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Vegetable Bouillon

janisj
13 years ago

Hi all! I found this recipe, and I'm really interested in trying it. Although I like to make my own stock, I am sometimes in need of a quick solution. Is it safe to keep an item like this in the fridge for weeks or months? Thanks for your input!

Homemade Vegetable Bouillon

makes one quart (4 cups)

adapted from this recipe by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks

Yes, this recipe really does need 7 ounces of salt. Remember, you�re curing the vegetables, and the salt ensures they do not go rancid.

4 carrots, trimmed, scrubbed & cut into large pieces

3 celery ribs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 leek, white part only, sliced

1 small onion, peeled & quartered

10 sun-dried tomato halves

1 1/2 cups cremini mushrooms (caps & stems), cleaned & quartered

2 cloves garlic

generous handful of fresh parsley, including stems

7 ounces salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it forms a wet paste and is well combined. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or separate into smaller portions to store in the freezer. To use, combine one measured teaspoon with one cup boiling water.

Comments (9)

  • James McNulty
    13 years ago

    Interesting that this recipe is the LD50 for sodium (The amount of sodium that is expected to kill 50% of a group of 60kg adults - "198 grams or 7 ounces of salt") which would contain 198,000 milligrams of sodium. If there are no health concerns, it is recommended that sodium intake be limited to 2300 milligrams per day (a scant teaspoon of salt for total of all foods consumed - both naturally occurring and added by producers of food item).
    Man for little bit of food, I'd buy a cheapo $29.00 food dehydrator from your local chain store and dry the above items.
    You could grind them up into a fine grind or even powder without the salt and the whole quantity of food would fit in a sandwich bag - and you would not have to use fridge space or run your blood pressure up from all the added salt.
    Just my thoughts.
    Jim in So Calif

  • readinglady
    13 years ago

    This reminds me a bit of salted herbs from Quebec, which are layered and kept for a long period then used as a condiment.

    Personally I have a real problem with the mushrooms in this mixture. I have no thoughts as to the safety (as Jim said, that is a LOT of salt) but I can't imagine that all that liquid leaching out of the mushrooms would make anything more than a slimy mess.

    Of course I could be totally wrong, but as a "bouillon" it does not appeal.

    There are delicious true vegetable bouillons which can be made and canned or frozen. I'd go that route and get real flavor with only a modicum of salt.

    Carol

  • digdirt2
    13 years ago

    What a strange recipe! And a ton of salt! That's a very disproportionate amount of salt to the amount of other ingredients. Look at the small amount of salt called for in a whole crock of sauerkraut.

    A waste of good vegetables in my opinion. But yeah, it's likely "safe" in the fridge for weeks. Not edible but safe.

    Dave

  • digdirt2
    13 years ago

    A suggestion - just cook up a small pot of basic vegetable bouillon using the various vegetables of choice (like the leeks and sun-dried tomatoes), cook it down to about 1/2 or a bit less to intensify flavor, pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, pop the cubes into a zip lock bag and store in the freezer. When needed just drop a couple of the frozen cubes into whatever you are making.

    Dave

  • oregonwoodsmoke
    13 years ago

    Bouillon cubes are used as a seasoning and they are mostly salt, so the salt content is probably not off. A bouillon cube is (what?) about half a teaspoon and 1/2 t isn't all that much salt to add to a pot of whatever.

    I rarely use bouillon, so I wouldn't be interested in this recipe. If I made it, I'd cut the salt way back and I'd wrap it up good and freeze it, but just because I do my cooking with reduced salt.

  • janisj
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for your input! An option with less salt would be best. Thanks again~

  • skeip
    13 years ago

    Here is another version of Vegetable Bouillon that I got from that same site. The flavor is really good, but the salt content is over the top. I start with about 2 ounces of salt and taste from there. I also store it in the freezer. It adds a nice depth of flavor to stocks and long braises, and is pretty good just as a broth for sipping.

