Buffalo Bone Broth / Stock
Making homemade stock is not difficult, but it does take time. The end result is worth every minute, and produces a healthy, flavorful stock that can be used in many recipes or consumed as a broth for daily wellness.
Note: If you double this recipe, be sure to double your cooking time too.
Ingredients (Makes about 4 quarts):
- 1 - 3.5 lb. package Wild Idea Buffalo Shanks
- 1 - 2 lb. package Wild Idea Buffalo Soup Bones
- 1 - 2 lb. package Wild Idea Meaty Buffalo Bones
- 1 - onion, quartered & separated
- 6 - garlic cloves
- 2 - carrots, chopped
- 3 - stalks celery, chopped
- 1 to 2 - tablespoons olive oil
- 2 - teaspoons salt
- 1 - tablespoon black pepper
- 8 - quarts water
- 2 - tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 - half bunch parsley
Preparations:
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Arrange shanks, bones and all vegetables except parsley on large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, turning ingredients occasionally.
- Transfer ingredients to stockpot, along with brown bits from the roasting pan, cover with 8 quarts water and add the apple cider vinegar and parsley.
- Bring to a full boil over high heat on the stove top. Reduce heat to simmer (bubbles should barely break the surface), cover and simmer for 48 hours.
- Using a slotted spoon scoop bones, meat, and vegetables out of the pot. Optional: Reserve the marrow-bones that still have the marrow inside for spreading on toast and wrap up usable shank meat, which will be fall apart tender for a later use. See recipe for Layered Nachos.
- Pour broth through a strainer to remove smaller particles and refrigerate overnight, or until fat has hardened on the surface.
- Remove stock from refrigerator and remove the fat from the top of the surface.
- Return stock to stove top and bring to a full boil. If broth has not yet reduced to half, reduce heat and simmer uncovered until you have about 4 quarts.
- Transfer hot broth into clean, warmed jars and cover with lids. Store in the refrigerator for up to one month. Many recipes will state that you can only store for 3 days. This is simply not true. I have kept stock for months with no problems, but a month is a good safe guide.
Comments
Kerry Montgomery
I can the stock using the usual pressure canner method and my stock lasts a year or two on the shelf without refrigeration. I also give it away as gifts. So much more delicious than store bought.
Sally
Great article. I make buffalo bone broth from your products as needed and I have stored it in the freezer for many months, but best long term storage has been pressure canning the buffalo broth…now we’re talking several years storage. It is a real joy not to have to worry about losing electric power because I have bone broth on the shelf plus I can make a meal faster without having to defrost the stock. How about providing rendered buffalo fat for those of us who homecraft artisan soap?
Jill O'Brien
To Cindy: Most of the marrow from the bones melts into the broth, but for those marrow bones that have a little stuck in the inside – it’s a yummy little treat on toast. Agree that it give the broth great flavor!
Sally: We do sell fat, but not rendered. A consideration though……
Dira
Wouldn’t the fat be rendered after the initial 48 hours ? That would the fat on the top layer that would be removed….?
Dan
I wonder why pressure canning is necessary after this long period of simmering, may be able to put it up with just a 10 minute boil. I take all rendered fats and spread them on top of bird feeder where they cool and are loved by the woodpeckers starlings and other bug eating birds.
Ross Christensen
To start, traditionally Broth is made from meat and veg, Stock is made from bones and veg. but just as history is written by the victors, language is written by the plebs. Like in the U.S. Aluminium is now called Aluminum, stock and broth are being boiled down to the same definition (pun intended). The reason pressure cooking is needed is because it’s the only way to guarantee sterility inside the jar to make it shelf stable (OK, not the only way but I’m not going to give out pasteurization degrees today). Lastly fat should be removed if you want it shelf stable because fat can turn rancid and while it CAN be made shelf stable the easier and safer road is to remove it.
This all of that said I really want to make this recipe!
Shari
I am making a triple recipe of the bone broth. Do I triple the cooking time? 6 days? Or just the roasting time? I am simmering in a very large stock pot. Thanks
A.L. Davies
Yes, I would love to know why the instruction to remove the fat. Such quality bones — why remove any part of it? I just use a hand blender directly in the pot to emulsify everything. Turns the liquid-and-gunk into creamy stock. I call it bone cream instead of bone broth. Delish!
Brenda Opine
Do you have any plans to sell the ready-made bone broth?
Madonna Goodart
Bone broth was high on My to do list, but the thought of watching a simmering pot for hours put me off. But after researching all the benefits I was determined to find a way. So…. drum roll…
I bought an instant pot. 45 minutes of browning the bones in the oven and 2 hours in the instant pot! I’ve used beef bones from the grocery store, but the broth I’ve made using Wild Idea buffalo bones was so much better! I’m hooked on bone broth!
Julie Johnson
Curious if anyone knows if canning (high pressurized/high heat) or freezing the broth will kill the nutrients. I’d ideally like to can but I’ve read that because of the high pressure/high heat, the nutrients can disappear. Not sure if that’s true…
Tobin peer
In bone broth recipe can you go without vegetables ? Do you have to use vegetables ? Can you just bones apple cider ? Would you still get what is most important from bones ? Do you sell already made bone broth ?
jill
Tobin – Not using vegetables wouldn’t compromise the bone nutrients. We do not currently sell bone broth, although it is a consideration for a future product. Thank you for your interest. jill
Jaqueline Biggs
I was born and raised in Alaska. We ate Moose meat and Caribou (Reindeer) and fresh caught King Salmon. My mom canned from our garden, but she also canned the meat and fish and it was delicious. Your bone broth in jars reminded me of this so I thought I would share.
She cut up chunks of Moose and stuffed it into clean, sanitized mason jars with sliced onion and garlic clove, put the lid on and put them into her pressure cooker and “canned them.” The jars came out of the pressure cooker filled with all the natural juices that were released by the pressure cooking. Those jars of meat (do the same thing with fish but add Dill or Tarragon to teh jars with the onion and garlic clove) sat on our pantry shelves and when mom came home from work and was too tired to cook a meal from scratch she would open a jar, drain the juices into a pan, and make a gravy while potatoes and veg cooked on the stove. She shredded up the completely tender meat that had marinated in its own juices for months, and we soon had a delicious, healthy dinner of shredded moose and brown gravy over mash potatoes. I would love to try this with Buffalo.
Danielle
I have a similar question to a few others above that seems to maybe not be answered but could also be my pregnancy brain: could we keep the fat if we wanted to or would it make for a distasteful broth? I’m making for postpartum so the more fat I can get, the better. Thank you!
Danielle
jill
My apologies for not getting your questions answered. You can leave the fat on, but as someone mentioned above it will become rancid and lessen your time in the refrigerator. However – you could freeze in in bags. I would also follow the tip above on blending it to emulsify fat with broth. I remove the fat for more versatile uses and clarity, but reserve for other uses in cooking or spreading on toast.
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Cindy
January 07, 2017
My only comment is that I’m wondering why you remove the fat. I make broth with a very similar recipe from bone marrow bones and the collagen and fat I feel are what gives it so much flavor. And I do agree you can keep it in the fridge for a long time as the fat and collagen give it a good seal. Good stuff!!!