Forgotten Skills of Cooking

Book excerpt: Winner of the Andre Simon Food Book Award 2009. Darina Allen has won many awards such as the World Gourmand Cookbook Award 2018, the Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Irish Culinary Sector by Euro-Toques, the UK Guild of Food Writers Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2018 Guaranteed Irish Food Hero Award. 'There's not much this gourmet grande dame doesn't know.' Observer Food Monthly In this sizeable hardback, Darina Allen reconnects you with the cooking skills that missed a generation or two. The book is divided into chapters such as Dairy, Fish, Bread and Preserving, and forgotten processes such as smoking mackerel, curing bacon and making yogurt and butter are explained in the simplest terms. The delicious recipes show you how to use your home-made produce to its best, and include ideas for using forgotten cuts of meat, baking bread and cakes and even eating food from the wild. The Vegetables and Herbs chapter is stuffed with growing tips to satisfy even those with the smallest garden plot or window box, and there are plenty of suggestions for using gluts of vegetables. You'll even discover how to keep a few chickens in the garden. With over 700 recipes, this is the definitive modern guide to traditional cookery skills.