Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Qualified Nutritionist & GAPS Practitioner
Qualified Nutritionist & GAPS Practitioner
You’ll nearly always find a pot of broth on the go in my kitchen. It’s something I use everyday to make dishes like: spaghetti, gravy, curries, soups and stews, or I’ll cook rice or other grains in to make them more gut friendly. A long day often ends with a warm mug of bone broth in hand, gently seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper. It’s my prime tool for optimum nutrition and is often the first thing I teach my clients about because I love all the amazing things it does for your body.
I know that like any new recipe, your first go at making bone broth may not be as you expected. You might find yourself wondering if the water has evaporated far too much, or if you’ve used the right bones or not. You may even look at the end product and think “is this what it’s supposed to look like?” and why isn’t your broth jiggly?” I’ve written up this blog post so you can learn how-to make bone broth with my easy-to-follow instructions, as well as handy tips, and answers to all your frequently asked questions about bone broth.
HERE’S A FEW REASONS WHY I LOVE BONE BROTH SO MUCH
—
✨Bone broth is highly nutritious - it’s rich with vitamins and nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous. The nutrition will vary depending on the type of animal bones you use, but in general, you’ll find loads of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus, Vitamin A, K2, and minerals like zinc, iron, boron, manganese, and selenium.
✨ It’s a concentrated source of healing compounds such as: glutamine, collagen, proline, glycine and gelatine. These are essential amino acids are easily absorbed, are are essential for soothing, healing, sealing and repairing the gut wall. If you suffer from any digestive issues such as; food sensitivities, bloating, diarrhoea or constipation, or suffer from an autoimmune condition – then you need to consume bone broths daily.
✨ Bone broth is also rich in collagen, which means it nourishes your skin, improves skin elasticity and smoothness, reduces wrinkles, sun damage and cellulite + it has anti-aging benefits. If you have eczema, psoriasis or acne etc. healing these skin problems should start from the inside out and are directly related to the health of your gut.
✨ As well as collagen and gelatin, bone broth contains the amino acid glycine. Your liver is reliant on the availability of glycine to break down toxins. Drinking bone broth is not only incredibly nourishing, healing and repairing for your gut, it’s also detoxifying to your body.
✨ Bone broth also helps improve digestion, boost the immune system, strengthen bones, teeth and joints, balance the thyroid and combat the toll stress takes on the body, improve quality of sleep and reduce inflammation.
✨ Because bone broth helps to heal and soothe a damaged gut lining and reduce inflammation, it can be wonderful to consume after you’ve accidentally been ‘Gluten’d’ and/ or had food poisoning. You can read all about it HERE.
✨ Bone broth is also the ultimate food when it comes to improving fertility in every aspect -- from preconception to conception to pregnancy as well as postpartum. You can read more information in my blog post
✨ Bone broth can also be given in small amounts as soon as baby has been introduced to solids (just make a plain, low salt version). It will help support baby’s digestion, immunity, strengthen the intestinal lining which can help reduce food sensitivities/ allergies, strengthen growing bones and teeth and more.
You deserve a daily dose of bone broth!
HOW-TO MAKEBELLY SOOTHING BONE BROTH
—
Personally, making homemade bone broth is one of my favourite things to do — in the hectic-ness of life, it really slows me down. Cooking this concoction is incredibly easy, it’s affordable, it also feels nourishing, therapeutic and really, really good for my soul. Here’s my easy guide on how to make the perfect, wobbly bone broth. Happy cooking!
INGREDIENTS
1 kg organic chicken feet, or use any of the following if you can’t source them - 2kg chicken or duck necks and/ or frames, oxtails, ribs, knuckle, neck or marrow bones from beef, lamb, turkey or goat.
1-2 onions, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
2 stems of celery, roughly chopped
A big pinch of salt
2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar
Aromatics of your choice: sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic cloves, ginger, seaweed (this is optional, although delicious in chicken broths)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat your oven to 180C. Transfer your chosen bones and vegetables (carrots, onions, garlic, celery) to two roasting pans (avoid piling them all on top of each other). Roast for about 30-40 minutes, or until they start to have some colour. This step in an easy way to brown and caramelise your bones and veggies without a lot of added work. Alternatively, you can also sauté the veggies and bones in a large frying pan until they have some colour to them. This is optional, however it adds a beautiful depth of flavour to the broth.
