Sauces
Brown Stock
Beef or veal bones roasted until deep brown, then simmered very gently with roasted onion, carrot, celery and tomato purée for 6–8 hours. The clear, amber stock behind espagnole, demi-glace, jus lié and the best stews and braises. Makes about 2.5 litres; it freezes for 6 months.
- Serves 10
- Makes about 2.5 litres
- Hands-on about 30 minutes, then 6–8 hours simmering
- Freezes for 6 months
- Unsalted (for reducing)
- French
Method
Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Toss the bones (3 kg) with the oil (2 tbsp) in your largest roasting tin, in one layer, and roast for 40–45 minutes, turning them once, until they are a deep, even brown.
Add the onion (2 onions), carrot (2 carrots) and celery sticks (2) to the tin, smear the tomato purée (2 tbsp) over the bones and roast for 20 minutes more. Aim for brown, not black: anything burnt makes the stock bitter.
Lift the bones and vegetables into a large stockpot. Pour the fat out of the tin, set it over a low heat with a ladle of the water and scrape up every brown bit; tip that into the pot.
Add the garlic (4 cloves), bouquet garni (1), peppercorns (1 tsp) and enough cold water (5 litres) to cover everything by a few centimetres. Starting cold draws out more flavour and gives a clearer stock.
Bring it slowly to a simmer and skim off the grey scum as it rises. Turn the heat right down so that only a bubble or two breaks the surface: a rolling boil makes stock cloudy and greasy. Leave it uncovered for 6–8 hours, skimming now and then and topping up with a little cold water if the bones are exposed. Do not add salt.
Strain through a fine sieve (line it with muslin for a very clear stock) without pressing the bones. Cool it quickly, chill it overnight and lift off the set fat. You should have about 2.5 litres of amber stock that wobbles when cold.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
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See also
- Demi-glace (classic) — brown stock is Part 1
- Espagnole — the brown sauce made with it
- Quick Demi-glace — 30 minutes, shop-bought stock
- Jus Lié — thickened stock or roast juices
- Brown Sauce
- Carbonade of Beef
- Coq au Vin
- Navarin (brown lamb stew)
Chef’s notes
- Never salt stock: it is nearly always reduced (for espagnole, demi-glace or a glaze), which concentrates the salt. Season the dish you make with it instead.
- Freeze it: in 500 ml tubs for stews and sauces, or reduce some by three-quarters and freeze it in an ice-cube tray, so one cube makes a cup of stock again with hot water. It keeps for 4 days in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer.
- Short of time? A pressure cooker cuts the simmering to a couple of hours (do not fill it more than two-thirds full). A slow cooker works too: 10–12 hours on low.
- For more body, add 2 split pig’s trotters or 500 g chicken wings with the bones; for brown chicken stock, roast 2 kg chicken wings and carcasses instead of beef bones.
- Shop-bought stock will do for most recipes on this site. Choose a low-salt one if it is going to be reduced.
Fond brun: the base of the brown sauces
French kitchens call brown stock fond brun, the foundation. In his Guide Culinaire (1903; English translation 1907) Auguste Escoffier gives it as Formula 7, “Brown stock or estouffade”, and says what it is for: meat glazes, braising liquid and the brown sauces.
His version is lavish: shin of beef and shin of veal, raw ham and pork rind, carrots and onions browned in butter, and a faggot of herbs. The bones are broken small and browned in the oven, covered with cold water, skimmed and cooked gently for twelve hours; the meat is browned separately and simmered in the stock afterwards.
Two of his rules have not changed: stock is never salted, because it is always reduced or used to cook something already seasoned, and it should be “the colour of fine burnt amber” and transparent. Reduced further it becomes meat glaze (glace de viande, Formula 15).
Today’s home and restaurant versions skip the separate meat and the ham but keep the method: roast the bones and vegetables hard, start in cold water, simmer at a tremble, skim, never boil. Brown stock is Part 1 of our classic demi-glace, and the stock most of our braises and brown sauces ask for.
How this recipe was developed
We worked from Escoffier’s brown stock (Formula 7, “estouffade”) and compared it with today’s roasted-bone stocks from BBC Food, Bon Appétit, BBC Good Food and Serious Eats.
- Roast hard, not black. BBC Food roasts the bones with onions and garlic at 200°C for 40–45 minutes; Bon Appétit roasts hotter, at 450°F (230°C). We use 220°C and add the vegetables for the last 20 minutes, so they brown without burning.
- Tomato purée on the bones. BBC Food adds fresh tomatoes to the pot; we smear tomato purée over the bones instead, so it browns in the oven and colours the stock.
- Deglaze the tin. BBC Food scrapes the browned bits from the roasting tin into the pot; we pour the fat off first so the stock is less greasy.
- Cold water, a bare simmer, no salt. Escoffier starts the bones in cold water, skims at the boil, simmers for twelve hours and never salts stock. BBC Food adds a teaspoon of salt, which we leave out because the stock is so often reduced. Modern times range from about 4 hours (Bon Appétit) and 4–6 (BBC Food) to 12–24 (BBC Good Food); we suggest 6–8.
- Freeze in cubes. BBC Food reduces the stock by half and freezes it in ice-cube trays; we reduce harder so one cube makes a cup of stock again.
- Pressure cooker. Serious Eats makes beef stock in a pressure cooker; see the short-cut note.
Sources we compared (checked 1 November 2026):
- A. Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery (1907), Project Gutenberg No. 71395: Formula 7, Brown stock or estouffade; 9, Brown veal stock; 15, Meat glaze
- BBC Food: How to make beef stock
- Serious Eats: Pressure Cooker Beef Stock
- Bon Appétit: Roast Beef Stock
- BBC Good Food: Beef broth
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.