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One of the main reasons to learn how to make bone broth as a base for homemade soups and sauces is to supply hydrophilic colloids to the diet. This opens up the door to obtaining the numerous benefits of gelatin to health.
The hydrophilic nature of the gelatin in homemade meat broths has the unusual property of attracting digestive juices to itself. This is in the same manner as raw foods.
There is an extensive amount of research on gelatin benefits in the diet. Gelatin obviously aids digestion by rendering digestive juices more effective by attracting them to itself. It also has been found successful in treating digestive disorders such as IBS, colitis, and even Crohn’s disease.
Anemia and other blood disorders respond in healing fashion to gelatin in the diet. Interestingly, the first known reference to gelatin is from 204 AD. Chinese writings of that time describe gelatin as an agent to arrest bleeding or hemorrhage.
Benefits of Gelatin as a Home Remedy
Homemade stock is indispensable when a stomach flu makes its way around a household. It can slow and stop diarrhea when small amounts are consumed every few minutes.
In addition to stopping the runs, gelatin assists in neutralizing whatever intestinal poison is causing the problem. Unlike anti-diarrhea medicine from the pharmacy which only masks symptoms, gelatin goes to the root of the problem and facilitates healing.
Households where gelatinous broths, soups, and sauces are frequently consumed often get passed by when a stomach bug is making the rounds. Time spent in the kitchen preparing this age old remedy will be repaid many times over with fewer sleepless nights from ill children. No doubt fewer visits to the doctor and ER too.
How to Enjoy More Gelatin Benefits
A frequent question from folks new to Traditional Cooking who are enthusiastically seeking the benefits of gelatin to health, is “how do I get my stock to gel?” What does this mean? A successful batch of homemade bone broth turns into a jelly like substance in the refrigerator. This is due to the gelatin solidifying into a semi-solid state as it cools.
The #1 most common reason for stock that does not gel in the refrigerator is too much water was used to make the stock.
The amount of filtered water should just cover the bones. As the water boils off, feel free to add more water as the stock simmers for the required 4- 24 hours (or up to 72 hours if making beef stock), but only ever add enough additional water to cover the bones.
Stock can always be boiled down on the stove if too much water was inadvertently used. You can even boil it way down to a very concentrated, syrupy, reduction sauce, known as fumee, and then reconstitute with water when you are ready to use it.
Get More Gelatin in Your Stock
Is your stock is already gelling nicely but you want even more gelatin in the final product? Then be sure to ask your local poultry farmer for the heads and feet from your pastured chickens. They add loads of nutritious and healing gelatin to stock.
Another tip is to scald the feet in boiling water to remove the skin before placing them in the stockpot. This will allow even more gelatin to get into your stock.
One final tip is to always start with cold water. Let the bones sit in the water with the bit of vinegar for 30 minutes to an hour before turning on the heat. This allows the fibers of bones and cartilage to open slowly. When this occurs, the maximum amount of flavorful juices and gelatin are released.
Gelatin FAQ
The Reason You Need More Gelatin in Your Diet
Gelatin and Collagen Hydrolysate: What’s the Difference?
Hydrolyzed Collagen Benefits
5 Reasons Your Stock Won’t Gel
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: Gelatin in Nutrition and Medicine, Gotthoffer
The gelatin thing is awesome. A friend of mine had all kinds of digestive problems, headaches, pain, etc., and two days eating gelatinous broth (only marginally well prepared) she got well. Okay, all is agreed upon by what is known as homemade penicillin, it works, nuts to pharmacies and prescriptions, cures work, prescriptions hinder and hide symptoms. Here though, is my question, and it goes contrary to Sally Fallon, though she’s a great woman, and the Weston A. Price Foundation does many good things, can’t say enough on that, however, I have been pondering the saturated or any isolated fat, be it cold pressed, organic olive oil, & coconut oil everyone is raving about, butter from certified raw cream from grazing cows, beef tallow and leaf lard rendered into lard and I bought into all of the above. One day I thought, “Why do I add butter to my vegetables, and Celtic salt, and lately a dash of olive oil?” For the taste and the more often I do that the more I add to the amount of fats and salt added and I get to craving sat fats, salty foods though I eat organic and my food costs me just under 1000.00 per month, and I’m a 140 pound male. Some families of four don’t spend that much, but the kefir made from raw milk, the grass fed beef, lamb, etc., the pastured chickens and egg source from truly cage free chickens and not chickens with ‘access to the outside’ con game, all organic produce, even coffee is home roasted from Ethiopian green organic coffee beans, plus the still water from Italy or it might be