Recipe: Superb Vegetable Soup for Freezing

Superbly Sulfurous Soup
Yields: Amount depends on how it is packaged. I make this soup in a 12 quart stockpot, and it makes between 7 to 10 quarts of soup. This soup is packed with vitamins A, C, and K; immune-boosting sulfurous vegetables, and great flavor. Best of all, you pick the seasoning from a list of possibilities or something you already know and love in your kitchen.  Note to AIP followers: if you cannot have nightshades, the soup still works; just use carrot ketchup or Nomato to add a tangy sweetness. You will not need as much carrot ketchup or Nomato to replace the tomato in the soup. Start with a cup toward the end of cooking to give the body of the broth a boost. Or you can just omit the tomatoes and have fun with the seasoning. Note to Wahls Protocol followers: As described in the directions, one container of this soup will satisfy the daily requirement of three cups of sulfurous vegetables for the Wahls Protocol. If you eat less than three cups of sulfurous vegetables per day, or wish to have less than three cups of cooked sulfurous veggies in one sitting, you will have more containers of soup. Assuming you eat three cups of sulfurous vegetables per day, you will have between seven to ten containers to freeze depending on the type of sulfurous leafy greens chosen and how long you cook the soup. Soup may be stored and frozen in glass jars, BPA-free plastic containers, or BPA-free Ziploc freezer bags. Directions for storing are listed below.
Prep Time	Cook Time		Special Equipment
1 hour	3 to 4 hours		10-12 quart stockpot
Ingredients
12 loose, mixed cups of sulfurous leafy greens such as collards, kale, chard, or mustard greens		4 tightly packed cups broccoli florets, cut into spoon-sized pieces
4 tightly packed cups of cauliflower florets, cut into spoon sized pieces		4 tightly packed cups red or green cabbage, shredded
4 tightly packed cups of onions, diced		½ cup minced shallots
3 cans diced tomatoes		3 cans tomato sauce
2 cans tomato paste		12 cups beef or chicken broth
2 pounds meat such as browned hamburger, cooked and chopped chicken, or cooked, chopped, or pulled beef roast		1 medium head garlic, minced
3 TBSP seasoning*		Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1.    Add leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, and shallots to stockpot.
2.   Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and shallots.
3.   Add meat, broth, half the garlic, and half the seasoning.
4.   Stir contents of stockpot until well mixed. Add water until the ingredients are covered by two to three inches of liquid.
5.  Bring contents of stockpot to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer with stockpot covered for two hours. Stir periodically as needed.
6.   Keep an eye on the liquid level.  Some of the liquid will be absorbed by the ingredients. Add more water or broth if needed.
7.   At one hour of cooking time, add remaining half of garlic and 2 ½ TBSP of the seasoning.

8.  After two hours of cooking, taste vegetables to check for doneness. The cauliflower and the broccoli take the longest time to cook. If the vegetables are not yet done to your preference, continue simmering until vegetables are at the desired level of tenderness.

9.  Add remaining ½ TBSP of seasoning, salt, and pepper, stirring well.

Note: if you plan to serve all of the soup now, you may skip the following steps.

10.  Allow soup to cool in refrigerator.

11. I use four cup-sized plastic BPA-free containers to store this soup. Ladle three cups of the sulfurous veggies into a measuring cup, returning any excess liquid or meat to the pot. Add one cup of the broth mixture.  Fill containers and seal.

12.  Freeze containers.

*About seasonings: you may use your favorite seasonings for this soup: Italian seasoning, herbs de Provence, mixed herbs, Greek seasoning, harissa, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, or Indian-inspired spices. You can also add the salt and pepper now but leave out the seasoning entirely until you are ready to reheat the soup. This helps keep the soup interesting and satisfies different palates in the same family. When you are ready to reheat the soup, add a ½ to 1 tsp of seasoning per four cup container of the seasoning that you prefer that day. Mixing up the seasonings, I rarely get bored with the soup even after eating it for multiple days. Salsa is also an excellent addition to the soup.

Look for colorful cauliflower, cabbage, and kale to make your soup beautiful and full of antioxidants.

Recipe Source: www.PrescriptionPlate.com   Recipe and content copyright Amy Ward ©2014

How to Troubleshoot Naughty Bone Broth

My chicken bone broth
at 26+ hours of cooking.

I love the whole food and Paleo nutrition movements for many reasons, but especially for luring cooks back into the kitchen for the best possible reasons: to cook sometimes unfamiliar or forgotten foods, to explore new flavors on the way to better health, and to make me feel less weird for my longtime love of making my own bone broth. Do you have any idea what it is like to have your secret foodie geek obsession go mainstream? I must say, it's pretty trippy.

Truly, once you start making your own broth, it's hard to accept the stuff in cans and boxes anymore. Getting into a routine of making broth can be irksome at first, because there are so many competing recipes in cookbooks and recommendations on the interwebs. If you are a first-time broth cook figuring out the ropes, or if after years of cooking you end up with a funky batch of broth, it's extremely discouraging. At least canned broth rarely stinks up your kitchen! 

Many cooks get frustrated when their first batch of broth does not quite match the elusive elixir imagined in dreams. Give yourself some space to make a few whoopsies along the way. You will soon learn that bone broth is extremely forgiving and there are precious few absolute rules. You must have a cooking vessel, bones, water, and heat. Everything else is preference. Determining if your broth is great comes down to three simple questions: do you like it? Do you want to take another sip? Does it make you feel good to drink or eat it? Do you see health benefits from consuming it?

If you make a batch of bone broth to which the answer for the above questions is a firm 'no,' then keep reading. Help is on the way.

My bone broth didn't turn out at all. It didn't gel! It's a total failure, right?

Do you remember the TV show Home Improvement with Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor? Tim Taylor, played by Tim Allen, was a suburban dad with an awful TV show. He loved power tools and even had a special grunting noise to show his appreciation for especially impressive gadgets. Why am I yammering about this? In a way, the Paleo movement has a similar fascination with making bone broth that gels. It has to gel, right? How we love watching our cooled broth wiggle! (However, if people are actually grunting over their gelled broth, I don't want to know.) So there is a perception that unless your broth gels, it's worthless. Is that true?

I think that judgment is too harsh. If you are this serious about making bone broth, chances are that you seek the health benefits that bone broth offers. However, we are working with whole food ingredients, not something made in a factory. Whole foods by their very nature will vary somewhat in nutrient and flavor content, particularly as you move away from processed GMO foods. This is especially true in meat products. 

Why did gelled broth become the pinnacle of broth-making success? Unfortunately, we don't have any other reasonable way of measuring whether or not there is gelatin in our finished broth. It would be great if there was a pregnancy test-like dipstick we could use to test each batch of broth, but there's no such thing. Yet. Could someone please start a Kickstarter campaign for this?

Using gelled broth as the sole indicator of broth-making success can be inaccurate and misleading. During cooking, heat breaks down the collagen in the bone, skin, connective tissue, and muscle we include in our broth. The collagen breaks down into gelatin, a substance much prized for its healthy benefits. When cooled, the gelatin creates a web within the broth that turns the liquid into a wobbly semi-solid. If there is too little gel, or too much water, that gelatin web won't be strong enough - and thus your broth won't gel. A broth that doesn't gel may, in fact, have lots of gelatin - but too much water. 

Sometimes you can give a broth a second chance to gel. Reduce the stock by about 25% over heat below boiling. This will allow more water to escape through evaporation and concentrate the flavor and nutrients in your broth. Return the broth to the refrigerator to cool for several hours. You may find that the broth now will have a better ratio of gelatin to water, and may delight you with its bouncy Kardashian awesomeness. Concentration of flavors is another perk of reducing your broth.

But if my broth doesn't gel, all of my Paleo friends will make fun of me! 

Ok, fine! Here's how to stack the deck to get the best chance at gelled broth. 

First, pick bones with a lot of connective tissue or bone mass. If your broth bones have plenty of joints, you are more likely to add significant gelatin to your broth. It may take a while to find the right bones to suit your taste, style of cooking, and cooking method. What are the best sources of collagen?

