Hey there Honey's and New-Bees!

Once you start cooking you’ll notice pretty quickly that stock is one of your most important ingredients!

For years I bought canned, boxed, or powdered stock mixes, because that’s how you make stock (lol…) Then one day as Romeo was going through our freezer he found a bag of frozen chicken bones and asked me what I had planned for them… I had no plan… So after a  quick google search I realized that we had all the ingredients needed to make chicken stock from scratch and it was soooo easy!!!!

Not only was it super easy to make, but it was delicious and infinitely way more nutritious than any of those powdered stock mixes. On top of all these benefits, adding homemade stock to my kitchen staples significantly upped my cooking skills and food quality immensely.

Today I want to walk  you through the steps to make your own  stock, and will use beef bones for this post, but keep in mind you can make stock from almost anything  (chicken, pork, lamb, vegetable, fish, shrimp. Word of caution though – keep your house very well ventilated when making shrimp stock).

The options are almost limitless, and making stock is  a great way to minimize household waste while maximizing the use of what you already have.

So let’s get to it and and have some fun making stock !!!

Making homemade stock is pretty easy, and can be made with either previously cooked or raw  bones,  all of which are relatively inexpensive and can be found at most local butcher shops. I used to think that all I had to do was toss the bones in a pot of boiling water, which will work, but in order to get a nice, richly flavoured stock, it’s super important that you roast the bones and vegetable first, then simmer them in water to  give your stock that rich, toasted flavour.

So turn on your oven, put your bones in a casserole dish and roast them in the oven at 450°F for about 45 mins (or until they are a nice golden brown on the outside).

If you’re using leftover previously roasted bones you can skip this step, however, I strongly recommend roasting your vegetable regardless to help bring out their natural flavour.

Once your bones have been roasting for about 45 minutes, take the casserole out of the oven, add your vegetables to the mix, and roast for another 45 minutes.

After your bones and vegetables are nicely roasted, take them out of the oven and place them  in a cheese cloth bag  (if you don’t have a cheese cloth bag use regular cheese cloth and tie the ends together) and add a bay leaf, some peppercorns and a little parsley.

Although this step is not strictly necessary, I strongly recommend it as it will make cleanup much easier and minimize the amount of loose particles floating in your stock. Before discovering this little trick I was spending loads of time carefully picking out vegetable and chicken particles; it was super messy, time-consuming, and an overall drag – trust me you will thank me for this little trick 🙂

Place all your ingredients in a large pot filled with water, bring the water to a boil, then turn the temperature down slightly and let the stock simmer for about 3-4 hours. Periodically check in on it, remove any foam floating on top, and reduce the heat a little if starts boiling too much.

Once that’s done VOILA you have your very own nutrient-filled, homemade stock which you can either freeze into small batches, or can in mason jars.

Before you go make your own I want to point out that at no point did I add any salt. Stock is a foundational ingredients for many other recipes which have varying spice and salt requirements, so only add your salt when you use it in subsequent dishes moving forward 🙂