In general cooking, many people would happily interchange the words broth, stock and soup to mean the same thing. When it comes to buying or making your own, there are vast differences between the three terms, what the products taste like and what they are used for.

What is bone broth?

A bone broth will be made using the bones of an animal and very little to no meat, just a few scraps left on the bone. Traditionally made with beef, lamb or chicken, the bones will be simmered anywhere from 6 to 48 hours to extract collagen and other nutrients. Sometimes the bones will be placed in with nothing but water and sea salt, making a 'naked' broth. These do not taste very nice and are purely for medicinal purposes.

Most bone broths will be made with the inclusion of onion, garlic, other veg and apple cider vinegar to help extract nutrients. The Broth of Life brand cook their beef for 48 hours and their chicken for 24. This brand then turn it in to a dehydrated bone broth powder. In this state it's shelf stable after opening and is easy to travel with. Rehydrate with hot water, store in a reusable coffee cup if you're travelling and sip like a tea. These don't always dissolve 100%, so a flavour boosted version is also available that has nutritional yeast and tamari added.

Quite often, a bone broth will be consumed as a part of a gut healing protocol, especially those on the FODMAP diet. Foods excluded from this diet that are often included in bone broth are onions, garlic and celery. You can purchase a FODMAP Friendly Bone Broth in both of our major brands.

While Broth Of Life turn their broth in a powder, Meadow & Marrow have turned theirs in to a concentrate paste. it's smooth and tastes great, but once open, need to be kept in the fridge. The bone broth concentrate can only be used at home when a fridge is close by. Each jar in this brand has 26 serves available. They are available in plain and boosted blends, one, for example, with matcha and thermogenic spices specifically for those who do intermittent fasting.

What's the difference between broth and stock?

In culinary circles, put very simply, a stock is a bone / meat scraps / mirepoix / herbs & spices. A broth is any liquid that's had meat cooked in it.

For the purpose of discussing the vegetarian and vegan stock and broth in store, these terms just do not work. In our store, the word broth and stock are fairly interchangable when discussing vegetarian and vegan options. From what we can tell from our manufacturers, they tend to use the word broth when they are formulated with superfood and nourishing ingredients for healing. We have 2 vegan broths in store following this protocol and a vegetable stock from Broth Of Life that is made with just veg, herbs and a little olive oil.

Our newest vegan broth comes from Simple As That, who are not a traditional food company. Don't let that stop you, it's amazing.  The broth is a joint venture between a naturopath and pharmacist who both run natural brands. Simple As That make the best vegan sunscreen in Australia based on zinc oxide in the market today. Their broth has the same high standard.

Soup

A soup will be made on a base of either a broth or a stock for flavour and then have added ingredients. They can be anything from meat to rice, pasta, quinoa, beans, veggies. The sky is the limit.

The big thing we want to drive home is about the flavour of a soup vs a broth or a stock. Soup is a finished delicious dish ready to serve and eat. A stock or broth is a flavour base that needs to be built upon. Many broths are sipped purely for their nutritional value with very little thought to flavour.

So if you're trying a bone broth for the first time, just understand that it's not going to taste like soup, but it's a great way to start one!