大象传媒

As a , I have a love-hate relationship with . I also have about 10 books with on (and a Mrs Beeton board game which no-one will play with me). I state I won鈥檛 cook her recipes, but I have a copy of the at my right hand on my desk. It鈥檚 one of my most regularly consulted books.

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When I was asked to work with Sophie Dahl in the 大象传媒 Two special, The Marvellous Mrs Beeton with Sophie Dahl, to look at why Beeton鈥檚 book was so wildly successful, I was forced to confront my mixed feelings about Beeton鈥檚 magnum opus. Sophie works from her grandmother鈥檚 well-loved copy of the book, and we cooked a number of recipes, including . Carrot jam, one of my favourite recipes, also went down well. Though looking at the text again, I felt the need to warn the production team about the pitfalls in her recipes. And therein lies the problem.

It鈥檚 all about the book鈥檚 origins. Most people know this book from the largely reliable twentieth century editions. My issues revolve around the 1861 original, expanded and funked up in the 1880s. It鈥檚 a horrid, wonderful book. I love it, because, as a food historian, if I want to use an ingredient (I mean, seriously, carrot jam?! ), Beeton will have a recipe. And I hate it, because the recipe probably won鈥檛 work.

Beeton was a plagiarist, as was not uncommon at the time. To be fair, she made no claim to originality, but as a result of this, and the speed with which she compiled the book, ingredients lists contain things not then detailed in the recipe (and vice versa), methods are frequently shoddy, and every recipe needs testing before unleashing it on an unsuspecting dinner party. It鈥檚 annoying.

But I love the panache with which she does it all, and I love the encyclopaedic nature of the thing. This was an era in which middle class women became confined to the home more than ever before, geographically removed from the workplace by the growth of suburbia, and frequently poorly educated in anything beyond a smattering of French and the ability to catch a bachelor鈥檚 eye at the piano. Beeton spoke directly to them, empowering them and informing them.

For her, the mistress of the household was like 鈥榯he commander of an army鈥�. In Beeton鈥檚 world, dinner was war, and the book a manual on how to win it. She also understood the importance of knowing what went into your food, where it came from and how it was treated long before the current health movement. It鈥檚 all in there, and it鈥檚 written in language designed to pack a punch.

Beeton鈥檚 book is a delicious paradox. It鈥檚 enthralling and inspiring and makes you proud to be part of such a culinary heritage. I just wish the recipes worked.

So over to you, do you own Mrs Beeton鈥檚 Book of Household Management and have you cooked any recipes from it?

Annie Gray is a historic food expert and contributor to Sophie Dahl On Mrs Beeton.

It's a common nightmare for any cook volunteering on a meal delivery service. And if you've been inspired to volunteer by the recent Hairy Bikers' Meals on Wheels campaign, you'll soon be having these nightmares, too! Hurrah!

I never slept well before cooking for the , a London-based organisation that (among other services) provides a Sunday two-course lunch and light evening meal for people with HIV and their families. Each kitchen rolls out between 50 and 150 meals, tailored to dietary requirements. Cooking starts at 8:00am and everything's sent out by 11:45am.

It's definitely a challenge: the planning is tricky and the work is physically hard. An industrial kitchen has heavy catering equipment and infernal ovens, and that's if you're lucky enough to have the use of one. Here are some tips if you're just getting started with cooking for a large group, so that when those kitchen nightmares are plaguing you at 4am you can roll over and get a little bit more kip.

Keep it simple...
For people who are older or ill, food is comfort as well as sustenance. Familiar dishes that evoke home-cooking are appealing to everyone and also easier for you to cook. Fiddly recipes from celebrity chefs should usually be saved for the dinner parties and more adventurous taste buds.

...but make it lovely
Appetite begins in the mind. Think about what containers you have to send food in, and how you'll arrange the food. How well will it travel? (No soup, please.) Plan in a nice garnish so that boxing up the meals with a little extra love doesn't take a lot of time. (Also, icing sugar hides a multitude of sins!)

