Bone broth

thought others might be interested.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2012/10/09/bone-broth-and-how-to-make-it/

 

When I was young (it has been so long ago I can't..... never mind) we always bought soup bones from the butcher to make broth to either make soups or gravies but mostly to season bland parts of meals. One of my favorites were ox tail bones which make a terrific soup by themselves. Oxtail bones, other bones, and organ meats used to be very inexpensive, way cheaper than steaks, chops, fowl, ground beef. One of my Mother's most hated poor people's soup was kidney stew, I can still smell that hated stuff's odor even today and it has been almost 60 years since I had any. Yuck.
But the topic being access to very healthy ingredients and good preps from bones is still for the most part a good way to save money and add flavor to preps. Can as much bone broth as you are able. Boil down your shrimp shells for a good seafood broth. Boil your turkey, chicken carcasses for the same. I ran into a fella at the super market when the store had whole chickens for sale and he had a loaded basket of the birds. I asked if if he was feeding a church group and he said "No, I'm canning the meat and am goon make a bunch of chicken broth." So right then I knew I just met and smart prepper. Also prices are radically higher now, oxtail bones were $4.50/lb --- Yikes
BTW, the recipe for kidney stew is to simply boil the P out of it.......
GB

 

that was great! thanks for sharing!

 

Tis the season for colds and flu. Chicken Broth is good for what ails you. The link for the science behind this conclusion is at the bottom.

Bone broth, broth and stock are built on the same basic foundation: water, meat or bones (or both), vegetables and seasonings. As it cooks, the liquid is typically skimmed (although this is not necessary since the foam that rises to the top of the stock pot – off-putting as it is – is rich in protein) and eventually the solids are removed by straining the stock with a fine-mesh sieve or reusable coffee filter.

• Broth is typically made with meat and can contain a small amount of bones (think of the bones in a fresh whole chicken). Broth is typically simmered for a short period of time (45 minutes to 2 hours). It is very light in flavor, thin in texture and rich in protein.
• Stock is typically made with bones and can contain a small amount of meat (think of the meat that adheres to a beef neck bone). Often the bones are roasted before simmering them as this simple technique greatly improves the flavor. Beef stocks, for example, can present a faint acrid flavor if the bones aren’t first roasted. Stock is typically simmered for a moderate amount of time (3 to 4 hours). Stock is a good source of gelatin.
• Bone Broth is typically made with bones and can contain a small amount of meat adhering to the bones. As with stock, bones are typically roasted first to improve the flavor of the bone broth. Bone broths are typically simmered for a very long period of time (often in excess of 24 hours), with the purpose being not only to produce gelatin from collagen-rich joints but also to release minerals from bones. At the end of cooking, the bones should crumble when pressed lightly between your thumb and forefinger.

why bone broths are good for you
Bone broths are extraordinarily rich in protein, and can be a source of minerals as well. Glycine supports the bodies detoxification process and is used in the synthesis of hemoglobin, bile salts and other naturally-occurring chemicals within the body. Glycine also supports digestion and the secretion of gastric acids. Proline, especially when paired with vitamin C, supports good skin health. Bone broths are also rich in gelatin which may support skin health. Gelatin also support digestive health which is why it plays a critical role in the GAPS diet. And, lastly, if you’ve ever wondering why chicken soup is good for a cold, there’s science behind that, too. Chicken broth inhibits neutrophil migration; that is, it helps mitigate the side effects of colds, flus and upper respiratory infections (read it here).

 

The need and desire to eat bone marrow goes way back. Can argue that the first tool mankind ever made was a rock to crack bones to get at the marrow. With some animals, deer and rabbits for example, they say you can get sick from to much protein if you don't eat the organs and marrow. Dad ran a butcher shop and between dogs and people, never threw away a beef bone. All of the older people in the 1940's always made beef stock for cooking with bones and kept the water the potatoes were boiled in for making bread. Roasted the chicken and boiled the bones or just boiled the old laying hens and that chicken soup and dumplings tasted better than anything I have eaten lately or so it seems. Dad had bills from the early 1930's in the shop and a pound of lard for cooking cost more than a pound of pork loin for pork chops. If the SHTF and you are trying to stay alive with very little food, history would seem to show a preference for fat, butter, cheese, oils, peanut butter, and such to go with your breads, pastas and beans. Pretty much hard wired into our genes.

 

Thank you, Cato, I had been wanting to make this. I have made chicken stock and canned it. This sounds like something I will can. Thank you again, Cato!

 

Thank you, duane , for the info on the potato water for making bread. You seem to have a lot of wisdom on such things.

