Sun Tea Jar for Separating Stock

When making a batch of turkey stock the other day, I needed a large glass container to put it in to allow it to cool. The only one I could find was my old sun-tea jar - a very happy accident! It turned out to be the perfect stock-separator: large enough to hold all the stock from my 8 quart stock pot, and it's made of glass, so no yucky plastic-chemical-leaching.

I used a basket strainer and poured the stock in through it. The design of the jar (being for dispensing beverages) means the stock can cool in it (I put it in my sink in a cool water, followed by ice-water bath) and this allows the fats to separate and rise to the top.

The dispensing spout sits about 1/2 inch from the bottom of the jar, which allowed the sediment to settle, and is not released when I turned the spout to "open" to fill my quart containers that go in the freezer. (I also rubber-band a paper coffee filter over the the spout to further filter out any fine impurities.) I just turned the spout to "off" when it got close to the fat layer. It used to take so long to scoop off the fat, strain the stock, etc., so I was very happy to discover this little trick, and I just had to share!

By Kimberly from Jax, FL