Bone broth: the slow-simmered base every AIP kitchen leans on

Nearly every soup and braise in this bank starts with broth, and homemade is worth the day it takes. The technique is simple: soup bones for flavor, joint bones for the collagen that makes it gel, a long slow simmer, and patience.

A broth that sets up like jello once chilled is a sign it pulled real collagen and gelatin from the bones, which is the whole point of making it this way instead of reaching for a carton. Pairing a stripped chicken carcass or beef soup bones with a few chicken feet or a beef knuckle bone is what gets you there; soup bones alone tend to make a thinner broth.

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 pounds soup bones (grass-fed beef soup bones, or a stripped chicken or turkey carcass)
• 1/2 pound joint bones (beef knuckle, or 2 to 4 chicken feet)
• 2 cups vegetable scraps (onion ends, carrot peels, celery tops)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 3 fresh sage leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• Filtered water, to cover

Method

• If using raw beef bones, roast them at 375 F for 15 minutes first, to deepen the flavor. Skip this step for an already-roasted chicken carcass.
• Combine the bones, vegetable scraps, apple cider vinegar, sage, bay leaves, thyme, and salt in a slow cooker. Cover the bones with about an inch of water.
• Cook on low for 24 hours for chicken or turkey bones, or 24 to 36 hours for beef bones, skimming any foam from the surface occasionally.
• Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer. Cool it quickly by setting the pot or bowl in a larger container of ice water, rather than adding ice directly, which would dilute it.
• Refrigerate in glass jars and use within about 5 days, or freeze in silicone molds for individual portions that keep for months. Skim the fat layer off the top before using.

*Adapted from unboundwellness.com by Michelle Hoover*