Beef broth - the basis for borscht, soups and other dishes

Before preparing meat broth, you must learn a few immutable rules. Beef broth is best prepared in enamel or ceramic dishes. If necessary, the broth is added only with boiling water, since cold water significantly impairs its taste.

A good beef broth directly depends on the quality of the meat. The most important condition for its quality is freshness. Do not buy meat, which for more than two days lay on the counter. Acquired meat is washed under running, cold water.

To get a strong cook, chopped meat is dropped into cold water. In this case, the meat juice will be easier to stand out from the meat. In the case when beef is brewed for second courses, and the broth will be subsequently used for cooking something else, pieces of meat fall into boiling water. So boiled meat will be juicy inside.

When brewed broth is brewed, the amount of meat will have an important influence on the taste of the planned dish, since the concentration of meat juice and fat in broth depends on it. On a five-liter pot you can take from 2 to 4 kg of meat. If you have little meat, at the very least, you can add a few beef bones. They will give the missing fat. When calculating the amount of water required, it should be borne in mind that during cooking, the broth is boiled almost half.

How to boil broth from beef, so that it is delicious, and the meat is tender and soft. Cooks are advised to cook meat for 3 to 4 hours. At the beginning of cooking a saucepan with meat is put on a strong fire so that the broth quickly boils. The pan should be covered with a lid, only make sure that the water from the pan does not "run away." After the water boils, the fire reduces a little. The best broth is one that was cooked on low heat.

During cooking, an unpleasant kind of foam will constantly form on the surface of the broth, which must be constantly cleaned with a spoon or a noise. Some people do not clean this foam, believing that it is the true taste of the broth. Collecting foam or not depends on your preferences. The best option in this case is to collect the foam into a separate container, into which 0.5 l of broth is added. After a while, the broth is infused and then it must be filtered and added to the main pan.

Depending on what dish you intend to cook based on this broth, you can add ingredients such as roots (carrots, parsley, celery, rutabaga), vegetables (onion), mushrooms and other products.

Beef broth, the recipe of which is intended for the preparation of borscht and soups, is prepared as follows: salt, peeled roots (2 carrots, 1 parsley, half of celery), whole bulb are added to the boiling broth. All vegetables are cooked for 3 hours, after which they are taken out of the broth and continue cooking the dishes further.

After the meat is ready (it can be easily pierced with a knife or fork), add a little cold water (20-30 ml) to the broth, take the meat out and let it settle for 20-30 minutes. The fat formed on the surface is carefully collected separately, and the broth is filtered through a fine sieve. In the strained broth, add pre-collected fat and again bring everything to a boil. Such a broth can be used as a basis for other dishes, and as an independent dish. In this case, it is served in portioned plates or broth cups, previously sprinkled with herbs.

Salt is added to the broth to taste, as it often differs in concentration. Better to salt the broth gradually, but if you still salted the broth, place in it a handful of rice wrapped in cheesecloth. Rice has the property of strongly absorbing salt, so you can remedy the situation.