did my bone broth turn out OK?

[nukuspot]

I made bone broth last night for the first time from beef bones. I put it in glass tupperware overnight in the fridge. This morning I expected to see what I am used to when I make chicken bone broth, which is a layer of white fat on the top of brown liquid broth, I skim the fat off and use the broth, or I sometiems just lix the fat back in and use it all to cook rich rice, risotto, or barley with.

However with this beef broth my whole tupperware looks like the white fat! There is some liquid in there but not much. Is this normal for beef bone broth or did I somehow do it wrong? I have no idea what sort of bones I used, they were the ones that came in bags with the 1/4 of grass fed beef we got from a local farm. They were big, like what you give to dogs to chew. I roasted them first then simmered them all day (about 10-12 hours).

I'm just a bit confused about how this turned out and how I should use it.

[Llyra]

It sounds like maybe your broth gelled?? That's a good thing, if that's what it was- the gelatin is wonderfully good for you. It'll thin out again and look liquid when you re-heat it.

[Ammaarah]

If the stuff jiggles like Jello, you're golden. If it's solid fat, that's totally strange! I bet it gelled.

[nukuspot]

Ok, I feel totally out of my league here! But I was VERY glad to hear you say that if it jiggles like Jello it's good. YES! That is exactly that it looks like. A thin layer of yellow hard fat on the top and then when I peel back that layer with a spoon, the rest is exactly like jiggly white-ish jello/pudding.

Ummm...Why is this good and where is the broth part? NT didn't seem to mention it would turn out like this. How in the world am I supposed to use it?

I wish I could take a photo of it and show it to you all. It looks totally gross! DH told me I should throw it out as something obviously went wrong

[nukuspot]

sorry to rush a reply...But does anyone know about this? I want to use some in rice tonight, but normally if it was a liquid broth, I would just pour broth in, add rice, cover and cook. But I have NO IDEA how to use this "beef jello" and DH is still really wary of it....

[MyLittleWarrior]

it will melt back into a liquid when you heat it up. use it how ever you would use store bought broth

nak

[Ammaarah]

Stock that gels is a good thing. It's not necessary to be good stock, but it means you got lots of nice collagen and other stuff out of the bones. Some TF folks are MAD for gelled stock (my friend is the Nourished Kitchen blogger and she says people have told her they threw away stock that didn't gel, LOL.) Anyway, good stock sometimes gels and sometimes doesn't. If you can't measure it properly, you can melt it over some heat.

[nukuspot]

it just looks SO GROSS! And it smells pretty yucky too. I can't get over it. I need to be brave...I'm glad it made a good stock but I wish it was more appetizing looking and smelling.

[nukuspot]

I think if the "jello" was nice and brown it might be better, but the fact that it is whitish pale makes me kinda feel ill.

[anudi01]

a bit about the color

I too, cannot stand the color of pale yellow/whitish stock. You can solve that pretty easy by doing one of several things. I like to roast my chicken first, then make my stock. I find the rich deep flavor and color suits my taste and recipes better. Another thing that I did by 'accident' was last time I made stock, I used a red onion...this made the stock extra dark. I'm sure that you could add any number of other 'colorful' ingredients to your stock to give it the desired look your going for.

But yes, jelled stock is a beautiful thing!

[Llyra]

A teaspoon of tomato paste for every quart of stock will also color a pale stock nicely, and you can add it after the stock is done, as you're reheating it.