Best cooking, food & wine reference books according to redditors

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking for sure.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. This would be a great place to start. It contains discussions on the science of cooking and the natural history of various ingredients and techniques.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee is highly regarded as a comprehensive background for history, and science of food. It does not have any recipes though.

YTA

Jesus I don’t even know where to begin with this. I’m gonna break it down the way I would for my toddlers.

I understand that you feel badly for being mean to Sarah, but do you think the problem will be solved by being mean to Luke and Scott? How would you feel if they sat you down and said “listen dad. We’ve been giving mom a really hard time lately so we’ve decided that for Mother’s Day this year we’re going to send her on an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii for the weekend. You’re gonna go too, but you have to pay your own way. Also, we’re giving you a new set of grill tongs for Father’s Day. Fair is fair!” You’d probably feel like they don’t care about you as much right?

The way to solve this problem is not by throwing money at your daughter and shoving your other kids’ faces in it. You could have avoided this ENTIRELY by not telling them IN FRONT OF SARAH exactly what you were giving her as a birthday gift. Also, once weekly veggie burger night is like the bare minimum you can be doing for your daughter food wise. Buy this book and do better.

When we were first dating, my wife baked a lot and had this cookbook set
on her Amazon wishlist. It's basically a set of cooking textbooks for $500. They're really cool (showing the science behind cooking and all), but I couldn't afford it on my own.

I split the cost with my parents and got it for her for Xmas that year. It's been sitting on our kitchen counter for about four years now, but maybe some day she'll get bored and dust them off?

So a few off the top of my head:

1. The Professional Chef. Geared towards professional chefs but a great resource.
   
   
2. On Food and Cooking. A classic. Not really a 'cookbook' per se but rather a book that discusses history and food science.
   
   
3. The now out-of-print Williams and Sonoma Mastering Series. Specifically, their book on sauces - the others are solid but not quite as good. Those books were how I personally learned to cook. (still can find used)
   
   
4. The Flavor Bible. Obligatory. Eventually you grow out of it a bit, but it's still a great resource to have around.
   
   
5. Flour Water Salt Yeast. I just got this book recently this last Christmas, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

Julia Child, The Way to Cook. My husband got it for me shortly after we got married, when I was already a pretty serious cook. Now that was about 25 years ago. Man did that book ever up my game. And also forced me to unlearn some things I had been doing that just didn't work out well. How I wished I had had the book all along. Of course, it was only recently published. I still use it fairly often, for desserts and other stuff I don't make frequently enough to have down pat.

It's definitely not a collection of recipes. Though she has chapters on soups, fish, fowl, meat, and so on the recipes are grouped by technique. She shows you how to make some dish or other as a "master recipe" then gives variations on it using the same technique but with different meat or what have you.



>Teaching is so important to the object of this book that it is one of the very few books I know which could easily serve as a good textbook for a course on cooking.


I could hve written this one:
>If you just have but 1 cookbook, this should be the one. Her recipes show you how and in a flawless manner. This is about the basics, techniques, etc. Many of my basic cooking skills and go to recipes are from this book

How to Cook Anything replaced Joy of Cooking as my favorite general cooking reference.

Need to know how long to steam a artichoke, or the ratio of stock to rice in risotto, or what to do with that random ingredient you bought at the store. It's got all the basics covered.

I'm a huge fan of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. He presents basic techniques for almost any ingredient imaginable and then shows you how to branch out from there. I've learned how to improvise as a home cook with this book.

How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything: Basics by Mark Bittman

Here's a great book

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of Cooking
http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Cooking for Geeks
http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Geeks-Science-Great-Hacks/dp/0596805888/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=14FPMEDBMV4EW2MS7PBR

*The Science of Good Cooking
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Cooking-Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbooks/dp/1933615982/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=14FPMEDBMV4EW2MS7PBR

On Food and Cooking is pretty popular when it comes to understanding the transformations that foods undergo. It's not a cookbook per se but it's pretty heavy on the science of stuff. I used it as a sole resource for a short paper I wrote in eggs a couple semesters back. It might not be the most enjoyable read but it sure is informative.

Behold, the Gastronomicon

Until about a year ago, I knew next to nothing about cooking but I've been learning. I wish I had known this stuff in college. What I did is I bought a copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and went through it. The regular How to Cook Everything is also good. Both of them give you lots of really easy recipes (like how to make scrambled eggs) as well as more advanced ones if you want to serve dinner to people for example.

Also, I watched every episode of Good Eats and learned a lot from that. Most if not all of those are on YouTube. Just start with Season 1 Episode 1 and start plowing through them.

I don't prepare meat because I'm paranoid about germs, but don't let that stop you. The things I've been preparing the most are:

• Eggs: fried, scrambled, omelettes. Hands down the easiest thing.
  
  
• Sauteed, braised, boiled, or steamed vegetables. These are all very easy and once you've done it a bit you start to understand what the best method is for different vegetables and you don't even need to look in a recipe book. Most recent thing I did is sauteed plantains.
  
  
• Rice dishes. Pilaf and rice with beans/peas/other legumes are easy and nutritious.
  
  
• Soups. Things like potato leek soup, french onion soup, split pea soup, lentil soup are all very easy.
  
  
• Simple baked desserts like muffins, banana bread, apple cobber etc.
  
  If you have an oven, it's really not very hard to make your own pizza, for that matter.

Back to Basics: "On Food & Cooking" by Harold McGee. When a recipe works, or doesn't work, and you want to know why? This is the place to find the answers.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467030185&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking

How to Grill. Knowing how to grill and cook delicious food is very important for self care in my heavily biased opinion.

In all honesty, you'll be given the 'good' books to read while you are in school.

*Edited to complete my thought.

If you like his take on food science, definitely read On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harry McGee. It'll change your life.

On Food And Cooking is a MUST in any kitchen, maybe the only non-recipe-dedicated cookbook you'll ever need. The culinary school I took a few classes at recently, the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC, highly recommends this; even Per Se, the #1 restaurant in the US, #6 in the world, keeps a tattered copy in their restaurant. With 800 pages, it explains so much of the science, history, and tips behind practically everything culinary related that you need to know. The book is really a staple.

Cooking for Geeks is similar, but I feel OFaC is more all-encompassing.

1. How to Cook Everything
   
   
2. Mastering the Art of French Cooking

• Start with the guy who wrote a book on techniques. Jacques Pépin.
  
• Expand into an American Master showcasing family americana style food but with high technique Thomas Keller Ad Hoc
  
• Check out the deep science behind food to understand why people do what they do Modernist Cusine at Home
  
• Or if you want someone to explore the science and break it down for you in Alton Brown
  
• Youtube. Check out Gordon Ramsay, American Test Kitchen, Heston blumenthal or Blumenthal again, Thomas Keller, Pepin Videos, There's so many food videos from chefs my reply would be huge if I linked it all

This.

https://i.imgur.com/dbdgEA3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mTzoQCT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mCig6Ce.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DXfik1W.jpg

Book these are from

I'd recommend using a grill unless you have a MAPP or Propylene blowtorch. Other kinds can leave a faint taste of fuel on the meat.

• Taste of Home Best Loved - A great down-to-earth cookbook with homestyle meals that mom and grandma used to make.
  
• The Silver Spoon - Originally in Italian, hundreds of awesome, authentic Italian dishes using a massive array of ingredients.
  
• Gourmet Magazine Cookbook - I got my copy at a brick and mortar bookstore many years ago, and it may be out of print now. But it is full of elevated dishes that are easily obtainable at home.
  
• Dinner for Two - For years it was just my wife and I. This was the perfect little cookbook for us. Additionally, ATK has a similar cookbook. This isn't the one we have, but one like it. It's basically their recipes scaled down for two people.
  
• Bocuse Gastronomique - It's like an awesome cooking class on paper from the master himself.
  
• Bocuse - An awesome collection of recipes from Paul Bocuse.
  
• ATK Cookbook. I probably cook more from here than any other. I used to buy the new version every year with the newest recipes, but now I have the online subscription.
  
• The Flavor Bible that someone else linked.
  
  
  I could keep going but I should stop. So many great ones out there.

• The Food Lab: Cooking Through Science by Kenji Lopez-Alt
  
• On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
  
• The Flavor Bible
  

On Food and Cooking

This is probably your best bet to understanding what is going on when you cook. There are food chemistry textbooks out there but they can be pricey and you may need a significant chemistry background to understand them.

We try to shy away from cookbook recommendations, but you will hear it any number of times:

1. Harold McGee On Food and Cooking.
   
   
2. Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold. Myhrvold is considered by many, including the undersigned, to be a wretched patent troll so I won't give him any money.

For camping (Sorry, a tad over $100):

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D05BIIU/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  For Cooking:
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47521-10-Inch-Fibrox-Handle/dp/B0000CF8YO/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1395416281&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Victorinox+46892+10inch
  
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470528060/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764578650/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Give sous vide a try--it's the gateway drug of modernist techniques, because you really only need a probe thermometer, freezer bags, a pot of water, and maybe an oven to do it. It'll let you know just how worth it the whole world of modernist techniques are. And then you'll feel compelled to actually get an immersion circulator and a vacuum sealer to do it easier as you become increasingly addicted to it.

Things that are helpful for modernist techniques but aren't particularly esoteric and won't break the bank: A steel plate, propane blow torch from the hardware store, whipping siphon, pressure cooker. The next step is chemistry, which means thickeners (carageenan and agar agar were my first purchases) and gels (sodium alginate and calcium chloride), and recently I picked up some meat glue (transglutaminase). After that it's buying expensive lab equipment to feed your habit, which I haven't stepped into yet [because I don't have a house for it]. I want a pacojet.

As for resources, my first book was Cooking for Geeks, then the Modernist Cuisine book set from Nathan Myhrvold (and have it signed by him "For Science!") which is the bible, but free options include their website, Seattle Food Geek, molecular recipes, this YouTube playlist from Harvard and the usual science-based cooking resources like Good Eats, America's Test Kitchen, and Chef Steps.

I can't believe noone has mentioned Modernist Cuisine.

Thousands of pages of cooking science, history, and techniques.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernist_Cuisine

http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-The-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Anyone else who wants to get this, buy this instead:

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

It's like 1/10 the price (edit: I guess more like 1/30th), has all the interesting technical data and science you want, doesn't obsess with boiling everything in a bag, and doesn't have any stupid cutaways of dutch ovens so you can "see what's inside" (you know another way to see what's inside a dutch oven? open it).

Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking is a go-to book for amateurs and professionals alike.

He might also like Cooking for Geeks, The Science of Good Cooking and On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

I've only read the first, but I've heard good things about all three.

