Making more bone broth
Omigosh, I’m almost out of bone broth.
I’ve been hitting the stuff rather hard lately, what with my COVID-19 and all. Feeling a bit better this morning, I headed out on my electric scooter for more bones. This time I went for about four pounds of bones. I found that in my last batch, using three and a half pounds, that I had more room and could make a few cups more.
The first image shows the bones I’m using, including those from my recent bone-in NY Strips! I decided to change pots though and that’s shown in the second image. That pot is actually the inside of Instant Pot (eight quart model). The third image shows the mess that rises when blanching the bones for a couple of minutes.
And finally, all the bones are layed out in my Ninja air crisper ready for a twenty-five roast browning before it’s time for the pressure cooker.
I got a nice jar of Beef Tallow from this step.
This jar will go in the fridge with a couple of others. I have a lot of tallow from my recent cooks. I may give this one away as I really have more than I need.
My Instant Pot is just about done and I’m hoping this batch turns out as well as the last which turned out just about perfect. I’ll know how it tastes shortly. I’ll know if it gels tomorrow morning.
COVID-19 still kicking
Yikes! It’s another day, and I’m still under the weather with COVID-19.
This morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. as usual and prepared to do some work as it’s the first of the month. I could breathe, which was nice. My nasal congestion seems to have cleared up and took my sinus headache with it. Thank goodness.
But now it appears I’m getting a bit of my sore throat back, something I lost early last week. This darn virus won’t give up.
My vitals are all good, BP, pulse, SpO2, and temperature are all normal.
To top it off, I still don’t really have any energy. I wanted to get out for more bones to make another batch of bone broth as I’m running low, but that’ll have to wait till tomorrow.
All the best!
More bone broth
Part of overdoing stuff during my recovery was buying bones for more bone broth. Once again, I got my bones at Whole Foods.
This time, I did my best to determine how much I could make in one batch and still have tasty broth. I went for about 3.5 lbs. of bones, which was just about right.
Here are the bones in a pot ready for blanching.
After bringing this to a boil, I let it simmer for a few minutes to draw out the impurities, and sure enough, it created a pretty ugly scum. That draws out everything you don’t want in your broth, which can taint the flavor. I didn’t cook it for too long though, as I wanted to be sure I kept all the tallow I could.
After that step, I put all the bones in my Ninja Air Crisper on the roast setting for about twenty-five minutes. I wanted to get them to a golden brown. As I’m still foggy with COVID-19, I didn’t get more images of all this.
After roasting, I kept the tallow, almost half a jarful! Yay!
Then it was into my Instant Pot. It took about eleven or twelve cups of water to cover the bones. I’ve got the eight-quart model, and it was filled to almost the mid-fill line.
I set the pressure cooker for two and a half hours and let it go. I’ve overcooked a batch once, and it never gelled. I was hoping this batch would gel.
COVID Update…week two
I came down with COVID-19 symptoms and tested positive on Friday, October 20th. Today it’s Sunday, October 29th, and I’m definitely still under the weather, but things have changed.
That first Friday, I started feeling worse and worse into the evening and most of the way through the night. My fever ramped up to 103F, I had a terrible headache and a sore throat. At around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, my fever broke, and by the time I got up, I felt a lot better. Not well, but the headache was mostly gone, the sore throat was just a scratchy throat, and my temp and O2 were normal(ish).
I improved a bit throughout the week, though I was tired, my voice started sounding awful. By Thursday, that symptom had turned around a bit, and I started to sound a bit better.
Then came Saturday. I felt good. Not one-hundred percent, but good. I had some errands to run, so I went out on my Xootr and took care of business; masked, of course,
I came home and thought that perhaps I’d over done it a bit, but I’d had a great time.
By that afternoon, my nose started running and congestion moved into my nasal passages. My temperature was, and is, still normal, and my O2 is fine. But I feel like I have a terrible cold today. I hadn’t taken any antihistamine during any of this time, but I succumbed last night so I could get a little relief and sleep.
Today, Sunday, I have a headache, though it’s mild, and I’m still quite congested in my head. Thankfully, my lungs have never been affected to any great degree.
This just sucks.
I’m debating what to do about work tomorrow. I’m thinking a few more days off are in order. The first of November will be here soon and that will be a busy day or two. I’d like to be healthier.
More meat…less COVID
Today was the first time in several days that I had a big enough appetite for two steaks! In fact, I need to mask up and get more.
Here is another update on my COVID
I’m feeling a lot better today, but still testing positive. I noticed that last night my appetite, which was always present but a bit subdued, came back, and I ate twice yesterday! Yay!
I had this single NY Strip in the evening, matching one I’d had earlier in the day.
Today I’m hungry again already, so I’ll be cooking shortly.
COVID-19 update
Yay! I woke up this morning feeling better than I have since last week before I came down with symptoms. I’m still sick.
I had been waking up every morning with a dry, scratchy, and painful throat. Today, upon awakening, it wasn’t a problem. Still scratchy? Yep, but not painful.
I never really developed a cough. I’ll admit I took some OTC dextromethorphan when I did start noticing a tendency to cough. But even so, had I developed a lot of congestion I would have noticed.
My headache, the most painful bit of all this last Friday on Day 0, has been at a very low level since Saturday morning. Today it wasn’t noticeable at all.
I understand that this may or may not last. COVID-19 is nothing if not strange. It’s possible I’ll turn for the worse, but this morning, it looks good!
Morning bone broth
Here’s some rich homemade bone broth in my pot with butter heating up for my morning dose.
And this is what it looks like a big mug, perfect for this use, though too big for coffee.
I’m upping my bone broth intake while suffering from COVID-19. I’m doing better in some ways, but I am still sick and feel it. The bone broth helps keep me hydrated, full of nutrition, and, because of the oils and butter, coats my throat to help with pain and scratchiness.
Today’s carnivore feast…during COVID
Yes, I have COVID-19. It’s been a thing since Friday, which was the worst day so far. I started Paxlovid on the evening of Day 0 as the first day of symptoms is counted. By Saturday, my temperature had dropped, my O2 had returned to more or less normal, and the worst headache I’ve ever been gifted with had gotten manageable.
The good news is I’ve not lost my sense of taste, nor has my appetite fallen off much. That’s not quite true. I’m eating about half of what I had been eating. But it still tastes good. I think I’m a little blunted taste-wise, but this was yummy.
I’m also not expending any energy through exercise or even getting out of the house, so I’m sure I don’t need quite as much food. I can’t say much about how much I need to fight the virus, though. Heck, I might need more food and not want it.
Anyway, that was today’s steak. It’s a smaller ribeye that dry brined in my fridge for several days. It was delicious, even with COVID.