Harvey Ryan - The bare bones broth cookbook : 125 gut-friendly recipes to heal, strengthen, and nourish the body

CONTENTS

M EAT COOKED ON THE BONE TO MAKE STOCK IS ONE OF THE FOUR PILLARS OF WORLD CUISINE FOODS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL TO HUMAN HEALTH BECAUSE OUR GENES HAVE COME TO EXPECT THEM . BONE STOCK FORMS THE FOUNDATION OF CULINARY TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD , AS YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED IF YOU EVER TRAVELED TO THE KINDS OF PLACES THAT STILL HAVE TRADITIONAL STREET BAZAARS WITH PUSH - CART VENDORS AND SIMPLE MOM - AND - POP EATERIES .

But here in America, and for most of my patients, making stock at home is a completely foreign concept. You boil bones? They ask. In what? Why?

As I gladly tell anyone who asks, boiling collagen-rich bone and joint materials in copious amounts of water (and a little acid from aromatic vegetables or a splash of wine) for hours at a time allows us to extract special compounds with powerful, almost magical growth-promoting properties. These compounds have many names: proteoglycans, glycosaminoglycans, hyaluronans, chondroitin. While their names may strain your tongue, their effects are soothing for your body. Each of these compounds has been shown to play a vital role in supporting your collagen, the glue that holds our cells together. Collagen-rich skin, hair, nail, and joint tissues house special cells called fibroblasts, whose job it is to make more collagen to replace the old, worn-out, frayed strands. While we once thought that fibroblasts worked at their own pace regardless of what we do in our lives, we now know that what we eat can help or hurt these cells. Consuming bone stock has an effect similar to human growth hormone, stimulating these critically important cells, convincing them to churn out collagen at a faster pace. When our fibroblasts work harder, every other collagenous tissue in the body grows faster. In this way, bone broth satisfies both our palate and a deep physiologic need.

Of course you may be wondering: If this stuff is so important, why havent I heard about it before?

Ah, but you have. Not necessarily about the bone stock itself, but you have learned about the benefits of the various compounds contained in bone stock. Have you ever heard about movie stars getting collagen injections? That collagen is in broth. Have you seen any TV commercials about the drugs orthopedic doctors can inject into arthritic knees? Thats hyaluronic acid, found in broth. Did you catch that show where scientists use stem cells to grow a replacement human ear grafted to the back of a mouse? That graft was made possible by glycosaminoglycans and a proteoglycan matrixwhich are found in broth.

For bone stock to work best for you, you must take care to eat it under the right set of nutritional circumstances. Many fast foods, snack foods, and even a good portion of so-called health foods contain unhealthy oils that can negate the benefits of broth. Consuming too many carbohydrates (more than about 100 grams a day) can also interfere with your hormones in ways that limit your bodys ability to reap the rewards of broth. So its not just a matter of getting stock in, its also a matter of keeping interfering substances out. And when you can accomplish both, your body will reward you in spades.

These rewards are widely embraced in the sports world. I work with Tim DiFrancesco, the LA Lakers Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, on guiding the teams nutrition program. When we began working together, Tims goal was to optimize players diets everywhere they went: at the training facility, on the planes, in the hotels, and before and after games. Optimization involved consuming bone broth and eliminating the foods that inhibit its effects (starch, sugar, and unhealthy oils).

As soon as the team began to follow the nutrition plan, we witnessed dramatic results. Athletes who suffered inevitable in-season injuries were recovering in a fraction of the time they used to take to heal and get back on the court. As reported in the media, Metta World Peace injured his knee and needed arthroscopic surgery. He was back on the court after twelve days, with the usual recovery time being around six weeks. Another player who had knee pain started drinking stock every day and within two months the pain that had plagued him for years was gone. Dwight Howard of the Houston Rockets developed a cartilage tear in his right shoulder and was scheduled for surgery once the season ended. But the surgery was canceled because, during the season and in spite of all the pounding on his joint and lack of sleep, the tear miraculously repaired itself.

As I write this, I am receiving calls from a number of former patients. One of them, Ill call her Lynda, reports that her knee pain has improved and shes lost fifty-nine pounds. Because of this, shes able to exercise more regularly than at any point in her life since high school. Her diet secret? Regular chicken soup consumption.

Lynda is one of the lucky ones. She grew up visiting her grandmothers house, and her grandmother had grown up in a time when the duties of the kitchen were undertaken as though they had vital consequenceand she always had a pot of stock on the stove. Thanks to those early lessons, Lynda intuitively related her grandmothers longevity and vitality to the time and care she spent cooking foods from scratch. So when I told Lynda that there was something she could do on her own to regain mobility, but it involved this thing called bone stock, she knew exactly what to do. Not all of my patients are lucky enough to have had a soup-making grandmother as a role model!

And thats where Kate and Ryans recipes come in. When the Harveys reached out to me saying they were writing a cookbook focused specifically on making and cooking with stock, my immediate thought was, Finally! Because one of the most common questions I get after people dive in and start making stock is What do I do with it?

Now you have the answer.

Cate Shanahan, MD

B ONE BROTH IS ONE OF THE TRENDIEST FOODS AND HOTTEST TOPICS IN TODAY S CULINARY AND HEALTH - FOOD CIRCLES . IT S BEEN THE TALK OF THE TOWN IN NEW YORK , WHERE CHEF MARCO CANORA STARTED SELLING IT OUT OF A WALK - UP WINDOW ; IT S MADE ITS WAY ONTO MENUS AT THE HIPPEST RESTAURANTS IN LOS ANGELES ; AND WHEN KANSAS CITY BOASTS ITS OWN BROTH BAR , YOU KNOW THINGS ARE SERIOUS . BUT WHILE ITS POPULARITY IS EVIDENT , WHAT S A LITTLE LESS CLEAR IS JUST WHAT BONE BROTH IS , EXACTLY . AN INGREDIENT ? A BEVERAGE ? A SOUP ? A HEALTH - FOOD ELIXIR ? THE TRUTH IS , BONE BROTH IS ALL OF THESE THINGS , AND MORE .

When people ask us why we launched our artisanal, small-batch broth businessBare Bones Broth Companyits tough to summarize all of the reasons in one simple answer. On one hand, we wanted to create a nutrient-rich alternative to the salty, preservative-laden bouillons and stocks youll find lining most supermarket shelves. On the other hand, we also hoped to revive culinary interest in cooking with real bone broth by showing everyone just how delicious it is when you make it the traditional way. We started our company because we believe that real food can be sustainable food when you choose to use the whole animal instead of handpicking its most desirable parts and discarding the rest. We set up shop because we wanted to make food that is simultaneously clean and convenient. Bare Bones also came about because we swear by using food as medicine, and we believe in educating and empowering people to make better nutritional decisions. In short, we are driven to show people how they can use food not just to survive, but also to thrive.