Dive Lisa, the straining removes residue, not fat. You should be skimming the fat along with the impurities, so there won’t be a lot left, but there will be some. You can chill the stock and remove the remaining fat as normal. I should have put that down.

This stock will work with beef bones, although you might want to make a dark stock for added flavour with beef. This requires you caramelize the meat and vegetables by baking them first. The rest of the technique is the virtually the same.

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Simmering, not boiling is the key and it was only a few years ago that I learned another little trick from an elderly Italian lady who made the best “brodo” imaginable. I couldn’t understand why my broth didn’t turn out as well as hers – I was following her method. One day while visiting her house she had the pot simmering, the aroma was divine. I thought I was helping her and went to “STIR” the broth and she literally screamed at me “NOoooo, you don’t stir it! that makes it milky!”
Lesson I learned: Don’t STIR the brodo, let it simmer!

Tom, ask away! While clarity is pretty, a clear stock also indicates you removed all the fat and impurities. If you let the stock boil, these get emulsified into the stock and can’t be removed. An emulsified stock will not just be cloudy, but also greasy. With the impurities incorporated into the stock, it won’t taste quite as good.

I wouldn’t worry about this too much if you’re making a very flavourful soup, but if you’re going to use it in something like a chicken noodle soup, you want the best broth possible.

Anyhow, glad you are making and enjoying your own stock. It really is a great way to save money and to make your food tastier.

Why hold off on the veggies? Adding them a bit later (once the stock has become clear again) gives the water a chance to soften the gelatin and proteins from the bones and cartilage and release any impurities. Of course, this assumes you’ve skimmed the surface clean. No point in holding off on the mirepoix otherwise.

I know some recipes call for sauteing the veggies first and adding bones and water later, but it’s so much easier to get clear stock when you aren’t skimming around chunks of vegetables.

Hope this helps and happy soup making.