How to use beef stock, dripping and more (2024)

Our grandparents knew a thing or two about thrifty home economics and would never dream of wasting good food. In many households a Sunday roast was a luxury so leftovers were always put to good use: beef sandwiches, cold beef and potato for Monday supper or maybe even a midweek cottage pie.

The bones made delicious stock for casseroles and gravy. Even the fat was rendered down to make delicious dripping that could be spread on homemade bread or toast.

Such ideas are back in fashion and easier to accomplish than you might imagine. Here are a few tasty suggestions to help you make the most of a roast and the best use of more affordable, prime Scotch Beef ingredients.

Cottage pie

Recipes for cottage pie invariably call for lean minced beef but traditionally the cottage pie was made with leftover meat, especially beef. The flavour that derives from using small pieces of roast beef makes an old fashioned cottage pie one of the most evocative, comforting and yet economical family meals in the Great British repertoire.

Cooking an authentic cottage pie is as simple as substituting mince with your left-over roast beef, chopped into small pieces. If you feel you are a little short on leftovers, simply add an extra onion and carrot and a little more beef stock to the recipe.

Using homemade beef stock (see below), while not essential, further guarantees a rapturous reception for your dish at the table.

Beef stock

Good beef stock adds immeasurably to the flavour of casseroles, sauces and gravy. Making stock from bones and scraps of beef is a great way to get extra value from the remains of a Sunday roast. If you have insufficient quantity, store them in your freezer until you do or buy additional beef bones cheaply from your butcher.

To make a rich brown stock, begin by roasting 2lbs (900g) of bones in a hot oven (230°C) for 40 minutes. Then place the bones in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, skimming off the froth as it rises.

Tie some thyme, parsley and bay leaf into a bouquet garni and add to the pan with a chopped onion, celery, carrot and peppercorns. Cover and simmer gently for 5 hours. Strain the stock through a sieve into a bowl, discarding the bones and vegetables. Leave to cool, then chill. Skim off the fat and discard.

To make extra concentrated stock, simmer it again to reduced the quantity then cool and freeze it in ice-cube trays. This enables you to use small amounts, easily, in your day-to-day cooking.

Marrow bone

While veal osso buco is the shin of a calf cut in cross sections, the bare shin bone of older cattle is sold as marrow bone. The marrow in the centre is prized as much by traditional cultures as by the clientele of fashionable eateries such as London’s St John or Glasgow’s Butchershop Bar and Grill.

If you are wondering why, you have probably never tasted it. Marrow is packed with vitamins, minerals, protein and essential fatty acids. Not only is it highly nutritious, it has a lovely unctuous texture and beefy flavour.

Marrow bones can be roasted or simply boiled for 10 minutes then seasoned and served as a starter with a few salad leaves. If you add raw marrow to casseroles or to a homemade hamburger mix, everyone will want the recipe.

The classic osso buco alla Milanese is served with saffron rice risotto to which bone marrow is added for extra creamy richness.

Marrow bone is not a stock item these days in butchers’ shops so you may need to order it in advance.

Beef tea

A thermos flask of nourishing beef tea was a staple warming drink for generations of football fans and while hot Bovril is still sold at matches today, nothing beats the homemade version.

It is made from 450g (1lb) of shin beef with all traces of fat removed, 450g water and a little sea salt. It is best when cooked in a bain-marie in the coolest oven of an Aga for five to six hours but an almost-as-satisfying result comes from simmering the ingredients in a pan over a low heat for 45 minutes.

Afterwards, it should be strained and left to cool so that any remaining fat can be removed. The better quality the beef, the more nutritious the tea.

Beef dripping

In times past, bread and dripping was an inexpensive way to provide energy for hard-working families. Today’s beef dripping revival is driven by a new generation of foodies embracing the nose-to-tail cooking ethos.

Don’t judge it until you have tried it as it is full of delicious beefy flavour. But what exactly is it? Dripping is fat rendered (melted) at low temperature to separate it from connective tissue and meat. Warm, it’s a clear liquid, free of impurities. At room temperature it solidifies.

Dripping was a traditional medium for frying fish and chips, a practice being kept alive today by top restaurants such Rick Stein’s in Padstow. In addition, renowned chefs including Heston Blumenthal recommend beef dripping for wonderfully crispy roast potatoes.

Although dripping can be made from any beef fat, in her book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking, Darina Allen says “the best beef dripping is made from the fat that encases the beef kidney”.

This dripping, technically known as suet, keeps in the fridge for months and can be used to deep fry up to five times provided it is strained through a fine sieve after each use. It adds fabulous flavour and texture to dumplings or suet pastry and supreme steak and kidney pudding.

With any of these recipes, the quality of the ingredients, especially the quality and provenance of the beef or offal, is paramount. Cattle destined for the Scotch Beef PGI classification will always have been born, bred and raised on some of the finest grazing land in the world and in accordance with the very best farming practices.

And as Darina Allen writes “there is a considerable and distinct difference in the feel and smell of well-reared meat.”

Scotch Beef – always a cut above

Only beef sourced from selected Scottish farms that adopt the best practice in animal welfare can be called Scotch Beef PGI. Go totgr.ph/scotchbeefto find out how to prepare delicious, healthy meals from this premium food.

For more information on Scotch Beef, visitscotchkitchen.com, like theFacebook pageand follow onTwitter.