Bone broth is made by simmering the bones and connective tissue of animals.
This highly nutritious stock is commonly used in soups, sauces, and gravies. It has also recently gained popularity as a health drink.
Bone broth dates back to prehistoric times, when hunter-gatherers turned otherwise inedible animal parts like bones, hooves, and knuckles into a broth they could drink.
You can make bone broth using bones from just about any animal — pork, beef, veal, turkey, lamb, bison, buffalo, venison, chicken, or fish.
Marrow and connective tissues like feet, hooves, beaks, gizzards, or fins can also be used.
Making bone broth is very simple.
Making bone broth is easy, and many people don’t even use a recipe.
All you really need are bones, vinegar, water, and a pot.
But if you’re not sure where to start, here’s a simple recipe you can follow:
Start to finish: 4 hours (or up to 24 hours)
Ingredients
2–3 lb bones
1 onion (optional)
4 garlic cloves (optional)
4 liters (1 gallon) water
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. salt (optional)
1 tsp. pepper (optional)
Directions
Put bones and any vegetables into a large stock pot.
Pour water into pot so it covers bones and vegetables. Add vinegar, then bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat, add salt and pepper, and let simmer 4–24 hours. The longer it simmers, the tastier and more nutrient dense it will be.
Allow broth to cool, then strain out the solids. Now it’s ready.
You can also add other veggies, or spices to your broth. Popular additions include:
bay leaves
carrots
celery
ginger
lemon rinds
turmeric
parsley
thyme
rosemary
sage
After it’s done, you can store the broth in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
In order to make the most nutritious broth, it’s best to use a variety of bones — marrow bones, oxtail, knuckles, and feet. You can even mix and match bones in the same batch.
Adding vinegar is important because it helps pull all of the valuable nutrients out of the bones and into the water, which is ultimately what you will be consuming.
You can also add vegetables,herbs and spices to your broth to enhance the flavor.
Common additions include garlic, onion, celery, carrot, parsley, and thyme. These can be added right away in step one.
As you can see, bone broth is incredibly easy to make. The following sections list six reasons you might want to try it.
Bone Broth is very nutritious; however, the nutrient content does depend on the ingredients you use, as each brings something different to the table.
Animal bones are rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and other trace minerals — the same minerals needed to build and strengthen your own bones.
Fish bones also contain iodine, which is essential for healthy thyroid function and metabolism.
Connective tissue gives you glucosamine and chondroitin, natural compounds found in cartilage that are known to support joint health.
Marrow provides vitamin A, vitamin K2, minerals like zinc, iron, boron, manganese, and selenium, as well as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
All of these animal parts also contain the protein collagen, which turns into gelatin when cooked and yields several important amino acids.
As the ingredients simmer, their nutrients are released into the water in a form your body can easily absorb.
Many people don’t get enough of these nutrients in their diet, so drinking bone broth is a good way to get more.
Benefits:
Here are just a few Benefits it is said to help:
-Fights Inflammation
-Improves joint health
-Assist in weight loss
-Helps improve sleep
-Improves brain function
Where to get bones
Instead of throwing leftover bones and carcasses from meals in the garbage, save them to make broth. You can collect the bones in a bag and store them in your freezer until you are ready to cook them.
However, if you’re not someone who typically buys and eats whole chickens and bone-in meat, you may wonder where you can find animal bones to make broth.
You can ask for them at your local butcher or farmers market. The meat department at most grocery stores will often have them too.
The best part is they’re very inexpensive to purchase. Your butcher may even give them to you for free. Do your best to find pastured chicken or grass fed bones, since these animals will be the healthiest and provide maximum health benefits to you.
How to store it
While it’s easiest to make broth in large batches, it can only be stored safely in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. To help your broth last longer, you can freeze it in small containers and heat up individual servings as needed.
The bottom Line:
Bone broth is easy to make, very nutritious, and adds flavor to any meal!
For more information, or if you'd like to speak to a nutritionist:
Many Blessings,
Tammy