The magic of Bone Broth + Recipe
WHAT YOU NEED
Patience. This is a labor of love. Making bone broth takes time and the first time you are doing it can feel overwhelming, but like with anything else, once you get the hang of it you will find your own rhythm and techniques.
Soup pot (*I like a large 12 Qt stainless steel pot, but you can use any size and even instapot for this recipe)
Soup Bones: buy grass-fed beef knucklebones (usually from the knee or ankle of a cow). This is 1 pack, which contains about 2.5 lbs. I use about 2-3 packs for the 12 Qt soup pot. Adjust amount as needed.
RECIPE
Fill pot with water to submerge the bones.
On medium-high heat, wait until it comes to a boil (about 10-15 mins). You’ll see turbid brown foam rise to the top. Discard this water.
Rinse the bones in clear water.
Fill the water to about 2/3 of the soup pot, add the bones and cook away on medium-high heat.
Simmer on low-medium heat for 9-12 hours. Doesn’t have to be exact. You’ll see milky broth and you can adjust consistently with cooking time.
You can periodically skim off the yellow fat that floats to the top. (An easier way of doing this is, wait until the soup cools, put the whole soup pot in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. The pale yellow fat will create a crust on top. Skim off using a spoon. You can save this fat in a glass container and use it for cooking. It enhances the flavor of any stir-fry.)
You can divide this task of cooking and skimming the fat. For instance, I cook it on the stove for 6 hours. Let it cool, then put in refrigerator overnight. Next day, I skim off the fat, and then cook for another 6 hours, etc.
At our house, we reuse the bones again for a second batch. The soup stock will be more diluted, so sometimes we mix it with the original batch or eat it as is.
You can make ahead, and store in freeze safe containers. It’s a great quick meal. You can take out a container from freezer, put it in a pot, add veggies, meats, some salt, heat for 10-20 mins, and you have a nourishing meal. When the soup is refrigerated, it’ll look gelatinous.
Your soup should have a milky color like this:
How to enjoy your bone broth:
You can drink a small cup with some sea salt. My 6 and 2-year-old sons love drinking it with a straw.
In South Korea, this is traditionally served with thinly sliced beef, garnished with fresh scallions, and eaten with a bowl of rice.
You can also use it as a soup base to which you can add noodles, vegetables, seaweed, mushrooms, other whole cooked grains like millet, quinoa, etc. Garnishing with fresh microgreens and scallion is my favorite way to have this.
One important note is to avoid garlic, onions, or hot spices (such as red pepper) when having this. Bone broths support our deepest constitutional health, and spicy spices tend to disperse this energy, which we don’t want here. We want to deeply nourish and support our constitution.
Health Benefits:
Bone broth is the trendiest superfood right now. And you can get good quality broths from Wholefoods in the freezer section. But making it at home is tastier, cheaper, and I also use a special recipe (that you can’t find in supermarkets), and I make it without garlic, onion, or hot spices (which is harder to find).
The reason my recipe has the milky color and creamy taste profile is that I don’t add any vinegar, herbs, or vegetables to my stock (adding these things will change color to clear brown and will of course change taste profile). I used a more traditional Korean recipe, which is water and bones. You can always add herbs and vegetables (esp. celery, carrots) when you are using it as a soup base.
Simple Google search on ‘bone’ broth’ will give you LOTS of information on health benefits from ‘aiding digestion, reducing inflammation, being a great source of collagen for better skin, hair, being nutrient-dense, etc.’ In the language of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is said to nourish our deepest constitution. All true, I think. For me this means it hydrates our deeper levels of the body, where physiological activities require this for optimal functioning. Most modern diets lack the thick collagenous material that is needed at this deepest level of joints, hormones, and other important physiological functions. But as with all things, we have to take in one’s individual circumstances and health to understand how much you need and if at all. So, don’t get taken over by the concept that it does all these wonderful things (such as it contains important amino acids like arginine), and pay attention to your body. Can you digest it well? Do you feel better after? And so on.
I want to close with an important concept from TCM. Hydration is very important for all activities taking place in the body. My TCM nutrition teacher said, most chronic degenerative diseases come from dehydration from this deep level. It’s a common misperception that we need 8 glasses of water for proper hydration. Water is important for hydration, but the amount of water and how it is imbibed is a little bit more complex. The amount of water one needs can change daily, even hourly, and depends on a person's activity, age, and environment, both internal and external. Generally speaking, sipping a large glass of room temperature water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is a good practice. It provides hydration and also promotes peristalsis. Throughout the day, sip filter water between meals, bc drinking water with meals can dilute stomach acid, which is needed for digestion. Iced or cold water will shock your organs, which like room temperature for optimal functioning, and carbonated water or soda, coffee, or caffeinated teas are too dehydrating. But there is more to maintaining fluid metabolism, than simply drinking water.
In TCM there are different types of fluids and different levels of hydration the body needs to function. For instance, Qi, blood, and Essence (or hormones) require different fluids to nourish and to aid in proper physiological functioning. So getting enough hydration from different sources of food to maintain healthy cells, blood vessels, interstitial tissues, joints, hormones, support our immunity, etc., are important daily considerations when we are looking at nutrition. For instance, taking collagen or vegetable powder will not give you the same type of hydration as collagen derived from broth or fluid derived from having a cucumber. Yes, they may contain certain nutrients, but are missing the whole picture of how our body functions. Also, the body recognizes how to digest broth better than collagen powder, so the bioavailability of the nutrients depends on how your body digest the food you are eating.
Dr. Yoon Lee, L.Ac., DAC,
Dr. Lee currently practices Constitutional Acupuncture in Manhattan and Brooklyn. She likes to focus her treatments on balancing and strengthening a person’s innate constitution. She is also a Certified Havening® and Vortex® Healing practitioner, which supports her psycho-somatic and energetic healing work with her clients.
