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Making stocks and broths are among the core skills of any good cook, and it is a labor or love I embrace wholly. As a hunter, angler and a gardener, I can often make a first-class stock solely with ingredients I’ve grown, caught or shot. This to me is deeply satisfying. Venison stock is one of my mainstays throughout the year.
While some will make a stock without vegetables, I am not among them. They add so much to the final flavor of a stock and can transform it from an additive into a full-fledged broth suitable for drinking on cold days. Incidentally, while I use stock and broth interchangeably, technically a stock is a base and a broth something you can serve on its own; generally a broth is more flavorful and better seasoned than a stock.
Other than the venison, my essentials are: Onions or leeks, carrots, celery, bay leaves, parsley. I will add other herbs as appropriate, most often rosemary and thyme, and sometimes juniper berries. Secret weapon for venison stock: parsnips. Their sweetness brings a lot to the party.
First step is roasting the bones. I like darker, fuller stocks and this is what does it. I roast my deer bones at 400°F for an hour or so, until they are yummy-looking. Incidentally, meat makes better broth, so add some if you can. Secret trick: Save all the gnarly, sinewy bits and trim not even fit for the grinder and roast them along with the bones; don’t include bloodshot meat, though.
Next cram your bones and trim into the stockpot and cover with cold water by several inches. Cold water will you produce more collagen, and it’s collagen from the joints and cartilage and skin that builds body in your stock by making it thicker than water. You only get this by letting the water heat gradually. Secret trick: Go to the butcher and buy a calf’s or pig’s foot and add it to the pot (don’t roast it, though). It will add a huge amount of body to your broth.
Bring the broth to a boil and skim off any scum that floats to the surface. After the surface is clear, reduce the heat to a bare simmer. You want it to shimmy, not roil, not even bubble too much. A boiled stock will turn cloudy, and the higher temps can extract bitter flavors from the bones. Let it do this for several hours. How long? Up to overnight.
After the meat has infused the water to your liking — 4 hours is a minimum for me — add your veggies, roughly chopped. Remember that old, crappy veggies will not improve by cooking them. That said, the ends of things make great stock, as do onion skins, which will help turn a broth a lovely brown. Stir in your nice vegetables and let it cook for another 90 minutes to 2 hours. No more.
After this, strain everything out. Grab all the big stuff with tongs first, then set a paper towel into a fine mesh sieve. Ladle your venison stock through this into a large bowl or plastic bin. Is all of this necessary? Yes. Unless you want a mucky, cloudy stock. And it is more than aesthetics: The impurities are just that – impure, and add off-flavors to your otherwise wonderful brew.
Once your stock is strained, clean the stockpot or pour the strained liquid into another one. Now you can reduce it if you want to.
This is also the time you can salt the stock. Stock gets saltier the longer you cook it down because salt does not evaporate with the water. So add it close to the end and you will know what you’re getting. If you’re doing demi-glace, don’t salt at all.
All of this takes time, but not a lot of it is active. And the process is comforting to me, as much so as the reward.
Venison Broth
Ingredients
- 4 pounds venison bones, with some meat on them
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt
- 1 tablespoon crushed juniper berries (optional)
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 large carrots chopped
- 2 celery sticks chopped
- About 1/2 of a bunch of parsley chopped
Instructions
- Coat the bones with olive oil and salt well, then roast in a 400°F oven until brown. If you can stand it, keep some meat on the bones — trim and shanks are ideal for this. It will make a better broth. Put the bones in a large stockpot. I saw the bones into large pieces with a hacksaw; this lets me fit more bones into the pot, again, making a richer broth. Cover with water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- Skim the froth that forms on the surface and simmer very gently for at least 4 hours; I let it go overnight. You want the broth to steam and burble a little, not roil.
- Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for another 2 hours.
- Using tongs, grab out all the bones and large bits and discard. Set a paper towel in a fine-mesh sieve that is itself set over another large pot. Ladle the venison broth through the cheesecloth-lined sieve. Discard the dregs in the broth pot, with will be loaded with sediment and other bits.
- Add salt to taste to the clarified broth and pour into quart jars and freeze (or pressure-can — you cannot can broth in boiling water). If you freeze, leave about 2 inches of space at the top of the jar or the jars will crack when the broth freezes. Use within a year.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made about 3 gallons with most of a pronghorn’s bones. Very rich, very good.
MM I am going to make this with moose bones 🙂
Thanks for posting.
Hi Hank, have you ever tried this with bear? there is so much bone and they do have a great flavour.
Thanks
Marcel
Marcel: Nope, but I bet it would work well.
We agree pretty much. I roast in the oven at 425 to carmalize a bit more. I put about 2 tablespoons of vineger in the pot. Raise the ph a bit and it disolves more bone and crap and gives a cloudier but stronger stock. I agree with the long, slow simmer.
