Cooking with Kids: Beef Stock Recipe

Beef Stock

Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Freeze your meat bones and save uncooked vegetable scraps in a jar in the refrigerator to make the best beef stock you'd ever want to taste!

Equipment: Knife, large kettle, flat pan for browning the bones, vegetable peeler, stirring spoon.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 lb. of beef bones with meat on them
3 quarts plus 2 cups water
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
celery leaves from 1 or 2 stalks
A pinch each of dried parsley, thyme, basil and marjoram
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic peeled and cut in half

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Place bones on large, flat pan. Brown the bones in the oven for 30 minutes. Place the browned bones in the soup kettle with the water. Add the carrots, onions, celery leaves and water and bring to a boil. Now add the herbs and garlic, reduce heat to low, partially cover the pot and simmer (cook slowly) for four or five hours.

Strain the stock through a great big strainer (we've used that before!) into a bowl. Let cool for about 15 minutes and then refrigerate until the fat can be lifted off the top of the broth.

Store tightly in a covered jar. It will keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days or freeze up to 4 months. And from now on, when we add beef broth to sauces or soups - use your very own, homemade broth!

Pep's note on soup salt...
In his book on "healthy eating," gourmet cook Craig Claiborne gives us the sodium content in milligrams for broths: