beef stock in Chicago

I need to find a place that sells good beef stock. I know I can make it myself but for the sake of this post, let's just concentrate on where I can purchase it

Beef stock is hard to make at home. Butcher & Larder has a bunch of rich, high-quality stock. Ask them to set some beef aside for you.

annak,

What makes beef stock difficult to make at home? All you need is
beef bones, mirepoix, water, a few seasonings, and a little time.

Pretty much any decent butcher shop should have beef stock for sale. Pulina, Gepperth's, Joseph's, Zier Meats & E & M all have it most of the time.

Hey Evil Ronnie,
I don't mean to seem unadventurous, but I guess I think about it like this: I regularly roast a whole chicken and make stock from the leftover bones, and can easily buy a whole chicken to make an even thicker stock stock; but buying a whole cow or amassing a quantity of beef bones, given how many applications of beef are boneless, seems more of a hurdle. Butcher & Larder does sell beef bones...

I picked up a couple of pieces of 'beef osso bucco' from mint crek farms @ green city market a week or so ago. They were a steal @ $2/lb. Very meaty, and the bones then made a great stock.
If you still don't want to do it yourself, check with Fox & Obel--they used to keep a good quantity on hand.

bean wrote:I picked up a couple of pieces of 'beef osso bucco' from mint crek farms @ green city market a week or so ago. They were a steal @ $2/lb. Very meaty, and the bones then made a great stock.
If you still don't want to do it yourself, check with Fox & Obel--they used to keep a good quantity on hand.

Fox & Obel does have a good quantity of various stocks in the frozen foods section, usually poorly sealed and freezer burned, with a labeled expiration date that has long passed.

annak wrote:Hey Evil Ronnie,
I don't mean to seem unadventurous, but I guess I think about it like this: I regularly roast a whole chicken and make stock from the leftover bones, and can easily buy a whole chicken to make an even thicker stock stock; but buying a whole cow or amassing a quantity of beef bones, given how many applications of beef are boneless, seems more of a hurdle. Butcher & Larder does sell beef bones...

Most good butchers (such as those listed by Stevez) sell beef bones. Most grocery stores sells them also. Sometimes they are labeled as "soup bones". Whenever I've made beef stock, I've simply bought the bones I needed all at once, rather than amassing them over time.

My dog has gotten noticeably happier ever since I bought a decent-sized stockpot.

LTH,

I see beef knuckle bones regularly at Treasure Island, Fairplay and Pete's Fresh Market. In all three cases they have usually been quartered on the band saw. Only difference being price. Chamorro (shank slices) would also be an excellent choice, as it is meaty. Petes, Fairplay and every Mexican market in town feature this cut for Caldo de Rey.

Try skipping the roasting of the bones next time you make beef stock. Less work, no bitterness which sometimes results from roasting, and you still get nice color from roasted mirepoix and tomato.