Making your own homemade beef bone broth is an amazing way to add healthy, delicious flavor to your recipes.
Sourcing beef bones isn’t usually all that hard. I have found them at my local grocery stores and have also gotten them from a local farm. If you don’t see them in your grocery store meat cases, simply ask them at the butcher counter. They often have them in the back or can save some for you.
What Beef Bones Should You Use to Make the Broth?
When selecting what bones to use, I get a variety. You’ll need 7 1/2 – 8 lbs of bones. Play around and experiment with what you use to determine what your favorite is, or simply use what you can find each time.
You could use beef shanks, oxtails, marrow bones, neck bones, or even spare ribs.
This recipe makes a very rich broth.
To Make Homemade Beef Bone Broth You Will Need:
- beef bones
- sea salt
- black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil or melted coconut oil
- tomato paste
- carrots
- celery
- onions
- garlic heads
- bay leaves
- thyme
- peppercorns
- water
- basting brush
- large roasting pan
- large stock pot
- colander
- cheese cloth
- ladle
- Canning Supplies for pressure canning (or freezer containers to freeze broth)
You Can Watch Me Make this Gorgeous Broth in the Video Below:
To begin, the bones are brushed with a little oil, seasoned with salt & pepper, and smeared with some tomato paste.
The bones roast in the oven for about a half an hour at 450 degrees. Browning the bones adds a ton of flavor to the broth.
The bones and drippings are placed in a large stock pot and then it’s time for the veggies.
You’ll add the vegetables, seasonings, and water to the stock pot with your bones.
Bring these all to a boil. Then reduced the heat and simmer it for at least 6 hours, but 12 hours is even better.
Once the broth has simmered, you will strain out the solids and discard them. I line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth to strain it through. Then you will refrigerate the broth for several hours or overnight.
In the morning, skim the fat from the top of the broth. This step of removing the excess fat is optional. If you don’t wish to remove it, there is no need to refrigerate the broth. Once the broth has been strained of solids, you can simply go ahead and preserve it as is.
The wonderful broth can then be frozen in freezer containers in portions, or pressure canned to preserve it all.
How to Can Your Homemade Beef Bone Broth
Your Beef Bone Broth is a low acid food, and when you can it, it must be pressure canned. Follow all of the standard directions for pressure canning safely.
When canning the hot broth, leave a 1 inch head space in your hot pint or quart jars.
Personally, I always can broth in pint jars that way I rarely have leftover broth in the fridge.
Follow all of the protocols for safely pressure canning, from venting the canner to the cool-down process.
The beef bone broth should be processed at 11 PSI for a dial gauge, or 10 PSI for a weighted gauge pressure canner.
The processing time is 25 minutes for quart jars or 20 minutes for pint jars.
NOTE: These weights are for 1,000 feet of elevation or under. If you live at a higher elevation, you will need to adjust the pressure to suit your elevation.
See This Article: How to Adjust Canning Recipes for Elevation
For a Frugal Beef Bone Broth
For a frugal option, you can also save all of your bones from meals, whether they are steak bones, bones from roasts, etc. I often do this, placing them in a gallon freezer bag, and collecting them until the bag is full. I also collect all of the onion skins and and other vegetable scraps.
There is no need to roast the bones if you are doing this. Simple add all of the bones, vegetable scraps and other ingredients you see here, and cook them together in the stock pot, and proceed as before.
Did you Make this Recipe? I’d love for you to give me a 5 star rating in the recipe card below. If you share it on Instagram, please tag me! You can also post it to my Facebook Page.
Homemade Beef Bone Broth
Ingredients
- 7 ½ – 8 lb beef bones, neck bones, shanks, short ribs, etc. – see note in the associated blog post on CosmopolitanCornbread.com
- 3 Tb extra virgin olive oil, or melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6 oz tomato paste, 1 can
- 6 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 5 stalks celery, with the leaves, coarsely chopped
- 3 onions, peeled and quartered
- 2 heads of garlic
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 Tb dry thyme leaves
- 1 Tb whole black peppercorns
- 4 gallons cold water
Instructions
- To begin, heat your oven to 450°(F).
