BEEF BONE SOUP

A hearty winter soup designed to build blood and keep the immune system strong!

Ingredients:
a few decent sized Beef Bones (organic/local, grass fed-beef)
some Beef Shin Meet on bones (organic/local, grass-fed beef)
2-3 decent sized Onions
a half bunch of Celery
a few cloves of Garlic (to taste)
spices:
Cilantro
Oregano
Thyme
Sea Salt
2 or 3 small Dried Ginseng roots (organic and aged 5+ years)

In a 2 gallon pot, I fill the pot about 3/4's full of filtered water. Let it come to a boil and add all the above ingredients. Stir occasionally and let it boil vigorously for at least an hour and then leave it on a gentle but noticeable boil for several hours; I will even leave it overnight sometimes, just take care that it isn't boiling too fast or it will evaporate. The soup should get really dark when it is ready. You can see how dark it gets below--that was after about 12 hours.




You can have this alone as a broth or mix it into other soups, especially vegetable soups or bean soups to beef them up! The beef on the shin bones is quite tender and very nice in it's own right. I would eat the beef first and then keep the soup (mostly broth) refrigerated or frozen until you use it.

Enjoy and be well!

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Many experienced cooks have told me I might want to brown the bones first before adding them to the soup. Put them on a pan in the oven at say 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or so, and then add them to the soup. Additionally, I've been told that adding 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to the soup will help extract the minerals from the bones--and to cook the magical brew as long as possible, even for a day or more! I can say the taste with the vinegar added and the bones browned is a little different, slightly more tangy. You may also want to refrigerate the soup so the fat rises to the top and can be skimmed off if desirable. Later you can re-use the bones at least one more time in another soup. Say I make the bone soup and then use the bones again in bean soup, that works very well. After that, give the bones away to a dog!