A pot of stock is the cheapest way to make everything else you cook taste better. It is also the easiest way to waste less.

Keep a bag in the freezer for onion ends, carrot peelings, celery tops, herb stalks and mushroom trimmings. When the bag is full, tip it into a large pot, cover with cold water, add a few peppercorns and a bay leaf, and let it simmer gently for an hour. Strain it, and you have a litre or two of something far better than any cube.

Do not let it boil hard, which makes it cloudy and dull, and do not salt it: you can season the dish you use it in.

Use it for soups and risottos, for cooking grains, or for loosening a sauce. Freeze it in small containers, and a good dinner is never more than a defrost away.