Well if we talk about traditions, Thai people have a tradition of broths. Some vendors in Bangkok would have their broths running for years. They just serve from that and replenish it whenever needed. Will that be unhealthy? I don't think so.

There are so many things that you want to get from food. Minerals and vitamins. Vitamins you get from fresh things, minerals from cooked foods. Ofcourse there will be an overlap.

Think of bone broths or even vegetable broths as mineral sources rather than vitamin sources. Cook the broth and then use it with fresh sauteed vegetables, or as dressings.

I make perpetual broth. The best way to keep it from going funky is to skim the fat within the first day or so and bring it up to a boil once a day for a few minutes but not longer.

i could never reconcile the use of electricity. but i'm old and still shut down my computer when i am not using it.

I tried making it once, but found that it was stressing me out having something I was cooking "run in the background" for days at a time like that.

So far I'm having satisfactory results with 20-24 hour broths once or twice a week which I usually start in the evening after dinner. Half the time this involves just adding to whatever I cooked for dinner in the crock pot.

Most of my bone broth stews take closer to 2 weeks than one to finish.

I strongly disagree with andrew about "I can't see there being much flavour or nourishment by the end of the week!" because the stew gets yummier and yummier and I scrape the final bits out of the pot with relish.

My large batch of stew winds up in 2 glass keepers in the fridge. I eat out of them alternately, re-heating my portion in a skillet with gentle heat while I eat fruit and a salad. If they last a week (they usually do) I give whatever's left at the one-week point a brief boil and 15-minute simmer and it goes back into the fridge, perhaps in one keeper. During the second week, I tend to add new vegetables to the re-heated portions but the meat and veggies in the "old" part only taste better to me with the additions.

It boils down to what you like. I like stews with lots of different vegetables, some barely cooked and some cooked to within an inch of their lives. Since I greedily drink and eat the whole thing and totally thrive on it I don't believe for a minute that it's either nutritionally exhausted or unsafe.

Note: When I put my finished stew into the keepers, the bones are already gone. I always slow-cook the bones and gristle and remove the clean bones before adding any vegetables. Any small bits of bone that remain are so soft that I just chew them up and eat them.

I've done this for longer than a week. There are a few comments about reduced nutritional quality. I don't necessarily agree or disagree. With cow knuckle you can get at least a few good gelatinous broths and then you will still get the minerals as they seep. With the veggies....well I don't add those till the end anyhow and I use that as vegetable soup.

The bones I get are not inexpensive, and I have a couple of kids that dig the broth now so this is absolutely the optimal way in my house.

You could also cook it for a hour in a pressure cooker. Nom NOm Paleo talks about this. Its pretty cool. Also I save the bones for a future bone soup.

I sure hope it's safe. I've been going a month with a batch of bones. I could probably eat the bones by now.

I think the temperature would keep the bacteria at bay alright, but the texture of the vegetables would turn to mush and the nourishment of the bone broth would diminish as the water diluted it.

It is just a bit too lazy for me.