I just purchased some nice beef marrow bones. What I'd like to do is make myself some beef stock for soups and whatever else. Now I'm planning on making a Mirepoix and then adding the bones and then the water. However, my question is this: do I just put the bones in how they are or do I cook them in the oven?
Beef – Making Beef Stock
beefbonesstock
Related Solutions
Marrow bones add a marrow-y flavor. That flavor is very thick and rich, but can taste of innards. Have you ever eaten marrow? (It's delicious, as far as I'm concerned. You can roast and add a touch of salt if you want.) I would say that it sounds like you've got a lot of marrow bones in your stock. That could cause problems, since even a few marrow bones will make the stock fairly greasy. Marrow is almost all fat.
The ox tails have lots of bones in them. They'll give you the deep flavor and gelatin of bones. (Neck bones give you the same thing, as you can see from the picture below.) The only thing marbled meat would have added is extra fat, which isn't necessary for stock -- you'll end up skimming the fat off anyway. You want both the bones and the meat for stock, as you would for chicken stock. It's true that marrow bones are fairly clean, but they're used for a different flavor.
Another option for adding lots of flavor is to add what are known as flanken style ribs. This is short ribs that are cut across the bone. They're also used in Korean Short Ribs. They give you some of that marbled meaty flavor, along with the bones from the ribs. 
To get that gelatin you're looking, you need joint bones and lots of them. The back, neck, tail are great for that. If you've ever made Ox tail soup you'll know what I'm talking about as you'll get a really thick coating on your tongue from the gelatin that is disolved from the tail's connective tissues.
The reason for avoiding marrow bones is because it can make for a cloudy stock if the marrow gets broken up and the fact that marrow bones don't generally have the highest amount of connective tissues. Cloudy stocks also are caused by boiling of the stock instead of simmering.
Typically when making stock bases, you want them to be as clear as possible so you can use them for just about anything. A cloudy stock doesn't make a consomme look very nice. However, if you are just going to use the stock in items which don't demand a high amount of clarity then don't worry too much.
When you go to your butcher ask for knuckle bones(joint bones) and chine bones(back bones) as your first choice.
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Best Answer
Both methods are acceptable.
A stock made with roasted bones is called a brown stock. A stock made from raw bones is a white stock (or sometimes just stock).
Practically, it's very difficult to get a true "white" stock with beef, as opposed to chicken, since all of the impurities will darken or cloud the colour - but that is semantics.
Brown stocks have a richer flavour, but that does not automatically make them better - it depends on what you'll be using it for. For soups, where the stock will give most of the flavour, brown is generally preferred; however, as a "flavourful liquid" to use in sauces, risottos, etc., a white stock may be more useful because you don't want it to overwhelm the other flavours.
One cautionary note: Beef bones tend to give off a lot of what looks like blood (actually myoglobin) when boiled. If you're trying to achieve a perfect clear stock (white or brown), then you may want to blanch them first; dump them in the pot, bring the water just to a boil, then dump out everything and start over. You really won't lose much; most of the proteins are deeper within the bones and requires several hours of simmering to extract and denature.
If making a brown stock (from roasted bones), do this after roasting, not before. It will also help you to get rid of any excess oil so you won't need to skim as much.