Beef Stock - My First Attempt(s)

[HotSun]

This has been a long time coming, but here you are. Firstly, a shout-out to Kathryn fzxdoc , ecowper , and Oak Smoke for all their great advice.

But...let me back up a couple years. I was looking at the late, great Anthony Bourdain's method for beef stock and trying to figure out when and how I was going to do this. Last year I had saved some beef short rib bones I had trimmed for chili I made last year, which were sitting in the freezer for such an event. I picked up some beautiful beef shanks last week and then on Saturday afternoon my DW charged me with making stock, after hearing about Oak Smoke's wife's experience with drinking his homemade stock.

So Saturday evening was make beef stock night. I roughly followed Kathryn's recipe (in the link below), but here is what I put in:

• 4.5 pounds of beef shanks
• 2.2 pounds of beef rib bones, raw
• 8 cups of water
• 2 tbsp Minor's beef stock ; equates to 2 quarts of beef stock
• 1 huge yellow onion
• 2 carrots
• a bunch of celery scraps I've been saving, thawed
• 12 cloves of garlic, 6 for roasting, 6 for stock
• Peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley as indicated in the recipe
• Mencia wine (Spanish, Sacra Ribera region)

I seared the beef shanks and reserved....



Here they are seared. You can see a beef rib bone in the upper left corner:


I threw all the bones in a tray and roasted in our indoor oven as indicated in the recipe, adding veggies a little later. I had to trim some of the meat and reserve it for the stock, as I didn't have enough space on my tray....


Prepared the liquid and divided into my two pressure cookers. Here are some roasted things:


Loaded those with meat, veggies, and bones....


Pressure cooked on high for 1.5 hours, natural release.

To be continued.....


For reference, here was a starting point for this adventure:
https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/beef-steak-brisket-roasts-prime-rib-etc/1518745-beef-broth

[MsTwiggy]

Exciting 😁😄😃😀🤩🥸🤓🤓🤓😎😎😎 for a sec I though you were gonna post about commodity trading and was relieved to see those browned shanks🔥🔥🐿️

[Bob K]

haha, looking forward to the beef futures post

[HotSun]

After the pressure was released, I moved everything to a large stock pot. Thankfully it got down into the 20's that night, so I was able to let it cool and store in the garage safely until I could finish in the morning. Next morning I got up, strained the stock (no pics, sorry), reheated it, added a couple teaspoons of salt, and fortified it with 3/4 ounce of gelatin.

I heated some pint jars in the oven and canned it, for convenience.

Which gives me a chance to show off my Christmas present, an All American 921 pressure canner/cooker, a gift I bought with my Christmas cash from my dad and stepmom. I got it for a steal, brand-new, on eBay. It is very steampunk and will outlast me, for sure:


This was my first time using it and it was a dream, much better than water bath. You cannot can beef in anything except a pressure canner, unless you want to die, of course.

Here is the end result:


You can see how hard our water is by the residue on the jars. Not pretty, but effective. Funny thing is, my wife didn't know I had a new pressure canner or a couple dozen pint jars, ready for such an occasion, though she was happy when she found out.

The end result, was delicious. The yield for that was 6.5 quarts (I kept some in the fridge for my DW).

As the late, great Ron Popeil would say....but wait, there's more! To be concluded...

[58limited]

Looks really good. Last night I took 4 quarts of venison stock out of the freezer and made demi glace. I freeze all of my stocks, I just don't have time or room for canning.

[Jfrosty27]

I’m sure your stock turned out terrific. However, I would have made Osso Bucco with those beautiful shanks! But that’s just me. 😊😉

[HotSun]

I had very little beef fat from this, but there was a bit I skimmed from the top of the cooled stock. Here is a very ugly picture of that mess:


Kathryn referenced something called 'beef love', so I looked it up on the interwebs and learned about it. So I melted this, strained, and froze it, ready for my next steak. It smells wonderful, with the thyme and beef blending nicely. Should be delicious.

I can't remember who here on AR said they process their bones twice for stock, but I figured I already had a huge mess, so I might as well go again. There was still marrow in the bones, so why not? I did a second round of stock, but with these modifications:

• Reused the beef and bones, but did not roast again
• Onion - I ran out, so I used a good amount of onion powder
• I forgot peppercorns - darn it
• All the same ingredients, but I had to use 5 tbsp of beef base
• Cooked 2 hours, high pressure

After cooking I added something called Umami Seasoning from Aldi, which is a combination of pepper, salt, mushroom powder, and some other things. It gave it a nice flavor that I think made up for the missing peppercorns. 2 teaspoons of salt and 3/4 ounce of gelatin rounded it out.

This time, I decided to vacuum seal in my chamber sealer, as I thought it would be easier. It wasn't The first bag overflowed, as it was (I think) still too warm. I bagged them, stuck them in the freezer for about 3 hours, then vacuum sealed them. Here is one:



Yield for round 2 was 5.5 quarts, but that is mainly because of how I filled my pressure cookers.

