Beef Knuckle Bone Broth
Eat bone broth and look younger! I get asked an average of once per week how I take care of my skin and my answer is always "Bone broth."
Why bone broth? Originally Taylor and I were inspired to make bone broth because of its many health benefits, however, we had no idea how delicious of a treat this is, and it has become a daily ritual to sip on late afternoons in the office. It is absolutely loaded with nutrients, and when you finish a cup of this recipe, you can feel your body saying, "Thanks for that."
Health benefits:
- Rich in glutamine, glycine, calcium, magnesium, iron, vitamins A & K, selenium, zinc, manganese, phosphorous, and, most notably, collagen. It's amazing how many supplements and protein shakes boast of containing collagen for skin health and amino acids, but there is simply nothing like the real thing.
- Has been shown to protect joints due to the natural gelatin content.(1)
- Reduces inflammation and supports healthy digestion.(2)(3)
- Can aid with sleep and reduce fatigue the following day.(4)
- Supports weight loss because the body is naturally nourished and satisfied after this low-Calorie snack, and is not panicking looking for high-Calorie processed foods to satisfy its hunger.
Ingredients:
- Grass-fed beef knuckle bones, enough to fill your slow cooker about half way
- One yellow onion
- A few stocks of celery
- A few carrots
- Tomato paste, 4oz
- Celtic sea salt
*Pro-tip for sourcing bones: Beef knuckle bones can be found at restaurant supply stores, health stores, or from local butchers, but they are not the only bones you can use. Whenever we eat ribs, chicken thighs, or bone-in steaks or pork chops—essentially anything with bones, we throw them in a gallon sealable bag in the freezer. Once the bag is full, we simply use these bones for bone broth. Chicken, pork, beef, even turkey bones—all of them mixed together because who cares?! It’s still good, and it’s practical! You can skip the roasting process here because they have already been cooked and they’re ready to go into the slow cooker. You’ll just need to roast the vegetables.
Roasting the bones and obtaining the bone marrow:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cover a large baking pan with tin foil and spray with avocado oil.
- Dice all of the vegetables and spread them over the pan, along with the bones, then cover them with the tomato paste. Add Celtic sea salt liberally to the vegetables and bones.
- Place the pan in the oven and bake for 2-1/2 hours. The vegetables will be completely charred, which is okay because this is a soup. The bones will need to be roasted this long to break down properly prior to going into the slow cooker.
- IMPORTANT: When done roasting, remove the pan from the oven and drain out all of the liquid that has come out of the bones. This is bone marrow. It is a most wonderfully nutritious fat with a unique, special flavor that you must save for cooking eggs, liver, steak, or just about anything you can think of!
**Pro tip for roasting vegetables: It’s not like the vegetables need to be very fresh because they are going to go into the slow-cooker anyway, so we usually roast the vegetables once every month or two in large batches, use a few of them with one batch of bone broth, and then place the rest of the roasted vegetables evenly into three or four equal-size meal prep containers and freeze them so when we go to roast our next batch of bone broth, the vegetables are already frozen so all you have to do is roast the bones (or use bones from previous meaty meals) and throw them in the slow cooker with the frozen vegetables, thus starting the slow cooking process below.
Slow cooking instructions (after roasting):
- Place the vegetables and bones into a slow cooker and fill with water.
- Add a little red wine and some more Celtic sea salt into the slow cooker. You may add more seasonings if you desire, but this is not necessary, because the broth you are making will be so full of natural flavor..
- Cook on low heat for 24 hours.
- After the broth has cooked thoroughly, let it cool at room temperature for an hour and then pick out the bones one by one, scraping the meat off of the edges and marrow out of the middle with a fork. Throw the bones away. They are soft enough you can actually chew and eat them but I don't recommend that because I tried it one time and gave myself a horrible stomach ache!
- Transfer everything left in the slow cooker into a GLASS meal prep container (this will preserve it better than plastic).
- OPTIONAL: You may serve and eat it like it is now, but it is very high in fat. This isn't anything to be alarmed about because it is so high in nutrients that your body will naturally feel full very quickly, however, if you wish to minimize fats, or do not enjoy how thick it is, I suggest not eating it yet at this point and moving on to the next step.
- Let the bone broth sit in the refrigerator overnight until it separates into a brown gelatin broth on the bottom and a thick layer of yellow fat on the top. The fat can then be easily removed with a spatula, whereupon you are left with a gelatin-textured bone broth that is purely lean protein and collagen!
- Reheat the serving amount you would like to drink, turn on some jazz, and enjoy!
***Contact Colt for a list of recommended jazz albums to enjoy with bone broth.
Sources:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5633631/
(2) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27749689/
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5622680/
(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4397399/