Eels, tripe and nettles are still on our menu

sir – Perhaps the answer to stopping the decline in the popularity of “traditional” British foods (report, July 7) is to change how we eat them.

When I was a child, tripe was eaten in a traditional Lancashire way – with vinegar and onions. I now slow braise it in a rich tomato sauce.

Eels make a fantastic pâté. My teenager loves cockles with linguine; we stuff duck legs with black pudding, and nettles – picked free from the river bank – make a lovely faux watercress soup.

All it takes is a little imagination and the 24 items on the critical list will be back in fashion.

Fiona Phillips

Naburn, North Yorkshire

sir – Jane Shilling (Comment, July 9) need not look far to find offal.

Tesco and Morrisons both sell lamb and pork liver and kidneys, and there are numerous recipes in my cookbooks.

I particularly recommend Delia Smith’s kidneys in red wine sauce, and her peppered liver.

Geoff Eastwood

King’s Lynn, Norfolk

Catch of the day: herons tuck into a meal of eels in a detail from a 13th-century bestiary