Traditional Bone Broth, or Why Are You Wasting Money On That Storebought Crap?

I follow a blog called The Healthy Home economist, which can be found at thehealthyhomeeconomist.com and is run by a wonderful lady name Sarah. She’s all about traditional foods and drinks that not many people eat or drink, let alone see, on a daily basis.

This post was inspired by her post on traditional stocks and soups.

Bone broth, which isn’t as terrifying as it sounds, is AMAZINGLY good for you and AMAZINGLY easy to make. If you’re one of those people that adore sit-it-and-forget-it recipes, this is for you.

Now, let’s take a second to talk about broth.



THIS IS NOT CHICKEN BROTH.



NOR IS THIS.



NOR IS THIS!!!

Nope, those are all icky, harmful, nasty, chemical laced poisons. I mean, have you ever read the ingredients on the back of a can of chicken broth? Or beef broth?

This is the ingredient list for Swanson Chicken Broth:

CHICKEN BROTH, SALT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, DEXTROSE, YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FLAVOR, FLAVORING, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CHICKEN FAT, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, CHICKEN BROTH POWDER.

So…what is all this crap? What’s monosodium glutamate you ask? Well, you know how you always here people saying that MSG is bad, and how companies sometimes put NO MSG on the front of their products?
Well, say hello to MSG! That’s right, your “healthy” boxed or canned chicken broth that you go and get every Thanksgiving for that delicious stuffing/dressing has MSG in it.

Also, corn syrup solids. Now I know they have those commercials on TV about how corn syrup is no different than can sugar and blah blah blah. Giving kids extra sugar is fine as a treat, right? So giving them something savory, that’s fine right? Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. NOT ONLY DOES THIS CANNED/BOXED BROTH HAVE CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, IT ALSO HAS DEXTROSE…WHICH IS BASICALLY THE EXACT SAME THING.

Now, let’s talk about “FLAVORING”. Why the hell do you need flavoring in something that’s made properly? And chicken flavor and chicken broth powder? If you’re making something, anything, say…chocolate cake, why the hell would you add chocolate cake flavoring? Clearly, you’re not doing it right if it doesn’t taste like what it’s supposed to taste like. Canned chicken broth tastes salty, because THEY ADD SALT TO IT. Wanna know when you add salt in my recipe for broth? YOU DON’T. Sure, if you want to add some when you actually eat it, or when you use it to make soup, that’s fine. But a broth is a broth is a broth is a broth. That’s it and that’s all. It is water, chicken/beef, carrots, onion, celery, and vinegar.

Wanna know another reason not to get canned/boxed broths from the store? FAT. Like I said before, fat is good for you and for your family! When you make broth at home, whether it be chicken or beef or pork or turkey, you’re going to get this beautiful layer of shimmering, glistening fat on the top. When you refrigerate the broth, it’ll separate naturally and you’ll get a layer of solidified animal fat. Rendered chicken fat, or “schmaltz” is used a great deal in traditional Jewish dishes, especially in those who keep kosher as it is a great substitute for lard (pork fat). Personally, I like to saute vegetables in it. It gives them great flavor, and it’s super healthy, again. Beef fat is…well, it’s a magical substance. There are different kinds, mind you. For this recipe we’ll just be dealing with your every day, run of the mill beef fat. What’s really amazing if you can get it is tallow. Tallow is the fat around the beef kidneys, which when rendered turns a gorgeous yellow color and is THE BEST FAT YOU CAN MAKE FRENCH FRIES WITH IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. In fact, before PETA and the FDA got onto them for it, McDonalds used to use tallow to fry their fries in. Now they use partially hydrogenated oils, which are disgusting and horrible for you.

Alright, I think I’m done lecturing. Shall we get to the recipe now? Grand!

Beef Bone Broth!

So, the cast list (or ingredients) is as follows:

Bones. These can be any bones you want to use honestly. If you made a t-bone steak and kept the bone, toss that sucker in! I personally got 2 beautiful beef neck-bones from Whole Foods, which is fine as long as they’re grass-fed. (Grass-fed beef is much better for you, as cows were not made to consume and process grains. Grass-fed beef also creates less scum. We’ll get to that later though.) I also went to our local farmer’s market, a wonderful little place called Hochstetler’s which is run by some amazing Menonite ladies, and got a big bag of marrow bones, or soup bones. Often times you can find these bags in stores, or you can ask the butcher if he has any. Also, as an aside, roasted marrow bones is probably the most amazing thing my husband has ever tasted (his words), and it’s his death-row meal. (Basically, you roast the marrow bones, spread the marrow on crusty french bread, and top with some sea salt and parsley and a bit of vinegar or lemon juice.)