Before I cook I trim off the choice meat and save it for the last hour with the veggies. The meat in the pot after 10 hours of cooking is pretty played out and becomes dog food. The reserved meat still has flavor and texture.
To change topics, The remains of a rabbit or pheasant carcass make a great little soup (probably any game but I’m limited). I hate to waste any part of any game. Ya might get only 2 bowls or so but either (or both together) make a flavorful but delicate broth especially with a few frozen soup veggies from the frozen food isle. Throw in some barley or reeblies and it’s fit for a king.
I found your article on venison fat. I got my answer. Tonight I made fried rice sauteing the rice in deer bone marrow. It was excellent. Added a bolder flavor to the rice. Great website!!!! Just found it recently and put it in our favorites. Thank you
Hey Hank,
Could I use a crock pot for deer bones? Low simmer or high and does that affect the amount of time I should cook it. The last time I used a turkey carcass and cooked it for about 12 hours and it came up bitter. I also put the vegetables in at the beginning. That may have had something to do with its taste.
Cyrus: To be honest I’ve never made stock in a crockpot, but I see no reason why not.
thank you so much! My other question is why? When I sample the broth with the fat in it it taste great.
We have made 3 gals. venison broth. Should we remove the fat?
Yep. Remove the fat.
Hank, Great website! Is there any harm in freezing the bones for a while after butchering? Say a month or so before making stock. Thank you
Not at all. I freeze bones all the time.
Hank, thanks for the recipe. I made this with the leg bones from a whitetail I shot last month. It turned out very good but I was surprised at the color. Expecting a more brown stock like beef but this turned out the color of chicken stock. Roasted the bones for over an hour prior. Did I do something wrong?
Chris: Nope. That’s about right. To get a darker stock you will need to add roasted meat.
I ended up packing my elk with hooves attached, would these be good to add? If so how might I prepare/clean for best results?
Giuseppe: If you can clean them. I’d skin them for sure. Never done it, but the collagen in the feet will add body to the stock.
I have been making deer stock for the last 5 or 6 years, but reading your article I wonder if I am doing something wrong. I break the long bones ( to expose the marrow ) and include the ribs, hips and shoulder with excess meat still attached. Simmer in water with nothing else, 24 hours or so and discard bones. I set it on the back porch until it chills and I can take the grease out like a plate. Run the broth through the filter. Laddle into freezer bags and done. Should I be taking the grease off? What am I loseing if i do. PS Makes the best Charo beans you have ever had.
Troy: Nope, your method is good for a basic stock, not a broth, which is more what I do. No salt, though?
I am going to make venison broth. I still have front shoulders w/meat, and am wondering if I should fillet the meat off first or leave it on. For years I have been throwing away all of the bones. from my deer. I ususally take 4 every year and process my own meat. What bones, if any, are not worth saving for broth? Which are best to use?
Thanks
John
john: I’d take most of the meat off for stew or the grinder, but leave some on to enrich the broth. If you live in an area that has seen chronic wasting disease don’t use any part of the spine/head in broth — only the legs. I use the spine here in California, though. I like using it because there is a lot of collagen in the vertebrae that helps build body in the broth.
Nothing better on a cold rainy day than making stock! After reading your recent post about deer fat, I’m going to be more judicious about selecting which connective odds & ends go on the roasting tray before stock-making from our Utah mule deer. You helped me finally make the connection: the fat type/hardness really does make a difference in mouthfeel, even with constant skimming.
Thanks for the quick reply! All the references I was finding online called for fish from the ocean, so I wasn’t sure if anyone made stock from the types we have available. Looks like a great recipe, Thank you.
We recently moved near a stocked lake and my 10 year old son is a budding fisherman. I’d love to make stock out of the fish he catches, but I’m not sure if it’s done with freshwater fish. Up until now, I’ve only made chicken and beef stock.
So far, he has caught large mouth bass, and some smaller fish that are perhaps a type of sunfish, not sure. I’d prefer to not eat the bottom feeders, so he’s throwing the catfish back at this point.
Any suggestions to get us started? Thanks for your superb site!
Try this recipe for fish stock: https://fishcooking.about.com/od/soupsstewsstocks/r/fishstock.htm
Amber: I tend to use leg bones.
Does it matter which deer bones I use to make deer broth? Thanks.
I pressure can all my stock which frees up a lot a space up in the freezer. Gayle 25-30 min at 11 psi should be fine for precooked stock. I never buy stock any more. And I freeze all my veg trimmings or peelings to make my stock. Thanks for the turnip and Juniper tips for venison. I will have to try them.
Katie: Just one will do. Parsnips are pretty sweet and more would overwhelm the stock.