Beef stock - do you have a favorite?

[housewolf]

Is there a difference between beef 'stock' and beef 'broth'? I'm not up to making my own, is one brand any better than another? What's your favorite brand?

[Warpy]

1. Broth is made of meat you intend to eat in the broth

and stock is generally made from bits and pieces, bones and skin and fat and gristle and other castoffs with or without veggies. Some fancy stocks are made of a variety of edible meats, simmered for hours or even days.

Generally, I find commercial stocks and broths too high in salt, and prefer to use the wine and water mixture instead when I'm cooking a stew. I do make a vegetable stock, though, from potato peels and onion skins, garlic ends, the outer leaves of cabbage and lettuce, celery leaves and trimmings, carrot nubbins, and all sorts of stuff destined for the compost pile after it's strained out of the stock. I generally make it salt free.

I suppose there's sodium free stock out there somewhere. I've just never had an occasion to use it.

The only time I've ever used canned stock, I did find College Inn chicken stock rather nice. I haven't seen it out west, though, so I skip it.

[mike_c]

2. when I don't make my own, I use Pacific Natural Foods brand....

Here's their web site-- the beef stock is quite good, not too salty-- go to the "Broth" page and it's at the bottom. I now use theirs more frequently than I make my own, simply because it's so convenient.

http://www.pacificfoods.com/products.php

[Mojorabbit]

7. I love

their free range chicken broth!

[The empressof all]

3. I tend to like salty

I use Better than Bouillon for my beef broth. If I want something even richer in flavor I mix the BB in with Swanson's Vegetable broth. It makes a fine gravy.

[Tab]

4. Broth can be eaten directly, although usually it's the

"wet" portion of the soup.

Stock is usually the pre-step to a sauce, and isn't flavored (spiced) as much - that part is supposed to happen when you create the sauce.

That said, when doing a recipe that calls for stock, and I didn't have any, I confess to using broth, or even anything vaguely flavored in the same direction.

[politicat]

5. Better than Boullion and/or Vegamite.

Either one mixed 1 tsp to 1 cup hot water. Vegamite has a good, rich flavor and does not require refrigeration like BtB does.

If neither of those are available, the soft cubes from Knorr are the next best thing; I get those in the Mexican aisle of the grocery.

I don't make beef stock - beef stock requires bones, and bones have been implicated in prion disorders. (Beef bones are highly regulated in England to help stem the spread of prion disorders.) For me, it's a safety thing - a slow death from cancer caused by using teflon bothers me not at all; a slow death where I lose my mind and personality, that's my worst fear.

[Tab]

6. Even if you buy it

it was still made from bones.

[politicat]

8. That's why I tend to use Vegamite instead.

Same flavor, no pesky prions.