Beef Bone Broth in a Slowcooker

This beef bone broth simmers in a slowcooker for 30 hours. You have the option of making a hearty stew at the same time.

Beef bone broth is one of those over hyped “superfoods” that are showing up everywhere lately.

Claims made about beef bone broth go from making your skin look better to healing aching joints and even healing leaky gut syndrome. It’s touted by nutrition “experts” as One of the Most Healing Diet Staples. Some famous athletes like Kobe Bryant swear by it. “I’ve been doing the bone broth for a while now,” Bryant said. “It’s great – energy, inflammation. It’s great.”.

While it’s not the superfood some claim it to be, it’s not snake oil either.

As with most things in life moderation is the key here.  There are some reports of adverse effects for people that get too much vitamin d because they consume a lot of this broth every day.

Putting potential health benefits and concerns aside I just happen to love its flavor, texture, and versatility as an ingredient in other recipes. I also enjoy the ritual of roasting the bones and the way the simmering broth makes the house smell. This recipe also freezes well so I often make two batches at a time.

A couple of specifics about the types of bones I use for this recipe. Pasture raised grass fed beef bones which are readily available online. My first choice are knuckle marrow bones from the leg joint. They are bony without much meat and gelatin-rich.

If you’re going to eat a couple of bowls of this as stew then ox tail is another favorite for it’s flavor and bony, gelatin-rich meat. It needs to be cooked low and slow so add it at the same time as the knuckle marrow bones. Soup bones like meaty neck or t-bones are also good to use for the stew option. Add them after the knuckle marrow bones have already been cooking for 27 hours so you don’t overcook their meat.

A note about the tomato paste. I only use the concentrated type that sold in a tube. It has a better flavor than tomato paste that is sold in a can.

I usually opt to eat a couple of bowls of stew from this recipe before straining so I use a couple of bones with meat on them. 4 lbs of knuckles and 1 lb of oxtail or other soup bones. If you’re not eating this as stew then you can use 5 lbs of knuckles.

This is a great weekend dish. Put the bones in the slowcooker around lunch time on Saturday. That way your home will smell fantastic all weekend and you have a delicious beef stew ready for Sunday dinner. After you’re done eating the stew strain out the remaining solids and refrigerate the liquid. Chilling it makes removing the remaining fat fast and easy because it solidifies on top of the liquid.

After straining out the solids divide into quart zip lock freezer bags and freeze for use in other recipes. This makes an excellent base to add body to another soup or sauce. It can also be used instead of water to make a flavorful quinoa.

I tried to figure out nutritional information for this recipe but couldn’t figure out where to get reliable data. USDA doesn’t have anything about bones and I don’t fully trust the crowd sourced nutritional data that’s out there. Sorry.

Equipment you need:

• Slowcooker – 6 quart
• Knife
• Cutting board
• Tongs – heat resistant
• Broiler
• Rimmed baking sheet
• Spatula – heat resistant
• Colander
• Heat resistant bowl