As everyone knows, a beef stock, a chicken stock and even a pork or lamb stock is a flavoured liquid base for making sauces, stews or braised dishes. You may also want to know that stocks are classified as white and brown. We’re gonna make a brown one, in the following recipe. A white stock is prepared by placing the ingredients directly into the cooking liquid. In a brown stock, the ingredients are first baked to a golden brown or browned in fat. The real deal with beef stock (or chicken stock or even pork) is to roast the bones first. That’s the only way to get that umaminess that we love so much, that caramelized flavor that enchants our palate.
If what I’ve already told you doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to make beef stock at home, you may be convinced that you may save some money, if you make a big batch, freeze and keep it for later use. But the main reason is in the flavor you’ll get in your homemade stock. You just can’t buy it at the store.
As the bones will help provide gelatin to the stock, some cheap beef meat will help developping the flavour, as well as aromatic vegetables and herbs.
Beef stock or chicken stock ingredients
- 3 kg beef bones or cheap beef cuts, bone in or 3 raw chicken carcasses (bones and eventually some skin)
- 3 large carrots
- 4 medium onions (about 50 grams each)
- 3 celery stalks or ½ celery root
- 4-5 thyme sprigs
- 3 tbsp tomato puree
- ½ garlic bulb
- 1 tsp salt
- optionally: 500 grams of a veggie assortment at your choice, like some bell pepper, 1 leek, 1-2 small tomatoes, a few cauliflower florets etc
- some other herbs, such as some sprigs of taragon and/or parsley
How to make it?
1. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Put the beef bones and meat/the chicken carcasses into a roasting tray. Cut the vegetables in large pieces and add them to the bones and meat.
2. Add the tomato puree and mix until both meat and veggies are coated. Roast for about 30 minutes until golden brown, turning every so often.
3. Lift the roasted ingredients from the tray and dram off the excess fat. Add the bones to a large stock pot. Add 4 litres of cold water and turn the stove on. Add 1 tsp of salt, it will help to clear the stock of scum. Not more, because the stock will considerabilly reduce and we don’t want it to get too salty. Meanwhile, heat the roasting pan on the stove and add the white wine. Add a little water of the stock pot and boil, scrapping the pan’s bottom until all the caramelized pieces dissolve. Add this aromatic liquid into the stock pot.
4. When boils, skim any discoloured scum/foam from the surface and reduce the heat to low. For beef stock, simmer for 5-6 hours, for chicken stock 2 hours are just enough.
5. Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a clean pan.
6. Bring to the boil and reduce to approximatively 1 liter. Use straight away or cool and chill in the fridge, using within 3-4 days. All the surface fat will get hard when cools, so it will be easy to remove it completely with a spoon. When cold, the stock gelifies beautifully. For keep the beef stock longer, freeze and use it within 4 months.
Beef or chicken stock
Materials
optionally
- 500 grams veggie assortment at your choice, like some bell pepper, 1-2 small tomatoes, a few cauliflower florets etc
- some other herbs, such as some sprigs of taragon and/or parsley
Nutrition
