Those of you who follow my reviews will know that my husband and daughter have an aversion to cauliflower, so I’m always on the lookout to redeem one of my favourite vegetables. Divided into 17 chapters from nibbles through to vegetarian meals, sauces, baking and even confectionery, it features over 950 recipes. We are already BIG fans of Claire Thompson’s brilliant recipes the marvellous and indispensable Art of the Larder. Claire Thomson, who has made something of a habit of releasing practical, down-to-earth cookbooks over the past five years. Even the recipes under the ‘leisurely weekend cooking’ headings are only listed as such because of the time they take, or the mess they’ll make.

Though she has aspirations towards the simple, accessible and everyday cooking of all your mum’s favourite TV chefs of the 70s, her taste buds are firmly of the moment. And this year, like every other, the big names like Nigella and Jamie are going to get the lion’s share of the sales. In case you’re wondering everything turned out fine — I got the battered cauliflower fried and my people here loved it!Chef Matty Matheson follows up his New York Times bestseller with an even bigger book that is all about quality home cooking. Even if you have the original, treat yourself (and your friends) to a new copy of this very special anniversary edition. Tasting butter sold from barrels needs special persistence: “Being made at different times, the layers in casks will vary greatly; and you will not easily come at the goodness but by unhooping the cask, and trying it between the staves.

We first came across her book in Jane Austen’s Cookbook by Maggie Black, since Domestic Cookery is one of the books Jane Austen would have used (had she cooked); our 1816 edition appeared in the same year as Emma. In this fabulous anniversary edition, original recipes from the updated editions are included plus 50 new classics, sure to become firm favourites. The recipes are organized by season — the sections are colour-coordinated along the pages for straightforward referencing. In a food processor on pulse or in a mortar with a pestle, pound the garlic, chillies and sugar to a paste. Her first title focused on cooking for families, and last year saw her release New Kitchen Basics, which offered a wide range of recipes based around ten classic ingredients.One of my tests of how much I am excited by a new cookbook is how many recipes I feel driven to mark with a Post-It note. Thomson’s recipes are straight-forward, even when they yield beautifully complex dishes and flavours.

What Thomson aims for is a cookbook that is timeless that will be as good in the future as it is now. Scarpaccia means “nasty/old shoe” and no one really knows why such an uninspiring name; it is possibly something to do with the appearance of this dessert: a genuine scarpaccia should be a fairly thin and crusty affair – like an old, over-worn shoe. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions (about four or five minutes), then drain and rinse under cold water and toss them with two tablespoons of olive oil.Every recipe you will ever need is in here, for every occasion, with twists on classics, and super ideas for jaded palates for young and old alike. It is an impromptu cake, made with cheap ingredients: stale bread, milk, some fruit, fresh or dried, polenta flour, sugar, a little chopped rosemary to give an elusive perfume. It will be for food historians to work out why her book remained in print and Mrs Rundell’s vanished; but the fact is this is the first time Domestic Cookery has been reprinted for over a hundred years.

It is the contrast between the sugary and crusty exterior (due to a good drizzle of olive oil) and the custardy, vanilla scented interior that make this unposessing looking dessert sing. Look, this is not something I get to say very often, but here goes: you could cook from this book every single day for a year and not get bored. A fragile copy, poor quality paper is tanned and brittle, short tear to fore-edge of most pages, cover tanned and foxed with tears and an area of loss to front cover. As well as its extensive and varied list of ‘receipts’, more than a thousand, it addressed multiple daily domestic challenges. Less of a unique selling point, and more of an all-encompassing approach to the cookbook, Home Cookery Year is a 400 page, 200+ recipe doorstop tat seeks to offer seasonal ideas for every possible situation, from midweek dinners to elaborate dinner party feasts.Now is the time to replace your battered old copy and to introduce family and friends to The Dairy Book of Home Cookery, with this super anniversary edition.