• Stewing chickens are collagen champs. These chickens are usually a year or two older than the average roasting chicken. Stewing chickens offer much to your broth: longer bones with more marrow, more connective tissue, and a nice layer of tasty yellow fat under their thicker skin. These hens tend to be much cheaper than using a roasting chicken. They can be hard to find, though. To find them, you may need to contact farmers directly or order online. Farmer's markets are great resources.
• After stewing hens, adding a few pairs of chicken feet is often a great way to get broth that gels wonderfully. If the sight of chicken feet bugs you, tuck them under other bones and vegetables in your pot.
• Many other chicken parts are great sources of collagen: feet, drumsticks, backs, wings, and necks. Wings, backs, and necks in particular have more connective tissues holding joints together, which equals more gelatin in your broth... unless you purchased a chicken that grew up near Chernobyl. And really, shouldn't that third wing been a total giveaway that your chicken wasn't quite normal?
• If you are making beef broth, look for bones that are joints rather than the cross-cut kind. Cross-cut bones still contain collagen, but joints tend to contain a lot more. I like to use one joint bone and one cross-cut bone. That combination in my 12 quart stock pot yields 6 quarts of broth.
• The cooking duration is an important factor when making beef bone broth. The beef bones are bigger, harder, and tougher than the chicken bone counterparts. After eight hours of cooking, only 20% of the gelatin has been extracted from the bones(1). I recommend a minimum of 24 hours when making beef bone broth.
• Pour a few tablespoons of good quality vinegar over your bones and wait for an hour. Select a vinegar you love for this purpose. The acid will help break down more collagen before cooking begins. If you are using a 'live,' probiotic vinegar, be mindful that any probiotic activity will be destroyed during the cooking process. 

If all else fails, you can add powdered gelatin to your broth. (I won't tell your Paleo friends if you won't.) You can use Knox unflavored gelatin, which is made from cows and pigs, or a higher quality product such as Great Lakes Kosher Unflavored Beef Gelatin. Follow the manufacturer's directions when determining how much gelatin to add. You will want to add the gelatin powder while the broth is still quite warm. Stir the broth until the powder is fully dissolved, then chill the broth until it gels.

My broth smells... bad.

How bad is bad? Are we talking a scent that is not too appetizing, or a scent that makes you want to fling your broth into a nuclear waste dump site and run?

Mostly it just doesn't smell very appetizing - not what I was expecting at all.

When we taste homemade stock for the first time, it may not smell or taste at all like the canned and boxed broths we have used before. If it smells truly awful, more investigation is warranted.

First, check the wrappers on your bones and meat. Make sure that none of the following apply to the meat and bones used in your stock:

• Bones or meat are not past their due dates - check FDA rules for chicken and beef.
• Bones and meat have been stored at appropriate temperatures to prevent spoilage.
• Bones and meat came from a quality supplier or store. You may find there are significant differences in quality and odor between pastured/grass-fed and grain-fed beef bones.

Ok, that was the easy part; let's get back to sleuthing. Deducing the other reasons for funky-smelling stock get a little more complicated from here. So much of the way we feel about the scent of bone broth is highly personal and extremely subjective. Broth that tastes great to one person may cause Exorcist-like nausea in another. I personally am not fond of the smell of ox tail bones cooking, but regular beef bones don't bother me. 

The scent of chicken broth is pleasant to most people. It smells a bit sweeter, and is a better starting point for vegetarians and vegans transitioning to eating meat. Beef broth can smell a little unappetizing but then still taste just fine. If you are confident that the bones and meat in the broth have not expired, take a taste of the broth. Does it just taste sort of like boiled bones? Does it seem to be missing big flavor? Were you hoping for broth that tasted a little more like homemade gravy or nicely browned roast?  Fill up a mug with the broth; sprinkle in a little salt and pepper, and evaluate.

If the broth merely tastes unpleasant or boring, here are several things to try:

• Add new chopped onion, carrot, and celery to the stockpot, even if you already cooked with these vegetables while you were cooking your broth. Sometimes the fresh vegetable flavors can fade during a long cook. Letting the broth simmer below boiling with new vegetables for an hour or two can boost the flavor. Taste after an hour and determine if you have made progress.
• Adding herbs, salt, and pepper can also help. I would recommend waiting to salt your broth until the broth is completely cooked and almost ready to store.
• The leaves from a pound of celery or a teaspoon of celery seed can have a truly transformative and almost cleansing effect on the flavor of a less-than-appetizing broth. Let the broth simmer below boiling for one hour.

If you did not roast your beef bones, you may be missing the fifth flavor: umami. Does the broth smell like raw meat or just sort of bony? Some people have a profound dislike for broth made from raw bones. You might prefer to roast your ingredients before making your next batch of bone broth. 

• To add umami to a broth you want to fix, mushrooms really help. Adding a pound of sliced white or portabella mushrooms can add some of the umami flavor that you are missing. 
• When you next make broth, first place bones in a baking dish and roast for 1 to 3 hours at 400 F. Place roasted bones and any juices from the baking dish into your broth. 
• Some like to roast or saute the vegetables used to flavor the broth. This, too, adds roasted flavors to the broth. Saute the vegetables until they begin to develop little brown flecks. Those flecks mean flavor! I don't recommend sauteeing the herbs or spices. Some cooks cover beef bones in tomato paste before roasting. The idea is that the tomato paste will brown, adding umami flavor and color to the broth. I recommend this step only if roasting the bones as directed above doesn't give you enough flavor.
• If you enjoy the flavor of roasted tomato sauce but forgot to roast your bones with it, it's not too late. Place 2 TBSP of tomato paste into a very small saucepan. Stir frequently over medium heat until the paste changes to a darkened color closer to brown, much the way you would prepare a roux. Be sure to taste the browned tomato paste before stirring it into your broth. This will ensure that you aren't adding any scorched flavors to your broth.
• If you enjoy the flavor of Worcestershire or soy sauce, try adding a 1/2 teaspoon of either sauce in the broth. You want to start low and go slow when adding these flavors to your broth.

My broth is beyond awful. I think something crawled into my crock pot and died!
If your broth is reminding you of roadkill, you can still try the steps above to revive the flavor. If the broth cannot be saved and the smell is making you sick, consider getting rid of the broth. I know it's hard to let go of something you may have been working on for hours and days. Despite much research, I have not found any specific scientific reason in references from leading food scientists to explain why this happens. 

Yet I know the smelly broth scenario pops up occasionally, and I wish I had a brilliant method to share with you that would forever prevent it. The use of apple cider vinegar to help draw nutrients out of bones is popular now, but even a nice vinegar soak will not fix smelly bones. 

I quizzed the Amish farmer who provides my grass-fed beef bones. Were some bones smellier than others, I asked? Are there some parts of the cow best avoided? His opinion was that any beef bone should make great broth - even the skull. That's good to know, but I think I'll stick with leg bones, thank you very much.

There are a few other smelly broth considerations:

• Bones from old or sick cows are sometimes a bit more odorous, but it is often quite impossible to know if your bones came from an old or sick cow. This is when having a relationship with the farmer or butcher providing your beef bones is a huge benefit. You can ask to stay away from bones donated by older cows.
• Grass-fed or pasteured beef bones tend to smell better to me than those from conventionally raised cows, but that is a personal opinion.
• Some find that cooking fresh or thawed bones creates more odors than starting your broth with cold water and frozen bones. Frozen bones may have less active and odor-causing bacteria.

My broth seems very weak and too watery. Can this broth be saved?

This happens most to cooks who are using a crock pot and cooking for short periods of time without vegetables and herbs. Usually you can salvage this type of broth.

• How long did you cook your broth? You can cook broth from just a few hours to several days. Adding cooking time helps develop flavors and extracts more nutrients from the ingredients. Toss the bones back in until you get more flavor.
• Were you reusing old bones? Make sure you add some new bones along with the previously used bones. This keeps the flavor bright and also helps keep up the nutrient levels. 
• Sometimes even broth made with plain chicken and beef bones doesn't smell very appetizing. It might not smell awful, but the flavor might seem too weak. Adding bones with meat (either cooked or uncooked, roasted or unroasted - choose your preference) and simmering a few hours longer may add more of the flavors you enjoy. 
• You can also add more parsley, celery leaves, and newly chopped vegetables to revive the flavor. Yellow onion skins can help darken the color, though a long cooking time does the best job.
• Reducing the broth by 25% at heat just below a hard boil can help concentrate the flavors you do have. 
• You can always jazz up your broth routine by making a bone broth nightcap, which is made with hot broth and easy-to-assemble ingredients. These are helpful if you find it hard to get into drinking bone broth regularly because of the flavor or viscosity of broth.

My broth tastes and smells fine, but it's really cloudy.

Bone broth is considerably cloudier than a traditional consomme or canned broth. What is that cloudy stuff? Nutrition. While clear broths are tasty, they look very different from what a home cook would make. I normally strain my broth through a fine mesh strainer. My major concern is removing all bone fragments, leftover meat, and tired vegetables. 

However, to get a clearer broth, you can line your wire mesh strainer with a double layer of cheesecloth. You can clean the strainer, replace the cheesecloth, and repeat the straining until you are satisfied with the result. 

High heat can also contribute to cloudy broth. Cooking your broth at a rolling boil agitates the ingredients more, causing small pieces to break off into the broth. As these pieces cook down, they cloud the broth. 

The ideal temperature for broth-making is 208-210 F/99 C(2). At this temperature, the surface of the broth will be mostly still. You may see a few small bubbles here and there. Slow and steady wins the race.

