How to freeze and defrost bone broth in glass jars

This is a question that crops up often in our Bone Broth Basics group. If you don’t take care with your jars, they can crack in the freezer! So I am going to share with you all my tips on how to freeze and defrost bone broth in glass jars.

Why store bone broth in glass?

There are other methods of storing your homemade bone broth. Glass however is particularly safe and free of toxins.

Many people avoid plastic for safety and environmentally-friendly reasons.  Plastic can contain small molecules that may transfer into food it is in contact with.  Some plastics are endocrine disruptors, meaning they can mimic the body’s natural hormones and cause a range of health problems.

When you store your food in glass, you may choose to store it in the fridge (usually up to seven days if it has a fat layer across the top), can it or pop it in the freezer. Canning is something we don’t seem to do a lot of in Australia, but it is popular with American “homesteaders’. There is plenty of info on the internet if you want to give that a go.

Anyhow, back to freezing. Most of us have lots of glass jars at home, so it’s an easy and economical method of storage.  Some people like to use ice cube trays and then transfer that to a glass jar. You can do that, but I recommend using stainless steel ice-cube trays to avoid plastic.

As I mentioned, some people are turned off glass storage because they have problems with the glass cracking. However, I always follow some simple tips and I have never had an issue with cracks. Even if you do have cracks, I would still pass the broth through some muslin and not waste it! Read on for my tips on how to freeze bone broth in glass jars.

How to freeze bone broth in glass jars

There are a few simple steps to ensure your glass jars don’t crack.

• choose a wide-mouth jar, not one that tapers up to a narrow opening
• don’t fill the jars all the way to the top (you need to allow room for expansion, so leave a couple of centimetres of space at the top)
• cool down the jars in the fridge overnight or until they are really cold before putting in the freezer
• freeze with the lids on loose and then tighten once the broth is frozen
• place the jars upright and spread out in the freezer, with enough room for air to circulate around
• make sure you label the jars with the contents and date!

How to defrost bone broth in glass jars

It’s preferable to defrost your glass jars of bone broth in the fridge overnight. However, sometimes life isn’t always organised and we might need some broth in a hurry for a recipe or if someone in the family is sick.

I have used this method to quickly defrost glass jars of broth from frozen (and without using a microwave!)

You simply place your jar in a saucepan of cold water on the stove top and put it on a low setting. It doesn’t take long until you can start scraping out the defrosted broth to heat it up in another saucepan.

 

I hope these tips on how to freeze and defrost bone broth in glass jars was useful to you. Let me know how you go.

If you want to learn how to make your own bone broth, I share my step by step recipe in my book, Bone Broth Basics which you can get as a print copy or ebook.

If that’s still too much trouble, you can buy bone broth powder and just add water or grab bone broth strips and just eat!

Still got more questions about bone broth? I answer a whole heap of common bone broth questions here.