When I began training to be a chef, one of the first questions asked of me was: "What is a stock?" I thought they were little cubes you bought in a shop and added to stews during cooking. This is true, but stock is a clear, thin and well-flavoured liquid that becomes the basic ingredient in soups, sauces, stews and braises. Stock cubes are a convenience product often substituted for prepared stocks. In a restaurant it is best to make your own.

To prepare stocks you need to carefully follow set steps so that you do not end up with a cloudy finished product.

The first stock I saw being made contained beef, beef bones, vegetables and seasonings. These were slowly simmered in a pot to extract maximum flavour. Since then I have made stocks using poultry, fish and other meats.

Ingredients for making beef and chicken stock:

One of the main lessons I learnt was that a good quality stock must be clear, flavoursome, free of fat and have the correct colour and aroma: "A chicken stock must taste and smell like a chicken stock".

To prevent a stock from becoming cloudy it must not be boiled too rapidly or covered. As it simmers, fat and other solids are skimmed from the surface. At the end, the stock is carefully strained to separate liquid from the solids.

Finally, the best quality ingredients must be used. Avoid ingredients high in starch and never cook it too long with the solids in it.

All of this has proved invaluable to me, and will for you too. Happy stock making!