Bone Broth: The Experiment is OVER!

I got through one quart of knuckle bone broth over the course of a week, but broth is only good for 3-4 days so I threw the other quart away. Yes, it was a waste of money, but I was very happy to get rid of the remainder. Good riddance crappy knuckle bone broth! I still have $15.00 worth of giant knuckles in my freezer. Some instructions say to mix the knuckles with the other bones, but I think I might put them on Freecycle and give them away...

Saturday morning and I'm at the co-op staring at the meat fridge trying to decide what to buy and what do I spy...bones. Bones? On a Saturday? Small packages of bones! I check the labels BEEF MARROW BONES! So they come in on other days besides Tuesday. Talk about not getting accurate information from co-op employees. Those people irritate me constantly.

 

How many kinds of bones are there?!!! So far I've found soup bones, knuckle bones, ox-tail bones, and marrow bones. These marrow bones were $3.99 lb. but they are so small the whole package was only $4.31. So I bought one, brought it home, baked it, then boiled it for about 20 hours and added veggies at the end. Marrow bone broth tastes much better than the knuckle bone broth and similar to the soup bone broth. Or is it just this batch? These marrow bones also didn't produce gel so this would be considered a failure.

The next day I boiled the ox-tail bones for a taste comparison. As you may recall, these are $7.99 lb so twice as expensive. Supposedly they have more cartilage than the soup bones but with a layer of juicy meat for taste. They tasted tolerable, but not as good as the marrow bone broth. And no gel either.

Left: ox-tail broth, Right: bone marrow broth

 

The only gel-producing bones were the first soup bone attempt and chicken bones. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm tired of this experiment.

I think my bone broth days are finally over!! Hooray!

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Broth Bones

"Dem Bones" or "Dry Bones" is a well-known spiritual-turned-children's song written during the early 20th century. You can watch a performance of it by The [incredibly good looking and dapper] Delta Rhythm Boys (circa 1940s?) HERE or listen to the children's version with sexy dancing skeletons who I think would be really good at twerking HERE . Who would have thought I'd feel spiritual about bones? YES! I have finally found and purchased beef bones for broth!

Having missed the bone deliveries that normally arrive at my co-op on Tuesday night, I finally outsmarted myself by getting up before the crack of dawn on Wednesday morning and driving to the store just as it opened. Am I a model of persistence, or what??!! There they were waiting for me!  They cost $3.99 lb. (same as the other co-op) and ox-tail bones were $7.99 lb. A little spendy for bones if you ask me, but it's all about supply and demand.

Being really tired of always missing them and everyone explaining and apologizing how other customers are "hoarding" them, I bought not just one pack but two. Yes, I am now an official hoarder joining the millions of other bone broth addicts who are incapable of sharing. This is one of the many negative effects of the AIP diet: flatulence, starvation, selfish hoarding and competitive aggression. Evidence of mad cow?

As I waited for the front doors to open, another customer walked up behind me then past me as we were greeted and welcomed into the store. I glared at her from behind and sped up muttering threats just under my breath to the back of her head. I'm pretty sure if she would have headed down the meat aisle I would have tackled her screaming like a mad [cow] woman. Lucky for her, she walked right on by. She had no idea how close she came to being the victim of a random act of violence. (According to an unofficial source not at liberty to discuss details of the investigation, police still cannot determine what motivated this crazed cow to attack the other shopper. It's a mystery.)

 

The "bones" were packaged in bizarre white sticky paper with vacuumed-packed plastic wrap over that making it look like there were multiple parts.

I made the mistake of assuming I had "bones" when in fact I bought one humongous knuckle bone. Eleven dollars worth of cow knees! Or knee. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea. What the hell did I buy?

I'm not sure if one cow knee is worth $11, but I'll give this a try.

I baked this bone at 400 degrees for 20 minutes in lieu of pan searing. No meat on this chunk. Then placed it in my newly purchased yet used over-sized pot and filled it with water and a bit of vinegar which supposedly leaches the minerals out of the bones.

