What is the difference between broth and stock?

The traditional distinction is the ingredient and the result. Stock is built on bones, often roasted, simmered for hours so collagen breaks down into gelatin, which gives stock its body, richness, and the way good stock turns jiggly when chilled. It is usually unseasoned, meant as a building block. Broth is made primarily from meat (and sometimes bones), simmered for less time, so it is lighter and thinner but more flavorful on its own and typically seasoned, closer to something you would sip.

In a home kitchen the line is blurry and rarely worth stressing over. Most recipes treat them as interchangeable, and commercial cartons label themselves broth or stock with little consistency, so read for sodium and quality rather than the word. The one time the difference matters is texture: a sauce or risotto that should feel silky benefits from real bone stock's gelatin, while a clear soup or a quick pan sauce is fine with broth. Bone broth, the trendy sipping version, is essentially a long-simmered stock rebranded, and its much-hyped health claims outrun the modest evidence.