This is Crab, Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo.  Made with home-made crab and chicken broth.  Click on picture to see recipe.  Once you start making and eating these superb rich and traditional foods you’ll never go back to the bland.

We need bone broth or stock.  I’d like to say it is the single most important food missing from the average daily diet. The benefits are so astounding that it almost seems like a sinister evil plot that we aren’t consuming bone broth or stock every day.  (*For more information see Dr. Cate below.)   First understand, the real stuff isn’t sold in an average super-market, boxed, canned, powered or cubed is not the real thing.  Real bone broth or stock is made from bones, or in the case of shell-fish, from shells. The good news is that it’s easy and inexpensive to make. Briefly, some of the benefits of bone broth or stock are that it improves bones, offers relief from digestive disorders, joint pain, hardening of the arteries, and improves skin, hair and teeth.  It has Glucosamine Chondroitin and is much stronger and more complete than in supplements.

Stock is usually made the same as broth but without seasoning and vegetables.  This makes it less flavorful but  more adaptable for a different recipes.

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Beef Bone Broth

Beef bones (I like knuckles),  are sometimes hard to find.  A good source is to find a local processor or butcher of grass-fed/grass-finished beef and buy from them, in fact that is a good way to buy the meat too.  The bones can be seasoned and oven roasted as in pictures 2 and 3, or simply started in the crock pot.  If roasted let them come to room temperature.  Place in a crock pot cover with cold filtered water and add 2-3 tablespoons of organic vinegar.  Let the bones soak for a couple of hours to help the vinegar draw out nutrients.  Turn pot to high and bring to a boil, then turn to low and simmer.  Continue simmering at least 48 hours.  Add more water when needed.  When 5-6 hours from finished wash and add any vegetable scraps on hand, and spices.  Strain and discard the bone, vegetables and meat.  Decant and label the broth.  Refrigerate and use in 4-5 days or freeze up to 6 months.  Bury the bones if desired to create bone meal in the soil.  Do not add to compost.

Chicken or Turkey Broth

With both Chicken and Turkey, look for free-range no added hormones, antibiotic free, fed nonGMO organic feeds and pastured. Chickens are happier and healthier when they get to eat vegetation and bugs. They really do love chick-weed and when I had my own hens eating chick-weed increased their egg production.

Deglaze the drippings from roasted chicken add to broth or save to use in gravy.  Remove big pieces of meat to use later in soup, stew, sandwiches, stir fry or whatever.  Put all the other Chicken leftovers, bones, skin those little bits of what not in the crock pot.  Cover with cold filtered water.  Add 2 tablespoons organic vinegar.  Let steep for 1-2 hours.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 24 hours.  Add vegetables and spices in the last 4-5 hours. Strain decant and label.  Refrigerate 4-5 days or freeze up to 6 months.

Crab Stock

For Crab stock use wild caught fresh in season shells.  Read the ingredients on Glucosamine Chondroitin supplements and most often its made from shell-fish.  This is how you can make your own broths or stocks, easily and with just those left over shells.  The other broth recipes here as well as the crab are also very rich in Glucosamine Chondroitin and much more.  This is another example of how much better it is to eat fabulous rich traditional foods to supply our bodies with what they need.

Place crab shells in crock pot.  Crush crab shells.  Cover with cold filtered water.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of organic vinegar.  Let steep for 1-2 hours.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer a day or so.  Add vegetables and spices if desired in the last 3-4 hours.   Strain decant and label.  Refrigerate 4-5 days or freeze up to 6 months.

For this slide show and more videos, click here to view my YouTube channel

For more insightful and detailed nutritional information I recommend going to Dr. Cate’s website.

“Learn to make bone broth. In order to exercise, you need to keep your joints in good shape. The number one miracle food for your joints and connective tissue (including bone) is bone broth because it contains compounds that act like growth hormones in these tissues. NOTE: The magic in bone broth comes not from bone marrow, but rather from the collagenous joint materials and skin. Whenever possible, use pastured and organic ingredients.