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I've made bone broth roughly this way more times than I can remember for at least 7 years. This is just the way I prefer to make it.
Since I'm writing from direct experience, there's probably inaccurate information in here. And definitely other ways to do things more efficiently.
You can cook this in as little as 4 hours for a larger amount of weaker broth, or as long as you and your pot/stove can handle. I cook this for about 8 hours.
To start, I always freeze scraps of vegetables like the hard bit on cabbage, carrot peelings, and onion skin in a large ziplock so I can use them for bone broth.
Be mindful that using a lot of one pungent vegetable like cabbage will make your broth wicked cabbage-y.
Which is delicious if you like that. this is also true for beets
Get a rotisserie chicken. It's cheaper than a raw chicken.
Eat the meat, save it, freeze it, etc. Really pick it off the bones.
Freeze carcass until you're ready to make broth. I keep them in the same bag I use for the vegetable scraps.
I put everything in the gallon ziplock into a large stock pot and cover it with water. Set the stove to high until it boils.
I'll then set it to medium, or a simmer, and stir every 20 minutes.
The hotter it is, and the more stuff you have in your broth, the more likely the bottom will burn. So stir frequently with a long spoon that reaches the bottom.
After 3 or so hours, I'll transfer the contents of the pot to a slowcooker, and set it to high, leaving the lid off. I'll stir it every 45 minutes, 5 or so hours.
The only reason I transfer it all to a slowcooker is because I don't want to stir it all day, and I want the extra heat from the previous step to extract the gelatin from the bones more.
Next, I get a strainer and a large bowl that fits the strainer over it. I use a small strainer used for pasta.
Just as long as the holes in the strainer are small enough to catch tiny bones.
After pouring out most of the liquid over the strainer, I scoop out a small amount of the cooked meat and other bits from the pot into the strainer,
and use the back of a wooden spoon to squeeze the liquid out of it into the bowl below.
I'll throw away the meat once I'm satisfied and repeat until only bones are left. You can also put it in cheesecloth and squeeze out the liquid that way.
Pour the remaining broth through the strainer, then into a storage container. Store in the fridge for about two weeks.
You'll get a layer of fat on top of the broth once it's cooled off. I scrape off as much as I can and store it in another container
so I can control the fat in whatever I make with the broth, use in place of butter, etc.
I've tried stir frying with it but I think if it's not clarified enough it burns like how butter turns brown.
If you add soy lecithin, you can emulsify the fat with the broth so the layers don't separate. It's like magic!!!!!!
I've added jalepenos to my broth while it cooks, and I noticed a majority of the spiciness goes into the fat.
When I add a lot of tomatoes, the fat turns a nice orange color.
I've added apple cider vinegar to the start of my broth, and noticed it did make it more gelatinous. I need to test this more though.
Always stir bone broth more than you think you should. After burning a few pots and having to throw away nearly a gallon of ruined soup more than once,
I no longer make this mistake due to the emotional scars it's given me.
Food scraps you wouldn't usually think of saving for broth;
And that's all! Will probably be updated and tweaked.
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