Beef Stock from Nourishing Traditions

My favorite cookbook, without a doubt, is "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats" by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. You might remember both of these ladies from Fat Head.

It's a bit of a cross between a cookbook and a history of food and the politics that surround it. I've had it for at least 10 years and though Sally and I don't see eye to eye on everything, we agree an awful lot more than we disagree. There are some things in the book that I've never tried, some for reasons of taste (fermenting dairy and vegetable items) and others for reasons of laziness (sprouting grains) but everything that I have tried has been a huge success.

It was Nourishing Traditions that led me to the Weston A. Price Foundation which in turn led me to Save Your Dairy as a source for Raw Milk and then to Tropical Traditions for organic, virgin coconut oil and coconut products. You could say that Nourishing Traditions has been the linchpin on which our health has turned.

Here's Sally's recipe for Beef Stock which can be found on page 122:

About 4 pounds beef marrow and knuckle bones
1 calves foot, cut into pieces (optional)
3 pounds meaty rib or neck bones
4 or more quarts cold filtered water
1/2 cup vinegar
3 onions, coarsely chopped
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
several sprigs of fresh thyme, tied together
1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed
1 bunch parsley

Place the knuckle and marrow bones and optional calves foot in a very large pot with vinegar and cover with water. Let stand for one hour. Meanwhile, place the meaty bones in a roasting pan and brown at 350 degrees in the oven. When well browned, add to the pot along with the vegetables. Pour the fat out of the roasting pan, add cold water to the pan, set over a high flame and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen up the coagulated juices. Add this liquid to the pot. Add additional water, if necessary, to cover the bones; but the liquid should come no higher than within one inch of the rim of the pot, as the volume expands slightly during cooking. Bring to a boil. A large amount of scum will come to the top, and it is important to remove this with a spoon. After you have skimmed, reduce heat and add the thyme and crushed peppercorns.

Simmer stock for at least 12 hours and as long as 72 hours. Just before finishing, add the parsley and simmer another 10 minutes.

You will now have a pot of rather repulsive looking brown liquid containing globs of gelatinous and fatty material. It doesn't even smell particularly good. But don't despair. After straining you will have a delicious and nourishing clear broth that forms the basis for many other recipes in the book.

Remove bones with tongs or a slanted spoon. Strain the stock into a large bowl. Let cool in the refrigerator and remove the congealed fat that rises to the top. Transfer to smaller containers and to the freezer for long-term storage.

And that's all there is to it!

As a testament to how much I love this cookbook; here's a picture of my copy. As you can see, it's been loved nearly to pieces.