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BROTH

RECIPE

BONE

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INGREDIENTS

3 pounds bones (chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc.)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

half cup white wine

12 cups water

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

himalayan salt or sea salt to taste.

DIRECTIONS

In a heavy stock pot. Add the bones and then pour in the wine and water. Drop in the bay leaves

and peppercorns. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat, and then immediately turn the

heat down to low. Simmer, uncovered, at least 8 hours and up to 16 hours. Skim any foam that

appears at the surface of the broth. Strain the broth, and season it with himalayan salt as you like

it. Serve immediately, or pour it into jars and store in the fridge for up to 1 week and in the freezer

for up to 6 months.

Optional for better flavor:

• Add roasted garlic. You can toss garlic in with your bones when you roast them, and they’ll give

your broth fantastic flavor.

• Add leafy herbs at the end. Leafy herbs like parsley, savory and basil can give it a beautiful punch

of flavor. Unfortunately, they’ll lose all their vibrance if added too early. So add them in the last

10 minutes of cooking, or right when you take the pot off the heat.

• Good bone broth gets its characteristic gelatinous structure from collagen. And collagen comes

from the connective tissue in meat, ligaments, and on bones. So, for a good-flavored broth that’s

also rich in protein and gelatin, you could select a wide variety of bones that include some joints.

• For beef bone broth and beef stock, use knuckle and neck bones, shanks and oxtails. You can

also use marrow bones too, be careful, as too much marrow makes for poor flavor, greasy

texture.

• For chicken bone broth, use the frame of a whole chicken, chicken feet, the frame of a roasted

chicken, or chicken backs and wing tips. You can even make it using only chicken feet bones.

• For turkey bone broth use the frame of a roasted turkey, turkey backs, wing tips and feet, if you

can find them.

• For pork, use ham hocks and pork neck bones. If you’re lucky enough to find them, you can also

use pork trotters, too.

Tips for Making Bone Broth

Making bone broth is fairly straightforward and easy. And if you can turn on your oven, or boil a

kettle of water, you can make good bone broth. Of course, there’s a few key tips you’ll want to pay

attention to so that your broth comes out perfect every time.

How to Get Started

• Use wine for a touch of acidity. An acidic ingredient like wine helps to balance the flavors in bone

broth, and gives better flavor than apple cider vinegar.

• Use enough water to just cover the bones, but not too much more. Bone broths achieve their gel

and high protein content because they tend to use less water than the amount used for meat

broths and traditional stocks.

• Spoon off any foam or scum that rises to the top, while it’s mostly made of protein and is fine to

eat, it can make your broth cloudy and muddy the flavor.

 

How to Get a Good Gel

Bring your kettle to a boil, and then immediately turn down the heat to a slow simmer. Simmering

broth at a low temperature means better clarity, better flavor and a less greasy broth. The right

temperature is also key. Simmer bone broth for several hours. Simmering your broth for several

hours will ensure gelatin production.

Use a Variety of Bones

Bone broths get their gelatin from the collagen in connective tissue, and they get their flavor from

meat, and the meat of well-worked muscles like shanks and necks are particularly flavorful. Not

all bones are rich in collagen, nor do all bones arrive with meat adhering to them, so to make a

good pot of broth, you could select a variety of bones to give you that balance of collagen-rich

connective tissue and flavor-rich meat.

Marrow bones, though popular, aren’t a particularly good choice for broth making as they lack

both the connective tissue that gives good bone broth it’s gel and meat that gives it its flavor.

Tucking 2 or 3 into your broth is a good idea, but simmering a full pot of marrow bones won’t

yield a good broth.

 

How to Choose Bones for Broth

Beef, Bison and Lamb Bone Broths: A combination of neck bones, shanks, oxtails and knuckles

work particularly well.

Chicken, Duck and Turkey Bone Broths: Use the whole frame of a roasted bird as in this turkey

bone broth or this chicken stock, and toss in a few chicken, turkey or duck feet if you like. You can

also make a broth from just chicken feet. If you’ve pieced your bird, keep the wings, feet, neck and

back for bone broth, and make chicken screap broth.

Pork Bone Broth: To make pork bone broth, use neck bones, hock and feet. If you can find them,

pig ears also make for a nice broth.

Get Your Temperature Right

A French proverb warns that, “To make a good soup, the post must only simmer or smile.” In

clearer terms, take care not to over boil your broth!

Heat helps to extract collagen from connective tissue, but prolonged exposure to high heat can

also break down the structure of that protein so much that the broth fails to gel, and often gets

cloudy too.

When making broth on the stove, bring it to a rolling boil over high heat, and then immediately

turn down the temperature to low or medium-low and let it barely simmer, uncovered. This is

generally not an issue with broths cooked in the pressure cooker, but it can be an issue with broths

cooked in a slow cooker. If you’re using a slow-cooker, cook the broth on high until it reaches a

boil, and then continue cooking it on low for at least 6 hours.

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Immunity

Your grandmother may have been ahead of her time when she told you to eat chicken soup to get well because there’s actually some research to back this home remedy. Bone broth (that homemade chicken soup is made from) appears to have some anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting effects in the body. In fact, studies suggest that consuming chicken soup reduced mucus better than other hot liquids and inhibited white blood cells associated with inflammation. 

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