Help please with stock

Yesterday I made stock, for soup, using bacon bones which had been in the freezer about 4 months. The stock smells and tastes OK but looks very unappetising, its a sort of greyish/brownish colour and very cloudy. Husband says it might be because the bacon bones were from smoked bacon but there was nothing on the pack (bought from the Mad Butcher) to say whether or not the bacon had been smoked. Just wondering whether it would be OK for soup for whether I should throw out and buy some fresh bones.

Mine sometimes looks like that it it tastes good go ahead and make the soup put in heaps of veg and noone will notice. MMMMMMM bacon soup I make a huge pot about once a month in winter and freeze excess about to start second batch this week.

Thanks beaker59 I was hoping someone would say it was OK. Thats me then this afternoon, cutting up loads of vegies.

Bacon bones can be quite salty so I boil them up with some peppercorns and a roughly chopped onion... bring water to boil and then simmer for about 60 odd mins. . The bones are removed and the water discarded. . all the salt and fattiness residual in the water. . While this is going on, peel all your veges, spuds, carrots, 3 onions, celery, capsicum and spring onion. . PUT "ALL' THE OFFCUTS AND PEELINGS IN A POT, lid on and bring to rolling boil for 10 mins. . This will be strained and poured into the stock pot. . Meanwhile, I boil fresh water in my stock pot with a pkt of "Kings" soup mix. . bring water to boil and then on simmer. . Remove all the meat from the bones (discarding the grisly fatty bits) and throw nice meat into the pot. . add 2 bay leaves , 10 peppercorns and the three chopped onions... put all the rest of the veges in a pot with salted water and boil for 5 mins. . "spoon out" 2/3 into the stock pot, put the lid back on the vege pot and turn off the heat. . these will cook slowly in residual heat as the soup simmers. . 20 mins before ready to serve, check the vege pot and boil if still not soft. . drain albut all the water into soup pot and use a stick blender to pulse to a thick mash. . this is then poured into stock pot to thicken soup so stir well through and let simmer a while longer... TASTE it. . add salt and some white pepper if you think it needs it stirring well before re tasting... real fresh bread with lashings of butter...

Just THROW out that water you have and remove the meat and complete as I have described above...

I couldn't throw out the water Fisher it just goes too far against the grain of soup making why would you boil the flavour and goodness out of the meat then discard it?

Thanks for you input fisher I wondered too why you say to discard the water, surely that would be discarding the stock.

you are making the stock with the vege peelings and the flavour from the meat... There is so much SALTINESS/BITTERNESS when using the bones straight in the water. . You 'need" to at least part boil the bones first and discard the salty water. . you can put them in the NEW water with the Kings mix if you want but it really makes little difference. .
Make it your way. . next time make it mine. . bet you like mine 10 times better. . :}. . I have experimented with this soup for over 30 years... you know what they say. . 'practice makes perfect. . "

OK thanks fisher.

Thanks folks, soup made, had some for dinner, perfectly delicious.

Which method did you use? ? I use fisher's homestyle chicken soup recipe (go look it up on trademecooks) Bestest soup EVER! ! !

HI Liz, I just make the way my grandmother did, I used to help her when I was a child. Cover the bacon bones with water, add an onion, a carrot, stick of celery and a bayleaf. There is more flavour in bacon bones then a ham hock and they are cheaper. Simmer for about an hour, pour into another saucepan through a colander, remove any bacon from the bones and reserve, then chuck out the rubbish in the colander. I then put the stock in the fridge overnight so that its easy to lift of the fat the next day. Then I dice onion, carrot, parsnip, celery add some split peas and barley (or dried soup mix, the unflavoured kind). Hard to give quantities as depends on the amount of bones there is to start with. I then freeze in containers enough 2. Todays made 5 containers and I have some in the fridge will do for lunch tomorrow and Tuesday. It really is nice.