Roasted Beef Stock For Full GAPS

Roasted beef stock has a deeper, rounder flavor than a pot made without browning the meat first. The beef pieces become golden in the oven, and the carrots, leeks and onions bring their own sweetness. Save the browned juices from the roasting pan. They belong in the stockpot with everything else.

This is a long, tended stovetop recipe for Full GAPS, with about eight hours of gentle simmering after the beef is roasted. It makes approximately three quarts, so it is useful when you want stock for several soups, gravies or stews. It is a different kitchen job from the pressure-cooker beef stock, which has a fifty-minute pressure cycle and its own ingredient amounts.

In our house, the stockpot has to fit around homeschooling and work. What goes into it changes with the budget and what is available. Knowing that I have stock for another meal makes the cooking ahead of me simpler, but an all-day pot still needs to be planned honestly. This version needs someone home to check the simmer and water level. Cooling and putting it away are part of the job, too.

The recipe follows Rachael Mamane’s roasted beef stock in Mastering Stocks and Broths, using homemade ghee instead of grapeseed oil. For the GAPS preparation, the onion is browned rather than blackened, and the natural beef fat is kept with the stock or saved for cooking.

Ingredients

• 6 pounds raw meaty beef neck or leg bones
• 1 calf’s foot, optional
• 3 tablespoons homemade ghee, divided
• 8 quarts cold filtered water, plus water for rinsing and topping up
• 1 pound white onions, with one onion halved and the rest cut into large dice
• 1 pound leeks, dark green parts removed, washed and cut into large dice
• ¾ pound carrots, washed and cut into large dice
• 1 head garlic, split across the cloves and broken into pieces
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• Natural sea salt, to taste

Choose beef pieces with plenty of meat and connective tissue still attached. This is the first cooking of those raw pieces, not a second extraction from bare bones left after a meal. The optional calf’s foot adds more gelatinous tissue, but the recipe does not depend on finding one before you can begin.

Use half the ghee on the beef and the other half on the diced vegetables. Beef tallow can replace the ghee in the same amount for a dairy-free preparation. The carrots weigh 12 ounces, the same as ¾ pound. A scale makes the vegetable amounts easier to follow than counting differently sized carrots and leeks.

How To Make Roasted Beef Stock

1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Rinse the meaty beef pieces and optional calf’s foot with cool water, then pat the beef pieces dry. Put the foot, if using, into a large stockpot. Arrange the beef pieces in one layer in a suitable roasting pan and coat with half the ghee.
2. Roast the beef for 20 minutes. Turn the pieces with tongs and roast for about 20 minutes more, until golden brown. Avoid burned or blackened pieces. Pour off excess rendered fat into a heatproof container to save for cooking. Lower the oven to 400°F.
3. Transfer the roasted beef to the stockpot. Add some of the measured water to the hot roasting pan. Set the hob-safe pan over medium heat and scrape up the brown juices with a wooden spoon. Pour those juices into the stockpot, then add the remaining measured water. Add natural salt to taste. Use a pot large enough for the ingredients, liquid and comfortable headroom.
4. Heat the stock slowly until the surface begins to ripple, skimming foam as it appears. Lower the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer for about 6 hours. Check it regularly, especially during the first hour. Skim surface foam and add water when evaporation would leave the beef uncovered.
5. Toward the end of that first simmer, put the halved onion cut-side down in a dry cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Check the cut face and lift it out when golden brown, before it blackens. On a separate roasting tray, coat the remaining diced onion, leeks and carrots with the rest of the ghee. Roast at 400°F for about 25 minutes, until golden. Cover the prepared vegetables and set them aside.
6. After the initial 6-hour simmer, add the browned onion halves, roasted vegetables, garlic, thyme, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns to the stockpot. Maintain the same gentle simmer for another 2 hours.
7. Turn off the heat and let the stock rest for about 15 minutes. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large, clean, heatproof container. Ladle the liquid through gently, leaving cloudy sediment at the bottom. Save the soft meat and edible connective tissue, checking carefully for hard bone fragments.
8. Taste the strained stock. If you want a more concentrated flavor, simmer the strained liquid in a clean pot until it tastes right. Adjust the salt after any reduction. Keep or reserve the natural beef fat for GAPS cooking.
9. Cool promptly in an ice bath, stirring to release heat. Divide a large batch into smaller containers. Transfer to the refrigerator when the stock no longer steams. Refrigerate for up to 2 days, or freeze smaller portions for longer storage.

