Venison Bone Broth | Venison Stock
This venison bone broth or venison stock is so easy. It’s the key to making delicious soups and stews with deer meat.
The best venison soups and stews are made with actual venison bone broth. The flavor of deer is so mild that using prepared beef stock or bouillon cubes is just a shame. It masks the flavor of the venison and you honestly might just as well have used beef for your soup.
What is the difference between venison bone broth and venison stock?
Venison bone broth is made from meaty bones and contains actual meat. Venison stock is this same bone broth strained of the solids.
Where to get bones
If you process your own deer, just save some bones. If you have your butcher process the deer for you, ask them to save you some bones.
You can freeze the bones if you don’t have time to make stock immediately. Bones will freeze for at least 6 months.
What bones should you use?
I find the front legs are a great choice to use for bone broth. The bones are short enough that they fit in an 8 quart crockpot or in a large Dutch oven. You can use;
- shoulder bones
- any of the long bones in the front legs, ulna, humerus, radius
- The back leg bones can also be used, if they are small enough or if they cut with a hacksaw so that they will fit in your pot.
Why should you make your own venison stock?
- It’s incredibly easy.
- Takes less than 5 minutes hand on time.
- Can be made on the stove or in your crockpot.
- Delicious in soups, stews, gravies and sauces.
- Freezes well.
- Utilizes a portion of the deer that is normally discarded so minimizes waste.
What you need
- deer bones (See above for suggestions of bones to use.)
- carrot
- celery
- onion
- parsley and/or thyme (optional)
- salt and pepper (optional)
How to make it in a slow cooker
- Place all of your bones in your slow cooker.
- Cut onion, celery and carrot into chunks. Add to slow cooker.
- Barely cover with water. Add parsley.
- Add salt and pepper, if using.
Slow cook on low for 10-12 hours. I let it go at least overnight. Pack in jars or in freezer containers or bags. Freeze for over 6 months.
Optional step- Rub bones with olive oil. Roast bones for 45 minutes at 450°F until brown, before placing in crockpot.
**Important tip! Be sure to leave plenty of headspace in jars, if using. The liquid will expand and may break the jar, if there isn’t enough room. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you can freeze until solid without lid.
To learn how to pressure can this bone broth see canning bone broth!
How to make it on the stovetop
- Place all of your bones in your Dutch oven.
- Cut onion, celery and carrot into chunks. Add to Dutch oven.
- Cover with water. Add parsley.
- Add salt and pepper, if using.
Optional step- Rub bones with olive oil. Roast bones for 45 minutes at 450°F until brown, before placing in crockpot.
Cook over low heat for 3-4 hours. Cool broth. Scrape off accumulated fat.
How to can venison stock
To store this stock for long term use, freeze in airtight freezer containers or freezer bags. You can also freeze in canning jars. Be sure to leave a one inch headspace so that the jar doesn’t crack.
This stock can be also canned in a pressure canner to make it shelf stable. To can it,
- Remove the bones and vegetables from the stock. Reheat broth.
- If you’d like a meaty broth, add large chunks of meat to broth
- If you’d like a clear broth, strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer.
- Add hot broth to hot jars leaving 1 inch- headspace.
Wipe rims of jars with damp paper towel. Apply lids. Screw on bands fingertip tight.
Pressure can broth using the proper pressure for the allotted amount of time. See recipe below for pressure and times, adjusting for altitude.
Pro tips to ensure your success
- Broth can be cooked for very long periods of time. You could cook it for days. It will turn more gelatinous the longer you cook it because more marrow will be released from the bones.
- Don’t be concerned if your gelatinous broth does not appear to freeze solid. Most of the time it won’t freeze into a solid.
- Cook on low temperature both on stove and in slow cooker.
- Using the vegetables adds a lot of flavor, so don’t skip them.
- You can use kitchen scraps instead of fresh vegetables. See how to use kitchen scraps for vegetable broth here.
- Determining how you will use the stock will determine whether to strain it or not.
- If using the stock for soups and stews, the meat in the broth will add extra flavor, so do not strain.
- When using stock for more refined sauces, as in this venison with blackberry sauce recipe, you will want to use a strained sauce.
- Once broth cools, scrape accumulated fat off the top of the jars.
How to use venison bone broth
Thaw broth in the refrigerator. Use it in all of your favorite venison recipes. Such as;
Tools I Use
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I hope you enjoyed the recipe today.
Enjoy. And have fun cooking!
Venison Bone Broth | Venison Stock
Ingredients
- 4-5 lbs deer bones
- 1 medium onion
- 2 Carrots
- 2 stalk celery
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- fresh parsley
Instructions
- Place bones in slow cooker or Dutch oven.4-5 lbs deer bones
- Barely cover with water.
- Add aromatics. (celery, onion, carrot, parsley)1 medium onion, 2 Carrots, 2 stalk celery, fresh parsley
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper.1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper
- Cover. Cook on low in slow cooker 8-10 hours.
- Cover and cook at low temperature in Dutch oven 3-4 hours.
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If you were to do this in the oven in a Dutch oven (instead of the slow cooker or on the stovetop), what temp would you suggest? I Googled it and there are a wide variety of opinions on the temperature! (One was as low as 150 F…..I don’t think our oven will go that low, I think the lowest is 175-ish).
No, I would go up to at least 300°F. For at least 2 hours, but the longer, the better.
Will be trying this one as soon as deer season begins!!! I’ve been using my Instant Pot for making chicken and turkey stocks. Any idea on the time?
I would do it about the same as beef. Two hours on high should make a very flavorful broth.