A Beginner's Guide to Bone Broth — The Garbage Awareness Project

01: What is bone broth?

Bone broth is made from slowly simmering animal bones and connective tissues in water. The end product is a nutrient-filled stock.

02: How to use it?

Consume from a mug, just like a hot cup of joe. Heat, add salt + pepper to taste, and drink! Adding a tablespoon of grass-fed butter will create a smooth consistency and great flavor.
Use as a base for soups or stews.
Use as a water replacement when making rice.

Photo by Victoria Shes on Unsplash

Photo by Mgg Vitchakorn on Unsplash

03: Why is it beneficial?

For healthy joints: Bone broth is a great source of collagen. It’s pulled from the bones, skin, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and bone marrow. Our joints use collagen to restore cartilage.

For a healthy gut: Collagen and gelatin found in bone broth not only aid in healthy digestion but also heals our gut lining. Why is this important? When our gut linings are compromised through poor diets, toxins, and an unbalanced microbiome, it becomes permeable (aka leaky gut) and lets toxins get into our bloodstream through the openings–leading to inflammation and an immune response. A hypersensitive immune system is an underlying cause of allergies, eczema, and asthma. Healing the gut lining will keep toxins from entering the rest of the body, reduce inflammation, and improve balance in our microbiomes.
For healthy skin: The collagen bone broth contains is helpful for the skin too! It helps produce elastin to make the skin’s texture more elastic and less rigid–leading to less wrinkling and puffiness. Healing our skin from the inside out!
For restful sleep:
1. Melatonin (our sleep hormone) is made from serotonin, which is synthesized from tryptophan, an amino acid delivered by bone broth and other dietary proteins.
2. Bone broth also contains the amino acid, glycine. Glycine is an inhibitory/calming neurotransmitter–perfect for calming the body for quality sleep.

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04: How to make it?

We prefer making bone broth at home versus buying it from the store. It’s cheaper, you have control over how it’s made, AND you have the ability to use the whole animal when consuming meat!

Here’s a quick summary of how we make chicken or turkey bone broth: After cooking a whole chicken or turkey in our Instant Pot (6 min per pound), we strip the meat and add the bones, skin, cartilage, and organs (you can also use the feet if it comes with your bird) back into the Instant Pot. Next, fill with water up to the max fill line and add ~2 tablespoons of organic apple cider vinegar (with the mother), salt, and pepper. The apple cider vinegar will help pull out minerals and nutrients. Cook on manual for 120 minutes. Then, let it depressurize for at least 30 minutes.

Note: It’s important to use a pasture-raised, organically-raised animal. Conventionally raised animals will leach toxins from their bones into your broth. No good!

After the Instant Pot has depressurized, we strain the broth from the bones and store it in mason jars in the fridge or freezer. After it cools, your broth should have a gelatinous texture–due to its collagen content. You now have liquid gold that can be enjoyed!

Here’s a recipe you may find helpful.

If you are making beef or bison bone broth, make sure the bones are from grass-fed animals. You can find the bones sold at your local farmers market, a local farm, or from an online health food store.

05: Where to find it?

If you aren’t ready to tackle the homemade version, there are some great store-bought options.

Note: Not all animal stock is created equal. Most store-bought “stock” and “broth” today aren’t bone broth or, in some cases, even made from animals. Instead, companies use lab-produced meat flavors in bouillon cubes, soup, and sauce mixes. Make sure to look at the ingredient label on the back.

Here’s an example of a high-quality bone broth ingredient list: