Once upon a time, two children, one rich and one poor, were living together in the same house. The rich child was always unwell, whereas the poor child was healthy.
As it turns out, the poor child’s parents were servants in the same house. So, during meals, the rich child ate the meat while the servants used the bones to make broth to feed their child.
This story was told to me by my father when I was young to encourage me to consume my mother’s bone broth, especially when I was ill.
Despite my dislike for soups and broths at the time, I have come to love them now, particularly for their incredible health benefits, which I became interested in after becoming a health enthusiast.
Benefits of Bone Broth
From lubricating the joints to alkalizing our bodies, bone broth has lately been recognized as a cure-all remedy.
Here are some of its most notable benefits.
Bone broth is budget-friendly.
One of my household rules is to minimize waste, and bone broth is a great example of this.
Instead of throwing away meat, bones, and vegetable scraps, I collect them in a paper bag and store them in the freezer.
After several weeks of collecting, I have enough ingredients to make a rich bone broth without needing to purchase anything extra.
This way, I am able to prepare a delicious meal without spending any money and reduce waste.
Read here to learn How to Eat Healthy on a Budget.
It is an elixir of youth.
Bone broth is super good for you!
It’s got a ton of anti-aging stuff in it, like easily absorbable calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, trace minerals, and vitamins A and K2.
Plus, it’s got some really important minerals that your body needs, like zinc, iron, manganese, and selenium.
And get this: it even has omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids! Those are essential to keep you in optimal shape.
But the real magic ingredient is collagen, which is great for your joints, hair, skin, and nails.
Plus, it has glycine and arginine amino acids that help fight inflammation, which is a major cause of lots of chronic diseases nowadays, including diabetes, coronary diseases, obesity, and cancer.
So basically, this recipe is gonna keep you feeling great and looking beautiful from the inside out!
Read here to learn about:
Lubricate your joints and keep you pain-free.
The main component found in bones is a protein called collagen. This protein is the one that gives the broth that jello-ish texture when it cools down.
This gelatin contains some amino acids that help our body maintain our joints and bones healthy. Among them, we can name proline, glycine, chondroitin, and glucosamine.
Some costly supplements recommended to relieve arthritic pain contain these compounds. So, try this recipe at home before emptying your bank account at the pharmacy or health store next time. You could be surprised!
Bone broth protects your intestinal lining and digestive tract.
Thanks to its high concentrations of glutamine, it has soothing and healing effects on our digestive system.
That’s why drinking bone broth helps relieve ailments such as leaky gut syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
Drinking a cup of bone broth before bed helps you sleep better.
Try changing your evening cup of tea for bone broth. It might potentially improve your sleep quality.
This broth is rich in glycine, an amino acid that helps you relax and promotes sleep.
Some research shows that glycine also helps to fall asleep faster, maintain a deeper sleep, and wake up fewer times throughout the night.
It’s a superfood for pregnancy and postpartum recovery.
Hey ya, friend! If you are going through pregnancy or postpartum recovery right now, bone broth is your new BFF.
This is a time that your body will need all the good nutrients in this recipe to keep healthy-looking skin and avoid stretch marks and joint injuries.
Also, the growing baby in your bump will benefit from all the good stuff in this recipe.
And, of course, a good, bio-absorbable amount of natural collagen will boost your recovery during those first days after childbirth.
So mama, if there’s one food item you want to meal prep and stack in your fridge before heading to the hospital, this is it.
What kinds of bones are the best to prepare the broth?
You can use any bones to prepare this recipe at home: chicken, beef, turkey, and even fish. You will get that special gel from practically any animal bone, but you want to make sure that you get just good stuff in it.
That means that you should prepare this recipe with very healthy, good-quality bones. e.g., grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, and pasture-raised chicken.
Because the bones’ quality will ensure you have a broth that is nutritious, anti-inflammatory, and hormone and antibiotic-free.
Is Bone Broth safe for anyone?
It’s important for people with histamine sensitivity to be aware that this bone broth recipe has high levels of histamines, even though it’s generally safe for most individuals.
The most you cook the broth, the highest the amounts of histamine, so it’s recommended to cook just for the minimum time.
How to store Bone Broth safely?
Once you finish cooking, it’s likely that you’ll have a considerable amount of broth. However, it’s important to note that it can only be kept in the fridge for a maximum of five days for safe consumption.
To store bone broth for a longer period, freeze it in mason jars or glass containers with lids. Make sure to leave some space at the top because the water content in it will expand as it freezes.
This way, anytime you feel like boosting your homecooked recipes by adding some nutrient-dense broth, you only need to take a jar out of the freezer and let it defrost overnight.
How to make Bone Broth in a Slow Cooker
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
- Mesh Strainer
Ingredients
- 1 – 1 ½ lbs chicken, beef, lamb, turkey, pork, or fish bones
- 1 small onion peeled and chopped
- 2-3 garlic cloves peeled
- 2 – 3 carrots chopped
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt or Himalayan pink salt to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar raw and organic
- water (enough to cover the bones) filtered
Instructions
- Place the bones in a slow cooker.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the onion and garlic cloves.
- Pour in enough filtered water to cover the bones.
- Add 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar to bring out the minerals from the bones.
- Cook for the recommended amount of time: Chicken bones: 8-24 hours Fish bones: 6-24 hours Beef bones: 8-72 hours
- Add the chopped vegetables or veggies scraps the last 20-30 minutes of cooking.
- Strain the broth and discard the bones and vegetables.
- Pour broth into jars and store in the fridge.
If you are more of a visual type, you can check my video below on How to make beef bone broth.
Tips for making the best bone broth ever
While this recipe is pretty straightforward, there are always some tips that can help you make it more tasteful and nutritious.
- Use all the spices you want. This step will increase the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant power of the broth.
- Add some pieces of seaweed like kombu, wakame, or nori for extra minerals.
- When using meaty beef bones, roast them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about half an hour before cooking the broth. This simple step enhances the broth’s flavor and softens the hard bones, so the broth gets the maximum amount of nutrients.
- After the broth chills in your refrigerator, remove the fat layer that accumulates at the top. By doing that, you don’t end up with all that fat in your recipes.
- Joints such as the knees, neck, spine, and tail are the best cause they are rich in gelatin. If you have large bones, like the legs bones, make sure to cut them or ask your butcher to do it for you, so you can get all the substances in them when cooking.
- To prevent overcooking vegetables and ending up with a poorly-tasting broth, it’s best to add veggies like carrots and celery during the last 20-30 minutes of cooking.
- Don’t throw your veggies. If you are making the broth with beef bones, you can still reuse your veggies as a side dish. Unfortunately, while cooking chicken broth, the bones soften and break down a lot during the process being really hard to separate them from the veggies.
I hope you will enjoy this recipe! See you next time.
