What is Bone Broth?
Oh, the things we do to stay young. If you haven’t heard of bone broth – it’s exactly as it sounds. Broth made with bones. It has plenty of collagen and is good for your skin and your stomach. For many, beef bone broth has a semi-ick factor, until you drink it. Then, it’s delicious.
So maybe you think drinking a broth made out of bones is gross. To be honest… I did. I was naive and back then, I didn’t think twice about what was in the broth that I’d buy at the store. At least when you make your own, you know you’re using healthy bones from healthy animals.
Now, things are different. Forget bag lady – I’ve become a bone lady. I’m proud of it too. I buy bags of bones (cheap!) from local farmers and whenever I buy local and organic cuts of meat, I’ll sometimes buy bone-in and save those too. More bones = better broth = beauty.
So what is bone broth? It’s a mineral-rich soup – with plenty of gelatin and collagen. It’s good for your gut and for digestion. It can also help with joint pain, thyroid issues, and can help remove toxins. Here’s a good breakdown for why you should drink this stuff.
How do you make Bone Broth?
You can make many types of bone broth: Chicken, Fish, Lamb, Goat, Beef. For this particular bone broth recipe, I used beef marrow bones. Marrow bones make your broth a beautiful and rich dark brown color. Grassfed beef marrow bones are more expensive than regular grass-fed beef soup bones, but any bones will work for bone-broth. I cook beef bones for a long while (45 hours) and add water to the crockpot as the broth is cooking. I make sure the water level is slightly above the bones – I don’t add too much water because I prefer a concentrated broth. That way, I can just drink a little and (hopefully) get a lot of benefits. I’ll say though, in the winter, I don’t mind drinking a lot of this stuff.
When I make this broth, I like to first parboil the bones. By boiling bones (with a little white wine – a tip from my godmother, Mailan), you can hopefully remove or reduce impurities and scum from the broth. I think it also helps get rid of some of that bone smell. Dump out the water, rinse the bones, and put them in a slow cooker. Add spices or vegetable scraps and then pour enough water to slightly cover the bones.
I set beef bones in the slow cooker and cook on low for about 45 hours (you can try anywhere from 10 hours to let’s say 48 hours). Occasionally check on the broth and if the water level goes below the bones, just add a little more water on top. Strain the broth, put it in a container, and let it cool. Then put it in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
When you take it out of the fridge, you’ll notice a layer of fat on top.
Underneath the fat, you should see what looks like beef jello.
Should you save or toss the fat on top of the broth? Some people save the fat and use it for cooking. Some throw it away citing possible toxins (if you’re making a chicken bone broth – the fat on top could be high in polyunsaturated fatty acids so you may want to toss that). Our paleolithic ancestors probably ate the fat. Really, it’s up to you. Here’s what I do – I leave the fat on top of the broth until I’m ready to use it or ready to store it in the freezer. Then, I toss the fat – it’s not my cup of tea.
If you want to freeze the broth then I suggest scooping the jello into ice cube trays.
Once they freeze, put them in a ziplock bag – it’ll take up less space than a container.
So what can you do with Bone Broth?
Once you remove the fat, you can warm up the jello and drink it up.
If drinking broth isn’t your cup of tea, then use it the way you’d use stock in any recipe (i.e. stir-fry, curry, stew, soup). I recently used bone broth to braise some veggies. It was amazing. Bone broth adds a rich beefy flavor to your food.
More questions about Bone Broth and Gelatin?
You can check out this book called, The Gelatin Secret. It’s loaded with information about gelatin, including why it’s good for you and how it might help gut health. The author offers troubleshooting tips for making bone broth and provides delicious recipes on how you can incorporate more bone broth into your diet.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs beef marrow bones
- splash of white wine only use for parboiling the bones
- 1 medium white onion chopped
- 2 bay leaf
- 2 inch ginger cut in half
- 1 celery stalk chopped
- ½ tsp whole black peppercorn
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
Instructions
- Bring the bones to a boil in a saucepan filled with water and a splash of white wine and then dump out the water (this helps rid of bone smell).
- Rinse the bones with water and then put them into a crock pot.
- Add your other ingredients and add enough water to barely cover the bones. Put the crockpot on low and cook for 10-48 hours. (I cooked for 45 hours). Check on your broth occasionally and if the water level drops below the bones, just add more.
- Strain the broth, put it in a container and let it cool. Once cool, put it in the fridge, and after several hours, skim off the fat.
- Warm it up and drink it, use it in a recipe or store it in the freezer.
Khadijah says
Very useful and informative. Making some beef bone broth now. Thank you!
My Heart Beets says
Awesome, glad you found it helpful 🙂
Soleil says
Thank you for sharing these. I really love drinking bone broth. Sadly, it’s just my mom who’s good at making it. I got Au Bon Broth and it’s really great so far. I love how it tastes and how it is organic. It’s been helping me improve my health and has made me more energetic than before.
