Bouncing along the dirt road, listening to the box full of frozen bones clanking around like I’d car-jacked Ezekiel, all I could hope was that I wouldn’t get pulled over because I didn’t want to have to explain to a cop why there was a bloody cardboard box filled with a chopped up cow skeleton in my trunk. Because of course the answer is: I’m cheap. You sure you want all these? the rancher had asked me when I went to pick up my neat little shrink-wrapped order of local, grass-fed, kissed-by-angels beef. When I nodded at the stack of bones to the side, he just shook his head. You must have a lot of dogs or something.
Dogs? Nope. Delusions of health grandeur! Something like that.
My original plan with taking the entire carcass of free bones and organs was that I could boil the extra meat off the bones and help recoup the outrageous cost of that kind of beef. But then I was introduced to the concept of bone broth. I first came across it reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. While it’s meant to be a cookbook of sorts, I’ve found I lack the skill, knowledge and cooking implements required to make most of her recipes so these days I skim through it for entertainment value (and to keep my inferiority complex alive and well). Seriously though, how fun is this recipe? 4 lbs beef marrow and knuckle bones, 1 calves foot, 3 lbs rib and neck bones, water, vinegar and then a whole bunch of veggies and herbs. Witches don’t even have this much awesome in one pot. But I didn’t try it because where would I even get knuckle bones and a calves foot? (My friendly local rancher just laughed his head off when I asked him if he had any laying around.)
The subject of bone broth came up again when I was interviewing a nutritionist about leaky gut syndrome and she told me that all of her patients drink bone broth and not only did they see vast improvements in their gut issues but she went so far as to call it The Magic Health Elixir! I love magic! I love catchy names! I love having a reason to get all those pesky bones out of my freezer!!
Plus I read that bone broth is one of the three pillars of the LA Laker’s official team diet and even though I could care less about basketball, dieting has practically been a sport to me so I was intensely interested. (For the record, it is basically Paleo/Primal.) The players could not stop singing its praises!
Bone broth apparently has been a dietary staple for centuries and used as a healing potion thanks to its many curative properties:
1. Heals and seals your gut. It’s apparently miraculous for helping with leaky gut syndrome but is also good for protecting non-leaky guts too. The gelatin in the bone broth (especially found in that poor calves foot!) helps seal up holes in intestines that have become hyperpermeable. This helps cure chronic diarrhea, constipation and even food intolerances.
2. Protects your joints. You’ve probably all heard of taking glucosamine supplements to help with joint pain but it turns out that bone broth has glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), one of which is glucosamine. But unlike supps, GAGs in broth also include a host of other goodies that help keep your joints happy and healthy and pain-free. The chondroitin sulfate in bone broth has also been shown to help impede osteoarthritis.
3. Makes you look younger. You can find collagen in all kinds of “plumping” hair and makeup products these days but why stick it on the outside when you can drink it? Not only is it cheaper but proponents say it makes your skin, hair and nails look like they were buffed with Kardashian tears.
4. Helps you need less meat/protein in your diet. This one is kind of weird but as Dr. Sarah Pope explains in her illuminating Benefits of Bone Broth video, research has shown that when the body has enough gelatin in the diet then “the body’s need for protein from meat sources can be reduced by as much as fifty-percent.” I’d like to see more follow-up studies on this but it’s an interesting theory for sure, especially since I’m always looking for ways to reduce our meat consumption.
5. Improves liver function. The glycine in bone broth helps support liver function and has even been shown in several studies to help heal damage to the liver from other causes like alcoholism and fatty liver disease. Glycine has also been shown in several studies to help people sleep better and improve memory.
6. Immune support. Mark Sisson actually calls bone marrow a “superfood” thanks to the high concentration of minerals in it. He recommends scraping it out of the bone and eating it but I’d just as soon let it dissolve into broth and drink it, myself. While the science isn’t quite there yet, there is lots of anecdotal evidence for people with auto-immune disorders experiencing a relief of symptoms when drinking bone broth.