Get some help with the shopping
If you have to do the purchasing as well as the cooking, make it a team effort. A supermarket shop will probably fill two trolleys - impossible to push on your own. I once lugged two huge pork roasts wrapped in black plastic bin bags down an Islington alleyway, looking very suspicious. I could have used a look-out.

Print plenty of copies of recipes off
It lets teams of helpers get on with a project without too many questions to interrupt your flow, and there are spares in case they get dropped in the batter.

Put the water on to boil first
When you're planning (on paper) boiled potatoes for sixty people, somehow your brain assumes that you have a kettle ten times normal size that boils in three minutes. At the start of the cooking process get a lot of water on to boil, even if you don't need it in the end (I always did). An urn or boiling water spigot is really helpful if you have one.

Start early on anything to be served cold
(After you put the water on.) It takes a long time to chill food down to a safe, cold temperature. And if there's only one fridge that everyone keeps opening to get ingredients, it will take even longer. If there's a freezer, use it for a faster chill.

Sharpen your knives
Make sure you have a knife sharpener or steel. Prep with a dull knife is dangerous as well as frustrating and time-consuming.

Boil rather than steam
Unless you have a proper catering-sized steamer, it's going to be very hard to generate enough steam for, say, sixty portions of greens. I've ended up with a layer of overcooked yellowing cabbage under a layer of uncooked cabbage, and no one happy. A quick plunge听in lots of boiling water is more reliable. (And you boiled all that water, right?)

Practice portioning
When you're dishing up a tray of shepherd's pie the size of a dinghy, it's easy to lose perspective and make portions too big or too small to achieve an equal distribution in lots of serving dishes. Divide the tray mentally into smaller sections that you can keep count of as you dish up.

Count, count and count again
If someone else has counted the serving trays for your meals, count them again. In the heat of the kitchen it's easy to makes mistakes, but if they're caught early it's not a crisis.

Make (at least) two spare of everything
See earlier, re: counting.

Do the food hygiene training
I think we'd all prefer meals that didn't make us sick, right? You'll need to do a . It's a day long at most, it builds on common sense, and it's very revealing. (Archers fans, you know the story.)

Have fun
It's a tremendous challenge, but it's really fun in a crazy way.听 It's not a professional kitchen, and the volunteers are there to enjoy themselves as well as doing something worthwhile. With a positive outlook, some creative thinking and a good oven timer you can do it.

If you've been cooking for large groups, what advice have you found invaluable? What trade secrets does every volunteer cook need to know?

Emily Angle is the Producer of the 大象传媒 Food site.

Whenever someone tells me that they鈥檙e no good at learning languages, a hair-raising adventure on the motorways of Naples springs to mind. We were lost, we were rattled and the only way we were going to get to the airport was if some young locals could point out our location on a map. They did. 鈥淢ille grazie!鈥� (a thousand thank-yous!). Suddenly my companion, who had spent a week in Italy without attempting a word of the language, was expressing effusive thanks in the Italian way. There鈥檚 nothing like an emergency to motivate even the most nervous linguist to try communicating.

But what about when the emergency is more than motorway-related?听 You might be able to avoid going hungry on holiday with some pointing and miming, but learning just a little of the language reaps some tasty rewards for anyone who loves their food.

Nowhere is this truer than in Italy, where the link between local produce and cuisine is still strong and each region can boast its own specialities. The ability to ask a local for advice and the confidence to explore a menu could take your taste buds far.

We made La Mappa Misteriosa, a new online drama from 大象传媒 Languages that guides you to learn Italian from scratch, with this in mind. The adventure begins with the discovery of a treasure map that will lead you to the lost recipe of a famous, fictional 1960s Italian chef, Giovanni Serretto. You play one of the characters in the story and along the way there are other characters to meet and culinary puzzles to solve. Watch this short clip to get a taster:

But where to set the drama when each region鈥檚 food has a very different story to tell? We plumped for the which surrounds Bologna, nicknamed 鈥淟a Grassa鈥�, or 鈥渢he fat one鈥�.听 The nickname hints at the local penchant for all things porcine and its status as the self-styled foodie capital of Italy, but might also be related to its particularly wealthy history. We had no doubt that our fictional chef would have wanted to create a beautiful cake that reflected the produce of his beloved Emilia Romagna, and so, la torta di Serretto was born.

