Bone Broth

Ingredients

5lbs beef bones (try to include marrow bones, knuckles and joints)

2 onions, roughly chopped

1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally (don’t worry about peeling it)

3 stalks of celery, roughly chopped

3 good sized carrots, roughly chopped

1/2 cup of red wine OR 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar OR juice of half a lemon

Filtered water to cover

Method

Brown bones in a roasting pan in the oven at 375° F. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn!

In the base of a large stock pot, brown the onions, celery, carrot and garlic in your fat of choice (ghee or lard work best).

Add your water. It should be enough to just cover the bones.

Add in your wine, vinegar or lemon.

Cover and bring to a boil. Don’t leave it unattended because you don’t want it to boil hard!

As soon as it starts to boil, turn it down to a simmer. There should just be a small amount of movement on the surface; not a lot of activity.

Let simmer for 8 to 12 hours. Longer isn’t necessarily better, as some of the important compounds begin to break down with really long simmering. You know this happens if your broth doesn’t “gel” once it’s cooled in the fridge (this can also be because too much acid, like lemon or vinegar, was added).

Strain broth into a large container or several small mason jars. Allow to cool to room temperature before putting in the fridge.

Consume daily.

A couple of notes about the recipe above. First, you don’t necessarily need the veggies. Whether or not you use them might depend on what you’re going to use the broth for. You can find recipes online for sweet applications like desserts or blended chocolate drinks using broth and in those situations, you’d definitely not want a broth tasting like garlic and onion! Broth made with only bones still tastes quite delicious on its own. I pretty much always use just bones in my broth making to keep the possible uses open.

Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist