I made brown stock for the first time. One big error was I needed a lot more bones. I roasted the bones and mirepoix and added some tomato paste but it was just blah even with salt. Some ways to improve it that I thought of:
Add beef. Not a lot of meat on the bones so a severe lack of beef flavor. Broth more red than brown. I am going to use this for gravy so I’m going to add some good store-bought beef broth then reduce and add to see if it gives more of the flavor I’m looking for.
Reduce. Make the flavors more concentrated.
Splash of red wine. I didn’t see any recipe that called for it but why not? Adds flavor and aromatics.
Any thoughts on these ideas or any other ideas on what I may do differently next time?
How long did you let it simmer for? Beef stock can take a long time, upwards of 12 hours. Getting the ratio of bones to water is tricky, but no matter what you’ll need to reduce it afterwards to get it where you want. Careful adding salt, traditionally you want it salt free so that you can control how much salt you add to a recipe.
If you still have it, there’s no reason you can’t use it with more bones and mirepoix. I don’t personally recommend roasting the veggies because they have a tendency to burn and turn bitter, although roasted onions are a definite boost.
And if you do add wine make sure you reduce it thoroughly before you add water otherwise you’ll end up with a watery wine taste. Are you adding herbs, bay leaves, and pepper corns?
I normally only roast the bones, and believe me the pan is heaped with bones. I have to stir them around a couple times. I go to an actual butchers store, not a grocery for my bones, and I get a combination of beef and veal bones. The huge legbones they are nice enough to run through the saw to chop into 4 or 5 inch lengths so the marrow is exposed.
Hm, by weight, probably about 4 pounds of bones, a pound of meat, a pound of mirepoix, a bouquet garni and about half a can of tomato paste to a gallon of ice cold filtered water. I never salt or pepper the brown stock, when it gets condensed it gets wonky.
I roast the bones at 400F for about half an hour to an hour then pop them into the stock pot. I use about a pint of hot water to deglaze the BCBs out of the bottom of the roaster and pour it into the pot then add the rest of the water. The tomato paste sort of gets glopped on top of the bones in the last 5 minutes or so of roasting. Pop the covered stockpot on simmer and go to bed.
I prefer not to boil, I don’t like protein scum on top of my pot and I think the product is clearer. I let it mumble along for about 12 hours, then I tap the liquid off into another pot through a gauze lined seive, then I let it simmer until it is condensed the percentage I need. If I am starting with my 24 gallon stock pot, I may filter it into successively smaller pots as time progresses. [yes you read that right, I have a 24 gallon stock pot. I used to pull it out to cook for large numbers of people, or for making a large amount of glace des viandes for the freezer. It costs an arm and a leg for the materials to make it, but I get a gallon of glace des viandes at the end that is a hell of a lot better quality than getting the commercial stuff that is loaded with salt.]
This is something I’ve noticed, too. I’ve never gotten a good result using just bones, even bones with a bit of meat on them. I gave up on that and now use mostly meat to make a brown stock. Big gristly chunks of beef shank are good as they have a lot of connective tissue.
The addition of anchovies, mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce also helps. These things kick up the glutamates and give your beef stocks more depth and flavor.