It seems my mom is on a bone broth kick. Lately, she’s been talking all about it. You know how moms are! But as it turns out, bone broth has many health benefits. She said that instead of coffee in the morning, many people are warming up to bone broth.
For the past few weeks she has been buying her bones, roasting them in the oven, putting her roasted bones in the crock pot and making a broth out of them. She’s been drinking this broth every day and says she feels better than ever.
When she came to visit me this week, the first thing she said was, “Let’s go get a crock pot and some bones. I want to make you that bone broth!” How could I say no?
We roasted about 6 pounds of bones total. We used a mixture of all kinds of bones – pork bones, chicken bones, and beef bones. There were pork neckbones, chicken backs, pork tails, beef short ribs, pork feet, oxtails, and beef neckbones. It was quite the cornucopia of bones!
We added some garlic and onion, including the peels, plus carrots, celery, parsley and apple cider vinegar. We did very little after that to season it. We didn’t add salt, opting for only about a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
It’s such an easy recipe. You just roast your bones (any bones you have will be fine, though the more different types, the better) and then put them in the slow cooker with water. We slow cooked our bone broth for 36 hours but you can do it anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.
When it cools after cooking, it gels up which is where all that beautiful collagen is. That’s good for your skin, joints, and digestive tract. The gel might not be so appealing so warm up your bone broth and enjoy for better health, or use it as a base for your favorite soup too!
P.S. If you don’t have a slow cooker bone broth can be cooked on the stove or in the oven. I like using the slow cooker because if your making a large batch it’s very heavy to take the pan out of the oven.
Homemade Bone Broth
Makes about 1 gallon
Ingredients
6 pounds of mixed beef bones, pork bones, and chicken bones.
(I used pork neck bones, chicken backs, pork tails, beef short ribs, pork feet, oxtails, and beef neck bones)
2 med onions
1 head garlic
3 large carrots
2 sprigs rosemary
4 celery stalks
4 bay leaves
5 sprigs thyme
4 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
2 tsp cayenne pepper
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Rinse bones, and arrange them on a sheet pan.
- Roast bones for 30 – 40 minutes until golden brown.
- Transfer bones to a 10 quart slow cooker. Add onions and garlic, including the skins. Add carrots, celery, rosemary, bay leaves, thyme cayenne pepper, and apple cider vinegar. Cover bones and vegetables with water.
- Cook in the slow cooker on low for 24-48 hours. Check the slow cooker occasionally. Add additional water if needed.
- The broth is done when it is a rich golden-brown and the bones are falling apart at the joints.
- When the bone broth is finished, strain and cool the bone broth. Discard the bones and vegetables.
- Prepare an ice bath by filling a basin with ice water and set the pot of bone broth inside the ice bath. Stir consistently until the broth has cooled, about 15 minutes. Transfer the broth to airtight containers. Refrigerate or freeze. (I refrigerated mine, and removed and discarded the fat the solidified at the top of the jar.)
