Homemade Bone Broth

A gut healthy superfood, homemade bone broth adds nutrients to any meal you cook. Stock is full of essential minerals and fatty acids our bodies need and homemade bone broth is the perfect way to achieve this.

If you believe making food from scratch, canning, gardening and fermenting are difficult and take too much of your time, I challenge you. Meat stocks and broths have been the backbone of nourishing ancestral diets and homemade broth is more economical and healthier for you and your family. I will show you how simple they are to make at almost no cost and the taste will elevate your meals exponentially.

If you’re on a budget, bone broths not only stretch your resources into something worthwhile in the kitchen, but also provide nutrients that spare a more protein heavy diet. Macrominerals your body desperately needs, such as calcium and magnesium, can be found in broths.

Have you ever wondered why chicken soup is the go to for people under the weather? Sure its tasty, but it’s the nourishing broth that has been essential medicine and the tradition has been passed for generations. Broth specifically heals our gut lining.

Why make homemade bone broth?

If you are going to do anything homemade in your kitchen, its broth. Bone broths and stocks can be made with usual kitchen waste. I’m going to share with you the best advice I ever received in the kitchen. It has saved me hours of time, almost eliminated food waste and the convenience of having everything ready and on hand is beyond freeing.

Save Your Scraps

Yep, all those carrot peels and garlic press leftovers that you throw out each evening need to begin making their way into your pot, not your trash. Anytime I’m cooking I have a jar or freezer bag sitting next to my cutting board. When we are crafting a meal no one wants to use the onion peels or carrot ends so we typically throw them out. However those pieces of food are not nutritiously deficient in any way, their crime is that we find them undesirable. Store all of your scraps in either a quart size mason jar or a gallon freezer bag in the freezer. They will be ready and waiting for the next time you make broth. No special grocery run.

What kitchen scraps go in homemade broth?

• Celery leaves and ends
• Carrot ends and peels
• Mushroom stalks
• Garlic peels and press leftovers
• Onion peels and ends
• Green onion ends.
• Herb stalks
• Leak stalks
• Kale stalk

I have even saved green bean ends. I often ask myself “What would I put in a soup?” and save that as well. You can also save potato peelings but I limit these in any broth as starchy vegetables make your broth cloudy.

Do not put cruciferous vegetables in broth as they become bitter.

Make sure to wash all your vegetables to insure a clean wholesome broth. Note that the color of your broth will vary based off the vegetables you include, not the bones. Darker ingredients such as red onions and carrot peels will lend to a richer amber toned homemade broth.

What about the bones?

My second tip, use what you already have! I see these packages of soup bones in the store for astronomical prices. You have permission not to purchase them. Did you buy a roast last week? Was it bone-in? If you are not already buying bone-in meat, I highly suggest you consider this switch in habit. Bone-in cuts tend to be less expensive and lend to a more desirable flavor profile while having extra value in the kitchen. You are now purchasing meat at a lower cost with a bone for broth. Its a buy one get one free scenario. Purchase whole chickens instead of select cuts. Valuable nutrient dense organ meats, and an entire carcass for broths all in one package! You can feed a family of four at least one dinner, if not two! You cannot compare that to boneless skinless chicken breasts. After roasting a whole chicken, add any remaining juices to your pot trapping all the flavor you’ve already worked so hard for. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain and use venison bones. The broth tastes like beef but the animal was as free range as it gets.

You can use beef, chicken, venison, and fish bones in homemade bone broths.

Do the bones need to be organic?

Yes, and no….

I would highly highly recommend you use organic grass fed or free range bones. However, I know that is not always achievable for everyone and homemade bone broth is better than no broth. Know that whatever you use, the bones contain dense nutritional value and if they come from an animal fed a poor and nutrient deficient diet with antibiotics and hormones. As a result you are now concentrating those substances into a meal you plan on consuming.

Let food be thy medicine.

How to make homemade bone broth

Creating this nutrient dense liquid gold is honestly simple. Requiring little ingredients and hands on time you can produce a kitchen staple for any meal.

Equipment you may need

• 6 quart or larger stock pot
• Instant Pot
• Crock Pot
• Canning jars

Leaving my stove top free, the instant pot is my preferred method to create broths. I remove a jar or bag of veggie scraps from the freezer and place them alongside my bones or chicken carcass. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and fill with filtered water to the max line, adding fresh herbs if desired. Close the lid and slow cook for twenty to forty hours.

Why does bone broth take so long to cook?

I bet you about had a panic attack when you read twenty to forty hours. Here’s the thing, you are getting gelatin, cartilage and nutrients out of bones. It takes a long time. Nourishing Traditions recommends twelve to seventy two hours for a broth to simmer.

Once your broth has completed simmering strain and store. Broth will last about a week in a refrigerator, you can use it in soups, cooking rice or other grains, or to sip on throughout the day. For long term storage, freezing in gallon bags or canning in quart size jars is my preference.

Remember “Let food be thy medicine”

Hippocrates

Making this nutritious broth regularly will insure that anytime you feel under the weather you have a nutrient dense, gut healing superfood on hand.

Making a hearty soup with your homemade bone broth? Check out my Artisan Sourdough Recipe for the perfect side dish.