Preserving your own broth
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EmailBeef stock or broth is easy to make and preserve at home.
We use broth, chicken, beef or vegetable, for many of the foods we eat. It is a good base to use when making homemade soup. Have you ever considered making your own broth and safely preserving it in a jar or by freezing it? The process is simple just plan on spending a little time to do it. For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on making and preserving beef stock. To preserve stock/broth safely you will need to use a pressure canner. This method of food preservation is used because the food item is meat-based and low in acidity. We could also package the broth in food-safe freezer containers.
To start, you will need 4 pounds of beef bones with a little bit of meat on the bones. Roast the bones at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. After removing the bones from the oven place them and all the drippings in a covered stainless steel or enameled pan that is oven safe. Add 2 quarts of water, 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar (5 percent acidity), 2 teaspoons of salt, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 bay leaves, 1 large onion, quartered. Then cover and roast in the oven for 8 hours.
Next, reduce the oven again to 180 degrees F and continue to bake for 8 more hours. After that, remove the bones from the pan and pour the broth through a fine strainer to remove any solids – throw out any solids that you remove. Skim the fat off of the strained mixture and then add water to bring the amount of broth up to 2 quarts. Place the broth in a heavy pan and bring it to a boil.
Wash, rinse and sanitize jars in preparation for canning the broth. Heat the jars and ladle the boiling broth into the jar leaving 1-inch headspace. Wipe the rim of the jar clean, place a lid and ring on the jar and screw it on finger tight. Place jars in a pressure canner. Process pint jars for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure for a weighted gauge canner and 11 pounds pressure for a dial gauge canner.
Michigan State University Extension recommends following USDA guidelines for using a pressure canner and follow science-based recipes to keep all home-canned foods safe.
