I was once asked if bone broth tastes good. I didn't know what to say. No. It doesn't taste good. If it did, everyone would drink it. And isn't that just the way life is? Not everything is easy and fun and in the food world - not everything "tastes good" by the average American standard.
I am no nutritionist but i did get my information from a nutritionist/butcher/farmer @Kate_kavanaugh. You may, at first glance, look at those credentials and think what kind of quack nutritionist do you follow? But all of those professions are very closely related. If you want the best nutrition on earth - grow it, raise it, process it, and share it with others!
Why should I make Bone Broth
Bone broth aids in, sleep, mood regulation, anxiety, gut health, joint health, skin health, and wound healing. The nutrients that have been proven to be players in these functions are also found in bone broth and are as follows...
Glycine, collagen, glutamine, and gelatin
Making It
So you have to decide, do you want to make bone broth to drink for medicinal purposes? Or do you want to use bone broth primarily in your cooking?
For medicinal purposes: You want a more concentrated batch. Think - more bones, and especially bones like knuckle bones.
For cooking purposes: You want more liquid. More watered down.
Side note: When making soup and the recipe calls for 8 cups of bone broth - they mean store bought and that is not what you are making. Use half or less of your homemade, and for the rest, use water. When making Chicken noodle soup, just use water because boiling your chicken carcass is making broth. If you are making chicken noodle soup without a chicken carcass - DON'T, your wasting your time.
Guide to making broth
Please notice that I did not say recipe. This is only a guide because there are as many variations as there are cooks out there. I have gotten some great recipes to make broth and I can follow them to a T and they turn out different every time. So all you need is a basic guide and you do what you like.
You will need:
- A very large stock pot or you can also use a crockpot, - I use my grandmas old stainless steel stock pot.
- Best quality grass-fed, grass finished, and pasture raised bones. Use marrow, knuckle, soup bones, chicken feet, chicken backbones, if you are adventurous and can source chicken heads, go for it! Here is a link to my Bone Broth Box
- 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar - acid for breaking bones down
- Optional- 1 Onion, 2 celery stalks, and 2 whole carrots.
- Cheesecloth and large container, clothespins to hold cheesecloth
- Ziplock bags for freezing your broth or pint jars for canning.
Broth for medicinal purposes: fill bones almost to the top of your stock pot or crock pot. fill the pot with water. Add your vinegar, let simmer for 24-48 hrs. Turn off your heat. Let cool. spoon out all bones and large pieces. Pour broth into a large container through cheese cloth to further strain. Set container in refrigerator until completely cool and fat layer has formed on top. Remove fat layer. Freeze broth in ziplock bags dividing into desired increments. If you would like to use this concentrated broth in cooking, just water it down to recipe specifications.
Broth for cooking: Use 2-3 meaty soup bones, 5 lbs of knuckle, marrow, and chicken bones. Place in stock pot and fill with water. follow instructions above.
In conclusion:
I hope you try to make broth at home. Just remember it's not going to "taste good", you will have to make yourself have a cup everyday, it's not a magic healer, and when it's "working" you probably wont even know. It is a tool in your healthy lifestyle tool kit. And it's a heck of a lot better than paying a company halfway across the country to make products that claim to have the same nutrition that you can locally source, control quality, and store and package as minimally and reusable as you want. When you think about those factors it's worth your time to make it.
*If you would like a more complete guide and resource to making bone broth follow this link Western Daughters Butcher Shop. Kates Bone Broth guide has A LOT of very specific nutrition information that I just barely scratched the surface of in this post.
