Onions Without Tears
A handbook of cooking tips
by Alison, Countess of Bessborough
Introduction
This collection is all about tips I have gathered over the years from family, friends, publications, odd errors I have made and some experiments. I hope some of these prove useful for any cook, be they experienced or not.
I have included cooking methods and terms in case you are not familiar with them, as so often you come across them in cookbooks. This is not a recipe book, although I have added the odd unusual recipe which one wouldn't normally come across.
I have found that keeping a notebook or a digital record with an index of recipes that I have served up, with the name of the cookbook and page number, has proved a useful aide memoire.
About the author
Alison, Countess of Bessborough, has never worked in a professional kitchen. She has, however, spent decades feeding family and friends extraordinarily well — and gathering every tip, trick and hard-won lesson along the way.
Self-taught and endlessly curious, Ali is the sort of cook who remembers the trick a young chef on the River Spey showed her for making mayonnaise in twenty seconds, or the tip Antonio Carluccio once shared about freezing wild mushrooms. She's bought fake saffron in a Marrakech market (so you don't have to), and she started out in a kitchen the size of a yacht's galley.
This book began as a collection of notes — things scribbled down over the years from family, friends, cookbooks, the odd happy accident, and more than a few mistakes. Eventually, those on the receiving end of her cooking persuaded her to put it all in one place.
The result is Onions Without Tears — dedicated to her grandchildren, Ella and Will, and to anyone who believes cooking should be a pleasure, not a puzzle.
Where to find it
Onions Without Tears is available for £9.50 at Stansted Park Farm Shop — run by Ali's son and stocked with the kind of produce this book was written for.
You can also get in touch to enquire about ordering a copy directly.