Stuck for an ideal Christmas gift for the handyman –or woman- in your life? Look no further. Outdoorsy life meets culinary art meets Blumenthalian scientific application meets making your own beanhole oven in “Food DIY” by a right-side-of-eccentric Tim Hayward.

· Cooking a pig in hot coals, buried underground; check.

· Making your own flavoured Gin; check.

· Curing your own bacon, in a plastic bag, in the fridge; check.

· Flaming your homemade Doner kebab with a hand held blow torch; check!

Mr Hayward has produced a beautifully illustrated and designed hardback tome that is instructive, entertaining and informative to read. Broken into 11 chapters he covers some less well tried home activities such as Curing & Salting, Pickling and Smoking but also Pastry, Baking and Butchery among others. There are numerous gems to delight the inner nerd with details on the history and science behind many ancient and still relevant methods of food preservation and cooking. The writing is clear with a sharp sardonic wit and the attention to detail in the research and the production values of the book are top notch.

Hugely enjoyable too is how the author’s personality shines though. Like a considerably less paranoid version of Ron Swanson, Mr Hayward emerges from this book as exactly the person you’d like to have around when snowed in for the winter or perhaps in the event of a Zombie apocalypse. Cautious types need not entirely swoon, as spotted throughout are dozens of very smart looking recipes that should be more than manageable by even the most modest of journeyman chefs.

Mr Hayward notes the increasing interest in homemade food, perhaps as a result of the economic strife of recent years, and certainly his audience should cross demographics. This book is as likely to crop up in a hipster’s Fair Isle organic wool Christmas stocking (beside the moustache wax) as the traditional food enthusiast. Although, it’s a volume that may possibly be of merely academic appeal to vegetarians.

A disclosure – the wuss burger that I am – I’ll admit now that this was read, cover to cover, mostly in bed and, to date, I have not put any of the meticulously detailed yet simply described experiments or techniques to the test. I suspect Mr Hayward would be truly disgusted at such wimpishness. But confidence has been at a low since the apple crumble fiasco of late summer required an intervention. So home smoking my own salmon in a tea chest seems a little like trying to run before I can walk.

If there is a serious note sounding throughout this joyous celebration it is that given how disconnected we are from the sources and means of production of much of what we eat, we have become ignorant and less appreciative of food. This is proving hugely detrimental to our health and the well being of our environment. Preparing food as Mr Hayward describes, takes time, planning and often team work, so can be seen as a holistic family activity. In many respects Food DIY contains as much food for thought as for tummies.

Food DIY is out now Published by Penguin/Fig Tree

Keep up with Tim Hayward – https://twitter.com/timhayward