Preservative-Free SECRETS for Making Bone Broth Stay Fresher For Longer

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In this post, I’m going to share some of my SECRETS for making both
commercially-sourced and my homemade Bone Broth stay fresh for longer.

This is important given the perishable nature of Bone Broth.

It is also important given the overall preparation cost (when all factors are considered) for making homemade Bone Broth.

And lastly, it is important given the nutritional value of this long unsung “superfood” for the body!!

So finding ways to stretch the ‘life’ of preservative-free bone broth so we can eat and drink as much of it as we possibly can, without so much as a drop of it going to waste, would be a definite asset.

The “Traditional” Way

Now there is, of course, the traditional way of doing that using a heat processing method.

But this is NOT the SECRET I’ll be sharing with you—that comes a little later in this post. It’s the SECRET I have used very successfully for the past 6 years now. It’s super easy and very effective at keeping my bone broth fresh for quite a long time.

HOWEVER, before I get into that, I need to talk a little about the importance and purpose of heat processing for bone broth.

The Primary Purpose of HEAT PROCESSING

If your intention when preparing bone broth is to store it for a long time in your pantry, then the heat canning process is the method to use.

It’s a method that kills serious illness-causing organisms that can grow in jarred (canned) food products.

BUT there is more involved than just the typical heat canning or ‘Water Bath Canning Method’ as it is commonly referred to.

A specific type of canning process is required for properly preserving bone broth.

Bone Broth: Is It Acid or Alkaline ?

Because bone broth is generally classified as a low acid food, the heat processing method known as ‘Pressure Canning’ is required.

As you will discover, ‘Pressure Canning’ is a heat processing method that is much more involved than the ‘Water Bath’ method.

Now, I say that bone broth is ‘generally’ a low acid food because bone broth can be made in two ways:

1. with plain water (preferably non-chlorinated) OR
2. with water and apple cider vinegar.

When made with plain water, the resulting broth/stock will be low acid.

From Low Acid to Higher Acid

However, when made with added apple cider vinegar (as I do for my 2nd and 3rd batches), the water is acidulated.

And depending on the number of hours simmered and the amount of moisture lost through evaporation, the acidity of the final bone broth product will be affected as will its’ taste.

This, inevitably, factors into the stability of the final product (how shelf-stable it is), actually increasing it (as far as I’ve noted from my own observations over repeated efforts), and consequently, the actual heat processing method that needs to be used.

Determining the Right Canning Method

In order to determine the right canning method (water bath or pressure canning) to use with bone broth that’s been made with acidulated water, it will be necessary to test the bone broth once it’s ready for jarring.

Any measurement of acidity less than 4.6 (meaning more alkaline and therefore anywhere from 4.6 on up to 8 or higher) will require the ‘pressure canning’ method of food preservation.

To determine the pH of the bone broth, you will need pH strips.

Unfortunately, in order to make bone broth sufficiently acidic, it might require adding more apple cider vinegar than you’d prefer, the result of which would be a sour tasting broth.

And unless you want lemongrass-like soup allllll the time, or sour-ish tasting gravy or whatever else you want to make with your broth, then you really don’t want to be adding a lot of apple cider vinegar to the broth while you’re preparing it.

(For the most effective ratio of apple cider vinegar that I use when making bone broth, as well as when to use it, and the amount that doesn’t adversely affect the final bone broth flavor, click here).

What that means, then, is that you’re left with 2 options, the first of which is ‘pressure canning’.

So let’s turn briefly to the purpose and necessity of ‘pressure canning’.

3 FUNCTIONS OF ‘PRESSURE CANNING’

Pressure Canning is a heat processing method used for food preservation that accomplishes 3 important functions that cannot otherwise be done by regular “water bath canning”:

1. The heating process and, more specifically, the pressurization process (done with a specific amount of pressure for a specific amount of time at a specific temperature) works to kill serious air and food-borne spores/micro-organisms, the most serious of which is Clostridium botulinum. C. botulinum can live and grow in raw foods (technically anaerobic environments), but can also be generally found in aerobic environments (in soil and untreated water, and therefore possibly on fruits or vegetables that are in contact with said soil and/or water). And of course, raw poultry in addition to raw pork are, by their very nature, meats that require thorough pressurized canning when being prepared in this manner. Though not necessarily contaminated with the C. botulinum bacterium, insufficient cooking will result in varying degrees of food poisoning and digestive distress.
2. The heating process kills live enzymes and therefore eliminates any enzymatic activity in the foods that would lead to a further degrading of the food contents and subsequent fermentation and spoilage.
3. The heating and subsequent cooling process of the jars’ contents works to hermetically seal the jars. This occurs through a change in atmospheric pressure within the jars. This change in pressure creates a vacuum that forces the expulsion of air from the 1″ space at the top end of the jar, thereby suctioning the lid tightly to the jar and forming an air-tight seal. (The following video demonstrates rather effectively the science behind how a vacuum is created with the change in temperature in a small container.) Since many micro-organisms can be airborne and/or require oxygen to live, the heat-sealing hermetic process results in their removal from the jars along with all air/oxygen.

“AND SO WHY BOTH HEAT AND PRESSURE ?”, YOU MIGHT BE ASKING.

Because contrary to popular belief, heat alone is insufficient to kill hard-encased Clostridium botulinum spores.

I learnt this the hard way and suffered terribly on at least 2, if not 3, separate food poisoning occasions where I made the incorrect ‘assumption’, as I know others have, that heat is enough to kill food poisoning bacteria. For most other bacteria it is, but for this bacteria, it is most definitely NOT !!

And short of using harsh chemical preservatives (which we don’t want to have to do if our goal is to achieve optimal health), then the combination of sufficient heat and pressure works perfectly to kill these ‘built-for-survival-under-the-toughest-of-natural-conditions’ microorganisms.

Pressure canning is, therefore, an excellent way for preserving and extending the shelf-life of low acid foods.

Pressure Canning Tutorial Video

Now, I’d love to be able to provide you with instruction and a tutorial video on my SECRETS or BEST TIPS for Pressure Canning, but actually…

I don’t know how.

It’s just one of those things that I’ve just never gotten around to learning.

While my Mother and Grandmother were well versed in the art of pressure canning, I did not learn that skill from them, nor did I learn it on my own…at least, not yet.

My Aversion to Pressure Canning Explained

My Mother always imparted to me a need for extreme caution when using a pressure cooker (because of the possibility of it exploding).

On each of several occasions that I saw her use it, she would always make my sister and I stay out of the kitchen, as an extra precaution, on the off chance that something bad might happen.

Hence, my uneasiness with pressure cooking in general.

As a result, this is admittedly NOT one of my areas of expertise, and therefore, I happily refer you to the following 2 links that have more information on preserving bone broth using the Pressure Canning method (click here and here).

Might I also suggest that you google books and other blogs that deal specifically with the Pressure Canning of meats and other low acid foods—there are numerous ones out there.

HOWEVER, if the thought of Pressure Canning gives you the willies, too, and makes you cringe with uneasiness, then you’ll love the method that I’ll be sharing with you.

It’s my Option #2 (my preferred way) for preserving in a preservative-free way my homemade Bone Broth.

So what is it ?

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