My early days of baking coincided with the early days of dating the man who became my husband. It is no coincidence that many of those dates revolved around cooking together, shoulder-to-shoulder in his too-small south London kitchen. He was a pretty competent and confident cook; I was an eager and naive idiot, but keen to learn. Slowly (very slowly) his knowledge and skill rubbed off on me.

There were some unmitigated disasters (the less said about our Scotch egg attempts the better; did you know it is possible to cock them up in five separate ways?). Others were qualified successes (a coffee and walnut cake which slopes at a 45° angle is still a coffee and walnut cake). But the first ever cornbread I baked was glorious on our first attempt. This is, as you may have gleaned, not due to a preternatural talent for cornbread, but rather the simplicity of the dish. Dry ingredients mixed into wet, into the tin, half an hour in the oven – done.

Cornbread is a staple of traditional American cooking, a non-negotiable for Thanksgiving tables, as well as an everyday, workhorse dish; it is one of the few foods that spans the cuisine of both North and South America.

A sweet and savoury balance is essential: so you don’t served sponge cake with your barbecued ribs

A sweet and........

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