One of the habits I picked up after working in the restaurant business is freezing all of my food scraps to use in stocks. Onion pieces and skins, carrot ends and peels, celery leaves and stalks, as well as other miscellaneous vegetable parts go straight into a freezer bag where they will remain until I have enough to make a broth.

I also like to hold onto assorted bones left over from various meals. Roast chicken bones, ham bones, lamb shank bones or chop bones all hang out in my freezer until stock time.

This recipe is for a simple and flavorful Lamb Stock made from the bones left from lamb shoulder chops. The meat I cut into small cubes for a lamb stew (I’ll share that recipe later), but the bones went into the freezer.

How to make Homemade Lamb Stock:

Ingredients:

6 cups Water

Lamb bones, such as those leftover from lamb chops, leg of lamb, etc.

1 Red Onion with skin on, roughly chopped

2 Celery stalks with leaves, roughly chopped

2 large Carrots, roughly chopped

Optional Herbs and Spices:

2 cloves Garlic (to be added near end of cook time)

1 tbsp Pepper corns

1 tbsp Sea Salt

2 Bay leaves

Fresh Thyme

Fresh Oregano

 

Add all ingredients (except garlic) to a large stock pot, cover, and simmer on low for 2-6 hours. The longer it simmers, the more intense the flavor. Freezes beautifully.