Cath: Beef Stock

Hi everyone. I am sad to report my beef stock did not turn out well! And my attempt at homemade Nyeng Myun was a complete disaster--honestly one of the most disgusting things I have ever put on the table! My first mistake, I think, was my choice of bones. I bought three bags of nearly meatless and definitely mysterious (it was all unidentifiable odds and ends) frozen bones. As Elaine asked, "Did they look like dog bones?" Yes! Which shouldn't have been a bad thing I didn't think--I've made chicken stock with just bones before and it's turned out great. For whatever reason this just never ended up tasting good. I roasted the bones for probably half an hour to forty-five minutes. Then I added them to a giant stock pot (yes, I made A LOT of this really disgusting stock!) with an onion and a few cloves or garlic and some peppercorns. I deglazed the roasting pan and added that too and then brought it all to simmer and let it do its thing for 4 or 5 hours. I kept tasting and thinking, "Maybe it needs salt." Salt definitely helped but not enough. It just tasted like burned bones to me. I don't know. Maybe it was the lack of meat, maybe I roasted the bones too long, who knows! YUCK!

I still ended up trying to do the Nyeng-Myun with this stuff. Biggest mistake there (besides the stock tasting terrible!) was I overcooked the noodles. I tried dressing it up with some julienned daikon and a dollop of kimchi and the hardboiled egg but it all just tasted so gross! I'll try again sometime but so much for this attempt!