7. Stronger bones. The phosphorus, magnesium and calcium in the bones leaches out into the broth leaving you with the essential building blocks for healthy bones.
8. More energy. I’m not sure what the mechanism is for this but if you read many accounts of bone broth drinking, the first thing you’ll notice is how everyone swears they have so much more energy. I’d prefer to see actual science backing this up but right now the research on bone broth is pretty limited. (Paging Charlotte: Study of 1?)
9. It’s very economical! What else were you doing with those chicken carcasses and the veggies on the bottom of your crisper?
I’m sure there are plenty of other benefits to drinking dead animal juice (er, angelic animal renderings?) but this was enough to convince me to try it. My first attempt was standard Charlotte: couldn’t be bothered with a recipe or fancy ingredients, so I just stuffed as many bones as would fit into a crockpot, added some chopped veggies and herbs, covered it with water and let it cook for 24ish hours.
My first thought was that it made an excellent potpourri and the perfect cover for my cooking laziness as my whole house smelled like delicious stew. Drinking it was another story though. I strained it all out and kept only the broth and when I drank it, it tasted like… watery broth. With some fat floating around on top. Not the most appetizing thing ever but I’m known for eating/drinking the most horrendous things because I think they’re good for me. (Green smoothie anyone?) It also wasn’t awful. I added some pink salt to it for some flavor and pounded the rest of the cup. The pot lasted about a week with me drinking one cup a day. I can’t say I noticed any major changes but I’m pretty sure one week is to early to draw any real conclusions from.
Also, surprising no one, apparently I did it wrong. You’re supposed to use several different types of bones, joints and appendages (necks, feet etc) to get enough gelatin and all the minerals. (And fish and chicken bone broths are also supposed to be both delish and healthy!) You’re also supposed to roast the bones first for flavor and then smash them up before putting them in. Anyhow, Mark Sisson offers a very detailed guide on how to make the perfect bone broth. I think I’ll try making another batch using his recommendations.
Edited to add: some of you in the comments are asking if I just finally discovered how to make soup. You can and should use broth to make soup but I do think there is a difference. I think that bone broth has to be boiled for a very long time – most recipes put it between 24 and 72 hours (unless you are using a pressure cooker) to get the gelatin and minerals in the marrow to release from the bones as opposed to, say, boiling a chicken carcass for an hour or two just to get the flavor and the remaining bits of meat. But I’m new to this so if any of you would like to respond to this in the comments I would love to know what you think!
So, any of you try bone broth? Do you think it’s really a magic health elixir or just the next overhyped health trend – the chia seed (snot) pudding of its day? What crazy things do you eat or drink in the name of health?
This all makes sense. My Mom has been gathering bones (beef, turkey, chicken, variety of wild animals) and then making it into other stuff for us to eat for years.
I have eaten deer, moose, rabbit, bear and beaver.
I have eaten onion and garlic sandwiches (best with chocolate milk) as both onions and garlic are natural antibiotics.
There is a certain root my uncle gave me after I fell through the ice in a river and walked several miles back to civilization through a blinding snowstorm with my strength depleted to equal that of a lame gerbil and got pneumonia.
I lived.
Also, in outdoor survival you are taught to not feast on any animal carcasses you find, but instead scrape off the maggots and eat them.
My first thought was…
…I can just go without eating for a pretty long time.
Hi Charlotte! I discovered your blog a couple of weeks ago (when I googled ‘reviews of T-Tapp’ to find out about this crazy new exercise program my mum was trying), and I’m totally hooked! I love stock, but I make soup out of it and have it every morning for breakfast, which is unconventional but very satisfying. Another benefit of stock: it helps me poop properly….which may be TMI but I’ve read quite a few of your archives by now… One last thing: I’ve discovered you can make stock that is just as amazing with a pressure cooker rather than a slow cooker, which means you can make it in 2 hours as opposed to 1-2 days, and mine has also been much more gelatine-y in the pressure cooker. Also, when I do the pressure cooker, I pour out the stock and make a second lot from the same bones, so it’s more economical.
