Recipes taken from the Complete Traditional Recipe Book by Sarah Edington.

Toad in the hole

© National Trust Books

How did this dish get its name and when was it invented? The Oxford Dictionary of Food gives the earliest reference to a Toad in the Hole as ‘The dish called toad in the hole, meat boiled in a crust’ in 1787.

In 1861, Mrs Beeton has steak and kidney cooking in the batter, so neither version was quite the same as today’s dish. Never mind – the combination of sausages and crisp, hot batter is irresistible. The cherry tomatoes are my own touch, which adds to the taste and colour of the dish.

• 2–3 tablespoons sunflower oil or approximately 25g (1oz) hard fat such as Trex
• 6 large sausages
• 2–3 cherry tomatoes per portion

For the batter

• 110g (4oz) plain flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, well beaten
• 300ml (1⁄2 pint) milk, full cream or semi-skimmed

Serves 4

Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and make a batter by stirring in the eggs, and making a smooth paste with a little of the milk. Next, beat in the rest of the milk until the mixture resembles unwhipped double cream. At this point leave it to stand for at least 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour. Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.

You can use either a 20 x 16cm (8 x 6in) roasting tin or individual round tins, whichever is more practical. Add the fat or oil to the roasting tin (or, if using individual tins, put a knob of fat or a little oil in each) and heat in the oven until the fat smokes. Chop each sausage into four and arrange the chunks in the roasting tin or use three chunks per round tin. Intersperse the sausage pieces with cherry tomatoes. Put in the oven for 5 minutes, then pour on the batter and cook for a further 15 minutes. Check to see if the Toad is cooked. The small tins may well be ready at this point, but a large Toad in the Hole will probably require a little longer. The batter should be crisp and golden.

Serve piping hot.

Fruit crumble

© National Trust Books

Whenever I cook this recipe for guests from abroad, they are very enthusiastic and very surprised when told how simple the recipe is. Fruit Crumble is an essentially British dish. Its history probably does not go back further than sixty years, according to the Oxford Companion to Food, but it is well established now in the British canon of puddings.

• 700g (11⁄2lb) of fruit – apples, plums and rhubarb are all good choices. You can also use a mixture of fruit; blackberries and apples is a particular favourite.
• Sugar to taste

For the crumble topping

• 110g (4oz) plain flour
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 110g (4oz) butter
• 110g (4oz) brown sugar
• 50g (2oz) chopped walnuts or almonds

Serves 6

Preheat oven to 200°C, 400°F, gas mark 6. Layer the fruit in an ovenproof dish with sugar (the amount depending on the sharpness of the fruit).

Sieve the flour with the spice. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until the mixture is the texture of fine breadcrumbs (you can also do this in a food processor). Mix in the sugar and the nuts and sprinkle in a thick even layer over the fruit. Bake in the oven for 30–40 minutes. Serve hot with pouring cream or yoghurt.

The Complete Traditional Recipe Book contains more than 300 recipes.