The amazing Italian cooking website giallo zafferano presents this traditional Italian beef broth just perfectly.

I made it the other day and share with you the steps below along with a few tricks to remove most of the fat. The result is a lovely clear broth that tastes and smells amazing! 

Note:

1. Takes about 20 minutes to prepare and 3 hours to simmer.
2. You will get about 1 litre of stock.
3. I wrote about their chicken stock here and will post the vegetable version soon.

Preparing the vegetables

1. Roughly chop the 2 celery sticks and 2 carrots and add them to the stock pot.
2. Cut the 100g of fresh tomatoes in half and add them too.
3. Peel the onion then slice it in half. 
4. Splash a bit of olive oil in a fry pan and cook the onion until it is slightly charred.
5. Add the now charred and softened onion halves to the stock pot.
6. Add the 2 cloves and then pepper to taste.

Adding the meat and the bones

1. Add the ~1kg beef and the ~400g of beef bones to the stock pot.
2. Add 4L of water to the stock pot.
3. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat.

Simmering

Simmer on very low heat for about 3 hours or until there is about 1L of liquid remaining. Stir occasionally.

Sieving the broth

1. Use a small meshed sieve or strainer to remove the meat, bones and vegetables.
2. If using straight away to make a meal, you can use a Gravy And Fat Separator or chill slightly and remove the fat layer as it forms with a ladle/spoon or paper towel.
3. If you are not using the broth immediately (and this is my preference), use the above techniques and then freeze the broth.

Freezing and using

When I come to use the frozen broth I do this:

1. Scrape off the fat layer with a spoon.
2. Let it defrost slowly, you can use a spoon or paper towel to absorb even more fat.

Looking clean:

Enjoy,

PK

Here are some more Italian cooking secrets and uses for stock :