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

When I started out, I relied most of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, to be honest, but something like The Joy of Cooking, Bittman's How To Cook Everything or Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food would be good, too. Joy is classic, simple recipes with clear instructions, aimed at beginners. Brown is excellent at explaining the science behind why reciepes work the way they do. Bittman emphasizes showing a technique, then showing lots of simple variations, allowing you to learn a skill and then apply it to different ingredients.

You might also take a look at Rhulman's Ratio --- for a certain sort of personaility, that book can be like a lightbulb going off. It's all about the common principles that underlay many sorts of recipes. Some people find it too abstract, especially if they're just starting (most actual recipes break his rules a little, one way or another), but if you're more of an abstract logical thinker it can be quite helpful.

But cooking in general can be quite diffucult to pick up from books --- techniques that are quite simple to demonstrate can be super difficult to describe. Youtube/the internet can be your friend, here --- Jacques Pepin, America's Test Kitchen, and Good Eats are all good at demonstrating and explaining technique. Check out the Food Wishes youtube channel, too --- Chef John is a former culinary instructor, and he demostrates a lot of classic techniques in the reciepes he does.

At the end of the day though, cooking's like Carnigie Hall. Think of stuff you like to eat, find a recipe for that stuff, and just go for it. If you start off making things you know and like, then it will be easier to tell if you're getting it right as you go along, and that I think is the most crucial and most difficult part of becoming a skilled cook --- being able to tell when something's ready vs. when it needs 5 more minutes, being able to tell if the batter looks right before you cook it, if something needs more seasoning and if so what kind. All that's mostly a karate kid, wax on, wax off thing --- you just got to keep making stuff in order to have the experience to tell when something's right.

Harold McGee is pretty much the standard tome for a scientific approach to the cooking process. If you can get through most of On Food and Cooking you are doing pretty damn good.

The only major step up from that would be the more exhaustive and much more expensive, 50 lb, 6 volume set called Modernist Cuisine

Edit: words are hard

Joy of Cooking

How to Cook Everything

The Art of Simple Food

> *On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of Cooking http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012[1]

I use this one and its full of good info. You could basically call it cooking-for-engineers.

This might be too obvious, but maybe Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian?

Agree with /u/X28.

Andrea's book should be considered as a primary text for Vietnamese cooking (much like David Thompson's Thai Food for Thai, or Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes for French).

Luke's books are great (as well as his shows that sort of accompany the books, or the other way around).

America's Test Kitchen cookbooks are great about this. They have recipes with explanations for why you cook certain parts to get the desired effects, and how you might alter cooking methods to get different textures or whatever. Often, they give sidenotes about how to get basic elements cooked perfectly. Highly recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184744

Mark Bittman's "How to cook everything"

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0764578650/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_wdrOBbYY1ZWXV

And both of them really owe a debt to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. It's the next book after the food lab if you really want to get in the weeds.

Not really a cookbook, But I learned more about food and cooking from this book than any other.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

I don't own the cookbooks (yet), but, according to amazon, there are 524 recipes between the two volumes.

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Volume/dp/0307593525

I'd presume that the average homemade dinner costs about $20. However, I'm sure a lot of these recipes are condiments, appetizers, and desserts, so that'd have an affect on the total price.

So, from near-complete ignorance, I'd say anywhere between $8,000-15,000.

Which is not so bad for a year-plus worth of delicious meals.

I recently donated away about 100 cookbooks I had collected over the years (I organize virtually everything digitally now) but I kept these 5:

Child et al, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (well-used, next to the stove)

Hazan, Essentials of Italian Cooking (carried to Italy and used there twice)

Lewis, The Taste of Country Cooking (such a good read)

Rombauer. An older than I am edition (with how-to-skin-a-squirrel recipes) of the Joy of Cooking (falling apart, kept for sentimental reasons)

Fox, On Vegetables: Modern Recipes for the Home Kitchen (for the porn)

Might I suggest an alternative method? In my experience, the study of the techniques to cooking are at least half the battle in laying a foundation for a good culinary education. Rather than take the direct simple-to-complex recipe route, perhaps there is value in utilizing a hybrid method of learning where the recipes are centered around the use of particular skills in the kitchen. Some useful materials that come to mind are "Complete Techniques" by Jacques Pepin or "The Way to Cook" by Julia Child. Once these types of technical skills are engrained in your cooking process, you will find the true joy of cooking which is much less about following instructions and more to do with finding your "culinary groove".

Obligatory link to McGee On Food and Cooking for those interested in a lay person explanation of lots of cookery science.

According to this book most "store brand" chicken actually comes from the same farms as national brands, so there's nothing to be ashamed of.

This is true for other foods as well actually, such as butter, which is made in very few factories nationwide.

This book is wonderful and has been around for ages.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Recipes-Anniversary/dp/0764578650

How to Cook Everything one cookbook to rule them all.

I adore this cookbook (or any in that series, really). I know, you are asking: why buy a book when you can get recipes online for free? I will tell you: because these recipes will teach you how to cook and they are pretty much failproof.

The book is just a collection of recipes from Cook's Illustrated Magazine and basically it tackles standard recipes rather than funky new ones like many cooking magazines. They don't just grab any ol' recipe for meatloaf, lentil soup, fried chicken or whatever. They meticulously test each recipe and optimize the cooking strategy to make it perfect. Every recipe is accompanied by an article describing exactly why each ingredient is there and how each technique achieves the desired outcome. It is really quite scientific (I love that).

They also have tips/recipes for really basic things, like how best to chop onions or boil pasta which can be helpful if you don't have much experience.

1. How to Cook Everything
   
   
2. Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. I can't believe no one posted this yet.

The pathogens are entirely on the exterior unless the steak gets punctured or the animal is sick and shouldn't be used for food. Source: The Art and Science of cooking. Basically an enormously wealthy cooking enthusiast set up a kitchen lab with staff and created a fine dining molecular science cookbook. Basically The Mythbusters of cookbooks. It's why rare and blue steaks can be eaten and people don't get ill. Also covers the egg myth, meaning all eggs in the U.S. unless farmers market/farm procured have to be pasteurized which is why an egg with a clean shell used for cookie dough can be eaten and not make people sick. These are things readers shouldn't attempt without reading the book and have kitchen experience focusing on how not to cross contaminate or contaminate the food you're working with and knife skills though. Food handled improperly can be extremely dangerous. https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

I usually only use cookbooks that are also textbooks for culinary art students. The CIA has a textbook that is phenomenal. I used to own a textbook from the western culinary institute in Portland, which is now a cordon bleu school and I dont know what they use. Those books will teach you the basics of fine cooking. Ratio is also a great book because it gives you the tools to create your own recipes using what real culinary professionals use: ratios of basic ingredients to create the desired dish.

But the creme de la creme of culinary arts books is this crazy encyclopedia of ingredients called On food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen. It is invaluable. It should not be the first book you buy (if youre a newbie) but it should be your most well thumbed.

For a sauce pan what you want is something with straight sides. Sautee pans have are a good substitute, but often have bases that have too wide a diameter for perfect sauces. Fine saucepots are made of copper for even heat transfer. Stainless steel is also a good substitute. What you have there is something of a hybrid between a skillet and a saucepot. Its more like a chicken fryer or something. At the restaurant we use stainless steel skillets for absolutely everything to order: sauces, fried oysters, what have you. But when you get down to the finest you need to fine a real saucepot: 2-3 qts will do, straight sides, made of copper. teach a man to fish

I dont really know how to teach you the varied tricks and such. It is something that I pick up by listening to the varied cooks and chefs I work with. What I would advise you is to watch cooking shows and read recipes and pay a lot of attention to what they are doing. Half of the things I know I dont know why I do them, just that they produce superior results. Or, consequently I would have a hot pan thrown at me if I did not do them. And I mean these are just ridiculous nuances of cooking. I was reading The Art of French Cooking and learned that you should not mix your egg yolks and sugar too early when making creme brulee because it will produce and inferior cooking and look like it has become curdled. That is a drop in the bucket to perfect creme brulee making, but it is part of the process.

I wish I could be more help, but the best advice I could give you to become the cook you want to be is go to school. Or barring that (it is a ridiculous expense) get a job cooking. Neither of those things are very efficient, but it is the best way to learn those little things.

DO NOT buy one of those "kitchen in a box" starter kits for $99. You will only learn how to burn things because the steel is so thin! You will end up years from now either donating them all to Goodwill or using them only to boil water. Buy one nice pan every month or two and you will never regret it.

Required Reading For New Cooks:

• Alton Brown: I'm Just Here for the Food Not only teaches you the kitchen basics, but the science behind why it is so.
  
• Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen Not just gear, it also has some recipes :)
  
  Happy cooking!

If you dig the science aspect, have a look at Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking

I read it nearly cover to cover. Very well done. It's also where Alton Brown got the vast majority of his science stuff for Good Eats -- to the point where Brown literally says phrases from the book.

This is going to be the opposite of what you want to hear. But, you asked for it and I respect that. I think that there's no substitute for going about this old school and traditionally. The good news is that you can mostly do this for yourself, by yourself.

If you're disinclined (due to time or for another reason) to enroll in a culinary program get yourself either The Professional Chef or Martha Stewart's Cooking School

I know what you're thinking, "Martha Stewart? What am I? A housewife from Iowa?" Fuck that. I've been fortunate to have met and worked with Martha Stewart she's smart enough to know what she doesn't know and that particular book was actually written by a CIA alum and very closely follows the first year or so that you'd get in a program like that. It starts with knife work and then moves on to stocks and sauces. This particular book has actually been criticized as being too advance for people who have no idea what they're doing so, despite appearances, it may be perfect for you. If you want to feel more pro and go a little deeper, get the CIA text but know that it's more or less the same info and frankly, the pictures in the MSO book are really great. Plus, it looks like Amazon has them used for $6 bucks.

These resources will show you HOW to do what you want and they follow a specific, traditional track for a reason. Each thing that you learn builds on the next. You learn how to use your knife. Then, you practice your knife work while you make stocks. Then, you start to learn sauces in which to use your stocks. Etc. Etc. Etc. Almost like building flavors... It's all part of the discipline and you'll take that attention to detail into the kitchen with you and THAT'S what makes great food.

Then, get either Culinary Artistry or The Flavor Bible (Both by Page and Dornenburg. Also consider Ruhlman's Ratio (a colleague of mine won "Chopped" because she memorized all the dessert ratios in that book) and Segnit's Flavor Thesaurus. These will give you the "where" on building flavors and help you to start to express yourself creatively as you start to get your mechanics and fundamentals down.

Now, I know you want the fancy science stuff so that you can throw around smarty pants things about pH and phase transitions and heat transfer. So...go get Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking THAT is the bible. When the people who run the Ferran Adria class at Harvard have a question, it's not Myhrvold that they call up, it's Harold McGee. While Modernist Cuisine always has a long, exciting complicated solution to a problem I didn't even know I had, when I really want to know what the fuck is going on, I consult McGee and you will too, once you dig in.

