Broths are a fridge or pantry staple that can be used to make soups, stews, and sauces, and can even replace water in recipes for extra flavor. Buying broth at the store is often much more convenient than making it yourself, but you may want to think twice before buying canned or boxed beef broth if you want your dish to come out well.

In the U.S, the FDA requires commercial beef broth to contain only one part protein for every 135 parts liquid, which often means that store-bought broth doesn’t even have any real beef in it. Most of the flavor in commercial beef stock comes from other ingredients like yeast extract, so the broth barely tastes like meat, let alone beef.

Most store-bought beef broths are produced by large-scale generic distributors who sell the stock to brands, who then alter the flavor with additives. Next time your dinner calls for beef broth, make your own or use store-bought chicken broth, which contains more real chicken meat and is far superior, even for beef-centric recipes.