Soup stock is incredibly easy to make.
- Bones from meat (either raw or cooked, with or without meat on them)
- Water
- Vegetable trimmings (optional)
Basic, Easy Method:
Place bones in a roasting pan and cover them completely with water. Cover the pan tightly and place it in the oven on 225F for 24 hours. Remove from the oven and strain the broth. Place broth in the refrigerator to cool. The fat will rise to the top and solidify so that it can be easily removed. Good soup stock (bone broth) will be gelatinous (like jello).
Return the bones to the pan and cover with water again, then cook them another day. This stock will not be quite as strong as the first one, but it still delicious. Mix the two stocks together. Either divide into serving-size portions and freeze, or can with a pressure canner.
Add salt to taste (it will take quite a bit) when you use the stock.
Pressure Cooker Method:
Place bones in pressure cooker and cover them with water. Do not fill the pressure cooker more than half full (read the directions for your pressure cooker). Seal, add weight, and bring to 15 pounds pressure. Cook at 15 pounds pressure for at least 20 minutes, up to one hour. Turn burner off and let pressure drop on its own. Strain the broth. Place broth in the refrigerator to cool. The fat will rise to the top and solidify so that it can be easily removed. Good soup stock (bone broth) will be gelatinous (like jello).
Repeat for another boiling. This stock will not be quite as strong as the first one, but it is still delicious. Mix the two stocks together. Either divide into serving-size portions and freeze, or can with a pressure canner.
Add salt to taste (it will take quite a bit) when you use the stock.
Variations:
Add vegetable for additional flavor. Since they will be strained out, this is a good use for clean ends, leaves, and peels. For instance:
- wash celery, then cut off ends and leaves that would normally not be eaten and toss them into the stockpot. (Chop the celery stalks and refrigerate the pieces to later go into your soup.)
- wash carrots, then cut off ends and toss them into the stockpot. Peel the carrots and toss the peels into the stockpot. Cut up the carrot and refrigerate the pieces to later go into your soup.
When you prepare vegetables for cooking, wash them first and then save the trimmings. I try to keep a bag/container in the freezer to collect the trimmings so that I have some when it’s time to make soup stock. Instead of throwing out the celery leave/ends, carrot peels, etc., save them to help flavor your future broth.
- Types
- Turkey – after Thanksgiving dinner, pick meat off of the bones, then put the carcass back into the roasting pan, cover with water, add veggies if desired, cover the pan, and return to the oven. You can cook turkey bones twice for a good, rich turkey stock.
- Chicken – treat as turkey. I try to break down the carcass and put it in the freezer. After I have a few carcasses, then I make one big batch of chicken stock. You can cook chicken bones twice.
- Beef – Some people like to roast bones in the oven for an hour before covering them with water to make beef stock. Beef bones can usually be cooked 3-4 times.
- Ham – ham bones can also be used to make ham stock. They can usually be cooked thrice.
- Fish – fish bones can be covered with water (like any other bones) and boiled to make fish stock.
Note: some people add a splash of vinegar to the water to help draw marrow from the bones, but it is completely unnecessary. Beef bones, when cooked long enough, will end up with a hole in the center where the marrow came out. Ideally, you would set the marrow aside when you strain out the solids, then add the marrow back to your soup stock.
Note 2: This is how our ancestors made soup. It is apparently the “new” thing to make your own “bone broth” like grandma used to make. So easy and delicious, you’ll wonder why you ever used bullion cubes 🙂