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The cake is loosely based on Bologna鈥檚 , a rich, dense fruit cake, and the , a firm cake made from chestnut flour and often containing pine nuts and rosemary. The torta di Serretto is a lighter and sweeter alternative and all its ingredients, with the exception of some fennel seeds are produced in Emilia Romagna. There is no pork in the recipe, though if you ever find yourself in Ravenna or Rimini, you might want to try a , a moreish and not at all greasy flatbread that is a revelation in cooking with lard.

The relationship between languages, food and culture is fascinating. For example, I am told there is no Italian equivalent of the British 鈥榙oggy bag鈥� because taking leftovers home is just not part of Italian culture. Luckily, being willing to have a go and risk a small mistake is the hallmark of a successful language learner. After all, if you ask for pesce (fish) ice cream instead of gelato di pesche (peach ice cream) like one of the contributors to 大象传媒 Languages鈥� humorous Don鈥檛 Try This Abroad feature, the worst you risk is that the vendor holds their nose.

If you鈥檙e a food lover, you probably know quite a bit of Italian already. You probably know the words for milk (latte), fickle or capricious (capricciosa), seashells (conchiglie), butterflies (farfalle), to cut (tagliare, think of tagliatelle). Beware false-friends though: in Italian crudo is not crude, merely uncooked, like the cured ham prosciutto crudo. Something that鈥檚 cooked is 鈥渃otto鈥�, like panna cotta, literally 鈥渃ooked cream鈥�.

To really whet your appetite and learn some Italian along the way, try setting off on your own Italian adventure with La Mappa Misteriosa. You鈥檒l discover the landscapes that cultivate each ingredient, from an elegant apicoltura (honey farm) to an eerie salina, where salt is harvested from the sea.

We can鈥檛 promise that you won鈥檛 get lost as you follow our 鈥榤ysterious map鈥�, but you definitely won鈥檛 go hungry.听 Next time you visit Italy or an Italian restaurant you鈥檒l be able to start some culinary adventures all of your own.

Do you find your desire to learn a language is motivated by food? Have you been to Italy recently? How did you get by ordering food in restaurants?

Oonagh Jaquest is the Editor of 大象传媒 Languages.

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Would you open your home to strangers and make them dinner? Keen cooks like ex-NME photographer and food stylist have proven the to be a winning formula.

Blogger and supper club host transforms his living room every couple of weeks. With additional help from his sister, Mary, they plan, advertise and prepare a multi-course dinner for a group of around 25 hungry guests, often strangers congregated together on a table. We attended one of their events to go and see just how difficult it is to host a supper club.

As popular clubs are springing up outside of London 鈥� notably in , and 鈥� we want to know whether you have eaten dinner in a stranger鈥檚 house recently. And are you looking to host a supper club?

Michael Kibblewhite works for the 大象传媒 Food website.

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When homemade pizza is at its best it can rival or even better those from fancy restaurants and pizzerias. Yes, we鈥檇 all like wood-fired ovens at home but even with a kitchen oven you can be making pizzas to be proud of.

The American baking star Peter Reinhart started a pizza blog called which goes into brilliantly geeky detail about the dough types, the flours, the different methods and sauces, and answers practically all your pizza making questions. But you must also look at website. Adam Kuban, the founder and top dog editor, and publisher Ed Levine are obsessive about their pizzas and if it doesn鈥檛 get you revved up and into pizza mania then nothing will.

Pizza geekiness aside, you can turn out excellent pizza at home so long as you have these five essentials:

1. A really hot oven or grill

You ideally want an oven that will go to at least 240C/475F. The oven needs to have good even heat and the best way to check that is by baking a loaf of bread on a tray and once it鈥檚 cool check the base - if it鈥檚 much paler than the top then your oven needs help. A heavy pizza stone or a metal griddle placed in the cold oven and heated will help stop your pizzas looking flabby.

