If you are trying to make bone stock for the first time I would suggest the following:

• Beef bones smell more strongly than other bones. Pork bones are also smell quite strong.

• You can try using lamb or chicken bones as these are much milder if you live in a small apartment.

• Use bones that have been cooked previously.

• Add roughly chopped vegetables such as a onion, a carrot and cellery. The vegetables can stay in the whole time and are discarded at the end with the bones. Vegetable scraps like carrot peelings can also be used instead.

• Season with a little salt and pepper.

• Leave out the vinegar or try lemon juice as others suggest, this will impove the smell.

• Cover with water in a pan on the stove, bring to the boil and then simmer on a low heat with a lid on the pan.

• If any scum rises to the surface during cooking, skim it off.

• Simmer for 6 hours. I would try this shorter time to begin with as this will also reduce the smell, it will still make good stock. Cooking for two days is a very long time in a small apartment.

• Strain out the bones and vegetables from the liquid and refrigerate.

As someone who also lives in an small shared apartment you need to make compromises on these things. Recipes that might be fine left boiling for days if you live in a large house with a big well ventilated kitchen are not always possible.

I find that lamb or chicken bones do not smell bad cooked this way.

What you should try doing is what Koreans do with cooking soups with beef bones (oxtail, ribs, etc). You should soak the bones in cold water for at least 2-3 hrs, best if done overnight, (replace the bloody water every hour or so) to drain the excessive blood from the product. After draining, do NOT place the bones in the pot of water before it starts boiling. Always add the bones when the water is boiling. After you add the bones, you will see the excessive blood and bone pieces float to the top. Discard the nasty stuff and pour everything from the pot out(do not save the stock!). Wash the meat and the bones with cold water, get a new pot of water to boil the soup properly. Add the meat and the bones to the pot and let it come to a rolling boil, decrease the heat to low and let it simmer for a few hours. By doing this, the nasty smell only lasts during the first 10 minutes of the initial boiling to rid the bones and the meat of the horrible smell. :)

It definitely smells up the house for me too. I wouldn't call it "stinky", but it isn't the most pleasant think I've ever smelled.

I keep the windows open a lot whenever it's above 50 degrees out, so it's not a major issue for me.

Unappealing would be a fairly positive discriptor of the smell of simmering beef bone broth. Never have I enjoyed the smell. The taste though, is really quite pleasant.

I find that if I'm scrupulously careful not to let the stock boil, the smell is fine. Better than fine with roasted bones. If the liquid boils though, the house smells like a glue factory. (Oh, and I miss out the vinegar.)

I do my broth in a pressure cooker. It takes much less time, energy, and almost odorless.

It's not the best smell. For me, it smells a lot like "sour" apple cider vinegar, if that makes any sense. The stock doesn't taste anything like the smell, though.

Sally Fallon mentions in Nourishing Traditions that beef stock doesn't smell so great while it's brewing in the pot. If she says it and we've both experienced the same not-so-good stench, then that's probably just the way it is.

Make an awesome stew or sauce out of the nasty smelling broth to silence your daughter.

I have a pot going right now. It is in the garage in an electric slow cooker. We find the smell to much, but we have a very small house, only 4 rooms so the smell of anything tends to get everywhere. Bone Broth is just too much :)

when you were "collecting" the bones, you had them frozen, then thawed them, right? If they were just sitting int he fridge for too long they will spoil and give off a foul odor.

I find that making bone broth or stock does smell quite a lot. I don't find it too unpleasant, but it's certainly quite a 'stale' kind of odour. Is there any fat left on your bones or is it just bones? I find the smell of boiled, previously frozen fat to be pretty unappetising.

There is a middle portion of cooking down that does stink a bit, I think you can minimize this by skimming off the scum as it forms on the broth...

I also make sure to have it by an exhaust vent and to leave that vent running all night.

I think beef bone broth smells unpleasant, and don't really like the taste of it either. Adding the vinegar makes the smell worse. Chicken broth however, made from necks, backs and feet, with carrot, celery, and parsley, smells and tastes divine.

Just echoing here, but I can't stand the smell of chicken bone broth.. I usually make it with vinegar but I forget to add it a lot. Either way, eww. I like the taste though.

I make it in a slow cooker/crock pot, on low setting for about 24 hours. Our tiny apartment just gets a nice faint roast meat smell - and the resulting broth is not stinky at all. I think a lot of it depends on the freshness of the bones - in the past I've used some not-so-fresh chicken carcasses and the broth process smelled a bit "animaly"

On a side note, I think that every paleo'er should own a slow cooker! Great for broth + cooking the bejesus out of cheap cuts of meat.

Family hates it, I'm OK with it. If they hate you for cooking bone broth...don't ever render beef fat for tallow. I was nearly evicted.

I don't much care for the smell of beef bones so I use chicken bones to make my broth most of the time. Much different smell.

Also instead of cider vinegar you can probably use a lemon or lime juice.

Beef bones needs to be roasted for half and hour before they go into the pot. Not sure if that has any effect on the smell, thought. Check out the instructions here. http://nourishedkitchen.com/beef-stock-recipe/

Bones sound too old if they smell gross.

I make stock in a slow cooker regularly; beef, pork, or chicken usually. I ALWAYS roast the bones for about 20 / 30 minutes on high before placing in the slow cooker. Using lemon juice instead of vinegar improves the smell enormously.

If you add a few bay leaves, black peppercorns, a coupke of cloves, the impact on the flavour is minimal but subtle, but the impact on the nice-ness of the smell is enormous.

It is best NOT to add any veg to cooking stock if you want to keep it a few days in the fridge - any "sweet" veg like onions, carrots, or cruciferous veg like cabbage, make the stock go sour much faster.

But the smell of bone stock , I find, is usually really quite appetising. If it smells "bone-y" or sour - the bones have been kept too long IMHO

I know what you mean. I was told that I was cooking them wrong. I have tried every which way, but I just don't like the smell. My husband doesn't like the smell either. I think next time I will use the crock pot in the garage..What a great idea!

But, don't get me wrong...so delicious to use. I love making soups and cream sauces with this broth.

http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2011/11/glycine-power.html

Seriously, am I the only one in the world who finds talk of 'carcass broths' thoroughly disgusting? I'm not a vegan but pondering stuff like that sure makes me want to be...

First few times I made stock in a BIG crock pot I got from my friend (and a subsequent lamb roast), the stock and roast were all fine but there was a terrible, rancid smell from the slow-cooker the whole time.

Turns out, older crockpots use a porous glaze that will gradually accumulate bacteria. Cleaning involves heating it up with a vinegar solution in the pot, see instructions here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_12051106_smell-out-crockpot.html

I set up my crockpot on a self in my garage and cook my bonebroth outside. It keeps my family happy and the house from getting stinky.

I would recommend you do the same