Super Slowcooked Bone Broth Goodness

Bone Broth - what's not to love?!

It's simple, inexpensive to prepare and uses ingredients that might otherwise be disrespectfully wasted.

Traditionally, bone broth is the foundation of many favourite recipes from around the globe. It was popular back in the day when people had more common sense than money, but has made a almighty comeback recently due to its health properties. There are pages and pages of information on the internet regarding it's benefits and it is said to cure everything from the common cold to joint and digestive ailments. Now I won't pretend to be an expert on any of that, but I can tell you, that the flavour is awesome and it just makes you feel goood!! 

Now to turn a pot of leftovers into a gorgeous pot of cure all, you need to cook it slowly. It is the long cooking process that breaks down the bones and makes all of the collagen, protein, minerals, and glucosamine easier to digest. And cooking slowly is what the Wonderbag does best.

If you had to stay at home, for 18hours plus, in order to keep an eye on the stove, waiting for your bones to slow cook, it would be a tricky business. With your Wonderbag doing the vast majority of the cooking by using heat retention and not fuel it's ridiculously easy. I hope my below rendition doesn't over complicate the process!   

You can start your stock off, with your leftover roast chicken carcass or bones kept from a previous meal. This is my favourite way at the moment.

• One whole free range chook stuffed with a heap of lemongrass goes into a pot.
• Cover with water add ginger, onion, carrot, celery and a splash of vinegar 
• Simmer for an hour or so with the lid on, then if you're not ready to eat, you can place it in your Wonderbag until you are. 
• Remove chook, pull off the meat leaving all the bones, skin and wobbly bits, strain the liquid and discard the veg.
• I like to pile some rice noodles and vegies in a bowl add some meat, liquid and let everyone add their own soy, sesame,chilli but you could just as easily serve the chicken with a salad and use the stock another way.At this point, I call the liquid a stock because I don't think it has been cooking long enough to be called a broth, that comes next..

And so for the broth

• Put the all the leftover bones, skin and wobbly bits back into the pot. Add bones and more bones.Chicken wings are good and if you're up for a challenge the chicken's feet and head are suppose to deliver extra nutrients. I haven't gone that far yet, I normally just ask the butcher for some whole carcasses to go with my leftovers.
• Add some veg if you like - again leftovers are good, tops from the celery, carrots, herbs, peppercorns.
• Add a splash of apple cider vinegar - this is an essential ingredient the acid helps extract the goodness from the bones.
• Cover with water and bring to a simmer. 
• Leave to simmer for 45mins. This gives the internal temp of the bones time to get to boil point. Make sure your lid fits nice and tight. I find most of the glass lids that come with the stock pots aren't great, so to get maximum heat retention I put a layer of foil over the top of the lid to stop any heat escaping.
• Lay a tea towel in your Wonderbag to protect it from any spillages and place your pot with its tight fitting lid straight into the bag, put the Wonderbag hat on and pull the draw string nice and tight - no dillydalliying at this point!!! You don't want to lose any heat.
• At this stage in the game, I am normally ready for sleep, so I leave it overnight and then I open my bag first thing in the morning, check the temp ( mine is on average about 62deg after 10 hrs) If you don't have a thermometer you can use your common sense, you know what hot feels like it should not be tepid. I then pop it back on the stove and bring it back to simmer while I do the breakfast thang.
• Before I leave the house I replace the pot back into my Wonderbag  and it will be ready to strain when I return 7-8 hours later.

 I have read that you can keep using your bones 3 or 4 times. Apparently the flavour becomes less intense but the bones will keep giving nutrients. I haven't tried this yet. I normally just ditch what is left after straining or if I have time, I dig a hole under a fruit tree and bury the remains. 

Now I like to freeze my bone broth in cubes and keep it handy in a zip lock bag in the freezer. It's delish by it's self as a really soothing cuppa soup or added as a flavouring to your favourite recipe.

Enjoy and if you have anything to add, we would love to hear form you.