Today, I’m making beef broth. Why?
Because we’re out and I think I can make it a lot cheaper and
healthfully than I can buy it. At my
local Fry’s, I can buy Kroger brand beef broth for $1 per 14 oz can. This seems great until you realize that canned
goods have a lot of sodium in them.
Unlike many people, I’m not a huge fan of salt. I prefer to cook virtually without it and to
let people add salt as to their taste.
99 times out of 100, I won’t add salt to something that's already been cooked.
So, my goal today is to see how much I can save making my
own beef broth. I’ll admit right now
that my prices won’t be yours, but I think that, across the board, you’ll see
that prices will be within the same ratio.
Next time you’re at your store, you can start your own book of prices
and see what your conclusions are.
Despite what you might think, broths and stocks are not
hard. They just require time to
cook. A good broth or stock will take at
least 4 hours of simmering to get a good taste to it, then you just have to
store it (I’ll get to that in a second).
Ergo, the next time you realize you’re out of chicken broth, take a day
that you’re off work and let your own simmer on the stove.
Big question I hear a lot:
What’s the difference between a broth and a stock? Easy!
A broth is made with meat and bones while a stock is made just of bones. I highly recommend that you make chicken
broth rather than stock because chicken bones are so small. On the other hand, beef bones lend themselves
perfectly to stock. You can buy beef
marrow bones in your grocery store’s meat section for pretty cheap.
Now, when you make a batch of stock, you’re going to end up
with at least a gallon of the stuff.
That’s just how it works. Unlike
cans, you can’t stack it in your cabinets for an infinite amount of time, but
you can freeze it. You don’t want to
freeze it all in one giant piece because you’ll never be able to get it out of
the container once it’s frozen. Here are
a couple of options:
1. Freeze it in a small container
Find small
freezer containers that hold 1 to 2 cups and put your stock in those. They’ll stack nicely and you can defrost each
container as your needs dictate.
Similarly, you can freeze them in quart-sized Ziploc bags, but you have
to make sure you a) seal them very well and b) lay them flat on a pan to
freeze. Once they’re frozen they won’t
leak and they’ll stack nicely in your freezer.
Just label the bags with what they are and pull them out when it’s time
to make soup. Defrost both of these in
warm water until you can get them out of their containers, then just add them,
frozen, to your pan. Everything’s hot
when it boils.
2. Make ice cubes.
I love this
method because it’s less wasteful than a lot of Ziploc bags and small containers. Buy a few ice cube trays at the dollar store,
and after your stock is cool, carefully ladle the stock or broth into the
trays. Let them freeze, pop out the
cubes into a larger container or gallon Ziploc bag and stick them back into the
freezer. Remember that liquid expands
when it freezes, so leave some extra room.
Repeat this until all of your stock is frozen into ice cubes. The only problem you might have is when you’re
ready to use them. Every ice cube tray
is different, so I can’t tell you how big yours will be. Here’s a tip:
When your first set of ice cubes is done, remove one of them and put it
in a measuring cup and let it melt. When
it’s melted, you’ll know approximately how much is in each ice cube. On your container/Ziploc bag, write “Beef
Stock, 1 cube = 1 oz” or something you’ll understand. That way, when you’re ready to make a soup
that requires 1 cup of stock you’ll just pop 8 ice cubes into the pot and be
ready to go!
Here’s my
beef stock recipe and how much each piece of it cost. For things I already had in my kitchen, I’ll approximate
the cost. At the end, I’ll tell you how
many cans of beef broth I could’ve bought for the cost and how much I
made. You choose what you prefer.
| Equipment you'll need |
|---|
| Chef knife, cutting board, small roasting pan, oven, stock pot (1 gal or larger), stove, colander, slotted spoon, containers/ Ziploc bags/ ice cube trays. |
| Ingredient | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Beef Marrow Bones | 1 package | $6.64 |
| Large onion | 1 | $0.50 |
| Large Carrots | 3 | $0.30* |
| Celery Stalks | 2-3 | $0.43* |
| Kosher Salt | 3 tsp | $0.07* |
| Pepper | 1 tsp | $0.10* |
| Bay Leaf | 1 | $0.15* |
| Tap Water | a lot | |
| Total | $8.82 | |
| * Based on price per package divided by amount used. | ||
1. Preheat your oven to 450º F. Cut your onion and carrots to large pieces, about 1 inch in size. You need to peel the onion and you need to wash the carrots, but you don't need to peel the carrots. The peel is just more of the carrot and will add more taste to the stock.
2. Put the carrots, onions, and beef bones into a roasting pan (I used a 6x11x2) and put them in the oven for 30 minutes.
3. Drain the fat from the roasting pan. You may need to use a slotted spoon to lift the vegetables and bones from the pan in order to get the fat out without dumping your ingredients. After the oil's gone, add 1/2 c. of water to the pan and scrape anything that might have stuck to the pan off of it. Pour the water into the stock pot - this is called deglazing.
4. Place the bones, carrots, onions, celery stalks (cut similarly to the carrots and onions), salt, pepper, and bay leaves into the stock pot. Fill the pot with water.
5. Place your stock pot on the stove and bring it to a boil. Cover the pot with a lid and reduce the stock to a simmer for 4 hours.
6. Once the stock has completed simmering, allow it to cool completely, until the fat on the top has solidified (this took overnight in a fridge for me). Use a slotted spoon to remove the fat and discard it. Strain your stock through a colander and freeze.
This recipe cost $8.82 which would buy 8 - 14 oz cans of generic brand Beef Stock if I include sales tax, however, I had everything but the bones in my kitchen which means it was only $6.64 for me. This is also something great to do with that wilting celery and blackening onion you've got in your kitchen! So, if I look, purely at my cost, I could have bought 6 cans of Beef stock
My recipe made 2 gallons of beef stock. That's 256 ounces or 18.29 - 14 oz cans of beef stock. For $6.64, I got $18 worth of stock. Frankly, that's enough to get most families through the year!
What convenience foods do you hate? Questions? Comments? Tweet to @cookingcheap
No comments:
Post a Comment