Instructions: Place your cloudy stock in a large pan. Put the egg whites the meat or fish and all the vegetables and herbs into a bowl stir lightly to break up the egg whites then whisk the mixture welt into the stock.

Slowly bring to the boil stirring well for the first few minutes.

Basically what is going to happen is that as the stock comes to the boil the protein in the egg whites and meat or fish will begin to coagulate trapping all your finely chopped vegetables and herbs.

This acts like a sort of sieve and forms a crust on the top of your stock.

The only thing youve got to look out for is not letting it boil just keep it at a gentle simmer for about half an hour. Generally the bubbles from the simmering stock manage to make a small hole or crack so I just enlarge the hole carefully with a ladle.

After half an hour when youve got a good crust and a completely clear stock allow it to stand for about 10 minutes. Then using a ladle carefully pass the clear broth through a fine sieve.

If you want to make sure that you dont get any bits in your broth place a clean tea towel or napkin in the sieve (or muslin if you can get it) but this is not essential.

You can keep the sieved stock in the fridge for 4 days or freeze it for up to 2 months.

When youve made a lovely stock this is a handy recipe for adding and infusing extra flavour as welt as for lifting all the impurities out of the stock and leaving you with a shiny clear broth. This procedure which is exactly the same as making a French consomme has in the past been made out to be really tough and tricky but thats complete rubbish.

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