What to use instead of bone broth
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Gelatin body that gives a broth weight on the lip
Long simmering pulls collagen out of bones and joints and converts it to gelatin. That is what makes a broth feel thick without being thickened and why a good ramen or wonton soup coats the mouth.
Ordinary stock plus powdered gelatinRan out
1 tsp powdered gelatin per 1 cup stock, bloomed first in a few tbsp cold water
Gets the body almost exactly. It contributes no flavour, so the broth still needs whatever the bones would have given it.
Chicken wings or feet simmered 90 minutesRan out
2 lb wings per 2 quarts water
The fastest genuine route, since wings are mostly skin, joint and bone. The result sets to a jelly in the fridge.
A pork trotter or piece of skin added to any stockRan out
1 trotter per 3 quarts, 3 hours
Very rich and distinctly porky, which is correct for xiao long bao and wrong for a delicate chicken soup.
What doesn't work: A bouillon cube in hot water. It seasons and colours the liquid and there is no collagen in it whatsoever, so the soup stays thin on the lip and the noodles end up sitting in what tastes like salty water.
Savoury cooking liquid that seasons the dish
Most of the time the broth is not the point. It is delivering salt, glutamate and background meatiness into rice, noodles or braised vegetables.
DashiRan out
10 g kombu per 1 litre water steeped 30 min below a simmer, then 20 g katsuobushi off the heat for 2 min, strained
Cleaner, marine and much lighter. Udon and shoyu ramen are better for it and a heavy stew is not.
Shiitake and kombu brothPlant-based
15 g dried shiitake + 10 g kombu per 1 litre water, soaked 30 min then heated to 80 C
Deeply savoury and faintly sweet, with no fat and no body at all. A teaspoon of sesame oil per bowl puts some weight back.
Vegetable stock with miso and soy stirred in off the heatPlant-based
4 cups stock + 1 tbsp white miso + 1 tbsp soy sauce
Cloudy and salty, so cut the salt elsewhere. Boiling the miso turns it grainy and flattens the flavour.
Concentrated stock base from a jarRan out
1 tsp per 1 cup water
Salty and quite convincing on flavour. Use it for the seasoning and add gelatin separately if the dish needs body.
What doesn't work: Water plus extra salt. Salt amplifies what is already present, and nothing is present; a wonton soup built this way tastes only of the wontons and reads as under-seasoned no matter how much more salt you add.
Whether it gels in the fridge is the only test that matters. A broth that stays liquid cold has no gelatin in it, whatever the label says.