You’re very welcome! Based on the sum of all of the questions and answers in this thread, there appears to be a lot of confusion on the subject of “bone broth.” I have been a serious cook for about sixty years now, I’m a knowledge junkie, and enjoyy sharing, so that said, let me offer a little light on the subject.
mklo weFrench cooking, Esfcoffier, and all those guys. I wanted to offer an accurate original recipe but it turns out Google is no longer my friend, and that even te Escoffier websie ANA Robert Keller give very inaccurate recipes. But that has to be expected. So very much in French cooking has been traditionally passed on in elite kitchens from a master chef to his staff. To illustrate what I’m talking about, the RATIO of a mirapois has been 1/4 carrots, 1/4 celery, 1/d onion, all chopped of course. Change that ratio and you change the
Pretty much, but “it depends” is a better answer. In the long ago world of “haute cuisine” and classic western European cookiing, a standard Carem/Escoffier “stock” is what is currently being hyped as “bone broth” or even “bone soup.” The ACID test for any properly reduced stock is whether it gels when cooled and how firm the gel remains at room temperature. If you ran a chemical analysis on a classic haute cuisine stock – lamb, veal, or beef – “water” would still be listed as the first ingredient. BUT… … … that does NOT mean that every box or can on a supermarket’s shelf is REAL stock/bone broth! The ACID test is always whether it is gelled (and to what level of firmness) it is at room temperature.
So now for a more accurate answer about adding unflavored beef gelatin to a store-bough product. Yes! It will be incredibly close, but to be exacctly the same, you would have to “reverse engineer” all of the bad chemicals and grossly excessive salt that is part and parcel in today’s super market soups, except for those labeled both organic AND grass fed. For centuries “beauty smart” women have supplemented their diet with unflavored gelatin, often in capsule form, because it strengthens nails and imroves hair when taken consistently for life. It works because the gelling factor in stock is the collagen that is broken down and leached from the cartilage and long bones of beef and sheep during the standard 3 or 4 days of simmering and reducing the UNSALTED stock. Reducing by simmering concentrates the flavors and nutrients, and no one needs concentrated salt in their diet!
Yup. I make my own from scratch and it is miserably expensive! When I was a kid, butchers gave away knuckle bones, joints, and marrow bones FREE! Now I pay nearly $40.00 for just the bones to make stock and/or demiglace. When time travel is available, I want to shop then but earn now! I am sooooo greedy! '-)
I’ve tried pretty hard to find some actual scientific articles on the health benefits of bone stock. As much as I tried, I was unable to locate anything actually substantive. I think the health benefits are just “common knowledge” that’s regurgitated without any real evidence.
I start with about 15 pounds of ( usually) beef knuckle, long bones, and a cup or 3 0f good wine (NOT cooking wine!), then simmer it on my “timer-less” commercial induction “hot plate” for 3 to 5 days. That cooking time will be inerrupted for things like refiniing the broth by passsing it through a china hat lined with 5 or 6 layers of cheesecloth. Long story short, I start out with bones and 8 gallons of water, and several days later end up with either about 2 or 3 quarts of rich stock, or I may further reduce it to a classic (pre Escoffier) glace de viand which will only be a cup or two, at most. Hey, I have the equipment and the time. I’ve bought the commercially available kind, and I do not not not like the flavor of any commercislly prepared demi glace I’ve tried.
Well, now. This poster obviously has a lot of experience cooking and has contributed interesting and worthwhile content to this thread. Nowadays the medical people may pooh pooh the gelatin cure for weak nails, but it was “common knowledge” for many years. If our hair catches on fire every time someone innocently refers to outdated information re: dietary supplements, we’re all gonna burn down.
May we cut this poster some slack? While providing links to up-to-date research?