France. Everything is pricey, organic, plus some supplements from Dr. Ron, or Mercola.com. My point being, I feel something isn’t right and my body agrees, it talks to me, no I don’t mean we discuss, but my body lets me know all is not well by the way I sleep restlessly, sometimes get out of breath when the activity is barely challenging, etc. Then I thought, “I eat a quarter pound of saturated fat per day in butter, lard, olive oil, cream from whole raw milk and that doesn’t count what I get from meat. But wait, meat, what if the meat was raw, like Sally recommends raw beef liver, what if I ate salmon and didn’t smother it in butter, lemon slices, and so forth, in other words, what if I arranged my diet in such a way whereby I ate only whole food without all the added butters, salts, etc., how would it taste and would I even want to eat it? I tried it. I had a salad with Romaine lettuce, fresh crab and added yogurt made with whole milk, plus a tomato. I was astonished to find, since I was truly hungry, it tasted great. What? Truly hungry! Therein lies the key, usually I’m no longer hungry because I eat so much saturated fat and I think, “I have to eat, it’s been four hours and so I throw down some more sat fat, some meat, some raw milk, some veggies, maybe even a cup of decaf Swiss water filtered coffee and add some whipping cream and then feel thoroughly stuffed and I am where it becomes work just to breath. I know, I know, eat such a meal once a day. At 148 pounds and 25 years old, I ate three eggs over easy, a New York steak, a glass of milk, hash brown potatoes, whole grain toast with butter slathered on, an orange slice, I might snack with something before lunch, and lunch would be a large steak, milk, a tiny spot of one vegetable, at dinner, another large steak, blood rare or maybe a whole chicken, often I’d eat a whole chicken before I went to bed I’d pick up at a Jewish Deli in Los Angeles across from the Macarthur park. I never gained an ounce and was so strong I could curl 175 pound barbell for fun. However, the testosterone was off the charts, and I often said I could eat nails because I have a cast iron stomach. So, what happened. I got jobs driving a truck, a car, I later sat at a desk, on a sofa, etc., etc. And today, I weigh 140 pounds and could never lift 175 pounds as I did, the commercial food finally caught up with me, but I’m on a roll and the question is, what can I recoup if I eat less fat, move my body more, handle stress better, sleep deeply, relax and eat only when I’m hungry and move my body as it should be moved and not sit in front of a computer screen writing diatribes about being out of shape. I think Sarah’s terrific and makes me feel good, that all is well but we do have to eat right and do the work needed to live naturally, we don’t really have a choice.
I have been using lots of homemade bone broth from grassed animals and homemade kefir in the last few months as it is winter here in Australia and I want to give my kids an immunity boost. However my daughter who has never had any obvious allergies is developing strange symptoms after consuming these things. I wonder if she is becoming intolerant to histamine? Have you ever heard of this happening? I’m not sure what to do about it as I feel these foods are extremely important.
So I’ve got gelatin in powder form…in your opinion (because i value YOUR opinion)…would adding gelatin powder enrich my beef bone broth? I don’t have joints available to me at this time. I am doing a week long continuous brew beef bone broth. I’d like the extea nutrients from the gelatin. Thoughts??? Trying to heal teeth and build our health over here…God bless!
Adding some gelatin to your beef broth is fine 🙂 I don’t generally do it myself as there is plenty of gelatin in properly made broth on its own, but if you feel that yours will be a bit low due to a not quite perfect mix of bones etc, then by all means add some.
The whole science behind pressure cookers is to cook food via pressure, NOT heat. The point is heat saturation, not heat increase. Everything in that pressure cooker is going to remain at stable temperature, and THAT is what makes the difference.
The reason you can get tender products from a pressure cooker, even when cooking foods that normally need to be cooked slowly, is because of this stability. The key to pressure cooking is turning the cooking heat way way down.
Check out this article, and the references. Sarah, I think this could be a great topic to research and blog about, because the pressure cooker makes so many traditional preparations accessible to our time, but obviously, if it isn’t actually helpful, people need to know.
http://www.foodrenegade.com/pressure-cooking-healthy/
Thank you so much for these tips! I love this site — such a wealth of good information. It’s funny because I just happened to buy a chicken the other day complete with head and feet. First time ever. I simply threw the whole thing into a pot and simmered away. I was amazed at how thick the broth was — I couldn’t figure out why. Now I know. =)
Hi – do you know how to use the gelatin from beef broth to make recipes for puddings, and other non beef flavored recipes – like chocolate pudding and pumpkin pudding and “jello” kinds of things? Thanks!
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