Beef Stock

A rich, flavoursome stock that makes the foundation for many sauces, broths, soups and braises. Beef stock is often used to produce a sauce known as au jus (French for ‘with it’s own juice’) which consists of juice from the cooked meat, reduced down to intensify its flavour.

makes 2 litres
GF

what you need
2.5 kg beef bones
2 onions, quartered
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 leek, washed and roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
handful of parsley stalks, (without leaves)
¼ cup (60ml) white wine or 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

what you do
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan forced). Place the beef bones and onion into a large roasting pan. Cook for 45 minutes, until bones are well browned.
2. Place carrot, celery, leek and bay leaves into a large stockpot (about 6 litre capacity) then place the cooked bones and onion on top of the vegetables. Deglaze the baking tray with the wine or vinegar and ½ cup of water. Pour this liquid into the pot and cover with 4 litres of water. (Adding a small amount of wine or apple cider vinegar to the stockpot helps extract calcium and minerals from the bones into the stock.)
3. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat so the mixture simmers. Ladle off the scum that rises to the top, and discard. Simmer gently for minimum 6-8 hours, until liquid reduces by half.
4. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve. If you like, return the stock to the pot and simmer again, which will reduce the quantity and intensify the flavour even more (this helps with storage space – strongly flavoured stock can then be diluted to taste).
5. Allow the stock to cool, then refrigerate. Any fat will solidify on the surface when the stock is cold, which can then be easily removed or kept as desired.
Note: Deglaze means to pour some cold liquid, such as stock, wine or water, into a very hot pan to loosen and dissolve the brown bits of food particle on the base of the pan. Scraping the brown bits, which are rich in flavour, until they dissolve into the sauce is key to deglazing.

Storage: Beef stock will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Divide your cooled stock into portion sizes you think you will use, and freeze to have on hand when you need it.

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