12 Best Kitchen Bouquet Substitutes For Your Food

If you can think of one condiment that is often undervalued but has multifunctional properties, what would it be? Hmm, did I hear sauce? Yup, that’s it.

Sauces are indispensable if you want your dish to be appealing and yummy! Sauces add complementary and contrasting flavors like tanginess, sharpness, texture, and moisture. Not to mention they are the best thickening agents out there!

Kitchen Bouquet is a seasoning sauce used to add flavor to whatever you are brewing in your magical cookpot. Since time immemorial, it has been on the scene.

It is such a classic sauce used for browning purposes. But go to a grocery store, and you can’t find it easily. Yeah, being that good as a product, you don’t like it when you hear it is scarcely available. But as always, the good news is that you can easily swap this amazing kitchen sauce with substitutes.

Wondering what the best substitutes are? Some of the best kitchen bouquet substitutes are dark soy sauce, Maggi liquid seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, Bragg liquid aminos, and gravy master.

It is used for cooking, baking, marinating, and brining purposes. Its role in every one of these purposes is quintessentially justified as a flavorful ingredient. 

If you are a sauce buff (like me), maybe you know about these already. If not, brace yourselves as we are about to embark upon a reading journey (vroom vroom!).

Quick Peek: Kitchen Bouquet

The following sections tell you about kitchen bouquet, its flavor, consistency, uses, and health benefits.

What Is Kitchen Bouquet?

Kitchen Bouquet is a classic browning and seasoning sauce. It is commonly cited as a browning agent. Its origin is akin to that of the universe; no one really knows how it came into being; there are only theories. 

What we do know is that kitchen bouquet comprises a unique blend of caramel, spices, herbs, and vegetables. If you’ve hailed it as a healthy sauce already, let me stop you right there because it isn’t. A pinch of sodium benzoate is added as a preservative.

Uses of Kitchen Bouquet

Kitchen Bouquet is a rich flavorful sauce that intensifies the color and flavor of your dishes. It adds richness to your soups, stews, gravies, meat, and other veggie-loaded dishes, making it a worthy addition to your recipes.

Smearing meat pieces with Kitchen Bouquet before cooking them can turn them into well-roasted and yum pieces of meaty goodness. This can easily replace the bitters in alcoholic drinks. Additionally, they serve as a great topping like any other sauce. 

Kitchen Bouquet on The Health Radar | Looking Through The Wellness Telescope

Kitchen bouquet is moderately a healthy ingredient. It is a vegan product which is the best bit about it. It comprises natural products and has a sodium content that is quite low.

This makes it relatively a healthy liquid seasoning. The only red flag is that the kitchen bouquet contains sodium nitrate, which is a sulfiting agent. 

Why Should We Substitute Kitchen Bouquet?

It isn’t easy to find a kitchen bouquet as it is easy to find tomatoes. It is a classic but rarely found. But that shouldn’t diminish your spirit of cooking, does it? If you are an avid user of sauces, then I am sure you will be out of it sooner than you imagine.

If you are always into experimenting, you might want to try something that promises you the taste of kitchen bouquet without actually using it. That’s when substitutes for kitchen bouquet come in handy.

So, shall we talk about the best kitchen bouquet substitutes right away?

12 Best Kitchen Bouquet Substitutes 

You know by now what kitchen bouquet is, its uses, and its benefits. Now, let us talk about the twelve best kitchen bouquet substitutes.

1. Dark Soy Sauce

Dark soy sauce is a prominent ingredient in Chinese cuisine. It is dark brown in color with a profound salty, umami flavor. The older the sauce is, the better its flavor.

Considering the similarity in color and appearance, dark soy sauce can be the best option for replacing kitchen bouquet for browning purposes. With high sodium content, it will also enhance the saltiness in the dishes. 

Want to make delicious sauce using dark soy sauce? Here is the recipe for black bean sauce.

2. Maggi Liquid Seasoning

Maggi seasoning is a flavor-enhancing agent used to perk up the flavor of dishes. It is available in dark brown liquid, granulated powder, and cube form. 

The dark brown Maggi liquid seasoning is yet another close substitute for Kitchen Bouquet. It can magically make your dish salty, spicy, and savory!

A reminder, though. Considering its saltiness, be cautious while adding. Too much salt can ruin your dish, and hence I can tell you Maggi liquid seasoning isn’t a highly recommended kitchen bouquet substitute. Unfortunately, it can’t be used for thickening soups or sauces.

3. Worcestershire Sauce

Worcestershire sauce is a popular condiment made using vinegar, molasses, garlic, anchovies, tamarind, chili pepper, cloves, pickles, soy, sugar, and salt. It has an intense umami flavor owing to the presence of anchovies and soy sauce.

Worcestershire sauce is another great substitute for Kitchen Bouquet with low sodium content. It can be a browning agent and add taste and color to your dishes. Same as the case with Maggi, it can’t be used for thickening owing to its liquid texture.

