Making MEDICINAL Bone Broth:
What you will need:
1. Beef marrow or soup bones (I especially love beef shanks, oxtail or neckbones) or chicken
back or chicken neck bones or lamb bones or veal bones or fish bones with head
on preferred or chicken feet (I’m not adventurous enough for rooster heads yet
but when using feet- chop off the tips of the toes with the nails to avoid a
mess later)- pasture raised animal bones. You can also add some chicken livers
during the last 2-3 hours of your broth cook time to draw out essential
nutrients from livers if you are still unable to eat them!
2. Fresh ginger root and turmeric root
3. Real salt
4. Crockpot (I prefer 8 quarts or more
but 6-7 will obviously work fine)
5. Distilled water
6. Quart sized SMALL MOUTH mason jars
7. Mason jar funnel is EXTREMELY handy
& HIGHLY RECOMMENDED but not required
8. Fine strainer
**often folks will make
a broth with onions, celery garlic etc.- please read my note about this further
in this document when I am talking about soups and stews. **
Place 1-3 marrow or knuckle bones OR chicken back OR 3-5 soup bones from any of the pasture raised animals OR fish head OR chicken feet (2-4) OR chicken neck bones (3-5) OR chicken back plus a neck bone, *you get the idea* in the crockpot after washing them off in the sink.
HELLO- I AM NOT SAYING TO MIX ALL OF THESE BONES IN A POT.
PLEASE PICK ONE SPECIES AND GO
WITH IT! J
Wash about 1-2 inches’ worth of both roots with a vegetable brush under the tap.
Slice thick chunks of the roots into the pot
Salt everything in the pot with ROCK salt (make sure it is sodium chloride only and that it is mined from the earth and not fresh off the sea without the benefit of being filtered through the earth). *note* sea salt also contains other chemical salts so be sure you are only using SODIUM CHLORIDE.
Fill the crock pot as much as you can without overfilling (you need room for the fluid to simmer) with distilled water.
Cover, turn on LOW and then go to bed. See cook times per species below:
*FISH BROTH ONLY
NEEDS TO COOK FOR 3-4 hours
*BEEF BONES- should run for 12 to 18 hours and will produce a nice sipping broth.
*CHICKEN BACKS & NECKS-
should only run about 8-12 hours.
Wake up- turn the crock pot to WARM if you must leave for work and forget about this until you come home OR turn the crock off and pull out bones using tongs.
After the batch is ready, set up a nice big bowl, preferably with a spout, in the sink. Place a fine strainer over the bowl and then empty the broth from the crock into the bowl straining the fluid as you go.
Get a clean quart mason jar and place the Mason jar funnel on top, place a small strainer into the funnel and then pour the broth into the jar thru the strainer. *TOSS WHATEVER COMES INTO THE STRAINER INTO COMPOST or INTO PET FOOD BOWL*
Fill the jars to the top and then add the lid and rim- tighten the rims. I always jar the broth while it is warm so this will heat seal itself in the jars. You will hear small POPS as the lids seal onto the jars as they cool. Place cool jars in the bottom and WAY BACK of your fridge. They will last here 3 to 6 months however if you are using your broth regularly to cook or drink, it will be gone LONG before the month is over.
MORE ON FISH BROTH:
DO NOT MAKE
THIS OVER NIGHT but perhaps start after you get home from work and then jar
before bed. OR make this Sunday morning while you are relaxing around the
house. You can NOT leave fish broth going unattended. ***FISH BONES ARE GREAT
TO GROW BEAUTIFUL ROSE GARDENS! Bury
them at the base of your rose bushes. *
MORE ON BEEF BROTH:
You can run beef, lamb or veal bones until they break down into a powder. This means you can run them in several more batches for the same amount of time but change out the roots, re-salt and obviously add more distilled water. Each new batch will be less palatable to SIP on but batch 3&4 are still perfect for gravy & stews and batch 5&6 are still medicinal to cook veggies or rice. Finally, I throw the bone and root remnants into a compost pile/bin or serve to a pet. I use every part of this medicine even if it means I feed it back to the soil in my backyard. The second run (add fresh water and fresh ginger, turmeric root and re-salt the bones heavily with salt) should run 8-10 hours for a great broth for hearty stews. You can run the bones again until the bones disintegrate but the next 3 runs will be unpalatable as soups and stews but are great for boiling rice pasta, cooking rice, or cooking veggies. After the 4th run the broth will be highly gritty and makes excellent dog food OR plant food!!! Dogs need SOUP TOO!!! For plant food- dilute the stock up to 10X to fertilize your yard or as little as 3X to fertilize house plants & your vegetable garden. FINALLY- bury the rest of the bone remnants to add healthful minerals to your garden soil. EGG SHELLS from our farms are also excellent for both dogs and cats to receive their minerals or to add to your soil health!
