Stock, sometimes called bone broth, is a savory cooking liquid that forms the basis of many dishes particularly

soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been Cooking, cooked in Soup, liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for ...

s, and

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

s. Making stock involves simmering animal bones, meat, seafood, or vegetables in water or wine, often for an extended period.

Mirepoix A mirepoix ( , ) is a mixture of diced vegetables cooked with fat (usually butter) for a long time on low heat without coloring or browning. The ingredients are not sautéed or otherwise hard-cooked, because the intention is to sweeten rather t ...

or other aromatics may be added for more flavor.

Preparation

Traditionally, stock is made by

simmering Simmering is a food preparation technique by which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept just below the boiling point of water (lower than ) and above poaching temperature (higher than ). To create a steady simmer, a liquid is brought to a boil, ...

various ingredients in water. A newer approach is to use a

pressure cooker A pressure cooker is a sealed vessel for cooking food with the use of high pressure steam and water or a water-based liquid, a process called pressure cooking. The high pressure limits boiling and creates higher temperatures not possible at low ...

. The ingredients may include some or all of the following: Bones:

Beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

and

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

bones are most commonly used; fish is also common. The flavor of the stock comes from the

bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid biological tissue, tissue found within the Spongy bone, spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It i ...

cartilage Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. Semi-transparent and non-porous, it is usually covered by a tough and fibrous membrane called perichondrium. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints ...

and other

connective tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, a group of cells that are similar in structure, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops mostly from the mesenchyme, derived from the mesod ...

. Connective tissue contains

collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix of the connective tissues of many animals. It is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up 25% to 35% of protein content. Amino acids are bound together to form a trip ...

, which is converted into

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...

that thickens the liquid. Stock made from bones needs to be simmered for long periods; pressure cooking methods shorten the time necessary to extract the flavor from the bones. Meat: Cooked meat still attached to bones is also used as an ingredient, especially with chicken stock. Meat cuts with a large amount of connective tissue, such as shoulder cuts, are also used. Mirepoix:

is a combination of

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'' Dulce Group or ''Apium graveolens'' var. ''dulce'') is a cultivated plant belonging to the species ''Apium graveolens'' in the family Apiaceae that has been used as a vegetable since ancient times. The original wild ...

, and sometimes other vegetables added to flavor the stock. Sometimes, the less desirable parts of the vegetables that may not otherwise be eaten (such as carrot skins and celery cores and leaves) are used, as the solids are removed from stock. Herbs and spices: The

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

s and

spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

s used depend on availability and local traditions. In classical cuisine, the use of a ''

bouquet garni The ''bouquet garni'' ( French for "garnished bouquet"; ) is a bundle of herbs usually tied with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, casseroles and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients and removed prior to ...

'' (or ''bag of herbs'') consisting of

parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...

bay leaves The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used as a herb in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. The flavour that a bay leaf ...

, a sprig of

thyme Thyme () is a culinary herb consisting of the dried aerial parts of some members of the genus ''Thymus (plant), Thymus'' of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are native to Eurasia and north Africa. Thymes have culinary, medici ...

, and possibly other herbs, is common. This is often placed in a

sachet Although its most usual definition is that listed under "packet" (see link above), a sachet can also mean a small scented cloth bag filled with herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, wit ...

to make it easier to remove once the stock is cooked.

Types

Basic stocks are usually named for the primary meat type. A distinction is usually made between ''fond blanc'', or white stock, made by using raw bones and mirepoix, and ''fond brun'', or brown stock, which gets its color by roasting the bones and mirepoix before boiling; the bones may also be coated in

tomato paste Tomato paste is a thick paste made from tomatoes, which are cooked for several hours to reduce water content, straining out seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an i ...

before roasting. Chicken is most commonly used for ''fond blanc'', while beef or veal are most commonly used in ''fond brun''. Other regional varieties include: * ''

Dashi is a family of stocks used in Japanese cuisine. ''Dashi'' forms the base for miso soup, clear broth soup, noodle broth soup, and many simmering liquids to accentuate the savory flavor known as umami. ''Dashi'' is also mixed into the flour b ...

