Beef Stock: Dem Bones

This photo has been hidden to protect the unwary and faint of heart. It is badly composed and graphic in nature. Do not click here if you: 1) Possess any sort of artistic sensibility; 2) Eschew meat; 3) Consider greed and gluttony to be sins. You have been warned. If you click here we are not responsible.

You looked, didn't you? Okay, so it isn't the prettiest photo... but when you go to Peter Luger's for porterhouse steak, you do NOT leave the bones behind. No you don't. You take them home and wrap them tightly and put them in the freezer.

Then one Saturday morning you pull them out, along with some shortrib bones you'd saved a few weeks previously, and you stick them in the refirgerator to thaw. You make a run to the grocery store and buy a couple of oxtails and some soup bones.

Back at home you roast the soup bones and the oxtails on an oiled baking sheet for about 45 minutes. Then you put all of your bones into the crockpot (don't forget the porterhouse and the shortribs!) with some peppercorns and a few bay leaves, cover them with water and start them cooking at high. In the meantime, roughly chop some onions, carrots and celery (yes, that's mirepoix, people) and toss them with the fat in the roasting pan and brown in the oven. Add the browned mirepoix to the stock, along with some garlic, and once the slowcooker is simmering turn it to low and cook until Sunday. Seriously. Before you go to bed, make sure the bones are covered (add more water, if needed), set the timer for as long as it will go, and get some sleep.

In the morning make some coffee and then line a colander with cheese cloth and place it (the colander, not the coffee. You should be drinking the coffee) in a large bowl. Strain the stock through the cheesecloth and let it cool a little. Transfer to containers and let it sit in the refrigerator until all of the fat has solidified at the top. Remove the fat and then decide whether or not you want to clarify* the stock (if you're going to use it for clear soup).

Then put your beautiful stock in the freezer until you need it. Start dreaming about caramelized onions and French Onion Soup.

*To remove solid bits that are too small to strain out, combine 1/4 cup of cold water, 1 egg white, and 1 crushed egg shell. Add to the stock and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, let stand about five minutes and strain again through cheesecloth.

Comments

[Karyn]

I didn't look. :)

I have been wanting to make vegetable stock . . . but whenever I have leeks/onions/root vegetables around, I end up wanting to eat them. :(

[Manggy]

I think... I belong to the first category of people (flattering myself). I clicked anyway. Oh well!

Yeah, I think sleeping while making stock brings a lot of the boredom out of it. I hear you only need a fire as low as to produce a solitary bubble every few minutes. Unfortunately, it's not laziness that keeps me from making it instead of buying powdered crap-- it's the thought of using up all that gas/ possible hazards from doing so. I wish there was a more energy-efficient way :/

[Manggy]

... I obviously missed the bit about the crockpot. Duh!! But my crockpot on low is still way too harsh, heh :) But it is less of a fire hazard.

[shauna]

I looked. Oh god, and am I glad I did.

Yum, to the nth degree.

[Zenchef]

Oh my God!
This is the most beautiful picture i ever seen! :-)
Anything that involves sleep in the process is a winner in my book! I wish i had the recipe to make money that way hehehe.

[Ann]

Karyn, one of these days you'll have too many vegetables starting to look sad and it'll be stock time...

Manggy, you definitely belong to the first group. :-) I have a pretty good slow cooker which does quite well for stock set on low. It's really been great to be able to make such an important foundation ingredient while essentially ignoring it.

shauna, spoken like a true carnivore! :-)

Zenchef, what you meant was "my god! What a terrible photo of a beautiful thing!"

[myfrenchkitchen]

I immediately had to look...and I'm still standing. There is just nothing like a homemade stock!
Ronell