Beef or Pork Bone Broth
When ready to use, take from freezer and put in refrigerator 24-48 hours in advance, or place in a warm water bath until thawed enough to come out of the jar and heat it up in a pan. If adding to soup or stew you can add it frozen.
Servings Prep Time
5pint-size jars 30minutes
Cook Time
2-24hours
Servings Prep Time
5pint-size jars 30minutes
Cook Time
2-24hours
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Add bones to pressure cooker or slow cooker. Add aromatics, herbs, and seasonings on top and around the bones. Add enough water to cover, then add vinegar. Cover.
  2. If using pressure cooker, let sit for 30 minutes. Then turn on to high pressure and set timer for 2 hours (120 minutes). When done, let pressure release naturally, which could take up to an hour. Then let cool for up to 2 hours before continuing to process.
  3. If using slow cooker, turn cooker on to low heat and set timer for 24 hours. Then turn off heat and let cool for up to 2 hours before continuing to process.
  4. Using a large colander and cheesecloth, strain the broth into a large bowl and pour into containers for freezing. Let containers sit until the broth is completely cooled off. Then skim the fat (save the fat in the refrigerator for sautéing) and seal the container as tight as possible.
  5. Alternately (or in addition) you can pour the broth into a flexible muffin tin, place on a flat plate or small cookie sheet and freeze for a couple of days. Then remove from the tin and repackage into a zip lock bag for easy grabbing when you need 1/2 cup or so of broth.
Recipe Notes
  • If you don’t have (enough) vegetable scraps use a blend of fresh veggies, whatever you have on hand
  • For vegetable scraps, save them  when you’re cooking other meals. I save all my broccoli stalks, swiss chard stems, carrot tops, wilted (but not yellow) celery, mushroom stems, fennel stalks and roots, beet stems, sweet potato peels, cabbage stems, spinach stalks etc.). Only save fresh items, don’t ever use old or moldy looking vegetables.
  • Vegetable scraps can be used for smoothies as well as making broth and soup stock, or even poaching liquid.
  • For the bones, save meat bones from your meals instead of throwing them out.  Chicken carcasses, rib bones, bone-in roasts, etc are all great sources of meat bones.
  • I have several zip lock bags in the freezer with vegetable scraps, fish discards, and chicken carcasses.  I mark every bag with a sharpie on the outside, noting what kind of scraps are inside.  It’s not always easy to tell when they’re frozen.  Just keep adding to the bags until they are full.