Welcome to our world of culinary mastery, where we share my beef stock recipe for home cooks and insider tips. This is restaurant quality brown beef stock that can be made at home.
Suppose you’ve wondered how top-tier chefs infuse their dishes with rich, robust, almost magical flavors. Well, you’re in luck. We will reveal the key ingredients and secrets to making delicious homemade beef stock.
In this culinary journey, we’ll share our beef stock recipe for home cooks and demystify the art of making culinary beef stock. We will also empower you with the knowledge and techniques to elevate your cooking to a new level using stocks and sauces. This will give you the confidence to cook amazingly delicious food.
- Making quality beef stock at home is all about the ingredients and techniques you use. There is something special about recreating our beef stock recipe at home.
Those gourmet flavors that upscale restaurants achieve, you can recreate those flavors in the comfort of your kitchen. The foundation of many exceptional dishes like cottage pie, casseroles, and sauce espagnole often begins with a well-crafted brown beef stock.
Beef Stock Recipe For Home Cooks Ingredient Deep Dive
In the pursuit of creating our beef stock recipe for home cooks. It’s essential to understand the components that make up this liquid gold. The quality and combination of ingredients can make or break the stock, and as any seasoned chef will tell you, it’s the attention to detail.
Beef Stock Ingredients
- 1 kg (2.2lb) Beef or veal bones.
- 2 cups Mirepoix roughly chopped carrots, celery, and onions.
- 1 cup Red wine (optional).
- Fresh herbs thyme, parsley, and sage.
- 5 Garlic cloves.
- 2 Bay leaves fresh or dried.
- 1 tbsp Whole peppercorns.
- Cold water, enough to cover all the ingredients.
- Optional ingredients pig trotters, or tomato paste.
- The Power Of Beef Bones —Bones are a crucial ingredient in beef stock. You won’t have beef stock without beef bones, so they are the star. They are relatively cheap or free if you talk to the right people. I will also use lean beef offcuts or veal bones.
- Flavor Enhancers — Aromatics like onions, carrots, celery, and leeks. These aromatic vegetables provide the base flavor notes to your beef stock recipe for home cooks. They are roughly chopped. This is called a mirepoix, which is the best way to prepare them for the best results.
- The Aromatics — Beyond the basics, aromatic ingredients like garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves, fresh thyme, parsley, rosemary, or sage can take your stock to the next level. These elements provide the complexity and depth of flavor that distinguishes restaurant quality beef stock recipe for home cooks.
- The Role Of Liquid — Cold water and red wine are what I use when making beef stock. The wine adds a subtle fruity acidity note to the stock. The wine is optional.
By understanding these components, you’ll be better equipped to craft an awesomely flavored beef stock recipe rivaling any restaurant. Beef stock can form the foundation for countless gourmet dishes.
Chefs Pro Tip — Save those brown onion skins. When incorporated into beef stock, they not only infuse flavor. They also lend a beautiful, deep brown color.
Beef Stock The Fail Proof mETHOD
There are two types of beef stock: white and brown. White beef stock simmers all the ingredients in a large pot without roasting or browning beforehand. I will share with you the method of making rich brown beef stock.
- Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F) — For a convection oven 185°C (360°F) — Gas mark 4.5.
Roasting Caramelizing Beef Bones
- Roasting The Bones — First, place the bones in a shallow baking tray in a single layer. Don’t add any oil. Before placing them in the oven, you can smear tomato paste over the bones. This is optional and an old-school method. Place the tray in the oven and roast until brown. This should take about an hour or so.
Chefs Pro Tip — Roasting the beef bones and vegetables will add an intense caramelized flavor and a beautifully rich color to your stock. This will help incorporate all those wonderful flavors into your dish or sauce.
Caramelizing Browning Vegetables
- Caramelizing The Vegetables — Place the beef bones in a large pot after roasting them. Place the baking tray on the stovetop and heat it to medium-high. Add the vegetables and sauté until they have caramelized. Now deglaze with the red wine or water. Add this to the stock pot.
