Beef Soup Bones substitute

Best substitute

Cross-cut beef shank (osso buco cut)

Use the same amount by weight as the beef soup bones you are replacing

Best for beef broth

Close match

Cross-cut beef shank is the best all-round replacement and works weight for weight, because it is bone, collagen and meat in one piece. Beef neck bones are the cheapest close swap and give plenty of both gelatin and flavour. Oxtail is the upgrade if you can afford it, since it gels harder than almost anything else. If you cannot get bones at all and just need to fix a thin broth, stir 1 to 2 teaspoons of unflavoured powdered gelatin into each cup of store-bought beef broth, which restores the body but adds no flavour at all.

Other beef soup bones substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Beef neck bones
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Cheap, meaty and full of connective tissue, so the broth comes out richly beefy and sets firmly in the fridge, though the many small bones make straining messier.
What changes
Best for
beef broth, greens and beans, pho, soups where you want meat in the bowl
Neck bones are often the cheapest beef in the store. Because there is a lot of surface area, they extract quickly, and you can get a good broth in 3 to 4 hours rather than 6. Expect more scum in the first 20 minutes, so skim carefully or blanch first.
3Oxtail
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Produces the glossiest, most gelatinous broth of any beef bone, thick enough to set solid when cold, with a deeper and slightly sweeter flavour than plain leg bones.
What changes
Best for
pho, bone broth, beef noodle soup, stews, consomme
Costs several times more per pound than plain soup bones because of demand, but a pound of oxtail contributes more body than two pounds of leg bone. It renders a lot of fat, so chill the finished broth and lift off the cap. The braised meat is excellent, so plan to use it rather than discard it.
4Marrow bones and knuckle bones together
Close match
Use the same amount by weight, roughly half of each
The classic pairing: knuckle and joint bones are almost pure cartilage and collagen, so they give the gel, while sawn marrow or femur bones give the buttery richness, and the two together are what most soup-bone packages are trying to approximate.
What changes
Best for
bone broth, pho, beef stock, French onion soup base
Neither works well alone. All marrow bone gives a fatty broth with little body; all knuckle gives a broth that gels beautifully but tastes flat. Roast both for 40 minutes at 425F for a brown broth. Marrow bones are also the ones to ask for if you want to eat the marrow itself, in which case ask for canoe-cut or split bones.
5Beef short rib bones or leftover prime rib bones
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Excellent flavour and a fair amount of gelatin, with the advantage that if you saved the bones from a roast they are already browned and cost nothing.
What changes
Best for
beef broth, quick stock, gravy base, onion soup
Rib bones give less gel than knuckle or oxtail because they carry less cartilage, so if you want a broth that sets, combine them with a knuckle bone or add a teaspoon of gelatin per cup at the end. Bones from a cooked roast have already given up some flavour, so use about 25 percent more of them than you would raw bones.
6Chicken wings, backs and feet
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
The cheapest route to a broth with real body, and chicken feet in particular gel harder than almost any beef bone, but the broth will taste unmistakably of chicken, which is wrong for pho, beef noodle soup or a beef gravy.
What changes
Best for
general soups, risotto, sauces where the meat flavour is not the point, when beef bones are unavailable
Fine as a base for a vegetable soup or a bean pot. Not a substitute for a beef broth whose whole identity is beef, such as pho bo or French onion. If you must use it there, add roasted beef trim, a tablespoon of tomato paste and a splash of soy or fish sauce to push the flavour towards savoury depth, and accept that it will not read as beef.
7Unflavoured powdered gelatin in store-bought broth
Different taste
Use 1 to 2 teaspoons for every cup of broth
The honest emergency answer: it gives you exactly the mouthfeel that bones provide and absolutely none of the flavour, so the broth will feel rich and taste thin at the same time.
What changes
Best for
fixing watery store-bought broth, pan sauces, last-minute soup, no-time situations
Sprinkle over cold broth, let it bloom for five minutes, then warm gently and stir until dissolved. To close the flavour gap, brown a tablespoon of tomato paste in the pot, add a splash of soy sauce or Worcestershire, and simmer with an onion half and a bay leaf for 20 minutes. It will not equal a real bone broth but it will not taste bare either.

