Nutrient Dense Homemade Bone Broth

One of the most powerful things you can do for your health and healing is introducing bone broth into your diet consistently. If it is not already part of your daily self-care regimen I strongly encourage making Nutrient Dense Homemade Bone Broth part of your routine. If you don’t have the time to make your own broth, this is an excellent boxed variety that is low simmered for 24 hours to increase the vitamin and mineral content.

How Much Homemade Bone Broth Did I Drink A Day?

If you have followed my health journey you’ll know that when I was healing from my health crisis, I was making 21 quarts of homemade bone broth every four days. I was following the GAPS diet after reading Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride and, by the grace of God, it’s what was the catalyst for getting my life back and going from barely surviving to thriving.

Bone Broth is a Very Powerful Healer!

What is Bone Broth?

It is an impressive gut healing liquid, also known as stock, filled with the amino acids proline and glycine. Those two amino acids are what hold our connective tissue together and, as The Paleo Mom says, “without these two amino acids we would literally fall apart.”

Bone broth is what our Great-Grandmothers and Grandmothers consumed on a regular basis. They used it for the base of soups, in recipes and to heal their ailing families. They knew the power of bone broth and its immune boosting benefits.

As a society, we’ve gotten away from this understanding and have left the practice of consuming it on a regular basis.

I remember when I was so sick years ago, my mom told me to drink some bone broth and I poo-pooed it thinking that it wouldn’t help at all. Boy was I wrong! I learned the hard way that nutritious bone broth must be a staple in our diets to enjoy optimal health along with proper functioning digestion. I don’t want you to have to learn the hard way like I did so start drinking it today!

What’s the Best Kind of Bone Broth?

Making your own bone broth is the least expensive way to get it into your diet. It’s relatively simple to make and will not have any of the harmful chemicals like MSG and Carageenan that store-bought broths of today have.

There are a few select brands that are safe and nutritious to drink that you can use when you are in a pinch. We really love this brand.

Over the years of making our own homemade bone broth, we have enjoyed beef, chicken, turkey and pork broth. Generally, we don’t make fish stock because we don’t purchase whole fish and, although veggie stock has its own form of nutrition, we don’t really make this because the rich collagen would be missing which is one of the most healing parts of the bone broth. Instead, we just eat lots of veggies to get their nutrition!

Where do You Get Bones?

• We save the bones from our whole chickens and make bone broth from those in our Instant Pot.
• Each year, from our local ranch, we purchase a whole grass-fed, organic cow (that we split with my parents) and ask the butcher for the bones (and organ meats) from that.
• Once a year, from our local farmer, we also purchase an organic pastured pig (we also split with my parents) and we get the bones from the butcher as well as the fats and the organ meats. We like to render our own lard from the fat. It’s delicious!
• You can try and find a farmer near you here.
• If you can’t source your meat and bones locally the best, most affordable place is U.S. Wellness Meats because everything is organic, they have great prices and excellent customer service.

How to Make Your Own Nutrient Dense Homemade Bone Broth

There are quite a few variations of making bone broth and, because I drink so much of it, I have simplified it to make it quick and the least expensive.

Below I will show you how to make beef, chicken, turkey and pork bone broths. To make it inexpensively, I never put veggies in my broth when I am making it. This is certainly a personal preference and you can always put veggies in your bone broth, but I honestly don’t want to spend the extra money and extra prep time putting vegetables in my broth when I am already eating a ton of them anyway.

Beef Broth

The rule of thumb is to use about 2 pounds of bones per gallon of water. When I was making 21 quarts a day, I was using about 10 pounds of beef bones each time. That’s when the whole cow came in handy. However, when you are just drinking a cup or two a day you won’t need as much. If you drink one or two cups a day, you will need about 2 gallons of broth per week.

• 2 lbs. organic, grass-fed, raw beef marrow bones per gallon of water. Be sure they are cut small to reveal the bone marrow.
• Filtered Water (usually enough to fill a stock pot)
• 1 Tlbs. Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps pull out more minerals from the bones)
• Salt to taste (I always salt my broth when I drink it using this type of salt)

Instructions

1. If your beef bones aren’t already roasted, then you’ll need to place them in a glass container and roast them on the lower rack of oven on broil for 20 minutes per side.
2. Once your bones are roasted, add them to your stock pot and fill with water. Add the apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for at least 12 hours. You will need to check it every few hours to see if the water level has decreased. Add more water if the level has gone down. *Start this process early in the day on a day you know you are going to be at home.
3. Once the simmering is done, strain out all the cartilage and bones being careful to leave any bone marrow that has come out of the bones. That is THE MOST NUTRIENT DENSE part of the broth. It will look gross but ultimately will be blending away so you won’t even know it’s there.

