Beef – What bones for beef stock

Roasting the bones will give you a darker brown stock than using the raw bones. To roast the bones, just stick them in an oven on high heat, around 450 for about 45 minutes, or until they are a nice golden caramelized color. Though you will want to make sure to keep an eye on them the first time, I'd check every 5 minutes after half an hour. Roasting the veggies with the bones will also add a slightly sweeter roasted flavor. It's like the difference of putting slices of raw onions on a burger compared to caramelized onions. You get a slightly sweeter, richer roasted flavor. Though it does turn down some of the other flavor notes, it's up to you which you'd rather have. Without roasting, you'd have a clearer "white" stock.

If you are using the butter as a base to roast the bones, I would set it aside and go with a higher smoke point oil like a peanut or corn oil. The low smoke point of the butter could leave a bitter, slightly burned flavor, especially with the longer roasting times.

I would leave the seasoning for the stock. Most spices will burn at a lower temperature, and salting the bones before you make your stock, could make your stock overly salty. It's easier to add more toward the end, than try to figure out what to do with salty stock.

I hope that helps!

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.