Add the bones, veggies, ACV, chosen aromatics and salt to a large pot. Cover with filtered water until the pot is ¾ full. Place the lid on top, but leave it slightly ajar and bring it up to a medium simmer.
Cook the broth on the stovetop at a medium simmer until the water has reduced by half (this usually takes about 2.5 hours on my stove top). I recommend leaving the lid ajar as you want the water to evaporate and concentrate.
Add more filtered water until the pot is 3/4 full and repeat this process (the cooking time will be approximately 5 hours in total). If you have an induction cooktop, it may be faster so please keep an eye on it.
When the broth has reduced by half again, remove the broth from the heat.
Strain the liquid through a sieve and collect the bone broth into a large bowl (not a plastic one). Once the broth has cooled down, carefully pour it into a glass container or jar and store it in the fridge. Please note you can re-use these bones once more (see my tips below).
BONE BROTH Q&A
—
Do You Have To Use Organic Bones?
Compared to conventional, organic bone broth will always be the most nutritious. If your food budget can include organically sourced bones, it’s worth the extra cost! However, any bone broth is better than none at all. So, if you can’t afford or source organic bones, use bone from free-range or grass-fed animals.
Can You Use The Bones From Any Animal?
Yes. The most common ones to use are; chicken, beef and lamb as they’re the most accessible. However, you can also use the bones from; turkey, duck, pork and goat. If you’re unsure at all, ask your local butcher for the best broth bones to use. Then request they cut them in half or into pieces for you. Trust me, you do not want to bring home an entire femur – it won’t fit in your pot.
Seafood broth is also delicious and cooks very fast. Roy and I will often make stock out of the leftover fish he catches, it’s a great way to use up the heads and carcasses of the fish, lobster and other seafood we eat. Seafood stocks in particular are incredibly nutritious, flavourful and a wonderful way to eat nose to tail.
Can You Use Bones to Make Broth More than Once?
Yes, there are two ways I do this.
Buy meat cuts on the bone (lamb shanks, lamb shoulder, beef ribs, whole chicken, chicken wings ect). Save the bones from your meals and store them in a container in the freezer. Once that container is full, use those bones to make a batch of bone broth.
I often use bones more than once to make multiple pots of bone broth, especially if it’s a big batch of bones and fills the whole pot. Remouillage is the name of this frugal French cooking method. It’s guaranteed to save you a lot of money over time! Typically, I use poultry bones and harder bones such as beef, lamb, venison or pork twice before throwing them out. I only use fish and seafood bones/ heads once, as they tend to disintegrate after one pot of stock is made.
Do The Bones Have To Be Raw?
No. I often use a mixture of frozen, raw and/ or leftover roasted bones from chicken or slow cooked lamb or beef.They’re all good.
Can I Use Mixed Bones?
Yes of course! I use mixed bones almost every time. I’ll often use leftover bones from roast chicken, lamb shoulder, beef ribs, chicken wings ect. They all add their own beautiful flavour and varying the types of bones used will have different nutritional values.
How Do I Add More Flavour To My Broths?
Fry or roast the bones and veggies in the oven before adding them to the water, this adds a beautiful depth of flavour. Do this especially if you’re using beef bones. Veggies such as; carrot, celery, onion, garlic, seaweed and aromatics like rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaves, salt and peppercorns will also add more flavour. Using a mixture of different bones will also add more flavour.
Do I Add Salt?
Yes, but exactly how much depends entirely on you. I try not to add in too much while it’s cooking, because if you plan on using it for soups, stews and sauces later on, the salt concentration can become higher as it continues to concentrate. If you plan on giving it to your baby, only use a little salt, you can always add more salt to taste later on for yourself if you plan on drinking it like a hot cup of (savoury) tea.
Why Do You Add Apple Cider Vinegar?
