Stock up on broth? As a change of pace while you recover from last night's wild parties, Mr. Tidbit offers a brief investigative dip into soup or broth or stock or something.
This discussion is occasioned by new cooking stock (beef or chicken) from Swanson, which already makes beef, chicken and vegetable broths in an almost bewildering array: low-sodium, organic, fat-free. Let's compare Swanson's regular chicken broth (32-ounce aseptic box) and the new chicken stock, which comes in a slightly rounded 26-ounce aseptic box.
What is the difference between stock and broth? It appears that in many -- if not most -- cases, the terms are used interchangeably. Let's hear how Swanson differentiates them:
According to Swanson's website, broth is an "essential ingredient to add flavor to soups and side dishes that don't have a strong flavor of their own. [It has a] finished, highly seasoned flavor. [Use it for] homemade soup, vegetables, stuffing, rice, potatoes and reheating leftovers. Stock is a foundational ingredient used to enhance the rich and meaty flavors and juiciness of your main meat dishes and gravies. [It is] less seasoned, [but] rich and robust, with a meaty flavor. [Use it for] main meat dishes, gravies and sauces."
Others on the Web say, variously, simply that broth has more salt, or that stock is the strained result of boiling, say, chicken bones, while broth is the strained result of cooking the chicken with meat still on it, and that making broth probably involves some whole vegetables while stock might add herbs, too.
Mr. Tidbit will add more later, but for now he needs to end with a more pointed comparison. At one discount supermarket, Swanson's 32-ounce box of chicken broth was $1.95, and the 26-ounce chicken stock was $2.89 -- 83 percent more per ounce.
AL SICHERMAN