But if you don鈥檛 have a hot enough oven but do have a grill then Heston demonstrates a brilliant way that combines the hob and the grill for a perfect pizza from his In Search of Perfection 大象传媒 series.

2. Soft white bread dough

Essentially pizza is made with a simple flour, salt and yeast dough mixed with enough water to make it very soft and stretchy. And for a very basic pizza dough, a recipe like this from Antony Worrall Thompson will be fine. But of course, if you鈥檙e after pizza perfection you鈥檒l want to personalise the ingredients and the method. As Ed says on Slice, 鈥�.鈥�

Flour: Though an Italian 00 flour is essential if you want to replicate the traditional pizza from Naples, and that鈥檚 my preference, many prefer a strong bread flour as it can be coaxed out extra thin without too much worry. My choice for an excellent strong flour recipe would be J. Kenji Lopez-Alt鈥檚 鈥溾��.

Fat, sugar and malt: Fat, whether you use lard or oil, slightly interferes with the formation of gluten in the dough, and that means a more tender crust less likely to turn brittle in the dry oven. It also helps the dough to colour quickly, as does a little sugar or malt. Pizza makers in Italy often use special flours that have an elevated natural maltose level, which means that they don鈥檛 have to add any extra to the flour. But at home, a little sugar, honey or malt (even a dark beer will do) will help your dough to colour quickly and stray crisp but moist and tender.

3. Stretch it in stages

One secret to getting a thin crust pizza is to divide the dough into portions (the site pizzamaking.com has a for making the right amount of dough), say 200g/7oz dough for each 25cm/10in thin crust pizza. Shape these portions into rounds, place on a dusted worktop, cover with a cloth and leave for 15 minutes. This will make the dough relax, and then it will be much easier to stretch into perfect pizza rounds.

4. Dry your topping first

When most ingredients are heated they change in some way. The sauce, cheese, vegetables and cured meats soften and release liquid or fat, turning a delicious mass into an oily pizza pond. To avoid this, dry wet cheese like mozzarella out on a cloth, cook the sauce until it is thick and spreadable but not runny, and allow for the fat released from meats etc before adding any extra oil.

5. Go light on the topping

Less topping makes a better pizza. Memorise that phrase and you鈥檒l make better, crisper pizzas. Ideally your pizza should have a thin ring of crust and be completely cooked through. Too much sauce, cheese and other bits will cause the topping run over the crust, stop heat from penetrating, lower the tray or stone temperature, and generally ruin what might have been excellent pizza.

Have you successfully made pizza at home? What are your tips for pizza perfection?

Dan Lepard is a food writer for the Guardian and a baking expert.

Food history is in vogue. Chocolatiers have been serving up a slice of nostalgia with flavours like millionaire鈥檚 shortbread, teacake and jaffa cakes, and popping candy has been popping up on menus all around the country. Some chefs are looking even further back to Britain鈥檚 food heritage.听

At , Marcus Wareing鈥檚 list of dishes pays tribute to early eighteenth century writers John Nott, , and . Then there鈥檚 Heston Blumenthal鈥檚 collaboration with the Tudor food historians at , which had a profound affect on his much-lauded London venue, 鈥� the most obvious being (circa 1500). As we鈥檙e now seeing the trend widening outside of London, just why are historical recipes making a return?

Food historian Marc Meltonville recreates life in Henry VIII's kitchens at Hampton Court

in Birchington, Kent, is using archaic cooking methods. Chef Jason Freedman鈥檚 menu is based around produce that has been cured, dried, smoked, pickled, preserved and brined in-house. Here you鈥檒l find corned beef with dripping, homemade piccalilli and pickled onions. Take a closer look and you鈥檒l even witness ancient food preservation methods brought to Britain two thousand years ago by Roman invaders. For Jason, chefs 鈥渘eed to look at the past to get a glimpse of the future. Studying the old techniques allows you to open your mind to the products available nowadays, and with the use of modern technology, you can create so many new variants of old historic dishes.鈥�

Indeed cooks throughout the centuries have been using techniques and presentation skills that wouldn鈥檛 look out of place in today鈥檚 鈥樷�� kitchens. For instance, Agnes B Marshall was making parmesan ice cream and using liquid nitrogen for making frozen desserts as far back as the nineteenth century.

