Home-made stock recipe

I bang on about it enough so it's about time I shared some of my stock making tips with you. The beauty about this recipe is that it changes every time I make it. Different bones, different veg, different strengths, different tastes.

Bones

I get my bones from various sources. I always try to ensure they are from grass fed/pastured animals but sometimes this is not possible (check with your butcher where his meat comes from if you want to find out) so I have a freezer full of bones on standby.

Currently I have chicken carcasses, pigs trotters, lamb bones and some beef marrow bones. All uncooked and waiting to be flung in the pot. I also have a large plastic container (in the freezer) where I chuck any bones from meals, I have taken to buying a lot more meat on the bone so usually this fills up reasonably quickly too. Cooked or uncooked bones can be used for stock.

By far the most generous bone I have worked with is a beef knuckle. They are pretty big but I took 3 lots of stock off one. You will need a big pot.

And lets not forget fish! Fish head stock is known to be especially therapeutic to those of us with low thyroid function as fish thyroid glands are in their heads so you get all that T3 goodness in your stock. The last batch I made was used for a chowder and I felt amazing after eating it.

Vegetables

I generally use carrots, celery and onion but have been known to throw in whatever is getting old in my fridge: cauliflower and brocolli ends, green beans and even peppers! Sometimes all I have is a couple of carrots so thats all that goes in. Just use what you have. And dont forget to chuck in a bayleaf if you have one!!

So here is a basic recipe here to get you started but please don’t forget you can mix and match your vegetables, based on what you have available and you can mix and match your bones. I would go a step further there and say you SHOULD mix your bones as you can make the most amazing stock with a mixture. My last soup was made with lamb and chicken bones and was A-MAZ-ING.

Basic chicken stock

1 chicken carcass/chicken bones (Cooked or uncooked. After a roast chicken we pick the meat of and cook up those bones for our next soup but the carcasses I buy in the shop are uncooked)

1 onion quartered

2 celery sticks trimmed and broken in half

3 carrots trimmed and snapped in half

8 peppercorns

1 bayleaf

A dash of cider vinegar (to draw out the minerals from the bones – I promise you won’t taste it in the finished product)

Put all ingredients into a slow cooker or pan large enough to allow it to be covered with water by an inch or two. In a slow cooker a centimetre over should be fine.

Slow cook on high for 6-8 hours or low for 12-24 hours. If cooking on a hob bring to the boil then leave on a high simmer for 3 or 4 hours. Please ensure the bones are covered for the most part.

Once cooked you can allow to cool or drain straight away. 

Store carefully! 

If I am putting it in the fridge I will let it cool fully then place in glass jars but I have learned from losing too many batches to store it in plastic in the freezer, the glass tends to break on freezing or defrosting. 

Then use as you like! Make a tasty soup, add to stew. Cook your rice in it if you like! And if you are feeling adventurous you could boil down some of your chicken stock so its nice and strong (maybe half the volume, or less of your original stock) then pour into ice cube holders for some amazing homemade stock cubes! These can be chucked into any recipe that requires a stock cube!

Et voilà.

Impress your family and friends with amazing meals - the incredible taste you get from home made stock is second to none.

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Heal your gut

For my first informative post this year I have decided to be more inclusive and so this post is likely to be beneficial to anyone and everyone who has a digestive system (about 99.9% of us I would reckon) and not just to those with a thyroid condition (which might only cover about 80-90% of the population (1))

 

The reason I am starting with gut health is because on my own healing journey it was the first thing I managed to do, before I took T3 medication, before I took liver tonic, before I took supplements, before I did anything else I took a huge step to mending my digestive system. And with good reason….

The state of your gastrointestinal tract (or GI tract) could well dictate the state of your health one way or another. They say that around 75% of your immune system resides in your intestine so it’s definitely an area worth looking after, not just if you suffer from an autoimmune thyroid condition where your immune system is impaired and can be tricked into attacking your gland. 

If you're still unsure it’s worth doing, think about this: if your gut aint working right, your body won’t be able to absorb and make use of nutrients quite so well from the food you eat and any supplements you ingest, so I think we can all now resolve to look after our gut in January and beyond.

It’s a two-step process

When you are trying to heal something you want give it nourishment to actively repair it and you also need to prevent any further damage being done. And luckily I can tell you how to do both of those things!

Nourishment: In order to actively repair the gut lining you should start consuming homemade bonebroth/stock/gelatin. (I will post a recipe soon). Make it part of your daily routine, drink a cup of broth before your meal, turn stock into a tasty soup for lunch, make a gelatinous sauce for dinner. There are so many benefits from consuming this stuff it should actually be given out at the doctors surgery to everyone who visits to help people get better.

