Bone Broth

Article by Alyssa Jackson and Ella Elman)

Bone broth has gained huge popularity recently in the paleo and natural health community. It may seem like a trendy, recent concoction but it’s actually anything but. Humans have been cooking bone broths and stocks for thousands of years. In the spirit of consuming every part of the animal, people would eat everything down to the joints and marrow. Broth is most often made from the bones of beef, chicken, and fish. It plays a role in all traditional cooking, adding immense flavor and nutrition.

Bone broth is great for boosting the immune system and reducing inflammation. It is also known in the health community to repair joints, improve skin tone, treat leaky gut, and heal food allergies. It is an easily digestible food, making it easy on your system even if you are healing from troublesome health issues including autoimmunity.

Broth sold on supermarket shelves today are anything but traditional. They are a soup of artificial flavors and processed ingredients, often including MSG. Traditional bone broth that is made at home is slow cooked to extract the nutrients from bones. This includes a long list of bioavailable minerals, glucosamine, collagen, and healing amino acids.

The presence of glucosamine in bone broth is paramount. As Catherine Shanahan explains in Deep Nutrition, “Glucosamine can actually stimulate the growth of new, healthy collagen and help repair damaged joints. And collagen isn’t just in your joints; it’s in bone, and skin, and arteries, and hair, and just about everywhere in between. This means that glucosamine-rich broth is a kind of youth serum, capable of rejuvenating your body, no matter what your age.” Glucosamine pills do not act in the same way as bone broth does because they are missing the cofactors to be properly absorbed and utilized. We recommend getting your nutrition from whole foods whenever possible.

Sally Fallon, best known for being president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and authoring Nourishing Traditions also explains the healing properties of this tonic in “Broth is Beautiful” by stating, “When broth is cooled, it congeals due to the presence of gelatin. The use of gelatin as a therapeutic agent goes back to the ancient Chinese. Gelatin was probably the first functional food, dating from the invention of the ‘digestor’ by the Frenchman Papin in 1682. Gelatin was found to be useful in the treatment of a long list of diseases including peptic ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, muscle diseases, infectious diseases, jaundice and cancer. Babies had fewer digestive problems when gelatin was added to their milk.” In addition, gelatin helps heal leaky gut by patching the tiny holes in the intestines ever-so-delicate epithelial lining. This helps us recover from food intolerances, and prevents new ones from developing.

Adding bone broth to your daily nutrition is simple. It serves as a wholesome base to soups and stews or can be enjoyed alone by the mug-full. We recommend replacing morning coffee with a mug of nutrient dense broth to start your day. You can also even make rice by substituting the water for broth. At The Secret Ingredient we make an effort to incorporate bone broth into your meals when possible!

Many people feel overwhelmed by the idea of making bone broth, but once you’ve taken the plunge and made your first batch you’ll realize how incredibly easy it truly is. Below you’ll find our tried and true recipes. For photos see below in the Instant Pot section.

Equipment:
Crockpot or Instant Pot
Small strainer
Canning funnel
5 quart mason jars

Chicken:
2.5 – 3 lbs chicken necks, 1 or 2 individual chicken backs (not lbs). 2 chicken feet (also individual, not lbs.), defrosted
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
2 tablespoons salt
1 onion
1 carrot
2 stalks celery
Herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc
Garlic and any other veggies you prefer

Turkey:
3 lbs turkey necks, wings or bones. If you have bare bones, use 2 lbs bare bones and 1 lb. turkey wings for flavor, defrosted
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
2 tablespoons salt
3 fresh sprigs thyme
2 fresh springs rosemary
1 onion
1 carrot
2 stalks celery
Garlic and any other veggies you prefer

Beef:
3 lbs beef bones (soup and/or marrow), 1 lb oxtails or 1 lb meat of any cut. The meat or oxtails with the meat attached to them is necessary to add flavor to the beef broth and make it taste good. All bones and meat should be defrosted.
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
2 tablespoons salt
1 onion
1 carrot
2 stalks celery
Herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc).
Garlic and any other veggies you prefer
For many years, I made bone broth in my trusty 5-quart crockpot, which lived outside, because bone broth smells quite strongly. About a year ago, I became aware of a study done in 2004 by KUTV in Salt Lake City, which analyzed a number of crockpots for lead and found that 20% of slow cookers were leaching measurable amounts of lead into food. This alarmed me considerably, as the last thing my family needs is more lead in our bodies. After doing an exhaustive amount of research, I opted to purchase an Instant Pot, which has a stainless steel inner pot and a number of different functions including slow cooker and pressure cooker options. I am very happy with my decision, as I can now have wonderful bone broth in as little as four hours. If you are planning to use a slow cooker, please take a look at this comprehensive post about slow cooker brands.

Crockpot Recipe:
Place defrosted meat into crockpot and add about ¼ cup apple cider vinegar and cover with water. Allow chicken to sit for ½ hour or beef bones for 1 hour. This begins the process of breaking down the bones and extracting the minerals from the marrow. After the allotted time, you can fill the crockpot almost to the top, add herbs, spices and salt.
Chicken and turkey broth needs to be cooked about 24 hours. Beef broth should be cooked around 36 hours to extract the maximum nutrients from the bones. For chicken and turkey, set on low and wait about 20 hours. Throw in the veggies and cook another 3-4 hours. Cook the beef bones for about 32 hours, checking after 24 hours and adding more water if necessary to maintain broth levels. Throw in the veggies and cook another 3-4 hours.
Wait for broth to cool down and strain. I usually put a small strainer inside a canning funnel on top of a quart sized mason jar. If you are planning to freeze the bone broth, be sure to leave at least 2” of space at the top for the liquid to expand. Otherwise, the jar might crack. Cool the broth down overnight in the fridge and then freeze only after it is cold.
Beef broth can have a lot of fat floating on top. If you want to remove the fat, it will solidify on top of the broth in the refrigerator and you can remove it in the morning. The beef broth will be very gelatinous when cold, but will become liquid again after being warmed up.

Instant Pot Recipe:
This recipe assumes you have the 7-in-1 model where you can regulate manual time and pressure.
Place defrosted meat into crockpot and add about ¼ cup apple cider vinegar and cover with water. Allow chicken to sit for ½ hour or beef bones for 1 hour. This begins the process of breaking down the bones and extracting the minerals from the marrow. After the allotted time, you can fill the Instant Pot almost to the Max line and add herbs, spices, salt and vegetables. Make sure that you do not exceed the level indicated on the Max fill line. Close the lid and select the Manual function. Set pressure to low and set timer to the maximum, which is 240 minutes (4 hours). For chicken and turkey, this should be enough time to produce a wonderful, rich bone broth. For beef, I like to repeat the cycle and cook another 4 hours.