It's January. The holidays are over and Spring seems far away. This is a great time to make stock!
A pot of stock simmering on the stovetop is comforting and inviting and adds moisture to the dry heated air indoors. With some soups, like the French Onion that I'm making today (I'll post it later), it's all about the stock. Yes you could buy a box of stock and be done with it, but if you are going to go through all the effort to make homemade soup, don't short-change yourself by taking taking shortcuts. Some things are worth the extra time and effort. Well worth it.
To begin, start early in the day. Take 4-6 good sized ( 3-4 inches long) beef soup bones (sometimes called femur bones) and rinse them off and place them in the bottom of your stock pot along with an onion, a few carrots and a bay leaf. Turn your oven to 200 degrees and slowly roast the bones for 4 hours. Remove the onions, carrots and bay leaf. Now fill the pot with cold water and turn the heat on low. That's it. When the water gets low, add more. Do this over a 12 hour period, to draw all the goodness from the bones. Gradually your water will turn into stock. Drain the stock through a fine mesh sieve into another pot and allow to come to room temperature, then place in a cold spot (here in Chicago in January, it's cold enough to put the pot on the back porch to cool, but you can use your refrigerator if you need to). When the stock is cold, there will be a layer of fat that has solidified on the top. Carefully remove this layer of fat and discard or save for cooking to flavor other dishes. Now you have stock!
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| Glorious homemade beef stock is well worth making. |
A pot of stock simmering on the stovetop is comforting and inviting and adds moisture to the dry heated air indoors. With some soups, like the French Onion that I'm making today (I'll post it later), it's all about the stock. Yes you could buy a box of stock and be done with it, but if you are going to go through all the effort to make homemade soup, don't short-change yourself by taking taking shortcuts. Some things are worth the extra time and effort. Well worth it.
To begin, start early in the day. Take 4-6 good sized ( 3-4 inches long) beef soup bones (sometimes called femur bones) and rinse them off and place them in the bottom of your stock pot along with an onion, a few carrots and a bay leaf. Turn your oven to 200 degrees and slowly roast the bones for 4 hours. Remove the onions, carrots and bay leaf. Now fill the pot with cold water and turn the heat on low. That's it. When the water gets low, add more. Do this over a 12 hour period, to draw all the goodness from the bones. Gradually your water will turn into stock. Drain the stock through a fine mesh sieve into another pot and allow to come to room temperature, then place in a cold spot (here in Chicago in January, it's cold enough to put the pot on the back porch to cool, but you can use your refrigerator if you need to). When the stock is cold, there will be a layer of fat that has solidified on the top. Carefully remove this layer of fat and discard or save for cooking to flavor other dishes. Now you have stock!
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