I was blessed to have grandparents who spent countless hours in the kitchen creating lovely and delicious food. There was always some sort of meat bones simmering on the stove on cold winter days as a base for wonderful soups. The tantalizing aromas wafting through the house always made me feel like home.
But did you know how good the simmered bone broth is for your dog? Bone broth is rich in many nutrients, especially amino acids such as, arginine, glutamine and proline. Bone broth is also a super joint supplement. It contains gelatin, glucosamine, chondroitin and other nutrients to maintain healthy joint support. And if that wasn’t enough it also supports the immune system and the collagen in bone broth can heal your gut lining and reduce intestinal inflammation.
Bone broth is simple to make it just takes time simmering to get all the benefits of the bones.
Here is how I make it…
Fill a crock pot with bones. I use chicken backs and beef marrow bones. You can even use chicken feet. Make sure your use organic or grass fed bones.
Cover the bones with water and add at least 2 inches of water on top.
Add about a ¼ cup raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to your regular sized crock pot. This will work its magic as it helps pull out nutrients out of the bones.
Turn your crock pot on high for an hour and then on low to cook for 24 hours. Yes, you read that right, 24 hours. You can cook it longer but it may cook down too much. In 24 hours you still will get a good jelly-like consistency. When the broth is finished, strain the bones and the meat out and discard. These bones should not be fed to dogs, the broth is all you need.
Allow the bone broth to cool in the fridge. It will have a hard layer of fat on top after it cools and you will need to chip that away and toss it. What you want is the jelly like broth, that’s where the good stuff is.
You can store it in the fridge for about a week or freeze it for 6 months, but I doubt it will last that long. For Guinness I put 2 tablespoons on his dinner and he absolutely loves it. Guinness is a 70 pound lab so you will need to adjust to your dog’s size.
I have some bone broth simmering in the crock pot now and the smell reminds me of my childhood and Sundays at my grandparents.
If you have any questions please email me at info@blackdogbakehouse.com or give me a call at 720.949.0098.
Happy brothing, Joan and Guinness.