Broth is Gorgeous in Health

 

How real bone broth can benefit your health and make you a better cook.

In keeping with southern cuisine, my mother, who was from the South, frequently prepared chicken broth from either whole chickens or chicken necks and backs. The broth was used to make delicious and filling soups and chicken gravy. She was right when she said that drinking chicken broth would make your skin beautiful: Even as she grew older, her skin remained wrinkle-free. She demonstrated that common sense.

We are all familiar with the following piece of traditional wisdom: Chicken soup for the soul, or "chicken soup for making us feel happy and mellow." There is also the belief that if we get sick, we should drink chicken broth, and that drinking warm broth will help us get over colds and flu.

It turns out that every one of these beliefs has a scientific basis. I like to think of chicken, duck, beef, veal, or pork bone broth as melted collagen, which feeds our own collagen. Collagen in our bones, tendons, and ligaments, as well as in our skin, intestinal lining, fascia, and other connective tissue, are all examples of this. In fact, collagen is the most prevalent protein because it makes up 30% of all proteins in the body.

There are four primary amino acids in collagen: Glutamate, proline, alanine, and glycine The body is capable of making these nonessential amino acids. However, it is beneficial to the body to get them ready-made, as we do in a collagen-rich bone broth, during a variety of circumstances, including periods of rapid growth, healing, and just getting older.

In the body, these amino acids play a variety of roles. For instance, proline supports the formation of healthy cartilage, wound healing, antioxidant reactions, and immune responses-think chicken soup for the common cold and flu.

Collagen's main component, glycine, is the main amino acid that your body uses to make proteins. It helps maintain healthy muscles, skin, and intestines while also improving cognition and calming the mind. Glycine is implicated in the regulation of dopamine, a feel-good chemical (think chicken soup for the soul), according to animal studies. Glycine helps make glutathione, your body's primary antioxidant and a substance that helps get rid of environmental toxins and heavy metals. Consider chicken broth to be an excellent food for overall health.

Glycine is the main amino acid that your body uses to make proteins and is the main component of collagen. It improves cognition, has a calming effect on the brain, and contributes to muscle, skin, and intestinal health.

Glycine helps make glutathione, your body's primary antioxidant and a substance that helps get rid of environmental toxins and heavy metals. Consider chicken broth to be an excellent food for overall health.

A healthy intestine depends on glutamin, the most abundant free amino acid in the human body. Many people who suffer from Crohn's disease and IBS say that drinking broth helps them feel better.

Glutamine is an essential component of the central nervous system and aids the body in the production of essential neurotransmitters. GABA, one of these essential neurotransmitters, aids in mental and physical relaxation and sleep. Support for the digestive system and relief from anxiety are like soup for the soul.

Last but not least, there is alanine, which supplies the nervous system and muscles with energy. Since alanine helps the body use sugars and strengthens the immune system, it may be useful in diabetes treatment.

It makes sense to eat collagen-rich bone broth, especially in gravies and sauces that we put on meat, for the health of our connective tissue, intestinal tract, skin, brains, and nervous system. In fact, eating our meat with a glycine-rich gravy or sauce is much healthier than eating it dry because the glycine in bone broth helps to mitigate potential issues caused by muscle meat that contains too much methionine.

How can we determine whether our broth contains a lot of collagens? when it cools and turns into jelly. The majority of commercial brands do not gel at all in aseptic packaging!)

To make collagen-rich chicken broth, place chicken bones in a slow cooker. These can be purchased necks and backs or leftover bones from a meal (my freezer is stuffed with bags of scary-looking chicken bones). If you can, include the chicken's heads and feet because these often-forgotten parts contain a lot of collagens. A local farmer who raises poultry on pasture typically sells them.

These bones ought to fill the slow cooker's pot. It's recommended to add a half red onion. Don't peel the onion because it gives the broth its color.) For seasoning, I add two or three bay leaves and a tablespoon of peppercorns, but you can use any herbs you want.

Cover the pot with half a cup of vinegar and filtered water, and cook all night on low. The next morning, transfer the broth to glass containers (I like Pyrex pitchers) and store in the refrigerator using a fine-mesh strainer. Your chicken broth ought to gel well once it is chilled. It will keep for several days in the refrigerator, while it will keep for months or even years in the freezer.

Once you have your broth on hand, you can cook creatively. For instance, after removing a baked chicken from the pan, you can make gravy by whisking warm chicken broth and a small amount of unbleached flour into the drippings. Boil the gravy until it becomes thicker if it is too thin. If the mixture becomes too thick, add more broth or water. The gravy may become overly salty if salt is not added at the end.

 

Deglaze the drippings with white wine or brandy (or both) to make a gourmet reduction sauce, then add several cups of broth and some cream or crème fraiche. Simmer, reducing the heat, until the sauce thickens. Add salt at the very end. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken after it has been carved and placed in separate plates. Everyone will love this dish.

With the same bones, you can make another batch of broth; it won't gel as well as the first one, but you can still use it in soups. Simply add half a cup of vinegar and water to the pot and cook on low overnight. With a slotted spoon, remove the bones; by this point, they will be soft enough to feed your dog, and ladle or pour the broth into a soup pot through a fine-mesh strainer.

The bones of the chicken, along with some rice or noodles, complete the dish! Chicken noodle soup or rice with chicken. A delicious southwest chicken soup can be made by adding a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of black beans, a package of frozen corn, and a few tablespoons of chili powder.

 Pay attention to the fact that I'm not giving exact recipes here-merely guidelines. You won't need a recipe book to make delicious meals once you have real bone broth and know how to make gravy, sauce, and soup.