Great comfort food makes you feel like you’re snuggled up under a doona. In both cases, you might well slip off into a little kip because you feel so warmed, loved and cosseted.

While there are cultural differences in what makes great comfort food, you’ll usually find carbs, a rich sauce, and a golden proportion of fat and sugar. But comfort food is as much about reassurance and security as a blanket of fat-loaded carbs. For me, there are six major categories:

SOUP
It doesn’t matter where you come from, soup has a consoling power. It might be a herbal pork bone broth, a chicken soup, ginseng soup, or a goat birria or posole with hominy. For many Australians it’s pumpkin or, even more so for me, pea and ham – the sort made from a Christmas ham bone or smoked pork hocks, so rich with gelatine that it sets to jelly when cold.

MASH
My purest comfort lies in a bowl of smooth, buttery mash. Layering cubes of fried speck and its rendered fat over the top with onions cooked to the colour of autumn has me beaming beatifically. Of course, some diced celery fried with the speck and a few fresh chives can be added for those who insist on having ‘greens’. Or, turn your potatoes into pommes aligot. This mash from the south west of France is so cheesy it becomes stringy there, they fold in young tomme cheese, but here it’s easier to use a mix of emmental, Gruyere and crème fraiche.

ANYTHING CARBS AND CHEESE
Potatoes are one thing, but add cheese and things reach a new level. I like an alpine tartiflette, with potato and onion cooked in cream and milk, topped with rich, oozy white-rind cheese. I add silverbeet, but you could also add bacon – whatever makes you feel comfortable! Closely related are other comfort dishes like lasagne, mac ’n’ cheese and pasticcio. Some might even argue that crispy-edged Argentine provoleta, Swiss raclette or a grilled cheese – perhaps as a Welsh rarebit – offer the same toasty, melty joy. I’d add parmigiana di melanzane, or baked eggplant with heat-singed feta, too.

Related story: One pot wonders: Matt Preston’s guide to stews, casseroles and braises

STEWS
Sticking to the home-and-hearth vibe are bubbling stews, braises and casseroles, whether it’s a British stew with dumplings like this month’s recipe, or Spanish fabada asturiana and cocido madrileno. That same warmth is also found in Malaysia’s roti banjir, or a sweet-toned Thai red curry, rich with coconut milk.

PORRIDGE
Few things are as instantly unsexy as porridge and yet, for many, the warming creaminess of a bowl of oats, rice (as congee), millet or spelt is like an enveloping hug. I’m a particular fan of hot porridge with icy cold milk. Southern African pap and West African fufu have a similar comfort value in a savoury sense.

PUDDING
The very word conjures images of rosy cheeks by the fire. Fat, sugar and carbs combine in perfect comfort dishes like self-saucing pudding, crumble and custard, bread and butter pudding, or a microwave marmalade pudding. In my house, however, golden syrup dumplings sit on the throne above all others – and long may they rain. (Yes, that’s rain not reign.)

Related story: Matt Preston shares 8 new and exciting ways with winter puddings

Find Matt’s recipe for the traditional stew and herb dumplings pictured above, here.