There are a million and one ways to make broth, this is the easiest and the broth is massively medicinal offering your body essential amino acids, building blocks for your cells. It also is not overcooking the broth to the point of rancidity. A LOT OF RECIPES are cooking the bones for several days and this causes damage to the various amino acids that you want to keep intact and this makes the fat from the broth damaging for the cells and we need the fat to build healthy cells so don’t overcook the broth! It also will raise the dead because your body can use everything in the broth to heal whatever ails you. We are using nutrient rich pasture raised animals that have strong medicinal bones. We really don’t have to try too hard here.
The ginger root is a natural diuretic, it is flavorful and healing it is also one of nature’s astringents. It will get all the GUCK OUT OF YOUR GUT!!!
The Turmeric is a natural antiseptic; it has no flavor but ads rich golden color. If you TASTE THIS STUFF- you put WAY MORE THAN AN INCH! This stuff is healing the gut that the ginger root just cleansed. It also adds back vital minerals as does the ginger root.
SALT- is a natural antibiotic that is also helping to heal whatever damage is going on in the gut and helps to fortify lost minerals. Feel free to add back more SALT to further alkalize your body while it heals you in every way that you need healing- NO INVASIVE OR RADIOACTIVE EXAM REQUIRED.
Now use this as prescribed:
ü Warm up a coffee cups worth in the morning for your breakfast BOOST. Start the day nourished and alkalized. Take it within the first 30 minutes after you rise. Season it with a little salt; perhaps add some chopped chives, more ginger fresh grated ginger root or minced garlic! YUM! Don’t make this complicated people. You can have some coffee about an hour after you start the day correctly with this stuff.
ü Use BROTH to cook with- NOT WATER, EVER.
ü Use it for your protein recovery drink within 15 minutes of a tough workout. *add baked sweet tater or bananas for the carbs and potassium you need after this aggressive workout if you are already fit- if you are NOT FIT YET- eat the carbs the next morning after you have given your body time to burn your fat stores* THERE IS NO LIMIT TO HOW MUCH YOU CAN DRINK OF THIS STUFF- DRINK UNTIL YOU FEEL READY TO MOVE FREELY ABOUT THE GYM AGAIN.
ü Use it in a shot glass to compete with your 4-year-old in the morning when you PLAY BARTENDER and see if he/she won’t swig at least 2-3 (2oz.) shots before you do! 4-6oz. is the perfect prescription for kids every morning! Do this again before bed during cold and flu season. PRESENTATION IS EVERYTHING MOMMY!!! KIDS LOVE TO PLAY WITH GROWN UP STUFF!! Love to let the kids play this game while I cook their breakfast.
ü Drink before BED to help your body repair itself while you sleep.
ü Drink anytime you feel like it; listen to your body if it is craving broth!
ü Use it to toast your kids after a job well done, after a game well played, after a fantastic swim or just because you love them!
ü Make hearty soups with your broth. MANY FOLKS add onions and garlic and celery when making the bone broth. I deter folks from doing this because it results in a slimy and off putting broth, not to mention it is less shelf stable. Cooking the main bone broth to use as a BASE to make soups and stews is best.
ü You can start a roast with bones in a crockpot and then add these seasoning vegetables and more hearty veggies in the last hour or so- but they do not need to cook with the bones for the many hours that you would cook the bones.
ü Cook into your veggies, meats, rice and if you eat brown rice Tinkyada GF pasta - use 50/50 broth and filtered water for perfect pasta every time. We don’t eat pasta here anymore. If you are still consuming grains, it’s nice to get all the medicine you can into it. This amazing gelatinous stuff gets cooked right IN!
ü Use it to make your kids PERFECT LUNCHES! SO EASY! JUST HEAT and fill their thermoses full of broth & whatever shredded meat you have leftover from last night’s dinner. It is so simple to heat on the stove fill and roll out! This is JUST BROTH AND MEAT! SIMPLE, NOURISHING, COMPLETE hearty lunch. YUMMY!
ü NEED MORE REASONS TO FILL UP ON THIS STUFF?!?! LOOK IN THE MIRROR and make your own list!
Homemade stock is so critical to the ongoing maintenance of health. Homemade stock is so essential because it contains ample amounts of gelatin, a colloidal substance that attracts digestive juices to itself and prevents gastrointestinal bugs from attaching themselves to the gut wall and wreaking havoc. Natural gelatin both assists digestion and keeps you well! In addition to gelatin, stock contains minerals such as calcium, silicon, sulphur, magnesium, phosphorus, and trace minerals all in a form that is incredibly easy for the body to absorb.
Do you take expensive supplements for joint pain or arthritis? Simply adding homemade stock on a frequent basis to your diet will do your cartilage, tendons, and joints a world of good as stock also contains collagen, chondroitin sulfates and glucosamine.
*revised since original 2015 post.