[bluedogz]

Hi all-

In the middle of making a big pot of beef stock to be frozen for later use, I realized that I forgot the tomatoes the recipe calls for. In short, the recipe calls for:
1) roast bones and veggies together for about 1 hr.
2) mix bones, veggies, herbs, etc, in stockpot
3) deglaze roasting pan with wine, add liquid to stock

My thought was to finish roasting what I've got, deglaze the pan and reserve the liquid, and go get tomatoes tomorrow, keeping what's done up to now in the fridge. Any reason that wouldn't work? Am I missing something?

[Suzanne]

No reason at all. And you don't even have to roast them once you have them. Just add them as is. (Although it is a nice thing to do, for the second reason below.) As long as you have the room in your fridge, go ahead!

One of the purposes of the tomatoes is to provide acid that helps break down the collagen around the bones, adding body to the stock. They'll do that just fine however you add them. Another is to add sugar, which deepens the color as it caramelizes. You may miss out a bit on that, but assuming you cook your stock for umpteen hours, you might not even notice.

[HotChef]

do your 'mice en place' first.('everything in place'..)
put together all and everything that you need, according to the recipe, than you will not have to panic when halfway through the cooking process you find out that you have forgotten something.
not much harm done indeed when you have no tomatoes for the stock, but what wouls you do when you have no gelatin for a,lets say,German style, cheescake...