Home made chicken stock vs store bought - finally ran the numbers

I used to think making stock from scratch was just for show, like something you do on a Sunday when you got nothing else going on. But after I got a case of rotisserie chicken carcasses from a buddy who runs a deli for free, I figured why not. Ran 3 batches, each made about 2 gallons. Cost me basically nothing but some celery and carrots I already had. The store bought quart here in Phoenix runs around $4 on sale. So that's like $32 worth saved per batch, give or take. More importantly, the gelatin content was way higher - you could tell from how it set up in the fridge. My soups and braises had this body to them I never got from the cartons. Has anyone else found a specific cheap source for bones or scraps that made it actually worth it?

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hugobarnes3mo ago

Didn't think it mattered that much till I tried it myself either.

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samthompson3mo ago

Exactly. I was the same way for years, just using whatever was cheapest or what I had around. Then I got stuck with a dead battery on a road trip and had to wait three hours for a jump. That was the moment I started paying attention to the little stuff people warned me about. Now I check my battery terminals and keep a spare pack in the trunk, never again going through that headache.

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