Broth Technical Difficulties

[Guest guest]

I make a lot of chicken broth, mostly for my 21 month old daughter who slurps

down bowl upon bowl of the resulting chicken soup. I've used several

different chickens, including Polyface Farm's stewing hens and their broilers,

as well as a few other chickens from different (local, grassfed) places. None

of them have EVER gelled for me, and I'm always left with broth that's very

delicious, but still very liquid regardless of temperature.

I've cooked the broth anywhere from 24-48 hours (and generally find that 48

hours yields really, really yummy broth) and this time, I added four chicken

feet to the pot. So my recipe is something like

1 whole chicken, including neck

4 chicken feet

1 gallon water

4 carrots

4 stalks celery

2 onions

Good glug of vinegar

Parsley at the end if I have it (which I didn't this time)

I start with cold water and soak everything for an hour, then bring it to a

broil and reduce it to a nice sort of " swampy " simmer (you know, where it blurbs

every second or so but isn't actually bubbling actively) until it's done. After

that, I strain it, pick all the chicken off the bones, pick the veggies out of

the sludge, and add all that to some of the broth and reserve the rest.

What the HECK am I doing wrong here? I hate to give up and just add gelatin,

but I'm kinda bummed that I'm going to all this effort and not getting the full

health benefits of the broth for some reason that utterly eludes me.

Thanks!

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