Canning Beef Bone Broth

Have you ever wondered why your grandmother gave you chicken soup when you were sick?  These days you can open a can of Campbell’s best chicken soup, but it doesn’t come close to the healing properties that our grandparents served.  You see, chicken broth, beef broth, or even pork broth when cooked with the bones can promote healing, support digestion, contains highly absorbable minerals, bolsters bone, joint and skin healing, aids in detoxification and supports the immune system.  So when it comes to staying healthy during the cold and flu season why wouldn’t you want a homemade soup? 

At the store yesterday I picked up about 5 lbs. of grass fed, meaty, beef soup bones. They are available in the meat aisle.  

The first step is to roast the bones.  Place them in a pan drizzled with oil at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes.  This will get the juices in the meat flowing will help bring out a meatier, tastier flavor. 

When the meat was roasted I then split it up into two 6-Quart Crock Pot, mainly because I wanted to have several jars of broth to process at one time.  Making bone broth is really simple, to each 5 quart crock pot with 2 ½ lbs. of roasted bones I added 1 chopped onion, 3 stalks of chopped celery, 2 bay leaves and ½ of a bunch of parsley. At this point my crock pot is still off.  To this I added 2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar, this is crucial.  The vinegar is what takes this from beef broth to a bone broth with all the healing properties because the vinegar helps to break down the marrow. Fill the crock pot to the top with water.   At this point let the concoction sit for about 30 minutes to allow the vinegar to do its job. 

After 30 minutes, turn the crock pot to high for about an hour to bring the water up to a simmering temperature.  After an hour, turn the heat on the crock pot to low and allow the broth to cook for about 24 hours.  The house will smell amazing! 

For the Instant Pot:
Tie up bones and veggies in cheese cloth and place int your Instant Pot.  Add apple cider vinegar. Next add water until the pot is 2/3 full. Let the pot sit for 30 minutes so the vinegar can begin to pull minerals out of the bones. Select the 'Soup' button and set the pressure to "low" while increasing the cook time time to 120 minutes.  Allow the Instant Pot to depressurize naturally. This takes the cooking time in a crock pot of 24 hours down to about 2 hours in the Instant Pot! 

After cooking in the Crock Pots for 24 Jon strained the veggies out through a colander to get the big pieces, then again through cheesecloth to get all the small bits. 

Next I began filling my hot, sterilized Ball Pint Jars, leaving about an inch headspace. I tightened on my hot, sterilized lids, to fingertip tightness.

I processed the pint jars of broth in my Pressure Canner at 10 pounds pressure for 20 minutes (quarts would be 25 minutes).

I now have an incredibly healthy beef stock that is shelf stable. My two crock pots yielded about 8 pints of broth. I can use them to make soups, use in rice, chili, beef dip sandwiches, beef stroganoff or French onion soup. 

Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.” 2 Kings 4:38