Healing Bone Broth

Rich chicken broth with lots of gelatin

The last couple of years, I have been working diligently on healing my gut and ridding my body of an inflammatory condition.

Then, I got this infected mouth. Well, it was really one tooth, but it felt like my whole face. No actually… it felt like my whole head! Though I am indeed thankful to live in a time that a tooth infection does not lead to yanking the tooth out in the barn and then praying that I do not die of infection; I hate taking antibiotics.

I have worked too hard on my good gut flora to have it all destroyed now. So I doubled up on my kombucha production. I divided my kefir grains and am making two batches at a time. I will drink a cup of kefir or kombucha two hours prior to taking the antibiotics. That will give the good bacteria a chance to get into the gut before the bomb hits. They may not survive, but I just want to stay ahead of this thing.

Then I went to the freezer to get some bone broth out to thaw.

Oh no! There were only 2 quart jars left. Well, I knew just what to do.

When this backyard homesteading momma cuts up her chicken, she puts the backs, the feet and the wing tips in a bag and tucks them in the freezer. She also puts the bones and gooey stuff left over from a roasted chicken in the bags

So I went through the freezer and found all the tucked away backs, feet and gooey bits. I  like to make my big batch with 10# of meat. I came up a little short, so I took out a rabbit too. I have found that rabbit bone broth does not gel as well, but the chicken feet will make up for that.

Did I use my crockpot- No. Why? Because I wanted to make a batch. I went upstairs and brought down the big gun. Ta-Da Most of the items that I keep around serve multiple purposes.  I got my pressure canner.

This Girl Means Business!

I put my 10 # of meat and bones in and added 2 onions, 6 carrots and a whole head of garlic. I did not peel anything, just did a rough chop. I sliced the head of garlic across the middle. Then I added 3 Tablespoons of sea salt and 6 peppercorns. I grabbed some parsley and dill from the herb pots out front and tossed those in too. I filled the pot with water to about 3 inches from the top.

I turned the heat up until it just started to simmer. Then I turned the heat down to very low (one on my dial) and locked the lid on. Once the meat was cooked, I fished it out and stripped the meat from the bones. I put the meat in the fridge for meals and put all the bones and gooey stuff back into the pot. Now is the time to add the apple cider vinegar. About  1/2 cup to this mother load.

It only cooked down about 3 inches

Here, my friends is the magic of doing it in the pressure canner. With the lid locked and no weight on, you can keep it going 24 to 48 hours on very low. Because  the lid is on, it will not evaporate much either.  A crock pot is fine for a small batch. But I am serious about this. A full freezer is a happy freezer, and you know that I like to keep my freezer happy.

 

After 30 hours of simmering, the bones are crumbly and the broth is ready to strain into the jars. I will chill them overnight and then find them  a temporary home in the freezer tomorrow. I say temporary because I will drink a cup of this every evening before bed. I will have to make another batch pretty soon.

Cheers!