It’s all the rage these days! Bone broth this and bone broth that. It’s even sold in a few drive-thrus around the country now. I bet our great-grandparents didn’t see that one coming.
In our house we consume this 24-hour Bone Broth several times a week and I’ve got to credit it with at least a portion of my gut-healing experience over the last year.
If you’re unfamiliar with bone broth, the point of making your own broth is three fold:
1) It reduces food waste by using scraps that would normally be thrown away.
2) The long cooking time and addition of an acid (vinegar) allows you to benefit from nutrients that are unavailable otherwise.
3) It’s delicious!
Even if you don’t believe it has healing properties it tastes SO much better than anything you can buy in the store. You absolutely can’t beat the quality for the minimal cost to make it because most of what you make it with can be scraps!
The majority of the time is hands off so don’t let the 24-hour time frame scare you.
Here’s the process I use.
You’ll need a slow cooker – either a crockpot (for one chicken) or a “Rival” cooker (for two-three chickens).
Ingredients for one chicken in a crock pot (Double or triple it for a larger cooker):
Chicken carcass, picked clean of meat
2 Tbls. apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar) per chicken
Carrot ends and peels
Onion ends and peels
Scraps of celery
Garlic skins
Fresh or dried herbs to taste
{I keep a container in my freezer where I thrown in all the veggie scraps. I find this is any easy way to keep small amounts of “waste” and it doesn’t use up precious parts of the vegetables that we could be eating in other ways.}
Place carcass in crockpot. Cover with water, put lid on and turn it to low for a crockpot, about 250 for the larger cooker.
Cook for about 18 hours, stirring a couple times.
Add vegetable trimmings and herbs (a total of 6 +/- cups, packed) and cook for another 3 hours with the lid on.
Remove lid and cook another 3 hours, allowing some liquid to evaporate.
At 24 hours, strain all the solids out and taste.
Season with salt and pepper and cook down more if desired.
This photo was from before I discovered the freezer scrap method. But, isn’t it beautiful?
This is all personal taste and the broth can be as rich or as light as you like it. There is no wrong way to make broth. As long as you like the flavor you did it right!
When I’m ready to jar it I put 3 cups of broth into wide mouth mason jars, allow them to cool and then freeze them. Using wide mouth jars eliminates the “shoulders” in small mouth mason jars that could crack as the liquid freezes and expands. Also, any more than 3 cups and the expansion will either dent the lid or break the jar. {This might have happened to me. 😉 }
I have pressure canned the broth a few times but honestly, we use it so often and quickly, I can’t justify the time anymore. Pressure canning is nice if your freezer space is limited though. If you’re going to can it, my suggestion would be to follow the manufacturer’s direction for canning meat.
There are SO many ways to use broth. You can use it in soups, stews, sauces, to make amazing mashed potatoes and even as a digestive rest. I’ve even been known to have a hot cup for breakfast. Yes, I know, that might be a little weird but I think out of the box when it comes to feeding myself.
Timing is always an issue for me. Either I don’t start it at the right time or it’s supposed to be done in the middle of the day while I’m on a job. So, here’s an example of timing that you can use on a weekend.
6 pm – Prepare crock pot with chicken and water. Set to low and cook until …
12 pm (second day) – Add veggies and herbs and cook until …
3 pm (second day) – Remove lid and allow some liquid to evaporate until …
6 pm – Strain all solids out and jar broth, and allow to cool until …
9 pm – Place in freezer for later use.