Smart Meal Prep: Homemade Beef Stock & Vegetable Broth

Homemade broth makes the best soups, stews, and sauces. But…

My first attempt at homemade broth was a disaster.

After researching several recipes, I was excited. I selected a slow cooker method and purchased fresh vegetables. I layered thick soup bones in the bottom of my slow cooker. I roughly chopped crisp veggies and herbs from my garden and topped it off with as much water as my slow cooker would hold.

Many recipes for bone broth will tell you to simmer it for 24 hours, to get the most nutrient-dense results. It makes sense. The longer you simmer, the more gelatin you can pull from the bones.

I had two issues with this method to make stock.

1. My slow cooker doesn’t want to be on for 24 hours. I believe it gave me a 16-hour maximum, and even then, I started to have nightmares about fire hazards. So I kept adding time every few hours, but I quit short of a full day.
2. The smell. Although at first, the aroma of rich beef broth was mouth-watering, after 8 or 10 hours, it started to get on my nerves. And when I could smell it while I was in bed, it started to tick me off. By the time it was done, I was over the entire process. I haphazardly strained my broth and bottled it. In the end, the taste was off and I ended up throwing the entire batch away. I wasn’t even going to attempt a second try.

Then someone on one of my Facebook food forums mentioned making “Scrap Broth.” While I buy a lot of produce every week, I’m sad to say it doesn’t always get eaten. This cook suggested to roughly chop and freeze any wilted or scrap veggies you have lying around.

After a couple months, I had a jam-packed bag and I had thrown away very little produce as waste.

Now was the fun part.

I started by roasting 3-4 lbs of soup bones in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes, flipping them once. These soup bones were big and meaty, so I first seasoned them liberally with salt, pepper and olive oil. This should intensify the flavor of your broth.

Soup bones, pre-roast.

Next I layered them in the bottom of my 12-quart stock pot. Since I had a huge bag of veggies, I decided to try one pot of beef stock and one of veggie stock. I divided the frozen veggies between the two, which included peppers, carrots, celery, garlic cloves and onions. For extra flavor, I sliced another bulb of garlic in half horizontally and threw one half in each pot. I then added peppercorns, rosemary sprigs and thyme from my garden.

In the beef broth, I poured in about half a cup of red wine. Adding an acid to your soup bones, such as wine or apple cider vinegar, should help break down the bones and extract more minerals.

Both pots were seasoned generously with salt and filled almost to the brim with water.

Once I brought both pots to a boil, I turned the heat down and kept an eye on them. If within the first few hours you start to see your broth evaporate too much, you can add more water if you want. You want to keep it at a slow, steady simmer, not a boil. I let mine go about 8 hours, until my stock was dark and flavorful.

One mistake I made on my first attempt was to not use cheesecloth to strain out larger particles. The result was a broth full of sediment that had a terrible texture. Cheese cloth in a strainer over a bowl did the trick this time. This step is definitely worth the effort after all the hours you have put in.

The result was 14 quarts of beautiful, rich broth!

What to do after you’ve bottled up your homemade beef stock and vegetable broth?

The veggies used to make the stock were discarded, since they were mush. I shredded what meat I could off the soup bones and made a beef and noodle soup with a quart of my beef broth right away. The rest of the broth went into the freezer. Be sure to label your containers!

It’s a labor of love, but it is so worth it! The bonus with this recipe? You can feel good about reducing your food waste to make a healthy meal for your family.

Enjoy!

Need to stock up on some kitchen staples?

Some items that might come in handy when you make homemade stock – listed below!

This post contains affiliate links (which means if you purchase the item, we receive a small commission on the sale, at no additional cost to you. We use the commission to help maintain our business. We only recommend products we believe are helpful to our readers. This disclosure is in accordance with the “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” by the Federal Trade Commission

• Cheesecloth – it really helps to strain out particulates and achieve a beautiful finished product with good mouthfeel
• A 12 qt stockpot, if you don’t already have one
• Food storage containers! – these are great containers for these recipes, but also your finished soups.

Print

Homemade Beef Stock

Author Nicol Jones

Ingredients

• 3-4 lbs Soup Bones (Beef)
• 2 Tbs. Olive Oil
• Generous Sprinkle Salt & Pepper
• 2-3 lbs Vegetable Scraps Carrots, Onions, Celery, Peppers, Garlic, whatever scraps you have that you like!
• 2-3 Tbs. Whole Peppercorns
• 1 Bunch Fresh Rosemary On the stem
• 1 Bunch Fresh Thyme On the stem
• 1/2 c. Red Wine
• Water (Enough to fill your pot, more as needed)
• 1 Tbs. Salt To taste (use more or less if desired)
• 12 Clean, Empty Containers approximate - you may have a little more or less!

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place soup bones on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast bones at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. 

2. Add roasted soup bones to the bottom of a 12 qt stock pot. Add vegetable scraps, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, and red wine to the pot. Fill the pot with water, and add in 1 Tbs salt (use more or less as desired). 

3. Bring the stock to a boil over high heat, then turn down the heat. Simmer stock for 8 hours until dark and flavorful. 

4. Line a large colander with cheesecloth. Place your containers under the lined cheesecloth, and strain the stock into the containers for later use. 

5. Use beef stock in soups, stews, gravies, sauces...you name it! Yum.

Print

Homemade Vegetable (Scrap) Broth

Author Nicol Jones

Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs Vegetable Scraps Carrots, Onions, Celery, Peppers, Garlic, whatever you have that you like!
• 2-3 Tbs Whole Peppercorns
• 1 Bunch Fresh Rosemary On the stem
• 1 Bunch Fresh Thyme On the stem
• Water (Enough to fill your pot, more as needed)
• Tbs. Salt (To taste. Use more or less as you like.)
• 12 Clean, Empty Containers approximate - you may have a little more or less!

Instructions

1. To a 12 qt stock pot, add vegetable scraps, peppercorns, rosemary, and thyme. Fill the pot with water, and add in 1 Tbs salt (use more or less as desired). 

2. Bring the broth to a boil over high heat, then turn down the heat. Simmer broth for 8 hours until dark and flavorful. 

3. Line a large colander with cheesecloth. Place your containers under the lined cheesecloth, and strain the broth into the containers for later use. 

4. Use vegetable scrap broth in soups, stews, gravies, sauces...you name it! Yum.

photo from n. jones

Nicol Jones

Nicol is an expert in visual communications and social media strategies for a variety of clients. Her experience in web and publication design – along with skills in project organization, customer service and event management – are why many point to her as an invaluable resource to launch their projects and events.

An avid gardener and food aficionado, Nicol is a busy mom and an excellent cook, too!

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