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Has anyone made/benefitted from bone marrow stock?

tu_madre

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I am looking into making bone marrow stock this week, substituting turkey for chicken:
Nourishing Bone Broth Recipe

My reasoning is because I'm both slightly underweight, but mainly anemic, and I have heard bone marrow broth is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to absorb iron into your system. (Yes, I've tasted pure bone marrow; I think it's an acquired taste.)

Has anyone here made their own bone marrow stock? Have you found or created a better recipe than the one I listed above? Has anyone overcome anemia via diet alone, and not supplements?

Thanks in advance guys!
 
I've had excellent results with bone marrow broth for many different health conditions, and I recommend it as a staple to everyone, especially in the winter or for people recovering from long term illness. You can read about some of the benefits here.

Your recipe is fine but for me it's too complicated. I just put 4 or 5 marrow bones in a big stock pot on the stove, with enough water to cover the bones by a few inches. Then I add onion, garlic, ginger, and whatever spices. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar to break down the bones. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to low until there are just a few bubbles coming to the surface every now and then. The first stock can be taken at 12 hours, but it tastes better at 24 hours. I have "perpetual bone broth" on my stove all winter. As the bones and marrow degrade, or the water gets low, you can replace the bones with new bones, and add more water.

I find by day 4-5 all bones need replacing, but the stock can be saved because it's practically gelatin at that point.

I'm not 100% convinced that bone broth is a good source of iron, but it contains other minerals, and many other immune factors that are great for you.

A great source of dietary iron is beets, especially the raw juices. Beets have the perfect ratio of iron to vitamin C so the iron in them is more bioavailable.

Yes you can recover from anemia via diet alone, as long as it's not related to anything genetic like thalassemia or something like that.
 
I've had excellent results with bone marrow broth for many different health conditions, and I recommend it as a staple to everyone, especially in the winter or for people recovering from long term illness. You can read about some of the benefits here.

Your recipe is fine but for me it's too complicated. I just put 4 or 5 marrow bones in a big stock pot on the stove, with enough water to cover the bones by a few inches. Then I add onion, garlic, ginger, and whatever spices. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar to break down the bones. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to low until there are just a few bubbles coming to the surface every now and then. The first stock can be taken at 12 hours, but it tastes better at 24 hours. I have "perpetual bone broth" on my stove all winter. As the bones and marrow degrade, or the water gets low, you can replace the bones with new bones, and add more water.

I find by day 4-5 all bones need replacing, but the stock can be saved because it's practically gelatin at that point.

I'm not 100% convinced that bone broth is a good source of iron, but it contains other minerals, and many other immune factors that are great for you.

A great source of dietary iron is beets, especially the raw juices. Beets have the perfect ratio of iron to vitamin C so the iron in them is more bioavailable.

Yes you can recover from anemia via diet alone, as long as it's not related to anything genetic like thalassemia or something like that.


Thanks bunches, Foreigner! I'll report back in a month or so (should be enough time to see/feel changes, right?)!
 
A couple of weeks, actually.

One thing I forgot to mention, is that it's important to buy organic bones. Marrow, along with organs, is where toxicity really concentrates. If you don't have access to organic bones, then there is a slightly different cooking method. When the bones are initially brought to a boil, look for white foam on the surface within the first 6 hours of cooking. Skim this foam off with a little mesh strainer, or just use a small cup. This foam is the nasty stuff. If you don't remove it, then it dissolves back into the broth and makes it bitter.

Organic bones still might have a bit of that foam but non-organic bones tend to have a lot more.
 
A couple of weeks, actually.

One thing I forgot to mention, is that it's important to buy organic bones. Marrow, along with organs, is where toxicity really concentrates. If you don't have access to organic bones, then there is a slightly different cooking method. When the bones are initially brought to a boil, look for white foam on the surface within the first 6 hours of cooking. Skim this foam off with a little mesh strainer, or just use a small cup. This foam is the nasty stuff. If you don't remove it, then it dissolves back into the broth and makes it bitter.

Organic bones still might have a bit of that foam but non-organic bones tend to have a lot more.

Do you think that lamb or bison bones would be suitable (although I KNOW that would change the taste of the stock, particularly lamb... Mmmmmm...) because they are not mass-produced on factory farms (AFAIK)?
 
^ You can use any marrow bones. I don't have experience with lamb but I don't see why it wouldn't work? If you try it, please let me know how it goes :)
 
In my case, it did a few things:
- repaired my GI from years worth of food poisoning incidents, and calmed some residual gut inflammation I was having
- strengthened my "adrenals"; not sure if it actually acts on the adrenal glands, or it just reinforces the nervous system somehow, but I have more energy and more grounding from bone broth
- need less protein, I'm not sure why
- it increases my metabolism and I have more metabolic heat ("yang qi" in eastern medicine terms); this was the first winter where I didn't have to blast my home heating all the time, because my core temperature was much higher
- it stabilized my libido so that it wasn't too hyper or too hypo; again, I don't know how
- it definitely made my immune system stronger
 
Wouldn't it be fast and better to use a pressure cooker? Or is that just crazy talk? o.O. I have no idea.
 
^ Some traditional methods involve simply cooking the bones in boiling water for 3-4 hours, and then it's done. Other people slow cook for 24 hours.

When the gelatin in marrow is cooked at high temperature for too long, some of it turns to MSG. If you are at all sensitive to MSG you should use the slow method.
 
I looked up a supplier for clean chicken bones. For some reason I can't handle the outer meat, but organ meats like liver I'm okay with. May be just weak digestion. But I have been interested to try this bone broth. Just havent wanted to buy a whole chicken to discard all the meat for bones.
 
Marrow is one of my favorite foods, I practically consider it a delicacy. I cant say I have a direct observation of any benefit, because I otherwise eat a very healthy diet. I would feel as though I am missing something if I couldnt make marrow broths or just broil some.
 
I looked up a supplier for clean chicken bones. For some reason I can't handle the outer meat, but organ meats like liver I'm okay with. May be just weak digestion. But I have been interested to try this bone broth. Just havent wanted to buy a whole chicken to discard all the meat for bones.

I have a big dog, so the meat etc. leftover from making stock will NEVER go to waste! ;-)

I also know some people who like eating straight-up bone marrow. They use it as a spread. It tastes like straight-up iron to me.
Here are the nutrition facts for 1/3 of a recipe (which I'm assuming is a serving size) of roasted bone marrow bones from Practical Paleo...
 
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