Home cooks are becoming curious too. Penguin鈥檚 recent , which showcases food and cookery writing from the last 400 years, makes legends like , and accessible to a younger generation.

This current interest in food and drink history is largely due to the renaissance of British cuisine in recent years. We鈥檝e had a love affair with numerous foreign cuisines over the decades 鈥� even declaring chicken tikka masala as our national dish at one stage 鈥� and for too long we have considered French cuisine to be the root of serious gastronomy. Looking to history is a way of rediscovering, and becoming proud of, our own culinary identity.

Add to that the celebratory spirit of the recent royal wedding, as well as next year鈥檚 London Olympics and the Queen鈥檚 Diamond Jubilee, and it鈥檚 no wonder that we鈥檙e flying the flag for kedgeree, Bakewell tart and Eccles cakes.

Would you like to see recipes like Sussex pond pudding resurrected on restaurant menus? Which nostalgic flavours, dishes or cooking techniques would you like to bring back?

Sejal Sukhadwala is a food journalist and restaurant reviewer.

As a food journalist I own a lot of books about food. What often surprises people, however, is that I don鈥檛 own too many cookery books. Recently on this blog Dan Lepard asked what we wanted from such instructional tomes, the gist being we seem to want lifestyle, not recipes.

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Indeed, the recipe count in most cookery books seems to have been falling of late. Rick Stein鈥檚 鈥楽pain鈥� contains 140 recipes on 320 pages, while 鈥檚 forthcoming 鈥楪reat Britain鈥�, has 130 recipes also on 320 pages. Compare this to around 180 on 250 pages for his debut 鈥楾he Naked Chef鈥� way back in 1999. Going back further sees 鈥楻estaurant Dishes of the World鈥� by (published in 1983) containing around 190 complex recipes on 140 pages, and in the likes of there are over a 1000.

But is it always about quantity? Would we ever attempt to 鈥榗omplete鈥� all the recipes in any given cookbook anyway? A quick straw poll of my friends on twitter asking 鈥榳hat was the last cookbook you bought and how many recipes have you cooked from it?鈥� revealed the following:

: Madhur Jaffrey, Curry Easy. Zero recipes
: Ottolenghi鈥檚 鈥楶lenty鈥�. 4 recipes so far
: Jamie 30 min meals, about 20

I reckon on average we attempt around 10 to 15% of the recipes in any given book, which rather begs the question why are we buying them?

Perhaps the problem is too many cookbooks spoiling the broth? When we want a pork recipe, we have to open each book and search its index. That鈥檚 rather time consuming when you鈥檝e got even a moderate collection of books. So much so in fact that a service called has sprung up which lets you search online in the indexes of books you own for $25 a year.

Many sources
These days we get recipes from a myriad of different sources, not just cookery books, and the biggest provider is the internet. Recipe searches make up such a large part of Google鈥檚 traffic that they launched a dedicated 鈥� arguably a . Smart phone and tablet apps are another area of growth. Nearly all Food media personalities have some form of out now.

Another approach is to catch us when we鈥檙e doing our weekly shop. The goes for the retail jugular with wipe-down cards right next to the ingredients you need. The rise of the food blogger has shaken things up considerably too. Plus there are the food magazines from both the 大象传媒 and other publishers.

Is the cookery book doomed?
So facing old enemies like TV shows and glossy magazines, as well as new foes like e-books, smart phone apps and websites, it would seem the writing is on the wall for cookery books. And yet... Jamie Oliver鈥檚 鈥�30-Minute Meals鈥� was the .

Silvia Crompton, Senior Editor at Random House Books thinks there is always a place for big names in the cookery book space. Like the top of the Premiership, it鈥檚 the familiar faces out in front, the 鈥榝irst name only club鈥�: Gordon, Hugh, Nigella, Heston, Delia... The gap between their books and other food books is huge.

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"However that鈥檚 not to say that new books can鈥檛 break through" she adds. "Hummingbird Bakery did well without TV show support", catching as it did the . Silvia believes that lifestyle will remain big part of cookery books. "When you read something like Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, you鈥檙e buying into Nigel鈥檚 philosophy, not just following a recipe."

