Home cooking, market finds and kitchen projects
A pig's head from a London butcher can cost less than a supermarket chicken and fill a weekend with broth, brawn and very good sandwiches. Here's how to buy one, simmer it without panic, and turn the leftovers into soup, lunch and something worth putting out for friends.
A cold kitchen, a borrowed crumpet ring and a packet of supermarket crumpets as the control. Four Saturdays of overnight and same-day batters, and what I learned about holes, freezing and toppings built from a Saturday market haul.
A late-autumn market haul, a packet of wrappers and one crowded freezer drawer can sort out a lot of dark November weeknights. Here is a practical route to a homemade dumpling stash, from cheap greens and mushrooms to two beginner folds and cooking straight from frozen.
No oven, no drama: a test run of a full Christmas dinner for four using two hob rings, a microwave and a slow cooker in a small London flat. Here is the market menu, the timetable and the leftovers plan that actually worked.
Game season is here, but a whole pheasant can still feel like a faff. This is the story of a £7 market bird, a simple roast in a small oven, and the barley broth that followed — plus what to ask at the counter so you don't dry it out.
No airing cupboard, no yoghurt maker, no problem. We spent a week testing three warm spots around a small London flatshare to see which one turns a pint of supermarket whole milk into thick, spoonable yoghurt — and what it costs compared with the tubs in the chiller.
A home cook's route to the London pie and mash shop classic: suet pastry, coarse beef mince, parsley liquor and chilli vinegar. No eels, no industrial steamer, no turning the kitchen into a museum exhibit.
A greengrocer, a fishmonger and a baker on the simple suppers they actually make once the shutters come down. Three recipes, one Saturday market route, and a London angle on why stall work changes the way you cook at home.
One market cabbage, a clean jar and a bag of brine are enough to make proper sauerkraut in a small flat - even one with the heating cranked up. Here is the messy, forgiving method I use in November 2026, plus the quick suppers that make the jar earn its keep.
My rental oven has one confident setting, a wobbly dial and a fan that sounds like the Northern line. Here’s how I stopped arguing with it, bought a cheap thermometer and baked a loaf with a proper crust anyway.
A £12 oyster mushroom kit, a one-bed London flat and an airing cupboard that turned out to be far too cosy. Here is what actually happened, what I would do differently, and the quick garlicky supper that made the wait worthwhile.
A £2 end-of-day bakery bag is not just a bargain; it is a week of November suppers waiting to be planned. Here is how yesterday’s bread becomes ribollita, bread sauce, crisp crumbs, a savoury pudding and a sweet finish without any dreary thrift-shop heroics.
Forget the fantasy of a sunlit allotment. From a north London windowsill to a balcony in Peckham, winter salad is mostly about drainage, patience and a willingness to eat small leaves. Here’s a low-cost sowing plan for the dark months, plus how to dodge the damping-off that scuppers most first attempts.
The festive stalls are already charging £7 for a jam jar of spiced nuts. This November, take one Saturday, one London market route and three simple projects — spiced nuts, flavoured salts and quick biscotti — and make gifts that cost less and taste fresher.
Five homemade lunches for dark London commutes, built from one affordable market bag and packed to stay hot, thick and edible by noon. Includes a cost-per-portion breakdown, practical flask rules and honest notes on texture and food safety.
A bag of chestnuts from a London market stall is not just a bowl of autumn decoration. Here is how to choose them, roast and peel them without a fight, and turn them into soup, stuffing and a sweet finish.
The loaf in the window is only half the story. A growing number of London bakeries will happily sell you the flour, the starter and the know-how behind it — so we spent a week buying our bread at the counter rather than the till, and did the sums on cost, flavour and what actually ends up in the bin.
The cheapest thing in a London butcher's shop is usually the thing nobody asks for. A practical guide to requesting frames, bones and vegetable trimmings without awkwardness, what to say no to, and how to turn a carrier bag of odds and ends into stock, soup and risotto for the working week — even when your freezer is one drawer.
Boiled sprouts have a lot to answer for. This is the November project that fixes them: one kilo from a London market, split three ways — charred hard with anchovy, shredded raw with apple, and left to ferment in a jar for three days. Start with the jar on Friday night and you've got three different things in the fridge by Monday.
Every November the growers stop waiting for the ripening and start selling green tomatoes by the bowl. Here's the master chutney formula I use, a Saturday-to-Sunday market route for finding the glut, and how to sterilise jars when your kitchen is really a corridor with a hob.