Bethany, The important part is to remove the fat before canning to help reduce the amount of fat and help prevent it from interfering with the jars sealing properly. I discard the fat, but you can do whatever you want. I am sure there are plenty of uses you can research on the internet.

“Slide a thin, flat spatula across the chilled stock to remove the fat layer.

And then what?
I’ve searched through several recipes now and if the fat is completely useless and I am to throw it out, why can’t literally no one include a short sentence stating this? I know there are people who will read this rolling their eyes saying “well duh!”, but how is a beginner to know this?

Decades ago people used fats and lard to cook with so I’m just wondering if tossing out the fat layer from stocks is wasteful or if the only use for it might be for homemade bird suet?

Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂

That’s good: you need to remove fat off top. Discard
Add pure water to your broth 1-2 cups. I use pink humor-salt.
Great job!

Janette, The jelly consistency is a good thing. It shows that you have lots of collegen in your stock. When you are ready to make soup, scrape off the fat layer on top and add the stock to a saucepan. Add a bit of water if you wish, but the gel will melt as the stock is heated.