home made stock

Home made stocks do not have to be an all day affair, thanks to the wonders of the pressure cooker.  They freeze beautifully, they add wonderful flavors to soups and sauces, and they allow you to control the salt content in your food.   With a pressure cooker, you can make a pot of beef stock in under 2 hours.

my pressure cooker is an electric model, 

but stove top models work just as well

Buy 4-5 pounds of oxtail, neck bones, and back bones for making 5 quarts of stock.  I also throw any meat trimmings I have, including steak bones, gristle, etc. in a stock bag in the freezer.  I also throw veggie trimmings in the bag -- carrot and onion trimmings, leek tops, celery trimmings,  leftover herbs...

When you are ready to make a stock, roast the bones in a 425 oven for about 45 minutes.  This works equally well for chicken.  (I usually use chicken wings for chicken stock.)  After the bones are roasted, they go into the pressure cooker, along with the vegetable trimmings, straight from the freezer, and any other herbs, spices, or veggies you want to use.  I do not add salt to stock, so I can season as I use it to cook.

roasted beef bones

The pressure cooker is brought up to pressure, then the stock cooks for one hour.  45 minutes for chicken stock.  Strain the stock, and you are done.

an excellent strainer for stock is a chinoise,

which has a very fine mesh.  These can be $100 or more.

I found mine at a restaurant supply store for $25

The pressure cooker does an excellent job of extracting gelatin from the meat bones, so once the stock has cooled in the fridge, you will have a gelatinous stock from which you can easily remove the fat, portion it out, and freeze.  It will keep for months in the freezer.

the fat skims away very easily

chilled stock rich with gelatin

Add your home made stock to soups, stews, gravies, and sauces.  Delicious!