The key to this delicious, rich beef broth is roasting the bones. You're not gonna get this kind of flavour out of a box.
There are few things I like more than soup. One of those things is gravy. And I mean Anglo gravy. Not Italian gravy. Although I do like a good red sauce on just about everything, but for today we're focusing on my brown gravy obsession, not my red gravy obsession.
For years I've been making my own chicken broth. When my mother or sisters get hold of a turkey or chicken carcass they immediately make chicken soup with it.
When I get ahold of a turkey or chicken carcass I throw it in the freezer. When I have so many carcasses in the freezer the shower scene music from Psycho plays when I open the door .. I know it's time to make broth.
You see soup is over and done with in a day. But if you save your chicken bones and meat you can have broth which you can use for months in soups, gravies, pan sauces and a bunch of other stuff.
But it's not so easy with beef broth. I never seem to have beef bones. We eat Prime Rib once in a while, but other than that none of my beef has bones.
So ... I haven't made beef broth since 1992. Or somewhere thereabouts.
So last week when I was at the grocery store I decided I'd shell out the cash to buy beef bones, which just about killed me by the way. No seriously. I almost died. I lost control of my cart around the Olive bar and went skidding into the ground beef display. That's not what almost killed me. It was a small, pinch of a woman who was annoyed I bumped her while she was texting.
So I casually made my way over to the soup bones in a way only someone who just about wiped out can. Red faced and giggling to myself. I stopped laughing when I saw the price. $5 for gunk? Marrow bones and meat shards? I immediately understood the mood of the pinched woman. She must have also seen the price of beef bones.
But I sucked it up and bought 3 packages which equaled around 6 pounds of soup bones.
I made it home incident free and started on the broth.
Making Beef Broth is exactly the same as making Chicken Broth, only there's one extra step.
To get that nice beef flavour in your broth you need to roast the bones. You can do this for your chicken broth as well, but it isn't necessary. With beef broth it is absolutely necessary.
So. Wanna make beef broth? Here's what you need to do.
How to Make Homemade Beef Broth
Gather 6 pounds of beef soup bones, 2 carrots, and an onion cut into quarters.
Roast in oven at 450°F (230°C) for one hour.
Stir and turn bones every 15 minutes.
Gather the rest of your ingredients.
2 or 3 celery stalks, a few sprigs of fresh thyme (or 2 tsps. of dried), 2 cloves of garlic with peel on lightly crushed, 1 tablespoon salt, 10-12 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 4 springs of fresh parsley)
I'm still picking parsley from the garden. Notice the snow on it.
Add everything from the pan and remaining ingredients to stock pot.
Fill with cold water until contents are covered. For me this was about 16 cups of water. For you it could be anything from 12 - 18 cups.
Simmer on the stove with lid on for 3 hours. Simmer another hour with lid off.
Strain your broth through cheesecloth or a clean, thin dish towel.
Your broth should be dark. It will also have a layer of fat on the top.
Refrigerate your broth overnight and the fat will solidify on the surface and you can just skim it off.
Don't worry if your broth is like jello after refrigerating. That's from the bones. Once you heat it the broth will thin again.
Now you can either freeze your broth in baggies or wide mouth mason jars OR
you can pressure can it using the exact same process as I showed you for
Beef Broth
Ingredients
- 6 lbs beef soup bones
- 2-3 carrots
- 1 medium onion unpeeled, cut into quarters.
- 2-3 stalks celery
- 5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme or 2 tsps. dried
- 2 cloves garlic smashed, with skin on
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 10-12 peppercorns
- 4-5 sprigs parsley
- 1 bay leaf
- water
Instructions
- Roast soup bones, carrots and onion at 450 °F for 1 hour, stirring and turning every 15 minutes.
- Drain fat from pan. Add soup bones, carrots and onions to stock pot along with remaining ingredients.
- Deglaze roasting pan and add liquid to ingredients in stock pot.
- Simmer for 3 hours with lid on. Remove lid and simmer 1 more hour.
- Refrigerate overnight to allow fat to rise and solidify.
- Skim fat from top of broth and freeze or pressure can for later use.
Nutrition
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How do I cut up the bones in such nice pieces or is this something I could ask the butcher to do?
You can purchase them like this from the store or butcher. You can also request the butcher to do this for you
I'm roasting my bones as we speak. So excited!
So, with 6# of bones, how much broth can I expect to get? I only have around 4-5 cups and I expected a LOT more. Can I just add water to thin it out?
Staci - It should make 8-10 cups. You may have had it at too high a boil as opposed to a simmer. Lost all your liquid. Taste your broth. If it's really strong that means you can easily add another 4 cups to the mixture without losing the good beef flavour. Add the 4 cups, bring it to the boil again and you're good to start canning it. You just have to keep tasting it. If after 3 cups it seems like it's getting too weak, stop there. If after 4 cups it's still good and strong you might get away with adding another cup of water. ~ karen!
BEEF BROTH! Two things incorporated into my life now is darning socks (I find it be a therapeutic occupation) and making my own chicken broth all because of this here blog. And homemade beef broth is gong to be the third thing you've taught me. Thanks SO MUCH.
Gosh I've missed your blog. A dead computer has allowed me to catch up on my book reading, but boy, have I missed Karen's World.
Oh, yeah! And I got the meat grinder attachment for my kitchen aid for Christmas for making my own hamburger. So, four things!
Denise - Excellent! The meat grinder is great! Don't forget you can use it for chicken or pork too so you can make your own ground chicken or pork. I did some chicken just the other day. ~ karen!
I just paid ridiculous money to buy hormone-free/antibiotic free bones, which means my beef broth cost a price so dear, I refuse to calculate it. Plus, my brain doesn't do numbers well.
But my broth is so pretty. Thanks for the inspiration. I've been wanting to try this for years, and now I've done it.
Pooks - Well ... my regular ole beef bones ended up producing jars of beef broth at about $2 per jar (2 cup jar). So ... I imagine your hormone free bones would set you back around a pound and a half of plutonium. Give or take. ~ karen
Thank you, thank you thank you!!!!!
You're welcome, welcome, welcome! ~ karen!
Speaking of turkey bones for canning broth, my Dad (who is a chef) said a really good thing to do with turkey bones is to 'paint' them with ketchup, then roast them in the oven for a bit before you put them in the stock pot to make the broth. Said it takes away that gamey flavor some people may complain about. I haven't tried it yet, but I can say that he hasn't failed me yet in any cooking suggestion he's given.
Beautiful Karen! Just Beautiful!
Thanks Barbie! I just made some more today actually. :) ~ karen!
Thanks for the great tips, I'll be needing just this very recipe, next week<:} - Mia Pratt
Also, pinned onto my freezer recipes section on Pinterest. Per...fect! Repinned from your pin which I found ready and waiting on Pinterest when I dropped by there today. Is it better to repin directly from your pin or to create a pin directly from this website? Which spreads the love more? And the page views? In other words, how much "Pinterest" does a pinned pin get when a pinner pins it...well, you get the idea.
LOL. Um. I have no idea. :) Pinning or repinning from anywhere is fine I'm sure. ~ karen!