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Are you making bone broth yet?
Well, it’s something you should look into if you haven’t. Packed full of amino acids, gut healing nutrients, and minerals like magnesium, potassium, and calcium, it’s crazy beneficial for your bone health, digestion, and even contains anti-inflammatory components. Plus, when you make it at home instead of buying it, you save SO much money and you have all the control over the quality of ingredients.
My favorite way to make bone broth is with the slow cooker method. When using bones from animals with higher fat content like beef, lamb, or pork, you’ll notice that you get a good amount of fat in the broth. I love fat, but I usually don’t like to drink it in my broth. One way to deal with this is to place the broth in the fridge overnight. As the broth chills, the fat rises to the top and hardens, making it easy to skim it off with a spoon or a spatula.
I like to save the skimmed fat from the broth in a separate container because there’s no way I’m throwing away something so nutritious that gives us sustainable, nourishing energy.
However, the fat in this form is hard to use in cooking, and it goes bad quickly because the moisture content is still high from the broth. To make it last longer and to use it as a cooking oil without having it splatter everywhere, you have to cook off the moisture. You can do this on the stove top, but if you know me at all, you know I like to use the slow cooker.
Depending on how much fat comes out of the broth, I usually save it in the freezer until I have enough (usually after 2-3 batches of bone broth). And once I do, I defrost it in the fridge then throw it all in the slow cooker.
Leaving the lid slightly ajar, I cook it on low for 5-6 hours so all the liquid moisture can cook off. Afterwards you are left with just the delicious fat that you can use for frying, stir-frying, and baking. One of the added benefits of animal fats is that they are highly saturated so they can be used safely in high heat cooking.
Pour into a glass jar, and once it cools, screw on the lid and store in the fridge. It’ll harden, and turn beautifully creamy and white. With this method, it’ll keep for months in the fridge!
How to Save the Fat from Bone Broth
Ingredients
- Bone broth
- Slow Cooker
- Funnel
- Cheesecloth
Instructions
- After making bone broth, place the broth in a large pot or container and place in the fridge overnight or at least 5 hours.
- As the broth chills, the fat will float to the top and harden. Skim off the fat with a spoon or a spatula. Don't worry if there are bone bits and some broth attached to the fat,.
- Save the fat in the freezer until you have at least a cup of fat to render (about 2-3 batches of bone broth).
- If your fat is frozen, defrost in the refrigerator.
- Place all the fat in the slow cooker, set it on low for 6 hrs. Leave the lid slightly ajar so the liquid can cook off and evaporate.
- Once finished, double up a cheesecloth over a funnel to strain into a glass jar.
- Let it cool to room temperature completely before screwing on the lid and storing in the fridge.**
Notes
SUCH a useful post! I’ve used skimmed fat for cooking occasionally, but LOVE your suggested method to remove all the moisture. I really enjoyed reading your readers’ comments too…definitely saving this post! I just happen to have six quarts of a wonderfully rich beef broth chilling in the fridge, so I’ll experiment today! Thanks!
I’m so glad it’s helpful!! I hope it works out and you can have some yummy fat to cook with.
I apologize for such a long post but this is what I do with turkey carcass.
After Thanksgiving and other holidays many people donate their turkey carcasses to me because they know that it will not go to waste. I fill my stock pot with all the bones, skin, gristle and fat. I fill the pot to capacity with water and keep it on a low simmer for at least 24 hours sometimes 48.
After that time I strain out the bones and sometimes put them back in their own separate pot with water to Leach out as much nutrient as I can.
The main portion I reduce from about 20 quarts to 2qts creating a very thick stock. I let it come to room temperature and then pour it into tall narrow containers. My old Tupperware works great for this.
After it sits overnight there’s a very thick layer of fat on the top which I lift off and set aside. I put this half gallon of turkey stock back in a smaller pot and I reduce to about two cups. It becomes like a gelatinous ooze.
I bring this to room temperature and then I divide between 4 Sandwich Ziploc baggies which I then place on a cookie sheet in my freezer to make them flat.
This is so highly concentrated and the nutrients are amazing. I use this throughout the year to make homemade noodles and turkey soup. Because the volume is reduced it takes very little room in my freezer.
I also boil the fat until the sputtering subsides. I often put this into ice cube trays then transfer to another ziplock bag.
This morning I used the turkey fat from my fridge to saute some cabbage and scrambled eggs. With a little salt and pepper the flavor is excellent!
Thomas Keller of French Laundry does this with his clear chicken broth and skims the “schmoltz” and cooks wit it and i have never seem him for through that extra step. I too will freeze and cook with as needed
Wonderful information!
I was just looking up something and ran into this. Thank you all for educating me. I usually just drink the melted fat in a Mexican style vegetable soup with lemon juice, it has been my favorite since I was a child.
Can you share your recipe for the Mexican soup?
Is it safe and healthy to just keep the fat as part of the bone broth and once you heat it and it turns liquid, just drink it as part of the broth?
Yes!
I can’t wait to try this out. I love making bone broth, and have used that for years. However, i’ve always tossed out the fat once the broth cools but I always had a nagging feeling that I was wasting something I should otherwise keep. My question is, should I also be doing this with bacon fat? Would it work to preserve that as well in the freezer and then combine it with the bone broth fat and follow your directions above? Or is there some better way?
You don’t have to cook out bacon fat because there’s no moisture in it. You can just strain it and store, and use as is.
I recently made my first batch of meat broth (bones, chicken feet, rib cages and veggies). Why is everyone recommending taking off the fat cap? I have frozen the broth in glass containers, with the fat cap, and when I want to drink it, I thaw it, heat it and then drink the broth with the melted fat. Is there a reason why most people seem to want to drink the broth without the fat?
It’s just a personal preference. I don’t mind drinking the fat, but sometimes, I like to drink my bone broth along with food and I’d rather not fill up on the fat so I like to separate it. Some people also have gallbladder issues and can’t digest a lot of fat at once.
Perfect! Just finished making a largish batch of chicken broth and was wondering how to manage the fat after I skim it tomorrow. So does each type of fat retain the flavors of the broth? If I want fat that is flavorless do I have to leave herbs out of the broth? Thank you for this post!
There was a typo in my last comment. It should read:
I will definitely use this method of reusing bone broth fats. Thank you for sharing.
This was a very interesting article. Will delete use for reusing my cooking fats. Thank you!