You can do almost anything with soup stock, it’s like a strong foundation. When you have the right foundation, everything tastes good.
Martin Yan
January is National Soup Month and the 15th is National Soup Day so I started a batch of beef broth for soups, stews and gravies yesterday. Homemade beef broth is sooo much better than the canned stuff. Your family’s taste buds will thank you for this homey cold weather treat and it’s good for the rest of your body. Check out this article at LivingStrong.com for information about the benefits of simmering a stock pot of bones for several days.
Yesterday I scored 13 pounds of grass-fed beef bones for $2.00 a pound at the Dane County Farmer’s Market which is held on the Capitol Square in Madison during fair weather. It moved to the Madison Senior Center at 330 West Mifflin on the January 7th. Lucky me! It’s right next door across the back courtyard of my building. Actually it’s in the same building but I have to go outside to get there.
Mostly I got the bones for my dog because a good raw beef marrow bone a couple of times a week keeps his teeth clean, gives him some good nutrients such as calcium and make him a happy camper gnawing on his bones. These are lovely meaty bones too. It would be a pure shame not to make myself some good broth from them. The vendor is: Fountain Prairie Inn and Farms. You have to ask for the soup bones and pre-order them so they can bring some to the next market for you because they usually don’t have them on hand at the market but somebody failed to show up for their bones so they called me and made me very happy.
They serve a great breakfast every Saturday at the Senior Center Market and the room is crowded with vendors selling and buyers buying everything from frost-sweetened spinach to Chocolate Fire cookies. I can vouch for the yummy cookies w/a subtle peppery bite but I don’t like mature spinach, frost-sweetened or otherwise. It tastes too green. I’ll wait for the baby spinach in the spring. I also got half a free range chicken for $2.99 a pound. Can’t wait to cook it.
So, here’s my recipe for beef broth. I’m not a purist who just boils up some bones and beef. I add vegetables, the holy trinity or what the French call mirepoix also known as aromatics. (3 stalks of celery, 4 medium or two large onions, and 3 good-sized carrots (do not peel) cut into 2 inch chunks, ) 3 large cloves of garlic (smashed and roughly chopped) and some spices (a bay leaf, some rosemary, and thyme (a 1/2 tsp of each give or take of dried spices a full tsp or more of fresh) and about a tablespoon of chopped parsley), salt to taste, a few cracked peppercorns, a dash of red wine vinegar (less than 1/8 cup. This leaches the minerals out of the bones) and a cup or so of a hearty red wine (Burgundy is the best for taste but cheap old cooking wine will suffice) to a pound of stew meat and one to three pounds of bones or more depending on how meaty they are. In case you haven’t figured it out I really don’t measure any of this, I just do it by feel. Later I taste and add more of whatever I think it needs it. If I have some mushrooms around that are on the verge of going bad, I’ll add them. Ditto for parsnips and rutabagas.
First I drizzle some good olive oil on the beef, bones, and vegetables and roast them in my cast iron skillets (using cast iron ensures good caramelization and adds iron to the stock when I deglaze the skillets after the roasting is done) in a hot oven (400*), turning them occasionally until they are caramelized a rich dark brown. Then I put that and all the other stuff into a big stock pot and add water until the bones are covered by a good inch. Bring it to a simmer on medium high heat and then lower the temperature to simmer and let it cook for at least 3 days stirring occasionally.
I’m around all the time so it doesn’t matter if I have a pot simmering on the stove but for safety’s sake you can do this in a large crock pot. Stir it periodically and add more water if need be to keep the bones covered. Then drain it through a fine mesh strainer into a container large enough to hold it, pour a couple of cups of plain boiling water over the mess in the strainer to leach out the rest of the goodness and then throw away the bones and stuff. There you have it, rich delicious beef stock.
You can reduce/condense it by putting it back onto the stove to simmer until some of the water has evaporated so it will take up less space. When it has cooled a bit, pour it into some nice pasta sauce jars you have washed and saved and store it in the refrigerator. When it’s cold you can scrape most of the fat off the top. You should have at least 2 quarts if not three or more. Stock can be frozen for up to three months. I use plastic for freezing. Be sure you leave some space for expansion in your container.
Next, my daughter’s recipe for beef burgundy stew since I bought that big ol’ bottle of burgundy.
