Hi frugal friends! I hope y’all are having a great day! Today we are starting our beef bone broth. It’s one of the easiest things to make with not much hands-on time. That’s not to say it doesn’t take a long time to make. I usually take about 1-2 days to make this beef bone broth, however, most of that time is just cooking time. You will only spend a couple of hours working with the broth. It will be totally worth it when you are done and have jar after jar of beef bone broth that is more delicious than what you buy and you know exactly what is in it.

Have I shown you one of my favorite canning essentials? It’s an electric turkey roaster! I love them for canning because you can set the temperature and walk away. It doesn’t matter if your cooking bones, broth, or even tomato sauces. I have mentioned that I have a full-time job outside of the home, so I have to do my canning in the evening and weekends. An electric roaster helps me step away while I have something simmering. As you’ll see below, I can even let things simmer overnight in the electric roaster with no worries of burning it. I can have sauce in the roaster simmering down to can and be working on another project on the stove or washing and chopping something to can without worrying about stirring the sauce so it doesn’t scorch. I have scorched tomatoes before while busy with another project. It’s so frustrating. No one wants to put all that effort into growing your food and ruin it in the process of canning.

I found my electric roasters (Yes that “s” does mean I have more than one. I love them that much!) at secondhand stores or maybe you call them thrift stores. They are a fraction of the price of a new one. I found one that looked like it had never been used and one that needed a good scrubbing with a Brillo pad.

If you don’t have an electric roaster or you don’t have very many beef bones this same process can be done in a crock pot. It will turn out just as wonderful.

It’s Friday evening after work, I put all my beef bones in the roaster. Today I also have a beef roast from our home raised beef. The vacuum seal has been broken, so I’m going to just throw it in the roaster with the bones.

Everything is right out of the freezer. I didn’t get around to setting it out to thaw, but that’s ok. I add in some carrots, onions that were leftover in the fridge, and celery that I pulled from the freezer. If you have vegetable scraps that you’ve saved those work great too.

I season with salt, pepper, thyme, marjoram, oregano, garlic and bay leaves. You can add whatever seasoning you want. You can just add salt and pepper if you like to keep it simple. Once you have everything in the roaster set it to 400 degrees, put the lid on and walk away.

Did you notice there was no water added? That’s not a mistake. The best broth comes from dry roasting the bones first. I stirred the bones once when I was passing through the kitchen, but otherwise I just let them cook.

This is what the bones look like when I check on them before I go to bed. So about 4-5 hours after they were started. There is some liquid in the bottom of the roaster now, which is only the juice from the little bit of meat on the bones and the roast. At this point I like the amount of color the bones have gotten. They look pretty “roasted” to me and some of the meat is starting to fall from the bones.

So at this point I am going to add the water. I don’t measure. I just fill the roaster up to the rim. After adding the water I turn the heat down to 200 degrees and go to bed. That’s really it so far.

The next morning I check the broth when I get up. If it has simmered down any you can add more water. I stir it up and check for the depth of flavor. It will continue to simmer for several more hours and I’ll turn the heat back up to about 350 degrees.

Once I feel like I have reached the depth of flavor I want it’s done. So, let’s see… I started the bones around 6 pm yesterday evening and its now noon. So, we are 18 hours in and have only spent about 30 minutes hands on time.

I have my canning jars ready. The first thing I am going to do is pull bones out and remove any meat from them and add to canning jars. Remember, I also have that roast in there so I should get several jars of meat.

After pulling all the meat off the bones, I have 6 pints of beef that I’ll fill with broth and can as well. It does not process at the same amount of time as the broth, but that’s ok. It’s worth doing 2 canning batches to have pre-cooked meat ready to use. This meat is just a bonus to making the broth. Look how delicious this beef is.

I’m not super picky about straining the broth. I don’t bother to try to fish out the vegetables I added. They have nearly disintegrated by now. I pour the broth through a mesh strainer as I fill the jars. The big bits get caught in the strainer. Some of the seasonings and maybe some little bits get through, but I don’t worry about that, to me it’s just flavor.

After you have all your jars full, wipe the rims with vinegar to remove any grease that may have gotten on them and could prevent a good seal. Top with clean new lids and screw the bands on fingertip tight.

Place your jars with your hot broth in a pressure canner that has the correct amount of hot water in it for your particular pressure canner. Once your pressure canner has vented steam for 10 minutes place the weight on. Once the pressure canner has come to the correct pressure for your altitude start timing. The broth will pressure can at 10 pounds of pressure for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.

I’ve got the broth in the canner so now to get the beef going. I am blessed enough to have a second pressure canner that I bought at a second hand store. I’ll can the beef in it since the beef for my altitude has to can at 10 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes in pints and 90 minutes in quarts. I should have gotten that on the stove first since it has to can longer. Oh well.

Here we are, it’s about 7 pm and we are done. Although, it has been more than 24 hours since we started, we really only had 3-4 hours of hands-on time invested in this delicious beef broth. Just look at the beautiful color rich color on this broth. Well worth the effort!

You can notice the bits at the bottom of that center jar. The one on the left has just a tad bit and the one on the right really has none. If that bothers you, when you make your own beef broth you can strain it through cheese cloth before you fill your jars. You could also let it set and settle a bit, then ladle into jars leaving the bits settled at the bottom of the bowl or pot. I really don’t worry about those little bits. They just add flavor to my soup or whatever I’m making with it.

I hope you’ll try making your own beef broth. It really is simple. I’m so glad you stopped by today! I hope y’all come back soon!

Missy