(1)McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking.
(2)Krasnow, M., Bunch, T., Shoemaker, C. and Loss, C. R. (2012), Effects of Cooking Temperatures on the Physicochemical Properties and Consumer Acceptance of Chicken Stock. Journal of Food Science, 77: S19–S23.

Need recipes for chicken and beef bone broths? Have you had a broth drama that wasn't covered in this post? Leave suggestions for the next version in Comments.

Recipe: Beautifully Beefy Bone Broth

You may find it useful to read my The Bone Broth Manifesto for additional details about improving the flavor, nutritional content, and color of any bone broth. 

Beautifully Beefy Bone Broth
Yields: About 6 quarts
Prep Time	Cook Time		Special Equipment
15 minutes	24 to 48 hours* *Time can be reduced but quality will not be the same		10-12 quart stockpot Wire strainer Optional: cheesecloth
Ingredients
3-4 pound beef bones, preferably a mix of joint and cross-cut bones		2 cups diced yellow onion, including onion ends and onion skins to add color and nutrients
1 cup diced carrots, heirloom if available		1 cup sliced celery
Leaves from 1 pound celery		1 cup loosely chopped parsley stems and leaves
1 whole medium head of garlic, sliced in half horizontally with skin intact		2 bay leaves
1 TBSP black or mixed peppercorns		4 TBSP powdered kelp (optional)
4 TBSP apple cider vinegar		Salt and pepper to taste (when cooking is completed)
1/8 cup red cabbage OR several red onion skins to add color and nutrients (optional)		1 tsp ground turmeric (optional)
1 TBSP dried herbs such as thyme, rosemary, herbes de Provence, or Italian seasoning
Directions
OPTIONAL: I highly recommend roasting your bones, but it is an optional step that you may skip depending on personal preference. Place bones in an oven safe skillet at 400 degrees F for 1 to 3 hours. The more you roast, the better the savory/umami flavors will be in your finished broth. When roasting is complete, tip roasted bones and any juices into the stockpot. Add several cups of water to the skillet and increase the heat to medium high. Use a whisk or wooden spoon to help any remaining pan drippings dissolve completely. Add the water from the skillet to your stockpot.
1. Place all ingredients in covered stockpot with 7-8 quarts of cold water on high heat.
2. Once the pot is at a full boil, reduce heat to simmer. The ideal temperature is 208-210 degrees F. If you have a thermometer, adjust the heat to bring contents to the target temperature. If not, adjust heat so that you see a bubble or two every minute or so. It is not ideal for the stock to boil, but if it does, this is not a big deal. Reduce the heat if this occurs.
3. Check the broth  after 20 minutes. Adjust heat as needed.
4. Maintain a low simmer for a total of 24 to 48 hours. Stir if desired. Broth does not need frequent stirring. If desired, you may even continue cooking for a total of 72 hours.
5. When time is up, remove stockpot from heat and cool until the broth is at a comfortable temperature for handling.
6. Pour broth through a wire mesh strainer. Line the strainer with cheesecloth if desired. Discard bones unless you plan to use them again. If you wish to remove fat, cool broth overnight in the refrigerator and use a spoon to scrape fat from the surface. Save the fat for frying and flavoring. Salt and pepper the broth to taste.
7. Store broth in different amounts according to how you will use it. A mixture of 1, 2, 4, and 8 cup containers is useful for everyday use and recipes.
Recipe Source: www.PrescriptionPlate.com   Recipe and content copyright Amy Ward ©2014, 2015

The Twelve Days of Bone Broth: Bring Back the Nightcap and Broth-tails

Bone broth need not be boring.
How about a Savory Pumpkin Snapper?

The bone broth honeymoon phase

I have always loved making meat stock/broth, enough to write a crazy manifesto about it. I transitioned easily to finding more uses for bone broth in cooking once going Paleo. (I think I prefer it most reduced into a thick, silky sauce with sauteed greens.) I make a lot of both chicken and beef bone broth and freeze it in a range of amounts. Over time, I slowly began to really enjoy drinking it. Bone broth is not only great to make and use for cooking. It's also a very scrumptious beverage. Really, I swear.

As I write this, we're now into December. Once cold weather officially arrived, my body decided that sipping broth before bed was a biological necessity. I was hooked. If I don't have my nightly bone broth by 8 pm, my body gets grumpy. I can feel my stomach tug insistently on my esophagus, sending up the none-too-polite request to get the bone broth party started. In fact, I'm thinking of getting a smoking jacket to wear whilst I enjoy this healthy nightcap. Sitting down with a toasty warm 16 oz. mug of homemade bone broth... Mmm.

But after a while of drinking it plain, in turmeric tea, and with grated ginger, I got bored. The honeymoon was over. And I began to envision a new kind of bar that included nutritious stir-ins and pick-me-ups to make the broth experience more fun, and maybe sneak in a little more nutrition in the process. Let it be known throughout the world: I am officially bringing back the nightcap. Save the tea to fling in Boston Harbor. It's about to get tasty in here.

The inspiration
Have you ever had Lipton Cup-a-Soup? You know, the soup-like foodstuff packaged so that you can rip it open, dump it in a mug, add hot water, and suddenly you have drinkable soup? It comes in a few different flavors: French-ish Onion Soup, Chicken-esque Noodle, and Creamy Chicken Tetrachloride. I used to love having that in my desk at work for when I had a cold - or was just feeling cold. I started thinking how, with the help of a dehydrator and gelatin, I could make a much, much tastier version of a drinkable soup in a mug.

Getting started

These nightcaps purposefully use ingredients common to the Paleo kitchen, including several where you can save small leftovers from meals you have already prepared to repurpose later. I assemble these nightcaps when I am warming up the bone broth. It just takes 1-2 minutes. I freeze my bone broth in jars with handles, and then warm up the jars either in a saucepan water bath or the microwave. I do this out of sheer laziness.

While your broth reheats, you have a few moments to assemble your nightcap ingredients. If the nightcap involves coconut milk, you get a creamier texture if you stir in the milk over a little heat. To keep these nightcaps drinkable, keep food pieces small enough to be safe for you to swallow unchewed. I either mince the ingredients or use a food processor/blender to cut things up. If you have a swallowing dysfunction, respect your limits.

Salt and pepper each to your personal taste, and based on how much you have already salted your bone broth/stock. These recipes work equally well with chicken, beef, pork, and turkey bone broths. You can even use store-bought broth if desired.

Each recipe is scaled for 1 cup (8 oz.) of the bone broth of your choice. My next post will detail how to assemble a shelf- or freezer-stable nightcap bar. These nightcaps are even easier to pull together when the ingredients are prepped and at hand.

The toppings tend to soak in the broth and remain at the bottom of cup, leaving you with a final treat to enjoy. The swizzle sticks are either enjoyable in their own right, or add to the flavor of the nightcap. You can also pick out tasty bits in your nightcap with the swizzle stick. Want easier swizzle sticks? I love popsicle sticks or coffee stirrers for lazy days. Don't like coconut oil or milk? Leave it out, or substitute a dairy product.

If you are following a Paleo diet, ensure that any condiments you are using are gluten- and dairy-free. Lea & Perrins Worchestershire sauce is gluten-free now, but you can also evaluate vegan alternatives.

A few nightcaps suggest a touch of alcohol for the adventurous, but follow the guidelines of your personal nutrition protocol. I don't drink personally, but I am mindful that developing a bone broth nightcap habit is not easy for everyone. Sometimes you need to grease the wheels. You could always be super hip and serve these to your friends. What about making a nightcap for a loved one of yours who really should be drinking bone broth but won't... yet?

Don't forget: it's always broth-o'-clock somewhere in the world!

Day 1: The French Connection

1 tsp Dijon mustard, preferably coarse grain

2 tsp minced shallots

1 tsp herbes de Provence or equivalent amount of rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and lavender 

Dash of champagne vinegar - or a few drops of cognac

Topping: 1 tsp rosemary leaves
Swizzle stick: rosemary twig

Day 2: Sweet Potato Curry

2 TBSP pureed sweet potato

1 tsp curry powder 

1 tsp ground turmeric
1 TBSP coconut milk (full-fat preferred) or other alternative milk

Topping: freshly ground black pepper to taste
Swizzle stick: cinnamon stick

Day 3: The Not-Tonight-Honey

3 minced garlic cloves 

3 tsp minced shallots

1/4 tsp raw honey

1 TBSP coconut oil

Topping: 1 tsp raw sunflower seeds
Swizzle stick: a fresh or dried hot pepper

Day 4: The Reborn Hippie

3-4 tsp fresh sprouted seeds of your choice (chop if the sprouts are long)

3-4 tsp minced wheatgrass

1 tsp dried kelp powder or 1 tsp cooked quinoa

1/2 tsp minced fresh or dried garlic

1 TBSP coconut oil

Topping: 1 tsp flax seeds
Swizzle stick: cucumber stick

Day 5: Out of Africa

3 TBSP minced or pureed carrot

1 tsp harissa paste or powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 TBSP ghee or coconut oil

Topping: 1 tsp chopped parsley
Swizzle stick: carrot stick

Day 6: Bloody Mary Redux

2 TBSP tomato paste or sauce
1/8 tsp horseradish

1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce 

1/4 tsp celery seed

1/4 tsp mustard powder

1 TBSP coconut oil

Topping: minced celery 

Swizzle stick: slice of crispy, cooled bacon 

Optional: You don't need me to tell you what kind of alcohol is in a Bloody Mary, do you?