Chefs Pro Tip — Deglazing the baking tray to remove any caramelized bites from the bottom of the tray. These tasty pieces will add flavor to the finished stock.
Herbs And Aromatics
- Filling The Stock Pot — Add fresh herbs, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves to the stock pot. Add the cold water to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil. You can make a bouquet garni of herbs before adding to the stock pot. This makes for easy removal.
Chefs Pro Tip — To help remove fat or sediment from the top of the stock. Add cold water to the pot. As cold water is denser than hot liquid, it will cause the unwanted substances to rise to the surface, making it easier to skim them off.
Cooking Out The Stock
- Cooking The Stock — Once the stock boils, turn down the heat to a low simmer. Impurities and fat will rise to the top of the pot, which is essential to remove with a spoon. The beef stock needs to be simmered for at least 8 hours; 10 or 12 hours is preferable. You want to extract as much flavor as possible from the bones.
- An alternative method to thicken beef stock when clarified and reduced. You can add a pig trotter into the stock at the beginning. This will introduce collagen and gelatin, which act as natural thickening agents and add body to the stock into the beef stock. This is an optional ingredient. This approach eliminates the need for a thickening agent when creating demi glaze.
Chefs Pro Tip — Skimming the stock or removing the impurities and fat from the top. While skimming is vital to a clean, clear stock. It will keep it from becoming cloudy and gritty. Skim every 30 minutes or so.
- Be mindful not to boil the beef stock. This will agitate the bones, making the stock a cloudy, milky white. This is the bone marrow mixing with the beef stock in the beef bones.
Finishing And Straining The Stock
- Finishing The Stock — After 8 or 10 hours, the stock will smell like roast beef. Carefully strain the stock into a stainless steel or glass bowl using a fine sieve or muslin cloth. You should get about 1–1 ½ liters of finished beef stock. Let the stock cool and place it into the refrigerator uncovered. You want the stock to breathe.
- Once the stock is cold, remove any excess fat set on top. You can freeze it in small batches for later use. I freeze small amounts (around 1 cup) into snap-lock bags. That way, you have a beef stock recipe for home cooks.
- Removing Access Fat — Suppose fat is still on top of the finished stock. When it is cooled, the fat will harden and be easily removed with a spoon from the cold stock.
Helpful Resources
- A Chef’s Touch Homemade Vegetable Stock In Minutes
- A Classification Of Stocks In Cooking For The 5 Mother Sauces
- The 5 Mother Sauces The Saucy Side Of Cooking
- The Top 5 Espagnole Sauce Derivatives From A Chef
Homemade beef stock is better than store-bought because there is no salt added. Store-bought beef stock has a high salt content, and you can taste it. Homemade beef stock allows you to control the quality of ingredients, intensify flavors, and tailor it to your preferences. It’s the foundation for exceptional dishes, so you should have an exceptional stock.
The main difference between beef stock and beef broth is their ingredients, preparation, and purpose.
- Beef Stock — Simmering beef bones, vegetables, and aromatic herbs makes beef stock. The process concentrates on extracting flavors and gelatin from the bones. By simmering for an extended period of 8 hours, the bones are then removed, which produces a rich and hearty liquid. This can be used as the base for many delicious sauces and casseroles.
- Beef Broth — This is made by simmering meat, vegetables, and herbs. It is lighter in flavor than stock and focuses on extracting savory elements from the meat. The broth is generally cooked for a shorter period, around 1 to 2 hours. The meat and vegetables are left in the liquid. It is commonly used as a standalone soup or hearty meal.
No, you can’t reuse beef bones for another batch of stock. While some flavor remains, the second batch won’t be as robust. Use fresh bones for each batch to ensure a consistently flavorful stock for the best results. After making beef stock, the best use of the beef bones is to extract the bone marrow from them.
Cooking Is A Science And A Skill
Cooking is a science and a skill that requires a deep understanding of both the technical and creative aspects. Cooking is also a matter of precise measurements and ratios.
For example, baking is particularly sensitive to accurate measurements and temperatures. A slight deviation in the amount of an ingredient or cooking degrees can result in a completely different outcome.
