The Cooks Companion

The Cook’s Companion by Josceline Dimbleby, published by Sainsbury in 1991, is a practical cookery book from that reassuring period when recipes were expected to result in actual meals rather than architectural arrangements of foam, micro-herbs and three carefully positioned peas.

Josceline Dimbleby was one of the most distinctive British food writers of her generation, known for combining straightforward home cooking with a strong interest in flavours and ingredients from beyond the traditional British repertoire.

Which was useful in 1991.

Britain had already discovered garlic.

Olive oil was becoming normal.

Pasta had escaped from tins.

And people were beginning to suspect that paprika might have purposes beyond sitting unopened at the back of a cupboard for fifteen years.

The Cook’s Companion is very much a book designed to be used.

This is not merely something to place on a shelf beside a decorative bowl of lemons and hope visitors assume you cook.

It is the sort of volume intended to be opened on the kitchen counter, consulted with slightly floury hands, and eventually acquire the mysterious stains which are the natural badges of honour of any successful cookbook.

The recipes and advice reflect the broadening tastes of British home cooking at the beginning of the 1990s.

Traditional ingredients meet more adventurous combinations.

Everyday meals sit alongside dishes intended for occasions when somebody is coming round and you would quite like them to believe this sort of thing happens all the time.

The great advantage of books from this period is that they tend to occupy a very comfortable middle ground.

They are adventurous without requiring specialist laboratory equipment.

They are stylish without demanding that the finished plate resemble modern sculpture.

And they assume that the reader may occasionally need to feed several people rather than produce one photographable mouthful.

The Sainsbury connection gives it another layer of nostalgia.

Supermarkets were becoming increasingly important in shaping British food culture, introducing shoppers to wider ranges of ingredients while simultaneously persuading everybody that a trip for milk could reasonably result in £37 worth of unrelated purchases.

Cookbooks associated with supermarkets helped bridge that gap between unfamiliar ingredients and actual dinner.

Here is the thing.

Here is what it is.

Here is what you can cook with it.

Civilisation advances one shopping basket at a time.

There is also something rather appealing about a cookbook called The Cook’s Companion.

Not The Cook’s Ultimate Transformation System.

Not Twenty-Minute Life-Changing Food.

Just a companion.

A sensible book that sits nearby and helps when you have ingredients, guests and a rapidly diminishing amount of confidence.

For anyone interested in vintage cookery books, British food writing, practical home cooking or the culinary world of the early 1990s, this is a particularly pleasant survivor.

It also makes a good reminder that many recipes do not become obsolete merely because the photographs contain tableware nobody has owned since John Major was Prime Minister.

Food is surprisingly durable.

People still need lunch.

Potatoes remain operational.

Ovens continue to be hot.

Condition: Good. A sound used copy with normal signs of age and handling. Published in 1991, it has had plenty of time to spend near kitchens, recipe shelves and people wondering what to do with half a courgette.

ISBN: 1870604083.

A useful and characterful cookery book from the early 1990s, full of practical ideas for people who want to cook proper food without pretending the kitchen is a television studio.

Sold by Crappy Old Books — where the recipes are tested, the books are used, and a small splash of sauce is practically provenance.

Keep browsing: See more Food books Other books by Josceline Dimbleby