Does chicken stock made from raw chicken meat, skin and bones contain
any cholesterol? And if so, then how much? I make and consume a fair
amount of chicken stock each week. My stock is made from raw chicken
wings (skin on) simmered for eight hours. After that, it is quickly
cooled and any fat is skimmed from it. Therefore, I believe my
chicken stock has nearly no saturated fat and since it has no flesh --
no cholesterol. But confusing information lately makes me wonder if
cholesterol can be pulled from the meat and skin into the liquid.
Since we're talking animal flesh here, I guess the meta-question I
have is how much cholesterol from animal meat and skin can be pulled
into nearly boiling water over an eight hour period, and the chemistry
of why or why not this happens. |
Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
30 Mar 2006 13:48 PST
jewelskull...
Most of the cholesterol in chicken is contained in the skin.
Cholesterol is basically fat, so simmering/boiling anything
for 8 hours is going to liquefy the fat to a very thin
consistency, and cause it to go into suspension in the liquid.
Here's a pretty basic recipe for chicken stock on AllRecipes.com,
in which the only ingredient containing cholesterol is 1 lb of
chicken parts. The recipe includes the process of skimming fat,
and it still ends up with ~94mg of cholesterol:
http://soup.allrecipes.com/AZ/BasicChickenStock.asp
To remove even more of the fat and cholesterol, rather that
skimming it when it's still heated, let it cool in the fridge
in a wide-mouthed container such as a bowl until the top is
covered with a solid waxy layer of solidified fat. Remove that,
and you'll have a much lower cholesterol content.
Let me know if this satisfies your interests in posing your
question...
sublime1-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
jewelskull-ga
on
30 Mar 2006 16:43 PST
This is on the right track. If Cholesterol behaves essentially as fat
then I have no problem, since I skim the fat easily once the stock is
cooled. And ideally this means I also skim the cholesterol as well.
However, if the Cholesterol reacts differently to heat then I wonder.
Let me explain. I never boil the stock to prevent homogenization of
the chicken fat. As with milk, homogenization will bind the fat to
the protein in the stock, creating a cloudy greasy stock where the fat
does no congeal on the surface. If cholesterol does behave like fat
-- will not homogenize below boiling point and can be later skimmed
from the top -- then I'm not worried.
As for the recipe link, I've seen a good deal of these. They tend to
just plug a few variables into brain-dead functions supplied by
http://www.nutritiondata.com/ without much thought for cooking
technique, in this case skimming the fat and hopefully cholesterol.
Thanks for the help.
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