Shirley says
Hi all. In south Africa , we lucky if we get beef bones other meaty bones sold to public. There is no question about grass fed. When we see packets of bone we grateful and snap it up, is that ok? Storage in wide mouthed jars as product is thick gelatin. I do add a bit of salt. Revitalized me within a week for sure.
Go well
Shirley
Kathi says
Hi! This my first time trying this. I have Lyme disease and other associated illnesses. I’m hoping using the broth can help me to feel healthier. Is there anything to use other than while wine for parboiling? I do not use or keep alcohol at my house. Also, I just found these marrow bones at Publix and they aren’t grass fed. Should I just toss them and try to find grass fed? TIA
My Heart Beets says
Hi Kathi, you can use apple cider vinegar instead of wine to parboil the bones. As for marrow bones… personally, I would only use grass-fed but that’s me. I would also suggest reading the eBook that I mention in my blog post, The Gelatin Secret.
Desiree says
After cooking my beef bone broth for 24 hours it came out creamy white, can you tell me why.
My Heart Beets says
Desiree, is this after storing it in the fridge? If so, it’s probably the fat.
priyanka says
Hi Ashley, have you tried this with goat? Goat is my fav so I’d love to try it. Thanks!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Priyanka, yes you can definitely make goat bone broth too 🙂 Have you tried my goat curry yet? Once we finish the meat, I put the leftover curry along with bones and water to a pot and cook it with potatoes – it’s delicious! Let me know if you try this!
Jac says
Hi, I have a question for everyone. I’ve been bone brothing for months, mostly with chicken as I always have the bones and our local organic butcher has cheap bags of offcuts and wings that I roast and then throw in.
The last time I did it though, in the slow cooker for a couple of days with a three hour blast of the pressure cooker, my broth didn’t gel at all and there was no fat on top, just a layer of fatty brown scum. I scraped it off and stored the broth, but one worried I’ve down something to destroy the goodness.
Has anyone else experienced this??
Lisa says
Ashlee,
I normally bake the bones and then slow cook them..
But I like your tactic of boiling them first to reduce the toxins & smell. Do you think it would be ok to boil, bake,then slow cook? Or do you feel I can skip the baking part?
bhargava says
Is there any study on the type of fat that accumulates over the broth made from grass fed beef bones? Do you have any idea about the monounsaturated, polyunsaturated content of beef broth fat?
Dede says
Love the flavor of this broth. I am new to crock pot cooking, not to bone broths. My stove top broths always come out like Jell-O! However, this recipe for me did not gel at all. I have a very old Dazey combo slow cooker crock pot/deep fryer and it does’t have traditional hi/lo settings like a slow cooker/crock pot, rather, it has temperature settings. I never went above 250, except for when I added the par-boiled marrow bones to get some movement in the water, then immediately turned down to 225-250 for 45 hours. Is this considered too high on a crock pot/slow cooker? Also, I definitely didn;t have too much water either. Any slow cooker/crock pot pros out there have any idea why my broth didn’t gel?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Dede, I suggest you look into the Gelatin Secret ebook that I suggested above. It’s a great resource!
Cindy says
I’ve made the broth and froze it in ice cube trays. I was wondering how concentrated this is for use in cooking etc. How many cubes to add, etc.
Kate says
So won’t the marrow get boiled out and tossed with parboiling? I thought marrow was supposed to be really good for you.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Kate, it’s a quick parboil – the marrow stays inside and isn’t released until you make the bone broth in the crock pot. Hope that helps!
Alicia says
I went to whole foods and got bones they said they were all natural not
Organic is this the same as grass fed? And does it always have to gel? I put mine in the crock pot for 20 hours and it’s not gel it’s more soup like? Should I have asked for marrow bones?
Kim says
is it very important to use grass fed beef for this recipe…..just new to paleo thinking loll
Eileen says
Hello – My bone broth never comes out this same dark rich color as you show in your picture – what am I doing wrong?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Eileen, are you using marrow bones or regular soup bones? Is your broth gelling? As long as you’re using grassfed beef bones, then I think you will still reap the benefits.
Deborah says
I am new to bone broth soup. My first batch I ended up throuwing alot out. Todays batch hit the spot because I had not been feeling well. I noticed I may not have strained enough of the fat out as I just used a utensil with a holes in it to pull out the bones etc, I added some root veggies and ate it all day as both a broth and a stew. By the end there seemes like their was alot of fat that dried on the utensils and my tough was coated. My question is what does that beef fat do in the body and should I have done a better job staining it? My next batch is cooking. Thanks!
Pauline says
Hmmm, mine didn’t come out like jello like yours. I cooked for 3 days. I’m using it for roast beef dip and also drinking. I thought it would have a bit more flavor than it does. Maybe I was expecting it to be saltier like regular broth. At any rate I am enjoying drinking it knowing how healthy it is for me!
Steve says
I warm the fat up with the broth to drink. Very rich, tasty and filling.
Julie says
Question really. I don’t have a freezer. do you know if this cans well? I do can my soups.
Kandy says
I have bones in the freezer to make this…however right now I am having gout issues so this will have to be put off….really want some!