It’s so easy to make your own stocks. At the supermarket where I shop I got (kosher) chicken bones which made the best stock. I also roast onions and carrots until some char is on them and use them too!

I also am a saver of turkey & chicken carcasses for broth. Depending on how the orinal bird was cooked, the flavor can vary. For purists this might be a problem — I enjoy the variety.

For beef broth, I found another trick. I have a great recipe for french roast — sear the roast, place on a bed of tons of onions and a cup of red wine, top with onion soup mix, and cook forever. This yields a wonderful, strongly flavored broth from all the liquids released from the roast and the onions. Whatever is leftover after serving, I skim and freeze — great as a soup on its own with added rosemary, or as an ingredient. While I know the addition of the onion soup mix is a chemical addition, it is a much less proportion than using soup base alone. My friends think I am so extravagent, serving roast for shabbos, but they don’t know that with this added bonus, I avoid having to cook soup for a week or two after.

In one study, Of 61 subjects who identified themselves as MSG sensitive, 18 reacted to MSG with no false positives to a placebo. In another study, it was estimated that about 1% of the American public are MSG sensitive and show symptoms after consuming an oral dose of 3 grams of MSG.

I’m not denying anyone’s symptoms based on this data - I’m just presenting an opinion. And there are 3 divisions in the discussion - good food made without MSG, bad food made with MSG and good food made better with glutamates, such as parmesan cheese and tomatoes making dishes tase better.

That aside, the article doesn’t touch on the fact that food made with good ingredients just tastes better than food made with bad ingredients covered up with MSG.

OK, I’ll admit that home-made & fresh-made are better than canned any day, but I’m not opposed to using the canned stuff. I don’t have enough room in my freezer for my own broth. The bigger problem for me is the salt content - it can throw the flavors of a recipe off. Levana Kirschenbaum makes most of her soups with water - “If you’re using the most delicious ingredients, why would you need broth?”

As far as MSG goes, you should read Jeffrey Steingarten’s essay “Why Doesn’t Everyone in China Have a Headache?”, in It Must Have Been Something I Ate. He posits that most MSG sensitivity is imagined, or at least due to something other than MSG. Did you know that Parmesan Cheese has the second highest concentration of natually ocurring MSG? Right behind Kombu Kelp.