Not if you leave it in a warm place. I usually put them on a warmed plate with another on top, in an oven that's been warmed a little.

Letting meat rest used to really scare me. I could hardly believe Delia claiming that you easily leave a joint for half an hour – took me an age to work up the 'courage' to actually try it.

A joint I can understand, but a steak, only one way to find out, you've just sorted tea for tomorrow....thanks!

Well I'm doing steak this evening (with Jerseys and peas). My first proper meal since Sunday after a stomach bug. So I'm very much looking forward to it!

Have done in the past, but my Brother in law is a butcher and he gets us some cracking deals on various meats.

If you find yourself in Chester, try a meal at Joseph Benjamin (www.josephbenjamin.co.uk). Small place - only a dozen or so tables, so if it's a weekend you might need to book - and an equally small menu, but the highest quality. Had a vegetarian antipasti, different breads with cheeses, olives, hummus and delicious caramelised onion chutney. Followed that with a vegetable ramen. Pak choi, ake mushrooms and other veg in a chilli and ginger broth. Enough spice to give it a kick but not overwhelming. The chicken caesar salad that Mrs G had was "the best she's ever had". Can't recommend the place highly enough.

If you find yourself in Chester, try a meal at Joseph Benjamin (www.josephbenjamin.co.uk). Small place - only a dozen or so tables, so if it's a weekend you might need to book - and an equally small menu, but the highest quality. Had a vegetarian antipasti, different breads with cheeses, olives, hummus and delicious caramelised onion chutney. Followed that with a vegetable ramen. Pak choi, ake mushrooms and other veg in a chilli and ginger broth. Enough spice to give it a kick but not overwhelming. The chicken caesar salad that Mrs G had was "the best she's ever had". Can't recommend the place highly enough.

Having tried black pudding for the first time earlier in the year (after going all my life saying "I will never try it"icon_wink.gif and liking it

What's the best things to do with it?

Scallops and bacon is a good one, cubed up fried like croutons in a salad, with some apple sauce and pea shoots, in little fritters and served with pork, mix with sausagemeat for a great burger, stuffed in a chicken breast with a whiskey sauce.

Or my favourite way, sliced and fried with a poached egg on top, a couple of bits of bacon, lorne sausage and a tattie scone.

If you can get it Stornaway Black Pudding is one of the best around.

Cheers for that! Scallops one sounds interesting as not had them in a long time

Talking about black pudding I'm heavily into chorizo at present.
Chop it up, cook it in the oven and it gives a nice bit of a crunch to a green salad.

Nice.

Our local French deli sells a beautifully soft chorizo – cooks wonderfully. Makes a lovely frittata with some finely-chopped shallot.

On black pudding, I don't often buy it, simply because it's usually very dry – and I can get 'Bury-style' here. I do wonder if that's because most if not all British black pudding is now made with pasturised blood and not the proper, raw stuff.

I love the French version, [iboudin noir[/i (or the very lightly spiced Catalan version) which is much softer. We'll have the latter a few times in August when we're over there. As with the chorizo, it can make a very nice frittata – and just simply grilled, with some sliced apple, gently fried in butter, on the side.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention [ihimmel und erde[/i, which is a traditional German dish of black pudding, mash, fried onions and apple sauce – which I have actually eaten in Berlin. The name refers to the two types of apple in the dish – the 'apple' coming from the tree ('himmel' – heaven) and the potato coming from the earth ('erde'), as 'Erdapfel' (earth apple) is old German slang for potato – which itself brings to mind the French 'pomme de terre' for potato.

Fascinating stuff, this.

The Spanish have a nic little black pudding as a tapas dish too.

It's a global dish.

It's a bit of a worry when you see the cr@p that comes off it when you oven cook it, mind.
I cooked a rack of lamb on Barbie during the week.
Probably not the professional way to cook it but it tasted mighty fine.
Bit overcast but it's going on again today.
Gonna try barbecued belly-pork this afty.