Beef soup bones substitutes
Beef soup bones substitutes — 7 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Cross-cut beef shank (osso buco cut)
Same amount by weight as the beef soup bones
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.
- Verdict —
- Works
- Best for —
- beef broth
Updated 26 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of beef soup bones | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cross-cut beef shank (osso buco cut)beef broth | Same amount by weightWorks | Works |
| 2 | Beef neck bonesbeef broth | Same amount by weightWorks | Works |
| 3 | Oxtailpho | Same amount by weightWorks | Works |
| 4 | Marrow bones and knuckle bones togetherbone broth | Same amount by weightRoughly half of eachWorks | Works |
| 5 | Beef short rib bones or leftover prime rib bonesbeef broth | Same amount by weightTweak it | Tweak it |
| 6 | Chicken wings, backs and feetgeneral soups | Same amount by weightTweak it | Tweak it |
| 7 | Unflavoured powdered gelatin in store-bought brothfixing watery store-bought broth | 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup of brothTweak it | Tweak it |
Cross-cut beef shank (osso buco cut)
similar taste and texture
Gives you everything soup bones give you and then some: a marrow-filled bone centre, a thick ring of collagen around it, and enough meat that you can shred it into the finished soup.
- Best for
- beef broth, bone broth, pho, vegetable beef soup, borscht, ramen broth
Widely stocked, often labelled soup bones already. Roast at 425F for 40 minutes first if you want a dark, deep broth, or blanch and rinse instead if you want the clear pale broth a pho or a Chinese soup calls for. Simmer 4 to 6 hours. Pull the meat out at the 2-hour mark if you want it for the bowl, since it turns to threads after that.
Beef neck bones
similar taste and texture
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.
- 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.
Oxtail
enhanced taste and texture
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.
- 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.
Marrow bones and knuckle bones together
similar taste and texture
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.
- 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.
Beef short rib bones or leftover prime rib bones
similar taste, different texture
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.
- 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.
Chicken wings, backs and feet
different taste, similar texture
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.
- 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.
Unflavoured powdered gelatin in store-bought broth
different taste, similar texture
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.
- 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.
Questions
5 questionsCan 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.
Tips for substituting beef soup bones
6 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.