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Basic Brown Stock
CAUTION: Bones spoil very quickly and rather spectacularly. Unless you’re using them right away they should be processed and frozen with as much care as fresh meat.
Consider preparing an extra 50% of the mirepoix, diced and set aside (not roasted along with the main batch). Add them to the stock about half an hour before the end of the cook. These add a nice fresh note.
If making chicken stock, check the detailed notes at the end.
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Servings |
7lbs Bones |
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Alternative method: Instead of a stovetop or oven, try an old-style portable roaster oven. They come as large as 22qts, which allows for a pretty big batch! They can even be used for the roasting step. AND you can use them outside (under cover, or weather permitting) or in the garage — a great idea in AC weather. You don’t need all that heat fighting your air conditioner.
It can be a little fussy controlling the temperature of a manual roaster oven, but a plug-and-play PID controller like this can make it easy, and can also be used for precise temperature control of most any other analog controlled cooking tool — including some electric smokers and most slow cookers. PID’s don’t work with digitally controlled cookers.
Here’s a great use for a quart of venison or beef stock.
If making a poultry stock, here is my process for preparing the carcass: KillerNoms.com/poultry4stock
When it comes to stock made from commercial meat, here is some advice that may sound like hippie stuff, but I promise it’s real world better-on-the-plate advice. Heirloom breeds are better than commercial breeds, especially for 4-legged critters. And grass-fed beef is definitely better than grain-finished. And pastured swine or poultry are better than confined. It truly makes a difference in the stock. One more time, age matters (older is better), food inputs matter (diverse is better) and motility matters (open-pastured better than confined). Find an heirloom breed allowed to mature before slaughter, with a diverse diet, that needs to spend energy finding it’s preferred food, and you found something that makes incredible stock. Almost as good as wild. Reminder, we’re talking about stock, not meat. The American palate (including mine) has been trained to prefer young, tender, fatty meat. So meat quality is much more a matter of taste. But literally nobody would prefer stock made from a 16 month old Angus steer finished in a feed-lot, over stock made from a 36 month old heirloom breed cow finished on pasture.