    Homemade Bouillon
    5 ounces / 150 g leeks, sliced and well-washed
    7 ounces / 200g fennel bulb, chopped
    7 ounces / 200g carrot, well scrubbed and chopped
    3.5 ounces / 100 g celery
    3.5 ounces / 100g celery root (celeriac), peeled and chopped
    1 ounce / 30g sun-dried tomatoes
    3.5 ounces / 100g shallots, peeled
    3 medium garlic cloves
    9 ounces / 250g fine grain sea salt
    1.5 ounces / 40 g flat-leaf parsley, loosely chopped
    2 ounces / 60g cilantro (coriander), loosely chopped

    Place the first four ingredients in your food processor and pulse about twenty times. Add the next four ingredients, and pulse again. Add the salt, pulse some more. Then add the parsley and cilantro. You may need to scoop some of the chopped vegetables on top of the herbs, so they get chopped. Mine tended to want to stay on top of everything else, initially escaping the blades.
    You should end up with a moist, loose paste of sorts. Keep 1/4th of it in a jar in the refrigerator for easy access in the coming days, and freeze the remaining 3/4 for use in the next month. Because of all the salt it barely solidifies making it easy to spoon directly from the freezer into the pot before boiling.
    Start by using 1 teaspoon of bouillon per 1 cup (250 ml), and adjust from there based on your personal preference.
    Makes roughly 3 1/2 cups.

    Steve

  • jimster
    13 years ago

    Jim,

    It may be true that, as you say, 7 ounces of salt is a lethal dose. However, it is not intended for anyone to eat the entire recipe in one sitting.

    "To use, combine one measured teaspoon with one cup boiling water."

    A cupful of the finished bullion would contain some fraction of a teaspoon of salt. The same goes for Steve's recipe.

    As a matter of fact, the lethal dose remains the same no matter how much or how little salt is called for. The fact that salt has a lethal dose is irrelevant. It's the amount of salt actually consumed which is important.

    Jim

  • James McNulty
    13 years ago

    I fully understand that this product would not be consumed all at once. There is however a correlation on how much salt we become "friendly" with and how much we consume.
    The other problem is that it is the combination of all the foods we eat in a day that contributes to our total salt consumption. Since we should limit our salt (if we want to live long), I try to get my moneys worth on where I use my salt "allowance" up.
    As stated, I can dehydrate all the above vegetables and put the entire ground contents into a zip lock bag. I am then free to add other salt containing items to my dish without worry about the compounded total amount of salt (seasoning, canned tomatoes, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, etc.)for which it would take some very careful measurements to determine. With the dry product, I could add to proper taste whether it be one teaspoon, or 1/2 cup. In that 1 tsp. of that very highly salted product, I don't believe you would get enough vegetable product (by volume) to make much of a difference in flavor in any case, unless you are only seasoning an 8 ounce cup or you are seasoning for salt as the main flavor - in which case just grab the shaker. If you would be consuming an 8 ounce cup with a tsp of this mix, you probably need some nutrition information/guidelines.
    It is the same kind of logic that drives most of us in baking to use salt free or "sweet butter". We control the end taste of which salt is one of those components. I routinely decrease my salt by 50% in all pastries, cakes, cookies, breads, etc. and have never had anyone able to tell me. A lower salt diet also makes your palate more sensitive to salt so you "taste" it in lower concentrations.
    Remember also that while we may all know about regulating our salt intake to 2300 mg a day, the average American consumes 4000 mg a day. Since we add salt to everything from cookies, bread, and candies, it creeps into everything we consume.
    I have a package of dehydrated broccoli cheese soup on the counter that you only need add water to. The package will make 8 cups of soup (8 starter servings or 4 main course servings). The information that folks don't often (or not enough) pay attention to is that for a starter serving on one cup, it contains 1000 mg. of sodium. For a main course serving, it contains 2000 mg. of sodium.
    Hopefully the problem is evident. This will NOT be your only food for the day unless you are starving. You will eat many other foods that also have hidden (or not so hidden) sodium throughout them.
    When I told my wife about the broccoli cheese soup base, she made the right decision when she said "throw it out".
    Just my thought before your MD or Cardiologist tells you.
    Jim in So Calif

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