Homemade Broth: Is the Flavour worth the Effort?

I made vegetable broth/stock the other day. Was it a waste of time and energy and money? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy a carton (or two) of vegetable broth? I can't decide...

Frozen Leek Scraps

It all started with trying to make some space in the fridge freezer. I have two ziploc bags of frozen leek scraps - you know the dark green parts that are tough and yucky. I had saved them last year because I thought I could use them to make stock/broth. But they take up space.

On top of that, I had several plastic containers in the freezer with spinach juice in one and rehydrated tomato water in two other ones. You know... when you take dried tomatoes and rehydrate them in water and then use them but what do you do with the red water now? Well, you put it in a plastic container and save it for broth.

But they take up space.

And freezer space is at a premium in our household soooo... I decided to make a pot of veggie broth/stock. We use veggie broth in various recipes. But what we often do is just use a Knorr bouillion cube or a concoction made out of nutritional yeast and various herbs and spices.

I had made chicken stock last year, and salmon stock, with the pressure canner, and they are handy jars to have in the pantry. So why not some veggie stock!

Making Veggie Stock

I rummaged around in the freezer and dug out the following:

• 1 bag of frozen leek tops
• 2 containers rehydrated tomato water (about 1.5 cups)
• 1 container spinach water (about a cup)
• 3 cubes of pureed garlic scapes
• small packet of frozen cauliflower mushrooms
• some frozen shredded parsnip

I dug around in the pantry and came up with:

• some dried tomatoes
• a dried red chili
• some dried cauliflower mushrooms
• some dried chanterelle mushrooms

On top of that I had the usual culprits of onions, celery & carrots as well as a couple of yellow peppers and some parsley and chopped chives that needed to go. Picked some thyme out of the garden, tossed in some bay leaves, salt and pepper.

I put it all into the big stock pot and topped it up with water. Let it burble away for 5 hours and then strained it and canned it with the pressure canner. We came out with 3 x 1000 ml jars and 6 x 500 ml jars. That's 6 litres of veggie broth.

Was it worth it??

There's a part of me that thinks it takes a lot of time and energy to make veggie broth. The stove energy... cooking the broth and then doing the pressure canning. Not to mention my time in gathering vegetables, watching the broth simmer (occasionally) and then the pressure canner (about an hour).

Surely it would be cheaper to just get a few cartons of veggie broth? 

Maybe not.

Store-bought Vegetable Broth/Stock/Bouillon

I had a look at Superstore's online shopping site and searched for veggie broth. I use Superstore because by-and-large, it is the cheapest. Shop at Save-on-Foods, Safeway or Thrifty's and you're likely to pay a LOT more for the same brand.

Let's look at some options.

No-Name Vegetable Broth

This would seem to be a no-brainer. Although I did notice that the 1000 ml container has now shrinkflationed down to 900 ml. Sneaky. Anyhow... Price is $1.90 for one litre. So for $11.40, I could get my 6 litres of veggie broth. It's certainly convenient.

But goes into this veggie broth?? Let's check it out.

Ingredients: Water, Salt, Concentrated Tomato Paste, Concentrated Carrot juice, Concentrated Onion Juice, Yeast Extract, Concentrated Celery juice.

Ewwww. That's not very good. Highly processed and concentrated stuff. Plus that's a heck of a lot of salt if it's the SECOND ingredient! Not sure what yeast extract is doing in there either.

Soooo... health-wise, I would say this is probably not the best.

Taste-wise... you might as well use salty water instead of this veggie broth.

Campbell's No-Salt Added

Well, how about Campbell's Soup then? With "No Salt Added". That's gotta be better, right? It does cost more - $15 for 6 litres but... no salt! Let's take a look at their ingredients...

Ingredients: Water, Sugars (brown Sugar, Pear Purée, Apple Juice Concentrate, Dextrose), Vegetable Juice Concentrate (sweet Potato, Carrot, Red Pepper, Citric Acid), Tomato Paste, Onion And Celery Extract (soy Lecithin), Natural Flavour.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me???!!!! So they take out the salt and add sugar??? WTF? WTH? And that would be a LOT of sugars given that it is the second ingredient in the list.

I am shocked. Call me naive but... seriously... sugars???

And the rest of the ingredients are, again, highly processed concentrates and extracts. With "natural flavour"... uh-huh... not sure what that means.

Pacific Foods Organic Vegetable Broth

Alright, let's skip right to the most expensive one because... seriously... these lower cost ones are comical. Ouch... $6.80/litre = $40.80 for 6 litres of vegetable broth. Well, that makes me feel better with my time and energy.

This company's write-up of this broth says "We keep our recipes simple, use ingredients with integrity, and honour what nature gives us by minimizing our impact on the earth." Excellent...

