Bluebird to publish food bank-inspired recipe book from Jack Monroe

Pan Macmillan will publish Jack Monroe’s fifth book, Tin Can Cook, about using tinned or dried ingredients, inspired by her experience of using food banks.

Tin Can Cook will be published as a £6.99 paperback on 30th May 2019, featuring “75 recipes that are easy to rustle up from tinned and dried ingredients”, Bluebird said. 

Carole Tonkinson, publisher of Bluebird, acquired world rights from Rosemary Scoular of United Agents.

“With the growing number of people using food banks in the UK, Jack’s book comes at exactly the right time,” the publisher said. “This simple and affordable book will be a lifesaver for those who have to feed themselves on a shoestring budget, but who don’t want to skimp on nutritious, appetising and varied meals."

Recipes include tinned spud fishcakes, sardine and tomato soup, as well as tindade, "a twist on the French classic brandade". 

Monroe, a well-known campaigner against hunger and poverty in the UK, revealed that her own experience of using tinned goods from food banks has inspired the book.

“I've been writing recipes from tins for around six years now; and it is frequently met with amusement and disdain from my peers," Monroe said. "But I'm fascinated by our relationships with tinned food, and what those tins say about us. Our abilities, our fears, our emergencies, and our comfort zones. [Currently] there are around 400 registered food banks in the UK, feeding 1.5million people, and those parcels are made primarily of tinned goods.

"I know, because I was a food bank user, and it was out of those parcels that I started to write recipes online.”

“I decided to make it my mission to create restaurant-quality, beautiful, desirable meals, from my local corner store tins and supermarket basics ranges,” the writer said. “These recipes are designed for everyone; from those with very little confidence and cooking ability, the smallest of kitchens, the scantest of equipment, to the gourmands, the bon vivants, and the curious among us."

Monroe’s third book Cooking on a Bootstrap was published by Bluebird in August and she also has recipe collection Vegan on a Bootstrap scheduled for release in December next year. The writer moved to the Pan Macmillan imprint in 2016 for her second title, Cooking on a Bootstrap, after self-funding for the title originally, with her first two books, A Girl Called Jack and A Year in 120 Recipes, published by Michael Joseph.

Monroe has sold 90,515 copies in total, with her debut, A Girl called Jack, the bestselling title shifting 67,842 from February 2014, according to Nielsen BookScan.

Last week, Anna Burns' use of food banks hit the headlines following her Man Booker prize win for Milkman (Faber). The Northern Irish author had thanked Lewes District Churches Homelink and Newhaven food bank in her acknowledgements in the novel.