Go Back
–+ servings
Ebonie Garnica

Slow Cooker Beef Stock For Full GAPS

Raw meaty beef bones with onion, leeks, carrots, herbs and homemade ghee. Full GAPS. About 2 quarts. Cook on LOW and check the meat at 10 hours, allowing longer within Mamane’s 10–16-hour range if needed. Preparation, resting, straining and cooling take extra time.
Print Recipe
Cook Time 10 hours
Servings: 2 quarts, approximately
Course: Full GAPS, Soup
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 3 pounds raw meaty beef neck or leg bones With a good amount of meat and connective tissue attached; raw, not spent bones.
  • 1/2 pound white onions Cut into large dice.
  • 1/2 pound leeks Dark green parts removed; wash between layers and cut into large dice.
  • 3/8 pound carrots At 1×: 6 ounces. Washed and cut into large dice.
  • 1/2 head garlic Split across the cloves.
  • 1 1/2 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1 1/2 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons homemade ghee Or the same amount of beef tallow for dairy-free preparation.
  • filtered water Enough to cover within the slow cooker MAX line; actual volume and yield vary.
  • natural sea salt To taste, at loading and finish.

Equipment

  • Suitable slow cooker with its approved inner pot and lid I use Ninja Foodi FD401: separate pressure lid, valve VENT, SLOW COOK set LOW, 10 hours. Keep the food and covering water below MAX.
  • Kitchen scale, suitable ladle, fine-mesh strainer and clean cheesecloth Use a ladle appropriate for the pot surface; strain into a clean heatproof container.
  • Heatproof storage containers and ice bath Cool promptly and label portions. Use freezer-suitable containers for longer storage.

Method
 

  1. Rinse the raw meaty beef pieces with cool water. Put them in the slow cooker's approved cooking pot with the onion, leek, carrot, garlic, thyme, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns. Add the ghee and natural salt to taste.
  2. Pour in enough filtered water to cover the ingredients without exceeding the cooker's MAX line. If the ingredients and covering water cannot fit comfortably, divide the batch rather than overfill. Fit the lid.
  3. Cook on LOW for 10 hours. On a Ninja Foodi FD401, install the separate pressure lid with its valve in VENT. Select SLOW COOK, change the temperature setting from the default HIGH to LOW, set 10 hours, then press START/STOP. This is the slow-cooking function, not a pressure cycle.
  4. When the cycle finishes, turn off the cooker and any Keep Warm setting. Check that the meat is soft and pulls from the bones easily. If it needs longer, continue on LOW within the ten-to-sixteen-hour range, following your cooker's controls. Let the stock rest for about 15 minutes before straining. Remove the lid carefully, keeping clear of the hot steam.
  5. Line a fine-mesh strainer with clean cheesecloth and set it over a large, clean, heatproof container. Gently ladle the stock through, leaving cloudy sediment at the bottom of the pot. Save the soft meat and edible connective tissue, checking for hard bone fragments. Taste the stock and adjust the salt.
  6. Cool the stock promptly in an ice bath, stirring to release heat and dividing a large batch into smaller containers. Transfer to the refrigerator when it no longer steams. Keep the natural fat with the stock or reserve it for cooking. Refrigerate for up to 2 days, or freeze smaller portions for longer storage.

Notes

Full GAPS. Raw meaty pieces with bone, joints and connective tissue for a first extraction, not spent bare bones. The 2020 GAPS book explicitly allows overnight slow-cooker meat stock; cooking time alone is not its distinction from bone broth.
Ten hours on LOW is the first checking point within the source ten-to-sixteen-hour range. The meat should pull easily from the bones. Continue LOW if needed within that range. Preparation, resting about fifteen minutes, straining and cooling take additional time.
For Ninja Foodi FD401: install the separate pressure lid, valve VENT, select SLOW COOK, change default HIGH to LOW, select ten hours and START/STOP. LOW range is six to twelve hours. If additional cooking is needed after the ten-hour cycle, a new LOW cycle has a six-hour minimum timer; use START/STOP to stop earlier when the meat is ready within the source range. Turn off automatic Keep Warm before finishing. This is not a pressure cycle.
Use the same amount of beef tallow instead of homemade ghee for a dairy-free batch. This vegetable-seasoned batch is not No-Plant. For Intro, follow the separate stovetop short-rib meat stock and its stage preparation.
About two quarts is an approximate yield. Water is added to cover within actual MAX; measure the finished strained stock. At 2× all numeric ingredient amounts double and approximate yield becomes four quarts. Use adequate capacity or separate base batches; the LOW checking interval does not double.
Keep or reserve natural beef fat for GAPS cooking. Save the soft meat and edible connective tissue, checking carefully for hard bone fragments. For a stronger flavor, reduce the strained liquid separately in a clean pot. Cool rapidly in an ice bath; refrigerate up to two days or freeze smaller portions.
For a shorter closed cycle use pressure-cooker beef stock with its sealing instructions. For browned meat and vegetables use roasted beef stock with its own batch size and method. This finished Full GAPS stock can supply onion gravy, retaining Full GAPS scope for that batch.

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!