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I usually make chicken stock. This weekend I’m trying beef stock for the first time.

Chicken stock seems to be more versatile. I’ve used it in all my soups even if it is in a beef-like French onion soup. It’s just easier to make a chicken stock, because it isn’t as intimidating. Buy chicken. Boil with some vegetables. What more?

Beef? It’s like figuring out what cut of meat to get. Rump? Roast? Sirloin? I don’t know. Yet, I now find out that get bones. BONES!

That’s simple. Get a cut with bones. Short ribs. Marrow bones. Ox tail. Ribs? Sure.

So the stock I’m making… stock? Or is it broth? What’s the diff?

I think broth is just the meat. Stock is broth made with other ingredients such as vegetables. I may be wrong, but I think that’s how I would describe them.

First, I roasted the beef bones I had. It was marrow and short ribs. I heated the oven to 450. Placed the meat on sheet pan, oiled up, salt and pepper then let it roast for 20 minutes.

When done, I put them in a pot and filled it up with 8 cups of water or until the meat is under water. Now, I should’ve washed the bones off with water because the blood would make the broth cloudy. Which is what was happening here. The scum was there, but the broth was getting cloudy. Will this make it terrible?

I planned to let this broth go for 12 hours. After I would add some leeks to make this a stock. It smelled great as a broth, but once the leeks went in, it lost its smell. And there was still scum to skim.

I was done this morning. I’m using it for a soup. It was good, not as beefy as I expected. I’m only going to get better at this. Hopefully.

It seems that I made a decent dinner tonight, a pasta dish, shells in tomato sauce with whatevers-in-my-fridge. The whatevers is a half a breast of roasted chicken and some spinach. I think I did it well tonight!

First, I did what they called a mise-en-scene. I cut a quarter onion, diced a few cloves of garlic, washed and drained a handful of spinach, and scored a small pint of cherry tomatoes. I got the pot of water boiling and then started in a non-stick skillet the onions and garlic.

I put in more than usual olive oil for the onions and garlic. Once they were cooking, I threw in the cherry tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato paste. The chicken went in to het it up. I covered it all up and cooked them at a medium heat setting, stirring occasionally.

Seasoning? The standard: salt and fresh cracked black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and oregano. Salt it to taste. I thought I salted mine too much, but it turned out perfect. I guess its some of that cheese I grated into it later on.

When the shells were done, I drained them reserving some water to help along the sauce. I put the shells into the pan with the water and grated the cheese into the dish. Stirred and served.

Yumm-o!

I think I finally cracked that pasta dish. Most likely its the amount of oil I used. I also tried not to over cook or burn the onion or garlic which I was surprised that I didn’t.

If I get to repeat this recipe, then I’ll be happy.