Stock vs Broth: What Is the Real Difference?

Three things separate stock from broth — raw material, seasoning and time — and a third liquid, the remouillage, sits behind both.

Stock is built on bones. They go into cold water, the pot is held at 85–95 °C, and the simmer runs 4–6 hours for chicken and 6–8 for beef or veal. Stock is never salted in the pot: it is an ingredient, and reducing a salted stock by half doubles its salt.

Broth is the seasoned liquid. It is salted as it cooks and is meant to be eaten as a finished dish rather than reduced into something else. That single difference — seasoning during the cook versus seasoning at the end — is the cleanest line between the two.

The refrigerator settles arguments about quality. A stock that sets firm at 4 °C has extracted gelatin from the bones; one that stays liquid has not. Broth, made for immediate eating, is not judged by that test.

Vegetable stock sits to the side of both categories: no bones at all, and a short 30–60 minute simmer, since there is no gelatin to extract.

Remouillage is the second extraction: bones that have already given one stock are covered with fresh water and simmered again before being discarded. It is thinner than the first pass and belongs wherever a milder liquid is enough.

For the hour-by-hour numbers behind each row, see the tables at /stock-ratios-and-simmer-times; for the full working sequence from cold start to storage, see /how-to-make-chicken-stock.

• Stock — bones, unsalted, 4–8 h depending on the animal, an ingredient
• Broth — seasoned as it cooks, a finished dish
• Vegetable stock — no bones, 30–60 min
• Remouillage — second pass over used bones, thinner than the first

Further reading

• Stock Ratios and Simmer Times
• How to Make Chicken Stock, Step by Step