When bone broth became trendy a couple of years ago, I was skeptical. Every time I heard someone say, 'bone broth,' in my head I replied 'you mean broth?' What is broth, if not made from bones?
When I started digging into it, as I do whenever I come across a hot topic in nutrition, I realized that the canned product that we think of as broth is nothing like the long-simmered stock that has been made from animal bones and parts since the days of the hunter-gatherers. Bone broth, as compared to the watery stuff in cans, truly is a new food for the 21st century, even if our grandmothers just called it broth.
Why is Bone Broth so Good for You?
Bone broth is praised for everything from strengthening your joints and bones to improving your skin, as well as optimizing your workout, supporting better sleep, settling your digestion, and helping you lose weight. Did I mention boosting your immune system? Sound too good to be true?
The premise behind these health claims is that, by simmering bones low and slow, all of the nutrients that are in the bones and connective tissue - and there are many - are released into the broth for you to drink.
Breaking Down the Claims
Animal bones are built from the same minerals - calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus - as our bones. It's important to obtain these minerals in our diet for the health of our bones. True bone broth includes a little bit of vinegar, added at the simmering stage, to help extract those minerals.
Bone broth is also rich in Vitamins A and K, several trace minerals, and essential fatty acids because those nutrients are found in the bone marrow. Vitamin A is good for the immune system - now you know where that claim comes from.
Connective tissue in the bones contains glucosamine and chondroitin, which enrich the broth to support our joint health. When this tissue breaks down, it forms gelatin, which is why true bone broth looks like brown Jell-o when it's chilled.
The gelatin in bone broth is rich in the amino acids glutamine, which nourishes the gut, glycine, which promotes sleep, and arginine, which is anti-inflammatory.
All of the health benefits of these isolated nutrients are touted as the benefits of bone broth, even if there haven't been formal studies to back up these claims. Plus, it tastes great and is just the thing to warm you up on a cold winter's afternoon (helping you to feel full, which supports weight loss, to boot!)
Making Bone Broth
Think of the recipe below as more of a template than a recipe. The quantities aren't that important - use what you have on hand. I made mine with beef bones, but you can make yours with chicken, or lamb, or a combination if you aren't picky about a blended taste.
TIP: I buy my beef bones at Canter Hill Farms in Malvern, which is amazing place to buy locally raised meat if you live in the Philadelphia area. They have it all - chicken, turkey, duck, pork, beef - even ostrich. If you pick up at the farm at the right time of year, you can see the adorable lambs grazing on your way in. Check it out! https://www.canterhillfarm.org
For chicken bone broth I usually freeze bones and small parts like necks and wings that are produced by other cooking projects. When I get enough, I make a batch of (bone) broth.
Use organic bones if you can find and afford them because the long-simmering process will pull any toxins out of the bones, along with the good stuff. The good stuff is all we want!
This recipe uses the classic combination of onions, carrots, and celery for flavoring, but you can change the flavor profile by adding different veggies. The two things that are important are a long simmering time - 24+ hours - and adding an acid like vinegar to help leach the minerals out of the bones.
A hack for adding to the nutrition of your bone broth is to include a slice of kombu, which is a type of dried seaweed that is rich in iodine, iron, and vitamin C. (Find it on Amazon).
Other Ways to Do It
I'm not going to lie, making bone broth is a long and messy process. For best results, allow yourself 2 full days - 24 hours to simmer the broth, and 24 hours to cool it and skim off the fat.
If that's not for you, you can get some of the same nutritious benefits of bone broth from any recipe that calls for a long simmering of meat on the bone - think braises, stews, and soups. If it turns to jelly when it cools, that's the sign that you've extracted the goodness from the bone.
If you want to buy bone broth, that works too - although fair warning, it's expensive. Make sure you get the real deal by checking the nutrition label. It should show at least 8-10g of protein per cup, and bones should appear first on the ingredient list. The other ingredients should be real foods that add flavor and nutrients - not the unpronounceable names of synthetic vitamins or nebulous 'natural flavor.' It should also contain vinegar and should wiggle when it's chilled.
Check out my website and schedule a free consultation for more information about how I sort through the health claims and diets 'du jour' in the nutrition echo-chamber to find the best strategies that will work for my clients. I'd be honored to help you!
Beef Bone Broth
Ingredients
3-4 pounds beef bones
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4-5 quarts water
1 onion
3 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 1-inch piece of kombu (optional)
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
Salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place the bones in a large stockpot or dutch oven and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a gentle boil and cook for 15 min.*
Allow to cool. Pour off the water, rinse the bones and drain.
Place bones in a single layer on 1 or 2 large roasting pans. Roast in the oven for 30minutes.*
Move the bones to a large crockpot. Cover with as much water as the crockpot will hold and add the apple cider vinegar.
Simmer the bones overnight, adding water as necessary to keep them covered, and turning the heat down to the lowest setting overnight so the water doesn't evaporate while you sleep.
In the morning, add the vegetables, kombu, and peppercorns.
After 24 hours, more or less, turn off the heat and let sit until cool enough to handle. Strain the solids out of the broth and transfer it to a large bowl.
At this point taste and salt the broth, if desired. (I like to leave mine unsalted until ready to use.)
Cool to room temperature and place in the refrigerator overnight.
In the morning there will be a lid of congealed fat on the top of your broth. Peel off and discard.
Broth is now ready to drink or use in other cooking projects. Freeze in 1-quart containers and defrost one at a time for a week's worth of sipping.
*The blanching and rinsing steps extract impurities from the bones. This makes a big difference in the appearance of beef bone broth, but isn't really necessary for chicken. The roasting step intensifies the flavor of either kind of broth.
Variations
Bones can be simmered in a dutch oven on the stovetop or in a very low oven rather than a crock pot.
Vary the flavor by adding fresh or canned diced tomatoes, garlic, ginger, citrus peel, or reconstituted dried mushrooms.
Add fresh or dried herbs, and any other strong flavors like ginger, in the last hour of cooking time to prevent the flavor from becoming too strong.