Some people have different reasons for not eating store-bought stock cubes. If you or a family member are/is allergic to MonoSodium Glutamate (MSG) which store-bought stock cubes contain or you just want to eat only natural foods, here’s how to make your own stock cubes at home.
You will need:
- Soft bones (also known as biscuit bones in Nigeria)
- Salt (optional)
- Chunks of onion
Directions
- Cook the soft bones with some water, salt and chunks of onion. If preparing stock cubes for use in traditional Nigerian soups such as Bitterleaf Soup or Ora Soup, do not add onions. As a guide, pour water to the same level as the soft bones. Add salt to your taste.
- Start cooking and once it boils, cook for another 20 minutes.
- Take out the chunks of onion and leave to cool down a bit.
- Then pour the stock (water from cooking the bones) into ice cube trays.
- Put the trays of stock cubes in the freezer overnight.
- Your homemade stock cubes are ready! Add to your cooking like you would add Maggi, Knorr, Royco etc.
Top Tips:
- Bring the homemade stock cubes out from the ice cube trays, put them in a container, cover and put back in the freezer.
- You can store them for up to 1 month. The freezer needs to be working constantly.
Notes:
- In the video, I made beef flavoured stock cubes. It is the same process for chicken flavoured and fish flavoured stock cubes. For chicken flavoured stock cubes, I use chicken bones with some meat still attached to them. For fish flavoured stock cubes, I use head of mackerel. I cut them into pieces before cooking.
- For a vegetarian version, prepare with a blend of scented vegetables and herbs: leeks, onions, carrots, parsley, scent leaves, basil, garlic, ginger, rosemary etc. Visit the other page for Homemade Stock Cubes for details.
- Even if you eat store-bought stock cubes, you should use these homemade when preparing food for babies under 12 months old.
Interesting!!!never even came close to knowing how the stock cubes are made!I’ll definately try this when next I go home!u rock!!!
Glad you found it helpful Aisha. 🙂 A lot more goes into making the stock cubes we buy in the shops. 🙂
This is very interesting to know! I’ll give it a try. All Nigerian Recipes is always helpful. Keep up the nice work!
I’m glad you find the site helpful Noimot. Welcome on board! 🙂
Funny enough, I was just thinking of how stock cubes were made. Nice teaching, very helpful.
I love dis site, though I’m a man, I’m very much interested in dishes – keep up d good work.
Thank you Chim. A lot more goes into the stock cubes we buy in the shops but stock is the basis for all of them.
Thank you Flo, I am glad someone is putting this out there. For people who prefer natural seasoning, this works perfectly. In addition to onion, I usually add some fresh ginger and garlic to the water of my cubes and also use the water of boiled chicken or beef that I do not need for cooking immediately as stock cubes. It is a healthier option, thank you for sharing once again! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for all the dishes u have put up. sometimes when i am thinking of what to cook next, i usually visit your site. thank u for the home made stock cubes. i have been trying to eliminate some ‘artificial’ things from my food. i’ll try this out.
I trully appreciate u but I learnt If one uses biscuit bones it is called broth & from meat is stock.
Hauwa it’s actually the other way round. We often use the 2 interchangeably but when you want to go into the technical details, you get stock from boiling bones and get broth from boiling meat and/or vegetables.
I, in my own way of interpreting things to make my life easier, see broth as soup because it involves the addition of seasoning and afterwards you can sip it with a spoon as a meal or appetiser. One example of this is Nigerian Pepper Soup. That said, I refer to any liquid I get from boiling meat or fish (with or without bones) which I intend to use in preparing a meal, not just sip it like pepper soup, as stock. Examples are chicken stock, beef stock or fish stock. I use this terminology a lot in my recipes.
This is so making sense…
Where can I buy biscuit bones in the U.S.? Does anyone have any idea?
Chiomie ask for biscuit bones at meat markets. That’s where I buy them from where I live. They are soft chewable bones.
How is this different from using dried vegetables,shrimps and a bit of sugar. Can u call that stock seasoning as well and can it replace our regular maggi, knorr or royco.