet kneidlach (no longer an oxymoron).

Those chickens have livers, and this recipe uses up quite a lot of livers.

Dough:

500 kg matzo flour
4 eggs
4 tbs goose fat, melted
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
5 cups water

Filling:
500 grams fresh chicken livers - fat and sinew removed
3 slices smoked goose breast - cubed
2 medium onions
5 tbs goose fat

Preparation - dough

1. Put eggs, goose fat, matzo flour and parsley, salt and pepper in bowl. Add water gradually. Sometimes it's not necessary to use all 5 cups. 4 cups may be enough.
2. While adding the water, knead and stir dough until you get the right texture. Cover with foil, refrigerate for half an hour.

Preparation - filling

1. Heat goose fat in wide skillet, fry livers, add salt & pepper. Livers should be lightly fried so that they're still a bit pink inside. Remove from skillet, chop & let cool in bowl.
2. In same skillet - fry onions and smoked goose breast till slightly golden.
3. Add onions and goose breast to bowl with chopped livers, stir well.

Cooking

1. Fill large pot with water at about 3/4 of capacity. Add 1 tbs salt, turn on gas for boiling.
2. Take dough out of fridge, make balls the size of tennis ball, make a deep & wide depression in each ball and put in some of the filling. Close ball & roll with both hands.
3. Cook - in batches - in boiling water for 6 to 7 minutes until balls float in water. Remove into colander.

Sever with clear chicken soup.

sorry about typo

WC, it's a funny typo, but if you want to edit, there's a green link on the right, on your own posts only.

I've wanted to make a goose for Seder, but my family won't eat it. :( Or chicken liver. I did make matzah balls one Seder with duck fat because I didn't have enough schmaltz to render and the store didn't have any chicken fat. I've used boughten chicken fat before and it's very fine. It comes in a block, like butter, and is pure white. The duck fat is just a tad toward the ivory and comes in a tub. It's very soft and silky. This year I used cold pressed palm oil shortening, and it worked fine. It didn't have that kind of chemical taste that shortening can have in cookies and pies. The non-meat eaters appreciated it.

So, researching vegetarian recipes, a lot said use the same amount of oil as chicken fat. That didn't make sense to me. One of the posters here opined that it cooks so long it doesn't matter what kind of shortening it is, which makes a lot of sense.

I made stuffed matzah balls for (not first) Seder one year, too, but no liver. :) It was lamb and vegetables, and there were herbs in the matzah part. They were a big hit!

I only make matzah balls for Seder, though. I want my family to think they're treats!

The chickens are being butchered tomorrow. I had a funny conversation with the butcher and her very serious young daughter at the farmer's market this morning. They are going to package up some feet necks carcasses and possibly fat for me.

Re: chicken liver.
Last year different people butchered my sister's chickens. They saved the liver for my mom. She made chopped liver the way her lithuanian dad used to make it. However she and the butchers didn't know some part of the liver needed to be removed. The whole huge batch was inedibly bitter. She is still talking about it.

Thanks for the recipes. I have been feeling homesick for some things. So has my mom. My sister not at all. It is fun to have some new kitchen challenges now that garden season is waning.

Great post, brings back memories. But cooking for one, I never do a whole chicken. I know I could/should do it and freeze it, etc. but I just never want to bother. I have done it in my day. I just use matzoh ball mix which I know is sacrilege but since I usually cook for just one or two, it works for me, plus I make matzah balls maybe once a year, I just don't miss them enough to make them. I might try to make a big batch someday if I was cooking for a crowd, or got back together with my freezer and my free time, but who knows if that will ever happen. Good memories though.

I use my old tried and true matzo ball recipe which i've been making for over 40 years. Making it from scratch allows me to control the salt content and it's easy and quick.

The recipe as it stands makes about 16 slightly larger than golf ball size matzo balls. I usually triple the recipe for the holidays.

1 cup matzo meal
1/2 cup water
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup oil (I use canola)
1 tsp salt (optional)
dash pepper
parsley, chopped if desired.

Add water and oil to beaten eggs. Stir in the matzo meal, salt and pepper and parsley. Mix well and put into fridge.( I usually mix this up the night before, but I've done it at least 2 hours before I need it.)

Bring large pot of salted water to boil, wet hands and form mixture into balls of desired size, and drop into water. Cover slightly, reduce heat to a slow boil and cook for 20 minutes. They will float to the top, so every few minutes dunk the top ones in the water.

They're even tastier if they're cooked in soup, but they do absorb lots of the soup, so when soup quantity is critical I do them in boiling water.

The key is a tightly covered pot so they implode and get light and fluffy. I get lots of compliments on my scratch and box matzo balls. No peeking, just wait for about 20 minutes and they are all done together. I make batches of 12 at a time.

I have done them by separating the whites and yolks and whipping them separately and also by just scrambling the eggs together. Both are successful and that's why I think the key is a tightly covered pot. My recipes are downstairs but it is only somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes and then let them cool down with the pot lid on.

Oh! Westsider's must be the quickie way.

I've never done them in a covered pot.

It's great that the butcher is putting all those parts together for you, agmss, so you don't have to break down the chickens yourself to get them and still make the best use of your sister's chickens.

Since she's giving you fat, here's what I do to render it:

Rendering chicken fat

Put the lumps of fat in a little pan with a small onion or half a large onion, cut into large pieces. Don't put in too much onion or it'll soak up all the fat.

Never turn your back on it while it's on the heat.

Start on a medium high heat until the fat starts to melt. Turn it down a bit so it won't spatter

Once all the fat is melted, turn it off and let it cool just a little.. Pick out the onion and any other solids with a fork, or use a strainer. Put a spoon in a clean glass jar (sterile if you're not going to use it all up right away). The spoon keeps the jar from breaking. Pour in the fat, carefully. (Remove the spoon.) Cover and chill. Keep in the refrigerator. When the fat solidifies the onion juice will separate out of it, on the bottom, as you'll see through the jar. The fat will be yellow from the onion, as well.

Once it's solid, chicken fat can be frozen in an airtight package. Don't put a glass jar in the freezer.

------------

So, in my house, he who wants to eat chopped chicken liver gets to make chopped chicken liver. :) I checked. It's the sinew that makes it bitter, but it's easy to remove. Here's a great little how to de-sinew chicken livers video. Also make sure to remove any bits that aren't the right color. :)

LPink, I don't judge! If the mix suits you, why not? Some mixes are very good.

I have so many great memories of chicken dinners on Sundays at Bubbe's house, with chicken soup and either home made noodles or occasionally matzah balls. Then afterwards, it was time to watch "Lassie" and "The Wonderful World of Disney" or some such thing, followed perhaps by the "Ed Solomon Show" as my Bubbe called it. :) I feel so sad that I don't have any kids or grandkids to do Sunday dinners with.

Well, LPink, you could go to the community center and see if there are any little families who are alone near you and could use a little warmth. Maybe have a little Sunday dinner party with a few different guests so no one feels singled out. Perhaps you could even organize a chavura or something like that, to meet monthly. There are plenty of people out there who are sad they don't have a mama or a bubbe to go to...

I'm so sorry that this thread is making you feel sad!

My recipe is like blubird's except I use shmaltz unless I'm making them for vegetarians. Parsley sometimes but not always.

Last year when making them to go into a minestroni like soup for a milk Seder with our vegetarian son's family, I put in some Italian herbs , used whole wheat matzah meal and tomato sauce in place of part of the water. Not traditional but a tasty variation instead of making faux chicken soup.

L'Shanah Tova! Now to get started on Rosh HaShanah dinner.