Rich-flavored beef bone broth is a staple that has multiple purposes. From soups to rice, the broth goes well. The restaurant-based beef bone broth tastes good, still, it will not match the taste of the homemade broth.
As making beef broth is long and effortful work, you can't afford to make any mistakes. One mistake and all your efforts will go in vain. To save you from such a situation, we have included everything in this write-up that you need to know for a rich-flavored beef broth.
So let's learn how to make beef bone broth at home.
The ingredients for homemade beef broth are simple yet essential. So, take a look and gather these ingredients for beef broth. Here are they:
Beef Bones: Behind every good beef broth, its quality plays a role. This could be marrow bones, knuckle bones, oxtails, or a combination of these. Marrow bones add richness, knuckles bring in the gelatin, and oxtails add flavor to the broth. So, you’ll need around 3-4 pounds of beef bone.
Water: In most instances, the cooking liquid is cold water. With such a long cooking time, it extracts flavor mostly from bones and vegetables. In the case of beef bone broth, 4-5 liters of water is needed.
Vegetables: The classic base for vegetables in making stock is mirepoix; it generally includes onions (2 medium-sized chopped), carrots (2 large ones), and celery (2 stalks). These ingredients give sweetness and complexity to the stock.
Seasonings: Salt (1-2 teaspoons to taste), cinnamon sticks (2-3), and black pepper (1 teaspoon) are essential seasonings you need to collect for broth. These are considered flavor enhancers if added in the right amount.
Apple cider vinegar: 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar is enough to extract flavors from the bones during simmering.
Aromatics: Collect 3-4 parsley, thyme, or bay leaves. It adds an aromatic fragrance to the broth. You can use either fresh green leaves or dried ones according to your convenience.
Tools Required
There will be a need for some vital tools to complete the process of making beef bone broth. Here are they:
Roasting pan
Large stockpot
Measuring spoon
Paper towel
Strainer
Large bowl
Knife and cutting board
Tongs
Airtight containers
How To Make Beef bone broth
Making beef bone broth is lengthy and requires your full attention throughout the process. So, it is important to be aware of each step. Learn how you can make beef bone broth in the stockpot.
1. Blanch the Beef Bones
The first thing to do with beef bones is to blanch them in a pot. Blanching simply means to partially boil the bones in water. To begin this, unpack the bones and put in a large pot by filling cold water in it.
Sit the pot on the stove and leave it to boil for 10-15 minutes. Here, you make sure to cover the pot with its lid to trap the steam inside the pot.
You might be wondering why to blanch beef bones now. The answer is to remove impurities, excess fat, and any dirt from the beef. Be sure that this won’t waste any nutrition from the beef. Even if it happens, the amount is very minimal.
While the beef bones simmer, start preparing vegetables. This will save you time. First, gather all the veggies in a large strainer or shallow dish. Then rinse the veggies one by one with the water. This helps to wash away any dirt or grit in the veggies.
Once the cleaning is done, chop the veggies using a knife and cutting board, starting with carrots. Cut both ends of carrots and divide a whole carrot into 3-4 pieces.
Then, proceed to chop onions. Slice an onion in 5-6 pieces. Once the onion is done, chop garlic, then cut stalks of celery in two halves.
After 10-15 minutes, the beef bones are nicely blanched. Turn off the stove and then remove the lid. Using a tong, take out beef bones from the pot and place them in a large bowl or dish.
Once you are done draining the beef, rinse the bones with water to further clean out any left impurities on the meat.
After this, You can pat dry the bones to absorb the remaining moisture. This way beef bones won’t release moisture while roasting.
Now move towards roasting the ingredients. Before that, preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). This allows the oven to create a heated atmosphere inside it. As a result, beef bones and veggies roast pretty soon.
Transfer the beef and prepared veggies to a pan or you can use a baking sheet if you have one. While arranging the ingredients, make sure not to over pile them.
If needed, use two pans or make two batches of ingredients to roast one by one. This ensures even heating of ingredients and makes them slightly crusty.
After the arrangement is done, place the pan inside the oven and let it roast for about 25-30 minutes. Once the first 15 minutes are reached, toss all ingredients gently using a tong. Then, leave to roast for another 15 minutes.
Roasting ingredients is necessary to caramelize the bones and also bring added flavor to the broth.
After roasting, remove the pan from the oven and let it sit until you ready the stockpot for broth. Wash off the stock pot used for blanching. Then, place the roasted bones and chopped vegetables in that pot.
Proceed to add cinnamon sticks, black pepper, and green herbs like bay or parsley leaves in the pot. Then, pour in enough cold water to cover the ingredients. Make sure the water is a couple of inches above the ingredients.
One more thing to do, add a cup of water to the pan and scrape out the juice or brown bits, then pour in the pot. This works to add flavor to the broth. In this step, you are supposed to add all the ingredients, so add if you forgot any.
Turn on the stove and place the stockpot with its lid on. A lid helps to prevent the steam along with flavors from escaping. Keep the heat in medium flame initially.
Once the mixture starts to simmer then reduce the heat to low flames. Since low heat allows the ingredients to release flavors more deeply.
Open the lid and remove the foam collected along the water level. Making a bone broth is a long process, so you will need to simmer the ingredients for at least 8-12 hours in low heat.
If you choose to simmer it for 24 hours, simply cool the mixture and store it in the fridge when you’re done for the day. Then, come back tomorrow pour the mixture into the pot, and continue simmering in low heat. Since leaving the gas on is not safe, do that instead.
