Step 1: Buy your bones from a local butcher

When I headed into my local butcher on afternoon, he asked me, “Where are the boys?”

My response, “Home sick. That’s why I’m here. I need some bones.”

He shook his head in complete understanding. “One second”, he replied.

A few minutes later I was handed a big bag of beef bones cleaned and cut.

FOR FREE.

I see my butcher every week. He knows my kids, knows what I like and makes sure that the quality of what I get is top notch. He also will let me pay with a credit card even if my purchase is under $20. 🙂

Creating a relationship with your local butcher will not only leave you with good quality products where you know the source, but it’s strengthening your community for yourself and your kids. Not to mention supporting a small business.

It also may come with the perks of free beef bones. (since the bones are scrap for them anyway)

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Step 2: Roast Bones @ 350 degrees

Put your bones on a sheet pan and pop them in the oven until they are seriously brown. The more brown, the more flavor.

 

 

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Step 3: Simmer with Aromatics & Skim the Fat

Aromatic vegetables include onion, garlic, ginger, lemongrass ect.                                        My traditional bone broth had:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Celery
• Black Peppercorn

No need to be fancy. Just quarter the onions, cut the garlic head in half and rip the celery. Big pieces are good because they will be simmering for quite some time.

 

Then cover the bones and vegetables with water & simmer.

Simmering means small bubbles in your liquid that barly pop. Not big boiling bubbles. If you boil your stock it will be muddy in both look and taste. Gentle my friends. Give it your love.

As your stock simmers, the liquid level will drop and you can continuously add more water to keep it up.

When making your broth (or any stock), be sure to skim the fat off the top as it cooks. As your bone broth is simmering, the fat will naturally get pushed to the side. You can use a small ladle and gently dip it a centimeter in the liquid to collect the fat.

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Step 4: Strain and cool quickly

After 15 hours of simmering and numerous times of adding more water to your pot as the levels decrease you want to strain and cool your liquid.

This is your end product:

That’s right...bone broth when cooled should look like jello. That’s all your collagen.

In the restaurant world, we sometimes have these contraptions that are basically giant plastic bottles filled with water. You freeze them and when you’re cooling stock, you put it inside the liquid AND put the whole container in an ice bath. It cools a giant vat of stock very efficiently.

At home, there is no such contraption. But, you can take a stainless steel bottle or silicone container and turn it into a giant ice pack.

I wouldn’t recommend plastic because I just don’t feel good about hot plastic in food.

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Step 5: Repeat & Reseason

Finishing your bone broth is what will make all the difference in your end product.

Once you’ve strained your broth the first time, you’ll want to put the bones BACK IN THE POT with new water and aromatics for another round. 10-12 hours to be exact.

This step will extract all the minerals deep inside the bones and will pull out whatever extra flavor is left in there.

Then, you combine the 2 stocks you have.

Once you’ve done both rounds of simmering and your broth is done, you’ll want to season it. (Notice we didn’t put any salt in yet?)

I finish my broth with a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar and a good heap of salt. The vinegar cuts through all the fat and brightens the flavor. The salt enhances and brings out the flavors in the broth.