The Ten Best: winter cookbooks

Nobu Now

Nobu Now

By Nobu Matsuhisa

While this is essentially a book to inspire professionals and enthusiastic home cooks, many of the dishes are surprisingly achievable. If you can make fresh pasta, you can make fresh Soba noodles, and the black and red rice risotto is easier to produce than basic Italian recipes. Whether you can make them look like the photographs here is another matter.

Published by Quadrille, £25

Porters English Cookery Bible

By Richard, Earl of Bradford and Carol Wilson

Green tea panna cotta may seem like the latest Asian fusion dessert, but, as this book reveals, the English were creating exciting dishes like it 300 years ago. The savoury pies and puddings chapter will keep your family satisfied through winter and well into spring with dishes such as sausage, bacon and apple pudding, and herb garden pie.

Published by Robson Books, £12.99

Roasts

By Sonia Stevenson

The first female chef to be awarded a Michelin star in the UK, Sonia Stevenson is also a highly-regarded teacher and author, whose previous books on sauces and fish have been shortlisted for top food-writing prizes. In this book her sound advice includes establishing a routine for doing a roast. You'll also find modern dishes such as roast marinated pork fillets with Thai-spiced sauce, and plenty of traditional favourites.

Published by Ryland Peters Small, £16.99

The Handmade Loaf

By Dan Lepard

Dan Lepard's enthusiasm for traditional artisan baking has taken him to Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia and Germany as well as more familiar territories. The result is as fresh and mouthwatering as a loaf straight from the oven, and the author's own step-by-step photographs (especially of making leavens) are genuinely educational.

Published by Mitchell Beazley, £20

Just One Pot

By Lindsey Bareham

Thanks to a daily recipe column, Lindsey Bareham was a specialist in after-work cooking long before she had her kitchen ripped out. But the three months she spent restricted to two electric rings has resulted in a supremely practical book of more than 130 dishes. With flavours from Barcelona, Bangkok, Bombay and Old Blighty, you won't get bored with this pared-back approach.

Published by Cassell Illustrated, £20

The River Cottage Meat Book

By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

The cold months are the perfect time to tuck into some meaty victuals, and The River Cottage Meat Book has recipes straight from television's favourite smallholder. This is the definitive guide to the preparation and cooking of all kinds of meat, with many recipes for roasting, grilling and preserving turkeys, trotters and tripe. There are sections on different cuts of meat and how they should best be used. For confirmed carnivores, this 500-page volume is a worthy tome. Published by Hodder & Stoughton, £25

Low-Carb Vegetarian

By Celia Brooks Brown

Did you go on a high-protein diet to lose weight? Are you now sick of the sight of meat? This timely collection of practical, achievable dishes will help expand your repertoire, and give those who didn't like meat in the first place the opportunity to try low-carb living. Most satisfying is that the author's recipes have been checked by a leading British nutritionist.

Published by Pavilion Books, £9.99

The Fifth Quarter

By Anissa Helou

The title refers to the term used by French and Italian butchers to describe the parts of the animal that do not belong to the four quarters of the carcass. Anissa Helou's Lebanese background, plus years of research throughout the Mediterranean for earlier books, bring a uniquely exotic element to this subject. A must for any true offal enthusiast, and a fascinating reference work.

Published by Absolute Press, £20

Super Hot

By Michael van Straten

Juicing enthusiasts always fail to address the fact that, in winter, people simply do not want a glass of carrot and celery juice for breakfast, even with a bit of "warming" ginger added. Michael van Straten has tackled the problem with this collection of hot, healthy drinks. He admits that you might find some of the combinations challenging, but you would be hard-pressed not to find two or three recipes that will suit your daily routine.

Published by Mitchell Beazley, £10.99

Fifty Recipes to Stake Your Life On

By Charles Campion

Charles Campion's earlier life as a Buxton hotelier-chef has provided plenty of opportunity for hands-on refinement of dishes as well as amusing anecdotes. These are brought together, with stories from childhood and thoughts on ingredients, in a charming collection perfectly sized for bedtime reading.

Published by Timewell Press, £14.99