My grandfather was an eater of many meats - even possum — but he did not care for the texture of wild boar. His recipe for wild boar stew was simple: cook the boar with various vegetables, then “throw the meat in the garbage and keep the broth.” It is worth noting that he was not exactly the cook of the family, but the fact remains that feral pig can be quite tough if not cooked with care.

Biting into a crunchy taco, only to have the bottom crack and the fillings spill out, is definitely a tragedy, but it’s preventable: You just need to heat them up a bit.

When I think about comfort food, a warm and tender, falling apart mass of roasted meat is high on the list. Chuck roasts are great, but pork shoulders have recently been starring in my dreams. Due to the amount of time needed to braise a big chunk of fatty meat, roasts of this nature are not usually considered weeknight fare, but applying a little pressure with an Instant Pot or slow cooker gets this thing on the table in a little over an hour.

As a carnivore whose foodie philosophy is "make things as delicious as possible, whatever it takes," I used to see vegan dinner guests as something I had to work around, and for that, I apologise. Vegan foodies can go on about how delicious soy bacon is, but as a cook who eats meat, I tended to think they were using a different measurement stick for "delicious."

I was selfishly aggravated at having to "dumb down" dishes and sacrifice taste for accommodation.

Video: As far as plant parts go, grapes are the closest thing you can get to lollies. But too-ripe fruit is significantly less fun and, once grapes start to mush out, I am much less inclined to eat them. Luckily, with just a little butter, and a little roasting, you can transform mushy, sad grapes into a jammy, sweet spread that is perfectly at home on a fancy cheese plate.

Chicken nuggets are just plain fun to consume, but some people (mostly vegetarians) miss out on this dippable delicacy because of all the pesky animal protein. These chickenless nuggets — which are made with texturized vegetable protein and chickpeas — are savoury and tasty while being completely vegan.

As a person who keeps at least 1kg of butter on hand at all times, I’m constantly cycling blocks of the stuff between my freezer, fridge and butter dish. Recently, though, I found myself in an unthinkable predicament: I was out of butter. I dug around in the back of my freezer, and behind a half-empty bag of frozen dumplings and some chicken stock, I found one last box.

Due to the popularity of a certain sock puppet in the '80s, lamb chops seem to be the cut of young sheep that gets the most play. Lamb steaks, however, are definitely worth your time and, when cooked sous vide, pretty much impossible to mess up.

My love of fried eggs, my love of fried cheese, and my love of eggs and cheese have all been well documented, but somehow — until this fateful morning — I had never fried an egg in fried cheese. Honestly, what a dumbarse.

If you are a maker of pastry you probably have, at one point of another, lovingly brushed some buttery dough with a beaten egg, or some portion of an egg, never stopping to wonder why. (Or maybe you did wonder why. I’m not in your brain box.)

Aussies are very good at breakfast and brunch, but a 'Full English' has no peer. Beyond fried bread — which is way better than toast — the incorporation of umami-rich mushrooms and sweet, incidentally good-for-you tomatoes make it a meal to be reckoned with. Here's how to make your own.

Homemade pizza nerds are a passionate bunch; for a timid novice, the sheer amount of conflicting information available on various pizza-enthusiast boards is anything but encouraging. I'm here to tell you that you don't need to build a backyard brick oven or even buy a stone to make great pizza - in fact, you probably already have everything you need.

No matter how good your dough, sauce and ingredients are, it's hard to beat the unique flavour of a wood-fired pizza oven. If you don't have your own wood-fired oven, you can get a similar flavour by pre-toasting the flour for your pizza peel.

Savoury cocktails are having a moment, but the fancy concoctions you see in magazines always seem to involve three custom infusions and a hand-crafted garnish. If that's not quite your style, check your fridge — you might already have what you need for complex, savoury adult beverages.

Cheese is good way to upgrade a mediocre scramble — heck, it’s a good way to upgrade a mediocre anything — but it can also be used to elevate, rather than obscure. The following luscious creamy cheeses work much like a good backup singer; they accentuate the eggs while only pulling focus at choice moments.

I am obsessed with steamed corn. You take how Oprah feels about bread, and multiply it by three, and that is how I feel about corn. Those crisp, sweet kernels of sunshine are the epitome of good eatin', and it needs very little in the way of preparation.

We love roasted vegetables around here, and we’re always interested in simple ways to make this already-versatile technique even more appealing. A recent oven fries bender got me thinking: if a little cornflour can turn sad, limp, roasted potato sticks into crunchy, basically fried goodness, can it do the same for other vegetables?

It seems that, in an attempt to rebrand mayonnaise, various hip food establishments insist on calling all sorts of creamy condiments “aioli”. I refuse to stand idly by, letting this go unchecked. Aioli is not, as some would have you believe “fancy mayo”. Aioli is its own, very specific thing, and it is amazing.

While I’m not the biggest fan of unicorn food, there is no denying the beauty of a brightly coloured confection. I don’t have any particular qualms with the little bottles of artificial food colouring but, thanks to Stella Parks, I have recently become a huge fan of colouring sweet things with pulverised, freeze-dried fruit.