How To Add Smoky Flavor To Store-Bought Broth

Home cooks have a lot on their plates — perhaps even more on their proverbial plates than their literal ones. Who has time to punch the clock and whip up stock? Thankfully, store-bought broth is a convenient workhorse. With its versatility and reliability, it's a staple of any well-stocked home pantry, but this convenience comes at the expense of complexity. Home cooks have long looked for ways to add more life to one-note, store-bought broth, and today's tip might top 'em all: Just add a sprinkle of smoked salt.

As the name implies, to make this ingredient, salt granules are literally smoked over real untreated bark-free wood, such as oak, applewood, hickory, or mesquite. The result is that all those wood-fired aromas and tastes get trapped in the highly absorbent salt crystals. The process also gives white-clear salt a smoky brown-beige hue. (Interior design lovers: If you've ever seen a smoked glass coffee table, it's comparable.) It looks stunning as a finisher on plated dishes, but it'll dissolve in your broths all the same.

You can prinkle this bold, umami-forward seasoning on everything from tomato toast to mocktails. It works for beef and chicken broths, but smoked salt lends especially transformative depth to vegetable broths without compromising a plant-based diet. No bacon or oyster sauce here, officer.

Like any recipe, season to taste. But, as a gauge, ½ teaspoon of smoked salt should be more than enough per quart of broth. It's important to take into account that different store-bought broths tote different existing sodium contents, so take care not to overdo it. You might need to cut your broth with a cup of water, or opt for a low-sodium broth in the first place for more control. Target's Good & Gather brand is our favorite boxed beef broth, for the record, and it comes in a reduced-sodium option.

To further customize the broth, feel free to play around with different types of smoked salt. Maldon smoked sea salt flakes are oak-smoked for a versatile flavor that pairs well with a kaleidoscope of different dishes. On the flip side, a more distinctive character like sweet cold-smoked mesquite salt might take complementary broths like vegetarian pho with baby bok choy and purple cabbage to the next level. 

This dimensional broth tip could be especially welcome for taking milder soups to new heights (or, more accurately, to deeper depths). Try adding a pinch to traditional miso soup with ginger and tofu. With just a sprinkle of the good stuff, you could gift a mouth-watering kick to mild potato leek soup or to sweet-spicy Thai chicken noodle soup with galangal and coconut.