Simmering bone broths: delicious and healthy

[awakenedsoul]

I've recently started making bone broths each morning. I've made three different batches in the last three days. The first one was from baby back rib bones. (I freeze all of my bones for future use.) I'd never tasted a pork broth before...it was good. I could use it for potato cheese soup. I take that back... I've used ham hocks in split pea soup and love the flavor.
I used a chicken carcass for stock yesterday. I simmered the broth for four hours. I'm having a mug with each meal. It's absolutely delicious, and very healing. I can feel the nutritional value. I've been giving my dogs some, too. They seem to sleep better, act calmer, and feel the same benefits that I do. They've always had the giblet broth on Thanksgiving. They recognize the smell, and get excited.
Today I used some New Zealand lamb necks and grass fed shoulder chop bones. This was by far the best broth I've made! I added onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf, pepper corns, salt, and garden herbs.
Anyone else making soup stocks or bone broths? I like them with a fresh salad and homemade bread.

[kib]

yes, I keep a "stock bag" in the freezer with the unused parts of, usually, carrots, onions, garlic, celery and peppers, plus the stems of any herbs and maybe a sausage skin or some left fat/gristle from "whatever". Whenever I have a carcass, I crack and roast the bones and then boil a stock from it with the contents of the bag, add a little salt. Always an adventure, this time the stock bag included the pith and stems of some habanero peppers, a very spicy and delicious stock indeed!

[JaneV2.0]

I made turkey soup with bone broth just this week. It's a fairly regular thing at Chez Decay.

[lessisbest]

This is a great article about broth and it’s benefits. “Broth Is Beautiful”: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/broth-is-beautiful/

Anyone who deals with joint inflammation, gut issues or damage, could benefit from either homemade bone broth or adding powdered gelatin to their diet. Anyone who is recovering from surgery can benefit from the amino acids found in broth.

Helpful hints:

-You can increase the collagen by adding bovine gelatin to the broth.

-“Nourished Kitchen” has a great recipe if you need portable broth “cubes” or want a healthier substitute for dried broth/bouillon cubes. http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-bouillon-portable-soup/

She also has information about having a perpetual batch of broth cooking 24/7 using a slow-cooker. http://nourishedkitchen.com/perpetual-soup-the-easiest-bone-broth-youll-make/

-If you don’t want to do the long, slow, process of making bone broth, you can use a pressure cooker. This link has information about that from “Loving Your Guts”.
http://www.lovingourguts.com/my-take-on-the-pressure-cooker-broth-controversy/

-Once I’ve made a batch of broth “cubes”, I store them in the freezer. If you need a quick pan sauce (substitute for gravy), heat a few broth cubes in a small saucepan until it begins to bubble. Add a little butter and continue heating until it reduces and thickens slightly – no other thickeners needed. You can add any kind of seasonings or herbs you’d like to change the flavor.

We've gotten away from some of these traditional foods that have so many benefits.

[catherine]

Very timely! I just started doing this as well!! My DH has a throat procedure so I wanted to make him something really nutritious so I bought beef marrow bones and made a stock from that.

In a recipe I read they said to add a quarter cup of vinegar when you are simmering them because that draws the minerals out--to tell you the truth, I never thought about how when you drink real beef broth you get the minerals.

I actually used my crock pot the last time I did it and it was great to "set it and forget it" for hours.

[Gregg]

We always try to keep a decent supply of various stocks and broth on hand. By the end of garden season we're heavy on vegetable broth because we make it with the trimmed ends of produce that got frozen or canned. We also tend to have both fish and seafood stock around this time of year since we eat more of that lighter fare in the summer. Awakenedsoul, you mentioned using neck bones. That is my absolute favorite for meat stocks because of all the collagen in the neck of most animals. The butchers at our grocery store save chicken necks from the rotisserie chickens for us. They tell us that the store rules say they have to charge for them so they charge us $.29/lb. These are decidedly not from organic chickens which is a bummer, but they do make a great stock.

[awakenedsoul]

Thanks for the replies. I'm really excited about this new broth habit. I went walking around the track today, and I felt much younger and more energetic. It's as if my hip joints, tendons, and ligaments are now lubricated.They felt brittle in the past. An accupuncturist told me that the Chinese healers believe that "like heals like". She encouraged me to make bone broths when I was a vegetarian.

Gregg, Yes, the lamb necks were amazing for broth. I'm going to reuse them today. That batch came out of the fridge this morning. It had a consistency like gelatin. That's a great price you're getting on chicken necks. I buy whole chickens from our organic co op, and use the carcass. I've heard that the feet are extremely nutritious. I asked at Sprouts if they sell grass fed beef bones, but they don't. I'll pick some up at our Farmers Market. They have them there.

catherine, I soak the bones in a pot full of cold water, plus two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar for an hour. I read that the vinegar pulls out the nutrients from the bones, too. After that I heat it up, then let it simmer for four hours or longer...

