Welcome back! Here, in Part I, you can read about why you should make bone broth, how to find good bones and how to make a light beef bone broth aka stock. This post, Part II, will tell you how to make dark beef bone broth aka brown stock and common questions and answers. In culinary circles, dark bone broth is referred to as brown stock, however, to obtain the most benefit from the bones, bone broth is cooked considerably longer than the typical stock. Dark beef bone broth is used for french onion soup, numerous soup/stew preparations and can be simmered down after it’s finished to make a thick, sticky brown sauce that goes over steaks.

The differences in preparation between a light beef bone broth or stock and a dark beef bone broth aka brown stock are VERY small. The only differences are a slightly longer bone roasting time and the addition of roasted vegetables that are browned during the last 30 minutes when the bones are still roasting. The term for these vegetables is called mirepoix. It’s a very simple combination: onion, carrot and celery. Many people also add in some tomato sauce or tomato paste (a very small amount), however, those with nightshade sensitivities can omit the tomato portion.

According to the Culinary Institute of America, in mirepoix for brown stock, the ratio of onion to carrots and celery is 2:1:1. This means 2 parts onion to 1 part carrot and 1 part celery. You can go exactly by this standard or not. It’s YOUR broth after all. For this demonstration, I did follow this standard. As far as total vegetables, I went with 1/2 cup of mirepoix/lb of bone. I had about 3lbs of a grassfed soup bone from my last 1/4 cow order. It just came as a huge bone, not cut up. Bones are supposed to be sawed 2 inch pieces, but I don’t have a kitchen saw, so the entire thing went in the pot just fine.

Points to Remember:

You’ll use 1qt water for every lb of beef bones

Every batch of bone broth will need 1T of apple cider vinegar (please only buy it in glass) to help pull the nutrients from the bone (unless you are doing a massive batch and then you’d use more). You will not taste the vinegar.

The roasted mirepoix and deglazing (you’ll simply use your vinegar and a portion of the water for this) of the roasting sheet is what caramelizes and gives the dark bone broth aka brown stock its dark color and different, richer flavor.

Let’s get started!

Brown your bones or in my case a huge bone for 30 minutes at 400F. 

Rough chop your mirepoix. For 3lbs I used 1/2 onion, 1 medium carrot and 2 small pieces of celery that was on its last leg. 

My bone had some beef fat coming out of it. I put the mirepoix into the fat beside the roasting bone. You need some fat at this point so the veggies brown instead of char. A few tablespoons will do. If you don’t have any fat coming from the bones, add in some beef tallow, real lard from pastured pigs or avocado oil.

My bone was so large, I flipped it over to brown on the other side at this point. I stirred in 1.5T of tomato sauce from a glass jar. For tomato paste, 1T would be sufficient. You don’t want to overdo the tomato. You shouldn’t be able to distinctly taste tomato in the finished product. 

When it’s done roasting, it will look like this. The overly charred pieces I threw out. Move the vegetables and bones or in my case a huge bone to either a stockpot, slow cooker or pressure cooker (here). 

Use the 1T of apple cider vinegar and 1/4 c of water of your total amount needed to deglaze your pan. Simply dump it in and scrape the brown bits and fat around then pour all of it into your cooking pot. This is done after pulling the tray out of the oven. You don’t have to keep the tray heated to do this. 

Add in the remaining water (about 1qt/lb of bones)

Cooking Your Dark Beef Bone Broth:

For a stockpot: Bring contents to a boil, remove any bubbly scum that arises, turn heat to low so only a light bubble rises to the surface. Cover and cook for 24-48 hours. Keep an eye on your water level.

For a slow cooker: Place all contents in, cover, set on low and cook for 24-48 hours.

For a pressure cooker: Place all contents in, cover and cook for 120 minutes.

 

Storage:

When your beef bone broth is finished cooking, let it cool and use a large measuring cup or huge ladle to pour it through a stainless steel fine mesh strainer (here) or line a strainer with an old piece of fabric to hold back any bone bits and vegetables. I personally do this over wide mouth jars. It’s just personal preference. Some folks do this over a huge bowl then separate into containers.

At first you may think your broth isn’t that dark-colored. This is because fat is still mixed in. Once it fully cools and is refrigerated, you’ll see how dark it is below the fat line. I leave the fat line on to allow mine to be stored longer. When you’re finished, the fat can be used to roast vegetables or simply melted back in when the broth is consumed.

Q&A

Why didn’t my bone broth gel?

If it cooked at too high of a temp instead of just barely bubbling, this can cause it to not gel when refrigerated. It’s still wonderful to consume. Don’t toss it!

It may not gel when refrigerated if you used too much water compared to the amount of bones. Go by the 1qt/lb of bones suggestion.

I poured some broth into a shallow pan and refrigerated it so you can see how it gelled. Note: I’ve never had a batch of broth not gel with I used my Instant Pot.