I occasionally make my own chicken broth, but more often than not use the boxed unsalted version. Water wouldn't be a good substitute for many of my uses.

I don't care for turkey broth/stock. I think it has an odd flavor.

I've never thought of using - or not using - broth/stock in a dish. I just do or don't. Perhaps it's with the author's thought - but not consciousely. Years of cooking has taught me what works best.

However, I really don't like the taste of commercial stocks. I'd rather use my own or none.

I think it really comes down to the dish and the recipe. Blindly adding stock to any dish that requires liquid would do as Baraghani suggests. Many recipes specify water for a reason. However, I would not want my risotto without stock, although I know certain new, non traditional recipes do specify water. I tend to use vegetable stock, especially when extra fat or weight is not wanted.

I make my own. I freeze scraps of carrot peelings, carrot ends, onion end and skins,, celery ends and leaves, garlic peelings, etc. Also, chicken skins and bones. When I have enough, I add water, no salt, and simmer. Dip out the large pieces and strain. Chill and remove fat. (Can save fat for later if wanted.) It makes the most marvelous broth/stock that is salt and fat free.

Maybe it's my mood, but I found the article funny. S/he needed permission not to use stock? I don't agree with her definitions, as well: stock is soup base/cooking liquid. Broth is finished soup (or sometimes juice from a prepared dish) with nothing floating in it. I'm sure other people have still other definitions. My chicken stock has bones, meat and roots in it, no seasoning, greens or herbs. My beef stock is mostly roasted bones, with plenty of marrow and meat on them, and maybe some aromatics. My green stock is mostly greens and aromatics, nothing to cloud it up.

Additionally, stock is part of a well, um, stocked kitchen. Maybe the author has a challenged living circumstance, like one of those flats in New York or Paris, where the fridge is smaller than in a travel trailer, but I keep chicken, beef and green stocks in the freezer. I don't have to make the stock to make the soup. I make stock when I need to replenish my supply. Blocks of stock also help keep things from thawing in a minor power outage. Additionally, there are ways to make a quick stock while prepping the rest of one's ingredients. Maybe s/he's just cooking challenged.

Stock was originally the water that other things were cooked in. Even now, when I steam roast a chicken and vegetables, there's often plenty of ”water” from the chicken juices, vegetables releasing, and some condensation. I save that to use as seasoned stock. I cook with stock, not just make soup. The ”water” has lots of good nutrition in it. What my mother called ”the good”. She taught me to simmer while making stock until there was nothing you'd want to eat in the solids one strains out. That's the stock one makes on purpose, to capture all the good of the ingredients. Which is the whole point! Condensed nutrition. One can condense it down to paste, add a bunch of salt to preserve it and call it ”better than bouillon”. Condensing also amplifies the flavor.

That said, if one is making a clear tomato soup, stock will muddy the flavor, If one is making a hearty onion soup, beef stock or good mushroom stock can turn it into an umami delight. Chicken soup without stock tastes like dishwater. I know. It's an old Jewish tradition to boil a chicken and veg to cook them, and to serve the water from the boil as soup, sometimes with added herbs or something, bits of chicken, dumplings (matzah balls), even eggs. This is from when people were poor, didn't have stoves or ovens, and weren't about to lose any nutrition from the cooking water, but modern Americans still do it the way great-granny did. Be mindful of your ingredients. They should have purpose. Hearty vegetable beef soup has beef stock in it. Garden vegetable soup does not have stock in it. Hearty vegetarian soup has vegetable stock. My friend's delightful cabbage and tomato soup has beef soup-bones in it so makes its own stock, All are good.

And stock goes in a whole lot more than soup!

Is the writer demonstrating pure naivete, or attempting to be relatable? I do agree it makes her seem a bit goofy

I do make chicken stocks, using just the drippings, bones and scraps of seasoned roasted meat - or from the bones and skin of raw chicken. I don't add anything else other than fresh bay leaves. I don't care for the taste of stocks made with aromatic veggies like onions and celery.

I use mine mainly for soups and stews, or beans.

I just as often use plain water when making soups and stews, rice, or thinning things.

Beautifully put, John

I second that!

Judi, me too! I made turkey broth once and didn't like it at all!

I stopped making my own broth since I started buying Kirland or the Organic one at Costco. It has the best flavour by far, and no salt added.

I've never cooked rice in broth although I've seen it mentioned for added flavour.

The title is a bit deceiving. Like clickbait. I don't know anyone that reaches for stock where it doesn't belong.

A simple miropoix or sofrito adds so much background flavor where a stock would overpower. Like a shrimp scampi. Simmer the shrimp shells in a cup of water. Drain and add a bit of the pasta starch water, add to the miropoix, then toss with shrimp and pasta.

A recent tomato soup i roasted a sheet pan of vegetables with a quart zip lock of frozen garden tomatoes. Blendered with some parmesan and a bit of water...(i don't care for it if too thick or ketcupy).

