Bone Broth And Gelatin

[charlie]

Wish I knew a place to get some healthy chicken feet.

 

[narouz]

Wish I knew a place to get some healthy chicken feet.

Well..."healthy"....
yes, I understand and appreciate the concern.
Ideally, they would come from organic chickens only blah blah....

But what about the gelatin we eat,
even by Great Lakes?
How healthy were those cows?
How healthy were their feet?

I understand about "healthiness" qualms--a legit concern.

While I can't vouch for the healthiness of the chicken feet I use,
I've found that they sell them pretty pervasively
at Asian markets and Mexican markets.
You might give it a shot--see if it causes the same troubles as when you consume beeth broff.

 

[charlie]

I have a mexican market close by, will give it a shot! Thanks narouz. :)

 

[HDD]

Narouz, those are some gnarly looking chicken feet! If I can find some, how many lbs. do you use?

 

[sctb]

narouz,

I can't say what this does for the chemical composition of the broth,
but if you leave your brown or red onion skins on, they impart quite
a nice colour to the end product (especially with chicken).

- Scott

 

[charlie]

Makes it taste a lot better to. I always use onion skins in my broth. One lady said that were her secret to having broth tasting so good all the time.

 

[narouz]

Narouz, those are some gnarly looking chicken feet! If I can find some, how many lbs. do you use?

Yeah, they are, aren't they. :)
It kinda freaked me out the first time.

I've been a little careless--not quantifying the "recipe,'
but it is surprising what a densely gelatinous broth
comes from not so much chicken feet.
I think I used about 1 gallon of water
to about a pound of chicken feet.

 

[narouz]

This was really interesting to me, and I posted it over on a poster named "Heather"'s Meet and Great thread,
because she has casein allergies.

But I hadn't heard an angle like this before,
about gelatin and milk:

"In Gotthoffer's survey, one general area of health prescription clearly comes to the fore, and that is digestion. Most notably, he refers to over 30 years of research on gelatin's ability to improve the digestion of milk. In the early 1900s gelatin was therefore recommended as an ingredient in infant formula, to decrease allergic reactions, colic and respiratory ailments."

http://www.townsendletter.com/FebMarch2005/broth0205.htm

So many here have travails with milk, I guess I should post it over on a milk-related thread too.

 

[charlie]

Got me some cow feet today, well, one cow feet. Butcher asked me if he wanted me to cut it up. I was in another world at the time and said nah. So yeh, got this big foot of a cow now.

 

[narouz]

One thing that's cool about the beef feet I get
is that it looks like they don't have much of any MARROW.
If ya got Marrow,
ya got Iron...
which I'm avoiding.

You'll see Charlie.
They make great broth--
extremely gelatinous.

 

[charlie]

Looking forward to it narouz. It will go in the pot today.

 

[HDD]

I'm cooking beef feet today, too. How long are you simmering yours, Charlie?

 

[charlie]

I did mine about 7 hours, I would have done 6 but I adjusted the fire down too low and it stopped boiling for a while.

I have to say it is the most thickest incredible amount of gelatin I have ever encountered in my life. When I went and checked my jars this morning it was completely solid of gelatin. Taste is pretty OK too, not bad at all.

6 hours of a good simmer should be plenty I would think. However, as we all know, Peat suggests something like 3 hours or something like that?

I might try a longer simmer next time just to see if I can super saturate it with gelatin. Although, its pretty darn thick already.

 

[narouz]

Yeah. :)
I've been eating a lot of chicken foot broth lately,
but when I make the beef foot broth,
to make it taste better
(no beef bone broth tastes anywhere near as good as chicken bone broth, IMO)
is, about an hour or two before it's done
I add some onion, celery, and carrot to it
to make it taste better.
I strain them out with the bones.
I plan to add some kale or collards next time
for the same reason
and to get some Vitamin K.

 

[charlie]

Oh yeh I did add onion skins, and also kale to it the last couple of hours.

I went to a Mexican store near me to get it. They didn't have any chicken feet but will definitely try it when they have them in.

 

[HDD]

Thanks Charlie and Narouz! Will add the vegetables and finish it up. I agree, Narouz, chicken broth tastes better. I can't find chicken feet in my area . I hope to make French onion soup with this batch of beef broth and maybe try a more Peat friendly version of Pho.

 

[charlie]

MMmmmm french onion soup!!!! What are you using for the bread?

 

[kiran]

I made oxtail soup a couple of days ago. Still pretty tasty, although I couldn't quite get the meat to fall off the bones.
(6 hours simmering!)

Add potatoes and onions, makes it a full meal and tasty! A little more salt and chilli pepper next time ...

 

[HDD]

No bread. Soup and cheese. I've cheated enough trying Stone's way to increase metabolism. I think salt is key for me. Made a Brazilian fish stew that required a lot of salt and temperature was 98.8 which is highest I've had that I know of.

 

[charlie]

Ok, was wondering if you had some kind of substitute for bread. I LOVE french onion soup and haven't had it in a while.

Salt if definitely key.