Recipes

[mare54]

Does anyone make their own? I have made chicken stock but haven't tried beef broth. I know some of you are saying why when you can buy it. I just want to try it and I think it would much healthier.  Thanks.

[Carmie]

I always make my own stock.  It is so much better tasting than what you can buy in a can or box.

I made beef stock about a month ago for beef vegetable soup.  I had a difficult time finding a good beef bone.  The store/ butcher used to give them away or sell them for $ .25, but no more.  I finally had to buy ox tails and a cheaper cut of a beef roast that wasn't so cheap.

I cook mine with onions, celery, spices  and sometimes carrots with the bone and extra meat if I am making soup.  I cook it for hours to get all the minerals out of the bone...better teste and healthier that way.

[Reconnaissant]

@mare54 

How to Make Beef Stock

• Yield: Makes about 4 quarts

INGREDIENTS

• 4-5 pounds meaty beef stock bones (with lots of marrow), including some knuckle bones if possible, cut to expose the center marrow, and include at least a couple veal bones if you can, for their gelatin
• 1 pound of stew meat (chuck or flank steak) and/or beef scraps, cut into 2-inch chunks
• Olive oil
• 1-2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 1-2 large carrots, cut into 1-2 inch segments
• Handful of celery tops, or 1 large celery rib, cut into 1 inch segments
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• Handful of parsley, stems and leaves
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 10 peppercorns

METHODHIDE PHOTOS

1 Roast the meat, bones, and vegetables:  Preheat oven to 400°F. Rub a little olive oil over the stew meat pieces, carrots, and onions. Place stock bones, stew meat or beef scraps, carrots and onions in a large, shallow roasting pan.

Roast in oven for about 45 minutes, turning the bones and meat pieces half-way through the cooking, until nicely browned. If bones begin to char at all during this cooking process, lower the heat. They should brown, not burn.

When the bones and meat are nicely browned, remove them and the vegetables and place them in a large (12 to 16 quart) stock pot.

2 Add hot water and scrape up the browned bits: Place the roasting pan on the stove-top on low heat (will cover 2 burners), pour 1/2 cup to a cup of hot water over the pan and use a metal spatula to scrape up all of the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Pour the browned bits and water into the stock pot.

3 Add vegetables, water, bring to a low simmer: Add celery tops, garlic, parsley, bay leaves, and peppercorns to the stock pot.

Fill the stock pot with cold water, to 1 to 2 inches over the top of the bones. Put the heat on high and bring the pot to a low simmer and then reduce the heat to low.

If you have a candy or meat thermometer, the temperature of the water should be between 180° and 200°F (boiling is 212°F). The stock should be at a bare simmer, just a bubble or two coming up here and there. (You may need to put the pot on your smallest burner on the lowest temp, or if you are using an oven-safe pot, place it in the oven at 190°F.)

Cover the pot loosely and let simmer low and slow for 3-6 hours.

Do not stir the stock while cooking. Stirring will mix the fats in with the stock, clouding up the stock.

4 Skim scum and fat: As the stock cooks, fat will be released from the bone marrow and stew meat and rise to the top. From time to time check in on the stock and use a large metal spoon to scoop away the fat and any scum that rises to the surface.

(Do not put this fat down your kitchen drain. It will solidify and block your pipes. Put it in a bowl or jar to save for cooking or to discard.)

5 Remove solids and strain: At the end of cooking time (when you want to end the cooking is up to you, 3 hours minimum, 6 to 8 hours if you can do it) use a slotted spoon or spider ladle to gently remove the bones and vegetables from the pot (discard them, though if you see a chunk of marrow, taste it, it's delicious).

Line another large pot (8-quart) with a fine mesh sieve, covered with a couple layers of cheesecloth if you have it.

Pour the stock through the sieve to strain it of remaining solids.

6 Chill: Let cool to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator.

One the stock has chilled, any fat remaining will have risen to the top and solidified. The fat forms a protective layer against bacteria while the stock is in the refrigerator. If you plan to freeze the stock however, remove and discard the fat, pour the stock into a jar or plastic container. (You can also remove the fat, and boil the stock down, concentrating it so that it doesn't take as much storage space.) Leave an inch head room from the top of the stock to the top of the jar, so that as the stock freezes and expands, it will not break the container.

[4kitties]

@Reconnaissant 

Oh my!  I bet that beef stock would be marvelous!  The closest I have ever come to making beef stock is to buy beef shanks, brown them, and then simmer them for several hours to make vegetable beef soup.

I do make chicken stock regularly.  There really is a difference, homemade is so much better.

I always make turkey stock too.  But only once a year, with my picked over turkey frame, from Thanksgiving.  I then make turkey rice soup.

[deepwaterdotter]

I make this recipe from The Complete Slow Cooker cookbook:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 lb mushrooms, trimmed and halved

1 onion, chopped

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 1/2 lb lean ground beef

3/4 cup red wine

3 qts water

1 carrot, chopped

1 rib celery, chopped

2 tbsp soy sauce

3 bay leaves

Cook mushrooms, onion, and tomato paste in hot oil in covered skillet until softened.  Cook uncovered until mushrooms are browned.

Stir in ground beef until brown and crumbly.  Stir in wine until mostly evaporated.  Pour everything into slow cooker. 

Stir water, carrot, celery, soy sauce, and bay leaves into slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low until deeply-flavored, 4-6 hours (I find that 5 hours is plenty for my use).

Strain out solids through fine-mesh strainer into 4-quart pitcher.  Leave overnight in fridge, then strain again to get rid of grease and any remaining solids. 

I freeze in smaller portions in Ziploc freezer bags.  

[mare54]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Can't wait to make it. I have recently made friends with the butcher at a local supermarket where I live. I made my turkey stock for Thanksgiving and it was DELISH!!!!  

[depglass]

I make chicken soup out of left over rotisserie chicken.  Just carrots, onions, celery.  So I guess I could call it stock or broth before I get to the stage I put the chicken meat back in and add noodles or whatever.  I've never saved the stock or frozen it.  I noticed years ago Ina Garten discards all the vegetables, what a waste.

[CelticCrafter]

We made beef stock years ago when the Frugal Gourmet was popular on the PBS stations.

Roasting the bones will make your house smell and not in a good way.

[JeanLouiseFinch]

True bone broth, done right, is a bit of a process between the roasting of the bones and the extended simmering to get all the collagen to release.  

[aroc3435]

@depglass  The reason experienced home cooks or trained chefs discard the vegetables, such as celery ribs, or whole onions, garlic, carrots, or whatever has been ultilized in the stock is because they have expended all their essentiall "goodness" into the stock.

You are free to strain them out, as I do, and can eat them separately, but their flavor, and essential vitamins, have been thoroughly released and you wouldn't want those incorporated when you make your final soup in the next step.  You always start with a fresh round of vegetables and parsley.

In my mind, that is not wasteful.  It is similar to being told by chefs not to cook your vegetables, such as string beans or broccoli, until they are soft and mushy and then draining off all the water in which they are boiled where all the vitamins and minerals have leaked out.

aroc3435

Washington, DC