The terminology stock and broth can be confusing, but most good cooks agree stock is better than broth. The US Department of Agriculture, for its purposes, uses the words interchangeably and does not define them as being different. A few culinary schools teach that stocks are made from bones and broth is made from meat, but there is no outside authority to support this definition.

Historically, stocks have been a chef or home-cook extraction of liquid from cooking meat, bones, and vegetables with herbs. Broth was nothing more than a thin soup eaten at the table until companies like Swanson and College Inn presented their commercial broths as an ingredient to be used in cooking. Most broths contain high levels of salt and enhancers like autolyzed yeast. While they have served as time saving fill-ins, none have approached the quality of a true stock.

Whether shopping for stock or broth, best to read the label.

The best products generally contain:

More protein, No artificial ingredients, Less Sodium, No bulking agents like wheat