Don't usually have beef stock in freezer, but just CANNOT toss chicken/turkey bones without getting every last bit of goodness out of them. I use it to cook rice in, instead of water. Will use it iin soup inistead of water. Have even added it to non-chicken things (like chili or stew) if it needs extra liquid. IMO... pretty much interchangeable, though a foodie may differ!?!

I have canned chicken/beef stock before... but it can't be done the quick water bath method because of being meat based. Has to be pressure canned. My pressure cooker can only hold about 5 pints at a time and it takes something like 45+ minutes to process, but once it's working away no really need to hover over it.

Just HAVE to add a little "bone" story. Years ago, had 2 BIG dogs and a REAL butcher shop in the area. Shop still there, dogs in doggie heaven. They would GIVE bones away, so I stopped in for a treeat for the girls. Asked the "kid" behind the counter if there were any BIG bare bones in the back. She kinda tilted her head to one side and said... "BEAR bones??" Butcher brought out this Fred Flintstone bone... maybe a femur? Had him cut it into 2 big knuckles for the dogs and 2 nice size soup bones for me.

Our dog Bear has a big ol' Fred Flintstone bone stashed in the back yard from our last trip to the butcher.. Bear's bone, hehe.

I just made demi glace with all the bones and scraps we had in the freezer. It takes awhile, but it's wonderful.

I can beef stock, also. I'll freeze bones, broth left from pot roast...whatever, and then when we need freezer space I'll dump it all together with some celery, onions and carrots and simmer it down to a rich stock to can. We do the same with chicken.

Beef and vegetable soup, minestrone, add to stews and casseroles, making extra gravy for beef roasts or cottage pie.

French onion soup or Beef n' noodles, for starters.

Make beef boullion cubes?

Take a lot less room to keep.

dcarch

I often cook rice in some kind of stock. I just bought some beef stock to make some beef soup from leftover (now frozen) chopped onions, peppers, and tomato juice from canning salsa. I still need to remember to pick up some beef!

This has become a favorite dish at our house, especially when pea pods were plentiful out of the garden. The recipe calls for canned beef beef broth, but I use homemade.

When I make up a large batch of beef broth (see link below for information), I freeze it in plastic containers in user-friendly amounts (this includes ice cube trays, 1/2-cup and 1-cup amounts, or larger). When they are frozen, I pop the beef broth out of the containers and stack the broth "bricks" and vacuum-seal them in FoodSaver bags for freezer storage. This frees up the plastic containers to use for something else. I use broth for all kinds of things, including soup stock, gravy, reduction sauces.... -Grainlady

Beef with Pea Pods

2 pounds lean beef boneless round steak, 3/4-1-inch thick
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 t. salt (I omit this since I add soy sauce later)
pepper (to taste)
1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed beef broth
2 T. cornstarch
1/4 c. water
1 T. soy sauce
1/4 t. crushed gingerroot or 1/8 t. ground ginger
1 package (6-ounces) frozen Chinese pea pods (I use fresh ones)
4 c. hot cooked rice

Trim fat from beef steak. Cut beef with grain into 2-inch strips. Cut strips diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch slices. Cook beef and garlic in 10-inch nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until beef is brown. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir in broth. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 10-15 minutes or until beef is tender. (Add water if necessary.)

Mix cornstarch, water and soy sauce; stir into beef mixture. Cook until mixture thickens and boils, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1-minute. (Gravy will be thin.) Stir in gingerroot and frozen pea pods. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pea pods are crisp-tender. Serve over rice. Yields 8-servings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Broth Is Beautiful

I always have some variety of homemade soup in the fridge and our favorites using beef broth or stock are French onion, vegetable beef, cabbage borsch, barley mushroom, and sausage eggplant.

I often cook barley and vegetables in beef broth as a side dish for red meats. (pic is with sauteed leeks and onions)

I also use it as a braising liquid, in stews and for the ultimate beef stock adventure and flavor, making real consomme.

Thanks all for the wonderful suggestions! These really helped me think outside of the box.

I'll definitely make the beef w/ pea pods.

Ruthanna, how do you make the barley? My DH asked that we have more meatless meals (house full of carnivores), & this would fit the bill!

I use regular pearl barley, not the quick-cooking kind. I don't presoak it but do rinse it thoroughly before cooking. Cooking it is like cooking rice but you'd use at least 3X the amount of liquid as barley and simmer for about 40 minutes to an hour. You can drain it and keep in the refrigerator; then reheat in the microwave.

When I use long-cooking vegetables like carrots, I cook them along with the barley. For ones like in the pic, I'll saute them separately and then mix together when the barley is done.

Have fun using up all that beef stock.

Oh yes, definitely french onion soup and some beef barley soup. Ashley also likes "hamburger gravy", which is simply sauteed hamburger, add a couple of tablespoons of flour and stir to brown the flour. Add beef broth until you get a "gravy" consistency, season to taste, simmer for a few minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste and serve over mashed potatoes. I also use it when I'm making the filling for shepherd's pie and sometimes I just make gravy with a roux and beef stock, no ground beef.

I also have a steer butchered in the fall and I roast a big Nesco roaster full of bones, make stock on a weekend and then can it. I just finished the chicken stock, beef will be next.

