Description
Tasked with the job of deciphering the difference between bone broth, stock, and broth for our readers, I set about making my own beef bone broth. I’ve made gallons of broth and stock, but needed to do some research on how to make bone broth and I settled on the multi-step process from Bon Appetit.
Worth the trouble? To be honest, not for me. Even though it yielded some beautiful broth that I will use for soups and gravies, it felt like a long and greasy process. My kitchen still smells like simmering soup bones. Should you want to tackle it yourself, our butchers would be happy to help you source some extra bones.
Ingredients
3 kg (about 7lbs) bones*
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
Instructions
First, I blanched the bones by covering them with cold water, bringing it to a slow boil and cooking for 30 minutes. This helped to get rid of the unsightly scum that always rises to the surface when simmering bones.
Next, I put the cooked bones into a roasting pan along with an onion and a few cloves of garlic, deglazing the pan with water to get up all the flavourful brown bits. I then roasted them at 425 degrees for 40 minutes, turning them over once, to develop a rich, golden brown base.
Next I added the bones to my instant pot, barely covering them with cold water, and pressure cooked for 2 hours. Most recipes say to simmer on your stovetop for 18-24 hours, but I hesitate to do that for safety reasons. I would be concerned about maintaining a food safe temperature for such an extended period of time as well as leaving a simmering pot on my stove if I wasn’t home. A better option would be to use a slow cooker at a low temperature for the same time period.
After straining the bones through a fine-meshed sieve, I cooled the broth, discarding the fat that rose to the top. After all that time, I was left with 6 cups of richly colored, thick and gelatinous broth. This I poured into 2 cup mason jars to freeze for later use. I also repeated the same process with chicken bones and turkey necks.
Notes
The suggested bones are knuckles, shins, short ribs, oxtails; all marrow-filled bones. Our market freezer already stocks bags of frozen beef bones, including knuckles, and chicken soup bones. I added some fresh short ribs and had the butchers cut me a shin bone for a total of 3 kilograms of bones.