Simple herbal recipe for homemade bouillon cubes that will keep you from using commercial brands from the store, even organic, that contain high amounts of synthetic MSG.
People new to traditional cooking and making homemade broth are frequently surprised to learn that bouillon cubes from the store are heavily processed food. Without exception, they contain large amounts of processed glutamate or MSG. Even organic brands should be avoided! If you wish to use them, it is best to make homemade bouillon cubes instead.
Take a look at the ingredients of this popular brand of organic chicken bouillon cubes from the health food store that falsely proclaims “No MSG Added” on the label:
Organic Chicken Bouillon Cube Ingredients:
yeast extract, corn starch*, non hydrogenated palm oil*, mineral salt, natural chicken and rosemary flavouring, chicken fat*, lovage*, turmeric*, parsley*, chicken meat powder*. *organic
What’s the very first ingredient?
Yeast extract which is an alias for glutamate. Note that there are dozens of aliases used in food labeling that while misleading, is completely legal. It is essentially a cat and mouse game food manufacturers play with consumers. As soon as consumers wise up to one name, they change to another then another. (1)
Note that the avoidance of MSG and glutamate in processed foods is important. It frequently helps resolve issues with headaches. It also simplifies maintaining a healthy weight. MSG damages and kills neurons in the hypothalamus in the brain stem. This can contribute to obesity over time by damaging metabolism. Neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock describes the dangers of this food additive in his book The Taste That Kills.
How companies get away with these labeling shenanigans is shocking. As a consumer, you really need to be on your toes to keep from falling for these processed food scams.
The good news is that it is simple to make your own healthy bouillon cubes to liven up the flavor of bone broth or to add to filtered water along with some veggies, legumes, or meat to make a super-fast soup in a pinch.
Healthy Stock Cubes
The easy and delicious recipe for homemade stock cubes below uses the strong and flavorful herb lovage. It’s been traditionally used for centuries to boost the taste of soups and season broth from Europe to southwestern regions in Asia.
This recipe was sent to me from Joan O., a reader in Ireland. She very graciously said I could publish for all to enjoy.
Sarah, please feel free to use my recipe. One of my daughters has eczema and I knew that MSG exacerbated it, but I had thought that we were an MSG free house until I read your website and found out that yeast extract is [glutamate] MSG.
My family and I were consuming MSG unknown to ourselves in the form of organic bouillon & stock cubes. When we gave them up it was difficult to compensate for the taste but the following Lovage cubes recipe does a really good job, better than just adding fresh lovage as the flavour is much stronger.
A nutritionist has been working with my daughter for the last few months and she is now on a diet to build up her gut as we suspect that she has leaky gut (in spite of being breast fed for 3 and a half years) she is already much much better. Sometimes I use the lovage cubes with homemade stock but really they are pretty strong and can be used instead of stock cubes. I also make chicken and lamb stock and find the slow cooker very useful for this, when I’ve made stock I usually reduce and reduce it and then pour it into ice cube trays to make stock cubes.
Keep up the good work Sarah.
Homemade Bouillon Cubes Recipe
Recipe for homemade bouillon cubes that may be used with homemade stock to improve the flavor or on their own in a pinch as a base for soups.
Ingredients
- 3 bunches fresh lovage 21 ounces (200 grams)
- 1 onion preferably organic
- filtered water
- 1-2 tsp grassfed butter
Instructions
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Sweat the onion on low heat using healthy cooking oil of choice for several minutes to draw the moisture out, taking care that little to no browning of the onion occurs.
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Add the lovage a few handfuls at a time. It is recommended to use fresh lovage if at all possible for this recipe. If using fresh lovage, note that it will shrink like spinach. In a pinch, dried lovage leaves can be substituted using 1/3 the amount.
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Cook for several minutes constantly stirring.
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Add enough filtered water to cover.
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Simmer for about 20 minutes then whisk with a handheld blender (I use this one). The bouillon should now look like soup.
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Simmer uncovered on very low heat to reduce down, a few hours if possible.
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Allow to cool to room temperature, and then spoon the thickened mixture into ice cube trays (silicone ice cube trays if possible as the bouillon cubes are easier to remove later). If you don’t like to use silicone, you can use stainless steel ice cube trays instead.
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Place ice cube trays filled with bouillon cubes mixture in the freezer.
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Once frozen, the bouillon cubes can be removed from the ice cube trays and stored in freezer bags to save space and for very convenient use to add flavor to homemade stock or serve as a stock base alone in a pinch.
Recipe Notes
Virgin or expeller pressed coconut oil may be used instead of grassfed butter.
Substitute dried lovage in a pinch if fresh lovage is unavailable. Use 1/3 the amount of dried herb (7 ounces) versus what you would use fresh (21 ounces).
