Beef stock – especially homemade beef stock is remarkably easy to prepare especially using this tried-and-true classic beef stock recipe. You don’t need purchased beef base to prepare a decent beef stock any more than you need those hateful little granules of chicken bouillon to prepare a chicken stock. Just a lazy Saturday around the house, some soup bones and vegetable scraps are all that this beef stock recipe requires.
While we mostly use chicken bone broth in our home, from time to time we mix it up by also preparing a good beef stock. The beef soup bones usually arrive in little paper packages from our meat CSA or for free at the farmers market. In this beef stock recipe, we couple those beef soup bones with leftover vegetable scraps – you know, the odds and ends of onions, the peelings from carrots and celery leaves. The inexpensive bones coupled with the vegetable scraps makes this beef stock recipe remarkably inexpensive to prepare.
A long cooking time provides ample opportunity for the wholesome nutrients present in the beef soup bones to leach out and into the water. The resulting beef stock is rich in nutrients – particularly minerals like calcium. It is also a rich source of gelatin and glucosamine chondroitin. You can read more about the benefits of bone broth.
Beef Bone Broth
Ingredients
- 5 pounds beef soup bones
- 12 cups water
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 2 bay leafs
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400 F.
- Roast the bones at 400 F for about an hour until the bones are well-browned and fragrant. Drain off any fat.
- Place the roasted in a large stock pot, and then pour in the water and red wine. Then drop in the bay leafs. Bring it all to a boil over medium-high heat, and then immediately turn down the heat to low. Simmer the bones 12 – 14 hours, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface of the broth as it cooks.
- Strain the stock, and serve immediately or pour into jars, seal tightly, and store in the fridge up to 1 week.
Nutrition
Can venison bone be used in place of beef? Also, can the spine be used to make the bone broth?
Hi David,
I haven’t used it. In a culinary sense, it should work fine; however, various hunters have expressed concern over using venison spine and the potential of chronic wasting disease.
I’ve just heard that beef stock (and broth) made from non organic bones is very likely to be heavily lead loaded
Does anyone know any different ? and also would grass fed beef bones (non organic) be exempt from lead ?
Hi, no, you heard wrong. There was a study on lead in broth and stock made from ORGANIC chicken (not beef, not conventional) that found higher concentrations of lead in broth and stock than in plain tap water. Researchers only tested the broth and stock made from chickens from a single farm, who may have gotten lead in their soil, bedding, feed or water. Source your food well, and don’t sweat it.
Where do you get the bones from? Do you go the meat department and ask the butcher for 5-6 lbs of beef bones? I’m not sure if it is going to be worth it!