How to make Bone Broth and Why You Should

Bone broth is the super food that everyone should be drinking.  It has far-reaching healing properties that can benefit everyone from prevention of diseases to healing and recovery from a wide range of medical conditions.  It is a cheap and easy way to stay healthy and nourish yourself, without the use of supplements and other drugs. There is a recipe at the end of this blog post.

If you are interested in optimising your overall health and preventing disease and infection you need to be drinking bone broth.

Bone broth is jam-packed with nutritional goodness and has been linked with curing a long list of medical conditions.  It has extremely healing qualities which help us fight and prevent infections, diseases.  But it also noticeably improves the condition of your hair, nails and skin.  The high collagen content leaves skin cells plumper, reducing wrinkles and cellulite!

Drinking bone broth is a great way to boost your immune system (particularly with the colder months approaching) I would recommend drinking a cup of bone broth a day.  If you are currently unwell and dealing with a medical condition you can drink around 3 cups a day.  You can drink bone broth on its own, make it into delicious, warming and nourishing soups, add it to gravies, stews, sauces, casseroles or even add a couple of tablespoons to your stir-fry.

Key Components of Bone Broth

Bone broth contains four key Amino Acids Proline, Glycine, Glutamine and Alanine.

Proline – helps us produce healthy collagen and cartilage, which play a vital role in keeping our bodies strong and supple.

We produce less collagen in our bodies as we get older and as a result, we are likely to get injured more easily.  In our modern day lifestyle we tend to take anti-inflammatory drugs to help us with the pain of injuries.  But inflammation is actually our bodies healing response – it is the first step that signals the area of pain in the body which then leads to more nutrients being sent to the site.  By adding more collagen to our diets we are providing it with the building blocks it needs to heal itself.

Glycine – helps us produce healthy blood.  It also plays a key role in reducing inflammation throughout the body and wound healing.  When the body is under stress or compromised through illness or infection its needs for glycine are increased.  This is a key reason why people are advised to drink soup when they are sick.  It is wonderful for helping the body heal and reduce inflammation.  Pregnant womean also have a higher need for glycine.

Glycine also assists the body in reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, premature aging and other health problems.

Glutamine – is vital for gut health (I’m so passionate about gut health, this should be reason alone to drink broth in my opinion).  Glutamine helps the villi (these are like tiny hairs) inside the small intestine heal and grow.  Villi are responsible for absorbing nutrients from our food and people who suffer from leaky gut, celiac disease or Crohn’s disease typically have villi that are damaged.

The benefits of glutamine to our bodies is huge.  It aids recovery from injuries, wounds, stress, and surgery.  It can even help with side effects suffered from chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants.  It also helps with liver health and detoxification.  And to top it all off, because Glutamine crosses the blood-brain barrier it has been linked with assisting people with depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD and ADHD and even Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

Alanine – aids in liver function and the production of glucose.  It is typically used by athletes and body builders for assisting with endurance and building muscle mass.  It can also be beneficial for improving the physical functioning of the elderly.

The healing power of fine broth is extensive and far-reaching.  It has been linked to the healing and prevention of a long list of illnesses and diseases.  The list is really quite mind-blowing.  Here is a brief outline of some of medical conditions that can be alleviated or healed with the help of bone broth:

Oseteoarthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Warts

Psoriasis / eczema

Wound healing –  recovery from surgery

Infectious eiseases – colds, flus, tuberculosis, urinary tract infections

Auto-immune disorders – Crohn’s disease, hashimotos,

Digestive disorders (healing the gut!) – celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome, heartburn, nausea, bloating, flatulence, stomach ulcers

Cancer – this is mostly due to the cartilage content in bone broth which has been dubbed an ‘anti-cancer agent’ *

Mental Health – mood disorders, depression, anxiety, memory loss,

Sport and Fitness – injury recovery, endurance, building muscle mass,

Anti-aging – bone broth improves skin, hair and nails, it smoothes out your skin and reduces wrinkles – including cellulite!

*as stated in “Nourishing Broth” by Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla T. Daniel

How to make bone broth

The best bone broth is the kind that is a jelly like consistency when it has cooled – this means that it has a high gelatin content.  The best way to achieve this is to use as many bones  with cartilage as possible – the bony bits of the animal.  In chickens this is the neck and the feet.  In beef you want to use the knuckles or tailbones (known as oxtails) and also the marrow bones.  Always ask your butcher to cut your beef bones in half so that you have access to their bone marrow and so they can fit in the pot easier.  Bone marrow was like nutritional gold back in the cave man era, and is still valued as a sacred, energy giving food by many native cultures today. It is nutrient dense, extremely healing and can assist with stem cell regeneration.  It’s also creamy and rich and delicious!

There is a bit of discrepancy as to what is a broth and what is a stock.  To be honest, I call them both the same thing.  To me a broth and a stock are when the vegetables and meat bones have been removed and you are left with the liquid.  If you leave the vegetables and the meat from the bones in the stock, then this is what I would classify a soup.  And then of course you can also add any other veggies and meat you want to your soup for flavour and variety.

Here is a basic recipe for bone broth

You can make this broth using any bones you like.  The most common ones are beef or chicken bones, but you can use fish or lamb or pork or veal or a combination of whatever you have.  It is a great practice to get into freezing your leftover meat bones so that you can make them into broth once you have enough.  Just remember if you are getting beef or lamb bones from your butcher to always ask for them to be cut into small chunks so the marrow is exposed.

2- 3 kgs of meat bones

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

1 onion

2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar – this is a key ingredient as it helps draw the nutrients from the bones

2 tspn peppercorns

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

Cut carrots, celery and onion into chunks.  Put all ingredients into a large stock pot and pour in enough water to ensure all ingredients are covered.  Place pot on the stove top on a medium heat until the water comes to a rolling boil.  Then reduce the heat right down to a gentle simmer and leave uncovered.  Leave broth to simmer for a minimum of 4 hours for chicken or fish, 12 hours for beef or lamb.  I try to leave my beef broth for around 24 hours, you can turn the stove top off and leave the pot covered overnight and then turn it back on in the morning if you don’t feel comfortable having it on while you are sleeping.

Leave the pot to cool slightly before fishing out the bones and other ingredients or pouring through a collander.  This would be the perfect time to slurp all the delicious creamy marrow out of your bones   Leave broth to cool down completely.  The fat should settle on top of the broth once it is completely cool.  You can scoop this off and put it to one side and use it for cooking with.  This is known as tallow and is very nutritious.  I store mine in the freezer and just chip off a chunk when I need it.

Your bone broth is now ready to use as you see fit.  You can freeze some in ice cube trays so that it is handy for adding to your cooking.  I store two thirds of mine in the freezer and keep some in the fridge.  I try to drink one cup of bone broth a day, usually at lunch time or around mid-morning.  I just scoop the jelly into a mug and heat it in the microwave.  We add our broth to soups and casseroles too.  We always seem to have a pot of soup on the go at our house, and there is always soup on hand in our freezer.  We even eat soup in the summer time.  It’s such a highly nutritious cheap and easy meal.  

“Nourishing Broth” by Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla T. Daniel is an excellent resource for all things related to bone broth.  It covers the history of bone broth, all the science behind it’s healing properties and has a great recipe section at the back.  The book is also full of gorgeous and touching anecdotes from people who have cured themselves by drinking broth regularly.  I highly recommend it.