Beef Stock - Basic
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May 5, 2019
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Homemade beef stock / beef broth is a very healthy and inexpensive way to add flavor and gut healing to your every day diet. It's so much tastier and packed with much more nutrients than store bought.
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Image by: Thora Toft Prep time: Cook time: 6:30 to 48:30 hours Makes: 6 to 8 cups Difficulty: Easy
• Gluten free • Dairy free • Egg free • Grain free • Soy free • -
Broth is a traditional food that was very common in the past and your grandmother or great-grandmother likely made it all the time. Even today, many other countries around the world still prepare homemade broth regularly, since it's so cheap to make and is a highly nutrient dense food.
Technically, healing beef bone broth just needs beef bones. To add a good flavor, the core ingredients are onions, celery, carrots and salt. This trio of vegetables and the salt form the core of making all soup broth and soup stock.
You can easily double, triple or quadruple the recipe if you have a large enough pot.
The less water used, the more concentrated the flavor. The more meat on the bones, the more flavor.
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Image by: Thora Toft
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• 1 to 2 pounds Beef bones, knuckles, tails • 1 large Onion, quartered • 1 large Carrot, quartered • 4 stalks Celery, with leaves, quartered • 1/2 small bunch Fresh parsley leaves • 1 tablespoon Sea salt • 1 tablespoon Peppercorns or ground pepper -
Substitutions and Notes:
- Beef bones: You can use various different kinds of beef bones, including soup bones, knuckles, tail, etc. It's fine if it still has meat and fat on it. You can also include extra beef fat trimmings for a higher fat content. If there is a lot of fat on the finished soup, you can skim a bit of it off and use it for frying or cooking. It does have a beef flavor, so keep that in mind when using it.
- Cooking times: The longer the stock cooks, the more nutrients that will be extracted from the bones. If that's what you'd like, then let it cook up to 48 hours. When cooled, it may be gelly like; that's good and is an indication that more nutrients have been extracted. It may also have a layer of fat, and this should be used. This fat contains a number of healthy nutrients, and contributes greatly to the flavor. If there's a lot, skim a bit off and use if for cooking (with meat).
- Salt: It's important to use salt. Salt is vital to extract the most flavor from the beef bones and vegetables. Only skip it if you have some very special reason to exclude it.
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- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place bones and fat trimmings in a baking pan. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, to allow the bones and fat to brown. This improves the flavor of the stock.
- Fill a pot with about 2 quarts of cold water. Turn on high heat.
- Place all ingredients into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a light bubbling simmer. Cover and cook for 6 to 48 hours. During the first hour or two, skim off any bubbly foam that forms (it won't always have foam).
- Be sure to not let the pot boil too strongly. You want to maintain a gentle simmer, with just a little bit of bubbling. As time goes on, the boiling may increase, and if it does, just lower the temperature a bit to maintain a very gentle simmer.
- Check the water levels every couple hours, and add water if needed. Once you're more used to making beef stock, you'll have a better idea of how often you need to check it, or how much water to add if you don't want to be checking it very often. You can add more water and make more stock if you want to.
- When done, let cool so that it's safe to handle, and won't burn you, but still warm or hot. Carefully scoop out the solid ingredients.
- You can use any beef pieces, though they're very soft and a bit bland, so use them in soup, casseroles or other mixed dishes that have other strong flavors.
Image by: Thora Toft - If your bones have marrow in them, scoop it out and use it, it's super healthy. I usually set it aside, and add it back into my stock after I strain it. It mashes up into tiny pieces easily.
- Discard the bones and vegetables.
- Strain the stock to remove all the floatie bits.
- When refrigerated, use within 2 days.
- This can be frozen and will keep up to 3 months in the freezer. A good trick is to premeasure it into the amounts you're likely to use. You can also premeasure it into ice cube trays, with 1 or 2 tablespoons of stock. When frozen, transfer the cubes to a bag.
You now have a rich and delicious homemade beef stock that can be used in any recipe that calls for stock or broth.Enjoy!
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