'I used to be a chef. Here's how to naturally boost collagen for $3.'

Back in the day I used to be a chef. A real sweary, scary, ball-busting, forged knife-wielding, nocturnal, binge-drinking, meticulously-plated-dish-slinging chef.

I slaved away at the pass, squeezing perfectly spherical blobs of puree and tweezing teeny tiny Japanese herbs onto handmade stoneware plates. 

These days, I'm not about that life. I’m a live-in snack b**ch to twin preschoolers and I learnt pretty early on that my skills in the kitchen are utterly wasted on them. 

Watch: Things I say while watching MasterChef. Post continues below.

There was the guanciale and manchego incident of 2019, where I spent two-thirds of a day preparing, cooling, hand-rolling, crumbing and batch-frying really f**king fancy ham and cheese croquettes, only to watch them toss every single one from their highchairs, straight onto the floor. 

Now I’m more of a frozen pastizzi in the air-fryer kinda gal. It’s called self-preservation. But I do flex my little cheffy muscles at least once each week, when I make my seven-day supply of “beauty boosters”.

Image: Supplied

You see this gorgeous, golden, wobbly mass on my spoon right here? That’s a proper, homemade bone broth, and you know what it’s full of? Collagen. 

Every time I see companies charging $150 for month-long supplies of collagen powder, it ceases to surprise me how much the beauty industry is increasingly worth. 

Of course, it has a value of over 570 BILLION US DOLLARS GLOBALLY! I mean, the mark-up on collagen is about 95 per cent, so the story absolutely checks out. 

But collagen is actually the cheapest, easiest and most sustainable thing to extract yourself, at home. All you need is a little know-how, and that’s where I come in! 

Every weekend, I take myself to the butcher and I buy (incredibly cheaply) a variety of animal bones. 

Which ones, exactly, are dependent on what they have, but my personal preference is chicken frames, wing tips, and then either chicken feet, or if unavailable, pig trotters. 

Image: Supplied

Don’t get grossed out by this. If you are going to consume meat, by far the most ethical way to do it is to subscribe to the nose-to-tail food philosophy. This is sometimes called the ancestral diet, and refers to enjoying (and honouring) the entire animal, not just its primary cuts.

There are a myriad of health benefits to this approach to eating – the organs contain important vitamins, amino acids, peptides and highly bioavailable heme iron, which without getting all science-y on you –  your body bloody loves. 

Back to the broth, though. The bones, joints and connective tissues are literally packed with collagen proteins, plus amino acids, vitamin A and K, zinc, iron, magnesium and selenium, omegas 3 and 6 plus essential fatty acids.

In addition to strengthening hair, skin and nails, the additional vitamins and minerals improve your joint health, can heal gut issues, fight inflammation and improve brain function. 

Chicken bones, specifically, contain high levels of carnosine, which people supplement with to ward off ageing, but more importantly, kicks your immune system right up the arse, helping you stay strong and healthy. 

Image: Supplied

I also like to bang out a couple of jars of roasted bone marrow butter, which is a) f**king delicious and b) incredible for you. 

Bone marrow is full of energy-boosting B vitamins, as well as alpha-ketoglutarate, linolenic acid, collagen, proline and glycine. It’s also a rich source of cells, cytokines and growth factors needed for healthy bone production and cellular repair. 

The chicken and beef marrow bones that I buy to yield me about three weeks' worth of nutrient-rich butter and broth, cost a whopping $10 to 15 dollars. 

That’s between $3 and $5 per week. 

My daily jar of bone broth is only $0.57. The collagen companies are gonna hate me, but at these prices, it would be silly not to.

Image: Supplied

Carly's Chicken Bone Broth Recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 800g chicken frames (use a leftover roast chicken carcass if you have it!)
• 300g wing tips (can also substitute chicken necks)
• 500g chicken feet (or pork trotters. Very high in collagen, do not skip)
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 large brown onion, cut into wedges
• 10 cm knob ginger, sliced
• 10 parsley stalks
• 1 carrot, chopped
• (If you already have celery, you can chuck a stick in. I just didn’t want to buy a whole ass celery to use one stick so I haven’t included it in mine)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 handful dried shiitake mushrooms (these give umami, encourage not to skip)

Instructions:

Note: Do not get particular about making this broth. It doesn’t matter if your oven is preheated, what exact heat it's at, or how you have chopped up your shit. This is a rough-and-ready recipe. Just fang it all in there.

1. Give chicken bones a quick rinse in cold water, being careful not to splash raw chicken water every and cross-contaminate the place. 

2. Dump them all into a baking tray along with the whole bulb of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and cook in a hot oven for 40 minutes or so until everything is gorgeous and brown.
   
   (This is called the ‘maillard reaction’ – it’s the caramelisation of the natural sugars and it makes everything taste good. Resulting broth is like liquid roast chicken. You can skip the browning if you can’t be arsed but it won’t have the same depth of flavour or the nice amber colour)

3. When toasty and delicious, tip all the bones into a pressure cooker (fastest) slow cooker (long) or big ass pot (same time as slow cooker, but you can’t really leave it unattended). If your roasting pan has lots of crispy golden chicken bits stuck to it, pour some boiling water over, scrape it all off, and add it to the pot. Never waste flavour.

4. Add all remaining ingredients, cover with about 3 litres of cold water and observe the following cooking times:

• Pressure cooker: 2 hours, high pressure
• Slow cooker: 12-14 hours (I know. But you gotta get all the good shit out.)
• Stovetop: Same as above, low heat, covered. 

5. Strain liquid into a fresh vessel through a fine strainer and then decant into 7 jars. I use 330ml preserving jars from Kmart. Compost or discard solids.

6. To serve, unscrew the lid and microwave for 90 seconds or until hot. Add sea salt, cracked pepper, and a fresh squeeze of lemon juice. I drink mine in the car on the way to daycare every morning. The twins frequently finish it.

Image: Supplied

Image: Supplied

Carly's Roast Bone Marrow Butter Recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2kg split marrow bones
• 1 bulb garlic
• 250g butter, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped rosemary
• ½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Image: Supplied

Instructions:

1. Bang bones into an oven tray with garlic in foil. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and wrap garlic to prevent burning. Chuck in a hot oven for 40 minutes or so until the garlic is tender, and the marrow is soft and golden.

2. Squeeze roast garlic from its skin and scrape marrow from bones. Allow to cool.

3. Pop all the ingredients into a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, or a bowl with a set of hand beaters, and whip on low speed for a couple of minutes until the butter is smooth and ingredients are well incorporated.

4. Scrape into two jars (I use empty Meredith Valley Goat's Feta jars because I have a bougie cheese problem) and refrigerate.

Image: Supplied

This is like crack spread on good bread, topped with anchovies and served with an ice-cold champagne. It’s also delicious whipped through mash, piled onto a steak, or melted over steamed veg. You’re welcome.

To see more from Carly, you can follow her on Instagram here. 

Have you tried bone broth before? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Feature image: Supplied/Carly Sophia.