The Bone Broth Buzz

Every morning I peruse the Internet for food related material and recently noted that Bone Broth is now being touted as a natural miracle cure for everything from wrinkles to arthritis.  People are lined up in NYC for a $4.50 shot of the stuff.  "Isn't this already in my freezer", I'm thinking.  Not just the stock I make but what my Mom called "essence" that I collect to flavor soups, sauces and stews.  I even collect the "essence" when I smoke a pork butt and use it to flavor my prize winning BBQ sauce (see blog post The Secret to Brand X BBQ Sauce, June 2013).  It's the juices from cooked meat that congeal when chilled.

After chilling and removing fat

When meats are cooked, the collagen from the connective tissues and joints of the bird or animal dissolve and run off mixing with melted fat.  Once collected and chilled the fat rises and solidifies on top.  It's scraped off and discarded leaving a gelatinous product.  I toss it in a container and into the freezer.  It's already seasoned and ready to go whenever I pull it out to add to a recipe.

I'd never really given its' properties, beyond flavor enhancer, much thought, and now, here it is as the latest health craze.  It seems beef marrow bones are favored for the most mineral content and cooked bones actually crumble when the broth is completed after many hours of cooking.  Broth flavor comes from roasting the bones first and then transferring to a stock pot or slow cooker with aromatic vegetables and covering with water, then cooking down for hours and hours.  My sister-in-law uses a pressure cooker which significantly speeds up the process and really extracts the marrow even better.  Weight bearing bones, such as chicken necks and backs are also excellent for a bone broth.  I always grab a package when I see them at the grocery.

My mother used to serve jellied consommé with a dollop of sour cream as a starter at many a bridge luncheon.  It was considered chic in the '60s even though it came out of a Campbell's soup can.   Consommé is a clarified bone broth.  She told me frequently it was good for my nails and hair too. Beef bones and their marrow are served as a first course in some of the finest restaurants and consumed with a clever little spoon to scoop out the marrow.  Bone broth would also be a close cousin to demi glace'. The broth and Maderia cooked really way down for some serious flavor.

Well, enough of my know it all.  Nutritionist are skeptical of this elixir du jour but it can't hurt to try it.  The best part, is it's encouraging people to be more mindful of their diet and getting us back in the kitchen.  It's getting pretty hard to get beef marrow bones, so make friends with the butcher.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees sprinkle bones with salt & pepper and roast bones 30 minutes turning once.  It's not necessary for them to be done.  Add the browned bones and vegetables to a slow cooker and cover with cold water.

4 lbs. beef marrows (may combine with ox tail)
1 large onion sliced
2 carrots trimmed, unpeeled cut in quarters
2 ribs celery, quartered
1 parsnip, trimmed, unpeeled cut in quarters
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs of thyme
6 pepper corns
2 tsp sea salt
2 tbls cider vinegar
cold water to cover in a slow cooker

Set on low for 10 hours, then reset for 8 more when cycle is complete.  Strain through a colander lined with cheese cloth.
A pressure cooker will reduce the cooking time to 3 hours or less.  A chicken carcass will be ready in 1 hour.