Healing Power of Bone Broth

By:  Maria

All of the beef we consume in our house, comes from a rancher that raises and produces his cattle naturally. No hormones, antibiotics, the cattle are free to roam the range eating what cows were meant to eat - grass - the cattle are treated ethically and they are not stressed.  The beef is incredibly tasty and I know the quality of beef is superb for our health.  When I placed my first order a couple of years ago, I had the butcher include a bunch of soup bones that included bones with marrow, because I wanted to try to make my own broth and I had heard that the marrow contained incredible nutrients not found elsewhere.  I was initially intimidated, but the process of making broth was SO easy and the flavors SO rich, I stopped purchasing broth at the grocery store ever since.

I use my bone broth to make all my stews and soups and will even sip on a cup of heated bone broth by itself - it's incredibly tasty on a cold winter day.

What many do not realize, is that there are amazing healing properties that are derived from the broth of homemade bone broth.  People that suffer from digestive issues, leaky gut or gut flora imbalances benefit tremendously from consuming bone broth.  The reason being that slow cooking the bones enables the extraction of vital nutrients that are seldom consumed in our diets.

A few of those include collagen, gelatin and glucosamine - the main building blocks of the digestive system that keeps it healthy and balanced.

Ever notice how expensive a good quality broth is?  Making bone broth at home is inexpensive!  Go to your local grocery store and ask the butcher for soup bones and you will get plenty of bones dirt cheap!

You can make broth from the bones of  beef, chicken, lamb, pork....you get the idea.  If you ever roast a chicken - do NOT throw the carcass away!  Throw it into a crockpot, cover with water and let cook for 4 hours.  Pour broth through a sieve to collect all the tiny bones and you have golden, delicious broth that your gut will relish.

If you get raw bones, you can roast in a 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes prior to putting into a stockpot or crockpot.  This will increase the flavor of the broth, but it is not a necessary step. 

Place a good amount of bones in the crockpot (anywhere from 4-7 is great!), cover with water, add a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (optional; but the vinegar will aide in the extraction of nutrients), cover with lid and cook for a minimum of 6 hours and even up to 24 hours (this is for all bones except chicken) - the longer it cooks, the more flavorful the broth.

  Do not add salt to this broth - you can add salt later when using the broth for stews/soups or when you're going to enjoy a cup all by itself.

If you are using bones with the marrow, make certain you dig out the marrow after the cooking time - this is where the gut-healing-powers are the most concentrated (see picture below)!  If the marrow is too gelatinous for your taste, you can put it in a food processor, add some of the broth and process until smooth, then add back to the broth.  Throwing away the marrow would be like throwing away gold!

 

Once cooked, you want to either place in the refrigerator if you will be using it within the week or in the freezer; which will keep for up to 6 months (I have never placed in my freezer, since we consume broth daily!). 

Happy Gut Healing!