I admit the calf’s foot is a little out there, but knuckle bones shouldn’t be a problem. We offer it as an option to all our beef customers. Some of them even say yes. 😉
I’m a little confused.
Doesn’t everyone make soup from bones? Isn’t this just broth?
Is there a reason to drink the broth? Can’t I just add more vegetables, spices and maybe some barley and have soup?
Hahaha – yes. No offense to Charlotte (you know I love ya!) but this is yet another example of how far we as a society have gotten away from knowing the things our ancestors knew. And the “recipe” for bone broth absolutely having to have one calf’s foot is absurd. No wonder the rancher laughed.
To answer Charlotte’s question about whether this is the newest overhyped health trend; yes, it most likely is. On the other hand, it is probably true – there are many benefits from drinking stock. And using the bones of grass-fed organic cattle will give you nice, healthy stock, as opposed to the over-salted, hormone, antibiotic (and who knows what else)-laden commercial broth.
I recently discovered that when I slow cook a whole chicken, the juices left in the pan gel when cooled. I’m pretty sure this is the same gel we’re looking for in a good bone broth. I save that and drink it throughout the week.
Whenever my mom makes a turkey, she boils the carcass and then makes soup from the bones, and I’m pretty sure used other types of bones for other soups. I’ve never liked it (soup and boiled carrots…the bane of my childhood dinners) but everyone else seemed to think it was pretty fantastic. Ha. Maybe that’s why I have tummy issues – it would never occur to me to do any of that since I don’t like it. 🙂
I buy a bag of frozen chicken feet from my local Chinese market, and simmer them for 3 hours. Chicken feet are incredibly high in gelatine and I end up with a few litres of opaque jelly. Sounds gross, but it melts into a silky, rich soup base which smells and tastes fantastic It’s also great for my otherwise overly sensitive guts!
Um, yeah – it’s called making stock, which is the basis of soup, gravy, sauces, etc. in a real kitchen. Clearly a dying art, LOL! Dunno about health benefits but real, jellified stock properly made is just about the most delicious thing ever. Ever heard of chicken soup being called Jewish penicillin? It’s basically chicken broth. It takes long, slow cooking as you say, Charlotte. In our crazy fast-paced world I guess no one has the time any more. For the record, I love collagen and bone marrow. Fully paid up carnivore here!
This is one of those posts, Charlotte, when the silent ‘ewww, gross!’ from your readers is deafening! I love you for it!
But you gotta throw a few matzoh balls in that there penicillin…
🙂
Mmm, bone broth. I’ve eaten or drank homemade stock for as long as I can remember, and my mom did before me, etc. No set recipe, just a mix of meaty bones, marrow bones, and cartilage (knees, feet, etc.) done in my pressure cooker for a couple hours with random herbs and sometimes veggies scraps. In the winter I like to salt it and drink it straight from a coffee mug. In the summer I let it cool down and eat meaty jellies/mix it into risotto or light soups.
The easiest thing ever is certainly buying a sack of chicken feet from an Asian grocer and boiling that into clear jelly (no herbs or veg). You can make anything with that stuff!
Stock is wonderful stuff. I hadn’t heard about all the healthy hoopla surrounding it, other than it’s tasty goodness to eat when sick, but I guess it makes sense. It’s all as unprocessed as can be (other than the cooking) so it makes sense it would have all the goodness left in it. I use my pressure cooker to make stock, as James Herriot stated in one of the All Creatures Great and Small books, “with enough flavour to bring a man back from the dead.” It’s the best thing ever to eat when you’re sick with just about anything.
Once a week I cook a whole chicken in the crockpot. De meat the bird & put the ick & bones back in w all the juices. Fill the crockpot w water & a slug of apple cider vinegar. Cook on low for 24 hrs or more. Pour thru colander & put in containers in freezer & fridge. I never use water in my cooking recipes – just the stock.
Now here’s the kicker. We have a little yorkie w liver shunts. She’s on a low protein special diet & always got uti’s. We started giving her the chicken stock w all her meals & letting her drink it often. We just had her blood work done & it’s normal for the 1st time ever! She hasn’t had a uti for over 9 months.
