Primal Warrior Bone Marrow Broth
Chances are, if you go near any ancestral health space worth its salt, you’ll encounter people who will not stop talking about bone broth. Bone broth is a traditional staple of our human ancestry and the teachings of Weston A. Price, containing an incredible reservoir of vital minerals from the bones (minerals otherwise depleted from modern agricultural soils) and structured coherent cellular water, helping protect us from the effects of nnEMFs and much more. Bone broth is like glue for the body; by including broth in our life, our skin and joints rebuild and become maintained, the tight junctions of our intestinal tract heal, and our gut health (and personal power) begins to flourish.
Bone broth is trendy today in the Church of Paleo and Pro-Metabolic, but has been used for ages to impart great flavour into sauces and soups, and as a base for all kinds of dishes in ancestral cooking across the globe. Traditional peoples knew that the bone marrow and bones contained all the proverbial gold, and using small flints and tools, they would extract the bone marrow (as well as certain nutrient-dense organ meats) first. Today we can turn to our slow cookers and stove tops to reap all these benefits. Tragically, I did not get my adequate share of bone broth and nose-to-tail meats in my formative years and suffered as a result, but I do believe that as long as you’re alive, at any age, there are always ways, more often than not, to heal and regenerate your body completely new, cell by cell.
“Good broth will resurrect the dead”
Be sure to not only use marrow bones, but also knuckles, tendons and joints for the cartilage and gelatin to get the most out of the full spectrum of healing properties. Before the bones slow cook, always include a splash of edible acids such as raw apple cider vinegar, lemon or lime to help draw out the extremely bioavailable vitamins and minerals, gelatin and amino acids that act as precursors to produce collagen in the body (amazing for the skin), and heal the gut.
You can add your favourite local herbs, vegetables, spices, barks and/or roots to infuse the broth with even more medicinal benefits. All you need is a slow cooker, quality bones, spring water, 24-48 hours, and you’ll have more broth than you’ll know what to do with. I make mine every few weeks, using the batch consistently in various recipes, and freezing the extra as broth cubes for long term storage.
Truly good bone broth should be gelatinous when cooled. It’s appropriate for any time of year, especially the colder months.
Ingredients and gear
Slow cooker or large soup pot
2-3 lbs of ethically grass-fed and finished, sun-raised beef bones. The marrow should still be in the bones, and be sure to include knuckles, joints, and cartilage to make a properly gelatinous broth with full nutritional benefits. I get mine frozen from my local regenerative farmer—they’re pretty darn affordable on my modest income. Pasture raised chicken, turkey, bison or wild game such as boar, moose, elk, or venison bones are all excellent options as well. Be very vigilant about sourcing, as the wrong type of bones (ie. from factory farms) can actually be quite dangerous, and hold the energy of a sad, tortured soul. Use code ROOTTOSKY for $10 off your first order at wildmeadowsfarm.ca.
Spring water or reverse osmosis filtered water or distilled water, to cover the bones
a splash of raw apple cider vinegar with the ‘mother’, or freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice (about 1/4 cup) to draw the minerals out of the bones and into your broth
Optional herbs + seasonings (pick and choose, adjust amounts, or omit)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed with the side of a knife, skin on
1-inch knob of ginger or wild burdock, minced or blended with a bit of spring water
1 onion, roughly chopped, skin on
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 pasture raised eggshells with their calcium complex shell and collagen-rich inner membrane
1 tbsp astragalus (very optional, always ask your trusted practitioner to determine if a new herb or food is right for you)
1 bay leaf
1 inch piece of dried local kombu or other sea veggie
sea salt, to taste
5-10 black peppercorns
4 parsley stems
foraged birch leaves or spruce tips
any edible wild root, stem, mushroom, leaf or bark that grows in your region
Instructions
If using ginger and garlic, it makes it quicker to fill a blender with some spring water and blend the ginger and garlic until combined/roughly minced. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients.
Add your bones to the slow cooker along with the apple cider vinegar. Add optional herbs and seasonings, if using. Fill up the rest of the slow cooker with filtered/spring water to maximum (do not overfill or it’ll become messy). Simmer on LOW for 24-48 hours. You can also simmer on HIGH for 12 hours then switch it to low for the remainder, but not required. Sometimes I leave it for up to around 60 hours. If you’re using a pressure cooker, 2-4 hours will suffice. If you only have a soup pot and prefer not to leave your stove on overnight, or if the hearty, comforting scent disturbs your neighbours, a 4-8 hour simmer will suffice. Remove the top foam from the broth (skim it) as it cooks, since the foam tends to contain any impurities.
Once cooked, strain the solids using a strainer and funnel the broth into multiple large glass Mason jars, but keep the bone marrow fat—eat it, or add it to the broth. Store jars in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze the broth in silicone ice cube trays to make broth cubes that can be stored for several months.
Tips
Do not discard the fat as it is extremely nutrient-dense and regenerative, full of vitamins and minerals. A successful broth will also become gelatinous when chilled!
After about 24 hours, the broth will have evaporated somewhat in the slow cooker, so top it up with some more water to continue simmering.
Once done, freeze into broth cubes for long-term storage and easy use.
You could roast the bones a bit before boiling them for more flavour, but I usually find this time-consuming and unnecessary.
Use in any recipe you can think of that uses broth. I even use broth as a base in medicinal lattes and tonics, sometimes.
For a low histamine meat broth, boil chicken legs (or another type of bone covered in meat), about 2-4 hours on medium heat. This is better for actually healing the gut, easier to digest if you have a more sensitive gut, and takes less time to cook.
It’s just not worth buying pre-made broth as it tends to run super expensive (at least around these parts). It’s less alive and fresh, and some brands might even sneak in preservatives and flavours that only disrupt the gut. Plus, it’s often in plastic packaging, meaning higher BPA exposure through the oils (no, bueno).
This bone broth recipe can be found in my upcoming book, The Vital Life Cookbook.
