Difference between Stock and Broth
For regular eaters who cannot make out the difference between broccoli and a cauliflower, stock and broth wouldn’t make much of a fuss. And for real connoisseurs, stock and broth would be like two different entities as chalk and cheese. For the starters, stock is a liquid formed when bones, beef, chicken, fish, meat or vegetables is cooked in water. It is a base for soups, gravies and sauces whereas broth is a SOUP made of stock’s vegetables or meat. The cooking process of both differs too.
Patience tastes sweet but it also tastes like stock. Stock, is cooked over low flame for hours. The water, however, is not boiled and should be stirred frequently. When bones or meat are cooked slowly in water for stock, their collagen tissues get mixed with water, thus in the process adding a relishing and lingering flavor to soups and sauces. After the preparation of stock is over, the residue liquid with reminiscent pieces of meat, fish or vegetables is called broth. The cooking expert chefs also add the trimmings of meat, fish or chicken for the added flavors.
Stock is more of a preliminary product used for making soups and sauces later. Unlike broth, it doesn’t have animal protein. Broth is a finished product, all set to stir the empty stomach with semi-solid and jelly like appearance. Broth is soft in texture and smooth on taste buds as well.
In a nutshell, if you want to take broth in dinner, you have to cook stock first. The gradual and more subdued process of cooking stock is called broth. Stock is a base with which further cooking experiment of making sauces, soups and gravy can be done. The liquid that is still in pot after making or cooking stock is called broth.