The smells of slow cooking spread around the house and impart a unique warmth matched only by the flavour of the food.

If the first bite is with the eye and the second with the nose, some people will never take that third, actual bite if the food in question smells too fishy, fermented or cheesy.

The way to entice people into cooking is to cook delicious things.

Sorrel adds a unique grassy sharpness to salads and dressings, but it can be hard to come by.

Infants have around 30,000 tastebuds, only about a third of which survive into adulthood, so a child's sensitivity towards extremes of sweet, sour and bitter flavours is heightened.

Tiny quails may not seem as impressive as a mammoth turkey, but there is something refreshing about a spread of individual birds on the Christmas table.