Some call it ‘Liquid Gold.’ Some call it broth or stock. But this working class food – elevated to the newest trend and health drink is pure nutrition.
Bone broth is a catch all phrase for the two but here is the short and sweet on the technical terms from The Kitchen: “Culinary schools and passed-down kitchen wisdom say that broth is made from meat and stock is made from bones.” Regardless, bone broth is what I call it, made mostly with soup bones and brings us back to the basics.
Each week I make a batch and use it in my cooking but also drink a cup in the morning. I have participated in classes, studied different methods, I have a plethora of cookbooks on it, there are online groups about it, and I have taught classes about it. The reason being is that it is good for us. It is phenomenal for us, our health and budgets.
Bone broth can be considered every persons economic food choice and offers the nutritional range of meat to everyone – the young, the old, the toothless, and the tired. With prolonged simmering in water with a slight acidic additive such as wine or cider vinegar, the amino acids and collagen from bone, cartilage, and marrow are released to create the broth. The gelatin-rich broth provides calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium, sulfate, and fluoride which is said to aid with arthritis, mental clarity, skin issues, intestinal problems, builds strong bones and teeth, and is even known to help burn more fat.
Although celebrities are touting the benefits to their waist line and skin tone, I believe that it is more than a vanity elixir. Bone broth is also known as a protein stretcher and is often the reason it is added to vegetables or rice in protein–poor countries. As early as 1735, chefs dried meat stock in the forms of cubes to add flavour and condensed nutrients to diets. The benefits and flavour of stock is also why a Japanese researcher in 1908 discovered a substance from seaweed called monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It was MSG that made profound changes to the Western diet especially after the Second World War due to cheaper industrial production of bouillon cubes and the ability to create more for less, capitalism.
But for us today, we can make our own broth or stock with local beef, chicken, pork or bison farmer’s products and artisan shops that carry them. You can find many recipes online, in cookbooks, or passed down through generations. But the most important part is twofold. Find clean-living pastured animals and slowly simmer in a cold water start to allow the proteins to escape the solids, which creates gelatin, a protein and amino acid rich soft food. Drink it in the morning with your kids to start your day off with a warm, healthy, natural protein and add a bit of fresh crushed garlic, parsley and sea salt for immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory properties. It will become a morning electrolyte drink made naturally. Offer it to your grandparents or parents to help sooth their weakening joints and bones. Make it to honour the entire animal. And know that with our appetites influenced by nostalgia, we satisfy more than just hunger or health, it brings you back home. It brings you back to a warm sun-filled kitchen, scented with stove top goodness and community as we sample and sip a nourishing broth.
Sharlyn Carter lives in Red Deer preparing a feast or loving the outdoors. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter as Market Gypsy.