Stock cube

What is Brodo Nut

From his invention to the present day

The discovery of the stock cube dates back to the early nineteenth century, when the French pharmacist Antoine-Auguste Parmentier (1737-1813), at the request of the French army, proposed potatoes and meat extracts to feed the soldiers engaged against the reintroduction of monarchy in some European states. His idea, partly rejected, was taken up by Justus von Liebig (1803-1872) who, considered the inventor of the stock cube, limited himself, in reality, to apply Parmentier's idea on an industrial scale. The original recipe involved the use of broth, obtained with beef and salt, an essential ingredient for its conservation. To produce 1 kg of extract, 30 kg of meat was required.

Storage at room temperature, together with ease of use, strongly influenced the success and spread of this new product.

Today, the stock cube is used to replace the extract to add flavor to a dish that is considered to be tasteless, not tasty or otherwise of poor quality. Although the use of stock cubes represents a practical and economical solution, it is certainly not the most recommended in terms of taste and quality.

Meat, the main ingredient of the by now unavailable Liebig meat extract, has been largely replaced by salt and monosodium glutamate, an ingredient that, however natural and considered safe, has been and still is the subject of controversy over its safety. The sodium content of a normal stock cube can thus exceed, on its own, the maximum daily limit allowed. The excess of this nutrient can cause, in predisposed or already suffering from hypertension, a rise in blood pressure, sometimes associated with gastritis.

Quality

How to evaluate the quality of a good stock cube

The stock cube gives flavor to foods precisely because it consists mainly of salt and monosodium glutamate. The presence of meat is in many cases negligible and less than 5%. Considering that a stock cube weighs about 10 grams, the amount of meat inside it does not normally exceed half a gram.

Needless to say, therefore, that the greater the percentage of meat contained in it, the better a nut is. The quantitative aspect is not however the only important element, the current legislation specifies in fact that the extract is exclusively based on beef, while bouillon cubes and granular preparations can include other types of meat and any part among their ingredients of the animal (better not to dwell on a useless but disgusting list).

Compared to the original meat extract, modern bouillon cubes also have a lower water content and are much richer in fat. In addition to the massive use of flavor enhancers, the widespread habit of adding hydrogenated fats or poor quality vegetable oils, contributes to further worsen the health and quality aspect of the product. From the strictly energetic point of view, also considering the reduced dose of intake, the stock cube is a food low in calories. However, this aspect cannot compensate for the poor quality of the ingredients used.

To check the proportion between the various components (meat, salt, glutamate and fats) it is sufficient to remember that, according to the regulations in force, the various ingredients must appear on the label according to a decreasing quantity order. Thus, if the salt is the main constituent of our nut, it will have to appear first in the list of ingredients and be followed, according to the same criterion, by all the others. If the percentage of glutamate exceeds 10% on the package, the wording "based on glutamate" must appear. cereals, mainly produced with yeast extract. Finally, powdered or granulated broths are easy to dose, dissolve easily and have a lower fat content (used as thickeners in the traditional nut). They are therefore placed halfway between the extract of real meat, nowhere to be found, and the common stock cube.