- Arrange the beef bones in a large roasting pan. Brush the bones with half of the oil and sprinkle with half of the salt and pepper.
- Turn the bones over and brush the remaining oil on the other side. Sprinkle with the remaining salt and pepper.
- Spread the tomato paste all over the bones.
- Roast the bones for 30 minutes, or until they are beautifully browned.
- Place the bones in your large stock pot.
- Add a little warm water to the roasting pan and scrape all of the bits loose from the bottom. Pour the drippings into the stock pot with the bones.
- Add the carrots, celery, and onions to the stock pot.
- Remove the excess paper skins from the outside of the garlic heads. Cut the root end from the ends, exposing the cloves. Place them in the stock pot.
- Add in the bay leaves, thyme leaves, peppercorns, and water.
- Bring everything to a gentle boil and let it boil for 5 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to a medium and let it simmer uncovered for a least 6 hours, 12 hours is better.
- Line a colander with damp cheese cloth and strain the solids from the broth. Discard the solids.
- Once the broth is strained, freeze or can as is. Or you can remove most of the fat from the broth.
TO REMOVE THE FAT – OPTIONAL:
- Place the strained broth in the refrigerator and chill for several hours or overnight. To chill it faster, put the broth in multiple containers to reduce the volume of each.
- Once the broth is chilled, carefully scoop the fat from the top of the broth.
- Freeze the broth in portions, or can it all, using the pressure canning method.
To Can the Beef Broth
- Prepare all of your canning equipment: pressure canner, canning tools, jars, etc.
- Bring the broth to a boil in your stock pot. Reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Ladle the broth into hot jars (pint or quart.) Leave 1 inch of head space. (The distance between the top of the jars down to the top of the broth.)
- Give it a stir with a bubble wand to remove any bubbles.
- Wipe the jar rim down with a damp cloth dipped in white vinegar to remove any reside.
- Place a lid and ring on the jar, and tighten to finger tight.
- Place the jar in your pressure canner, and repeat with all of the broth.
- Close and seal your pressure canner, let it come up to 11 PSI for a dial gauge, or 10 PSI for a weighted gauge pressure canner
- The processing time is 25 minutes for quart jars or 20 minutes for pint jars. (See note in the post above about adjusting for elevation.)
- When your time is up, turn off the heat, allow the pressure to come all the way down to "zero" and wait another minute. Then carefully open your canner lid. Allow the jars to sit in the canner another minute.
- Removed the jars to a lined surface in a draft-free location. Let them cool 12-24 hours, or until completely cooled.
- Remove the rings, test the seals and place any unsealed jars in your fridge to use right away, or freeze in freezer containers.
- Wash the jars with warm, soapy water, then label them and put them in the pantry for all your recipe needs,
- Enjoy!
Equipment Used
- cloth
- white vinegar
- small dish
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If nutritional values are provided for this recipe, they are an estimate and will vary depending on the brands of ingredients you use. The values do not include optional ingredients or when ingredients are added to taste or for serving. If nutritional values are very important to you, I suggest using your favorite nutritional calculating tool with the brands you use.
Unit Conversions:
Unit Conversion for measurements (if displayed), going from US to Metric is an auto-generated conversion. If you are using the metric measurements, please double-check to confirm that these are accurate with your favorite preferred conversion tool.
This post was originally written in 2020, updated in 2024.
I made this today and my home smells so good, I am going to can the broth, but I think I will make some beef veggie soup with the meat from the bones and the veggies that are in the broth.. Not sure as of yet but I sure can’t wait until it’s done simmering over night.
I used 10 lbs of bones and roasted them for about 40 mins so I could get that good broth from all of them.
Good morning Constance. I hope you are doing ok and being safe. I love your recipes and have done this one . But I used my big roaster so I did not have to worry about burning the bottom. I was wondering why you didn’t use the onion and carrot peelings in the stock?
I removed the onion & carrot peels because I would be canning this broth. Any time I see a canning carrots recipe, they say to peel the carrots. I apply the same rule to the onions.
When canning after you take the broth out of the refrigerator and remove the fat do you heat it back up to can?