So, to help you, here is a handy little unit converter tool for cooking without guesswork.
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PREP TIME: | 20 minutes mins
COOK TIME: | 10 hours hrs
TOTAL TIME: | 10 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
SERVINGS: | 50 portions
AUTHOR: | Shannon The Helpful Chef
PIN PRINT RECIPE
DESCRIPTION
DISH SUMMARY
Unlock your culinary brilliance with our chef's guide to crafting the perfect beef stock recipe for home cooks. Discover insider tips for unparalleled flavor.
Equipment
Cookware
Kitchen Gadgets
Kitchen Knives
Ingredients
- 1 kg Beef or veal bones
- 2 cups Mirepoix roughly chopped carrots, celery, and onions.
- 1 cup Red wine
- Fresh herbs thyme, parsley, and sage.
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 tbsp Whole peppercorns
- Cold water, enough to cover all the ingredients
- 1 cup Tomato paste. optional ingredient
- 1 Pig trotter optional ingredient
Instructions
Roasting The Bones— First, place the bones in a shallow baking tray in a single layer. Don’t add any oil. Before placing them in the oven, you can smear tomato paste over the bones. This is optional and an old-school method. Place the tray in the oven and roast until brown. This should take about an hour or so.
Caramelizing The Vegetables— Place the beef bones in a large pot after roasting them. Place the baking tray on the stovetop and heat it to medium-high. Add the vegetables and sauté until they have caramelized. Now deglaze with the red wine or water. Add this to the stock pot.
Filling The Stock Pot— Add fresh herbs, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves to the stock pot. Add the cold water to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil. You can make a bouquet garni of herbs before adding to the stock pot. This makes for easy removal.
Cooking The Stock— Once the stock boils, turn down the heat to a low simmer. Impurities and fat will rise to the top of the pot, which is essential to remove with a spoon. The beef stock needs to be simmered for at least 8 hours; 10 or 12 hours is preferable. You want to extract as much flavor as possible from the bones.
Finishing The Stock— After 8 or 10 hours, the stock will smell likeroast beef. Carefully strain the stock into a stainless steel bowl using a fine sieve or muslin cloth. You should get about 1–1 ½ liters of finished beef stock. Let the stock cool and place it into the refrigerator uncovered. You want the stock to breathe.
Once the stock is cold, remove any excess fat set on top. You can freeze it in small batches for later use. I freeze small amounts (around 1 cup) into snap-lock bags. That way, you have a beef stock recipe for home cooks.
Chef Tips
- Onion Paper— Save those brown onion skins. When incorporated into beef stock, they not only infuse flavor. They also lend a beautiful, deep brown color.
BEEF STOCK FAIL PROOF TIPS
- Beef Bones — Roasting the beef bones and vegetables will add an intense caramelized flavor and a beautifully rich color to your stock. This will help incorporate all those wonderful flavors into your dish or sauce.
- Deglazing The Baking Tray — This will remove any caramelized bites from the bottom of the tray. These tasty pieces will add flavor to the finished stock.
- Cold Water— To help remove fat or sediment from the top of the stock. Add cold water to the pot. As cold water is denser than hot liquid, it will cause the unwanted substances to rise to the surface, making it easier to skim them off.
- Removing The Fat— Skimming the stock or removing the impurities and fat from the top. While skimming is vital to a clean, clear stock. It will keep it from becoming cloudy and gritty. Skim every 30 minutes or so.
- Simmering — Be mindful not to boil the beef stock. This will agitate the bones, making the stock a cloudy, milky white. This is the bone marrow mixing with the beef stock in the beef bones.
Nutrition
Serving>1portion | Calories>37kcal | Carbohydrates>2g | Protein>1g | Fat>3g | Saturated Fat>0.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat>0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat>0.01g | Cholesterol>0.01mg | Sodium>47mg | Potassium>59mg | Fiber>0.5g | Sugar>1g | Vitamin A>93IU | Vitamin C>2mg | Calcium>4mg | Iron>0.4mg
COURSE: Sauces
CUISINE: French
KEYWORD: Beef Broth Beef Stock Homemade Stock
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