Beef Bone Stock

You can buy pre-made beef stock in many supermarkets. And if you are really desperate, there are stock cubes. But nothing beats making your own beef bone stock. Make a big batch and freeze what you don’t need immediately.

The very first cooking course I ever attended was about making stocks. The lessons learned have been invaluable. Almost as valuable as the Philosophy course I did in Logic and Argument has been to my other career paths.

The most important lesson is – don’t rush it. Stocks need time. Beef bone stocks need a lot of time. Some Vietnamese Phở restaurants have their stocks cooking for 12 hours or more. I recommend a minimum of 6 hours for a basic beef bone stock like this.

Fish stock and vegetable stock need a lot less time. A beef bone stock, and pork bone stock, need a long slow simmer to extract that amazing umami-rich flavour.

Temperature is important. If it is too hot for too long, the stock gets cloudy and can get a little bitter. If you see an occasional bubble rising to the surface, that is about the correct temperature.

You could add other vegetables to this stock. Fennel would add a nice anise note. A few mushrooms, especially dried shiitake mushrooms, would up the umami factor by a considerable margin.

Beef Bone Stock

Course: Base ingredient

Cuisine: International

Keyword: beef stock

Author: Steve Paris

You can buy pre-made beef stock in many supermarkets. And if you are really desperate, there are stock cubes. But nothing beats making your own beef bone stock. Make a big batch and freeze what you don't need immediately.

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Ingredients

• 2 kg beef marrow bones
• 5 litres water
• 2 onions skinned and halved.
• 4 carrots cut into quarters length wise
• 1 head garlic cut through the middle (across all the )
• 1 tsp of peppercorns
• 8 stalks of celery lower 2/3 included
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 1 cup parsley stalks loosely packed
• 2 bay leaves

Instructions

• Plunge the beef bones into boiling salted water. Bring back to boil and let boil for 2 minutes. Drain and discard the water.
• Roast the beef bones for 30 minutes.
• Add the onions, garlic, and carrots to the roasting pan and roast for another 45 minutes.
• Add bones, vegetables, and all other ingredients to a suitably sized pot and bring to the boil.
• Skim off any scum and oil.
• Cover and reduce heat so that you only see occasional bibles rising.
• Simmer for 6 to 24 hours, where simmer means the occasional bubble surfacing.

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