Bone Broth failure? page

[Catrin]

I am unsure if it really is a "failure" but from what I've read about bone broth it might be. I've not made it before.

I had 4 pounds of soup bones from my grass-fed farmer guy, and of course there was a good amount of meat on them. I cooked them on the crockpot until the meat was done, then I stripped the meat, ate the marrow (yummmm!), added unfiltered apple cider vinegar to the broth and put the 4 bones back in for 24 hours on low.

After taking the bones out and straining the broth, it went into the fridge overnight. There wasn't any gelatin at all - but perhaps it was only because there was just 4 bones? The broth is quite fatty & savory, it is certainly getting used. Shouldn't there be at least a little gelatin, or is my assumption wrong?

Thanks in advance!

[yodiewan]

How high was the cooking temp? I've had broth that didn't gel when I let the temperature get too high for too long. If I keep it at a reallly gentle simmer, it gels nicely when cooled. I think the gelatin denatures or something. I believe it's still just a good for you though.

[Catrin]

How high was the cooking temp? I've had broth that didn't gel when I let the temperature get too high for too long. If I keep it at a reallly gentle simmer, it gels nicely when cooled. I think the gelatin denatures or something. I believe it's still just a good for you though.

I had it on "low", but it was still bubbling away. There is a "warm" setting on my crockpot but I was afraid that would be too low. I think I will experiment with the warm setting though, put some water in there and see if it ever actually simmers.

I know when I tried chicken bone broth last week the entire batch became pure gel in the fridge- but I had to toss it out because my power went out for 6 hours during the cooking process. Figured multiple bacteria tribes had set up camp in that period of time...I still refrigerated it to see if it would gel before disposal.

[DoraV]

Did you make sure to add some knuckle bones in there? I think those are the ones that have the most gelatin in them. I've made it 3 times in the crock pot on low, and the only time it didn't gel was when I didn't include knuckle bones, I used marrow bones instead.

[Catrin]

Did you make sure to add some knuckle bones in there? I think those are the ones that have the most gelatin in them. I've made it 3 times in the crock pot on low, and the only time it didn't gel was when I didn't include knuckle bones, I used marrow bones instead.

I just had the soup bones, so that makes sense. When I tried the chicken bone broth I had the entire carcass - less head and feet.

[yodiewan]

From what I've heard, the chicken feet are where it's at for making good chicken stock. Haven't tried it myself. The last batch of beef stock I made had a nice huge knuckle bone in addition to neck bones and it gelled wonderfully. The only time I have done better is when I boiled some oxtails. That stuff was like rubber when it cooled, hah.