So what ingredients do we have?

Ingredients: Water, Carrot Juice Concentrate*, Sea Salt, Celery Juice Concentrate*, Sugars (dextrose*), Garlic*, Leek Juice Concentrate*, Onion Juice Concentrate*, Tomato Paste*, Mushrooms Juice Concentrate*, Spices*, Apple Cider Vinegar*.

Sigh. Salt is ingredient #3 which means that will be a lot. And there are sugars. And most of the stuff is from juice or concentrate. What the heck??? I am not sure what the * means as the Superstore site didn't give a key for that. Will have to look on a box.

This does not impress me at all. You think "Organic" and most expensive would translate into "best one" but... no.

Let's try some bouillon cubes...

Go Bio Organic Bouillon Cubes (No Salt Added)

Organic bouillon cubes gotta be good, right? Mind you, this has only 6 cubes which makes 6 cups of broth, or 1.5 litres. Sooo... $31.76 to make 6 litres of broth.

But what ingredients do we have?

Ingredients: Non-gmo Corn Starch,* Non-hydrogenated Palm Oil,* Onion,* Carrot,* Yeast Extract, Leek,* Parsnip,* Parsley,* Lovage,* Thyme,* Rosemary,* Oregano,* Turmeric,* Mace,* Garlic,* Natural Flavouring.

Oh wow. Starch and oil are the primary ingredients. With a lot of herbs and spices. And no celery. Interesting. Topped off with "Natural Flavouring". At least it has no salt.

The Go Bio team has one with No Yeast and that one has Mineral Salt as the primary ingredient. Great.

Knorr Bouillon Cubes

Knorr. A name that stands for quality. Yes? The box says "Our Promise: Made with High Quality Ingredients". OK... so price wise... we have 6 cubes which makes 6 cups or 1.5 litres... or $13.16 for 6 litres of broth. Not a bad price. Let's look at these high quality ingredients:

Ingredients: Salt, Modified Palm Oil, Monosodium Glutamate, Corn Starch (sulphites), Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Sugars (sugar, Maltodextrin), Onion Extract, Xanthan Gum, Water, Tomato Powder, Dried Savoy Cabbage, Spices, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Dried Parsley, Caramel, Garlic Extract, Dried Oregano, Silicon Dioxide, TBHQ. Contains: Sulphites.

Salt is the first ingredient. Of course. Then Palm Oil. Sigh. MSG. Starch... more Palm Oil. Sugars!!!! Then extras and powders and Disodium this and Disodium that. With some dried spices... and TBHQ and sulphies...

What the heck is TBHQ??? "Tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, is an additive to preserve processed foods. It acts as an antioxidant, but unlike the healthy antioxidants you find in fruits and vegetables, it has a controversial reputation." Errr... that doesn't sound good!! It is made from petroleum and is essentially butane. Charming.

Right. Scratch Knorr off the list. Worst of the bunch. Should we try a concentrated bouillion broth?? Why not...

Knorr Concentrated Vegetable Bouillon

Knorr... we've met them before. Their Promise of Quality. Uh-huh... Apparently you just use a drop or two of this to add extra flavour to sauces and broths, etc. Is this like Maggi?? No, but... not much different. Not going to factor in the cost because this is just silly...

Ingredients: Sugars (maltodextrin, Sugar), Water, Concentrated Vegetable Juice (carrot, Celery, Onion, Cabbage, Tomato, Mushroom), Salt, Yeast Extract, Garlic Powder, Spice, Spice Extract, Natural Flavour.

Sugars are the primary ingredient... and then the usual concentrates, juices and extracts.

Meh. Gonna pass on this one as well.

Knorr had an Instant Stock Mix as well... primary ingredients are salt, sugars and MSG.

Wow. I had no idea.

Is Home-Made Veggie Broth Worth it?

Whaddya think? Is my home-made stock/broth worth it? I don't think I put nearly enough salt in... to be honest. But, you know what, salt can be added later.

Health-wise - I would have to say ABSOLUTELY my veggie broth is worth it. The ingredients in all of these store-bought versions were just... wrong.

Cost-wise - It's only my time, really. And whatever electricity is used for the stove. And a few onions, carrots and celery. And the jars and lids. But we do reuse our canning jars so it's the snap-lids that are the physical cost... And they run $0.50/snap lid. Sooo... not bad for the 1 litre jars but the 500 ml jars... it takes two snap lids to make a litre. 

Still... cost and convenience isn't everything. And for an outlay of 1 hour of my time per litre of broth... we're doing not bad. I guess.

Do you make home-made broth - veggie, chicken, bone, fish? Is it worth it? Or am I just fooling myself?

I had fun doing it... so that must count for something?!