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Cocido quemadoBurnt sugar mate drink

Cocido is how Paraguay starts the day: in Asunción, in the villages of Guairá and Itapúa, and in school kitchens, a pot of burnt yerba is brewed and poured into cups with chipa, the cheesy cassava bread, or with a hard galleta. The old way is to drop a glowing piece of charcoal into a pot with yerba and sugar and stir until the sugar burns. On a home stove you caramelise them together in a dry pan instead, which is safer and gives the same smoky, toffee-like taste. The drink is clear amber-brown, with roasted, slightly bitter mate notes over burnt-sugar sweetness; with milk added it becomes cocido con leche, creamy and coffee-coloured. Yerba mate contains caffeine, so treat it like a cup of coffee. The common mistake is letting the sugar go black: it turns acrid and bitter. Pull it off the heat when the caramel is deep amber and the yerba smells toasted, not burnt. It is ready when the liquid is a clear dark amber and tastes of toffee and smoke. Chef's tip: the water will spit fiercely when it hits the hot caramel, so pour it in from the side, at arm's length.

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BusecaTripe and white bean stew

Buseca arrived in Montevideo with Italian immigrants from Lombardy and became a classic winter dish of Uruguayan bodegones and family kitchens, eaten on cold June and July days. Honeycomb tripe is simmered until tender, then stewed with white beans, pork chorizo, bacon, peppers, tomato and paprika into a thick, warming stew served with crusty bread. Buy tripe that is already cleaned and blanched (dressed). The usual mistake is undercooking the tripe: it needs a full 2 hours, until it's soft enough to cut with a spoon. Slow-cooker option: after step 4, cook on low for 8 hours. Chef's tip: a little grated lemon zest and parsley stirred in at the end lifts the rich, gelatinous sauce.

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TereréIced yerba mate

In Asunción the hottest part of the day stops for tereré: a horn or cup packed with yerba mate, topped up again and again with ice water infused with crushed herbs, and passed round the group through a metal straw. It was recognised by UNESCO as part of Paraguay's cultural heritage, and the herbs (yuyos) change with the season and the drinker's mood. Yerba mate contains caffeine, so it isn't one for small children. The common mistake is pouring water straight into loose yerba, which then clogs the straw; tilt the yerba to one side first. Chef's tip: for tereré ruso, swap the water for cold orange or grapefruit juice.

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Morcilla dulceSweet blood sausage with walnuts

No Uruguayan parrilla is complete without morcilla dulce: a soft pork blood sausage sweetened with sugar and scented with orange peel, studded with walnuts and raisins, grilled until the skin crisps and served first, as part of the achuras, while the beef is still cooking. It is pork throughout: pork blood, pork back fat and natural pork casings. Making it at home is a project. Buy fresh pork blood with an anticoagulant added from a butcher who supplies it for sausage making, keep it chilled below 4 °C and use it within a day. The common mistake is poaching at a rolling boil, which bursts the casings. Chef's tip: keep the water at 80–85 °C, just shivering, and prick a sausage after 25 minutes: it is done when brown, not red, juice comes out.

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Raised pork pie

This is a raised pork pie in the style of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, the hunting town whose pies were carried in saddle bags; only pies made in the area may use the town's name, so this is our home version. Chopped, uncured pork shoulder and belly, peppered and spiced with mace, is packed into a crisp hot water crust made with lard, baked with bowed sides, then filled with a savoury jelly. Eat it cold with English mustard and pickle at picnics or on Boxing Day. Chef's tip: work the pastry while it is still warm; as it cools it cracks.

180 minBritishMeat
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Cumberland sausage and mash

The Cumberland sausage is a long, unlinked coil of coarse, peppery pork sausage from the old county of Cumberland in the Lake District, cooked whole and cut at the table. With buttery mash and a slow onion gravy it's the pub and family supper of the North West. Chef's tip: cook the coil gently in the oven, held flat with skewers, so it doesn't split and stays juicy.

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Steak and kidney pudding

Steak and kidney pudding is the steamed suet pie of old English chop houses and Northern family kitchens, the kind of dish that filled up mill workers through Lancashire winters. Beef and lamb's kidney in rich gravy are sealed in a basin lined with suet pastry and steamed for hours until the crust is soft and the filling falls apart. Chef's tip: cook the filling first; it gives tender meat and a crust that isn't soggy.

