Question about determining calories in homemade stock and broth

msapplek

How does one determine calories in homemade stock or broth?

My homemade Vietnamese chicken pho broth included a simmer of the whole chicken, aromatics, spices, fish sauce, etc. But after I strain all the solids, what would be the calorie content of a serving of the broth only?

Since I'll be customizing each pho bowl (maybe add more chicken or veggies one day, skip the rice noodles the next day), it would be more accurate for logging purposes to just enter the base calories for a serving of the broth.

MaltedTea

I don't take it this far. My homemade stocks and broths have no added salt and I skim the fat (sometimes to save in the freezer for future recipes).

Therefore, I treat it like water. Micronutrient-dense savoury water 🤤

So, if I cook 2 cups of basmati 🍚 and need 4 cups of water, I'll generally use at least 0.5 to 1.0 cups of broth.

Again, for me this is just less convoluted (especially since none of my stocks or broths have ever been the same: sometimes it's 2 chicken carcasses, sometimes 3. Sometimes it's beef ribs bones. Sometimes there's 🍄, sometimes there's 🥕, sometimes both, along with other stuff)

msapplek

@MaltedTea- I agree that for other homemade stocks I've made, the calories seem negligible and I don't sweat it too much.

However, for the pho broth, since I know that, at least, two of the ingredients--fish sauce and sugar--has calories--I thought it would be good to know what the calories for a serving would be. But, ah, just googled, and did find a MyFitnessPal link for homemade pho broth, and it's about 35calories per cup (but dang, sodium is so high. Damn fish sauce). So that's helpful to know!