Rosie Makes Beef Stock, Then Transforms It Into Beef Consomme. And Mr. Hawthorne Makes French Onion Soup.

With the weather being cold and rainy for the past few days,
 I decided to make beef stock.
The fragrance of the simmering stock wafts throughout the house
 and is a delicious, welcoming aroma.

First, I got out some celery, carrot, and onion and coarse-chopped them.

Beef ribs were on sale.

And really, the butchers should just give these bones to me
 since there was little to no meat on them, but noooooooooo.

I added the coarse-chopped celery, carrot, and onion and the sliced ribs
to my pan and put them in a 450-degree oven.

Here are the bones after 30 minutes.

I turned over and cooked for another 30 minutes.

Next, I gathered my aromatics for the pot.
 Garlic cloves, carrots, onions, celery,
 bay leaves, parsley, oregano, and thyme.

I added the bones, meat, and cooked veggies to my stock pan.

Then I poured water into the roasting pan,
 set over heat, and deglazed, scraping up the goodie bits.

Then poured the juices into my stock pan.

The chopped veggies went in .

The herbs went in.

Peppercorns.

Salt.

Then I filled the pan up with water.

Added 3 chopped tomatoes.

Over very low heat, I brought this to a bare simmer,
 skimming the scum off the top, all the while.
 And I barely simmered.
All day long.
 If you boil this,
 you release more impurities from the bones
 which you don't want since that would cloud your final liquid.

Finally I strained the stock through cheesecloth.

And gave the meaty bits, the celery,
and the carrots to all the puppies here.

And this is the stock after day one,
  which I put in the refrigerator for overnight.

Next morning, the fat is nicely congealed.

I can remove it easily.

This is what the beef stock looks like now.
Cloudy with particles and bits.

I whupped up a batch of egg whites.
 Julia recommends 4 whites per 5 cups of stock.
Then I added in about 2 cups of the cold stock.
 Bring the stock up to a simmer.

I added 2 cups of the hot stock into the egg white mixture,
and slowly added that to the stock, stirring.

And here are the egg whites accumulating
all the nasty bits in the stock.
 What I do is set the pan to the side of the burner
and heat the stock 1/4 of the pan
 at a time for five minutes,
 letting it barely bubble through the whites,
 and rotating and repeating.

After the 20 minutes of barely bubbling and rotating,
 I discarded the whites.

Then I slowly poured the stock through colanders
and strainers lined with multiple sheets of cheesecloth.

And here is my finished product -
a clear, glistening, jewel-like beef consomme.

It made 5 1/2 quarts. And now, I have a happy freezer, sated with quarts and quarts of chicken consomme, and quarts of beef consomme, shrimp stock and veal stock. I have everything at my fingertips to give any meal a little extra oomph. And it's well worth it, my friends. There's really nothing like homemade stocks and consommes. Trust me on this. And please, one rainy day when you're thinking of something to do, take the time out to do this. Every time I cook a chicken or a turkey, I save the carcass, pop it in a freezer bag, date it and freeze for later, when I've accumulated more. Whenever I buy 50-or-whatever-pounds of heads-on shrimp, I pop the heads off and save them along with the shells when I peel them off. Shrimp stock. And right now, I have two lobster shells in my freezer which Xmaskatie saved for me from last Valentine's Day when she and Mr. Xmaskatie Dixie- and house-sat for me. That was so thoughtful of you Xmaskatie. Thank you. Soooooo, after making the beef stock and consomme over the course of several days, Mr. Hawthorne walked into the kitchen this morning and asked me if I had any beef stock. I had just had him helping me pour the consomme into the bowls through the sieves lined with multiple layers cheese cloth. I guess it didn't register. "Why, let me look. I think I might find some." So while I sought out beef consomme, Mr. Hawthorne prepped for his French Onion Soup.

He sliced a medium onion and a Schwann's baguette I'd baked for him.

He grated cheese in the bottom of the soup dish.
 Could've been mozzarella, or Swiss, or Monterey Jack.
We're not real strict on this.

Then the sliced onions went in and ... ohhh... wait ...
 somebody hold me back, here!
Mr. H. had asked me for my beef consomme, mind you.
And in the above photograph, he's putting ...
oh Heavens to Betsy...
He's putting in Lipton.Onion.Soup.Mix.

And now he's pouring my freshly-made Beef Consomme
 over Lipton Onion Soup Mix.
Ohhhh.
The iniquity.
 Does ANYONE besides me have a problem with seeing the words
"freshly-made BEEF CONSOMME"  and "Lipton Onion Soup Mix"
in the same sentence?????

Next, Mr. H. put more cheese over top.

Some of Schwann's baked baguette slices on top.

More cheese.

Then, he baked the French Onion Soup for about 25-30 minutes,
 and the baguette slices and the cheese got all nice and poofy.

Isn't this pretty?

OK.
Really, really, really good.
Slightly salty.
 (Hmmmmm.... Lipton Onion Soup Mix much?)
 Beef consomme?
 Dee-lish-us.
 And everything's better with cheese.
 Please try making your own stocks.
 It's so worth it.