More Information
Chicken Broth: “No MSG” Labels are False!
Bone Broth and MSG: What You Need to Know
Headaches? MSG the Likely Cause
Stock or Broth? Are You Confused?
MSG refers to the man made form, glutamate is naturally occurring in lots of good foods like someone else mentioned. Tomatoes, etc…. I am sensitive to MSG, but naturally occurring glutamate is fine for me. If you aren’t sensitive to MSG, I’m not sure there are any definitively proven negative side effects.
MSG causes cancer. Is that realistic enough for you?
Great recipe thank you:) but what herbs axactly are in “lovage” ? And it mentions butter as in ingreidient but no mention as to when to add it in tbe recipe???
To answer Deborah Rowden, there is nothing non-organic about MSG and yeast extract is not a pseudonym for MSG. Yeast extract is yeast extract, it happens to by naturally high in MSG just like anchovies, just like tomato purée, just like seaweed, just like Cheddar. Just because MSG has a “chemical” sounding name does not mean it’s an artificial substance. it’s not, and occurs in large amounts in many foods we love and is part of the reason we love them.
Does it destroy brain cells? Sarah says it does. Others say there is no evidence for this. But don’t fall into the trap of thinking MSG is necessarily “artificial”.
What a great use for something I have a ton of! I was wondering what else to use it for, besides the cream of lovage soup from Nourished Kitchen and occasionally throw in the stock pot. I’m not sure how much is in a “bunch” though.
Please see unblindmymind.org for a thorough treatise on glutamates in food. You will be amazed at all the places to find it. If under 68% of the additive, it dies not have to be labeled as MSG.
It’s fraud. Sue.
How do they get away with calling the store cubes organic if they have MSG??
And…can you grow lovage in a pot? It sounds as if it’s very invasive and for a amall urban yard that wouldn’t be good.
Thanks, Sarah! I love your stuff!
I find it odd that you would use the unhealthy option of sisilicon and plastic
You mean for the ice cube trays? It’s fine to use this option if the broth has completely cooled. I certainly would never pour the bouillon cube mix in there still hot though!
True but freezing things in plastic also releases toxins. I’m having a hard time thinking of a safer way to freeze anything tho.
Technically speaking, silicone is really part of the rubber family, not plastic. Perhaps you might like stainless steel ice cube trays? This is what my Mom used to use, and they seem to be making a comeback. http://amzn.to/1bhN2Ys
Silicone is made from silicon (the element) and oxygen. It has low toxicity.
Hurrah!! At last, a great use for the lovage that grows in my garden. I live in the Midlands of England in Lincolnshire and the Lovage thrives here. But be warned on a couple of fronts- it grows very TALL. about 8 foot or so, so be careful to place it accordingly. Also, once it gets its feet into the ground it is reluctant to move and it is perinnial so comes up every year. And it self seeds with abandon if you don’t chop off the flower heads before they set seed. On the plus front the bees and hoverflys adore the flowers. Also I don’t cut mine back until spring as Ladybirds (Lady Bugs to Americans) nest in the hollow stems over winter. The leaves have a very strong taste raw but one leaf chopped very finely and added to a salad is very nice. Once Spring comes and the Ladybirds are out and about it is then easy to pull up the old, spent growth and the new growth bursts out of the ground and charges towards the sky until the Solstice in June when it flowers and then sets seeds. I would really miss it if it wasn’t in my garden.
I’ve never tried lovage, but I’ll probably give this a shot! It’ll be nice to have a convenient alternative on hand since…
I actually make my own bouillon powder out of bone broth, but it’s a long process. I usually start with my 48hr beef broth (grass fed!) and gently simmer that down till it’s very reduced. Pop that in a tray into the dehydrator and let it run at 135F until it’s a brittle sheet. Grind it up, and there you have it. All told it’s about a 4 day process from bones to bouillon! But reconstituted it’s identical to the gelatin-rich broth I started with.
I make chicken broth regularly and I have a dehydrator. How is the powder stored? How long does it last?
I love this!! I cannot stand chicken bouillion cubes – I cringe every time I see them on Food Network.
I think lovage is what my MIL uses – she has it growing outside her house. The leaves look like leaves from celery root (not the green celery, but the bulb – sometimes it comes with dark green leaves growing out of the top) but the flavor is amazing!! Her chicken stock is the best. I could not figure out what to call it in English but I think this might be it. I would love to get some seeds and grow it here…
Lovage is very easy to grow .. like parsley.
Hi magda, you didn’t know what to call it in English, so what do you know it as ? I’ve never heard of it and I’m trying to figure out what it is in Spanish, to see if I can get it at my local Hispanic market