How to Make Bone Broth
Is there anything better than a warm, delicious soup on a cold, fall or winter evening? Perhaps with a some fresh, warm bread to go with it?
I have already been in the swing of making soups since here in Montana, winter sets in rather early. There is nothing better than coming in from the cold, snowy barn to a warm pot of soup simmering on the stove and bread just ready to come out of the oven. Of course to make soup, you need broth and nothing beats a soup made with homemade broth.
I started making up a stash of broths this summer when we had to butcher a rooster and then an injured duck and then any time I roast a whole chicken or have any kind of bones left from something, I make broth. Don’t ever throw away bones, even if you don’t think you’ll get around to making the broth in the next couple days, you can always toss them in the freezer for later.
Making broth is so simple, I wish people realized how completely easy it really is. I used to spend so much money buying broth in a box! And then I would turn around and throw out a perfectly good chicken carcass. Oy vey!
Don’t do that!
Now. One thing that adds a ton of flavor to your broth is to roast the bones. I usually don’t bother with a chicken since those are typically already cooked in some way, but often times if I am using just a beef or caprine bone I will roast those. You don’t want them blackened just lightly roasted. It brings out the depths of the flavors and caramelizes making the broth almost sweet and oh, it’s just delicious.
This is the kind of broth you drink when you are sick, or just drink to stay healthy. It’s so good for you. One of the reasons you will add apple cider vinegar to the broth is that helps the calcium in the bones to leach out along with lots of other nutrients that we need to stay healthy. This is good stuff people.
Once you have made the broth, you can pick out the remains of the meat, and use it in recipes like fajitas or use it for your soup or a casserole – it’s amazing.
So make the broth you will need:
- bones or a carcass from roasting (beef, caprine, duck, chicken, anything really)
- several carrots
- a couple stalks of celery
- a whole onion, quartered
- 3-4 mushrooms
- 2 stalks parsley
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 tablespoons dried
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
- salt to taste
- If your bones are not roasted yet, you'll want to start with that. Preheat your oven to 400˚. Place the bones on a wire rack placed in a rimmed baking sheet and roast until sizzling and fragrant, about 20-30 minutes.
- Place the roasted bones in a large stock pot, the largest one you can find.
- Add all the veggies, herbs, apple cider vinegar and peppercorns.
- Fill the pot about ¾ of the way full with cold water.
- Place the pot on the stove over medium heat and gently bring to a simmer. If you do a hard boil, you end up with cloudy, murky broth.
- I usually simmer mine for about 48 hours, refilling the pot with water as needed.
- Once it is dark and rich looking I allow it to cool to about room temperature and then bag it up and freeze it.
- I make broth just about every other week so I usually leave a some out for cooking for that week.
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