Meat stock is revolutionary. I’m not even kidding. GAPS taught me so much about how food is medicine, how the simplest foods often taste the best and that cooking is really calming (for me, at least). But before I began GAPS for my son, Raleigh, in 2017 I had been wading into the more “natural” space when it came to food. We were consuming raw milk, I had taught myself to make bone broth, we were taking cod liver oil – I wasn’t a novice, per say, but also I was when it came to all things GAPS.
The week before we began I was reviewing this cookbook – highly recommend if you are starting GAPS – and had a bit of a mental crisis when I realized I wouldn’t be making bone broth for Raleigh but something called meat stock. Up until that point I had been making ,and freezing, bone broth thinking that was what I would be using as the base of his soups. So, after pulling myself together, I made my first batch of stock. I was ready.
The difference between stock and broth is pretty staggering. I’ve written about the differences on my Instagram and my blog a handful of times. The importance of starting a healing journey like GAPS with meat stock instead of bone broth is vastly important. Not only will you see quicker healing by using meat stock but you will most certainly avoid other undesirable symptoms that can come from consuming bone broth too early.
Stock vs Broth
The terms seem to be pretty interchangeable, which often contributes to the confusion. Even in our house, I will use broth when I mean stock. But lets look at some of the differences.
Stock is a low and slow cook for a shorter amount of time. You can make it on the stove top, in a slow cooker on low or in the oven. The times vary a bit depending on your mode, but I prefer the stove top. Chicken, for example, cooks between 1 1/2 -3 hours. Beef bones cook between 4-6 hours. The bigger the animal, the longer the cook.
Meat stock is made from meaty bones that have connective tissue present. A whole chicken, the necks, backs, thighs, quarters, feet, etc. For beef it would be a shank, soup bones, ox tail, etc. You are using raw, meaty bones to make your stock.
During the shorter cook you glean more proline and glycine – the two amino acids most necessary to heal and seal the gut wall. Bone broth also contains these amino acids but in lesser amounts due to its longer cook. This is one of the main reasons we use stock instead of broth at the beginning of healing.
Meat stock is naturally lower in histamines due to the shorter cook time. Bone broth can be cooked anywhere from 12 hours to 72. This lengthy cook allows for a higher histamine count. Histamines are known to be very bothersome to many people.
Bone broth also has higher glutamates – think MSG – that can be very bothersome to those suffering with all head-related ailments like autism, headaches, seizures, mental disorders, and the like.
When To Consume Bone Broth
In the GAPS community we consider bone broth an advanced GAPS food. When the junctions of the gut are much tighter the body can often handle bone broth well. This is because proteins and things cannot seep out of the gut into the blood stream and wreak havoc on the brain and body. Bone broth is the gut-maintenance food once you are very advanced in your healing journey or coming off of the GAPS diet.
I do know a handful of GAPS practitioners who swear by only using meat stock, even beyond GAPS. And truthfully, I prefer the taste of meat stock to bone broth, overall. I don’t like to waste my picked-over bones so I do save them and make broth.
What I Do
I use both meat stock and bone broth weekly. I like to first make a batch of meat stock, pick off the chicken to use in meals throughout the week, and freeze the stock (or use it) for soups whenever I make them. I then take the picked-over bones and save them to make bone broth so I am never at a loss for either.
I freeze them in 1-2 cup portions and use them for soups, stews, cooking rice and more.
I fell in love with meat stock. It was revolutionary in the healing of my son. Even now, when we have soup, I will often remind him that this is the very thing that saved his life. Something as simple as a golden liquid that comes from slowly simmering meaty bones has the ability to revolutionize and heal is astounding to me. God gave us the healing foods. I’m so thankful.
What do you do? Do you make both stock and broth? Which do you prefer? I’d love to know. Please leave a comment below.
