Beef Stock
I kept my bones from a beef chuck the other day because I knew I’d have a little down time to make some stock. My secret evil plan was to make french onion soup at some point this week. I didn’t know if I was going to get to it or not. But the stock will keep, so it was fine.
Once again, I didn’t add a lot of veggies because I want beef stock, not vegetable stock. I could have done it in the Instant Pot, but I wanted to monitor it’s progress. I’m annoying like that. Also, I skip the olive oil browning and go straight to roasting. Remember….I’m lazy…and I prefer the roasted flavors in my stock. It just adds an extra oomph. I get oomph AND I get to skip standing at the stove browning scraps process. Works for me!
I roasted the meat, bones, and veggies all together. Then I added the dried herbs and roasted mix to the water. I happened to have some smoked black peppercorns left in my mortar and pestle, so I tossed that in. I turned the stove on to simmer and left it at that. I ended up with about twelve cups of beef stock for the freezer and eight to ten cups for soup. Mmmmmm…..soup.
Beef Stock
Ingredients
- 1-2 lbs beef scrap bones
- 2 gallons water
- 1 large carrot trimmed and scrubbed
- 2 large celery stalks trimmed
- 1 large onion cut in half
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 1-2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1-2 tablespoons dried thyme
- 1-2 tablespoons dried rosemary
- 1 tablespoon peppercorns
- 1-4 cloves garlic
- Salt optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400. I used convection. Cut the onion in half. Lightly spray the vegetables with oil, arrange on a baking sheet with the bones and roast for about 30 minutes or until the veggies start to brown.
- Take the veggies out in this order while continuing to brown the bones and add them to the pot of water with the dried herbs: celery, carrots, onions. The celery will be the the first to finish. Continue to roast the carrot, adding it to the pot when it starts to carmelize.
- Flip the onions and the bones at this time and continue to roast for another 15 to 20 minutes depending on how well the bones and onion have browned. Add all this, including the juices to the pot of water and herbs.
- Boil everything together for about 4 hours or until the water has reduced by half on medium high heat. Cooking it longer won't hurt. Let it cool, strain, and store.
