7 Tips to Making Killer Gelatinous Stock - Homemade Mommy (2024)

FAQs

How to make stock gelatinous? ›

Start with High-Quality Bones

While herbs, spices, sea salt, and vegetables can give your broth flavor, the real secret is in the bones. That's because some cuts of meat and some bones contain more collagen than others. The more collagen-rich ingredients you add to your pot, the more gelatinous your broth will be.

Arrowroot powder

Add the arrowroot powder one tablespoon at a time once your soup or broth has already cooked until you have the desired thickness.

Just pop the gelatin in the microwave for a minute or two and enjoy. You can also use this broth in any recipe that calls for liquid such as rice or beans. Use it to make soup, sauces and gravies. Broth adds flavor to cooked vegetables, eggs and mashed potatoes.

Its nutrients may improve joint health

While cooking bone broth, collagen from bones and connective tissue breaks down into another protein called gelatin. Gelatin contains important amino acids that support joint health. These include proline and glycine, which your body uses to build its own connective tissue.

Why is it so important to have a gelatinous broth? Firstly it's not 'super important'. BUT: The sign of the 'jelly' is what lets you know you've cooked the bones long enough, you've not used too much water, and you've used bones that have high gelatin in them.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool. Add a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the bowl and whisk until it's blended smooth. Next, bring the soup to a simmer and add the mixture back to the pot. Pro tip: Don't dump in the entire mixture at once.

Thicken with Dairy

Heavy Cream. If you're not a fan of slurries or roux, dairy is your next best method. Dairy adds a velvety texture that results in rich and creamy soups. Dairy can curdle your soup, so make sure to stick to higher-fat content products (coconut milk, heavy cream, sour cream) instead of milks.

Cooking too long makes the collagen break down and too short doesn't allow enough to be extracted. 8-12 hours is enough to extract the goodness and get a good gel. ♥ Don't cook too fast or too hot. The collagen will break down if the broth is boiled vigorously.

It is highly nutritious

Also, brewing connective tissue into bone broth provides the body with natural compounds from the cartilage. Tissues and bones also contain collagen. Cooking collagen turns it to gelatin, which provides the body with amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.

Here's how to incorporate it: If the broth or sauce is being boiled and then strained (as it is for our gravy), simply add powdered unflavored gelatin along with the broth; if not, bloom the gelatin in a few tablespoons of cold water for 30 seconds to prevent clumping before adding it to the recipe.

Who should not drink bone broth? ›

The sodium in bone broth may not be an issue for the average healthy person, Zumpano says, but it could be risky for people who have high blood pressure, heart disease or kidney disease. Always talk to your doctor if you have concerns.

The best ones to use for beef broth are meaty bones and bones that have a lot of tissue and cartilage or marrow like oxtail, shanks, and knuckles.

When collagen is cooked it turns into gelatin. The sign that a bone broth has been made properly and is full of collagen is that it solidifies and turns to gelatin when it is refrigerated. While not all bone broths will be completely solid when refrigerated, there should always be some gelatinous texture to the liquid.

Not enough connective tissue or joints.

All connective tissues fit the bill: skin, ligaments, tendons, joints (the cartilage between bones), feet, and heads. These are the things that will gel your stock. If you don't have enough of them, the stock will not gel. (Note: it doesn't take a lot.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool. Add a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the bowl and whisk until it's blended smooth. Next, bring the soup to a simmer and add the mixture back to the pot. Pro tip: Don't dump in the entire mixture at once.

So, when you're not up for brewing a whole potful of gelatin-rich broth, you can simply bloom some powdered gelatin in boxed or canned stock—about one and a half teaspoons per cup of stock will do the trick.