Chicken Stock Doesn’t Count as Meat
Swear to Ceiling Cat, I kept checking because I was sure I was reading The Onion.My hand, grasping a ladle full of steaming amber liquid, froze in mid-air. Cam had rounded the corner of the kitchen in the midst of preparing our apartment for a dinner party, a duster in one hand and fresh tea lights in the other. I wondered what the hell he could be talking about at this late hour: I was making the risotto, of course, and worrying about having the cobbler prepped for dessert, and trying to find a moment to get the counters wiped down, and—oh God, the stock. He was talking about the stock. Vegetarians were at that moment speeding up the express subway track toward our home, and, despite my efforts to craft a menu that would appease them, I had just failed by using chicken stock in the mushroom risotto … or had I?
<snip>
I should probably apologize for this supposedly egregious violation, but for some reason, the words choke in my throat. For starters, the addition of my carefully crafted homemade stock to the risotto was not malicious. In my daily cooking, the ingredient is as basic as kosher salt and freshly ground pepper; I reach for a half-cup of it to thin a sauce or enrich weeknight rice just as I would somnambulistically reach for the AC remote in the middle of a steamy August night. In other words, it was an accident.
But the more I meditate on this issue, the more I think that it is not I who should feel guilty, even for an honest mistake. After all, one version of a saying by none other than famed gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin tells us that “stock to a cook is like voice to a singer.” Can you really justify taking away my voice? When I have vegetarians over for dinner, I’m already making a sacrifice by forgoing a real entrée in favor of a meatless one. Fairness and common sense would argue that, in return, vegetarians shouldn’t make a big deal about some small amount of a near-invisible (if crucial!) liquid. I’ve compromised my culinary integrity enough already—now it’s your turn: Vegetarians and vegans, chicken stock does not count as meat.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2013/09/chicken_stock_vegetarians_need_to_compromise_and_stop_pretending_it_counts.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Around here my favorite Chinese places are very sensitive to vegetarians. I can get anything on the menu made without meat stock or meat. Maybe it is because I live in beef country and they know that they get a lot of business from those who don't want to go the meat route. 
You do have to ask.
Could one just call it a broth? I am not much of a cook so I don't know. I call mine stock because that is how I use it.
at least according to the history of the word "stock" and its uses in the past:
stock (n.2)
"supply for future use" (early 15c.), "sum of money" (mid-15c.), Middle English developments of stock (n.1), but the ultimate sense connection is uncertain. Perhaps the notion is of the "trunk" from which gains are an outgrowth, or obsolete sense of "money-box" (c.1400). Meaning "subscribed capital of a corporation" is from 1610s.
Stock exchange is attested from 1773. In stock "in the possession of a trader" is from 1610s. Meaning "broth made by boiling meat or vegetables" is from 1764. Theatrical use, in reference to a company regularly acting together at a given theater, is attested from 1761. Taking stock "making an inventory" is attested from 1736. As the collective term for the movable property of a farm, it is recorded from 1510s; hence livestock.
I was just about to post on that part, as it stood out to me in the OP.
A good cook, not to mention a great cook, is imaginative and finds any restriction as a welcome challenge. Good and great cooks love to please their diners. It's not meant to be the other way around, unless the said cook just enjoys being an asshole.
As for "meaty" stocks, mushrooms have at one time been called the fifth taste on our tongues, or that of "meaty." Why not make a good meaty stock out of good mushrooms? 
Sorry, was tired last night and wasn't being very observant. I think his attitude reminded me so much of woman I know (and have had this argument with) I just thought of her and not overly much about the writer himself.
I did love you're "I swear to ceiling cat" phrase though
that nothing you use it on or in could possibly taste better. When I made the conversion to making my own veggie stock it was amazing. Makes the best gravy too oddly.
Really I just wanted to say
So I like to use meat broth when I flavor food. I have used veggie stock a few times, but it is usually for something specific. Though I do really like working with spices, I am still a newbie cook, so I haven't learned flavor profiles well.
to you too! I hope you are well. I was thinking of you the other day.
By the same token, vegetarians are safe at my table, as are people with simple allergies. Just let me know -- I may tell you to bring something to share, but I sure won't try to slip something over on you on purpose. I don't think THAT highly of my own cooking.
Vegans are harder. Can't think of anything to serve my son since he went vegan, so I've let it be known I'd really truly like to be invited over to his place. 
Give me time -- I'll teach myself something, or get him to give me some of his recipes.
True kosher is impossible for me, because my kitchen isn't kosher, but those to whom it would make a difference already know it. But at least I know enough to know what's treif and not to mix milk and meat -- and my beloved MIL and FIL were comfortable and well-fed.
I just don't get it. The author of that article should have started over on that dish using water if he had nothing else -- or at least not told the whole world in what was a most-public kiss-off of his former friends.
The pull the chicken out, and continue making your stock?
Does that count
I think I have seen that product in the supermarket.
Thank you arcanetrance!
Being a vegetable than chicken stock is to being vegetarian.
This is like a reverse MAT question.
A couple of months ago I figured out that it isn't worth the trouble trying to plan a dinner party. We found out we had a vegan, 2 vegetarians, food alergies and a couple of omnivores on the guest list. 
I had recipes, lists, and cookbooks spread all over the living room floor. The dinner didn't happen.
and I cook a meat meal for bunnies-mr almost every night. I also make a full-on turkey dinner for thanksgiving. Some of us are capable of cooking more than one thing at a time. 
I just feel like its easy enough to serve what I eat as a side dish. Especially when its warm enough to grill outside. Besides, I'd hate to see my personal marinade recipes go to waste. Ill hook you up with some amazing steak tips anytime! 
I just gave up. 
I suppose if I was used to having to accomodate such wide dietary habits, I would have been fine.
Either this author doesnt know that can happen or simply doesnt care. Either way, he's a real jackass in my book. Dont invite vegetarians to dinner if youre not smart enough or considerate enough to accommodate them. 
adding: I was also ill over milk in mashed potatoes. Another harmless oops.
I'm not planning a dinner anytime soon. I'm smart enough to know that.
that both times it was done on purpose. Cuz ya know, "no dairy" just means I dont drink milk. Putting it in my food is ok. The jackass with the chicken rice thought it would be fine since the chicken was organic. Really though, he just thinks vegetarians are idiots and completely disregarded my choice not to eat meat. I think thats really what it boils down to, like the person who wrote this article. He blames cooking for being a disrespectful ass. If he was half the cook he thinks he is, not using chicken stock wouldnt have presented such an epic catastrophe for him.
Not to put anyone out though, I always offer to bring a veggie dish to share with everyone. Its easier than trusting people not to dose me with meat sauce. And the dinner host is usually relieved. No gluten people, now theyre a REAL pain in the ass. 
Its hard to accommodate everyone these days, thats for sure.
Sometimes I even use a little half and half, if I have it on hand.
No bounds I tell ya! 
Actually, I try to make a vegetable and pasta/rice dish with no meat once or twice a week. There's no milk in that. But I do like spicy Thai peanut sauce.
Thai peanut is my favorite sauce in the world. That and hot & sour soup. I could LIVE off of those.
What a no-brainer!
Whenever I order something with a sauce at a restaurant I interrogate the wait person about whether there is chicken or beef stock in it. Usually they have to rush back to the kitchen to check. Often they come back with the news that it does have chicken stock. Then I have to change the preparation.
I'm a meat-eater, but jeez,