Last nights noodle bowl i used a frozen pint of Dashi from a batch i made last week. Fresh miso and ginger. With the broth made with kombu and spices like black and white cardomon and dried shitaki i can't see it used any other way.

We make a big master stock about three times a year. A big caldron in our lobster pot during lockdown on a portable burner on the back deck thinking covid was inevitable...if one of us needed to hibernate in the guest room, we had a good broth in the freezer for sipping from a mug. I usually want just miso with tofu so i'm well stocked.

The linked article mentions you never know what you are going to get in purchased stock...often bitter and salty. When i used to buy back-up stock for the holidays every year, i would purchase the same brand i was familar with.

Anywho. Nothing new.

I really dislike the last line in the article:

< And, of course, don’t forget to season with plenty of salt. >

This makes her sound like the type to over-salt her food.

If the point is to let the flavors of the ingredients shine, then salt often gets in the way. There are many things that I think taste better without salt, and I often eat vegetables such as potatoes, corn, squash, etc without any salt at all. If something has a sweet flavor, such as fresh corn, then I do not like salt with it. I generally use salt to counteract or balance bitter flavors, such as turnip greens, wheat, and other grains. I also use it on meat, and this is the main way that I think salt is a flavor enhancer.

If someone's soup has a bitter taste, then adding salt is a good idea, but the salt should still be added as sparingly as possible, and the suggestion to use "plenty of salt" sounds like salt is going to be a primary ingredient. People who are "super tasters" have more of the bitter taste sensors and therefore use more salt to counteract this, which makes their dishes less palatable to others.

You can never know how something tastes to someone else, since everyone's taste buds are different.

I don't know anyone who uses stock to make fish soup, unless it is fish stock, which is what I use. When making a shrimp soup, I use the shrimp shells to make a stock for it, and I will also add either crab or lobster soup base for the salt. I use Thai fish sauce when making a Japanese or Thai soup that has shrimp in it.

Salt overuse is my pet peeve. I quit watching cooking shows at all. First they salt the meat, or brine. Then when finished they pour the salt on out of a bowl

It is also why I don't enjoy eating out anymore. Everything is usually way over salted.

I am pretty well known for making great soups. Although some soups would be overpowered by broth, having a good rich tasting broth or concentrated soup powder or paste base is pretty much the secret to a lot of great tasting soups. Minestrone, for example. Any bean inclusive soup really. Particularly if you are going light on the meat, a good broth ads heartiness. I use "Better Than Bouillon" vegetable soup base. It is I think from roasted vegetables. One could roast vegetables and make a rich broth but not something I am likely to take time with when this product suits my needs.

As for salt, it's a fine line. Most stuff is over-salted and it is quite easy to go from not enough to too much with very little change in quantity. I think it's a mistake to try and make up for lack of salt at the very end. I have the most luck with salting very lightly all the way along, with the best results coming from salting at the very beginning, albeit lightly. I think this helps with drawing out the flavor components of the soup ingredients into the broth and then back to the ingredients because salt solutions facilitate osmosis, the crossing of liquids over cell wall barriers. That can't be accomplished at the very end, it takes time. This is why, IMHO, a lot of soups taste better the second day, more melding of flavors due to osmosis. It's also why a soup will taste saltier a bit of time after you salt it, not right away. Which is why a good soup maker makes the soup well ahead of time and has time to see if the tweaking has had the desired results. Once you get a set of tried and true recipes, you know pretty much what level works.

My secret for tomato based soups is V8 juice, low salt. It's a mix of fresh vegetable juices, adds some complexity to the soups, particularly chili if you're using tomatoes in it. Same with minestrone.

Yes, if I'm making carrot or squash soup, or cream of broccoli, really no point in using a strong flavored broth, but even in that case, a lighter flavored one adds to the depth of flavor, again, due to the osmotic effects of cooking the ingredients in a lightly salted solution over time. Mirepoix is part of that, but a lot of folks don't use the amount and time with a Mirepoix that really adds the depth. I myself often rush the process, which means the stuff browns, but not the same level of caramelization and concentration of flavor. Some of course. If you want the fresher flavor, NOT the caramelized flavor, then of course, do not do this step. That is definitely the case with some soups, particularly the lighter flavored ones, where you don't want that flavor note.

Lars, I'm a supertaster, and struggle with all the bitter, but I've never found salt to help. I don't use a lot of salt, but do try to remember to put salt shakers on the table for guests. Fruit is the best counter for bitter. It's not just the sugar content—and sugar (honey, etc.) can be disgusting— but the pectin and other compounds help too. it has to be sparing however. Sweet enough to mellow the bitter, but not enough to actually taste sweet. There's nothing really bitter in my stocks, though some sharp, like turnip and parsnip. And the onion and carrot are plenty sweet without resorting to apples!