Day 7: Savory Pumpkin Snapper

2 TBSP pureed pumpkin

2 TBSP full-fat coconut cream or milk

1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp black pepper

Topping: raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Swizzle stick: two parsley stems twisted together

Day 8: Thanksgiving Do-Over

1 TBSP minced carrot

1 TBSP minced celery

1 TBSP minced onion

1 TBSP sweet potato puree
1 TBSP coconut milk
1 tsp dried sage, rosemary, or thyme

Topping: 1 tsp dried cranberries on top

Swizzle stick: celery stick with celery leaves

Day 9: Chinese New Year

1/4 cup minced broccoli

1/4 cup minced carrot

2 TBSP minced onion

1 TBSP coconut oil
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder 

1 tsp tamari soy sauce or coconut aminos

Topping: 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Swizzle stick: Long sliver of broccoli floret

Day 10: Summer in Italy
1/4 cup dehydrated or sun-dried tomatoes, minced
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp balsamic vinaigrette

Topping: 1 tsp shredded basil
Swizzle stick: core of a fresh tomato

Day 11: French Onion Affair 

1/4 cup minced dried onions

2 tsp minced parsley

1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp coconut oil

Topping: minced green onion
Swizzle stick: root end of a green onion
Optional: a few drops of sherry, cognac, or white wine

Day 12: Steak and Kale

1/4 cup minced steak or jerky bits

1/4 cup minced kale or crushed-up kale chips

1 tsp minced red onion

1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp Worchestershire sauce

Topping: 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Swizzle stick: Trimmed kale stem - these are delicious roasted

Go forth and nightcap!

How to Store, Freeze, and Reheat Bone Broth/Stock

Making a mug of broth is a breeze when frozen in handy
16 oz. glass jars with handles and reusable steel lids. 

Are you just getting started with adding bone broth to your health arsenal? Let the The Bone Broth Manifesto lead the way...

I make chicken bone broth/stock so often that I rarely store it in the refrigerator, though it is safe in the fridge for up to three days. I get really cranky when I lose broth because I am disorganized or forget about it, so I tend to head straight for the freezer with new batches. Broth is safe in the freezer for two to three months(1). I store broth in three ways: glass jars, BPA-free bags, and BPA-free plastic/glass containers.

As of late, ancestral storage techniques for broth have come back into vogue. These methods allow you to store broth in containers with a nice layer of fat across the top for extended periods of time without the fuss of pressure canning. The broth can then be stored in a refrigerator or a cold pantry.

I personally do not like the flavor of broth stored this way, but perhaps you might like it. It tasted, hmm, sort of fermented. I would recommend having a spotless refrigerator before trying this sort of storage technique. In my experiments, somehow the fat managed to pick up other flavors from other food nearby. That made me grumpy, because I think chickens grow their fat just so we can fry onions in it. Thus the idea of storing things the old-fashioned way lost its appeal to me when it made my chicken fat taste funky. As always, your mileage may vary.

How to Store Broth in Glass Mason Jars

This is my favorite way to store broth in the freezer for drinking. For broth that will be used for cooking, I tend to prefer BPA-free plastic bags or containers. That's strictly my personal preference, however. The glass jars rarely last more than a week without needing to be refilled, so I personally do not mark them. There are some great options available should you decide to label your jars.

1. You can use larger jars than the 16 oz. ones shown in the photo above, or jars without handles. Use care when filling the jars. Ensure that the jars are either the same temperature or just slightly warmer than the broth. 
2. Add your broth to a large pouring pitcher for convenience and to avoid drips as you pour.
3. Begin filling the jars. For pint jars, plan to leave at least 1.5" of space between the broth and the top of the jar. If you are using quart-sized jars, allow 2". This gives the broth room to expand when it freezes. This is one of those rare circumstances where I recommend using a ruler the first time to make absolutely certain that you leave enough room. 
4. Once all of the jars are filled, inspect each one and wipe it down with a clean paper towel. If you had broth drip on a jar while pouring, put a little white vinegar on a paper towel to remove the moisture and any remaining grease. Pay particular attention to the threads around the mouth of the jar. Hidden moisture here can cause breakage later on when the liquid freezes and expands. 
5. Apply lids. The lids I prefer to use are reusable steel. When applying the lids, do not screw them on as tightly as possible. A firm twist closed is plenty since these jars will be stored at freezing temperatures. Leaving at least a small layer of fat in the broth helps create a seal between the lid and the broth. I do not recommend using two piece lids, particularly if you have had jars break in the freezer before. These lids do not allow for any wiggle room when the liquid expands. 
6. Give your jars one last inspection to remove any unwanted moisture.
7. Place the jars in the freezer. It is best to place the jars on a rack so that there is no chance of condensation forming underneath the jar and potentially freezing the jar to the surface. This is another common cause of breakage. 
8. After 24 hours, you can rearrange the jars in the freezer if needed.

How to Reheat Broth Stored in Glass Mason Jars

It is wonderful to grab a pre-portioned mug of broth from the freezer, and be on the couch with a toasty warm mug of broth in minutes. After removing the lid (this is extremely important if you want to keep your kitchen tidy), you can warm the mugs several ways:

1. You can create a water bath in a saucepan and set the frozen mug inside. Set heat to medium high. This will warm the broth in about ten minutes, depending on the size of the saucepan and the amount of water used.  Make sure you start the mug in the saucepan with cold water and increase the heat gradually to avoid sudden temperature changes that could break the jar. Fill the saucepan with water to at least the middle of the jar. Ensure the jar will be stable when the water boils. You can always add more water to the saucepan later if desired. Let the broth boil for a minute to ensure it is piping hot and fully thawed. Use great care when removing the jar from the water bath. You might be tempted to say very bad words if you burn your fingers, and I can't have that on my conscience.
2. If you choose to use a microwave, this is a convenient way to warm the broth mugs. (I will not get involved in a holy war between the lovers and haters of the microwave movement. It is a personal choice that you should make after discussing the matter with your healthcare practitioner.) Bring the broth to a boil before removing the jar from the microwave. Take great care when removing the jars from the heat source. Some jar handles will become very hot when heated in the microwave; others do not. Grabbing the jar with an oven mitt or at least a paper towel the first time is a good idea. If you burn yourself, I might have a giggle at your expense. Could you really blame me?
3. To speed up either heating process, let the jar thaw overnight in the refrigerator with the lid on. You can also pack these jars to go in an insulated bag when you are headed to the office or on the road. 
4. A thermos with a glass or steel interior is ideal for taking heated broth on the go or even keeping broth warm throughout the day at home. Prime the thermos with boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Pour out the water and then immediately pour in your heated broth. A quality thermos should keep the broth toasty warm for at least 12 hours. I have an awesome hot pink Stanley thermos. It's sturdy, has a lifetime guarantee, and is heavy enough to double as a weapon if needed. I know you're jealous.

How to Store Broth in BPA-free Plastic Bags 

I store my broth in sizes ranging from 1, 2, 4, and 8 cups. (Speaking of the holy war regarding the use of plastic bags: I'm not going there, either.) I chose these amounts because they correlate with the amounts of broth I need most frequently and therefore help me minimize wasted broth. Use the best quality bags that you can obtain. Many bags that are labeled 'storage' are insufficient and will crack or leak. I always choose bags that are designated for the freezer. Freezer bags usually have a matte white writing space on the side of the bag that is handy for labeling. 

I write the type and amount of broth in each bag, any particular flavors I included or excluded when making the broth, and especially when the broth expires. (The FDA recommends keeping broth in the freezer for no more than three months.) Label your bags in advance with a Sharpie so that you know how much each bag should contain. Writing on bags already filled with broth is like trying to walk across a water bed. Take special care when preparing plastic bags for the freezer. There is much you can do to prevent bag leaks, which are frustrating and disheartening. 

