DEAR DAME EVELYN , Lately I've been making my own chicken and vegetable stocks. I salvage the bones from our weekly roast chickens and keep them in Ziploc bags in the freezer until I'm ready to use them. Same with vegetable trimmings. It's easy and frugal, and after all, you always need stock! My only issue is that sometimes my stocks are cloudier than I would like. The chicken stock particularly. I run it through cheesecloth, but that doesn't seem to make any difference, frankly. Neither does the fancy chinois I got as a birthday present. I know it isn't a big deal, but I've become obsessed by it and am determined to find a way to make my stocks clearer. I'm hoping you know the way.

Stocky

My dear, Dame Evelyn is all for obsessions, provided one does not become obsessive about them – if you see what I mean. There are moments in life when you just have to say, "What the hell" and move on. Is this such a moment for you? While you ponder that imponderable question, let me go on to say that clarifying stock is an easy procedure. You separate a couple of eggs (if you've made a truly vast pot of stock, you might want to use one or two more), beat the whites gently with a fork, and add them to the cooled stock, stirring well to mix things up. Then bring the stock back to a simmer. The egg whites should cook and, in so doing, trap a lot of those pesky little particles that cause cloudiness. Scoop out the egg whites (they're usually rather stringy, with the odd clump) and put them in your compost bin. Your stock is now clarified. And even if it isn't, no harm done; clear stock is pretty as a display, but stock isn't really for display, is it?

Stirringly, E.G.-S.