Rosie Makes Beef Stock.

Mr. Hawthorne and I were at Food Lion yesterday and I asked the butcher about beef bones. Yes, he could supply me with all I wanted. I ended up with 9 pounds of beef marrow bones at $1.49/pound. I thought that a bit steep, since what were they going to do with these bones anyway? There was barely any meat on them. But still, $13 for homemade beef stock is still a lot better than $13 for canned broth.

I salted and peppered and oiled a bit.

Carrots, celery, and onions waiting to be chopped.

Roughly chopped veggies.

Bones go into a 450-degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Then I added the veggies and popped everything back into the oven for another 30-40 minutes.

Here's everything after another 40 minutes or so. I put all the bones and veggies into a stock pot.

Then I poured a bit of water on the pan over heat to try to deglaze and scrape up the goody bits.

The fond goes into the bone/veggie stock pot. (Fond is the browned, caramelized meat bits that stick to your pan after cooking.)

I added 5 quarts of water to my bone and vegetable mixture.

Some bay leaves, crushed garlic, peppercorns, and fresh thyme went into the pot.

After 7 hours at a barely perceptible simmer, the marrow has been cooked out of most of the bones.

I scraped out what I could.

I pulled up the individual bones and tried to get out the marrow.

Stock is looking good.

I pulled out each bone and scraped the marrow out.

All that in the lid is the marrow I scraped out of the bone. It goes back into the stock pot.

More marrow.

Empty bones go into another stock pot for the remouillage tomorrow.

I strained the stock into another stock pot and put the leftover veggies in with the bones to cook again tomorrow.

And here's the result of Day 1 of beef stock. Particles, particles, particles. I'll take care of that tomorrow. These two stock pots go into the fridge downstairs. I'll deal with them tomorrow. Day 2. Here's the first stock. With a nice thick layer of congealed fat on top.

I pulled the fat off the top, tossed the fat, and stuck the stock back in the fridge. Then, I took the leftover bones and veggies, added water, and barely simmered for 4-5 hours, then strained the broth off .

Here's the broth from the second day. A second suction from the original bones. Crappy second broth on the left. Bones and veggies which have given up the good, on the right. Oh, I'll take care of that broth. Don't you worry.