I like to refer to it as my morning “brothy” skipping the adrenally exhausting coffee

There has been much publicity extolling the healthful virtues of bone broth and the recipes vary considerably so care is necessary to obtain the healthiest result.
What we are referring to is what your grandmother called stock and when you make it at home from scratch you know exactly what has gone into it and so you can ensure there are no nasty additives. It is also a lot less expensive than manufactured products.
To make broth there a few essential components – a crockpot /slow cooker or a stainless steel/ ceramic stock pot and filtered water. The hardest item to find is a trusted butcher that will provide best quality bones/carcasses from organically grown grass fed animals.

Here are some reasons for everyone to invest in making bone broth –

• Bone broth is a great source of minerals, collagen chondroitin glucosamine and gelatine, to support strong connective tissues and bones and beautiful hair, skin and nails.
• Bone broth slowly and gently extracts the valuable nutrients from the bone, making it a dietary powerhouse.
• Bone Broth can help anyone who experiences intestinal, immunological, inflammatory and autoimmune health conditions.

 
All Disease Begins in The Gut
We are becoming very acquainted with the notion that all diseases begin in the gut.  This is also the first part of the body to be addressed for healing by health care practitioners.
The gelatine extracted from bone is of exceptional quality and has valuable healing properties to restore intestinal integrity and thus improve the absorption of nutrients.
Components extracted from bone have a positive influence on the immune system and increase the number of disease fighting white cells. Ask any Jewish mother about the health building value of slow cooked chicken soup.
Connective tissue components gelatine, collagen and glucosamine are renowned anti-inflammatory nutrients to reduce joint pain and inflammation.
Bone broth has extracted much of the calcium, magnesium and phosphorus from the bone into a highly absorbable form and so adds valuable nutrients to promote bone formation in the womb, bone growth in children, bone stability and bone and cartilage repair in adults and elders.
Bone broth heals a leaky gut and reduces pain in the joints. Bone broth is high in glycine and proline, two valuable amino acids with proven anti-inflammatory actions throughout the body and thereby may improve the health of those with degenerative bone conditions.
 
 
BONE BROTH


Ingredients:
1 organic marrow bone
Thigh bone – the big one people get for their dogs, cut into 2 or 3 pieces
 
1 chuck bone
A length of backbone (desirable as it has more meat). It is best to try and get bones that have some meat still on them to add flavour to the broth, but don’t worry, if there is not meat, it is the marrow and proteins from the bone we are really wanting
 
You may choose lamb, veal or beef. Organic chicken carcasses may also be used.
1 Bulb of Garlic -peeled
1 Bunch of fresh Organic Thyme
1 Bunch of fresh Organic Oregano
 
Optional- add vegetables if you like, perhaps a couple of onions or carrots, whatever you like, I do tend to keep it simple with bones and herbs.
 
Method:
Place bones on an oven tray, bake the bones in slow oven- 150degress for approx. 30 – 40 minutes or until it smells well roasted.  You are simply hardening the marrow etc. so nutrients are easily extracted when slow cooking

Remove bones from oven, place in a slow cooker, cover bones to the top with filtered water, add the peeled garlic bulbs and herbs also


Cook just below simmer slowly for 24 hours.   After 24hr period, using tongs, remove meat from the bones.  If there was a lot of meat, you may want to reserve meat in the refrigerator for something else- or give it to the dogs.
Leave herbs and garlic in the slow cooker.
Once meat is removed from bones, return bones to the slow cooker. Keep slow cooker on lowest heat for a further 24. Ensure water level is maintained throughout the extraction process.
After 24 hrs, remove all bones, herbs and garlic from the broth- throw bones, herbs and garlic in bin
Place broth in the refrigerator overnight to solidify fat on the top of the broth. 
Next morning, scrape the fat from the top of the broth-  Marrow fat may be retained for cooking or thrown out
Strain the broth and use the liquid alone as a wholesome broth or you may choose to use the broth as a base for soup.
If you kept the meat off the bones, you may want to add the meat you have reserved to the completed broth.

To the broth, add a variety of in season vegetables to your taste.
It can be a good idea, for every batch to add a sea vegetable for the iodine- Wakame is best, and a trusted brand is essential – nothing that has been harvested near toxic Japan. Tasmanian or New Zealand sea vegetables are ideal.

Season to taste and I always encourage turmeric and cumin for their healing/restorative properties. Powdered is fine if not available fresh.

The broth or soup can be placed in glass jars and frozen for later consumption or you may choose to freeze some of the initial broth and use it for a different soup later.   Take on out of the freezer the night before and heat it up on the stove top the next morning as your “brothy”
Remember to add sea or pink salt, pepper and seasoning to your taste.