Beef Meat Stock
It is important to understand the difference between meat and bone broth. Meat stock and bone broth are two different things. Simply put, meat stock is made over a few hours with raw bones and meat, where as bone broth is made with old cooked bones and cooked over 12 – 24 hours or more. The intro diet suggests using meat stock and when intro is complete, you can try the bone broth if you want to.
Meat stock provides important building blocks for the rapidly growing cells in the gut lining and has a soothing effect on any area of inflammation in the gut. That is why they aid digestion and have been known for centuries as healing folk remedies for the digestive tract. Do not use commercially available soup stock granules or bouillon cubes, they are highly processed and are full of detrimental ingredients.
A good meat stock must be made with several kinds of bones with meat still on them. A good meat stock can be made from a variety of animal meats such as beef, lamb, pork, goat, game, fish or chicken etc and from these selections you can select good quality organic bones and meat cuts that are most available to you. Knuckle bones and feet generally impart large quantities of gelatin to the stock whilst marrow bones impart flavour and healing nutrients nutrients. Meaty rib and neck bones add colour and flavour. The meat on the shoulder or carcass imparts a rich source of vitamins, amino acids nourishing fats, many minerals and other nutrients which we need in order to be adequately nourished.
To make good meat stock you need joints, bones, gelatinous meat (which is meat on the bone like a whole chicken, lamb necks/shanks or osso bucco cuts), giblets from chicken, goose or duck, whole pigeons, pheasants or other inexpensive meats. It is essential to use bones and joints, as they provide the healing substances, not so much the muscle meats. Ask your butcher to cut some large tubular marrow bones in half, so you can get the bone marrow out of them after cooking. The bone marrow can be added to soup broths or eaten just as it is.
Individuals following the GAPS Diet should consume warm meat stock as a drink all day with meals and in between meals. Do not use microwaves for warming up the stock, use conventional stove (microwaves destroy food). It is very important to consume all the fat in the stock and off the bones as these fats are essential for the healing process. The film of fat on the top also aids to help preserve the stock a little longer in the fridge and is highly nutritious so do not discard it.
Meat stock is also used as a base to make homemade soup, casseroles, stews and gravy. The GAPS Program strongly promotes drinking stock with every meal to aid digestion and initiate ongoing healing maintenance for the gut wall.
With each cup of stock, add probiotic juice from vegetable ferments or whey or fermented dairy products as outlined in the introduction diet stages (unless there’s a dairy allergy).
The Chicken Meat Stock recipe is particularly gentle on the stomach and is a good starting point for the GAPS Introduction diet.
| Prep Time | 30 Minutes |
| Cook Time | 3-6 Hours |
| Passive Time | 30 Minutes |
| Servings |
4 litre pot
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- 4 Litres Filtered water
- 2 Tbs Celtic or Himalayan Sea Salt
- 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar Optional: helps to soften bones and extract some marrow
- 3 Onions Cut into halves or quaters
- 3 Cut Carrots Roughly chopped
- 3 Diced Celery sticks Avoid adding this if you are following the intro stages: this can be added to this recipe on full GAPS
- 6 Cloves Raw Garlic Crushed
- 2-3 Sprigs Fresh Oregano Alternate with thyme, parsley or rosemary
- 1 Tsp Black Peper Corns Optional
- 1 Tbsp Tallow
- 4-6 Beef Osso buco cuts Number selected for these are dependant on what is available
- 1-2 Beef shoulder joint Number selected for these are dependant on what is available
- 4-6 Beef marrow bones Number selected for these are dependant on what is available
- 2-4 Beef meaty rib bones Number selected for these are dependant on what is available
- 4-8 Beef knuckle bones Number selected for these are dependant on what is available
- 2-4 Calf Hooves Highly recommended: This helps make the stock more gelatinous
Ingredients
Basic Ingredients
Beef Meat Joints: Your meat joint must contain bones with marrow, soft tissue and bones with meat still attached to it - Select at least 4-5 items from this group below
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- Your selected meat joint must contain bones with marrow, soft tissue and bones with meat still attached to it. Osso Bucco cuts as shown in the image are perfect for this, along with the other meaty bones and joints listed in the recipe. Lightly brown the meat cuts in tallow or ghee in a frypan or . This creates added flavour to the stock. Do not cook it, just lightly sear it with a sprinkle of salt to create flavour.
- Place the bones and meat joints into a large pot and fill it up with 4 litres of filtered water.
