How to Make Brown Beef Stock from Scratch

Here is a recipe for making Brown Beef Stock from scratch that’s perfect for the traditional foods home cook. You can use your stock as a base for making sauces, gravies, stews, and soups, and braising vegetables. This recipe is easier than the more complicated Escoffier Technique.

For example, with this simpler recipe, you’ll brown both the marrow bones and the meat in the oven together rather than separately. This time-saving approach enables you to create a flavorful, rich stock in half the time. Best of all, your brown beef stock will still be perfect for making restaurant-quality sauces and the best base for Traditional French Onion Soup.

What is a Brown Stock?

Brown Stock or Brown Beef Stock is a rich and flavorful liquid that is created by simmering roasted bones and meat in water with aromatics for an extended period of time until the liquid turns a dark brown color. You can use this stock as a foundation for making sauces with a deep flavor profile or as a base for soup, particularly for Traditional French Onion Soup.

Brown Beef Stock Recipe

A Brown Beef Stock, also known as a Brown Stock, is a key ingredient chefs use to prepare rich sauces and delicious soups in upscale restaurants. Typically, these chefs follow complicated recipes that take 12 hours or more to make.

However, as a home cook, you can still create an equally flavorful brown beef stock in a shorter time and with fewer steps by following the easy culinary tips and tricks I show you. You’ll find this recipe much easier than the more complicated Escoffier Technique.

Ingredients to Make Brown Beef Stock

Find the full printable recipe with ingredients below.

• 3 lbs Beef Shanks
• 3 lbs Beef Marrow Bones
• 1/4 Cup Tomato Paste
• 1 Onion, unpeeled, cut in half with each half-quartered
• 2 Carrots, unpeeled and rough chopped
• 2 Stalks of Celery, rough chopped
• 1 Bunch of Herbs (Thyme and Bay Leaves work well)
• 1 Cup Red Wine or Fortified Wine (such as Red Vermouth, Marsala, Madeira, or Dry Sherry, etc.)

How to Make Brown Beef Stock

Find the full printable recipe with measurements below.

• Preheat – Preheat your oven to 450°F (232°C).
• Preparing the Bones and Meat – Place the marrow bones and the beef shanks into a shallow roasting pan and smear each piece with tomato paste.
• Add the First Round of Aromatics – Add the carrots and onion to the roasting pan and place the pan into your preheated oven.
• Roasting the Bones and Meat – Roast everything until the bones and meat are a deep, rich brown and well caramelized. This process may take from 30 to 40 minutes. (Turn the bones once at the halfway cooking point.)
• Using a Stockpot – Once the bones and meat are well roasted, remove the pan to a heatproof surface and transfer the contents to a large stockpot.
• Stockpot Additions – Pour the fat and liquid from the pan into the stockpot.
• Deglaze the Pan – Use a red wine or dark-colored fortified wine to deglaze the pan and transfer all the bits to the stockpot.
• Add the Second Round of Aromatics – Add the celery and herbs to the stockpot.
• Add Just Enough Water – Add water to the stockpot just to cover the ingredients and bring the entire mixture up to a rolling boil.
• Adjust the Heat – Immediately turn the stovetop heat down to its lowest setting and skim off any foam that has risen to the top.
• Simmering Time – Allow the stock to simmer, uncovered, for four to five hours until slightly reduced and rich brown in color.
• Removing the Solids – When finished simmering, transfer the stockpot to a heatproof surface, remove all the solids from the stockpot, and strain the stock through a floursack towel or cheesecloth-lined colander into a clean bowl.
• Defatting – You can cool the stock in your refrigerator overnight. The fat will congeal at the top, and you can easily remove it. Alternatively, you can defat your stock without cooling it by straining it using a fat separator device.

Variations

If you don’t want to use wine or fortified wine when deglazing, you can use water instead. However, you need to add some type of acid to the water. You can use one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice or two tablespoons of orange juice as an acid.

Recipe Tips

Additional Tips

• Preheat a HOT Oven – Be sure that the oven is preheated to 450°F (232°C). The bones and meat MUST roast in a very hot oven to become well-browned.
• Tomato Paste is a Must – Do not leave out the tomato paste! It is crucial to creating well-caramelized bones and meat.
• Use Just Enough Water – When transferring all the ingredients to the stockpot, pour in only enough water to cover.
• Control the Stovetop Heat – Only bring the stock up to a boil at the very beginning of the process, then IMMEDIATELY turn the stovetop heat down to its lowest setting.
• Simmer Uncovered – Always allow the stock to simmer uncovered to allow for evaporation, which will ensure a concentrated, rich color and flavor.
• Watch My Recipe Video – Get detailed instructions with my how to make Brown Beef Stock video.

Storing and Reheating Brown Beef Stock

Storing

• Refrigeration – You can store brown stock in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to one week.
• Freezing – When stored in a freezer-proof container and frozen, your brown stock can stay fresh for up to three months.

Reheating

• Warming – Gently warm your brown stock in a saucepan on the stovetop.

How to Use Brown Beef Stock

Brown Beef Stock has multiple uses in your traditional foods kitchen. For example, you can use it as a base for making:

• Braised vegetables
• Gravies
• Sauces
• Soups, especially Traditional French Onion Soup
• Stews

How to Reuse Brown Stock Ingredients

• Bone Marrow and Bone Broth – Do not discard the bones used to make the brown stock. Instead, remove the marrow from the bones and use it as a spread on toasted baguettes. Bone marrow is a nutrient-dense food that’s worth consuming. (You can also make roasted bone marrow as a separate recipe if you prefer.) After removing the marrow, store the bones in the refrigerator, well-wrapped, for a few days. Alternatively, store them in the freezer for up to 2 months and add them to your next batch of bone broth.
• Soups and Casseroles – You can add the meat from the shanks used to make the brown stock to soups or casseroles.
• Thickener – And to further prevent waste, puree the vegetables used to make the stock to create a thickener for soups and stews.

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Looking for Beef Shanks and Marrow Bones?

If you can’t find beef marrow bones or beef shanks in your neighborhood supermarket or farmer’s market, check out US Wellness Meats for a variety of grass-fed beef, including a variety of bones, pastured chickens, and more.

• Use discount code MARYNEST and my link to save 15% off regular-priced items on your US Wellness Meats order. You can shop for a variety of products, including:
  • Beef Bones
  • Grass-Fed Beef
  • Free-Range Whole Chickens
  • Chicken Feet

This post is not sponsored. I’m a long-time customer of US Wellness Meats because I have always been impressed by the quality of their products. Check out my US Wellness Meats unboxing video to see the types of products you can get, including bones for beef bone broth!

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