Worcestershire sauce also adds that umami flavor to many sauces. Here is the recipe for a sugar-free cocktail recipe.

4. Bragg Liquid Aminos

So, if you are aboard the weight-loss wagon, behold the healthiest substitute of Kitchen Bouquet. Bragg liquid aminos is a protein concentrate prepared using soybeans and purified water. It has a powerful umami flavor and tastes mildly sweet but with similarity to soy sauce. 

Bragg liquid aminos is a gluten-free, kosher-free kitchen bouquet substitute that comes with a non-GMO certificate. It is a derivative of soybean and can be a good option to replace Kitchen Bouquet in salads and stir-fries. 

5. Gravy Master

If I have to rank the substitutes in the order of replacing Kitchen Bouquet, gravy master gets the first rank. Then why did I not mention it as the first? To get you to keep reading, of course! (*wink*).

Gravy master perfectly does the duties of Kitchen Bouquet; browning and thickening, and thus it is a worthy alternative for kitchen bouquet. This flavorful sauce is a healthy option, too, if I may reckon. 

6. Parisian Essence 

Vegans! Thank me right now for presenting you with the best substitute catering to your demands. Yes, Parisian essence, made of caramel and water, is essentially devoid of gluten, egg, dairy, soy, and peanuts.

It has a rich burnt flavor and is used for thickening, browning, and flavor-enhancing purposes. The best part? You can utilize Parisian essence for browning, seasoning, and thickening, making it another great substitute for Kitchen Bouquet.

7. Instant Coffee

Instant coffee works great in adding color and flavor (I mean, that is its sole purpose in replacing Kitchen Bouquet). You might also be well aware of how potent coffee is!

Therefore, make sure you add it only in very small amounts. It must be evident by now that it can’t be used for browning or seasoning.

Instant coffee can work as a kitchen bouquet substitute in terms of coloring. You have to be extremely cautious with its usage so as to ruin your recipes.

Are you wondering whether coffee is good or bad for you? Well, here is everything you need to know about caffeine and whether it’s good or bad for you.

8. Dark Molasses

Intensity, darkness, and color! These are the attributes of dark molasses that can be a wise option to swap with Kitchen Bouquet. Due to the presence of caramel, it very well aids in matters of browning. 

Care for a secret? Mix dark molasses and broth, and you will be surprised to find it has a closely similar taste to that of Kitchen Bouquet!

Want to make a delicious pie using dark molasses? Here is the recipe for delicious shoofly pie.

9. Liquid Smoke

Liquid smoke is a natural flavor enhancer made by arresting the smoke from burning wood chips. It is used in dishes in lieu of real wood smoke. You can easily surmise its flavor – it tastes like liquid smoke!

But liquid smoke is available in different varieties such as hickory, mesquite, and pecan – the flavor is dependent on the type of wood used. 

Although the flavor of liquid smoke isn’t very similar to kitchen bouquet, it can be considered a substitute to render a smokey flavor to your recipes.

10. Cocoa

(Do you even need an introduction to cocoa, the supreme ingredient in the chocolates that we relish?) Well, my job is to tell you even if you know.

Cocoa is the paste made using cocoa beans, the fruit of the cacao. Cocoa beans have a bitter taste. Once fermented and processed to form a paste, cocoa tastes similar to melted chocolate with a mild sweet flavor. 

Cocoa is one of the least considered kitchen bouquet substitutes due to its chocolate flavor. If you are planning to replace kitchen bouquet with cocoa, make sure you use unsweetened cocoa.

11. Brown Gravy Mix

Brown gravy mix is a yummy blend of seasonings, spices, and starch. It is used to prepare thick and savory gravies to complement meat dishes. 

Brown gravy mix isn’t as good as homemade gravy. But brown gravy mix can be used to replace kitchen bouquet for thickening and browning purposes.

12. Homemade Sauce

If you can spare some time with the ingredients in your pantry, you can prepare a homemade sauce that can be used as a substitute for kitchen bouquet.

Take a cup of sugar and melt it in a saucepan until you observe a brown color. Add water to this and further add beef broth. Stir the mixture until you achieve the desired consistency. This homemade sauce can replace kitchen bouquet in your recipes.

Short Recap

Let us look at the following points to help you remember the details on the best kitchen bouquet substitutes.

Flavor: Soy sauce and Maggi liquid seasoning can be the best substitutes in terms of flavor.

Healthy: Bragg liquid aminos is a healthy alternative to kitchen bouquet.

Availability: Gravy master and homemade sauce are the easily available substitutes for kitchen bouquet.

Final Musings

With the array of substitutes available for Kitchen Bouquet, you now have a fair understanding of the best ones that can come in handy. Let it ring that a substitute can make or break your dish throughout your mind. 

Therefore, consider the demands of your recipe first before choosing any substitute. Once you have fixated, indulge in your little cooking adventure and let me know how everything worked out! Peace out, foodies!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)