Home Cookery Year: Four Seasons, Over 200 Recipes for All Possible Occasions

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We then read about Mrs Rundell in the Guardian – when the John Murray Archive went to the National Library of Scotland there was an article about her because her bestselling cookery book was the foundation for the success of John Murray as a publisher. Ground as a flour to make noodles or pasta, it has an intensely nutty flavour, which suits cold dishes such as this salad very well. The Dairy Book of Home Cookery takes you through all the essential cooking techniques and now includes over 950 recipes from soups to sauces, dips to desserts, pastry to pickles and curries to cakes. It’s also the book that first introduced me to Thomson – albeit one that I didn’t enjoy as much as I’d expected to.

Perfect for anyone interested in the history of home cooking or looking to add some retro flair to their kitchen, this cookbook is a must-have! The apples and the smoked tofu are an excellent canvas for the dressing in this recipe, a dazzling combination of cherry tomatoes and peanuts, which are pestle-bashed in a mortar (or use a food processor, those little ones are often very handy, to bruise and break everything down just enough), then mixed through with the lime, fish sauce and shallots.

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. When the mixture begins to bubble up, reduce the heat to moderate to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least five minutes, until the cream has thickened a little. Cool on a wire rack and then enjoy warm with some butter – or my more recent favourite – lemon marmalade!

Mixed opinions because of the addition of the saffron, but everone loved the spicy pangrattato with the fennel seeds. The recipe I’ve chosen to share with you, and which I am itching to make, is Thomson’s Caramel Apple Cake, which appropriately enough comes from the Autumn section.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. Thomson’s recipes are straight-forward, even when they yield beautifully complex dishes and flavours.