How to Make Homemade Beef Stock

Today I’m sharing an ultra easy method to make beef stock or bone broth at home. Lots of folks in our Top Cut Customers & Fans group on Facebook loved it. I hope you do, too! Let’s get started!

My secret for making stock is using the freezer and slow cooker to keep the process simple. Here’s how it works:

As you cook throughout the week, save the leftover raw vegetable scraps and add them into a gallon-sized bag & store in the freezer.

When the bag is full, you’re ready to make stock. I add the whole bag of scraps to my crock pot & fill up to the inner brim with water.

Scraps that work well in stock include: carrots, onions, celery, zucchini, colored peppers, green peppers, green onions and the skins from onions & garlic. I also freeze fresh herbs to throw into the stock pot, like thyme or rosemary.

Avoid using scraps from potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, and asparagus.

You can choose to use meaty soup bones or marrow bones to make stock. Pick one kind or do a combination, either way cook raw bones before using them in stock. Bones can be roasted ahead of time & stored in the freezer. Just add them frozen with the frozen veggie scraps.

In addition to the veggies, bones & water, I add 1T kosher salt, 1t whole peppercorns and 1T apple cider vinegar. More seasoning can be added or subtracted based on your preferences!

Stock can be cooked for 4 hours on high or overnight on low. A longer cook times yields a richer stock with deeper flavor. At the end of the cook time I unplug the unit & give it a couple hours to cool down, still in the crock pot. I only do this because it's easier to handle cooled stock. 

Strain the stock through a mesh strainer and into a container you can easily pour out of. Then pour that stock into a storage container. 

Beef stock can get greasy, so I like to let the containers cool in the fridge, making it easy to remove the hardened fat after it condenses on the surface

Label as needed & store. Stock can stay good in you freezer for 3-6 months and in your fridge for 7-10 days.

At the end you’ll have the equivalent of 3-5 boxes of beef stock, made with ingredients you can pronounce, using scraps you would have otherwise tossed out, and seasoned to your liking. It’s a win all around! 

This is a method for making stock, not a recipe. Use the vegetables & herbs you have on hand. Roast bones or use the bones leftover from a T-Bone steak. Add more or less salt & herbs. Choose a cook time that fits into the time you have to make it.

Let me know if this method works for you!

Check out our inventory of bones over in the online store