Having bone broth in your pantry is one of the best pantry staples that can be used in so many recipes. Not only can you use it in many recipes, but it is such an easy canning recipe that even beginners can tackle. You can make broth in an Instant Pot, slow cooker, and stovetop. Remember, there is something special about cooking with some of your homemade broth instead of broth from the local grocery store.
Let’s talk about all the recipes in that you can use canned bone broth. You can use it as a base for soup, as the liquid for making rice, and in many of my shared recipes.
Making bone broth has three main components: the bones, the vegetables, and the spices.
Ingredients Explained
Broth is very versatile and can use many different ingredients to be made. The basis of homemade broth starts with animal bones, such as chicken bones, beef bones, and even pork bones. The best bones are cartilage, tissue, and meaty bones, such as marrow, joint, chicken feet, and oxtail bones. These particular bones will give the broth a gelatinous effect along with a deep flavor.
The bones that you use can be raw or cooked leftover bones.
There are many vegetables and so many ways you can add them to your stock pot. Some of the most common vegetables used for broth are carrots, onions, garlic, and celery.
The carrots can simply be washed and added to the pot, stems and all. There is no need to peel them if they are washed and free of dirt.
Onions are very similar to carrots; they can be added to the stock once they are free of dirt and debris. I recommend chopping them into quarts to help them release the flavour easier.
Spices can be either fresh or dried. Common spices that are added to broth are salt, pepper, and parsley. If you are using red meat for the broth, you can use rosemary and oregano. The spices you add are all preference-based.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F. While the oven is preheating, pat dry your thawed meat bones and put them in a single layer on a baking sheet. You can line your baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil if desired.
- Once the oven is preheated, place the baking pans of meat into the oven and let them roast for 3-4 hours.
- While the bones are roasting, wash all of your vegetables and herbs if using fresh herbs. You can also cut your vegetables into smaller pieces, but this is not necessary.
- Once the bones are roasted, place bones, vegetables, and herbs into a large pot on the stove.
- Fill the pot with just enough water to cover the bones.
- Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then turn down the heat to low. Let the pot simmer for 12-24 hours.
- Once the broth has simmered, give it a taste to see if you need to add more spices of any kind.
- The last step is to skim the fat off the top.
- The last step in making bone broth is to strain the chunks from it. You can do this by using a cheesecloth and a fine wire mesh strainer.
Stovetop Bone Broth Recipe
Ingredients
- Meat bones raw or cooked
- Vegetables washed
- Spices fresh or dried
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F. While the oven is preheating, pat dry your thawed meat bones and put them in a single layer on a baking sheet. You can line your baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil if desired.
- Once the oven is preheated, place the baking pans of meat into the oven and let them roast for 3-4 hours.
- While the bones are roasting, wash all of your vegetables and herbs if using fresh herbs. You can also cut your vegetables into smaller pieces, but this is not necessary.
- Once the bones are roasted, place bones, vegetables, and herbs into a large pot on the stove.
- Fill the pot with just enough water to cover the bones.
- Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then turn down the heat to low. Let the pot simmer for 12-24 hours.
- Once the broth has simmered, give it a taste to see if you need to add more spices of any kind.
- The last step is to skim the fat off the top.
- The last step in making bone broth is to strain the chunks from it. You can do this by using a cheesecloth and a fine wire mesh strainer.
How to store broth
Homemade bone broth can be stored by either canning it or freezing it. If you are looking for instructions on how to can broth, I recommend you seek out the recipe in the Ball Canning book. I also use one teaspoon of salt per quart when I can the broth.
Freezing broth is extremely easy, but keep in mind that it can take up a lot of room in the freezer. To do this, you can place the room-temperature broth into mason jars, plastic containers, and even plastic bags. Remember to leave enough room for expansion of the liquid when it freezes. If you fail to leave the room, it will indeed break the mason jar, container, or bag.
How to Remove the Fat
Removing the fat from the broth can be done in numerous ways.
- Chill the broth until the fat hardens on the top of it. At this point, you can remove the fat from solid chunks.
- Use a large stock pot with a built-in spigot on the bottom. The fat will remain on the top of the broth, even in the liquid state. So emptying the pot from the bottom will give you all the broth first. You can tell when you start getting fat, I promise.
- Ladle the fat off when it is in the liquid state and the broth is still hot. This is the least efficient way. It will be very hard to get all the fat without wasting a lot of broth.
Best Bones to Use
- Turkey Broth and Chicken Broth – For homemade chicken bone broth, you can use the chicken feet, be sure they are cleaned and skinned, the chicken gizzard and giblets, and the chicken carcass, even if it has already been cooked and the meat is torn off.
- Pork Broth and Beef Broth – Beef broth can be made with so many different bones. From experience, I have seen that the best bones to use are the joint bones, oxtail bones, and long bones- also known as marrow bones. The connective tissue that surrounds the joint bones and the marrow within the long bones and oxtail will give the broth so much flavour.
There is no such thing as too many bones when making broth. The more bones, the better. You will want your pan mostly filled with bones and just enough water to cover them.
Roasting the bones is not a necessity, but it will increase the flavour and give your broth a more appealing color.
Making broth is so easy and pretty much hands-off. I hope you enjoy this guide for homemade broth making. I would love to hear what ingredients you used to make your broth and how it turned out. Let me know in the comments below.