 

Dad was a young man in business with a good friend in the late 1930's and in the terms of the time, they went broke. I was born in 1938 and in 1940 or so we moved to a small farm as share croppers, with no electricity, running water, in door toilets, central heat, and so on. We weren't poor, we just didn't have any money. Mom said one time in the 1950's that as near as she could figure out, we as a family spent about $200 cash to live for the year 1944. That was total for food, heat, medical care, clothes, phone, and all. Everything else was either grown or bartered and most of our neighbors did the same. The old comments about sliced bread make a lot of sense to me. I can't remember as a kid ever eating store bought bread and there was a flour mill about 20 miles away that would trade flour for wheat and we got 50 pound bags of flour. Dad was a butcher and a farmer and we had a smoke house and big stoneware crocks in the basement and he cured hams and bacon in them and smoked them. After the war we moved down to grand dads farm and everything changed. Electricity, toilets, central heat and all and by 1954 we were living a life that was very little different than today, earn a paycheck and buy everything. A way of life that had not changed much in hundreds or more years was gone and my younger brothers don't even know it ever existed. Now my grand children spend $200 a month on their phones and internet. My wife was raised on a farm in Ma and relates to most of the things that I do as she lived the same way. big garden, animals, haying and all. Only problem is that she would much prefer to drive the tractor or snowplow to cooking, so we trade off a lot on all the chores.. I enjoy cooking and gardening so it works out well.

 

You cave man @duane I'm just teasing you as I loved the comments you made. and I especially liked the story about your family. Since you know how to smoke perhaps you can share some of your smoking recipes? tips? tricks? etc

 

I've canned up chicken stock for years and while it's always been pretty good it's never been great. Started making bone broth a few weeks ago and now I get what I was doing wrong, namely too much water. The ones with the roasted bones seem to have the best flavor to me. Been freezing the gel in 1/2 cup size glops so I can just pull one out, add a cup of water, and I've got a great, healthy, additive free soup base.

Saw a couple articles on how to take that broth and reduce it to a gravy, then spread it on a dehydrator and dry to a hard crust. Then turn it to powder in a food processor, and you've got broth powder that reconstitutes at 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon per cup of water. I really need to get those fruit rollup trays for my dehydrator so I can try that.

 

We always make soup. Just finished a batch of corn chowder. We make a basic soup, bone broth, chicken broth, vegetable broth, what ever. We use vegetable and make it ourselves as the store bought has way to much salt. Basic consists of about 1 cup of onions, 1 cup of celery, with leaves if possible, 1 large clove of garlic, some olive oil and saute in fry pan til translucent. Put in large pot with 2 -3 cups of broth and start simmering. Add 3-4 pounds of potatoes cut up in 1/2 in pieces and cover with water. If you want a thinner soup add more water, if thicker soup, use flour as a thickener at the very end so it doesn't catch on. Cook until tender 20- 30 min and we add oregano and cook for a few more minutes.
I you add 1 can of cream style corn, one can of whole corn about half way through the cooking and a can of condensed milk at the end, it is corn chowder. If you add pieces of fish instead of corn and put a little salt pork with the onions when you saute the onions etc, you have fish chowder. If you don't add either, you have potato soup. If you put carrots, green beans, turnip, kale, cabbage etc in with the potato and leave out the condensed milk, you have vegetable soup. Was cool in the house this morning and the soup making warmed it up nice and the steam smells nice and added humidity. Have used onions, garlic powder, corn, potato and milk from storage foods and was good. Mom called it garbage soup as it was made from whatever was in the fridge that was about to go bad. She used leftover meat as well as the broth. It keeps well in the refrig, tastes better the next day, and freezes well.
Anyone that lives on a farm and cooks from scratch has some variation of this that they use all of the time. Similar base was made with tomato, onions, garlic, and spices. Became tomato soup, spagetti sauce, marina sauce, etc depending on the additions while it cooked.

Moral of the story is that even now you can eat many good meals from the scraps most people throw away.

 

@duane so when you use celery leaves your soup doesn't get bitter? Mine does sometimes so I only use a few celery leaves at the end for color. If you have a trick please tell me... I am not fond of bitter soup.

 

No, I just saute with the onions etc. Might just be that we like the bitter taste and don't really notice it and the amount of garlic we use makes the soup sweet anyhow.

 

@duane, I saved my potato water today. Thank you again.

 

Bone Broth recipes attached and how to make bone broth that has more minerals

using ACV and roasting bones before making broth,

 

I got a few pounds of femur bones to make bone broth. First cooked them in a cast iron pot in the oven on high them transferred them to the crock pot. I had it on high then put on low for overnight, turned it back up this morning. I forgot and left it on high all day. Most of the liquid cooked off but there was a think stuff at the bottom. After adding more liquid, it looks okay but unsure. Usually I do chicken when making bone broth and this is the first time using beef bones. Hope it works out.

It does not look very good but it smells incredible. The pot now has a layer of grease that I feel the urge to get rid of but I will leave it until I strain the broth.

 

When you say restart does that mean fill with water again? I put in some water- not a lot but it is a restart of sorts. I also added another bay leaf and a few peppercorns.

These are the instructions I was following:

Beef Bone Broth

 

You remove the fat? I leave it on as it creates a barrier to keep out unwanted bacteria if I'm leaving in frig.

Ialso put mine in muffin tins and freeze, take out double bag and put back in freezer pull out what I need