Another one to consider which does a great job is the America's Test Kitchen Science of Good Cooking this will give you the fundamental "why's" or what's happening in practical situations and provides useful examples to see it for yourself.

Honestly, if someone came to me and asked if they should get MC or McGee and The Science of Good Cooking and could only pick one and never have the other, I'd recommend the McGee / ATK combo everyday of the week and twice on Tuesdays.

Good luck, dude. Go tear it up!

Invest in Bittman's How To Cook Everything. It takes an analytical approach to cooking and teaches you techniques and modular recipes which you can combine to your liking! Great as a "technique" cookbook for experimenting, very well notated.

My favorite "techniques and basics of everything" cookbook is The New Best Recipes by Cook's Illustrated. But the one I use the most in my own kitchen has to be The Betty Crocker Cookie Book

I would recommend Modernist Cuisine at Home to anyone looking into a scientific approach to cooking without a second thought it is absolutely fantastic.

The full version of Modernist Cuisine is wonderful and interesting and I would say only about 15% of the recipes can be recreated using a standard home kitchen. If you're looking for practicality and recipes you can make yourself with a more scientific approach I would go with Modernist Cuisine at Home but if someone wants to know the ENTIRE in depth science(and history) behind the dishes Modernist Cuisine is the best.

It's not cheap, but Modernist Cooking at Home has some really cool tips on basic cooking. They do a lot things where they've cross sectioned appliances and you can see what the food looks like at different cooking steps and times to know what effect the actions you're taking have on the food.

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is easily the best book to learn French cooking. It has very thorough instructions for techniques, authentic recipes, adapted for the American kitchen.

I also recommend Larousse Gastronomique,
Escoffier and
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

You mentioned that you prefer recipes that are simple and not too time consuming. The problem with that is, most authentic French cooking is time-consuming and laborious. This is why it is so delicious and intricate. However, I do have one cookbook that I don't use too much anymore, but it features great recipes that are fairly quick and accessible.

1. Same way you get to Carnegie Hall - practice
   
2. Come home to a clean kitchen
   
3. Prepare your mise en place before you start.
   
4. Keep notes on how each recipe turned out and where you think it went wrong or right
   
5. Like u/NoraTC said, read cookbooks like novels. (I might recommend Think Like a Chef, On Food and Cooking, Ruhlman's Twenty, and Cooking School )

The "end all be all" book on the science of cooking is the book: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.
There is a TV show entirely based on that book called Good eats with Alton Brown. The TV show has recipes the book has not. The TV show is entertaining, the book is definitely NOT light reading!

From the bible: The one major region of the Old World not to embrace dairying was China, perhaps because Chinese agriculture began where the natural vegetation runs to often toxic relatives of wormwood and epazote rather than ruminant-friendly grasses. Even so, frequent contact with central Asian nomads introduced a variety of dairy products to China, whose elite long enjoyed yogurt, koumiss, butter, acid-set curds, and, around 1300 and thanks to the Mongols, even milk in their tea!

I'm going to paraphrase another section, but most cheeses were not very interesting until they started being made further north because the cheese had to be more heavily salted and acidic to combat spoilage in the warmer climates of eastern European and Asia. Once it started to be made in the Roman territories, especially modem day Switzerland and France, you were able to allow the cheeses to ripen over a much longer time period with less salt and acid. This allowed for a MUCH greater diversity in cheese making, giving rise to the delicious cheeses of today.

A word on lactose intolerance and cheese. There are two kinds of "lactose intolerance" that people talk about. The first is an allergy to casein and that actually is dangerous. It's a full blown allergic reaction similar to a peanut allergy with symptoms as bad as anaphylactic shock. Thankfully it is very rare and you DEFINITELY know if you have it.

The other kind is a lack of lactase in your gut to process the lactose. If you don't have enough lactase, the lactose passes into your small intenstine where it gets eaten by bacteria releasing lots of co2 and methane, which makes you bloated and fart and all the other happy fun times associated with a lactose intolerance. It is this lack of lactase that most of the non Scandinavian descendants of the world have.

Luckily for everyone, in NON PROCESSED cheese, most of the lactose is suspended in the whey, which means that it doesn't end up in the cheese. This is even more pronounced in cheeses made from raw milk. As the cheese ages, the remaining lactose gets used up.

The upshot of all of this is that for lactose intolerant people the harder and older and less processed/pasteurized the cheese is, the more of it you can eat. Also, you can just disregard everything that I just said and take some aspergillus with your dairy product and be totally fine (it breaks down lactose for you so your body can process it).

Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For The Food and the sequel. They teach you not just how to cook, but why particular methods are used from a scientific standpoint. It helped me a lot when I was getting started a few years ago.

Here's one that I got from Alton Brown.

You'll need a good steak. Costco sells good ones, but you have to throw a party to eat them all. I've also had success with higher-end grocery stores.

You'll also need a cast-iron pan. Iron holds more heat than aluminum or stainless, and is a bit more affordable than copper.

A good ventilation hood is nice too, because this recipe makes lots of burning-protein smoke.

Set the meat on your countertop for 20 minutes. This allows it to come to the right temperature - if it's too cold, the insides will cook less; too warm and it'll cook too much. Obviously this is a variable you can adjust to how you like your steak; I like mine rarer than most.

Put your pan on the stove and set it to high before you do the rest. You want that pan HOT.

Next, rub a small amount of olive oil on each side of the steaks, a couple of drops for each side. This acts as a heat conductor, like thermal paste on your CPU heatsink. Sprinkle a pinch of salt (kosher if you have it) on each side, and massage it in. Let the steaks sit for 5 minutes.

Now you're ready to cook. Pick up the steaks with tongs, and gently lay them down in the pan, and leave them absolutely alone for 2 minutes. If you slide the steak around, you'll ruin the nice crust that forms on the outside. At this point you'll want to turn on your hood. When the 2 minutes is up, flip the steaks (again, with tongs - good steak shouldn't have a fork stuck in it until it's on the table), and leave them alone for 3 minutes.

Remove the steaks from the pan, and set them on a plate. Cover it with aluminum foil or a big mixing bowl, and let them sit for 5 minutes. The steak is actually still cooking on the inside, and this lets some of the juices soak back to the outside surface. Serve and enjoy - they shouldn't need any A-1.

Get a cast iron skillet, a mid-range chef's knife, and a copy of How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

An alarm clock to get her used to waking up at 2am? ;-)
I'm not a professional baker, but did work as one for several months 20 years ago. Enough to let me know that although I enjoyed baking, I didn't enjoy doing it as a profession. So these suggestions are from a home baker, not a pro.
I would suggest a cookbook or subscription to Cook's Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen.
I bought The New Best Recipe Cookbook ten years ago for myself and have gifted a copy to several friends since. It goes through not only a recipe, but what changing different ingredients will do to the final product. The chocolate chip cookie recipe was quite informative with illustrations showing not only what different sugars would do, but different fats, flours, and the effect of chilling the dough had on the final product.
There is also Baking Illustrated which is just about baking. It's probably going to be hard to find, but if you stumble across it, it's worth it. Some folks complain that it's just the baking chapters from the best recipe cookbook with a few extra recipes, but if your kid is really focused on baking, this may be a better fit for now and then the best recipe cookbook later when she feels like branching out into thing to go with the baked goods.
I do not own the Cooks Illustrated Baking Book but I have several of their other cookbooks and friends who have this one think highly of it. It's been described as a combination recipe book and class in baking. Like the New Best Recipe Cookbook, it includes not just recipes, but paragraphs about what is going on in the recipe and what changes to the recipe will do.
You may also want to look at getting a large vermin resistant container to store flour. I use a Vittles Vault pet food container to store my flour. It allows me to buy 25 lbs of flour for $8 instead of 5 lbs for $4 and not run out in the middle of a baking session.

For me, personally, the only cookbook(s) I can think of that I'd be interested in that I don't own is Modernist Cuisine, just because of the price.

Because it's an entertaining video that came to the same conclusion as other well-respected food writers including J. Kenji López-Alt, Nathan Myhrvold, and Thomas Keller.

How to Cook Everything. It's a big cookbook, and it really does cover almost everything. There are a ton of great recipes in there I make over and over again, and lots of great information on techniques, too.

Just pick a meal that you like to eat and make it. It's ok to make mistakes, that is part of learning what works and what doesn't. You don't need a lot of stuff either.
I recommend How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman for clear instructions and lots of tips.

I would suggest How to cook everything by Mark Bittman. He breaks down most recipes into a simple project and sticks to well known ingredients.

It's a nice volume for the single person just starting. You'll get some good techniques out of it as well.

if you want to learn to cook, I highly recommend How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I would also recommend thinking in terms of techniques as you learn, rather than on just following recipes by rote. It's really the key to going from " I know how to make a couple of things" to being able to cook generally.

a proper cast iron setup

a great cookbook

a set of unique spices or ingredients in the style of his favorite cuisine?
italian, french, mexican, indian, spanish, chinese...

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen –
by Harold McGee

is the bible.

Also Modernist Cuisine

This really depends on the gelatin concentration. Even at high temperatures, a sauce with a high concentration of gelatin will be thick. Think of a classic glace de viande. This type of sauce can be a quarter gelatin, very high concentration.

As you say though, you won't notice the gelatin in this sauce as a thickener. I agree (at least in terms of viscosity) since you really need to get up to around 10% gelatin by weight to make a discernible difference, and at this concentration it will quickly congeal as it cools.

However, the mouthfeel of a sauce can be impacted by lower gelatin concentrations. Gelatin molecules are typically long and obstruct the free movement of water throughout the sauce, making it feel heavier and silkier in the mouth.

Note too that sauces thickened with starches will also gel up at cooler temperatures. Cornstarch, like other grain starches, has a relatively high proportion of amylose (as opposed to amylopectin), which means it quickly congeals as it cools.

Gelatin is preferred to cornstarch in situations where the sauce should be translucent and not cloudy looking.

Info is from On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

It's a self-contained course on electronics, not at all a collection of data sheets.

To use an analogy: you can download food recipes from the Internet all you want, but you will learn how to become a cook by reading Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking (another book that would remain on my bookshelf).

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

If you're not going to use lye, it's a good idea to bake your baking soda. This converts the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate, which is a stronger alkali, and will give the pretzels a better flavor. Lye gives the best flavor, but baked baking soda is close.

(Linked article is by Harold McGee, who wrote On Food and Cooking.)

The rancidity refers more to oils held within the nut going bad - simply an off-putting flavor and dampened aroma. The texture will also be a little bit more mealy.
Beyond that, the origin of the nut could matter as far as spoilage goes.

