Guest blogger, Mike Hart stepped in to help on this post with his recipe for homemade beef broth while I’m busy with the cookbook launch and getting ready for a trip to Europe. Wow am I impressed with this recipe and I’m sure you will be too, especially if you value a richly flavored beef broth. Nothing compares, believe me, nothing compares! This broth is so rich and flavorful, you can drink/sip it as a stand-alone broth.
And beef stock is useful in so many recipes. A few examples: Onion Soup, Lentil Soup, Italian Style Goulash, Italian Roast Beef.
The 411 from Mike:
Here’s how I make my beef stock. I start with beef oxtails and beef short ribs.
I place the meat in a roasting pan or baking dish and dust it with kosher salt and ground black pepper. I also dust it with a garlic herb mixture but this is optional. Add a cup or more of hearty red wine. (editorial note: sipping while cooking is permitted 🙂 )
Cover loosely with foil and put into 400° oven for 40 minutes.
While the beef is roasting, I chop an assortment of vegetables, usually what I have available, in this instance: yellow onion, carrots, celery, a bunch of scallions, shallot, leeks, garlic cloves, and Italian parsley.
Place the veggies in the bottom of a stock pot, cover in water and bring to a simmer. Optional – use a quart of store-bought stock as part of the liquid covering the veggies to give things a jump start.
After 30 minutes of roasting, remove the foil covering the beef. The beef pieces should now be resting in a pool of juices. Determine how much longer you want to roast the beef – I like to see a bit of crust on beef pieces and no pink showing on the top, bone ends should have a roasted look with the meat shrinking away from the ends.
When the beef is done, move it from the roasting pan to the stock pot. Pour the juices and scrap pieces from the roasting pan into the stock pot. Add additional water to the stock pot to cover meat and veggies and low-simmer for 3-4 hours. Correct seasoning as needed and continue to add water as desired. (NOTE to dog owners: When the roasting pan has cooled, place on the floor for your dog to clean up.)
This is our dog Sophie’s favorite part as she cleans up the beef scraps!
When done simmering, let stock cool and strain liquid from the veggies and cooked beef. Chill the stock. I put it into large containers and right into the fridge. That makes it a lot easier the next day to remove the fat layer and then ladle the jelly-like stock into containers for freezing.
The yield is about 20 cups or 5 quarts of stock.
Thanks, Mike for sharing your fabulous beef broth secrets!