How to make bone broth?

Hi, my name is Roos van Monsjou and this is your recipe to make an amazing, healthy and nutritious bone broth. Scared of doing it yourself? I understand, I had the same fear of bones. Do it anyway!

To start with, you need a large pan. Large enough for a big quantity. You are not making bone broth for one evening, but to stock your freezer with it. The rest of the hardware is simple, at the end a special broth strainer will help a lot. But I got by for a long time with a normal one and some kitchenpaper or a special cloth to strain out all loose particles.

Ingredients:
– 4-5 kg bones from a good source. Preferably organic. I use veal/cow bones or chicken.
– 4 medium onions with skin on. Therefore organic are a better choice. Just cut them in half.
– 3 big carrots, but in chunks.
– 5 stalks of celery in chunks.
– some black peppercorns 6-10.
– 2-3 leaves of laurel
– squeeze of lemon or splash of apple cider vinegar.
– herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley.

Let’s get started!

Put the bones in the large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. All loose particles come loose, proteins, blood etc. You don’t want these things to be part of your soup. After a short boil, strain the bones and rinse them, throw away the water, clean the pot and put the bones back in.

Put all the vegetables and spices in the pot on top of the bones. Fill with water and put the herbs on top. Add the sour ingredient. This is to extract all the minerals from the bones.

Now it’s time to put the pot back on the fire, bring it to a boil, but be careful, don’t let it boil. It needs to simmer. As soon as you let it boil, the soup will not be clear. And the highest achievable award on Soupmaking Planet is a clear broth. Hahahaha…

Now it’s time to be patient. Let is rest.Put the lid on, but not completely. With chicken broth I made this mistake to put it in the oven. Without oxygen, it turned sour.

I normally start on Friday afternoon. Let it simmer during the evening. Turn off the gas at night, better safe than sorry. Gas back on, on Saturday morning. Let is simmer the whole day and on Sunday afternoon it’s ready. You don’t need to do anything with it in the meantime.

Than it’s time to have another pot ready. And the bouillon strainer. Through away all the content expect for the liquid. Strain the liquid in the other pot. After that, let it cool down. If it’s cold enough outside, I just put the pot in my backyard. When it’s completely cooled, a layer of fat formed on top. Don’t throw it away! I ‘slice’ it off and store it in my fridge to use for cooking.

Depending on the type of bones, the liquid will be very jelly-like. That will change as soon as you heat it. After this cooling down and removing the fat, I put it in 1 liter zip-lock bags and store it in my freezer. Alway good to have bone broth in your freezer!
You can use this base for all kinds of soups and souces. If you just want to drink the broth, like a beauty-elixer, do not forget to add salt to your tasting.

You can do this! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me on roos@vanmonsjou.nl. Love to help you! 

Good luck!