This recipe makes a rich, flavorful brown stock, perfect for cooking. Think shepherd’s pie, French onion soup, or stew. (If you’re looking for bone broth for drinking, see our Healing Bone Broth recipe.)

A single batch makes roughly 5-6 cups of stock. For one batch, use a heavy-bottomed 6-quart soup pot. For a double batch, use a heavy-bottomed 12-quart stock pot or larger.

We sell two types of soup bones: one package contains meaty bones (vacuum-sealed or paper-wrapped) and the other contains a mix of marrow bones and bare bones. This recipe is designed for meaty bones, or a mix of meaty and bare bones. This recipe works beautifully with Red Select wine, made with Indiana grapes by Butler Winery (just 5 minutes from our shop).

Recipe Instructions

 Preheat oven to 400° F.

Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet:

• 2½-3½ lbs thawed soup bones (see note above)

Roast for 30 minutes, then flip and roast another 30 minutes. Add bones to a soup pot with:

• 1 cup dry red wine
• 12 cups water

Add more water if needed to cover bones by 1-2 inches. Bring to a boil. Skim the material that forms on the top of the water, then turn down to a simmer. Add:

• 1 carrot, cut in half
• 1 medium white onion, cut in half
• 1 rib celery, cut in half
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 peppercorns

Cook at the barest simmer, uncovered, for 5 hours. Add water as needed during cooking to keep the level just over the meat (roughly 6 additional cups, or less if needed). Don’t add too much water in the last 2 hours of cooking; just enough to keep meat covered.

Remove from heat and strain the stock through a wire mesh strainer. Add salt to taste, approximately ¼ - ½ teaspoon per finished cup of stock.

Separate into two containers, or place the pot in an ice water bath in the sink, stirring to bring the temperature down quickly. 

Recipe courtesy ThisIsWhatFoodLooksLike.com (coming soon!), adapted for and tested with grass-fed beef soup bones Acorn Acres Farm.