When I first decided to “go Paleo,” and was doing all of my research, I came across a bunch of interesting, but seemingly odd, posts on the health benefits of cooking with bones and making your own bone broth. These benefits include, but are not limited to:
- Bone broth aids in gut health.
- The gelatin helps make strong nails and shiny hair.
- It’s filled with vitamins and minerals.
(For reference, here’s a post from Mark’s Daily Apple.)
Up until recently, I hadn’t really thought about trying to make my own bone broth, but due to a bunch of chatter on Twitter and a question from one of our readers — not to mention the fact my butcher left me with about 10 pounds of bones when he dropped off my chestful of grass finished beef — I thought I would give it a go.
Here’s all the “special” things I needed to make my own bone broth: A slow cooker, some bones, and Chrissy Gower’s Paleo Slow Cooking recipe book
It turns out, bone broth was a lot easier to make than I had initially expected it to be. Guess that’s my fault for never really looking up any recipes.
To get started, I used my copy of Chrissy Gower’s Paleo Slow Cooking: Gluten Free Recipes Made Simple for a good bone broth recipe. For those of you who have the book, it’s the first recipe in the Soups and Stews section. If you don’t have your book but want a ton of great slow cooker recipes, you need to get a copy today!
Anyway, all I needed to make the broth was a few pounds of beef bones (marked Soup Bones in my picture), 12 cups of water, a tablespoon of vinegar, and a slow cooker. That’s it!
After I mixed all of the ingredients together in the slow cooker, I just simply let it cook for about 18 hours on low heat.
When the broth finished cooking, I drained it into a large bowl through a colander, ate some of the good stuff that got caught in the colander (I probably got more than most people will because my “soup bones” were more like a lot of meat with one large bone), and had a couple sips of the broth.
Let me tell you: it was delicious!
I don’t often cook with beef broth or beef stock, so I will probably just end up sipping the broth over the next few days, possibly freezing some, too, so I can enjoy it in the future.
To the left is a picture of what the broth looked like before I finished cooking it. Yes, there is water and vinegar in there (my wife walked past it just as it was starting to cook and asked me why I had nothing bu a slab of meat in the Crock Pot) and, as I pointed out before, there was probably too much meat.
Have you tried making bone broth before? What recipe do you use? WHat health benefits have you heard of or experienced from eating bone broth?
Leave your comments below to share with the community!
Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are 100% my own. This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Yum! I use Paleo Mom’s recipe. Similar as above but for the last few hours you add in carrots, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt. It is fantastic!! (It is same for chicken bones or beef bones) http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/03/recipe-chicken-bone-broth-revisited.html
I freeze it in muffin tins which makes about 1/2 cup servings then store them in foodsaver bags. Easy to grab one or two out when needed and sip them in a mug!
It is amazing, to me, that making stews and soups using bones etc. has in some places become unusual rather than the norm. I guess it is a cultural thing.
My mum always boiled the chicken carcasses to make stock for soup, or used a whole shin bone (like your picture) to make the basis of a stew. She learned from her mother, just as my kids are learning from me…. (and the two who have left home are carrying on the tradition). Soup just isn’t real soup unless it is made with real stock!
This year I got masses of stock from the turkey carcass after Christmas: it makes a strong flavoured stock and so the basis of richly flavoured soups… I boiled up the ham bones too – although because they had been cut out of the ham while it was still raw, I roasted them for a short time in the oven first to brown them – this way the stock has a little more colour and flavour….
Glad to see that these techniques are being passed on to others, whose family culture somehow missed passing this knowledge onwards….
PS I like the bones to get to a good rolling boil early in the process to kill off any bacteria.
When I use my slow cooker for meat , I like to pre-heat the pot with boiling water (which I then drain out), and then add boiling water around the meat and I turn the pot on to high for the first hour…
Perhaps I’m over cautious, but if stock goes “off” it is very vile!!
Way to be brave! Bone broth is awesome. I just did a post the other day about it. I learned this process from a chef and it is tasty. Try it with beef, chicken or turkey. Use it in soups, stir fry, sauces and straight up. Yum!
http://www.pamelaspaleolife.com/?p=592
I was surprised that her instructions didn’t include roasting the bones first, since this is a very basic step that dramatically enhances the flavour of beef stock. Next time you make it, try roasting the bones first and see if you prefer it one way or the other.
I just made some bone broth with chicken bones in my slow cooker yesterday. Actually I had started it the day before yesterday as I slow cook it for a 24 hour cycle (I have to do 2 12 hour cycles with my slow cooker, so I have to kind of figure out a start time schedule when ever I make it). I divide it into mason jars and freeze them. I pull them out to thaw as needed. When I was pouring it into jars yesterday I also poured myself a generous serving. It pretty much filled me up! I would like to try other bones (so far I’ve only done chicken bones). I would also like tossing in some kelp flakes just before drinking a serving. Any kelp flake product suggestions?
I use the recipe from http://www.wellnessmama.com using lamb bones. I drink it most mornings.
For newbies to bone-broth-making… don’t be leery about the vinegar. After reading up on bone broths, I began using two T apple cider vinegar in my weekly chicken bone broth. The vinegar helps the bones to give up more of their fabulous minerals… and leaves NO vinegar taste in the final broth. Use the vinegar!