Do you really need to simmer bones for up to 24 hours to make broth?

[DunkandEggAgain]

Plus I'm getting confused between stock and broth.

I'm reading online recipes that depending on the website seem to use 'stock' and ''broth' interchangeably and I just want to know which is which.

So in a nutshell, I may buy organic grass fed carcuss: cheap, little goes a long way, nutritional. Reviews say it makes the best stock and the best broth. Some say they roast the bones and then cook the bones with veg for upto a day(!) Some say to simmer for a few hours with veg and strain. The former is described as stock/ broth and so is the latter, which is confusing me even after googling, same problem.

I thought stock is used for soup bases but
Isn't broth the better of the two and doesn't have extras in likea soup - its purely liquid?

Sorry for the inane questions. Cooking isn't a strong point but I am really trying to improve our diets with more wholesome and traditional foods.

I think it's 6.5l. I don't measure the vinegar, just throw in a good glug.

Excuse the terrible typos.
Am on my kindle and the predictive text is odd.
If you're not a confident cook, don't go too ambitious too soon. Cooking cheap, delicious, nutritious meals for your family can be done without turning your kitchen into Heston blumenthal's laboratory.

I'm certainly not anti-bone broth, but to be worth the effort in my opinion you've got to make a lot of it at once, and id get to grips with a basic stock first.
Would be a nightmare to slave over it for a day and then find that you did something wrong and wrecked it!

I sometimes roast up chicken thighs, pull the meat off the bones, then simmer the bones in water with onion, garlic, bay leaf, carrot, pepper, Celery (if you don't have all of these, that's fine they are optional.).

Then after a few hours, I remove the bones and yucky bits, (strain if necessary) and I'm left with a slightly gelatinous stock.
To which I can add some water, some fresh veg (that hasn't been cooked for hours) and the meat set aside earlier. (You could even use some of it in a different recipe, depends how hearty you want the soup to be).

Season , and you have a delicious chicken soup that is (maybe) a cure for winter illnesses. It makes me feel better anyway.
Spring onions, garlic, carrots, and celery all help boost its healthiness and flavour.

You can add boiled potatoes or dumplings, or just eat it with bread.
Trust your taste buds when you season rather than follow a recipe exactly.

That recipe is still more faff than the average weekday meal, but is lovely and doesn't take all weekend. Not as wholesome as 24 hour broth, but still very good (and makes a proper meal).

quince2figs - no, not magical qualities you're correct.. but,I dunno, it just seems to be inherently wholesome. Old school good.
I really want to get back to basics over winter. Plenty of fresh ginger root tea, lemons, honey, lots of garlic and I intend for us to eat more seeds and nuts.

My uncle had a cancer scare a couple of years ago, he is in remission now but it's made me rethink on a lot of things.

Squishy - may I ask, why the need to roast the bones. What is missing if I happen to skip that step and just go straight to boiling?

Sheismammy - yeah! A good glug. I know oneof those: do it by sight, not by measure.

I think it makes the broth more meaty tasting, rather than bony/chalky. Scientifically, I think the combo of vinegar and roasting opens the bones and helps extract the good bits. I think if you don't roast then you have to soak for a while in cold water and vinegar.

As far as I know prolonged simmering does not kill most nutrients, vitamins and minerals. The problem with overboiling veg is that the nutrients leech out into the water and get thrown away, but I don't believe they die. In the case of broth, you chick the bones and eat the leftover water, so you get everything that leeched out. The longer it cooks, the more leeches out.

Broth is bones that are boiled and stock is the broth with added flavour from veg/seasoning.

I make bone broth quite often. You roast the bones to intensify the flavour, a bit like searing beef before you braise it. I roast my beef bones for 60 minutes and then submerge them in water filled stock pot with apple cider vinegar. I do a 12 hour simmer and then drain and add veg to the liquid. A basic mix of carrots, celery and onions and season it. Then I do a second boil with fresh water and vinegar with the bones. They are chalky and crumbling at the end and I have two pans from one load of bones . We go through a lot !

And the vinegar leeches the minerals from the bones.

Your username made me giggle Rudolph

This is all so so useful.

@quince2figs - my understanding is that the broth contains easily absorbable amino acids, basically protein building blocks, hence the idea of the wholesome chicken soup (broth made using bones not just chicken meat).

Liquids are easier absorbed and need less digestive effort and use fewer enzymes than say a piece of meat.

I simmer mine for 2-3 hours max and yes, it does turn gelatinous when cooled.

Oh yes, agreed, the protein component of a standard stock is nutritious and easily absorbed in solution.
But if anyone could explain the specific advantages of collagen and gelatine over the protein from the flesh on the bones?
I think there is a huge amount of internet clean eating folklore going on here...... why, scientifically, would it need to be apple cider vingear rather than anything else changing the pH, ffs?
OP, just stick to making delicious stock with good quality bones and veg. It’ll be great. I reduce stock right down to maybe 10% of the original volume, then freeze in silicone ice cube trays. Fantastic for a quick sauce added to cooking juices of meat, stir fried veg, pasta etc. Stock with glug of vermouth or Marsala, and double cream, plus whatever flavourings you wish is lovely.

That's a great tip, I will remember to.

Thank you all. Here's to happy, healthy eating.