Bone broth is nutrient rich and great for the whole family, including babies. It’s the only thing other than breast milk and water, that I ever put into bottles for my babies.
- Ingredients:
• Approximately 4 pounds of organic (ideally free-range) marrow bones, knuckle bones, bits of leftover beef (or lamb or venison or buffalo or whatever you are making)
• 3 pounds meaty rib or neck bones
• 4 or more quarts cold water
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (must be apple cider)
• coarsely chopped onions, carrots, and celery (2-3 of each, or more!) and/or your bag of vegetable scraps (I keep mine in the freezer for this and it makes yummy stock). Perhaps a few black or green peppercorns.
• 1 to 2 bunches of parsley
• sea salt (add at the end). I love this one.
Preparation:
1. Roast all the meaty bones at 350 degrees until well-browned (about 30-60 minutes)
2. Meanwhile, throw all of your non-meaty marrow bones into a stockpot with vinegar. Add the water. Let sit.
3. Add the browned bones to the pot. Deglaze the roasting pan with hot water and pour all that stuff in as well.
4. Add more water. Add the vegetables. (not the parsley)
5. Bring to a boil and remove the yucky foam that rises to the top.
6. Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 24 to 72 hours. The longer the better for nutrition and flavour. Just 15 minutes before you turn the heat off, add in the parsley.And now what? It sure doesn’t look good (or taste that great) yet. But it will.
7. Let the stock cool and remove all the big stuff that you can. Then you need to strain it. I do this using a big metal strainer. I pour it from one big pot into another.
8. Once everything is cool, I stick it in the refrigerator. Then I wait until a yucky layer of thick, white fat rises to the top and congeals. Scoop all of this out (you can save for other recipes or for frying or for rubbing on your skin even! It’s tallow and it’s really oily.)
9. Now, is a great time to add some salt (or pepper or other spices) to taste.
10. I freeze a lot of this in ice trays to make great little cubes that I can use instead of bouillon. And I freeze a couple of cups at a time in freezer-safe glass and stainless steel. (I used to do ziplock bags, but I never felt good about that with the leaching plastics and I’ve broken a lot of Ball jars freezing in them, although I continue to do it.)
If you are interested in learning more about making nourishing broths, I highly recommend anything by Sally Fallon, such as Nourishing Broth.