Beef Bone Broth, right at the beginning of cooking.
Over the last couple of years, bone broths have become a brilliant part of this Tender Foodie's diet. I started making chicken bone broth because I couldn't find a broth or stock that was free of gluten, sugar and addititives, and free of other ingredients to which I'd become allergic or sensitive. Sound familiar? I started making chicken bone broth in a big pot, but since I'm notorious for the hapless forgetting of one's pots upon one's stove, the long boiling hours for bone broth was counter-productive. No one wants a burned down kitchen.
I then found an ingenious idea from The Nourished Kitchen, a wonderful food blog that includes many gluten- and dairy- free recipes. Make your bone broths in the slow cooker, and after 6 hours, scoop and strain individuals servings as needed. Replace what you take with fresh filtered water. You can keep this going for several days (about 5), depending upon your cooker, how much you use, and how well you replace the water.
Bone broths may not sound very appetizing, but they are surprisingly tasty, and are packed with trace minerals, gelatin, and amino acids that the human body needs, but rarely gets from modern food. Benefits of bone broths:
1. Healthy hair, nails and skin
2. Helps heal your gut (esp. leaky gut)
3. Helps your liver detoxify
4. Helps 'beef up' your immune system
You can freeze bone broths and use like any stock in soups or sauces. Or stew. Or boeuf bourguinon. Or Chili.
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RECIPE: BEEF BONE BROTH
Bones roasting at 375
Here's a recipe for beef bone broth that I like best.
6-8 organic, grass-fed beef bones, roasted (see how & why to roast them here)
1 spring of fresh rosemary
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, smashed
a few onion ends (you can freeze them, rather than throw them away, and use them in your broths) -- or about 1/4 of a large onion. You don't want onion soup.
4-6 stalks of celery
2 TBS of Apple Cider Vinegar (helps extract the minerals from the bones)
2-3 bay leaves
2 tsp salt (you can add to taste later, so start short)
Put all of the ingredients in a crock pot / slow cooker. Start on high for the first 2 hours, then reduce to low. After the first 6 hours of cooking you can begin drinking. Just scoop out what you need and strain through a fine mesh strainer, to keep any bone fragments from getting in your cup. To get the clearest broth, use a coffee filter in your strainer. Coffee filters annoy me, so I stick with the fine mesh filter. Replace taken or evaporated broth with water. You can keep the pot going for about 5 days if you do this.
Drink several times a day. Many people, especially those on the GAPS diet, drink it in the morning, when your intestines are clearest and most receptive to the gelatin and minerals in the broth.
COOK TIPS:
1. NO ROOTS: You can make the bone broths to suit your tastes. I have tried them with and without carrots or root vegetables, and generally, roots make the broths too sweet, which is why I leave them out. Some people do like the taste of carrots or parsnips.
2. Roast your beef bones before you make the broth. If you don't, your broth will be sour.
3. Make sure to add filtered water at night before you go to bed, to keep the broth from evaporating and overcooking.
4. Use filtered water. Nothing creates a nasty taste in your soup like chlorine! Plus, chlorine is a chemical, and not so good for you.
5. Grass fed beef is thought by many doctors to metabolize in our systems better, organic grass fed helps reduce the chances of GMO (genetically modified organisms) of getting in our system.
OTHER RESOURCES
Here are two articles that go into brilliant depth about the benefits of bone broths:
Traditional Foods 101: Bone Broths, Broths, and Stock from the Nourished Kitchen
Top 5 Reasons Bone Broths Are the Bomb from Underground Wellness
OTHER RECIPES
Try Brooke Kaufman's Chicken Bone Broth.
VEGAN? Try Lisa Rose Starner's Nourishing Burdock Stew.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Writer, owner of Blue Pearl Strategies, and lover of all culinary delights, Elisabeth is the Tender Foodie. She started this blog and The Tender Palate, a website for foodies with food allergies where she consults with experts from every area of the Tender Foodie life. She believes that everyone should live deliciously and have a healthy seat at the table.