Produce Spotlight: Garlic
A simple chicken or turkey broth is simple to make and very nourishing. There is in fact science to back up a hearty bowl of chicken soup when feeling under the weather! Even if you’re not fighting off a bug of some kind, everyone could use a good boost to the ole’ immune system!
That fantastic giant of a bird gracing your dinner table later this month has far more nourishing potential than just one meal for the family. Sure, it’s traditional to boil up the bones and make turkey soup in the following days but how many people do it any more? Earlier this year while enjoying a turkey dinner in a new friends home, I was horrified to discover they were throwing out the carcass after we ate! It made me question if this has become the norm in our processed, single serving, ready-to-eat world…
An easy & cheap way to ensure a steady supply of broth is to keep a freezer bag of the scraps from your cooking (onion skin, carrot ends etc.) throughout the week and add it to the stock pot when it comes time to boil some bones! That way you’re not having to purchase any ingredients in addition to the bones themselves that you aren’t already using. Cooking up a chicken for dinner on a Sunday afternoon then letting the pot simmer overnight is my favourite way to approach broth making!
The culinary use of stocks and broths in the home kitchen has largely become a thing of the past on account of our pre-prepared ready-made society. If you purchase boneless, skinless chicken breasts (hands down the most popular cut of poultry) you’re not coming home with any bones to make broth with anyways! The health benefits are innumerable as properly made broth is extremely nutritious. Minerals from the bones, cartilage & marrow are imparted into the broth. The addition of vinegar to the recipe draws out even more minerals which are both necessary and declining in our mass produced food sources. The gelatin in a broth made from the bones of a healthy bird improves and promotes our digestion. Gelatin has also been successfully used in treating many intestinal ailments including Crohn’s & Colitis and is useful in treating anemia, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and cancer. (Now you know why they give you Jell-o in the hospital!) The cartilage in particular has yielded fantastic results in treating cancer & bone disorders.
Nourishing Traditions is the bible of cookbooks in the genre of alternative healing through food. It includes home fermentation recipes, cultured dairy, sprouting how-to, alternative baking, tips on feeding kids including breastfeeding and plenty more! Sweetbreads anyone? I highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in healing themselves naturally without reliance on pharmaceuticals.
For bone broth recipes straight from the source, click here. Remember that the brand name bird from the chain grocery store isn’t going to produce broth that gels properly as per the recipe. Support independents and purchase an animal to feed your family with, knowing how it was raised.
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