Homemade beef stock for cottage pie recipe please

[Alfiemoon1]

My son is doing gcse catering and for his practical exam he has chosen to make cottage pie but he isn’t allowed to use a beef stock cube like I usually do as it’s to easy so he has to make his own stock help anyone have any recipes either for just the stock or a more advanced cottage pie recipe

Making beef stock would involve bones and would take a while. Especially as he'd then want to reduce it quite severely for a cottage pie.

I'd suggest using onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, thyme and mustard (saute the onions and mushrooms a lot) and glugging in some red wine - oh golly, are they allowed to use wine? What about Marmite? I usually add a teaspoonful to my mince recipes.

How long is this exam? Beef stock from scratch should take at least 4 hours (45 minutes roasting the bones and 3 hours simmering) although you could speed it up with a pressure cooker.
Can he premake the stock and bring it in?

Is he allowed to use Bisto powder? If not I would go with maybe marmite and/or Worcester sauce for flavour.

Spoonful of bovril or would that be not allowed either?

No wine - can you substitute grape or apple juice and balsamic vinegar?

I always add a squeeze of ketchup to mine

Try roasting the mince first. Or, try using stewing steak. Cook it slowly for 2/3 hours in vegetables, seasoning, maybe some red wine (if allowed?!) and it'll then give a seasoned liquid. Shred the beef and then make pie as you normally would using the stock.

This is the problem I think the exam is only 1.5 - 2 hours long he has a practice on Thursday so hopefully the teacher with have some suggestions. I don’t think he can pre make his own stock and bring it in

In 1.5 to 2 hours he's not going to be able to make his own stock & then cook the pie - even using a pressure cooker.
I use a ragu recipe that doesn't use stock, but needs wine.

This is best cooked for a long time, but an hour could do it then into a hot oven with mash on top.

I use this one (and add some marmite) but it has red wine in it
https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/easy-cottage-pie/

He doesn't really need beef stock -
Fry the mince on a really high temp to burn (obviously brown rather than black!) at the bottom and then scrape it off. Get the meat really brown.
Meanwhile, produce veg stock (boil the the carrot and onion peelings in water for this). Once the stock is added to the browned meat the burnt bottom should mingle to brown the stock and add to the flavour

Of course, the real flavour from the stock cube is from the salt!!

You could make good beef stock in an hour using a pressure cooker. Make sure to brown the bones and use loads of aromatics.

They don’t have pressure cookers the current recipe from bbc good food has flour tinned tomatoes and a stock cube he has a practice tomorrow so hopefully if it’s not right the teacher will advise as I can’t find a recipe to make your own stock in that time frame and it was gorgeous what he made