The people at Knorr must have been jumping with glee when that legend of British cooking Marco Pierre White, back in the public eye thanks to Hell’s Kitchen, was quoted as saying its chicken stock cubes were “a genius product. Every kitchen should have a packet.” While customers hoovered up the cubes, White’s remarks provoked a spirited response from fellow chefs and food writers, adamant that home-made is best. After all, how difficult is it to boil up the bones after a Sunday roast with some vegetables and herbs? The reality is that stock-making is a mind-set. There are those who see it as fundamental to the natural rhythm of cooking, while for others the spirit is willing but the flesh too tired. If you are one of the latter, the advancing market for fresh stocks can be a happy, tasty medium.

What goes into stock cubes?
Typically, a cocktail of salt, flavourings and flavour enhancers such as MSG, potato starch, colours, and, in the case of Knorr, hydrogenated vegetable oil, the production of which is responsible for forming trans-fats, which supermarkets have mostly phased out of own-brand products. One Knorr chicken stock cube contains 4.1g of salt (1g per 100ml of stock) – as a guide to how much that is, remember adults are advised to eat no more than 6g of salt a day.

What about “fresh” stocks?
Most pots and bags of stocks in supermarket chiller cabinets are labelled with refreshingly recognisable ingredients – ie, bones, vegetables and herbs. As any chef will tell you, however, the better your base ingredients, the better your stock. “The provenance of the bones is terribly important,” says Peter Greig of Pipers Farm in Devon, who sells the chicken and beef stock made at the farm by mail order and in the farm shop in Exeter. “You are ringing all the goodness out of the bone marrow to get that thick, rich character you want, so you want to be sure it really is goodness you are getting. Like offal, the bones are a definition of the health and lifestyle of an animal.”

One of the most exciting ideas to hit the market is Trotter Gear, or “unctuous potential”, as Fergus Henderson of the renowned St John restaurant likes to call his lip-smackingly glutinous stock, enriched with pig’s trotters. Trotter Gear has long been a staple of his restaurant kitchen, and now he has perfected it for sale through specialist food shops. It apparently comes into its tenderising own in slow cooking, but you can use it as simply as you like.

Where to buy?
Trotter Gear is available from Selfridges and specialist outlets at around £4.95 for 250ml (www.trottergear.com).
Pipers Farm stock costs £3.05 for 330ml (01392 88138; www.pipersfarm.com).
Organic white chicken or vegetable stock from Daylesford Organic, £2 for 475ml (01608 731700; www. daylesfordorganic.com).

Readers' queries

Where can I buy Chilean flame raisins to put in muesli? I can’t find them locally.

Daily Bread, the wholefood co-operative with stores in Northampton and Cambridge, sells them online (from 99p for 500g) at www.ecofair.co.uk.

If you have a food query, e-mail food.detective@thetimes.co.uk

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