Netgalley Free Preview Copy for Review:

I have been dipping my feet into this pool for the last few months and making homemade bone broth, so imagine my surprise, delight, and excitement first when I saw this 2016 book being offered for review and then when the publication house sent through their agreement to let me be one of the early reviewers.

There is so much more in this book than I ever, ever, ever expected to find it. Information on all the nitty-gritty health benefits, stocks/broths for the bones of every animal most grocery stores carry, recipes for meals, for veggies, for desserts, for drinks, for everything.

I cannot stress enough how amazing this book was, and how I will be getting a copy in the spring/summer for my kitchen definitely . ( )

I've come across a certain amount of talk on the internet on the subject of bone broth, recently, and since I have been taking collagen as a supplement for some months I was interested to read further. I wasn't surprised to find that one of the authors, Heather Dane, has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a congenital collagen disorder which causes problems throughout the body, from hypermobile joints to gut issues and more. Replacing collagen won't cure EDS, but it might alleviate some of the symptoms. Dane's co-author, Louise Hay, turned to bone broth after a cancer diagnosis.

Both authors are evangelical about their topic, and the first part is about the history of bone broth, the science behind it, and the practicalities of making and including it in everyday life. Part II is the bulk of the book, recipes for making it and for using it. Finally, the appendices contain information on the contributors and their stories, and more general recipe information like conversion charts.

Of late, bone broth has become fashionable in the US, with street stalls selling it as an alternative to coffee, so it certainly makes sense to produce a book telling people how to make their own. It's not difficult - the basic instructions, after all, are to take meat bones and simmer them. You can roast them first or not, as you choose, and add vegetables for more flavour if you want to. You can use any meat bones or even fish to make a flavourful broth. This stock needn't be limited to simply being the base for soups, excellent though those may be: the book includes recipes for making very neutral-flavoured broths as well, which can be more versatile.

A neutral bone broth can even be an ingredient in desserts. It's silly that I find myself reading an ice-cream recipe that includes bone broth with a slight sense of "eeuch" when I am perfectly prepared to make desserts with gelatine, which is simply bone broth in its powdered form. I should say at this point that there are lots of recipes - soups, meat dishes, fish, desserts - so that, should you choose to, you could embrace bone broth as the authors have done, and include it in every meal. It hasn't persuaded me, I have to admit. If I had an Aga, and could make stock (I find "bone broth" both unwieldy and over-trendy) conveniently, I would do it much more often, and I'll certainly continue to make it for individual dishes (tip: the inclusion of a ham hock in home-made salt beef results in the most unctuous meal you could possibly wish for, and yields enough left-overs to make sandwiches heavenly for days), but I'm not turning over my life to it, I'll keep taking the collagen capsules. For the real convert, however, there are also recipes for cocktails and for cosmetic treatments.

It's an attractively-produced book with good, tempting illustrations. I do rather wish that, instead of repeating the same set of instructions for each recipe that uses the same process, they had simply included them at the start of the section (I thought if I read that one should be careful about blowing the top off the blender one more time, I'd scream), but I suppose they intend it as an everyday cook-book. It did come over as a book for people who don't actually cook, but anything which encourages people to make food themselves is good as far as I'm concerned. Certainly, if you have a condition like EDS, or any of the conditions which tend to go along with it - arthritis, IBS, and so on - you should consider taking a look, and changing your diet. I haven't mentioned the other trendy word, "paleo", but if you're considering that, then this book is probably for you, but even as the basis for a sensible, healthy, home-cooked diet it has a lot to offer.

My copy was courtesy of NetGalley. ( )