• Chinese pine nuts - 78% oil content
  
• American pine nuts - 62% oil content
  
• European pine nuts - 45% oil content
  
  Strangely enough, I've never frozen pine nuts, but foods high in fat freeze rather well. As for pine mouth, I believe that a lot of the cases are sourced from Chinese pine nuts, where as those sourced from Turkey have the lowest probability(from a newspaper I read recently - the oil content is from Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen )

http://www.amazon.com/How-Grill-Complete-Illustrated-Techniques/dp/0761120149

I can't recommend this book enough. Read it. Make notes. Mine is covered with sauce stains and all dog eared.

Not sure if you're joking, but I'm pretty sure that's just a coincidence. See the ISBN of this book for comparison. Unless the barcode isn't the ISBN.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is a great, very comprehensive one.

Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Honestly, one of the first things I do when I'm at someone's house is dig through their cookbooks. The three that I resort to at all times are:

[La Cucina] (http://www.amazon.com/Cucina-Regional-Cooking-Italy/dp/0847831477/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1464737488&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=La+Cusina)

[The Joy Of Cooking] (http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer/dp/0743246268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464737648&sr=8-1&keywords=Joy+Of+Cooking)

[Mastering The Art of French Cooking] (http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Set/dp/0307593525/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464737689&sr=1-3&keywords=mastering+the+art+of+french+cooking)

Buy this Weber's Way to Grill: The Step-by-Step Guide to Expert Grilling (Sunset Books) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0376020598/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_S8cJub1NWHPC9

Seriously, everytime someone asks me about technique, there's more than one, which you need because you're cooking more than one thing all the time. It's full of food prep and grill prep ideas for everyone front beginners to seasoned vets cooking off the same grill for 35 years :)

Next, get some good tools. The Weber 7416 Rapidfire Chimney Starter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WEOQV8/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_6bdJub1V731HB is almost must have, they do make a smaller one, but if you use a 22.5" smoker as well, you should already have one of these. I also use a Bond Mini Shovel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X47NJY/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_SedJub063DKB0 for moving the coals around. It's a hell of a lot easier than tongs. Also handy if you have midgets burying things for you.

If he's at all serious, he needs this

Also, this is a very useful and fascinating book.

http://www.amazon.ca/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Is what you want... For like $50 you get a lot!... It's called 'On Food and Cooking' by Harold Mcgee... It's totally amazing

On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee, 70€ auf Deutsch oder 26€ auf Englisch.

Keine Rezepte, ausser ein paar historische zum besseren Verständnis. Erklärt zu allen möglichen Zutaten und Techniken die Geschichte und was lebensmittelchemisch passiert verständlich. Am besten mal bei der englischen Ausgabe "Blick in's Buch" um sich ein Bild zu machen.

Harold McGee is like the master of knowledge of all things cooking.

If you found this interesting, check out his book On Food and Cooking

it’s basically an encyclopedia of the science behind cooking. One of my favorite books. And a James Beard award winner

I'll recommend McGee's On Food and Cooking. It's a good read, but not quite a textbook. It's complete enough to be, but not quite structured that way. On the other hand, it's also not priced like one.

Be sure to get the latest edition revised and updated in 2004:

http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347904066&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking

Steven Raichlen's was the first one I got and its wonderful and extensive. 4.5 stars on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Grill-Complete-Illustrated-Techniques/dp/0761120149/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1394495684&sr=8-5&keywords=grilling+cookbook

Edit: Actually, I linked to the wrong one. It was Raichlen's The BBQ Bible that I have. But this is his newer book and looks just as good.

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman (https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728) - My absolute favorite at home cook book, hits everything you're looking for I think. Has baking and cooking recipes

Baking by Hand (https://www.amazon.ca/Baking-Hand-Artisanal-Pastries-Without/dp/1624140009/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468117705&sr=1-1&keywords=baking+by+hand) - More technically complicated, but still great. One of my go to books when I'm looking to learn something new. Mostly breads, but some pastries too

How to Cook Everything (Vegetarian) by Mark Bittman (https://www.amazon.ca/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468117750&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+cook+everything+vegetarian) - this is the dark horse, you'd be surprised how much he includes in these books. Pizza dough recipe is the bomb.

Radical suggestion: no bad snack foods. They don't sate you and are typically more expensive per-pound than something home-cooked. Replace with things like roasted potatoes, hummus and veggies, fruit, or a portion of a real meal. Plus, you'll get to work on your cooking! Opening a bag or a box does nothing for cooking skills.

Use meat as a condiment instead of a foundation of a meal, like an exception instead of a norm. Use rice and beans to bulk up the rest. Stir fry is a great way to add veggies, rice, and beans while reducing/removing meat. Try going vegetarian once a week; you'll be surprised with what solutions you come up with! Then up the frequency.

I typically have meat once a day, if at all. Plain oatmeal for breakfast. Rice, beans, veg, onion, garlic, and whatever meat (if any) I prepped for lunch this week. Eggs, potatoes, fish, fruit, veg, protein shakes, spaghetti, and peanut butter for the evening.

Full disclosure: I keep my grocery budget under $110 per month for myself shopping almost exclusively at Aldi and Giant Eagle for anything else (fresh ginger, tofu, frozen veggies typically). This does not include alcohol ($60 budgeted per month for bars, state stores, and wine shows; not always social) and restaurants ($50 budgeted per month, once or twice a week; always social).

How is your comfort in the kitchen? $5000 saved * 2 (current expenses) / 12 months = ~$833 per month. I hope you're feeding a family. In that case, implementing vegetarianism will be slower and harder but not impossible.

Links to explore:

• How to Cook Everything: I consult this each week and am trying to cook my way through it via my own odds and ends cross-referenced with the comprehensive index. Many, many recipes use the same ingredients and I typically buy one or two missing ingredients each week to complete the meal. Last week was eggplant curry with potatoes. There is also a vegetarian version that I plan to purchase when I'm done, but I can't speak to its quality.
  
• Budget Bytes: what I used before "How to Cook Everything". Similar deal: Beth is great about staples and taste, giving a price breakdown on each meal.
  
• /r/MealPrepSunday: I cook all lunches and portion them out so I don't have to worry about going out to lunch when I forget to prepare a meal.
  
• /r/slowcooking: I used a rice cooker with a slow-cooking function at the start of my frugal journey. I only use it to prepare rice now because I love using the range to cook. :)
  
• Frugalwoods' Rice, Bean, Mushroom, and Chili Lunch: I use Sriracha with red pepper flakes and yellow onion instead. Surprisingly tasty for how bland it seems.
  
• ERE Wiki Cookbook. Never used, but seems solid in practice.

Since I finally finished all the 101 essential recipes in the back of How to Cook Everything, I cracked open my Cook's Illustrated cookbook the other day (I received both as Christmas gifts waaaaay back in 2011, btw...). I'm loving all the little tips and tricks scattered about the book, like for example, apparently avocados ripen more evenly in the refrigerator and ginger lasts longest unwrapped in the fridge, as opposed to wrapped in plastic in the fridge or stored on the counter—who knew?

Kindle version of How to Cook Everything, Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food. Plus some toys for your cats.

tl;dr: Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is the best cookbook to get as a beginner, because we expect international and vegetarian recipes along with the old meat and potatoes standards. More subjective reasoning follows below.

I think one of the most important things when selecting a universal cookbook early on is the quality, yet simplicity of the recipes, and how well things are explained. If you make something, as a beginner, you need to know it is going to turn out good, so when you return to the same cookbook later, you are confident the next recipe will be as high of quality. It is also nice to get compliments from others on your cooking, and a well made cookbook can assure this.

Julia Child's cookbooks are certainly of a very high quality, but French cuisine is not suited for beginners, or even novices, IMO. The Joy of Cooking has an enduring legacy brought from its quality of recipes and consistency, and is great for those mainstay dishes that haven't changed in 100 years (Silver Palate Cookbook, Fannie Farmer Cookbook are others in the Joy of Cooking realm). The problem is, tastes have changed since Joy of Cooking came out. It managed to incorporate the introduction of a few international food crazes into its pages, namely Italian and French. The Chinese it incorporates (eg. Chow Mein, etc) are nothing like what we expect from Chinese food today. Let alone Thai, Indian, Japanese, Mexican, Mediterranean, and so on. We Americans today have a much more different palate (fresh/local, international, vegetarian, etc) than what the Joy of Cooking incorporated, even in its most updated versions.

Therefore, I nominate a new Joy of Cooking, for modern times. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It hits every one of my barometers for a perfect cookbook. Delicious, easy recipes, of high quality. It is very dense in terms of number of recipes per page (not one recipe, with its photo on the facing page), yet easy to read, because one recipe is accompanied by 3-5+ variations to greatly modify it (eg. rice pilaf recipe, becomes Mexican rice, becomes whole grain pilaf, etc). Everything, from technique, to selecting vegetables/meats/etc., to improvising basics a la Alton Brown is covered. The recipes cover a wide gamut, from vegetarian/vegan, to international cuisines across the globe, to the mainstay standards (with interesting variations to improve/change them). And EVERY single recipe I have made for someone else has garnered wonderful compliments, and has been the best I have made to date.

How to Cook Everything

There' an iPhone app with the recipes that will build shopping lists for you as well. My GF is a catering manager for a large venue here in NYC; she's a food snob by profession. But she always loves the beef stir fry from Mark's book, despite the fact that it's 5 or so easily obtained ingredients. Maybe she just likes the inevitable sex. We may never know.

I think the Joy of Cooking is a great reference once you get the basics down. I also think online recipes can be hit or miss. As a beginner, having ONE good book is better than the entirety of the internet IMHO. There's just too much information coming at you.

That being said, I made this recipe every 2 weeks for about half a year. Every time I'd vary the spices a bit, to experiment. It's really simple, refrigerates well, and tastes pretty good.

Buy a (very) basic cookbook and have at it. One of those "how to cook pretty much everything in one or two simple ways" collections. I'm a big fan of "The New Best Recipe" which would be pricey new but can be had for cheap secondhand. "The Betty Crocker Cookbook" is another one that gets a lot of love too.

Read it the important bits. There's stuff in there about types of pans, about the difference between cumin and cardamom and cinnamon and cayenne, about how to hold a knife without cutting your fingers off and how to boil water without setting the stove on fire.

When you have read the important stuff and have begun to get a feel for what you need to do, select a simple recipe and make it. Start small. A pasta sauce maybe, a casserole.

Here's a piece of advice, too: Take notes. Write in the margins or get a notebook but keep track of whether you substituted oil for butter or if you needed less cooking time. It can save you some tears in the future, help you replicate happy accidents.

You might want to buy Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. Its a book about cooking techniques that I think is precisely the book you are looking for.

