“Ah yes, your own recipe book. You will need some kind of small scrapbook or filing system for all those newspaper and magazine cuttings. Another word of advice: don’t stick them in until you’ve made the dish at least twice and know it has some chance of longevity. Such a cuttings book will, over the years, testify to the strange trajectory of your cooking. It will also bring back moments in the same way as a photograph album: I used to make that? And that really stodgy vegetable pie? And that thingy in filo pastry which use to make me so cross? And didn’t I cook this the night when … ? You will be surprised by how much emotional and psychological history you might be storing up when you innocently paste in a slightly stained newspaper clipping.”

Julian Barnes, The Pedant in the Kitchen, Atlantic, 2003.