Is reusing bones for stock better than once cooking longer with more water?

I've heard about reusing bones for stock (eg. blog post even if the second time is a bit weaker flavor.

My question is, if there is some advantage to this. Consider the following to scenarios:

Fill pot of bones with N liters of water until just covered. Boil X hours. Strain broth. Refill as before. Boil X hours again. Repeat. Combine all three batches into one big soup.
Fill pot with 3N liters of water and boil for 3X hours.

The former seems much more labor intensive. Will the flavor extraction work better the first way for some reason? Perhaps the fresh water is better suited for extraction? Perhaps the lower water:bone ratio helps speed things up?

Best Answer

I would think this would result in thin stock under normal circumstances. I would go for a longer, single boil instead if the fear is there is remaining goodness in the bones.

Pictures about "Is reusing bones for stock better than once cooking longer with more water?"

Is reusing bones for stock better than once cooking longer with more water? - Meat Dish over a Wooden Tray

Is reusing bones for stock better than once cooking longer with more water? - Delicious Meat Dish Served on a Wooden Tray

Is reusing bones for stock better than once cooking longer with more water? - Free stock photo of beef, bones, bread

How many times can you reuse bones for broth?

Can you reuse bones for another broth? You sure can\u2014Paul Jaminet of The Perfect Health Diet says you can reuse bones to make multiple batches of broth until the bones go soft. (Make sure you use fresh vegetables, herbs, and spices each time, though.)

How many times should you boil bones for broth?

You can use them as many times as you want, but with each use, the amount of flavor drawn from them will diminish. I've never used bones for more than two cycles, and even in those cases, the \u201cbatch #2\u201d was always mixed with a \u201cbatch #1\u201d from a separate process.

How many times can you Reboil chicken bones?

I have made a whole lot of chicken stock in my life. Long before I embraced a real food lifestyle I was already making stock because it was something my mother had always done. Through time and reading and experimenting, I discovered I can easily get 3 batches of broth from the bones of one whole chicken.

Can you stop cooking bone broth and start again?

If cooking until it's done is out of the question, you need to try to chill it. Putting the whole pot in the fridge might not be the best approach, though; it could take quite a while to cool down. Even if that's less than 2 hours, you're going to go through another cycle later, and the time is cumulative.

Bone Broth | Avoid 2 Toxic Mistakes Making It

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Ruslan Khmelevsky, Ruslan Khmelevsky, Ruslan Khmelevsky, Ruslan Khmelevsky