After frying a couple beef hamburgers in stainless steel frying pan, I was left with quite a bit of fond. I had an idea. I drained the fat off then deglazed the pan with some water, releasing all the flavorful fond. I worked every bit of the fond off then strained the juice into a mason jar, for use later in a soup.
It’s so flavorful and beefy. I previously used a full heaping tbsp of Better than Bouillion Beef Base for our soup meal (usually a quick Pho without noodles). Now I cut that in half and supplement with fond juice. It tastes even better and reduces the cost of the beef base by quite a bit. These jars cost $4.65 a piece – with sales tax on food here in Oklahoma – and last about a month. So that yearly expense is normally 12 x $4.65 = $56 per year. But if I am now cutting that in HALF I am saving $28 per year. $28 saved per year for a better tasting soup base. Not bad I’ll put that $28 per year in VTI instead of Walmart’s bank.
My mason now jar has fond juice in it from two burger fries and a steak fry. Good enough for 2-3 soups with the bullion added. I normally put a little hot & sour sauce (thai chile vinegar) the soup so I added it to the fond juice just to help preserve it. It is already quite salty. So should last a good long while, staying fresh. But I’ll use it up within a week I think. I took a sip from the mason jar and it’s quite tasty
I found this YouTube channel that reminded me of your incredible frugality challenges. This guy tries to make three meals a day for a set budget, usually one British Pound a day. You might enjoy it.
Gonna watch it now thanks – seems like it might be entertaining to watch; a bit extreme though: there is no way he could do that lol. We were spending an average of $588 per month on groceries – we eat low carb which means more meat and no grains – but have recently set a budget of $400 per month for the both of us. (This $400 per month includes dog food and sundries: toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, laundry soap, dish detergent, etc.)
He says in the videos that it’s more an experiment than something that he could sustainably do every day. People should not be short on calories and nutrition for the sake of budget, but for one day it’s interesting to see hat he comes up with.
Not eating for two months is the opposite of healthy, and weighing more than the media says you should isn’t being unhealthy. Lots of people are healthy at lots of different sizes, size and health are not correlated.
I know you’re joking but this is something that really bothers me.
I’ll put that $28 per year in VTI instead of Walmart’s bank. 