The Store-Bought Stock Ina Garten Can't Get Behind
Ina Garten, celebrity chef, well-timed cookbook author, and recent memoirist, has built a veritable empire around wholesome foods cooked simply and well. Despite her focus on making things from scratch, Garten still keeps it low-key and accessible in the kitchen. Her signature line, "store-bought is fine," makes her at once down-to-earth yet aspirational. But, there is one stock that Garten thinks should never come from a supermarket.
According to Garten, store-bought chicken stock is not fine, and she encourages her fans to make their own in advance. (Chicken stock freezes very well for up to three months, so it's easy to be prepared.)
"You really can't buy good chicken stock the way you can make good homemade chicken stock," Garten says, in a short YouTube interview with Williams Sonoma. However, in another interview, Garten told Today that if you absolutely cannot make your own stock — and she has a very simple recipe on her Barefoot Contessa website if you're interested — then you should try to pick a brand that "doesn't have too much salt in it."
Why is homemade chicken stock better than store-bought?
In line with what Ina Garten says, there are a few reasons why homemade chicken stock is superior to store-bought. First, there's the flavor. Mass-produced stock isn't exactly made with the same level of attention and care that homemade broth is. Many brands don't use fresh ingredients like vegetables and chicken bones that make homemade stock so rich and flavorful. Instead, storebought stocks are often made using highly concentrated versions of reduced broth that only ever come into contact with tiny amounts of actual chicken.
There is also the nutritional value of homemade stock. One of the things that makes chicken bone broth such a powerhouse is its gelatin content. Gelatin is derived from the collagen inside animal bones and connective tissue and leeches into the stock as you cook it. Gelatin contains essential amino acids, as well as other properties that help with gut, skin, and bone health. Because store-bought stock contains much less actual chicken, it also doesn't contain the same amount of gelatin.
As Garten also mentions, store-bought chicken stock (and really, almost all stocks on supermarket shelves) are typically loaded with salt and processed ingredients, like flavorings and colorings. By making your own stock at home, you get to control how much salt goes into it, meaning you can season it to taste and make it much more heart-healthy.