What is the Difference between Stock, Broth, Court Bouillon and Consommé?

Needless to say, these words are often used interchangeably in our slapdash world, but there are distinctions. Stock is the basis of many dishes – soups, stews, sauces, and gravies. Broth and consommé are both types of soup.

The Differences Between Store-Bought Chicken Broth and Stock

Frustratingly, if you’re looking to purchase chicken stock or chicken broth at the grocery store, these distinctions go out the window. The USDA’s 2005 Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book, which determines how food manufacturers may label their products, states, “No distinction has been made between ‘broth’ and ‘stock.’ They may be used interchangeably as the resulting liquid from simmering meat and/or bones in water with seasonings.” This means manufacturers can decide to call their product “broth” or “stock” as they wish, regardless of the product’s viscosity or whether or not it is seasoned. Generally speaking, the containers of chicken broth or stock you buy at the store are more on the broth end of the spectrum, remaining fluid when chilled and featuring a mild chicken flavor. Products labeled both stock and broth can be found in salted, low sodium, and no-salt added versions as well. If you need true chicken stock with lots of body, you’re better off making a basic homemade stock

Stock:

"Etymologically, stock is simply something one keeps a stock of for use. Stock is traditionaly the product of a pot kept constantly simmering on the hob, to which odds and ends of meat, bones, vegetables, etc. are added from time to time to keep up a continuous stock for flavoury broth as a basis for soups, stews, sauces, etc...In practice, few households or restaurants have the sort of constantly available source of low heat necessary for this perpetually self-renewing stockpot, and most stock is made afresh in individual batches as needed."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 325)

A strained liquid that results from simmering meats, fish, herbs, and vegetables in water. It is usually made by browning bones, vegetables and other ingredients before they're cooked in the liquid for hours. Used as a basis for soups or sauces. Simmering the bones for a long time produces gelatin, which gives a different thickness and mouth feel to the final product. Roasting the bones first can make a darker color stock, as well as impart a nice flavor. Beef and veal stocks take the longest because of how long it takes the bones to break down. Chicken and fish stocks (fish stock is called fumet in French) have considerable shorter simmering times because their bones are so much smaller and do not take as long to break down.

Stock is made with very little salt and may be reduced to half of its amount. Stock is almost always sieved or strained before being used to build another dish. It is lightly seasoned so that it can be reduced substantially without being too salty. The French word for stock is fond, or foundation, which indicates its importance as the basis of many classical dishes.

On a historical note, Escoffier, who literally wrote the book that the cooking schools base their curriculum on, used a combination of roasted bones and various cuts of meat that we would not dream of using today as they would be considered premium cuts of meat and too precious to use for stock and then discard.

Broth:

A flavorful, aromatic liquid made by simmering water or stock with meat or vegetables. U.S. culinary schools often differentiate between broth, usually made from viable portions of animal meat, and stock, which may be less palatable, often made from vegetable scraps and bones.

Broth is essentially a soup in its own right. The production of broth is similar to that of stock, including the long simmering of aromatic vegetables, herbs, and some form of meat, but it is more highly seasoned and flavorful than stock. Because of this, it is not reduced, or it would be too intense. It tends to be lighter and less viscous than stock, however, because it is made less of bones (with all their gelatin-forming collagen) and more often with a whole chicken or pieces of lean meat. The water in which you poach a chicken or beef ribs is technically a broth. If you try to make a classic sauce with broth, it will be too light. Generally speaking, stock has a heartier, richer flavor. This is mostly due to the bones used (broth is usually made with meat only and no bones).

The French word for broth is bouillon, but that is not to be confused with the bouillon cubes that so many people use to make stock (the bouillon cube dates from the 1930s).

Broth can be served on its own or dressed up with vegetables, rice, pasta, etc. Most soups are broth-based although there are many that are not broths – cream soups that are thickened with flour, for instance.

Broths are generally seasoned with salt after straining, but stocks are not. This is because broths are meant for enjoying without the need for additional cooking (just warm them up and they’re ready!), but stocks are intended for use as a building block in a sauce, gravy, or soup, which you wouldn't want to risk oversalting as it reduces further. “Stock is an ingredient,” Farone says, “not something to serve on its own.”

Court Bouillon:

Court bouillon translates roughly as short boil, and refers to a flavored liquid that is used for poaching things like fish, eggs, and sometimes even chicken. It is sometimes called a broth, but it is very light in flavor for broth, and doesn’t require the significant cooking time of vegetable or meat broths. Instead, court bouillon takes about thirty minutes to prepare prior to use in recipes.

Most types of court bouillon use a little bit of lemon juice, water, fresh herbs, and the occasional carrots, onions, and/or celery to give the poaching broth a light flavor. This flavor helps flavor meat, fish or eggs as they poach, but is not overbearing. All ingredients are usually just added to the liquid and simmered on the stove for half an hour. Sometimes recipes recommend sautéing any vegetables first in a bit of light oil.

When you’re ready to use court bouillon to poach, you typically strain it first, since this will remove leaves of herbs and any vegetables. These tend to be overcooked while making the light broth, so they usually aren’t worth consumption.

Stobart (1980) points out that: "Meats and vegetables are less often cooked court-bouillon for an obvious reason. A court-bouillon is prepared in advance by boiling the flavouring ingredients before the food it put in to cook. This is necessary with fish, and shell fish, as they spend only a short time in the cooking liquid. But the meats and vegetables, which take longer to cook, the flavouring materials can usually be boiled while the food is cooking."

Consommé:

The most refined soup made from stock. The stock is reduced. Then ground beef or chicken, additional aromatic vegetables, and frothy egg whites are added to the boiling stock. The egg whites coagulate on top, acting as a filter that collects impurities in the stock during 45 minutes to an hour of simmering. The consommé is strained through a towel, and, often, Madeira or sherry are added.

If the original stock was made with enough collagen-producing bones, there should be enough gelatin in the consommé so that it is smooth when hot, and sets as a jelly when cold. Additional gelatin can be added while the consommé is being clarified, however, if it needs a little boost.

A very popular recipe including consommé is French Onion Soup in which sautéed onions are added to rich brown beef consommé. Consommé is typically used to make a clear chicken and noodle soup as well.