Big Game Stock

For the pie-in-the-sky idea that I might kill a deer, bear, or moose this year, I have this question; who makes stock from the bones of their big game kills?

I do with the grouse or hare, but that is the extent of my hunting prowess so far.

Anything special you like to add with the bones? Any spices/herbs that pair well with the moose, bear, or deer bones for a delicious stock; or is it just the usual onion, carrot, and celery?

Brown your bones in the oven first then cover them with water and boil at a simmer until everything comes off the bone.Freeze the stock in smaller containers or freezer bags.You can season how you like when you decide what your making at the time

I've made game stock for 20+ years.
I use a 30L thick walled aluminum pot.

All bones go in.
For ducks I skin then, cut breast and leg meat for recipes- wash the carcass and freeze in a plastic grocery store bag. Use only mallards, woodies, teals, ringnecks-- basically just the "vegetarian" ducks.
Grouse-- use the lower legs and the breast bone.
Deer use the upper upper long bones and scapulae. The pelvis is too often riddled with nasty fat, lymph nodes and blood clots so I throw it into the chicken run. They clean it up in less than a day and make more eggs with the extra protein load.


Roast the bones at 450F for about 45 minutes or until well browned. Turn them over part way through, so all sides brown well.
Add some water and thoroughly scrape the brown bits out of the pan and add it the the stock pot. Those browned bits are full of flavour

Keep the rest of the ingredients simple. You are making a base stock, not soup. When you want soup, then add all soup oriented ingredients.
Dice up carrots celery and onions medium chop.
I used to cut onions in half, oil the bottoms and roast them for 30 minutes for extra browning/flavour. Not sure it made a difference so I just use straight chopped onions now.
You want a meaty stock. So, if you have two plastic grocery bags of frozen game bones-- use no more than 4 celery sticks, 2-3 medium onions, 3 big carrots. I also add 1/2 cup parsley (frozen from the garden) and 1 Tbsp Thyme dried from the garden. I also freeze diced carrots and celery from my garden. They are mushy when defrosted but that makes no difference for stock. But by using frozen carrots, celery and garden onions from the cold room, I can make a stock that is truly 100% home made with no commercial ingredients.

Do not BOIL the stock. Get the heat high, until some bubbles are rising, then back off heat until it "shimmers"--- that is-- you can "see" water motion and only rare bubbles. If you aggressively boil the stock will all be really murky.



I usually do the stock in December and January when it's too cold to do anything else.
It's a multi-day project because of the size I do.
Roast bones one evening.
Simmer the next day.
Filter and pressure can the next day.

I simmer the stock for 8+hours. If too much water evapourates, I add some boiling water from a second pot or a kettle.
Overnight, off heat, the stock settles and cools. The bones and veggies in a murky layer of stock are on the bottom. There is always a thin layer of fat on top. The main bulk of stock should be a "clear" brownish fluid.

You should use a fat-separator pouring device to ensure you don't get any fat into the final product-- available cheap at any decent kitchen store.

Using a cup, I pour the stock though a course sieve to get large bits out and then a micro-pore coffee filter to get some micro particles out. That way you get a nice clear stock. That is a nice presentation for a clear soup base.
The top of the stock pot renders nice clear stock
When you get to the bottom of your pot you will have murky stock-- no matter how much you filter it-- no problem-- just use that for applications like risotto or thick/ creamy/emulsified soup bases.

Pressure can at 11 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes. Or, freeze it if you have just small batches.
I pressure can because, each batch I do makes about 16-18 quarts and I often do three batches per year--- yes I hunt a lot and get a lot of bones. I also have chickens and do a batch of pure chicken stock once a year too

Overall it is a fair bit of work but well worth it. The flavour is vastly superior to anything you can buy. And what else are you going to do when it's -30C on a winter weekend.

Thanks for the great info Johny!.

Next step, fill the game bag this year.

Off to a good 2015 start - one snowshoe hare.