Carrots. Depending upon what kind of broth your making, you may want to use more or less carrots. When I made my chicken broth I only used about 4 large carrots, but with the amount of bones and meat I used in making the beef broth, I used probably about 8. Peel them and roughly chop them. And when I say roughly, I mean you can cut them into 2 or 3 pieces. The bigger the pieces, the less chance of them completely disintegrating in the 24 hour cooking process.

Onions. I used 2, again, roughly chopped. White or yellow or red is up to you.

Celery. I used a full heart of celery, also chopped roughly.

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. Vinegar draws out all the nutrients in the vegetables and the meat and the bones. It doesn’t give the broth a vinegary taste at all, so don’t be put off by its appearance in the recipe.



The blocking (or the recipe):

Place all your meaty and marrowy bones on a roasting pan and place in a 350F oven. Roast for 20 minutes on each side. After the bones have been roasted, place them in a large stock pot (the biggest you have. Seriously, ours is about a 4 gallon pot).






Add your chopped veggies and the vinegar, then cover with water and give a little stir.



Let this sit for about an hour off the heat. This will give the vinegar time to draw the nutrients out.



Turn on the burner and bring the pot to a boil.



Using a spoon, skim off any scum that rises to the top. This will eliminate off flavors in your broth.



Once you’ve skimmed the scum (haha), reduce the pot to a simmer, cover, and leave it for at least 12 and up to 72 hours. I let mine simmer for a little over 24 hours. Now, about the word “simmer”…The perfect simmer is, for this recipe, a few bubbles coming up from the middle of the pot. You’ll see it and probably feel like you need to turn the heat up on the burner, but don’t. Seriously, it’ll be fine as long as there’s some sort of bubble action going on.



After 24 hours (or however long you wish to cook yours for), take the broth off the heat and fish out the largest pieces of bone. This will be slightly difficult as the meat is so tender you could feed it to a newborn without any teeth, but just transfer what you can to a plate and let it sit. Let the broth cool off for a little while, until you’d be comfortable with pouring it.



Fish out all the bones you can and set them aside in a bowl. These are amazing for dogs. Seriously, they will love you forever and ever. We had a HUGE amount of bones. See?





If your marrow bones still have some marrow inside, dig it out. This is AMAZING spread on crackers or crust bread. If that’s not your thing though, give it to those lucky dogs. Your marrow will look like something between meat and fat. Like this.



Now that most of your bones are out, use a fork and get as much meat from them as you can. This meat is great to save in the fridge or freezer to be used for Mexican dishes like tacos or enchiladas, or for meat pies (which is where ours will be going.) With the two neck bones I used, I got about a good quart container of meat to use.



Now grab a large bowl and a strainer and begin either ladling or pouring your broth through the strainer. You’ll probably have to use NUMEROUS containers for your broth, but don’t fret. You’re only going to need the fridge space for the night. You want to keep the broth in the fridge long enough for the fat to solidify and the broth to gel and cool. (Gelatinized broth is what you want, so don’t freak out when it happens. There’s so much gelatin in the bones and marrow, that it causes the broth to gel. It’s SO good for you, especially if you have intestinal issues like Crohn’s disease or Irritable Bowel syndrome.)



There are 5 containers of broth in this fridge. That big gallon jug in the front, that’s not tea, it’s beef broth.
Now, back to the fat.



In this container alone, I’ve got about an inch of beef fat already separated from the broth. Over night, it’ll solidify and you can scoop it off into a glass mason jar the next day. I beg you, I beseech you, in fact I ORDER you not to throw this fat away. If you don’t feel up to frying potatoes in it, then at least roast some veggies in it. It’ll change your life.

Alright, so it’s the next morning and you’re asking, “What the hell do I do with all these containers now?” Don’t worry, we’re getting there. Grab yourself some ziploc bags and set to work pouring the broth into them. You’ll want to find a flat(ish) surface in your freezer to lay the bags out on. Freezing them this way ensures a faster thaw time when it comes to using the broth. Your broth with last about 5 days in the fridge, but can be successfully re-boiled and safely consumed after those 5 days pass.

You can use this amazing broth in everything. Seriously. Need to make a sauce for steak or meatloaf? Add some broth. Need something extra to add to that marinara sauce? Add some broth. Making soup? Duh. Broth. Many Asian cultures start their day with a cup of hot broth, and I can tell you that J personally LOVES to do it too. Just add a little sea salt and sip it down with your morning toast or eggs.

I urge you to try this recipe, as it’s so nutritious and so delicious and SO COST EFFECTIVE. Especially with Thanksgiving coming up.

Also, making chicken broth is pretty much the same process. You can use the bones from a roast chicken you had the previous night for dinner, or you can use a whole chicken (skin on please!) and save the meat from it for later. (We made delicious chicken tacos with ours!)

If you have any questions about this recipe or about making another kind of broth, please message me.

Until next time,
Keep it delicious!