We should all be including some basic broths into our diets on a regular basis.  Bone broths are treasured around the world for their health boosting benefits

Some benefits of Broth:

1. They are incredibly rich in nutrients – particularly minerals and amino acids
2. They help our bodies to detox
3. In addition to detoxification, bone broths also aid in digestion
4. They support good skin health
5. They improve collagen

I know that no matter how careful I am, junk is going to get into my body.

In our world today, it is pretty much impossible to stay away from every chemical, pesticide, additive, preservative, and other negative influences.  Not only does our food carry some of these things, but our environment also does as well.  Since I can’t get away from it all, I must provide my body with some help to “detox.”

This is one of the reasons I love bone broth.

Did you know that not all broths are equally healthy?  

In order to get the most “Bang” from our broth, we need to be sure the ones we are consuming are packed with the biggest punch.

There are actually 3 different types of “broth.”

1.  Broth – Broth is mostly made of meat with a few bones and vegetables.  It is cooked 45 minutes to 2 hours and is very thin.
2.  Stock – Stock is made with mostly bones, some meat, and vegetables.  It is cooked about 4 hours and is more gelatinous than broth.
3.  Bone broth – Bone broth is made from mostly bones with a little meat and sometimes vegetables.  It is usually cooked 10 – 24+ hours and is the most nutritious.  Because of the longer cooking time, bone broth contains more of the vitamins and minerals from inside the bones.  It is the richest of all.

To get the most out of my broth, I usually make the last on the list – Bone Broth.

There are several ways to make your own bone broth.

1. In the oven
2. In a crock pot
3. On the stove top

Method #1:  Make Your Own Bone Broth in the oven

In my recent post about how to cook a deer leg I made a delicious bone broth in the oven.

The deer leg cooked for 12 hours in the oven tightly-covered.  When it was unveiled – my deer leg was swimming in this beautiful, wonderful, bone broth.  It’s like it made itself.  So Easy!

Method #2:  Make Your Own Bone Broth on the stove top (or in a crockpot)

The second way I make bone broth is on the stove top or in a crock pot.  When I make it on the stove (or in a crock pot) I usually toss in some veggies.

Coolest soup trick ever – I keep a large ziplock bag in my refrigerator full of vegetable scraps for making soup.

It is full of carrot tops, onion tops/ bottoms/ peels, celery tops/ bottoms, and garlic peels. The parts that you may be tempted to throw down the disposal, in the garbage, to the chickens, or in the compost – SAVE ‘EM!

Every time I cut up a carrot for the kids to snack on or saute onions to go on our cheeseburgers, I throw the tops, bottoms, peels and extra parts of the veggie in the ziplock bag.

Whenever I make bone broth, I just empty the bag of scraps into the pot with the bones.

To make a bone broth, just toss a chicken and veggie scraps into a giant pot and cook them all day long.  You do not want it to come to a full rolling boil.  Broth must be simmered.  Low and slow.  You should see bubbling, but nothing explosive.

Once the bone broth is done, all of the solids will be strained from the liquids.  No one will ever see the celery bottoms and onion tops, so it doesnt matter if they are pretty or not.

Hiding under those vegetables is an entire chicken.  He was a free-rangin’, bug-eatin’, farm to table rooster from my flock.  He lived a healthy life, ate a healthy diet, and got plenty of sunshine & love.  Because he was a healthy chicken, I know he will be good to nourish my family.

When bone broth is made from a healthy animal it produces broth that is so healthy it is like medicine.

What do you do with all that Bone Broth?

I can take this incredible liquid and make soups, stews & gravies.  I can cook vegetables in it, saute peppers in it, or make a sauce with it.  It adds such a nutritional boost to everything!

I like to keep small containers of bone broth in my freezer so I have it on hand all the time.  The kids love to thaw a container for lunch.  They sometimes add rice or noodles to it.  They combine it with leftover mashed potatoes for the best creamy potato soup ever.  Sometimes they just drink it with their meal.  It makes me warm and fuzzy to see my children inhaling this glorious food.

You could buy some broth from the store.  All stores sell it.  Some even sell organic, free-range stocks.  I think they are thinner and not nearly as tasty as homemade bone broths.  Most commercially prepared broths have also been processed in some way as well.

In a pinch, I suppose the store stuff will do….. but if you have a deer leg, or a chicken and some time – just add some spice & a BUNCH of water to that pan – and you’ll have the best broth there is.

More on Bone Broth:

• Chicken Bone Broth Recipe Here
• Beef Bone Broth Recipe Here
• 8 Things to Know About Making Bone Broth Here
• 10 Reasons to drink Bone Broth Here 
• How to Make Bone Broth Cubes Here

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