The question that has challenged mothers everywhere for centuries; How does one feed a family healthy, nourishing food on a budget? While this is a complicated question that involves many pieces like where to shop, growing your own food, family budgeting, and so on, I would say that which meals are regularly cooked is of great importance. In our single income household, soup plays a key role. I make a big pot of soup once or twice a week and re-heat the leftovers for dinner the following night. We even get lunches for myself and my husband out of it a couple times a week too. While any old tap water will do as a base, I have found that a good broth lays the foundation for soup excellence. When I got my hands on the Nourishing Traditions Cookbook by Sally Fallon last year, I was intrigued by the concept of bone broths. By cooking soup bones down for 2-3 days, all the marrow and calcium are extracted and you are left with a nutrient rich, hearty soup base. Soup bones and stew meat are some of the cheapest cuts you can find out there, since they are considered the scraps, so it’s a very economical and sustainable choice for omnivores like myself. Additionally, with two kids who can’t handle dairy, it’s a good way to give them much-needed calcium.
Soup bones can be found at any grocery store meat counter or butcher shop for a very modest price per pound. I go to the organic, grass-fed farm down the road every couple of months and buy some lamb and beef leg bone slices to stick in the freezer. Sometimes they come individually packaged like in the photo above, and sometimes I just get a big bag of them. We also got some elk leg bones from a neighbor that worked beautifully, but my attempts at making pork bone broth from our yearly half pig did not turn out so well. The flavor was just not happening for me. I’d love to hear from anyone who has successful pork bone broth stories and see if it was something I did wrong there. I also use the carcass any time we roast a chicken, and cook it down the same way for a chicken stock. It has a different quality than the other bone broths, but is equally nutritious.
So, you take your 1-2 Lbs of sliced up bones and put them in a crock pot full of water. Simmer it on low for two to three days. I check it frequently and add more water to top it off as it evaporates out. It fills the house with a delicious aroma while it bubbles away. This is one of those recipes that takes very little work on my part, so I have grown to love it dearly. When soup night rolls around once a week, I pour the broth into a pot on the stove and add lots of diced veggies and beans, lentils, rice, and maybe some sausages or stew meat if it’s in the budget that week. I have also had good luck with coconut milk, which you can read about on one of my previous posts: Soup Secrets.
There you have it. Bone broths are the best! Delicious soup for dinner..and lunch…and dinner again!
I've only done a sweet and spicy pork bone broth which I freeze and use later for ribs and meat balls.
Do you roast the bones first? You might try that if you don't. It gives the broth a smokey flavour.
I'm loving your food posts. Keep 'em coming!
You are so right! You just don't get flavor without boilin' the bones!
I have slow cooked bones down for several days many times. Lovely broth. I then take the actual bones and crush them up – when cooked that long they will simply crumble in my hands into a healthy bone meal that I then add to my homemade dog food. Nothing goes to waste!
I also routinely make veggie broth. When cooking, canning, etc I save every little scrap of veggies that most would send to the trash (granted, a few morsels find their way to the chickens & rabbits) but I keep a large majority of it. When I have a large bag full (kept in the freezer) I put it all into a big stockpot and cover with water. I add in herbs from the garden, garlic, a couple of chopped leaks, and one whole onion with the skin on. (The onion skin imparts a lovely color to your finished broth.) I let it simmer down all day. Then I drain it through a flour sack towel and I have the most lovely veggie broth. It goes into the canner. I use it for everything from soup to casseroles to homemade cream soups. I also take all the spent veggies that were cooked down and run them through my food processor. Then pack them into sandwich sized bags and freeze. They get added to stews and casseroles to thicken things up. Like I said before, nothing goes to waste!
Sorry to write a book, but I'm a bit passionate about broth, lol.
Adding apple cider vinegar…and recently I found coconut vinegar which claims to be even healthier, will help draw out the minerals from the bones.
When doing chicken broth, don't forget the feet…it makes the broth more gelatinous which is very healthy.
Yummy.
this sounds so good i would never of thought to simmer bones for that amount of time , i will be trying it out ,im so glad we are heading in to the cold months it will be a favourite im sure ….about the pig or pork bones i make soup with smoked bacon bones very tasty indeed ..not sure if you can get them there or perhaps smoke them your self ..just a thought !! thanks again for sharing love coming over to read your post!
Heidi 🙂
We canned a couple of turkeys this year and froze the broth (some in baggies and some in ice cube blocks) to take out and use as needed. Of course…I haven't made any soup yet – go figure. I like this idea of using the bones as well. I need to get on the ball and make some soup!
I love hearing all these ideas about broth! I have heard of making veggie broth by saving scraps, and I might just have to start holding some back from the chickens for that purpose. I need to try smoking the pork bones first too. We just used frozen rib bones from the butcher when we got our pig, and they just didn't make the best broth. Since ham hocks make such a yummy soup, I am thinking the smoked flavor adds a lot.
Turkey broth is so good! I always try to freeze some after Thanksgiving. And the drippings too.