1. Take a heavy plastic tray, metal cookie sheet, or roasting pan, and line it with a double layer of paper towels. This will help catch any escaped moisture or condensation and wick it away from the bags. 
2. Next, line the tray with a double layer of parchment or wax paper. This will help ensure that if any moisture escapes from the bag, the bag will not freeze stuck to the paper, the paper towels, and especially the tray or cookie sheet. This is where many bag leaks are born. 
3. Add your broth to a large glass or plastic measuring cup with a pouring spout. This will help you fill the bags with precise amounts and minimal spillage. 
4. Ensure you have left several generous inches of space at the top of each bag to allow for expansion. I try to leave 2-3" of space between the broth and the top of the bag. 
5. Once you have filled all of your bags, carefully wipe down each bag with a clean paper towel. Do the bags feel greasy? Wipe down the greasy areas with a little white vinegar; it should help dissolve the grease. 
6. Lay down each bag carefully on the prepared tray. Do not overlap bags; leave a centimeter or two in between each bag. 
7. When you have covered the tray, add another layer of paper towels and parchment or wax paper. You can now add another layer of bags. 
8. Once you have completed filling your bags, place the tray in the freezer for 24 hours. Make sure none of the bags are touching the sides of the tray or cookie sheet. 
9. After 24 hours, your broth should be fully frozen. You can now safely remove the bags from the tray, discard the paper towels and parchment or wax paper, and stack the bags how you wish.  

How to Reheat Broth Stored in BPA-Free Plastic Bags

It is extremely simple to warm broth stored in plastic bags. You have several options:

1. Cut open the freezer bag and remove the frozen broth. Place broth in a saucepan (or Dutch oven if it is a large-sized bag) with a tablespoon of water. Set heat to medium high. The broth should be thawed and warm in minutes.
2. You could also choose to microwave the broth in a microwave-safe dish. 
3. To expedite thawing, allow the broth to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. You may wish to set the bag inside a plastic bowl in the unlikely event that a leak has developed in the bag.

How to Store Broth in BPA-free Plastic or Glass Containers with Lids

Containers with flexible lids and/or plastic sides are least likely to break or develop leaks. Follow the instructions for How to Store Broth in BPA-free Plastic Bags, except:

1. I write the type and amount of broth on each lid, any particular flavors I included or excluded when making the broth, and especially when the broth expires. (The FDA recommends keeping broth in the freezer for no more than three months.) Label your containers in advance with a Sharpie so that you know how much each container will hold. 
2. You will not need to stack the containers on a tray lined with paper towels and parchment or wax paper. 
3. You should be able to stack the filled containers as you wish in the freezer as soon as they are filled and wiped clean of any spills. See? Easy peasy, as long as you can keep up with both the lids and the containers... which I cannot. I have an excellent collection of mid 1990s Rubbermaid containers without the matching lids.

How to Reheat Broth Stored in BPA-Free Plastic or Glass Containers with Lids

This also is an easier process. 

1. Run hot water over the top, bottom, and sides of the container for one minute. This should loosen the frozen block of broth inside. 
2. Open the lid, and shake container until the block of broth releases. Place block in a saucepan or Dutch oven, depending on the size of the container. Follow directions for How to Reheat Broth Stored in BPA-Free Plastic Bags.
3. You could also remove the container lid and use the microwave to reheat your broth.

See? It only seems complicated. You've got this.

(1) USDA Food Safety Fact Sheets. Chicken from Farm to Table. July 25, 2014

The Bone Broth Manifesto

You can head straight to the accompanying recipes for Essential Golden Chicken Bone Broth or Beautifully Beefy Bone Broth, or increase your bone broth IQ by getting lost in a culinary subject I'm really passionate about: the art of making bone broth. 

I have some different ideas about making bone broth than others, in part because I love to rebel against silly rules, happen to adore geeking out on food science books, and relish the opportunity to challenge conventional thinking on cooking. That's a fancy way of saying I like to find out which rules are real and which are absolute bunk. I use references to back up my science whenever possible.

Golden stock
that sparkles

When I think of food as medicine, or at least food with medicinal qualities, is there any other food that is both comforting and effective at promoting health as the humble bone broth? Kale might be more nutritious, but for pure joy, I think bone broth wins every time. Something about a fragrant, hearty bone broth bubbling on the stove just says, "I love you."

What is the difference between broth, bone broth, and stock?

There are key differences between meat stock and meat broth, although many use these terms interchangeably. Culinary professionals differentiate between the two. It is important to know the proper terminology so that you will interpret cookbook recipes correctly and get the best results from your cooking.

• Stock is made by simmering bones, with or without meat, in water. Vegetables or other flavorings may or may not be included. Stock may be used in place of oils or fat for sauteing.(1) 
• Broth is meat without bones simmered in water. Many of the canned and boxed chicken broth products are made without bones and are properly labeled as broth. Broth, because it is not made with bones, lacks the mineral content of stock and is not as nutritious(1).
• Bone broth is largely a health foodie term that has become more popular with the Paleo and Primal crowds. Bone broth can mean bones simmered in water alone, with or without meat, and with or without vegetables. The goal of bone broth is maximum nutrition. Stocks and broths are usually cooked for less time, while bone broths may be cooked for up to several days. Clarity is less important than pulling all of the gelatin, minerals, and other nutrients possible out of the bones. Bone broths are frequently opaque or creamy in appearance because of the additional nutrients extracted from the bones during cooking.

That said, I have found that good stock is always a welcome addition to any recipe that calls for broth. Bone broth may be used in any recipe that calls for stock or broth, though the final appearance of the dish may vary due to bone broth's opaque appearance. Bone broth is generally the most nutrient-dense of the three, given its content of gelatin, collagen, bone marrow, vitamins from any vegetables simmered with the bones, and finally the minerals extracted from the bones during the lengthy cooking process. 

What makes a good bone broth?
Any bone broth worth its salt will:

• Deliver great meaty flavor, along with hints of the herbs and vegetables included in the broth.
• Develop an appetizing golden to bronze color and silky texture that says, "Eat me! Please!"
• Contain as little salt as possible. If you are using great ingredients for your bone broth, you may find you need less salt. In fact, salt is not needed during the bone broth cooking process. Be patient. Many professional cooks do not add salt to broth or stock until it is about to be used or eaten.
• Be flexible in its flavor so that it can be adapted for use in many different kinds of recipes. Be careful about increasing the amount of garlic or herbs in the recipe the first time you make it. A fierce garlic flavor in your bone broth may not be appetizing in recipes where garlic is not supposed to be the main attraction. Example: a mushroom risotto should feature the fresh flavors of mushrooms and not the harsh bite of garlic. Follow your individual tastes, and remember you can always increase the vegetable and herb flavors later on if they are not strong enough.
• Make your kitchen smell amazing after an hour or two. This is an important indicator that you are cooking at the right temperature and have effectively balanced the chicken, vegetables, and savory additions that will result in a well-rounded bone broth.

Why must my broth gel?

This trend is the Emperor's New Clothes of healthful eating. Broth doesn't have to gel to be wonderful and nutritious. Some authors have followed recommendations from the Weston A. Price foundation and other affiliated authors that a successful broth will turn into solid gelatin (think Jell-O) when chilled in the refrigerator for several hours. I see so many earnest cooks get tangled up in the idea that the only good broth is a gelled broth. 

Here's why I question this thinking: broths only gel because the ratio of water to gelatin in the broth is exactly right. If you happen to get that ratio a little to the left, or a little to the right, you have no gel. If your broth doesn't gel, it is still nutritious? Absolutely. You can have broths with little gelatin that will gel because the ratio of water to gelatin is just right. You can have broths with enormous amounts of gelatin that don't gel only because there is a little too much water. 

Think of the process of gelling broth as akin to freezing water. You need a specific temperature range to get water to freeze. If the water is too warm, no dice. Once you pass 100 Celsius/212 Fahrenheit, the water will freeze. If your water temperature is 20 degrees below the freezing point, and thus doesn't freeze, does this mean that your water is bad? Of course not. It just means the environment was off a bit. The water is still drinkable and will benefit you. Apply this same thinking to the urge to get gelled broth.

If you cook beef bones for 8 hours, you will have extracted 20% of the collagen in the bones(1). If you cook your beef broth longer, you will extract more collagen, though the process gets a bit slower with diminishing returns. It's a shame to scowl at hard-earned results because the broth didn't turn to Jell-O. There are so many other nutrients in broth to appreciate. If you have made broth and really do want it to gel, then learn more about troubleshooting naughty bone broth.

Is there really such a thing as Jewish penicillin?
Chicken soup first received written attention in the 12th century AD, recommended by the Egyptian Jewish doctor and philosopher Moses Maimonides. At the time, little was known about how the chicken soup worked. Yet Maimonides had very specific ideas of how the soup should be prepared, recommending that "[T]he chicken or pullet can be boiled, stewed, steamed, or boiled with fresh coriander or green fennel added to the soup." For summertime use, he recommended the addition of lemon or citron juices(2). Maimonides' recipe for chicken soup describes a type of soup that we would now call chicken bone broth or chicken stock with a few aromatics added. Our beloved noodles, matzo balls, and vegetables would become a common part of the medicinal chicken soup experience later in history.

