Cookery Books: Back to classics

The truth is, we could probably all get by with three or four cookbooks; half a dozen at most, which makes my own collection of dozens seem a bit OTT. But what you need among them is a book that covers all the essentials, so that if you’re stuck to know what to do with a pheasant or how to make pastry or need to do something imaginative with cauliflower, you’ve got it all to hand.

One all-purpose volume is the classic Constance Spry Cookery Book (Grub Street, £30), by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume, first published in the Fifties and now reissued with metric as well as imperial measurements.

It’s very much of its time, obviously, and unabashedly French in temperament, but it’s a cracking, really useful book. And it covers all the ground, from how to make a forcing bag for icing to the original recipe for Coronation Chicken to 25 ways with potatoes to little sections on train food and shooting parties.