Bone Broth
 

I have some beef bone broth cooking right now, simmering away in my crock pot. Does anyone have any idea how to count the calories in the broth?? :confused:

My counter says one cup of beef bone broth is 40 calories. I just made some yesterday. I skim off the fat after it has been refrigerated. i don't know if the calorie count given includes the fat or skimming it off. So nourishing!

I assume that the counts for broth in an online counter are a bit on the high side (because some commercial brands add sugar and thickeners) but I plug those numbers into my calorie counts for the day anyway. 40 calories/cup sounds about right. I've been making bone broth from different types of meat--beef, lamb, pork, turkey, and chicken--over the past couple of weeks, which adds some variety, since I eat at least a cup of the stuff every day.

The count I quoted was for homemade bone broth. I haven't tried it with lamb or pork- good idea. I may try that!

I've been assuming 40 cal/cup for my homemade bone broth. And that includes any kind of bones I can get my hands on cheap (fat skimmed like Beverly does). Results imply 40 cal/cup is on consistent and on track.

... I was just thinking... I bet it has a LOT to do with how much water you add, and how "concentrated" your broth is... like if I wanted to make mine less calories per cup, I could just add some more water...

Thoughts???:confused:

That would work.

I buy organic/grassfed meats at a food co-op in my neighborhood and just pick up whatever soup bones they have the day I am shopping. I found that oxtail makes a nice rich broth, too.

Sure, I imagine you'd cut the calories/cup in half if you diluted with an equal amount of water. I like to get my broth concentrated enough to form a solid gelatin when it's chilled, and sometimes eat it cold with a spoon after skimming off the fat (as in "jellied consume"). I think I'd feel disappointed with broth that wasn't pretty rich with flavor due to dilution with water, but that's just what I've gotten used to. YMMV, of course.

I guess calorie count really depends on how much water is in the broth in the first place. Would vary batch to batch, person to person... but I guess 40 cal/cup is a good estimate. I may try to dilute a cup or 2 to reduce to 20/cup and see how I like it, then go from there. This is my first time making Beef Bone Broth, and just to sip on.
I have always made chicken bone broth, and have never made chicken soup without it, but never just for sipping... It's been fun putting it together, and my BF is excited too!

I looked in my store today - turkey back was $1.29 a # and beef bones were over $2.00 a # :cry: Even the dog bones were over $2.00 a #!

I worked with a gal years ago that said her g/ma would take all the chicken bones after they had eaten the meat off them and boiled it all up for soup, this was after the family had licked the bones :p ! She told me the family loved the soup but she could never get up enough nerve to try it! I suppose the germs were all gone but, but, but :confused:

Oh yeah, I don't think I could do it! Yuck! Even if everything gets killed in the cooking, just the thought....:sick:

I make chicken broth by picking the meat off a roasted chicken (like is sold whole in the grocery store deli section) and then putting the bones and skin and fat and gelatin leftovers into the soup pot with filtered water, a sliced onion, a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and some salt, and boiling it for 6-12 hours. That works really well, and you've already paid for the roasted chicken and don't have to pay anything extra for the bones. Plus, I get to skip the step of roasting the bones first (which I normally do if I start with just soup bones).

Waste nothing! Recycle everything (at a rolling boil)!

:rofl: No wonder I love bone broth...I was raised that way.

I buy a whole chicken at Aldi's, you can find them sometimes as cheap as .79/lb. I boil the whole chicken, pick the meat and put the bones back in the same pot. The meat I use for all sorts of stuff, chicken sandwiches, save for soup etc. I have never bought just chicken bones.
I found Beef Bones at my local butcher, $1.49/lb. Seems a little crazy to have to pay for bones!! There was 1oz of meat left on the 8 bones i got!!! But the broth turned out good.

I guess there are enough people like us who want soup bones that groceries/butchers are going to make money off them. I limit my protein intake so I usually throw away the meat after boiling the soup bones for 12 hours or so--I want the broth and the collagen and the vitamins and minerals, but not the meat on soup bones. So folks like me are paying more for the bones than the meat ...

I still need to ask my local fishmonger if they will give me the fish heads and skeletons for free to make fish broth, or if I have to pay for those ... They offer pre-made fish broth but not the bones for sale, so I guess it would be a special order sale. And, yes, I would pay something for fish heads and bones.

I scooped the marrow out and blended that in to my broth... is that wierd???

Nope, it just made your bone broth more nutritious and delicious. :up: I just can't resist eating the marrow straight. :yummy:

I roast the chicken, roast the bones because I love my broth to have a super rich, deep color.

I'm with PJ - scoop the marrow before dumping the bones in the crock pot. I've been adding it to various recipes, but never thought of blending the roasted marrow into the broth on UD. Talk about decadent eating!

I thought I was the only one. DH looks at me like I'm a zombie going after brains when I do it. :hyst:

How different is bone broth from regular beef/chicken broth (bought)?