Stock up

Stock cubes are often vile, salty, and preservative ridden. Chilled fresh stock, when you can get it, is prohibitively expensive, and let's face it, we don't always have the time or the inclination to make our own.

So, there should be a ready market for a new concentrated jelly format stock from Knorr, which doesn't contain any MSG, artificial flavour enhancers, colours or preservatives. The small tubs of jelly-like stock dissolve quickly in hot water, which somehow seems like less of a cheat that crumbling up a dayglo-coloured cube. They come in vegetable, beef and chicken varieties (€1.89 for a pack of four, available nationwide), and the taste is surprisingly good.

mcdigby@irishtimes.com