Welcome to Cooking the Stacks

Intro and recap

Hi there, welcome! Thank you so much for checking out Cooking the Stacks - a journey in experimental home cooking.

I’m Shell, a baker and former journo, who fares near London. Each month, I pick a foodie stack I admire. I cook or bake from it through the month, recounting a snapshot of my adventures here for you. Instead of cooking the books, it’s Cooking the Stacks!

The Cooking the Stacks project was borne from my other Substack, Bake Experiments, where I play with unusual flavours, patisserie techniques and get a bit nerdy over baking history and folklore.

While my background is based in patisserie and cake decorating, I have long been an experimental home cook. I am also a voracious reader, who adores cookery books… and now, foodie Substacks.

I cannot tell you how I enjoy reading all the wonderful foodie Substacks out there. I love absorbing all the knowledge and ideas like a sponge, being transported to other culinary worlds, connecting with other food writers.

You see many reviews or cookalongs from cookbooks, which I do love to read. But I have yet to see anyone cooking from recipe stacks and documenting their experiences.

So, about a month ago, I started doing it. I started making a concerted effort to regularly cook or bake from foodie stacks and sharing the dishes with my young family. With the idea being to learn, build community, and give readers ideas of Stacks to check out for themselves.

I have enjoyed myself so much, and the response from readers has been so wonderfully positive, I have been encouraged to set up this second publication.

Before I launch into a recap of the wonderful stacks I have been cooking from so far, I wanted to share my ethos for Cooking the Stacks:

• Support Smaller Stacks.

  Where I can, this project will focus on those who don’t have thousands of subscribers. Those who are up and coming, just starting out. Or more experienced stackers, who deserve to have thousands of subscribers!

  Those with a big subscriber base have impetus behind them already. I want to find and feature the smaller stacks, like myself, who are full of passion, talent, and great ideas.

• Positivity and encouragement.

  I know the work it takes to write a recipe stack - the testing, the double checking measurements and ingredients, the photography. And that’s before you’ve even started writing. With that in mind, I am never going to pull apart someone else’s stack.

  This is a positive and supportive space. I can give constructive feedback, but, I am not a critic. I am here to learn and experience, to connect. Not to destroy anyone’s passion project. Anyone I feature will be treated as I would wish to be treated - with courtesy, respect and encouragement.

• To build community.

  Oh, dear reader, I have plans for this concept. In time I will add interviews, demos, cookalongs and more. Do watch this space.

And now, a recap!

Week Number One

For my first week, I picked:

Lolly Martyn’s Weeknight Pasta From Italy, where Lolly shares simple, seasonal pasta recipes Italian’s actually eat.

It was a wonderful week. My family enjoyed her Sensational Salmon Pantry Pasta, Pistachio Lemon Spaghetti, Seduce me Broccoli Pasta and Midnight Pasta (which I admit, I ate at midday. But it would be superb after a night out!)

Sensational Salmon Pasta, Midnight Spaghetti, Seduce me Broccoli Pasta and Sicilian Lemon and Pistachio Pasta.

I’ve cooked a lot of pasta in my time, but the extra tips and tricks I learnt from Lolly during this week upped my pasta game no end. Adding smoked salmon to creamy pasta is such a game changer, or parmesan rind to your soups. And it is vital to ensure your pasta water is as salty as the sea!

If you aren’t already subscribed to Lolly, get in there! Her posts always make me smile. I love her joie di vivre - or gioia di vivere, I should say - and passion for her home of Lake Como.

Week Number Two:

This week my recipe stack of choice was:

Sheryl O'Connell’s Just Really Good Recipes.

Fun fact: on my birth certificate, my name is also Sheryl. It was shortened to Shell when I was a teenager, but perhaps that is why I feel such an affinity to this stack… or perhaps, it’s the connection to another proud mama, writing the recipes she lovingly makes for her family.

There is an absolute plethora of healthy, simple, delicious recipes inspired from all around the world here, but where Sheryl clearly shines is with Middle Eastern flavours. Dishes filled with walnuts, rich dates, middle eastern spice rubs and herbs, all sprinkled with copious amounts of fresh, zingy pomegranate. Just like this Middle Eastern inspired beef pot roast:

162. Middle Eastern inspired beef pot roast

Other house favourites included this delicious Za’atar chicken with tumeric rice - I loved the combination of dill yogurt with za’atar - and these Swedish meatballs with noodles. I loved the addition of noodles to this Swedish classic, and served them with tons of broccoli and redcurrant jelly.

Za’atar chicken with tumeric rice, dill yogurt and salad

Swedish meatballs, with noodles and broccoli

I have another recap coming your way soon.

In the meantime, is there a foodie stack you are loving? Or perhaps you want to tell me about your own?! Please do let me know in comments, I’d love to hear about it.