Has anyone ever done any scientific testing to confirm that bone broth really works?
An University of Nebraska study in 1993 conducted by a pulmonologist demonstrated the in vitro specific immune-boosting effects of chicken soup. The conclusions of the study suggest that chicken soup might have an anti-inflammatory activity, which could ease symptoms and speed healing during upper respiratory tract infections(2).

I have found no articles attesting to the health impacts of beef bone broth consumption. Many people just know their bodies like it, and for now, that is enough for me to enjoy it.

How long should bone broth cook?

Over time, I have extended my cooking time from a few hours to 24 to 48 hours and beyond. This is a matter of personal taste. Some are content to cook bone broth for shorter periods of time. You wouldn't believe the different characteristics that emerge in bone broth over a longer cooking time, however. I was shocked. It's similar to drinking a young wine versus a properly aged one, or tea that has been steeped for seconds versus the proper amount of time. If you have not tried making bone broth over a 24 to 48 hour period, I would highly recommend trying to do so at least once. By the end of cooking, so many of the nutrients in chicken bones have been extracted that the bones will be soft. Beef bones are often hardier, and may be roasted and reused several times depending on size.

Confess. How long do you cook your broth?
I keep my stockpot going continuously for 48 hours. I usually do this over a weekend. Ages ago, when I first started making bone broth, I only cooked it for an hour! That seemed nice enough at the time, but now I know I was throwing away a lot of nutrition. Then I expanded to four to eight hours, thinking myself a daredevil. The results were tasty. It was when I started cooking for 24 to 48 hours that I discovered entirely new realms of texture and umami flavor - that hard to describe roasted taste present in roasted meats, soy sauce, coffee, and mushrooms.

What sort of pot should I use for making bone broth?
You can make bone broth in either a large stockpot, a crock pot, or a pressure cooker. In my personal experience, the low and slow cooking in a stockpot delivers the best flavor every time. For maximum nutrition and collagen breakdown, I prefer to cook a large batch of bone broth over 24 to 48 hours every few weeks. I get about six quarts of glorious bone broth each time.

If you purchase a stockpot, look for one with a thicker, heavy bottom. These types of stockpots will help you manage the temperature of the broth during cooking. Stockpots with thinner bottoms do not conduct and retain heat as well, but are certainly still usable. Commercial kitchen supply stores are great resources for finding large stockpots. A glass lid is a helpful feature; you will be able to walk past your broth periodically and immediately tell whether the temperature is correct. A stockpot with a fluted edge can make broth easier to pour into other containers.

Do you stay awake stirring the pot?
Nope. For me personally, using a crock pot actually requires more attention and stress than working with a stockpot. Crock pots can boil dry over an extended period of time, requiring the cook to add water periodically and at unpredictable times. Using a large stockpot over low heat with six to seven quarts of water and a lid gives me a very wide margin of error. I never need to add water, and I don't need to stir the stockpot very often, either. The ingredients tend to move around in the pot very little, and there is enough water in the pot that ingredients sticking to the bottom isn't a concern. I don't have to worry about the stockpot ever boiling dry because it contains about seven quarts of water. With the temperature below boiling and a lid to limit evaporation, there is almost no action in the pot. In fact, after stabilizing the temperature right where I want it to be and keeping an occasional eye on the stockpot for the first hour, I then freely go to bed or leave the house to run short errands. I have been doing this for more than twelve years without incident.

Are you insane? You can't leave a pot on the stove overnight!
I realize this is a radical idea at first. Yet is it really so weird to let cooking go on overnight? Some people will also leave ovens on overnight for cleaning, or leave a roasting turkey unattended in the oven for a few hours whilst fighting with the in-laws at Thanksgiving. I realize you might not be comfortable doing this and you don't have to; the results will just be a bit different.

Most home cooks would use a crock pot for cooking projects that require so many hours to cook. Here's a surprise: would you believe that the instruction book for my relatively new and fancy crock pot clearly states that crock pots should never be left on without someone watching it. Seriously? I thought the whole point of a crockpot is to cook while you are not watching it, and ideally, not even at home! Crock pots can be jerks this way. Depending on your specific crock pot, you may already have gone rogue in the kitchen.

This recipe uses a low heat setting for cooking (between Low and Simmer on my particular stove). The stockpot has six quarts of liquid at the end of cooking, much more than needed to keep the solid ingredients from any danger of scorching. You'll find the scent of the cooking bone broth is hard to ignore or forget, eliminating some of the worries of longer cooking times. Waking up to the happy scent of bone broth certainly isn't a hardship. Truly, once the base temperature in the stockpot is achieved, this approach is stunningly low maintenance. At the ideal temperature, the surface of the bone broth will barely move. You may see a few small bubbles, but otherwise there is not a lot of visible action during the bone broth process.

Easing into the idea of longer-term cooking
You could set a timer or an alarm on your phone to check the stockpot periodically as you become accustomed to the longer cooking times. Think of the stockpot as a child who is learning to stay home alone. You start low and go slow in increasing the time as your comfort level increases.

However, in the end, how you make your bone broth is a very personal choice. It should be joyful. I find making bone broth to be a meditative, highly enjoyable ritual. The longer cooking time yields results that are well worth a little extra juggling, particularly given the resulting bone broth's nutrition, volume, strength, and depth of flavor. I am always surprised by how the flavors develop and condense over the extended cooking time.

Another option: turn off the burner when you step out or go to sleep, and restart it when you return. If you bring the temperature up to boiling for ten minutes, you do not need to refrigerate the bone broth between cooking periods(4). Be aware of safe storage and cooking temperatures if you do this - additional information on food safety below.

Can I make bone broth in a crockpot?

You can, and many people do, but I don't. I prefer the flexibility of using a large stockpot. Here's why:

Limited space. The largest type of crock pots I've seen max out at 7 quarts. Add several pounds of meat and bones, vegetables, and other savory ingredients, and you won't have much space left for water - and thus you will make far less bone broth.

Limited temperature control. Crock pots usually do not have temperature gauges. Most offer three settings: Keep Warm, Low, and High - and good luck finding out what those temperature settings really mean. The manufacturer may or may not publish this data. Additionally, some crock pots claim that Low and High are actually the same temperature! How is that possible? The heat element cycles on and off at slower or higher frequencies depending on whether the setting is on Keep Warm, Low or High, respectively. Got that? Good. Now explain it to me,

Finally, for beloved crock pots that are more than a few years old, it is normal for appliances to lose their effectiveness over time. Some may run too hot; others, too low. Your crock pot's ability to maintain or cycle temperatures can be negatively affected as well. During cooking, you can check the temperature of your crock pot periodically, though admittedly this is a somewhat annoying task. Using an instant read thermometer with a probe and an programmable alarm is helpful.

Food safety. Arguably few home kitchens would survive a professional food safety inspection. We all have at least one naughty habit that we know is probably not the safest practice, but we do it anyway. Why? Because we keep getting away with it, and we haven't died. Yet.

Well-respected cookbook author Michael Ruhlman landed in a bit of trouble with food safety experts in 2011. He innocently described his practice of making small batches of broth or stock from leftover bones, leaving the finished product out at room temperature for use throughout the week. This set the Internet on fire, and the New York Times responded rather critically to Ruhlman's broth practice, citing the risk of botulism, toxins, and other food safety concerns. What is the final word on food safety with bone broth? I keep mine for three days in the refrigerator, else I freeze it. Bone broth thaws quickly on the stove in a stockpot, Dutch oven, or saucepan.

I'd rather be safe than sick, especially when I am thinking of my food as medicine. If you are immune deficient or treating an autoimmune condition, you may wish to consider carefully decisions about broth preparation, storage, and use. Why increase the burden on your immune system needlessly?

Getting the most from your ingredients. If you buy pastured meats, you likely love the taste - but the price? Not so much. Squeezing every bit of nutrition from those meats is important. Crock pots, due to the irregular nature of temperature regulation, may or may not wring every last bit of nutrition from the bone broth ingredients.

The Journal of Food Science published a fascinating article on the physicochemical properties of chicken stock. According to the research, 99 degrees Celsius/210 degrees Fahrenheit is the ideal cooking temperature for chicken stock. At this temperature - just a whisper below boiling - you'll see a bubble rise to the surface every now and then, but the stock will not be at a full boil. I was thrilled to see this news, because I had been cooking broth at this temperature for years. It seemed like a natural sweet spot for flavor development.

