It’s the middle of winter — and the perfect time to get your NBB roasts and soup bones out of the freezer and into the kitchen.

Here are some ideas for our roasts and soup bones to help get you started.

Soup Bones

Our soup bones are cross-cut bones from the shanks of the bison. This is the same cut used to make osso buco. You can google beef shank or osso bucco recipes for additional ideas.

Our suggestion is to get two bites out of the apple here — and make a delicious meal and then some bone broth. For the meal, here is a great recipe from the legendary chef Daniel Boulud. I’ve cooked this several times (mostly with short ribs but twice with NBB soup bones), and I like to simplify the recipe for three reasons: (1) to save a little time, (2) to better suit my taste buds, and (3) I am not Daniel Boulud.

My tips: forget the leeks, white pepper, and celery, use normal-human pepper, cook for at least three hours, and then serve over mashed potatoes. It’s delicious.

That's my go-to recipe, but, again, google beef shank or osso buco recipes — and pay articular attention to braised recipes, as braising them low and slow for a long time will help tenderize the meat.

Regardless of which way you choose to cook the soup bones, after you take the meat off the bones, set the bones aside to cool, throw them in the fridge, and then make some bone broth. We make bone broth all the time with all sorts of bones and follow the same recipe. Here it is:

Put the bones into 8 - 10 cups of water in a big pot. Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, an onion, and six carrots. There’s no need to dice the onion and carrots finely because you'll be discarding them later. (Same with the Daniel Boulud recipe above.) Bring everything to a boil. Then cover the pot and let it simmer for at least 12 hours.

In the last hour or two, put in 6 - 8 garlic cloves and a handful of fresh parsley. When you’re done simmering it, use a fine sieve or strainer over some glass mason jars. First use some tongs to get the big chunks out — and then pour the broth into the mason jars through the mesh sieve or strainer. Put lids on the jars — and the jars in the fridge. Then to drink, pour the broth into a mug and heat it in the microwave for 90 - 120 seconds — and enjoy!

Roasts

We've done this a couple of times, and the roasts were delicious. Here’s what we did (after reading about bison roasts on this website):

Take the roast out of the fridge, pat it dry with paper towels, and let it come to room temperature or close to it.
Set your oven to 275 degrees.
Sprinkle some pepper on the roast.
Take a dutch oven or similar cooking vessel, put it on the stove, and turn the heat on high. Add a few generous tablespoons of a high-heat oil like peanut or grapeseed oil.
Sear the hell out of all sides of the roast, but don't cook it. Just sear it quickly and then remove the roast to a plate.
Turn off the heat.
Add two sliced carrots and one sliced onion. (These will be discarded, so, again, no need to finely dice these.) Then put the roast in and add a cup of water and a healthy splash of red wine over the roast.
Put the lid on and put it in the oven. Plan on about 30 minutes or so per 2 pounds of meat. Take lid off for the last third of the cook time. Cook it until it's 140 degrees in the center.
When it’s done, remove the roast and let it rest on a wire rack over a cutting board. Put the dutch oven back on the stove with the lid off, turn up the heat, and reduce it down to whatever consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste — and whisk in some flour to thicken it. Then pour the gravy over a strainer into a bowl.
Now it’s time to thinly slice the roast and enjoy a delicious dinner.

Roasts and Soup Bones