Also honorable mention for The Food Lab and The New Best Recipe books as well, those are more recipe based, but they have great info on techniques and ingredients. Both get into the science behind cooking and explain why they picked a specific recipe which helped me learn how to cook without recipes and be able to know when certain things are done(I now judge if something I am baking is done more by smell than time now) and how to save emulsions when to add salt and acids etc. The author of the food lab is also pretty active on the Serious Eats subreddit and will answer questions about his recipes.

Salt Fat Acid and Heat is also pretty good as well, I have not read this one personally though as the first part is waaaaaayyy too much personal narrative from the author for me and I turned off the audiobook after listening to her life story for 10 minutes, so get the print book so you can skip right to the cooking parts.

That's the At Home version which is highly abbreviated for home cooking.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0982761015/ref=pd_aw_fbt_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=14N2Q5DGXA1VKQ9XD196

Vs
http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

The cookbook is on sale for $461, and that burger takes 30+ hours to make, so uh, let me know how it turns out!

I love cookbooks, and have probably fifty in my collection.

The ones I keep going back to are:

• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi - He's an Israeli-born chef in London, and his recipes are a great combination of creative, relatively easy, and unique. He has a knack for combining unusual flavors, and I've never disliked anything I've cooked from him. If you're relatively green, don't get Nopi (too advanced). His other three or four books are all great.
  
  
• Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless. Bayless has a PBS show and owns several restaurants in Chicago. He's a great chef and his recipes are accessible and fun.
  
  
• The Food Lab by u/J_Kenji_Lopez-Alt. I was skeptical at first, since Lopez-Alt's website is so comprehensive, but the book is absolutely beautiful and contains both recipes and explanations of technique and science.
  
  
• Modernist Cooking at Home - It's expensive and many of the recipes are challenging and/or require special equipment, but the book is truly groundbreaking and never fails to stoke my creativity. It's the home version of his 6-volume tome which many think is one of the most innovative cookbooks in the last 20 years.

It's called "The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cook Book" There are a lot of good dishes in there, but watch out for spoilers if you're not caught up.

There is also "A Feast of Ice and Fire" No idea about this one . . . yet.

Small things i learned from this book:
don't use salt in eggs before you cook them, it breaks down the protien prematurely.
Spicy brings out the sweet, and sweet brings out the spicy.
http://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Reactions-Everyday-Chemistry-Cooking/dp/1569767068

Cooking really isn't too hard once you understand the science of it. I would suggest getting a cookbook that explains why a recipe is cooked a certain way. For example, this one by Alton Brown. You could and probably should look up some of his stuff on youtube, too.
I'll give you a few basic tips to start -

• high heat generally means you want crispy or burnt on the outside and soft/underdone on the inside. It's really only used for searing and boiling
  
• low heat usually means you're cooking something slowly and will make things soft or soggy
  
• taste as you go, when possible
  
• if you're cooking something in oil, let the oil get hot first or the food will stick to the pan
  
• don't be afraid to use spices, herbs, salt, and pepper. Simple things I like are onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. You can also get Mrs. Dash blends.
  
  You can always subscribe to r/fitmeals, r/cooking, or r/food too.
  
  Learning to cook will take some time. For now, I'd recommend baking a lot. Roast veggies, bake some chicken breasts, stuff like that.
  Roasting veggies is really easy. Cube the veggies of your choice, coat in olive oil, salt, and pepper and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until tender.
  
  Good luck! And be proud of yourself for figuring this out before you actually have a problem. It will be so much easier to start since you're at a healthy weight.

Alton Brown is a huge geek and had a career in making film/tv before he became a cook and than a cooking show host. He actually filmed this music video for R.E.M. early in his career..

Yeah, huge geek. I highly suggest his books, too. I have his first one, I'm Just Here For The Food, and it contains my favorite recipe in the world. Get it, find the page with his Chicken with Garlic and Shallots, cook it in a slow cooker and omfgbbq, IT IS AWESOME. It's also insanely easy to make.

Once you've started down the road with Alton, there's a bunch of other books I can suggest. Feel free to drop me a line anytime.

Edit: Oh, and while watching the show, pay attention to any clock in the background. A good deal of the time they're set to 4:20.

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking - This is a fascinating popsci book on how the different pieces of food are cooked and work together. It's very understandable, and teaches you not only the stuff you need to "understand" cooking, but understand eating.

It's written for a audience of kitchen folks, cooks, etc, so it's very understandable.

I believe they both liked them (they are quite good!). We got that particular recipe from the unofficial Game of Thrones cookbook.

link for anyone who might want to buy it. Lot's of fun recipe's in there.

This is probably my favorite cookbook ever, but I am not sure if it's a book that everyone would really enjoy reading. For me, the book is fascinating because it goes into an enormous amount of detail on ingredients, technique, and food science; at the same time, you kinda have to be a total need to read and enjoy such a sense book.

For something that everyone should read, I like to recommend Alton Brown's book "I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking"; it is basically the science and techniques from the first seasons of Good Eats, so I see it as kind of a Food Lab "lite", a great and very accessible way to introduce people to food and cooking,.

Hence http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830/ref=sr_1_sc_1

On Food and Cooking is pretty much the bible.

Don't care if trolling, must employ orgo/chem knowledge: It's (near) impossible. Background is necessary: The only reason (or the most obvious) why your toast is not charring with it's exposure to the O2 in the atmosphere when you take it out the company of its loafing mates (pan pun ftw) is that the charring reaction (EXOTHERMIC combustion reactions) takes place at an exceedingly high (toasting) temperature. This high temp requirement is known as the activation energy (E^A) —or the energy differential between the reagents (predominantly starch and complex carbohydrates) and the transition states that these reagents will assume if all goes according to plan. The reason the reverse reaction does not happen is that the combustion reaction is exothermic (meaning that bond energy is leaving the reagents in the form of heat which exceeds the E^A) and exothermic reactions are usually irreversible (laws of thermodynamics, gibbs free energy, and the like would all be working against untoasting toast). After toasting, molecules on the outer surface of toast have released a considerable about of energy in the exothermic process of turning into products and therefore absolutely cannot have as much chemical energy… There is the sneaky-ass possibility that some starches and complex carbohydrates that are resistant to digestion in OUR GI systems have broken down in the exothermic reactions (or specifically decomposition reactions if the exothermic rxn is unimolecular) to chemicals that we can in fact digest— thereby increasing its caloric content while reducing its total chemical energy content. This is common and unsurprising in cooking—read this (written by a chemist). However we can be sure that the decomposition/energy loss of saccharides we could have digested in their glorious fully energized states is partially offsetting this.
All things considered (love that radio show) it doesn't offing matter. The caloric difference, if any, would be so minute only Heidi Klum could tell the difference. but damn is she toasty.

Ratio is really fucking awesome, if you're into the science side of it, I'd highly recommend this Widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive texts. It hits the historical side, the scientific side, and the classic, traditional cuisine. That said, it's really fucking dense, not the kinda book you'll sit down and read cover to cover.

hopefully i don't sound too crass, but i would save your money. unless you want to do months of work as an unpaid, or basically unpaid, stage at a really amazing restaurant, or want to have credentials to back up the opening of your own place, the extra education wouldn't help much. i'd rather hear that you've read harold mcgee and larousse cover to cover.

Exactly. Higher pH denatures the proteins that are responsible for making it stick. Also, using older eggs will do the trick because older eggs naturally start to rise in pH.

If anyone is interested, there is a really great chapter about eggs in "On Food and Cooking," by Harold McGee that talks a lot about this kind of stuff. It's a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the science of cooking.

I currently work 2 jobs and have my fingers in a lot of pies.

That being said, I still find the time to cook. Not as much as I like, but I do so quite regularly.

Aside from reading cook books, watching Good Eats, and America's Test Kitchen, I got the most experience from practice.

I also visit these subreddits.

http://www.reddit.com/r/cooking

http://www.reddit.com/r/askculinary

Book wise, I have quite a few books on both technique and the food itself.

A few of my favorites are:

On Food and Cooking by McGee - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684800012

Cooking for Geeks by Potter - http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Geeks-Science-Great-Hacks/dp/0596805888/

How to Cook Everything by Bittman - http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0764578650

and a multitude of others.

McGee's "On Food and Cooking" can get a bit dry and technical, but man is it encyclopedic. If you ever find yourself saying, "I wonder why water chestnuts stay crunchy when cooked?" that's where you could look it up. It has from a paragraph to multiple pages about every ingredient you can think of.

Ruhlman's "Ratio" is excellent for understanding the structural properties of ingredients (it mostly concerns baked goods and sauces) -- it doesn't cover flavors so much as techniques for achieving different textures by varying the ratios of ingredients.

I think On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee is pretty much the standard authority.

To that I would add On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen. The scope of knowledge in this book is amazing: how different kinds of honey (some poisonous) result from what the bees polinate... how chewing gum was invented... why drinking alcohol mixed with a carbonated beverage gets you drunk faster... why cooking with iron is better for you than cooking with copper... where peppercorns come from, how they are harvested and how the varieties differ... why onions make you cry when you cut them... the science behind "toasting" something... can't recommend this enough to anyone fascinated by cooking!

On Food and Cooking is the ultimate answer to your question. It will give you the science and why behind why many foods do what they do. Its a tome, but a beautiful one.

I haven't looked at a lot of alternatives, but I bought Into the Vietnamese Kitchen on a whim and haven't been disappointed. Well written and has nice pictures, each recipe has some backstory about its place in Vietnamese cuisine and culture.

For Italian cuisine, The Silver Spoon is often recommended as a cornerstone of Italian cooking, but I found it to be pretty unsatisfying, at least in the translation. Light on technique and a lot of recipes that may be authentic, but aren't something you're ever likely to make (assuming you can even find the ingredients).

I would suggest buying any of Steve Raichlen's books. The BBQ Bible and How To Grill helped me a lot. Great pics of both techniques and the food.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0761149430/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1373559052&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0761120149/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1373559108&sr=8-4&pi=SL75

I bought this book a few years ago when I was on a budget, and I quite liked it.Student's Vegetarian Cookbook

And do you know Mark Bittman? He also has a vegetarian book out that I like. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

I really like Vegan for Life. It has lots of up-to-date nutritional information, and no pseudoscience. If you want a great general cookbook, I love How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. It's just a great starter cookbook with lots of info on prep, etc.

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bitmann.
This book is like a textbook. It is split up into different food parts, and at the beginning of each of those parts is an introduction to the foods. At the beginning of the book it goes over different cooking techniques. At the end of the book there are menus that work well together. Also, every recipe has like 3 recipes that go with it, with little things you can change. This is literally like a cooking 101 book.
http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266279932&sr=8-1

To be blunt, if boiling is how they usually prepare meat, it may be too late.


Try this book as a present.

The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated

http://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464479000&sr=1-1&keywords=cook%27s+illustrated+best+recipe

This cookbook is great. It's from America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated. All the dishes in the book have gone through something like 30-50 trials/iterations in the course of finding the single "best" version of the recipe - very appealing to my scientist side.

