I just finished making beef stock for the first time. It smells amazing and is nice and gelatinous. I wanted to drink a cup of it but refrained, for now. The pure white layer of fat that congealed at the top was beautiful. I saved the fat, not sure what to do with it though, it seemed a shame to toss it.
The stock was cloudy, I am not sure if I should be worried about this or not. I basically made it the way Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describes in his The River Cottage Meat Book (a fantastic book BTW).
I started with 2 marrow bones, then roasted about 5lbs of misc beef bones (neck mainly) in the oven, to this I added my collection of beef trimmings, maybe about 4 lbs of meat, sinew, and fat. I added a handful of bay leaves, carrots, celery, and onion. I had it at a tremulous simmer for about 6 hours. I then cooled in an icy water bath and stuck in the fridge overnight. I defatted it this morning and put it in 2 cp portions into the freezer.
I am planning on making a French style Pot Roast (Boeuf à la mode) today and using some of the stock for the sauce. I am using a recipe from Cooks Illustrated that uses unflavored gelatin and bacon in place of the calves foot and lardons respectively. Cooks Illustrated usually is pretty good with these streamlined braises so my hopes are high. I will try my damndest to post tomorrow with a post mortem on the dish.
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