Louise Rhind-Tutt

Whether you're cooking it low and slow in the oven or making barbecue brisket with cowboy butter, a tasty beef brisket makes a great choice for feeding a crowd. Often much cheaper than more premium cuts, it tends to offer a good value for any occasion, so to get even more for your money, surely bigger is always better — right? Well, it's not quite that simple, explains pro chef Andrew Zimmern.

Homemade fudge always feels like an indulgent treat, not to mention it's a great gifting option for sweet-toothed friends and family. This candy is no-bake and often uses just a handful of ingredients, but the cooking technique can prove tricky — plenty of recipes call for a candy thermometer and constant attention. However, pro chef Ree Drummond has created a version that requires just two ingredients, takes mere minutes to whip up, and you don't even need a thermometer at all. The secret ingredient is sweetened condensed milk.

Pesto eggs have become a viral sensation in recent years, effortlessly crossing over from social media to our kitchens. To make the dish extra special, it's always worth the effort to make your own basic pesto. But to really take it to the next level, in terms of flavor, Bobby Flay has a way to totally transform the breakfast and brunch favorite.

With its beautiful green color and buttery flesh, a perfectly ripe avocado is a wonderful ingredient for so many dishes, from brunches and salads to homemade guacamole. While there are ways you can ripen avocados faster at home, once they're ripe, they can start to turn mushy and brown pretty quickly. And even though there are ways to keep the fruit fresh for longer, you should think twice before following the viral social media hack that suggests submerging them — and also citrus fruits — in water.

Creamed spinach is a way of serving the leafy green vegetable that can tempt even those who wouldn't normally touch the stuff if it were simply sauteed. The creaminess and buttery richness makes it a classic side that pairs perfectly with everything from steak or chicken to fish dishes. Ina Garten is also a fan, and her version is super simple thanks to one key staple ingredient: frozen spinach.

A whiskey sour is one of those cocktails that's a bar staple but is just as easy to create at home. It doesn't require any tricky or hard-to-get-hold-of ingredients, consisting of just whiskey, lemon juice, simple syrup, and sometimes egg white, which are shaken and strained. But, as always, when making classic cocktails, the devil is in the detail. If you want to shake up (forgive the pun) your whiskey sour recipe, then switching out the simple syrup is a great place to start, providing endless variations to take the drink to new heights.

Many people like a good cup of coffee to set them up for the day. And for former Navy SEAL Cade Courtley, that applies just as much, if not more so, to people like him who face much more challenging and hazardous daily tasks than most of us. Courtley, who served almost a decade in the military, went on to host the TV show "Surviving Disaster." But his passion for quality coffee, as well as helping his fellow veterans, led to the creation of Victory Coffees in 2015.

Maya is chef Gabe Lea's French kiss to Manchester, with a menu of classical dishes that focus on flavours. Louise Rhind-Tutt pays a visit

Nothing beats that first juicy, beefy bite of a homemade all-American cheeseburger fresh from the grill. The cheese is, of course, a key component, adding a glorious gooey consistency as well as rich flavor. And while slices of the usual American cheese or white cheddar do the job admirably, Bobby Flay has a top tip if you want to spice things up at a Memorial Day barbecue: Try adding pimento cheese to your burger.

Hearty, filling, and intensely flavorful, bratwursts are a brilliant sausage for barbecues, backyard cookouts, and tailgating. Usually made with pork, beef, or veal, they're available to buy in a variety of styles. You might find them smoked, cured, or even pre-cooked. For the best results, though, you'll want to buy them fresh and cook the Bavarian sausages yourself.