I need to start drinking it more myself!!
I am so glad you wrote about this! I have been hearing a lot about it too. I haven’t really done that much research in to it yet and am wondering if the bones have to be from a free range grass fed antibiotic free completely organic animal or if any bones will work just not give you the benifits or would they make you die sooner because of all the bad things you would get from them? (Sorry if this just shows my true ignorance on the subject.)
Charolate, love your blog, I have been reading for a long time just never commented before. You are awesome.
You’re posts are always so timely for me! I’ve been lurking for years 🙂 I just recently started making bone broth too! The first time, I did beef bones, and I think I should have roasted them longer. I cooked it in the crockpot for like 2 days, and it seemed rich enough, but had a marrow flavor I did not like. I really hate marrow…This time, I used chicken necks/backs, and threw in some chicken feet I got at the asian market, and cooked it for about 24 hours. I liked it much better, so maybe beef broth isn’t your thing either? If your broth wasn’t very tasty, I would make sure you used enough salt, put vinegar, and I refrigerate it and scrap off the fat because it makes it sort of greasy tasting. Also, you can always let it cook longer, it’s so easy with a slow cooker. I think if you cook it long enough, you shouldn’t have to smash any bones, but maybe have them cut small at the butcher. I did chop the toenails off the chicken feet because I couldn’t stand the thought of them floating in my crockpot, and that was probably one of the most traumatizing things I’ve ever done in the name of health.
Just wanted to mention a few things. First, Sarah Pope is NOT a doctor but her blog is usually very well-informed. Next, you mentioned boiling the stock but most traditional foodies call for only simmering, never bringing the stock to a boil as it will break down the nutrients. Also, your readers may be interested in Great Lakes brand gelatin, which can be added to stock or smoothies or just eaten plain with many of the same benefits as drinking bone broth. Lastly, it is important to use the best quality bones you can afford, from grass-fed, pastured animals not fed corn or soy, if you can find it. We love our Bob Otis meat, which my favorite blogger recommended to me!
To second Lily, boiling will break your gel – keep it low and slow (and Sarah Pope… yeah, *mostly* a good starting point). Beef stock needs some meat with the bones to get nice flavor. If cooking for days, save veg until a couple of hours before you plan to strain it off; herbs can’t handle more than 20 minutes or so. Skimming fat is wise if a) you have questionable quality bones, and/or b) you don’t like scalding your mouth when drinking the broth or soups made with it. I wrote a guest post on ‘broth with serious gel’ on Kitchen Stewardship that might have something useful in it for you.
Completely agree – I save bones in my freezer so I always have enough to make a batch!
Great article! You’ve reminded me that I should make some more Korean-style bone broth. We make it with oxtails and it’s tasty.
Charlotte, basically you’ve described how all good restaurants make stock, today and for the past 200 years. I want to find a good cookbook for you. The basics are 3-4 hours for chicken bones and 12 for beef (but you can reboil the beef bones to get more out of it.) Roast first if you have time, for the flavor. Please add salt and really its just a base for making soup or sauce. Pretty much, this is how we used to eat before 1950, and the supermarket. As a chef, I just learned that a crock pot is great for stocks and beans too.
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And you gotta chuck a few matzoh projectiles for the reason that right now there penicillin!
It all sounds wonderful, but is not such intense protein and fat food have a tremendous impact / stress on liver, kidney, pancreas… ???
I think it does have those health benefits. I have been struggling with autoimune disorder for more than 6 years. One of the problem was aching joints because my own imune system was destroying the cartilage in my joints. It took me some time to figure out the reason – leaky gut and candida outgrowth. When I managed Candida problem all the autoimune response was gone except the joint pain :(( i gues my gut was still leaky. Then I decided to try this broth thing. I boild it for more than 12hours everytime and then also leave it on the stove to sit overnight! And within a week of drinking it joint pain finally subsided!!!! I also noticed that bone broth makes you go pee more often than when you drink the same volume of any other liquid.. so I suspect it also helps our liver and kidneys to get a good cleansing from toxins.