Jars of Better than Bouillon sit in my fridge alongside bottles of soy sauce, fish sauce, and tubes of tomato paste. What do these things have in common? They’re my umami bombs.
While I love them all, the one I use in most dishes is Better than Bouillon. Technically, it’s a food base — an intensely flavored paste made of ground meats, vegetables, and salt that can be used to make quick broths or enhance other recipes — but I think of it as magic paste. A dab here and there helps a dish taste like the best version of itself.
The Better than Bouillon product line is fairly extensive. It includes traditional bases along with organic and low-sodium offerings. My favorites are beef, chicken, and vegetable. Occasionally I’ll reach for mushroom or garlic. I haven’t tried the ham, shellfish, or fish base. Yet.
When adding Better than Bouillon to a recipe, be sure to dissolve it in a small amount of hot liquid before adding it to the recipe. This ensures that it mixes evenly into your recipe and doesn’t clump.
To do this, place a small amount, at least a tablespoon, of hot liquid into a small bowl. Add the Better than Bouillon and allow mixture to stand for a minute. Then, stir to combine until no large clumps of Better than Bouillon remain before adding the dissolved base into recipe.
Sometimes homemade soup needs a flavor boost. A little Better than Bouillon dissolved into hot soup usually solves the problem. While matching the flavor base to the soup always works, try using a different base, such as beef base in chicken soup, to add a deeper flavor.
- How to use: Ladle a small amount of hot soup into a bowl. Add about a teaspoon of Better than Bouillon. Stir to dissolve. Return soup to the pot and stir to combine. Taste. Repeat as needed.
- Suggested base(s): Beef, chicken, mushroom, garlic, or vegetable.
![Better Than Bouillon Flavors Better Than Bouillon Flavors](/uploads/1/2/3/9/123954941/745254726.jpg)
Homemade gravy beats the stuff from a jar every time. Adding a smidgen of base is an easy way to up the umami in your favorite gravy recipe without a ton of work. And if your drippings burn, you can make the entire gravy from Better than Bouillon. Think of this as Thanksgiving insurance.
Dissolve four teaspoons of Better than Bouillon in two cups of boiling water. Use this to replace the stock called for in your favorite gravy recipe. Prepare gravy and thicken gravy as the recipe directs.
- How to use: For two cups of gravy, whisk about 1/2 teaspoon of Better than Bouillon into hot, thickened gravy. Return gravy to the pot. Stir to combine. Taste. Repeat as needed.
- Suggested base(s): Turkey, mushroom, garlic, or vegetable
Having a freezer-container full of meatballs is one of my go-to shortcuts for an easy weeknight meal. Since I bake (not fry) my meatballs, I occasionally add a little base to change up the flavor of the meatballs with minimal effort.
- How to use: For every pound of meat, mix about a teaspoon of Better than Bouillon into hot water. Stir to dissolve. Allow mixture to cool. Stir gently into ground meat to evenly distribute along with the other ingredients.
- Suggested base(s): Beef, mushroom, or garlic
Remember those old Swanson ads that instructed folks to make their mashed potatoes with chicken broth? Using a flavor base gives you the best of both worlds. You get the flavor boost from the base and the creaminess from the cream or milk. Win-win!
- How to use: For every two pounds of potatoes, add 1 teaspoon of chicken, garlic, or mushroom base. Dissolve base in one tablespoon hot milk. Add mixture to the potatoes, along with remaining ingredients.
- Suggested base(s): Chicken, garlic, or vegetable
Who doesn’t love the ease of a pan of sautéed greens? A little base adds flavor that you didn’t even know the greens needed.
- How to use: While steaming or sautéeing the greens. For every one pound of greens, combine 1/2 teaspoon of base with a tablespoon of hot water. After the greens wilt, add the base mixture. Toss greens to evenly distribute.
- Suggested base(s): Mushroom, beef, garlic, or vegetable
Whether it’s a meat-based chili or a strictly vegetarian affair, adding a pinch of base to chili brings out the flavors of the tomato and enhances both the meat and beans.
- How to use: After the chili finishes cooking, ladle about a half cup of hot chili into a bowl. Stir in one to two teaspoons of base to dissolve. Add the mixture back to the pot of hot chili. Stir to combine. Taste. Repeat as needed.
- Suggested base(s): Beef or vegetable
Published: Sep 26, 2017
It’s Grocery Month at Epicurious, and we’re thinking about super-fast checkout lines, alternative mylks (not a typo), and the cheapest bottles of olive oil (and wine). Check out the complete serieshere.
Better Than Bouillon Pork Base
It will come as no surprise when I tell you that as a (mostly) vegetarian cook, I rely heavily on vegetable broth. Water doesn't cut it for me when I'm adding liquid to my beans to sauces—I prefer a liquid with more flavor, like broth, stock (yes, there is a difference), wine, or even vegetable juice.
