vintage post: 12 days of broth

Have you seen this yet?

Amanda got 12 days of real broth, broth that actually gels, from the same set of bones.

chicken broth

chicken broth by Muffet, on Flickr

Normally, I prefer making broth after roasting a whole chicken, as I'm fond of the flavors that develop from the Maillard reaction. I'm just not crazy about boiled meat.

But a while back, one of my local farmers had a deal going on pastured chicken necks & backs if you bought 20 pounds, so I figured I'd make broth and chicken meat.

Twenty pounds is a lot more than I thought it was. So my first go-round, before I'd decided to start the GAPS protocol, was the rather standard way of making chicken broth.

beef broth

Beef Broth by joana hard, on Flickr

The primary nutrition in bone broths or stocks are due to:

1. cartilage, which contains collagen and breaks down to gelatin (and thus the amino acids glycine and proline)
2. minerals, especially calcium, phosphorous and magnesium
3. marrow - with healthy fat containing vitamins A, D3, K2 and the fatty acid CLA)

Grass-fed bones are certainly better than CAFO bones, but I think this difference is much lesser than with meat. In general, I am quite happy buying non-organic bones. If the animal had bones, it has minerals. If it could stand up (a requirement in order to slaughter for food), it has collagen in it's joints. The only serious downside to CAFO bones is that the marrow will have significantly less vitamins A, D3, K2 and the fatty acid CLA. However, since I cook little bone-containing beef cuts and have to buy bones, I usually buy CAFO bones, figuring I get a lot of those nutrients from other foods in my diet.

types of bones that can be bought

marrow bones

These bones have the most marrow; they are shank bones. Marrow can be eaten prior to using the bones for broth as a nutritious and gourmet dish, or allowed to disintegrate in the broth to add more nutrition there.