- Cut the onions into halves or quarters and add them to the pot along with roughly chopped carrots and crushed garlic cloves. If you are following the introduction diet stages, we recommend you avoid the fibrous vegetables such as celery at this time.
- Add salt to taste at the beginning of cooking and about a teaspoon of black peppercorns.
- Add apple cider vinegar and fresh oregano.
- Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top. Then reduce the heat and leave on the stove at a low simmer for about 3–6 hours. If you are cooking in the oven, cook at 150°C for 3 hours. If using crock pot, cook on high for 2 hours, then on low for 8–10 hours. This is the measured cooking time frame to make your nutrient meat stock. Bone stock without the meat cuts are usually longer. The longer you cook the bone stock the more nutrients and the softer the bones become for fishing out marrow.
- After cooking for the recommended time above, remove the meat, marrow and bones by straining the stock ingredients through a sieve. You can do this by collecting the stock under the strainer into a larger pot. Strip off all the meat and soft tissues from the bones as best as you can and extract the bone marrow out of the large tubular bones while they are still warm: to do that bang the bone on a thick wooden chopping board. The gelatinous soft tissues around the bones and the bone marrow provide some of the best healing remedies for the gut lining and these should be put aside with the meat that has been stripped from the bones to add later to soups or as a meal. It is also ok for the patient to eat the marrow and soft tissue direct from the bones.
- Strain the remaining stock with a cheesecloth to remove all remaining small bones, pepper corns and any vegetables that were added. Discard any tiny bones and vegetables added. Store the stock in wide mouthed freezer safe mason jars in the fridge or freezer. The meat stock will keep well in the fridge for at least 7 days or it can be frozen. The bones can be frozen and later used again to make bone broth.
If you wish to make bone broth/stock later, you can keep the bones by storing them in the freezer and cook the ingredients for longer to extract more nutrients from the bones. Refer to our Bone Broth Recipe to make this but remember not to introduce bone broth until you are on Full GAPS Diet or simply continue with the nutritious meat and gelatin stocks.
For Best Storage
Storing your stock properly will be key! In the fridge it lasts up to 7 days so it is best to purchase freezer safe storage containers to keep you stock on hand. I recommend purchasing a dozen or more Wide Mouthed Freezer Safe Mason Jars. These will allow you to have stock on hand within minutes because the wide opening allows the stock to slide straight out after running the bottom of the jar under hot tap water for a few minutes to loosen it up. This can be added directly to the cook pot for use. If you freeze in other glass jars, the stock will not slide out and you will have to wait for it to defrost. Other glass jars are not freezer safe and you can easily destroy an entire batch with glass cracking in the freezer or from the change in temperature when running them under hot water to loosen them. These jars are supplied at our Online GAPS Shop
Butcher supplies for meat stock
The ratio of ingredients is individual and dependant on the size of the batch you wish to make but keep in mind that some stock should be reserved for drinking and some for making your batch for soup. The remainder of your ingredients will depend on what type of meat stock you are making. Here is a list of bone selections you can ask for at your organic butcher shop.
Beef, Lamb, Pork or Game Selections
- Large tubular marrow bones
- Gelatinous meats
- Meaty rib bones
- Osso Buco cuts
- Knuckle bones
- Shanks
- Neck bones
- Tail bones
- Trotters
- Joints
- Ears
Poultry Selections
- Whole chicken & extra chicken frames
- Feet from one chicken
- Gizards & giblets
- Spatchcock
- Pheasants
- Pigeon
- Goose
- Duck
Fish Selections
- Fish frames with heads (no fish meat)
- Skins
- Fins
Hints & Facts:
- Add 1/4 a cup of apple cider vinegar to help draw out minerals from the bones and into the stock such as calcium potassium and magnesium. Some people may not be ready to add this during intro.
- Choose fatty fish like mackerel or salmon. But make sure they are not farmed or preserved in any way.
- Gelatine as the substance extracted by boiling bones, hoofs, trotters and soft animal tissues from gelatinous meats.
- The celery sticks should be avoided for patients in the introductions diet stages. These can be added later on full gaps for added stock flavour. They can be freshly cut as shown in the instructions or sauteed in a pan with onion and garlic prior to adding to the pot for added flavour.
Contrary to popular belief meat, fish and organ meats like liver and kidney have the highest contents of vitamins, amino acids nourishing fats, many minerals and other nutrients which we need in order to be adequately nourished.
Charting the highest source of essential nutrients
Clinical Notes:
Low fibre is the aim initially (especially for people who have profuse watery diarhoea), however if you are more prone to constipation, you can add onion, celery and cabbage to the stock for more flavour.