[frugal-one]

Library does not carry this book. Think I will stop at the bookstore tomorrow and peruse it. Anybody use it????

http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Broth-Old-Fashioned-Remedy-Modern/dp/1455529222

[lessisbest]

I don't have a copy of "Nourishing Broth", but in "Nourishing Traditions" there is a chapter about stocks, and it's by the same author, Sally Fallon Morell, along with and another of my favorite authors Kaayla T. Daniel ("The Whole Soy Story"). If you don't find the "Nourishing Broth" book, check and see if they have "Nourishing Traditions" (although the author was Sally Fallon then in 1999 when "Traditions" book came out - before she married again - with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

[awakenedsoul]

I also read a lot of Nourishing Traditions on line. I looked it up on Amazon. I believe the chapter on broths is part of the "Look Inside" section.

[frugal-one]

I don't have a copy of "Nourishing Broth", but in "Nourishing Traditions" there is a chapter about stocks, and it's by the same author, Sally Fallon Morell, along with and another of my favorite authors Kaayla T. Daniel ("The Whole Soy Story"). If you don't find the "Nourishing Broth" book, check and see if they have "Nourishing Traditions" (although the author was Sally Fallon then in 1999 when "Traditions" book came out - before she married again - with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

I do have the book Nourishing Traditions.... wondered if the new book has more to offer????

[Blackdog Lin]

awakenedsoul - I thank you for this thread. I thought I was the frugalist of frugalistas in the kitchen, but it never occurred to me to make broth from anything other than my chicken and turkey carcasses, which of course I always do. :)

I fried big ol' bone-in pork chops for us today (a treat for us!), and was getting ready to put the bones in the trash when I remembered this thread. So they are now instead wrapped up in the fridge awaiting (1) us to finish the last 1 1/2 chops off; and (2) cooking them into some delicious broth. I feel stupid that it just never occurred to me that other bones we end up with could be used to make tasty broth that I could do things with.

Thanks for the idea!

[kib]

Don't you love it when you read something here and the lightbulb goes on? One of my favorite reasons for SLN - the people here can be so smart!

[awakenedsoul]

Hi Blackdog Lin, Thanks. I hadn't used pork bones before, either. The only time I'd tasted a pork broth was when I had made Top Ramen. That's really an MSG broth! Oh, I take that back again. I have made split pea soup with ham hocks...but it's been years since I've made that. It's a good, nutritious, inexpensive meal! Let us know how it goes with your pork stock...

kib,
I've learned a lot here, too. There are some great minds on this forum! Thanks for your post.

[JaneV2.0]

Pork broth with Chinese greens, some iteration of noodles, and BBQ pork makes a very comforting soup.

[awakenedsoul]

Our organic co op now sells a variety of bones from local farmers! They're selling out. I just ordered a package of grass fed marrow bones, soup bones, and an ox tail! Ox tail soup is one of my favorites. It's interesting how the necks and the tails make the most flavorful broths. I'm going to reuse the lamb bones today. I've got some squash and barley that should go nicely in the lamb and veggie broth.

[catherine]

Here's an idea--perpetual soup. Just keep it simmering in the crockpot all week long!

http://nourishedkitchen.com/perpetual-soup-the-easiest-bone-broth-youll-make/

[Float On]

Here's an idea--perpetual soup. Just keep it simmering in the crockpot all week long!




I'd suggest finding a very old crockpot for simmering all week. All the newer ones run too hot. Mine actually bubbles and boils at the simmer setting. Even though it was ugly....I wish I'd kept my 70's handmedown crockpot.

[catherine]

I'd suggest finding a very old crockpot for simmering all week. All the newer ones run too hot. Mine actually bubbles and boils at the simmer setting. Even though it was ugly....I wish I'd kept my 70's handmedown crockpot.

Funny you say that--because my crockpot does the same thing, and in the article, the author says that the faulty thermometer is because the crockpot is old, not new. I don't know how to address that.

[JaneV2.0]

I'd suggest finding a very old crockpot for simmering all week. All the newer ones run too hot. Mine actually bubbles and boils at the simmer setting. Even though it was ugly....I wish I'd kept my 70's handmedown crockpot.

Try thrift stores or eBay--I bet you can find one.

[lessisbest]

Be sure to test a used slow-cooker/Crockpot before using it. You do that by heating the pot filled with water and testing the temperature with an instant read thermometer or a candy thermometer. It should be between 170°-280°F. Anything lower than 140°F is in the "danger zone" and is unsafe for cooking.