Magic Soup

This is similar, but I take 8 pounds of shanks, beef, veal, or combo, (when they're on sale - when did bones get to be so expensive?) put them in a big Dutch oven w/ veggies, carrots, onions, celery are a must, (just wash and chop, don't peel, limp are fine too) and roast at 400 over an hour, til all looks dark and dangerous. Then add 6 qt. of water, plus bay leaves, S&P, whatever and simmer covered for hours. Cool, then refrigerate, then throw out every smidgen of that awful fat on top. Melt a stick of butter and saute a bunch of scallions, some mushrooms, and then put in juice of one lemon and put stock back in, reseason. By stopping at the pure broth, you can put in a pump-top thermos and take to the hospital for someone on a liquid diet and they will call your name blessed for replacing what the hospitals call broth - hot water over a brown salt cube.
A British friend calls it Beef Tea, but I call it Magic Soup.
I've taken this to sick people for years. Some died anyway, but it was the last thing that tasted good.
Barbara Allen