Bone broth is a gentle medicine that signals to our bodies that we are more than fed, we are nourished. Slow-cooked bones are an excellent source of minerals and trace minerals; it’s rich in the amino acids arginine and glycine, which are necessary for detoxification, blood sugar regulation, cardiovascular health, and immune regulation; it helps heal and seal the lining of the gut; containes collagen which improves skin, hair and nails, helps regulate the uterine lining and supports embryo implantation; very nourishing for postpartum recovery.
You can sip a cup of broth a day, add a spoon of miso paste for a quick soup, use the broth to boil grains, lentils or beans, or as the base for soups.
For the ingredients, if all you have is bones and salt, go with that. It’s great if you can add in the vegetables for added nutrients and flavor. You can experiment with different flavor profiles. The recipes below are two suggestions for a European style, and an East Asian style, but play around. After two days of slow cooking, the broth should be nice and thick, with a jiggly jello consistency—that’s the good stuff!
Basic Beef Bone Broth
Leg bones with joints, knuckles, neck bones, oxtail
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 onion, quartered
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
6 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp peppercorns
1-2 bay leaves
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread bones on a roasting pan and roast for 40 mins, rotating the bones halfway through.
Place bones, fat and all other ingredients into a stock pot and fill with enough water to cover the bones. Bring to a simmer, then reduce to low and cook for 24-48 hours. You can skim off any scummy bits that rise to the surface if you prefer a clear broth.
Strain into a large bowl. Cool in the fridge and remove the hard layer of fat (you can use this rendered fat to make tallow for cooking or I use it as the base of skin creams. I scrape off the brothy bits, melt it, then pour it into a jar for future use).
Basic Chicken Broth
I like to start with roasting a chicken, picking off the meat for meals during the week, and then making broth from the bones. Adding chicken feet increases the gelatin content, though they can be tough to find. You can keep a bag in the freezer that you add chicken bones into, and when it’s full make a batch of broth.
1 whole chicken, chicken carcass, or gallon size freezer bag quantity of chicken bones
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 knob of ginger, peeled and crushed
1 onion, quartered
6 (or more) cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp peppercorns
Extra Credit Add-Ins
Sliced medicinal mushrooms such as reishi, chaga, birch polypore, etc
Sliced codonopsis for immune and digestive support, available in Korean or Chinese markets
Seaweed, such as sliced kombu (available in Korean or Chinese markets
Recipe Ideas
Mutton Yakhni or Chicken Yakhni (though slow cook the bones as above and add the rest of the ingredients for the last 2 hours of cooking)
Beef Nihari (adapted to use your slow cooked broth)
Chicken noodle soup (ask any grammaw/nanu/babcia/bubbie/abuela/etc for her recipe)
Samgyetang Korean Chicken Ginseng Soup (you can buy prepackaged ingredient blends in Korean markets)
Or one of my favorites (a throw back to this blog post from when I turned 30!)
My favorite soup
2-3 pints broth
grated ginger to taste
2-3 cloves garlic (or more, or less, however you roll)
small handful dried mushrooms
1 chopped carrot
1 bunch bok choy or napa cabbage, thinly sliced
Rice noodles
1-2 soft-boiled eggs, carefully peeled
Dulse (seaweed) flakes
soy sauce
hot sauce
kimchi
Bring the broth to a boil, add the garlic, ginger, mushrooms, and carrot. When the carrot is almost soft enough to eat, add the bok choy or cabbage and rice noodles, which only takes a minute or so to cook. When ready to serve, toss in the soft boiled egg (believe me, it's the best thing ever), then add soy sauce, hot sauce, kimchi, and dulse flakes to taste. You can also omit pretty much anything or add anything (other kinds of greens, for example), go crazy and make it your own. This soup is exceptionally warming, and I feel like I eat it almost daily in the winter. The recipe above should make about two or three servings.