340 minBritishMeat
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Liver and onions

Liver and onions is a café and works-canteen classic across the North and the Midlands, cheap, quick and full of iron, eaten with mash and a dollop of gravy. Thin slices of calf's or lamb's liver are fried briefly in butter after the onions have turned slow and sweet. Chef's tip: soak the liver in milk for 30 minutes if you find its flavour strong; it softens the taste.

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Beef and ale pie

Beef and ale pie is the pub supper of Yorkshire and the Midlands, where brewing towns like Burton upon Trent made a dark ale gravy part of the region's cooking. Chuck steak is braised slowly in ale with onions and mushrooms until tender, then topped with flaky pastry. This recipe contains alcohol, most of which cooks off; for an alcohol-free pie use the same amount of beef stock with 1 tablespoon of malt vinegar and a teaspoon of brown sugar. Chef's tip: let the filling cool before topping, so the pastry stays crisp and puffy.

210 minBritishMeat
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Pie and mash with liquor

Pie, mash and liquor is the working-class lunch of the East End of London, served in tiled pie shops from Bethnal Green to Walthamstow since the 1800s. Small minced beef pies with a soft suet-style base and a crisp puff lid sit next to a scoop of smooth mash, all flooded with liquor, a thin, bright green parsley sauce. Pie shops make the liquor with the stock from stewed eels; this version uses fish or vegetable stock. Locals add chilli vinegar. Chef's tip: keep the liquor thin and pourable, like single cream, not thick like gravy.

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Roast lamb with mint sauce

Roast leg of lamb is the Easter Sunday lunch of England, when spring lamb from the South Downs and the West Country comes in, served with roast potatoes, spring greens and a jug of mint sauce. The sauce is the English twist: chopped garden mint steeped in vinegar and a little sugar, sharp enough to cut the richness of the meat. Chef's tip: make the mint sauce an hour ahead so the vinegar mellows and the mint flavour comes out.

120 minBritishMeatGluten free
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Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington is the grand centrepiece of British Christmas and celebration dinners, a whole beef fillet coated in finely chopped mushroom duxelles, wrapped in thin pancakes or ham and golden puff pastry, then sliced at the table to show a pink middle. It is linked, without much proof, to the Duke of Wellington. This version wraps the fillet in crêpes instead of the usual Parma ham. The duxelles is deglazed with a splash of white wine, which contains alcohol; use a little stock for an alcohol-free version. Chef's tip: chill the wrapped fillet before it goes in the pastry so everything stays tight and the base doesn't go soggy.

105 minBritishMeat
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Gammon, egg and chips

Gammon, egg and chips is the great English pub and transport-café dinner, on the menu from roadside diners on the A1 to Devon seaside pubs. A thick steak of cured pork gammon is grilled until the fat crisps, then topped with a fried egg or a ring of pineapple (or both), next to chunky chips and peas. Chef's tip: snip the fat around the edge every 2 cm before cooking so the steak stays flat.

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Haggis, neeps and tatties

Haggis, neeps and tatties is the centre of every Burns Supper on 25 January, when the haggis is piped in, addressed with Robert Burns's poem and cut open with a flourish. Haggis is a peppery, oaty pudding of minced lamb's offal, onion and spice; nearly everyone in Scotland buys it from a butcher, then simply heats it and serves it with mashed swede (neeps) and potatoes (tatties). The cream sauce has a splash of whisky, which contains alcohol; leave it out and add a teaspoon of mustard for an alcohol-free sauce. Chef's tip: wrap the haggis tightly in foil before it goes in the water so the casing doesn't burst.

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Black Country faggotsPork liver meatballs in gravy

Faggots are the thrifty meatballs of the Black Country, the industrial towns west of Birmingham, sold by butchers and served at chip shops with mushy peas and gravy. They are made from pork liver, pork belly and onion with breadcrumbs, sage and mace, and baked in a deep onion gravy. This is a pork dish. Chef's tip: wrap each faggot in caul fat if your butcher has it; it bastes them and holds them together.

