The Beauty of Bone Broth

After reading many articles about the beauty of bone broth, we finally decided to give it a go. If everyone’s doing it, it must be worth a try, right? And, why not do something useful with the bones instead of just tossing them?

Here’s what we learned:

1. Bone broth is not a new idea, but rather a very old one. The concept was to use every part of the animal for the nourishment of the body, since animals were not always available or affordable. We’re on board, since we don’t have lots of money to spend.
2. Speaking of expense, it doesn’t cost much to use the carcass of a chicken or turkey that you’d throw out anyway, so why not add some water and cheap vegetables like onions, carrots and celery to make some very tasty broth? This is also a very good place to toss in some vegetables that are looking pretty wilted. Since we usually freeze scraps, like the stems of kale and chard, the stalks of fennel and the tips of celery with the leaves, we decided to add some to the broth.
3. Beef bone broth can be inexpensive if you save the bones from a roast or bone-in steak. Freeze them until you have enough, or buy fresh bones to add to your leftovers. As long as you’re using something you would otherwise throw out, the cost is negligible.  You can perhaps find a butcher who will give you bones, but due to the new popularity of bone broth, they will probably charge you. We bought 3 pounds of bones from grass-fed beef at Whole Foods for about $5 a pound, so the cost was not all that cheap.
4. Many claims have been made about the bone-building ability of bone broth, but that is primarily due to the presence of collagen in the broth, not calcium and minerals. Here’s a good article explaining it, if you want the details: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/bone-broth-calcium/
5. Bone broth, like regular chicken broth has been shown to have healing properties for the immune system, the digestive system and more. That’s why your grandmother or great grandmother always swore by it. Plus, it tastes great!
6. It just feels good to doing some things the old fashioned way. We felt empowered after making our own bone broth. This is not something that exactly fits into our theme of quick and easy, but it’s a fad that deserves a little attention. Making bone broth is definitely a weekend project, but if you have the time give it a try at least once. You don’t even need a slow cooker. Just simmer it in your large saucepan for 8-24 hours on low. See the recipes for more details. The broth is much tastier (and probably healthier) than what you’d buy in a can. We freeze it in smaller containers to use when making homemade soup, or use it right away in our soup recipes.
7. Don’t forget that you can make great broth without the bones. Cook a chicken in water with some vegetables for regular chicken broth. Or, just add vegetables to water for a nice vegetable stock. Save your scraps including onion peels, the ends of carrots, turnip peelings, etc. in the freezer and once you have enough, made vegetable broth. Making homemade bone broth or any broth is a beautiful thing and tastes great! See our recipes and give it a try.

Slow-Cooked Chicken

Chicken Carcass Bone Broth

Beef Bone Broth