If you enjoy clearer bone broth, staying below the boiling point and straining the finished bone broth with cheesecloth and/or a fine wire mesh strainer is particularly important. Boiling your bone broth hard agitates the ingredients, causing more particles to be released into the water. This causes the bone broth to become cloudy. When cooked at 99 degrees Celsius/210 degrees Fahrenheit, the resulting product contained more protein, had better viscosity (the body of the broth), and was rated better by tasters than products cooked at lower temperatures(6). Collagen begins breaking down into gelatin starting around 60 degrees Celsius/140 degrees Fahrenheit, but really gets going around 70 degrees Celsius/160 Fahrenheit(1). Can you achieve these temperatures in your crock pot? The answer varies, and the only way to know for sure is to check the temperature with a thermometer. If you lift the lid of your crock pot and find it boiling when set on the lowest temperature, it's too hot. Sometimes leaving the lid off or ajar can bring down the temperature to a better level, but without the lid you may need to be more concerned with evaporation and the crock pot boiling dry.

Efficiency. Some prefer to make multiple batches of bone broth from the same bones. Repeated use of the bones until the bones dissolve or crumble is a thrifty, useful practice and has a delightful French name: remouillage. Doesn't that sound fancy? However, I prefer to make one large batch of bone broth and use up every last bit of nutrition from the bones. I like this more than making frequent, smaller batches and reusing the bones. It's a personal choice. Making more bone broth in a stockpot and storing the excess bone broth in the freezer saves me lots of worry, time, and preserves more of my sanity. Believe me, I need all the help I can get.

Can I cook bone broth all week long in a crock pot?
If you trust the temperature of your crock pot, you can certainly make bone broth all week long. This is called perpetual broth. Some prefer to do this, adding leftover vegetables, meat, and bones here and there throughout the week. Unless you have two crock pots, however, this means you cannot use your crockpot for cooking meals without interrupting your bone broth. The crock pot in particular is the Paleo cook's most time-saving tool. Particularly for families with mixed nutritional needs, I think the crock pot is extremely helpful in providing hands-free cooking for protein entrees that the whole family can share. It's also handy to be able to cook enough protein to last several nights. I recommend making one big batch of bone broth in a stockpot every few weeks, and save the crock pot for daily meal preparation. If counter space is at a premium, you might also prefer to stow the crock pot when not in use. If you have a kitchen that has fantastic amounts of unused counter space, please invite me over. I will clutter up your unused kitchen space in no time flat.

Are there any other options in which to cook my bone broth?
Turkey roasters in the 17 to 22 pound range are incredibly useful for making larger batches of broth. Instant Pots - programmable and fully automated pressure/slow cookers are very useful as well. You can make broth in just about any cooking vessel or gadget that can maintain a steady temperature. You can even take your stockpot or oven-safe crockpot and place it in the oven. Ovens do a great job of maintaining an even cooking temperature.

My bone broth often doesn't look or smell very meaty. 
The very best way to get amazing tasting bone broth is to use amazing ingredients, the right temperature, and delicious vegetables. First suggestion: use the best chicken or beef bones that you can afford. If you have made a batch of bone broth with leftover bones but didn't get the flavor you want, then you might want to augment the bone broth with some additional meat pieces. Necks, feet, wings, tails, and backs are incredibly useful for injecting nutrients and flavor in your broth. If you are reusing chicken or beef bones, be sure to add some new bones in with the old to keep the flavor bright.

How can I make my bone broth more colorful?
My mom taught me that yellow onion skins help the bone broth develop better color. Whenever I cut up onions or shallots, I stash the skins and ends in the freezer. I label the bag "Do Not Throw Away Under Penalty of Death," because to the casual observer, my bag of treasures looks more like trash! Onion skins bring more nutrition to the party(7) in addition to adding gorgeous color to your bone broth. I use a mix of yellow and red onion skins when I make beef bone broth, and yellow for chicken broth.

Other colorful foods can share their color with your bone broth: orange and red heirloom carrots, a dash of turmeric powder or turmeric root, a little bit of red cabbage, or even browning a tablespoon of tomato paste slowly in a small saucepan and then stirring the paste into the bone broth. Going overboard with turmeric, cabbage, or any other vegetables you might wish to add - particularly if you keep a batch of broth going all week - can also change the flavor, so choose wisely. Sulfurous veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts can add bitter or sour flavors to bone broth. Experiment with these types of veggies to see if you like the flavor they add to the broth.

How should I cut up the vegetables for making bone broth? 
Mirepoix is the beautiful word describing the holy trinity of savory vegetables traditionally used to flavor bone broth. The traditional French ratio of onion to carrot to celery is 2 cups diced onion to 1 cup diced carrot to 1 cup diced celery. I prefer these flavors best as they blend well together while not attracting too much attention away from the meat flavor. For making this type of bone broth, dicing the vegetables is fine. If I'm really tired, I just throw the veggies in the food processor and process until minced for a stronger vegetable flavor. Every surface area you expose in the vegetables is an opportunity for more flavor and nutrition.

What about salt? 
I only add salt to broth when I know exactly how the broth will be used. The challenge for me is that I never quite know how I will be using the broth when I make it! Thus I rarely add salt during the cooking or storage process. I have found that salting the bone broth before or during the cooking process may cause regret later. If you make a lot of bone broth, you'll eventually have a batch that just isn't as good as the others - or if you are truly unlucky, a batch might turn out so badly that you need to get rid of it. This happens, although some of these bone broths can be saved with a little know-how. Some people are so sensitive to the smell of beef bones that they do their broth cooking in a crock pot in the garage!

If my bone broth's flavor is weak, I can reduce the bone broth by 25% or more to concentrate the flavor and get a better gel. Yet if I have already added the salt, and then need to cook down the broth, then the salt flavor will be concentrated and too strong. What was a perfect sprinkling of salt at the beginning of cooking may now be overpowering, and that's a difficult problem to fix. If I add salt at all, I add very minimal salt and do so toward the end of cooking time. You can always add more salt later when you know exactly how you will be using the bone broth. I'm not anti-salt. I just try to be judicious about when I use it.

Should I put my bone broth on acid?
Acids, such as those in vinegar, not only tenderize meat (just as in a marinade) and encourage the meat to release more delicious juices, but also encourages the breakdown of collagen into gelatin(6). Many recipes call for apple cider vinegar, particularly the Braggs brand with probiotics. Be mindful that if you use a 'live' vinegar such as an apple cider vinegar with the mother included, any probiotic benefit will be destroyed during the heat of cooking. You won't be able to taste a few tablespoons of vinegar by the end of cooking. I tend to skip white vinegar, because I clean my bathroom with it - and don't want that smell anywhere near my food!

Consider the level of acidity as you choose your acid. You want an acid in at least the 5 to 6% acidity range. The percent acidity is listed on the label. Braggs apple cider vinegar is 5% acidity. I have a white wine vinegar that is 6% and a champagne vinegar at 7%. Pick a vinegar whose flavor you enjoy.

Some like to add half a lemon with the rind included. The rind contains pectin, which adds to the body of your broth. Lemon juice has 7% acidity.

You don't have to use any acidity to achieve a great broth, though.

How should I store my bone broth?

You can store your bone broth in the refrigerator for three to four days. Bone broth freezes beautifully in bags and containers, lasting from two to three months(5) and leaving you well-prepared to whip up soups, pilafs, gravy, healthy bone broth beverages, and sauces with wonderful homemade flavor. Goodbye, creepy aseptic broth boxes! It's also a thoughtful gift to have on hand to drop off when friends and family get sick. Once you've had homemade bone broth, you will grumble if you ever have to use store-bought broth or stock again - particularly if you are drinking it.

Store your bone broth in the freezer in either BPA-free bags or glass containers. You have many options for storing, freezing, and reheating bone broth to help make it accessible for everyday cooking.

I can quickly grab a pre-measured amount of bone broth, open the container (or cut open the bag and peel it away to remove the frozen bone broth, as if opening a banana), and set the block of frozen bone broth inside a pan over heat. In less than five minutes, I can have eight cups of bone broth thawed and ready to cook. If you store your bone broth in jars, you can jumpstart the process by allowing the containers to thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

How do I remove the fat from my broth? It's like an oil slick in my pot.
Traditionally, when clear broths were the vogue, finished broths were chilled and the fat removed. This made a prettier broth for consommes and pan sauces. The removal of fat helped ensure that sauces made with the broth would not 'break.' Ever see gravy that couldn't hold itself together, or a greasy-looking hollandaise on your eggs Benedict? That's what happens when a sauce breaks. It's sad.

If you intend to use your broth for drinking, you might consider not removing the fat. When broth is cooked at a boil or just below, much of the fat emulsifies in the broth. The result is a thicker, silky, broth that I find especially soothing for sore throats.

