Updated: Cost Accounting Beef Stock

DAD was curious to determine which would be a better value in making beef stock, soup bones, back ribs, or his preferred beef base.

He bought a 1.47 lb. package of soup bones and 2.11 lbs. of beef back ribs. He pressured cooked them separately, each in two cups (16 oz.) of water for 35 minutes. The back ribs were $2.69/pound while the soup bones were $2.79 per pound.

The container on the above right, the product of the bones, produced 3.125 ounces of fat, and a negligible amount of gelatin. The one on the left, the yield of the ribs, produced 4.625 ounces of fat, and 4.75 ounces of gelatin.

Beef back rib.

Source: http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/zen_of_beef_ribs.html

To standardize these (since Dad began with unequal amounts of ribs and soup bones, he converts the fat and gelatin yields to percentages). The ribs yielded 13.7% fat and 14% gelatin. The bones yielded 21.9% fat; the gelatin was not measurable.

The clear winner was the back ribs. The collagen content was much higher. The femur bones produced almost all fat. Moreover, the ribs also have usable rib meat, the bones only have the marrow.

Femur soup bones.  
Source: http://www.ifood.tv/blog/how-to-use-soup-bones

Next Dad was curious to know which is the better value, making beef stock from ribs or just using Better Than Bullion beef base.

The rib gelatin was $1.20 per ounce. The beef base is $1.24 per ounce. The base has additional ingredients Dad does not necessarily want or need, while the ribs yield edible meat. However, the ribs require time to cook and have energy costs (natural gas). Additional analysis exceeds the benefit, so Dad will not pursue it further.

For you BEC candidates, Manufacturing Overhead (MOH) is applied at the rate of... just kidding. If you are a BEC candidate, you need to get off this blog and get back to your MCQ practice.

In another post, Dad'll consider buying gelatin and using and costing that as a base for beef stock.

In conclusion, the choice to use Better Than Bouillon or to make his own from inexpensive beef ribs depends on qualitative factors, not quantitative ones. Dad enjoys cooking, but sometimes the convenience of the ready made beef base is more desirable. Further, soup bones aren't a good value at any price since Dad's diet seeks to minimize these types of fats and this fat gets wasted.

Update: Since the time of original posting, Dad has experimented, and with great success, in using unflavored gelatin as beefstock base. See top round Roast with Au Jus.