But what might surprise you is that when I need said broth, I use Better Than Bouillon.
This started a few years ago, while cooking a big pot of minestrone soup with my sister. I asked for the vegetable broth, she handed me a jar of 'food base' instead. As she scooped out a few spoonfuls of the stuff into our pot, she explained that it was a broth concentrate, a paste of carrot, onion, celery, tomato, potato, garlic, salt, and spices that can be added to water to create an instant broth.
![Better Than Bouillon Flavors Better Than Bouillon Flavors](/uploads/1/2/3/9/123954941/623199098.jpg)
Kale Minestrone with Pistou
![Better Better](/uploads/1/2/3/9/123954941/128314955.jpg)
Once I tasted the resulting soup—rich and hearty and packed with umami—there was no turning back. I started using Better Than Bouillon all the time. G minor guitar.
Unlike bouillon cubes and powder, which are made from primarily from salt (lots of it), sugar, and hydrolyzed protein, BTB vegetable base is made from, well, vegetables. (Note that there's a Better Than Bouillon variety to suit every cooking need: the base comes in beef, chicken, mushroom, and roasted garlic, as well as low-sodium and organic versions.) Plus, it keeps forever, unlike a box of vegetable broth, which will go bad after just a few days sitting around in the fridge.
Wonton Soup with Mushroom-Zucchini 'Meatballs'
So now I keep a jar of BTB in my fridge—and a back-up jar in the pantry—at all times. And because it's so big in flavor, I shamelessly add a spoonful of it to anything. I put it in stir fries, soups,grains bowls, ragouts—anything that calls for a boost of umami. I even use it for—surprise, surprise—soups.
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Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup with Bean and Cheese Nachos
This weeknight-friendly soup is enriched by the flavor of smoky chipotles, brightened by fresh lime, and ready in just 22 minutes or less. Crisp bean and cheese nachos garnish each bowl instead of the traditional fried tortilla strips in a fun ode to cheese toast–topped French Onion Soup. If you prefer things on the milder side, feel free to reduce or omit the chiles.
TagsStockSoup/StewGroceriesSauce30 Days of Groceries
Let’s be honest — sometimes even the best recipe needs a little flavor boost. When this happens, I head straight to the fridge and grab a jar of Better than Bouillon. A spoonful or so of this magic paste delivers an umami bomb that brings those flat flavors to life.
If you haven’t used Better than Bouillon, you might think, “How hard is it to be better than bouillon? Those salty bouillon cubes are awful!”
Traditional bouillon cubes and powders are packed with salt and don’t bring much flavor to a recipe; Better than Bouillon flips this. Made from meat, vegetables, and spices, it brings flavor and just enough salt to enhance a dish without tipping it into over-salted territory. (Note: All Better than Bouillon varieties contain a fair amount of salt, even the lower-sodium line. Be sure to check the nutrition labels if you need to watch your salt intake.)
Unlike traditional bouillon cubes which, to me, taste like flavored salt and not much else, I think of Better than Bouillon the same way I do soy or fish sauce. It’s something I add when a recipe needs an oomph. A dab added to sautéed greens takes them from “meh” to “yes!” (I’m looking at you, kale.) The same goes for stir-fries, tomato sauce, and, of course, soup.
Speaking of soup, I often add a pinch to soups made with homemade stock. I picked up this trick while reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.
While it sounds crazy to add food base to homemade stock, Tony knew what he was doing. A little chicken or beef base makes a homemade stock taste like the best version of itself.
And if you don’t have homemade or boxed broth on hand, Better than Bouillon comes to the rescue. Simply stir about a teaspoon into eight ounces of boiling water and in seconds you’ll have a broth that makes a great base for quick homemade soups or even for sipping if you’re feeling under the weather. The flavor’s a bit more mild than a homemade broth, but similar and often better than broths you’ll can get in a carton or can.
My one piece of advice about Better than Bouillon (other than try it!) is to ignore the suggested amount listed on the jar. Unless you’re adding it to water to make a broth — and using nothing else — the suggested amount is often too much. I’m not kidding when I say that I use a dab here and there.
Since the ingredients include ground meat and vegetables, Better than Bouillon must be stored in the refrigerator. But don’t worry that it will go bad quickly — it has about an 18-month shelf life from the time it’s opened. Unlike cartons of chicken stock, I’ve never had a jar of Better than Bouillon go bad in the fridge.
The long shelf life and affordable price — about four dollars for an eight-ounce jar — makes it easy to try it in different dishes. Once you do, you’ll reach for it more often than not.
Read more: 6 Ways to Cook with Better than Bouillon
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