The Healthiest Homemade Bone Broth is made from reliably sourced animal bones, lots of herbs, antioxidant onions and garlic.
Healthy Lifestyle Healthy Bones
Boiling a huge pot of health, wellness and beauty, with collagen rich, marrow abundant, nutrient loaded homemade bone broth, is just a wise way to eat.
But often times, our healthiest approach to eating is going to depend on the healthy approach to those people raising or growing the food we will eat.
I have learned, throughout my life, that my bones require as much attention, if they are to be healthy, to what I eat as well as what I do to keep them strong.
Healthiest Bone Broth
What makes homemade broth so healthy for us? Gelatin! Aren’t you in need of collagen? I know I am. My bones, my skin, my joints are all in need of collagen.
Why pop a collagen pill (with very little collagen in them), when you can take an hour out of your month to boil a huge pot of bones.
You can create your own flavorful broth, loaded with collagen, and sip on that throughout the month.
What’t The Big Deal With Bone Broth?
Health! Health is the big deal with bone broth. Just for the health of it, here is just a few nutrient rich ingredients to be found in homemade bone broth:
- Calcium, calcium is not just important for the development of our children as they grow, but us adults eventually are faced with osteoporosis as our hormones wane
- Magnesium, muscle, nerve support and energy production
- Potassium, healthy heart function, muscle contraction and to balance high blood pressure
- Phosphorus, is used by the body for strong healthy bones
- Glucosamine, supports other chemicals in the body that address our joints, tendons and cartilage
- Chondroitin, found in the cartilage, which is great for joint health
- Fish bones are rich in iodine which, when from natural sources, is important for healthy thyroid metabolism
Is that ‘big deal’ enough to get you to pull out a big ole pot and get to boiling some bones?
If not, then let’s address bone broth from purely a food and cooking perspective.
Homemade Broth
Soups, Sauces, Stews, Chowders, all those things we love to cook and eat, require an important element; broth.
Broth is not just water. Broth is FLAVOR! Otherwise it is just water. Think of all the herbs, spices, and vegetables, that impart flavor, that can be tossed into a pot of boiling water.
In less than an hour you have both healthful nutrients and flavorful food.
Ready Made Bone Broth Helps With Busy Lifestyle Meals
When you have frozen homemade broth cubes stored in your freezer, you’ve got the fastest cup of soup for those busy days when you forget to eat.
Pull out a frozen broth cube (you so lovingly made a month ago), pop it into a mug, pour boiling water over it and sip.
Put it in a bowl, toss in some leftovers from the fridge; like cooked veggies, a few cubes of last night’s meat or fish, some cooked rice or mashed potatoes, and you’ve got a fast and healthy lunch.
Bone Marrow
Homemade bone broth provides something you will not get from store bought bone broth, at least not in the concentrated form homemade provides; the nutrients from the marrow.
Bone marrow is loaded with the adiponectin hormone; a protein hormone that is produced by fat cells that aid in the reduction of inflammation.
Healthy Hormones Come From Healthy Bones
This same hormone, found in the bone marrow, is also great for the digestion of food.
Be certain to extract all the marrow from the bones, once they have been boiled, and add it back to the broth.
Again, the collagen is something we need in our body, and bone marrow is rich with it. Collagen, is the most abundant protein in our body.
Our lifestyles can often deplete it; wrong food choices, too much alcohol, certain types of drugs, and persistent illnesses. We need collagen, so boil some bones!
Meat Bones vs Fish Bones
Making bone broth from just about any healthy creature is going to increase lost nutrients in our own body, without popping pills that can often have the least amount of aid.
While fish bones have about the same nutrients as meat bones, specifically collagen protein, fish bones excel in iodine, a mineral not found in meat bones.
Fish bones are easy to come by if you are willing to do a little extra knife work. Simply catch or purchase a whole fish, fillet the meat from the fish bone, toss the bone and the head into boiling water.
Begin to layer the flavors with all those herbs and spices you’ve got laying around in your fridge or garden, and you’ve got a nutrient rich Seafood Stock.
Purchase a bundle of clams, mussels or other shell fish, and make yourself a pot of fish stock, using the same method as bone broth.
It will provide the nutrient rich gelatin, and marine collagen needed to make healthy bone broth. After all, those shells are the bones of the squishy creatures living inside!
Where To Buy Bones
Please, please, please know where the bones, you are purchasing, are coming from. The last thing you want is diseased bones. Bones that come from animals with blood or bone cancers.
Look in the freezer section of your grocery store for bones the butcher placed there after cutting and packaging meat. Ask the butcher where the bones came from. Organic is best.
Find local livestock farms that are raising their livestock responsibly, and ask if you can purchase bones after the meat has been prepared to sell.
Healthiest Bones Form Local Farmers
Having visited a local cattle farmer, I asked lots of questions about what goes into the approach he takes to raise healthy cattle.
He was all too happy, actually proud, to share information about what he will grow to feed his cattle and how he keeps them healthy and fat while still allowing them plenty of room to roam.
I asked him if it was possible for me to buy some bones from him. He looked puzzled, scratched his head and just gave me a bundle of bones without charging me. Guess he didn’t cook much.
Chickens have the highest rate of leukemia of all other creatures we consume, so take extra care when purchasing chicken for consumption, bones for broth or even the eggs.
A doctor, research specialist and dear friend of mine, just informed me of this last night over dinner. Sure glad I served him salmon!
What To Make With The Healthiest Homemade Bone Broth
Aside from all those glorious soups and chowders you will make with the bone broth, or simple sips of broth in a mug for a quick pick-me-up, there are a variety of dishes I use my bone broth in.
- Beef Wellington
- Fondant Potatoes
- Brazilian Seafood Chowder
- Shrimp Ramen
- Mediterranean Goat Stew
- Maryland Oyster Stew
- Herb Turkey Pot Pie
Each of the recipes above incorporate a meat, poultry or seafood homemade broth, simply because the broth is so easy to make and the flavor enhances every recipe you will make with it.
Ingredients Needed
- Water
- Fresh herbs
- Onions
- Garlic
- Chili peppers
- Apple cider vinegar
- Bones
- Salt
- Peppercorns
Equipment Needed
- Cutting board
- Chopping knife
- Stock pot with a lid
- Slotted spoon
- Twine
- Strainer
- Stovetop or burner
Healthiest Homemade Bone Broth
Ingredients
- Water – 4 quarts
- Fresh Herbs – a bundle of a variety
- Onions – 2 large
- Garlic – 1 whole bulb
- Chili peppers – 2 whole
- Apple Cider Vinegar – 2 tbsp (*see notes)
- Bones – as many as will fit in the pot, beef, lamb, goat or fish
- Salt – 1 1/2 tbsp
- Peppercorns – 1 tbsp
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, lid on, with salt, peppercorns, apple cider vinegar and bones.
- Rough chop the onions, slice the chilies in half, rough chop the garlic (no need to peel), and add these to the pot.
- Once the broth begins to boil, turn it down to low (low boil), and simmer for 1 hour.
- Cool completely. Remove the bones and extract as much marrow as may still be in the bones and add back to the broth.
- Remove all the solid pieces of garlic, herb bundle and onions.
- Transfer the broth into containers to store in the freezer. Make sure to add some broth to a few into ice trays. Once the ice trays freeze, transfer the cubes to a sealed container.
Notes
Nutrition
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.
