Recipe, Cooking and Preserving Books

   How to Freeze: Everything You Need to Know About Freezing and Freezer Managment

By: Carolyn Humphries

Growing your own usually results in a glut and you'll probably end up freezing to store it.

This is a practical 'how to' book and worth every penny, hence our 5 star rating

   The Bean Book: Essential Vegetarian Collection

By: Rose Elliot

Although we're not vegetarians we do eat quite a few vegetarian meals and Rose Elliot is an absolutely brilliant writer. The bean book has bean around for many years and we've nearly worn out our copy.

If you thought beans were boring, give this a try and you'll amaze yourself and your friends.

   River Cottage Cookbook

By: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Simon Wheeler (Photographer)

This is not just a cook book, it's a tour through River Cottage, smallholding, self sufficiency and respect for the food you eat.

Normally you flick through a cookbook and then go back for a recipe when you are ready to cook - not so with this. I took it to bed at night and read it till the small hours.

If you don't buy this, get it on your birthday list.

   A Cook's Year

By: Greg Wallace

I've been a fan of Greg Wallace for many years, since he first appeared on Radio 4 talking about vegetables. He approached the subject from the point of view of  a market trader greengrocer rather than a grower, but he knows what's in season, how to get the best and how to cook with them.

His new book isn't just a recipe collection but a guide to cooking in season. He explains what is best when, where to buy and how to buy. These are skills that are dying in our pre-packaged supermarket age, where food is flown in from all over the world to give us strawberries at Christmas.

The recipes are good. I don't like fancy recipes that need ingredients I haven't heard of let alone got in the cupboard and his recipes are not complicated and fussy. I'd say basic, but that would give the wrong impression. Simple and sophisticated sounds pretentious but that would be accurate.

It's the sort of book I'd give to someone wanting to cook real food without the hype and I'm pleased we've got it on our shelf to dip into.

   Fish Pies and French Fries, Vegetables, Meat and Something Sweet

By: Gill Holcombe

This book is subtitled: Affordable, Everyday Food and Family-friendly Recipes Made Easy and that's pretty accurate.

There's some good snippets of general information but the recipes are the star. It's well worth speeding through and then keeping the kitchen to refer to as you need - the left over recipes are excellent as well.

We're glad we've got this book.

   Good Home Cooking

By: Diana Peacock

I was really happily surprised by this book. Unlike a lot of recipe books full of pretty pictures and recipes that no normal person is ever likely to cook, this does what it says on the cover.

There are some pictures (it's very nicely done) and a few fancy recipes but the bulk is straightforward home cooking. It's a book we'll keep near to hand along with our 1955 perfect cooking. High praise indeed.

Even if you're a good cook, it's worth getting and it's also a great gift for a child leaving home.

   Smoking Food: A Beginner's Guide

By: Chris Dubbs & Dave Heberle

At last, a modern book that tells you all you need to know to smoke food. And not just meat, they even cover smoking eggs and vegetables. There's clear instructions on building your own smoker (using an old fridge) and a number of practical recipes.

It's a US publication but nearly everything is just as applicable to the UK. Excellent buy, definately the best we've come across on the subject.

   Preserved

By: Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall (Foreword), Nick Sandler, Johnny Acton

When I got this book my first thought was 'Oh no - it's a pretty picture, coffee table book'  and it is but it does have some useful information on drying amongst other methods of food storage such as salting, fermenting, curing and freezing.

My main gripe is that it doesn't go into enough detail and has too many recipes, good as they are.

Overall, I was happy I bought it after I read it, with the few reservations above.

   How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-sufficiency

By: Piers Warren

The subtitle on this book "The key to self-sufficiency" does sum it up. Growing your own is great, but you need to know how to store your produce or by winter you will be trudging around the supermarket buying that which you could have had for free.

The downside to this book in my eyes is that it doesn't cover some things in enough depth for me. That said, it is a book I'm happy to have on my bookshelf.

Rather than concentrating on storage methods, the author takes a crop and offers the applicable storage methods for that crop. So for blackcurrants we get jam, jelly, juice and wine but for leeks we just get freezing as a storage method. Not that there is much else you could do with leeks.

The rhubarb cheese recipe is delicious, by the way!

   The Sausage Book

By: Paul Peacock

I hate to give an author a bad review, I know how it hurts! But I'm afraid this isn't Paul's best work. I suspect the editor is more to blame than the author.

There's some good basic information on making sausages in there and it's one of the best of a small bunch available. However, this feel's as if it was researched quickly on the net and dashed off. The recipe presentation is awful.

Still, if you can get past the format, still worth it as there is little else available published in and for the British maker.