Damage prevention: You’ve heard it before but I will say it again. A month off the grains will allow your gut to heal no end. Take 4 weeks without wheat, corn, rice, oats etc….instead eat potato latkes, roasted butternut squash, mince and tatties, homemade chips done in coconut oil even! Just lay off the grains and I assure you, your insides will heal noticeably. You will feel better.

Oh yeah – and another thing you should be aware of is legumes and pulses. They are fine in themselves but it’s just that the commercially prepared variety are not likely to have been properly prepared and will contain antinutrients which - as they sound - prevent you from absorbing nutrients! It would be of great benefit if you prepared your own properly. See here for details

Its as easy as that!! Get on it :)

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(1) I reached this conclusion going by increasing numbers of underdiagnosed hypothyroidism according to Dr Broda Barnes who had great success treating thyroid disorders and who wrote several books in the 1970's. I read, 'Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspected Illness'. Have a look through a copy if you get a chance!

Talking about a revolution...

As I research other posts about more intense thyroid stuff I want to take this opportunity to kick off our next revolution. Yes, you heard that right – I want to start a revolution….. in the kitchen. And I want you all to do the same. I promise it will change your life forever. We will start with the meat on your bones.

I began making my own stock regularly a few months ago and the main purpose of such an undertaking was to get more gelatin into our diet. “Gelatin?” I hear you ask. Yes, gelatin.

Gelatin has a funny reputation, certainly I thought it was bad for you at one point, well it is used to make jelly and anything as tasty as jelly has to be bad for you right? But before that was the sheer horror that it had come from cows feet or pigs trotters (groooooosssssss – my younger self would have said).  But for my baby boys first birthday last year I made jelly using gelatin leaf from the shops and that all turned out fine, not gross at all! Especially the fizzy wine adult jellies…..but that’s a tale for another day. My point being, I had not yet started my healing journey and was not aware of the wonder stuff that is gelatin. And broth.

(Before I go any further I just want to clarify - gelatin is what makes the broth set and go jelly-like when cooled). 

Anyway, perhaps it’s because I am a highlander but simply hearing the word ‘broth’ is healing to me. It is such a soft and soothing word. Thinking of broth conjures an image of a deep, steaming bowl of tasty scotch broth with veggies, barley, peas, lentils and a piece of meat somewhere tucked away in there. Hot, sweet, soupy goodness. (I have to stop and get a pan on soon before I salivate over my keyboard I think…)

So you get the picture. I already think broth is good.

The revolution comes when I make my pan of broth with actual bones. Stock that I have prepared myself by simmering the animal bones in the slow cooker for around 24 hours. Forget your stock cubes or your boullion. Get the bones from your butcher and fire them in the slow cooker for a day. Real food and real tasty too – you will not taste anything as good EVER, I can assure you.

Now the added bonus – what it does for your health. 

Well for a start…bone broth heals your insides (remember I talked about them – your insides – in my Food for thought post – it got pretty technical). The broth will start to mend your gut lining and that of your intestines. This could lead to an easing of food allergies or intolerance's.

Broth provides you with the basic building blocks for your body – boiling down the bones releases all those minerals that built them up so strong. And you get to consume that – nourishing your own body.

Suffer with sore joints? Consuming bone broths is shown to be anti-inflammatory so as well as healing your stomach, it will heal the other areas of your body where inflammation can occur like your joints. 

Specifically for thyroidians like myself, bone broths will aid liver function and boost your metabolism. Need I say more? No, but I will.

Bone broth, or more specifically as in all these cases - the gelatin in broth, is full of protein so you can cut down the amount of meat in these dishes if you need to keep costs down.

And at the end of the day, I find it very therapeutic. There is something deeply satisfying about creating such a nourishing and wholesome food for your family. From scratch, just like your parents, grandparents and/or great grandparents would have done (though perhaps they didn’t use a digital version with two heat settings, a timer and a warming function)

So that’s the latest – get your bones on. Start the revolution!

If you are interested in reading more I have listed a few articles here on the subject. Bone broth is a huge subject and everyone has their own methods - tell us how you make yours! www.facebook.com/MyThyroidTherapy

Some great articles on broth:

www.westonaprice.org/food-features/broth-is-beautiful

undergroundwellness.com/top-5-reasons-why-bone-broth-is-the-bomb/

www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-crucial-reason-you-need-more-gelatin-in-your-diet/