Flavorful Beef Stock

Jan 27, 2013 by Kirsten

Hello friends,

The real trick to cooking is to figure out which steps are really necessary.  While I am without question convinced that the “beef stock”  available in the grocery store aisles will not make the best soup, I often wondered if I really needed to bake and boil beef bones to make soup worthy stock?  Well the restaurants may say yes; I have decided otherwise.  The following recipe is designed to embellish a store beef stock.  This may still seem like a lot of work, but this is well worth it.  The recipe will result in more than enough stock to make two batches of soup too.  

I suggest using this stock for the Beef Barley Soup Recipe on this site.

Ingredients:

8 tsp – Better than Bouillon beef base

1/4 c tomato paste

1/2 onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 head of garlic , cut in half

1 gallon cold water

2 sprigs of thyme

2 sprigs oregano

2 sprigs parsley

4 sprigs basil

Instructions:

1. Add everything into a large pot.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for ~1.5 hours.

2. Strain, keeping only the liquid.

3. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.  Freeze any stock that you do not intend to use within a few days.