Brown beef stock (p. 117) and Chicken broth (p. 121)

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I stumbled upon a bag of beef bones at the grocery store--5 lbs for about $2.50. Perfect for the Brown beef stock (p. 117) I need as an ingredient to knock one of the items off the randomized list. I was intimidated by the bones--they didn't have almost meat on them.



My mother said it wouldn't matter. I roasted the bones for about fifteen minutes.



At this point I realized that the tiny jelly roll pan I was using wasn't nearly big enough for the vegetables that needed to be added. I transferred the bones to my giant roasting pan, along with onions, carrots, and celery.



Everything was then transferred to a stockpot, where it simmered for another half hour. I then added some bouquet garni, a clove, and a leek to the pot, and simmered it for six hours. Make sure that you have plenty of time if you are going to make this recipe--it takes a long time. I would say that between the roasting and simmering, it takes about eight hours or so.



A little water was added to the roasting pan, the brown bits were scraped up, and poured into the pot.





I strained the stock and packaged it up. And totally forgot to take a picture, so here is a picture of the stock (days later) in the fridge:



The stock smelled delicious and was a beautiful color. I haven't used it for anything yet, but it tasted delicious as it was cooking.

I incessantly make chicken stock but I noticed a recipe for Chicken broth (p. 121) in the Stocks and Soups chapter. I had found a package of chicken legs on closeout and I had chicken thighs in the freezer, which I mostly dethawed, but still dumped into the pot in a block.




For some reason (well, I know the reason, I made about fifteen recipes in one day, which makes it difficult to remember what I took pictures of and what I missed) I didn't take any pictures past this point until the end. Pretty much, I simmered the chicken for a while and then added a finely chopped onion, carrot, and celery rib. I simmered that for another hour and it was done. I then let it cool and strained it and ended up with this (picture taken several days later):



Delicious and mild. Much more mild than chicken stock, which has a lot more seasoning (the broth has no seasoning). It also had a lot of sediment for some reason. But it was very tasty and worked well in recipes that I typically use stock for (namely, tortilla soup). I make chicken stock constantly. I can buy a chicken at the grocery store for $3.50. If I make stock out of it, I end up with a chicken's worth of poached chicken and a huge amount of stock. I also make it when I break up a chicken into it's component parts--it seems like a huge waste to throw the back away.