If you love to read, then I completely back up those who recommended J Kenji Lopez-Alt's "The Food Lab". He also spends some time on /r/seriouseats, which I think is really great. Food Lab is great because it explains not only HOW to make a recipe, but the WHY a recipe works the way that it does, and allows you to expand your cooking skills. His is not the only book that does this, but I've read Salt Fat Acid Heat and The Science of Cooking and a good portion of the tome that is Modernist Cuisine, but Kenji's style of writing is exceptionally approachable.

But my actual suggestion to someone who wants to go from never cooking to cooking healthy meals at home is to watch the recipes on Food Wishes, because he shows you what each step of the recipe is supposed to look like, and his food blog is not filled with flowery stories, but helpful tips.

Another great online resource that I used when I started cooking about 5 years ago was The Kitchn. They offer up basic technique videos on how to cook proteins and vegetables that are really simple to follow for beginners.

My advice to you is this: don't feel like you need to dive immediately into recipes. First learn how to season and cook a chicken breast or steak consistently, and roast the different kinds of vegetables. Then just start jumping into recipes that you want to try. And don't be afraid to ask questions here :)

In case you're wondering, I believe that all of these "food cooking cut in half" pictures are from Modernist Cuisine: The Art of Science and Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold.

Try this for heathy cooking and his other book for more traditional dishes. Both are amazing.

I can tell you about the preheat thing anyway.

1: food safety. Ovens take time to heat, so your food will be sitting in the danger zone a long time if you put it in when you first start the oven.

2: If your food is heating up as the oven heats up, by the time the oven is to temperature and browning the outside of your food, the food is well and truly overcooked. Food usually needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of somewhere between 140 and 180 Fahrenheit. Now if 150 is your target temp, imagine what your food will be like if it's 350!

As for a go-to book for learning everything about cooking, here you go:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Recipes-Anniversary/dp/0764578650

The first... 20 or so pages answer all your basic cooking questions, then you have like 900 pages of in-depth, detailed recipes, explaining the techniques, variations, and expectations of, well, everything.

To be totally honest though, I just google my questions as they come up at this point.

If you're going to cook, you'll need some basic tools. A saute pan, a large saucepan and a smaller saucepan should be good to start, along with a mixing bowl or two, a sheet pan, a casserole dish, a washable (plastic) cutting board, a couple of wooden spoons and some tongs. You'll need a couple of knives too - an 8" chefs knife and a smaller paring knife will take care of just about every job in the kitchen. Crazy gadgets aren't necessary for a beginner (and the more experienced you get the more you'll find they probably aren't necessary at all). Most everything you need can be procured at thrift stores or tag sales if you're on a tight budget. Stay away from older Teflon non-stick pans; if you feel more comfortable with non-stick over stainless, try to get anodized instead. To prevent accidents, keep your knives sharp.

Memorize or print this out: Safe Minimum Temperatures

Definitely always have salt, pepper and olive oil on hand. You probably don't need one of those all-in-one spice racks with every herb known to man in it; you'd be surprised how little of them you end up using. Fresh herbs are nearly always better, anyway. The main dried ingredients I keep on hand now are cumin, red pepper flakes, (about 6 varieties of) chili powder, onion powder and garlic powder.

Grab a couple of cookbooks (How To Cook Anything and The Joy of Cooking are awesome and include lots of different types of cuisine) and just try something you like. Start with recipes that don't have a lot of ingredients or steps. Start with recipes you know you like. If you don't understand what they mean when they tell you to do something, Youtube is definitely your friend.

Taste often. Don't feel like you have to stick to the book 100%. If something needs more pepper, a dash of hot sauce, a pat of butter, put it in. You are the one who has to eat it, so make it yours. Remember, you can always add more of something, but it's pretty tough to add less. Don't feel bad if it doesn't come out perfectly the first time, or the second. It seems daunting at first, but if you keep at it, it gets much easier.

Edited to add: http://www.reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners

I am in the same position you are in. Love cooking, no formal training, but love the science, theory and art behind it all. I have a few books that I find to be indispensable.

• How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian by Mark Bittman are two of my favorite recipe books. Loads of pretty simple recipes, lots of suggestions for modifications, and easy to modify yourself. Covers a bit of technique and flavor tips, but mostly recipes.
  
  
• CookWise by Shirley Corriher (the food science guru for Good Eats!) - great book that goes much more into the theory and science behind food and cooking. Lots of detailed info broken up nicely and then provides recipes to highlight the information discussed. Definitely a science book with experiments (recipes) added in to try yourself.
  
  
• Professional Baking and Professional Cooking by Wayne Gissen - Both of these books are written like textbooks for a cooking class. Filled with tons of conversion charts, techniques, processes, and detailed food science info. Has recipes, but definitely packed with tons of useful info.
  
  
• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters - this is not much on theory and more recipes, but after using many of the recipes in this book and reading between the lines a great deal, this taught me a lot about how great food doesn't require tons of ingredients. Many foods and flavors highlight themselves when used and prepared very simply and this really shifted my perspective from overworking and overpreparing dishes to keeping things simple and letting the food speak for itself.
  
  And mentioned in other threads, Cooking for Geeks is a great book too, On Food and Cooking is WONDERFUL and What Einstein Told His Chef is a great read as well. Modernist Cuisine is REALLY cool but makes me cry when I see the price.

Bittman says you can sub up to 20% dark rye for wheat flour without problems related to a lack of gluten. His How to Cook Everything is a great reference for questions like yours. From a flavor viewpoint, I would use orange zest as an element with rye pancakes, probably in lieu of the raisins or chocolate just so you don't get too many things going on at once.

I really like this book. It goes through a lot of variations on how to cook different dishes, and it explains why one might be better than another (this method is faster, this one is cheaper, this one is easier, etc). It also breaks down a lot of the basics of food prep, picking the best meat/produce, etc. It includes recipes, but it goes through the scientific process that they use to come up with the recipes, allowing you to adjust them to suit your needs.

Once you master a set of basic skills, as well as understanding how things "should" be, everything becomes way more fun and easy. How to dice an onion or anything. How to keep a clean work area. What "brown" actually looks like. How thick is "thickened", and what the hell is a roux.

Also, being a total Geek, The New Best Recipes cookbook has been a major help. It tells you both why you're doing it, as well as how to cook basic items, and then take that skill to other recipes.

> Molecular Gastronomy

It helps to not call it that. It's misleading and doesn't describe what's being done. Most in the industry shy away from that phrase. Modernist cuisine is more accepted these days.

As for modernist chefs, others have mentioned Blumenthal. I'll list a few for you to look into:

• Ferran Adria is the grandfather of the entire movement, and is extremely open with sharing his knowledge with the world. He's done some lectures for the Harvard food and science lecture series. You can find videos on youtube from past years. (From my recommended list for you, I think all but Daniel Humm have done the lecture series at some point.)
  
• Grant Achatz is known for it as well. His creations are definitely a little more out there and conceptual, but utterly stunning to experience. One of the most fun meals I've ever had. If you're ever in Chicago, a meal at Alinea is worth going for if you've got the cash. Do make sure to swing by Aviary (also by Achatz) for drinks and bites, whether you go to Alinea or not. Drinks are each very unique and all good across the board. Don't miss out on the bites. (FWIW Chicago seems to be a city that's open to experimentation, so there's a few other places that do modernist food in town that aren't bad.)
  
• Jose Andres worked under Adria for a bit, but has been doing his own thing in the US. He pays homage to his roots, and does some great tapas. He's got a few locations across the States, so might be worth seeking out. I've only been to The Bazaar in LA/BevHills. Let me know if you want to know more about the food there, since I personally believe there are some things that you must get there, along with some that are good but not as interesting.
  
• Daniel Humm's Eleven Madison Park is also amazing, and worthy alternative to Alinea if NYC is easier. There's definitely differences, but worth seeking out. I haven't been, but I've heard very good things and it's on my list for the next trip to NYC.
  
• Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 is also interesting (NYC but closing soon IIRC due to location issues; may reopen or do other stuff at some point). He uses modernist techniques in an almost invisible way, where something may seem, smell, or taste normal, but it's actually made using something else entirely.
  
  I'm obviously missing a ton of chefs. Due to the history of El Bulli/Adria, there's a lot of modernist cuisine in various places in Spain. The above is by no means comprehensive, but just what I'm remembering off the top of my head as an American.
  
  But on modernist cuisine, the real exceptional chefs are the ones that use them as tools in their trade, instead of doing modernist techniques just for the sake of them. I've had way too many meals where they'd have a component of a dish where they probably thought it'd be cool and hip, but ended up adding absolutely nothing to the dish (Foams are a big problem here).
  
  For modernist cuisine, it really helps to go out to eat and experience it for yourself. Trying to execute without having experienced it is like trying to play Beethoven without any experience hearing it played by others before. This will actually likely be a small price to pay, given the $$$$$ you'll be sinking into equipment. When dining, feel free to ask questions. Waiters at most of these fine dining-ish establishments will know their shit, and will go ask the cooks/chef if they don't know the answer off-hand.
  
  There's also a lot of reading to be done, and you'll end up with just techniques to apply. But with it, you'll be able to do amazing things. For books, The Bible here is Modernist Cuisine, the 50-lb, 6 volume, 2400 page behemoth (at $500, again cheap compared to equipment). You can sometimes find it in libraries if the price tag is an issue. Don't skip to the recipes. Read each one cover to cover (and possibly in order), because learning the science behind everything is more important than following recipes.
  
  You won't find much video, because modernist stuff just isn't food-porn friendly. You tend to not have food sizzling on a hot pan and such. A lot of modernist cuisine is done with extreme restraint and focus, and frequently the results are way more interesting in the mouth than visually.
  
  But really, modernist cuisine is a means to an end. They're using it as a tool to create an experience that likely isn't possible using traditional means. But, the important thing is the experience, and not how it was technically achieved.

Source.

Beautiful pictures of things cut in half in there. Just google for more examples.

Mollie Katzen's The New Moosewood Cookbook. Great little pictures of ingredients/recipes.

The Joy of Cooking. It's got a great baseline of knowledge and can provide a good context when you start cooking.

The Mennonite cookbook More with Less. This one will broaden your horizons and you'll find yourself cooking outside of your typical cuisines.

Any of the Moosewood Cookbooks are awesome picks. They were all copies that were originally hand written/drawn and look awesome inside, and from what I remember the recipes were all vegetarian.

Alton Brown

I agree that "How To Cook Everything" is a good reference guide for complete beginners and those with gaps in cooking knowledge.

It might be a bit over your head at this point, but if you truly want to understand cooking and what's happening when you do it try "On Food And Cooking" by Harold McGee.

For Asian you might like...

