Better Than Bouillon substitutes

The direct equivalent, and the substitution to make first. Both products are the same idea, concentrated salty savoury seasoning meant to be dissolved in a cup of water, so the conversion is one for one and nothing about the recipe changes.

Best for

soups, stews, gravy, rice and grains, braises, pan sauces

Cubes taste flatter, saltier and more one-dimensionally salty, because the paste carries some rendered fat and concentrated meat solids that a dry cube does not, and that fat is what makes a broth taste rounded rather than sharp. The gap closes noticeably if you add a small knob of butter or a teaspoon of chicken fat. Cubes also dissolve slowly, so crush them and use hot liquid.

The cleanest-tasting option. Rather than trying to replace the concentrate, replace the finished broth it was going to make, and remove the water the recipe added alongside it.

Best for

soups, risotto, gravy, braises, cooking grains

Much less salty than the base, so the dish will need salt of its own; start with a quarter teaspoon per cup and taste. It is also cleaner and lighter, without the concentrated roasted note the base has, which some people prefer and others find thin. If the recipe uses the base as a dry seasoning with no water at all, this route does not work; reduce a cup of broth down to about two tablespoons instead.

Minor's, Orrington Farms, Tone's, Knorr Concentrated Stock and Knorr Stock Pots are all the same category of product and interchange freely with Better Than Bouillon at the same measurement.

Best for

everything Better Than Bouillon is used for

Salt levels vary a good deal between brands, so taste the mixed broth before it goes into the pot and adjust. The Knorr Stock Pot style is more gelatinous and sets like jelly, which gives sauces a slightly silkier body. Restaurant bases such as Minor's are often less salty and more meat-forward, and they are usually the better product.

A pantry route that works genuinely well for the vegetable and mushroom varieties. Miso supplies the salt, the paste texture and the fermented savoury depth, soy sauce supplies glutamate and colour, and onion powder supplies the aromatic sweetness that soup bases lean on heavily.

Best for

vegetable soups, vegan gravy, braises, noodle broths, beans and grains

Tastes distinctly of miso: beanier, a little sweeter, and cloudier in the pot. It is a poor imitation of the roasted chicken and beef varieties, whose flavour comes from actual roasted meat, but it is a very good stand-in for vegetable base. Whisk the miso into hot rather than boiling liquid so it stays smooth.

This takes the base apart into its three actual jobs, which is fat for roundness, glutamate for savoury depth, and salt, and rebuilds it from things most kitchens have. Surprisingly effective in gravy and pan sauces.

Best for

gravy, pan sauces, stir-fries, rice, braises

Not as complex as the base, and it will not make anything you would drink as broth on its own, but in a dish with other ingredients it is close. Schmaltz or bacon fat make it noticeably better than butter does. Soy sauce darkens things, so use less in a pale sauce and add a pinch of MSG instead if you have it.

Better Than Bouillon's real advantage is not flavour, it is that a jar lives in the fridge for months and a teaspoon turns water into broth on demand. No substitute reproduces both the taste and that convenience at once, which is why a bouillon cube is the answer for most people rather than anything homemade.

Best for

deciding what to buy next time

One thing genuinely worth knowing: the base is very salty, considerably more than an equivalent volume of broth, so any recipe written around it has usually had its added salt reduced to compensate. When you swap to a less salty option such as carton broth, you almost always need to add salt back, and the dish tasting flat is the most common complaint after this substitution.