Double-dosing on bone broth

Bone broth is one of the most nutritious things you can put in your body. Made by simmering animal bones in water over the course of 36-72 hours, bone broth is a delicious, healing elixir.

All those minerals from the bones are infused into the liquid through the simmering, being leeched out with the help of cider vinegar, leaving you with a healing concoction that provides many nutritional benefits including stronger teeth and bones, better gut health, and relief from joint pain.

This time of year, when we are all trying to avoid the flu, I increase my daily intake of bone broth as it also helps to boost the immune system.

For this reason, I always have a crock pot bubbling away with this wonderful liquid! I drink some in the morning and eat at least one bowl of soup (bone broth based) every day.

To make your own bone broth:

Put your bones in a pot with some onion, organic celery, carrots, herbs, and a few cloves of garlic. Add a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the works to help leech the minerals and nutrients out of the bones.

Bring your broth to a boil and then let it simmer for at least 12 hours, but preferably for up to 72 hours.

This process doesn’t have to take place continuously. You can cook the soup during the day and turn off the stove when you go to bed. Then, turn it back on the next day, and so on and so forth.

Strain the broth when you’ve cooked it as long as you’re going to.

If you’ve done it just right, the broth should gelatinize when you refrigerate it overnight. This gelatin is the key to what makes the broth so nutritious!

Here are some suggestions of ways you can get a 2-cup serving of bone broth in on a daily basis:

• Replace your hot morning drink of tea or coffee with a steaming hot cup of bone broth
• Make a simple egg drop soup by stirring a cracked egg into a simmering pot of broth
• Use bone broth as a stock for vegetable or beef soups or stewsStir some bone broth into your braising liquids as often as possible

Our grandmothers had it right-bones really do make the best soups!
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14 Responses

  1. Could you do this with a pressure cooker in less time? Would it be just as nutritious? How long would it take with a pressure cooker?

  2. I love bone broths! Not only for the nutrition, but because I run a no-waste kitchen. =D
    I save all my veggie trimmings (celery bases, peelings and tops from carrots, tater peels, onion skins – they impart a beautiful color to the broth! – eggshells – minerals! – carcasses from rotisserie chickens.. you name it) and wrap them up in a cheesecloth bag to drop into the simmering broth. Talk about easy clean-up: just pull the bag out and toss it. I think I haven’t been simmering mine long enough, though. I’ll have to increase the time.
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    I reluctantly add a semi-irrelevant notation… this isn’t a thing I typically do! But the idea of leeches in my bone broth was pretty unappetizing. I know what you meant! — but PLEASE! no leeches in the bone broth!
    ““Leeches are segmented worms that…live in freshwater environments… they are predominantly blood suckers that feed on blood from vertebrate and invertebrate animals.”
    “leach (v.)
    1. to remove or be removed from a substance by a percolating liquid
    2. to lose or cause to lose soluble substances by the action of a percolating liquid
    3. another word for percolate”

  3. My kids don’t do soups (whatever happened to “they’ll eat what you eat?” :/ ) but I would like to introduce quinoa and some long-grain rices into our dinners. Can I use bone broth (I made some from Thanksgiving turkey!) into these dishes? Thanks! Bonnie

  4. I made bone broth from my turkey carcass this year. Well, as much of the bones that I could fit in my crock. Plus all extra things, like tail, neck, etc. I did not season it at all. After cooking all day and overnight, and cooling, I put it in 5 c containers, and froze. I’ve never had this before. Wow! wonderful. In the morning, I drink a tall glass of water w/lemon to hydrate. I DO still have 1 c of organic coffee. Then I do a tall powdered green drink. But, in an hour or so after, I drink 1 tall mug of my broth. I warm on the stove (no micro for this as I want nutrition), and heavily season with Himalayan pink salt, and cracked pepper. Wow!! it is my favorite breakfast. NOTE: I am having a hard time finding healthy choices for turkey, chicken, beef. I did make sure Turkey was hormone free, etc.

  5. My broth didn’t gel when I put it in the refrigerator over night. What did I do wrong? I used beef bones and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar…cooked it 48 hrs on low in the crockpot.

  6. Do you just leave the pot out on the stove when you turn it off at night, or does it need to be put in the fridge ?

    1. If it has been boiling and the lid is not raised (to let germs in), it is probably safe to leave it out, but there are no guarantees. Microbes love cozy warm. I make sure I have plenty of water in the pot and put my smallest burner on the lowest heat setting, to keep it around 160 to 200 degrees all night long, or I use my crock pot. An alternative would be to turn off the stove and wrap the pot in towels to retain the heat for the night. In the morning, take off the towels and boil again.

  7. Today I am getting 4 lbs. of marrow bones from a grass raised a finished farm. The bones come frozen. I can’t wait to report.

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