Bone Broth

I was recently talking to my husband about how wonderful my mom's vegetable soup was.  I have never tasted any vegetable soup that was as good as hers.  But Gary reminded me, the reason it was so good is she use bone broth as her base.

The thought of bone broth has seemed gross to me and the thought of eating stuff that has boiled out of bones was a little sickening to me.  Since the conversation with my husband, I ran across an article that talked about the healthful benefits of bone broth.  I was really shocked. But here are the high lights of the article that you might find interesting.

One of the world's oldest comfort foods is bone broth.  Bone broth is rich in minerals and is revered by many cultures for its restorative and curative qualities. It's know for boosting energy and improving your immune system.  It also helps to restore damaged muscles, bones and the digestive tract. 

In making your own bone broth, seek out bones from grass fed animals.  You can also use bones from wild caught fish and the shells from shrimp. Bones with marrow in the middle are especially nutritious. I can still see my mom using a knife to dig out the marrow from a bone and eat it. YUK! And I thought YUK at the time but she said, "it's really good."  I never tried it.

Crack raw or cooked bones with a mallet or cleaver and expose the nutritious interior marrow. Put 6-8 pounds of beef, lamb or pork with one chicken or turkey carcass and one gallon of water.  If your turkey carcass is very large you may need 2 gallons of water.  If you want to add any fish bones you may.  Add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar per gallon of water, it will draw out the minerals from the bones. If you want you can add carrots, garlic, celery, onions, mushrooms, parsley, thyme, bay leaves and peppercorns or you can just cook the bones.  Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to just a gentle simmer.  Check broth occasionally over several hours and skim off any scum from the top. A couple of hours is plenty of time to extract all the good stuff from fish bones but you need to allow four to six hours or all day for larger bones.  You can put this into a large crockpot on low heat and cook overnight.

Strain and remove solids. Chill broth in the refrigerator so you can easily remove the solid fat from the top. You can store in the frig for several days or put in containers for the freezer and take out as you desire.  Believe me, this will make the most wonderful soup you will ever eat.