Most cookery books seem to have left the kitchen table and taken up home on the coffee table. They鈥檙e almost too big or precious to use in the kitchen now. Chef Andrew Pern鈥檚 lovely book 鈥楤lack Pudding & Fois Gras鈥� has a suede cover, while Heston鈥檚 鈥楾he Big Fat Duck Cookbook鈥� costs over 拢100. No splashes of grease on these beauties!

However publishers, such as Quadrille, are signing up food bloggers for their 鈥榥ew voices in food writing鈥� series, proving that a book deal is still something to covet and that there鈥檚 still a market for it.

Conclusion

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As to what the future will look like, well maybe we鈥檒l all become publishers in our own right using services like to print our own cookbooks as some people are already doing. Or perhaps we鈥檒l all have e-book readers in the kitchen, and the printed book will go the way of the illuminated manuscript? Maybe future TV shows will let your talk wirelessly to your wi-fi printer and print all the recipes out as the credits roll. Who knows? I do know however that the future rarely turns out as people predict.


In the meantime, let us know if you prefer cookbooks, apps or recipes printed off the internet. Also have you ever cooked everything from one cookery book? Please write in the comments box below.

Andrew Webb is a writer and food journalist.

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There's only one foolproof way of eeking the maximum out of a treasured and transient summer holiday: bring back the maximum stash of foodie-centric souvenirs from your holidays and revel in cooking with them. It鈥檚 the perfect excuse for re-living the culinary highlights of your hols.

Almonds for every course?

A word of caution though: many years ago, after an idyllic holiday in , I was completely besotted by the infinite versatility of cooking with almonds. So I decided to throw a dinner party serving Majorcan almonds for every course: white almond and garlic gazpacho; chicken with tomato and almond sauce; almond and orange cake with almond ice cream. I thought it was a triumph, my guests decided I was obsessive, got bored by almonds starring throughout the dinner and have teased me ever since.

Lucques olives from Provence

So as with most things in life, moderation is all. My haul this year has included fantastic, thick, plump anchovies from in South West France that are so delicious it is a shame to cook them. Instead, I've draped them over devilled eggs, added them to salade ni莽oise or buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad, and served them -style on cocktail sticks with some equally wonderful and a chilled glass of ros茅.

From in The Netherlands, I brought home a mini-round of aged Gouda cheese with a robust earthiness unlike anything I've bought in the UK and great . I'm greedily anticipating my trip to Parma for their annual and will be sure to take a suitcase ample enough to bring back an outrageously large hunk of two-year-old and (vacuum-packed) sweet, nutty Parma ham for serving with extravagant abandon.

An absolute must from Spain is saffron, always strands and never powder (which is frankly of horribly inferior quality). Look for saffron of consistent colour throughout in a sealed box: the best will be labelled from La Mancha. It has infinite uses beyond paella and is fantastic in custard, ice cream and shortbread.

Spices are the best, safest (and most compact) way of recapturing what's quintessential about many holiday destinations.听 From Morocco return with ras-el-hanout, which translates as 鈥渢op of the shop鈥�. It鈥檚 a mixture of the very best spices - always including cardamom, cumin, coriander, chilli and up to fifty or more other spices. Watch where locals are buying from and don't be embarrassed to sniff it to ensure it is aromatic - and be wary of anything too cheap. Elsewhere from Turkey (made with allspice, cardamom, cassia bark, cumin and dried chilli) is great for rubbing into lamb or chicken.听

Unusual condiments travel well too. , a kind of coconut jam, from Singapore is great on pancakes with fruit and maple syrup. Although from Mexico is increasingly available in the UK, it's always pleasing to have something more authentic.

Whether you鈥檝e opted for a this year, or you鈥檝e been jetting off around the world all summer, what鈥檚 the most exciting treat you鈥檝e sampled from your travels, or indeed your colleagues鈥� or friends鈥� travels? Is there anything you regret bringing back?

Sudi Pigott is a food and travel writer.