Stocks & Sauces

Beef stock recipe

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Introducing a beef stock recipe by Lulu Cox, formerly of Rochelle Canteen in London. Rochelle Canteen, under the stewardship of Margot Henderson, wife of renowned chef Fergus Henderson, is a quaint whitewashed eatery nestled in an old school. With a menu that evolves daily to reflect the seasons, Rochelle Canteen embodies the essence of simplicity and quality ingredients.

Ingredients

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Method

  1. Preheat your oven 200°C.
  2. Place the beef bones into a large oven tray and cook for at least 30-minutes. They need to have space to brown well, so don’t pile them up. And make sure to flip them halfway through cooking, to ensure a rich golden colour.
  3. Whilst your bones are browning, roughly chop all your vegetables. This is your stock base.
  4. Heat the pan, before adding a scant tablespoon of olive oil and your stock base vegetables. Allow the vegetables to brown, for 5-minutes, stirring occasionally. You don’t want your veg to sweat down and soften up – you’re looking for a good golden colour, which you can achieve by cooking the vegetables quickly, using a high heat.
  5. Now add your bones to the stock pot. Using a spatula, tease away any bits which have stuck to your tray and be sure to add them to the pot.
  6. Add enough water to just cover the bones, pop your aromatics on top and gently bring up to the boil, watching it carefully. You don’t want to leave the room and come back to a boiling mass of bones, vegetables, and a huge pile of ‘scum’; that would be a real shame.
  7. When your stock begins to shudder, you know it is moments away from boiling. Using a ladle, carefully remove and discard the fat and ‘scum’ that will start to appear on the surface. Don’t be tempted to stir. A good stock should be clear and rich in flavour, boiling and stirring will make your stock cloudy – so it’s a big no-no!
  8. Turn the heat down low. You’re aiming for a delicate bit of activity; you want to see a bubble every few seconds.
  9. Once the cooking time is up, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. If you were to try any of the meat still clinging to the bones it should have no flavour – a good indication that the flavour has now been fully transferred to the stock. Notice the deep golden colour, which is helped along massively by using bones from pasture-raised animals.
  10. Rummage through your Tupperware selection and find the finest sieve you have. It’s a real bore straining stock, but once this delicious, lovingly prepared liquid is stored away you’ll be very grateful.
  11. When it comes to using the stock, skim off the fat which has formed on the surface and discard.
  12. Keep in the fridge for up to 4-days, or frozen for up to 3-months.

There is a lot more to Lulu than her cooking. Yes, Lulu has honed her skills as a chef at Rochelle Canteen, Bocca Di Lupo and St. JOHN, however, she’s also a consultant for change within the food and farming industries, with a specific focus on seasonality, regenerative supply chains and soil to table concepts. Lulu advocates farming in harmony with nature and supporting a biodiverse landscape; this will create ingredients that taste better, nourish our body and nurture our environment. As co-founder of the SSAW Collective, Lulu brings like-minded people together to inspire positive ecological change. These honest events celebrate seasonal food and flowers, and meaningful conversations about farming and our environment. In collaboration with The Land Gardeners, Lulu contributed recipes for the book ‘Soil To Table’ released in March 2022. Her recipes are respectful and gentle advocates of the holistic connection between food and the land.