8 Things to Know About Making Bone Broth

8 Things to Know About Making Bone Broth

Making your own bone-broth is a great way to boost the amount of nutrition in your diet.  It can improve your health and even help you sleep better.  To be sure you are getting the most out of those bones, you’ll want to follow a few guidelines.   This will ensure you are getting the most bang from your bones, so to speak.

Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way making bone-broths for my family.

1. Use filtered water.  For the best broth, start with water that is free from chlorine, fluoride, or other icky stuff.  We use our Berkey.  We are not picky.  We have a shiny Berkey and one made out of 5 gallon buckets.  The same clean water comes out of both models.  Go here to see our Berkeys.
2.  Add raw apple cider vinegar to your liquid while it is still cool.  This helps extract the nutrition out of the bones and into the liquid.
3. Do not over-boil the broth.  Bone-broths are simmered for a long period of time.  If the bones are cooked at too high a temperature it may prevent the stock from “gelling.”  Low and slow is what you want.
4. Be sure to cook the bones long enough.  Remember, you really can’t over-cook bone-broths.  The longer it cooks the better.  Crock-pots are a huge help for long cooking periods.    Cook chicken bone-broth 8-18 hours & Cook beef bone-broth 20-48  hours to get the best results.
5. Keep the bones-to-water ratio in mind.  If there is too much water and not enough bones your broth will be thin, lack body and may not “gel” well.   I use about 1.5 – 2 lbs bones to a gallon of water.
6. Don’t get picky about what animal those bones came from. As long as it was a healthy, organic meat – it doesn’t matter if it’s poultry, beef, pork, fish or something else (rabbit, venison, etc).  Any time I cook an organic meat that contains a bone, that bone is saved.  Bone-in pork chops, country ham steaks, standing rib roasts, ribs, chicken drumsticks, deer legs, T-bone steaks – any bones, all bones, I save’em.  After dinner I scavenge all my kids plates and hoard all the bones.  I put them (the bones) in freezer bags & store them into the freezer.  The next time I make bone broth they go into the pot.
7. Vegetables are optional.  They add flavor and nutrition to the broth, but are totally not necessary.  If you are out of veggies, don’t let it rain on your bone-broth making parade!  Some of my best broth’s were made with just bones, seasoning and filtered water.
8. Seasoning is also optional.  Many people don’t add any salt, pepper or other seasoning when making bone broth. Do whatever feels right to you.  I typically add a little real salt, celery salt, and Lawry’s.

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