Blog / Tallow and Nutrition

Stock, Broth and Bone Broth: What Is the Difference?

Three words used interchangeably on labels. Two have real definitions and the third is mostly a newer name for one of them.

October 21, 2026 · 3 min read

These three words get used as if they mean the same thing. Two of them have had clear meanings in kitchens for a long time.

Stock

Made from bones, especially joint-heavy ones. Long simmer. The collagen breaks down into gelatin, so a good stock sets to a jelly when cold. That body is the point, and it is what makes a sauce gloss. Method in how to make beef stock.

Broth

Made primarily from meat, with a shorter simmer, and seasoned to be drunk as it is. Thinner, lighter, more immediately savory. It does not set when cold because there is far less gelatin in it.

Bone broth

In practice, stock. Usually simmered longer and often sold as a drink rather than as an ingredient. It is a newer name applied to a very old technique, and a great deal of marketing has been attached to it.

“And then just what's on the label and what's actually in it? Is there anything that I can't pronounce? Is there anything that comes from a chemical factory? Is there anything made of petroleum instead of something that grows out of the ground or walks on it?”
Gray Shipley

We are not going to make health claims about it. What we will say is what it is: bones, water, time. Whether that is worth what people charge for it is a judgement you can make yourself once you know it is the same thing cooks have always made.

“And so quality is what's in your food and what's not in your food, the quality, what's going into it, as well as keeping some of the things out of it, that you don't want to be eating because it's not really food.”
Gray Shipley

Which to use

Sauces and gravies. Stock, for the body. See why is my gravy thin.
Soups you will eat as soup. Broth, or stock thinned and seasoned.
Drinking it. Whichever you like. It is the same pot.

“I, the more I learn about food, the more important to me, clean label and food that's made of food.”
Gray Shipley

For stock

Beef Broth Bones

Joint-heavy broth bones. The gelatin is the whole point.

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Common question

What is the difference between stock, broth and bone broth?

Stock is made from bones, broth from meat, and bone broth is stock simmered longer under a newer name.

Authoritative sources

Food-safety temperatures and storage times on this page are cited to the agencies above rather than to us.

About this guide

Written at Shipley Farms in Vilas, North Carolina: a family cattle farm raising and dry-aging beef in the Appalachian Mountains, now in its fifth generation. No shortcuts since 1872.

Every quote on this page is Gray Shipley talking, the man who runs this farm. We sat down with him, turned on a recorder, and kept his own words. Hesitations are trimmed so they read on the page. Nothing else is added or reworded, except where Gray revised his own words in review.

Nobody knows this beef better than we do. On food safety we leave it to USDA FSIS and FoodSafety.gov, and we have linked their pages above. Reviewed 3 October 2026.