I rarely make homemade broth because I’m so lazy that I’d rather just crack open a can. However, I’ll admit that making beef broth using your slow cooker is really easy and requires almost no hands-on time at all. (Update: I regularly make my own homemade broth these days, but I make it in a pressure cooker. Check out the recipe here.)
You can easily substitute pork or chicken bones in place of beef and the results are all good. If you befriend your local butcher, he may even give you a big bag of bones for pennies.
Here’s what I assembled to make about 4 quarts of beef bone broth:
- 2 carrots, chopped medium
- 2 celery stalks, chopped medium
- 1 medium onion, chopped medium
- 7 garlic cloves, smashed
- 3.5 lb of beef bones (from US Wellness Meats or your local farmer)
- 2 bay leaves
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (optional)
- water
Here’s how to make it:
Dump the vegetables in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker…
…drop in the beef bones…
…tuck in the bay leaves, sprinkle on a wee bit of salt, drizzle the vinegar on the bones…
…and add enough water to cover everything.
Program the slow cooker to cook on low for 8-10 hours.
When it’s ready, pour the broth through a strainer, and discard the solids.
You can ladle out some to drink now, or…
…store the liquid in a large CorningWare or glass container for later.
The bones I used were pretty fatty so it made the broth taste unappealingly greasy. I stuck the broth in the fridge overnight and scraped off the top layer of solidified fat.
The broth underneath looks like beef Jell-O…
The broth will keep in the fridge for a few days and in the freezer for several months. (Check out my updated post on how I store bone broth here.)
When you’re ready for a steaming cup of the stuff, just scoop the meaty Jell-O into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. (I won’t tell anyone if you nuke it in a mug in your microwave.)
Voila – perfection!
(Want an even faster way to make bone broth? Check out the recipe for my Quick Pressure Cooker Bone Broth!)
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013) and Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017)!
