Bone broth is a rather great thing to have as a staple in your home. This information is new to me and after my first use in Alisa’s Special Beef Bourguignon, I’m sold on the idea of always having this available.
Broth can be used to enhance the flavor of soups, rice, pasta, meat dishes and maybe even more than I know. Bone broth has especially wonderful nutritional benefits above other broths, moreso when high quality ingredients are used. This is a great item for those on the keto diet, but even if not, I’d recommend this to anyone.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 3-4 lbs Mixed beef bones (neck bones and bone-in short ribs were used, oxtail knuckles and others can be used as well)
- 2 Carrots, chopped in larger chunks
- 3 Celery Stalks, chopped into larger chunks
- 3-4 Celery baby leaves from the bunch, chopped
- 2 Onions, chopped in larger chunks
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Bay Leaf
- *3-4 Garlic Cloves, halved
- *2 tbsp Whole Peppercorns
*Optional: Try recipe without this item or reducing the quantity for a more palatable broth to use as a quick soup when sick. But include this item for a more robust broth great for using as a recipe substitution to other broths or water for flavor enhancement.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Put beef bones evenly coated with olive oil on baking pan in a single layer, and roast for 30 min.
- Turn bones over and roast for another 30 min.
- In a crockpot place the roasted bones, chopped vegetables, bay leaf, apple cider vinegar, garlic, and peppercorns. Cover ingredients with good water.
- Bring items to a high simmer.
- Reduce heat to low and cook covered for 12-48 hours. Add water as needed to keep ingredients submerged in liquid. (After appx 12-24 hours, I spooned out the garlic halves and some of the peppercorns that kept afloat. Then continued to simmer on low and add water as needed for a total of appx 44 hrs.)
- When broth is dark and ready, remove bones and vegetables. Then, strain through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth into a large bowl or container and let the broth cool to room temperature.
- Once cool put broth in appropriate containers for fridge and freezer storage.
- Put containers in fridge, especially if glass, for about 1 hr. Once cooled move containers to freezer or leave in fridge as you desire for use.
Pro tip: Learn how to properly store items in your fridge and freezer for best storage and to avoid broken glass, overfilling and expansion of liquid, etc
Pic below: Alisa’s Special Beef Bourguignon and Lemon Thyme Basmati Rice (made with freshly boiled and riced cauliflower instead) – used Bone Broth in this recipe.
Pic below: Bone Broth, blue arrow is a good liquid level to keep in the fridge-not the freezer, red arrow shows the max you should fill the broth in a freezer friendly glass storage container.
If you follow these simple tips freezing the broth for longer use in glass works great.
Freezer safety:
- The glass containers and plastic lids I used above are rated for freezer safety.
- I made sure to leave out at appx 1.5-2 inched space to allow for liquid expansion and avoid a broken jar and huge mess.
- Place jar in fridge to cool down slowly, for at least a day.
- Place cold jar in large ziplock and keep lid loose. The loose lid helps with the pressure as the liquid expands and the bag helps catch anything in case all else fails. Lol
(Once the broth has completely frozen you can tighten the lids.)
