Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

everyone see that "top chef" is using swanson stocks for most of teir challanges???

I agree with Foodboy and Growler - Glasers beats Greenbergs in taste AND price! I think that their black and whites are number 1 and their brownies with nuts are out of this world.

Check them out - they are definitely worth the trip. We used to live just a few blocks away on the UES and it wreaked havoc on my diet.

Thanks Michelle, you answered the question I had, quickly and efficiently, without going into a lot of information I did not need to know.

And while I can and do make my own stock, doing so for a simple last minute recipe for dinner, that calls for a small amount, to me, is a waste of time. While I am no Barefoot Contessa cook, I am quite good at it, but I have quite a full and busy life, a job and a family that don't always allow for hours in the kitchen babysitting my stock pot.....so try to remember before you tell someone they shouldn't be cooking that maybe you don't have all the information before you just give them advise on it.

Thanks again Michelle, you saved me from picking up the wrong stock at the store! Have a great day!

Hope I'm not repeating someone, but re: space in freezer. I put some stock in bowls, but freeze a lot of it in my ice cube trays, then once frozen, put the cubes in freezer bags. You can shove them into smaller spaces in your freezer, in the door shelf, and control how much you unfreeze, especially if you just need a small amount. Just thaw a few cubes.

Yay Michelle! Thank you for taking on this rather overwhelming task for the rest of us. The only other review of store-bought chicken stocks I've seen was done by America's Test Kitchen and they are ALL ABOUT the Swanson's. It's nice to have a second - and different - opinion.

As for the store-bought-stock haters, I'm so sorry I don't make my own. I'll be hanging up my apron and making nothing but frozen dinners from now on. Sheesh.

I use Kitchen Basics for most recipes but none of the commercial stuff seems to work for Asian soups, the herbs and celery flavors are just wrong. When I make my own I don't season it until I'm ready to use it and then I can add garlic, ginger, lemon grass or whatever is required.

Terrific article, Michelle. Well-written and very informative. We can only hope that it's the first of a series on stock.

I make homemade broth (for soups, usually not for reducing) in the winter, when the heat produced by 4 hours of stove work is nice to have in the house. In the summer I use Swanson's low-sodium (no accounting for tastes; it's my favorite). Part of the reason is that when I make a cold soup I don't want it to "gel" in the fridge! Also I make cold soups kind of like you'd mix a cocktail: two parts broth, one part puree, mix and serve. Can't do that with the gelled stuff, and anyway, with a cold soup, I want a lighter mouth-feel.

I realize that one-half of the SE readership think this makes me the next best thing to an axe-murderess, while the other half wish I had been elected President instead of that Obama lad. Oh, and I forgot the people who need to sneer because I'm "not all that". I suppose these are the risks which we all run when we post.

People, do grow up and stop hating.

This was a really informative article! Thank you. I've always wanted to do a side-by-side & had my hunches... glad to know I was pretty close. Your control stock looks scrumptious.

I'm not the stock-maker in this house... husband makes a delicious stock from a turkey & a chicken & makes the most wonderful soups... ahhhh I picked a winner. :)

I am un-lurking to tell you how much I enjoyed this recipe! It was great! I substituted bacon for salt pork and added the whole package of spinach instead of half (I wanted to increase the veggie-to-chicken ratio). I also made a roux with the bacon fat in the pan, since I didn't have corn starch.

I'm assuming seasoned flour means salt and pepper? I put in hot smoked paprika into the mix, which was yummy. I was a bit timid about it this time, but next time I'll put in more. I used sweet smoked paprika for the broth mixture.

So yeah, a lot of changes, I suppose, but still a wonderful recipe.

Glad you had a good time! I need to try Boudro's next time we take the weekend trip from Houston. So I got a tip too! San Antonio is a fantastic town, it's like being in Mexico, but without the passport.

oh geez-- back in my much younger years when i was apprenticing for Chef Paul Prudhomme-(what an awesome chef/mentor/boss) i spent the first 3 months of my employment doing nothing but learning how to make and then making stocks. Every last one of our sauces were done with at least two of the stocks that were made every other day-- we had a chicken, beef, veal, and vegetable stock going most every day. Now that i am older and more tired and more arthritic, i still try to make my own stocks--complete with roasting the bones and vegetables and then simmering the mixture and then clarifying everything-- BUT in a pinch, Better Than Bouillion helps this old kitchen fanatic out wa-a-a-y better than any of the aforementioned canned or boxed stock or broth concoctions--eeech to Swanson's and Emeril; kinda sorta a pass for the Kitchen Basics, ALWAYS a Grade A for the Better Than Brand. And they have organics, too!

A dear friend of mine turned me on to an article about homemade broths that really opened my eyes to the benefits of homemade stock / broth. It's worth the 5 minutes to read and you may learn something new. The link is

www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/broth.html

As for my 2 cents I freeze the tips of chicken wings backs until I have enough to make a batch. I use carrot, celery and onion with about 3 whole peppercorn thrown in. No salt. Put on the stove covered and left pretty much alone for 3-4 hours. I start by removing the veggies and all by putting the biggest bowl I own in the sink and strain the majority with a regular colander . Then I let mine cool so that any solids that may have occured from the meat can simply sink to the bottom. No straining through cheese cloth or any of that mess.
I use really good ziptop baggies, quart size, and freeze it. An easy way to fill the baggie is just finding a bowl that you can set the baggie down in, it has to be small enough in circumference so the baggie can be brought over the top and down the sides slightly. This holds the baggie in place while you fill it and then seal it. I lay mine in a metal baking sheet flat until they are solid and then stack them up where room permits. Thaws easily enough in a saucepan over low heat while I prep other stuff. If I recall, microwaving is not recommended for thawing.