The farmhouse kitchen was often referred to as the ‘smokehouse’ because cooking involved fire and fire made smoke. Whilst cooking food is an activity unique to humans, the ways in which food is prepared is often relevant to local ingredients and cultural traditions. One of my most prized possessions is my grandmother’s well worn cookery book. It is the Good Housekeeping’s Cookery Compendium published in 1955. It was intended to support housewives with ‘unexpected gaps in [their] cookery knowledge’. In our farmhouse kitchen, we aim to share cultural traditions and create an enjoyment of foods from varying context.