Some notes:

• The beef in the first batch was still tasty enough to eat. My DW suggested that I try using it in the second round. The meat was basically just muscle fiber with absolutely no flavor. She said to put it in and she would eat it anyhow.
• I could have used my All American to do all the stock at once, which I will probably do next time. I had never used it, so I went with the tools I was familiar with.
• The end result, for both batches, was delicious.
• Batch 2 needed a lot more support with respect to the beef base, but still came out hearty.
• Oh, I forgot to mention, I ran out of tomato paste. When I opened the last can I had, it sprayed out liquid, which was a good indication of spoilage. I didn't want to kill anyone and I didn't have a reasonable substitute, so I had to omit it.
• 12 quarts, from $20 of beef shanks and maybe $1 worth of veggies and other ingredients, plus fuel and labor of love.
• My wife has been drinking this all week and she loves it. She says a pint is hearty enough to take her from lunch until dinner without hunger.

Next up: chicken stock. Thanks for tuning in!

[HotSun]

Exciting 😁😄😃😀🤩🥸🤓🤓🤓😎😎😎 for a sec I though you were gonna post about commodity trading and was relieved to see those browned shanks🔥🔥🐿️

Funny, I used to trade commodities, but now I am prohibited from doing it as my DW works in the industry. I was just checking feeder cattle futures earlier today.

[MsTwiggy]

Ha!! 😂😂😂

[HotSun]

Looks really good. Last night I took 4 quarts of venison stock out of the freezer and made demi glace. I freeze all of my stocks, I just don't have time or room for canning.

That sounds delicious!

Interesting, I have the opposite problem: not enough freezer space (at the moment). Canning is pretty easy with the right tools. My wife can grab a jar off the shelf and just nuke it when she needs it. I do both, as I like boiling bags of foods.

[HotSun]

I’m sure your stock turned out terrific. However, I would have made Osso Bucco with those beautiful shanks! But that’s just me. 😊😉

Jfrosty27 , osso bucco was one of the ideas I had for those shanks, but the DW really wanted good bone broth, so I told her I would make her stock from it.

[TripleB]

Kudos to you sir for taking the time to make stock. I'm not as patient as you are. Bones, shanks are expensive in my parts. I buy a hunk of beef in the managers special section (Bottom roast, etc), cut it up and brown it in my dutch oven. Use about the same ingredients as you do, but add a tomato and soy sauce. My stock is fairly cheap and quicker, but I'm sure not as good as yours.

Cheers

[HotSun]

TripleB , beef shanks are never that cheap where I live, but I scored them at $4.49 per pound at BJ's, and they were very fresh when I got them. We have a lot of Latin American, African, and Caribbean folks in our area, so things like beef shanks and oxtail tend to be expensive due to the demand. I just got lucky, I think. I found beef necks for about the same price at the butcher at our international market, which will probably yield good results.

[fzxdoc]

I had so much fun reading your three posts, HotSun ! Super duper kudos to you. You really went the extra mile with all of this.

Plus you win the Husband of the Month Award (awarded by the American Federation of Wives, of which I am a charter member )

I bet that stock tastes delicious!

Kathryn

[HotSun]

Thanks Kathryn! My wife hates cooking and I love cooking, so when I took all the time to make the stock for her she was all dreamy-eyed. 😅

[ecowper]

That stock looks outstanding. Great write up and pictures. I really enjoyed this!

[HotSun]

It's pretty good. Thanks for all your great advice, I couldn't have done it without you!

[Troutman]

I'm impressed with your effort, kudos to you sir. I don't use a ton of beef stock but using store bought really lacks the intense flavor and complexity home made provides. For me it's chicken stock. Like others I freeze mine but would love to do some canning (or jarring).

I recently did make a small batch of beef stock and used Chef Jean Pierre's recipe. I like the addition of tomato puree, it makes the stock look so much richer.

https://chefjeanpierre.com/recipes/quick-beef-stock/

[HotSun]

Thanks for the kudos. I agree that the tomato puree adds that richness, so I was bummed I didn't have any. Of course, I wasn't going to run out at 8pm on a Saturday night to buy some, lol.

The driver for this exercise was that my DW hated the bone broth she bought a while ago, at ~$5 a quart (thin, watery, and tasted terrible), but really wanted bone broth ASAP. So there you go.

[mrteddyprincess]

I had a hard time finding reasonably priced beef leg bones for stock. My local butcher shop was charging an unreasonable amount, and a small package of six bones sawed up in two inch lengths was running $12.

Then we had an International Supermarket called Saraga open up on the northeast side of Indy, and I can walk back to their freezer section and buy a big bag of the same thing for about $2 a bag. My freezer at home is now fully stocked for stock.

B

[HotSun]

Great score mrteddyprincess ! I'll have to ask at the butcher/deli counter at our int'l market to see what they may have in back.

[fzxdoc]

Ohmigosh, mrteddyprincess , what a find. Even the dogs in the 'hood will be envious when they hear about your stash.

I just bought 3 beef marrow (shank) bones for some Umbrian Ragu for $4.29. Highway robbery.

Kathryn

[mrteddyprincess]

I'm not making this up. At my local butcher shop they sell long pieces (6-8 inches) of beef femur bones two to a bag and they are labeled "Dog Bones."

The butcher told me he had a 20-something customer who came in and asked, "OMG, you guys butcher dogs?!?"

[HotSun]

fzxdoc , ouch!

mrteddyprincess , reminds me of an ex-girlfriend who wouldn't eat at a restaurant because they served dolphin (a/k/a mahi-mahi). 🤣