* Don’t throw your beef bones out! They can be used one more time to make broth. When you reuse them, be sure to add some freshly roasted bones in too otherwise the flavor of your broth will be bland. *You can also do the same process in a crock pot on low for 24-48 hours but you won’t yield as much broth as you would in a stockpot.

Pork Bone Broth

• 2 lbs. organic, pastured, raw pork bones per gallon of water. (Get your pork bones here)
• Filtered Water (usually enough to fill a stock pot)
• 1 Tlbs. Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps pull out more minerals from the bones)
• Salt to taste (I always salt my broth when I drink it using this type of salt)

Instructions

1. If your pork bones aren’t already roasted, then you’ll need to place them in a glass container and roast them on the lower rack of oven on broil for 15 minutes per side.
2. Once your bones are roasted, add them to your stock pot and fill with water. Add the apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for at least 12 hours. You will need to check it every few hours to see if the water level has decreased. Add more water if the level has gone down. *Start this process early in the day on a day you know you are going to be at home.
3. Once the simmering is done, strain out all the cartilage and bones being careful to leave any bone marrow that has come out of the bones. That is THE MOST NUTRIENT DENSE part of the broth. It will look gross but ultimately will be blending away so you won’t even know it’s there.

* Don’t throw your pork bones out! They can be used one more time to make broth. When you reuse them, be sure to add some freshly roasted bones in too otherwise the flavor of your broth will be bland. *You can also do the same process in a crock pot on low for 24-48 hours but you won’t yield as much broth as you would in a stockpot. *If your pork bones are small enough, you can also follow this process and use an Instant Pot for making a quick version of broth. You will just set it to manual for two hours and close the vent.

Chicken Bone Broth

In my opinion, the absolute BEST chicken broth around is made in an Instant Pot. It is rich, collagen-filled and the depth of flavor is robust.

• 2 pastured chicken carcasses (we just save them after we roast them and sometimes freeze them until I get around to making the broth) Don’t leave out the giblets!
• Filtered Water (enough to fill an Instant Pot either 6 or 8 quart)
• 1 Tlbs. Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps pull out more minerals from the bones)
• Salt to taste (I always salt my broth when I drink it using this type of salt)

Instructions:

1. Place all in your Instant Pot and set on Manual for 2 hours with the vent closed. When it’s done strain out all bones and giblets. Serve hot.

*Chicken bones cannot be used more than once as they disintegrate since they are smaller.

For all types of bone broth, you will know that your broth was a success if, when cooled, the broth look wiggly and gelatinous. That means it is full of skin and gut healing collagen and amino acids!

Turkey Bone Broth

We always save our organic turkey carcass as well as the giblets for making a rich stock a few days after Thanksgiving.

• 1 Roasted, Organic and Pastured Turkey Carcass (Get your turkey here)
• Filtered Water (usually enough to fill a stock pot)
• 1 Tlbs. Apple Cider Vinegar (this helps pull out more minerals from the bones)
• Salt to taste (I always salt my broth when I drink it using this type of salt)

Instructions

1. Add your roasted turkey carcass to your stock pot and fill with water. Add the apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for at least 12 hours. You will need to check it every few hours to see if the water level has decreased. Add more water if the level has gone down. *Start this process early in the day on a day you know you are going to be at home.
2. Once the simmering is done, strain out all the cartilage and serve warm.

How to Use Bone Broth Everyday

As I mentioned before, incorporating bone broth into your every day is vitally important for optimal gut health and your overall well-being. There are so many ways to use bone broth!

1. Drink once cup with every meal or at least once a day. I love it first thing in the morning. It has become a source of comfort for me.
2. Use your broth in gravies and sauces to add richness and well-rounded flavor.
3. Use homemade bone broth for the base of your soups. It is so much more nutritious than plain water and the flavor profile explodes with bone broth.
4. We swear by bone broth when we get sick. It is a staple in our home and when illness strikes we increase our intake of bone broth because of its healing properties. At the first sign of sickness, start drinking as much bone broth as you can and I promise, it will help you get well quicker.

Will You Be Making Nutrient Dense Homemade Bone Broth?

Now that you know what broth is, why it is healthy and how to make it, do you think you will be incorporating it into your daily routine? It’s nutritious, gut healing, extremely simple to make and is quite inexpensive. It’s a win-win addition to live your best holistic life!