This week I've been attempting to prepare myself for the daunting task of tasting more than 100 ciders at the Royal Bath & West Show, helping industry experts to single out one farmhouse cider that will go forward to the Supreme Champion Cider judging.

My ordeal - tasting starts at 9am sharp - will be over by the time you read this. I hope to emerge more of an expert on the minutiae of what makes a good farmhouse cider and expect to report that cooking with cider is a trend waiting to happen.

As someone brought up in Kent, surrounded by apple orchards, and with pig farming in the family, I have always associated pork with apples and cider. One simple idea is to serve chops or meaty pork sausages with cider-flavoured apple sauce finished with an indecently large knob of butter. I particularly like this with mashed potatoes and smooth, creamy Dijon mustard. It's a combination that everyone seems to love, and one which transcends seasons.

Although my recipe is for pork chops, it becomes an even quicker dish made with skinned sausages broken into four big chunks, fried like meatballs. If the sausages are good-quality, made with a high proportion of organic pork, they won't end up the slightest bit fatty and the crusty golden chunks of sausage look very appetising nestled together in the apple sauce.

Another idea for sausage meatballs is cooking them in cider gravy flavoured with onion and sage, finished with butter beans and golden wedges of apple. I used Westons premium organic cider, a past Organic Food Awards medal winner, for my cooking, and in this dish it achieved an incredibly rich background flavour for this interesting bowlful. I served it with spinach and new potatoes but it is pretty substantial on its own and makes a great spoon-and-fork TV supper with crusty bread and butter.

While I was looking for other pork and cider ideas I came across a recipe for rhubarb with pork chops and as I'd just pulled some rhubarb from my allotment, I thought I'd give it a try. No cider is involved but you might like to drink a glass of it with this surprisingly brilliant combination of flavours, the tart tang of rhubarb cutting through the rich, fatty flavour of pork brilliantly.

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