Drying the beef before roasting helps its surface brown. Give the pieces room rather than piling them into a deep heap. At the turning step, look for golden surfaces and brown juices on the pan. Save those juices when you add the water. Black, scorched residue is not the same thing as browned juices.

The simmer should look quiet. A slight ripple and occasional small bubbles are enough; the beef should not bounce around in a rolling boil. The water level needs checking over this long cook. Add water to keep the pieces covered, then let the pot return to its gentle simmer.

Notice the smell at each stage: roasted beef as the pan comes out, sweet cooked vegetables after their oven time, then a fuller savory aroma as they join the stock. The final liquid will be brown rather than the lighter color of an unroasted stock. Its exact shade varies with the beef, vegetables and concentration.

Where It Fits On GAPS

This is a Full GAPS preparation with roasted beef, vegetables, herbs and ghee. For an Introduction Diet pot, use the separate stovetop beef meat stock recipe and its stage instructions.

The 2020 Gut and Physiology Syndrome book distinguishes meat stock made from raw meaty carcass pieces from long-cooked bone broth made from bare bones, often left from another meal. It delays bone broth for at least a year, and for some people for several years. This recipe starts with raw meaty pieces for a first extraction. The length of the clock alone is not the whole distinction: the book also allows an overnight slow-cooker preparation for meat stock.

Keep the edible meat, connective tissue and fat as food, rather than considering only the strained liquid useful. This batch contains vegetables, even after straining, so it is not a No-Plant stock. The same-amount tallow option removes the ghee for a dairy-free batch.

Using And Storing The Stock

Allow around ten hours through the initial cooling. The beef roasts for about forty minutes and the stock simmers for eight hours. Heating, straining and cooling take the remaining time, while the vegetables can be prepared during the long first simmer. Full refrigeration takes additional time.

Measure the finished stock for another recipe. Eight quarts of starting water does not mean eight quarts in the fridge; this open-pot method loses water during cooking. The approximate three-quart yield can vary further if you reduce the strained liquid.

Use a cup in onion gravy when you want a richer beef flavor. With this stock, that batch of gravy belongs on Full GAPS. The saved soft beef can be added to soup after the vegetables have cooked, so it warms through without another long simmer.

Portion and date the cooled stock. A fat layer may firm on top in the fridge, and the liquid underneath may form a soft gel. Gel strength varies with the cuts and water. Keep that natural fat with the stock or reserve it for cooking. Freeze in suitable containers with expansion room, following the container’s instructions.

Recommended Equipment

Use a large stainless-steel or enameled stockpot with room for all eight quarts of water, the beef and vegetables, plus headroom. Check capacity before starting; do not force the full batch into a smaller pot. Halve the ingredients or divide the batch between suitable pots if needed.

A hob-safe stainless-steel or enameled cast-iron roasting pan lets you loosen the browned juices over medium heat afterward. I use Le Creuset cookware in Artichaut where it fits the job. An oven-only stoneware or glass baker is not the pan for the stovetop step. You also need a cast-iron skillet, vegetable roasting tray, tongs, wooden spoon, fine-mesh strainer and heatproof containers for cooling.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Add The Vegetables Later?

The beef gets its long first extraction before the vegetables join it for the final two hours. Roast the diced vegetables toward the end of that earlier simmer, then add them with the herbs and garlic at the stated point.

Can I Use The Pressure-Cooker Directions Instead?

Use the separate pressure-cooker recipe. It uses different batch quantities, covering water within a pressure-fill limit and a closed cooking cycle. This eight-quart open-pot batch should not be tipped into a pressure cooker unchanged.

What Happens When I Double The Card?

Every numeric ingredient amount doubles. Pot and roasting-pan capacity still need checking. Use two base batches if necessary, with the same roasting and simmering intervals for each. For the onion step, reserve one halved onion per base batch, or two when doubling.

More Ways To Use Homemade Stock

For a lighter-tasting batch without roasting, use the slow-cooker beef stock. It cooks raw meat and vegetables on LOW, with its own timing and fill directions.

Keep this roasted stock for meals where its deeper flavor helps, and the short-rib stovetop stock for that separate preparation. For more help with methods, troubleshooting and fitting a stockpot into the week’s meals, The Stock Pot Course is coming soon to the WFLI shop.