After suffering forty-eight hours of gross beefy smell, I had myself some authentic bone broth. The real thing. At the last minute I threw in some onions, celery, parsley, and garlic and simmered for a bit longer.

I tried drinking it fresh just after I strained it several times, it was like drinking liquid fat. ARGH! Heck, it LOOKED like a large pot of fat! And this photo was taken when it was still hot:

I've read the fat is good. It makes you feel full. This, however, was really gross. So I cooled my authentic broth and patiently waited for the fat to harden. And there wasn't much fat to remove...hmmm...and there wasn't any gel! How can that be after I boiled these babes for 48 hours? And it looks like sludge. And smells like dead bodies. Or smelly armpits. A rancid animal stink.

Did that stop me from tasting it? Nope. I am determined to do this right. The taste was tolerable but only because of the vegetable flavor. The texture is now creamy rather than greasy. Tolerable, but not something I'd look forward to drinking. All that work and expense made two quarts of bone broth which is fine since I don't plan to drink more than a half of a tiny tea cup's worth each day. I suppose this is how supplements came into existence: someone thought they could freeze dry it and stick it in a capsule to swallow so they wouldn't have to taste it.

So, I'm not feeling so spiritual anymore, but I am praying passionately for an end to this diet.

So what to I do with the other $15.00 hunk of cow knee still in my freezer?

The Lovely Bones

The bones came in! Who would have ever thought I'd be excited about bones?

I ordered what I thought were bones for broth. The man discussed quality and price so I was fairly confident I would get what I ordered. I had no idea there are different kinds of bones!

My bones came priced $1 per pound more than the quoted price. Hmmm... I think most people would have been so excited to finally get them, they'd just keep their mouths shut but that's a huge jump in price. So I asked. It seems there are neck bones used for soup or joint bones used for broth. This is something I've never heard about in all the books and websites I've read. The soup bones have more meat and the soup made from them is said to taste better. Joint bones are pretty much all bone with a higher mineral content needed for these AIP or GAPS gut-healing diets. The guy did remember me, apologized profusely, told me the soup bones are in high demand which is why it took so long for them to come in. He gave me a slight discount. I will order REAL bones next time. They ARE still bone so I figured it won't hurt. Here is the bone broth recipe I used:

Take two bones and sear all surfaces on medium heat in olive oil in a frying pan.

Place in a gallon of water in a boiling pan or enough to cover the bones depending on the size of your pot. Add about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (optional) as this helps leach the minerals out of the bones. It does boil off, but the smell for the first hour was questionable. Heat to boil.

Check out my new incredibly large pot!
I just bought it this morning at a yard sale.
Only $3.00 with lid!!
 

When it reaches boiling point, turn the heat down and simmer for a minimum of four hours but up to 48 hours. The longer the better as the bones will start to soften releasing more nutrients and gelatin. For any length of time, a slow cooker or pressure cooker would work better. I simmered mine for 12 hours and it was a pain to get up in the middle of the night to make sure the water still covered the bones.

As it's simmering, check every hour or two and ciphon off the scum on the top. About one hour before finished, add handfuls of carrots, celery, onions, parsley, a clove of garlic and salt and pepper.

When finished, strain into a bowl several times.

The taste of the broth is tolerable. Not great. I'm only doing this because it's supposed to be good for me.

I know, I know, this is the kind of thinking that gets me in trouble with problematic foods. I should listen to my body, but I'll give this a chance for a short time and see what happens.

In the meantime, I'll still be looking for the other kind of bones!

UPDATE: I boiled another pot of soup bones but this time only for four hours. Tasted much better, however, it didn't gel which means I didn't cook it long enough to extract the gelatin and probably the minerals. Also, I read any kind of bones will do. Does this mean I can use the cow bones labeled "dog bones" at the butcher? Hmmm...