It's the latest superfood to captivate our collective attention; this is how you make your own.
Consider bone broth the new green juice: The health-promoting concoction garnered serious buzz among the highest performers in healthy living before going mainstream. Hence, the Hemsley sisters have dubbed it a seasonal essential; for those of you who don't have a local bone broth pop-up, here, they share their how-tos.
Ingredients:
4-6 lbs. beef bones, chicken carcasses, lamb bones (usually free from the butchers) or use the saved bones from a roast, such as chicken, lamb shoulder or bone marrow bones
Generous splash of apple cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice (this can help to extract the minerals from the meat bones)
2 handfuls of onions, leeks, carrots or celery ends
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
A few bay leaves
Directions:
1. Place the bones and any of the optional ingredients into a large stainless steel cooking pot and cover with cold water. The water level should cover the bones by 5 cm while still leaving room at the top of the pan.
2. Cover with a lid and bring up to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, lid on, for at least 6 hours for chicken and 12 for beef or lamb, skimming off any foam that rises to the top. The longer the bones simmer, the more nutrients are released. We like to boil the chicken carcass for up to 12 hours, until the bones begin to crumble, and keep beef bones going for 24 hours until they look as if they were washed from the sea. Fresh chicken carcasses from the butcher usually have a fair amount of meat on them. We tend to poach the carcasses for 20 minutes or roast, then pull off the cooked meat (and save it for another meal like a chicken salad or chicken pho) before returning the carcasses to the pot and continuing to simmer to make the broth.
3. Strain the liquid, using a fine mesh strainer for poultry. Use immediately or leave to cool before storing (preferably in glass or ceramic rather than plastic). Bone broth will keep in the fridge for several days or up to a week if you leave it undisturbed, as a layer of fat will form on the surface and keep it sealed from the air.
Get more warm-diet recipes from the Hemsley sisters:
Recipe Adapted from The Art of Eating Well: Hemsley and Hemsley