'' is a family of stocks in Japanese cooking, typically made by briefly simmering a variety of

kelp Kelps are large brown algae or seaweeds that make up the order (biology), order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genus, genera. Despite its appearance and use of photosynthesis in chloroplasts, kelp is technically not a plant but a str ...

called ''

kombu ''Konbu'' (from ) is edible kelp mostly from the family Laminariaceae and is widely eaten in East Asia. It may also be referred to as ''dasima'' () or ''haidai'' (). Kelp features in the diets of many civilizations, including Chinese and Icela ...

'' in nearly boiling water, often with other ingredients such as

katsuobushi is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'', sometimes referred to as bonito). It is also known as bonito flakes or broadly as . Shaved ''katsuobushi'' and dried kelp—''kombu''—are the main ingredients of ...

shiitake The shiitake (; ''Chinese/black mushroom'' or ''Lentinula edodes'') is a macrofungus native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed around the globe. Taxonomy The fungus was first described scientifically as '' Agaricus edodes'' by ...

. * ''Myeolchi yuksu'' is a stock in Korean cooking made by briefly cooking dried anchovies with kelp in nearly boiling water. * Glace de viande is stock, usually made from veal, that is highly concentrated by reduction. * Ham stock, common in

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

cooking, is made from ham hocks. *

Master stock A master stock or master sauce () is a Stock (food), stock which is repeatedly reused to Poaching (cooking), poach or Braising, braise meats. It has its origins in Teochew cuisine and is typically used in Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese and Fujian cu ...

is a Chinese stock used primarily for poaching meats, flavored with soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic, and other aromatics. * Prawn stock is made from boiling

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the intern ...

shells. It is used in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

n dishes such as laksa. * Remouillage is a second stock made from the same set of bones. * Bran stock is bran boiled in water. It can be used to thicken meat soups, used as a stock for vegetable soups or made into soup itself with onions, vegetables and molasses.

Stock versus broth

Health claims

By the early 2010s, "bone broth" had become a popular health food trend, due to the resurgence in popularity of dietary fat over sugar, and interest in "

functional food A functional food is a food claimed to have an additional benefit beyond just nutrition (often one related to health promotion or disease prevention) by modifying the horticulture, cultivation of the native food or by food additive, adding ingr ...

s" to which "culinary medicinals" such as

turmeric Turmeric (), or ''Curcuma longa'' (), is a flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. It is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and high ...

and

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

could be added. Bone broth bars, bone broth home delivery services, bone broth carts, and bone broth freezer packs grew in popularity in the United States. The fad was heightened by the 2014 book ''Nourishing Broth'', in which authors Sally Fallon Morell and Kaayla T. Daniel claim that the broth's nutrient density has a variety of health effects.Blaszyk, Amy (February 10, 2015)
"Taking Stock Of Bone Broth: Sorry, No Cure-All Here"

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. There is no scientific evidence to support many of the claims made for bone broth.

In popular culture

Grogu Din Grogu (), colloquially referred to as Baby Yoda, is a Character (arts), character from the ''Star Wars'' Disney+ original television series ''The Mandalorian'' and ''The Book of Boba Fett''. He is an infant member of the same List of Star Wa ...

sipping bone broth in " Chapter 4: Sanctuary" (2019), the fourth episode of the first season of the American

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as films and television series, streamed over the Internet. Standing in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable t ...

series ''

The Mandalorian ''The Mandalorian'' is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the ''Star Wars'' franchise and begins five years after the events of the fil ...

'', became an Internet

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

, as the cuteness of the character's slurping made two other characters abruptly stop fighting.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{cite book , first = Simone , last = Beck , author2=Louisette Bertholle , author3=Julia Child , author3-link=Julia Child , title = Mastering the Art of French Cooking , url = https://archive.org/details/masteringartoffr00beck , url-access = registration , publisher = Alfred A. Knopf , location = New York , year = 1961 Stock (food)