What does a Calgary Chiropractor have to do with cooking bone broth??? Dr. Alan Chong, a Calgary chiropractor, director at his 2 clinics, is also an accomplished home chef, having been selected to audition for MasterChef Canada – Season One and CTV’s Recipe to Riches. So you can take comfort in knowing his recipes for health have been created and tested in good hands.
It seems that nothing warms from the inside out like a steaming cup of homemade broth or soup. But did you know there is so much more than that in every nutrient-packed sip? The savory scent of simmering broth made from the leftover bones of the holiday turkey brings back wonderful memories for many of us. Our grandmothers knew the frugality of using every bit of the bird, not to mention amazing healing properties of a good gelatinous broth. Why not bring those memories back this season with a simple, nourishing broth of your own? It’s perfect for using as a soup base, for cooking rice, or creating delicious sauces. It’s so good, there may not be enough left to put in the freezer!
Easy to make and requiring very few ingredients, the key, as always, is the quality of those ingredients. Bone broth takes advantage of the minerals and collagen present in the joints and bones of the animal, whatever animal you choose to use – poultry, beef, fish, or lamb, to name a few – and delivers that in a form more readily utilized by your own bones and joints. Therefore, it is extremely important to start with an organic source for this powerhouse concentrate.
This also applies to the vegetables you use to flavour your broth. Continue the theme of using every part of the foods we consume by using vegetable scraps for this purpose. Carrot peels and tops, broccoli stems, cauliflower cores, the fibrous green ends of leeks, and even eggshells all have vital nutrients to contribute. Avoid onion skins – they make the broth bitter! For vegetarians, using an array of root and bulb vegetables (such as onions, carrots, celery, turnips, parsnips, leeks, celeriac, and fennel) offers deep flavour and are packed with minerals.
Another key component is the acid used to draw the gelatin out of the bones. This can be anything you favour – lemon juice, wine vinegars, or cider vinegar – and a little goes a long way. (Dr. Chong suggests up to 1 Tbsp. per stock pot.) Even if your cooled broth doesn’t gel, don’t worry! It is still a nutrient dense super-food.
Here’s how to make it:
Place the picked-over carcass or bones in a slow-cooker with any scraps like skin, giblets, neck, and even the feet if you have them. Don’t worry about the fat from the skin. Fat = flavour!
Add the vegetable scraps and any fresh herbs you like. Wrapping and tying the herbs in a piece of cheesecloth makes later removal easier. Squeeze the juice of ¼ of a small lemon into the pot. The flavour should be bright, not sour.
Fill the crock pot with only enough cold filtered water to cover the bones, and let them simmer for anywhere from 12 to 48 hours. The longer the bones simmer, the more likely they are to produce a gelatinous broth. For vegetarian broth, leave out the bones and acid, and simmer for 3 – 4 hours, only.
Remove the bones, herbs, and vegetable scraps and discard. Skim any foam from the surface. Strain the liquid through more cheesecloth or a mesh strainer and divide amongst several wide mouth mason jars for storage. The broth will gel once it’s cool. That is the perfect time to remove the solidified fat from the surface and either save for other cooking purposes or discard.
Broth will keep in the fridge up to one week, or in the freezer for six months.
Yield: 2 litres.