Liz Earle's natural collagen tips
We're all searching for the secret to eternal youth - but according to Liz Earle, beauty comes from the inside. So what exactly is collagen? And how does it make the skin look younger?
Liz is here with some beauty broths to enhance the collagen levels - much less painful than facing the cosmetic needle.
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WHAT IS COLLAGEN?
The name collagen comes from the greek word kólla, which means glue. Collagen is the main building block of skin, resembling fabric strings which attach themselves to skin cells to support skin strength and stop it from sagging. When we are young skin is made up of 80 per cent collagen. From the age of 25, we lose it at the rate of around one per cent per year - resulting in wrinkles and saggy skin.
Beauty Bone Broth
2 kilo pasture fed beef or lamb bones1tbsp freshly ground black peppercorns2 onions, skins removed4 cloves garlic, crushed2 tbsp apple cider vinegarWater, to coverHalf fennel bulb roughly choppedFiltered water, to cover, approx 5 litres
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the bones, boil hard for 20 minutes before removing the bones from the water. This is important to boil off any impurities. Discard this water. Place the bones in a roasting tin and blast in the oven for an hour or so until darkened. Remove from the pan and place bones back into the large saucepan. Retain the beef fat or dripping in the roasting tin and use in cooking or feed to the birds. Cover the roasted bones with fresh water, add the onions, garlic, cider vinegar and pepper and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 9 hours (the longer the better). You may need to top up with a little hot water. When the broth is ready, remove the bones (these can be used to make broth again, literally until they disintegrate) and strain the broth into a wide shallow container, cooling the liquid quickly with a tray of ice cubes. It’s important to cool it down rapidly to prevent bacterial spoilage. As soon as the liquid is cool enough not to raise the interior temperature of the fridge, keep refrigerated. Your broth should be gelatinous in consistency, with a layer of beef bone fat on the surface, which can either be removed once set or stirred back into the warmed broth for extra nourishment. Heat up as required and enjoy – this broth is delicious served with a dash of Worcestershire sauce - or freeze in easy to re-heat portions.
Blackberry jelly
300g blackberriesApprox 250ml unsweetened red grape juice1 teaspoon honey12g gelatin8-10 blackberries, kept whole
Take approx 300g blackberries (or whatever you’ve managed to pick) and cook on a very gentle heat in a saucepan so they become mushy, then push through a fine sieve to collect the juice. Top this up with unsweetened red grape juice so that you have 400mls of juice in total. Sprinkle gelatine over half a cup of water and leave to become ‘spongey’. Heat the grape and blackberry juice in a pan. Stir in the spongy gelatine until completely dissolved. until completely dissolved. Place a few blackberries into the bottom of each glass and pour over warm liquid. Leave in fridge to set for at least 4 hours.
Fruity treats
1 pint fruit juice24g of gelatinHalf cup of water
Sprinkle gelatine over half a cup of water and leave to become ‘spongey’. Heat very gently in a bain-marie until the powder has completely dissolved and the liquid is translucent. Do not let the gelatine boil. Pour the liquid gelatine into the fruit juice, stirring constantly – it will thicken as it cools. Pour into an ice cube tray and leave to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.