English Soup recipes. Brown stock
Best Cookies: Chocolate Butter Cookies
This is the ideal Stock to use in dishes which require a good
color and strong flavour. If you cannot find Spanish onions,
very large, well flavored onions will do.
MAKES ABOUT 1.25 L [3 pt]
- 2.25 kg [5 Ib] shin or neck beef bones with meat attached, chopped and washed
- 2 Spanish onions, sliced
- 3 large carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, thickly sliced
- salt
- bouquet garni
- bay leaf
- 6 black peppercorns
1. Cook the washed bones in a large pan over very low heat until fat is extracted, stirring occasionally, to brown bones evenly. Add a little dripping if necessary.
2. Slightly increase heat and fry for 15 mins. Stir to brown evenly. Add a little fat if bones produce none.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables: peel and slice onions, scrub carrots and celery and then cut them into chunks.
4. Add vegetables to the pan and cook for 10 minutes or until pale golden in color.
5. Pour on 3.25 L [6 pt] cold water and bring slowly to the boil.
6. Remove scum with a slotted spoon.
7. Add a little salt, the herbs and the peppercorns. Half cover the pan and simmer very gently for about 4 hours, skimming and topping up with boiling water as necessary.
8. Strain, de-grease, strain again, reduce and adjust seasoning to taste as necessary.
Variations
- Second brown stock: brown stock bones and meat can be re-used. To bolster flavour, add fresh vegetables and herbs and any joint bones and any chicken carcasses saved.- Cheap brown stock: you can simply use saved joint bones and chicken carcasses in place of fresh shin or neck of beef bones. Reduce water by half.