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I haven’t even posted this recipe yet and it has already cause a little controversy, created a little anxiousness, and a has stimulated a little bit of curiosity on how to make bone broth. What are its benefits? How is it consumed? What are the origins of this practice?
Almost every culture in history has used bone broth for its flavor, versatility, and amazing nutritional value. The prolonged cooking of bones in water is used to extract minerals and nutrients from the bone and marrow. The resulting broth can be used for making soups, stews, adding moisture to dishes or it can be enjoyed as it. I usually drink a couple cups of it a day, especially during the winter months, to be it is not only nutritious and delicious, but it is also soothing…pure liquid happiness!
Benefits of Bone Broth:
- Rich in minerals such as calcium, silica, sulphur, magnesium, phosphorous & trace minerals in a highly bioavailable and easily assimilable form.
- Helps seal and heal the gut lining.
- Helpful in treating digestive disorders such as IBS, colitis, leaky gut and even Crohn’s disease.
- Aids digestion.
- Natural liver tonic
- Increases red blood cell and hemoglobin count
- Increases serum calcium level
- Increases the absorption and utilization of calcium.
- Prevents and treats myotonia atrophica (muscle wasting)
- Helps treating food allergies and maldigestion
- Helps treating anemia
- Because it is very rich in calcium it can help with pain and inflammation, cramps, muscle spasms, delusions, depression, insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, anxiety, palpitations, hypertension, high cholesterol, allergies, brittle nails, periodontal and dental disease, pica, rickets, osteomalacia, osteoporosis and any situation that creates bone loss such as aging, immobilization, postmenopause, and caffeine.
How to make bone broth?
It is really easy: start by gathering a couple pounds of bones, ideally you want to use bones with cartilage and bone marrow, beef bones make a richer, tastier broth but you can use chicken bones, pork, turkey or pretty much any edible animal. You can even use the left over bones from a rotisserie chicken or a thanksgiving turkey.
You can roast the bones in the oven first to enhance the flavor of the broth but I typically skip this step. Then you set the bones in a large pot or slow cooker and a cover with water, add a splash of vinegar and soak for a couple of hours (the vinegar is key to extracting the minerals from the bones). Add vegetables, salt and spices of choice, bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer anywhere from 8 hours to 48 hours. I boil mine for about 24 and since I am going to strain the broth I usually add vegetable peels, cucumber and zucchini ends, bell pepper cores, apple cores, eggshells, beat greens, cilantro or parsley roots and any other “leftovers” I had been accumulating from the preparation of previous meals
Ingredients:
1/2 to 1 lb of grass fed beef knuckle bone cartilage
1 lb of grass fed beef marrow bone (the smaller the better)
4 quarts of water
2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
10-12 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
Salt and Pepper to taste
Optional ingredients: celery stalks, onions, vegetable peels, eggshells, apple cores, bell pepper cores, vegetable greens, rosemary, thyme, oregano, etc.
Preparation:
- Optional Step: Preheat the oven to 400 F and roast the bones until well browned, turning about every 20 minutes.
- Transfer bones to a large pot or slow cooker (Crockpot) and add the water and vinegar.
- Let sit for about 2 hours.
- Turn the heat on to high and bring the water to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer the bones for 8 to 24 hours, replenishing the pot with hot water as needed.
- Strain and drink
The same bones can be used to make a second batch, you must add new vinegar, vegetables and spices.
The broth can be stored in a mason jar in the refrigerator for about 5- days, but if you bring the broth to a boil every couple of days it should last longer, or you can just freeze it.
For bouillon reduce the broth to about 3 cups of liquid, freeze in ice cube trays and dissolve an ice cube or two in hot water as needed
CONTINUAL BROTH:
To have warm and fresh broth available 24/7, keep the bones in the crock pot and always keep it on, replenishing the water and adding new vegetables and spices, depending on how much broth you drink you may have to replace your bones with fresh bones every week or so.
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