What is Beef Soup Bones?

Beef Soup Bones is a loose butcher-counter label for any beef bone sold to be simmered rather than eaten, usually knuckle and joint bones, cross-cut shank, neck bones or sawn leg bones, whose job in the pot is to release collagen that sets as gelatin and gives a broth body, plus roasted beefy flavour and a little fat.

Cooking tips

Not all soup bones are equal, and knowing which is which is the whole skill. Knuckle and joint bones are mostly cartilage and give the most gelatin. Femur or marrow bones give fat and richness but very little gel. Neck bones and oxtail give both plus meat. Rib and back bones give flavour but a thinner broth. A good mix is roughly half joint or shank and half marrow bone.
Decide up front whether you want a brown broth or a clear one, because the two methods are opposites. For a dark, savoury broth, roast the bones at 425F for 40 minutes until well coloured. For pho or a clear Chinese soup, cover the bones with cold water, bring to a boil for 10 minutes, dump the water, scrub the bones and the pot, then start again with fresh cold water.
Keep the pot at a bare shiver, never a rolling boil. Boiling emulsifies fat and breaks up proteins into the liquid, which is what makes homemade broth cloudy and greasy. You want the occasional lazy bubble and nothing more, for 4 to 8 hours.
A splash of vinegar, usually a tablespoon or two per gallon, is often recommended to help extract minerals. It makes at most a marginal difference to the broth and none you can taste, so it is optional. What genuinely matters is time, a low temperature and using bones with cartilage in them.
Chill the finished broth overnight before you judge it. A good bone broth should be jiggly or fully set when cold, and the fat rises into a solid cap you can lift off in one piece. If it is still liquid when cold, next time use more joint or knuckle bones or add oxtail.
If you plan to home-can your broth rather than refrigerate or freeze it, do not improvise. Meat and bone broths are low-acid foods and must be pressure canned using a tested process with tested jar sizes and times, such as those published by the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Never water-bath can broth, never thicken it before canning, and do not scale a tested recipe up or down.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the beef soup bones out?

You can make the soup, but it will be thinner and less satisfying, because bones are what give a broth its clinging, mouth-coating body. If you are skipping them, use a good store-bought beef broth as the liquid and stir in a teaspoon of unflavoured gelatin per cup, or reduce your liquid by a third to concentrate what flavour is there. A vegetable soup with a beef-flavoured but bodyless broth tastes noticeably watery in the spoon.

Which bones should I ask the butcher for?

Say what you want the broth to do. For maximum body, ask for knuckle or joint bones. For richness and marrow, ask for sawn femur or shin bones. For a broth with meat in it, ask for cross-cut shank or neck bones. For the best of everything, ask for a mix of knuckle and marrow bones with a piece of shank, roughly two pounds of bone per gallon of water.

What is the difference between soup bones and bone broth?

Soup bones are the raw ingredient and bone broth is the finished liquid. Bone broth is simply a broth simmered long enough, usually 8 hours or more, that a lot of collagen has converted to gelatin and the liquid sets when cold. Buying a carton labelled bone broth is a reasonable shortcut if you have no bones, though most cartons are far less gelatinous than homemade.

Do I need to roast the bones first?

Only if you want a dark, deeply savoury broth, which is the case for French onion soup, gravies and most Western stocks. Roasting at 425F for 40 minutes builds browning flavours that raw simmering cannot. For pho, Chinese soups and any clear broth, do not roast. Blanch and rinse the bones instead, which removes the scum that would cloud the finished bowl.

How long should beef soup bones simmer?

Four hours will give you a good broth with decent body. Six to eight hours gives a broth that gels firmly. Beyond about twelve hours you gain little and can start extracting a chalky, slightly bitter quality from the bone itself. In a pressure cooker, 2 to 3 hours at high pressure gets you roughly to the six-hour stovetop point.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Beef Soup Bones substitute

Other beef soup bones substitutes

2Beef neck bones

3Oxtail

4Marrow bones and knuckle bones together

5Beef short rib bones or leftover prime rib bones

6Chicken wings, backs and feet

7Unflavoured powdered gelatin in store-bought broth