The books: How To Boil An Egg

I promised I'd be punctuating the actual cookery posts in this series by taking a closer look at some of the cookbooks in my collection. In fact, I'm going to start with just such an introduction.

Book #5 on the Random Kitchen shelf is How To Boil An Egg ("...and 184 other simple recipes for one") by Jan Arkless, originally published in 1986.

I said that some of my books had a story behind them, and this is one of them. It's a fairly obvious one, really, given the nature of the tome: this was one of several (cook)books I was given by family members - in this case, my uncle and aunt - when I left the familiar surroundings of Newcastle and ventured forth to Aston University in September 1997 as a fresh-faced young thing with shoulder-length hair and little to no aptitude in the kitchen.

It's the only one of those books I still own, but not because of the recipes it contains. They're mostly fairly pedestrian and unadventurous affairs, quite rightly aimed at the novice chef with a limited store cupboard, even more limited fridge space and - frankly - a limited budget too. Being a black-and-white paperback with no illustrations, it's hardly one to get your tastebuds racing, though its modest dimensions make it ideal for schlepping around various student accommodations (and there's no need to worry about slopping ingredients all over it).

No, the reason I've kept hold of How To Boil An Egg, all the way through stints in Birmingham, Mainz, Hamburg and now a decade in London, is summed up by these words from the preface: "Other cookery books assume some basic knowledge of cooking techniques, but in this book I have assumed none as I wrote it specifically for the person who knows absolutely nothing or very little about cooking or meal planning." (Jan's italics, not mine!)

That's precisely what I was as an 18-year-old, and even as I've gained kitchen experience and confidence over the years, there remain times when I don't necessarily know how best to simply prepare a certain vegetable or deal with certain basic cooking techniques that I don't actually deploy all that often (poaching an egg, prepping liver, that kind of thing). And sometimes a reminder of something you do know is also very useful! As promised, this book treats the reader not as an idiot but very much as a novice - no corners are cut, no assumptions are made, everything is spelled out in easy and friendly terms, and as such it's the perfect little guide to have close at hand.

So if you have a family member or friend who's soon to fly the family nest, I would firmly recommend you arm them with this book - although it must be said that ready meals and own-brand "helping hand" products have become much better, cheaper and more plentiful than when I first did the same back in 1997! Anyone who already has a decent amount of kitchen proficiency will likely find the content patronisingly simple in places - but in terms of learning the basics of How Food Actually Works, it's a great starting point.

Whether it contains any recipes that will do justice to the Random Kitchen concept is, of course, an entirely different matter. Though something tells me we might soon find out...