(no subject)

[zana16]

Flist, I need your help!

Due to some health issues, I'm trying to incorporate a lot of gelatin into my diet to help repair my joints. In my reading, people consistently rave about how homemade bone broth has all the vitamins and gelatin and minerals ever and isn't this wonderful and everyone should drink at least a gallon of this a day.

Cutting through the hype, it's specifically knuckle bones (and calves feet) that I'm looking for, on the gelatin front. Marrow is great for nutrients and flavor, but knuckle bones are key for gelatin.

Here's the catch: I try not to eat meat that I don't know has had a good life. Which means I mostly shop the farmers' markets, and I'm picky even then. There's a stall at one of the markets I go to that sells feedlot beef, and I can only be grateful that they don't lie about it. But farmers' markets aren't big on marrow bones, let alone knuckle bones.

(Amusingly, not even the local Weston A. Price-ers can direct me to a source, and those people are hardcore nutrition nuts. They smuggle raw milk into DC and Maryland since it's illegal to buy.)

Does anyone know of a source, preferably local but online might work, or maybe a specialty butcher?

Sometimes, I wish vegetarianism had not made me so ill; it was a lot simpler!

Comments

Via the network, hoping that's okay

[rydra_wong]

I can't help out with bone sources, but FWIW, the cuts of meat used for pot au feu (e.g. plate de cotes/beef short ribs) can produce a very gelatinous broth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-au-feu
http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/2005/pot-au-feu/

You do get a meal as well as the broth, though ...

So, not a solution, but it might be one way to get more gelatin.

Re: Via the network, hoping that's okay

[zana16]

I have no objections to getting a meal out of the bargain! :) Thank you for the links. I'll have to try it.

[the_shoshanna]

I'd try asking meat sellers at the farmers' markets where you could get knuckle bones or other gelatinous bones. They're probably not such big sellers that they get brought to the markets, but you might be able to arrange a private sale? I mean, they gotta be doing something with them.

[zana16]

Good thought! It would make sense for me to ask -- I just didn't think of it because I hate talking to new people. :)

[neotoma]

One of the booths at the Takoma market sells chicken feet, which they claim are great for making stock and are full of gelatin. They advertise their birds as pasture-raised, so they probably meet your criterion for 'good life'.

Would pig's feet do? Pork stock is rare, but I've seen pig's feet in the grocery lots of times, and I bet trotters are pretty reasonably priced at farmer's markets.

You could also ask Gunpowder Bison specifically for knuckle bones -- they'll bring marrow bones to the market for me, so I bet they'd be happy to sell knuckle bones. Smithfield Meadow sells marrow bones and 'soup' bones, so they are another vendor to ask. But I'm not sure of the feedlot/pasture status of their animals.

[zana16]

Smith Meadows -- I actually haven't inquired with them, yet! Good idea. I'm pretty sure they pasture their animals (and will be sad if I discover otherwise).

[twistedchick]

A possible alternative: pectin (pecten? am not sure of spelling), which is the gelling agent in making jams and jellies. I believe it is derived from something's feet (don't ask me whose; I have no idea). I remember it because one of my aunts used to get boxes of pecten, put a packet into some water and drink it for gelatin. Similar: Jell-o, which she would make up and drink without letting it gel.

IDEK on the ethicalness issue. However, Jell-o comes from a heavily dairy-cattle area in western NY (near where I grew up), FWIW.

How are you feeling?

[zana16]

I think I may be able to order powdered gelatin from a source that I'd trust -- the Weston A. Price people are good at ferreting those out, at least! I've never thought of making Jell-o as a health food, but I might as well get something out of this ordeal!

I'm actually feeling much more myself this week. I only took one sick day this week, which is good.

[neotoma]

Pectin is a polysaccharide, not a polypeptide like gelatin. Nutritionally, it wouldn't be the same.

Fish gelatin might be an ethical substitute, depending on how you regard fish...

[zana16]

I've never seen packaged fish gelatin, but then I've never really gone looking for gelatin before...

[darthbitsy]

They have it at the kosher food store near me.

[zana16]

I should check out the local kosher grocery. Thanks for the tip!