"Every Grain Of Rice" by Fuchsia Dunlop (or any of her books)

"Japanese Soul Cooking" by Tadashi Ono

"Ivan Ramen..." by Ivan Orkin (Good for ramen and other japanese-ish food.)

"Momofuku" by David Chang (Really good mix of general Asian flavors)

Other books that might interest you:

"Irish Pantry" by Noel McMeel

"The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern" - Matt Lee and Ted Lee

"Real Cajun" by Donald Link

"Authentic Mexican" by Rick Bayless

"Fabio's Italian Kitchen" by Fabio Viviani

For Vegetarian try anything by Alice Waters or David Tanis.

Get this book, it's the best Weber's way to grill

maybe I can save you some money and maybe I can't, but I'll try anyway.

Anything you learn in school is something you'll learn by working in a restaurant. The only difference is that you'll get a knife roll, probably this book, and 15K - 30K in debt if you do school. Instead, you can make money, read that book, buy your own knife roll, and not try to pay off a student loan for the next 15 years while you make 12 bucks an hour.

If you really want to go, OCI is the cheapest and has good chefs.

My everyday cookbook is How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman. I recommend it for anyone who's past the boiling water phase and is competent at reading recipes, but who wants to learn to put things together on their own - the stage I was at when I got it. I could prattle on about this book, but the most important things to me as a novice cook are:

1. It emphasizes flow in the kitchen. Many recipes assume you already have everything diced, peeled, cleaned, etc. This book assumes you just came home from the grocery store. It lists everything you have to do in an order that makes sense, like reminding you to preheat your oven or get your oil hot before you start vegetable prep.
   
2. It encourages substitution. Most of the recipes have several variations and there are a few "recipe-free" recipes, telling you how to put together a basic soup, braise meat, or cook a pilaf with whatever you have on hand.
   
3. True to name, it's quick. Cooking a 3 hour recipe is great for special occasions, but not every night. Most of the recipes take about 30 minutes - add sides (which it will recommend for you, by the way) and cleanup, and you're looking at 45 minutes to put a full dinner on the table. You get more cooking experience in this way too.
   
4. A few different cuisine styles are emphasized, so you'll learn which spices, meats, veggies, etc. play nicely with each other. Even so, even the most poorly equipped supermarket will get you through 90% of the recipes. Similarly, the only special equipment he calls for is a food processor. No waffle iron, ice cream machine, or sous vide recipes here.
   
   By the way, it's crazy cheap on Kindle right now. I'm not a huge fan of the e-book layout - I vastly prefer my paper book - but if you wanted to check it out for $3, now's the time.
   
   I'd recommend anything by Bittman. There are a lot of New York Times articles you can read by him for free, too. He takes a very laid-back, intuitive approach to cooking that encourages experimentation, and I love that!
   
   Another favorite that used to be on my shelf but I lost in a move: Kitchen Quick Tips from Cook's Illustrated. I recommend just about anything from the America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated family. It's not a cookbook, but it's full of little tips on all sorts of kitchen things - the most efficient way to dice an onion, peel a potato, remove a stuck wine cork, etc. It's the sort of stuff you'd see on /r/Lifehacks but all collected into one place.

Not sure the discipline of paleontology is really geared to answer that question... [EDIT] Most fossils I've tasted are tough, a bit salty and frankly too gritty to be on my foodie shortlist.

There's a few factors that goes into meat flavour and texture:

• Fast twitch vs slow twitch muscles determines how 'red' meat is - that is how much myoglobin it has. Birds that fly a lot have red breast meat when compared to birds that fly only in emergencies. For example, compare the breasts of pigeon (red) and chicken (white). This also works with fish: continuously fast moving fish meat tends to red, meaty flavours (eg tuna) vs most fish that have basically white flesh, but have a red triangle of muscle along the dorsal line like hamachi. Ambush hunters like the crocodile are immobile almost all the time, so their meat is more like chicken breast.
  
• Muscles that are continuously exercised are loaded with connective tissue and are tough. Muscles rarely exercised are tender. Compare shin, shank and shoulder cuts (tough) with fillet steak (tender).
  
• Cooking technique - fast and hot vs slow and cool(er). Tender cuts can be cooked hot and fast (grill, fry) and be excellent as long as the internal temperature stays below the mid 60s (°C) otherwise you are in well-done territory [EDIT] and that is the 'stringy' texture in OPs question. Tough cuts should be cooked for a long time to break connective fibres to gelatine making the meat juicy and soft. For tough cuts, temperature can go up into the 70s without necessarily making the meat dry. Think southern BBQ and sous vide ribs. Tender cuts are typically less flavourful/meaty than tough cuts. Chicken thighs need cooking longer than chicken breast, so getting a perfect roast chicken, with moist breast and tender thighs is hard.
  
• Impact of diet. What the animal eats can influence flavour heavily. Corn-fed and grass-fed cattle taste different, with grass-fed being a stronger, meatier taste. Free-range chickens are gamier than factory birds. Water fowl and crocodile tastes a bit 'fishy'. Pigeon and quail more gamey. Traditionally, pheasants and other birds were left to 'hang' (with guts in) in a cool but not refrigerated environment until the meat 'matures' and the tail feather fall out. This fermentation is the main reason for really gamey taste. Personally, I hate it and feel there are too many 'off' flavours. [EDIT] the really fishy smell of not-quite-fresh fish is TMA, caused by the (I think, bacterial) breakdown of proteins in the fish. I am not referring to this off-flavour when I mean fishy.
  
• Seasonality: Animals in areas with cold winters tend to lay down fat in autumn to help the animal survive to spring. There's a strong preference to eating those animals in autumn when the fat content (and thus flavour) is the highest. Higher fat content allows more cooking techniques to be used, and allows the meat to be cooked hotter while remaining moist and tender. Hunting seasons are mostly in the autumn.
  
  So, with Leaellynasaurus, we essentially have a wild turkey-like animal in a highly seasonal environment, eating plants in a non-aquatic environment. Hunt them near polar winter to maximise their yummy fat.
  
  As non-farmed animal, its major muscle groups on its rear legs got a huge workout - its legs would be best for braising and stewing and would be rich, meaty and a bit gamey. Its shoulders and forelimbs a lot less, and so would be more chicken-breast-like, but smaller in proportion. Some small, fried pieces like the Japaneae karaage might be nice.
  
  [EDIT] On reflection, the tail might produce both the greatest challenge when cooking Leaellynasaurus, but also the greatest opportunity. The tail - one of the largest dinosaur tails relative to body size - is full of connective tissue, making poorly cooked tail as chewy as tough jerky and less palatable. However, cooked 48-72 hours at 75°C sous vide, it would be like the best ox-tail stew - juicy, tender and incredibly rich in flavour. It could take some really strong herbs and spices to really up the richness into the stratosphere.
  
  This is just my best guess as a cook who's read the excellent On Food and Cooking. I'd say, give Leaellynasaura meat a try if you can, although finding a restaurant for such a delicacy is pretty hard these days.

This is probably the natural seaweed extract she is talking about:
Kombu
I worked in Japanese food for a long time and was surprised to learn that I had been basically flat-out lying when I told people there was no MSG in our sushi. Good sushi rice dressing is traditionally seasoned with a large piece of Kombu.
Also, people who say they are allergic to MSG are lying.
edit: read page 342 - Seaweed and the Original MSG

I do encourage you to learn about cooking no matter what you choose. These are the books that helped me most in my cooking career:

1. Professional cooking Often refereed to as 'the Gisslen'
   
   
2. Culinary Artistry
   
   
3. On food and Cooking
   
   The Gisslen and Culinary artistry are your starter books. On food and cooking is amazing but contains chemistry/biology and other scientific explanations of what your doing which is important but not for the actual act of learning to produce food.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012 and

Chopping skills has to be high up on the list. I don't have a good book on this, but have seen several possible good ones on Amazon. There are lots of videos online as well. I'd learn and master all types of cuts on all types of items (meat, veggies, fruit, etc).

If you're wanting to be a chef (i.e. not just a cook), having some knowledge about why methods/recipes are a certain way would be good too (e.g. books like On Food and Cooking: http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012).

Not quite a direct answer to your question, but hopefully useful

I HIGHLY recommend this book. At least one person in my family has had a copy for the past 15 years and I've gotten an incredible amount of use from it. It's more akin to a book of techniques than a book of recipes and can really improve your grilling game. (and overall cooking game)

Welcome to the tribe of grillers and smokers!

Looks like the coals are still active, but you may just not have had enough for the conditions. Since you're cooking outside, you need to be aware of environmental factors, especially wind, ambient temperature, and humidity.

I would suggest switching to natural hardwood charcoal. It burns longer and cleaner than briquets. Ditch any liquid fuels you might be using, they aren't necessary and can make your food taste like petrol. If you haven't already, learn how start your charcoal with tinder. Charcoal chimneys are very helpful. (edit: looks like you already got this covered!)

I also can't recommend enough these books by Steven Raichlen, host of the PBS shows Barbecue University and Primal Grill. He has studied grilling and smoking methods from all over the world, and is very good at explaining techniques and concepts to people of all skill levels.

• The Barbecue! Bible
  
• How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques
  
  Finally, here are some subreddits with very helpful and friendly communities:
  
  
• /r/grilling
  
• /r/smoking
  
• /r/BBQ
  
  Hope this helps!

My daughter decided to become a vegetarian when she was 4. We figured it was a phase she was going through, but she's 6 now and has stuck with it. Her reason is she doesn't want to kill animals. So we load her up with beans, nuts, lentils, tofu, fake ground beef, oats, quinoa and some dairy.

Also, this is a great cookbook:

Mark Bittman's "how to eat everything vegetarian"

This book brought me from making inedible soups (literally I would have to throw them out) to making awesome soup. https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836

There's a page about how to freestyle your own soup. The basic is start with a fat (like olive oil) and add aromatics (like garlic), and cook until it smells good. Then add vegetables and liquid (I'm forgetting which order the author recommended but it would probably be fine either way). He has lots of suggestions for how to get wild with different ingredients, and there's even an exciting page about how adding cabbage at different points in the cooking process can change the soup.

Also, treat yourself to an immersion blender. Makes vegan soups taste like they are full of butter and cream. (Also super handy for salad dressing recipes!)

1. I typically spend about $200/mo. on groceries, almost all at Costco, but I eat a lot, so YMMV. To be on the safe side, put down $250/mo. for groceries when you're doing your budget.
   
   
2. When I was sharing groceries and cooking duties with roommates, we'd cook dinner and eat leftovers at lunch. I usually grabbed lunch from Stamp on the days I had class, and one of my roommates would pack some leftovers to reheat.
   
