Bone Broth: Concentrated Stock, Or Something Nefarious...[CBD]

In this week's award-winning "Monday Moron Medical Monitoring" Ace wrote about bone broth, and extolled its virtues...and taste....which is what piqued my interest.

One way to get those electrolytes and salts you might be shedding is by drinking the so-called "superfood" that became a craze a couple of years ago -- bone broth. When you simmer bones in water for hours and hours, it leeches the protein out of the marrow and bone, but also the minerals like potassium and magnesium and calcium and sodium you need to retain fluids.

I gotta tell you, I just had this this weekend and, taste-wise, it's awesome. There's something that just tastes right about it, like chicken soup just tastes right. It's an ancient thing -- humans were boiling bones forever -- and just seems to be a good re-connection with our past.

I can't guarantee it did the trick of restoring water to my body, but I almost don't care, because it's just generally good even if it has no additional health-related effects. Give it a try. (If you don't feel like making it yourself (though I'm told it's easy as hell to make, and cheap too), some Whole Foods type restaurants are selling it.)

I looked at several recipes, from standard beef broths in classic cook books all the way down the rabbit hole to the loony "Bone Broth cured my cancer!" people. And they are pretty much all the same, with one particularly odd outlier that called for a 72 hour simmer, and then to use the same bones for another batch. Yeah...that won't work.

Here's a Beef Bone Broth recipe from Epicurious, and it seems like a good one. Roasting the bones and vegetables certainly adds flavor...I do that with chicken stock and the difference is clear.

A few suggestions: If you can, buy bones with a little meat on them; that will add flavor. And try to keep the pot simmering and not boiling. Just a few lazy bubbles meandering to the surface is fine. A full roiling boil is going to evaporate the solvent very quickly, and you won't get the extraction you want. And I have found that stock tastes different (not as good) if I cook it at too high a temperature.

Yup...I said solvent. This is a simple chemical extraction using water (otherwise known as the universal solvent). I think the longer cooking times recommended by the more health conscious recipe writers seek to extract more of the minerals that make up the hard structure of bone, mainly calcium and phosphate. It will also extract more collagen, which is the structural protein of the body.

After you have filtered out the sediment, refrigerate the broth overnight. that will allow the fat to rise to the surface and then solidify, making it easier to remove. The mouth feel of the broth will be much improved if you remove the fat....it will taste and feel a bit greasy if you don't.

At the risk of losing my dental benefits here at AoSHQ, I have no interest in the health effects of bone broth. But I do know that it tastes really good and is easy and inexpensive to make. And commercial broth can be outrageously priced! Just check Amazon....$130/gallon for one brand.

Here's an article from those guys who just picked your pocket NPR, and it seems rational.... Taking Stock Of Bone Broth: Sorry, No Cure-All Here.

posted by Open Blogger at 07:56 PM

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