Home cooks reveal money-saving tips for making the most of food scraps: 'I have been doing this for 15 years'

Making your own stock is one of the most budget-friendly and sustainable kitchen hacks, and Reddit users in the r/ZeroWaste community had lots of advice to offer someone just starting out.

A user asked for advice when storing vegetable scraps in the freezer to make homemade stock. They wrote: "I'm starting my freezer bag of veggies to add into my broth, but I have some questions. I read something about onion skins being put into the broth. Does that mean the dry flaky bits surrounding the onion? What is the ratio of water to carcass? I plan on doing 1 rotisserie chicken to make my stock. Then I boil for 10 hours?"

The scoop

One user responded, showing they have the system down to a science.

"I have been doing this for 15 years," they wrote. "Yes, onion skins are good — the dry flaky bits. Not as good as onion ends (bc they contain onion juice and flesh) but still perfectly fine. I save just about everything off onions/carrots/celery/mushrooms and it all goes in the bag." They also advised using a 1-to-1 ratio of bones to vegetables.

It's easy to keep a freezer bag for collecting scraps like onion skins, celery ends, mushroom stems, and carrot tops. When it's full, toss it in a pot with leftover bones (always save what's left from a store-bought rotisserie chicken) and cover it with water. Let it simmer for 6-10 hours, and you've got flavorful, homemade stock.

You can also roast the scraps and bones beforehand for deeper flavor, but it's not required.

To skip the plastic in this hack, consider freezing in glass containers. But even reusing the same bag over and over can save you money and reduce waste.

How it's helping

This hack can save you cash — a quart of organic chicken stock can cost $4 or more, so if you're cooking regularly, you could be saving hundreds per year.

Second, it's a major sustainability win. Scraps that might otherwise end up in the trash are repurposed into something useful, reducing food waste and the methane pollution tied to organic waste in landfills. 

Similar organizations like Too Good To Go and Flashfood are also helping people save money and reduce waste. Want even more ways to stretch your ingredients? Check out these tips for doing more with your leftovers.

What is the biggest reason you don't grow food at home? Not enough time ⏳ Not enough space 🤏 It seems too hard 😬 I have a garden already 😎 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

What everyone's saying

The post sparked a flurry of feedback and shared tips.

One commenter noted: "Whenever I spatchcock a chicken, making sure the spine gets roasted really helps render all the cartilage and good stuff between the vertebrae."

Another chimed in with advice on onion skins: "I personally find that the really dry bits provide more color than flavor so I typically keep the tops, the tails, and the layers that are partly skin, partly white onion, and compost most of the brown skin."

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