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Tatws pum munudBacon and potato stew

Tatws pum munud means 'five-minute potatoes' in Welsh, a joke, since it takes half an hour, but it was the quick, cheap one-pot supper of North Wales quarry and farm families. Sliced potatoes and onions are simmered on a bed of smoked bacon (pork) in stock until the potatoes are soft and the bottom layer catches and turns golden. Chef's tip: don't stir; shake the pan instead so the layers stay intact and the bottom crisps.

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Roast beef and gravy

Roast beef is the heart of the English Sunday lunch, and in Yorkshire it comes with puddings, roast potatoes and a jug of gravy made from the pan juices. A beef joint is seared in a hot oven, then roasted more gently and rested so it slices juicy and pink, with crisp, well-seasoned edges. Serve with Yorkshire puddings, horseradish and greens. Chef's tip: rest the meat for at least 20 minutes under foil; carved straight away, its juices run all over the board.

110 minBritishMeat
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Scottish venison casserole

Venison from red deer on the Highland estates is cooked in autumn and winter when the stalking season brings it to Scottish butchers, and a slow casserole is the warming way to eat the cheaper cuts. Shoulder is braised with red wine, juniper berries and a spoon of redcurrant jelly until tender and dark. The wine contains alcohol; for an alcohol-free version use extra stock with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Chef's tip: venison is very lean, so cook it at a bare simmer; boiling makes it dry and stringy.

175 minBritishMeat
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Bedfordshire clangerMeat and jam suet roll

The Bedfordshire clanger is a long suet-crust roll that held a whole working lunch for farm labourers and the lace and straw-hat workers of Bedfordshire: savoury pork and potato at one end and sweet jam or apple at the other, marked by slashes so you knew which end to start with. Bakeries in Luton and Bedford still sell them. Chef's tip: build a pastry wall between the two fillings so the jam doesn't run into the meat.

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Forfar bridiesBeef and onion pastries

The bridie is the pride of Forfar in Angus, a horseshoe-shaped pastry stuffed with chopped beef steak and onion, sold hot from the town's bakers and eaten on market days and at weddings. Unlike a Cornish pasty there is no potato, just peppery beef, onion and beef suet in shortcrust. The holes on top tell you the filling: one hole for plain, two for onion. Chef's tip: chop the steak by hand into small pieces rather than using mince; it keeps the filling juicy.

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Huntingdon fidget pieGammon, apple and onion pie

Fidget pie is a harvest pie from Huntingdonshire and the Fens around Cambridge, baked for farm workers bringing in the crops in autumn. It is a pork dish: chunks of gammon (cured pork) are layered with sharp cooking apples and onions in a cider gravy under shortcrust, so it is salty, sweet and fruity all at once. This recipe contains alcohol from the cider; for alcohol-free use cloudy apple juice with a teaspoon of cider vinegar. Chef's tip: soak salty gammon in cold water for an hour first, or the pie can be too salty.

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Liverpool scouseBeef and lamb stew

Scouse is so central to Liverpool that its people are named after it; the thick stew of meat, potatoes and onions was carried from the Baltic by sailors and cooked for dockers' families, and city restaurants still celebrate Global Scouse Day each February. Some of the potatoes cook down into the gravy, making it thick and hearty. Serve it with pickled red cabbage or beetroot and crusty bread. Chef's tip: cut half the potatoes small so they collapse and thicken the stew, and leave the rest in chunks.

170 minBritishMeat
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Lorne sausageSquare beef and pork sausage

Lorne sausage, better known in Scotland simply as square sausage or slice, is a skinless loaf of seasoned beef and pork mince that is cut into squares and fried for the full Scottish breakfast, or slapped in a morning roll with brown sauce. It is easy to make at home and freezes well. Chef's tip: freeze the shaped block for an hour before slicing; it cuts into neat, thin squares.

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Scotch pies

The Scotch pie is the straight-sided, double-crust mutton pie eaten at half time on football terraces and bought from butchers' counters in every Scottish town, with an open rim at the top for adding gravy, beans or mash. The pastry is a hot water crust made with lard (an animal fat) and the filling is peppery minced mutton or lamb. Chef's tip: shape the pastry while it is still warm; cold hot-water pastry cracks.

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