Bone Soup – (I live alone and rather appreciate rough and primitive!)
2 packages or one big package of meaty soup bones
onion–1 big onion or two not-so-big ones
garlic
celery tops
carrots
turnips & greens
potatoes
cabbage
salt
pepper
vinegar
I slicked the bottom of the iron soup pot with a dab of butter, then browned the meaty bones on medium heat for about fifteen minutes, turning them over two or three times.
I coarsely chunked a couple of onions and some tender celery tops and dropped them in the pot with several whole cloves of garlic. I covered it all with water, dropped in some coarse Celtic sea salt (available at the co-op), some whole peppercorns (Tellicherry), and a glug of Bragg’s vinegar (vinegar helps draw the calcium out of the bones and into the broth), turned it to low and simmered gently for two or two and a half hours with the lid on till the meat was very soft.
I scrubbed (but did not peel) and roughly cut into chunks several items from my garden: small potatoes (most went in whole), a couple of tender turnips and their greens (not a huge bouquet on these turnips), half a cabbage, a big sweet carrot (I made big wedges; somehow I’m really tired of coin shaped carrots). I dumped these in the pot and with a little more salt and simmered the whole thing for 20 to 30 minutes more.
I put a meaty marrow bone with meat hanging on it and some soup with the roughly chunked veggies into my wide bowl, sprinkled on a little more coarse salt and a grind of pepper, and all by myself I enjoyed a remarkably fragrant and flavorful soup. Except for one lump of fat that seemed bigger than a mouthful, I ate the fat, the very soft and toothsome cartilage, and best of all the marrow, which sent me into ecstasies.
Remember, humans have always enjoyed the exceptional nutrition of marrow, and the fat of pastured and wild animals has all good cholesterol, not the nasty stuff from industrial feedlot animals. You won’t be hungry for a long time after a bowl of this soup!
The next day in the garden I found a small zucchini, half a dozen green beans, and a few little brussels sprouts and added those in for variation. A tomato might be nice too.
Shared by Eleanor Hartmann
