Bone Broth

Bone broth is what I refer to as old world medicine. While I have purchased store bought bone broth, making your own is what I consider a food that you made for free. It is made with scraps of foods that you have consumed. And you control all of the flavors. It is the perfect blank slate recipe that can be used in a variety of ways!

What I do is quite simple. I collect all of the bones from the different types of animal meat that we have eaten and place them in a freezer bag. When that freezer bag is completely full, then we are ready for a new batch of broth! I have a preference for a mixed bag of bones. So if we have had chicken legs, pork ribs, T-bone steak, leg of lamb, and so on, I simply pull the cooked meat off the bones and keep the roasted bones.

I flavor the broth with a few staples. A whole onion & head of garlic, ginger, and often turmeric root. I keep the peels on because the skins also give up their nutrients into the broth as well. I always add black peppercorns & bay leaf. I sometimes toss in a jalapeño or other type of chili pepper for a light kick to the broth. If I have celery, carrots, or herbs, they might go in there too.

One of the most important ingredients is apple cider vinegar. It is the key ingredient that assists the bones in releasing their bioavailabile collagen and gelatin. I use a shot glass full of it. You want to use a high quality apple cider vinegar that has the mother in it. It is much more nutritious. Surprisingly, you don’t even taste it in the finished product because it has been cooking for such a long time.

What I do not add into the broth is salt. This is my preference because I prefer to add it when I will either drink it or use it in a soup. This allows me to control our sodium intake.

The whole reason I bought a crockpot was to make bone broth. Since then, I have used it for multiple recipes, but this was the actual reason for my purchase!

Ingredients:

1 freezer bag full of bones

1 large onion quartered , peel on

1 head of garlic, peel on cut in half

1 large piece of ginger cut in pieces

1 turmeric root piece cut in half

3 bay leaves

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 shot glass of apple cider vinegar

Optional:

Celery, carrots, parsley or other fresh or dry herbs that you have on hand. Feel free to use vegetable scraps like mushroom stems if you like as well.

Directions:

Place all of your ingredients in a 5 quart crockpot. Fill it up with water. Close the lid & turn it on. Cook it on low for the longest amount of hours that your slow cooker allows for. Mine is maxed at 20 hours. I let it cook overnight and into the next day.

After the cooker has turned itself off automatically, allow it to slightly cool so that you can easily strain it. You might have to wait 1-3 hours.

Strain the broth, and refrigerate it overnight. Once the broth is cold it becomes gelatinous. If yours remains liquidity when cold, no worries! It’s still good for you, but you may have needed either more bones or more apple cider vinegar. This has happened to me before.

If there is a thick layer of fat at the top, skim it off. If not, you can simply just leave it there as I often do. I separate them into containers and freeze them for later use. This way I have some on hand when I need it.

I love to sip this warm in a mug with a little salt and a generous squeeze of lemon.