I received a very interesting question from my friend Tom about canning chicken stock. He wanted to know if the canning process changed the flavor of the stock. Well I just so happened to have a little bit of chicken stock leftover after I filled all of my quart jars. Not wanting to waste a single drop, I put the leftover stock straight in the fridge. A few days later I went to make chicken & dumplings which requires a LOT of stock. So I pulled out both the leftover un-canned stock and a quart of the canned stock, both of which were from the same batch and presumably tasted exactly the same prior to the canning process.

Unfortunately my pictures of the two samples were not great, and you could not really see any difference in the photos. Hence no new pics for this post. However there were distinct differences between the two. I taste-tested both side by side, chilled and hot. The un-canned stock was lighter in color and more firmly gelled (i.e.- more solid when chilled). It had a fresh, light meaty taste with no aftertaste. The canned stock was slightly darker in color and did not set up quite as firmly when chilled, although it still had plenty of gelatinousness. It also tasted slightly different. Almost a little richer, and with a slight lingering aftertaste, albeit not a bad one.

Bottom line, both were good and far superior to anything bought in a package at a grocery store, so I will definitely do it again.