Bone broth knowledge and ideas please

#1

Every time I buy beef bones they are always different. I dont have the choice, just whatever is left over at the butcher, (if he has them at all).
Sometimes they are nice thick bones with lots of marrow, Sometimes they are ribs with lots of meat on, and sometimes, they are joints with huge amounts of cartilage.

So I was interested if anyone knew what is the highest priority.
Cartilage, marrow or bone?

I think that my preference is the broth when it has a lot of marrow. I get a darker broth with a beefier taste. But when it has a lot of cartilage the broth is very gelatinous and i find it very difficult to drink.
I’m guessing the really gelatinous stuff is the stuff with the collagen in, which is the whole point in bone broth right?

does anyone have any good tricks and tips on way to drink bone broth?
I can only manage a really small amount at a time.
I take about 1/3rd cup, with hot water, then flavour with part of a stock cube. Which has carbs, so I am looking for other methods.
I add the bone broth to every dish i can, and call that good. but i really want to drink it on its own an hour before my first meal. But I just cant stomach it that time of the day on an empty stomach.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Yes, those are the priorities.

Seriously, they are all beneficial. Also beneficial are the minerals that come out in the marrow. I like to put a big pot of water on the lowest possible heat, and let the bones simmer for at least twenty-four hours. By that point, the marrow and minerals are dissolving out of the bones, and the cartilage has softened nicely. The bone is there to provide all that, and of course, gets strained out before the broth/stock is used. If there’s meat on the bones, it will eventually fall off, and if it’s not too much trouble to separate it from the bone, you can add it back into the broth.

The point of the broth, at least from Dr. Phinney’s point of view, seems to be the minerals and in particular the salt. I don’t advise salting the water until after you stop simmering, however, because as water boils off, the concentration of salt gets higher and higher. So wait until you are ready to refrigerate the broth and salt the pot to taste at that point. Then you can divide it up into containers and put away.

I had the experience of living in a group setting for a while, and the guys who cooked for us took great pride in removing all the gristle and cartilage from the meat they served us. I had to go out and buy gelatin powder to keep my nails from splitting. For this reason, I do like a bit of cartilage in my broth, though not to the point of making it gelatinous.

If your broth has boiled down sufficiently, you might not need the stock cube. But there are plenty of products you can use besides the cubes. Many supermarkets now sell packaged broth, and there is also a product called “soup base,” which is really concentrated and almost solid. I suspect there are plenty of such products with minimal carb content, and also plenty that are loaded with additives, so read the labels carefully.

Unfortunately, the tricks I used to use to get broth into my diet all involved using it to make rice and such. But you could certainly use broth instead of water to deglaze the roasting pan when making gravy, and that sort of thing. I’m not sure how the flavour would work, but what about using broth to cook your broccoli and cauliflower?

#3

From what you have said there. i think there may be way too much cartilage in my broths. Every time i make it, i reduce it down to half once i have strained it. then once it has been in the fridge for a day it is so gelatinous that I can cut through it and a perfect half will stay standing.
I do use it a lot for cooking, and yes, i always use it in veg. But what i am really aiming to do is what has been advised by loads of health coaches, which is to take the beef broth an hour before my first meal of the day.
There i so much gelatin that I just cant stomach it.

So, maybe, I can allow my self to simply have a lot less. A teaspoon in a mug of hot water, rather than 1/3rd of a cup.
I guess its better that i have some, rather than not having it, or adding loads of refined ingredients to make it palatable.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

Some of that may be fat—but if that were the case, then we should expect there to be some liquid under the solidified fat. Also, the fat has a very different texture from the gelatin.

Next time, you could try removing some of the gristle from the bone before putting it in the pot. That should cut down on the gelatin considerably. I like to chew on the gristle, then toss it into the garbage when I scrape my plate. That way it doesn’t get into the homemade broth.

#5

once everything has been in the fridge for a day, i open up all the pots and scrape off the fat, then keep that in a separate pot for cooking.
Some of the bones i get are huge joints. I think they are large bones, then after cooking i realise they are joins with many many different smaller bones.
I quite often get vertebrae, its handy because they have lots of surface area, but there is a lot of connective tissue there.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Ah, that explains it!

You said it! I used to eat a lot of oxtail, which used to be quite inexpensive but then became popular, and it’s the same, lots of connective tissue and fat.

#7

Same here. Oxtail is beautiful. Buy my butcher charges the same for oxtail as he does for stewing steak, but obviously you only get a few bites of meat on a bit of oxtail so it’s not worth it.
I but it every now any then, but only to make really nice gravey.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

Yeah. No point in paying steak prices for mostly bone. My ex-lover had a great recipe for oxtail soup, which was really a thick stew. We made a lot of it, because it was inexpensive and tasty. But then it got written up in the New York Times, became trendy, and the price shot up. It’s not trendy anymore, so far as I know, but the price never came back down afterward.

(Edith) #9

It doesn’t melt and become liquid when you heat it?

#10

yes, but i still find it hard to stomach.
I have found that i can have a lot more if i put in in my mid morning coffee. And then in the evenings I just have a tablespoon in hot tea, rather than drinking it almost 50/50 with hot water.

#11

I wouldn’t consume it then. Doesn’t seem a must and no point if one doesn’;t like it but I am a hedonist.
I LOVE when every liquid related to meat gets jellied :smiley: My soups (no way I ever cook bones for more than 2 hours, I don’t need that. and I don’t need bones or skin to get jellied cold soup but I often buy meat with some bone and it makes wonderful soup), the liquid under my roasts… I use pork but I am not sure it matters, all animals do jellying.

I make non-meaty things with gelatin too and I find them so exciting due to the texture :smiley:

Is bone broth odd when in liquid form? My soups are very tasty and lovely. If there is enough tasty meat involved, I don’t know what very long cooked bones do…
Sometimes it gets a smoked bone (already used in a different dish, almost all meat is cut off, some cartilage remained) and it adds such a good extra flavor…

It’s super strange to me to put broth into coffee and tea as they are very much dessert like things to me and the broth is very much not…

So you tried various bones, even much meat on it and just nothing was tasty? The water was the right amount I wonder? Both too much and too little makes soups hard to consume, broth should be the same…?

(Maura hAGERTY) #12

Not sure if it is to your taste, but I love my beef broth with a spoon of miso. Super tasty, keto friendly and is a probiotic

#13

Yes that could work. Thank you.