Fortified Beef or Veal Stock

By andrew.zimmern on Tue, 10/02/2007 - 15:06

Summary

Yield
Prep Time	6 hours
Main Ingredient	Beef
Meal	Soups + Stews
Season	Any Time

Description

Here is my basic recipe for beef/veal stock. I recommend making this whenever you have down time at home. Don't be daunted by how long this recipe takes, the majority of cooking happens in the pot over a few hours and requires little maintenance.

When it comes to choosing either beef bones or veal bones, I recommend using beef bones for stocks that will be used in soups and stews. Veal bones are ideal for stocks that will be made into sauces. Because veal bones come from younger animals, there is more cartilaginous material in the still growing bones and this adds to the 'body' of a sauce.

When you are finished, don’t fret about what to do with as much stock as you’ll end up with. After letting it cool, divide the stock into freezer bags for recipes throughout fall and winter. If you use beef/veal stock often, keep in ice cube trays for an easy tablespoon here or there, to deglaze a pan or beef up a red wine reduction.

SKILLS USED:
Washing Leeks
Smashing Garlic
Mirepoix - Onion, Carrots & Celery

Ingredients

10 lb beef or veal bones
3 c diced carrot, celery, onion
1 leek, greens trimmed and discarded, split and washed
2 bay leaves
1 T peppercorns
8 sprigs parsley
3 cloves
6 clv garlic, smashed
1 c chopped tomatoes (canned works great)
2 c red wine

Instructions

Place the bones in a 350 degree oven on several sheet trays. The bones can be crowded on the pan, but they should be laid out, not piled up.

Roast until browned, @ 2 hours.
After the bones are roasted, place all the bones into a 4 gallon pot. Put the pans the bones were roasting in, with all the goopy mess still in the pan on your range top over medium heat. Using the red wine (make sure to save some for each pan you used, if you used more than one) deglaze the pan adding this mixture to the bones in the 4 gallon pot. Repeat for each roasting pan you used.

After you’ve got all the goodness out of the roasting pans, add the rest of the ingredients to the 4 gallon pot. Add water to cover – should be about 3 gallons.

Bring pot to a bare simmer. Lower heat to maintain 200 degree temperature, but no bubbling or movement of the stock. Keep steeping for 3-6 hours, adding the occasional cup or two of water if needed.

After cooking, strain slowly through a fine mesh sieve, or colander lined with twice-doubled up cheesecloth, discarding solids and scum at the bottom of the pot. (With heavy bones like beef or veal bones, it may make the straining process easier to pick out the big bones and discard before straining.)

Cool, skim fat and strain again through cheesecloth.
Refrigerate, freeze or utilize.