¼ cup dried thyme

¼ cup dried parsley

¼ cup dried minced onion

2 tablespoons dried oregano

20 black peppercorns

8 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried lavender

Optional: 1 teaspoon dried lemon thyme or dried lemon peel granules

9 cups boiling water

• Place all the ingredients except the water in a stockpot. Bring the water to a boil in a separate pot.

• Pour at least 2 cups of boiling water over the dried ingredients in the stockpot. (Pouring boiling water over the dried herbs more effectively releases the flavors than does bringing them to a boil in cold water.) Let sit for a few minutes. Add the remaining water to the stockpot and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour.

• Pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer. Add additional water, if necessary, to yield a total of 8 cups of broth. Refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. You can also freeze the broth in 1-cup portions so it's easily available to add to recipes. (Another alternative is to make broth cubes. Most ice cube sections hold 2 tablespoons of liquid per cube, so 8 broth cubes will equal 1 cup of broth.)

Pork Broth

Pork broth is seldom called for in recipes, but it can add a wonderful additional layer of flavor when mixed with chicken broth in bean or vegetable soups. Once the meat has been removed from the resulting broth in the Easy Slow-Cooked Pork recipe, strain the broth; once cooled, cover and refrigerate the broth overnight. Remove and discard the hardened fat. The broth can be kept for 1 or 2 days in the refrigerator, or frozen up to 3 months. On average, the nutritional analysis for each ½ -cup serving of the resulting pork broth will be: Calories: 33.48; Protein: 2.31 g; Carbohydrates: 0.32 g; Total Fat: 2.50 g; Sat. Fat: 0.89 g; Cholesterol: 8.98 mg; Sodium: 148.95 mg; Fiber: 0.00 g.