French Onion Soup
Classic Beef Broth Recipe
a soup made from animal bones with or without meat on, vegetables and herbs. The bones add nutrients and flavor to the broth. Stock is similar but is made from vegetable scraps and bones. In the UK, broth is an interchangeable word for soup and it contains pulses, vegetables, and sometimes meat.
When making French onion soup and the recipe tells you to add broth, bouillon or stock, you should add a liquid without any bits in. Broth is usually sieved through a cheesecloth to remove particles. If you want to remove the tiny particles from beef broth recipes, you can add an egg white. All the tiny bits stick to the egg white and get strained out of the soup when it is sieved a second time.
If you want to make the best French onion soup, it is well worth making a homemade beef broth to use in it, rather than relying on bouillon cubes. Broth, bouillon and stock all freeze well so make plenty and freeze some. Then the next time you want to make a French onion soup recipe, you will already have the broth.
One of the Simplest Beef Broth Recipes
Ingredients -
2 lbs hind shank beef (½ lb bone, 1 ½ lbs meat)
2 pints cold water
1 big slice red or green bell pepper
½ onion, studded with 4 cloves
1 bay leaf
8 peppercorns
2 tablespoons diced celery
2 tablespoons diced carrot
1 bunch parsley
Preparation:
Cut the beef into small pieces, removing any marrow and melting it in a hot skillet.
Put about ¼ of the beef into the melted marrow and cook it until it is very brown.
Put all the meat and bone in a soup pot, including the browned meat, and add enough water to cover it.
Add the rest of the water to the skillet and let it stand until the browned juices dissolve into it. Pour this mixture into the soup pot.
Cover the soup pot and bring it to a boil.
Turn it down and then simmer it for 3 or 4 hours.
Add the seasonings and vegetables and simmer it for another hour.
Strain the beef broth, measure it, and add more water to make it up to a quart.
(Makes 1 Quart)
Beef Broth Recipes - All Delicious
Beef broth can be a simple combination of meat, vegetables and water or it can be more elaborate, with ingredients such as sherry, wine, herbs, and spices. If you are making a beef broth recipe to serve as the foundation for French onion soup, it is best to keep the beef broth simple because the French onion soup will have other flavors in it. Do not underestimate the enormous amount of flavor you can get from meat and vegetables!
Making a Beef Broth Recipe in Bulk
If you are going to make beef broth, it is always worth making two or three times as much as you need. You can even make more, if you have a big soup pot and sufficient freezer space. Beef broth freezes and defrosts well, which is why making a beef broth recipe in bulk is a sensible step.
Varieties of Beef Broth Recipes
Beef broth is not always made the same way and there are different kinds of beef broth recipes, depending on whom you ask and which country you are in. Eastern beef broth, for example, might feature star anise and cinnamon. Some people like to add red wine, port, or sherry to their beef broth recipe. You might want to under season your beef broth if it is going to be used to make a French onion soup recipe or something similar.