While simmering for long hours, the veggies may become too soft. To prevent that, remove veggies using tongs after certain hours. Also, check the amount of water, if it goes below the ingredients, add some cups and make sure the ingredients are submerged.
Once the bones are simmered for an estimated time, it is time to turn off the stove and strain the broth using a strainer.
Remove the large bones and vegetables using tongs. Pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into another large bowl to remove smaller particles. For an extra-clear broth, strain it a second time.
Before transferring the broth to the container, leave it to cool down. This helps to prevent bacterial growth in the broth. Storing warm broth is more likely to spoil quickly. Frequently stir the broth for faster cooling.
Once the broth is completely cooled down, pour it into the container. If needed, use more than one container to fill it with broth. Tightly cover the lid of containers and place them in the fridge to maintain their quality.
Refrigerated broth can be used for up to 5 days whereas frozen one last for up to 6 months when consistent temperature is maintained.
Making broth in a pressure cooker may not sound right but it is a practically used method. This method is very convenient and takes only 2-3 hours of cooking.
Unlike the stockpot method, you don’t need to spend 12-24 hours of time for broth. The ingredients and measurements are the same as that of the stockpot one. The only extra thing you need is a pressure cooker.
So, learn how to do that:
First, begin by preheating the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Blanch the beef bones in a large stockpot. Add beef bones to the pot and fill the water until the bones are submerged.
Turn on the stove and bring the mixture to boil for 15 minutes. It removes any impurities from the bones.
Rinse all ingredients (carrots, onions, celery, garlic cloves) with water and chop them into bigger pieces.
After 15 minutes of boiling, Strain the beef bones using a fine-mesh strainer and place them in a large dish or bowl.
Before moving to roasting, rinse the bones properly with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture.
Put beef bones and veggies in a roasting pan and transfer to the oven for roasting for about 25-30 minutes. Don’t overcrowd the ingredients. Roast in two batches if needed.
Once the first 15 minutes are reached, toss the beef and veggies using tongs gently.
Now wash the stockpot used to blanch beef bones in the beginning for the next step.
After the estimated roasting time passes, remove the pan from the oven and transfer the ingredients to the cleaned stockpot. Add roasted beef bones, chopped veggies, apple cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, cinnamon sticks, and green herbs to the pot.
Pour water into the pot until the ingredients are submerged fully but make sure the water level is below the maximum fill line of the pressure cooker.
Place the pressure cooker in the stove with its lid on and keep the heat in low flames.
Cook the beef bones for 2-3 hours at low heat.
After 2-3 hours, turn off the stove and let the cooker cool down naturally.
Uncover the lid and strain beef bones and ingredients using a fine-mesh strainer.
Pour the broth into a large bowl and leave it to rest for another 30 minutes or until it completely cools down.
Finally, transfer the broth to airtight containers and store it in the fridge to retain the quality and flavors.
Usually, bone broth is prepared by simmering it in low heat for longer hours. The time depends mostly on the type of bone used. In the case of beef bone broth, allocate the first 25-30 minutes for roasting beef bone and veggies in the oven.
Then, cooking or simmering time is usually much longer for the stockpot method and that is nearly 12-24 hours. By this time, flavors from the bone get extracted and dissolve in the water and other veggies. As a result, the flavor becomes deeper.
When you don’t get the desired flavor or texture of broth, extend the time to 48 hours. Normally, 12-24 hours is enough for a good quality of broth.
Don’t try to cook bone broth in high heat to reduce the simmer time, it won’t give intense flavors instead ingredients become mushy.
The pressure cooker method requires only 2-3 hours of cooking for beef bone broth. The roasting time is the same as that of the stockpot method.
After spending hours preparing broth, there is no way of letting this hard work go to waste. For this, storing broth becomes the main priority. When it comes to storing, the only solution is the refrigerator which helps to ensure the quality and flavors of the broth.
Primarily there are two ways to store broth. Now it depends on how long you want the broth to last. For a short term like 5-6 days, store broth in the coolest part of your refrigerator.
Avoid placing the broth-filled container close to the fridge door. Because frequent opening and closing of the door disrupt the temperature and spoil the broth quickly.
Another way to store broth for the long term is by freezing it. Broth lasts for up to 6 months in the freezer. The only thing to ensure is its temperature and it should be 0˚F (-18˚C) or lower. This is the ideal temperature to retain the freshness of broth for months.
Ways To Use Homemade Beef bone broth
Here are some ways to be creative with your beef bone broth:
Soups: Adding beef broth to soups sounds quite a good idea for bringing more flavors. The usual soup tastes boring, hence, a little addition of broth does make them flavorsome. Be it mushroom soups or plain vegetable soup, use this store broth in the freezer.
Mashed potatoes: Mashed potatoes are not very tasty if no seasonings are added. So, to make it a delightful snack, I've got an idea for you. And that is the use of beef bone broth. The flavorful broth, when mixed with the mashed potatoes gives a drooling taste.
Braising Liquid: One could also use it in the oven as a braising liquid for pork ribs or chicken legs. You just have to brush out some beef bone broth in the meat and then roast that in the oven. The flavor outcome will amaze you.
Rice: You may not know but using beef bone broth instead of water, makes the rice more flavorful. It also adds nutritional value to the rice. Because broth packs a lot of nutrients like calcium, iron, and protein.
