In many Asian families, other than rice, broth is the staple food and root of daily life. It’s the foundation of flavour essence for many recipes and it is associated with labours of love as mothers or grandmothers spend a long time preparing and brewing the delicious broth. It is also often known as comfort food when someone in the family is sick or unwell, but what is it in the bone broth that makes it so comforting and becoming increasingly popular among the health enthusiasts?
Homemade bone broth is actually a nutrient-dense source of gelatin. The story of gelatin starts with a protein called collagen – which is an essential protein in the body for connective tissues, skin and bones. The degradation of collagen in our body often leads to issues like skin wrinkles, cartilage weakening or osteoporosis. However, what is the difference between collagen and gelatin if they sound like they are essentially the same?
Gelatin is made by cooking the bones, connective tissues, skin and tendons of animals, but with more intensive processing, a different product known as hydrolysed collagen is created. Both gelatin and hydrolysed collagen contain the same proteins and both are going to do wonders for your health, but the slight difference in between them is actually how it is formed and how it is used.
Unlike gelatin that dissolves in hot water and causes liquids to gel, hydrolysed collagen will not gel and can dissolve in both cold and warm liquids. Hydrolysed collagen has been heated to higher temperatures and then treated with enzymes. As it is processed more intensively, the proteins are actually broken into smaller pieces. Thus, making it easier to digest and be absorbed into the body faster. It is also suitable for people with digestion problems.
Instead of using stock or broth that we can readily source in cans from supermarkets, we should spend a little bit of time to cook our own broth as traditional, homemade broth contains more gelatin that brings us ample health benefits.
