The homemade broth is a fundamental element of traditional cooking, loved for its rich flavor and versatility. Making it at home allows you to control the ingredients and ensure a final product free of preservatives, artificial coloring, and flavors. Unlike commercial broths, often salty and additive-laden, homemade broth allows you to use fresh ingredients and natural, achieving an authentic and healthy taste.
Moreover, the preparation process is a great opportunity to use vegetable scraps and meat bones, reducing food waste.
Once prepared, the broth can be used as a base for soups, risottos, sauces, and many other recipes. It can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days or frozen in smaller portions, ready for future meals. Freezing the broth in ice cube trays is a practical way to always have it at hand, making every dish special with a touch of authenticity. Making broth at home is not just a way to improve
the quality of your meals, but also a gesture of care and love for yourself and your loved ones.
Below I leave you other tutorials to save for having fresh and tasty vegetables every day and how to store, for example, parsley and then we’ll go right below the photo to discover how to prepare the homemade broth!!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients for Homemade Broth
Depending on the season, you can add zucchini, squash, or chard, around 150 g
- 7 oz onions
- 5 oz celery
- 5 oz tomato
- 7 oz carrots
- 1 potato
- 2 l water
- 2 pinches salt
- 2 pinches pepper
- 14 oz beef brisket
- 7 oz ham (the bone)
- 3.4 fl oz extra virgin olive oil
- 5 oz tomatoes
- 7 oz carrots
- 3.5 oz celery
- 3.5 oz carrots
- 3 l water
- 4 cloves
- 2 pinches salt
- 2 pinches pepper
- 2.2 lbs hen
- 3.5 oz carrots
- 3.5 oz onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2.5 oz celery
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- 2 l water
- 2 pinches salt
- 2 pinches pepper
- 1 l water
- 2.8 oz leek
- 1.1 lbs sea fish (scraps, heads, bones, shells)
- 1.8 oz onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1.8 oz butter
- 1.7 fl oz white wine
- 2 pinches salt
- 2 pinches pepper
- 1 teaspoon parsley
Preparation of Homemade Vegetable Broth
You can choose the vegetables you like best depending on the season, then once the vegetable broth is ready you can mash the vegetables, put them back in the broth, and cook broken spaghetti in it
Wash and peel the vegetables, cut them into large pieces and put them in a pot with cold water, slightly salted, bring to a boil over low heat with the pot covered for at least 40 minutes.
Once cooked, you can remove the vegetables or if you want a thicker broth, pass them through a vegetable mill, put them back with the broth, and let it go for another 15 minutes seasoned with parsley and, if you like, a pinch of pepper, and the broth is ready.
Clean and cut the vegetables into large pieces, place them in a large pot with high sides along with the extra virgin olive oil, add the cloves and pepper, the meat, and the bones.
Cover with 2 liters of cold water and bring to a boil over low heat medium for about 1 hour then add the remaining water and cook for another hour until you see that the broth has reduced.
Remove the vegetables and the meat, strain the broth from impurities, taste for flavor, and adjust salt.
With the leftover meat, you can make mondeghili or boiled meatballs.
Clean your hen or chicken of the innards, feathers, etc., cut it into pieces.
Wash and peel the vegetables, place the chicken pieces, vegetables, garlic, and water in the pot, and cook your homemade broth for at least 1 hour always over low heat, skimming occasionally with a slotted spoon to remove excess fat.
After the cooking time, you can remove the vegetables, set aside the meat for use in other preparations, season your broth with salt, and store it in the refrigerator.
Clean onion, leek, and garlic, chop everything finely.
In a pan, melt the butter, add the vegetables, and let them season for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Clean the fish scraps, heads, bones, leftover fish fillet and add to the sautéed vegetables in the pan.
Stir often until browned to prevent sticking to the pan, deglaze with white wine, and once the wine has evaporated, cover with cold water and cook over medium-low heat for an hour.
Skim occasionally, strain at the end of cooking through a fine-mesh strainer, you need to remove bones and fish impurities, if necessary filter it several times.
At this point, the homemade fish broth is ready.
Storage of Homemade Broth
Homemade broth keeps in the refrigerator for 3 days closed in an airtight container.
You can freeze homemade broth for 3 months.
Other Recipes
If you want to see other types of recipes you can return to HOME.
What does it mean to skim the broth
During cooking, especially of meat and fish broth, impurities will rise to the surface and form foam, it is good practice to remove it gradually with a fine-mesh skimmer to have a clear and translucent broth.
Can you vary the vegetables?
Of course, you can vary the vegetables according to the season as well as the herbs you use, which can be fresh or dried.
