Bouillon Cube Conversions: Cups, Teaspoons, Calories & Sodium

This is the reference page we wanted for everyday bouillon questions. Everything below about Herb-Ox comes from the jars we ship (the same label photos are on our product pages) and from Hormel, the company that makes Herb-Ox. Where neither says something, we say so instead of guessing.

One cube, one cup

Herb-Ox cubes are portioned so that a single cube dissolved in one cup of hot water gives you one cup of broth. Drop them straight into soups and stews, or into the water you cook rice and grains in.

Useful shorthand: a standard 32 oz carton of store-bought broth is four cubes. A big pot of soup that starts with two quarts of stock is eight. To stand in for one 14 oz can of broth, the Herb-Ox lid says 2 cubes in 1-3/4 cups of boiling water.

How far does a jar go?

• One jar — 25 cubes, so 25 cups of broth. That is a little over 6 quarts, or just over six 32 oz cartons.
• One chicken jar plus one beef jar — 50 cubes, so 50 cups of broth, or 12.5 quarts. Two jars also reach our $15 free-shipping minimum.

What about teaspoons?

Hormel, which makes Herb-Ox, gives the answer in its Herb-Ox FAQ: 1 cube = 1 packet = 1 teaspoon of granulated bouillon. One cube makes one cup of broth.

So if a recipe calls for granulated or powdered bouillon, use one cube for each teaspoon, and three cubes for a tablespoon (a tablespoon is 3 teaspoons). If the recipe wants "1 teaspoon bouillon granules dissolved in 1 cup water," that is one cube. If it wants granules sprinkled dry into a dish with no added liquid, crush the cubes finely first (one cube per teaspoon) and taste as you go — you can always add more.

That ratio is Hormel's figure for Herb-Ox. Granules from other brands can be stronger or milder, so when you switch brands, add a little at a time and taste.

Bouillon cube nutrition

Per cube, from the nutrition panels on the jars we ship (a chicken cube weighs 4 g, a beef cube 3.5 g):

Calories

Five calories per cube, chicken or beef. A cube is a seasoning, not an ingredient with any real caloric weight — even a gallon of broth from 16 cubes is 80 calories.

Sodium — the number to actually watch

Salt is the first ingredient in both flavors, and it shows: 960 mg per beef cube, 1020 mg per chicken cube. The label puts that at 42–44% of the daily value per cube.

That matters most when you are scaling up. Four cubes for a quart of soup is roughly 3,800–4,100 mg of sodium in the pot, depending on flavor, before you add anything else. If you are cooking for someone watching their salt, use fewer cubes and more water than the one-to-one ratio, and season at the end instead.

Carbohydrates

One gram of carbohydrate per cube, one gram of which is sugar. Whether that fits a particular way of eating is a question for you and, if it is a medical matter, your doctor — but the number itself is small and it is on the label.

Are bouillon cubes gluten-free?

Both Herb-Ox jars we sell, chicken and beef, carry a Gluten Free flag on the front of the jar.

"Bouillon cubes" as a category are not automatically gluten-free, though. Wheat-derived ingredients turn up in some brands, so the label is worth reading rather than assuming. Herb-Ox prints it on the jar, which is the only reason we state it here.

What is actually in a cube

The ingredient lists, word for word from the jars we ship (the jars print them in capital letters):

Chicken

Salt, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Sugar, Silicon Dioxide (Anticaking Agent), Contains 2% or Less of Chicken Fat, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, Dehydrated Cooked Chicken (Contains Natural Flavor), Safflower Oil, Dehydrated Parsley, Turmeric, Onion Powder, Spice, Dehydrated Garlic.

Beef

Salt, Sugar, Flavor (Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Salt), Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Contains 2% or Less of Silicon Dioxide (Anticaking Agent), Beef Fat, Spice, Onion Powder, Dehydrated Cooked Beef, Caramel Color, Dried Beef Stock, Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate, Autolyzed Yeast, Flavoring.

Allergy note: the beef cubes contain soy (hydrolyzed soy protein is in the list twice).

Is there MSG in Herb-Ox cubes?

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is not in the ingredient list of either flavor. The cubes do contain hydrolyzed corn protein (chicken) or hydrolyzed soy protein and autolyzed yeast (beef), and both contain disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate. Hydrolyzed proteins and yeast extracts naturally contain some free glutamate, so if you avoid every source of glutamate, these are not the cubes for you.

If glutamate is the thing you actually care about, we wrote about it at length in Bouillon Cubes Without MSG: What to Look For, including what to check on any brand's label.

Storing bouillon cubes

Keep them somewhere cool and dry with the container closed — cubes are mostly salt, and salt pulls moisture out of humid air, which is what turns a cube crumbly or sticky.

For shelf life, go by the date printed on your jar rather than a number from the internet. Dates vary by production run, and we would only be guessing at yours. Hormel says the cubes do not need refrigeration after opening; once you have made broth, refrigerate it.

Quick answers

How much broth does one bouillon cube make?

One cup. Four cubes make a quart, which is the same as a standard carton of store-bought broth.

How many bouillon cubes equal a teaspoon?

One. Hormel's Herb-Ox FAQ says 1 cube equals 1 teaspoon of granulated bouillon, and one cube makes one cup of broth. For a tablespoon of granules, use three cubes.

How many calories are in a bouillon cube?

Five, in both the chicken and the beef cubes.

How much sodium is in a bouillon cube?

960 mg in a beef cube, 1020 mg in a chicken cube — 42–44% of the daily value per cube.

Are Herb-Ox bouillon cubes gluten-free?

Yes. Both the chicken and the beef jars carry a Gluten Free flag on the front.

How many cubes are in a jar?

25 per jar, each one wrapped in its own foil, enough for 25 cups of broth. We sell chicken and beef as single 25-cube jars.

The cubes themselves

• Herb-Ox Chicken Bouillon Cubes, one jar of 25 foil-wrapped cubes (25 cups of broth)
• Herb-Ox Beef Bouillon Cubes, one jar of 25 foil-wrapped cubes (25 cups of broth)

Orders of $15 or more (two jars) ship free to all 50 states; an order under $15, such as a single jar, pays the carrier rate for your address, shown at checkout before you pay. Orders placed before 3 PM ET Monday to Saturday ship the same day from our shop in Lynbrook, New York, and Sunday orders ship Monday.