Oh, and Chase makes demi-glaze, basically very concentrated beef stock. It takes a lot less room and adds a TON of flavor to things.

Annie

Ooo, hamburger gravy! I never thought of that! Good use of the (many) pounds in the freezer.

Ruthanna, Thanks for posting how to cook the barley. I didn't know about rinsing it. It was chilly & rainy here this weekend, so I made a pot of chicken broth. Since it hasn't made it to the freezer yet, I'm going to use it for the barley...along w/ sauted mushrooms & onions. I was thinking about defrosting a package of roast chicken, make gravy & serve over the barley. (Yes, we have an over abundance of monster sized chickens...)

It's ironic with the amount of meat we have, DH wants to have meatless days....:-P

Do I need to dilute the beef stock before using? (I'm totally ignorant about all of this, but wanting to learn)

I carmelize pounds of onions (outside or in the garage) in my crockpot when I have beef stock - then the french onion and the philly steaks begin...

Basically, experiment with using stock instead of water, in every recipe. Not pastries, though! Water has no taste, while stock does, and normally we want more taste.

The demi glac� is a good idea too. There are recipes, we had some here about a year ago. If you don't want to do the full demi process, at least take a couple gallons of stock and simmer uncovered for hours and days until the liquid is reduced by 3/4. The water goes away, leaving concentrated taste. You can freeze it in ice cube trays. It is ideal to do this in winter when you actually want to warm up the kitchen. Do not add salt, it will get too salty.

Bouillon cubes would be handy. Dcarch, how do you make bouillon cubes at home?

John,

Not surprisingly everything I do, I do it in a crazy way.

I will have to post my methods of using stock in a separate thread. It's a little complicated (strange) and long (boring) :-).

But to answer your question a little:

One thing I do is making stock with no water. That's right, no water.

I put all the stock making material, bones/meat in a pot with no water. The pot goes in a pressure cooker. Basically the bones/meat pot is steamed inside the PC. You will get the most concentrated pure flavor liquid in the pot. Not a lot, very little, which I call super stock. I use the super stock to make boullion cubes using whatever recipes I can find on-line.

After that, I add water in the pot to make regular stock.

dcarch

As Annie said, I use beef stock to make a richer, thicker beef "sauce" called " Espangole" or "Brown Sauce" which is one of the 4 or 5 (depending on your Church) French Mother Sauces.

Sometimes I further reduce the Brown Sauce to make Demi Glace but mostly I stop at the Brown Sauce. I do freeze in ice cube trays. It adds an incredibly rich flavour soups, gravies, sauces etc.

As a matter of fact I have large roaster of beef bones, carrots, onions and celery in the oven as I key!

it's a bit of work but not much effort , just elapsed time. Great therapy on wet cold days.

Demi Glace and Sauce Espagnole made from stock

For Stock

5 Or 6 Pounds Of Beef Bones, Veal Bones ,Maybe More
2 Celery Stalks Chopped
1 Onion Chopped
2 Carrots Chopped

For Brown Sauce

3 carrots chopped
4 celery ribs chopped
1 Large Onion Or 2 Small chopped
1 cups Butter
1 Cup Flour
3 TBSP tomato paste
12 Cups hot beef stock
Thyme, Bay Leaf, Parsley

For Demi Glace
2 Tbl Maderia
additional beef stock equal to The Brown Sauce

For the Beef Broth
Drizzel the bones and veggie with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and
pepper. Roast the veggies and beef bones in the oven at 400 degres for
30 minutes, turn and cook 30 minutes more or until lovely and carmelized.
Place in a large stock pot and cover with 18 cups of cold water. Simmer
for 4-6 hours. Strain, place in fridge. In the morning skim off fat.

For the Brown Sauce ( Sauce Espagnole)

Saute mirepoix ( chopped onons, carots and celery) in butter until the
onions are light golden brown. Add tomato paste and continue cooking
gently. Make a brown roux over low heat in a heavy pan with 1 cup of
butter and 1 cup of flour. When the roux is a hazelnut color, add two
thirds of HOT beef broth. (Reserve one third for demi glace), and whisk
together. Add the vegetables, as well as a bay leaf, a little thyme and
some parsley stems. Simmer the mixture for 2 to 3 hours, skimming off
the scum that rises to the

surface. Strain it through a fine strainer, and press the mirepoix
gently to extract their juices. CHill over night. Skim off fat.~
Then, for the demi-glace, add an equal amount of beef or veal stock,
bring it to a boil, and simmer until the sauce is reduced by half, again
skimming the surface as necessary. Off the heat, add 2 tablespoons
Madeira. Freeze in ice cube trays.

Note re liquid amounts.

Use 2/3 of stock for Brown Sauce and reserve 1/3 for the Demi.

For the Demi use equal amounts of brown sauce and stock.

Thanks all for the great advice! It sounds like I may be over thinking this. I'll just have to take the advice I've been given & experiment (Family likes it when dinner is a "mommy experiment").

I will admit though that things don't always turn out as perfect as I would like! We had a "3 bears" dinner last night. I made Ruthanna's barley & added peas (had chicken broth to use), chicken & carrots from the making of the broth in gravy to serve over it & corn bread. The corn bread was over cooked, the barley was under cooked & the gravy was just right. We enjoyed the meal together anyway & family will appreciate a correctly cooked meal next time! ;-)