This is fresh, modern food that tastes like food used to - with none of the additives and compromises of ready meals. It is based on quality materials and understanding how to use them. Country cooks don't waste their skills on factory farmed chickens and asparagus flown halfway around the world for unseasonable winter eating. Their raw materials are well raised and bought with care.

These dishes are finest when home made with ingredients in season. Whether it is a recipe for the freshest and fruitiest raspberry jelly preserve, the lightest, simple potted shrimps, crispest tart to eat on the day it is baked, everything in Modern Country Cooking is delicious.

This book, illustrated throughout with beautiful photography by Peter Williams, has chapters on eggs and sauces, butter, bread, meat, fish, pulses and vegetables, and a wealth of delicious sweet dishes, sorbets and trifles. Some of the dishes may not be ones that all readers are familiar with. All are in the tradition of country cooking using wholesome, natural ingredients that are the best quality available. Interspersed with the recipes are essays which focus on one particular food item, such as eggs, bread or poultry, which enlighten and will inspire you to use it in a variety of ways perhaps not thought of before.