You may be wondering why I use chicken stock in

my beef soup rather than beef stock, and the answer
is simple: I’m lazy. Beef bones are large and it takes
a long, long time to extract flavor and gelatin from
them (restaurants will keep them simmering on a
back burner all day). Chicken stock is quick, I
usually have it on hand, and it has a nice neutral
flavor that can easily pick up other flavors without
overwhelming them. A beef stew made with chicken
stock as the base will still be plenty beefy once it’s
done simmering.
What about store-bought broth? On most
supermarket shelves, you’ll find chicken, beef, and
vegetable broth, all for about the same price. But
that doesn’t make sense, does it? If beef broth takes
so much more effort—bigger bones, longer
extraction times, more expensive meat—how can
they sell it for the same price as chicken broth?
Here’s the secret: store-bought beef broth is not
really beef broth. There is actually very little beef in
canned beef broth. Just like other humans, food
manufacturers are lazy and concerned about their
bottom line. Rather than spending all day simmering
veal or beef bones, they opt to use natural and
artificial flavorings. According to the USDA’s
labeling guidelines, beef or pork broth only has to
have a Moisture Protein Ratio (MPR) of 135.1 to 1
—that is, for every ounce of water, there is only