How to Make Beef Stock – Advice From a Butcher

Beef stock is an important ingredient in the kitchen of cooks, butchers, and foodies. It’s perfect for making great-tasting stews and it’s nutritious. It’s a simple way to use up beef bones and any meat trimmings leftover from a roast.

Beef stock freezes really well, so you can keep it on hand in your freezer for whenever you need it. And finally, it’s not expensive to produce.

Good ingredients and proper technique are essential. Here’s how to make high-quality Beef stock for very little money.

Beef Stock

There are probably as many recipes for making beef stock as there are cooks, so there is no hard and fast rule about how to make it and what goes into it. Your grandma’s stock and my grandma’s stock are probably completely different, and they are probably both fantastic.

Use what suits your palate. Use what you have on hand. But use fresh beef marrow bones to give it more body. Adjust ingredients to your own taste. This is so much better than shop-bought.

Stock and Broth, what’s the difference?

The difference between stock and broth is that stock is a base for various recipes, and we make broth using pieces of meat and it can be drunk as is.

My method uses pieces of trimmings from a Beef Knuckle so I guess it’s a broth that can be used as a stock.

Don’t worry, the food police probably won’t kick your door down while you are making this, but your friends who are food snobs might take you to task on the terminology.

Ignore them.

Food is for enjoyment, so make it whatever way suits you.

Choose Your Own Ingredients

Some recipes recommend you don’t use salt and to use whole peppercorns, but this is an ad hoc recipe, so you are free to choose what to use in your bone broth recipe.

Other recipes say you should roast the vegetables along with the bones, but I prefer not to.

You can also add tomato puree or paste, but I prefer stock without it. It’s your choice.

Simmer gently for two and a half to three hours (or even longer if you have the time) until the meat pieces have really softened, and the marrow has dissolved into the stock.

Equipment

• Roasting pan
• Wooden spoon
• Large Soup Pot
• Slotted spoon
• Cheesecloth
• Colander
• Jug (or two)

Ingredients

• Soup bones (Any beef bones, but marrow bones are the best)

• Vegetables (carrots, celery, onions, garlic, you can use vegetable peelings too)

• Beef trimmings

• Red wine (optional, probably best to drink the red wine while you are making the stock)
• Water
• Seasonings (salt, peppercorns, bay leaves) or whatever you prefer.

Instructions

• Take beef or beef trimmings, some marrow bones, freshly cut, or from the freezer.
• Roast your marrow bones for about 45 minutes to an hour in the oven at 180 C, and while that is happening, fry off your beef to brown it.

• Take the bones out of the oven and place into a large pot with the browned beef trimmings

• Add in your vegetables, then cover with water plus an inch more and season with salt and pepper.

• Bring to the boil on the stovetop and then simmer for about 3 hours.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool for a while.

• To clarify the liquid, strain into another pot to get the solids out of the stock. (The bones and the meat you can give to the cat or the dog.). And then strain again using a finer filter or sieve, taking more of the solids out of the stock. Just allow that time to drain into the pot on the bottom.

• And then finally use cheesecloth inside the strainer. 

• Pour it in gently. Don’t go too quickly. It’ll take some time to filter down through to the bottom.
• Take out all the solids and end up with a nice, clear liquid.
• When all the stock filters through, pour it into your jugs, allow to cool.

• Remove any fat on the surface and then pour it into ice cube bags and freeze.

Beef stock is really simple to make, but it takes several hours to prepare.

It is very cheap to make and if you really want to save more money, you can use vegetable peelings that would normally go into your compost bin. They can still go in the bin after you have strained and clarified the stock.

Take some marrow bones, some vegetables, some meat trimmings and a big pot of water and you are ready.

How-to video

Because the stock-making process takes several hours, this is a short video. You didn’t want a 3-hour video of a pot simmering, did you?

I took photographs at various stages of the process and shot a video of the straining and clarifying stages. As you will see, it is very easy to do, and if you follow these steps, the stock will be exactly as you want it.

Plus, you get bragging rights when you have visitors for dinner. It’s great to say “of course I make my stock” when your guests praise the meal you have just served.

And of course, you are not consuming MSG, beef powder, antioxidants, and emulsifiers, just stock from vegetables and bones. That is better for your digestion and your long-term health.

Eat well and enjoy.