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 not roasted, rather than rough-chopped that will be roasted along with the bones, and set them aside to be added about half an hour before the end of the cook. These add a nice fresh note. For chicken stock, to approximate the lbs of whole chickens needed, divide the lbs of bones by .28
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 not roasted, rather than rough-chopped that will be roasted along with the bones, and set them aside to be added about half an hour before the end of the cook. These add a nice fresh note. For chicken stock, to approximate the lbs of whole chickens needed, divide the lbs of bones by .28
Servings
7lbs Bones
Servings
7lbs Bones
Ingredients
To be roasted
Liquid and Pot Size
  • 6quarts cold water — Approximate. At least enough to cover the bones, but not much more than that.
  • 2cups wine — dry red (e.g. Cabernet) for bones from red meats, dry white (e.g. Sauvignon Blanc) for poultry or fish. Skip the good stuff, 2 Buck Chuck is fine.
  • 12quarts Minimum pot size
Flavorings
Instructions
Roasting
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Trim meat/fat/whatever from bones to expose bone surface (add trimmings to meat pile). If the marrow bones are not cut into sections, find a safe and clean way to crack them with a hammer (wear eye protection!).
  3. Spread bones on a rack or grate in one or two roasting pans or rimmed baking sheets, with enough space so they all brown. Brush with olive oil. Roast uncovered 1 hour, turning once or twice.

    Roasting bones sometimes smell slightly unpleasant right near the beginning. Don’t worry – it does not indicate a problem, and it goes away quickly.
  4. While the bones are roasting, add a little olive oil to the mirepoix, meat scraps and optional mushrooms. Mix/toss.
  5. After an hour. brush bones with tomato paste. Use it all up. (skip the tomato paste if making fish or poultry stock). Add the oiled meat scraps, mushrooms and mirepox to the oven — using another pan if need be.
  6. Roast 30 more minutes, watching the bones carefully — you want then browned, but NOT charred/burned. Burned = ruined, DAMHIK. Remove from oven and let cool a few minutes. You can optionally speed up this step by finishing under a broiler, but you must watch it non-stop. Don’t leave it unattended!
Main Process
  1. Move everything from the roasting pans into the pot. If there are browned bits stuck on the pans deglaze them with the wine and mix in. Don’t skip this step, there’s great flavor there!
  2. Add the wine, parsley stems and all remaining ingredients except the parsley tops and the optional extra mirepoix. Some of this stuff is a bit “floaty”, so it may be best add it about half-way through the previous step so the meat and bones will hold the stuff down.
  3. Add cold water to cover everything, add lid, then bring to a slow simmer, around 190°F. You can use medium to heat to get it there, but watch carefully and do not let it come to a full rolling boil. And no stirring — ever!
  4. Cook 6-24 hours for poultry, 1-2 hours for fish. For bones from red meats, 12-48 hours (I favor 36 hours). If leaving unattended overnight, especially over a gas range, for safety you should opt for the oven-finish (details below).
  5. Early in the simmering process, unappetizing looking stuff sometimes floats to the top. Most recipes encourage you to skim it off, but some say don’t bother. I never bother and it doesn’t seem to hurt anything. Anecdotal evidence suggests fish stock might be an exception.
  6. Optional oven finish: carefully move the covered stockpot to a 190°F oven after it first starts to simmer. This saves the hassle of adjusting a burner for a consistent slow simmer and frees up the stove. Check the stock temp hourly and adjust your oven if needed until you are confident the stock is settled in somewhere around 190°F. Many ovens have an automatic 12-hour shutoff, so you should turn it off then back on before you go to bed if letting it go overnight. And then again when you get up, and again mid-day if you’re going for a long cook.
  7. OPTIONAL: 1 hour before finish add the optional batch of extra mirepoix. Get it submerged by poking it down or gently mixing near the surface, but don’t aggressively mix. If your pot is already full to the brim, use tongs to remove enough bones to make room.
  8. 10 minutes before finish, toss in the parsley tops whole, don’t chop. Poke it down to submerge.
Process and store
  1. Remove from heat. The next steps until placed in the refrigerator should be taken without delay.
  2. Remove large items to a colander over a bowl to catch drippings. Don’t give the bones to your dogs – they have become very brittle. Bone-free meat scraps are fine. Filter out the remaining solids using cheesecloth, muslin, old clean t-shirts, a chinois, etc., whatever you have handy. Ladle through the filter into another pot. How well you filter it is a matter of taste but you sure don’t want to keep any bone bits.
  3. Optional: (this step can be taken later if it is not convenient to do so now) Reduce the stock to make demi glace or glace de viande (meat glaze).
  4. Optional: If you prefer, salt to taste. Be aware, most recipes expect stock to be unsalted.  One advantage of salt is that it buys a little more shelf life in the fridge.
  5. Use an ice bath in the sink to chill the pot quickly to at least room temp. Then move to the refrigerator. And now you can relax!
  6. The next day remove any fat solidified on top. Evaluate your stock for body — watch the video at the top to see how it should look.
  7. Optional: If not as gelatinous as you want, warm up the stock and add 1 packet of unflavored gelatin per quart, first softened in 1/4 cup cold water. Then repeat the ice bath/chill step.
  8. Optional: Clarify. Google “egg raft”.  Leaves a crystal clear liquid — neccesary for consommé, aspic or any soup which should be very clear. Another benefit is you have to find something to do with the yolks.  Om nom nom nom.
  9. Good up to 4 days in the fridge. Freezes forever. See KillerNoms.com/WildGameStock.php#storage for details on storage.
Recipe Notes

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 (weather permitting) or in the garage — a great idea in AC weather. You don’t need all that heat fighting your air conditioner for 36-48 hours. 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.

View online at KillerNoms.com/brownstock