Barely does a day go by without a request for a favourite recipe. 'I lost it in the move'; 'it stuck to the bottom of the pan and burnt', 'some clot put it in the recycling'. Yes, such requests are a bit of a nuisance, frankly I have got enough on my plate without being recipe monitor as well, but they are also curiously pleasing to receive. The idea that someone wants to eat something again and again can't be seen as anything but a compliment. Which leaves me feeling somewhat humble.

In the seven years since Observer Food Magazine first appeared, there have been hundreds of emails requiring me to ping off a much-loved recipe in haste. I do what I can, but sometimes the thought of trawling through hundreds of possibilities to find something that might or might not be what you want ('it had aubergines in it, and I think lamb and cumin, probably about five or six years ago'), is just impossible. This month, to celebrate our seventh birthday we thought it might be useful to dig out some of the most asked-for recipes and publish them in one handy issue.

Some are also our own favourites. Others are those that could have done with a bit more explanation at the time, such as the cheesecake that I should have explained only works if you use full-fat mascarpone and needs a night in the fridge to set (several readers who had either been impatient or used low-fat soft cheese ended up with soup rather than a cake.) Ditto the blackcurrant meringue where I had failed to mention you needed several millilitres of cream.

I am always interested to see which ones are asked for time and time again. Many years ago, before we could cut and paste on our laptops, most cooks kept old recipe books of their own. Some were handwritten, others full of newspaper cuttings stuck on with bits of yellowing sticky tape. My own are almost unreadable now, each page stuck to the next one with cake mixture or made unreadable by blots of distinctly rancid olive oil. I can't help being fascinated by such personal collections and particularly appreciate it when recipes are annotated ('needs a bit more butter', or 'took 10 minutes longer than it says'). Only the most precious of cookery writers could fail to be charmed by a reader tweaking the recipe to their own taste. Such collections are often both a great read and an extraordinary insight into the owner's life. Long may we literally cut and paste.

But many of us also like our recipes online now and I should mention that many of those you request are available on my spiffy new archive.

So, here to celebrate our birthday are over 50 old favourites. I hope some of yours are there, and if not I will do my best to find them, though I wouldn't put the oven on just yet.

· Still hungry? Try Nigel's seven speedy snacks