Apple cider vinegar helps to break down the animal proteins and connective tissues. This aided breakdown provides a broth higher in protein and collagen, and it helps to draw the minerals out of the bones and into the broth.
Do I Have To Use Filtered Water?
Filtered water is always best – I use Waters Co. to filter my water.
Why Isn’t My Bone Broth Gelling Like Yours?
Most broths will set into a jelly-like consistency when they cool and jiggle if shaken – this is due to the gelatine, one of the most desirable factors bone broth. However, if your bone broth doesn’t gel, there are two main reasons why;
You need to allow the liquid to evaporate and concentrate while the broth is cooking, otherwise it won’t be very gelatinous once it sets in the fridge.
You haven’t used enough bones. If you would like to make a more gelatinous bone broth – opt for the joint bones as oppose to the more meaty bones. Joint bones like chicken feet, wings and necks, knuckles and ox tail are cartilage-rich. These contain more connective tissue that breaks down into gelatine.
But don’t be too concerned if your broth doesn’t ‘gel’ the way you’d like it to – you’ll still be getting the amino acids, minerals and other nutritional benefits regardless!
How Do You Use Bone Broth?
For restorative and medicinal purposes, I often recommend to sip a cup of warm bone broth with a sprinkle of sea salt and cracked pepper a few times per day. If you’re not really interested in drinking your broth, use it the same way you would regular meat stocks or broths.
Use it in homemade soups, stews, spaghetti, butter chicken, curries (i’ll often do half broth and half coconut cream in a curry) and slow cook your meats in it (lamb shanks, chicken drumsticks, beef cheeks ect).
Cook rice, quinoa and other gluten free grains in it. Swapping water for bone broth is an easy way to add extra flavour and make it more gut friendly.
Use it to make delicious sauces like homemade gravy or reductions.
If the broth has a plain flavour (ie: chicken broth and hasn’t been made with onions, garlic, herbs ect), it can be frozen into ice cubes and then added into smoothies.
Bone broth can also be hidden in ice blocks with by adding just a small amount of liquid bone broth to the mixture instead of water.
Use bone broth as the base for pureeing meats and veggies for your baby, or cook the veggies or meat in bone broth if you’re doing BLW.
How Do You Store Bone Broth?
I recommend storing it in glass containers, or in a small sauce pan in the fridge as it’s easy to re-heat. Bone broth stores well in the refrigerator for approximately 5 days. If you make a large batch, you can freeze some of it into smaller batches (once it has cooled) in containers for up to 4 months (it reheats perfectly!) You can also freeze the bone broth into ice cubes, then store these ice cubes in zip lock bags or silicone bags in the freezer. This way they’re easy to pop into spaghetti, curries, gravy, stews ect (even if frozen, they will melt quickly), or add into smoothies, they will blend up beautifully.
What’s The Layer On Top Of The Broth?
Beef and lamb bones are naturally more fatty in comparison to chicken – sometimes there may be a layer of fat that rises to the top which will solidify when refrigerated. I often leave a small amount with the broth and save the rest as a nourishing cooking fat. I just scrape it off and store it in a clean glass jar in the fridge.
Can You Use A Slow Cooker To Make Bone Broth?
Yes you can! I personally prefer to make it on the stove top as it’s faster and I can usually make 2x batches in one day (re-using the bones). I also find cooking it in the slow cooker ‘stinks’ out the whole house for a longer period of time which isn’t always enjoyable as I work from home. But please do whatever works best for you. If you cook it in the slow cooker, it will require a longer cooking time.
Is There A Store-bought Broth Option You Could Recommend?
If you prefer to buy bone broth or don’t always have the time to make it, I use and highly recommend these brands;
Gevity Rx Bone Broth Concentrate - the natural concentrate is my personal favourite because of its versatility. I always have a bottle or three of this as a backup in my fridge and pantry for when I’ve run out of homemade broth + it’s so easy to mix into cauliflower puree, soups, curry, butter chicken, spaghetti ect. The other thing I love about this broth, is that it contains 44% more collagen than any other brand on the market!
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have a query that you feel hasn’t been answered.