If you do remove the fat, by all means save it in a jar in the refrigerator. It will last for ages, and provide one of the most flavorful fats around for sauteing vegetables. If you have used pastured meats for your broth, these fats are beneficial to your health. Nutrients from the broth can be removed when the fat is removed, so to keep bone broth a 'whole' food, I highly recommend consuming all of the proceeds.

I'm ready to get started. I want to make chicken bone broth. What type of chicken should I use? 
I generally make my bone broth with a pastured stewing chicken. I realize those are not always easy to find - though they are cheap and worth looking for. You can also make bone broth with:

• One whole chicken
• Leftover chicken carcass from a roasted chicken
• A mixture of bones, chicken parts, and chicken pieces such as feet, backs, and wings
• Another combination of the above options

Note: the suggestions for chicken broth also apply to turkey broth.

Is it best to use a whole chicken or just bones?
The ideal fuel for your chicken bone broth would be a whole uncooked chicken with other chicken pieces, bones, and a few pairs of chicken feet added. The very best type of chicken to use is a stewing chicken - more on those later. Each part of the chicken adds unique flavor and nutrition to your bone broth. You can skip the feet - they are difficult to consider appetizing at first - but your bone broth may have less collagen and gelatin. You can add unflavored or meat-derived gelatins to boost the nutrition profile of your bone broth if you wish. Amazon.com has a nice selection of unflavored organic and kosher gelatins. My favorite brand is Great Lakes Unflavored Beef Gelatin.

I start my chicken bone broth with a whole chicken, either fresh or frozen. You can also choose to remove and store the chicken meat after simmering for 60 minutes or so. Ensure the meat is cooked through before storing. If you are using a pastured chicken, the meat will still be flavorful enough to use in soups, stews, salads, chicken jerky, and sandwiches. Stewing chicken meat is not that appealing. The tradeoff is the greater yield of broth and the price, which is often half what you pay for a four-pound roasting hen but with twice the potential broth yield.

Should I roast the chicken bones before making bone broth?
Roast the bones first if you like the umami flavor. I like a sweeter bone broth and do not roast the chicken bones first. If you would like to roast the bones, place them in an oven safe skillet or pan and roast at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes. Once finished, add the bones and juices to the stockpot. Add a few cups of water to the pan to dissolve the remaining pan drippings; add this elixir to your broth to kickstart the flavor-building process. You can also choose to include the vegetables during the roasting process for extra flavor. The vegetables can also be sauteed until brown before adding them to the stockpot.

So what on earth is a stewing chicken?
Stewing chickens are 'retired' egg laying hens or roosters. The roasting chickens we buy for meat by comparison are usually harvested at just a few months old. However, stewing chickens are usually a year or two older when they are 'retired.' When hens and roosters slow down with age, they are often culled from the flock.

These chickens are prized for the gorgeous layer of yellow fat beneath the skin, more connective tissue, and larger bones with more marrow and other nutrients. You may decide later you don't want all of the fat (Tsk, tsk! Such a shame!) in your bone broth, but the extra nutrition provided by stewing hens is well worth considering.

I love talking about stewing chickens to professional chefs who have been classically trained, because the broth from such chickens is heavenly and more chicken-y than even pastured roasting chickens. However, you won't find stewing chickens at a traditional grocery store. Ask around at farm-to-table restaurants and natural food cafes to find potential suppliers for stewing chickens. Farmer's markets are also good resources. Localharvest.org is also a great resource for connecting with suppliers.

Stewing chickens often cluck in (sorry) at right around two to three pounds, and because of their scrawny size, the equipment at some meat processing facilities can't handle them. A farmer with both an egg laying and meat operation might have stewing chickens on ice somewhere. Many do not advertise stewing chickens because few people know about them, and thus demand is low. I've had good luck sourcing stewing chickens in Amish and Mennonite communities. I have also seen these chickens offered for sale online.

Note that while stewing chickens are much loved for their contributions to the world of chicken bone broth, their meat is tougher and not what we are used to eating in a roasting chicken. After all, these egg layers were not spring chickens when they retired! They spent a lot of time scampering about, laying eggs and eating grass and bugs. If I am using a stewing hen, I leave all of the meat in the stockpot throughout cooking and throw away the leftovers at the end. You can also puree the leftover meat to add to the broth or make gravy; same with the leftover vegetables.

Over the past 12 years, I have paid an average of $6 per pastured stewing hen, and one stewing hen yields about 6 quarts of delicious bone broth. The economics work out well for my family.

Should I reuse leftover chicken bones from last night's roasted chicken?
By all means, do so. I hoard chicken bones and leftovers in the freezer until ready to make bone broth. My freezer looks a bit like a morgue right now as a result. You may also wish to scoop up any tasty juices, leftover meat, or browned bits left in the roasting pan for safe keeping. These will add glorious flavors to your broth. I prefer to add these items in addition to a whole chicken for bone broth.

While adding the remnants of a roasted chicken certainly adds character and helps improve the nutritional value of your bone broth, there are a few drawbacks. Chances are, you've enjoyed every single bit of the chicken skin already. (If you haven't, why not? What is wrong with you?) Making chicken bone broth without uncooked skin means your bone broth will have less gelatin and collagen. The connective tissue in chicken is a great source of nutrients, including glucosamine and chondroitin - two ingredients that are very helpful for those with arthritis. Why buy supplements when you can get the real thing in your soup bowl? However, these nutrients tend to dissolve into the meat of the chicken or into the pan during roasting and are consumed. You want everyone to enjoy all of the chicken, of course, but you may run short on gelatin when making bone broth. Adding chicken feet and/or additional chicken bones can help make up for the lost nutrients.

These additional concerns about using a previously roasted chicken depend entirely on your personal taste. A previously roasted chicken without herbs and spices would be extremely boring, however, some flavorings added to the roasted chicken may not transfer well to the flavor of your chicken bone broth. I'm not a fan of curry powder or tandoori spice in my everyday chicken bone broth, but others may disagree. Finally, if you added oil to the skin of the roasted chicken during cooking, you may transfer undesirable fats to your bone broth such as coconut oil, ghee, olive oil, or butter. Once these fats are roasted and stewed, you might not like the flavors when concentrated in your bone broth. I think these flavors detract from the overall chicken-y flavor, but others may feel differently. You can always rinse or briefly blanch the leftover chicken bones in a pot of boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes before adding the bones to your stockpot. This may help remove unwanted flavors.

Is it worth using a whole pastured chicken for chicken bone broth?
I have a direct answer to the question above: yes, oh yes, I think it's worth it! Each part of the chicken contributes flavor and nutrients to bone broth. You get to cook and save the chicken meat for later use while enjoying the full nutritional benefits of six quarts of delicious chicken bone broth. What more could you ask for? By the time we're done with that whole chicken and 48 hours' cooking, even its bones will be soft. You will have shown that chicken that you are the boss.

Enough about chickens. I'd like to make beef bone broth. What do I need to know?
Beef bone broth is easier than making chicken bone broth. There are fewer concerns about having enough bones and meat in the stockpot to achieve optimal nutrition, in part because beef bones can be quite large.

However, if you are a vegetarian exploring bone broth, start with chicken; the smell and taste is lighter and sweeter. If you want a bone broth that gels, be sure to select bones that have a lot of connective tissue. Beef joints, feet, necks, and oxtails have the most connective tissue. However, the cross-cut bones usually have the most marrow. I recommend using one of each type of bone to get a great balance of nutrients and gelling ability. I love finding beef bones with a little meat attached. It adds great flavor to the bone broth.

And now, on to the Essential Golden Chicken Bone Broth and Beautifully Beefy Bone Broth recipes!


Sources:
(1)McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking.
(2)Rosner, Fred. The Medical Writings of Moses Maimonides. (1998). Volume 3, pp 60-62.  KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
(3)Robbins, Richard A. and Rennard, Stephen I. (2000). Chicken Soup Inhibits Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro. CHEST 2000; 118:1150–1157 [Author's note: CHEST is the official publication of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).]
(4)McGee, Harold. Bending the Rules on Bacteria (2011). The New York Times. August 24, 2011, on page D3
(5)USDA Food Safety Fact Sheets. Chicken from Farm to Table. July 25, 2014
(6)Krasnow, M., Bunch, T., Shoemaker, C. and Loss, C. R. (2012), Effects of Cooking Temperatures on the Physicochemical Properties and Consumer Acceptance of Chicken Stock. Journal of Food Science, 77: S19–S23. 
(7)Vanesa Benítez, Esperanza Mollá, María A. Martín-Cabrejas, Yolanda Aguilera, Francisco J. López-Andréu, Katherine Cools, Leon A. Terry, Rosa M. Esteban. Characterization of Industrial Onion Wastes (Allium cepa L.): Dietary Fibre and Bioactive Compounds. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 2011; 66 (1): 48 DOI: 10.1007/s11130-011-0212-x