   
3. Costco is the shit for groceries, everything's pretty high-quality and fresh, and cheap as hell. I don't know what I'd do without their freezer-ready packs of chicken and ground beef/turkey. Also, they sell 1lb resealable bags of precooked bacon... mmm, bacon....
   
   
4. If you've never really cooked before, buy How to Cook Everything. It's a really great book, complete with all kinds of recipes, and there are sections in the beginning that you can learn a lot from - knife skills, differences between cuts of meat, tips for grocery shopping, the tools and spices you should stock your kitchen with, etc... It's a really invaluable book IMO. Find some recipes you like and rotate between them.
   
   
5. The biggest tip for grocery shopping is to know what you're going to cook for the week beforehand, so you know what to get and how much. This will cut down on waste and save you money.
   
   Here's a really easy recipe that I've been making this semester with ingredients you can get all at Costco that's pretty versatile. I call it "clusterfuck rice":
   
   Ingredients
   
   

• .5lb pre-cooked bacon, chopped
  
• 1 pack ground turkey (~1.7lb, 80/20 lean)
  
• 1 pack chicken breast (~1.3lb), cubed
  
• 3 cups rice dry
  
• Your choice of produce (try any combination of onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, green beans, broccoli, carrots, snap peas, asparagus)
  
• Seasoning (curry powder-pepper-salt, paprika-garlic powder-cayenne-salt, cumin-paprika-garlic powder-cayenne-salt are ones I like)
  
  
  Directions
  
  

1. Slice and dice produce, sautee in a large pot
   
2. Start boiling 3.5-4 cups of water (adjust for amount and type of rice as needed)
   
3. Lightly brown chicken in another pan (don't cook all the way through), add to pot and stir
   
4. Lightly brown turkey and toss in bacon towards the end, add to pot and stir
   
5. Add dry rice to pot and stir thoroughly
   
6. When water boils, add seasonings to pot, and slowly add all the water
   
7. Turn heat back up to medium-high, stir consistently, waiting until water comes to a boil again
   
8. Once water boils, turn heat down to medium-low, cover pot, stir every 5-10 minutes for 30-60 minutes.
   
   
   Macros:
   
   

• ~5000 kcal
  
• ~150g fat
  
• ~500g carb
  
• ~400g protein
  
  This lasts me about 4 meals usually, but I'm a weightlifter and eat a ton, so if you're splitting food with roommates, this should feed the whole apartment for dinner and whoever wants to take leftovers for lunch.
  

I don’t know what the availability of ingredients will be like where you live, but Yotam Ottolenghis books are beautiful and a real lesson in new flavours and textures. I have this at home and feel inspired to cook every time I flick through it https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jerusalem-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/0091943744

Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking is wonderful and covers lots of basics and classics, although it doesn’t have photographs so could be a bit dry for him https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Boxed/dp/0307593525

If you’re raising the next Heston Blumenthal, this book will really help him understand how to combine flavours. It’s not a recipe book though, more of a guide on how to think of your own flavour combinations https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flavour-Thesaurus-Niki-Segnit/dp/0747599777

And finally, how about a personalised recipe book for him to make his own - something like this https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/473998816/free-personalized-recipe-book-wooden?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Hope he has a great birthday!

I recommend this. It's my grilling bible.

i was gifted the weber grilling guide. It will not be as comprehensive as the amazing ribs thread, but will be something that you can use has a tactile (remember books?) reference when outside on the grill. I've made the transition to charcoal recently, and have used several of the recipes and techniques mentioned.

http://www.amazon.com/Webers-Way-Grill-Step-Step/dp/0376020598

If you like self-studying, here's a college-level textbook: Wayne Gisslen - Professional Cooking

Julia Child's [The Way to Cook] (https://www.amazon.com/Way-Cook-Julia-Child/dp/0679747656)

Buy the book ON FOOD AND COOKING the science and lore of the kitchen by Harold McGee. It is fascinating

I haven't. I've got a bunch of science-y cookbooks.

Edit: Here is the best book I've found. It's a really heavy read, though: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

My other favorite, go to book is America's Test Kitchen Best American Classics. I also do recipe testing for ATK - regular recipes and gluten free.

Oh, and don't forget Michael Ruhlman's Ratio:The Simple Codes Behind The Craft of Everyday Cooking. This is the most amazing book. It's short and to the point as well. You begin to understand how a simple tweak to a recipe can create an entirely different dish.


I love how a great Mindcrack thread became a cooking thread. My 2 favorite things in life.

The book you want is [On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen] (http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=pd_sim_b_11) by Harold McGee, which is a classic for a reason! Start with that one, devour it, learn it, live it, love it.

Once you've done that, pick up a copy of The Science of Good Cooking from the hardworking angels at Cook's Illustrated and then a copy of The Flavor Bible as mentioned by /u/pjdias below.

The McGee Bible is probably the best food-science oriented cookbook ever written.

This Book is basically the same content but condensed and made more accessible, so its a good starting point if you don't want a huge doorstop of a book to page through.

Good Eats by Alton Brown is a pretty awesome how-to show that combines food science and comedy. poke around for full episodes if you can find them, its worth it.

as for podcast format...not sure if I've encountered a good one in strictly audio. maybe just look for books on tape?

Julia Child is great, but that really isn't the best resource. Have a look at these three books. Together they will tell you more than almost any other resources about French cuisine, recipes, technique, history, everything.

Larousse Gastronomique
http://www.amazon.com/New-Larousse-Gastronomique-Hamlyn/dp/0600620425/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

The Escoffier Cookbook
http://www.amazon.com/Escoffier-Cookbook-Guide-Fine-Cookery/dp/0517506629/ref=pd_sim_b_4

On Food and Cooking
http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=pd_sim_b_6

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (link goes to Amazon.com).

I exaggerated, though - it's only 896 pages. ;)

I dig you're enthusiasm but you're asking a broad question!

I'd recommend the following books to help answer your questions:

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684800012

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking through Science

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393081087

On Food & Cooking is essentially an encyclopedia. An absolute must-have.

This:

​

https://www.amazon.ca/Food-Cooking-Harold-McGee/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549488177&sr=8-2&keywords=on+cooking

​

This is the most phenomenal cooking book I have ever read. It basically breaks down the science and history of almost every single food - there's chapters dedicated to eggs, milk, hundreds of pages on bread, etc.

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

Whether it is actually better or not, that's highly debatable and according to taste. But the cuisine in London/ UK is not neglectable and has a very rich background.

One of the most influential chefs in the world such as Heston Blumenthal (which is largely inspired by Harold McGee, an American), Marco Pierre White (he partly wrote modern cuisine, also an awesome person to hear) and Michel Roux (both senior as junior) have worked their careers in the UK. Each of them have defined a part of cooking/ cuisine in their way.

Not to forget the Commonwealth as well indeed, which brought a lot to the UK.

Really been watching too much MasterChef UK/ Australia and to one of my cooking teachers who really loves to read about history/ science of food. Then again, it's awesome to hear and to know as food is a way of sharing love, express your creativity and bonds and is such an important aspect of our lives/ society/ culture.

Some books which are awesome and I also have in my collection are:

• The Fat Duck Cookbook (don't imagine creating a dish of it, it's more about the insight and the science behind the dishes as they are easily a couple of pages)
  
• On food and cooking
  
• The Devil in the Kitchen
  
• Kitchen Confidential
  
  Honestly, couldn't forget the latter of course.

http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Also add On Food and Cooking The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Really great book going into detail about the science of cooking

On Food and Cooking is basically required reading.

It's fairly specific, but Japanese Cooking: a Simple Art has a ton of great info on Japanese food philosophy, seasonal dishes, and a bunch of knife and other techniques you don't get from many western texts.

Yep! I'm about to order Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

The code is good until Nov 28 at 11:59pm PST.

Note: links are to amazon though any library or used book will do.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

On War by Von Clausewitz

Influence by Robert Cialdini

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky

Improving Performance: How to Manage the Whitespace in the Organization Chart by Geary Rummler

Books by Edward T. Hall

Books by Edward Tufte


Books by Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action by Donald Schön

let me know if you want more....

On Food and Cooking is a great way to learn what pairings and what flavors work together. Hope this helps!!

Speaking of McGee, what about his book On Food And Cooking

I would say to get How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, by Mark Bittman. While it's not vegan, it has tons of vegan recipes, and for most recipes with eggs or dairy he lists a substitution. It also has great starter info like how to cook beans, grains, tofu, tempeh, etc.

What this man speaks is true! In fact it is called How To Cook Everything Vegetarian. I own both and would agree it is an essential book series; it is written in a very minimalist approach to food. Check out the New York Times Bitten blog for a taste of his style.

Not to get all preachy, but a correct vegetarian diet shouldn't require supplements. I swear I'm not trying to be snarky here, but that supplement money would be much better spent on Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, worth every penny of the $20 bucks. And very approachable recipes, no fancy ingredients or techniques required.

[How to Cook Everything Vegetarian] (http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836)
This is pretty comprehensive. Bittman sets up a base for each recipe and then gives you 5 or 6 variations on it. Very straightforward and informative!

My meat eating husband and I have a very similar situation. He makes dinner once a week, sometimes he gets creative but usually it's fried egg sandwiches! If you like cooking and are interested in learning some Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is really great and will help you with tons of general cooking basics too. A go-to favorite of ours is this Black Bean Posole

It has been asked before, so do poke around a bit. But as always I'll recommend Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything as the best place to start. IMO he does a better job covering some of the really basic stuff like how to shop, easiest way to prepare x food, variants on x food, charts for flavors/combinations, etc. Really it's a great primer on HOW to cook and afterwards it's a handy reference.

I think Food Lab/Serious Eats is a better second cookbook because it's a bit less concerned with teaching the basics of a particular food, but a bit better at providing recipes that don't need tweaking. Bittman recipes are super simple but he really pushes you to adapt it to your taste, which in the end makes you a better cook. Food Lab is really into the science/method which is great, but IMO more complex than you need at the very beginning. The perfect burger, Kenji all day long, but WTF to do with that butcher cut you bought on sale, I prefer Bittman.

For a third cookbook, the Flavor Bible is also great.

>The next best thing to having Mark Bittman in the kitchen with you

Mark Bittman's highly acclaimed, bestselling book How to Cook Everything is an indispensable guide for any modern cook. With How to Cook Everything The Basics he reveals how truly easy it is to learn fundamental techniques and recipes. From dicing vegetables and roasting meat, to cooking building-block meals that include salads, soups, poultry, meats, fish, sides, and desserts, Bittman explains what every home cook, particularly novices, should know.

1,000 beautiful and instructive photographs throughout the book reveal key preparation details that make every dish inviting and accessible. With clear and straightforward directions, Bittman's practical tips and variation ideas, and visual cues that accompany each of the 185 recipes, cooking with How to Cook Everything The Basics is like having Bittman in the kitchen with you.

This is the essential teaching cookbook, with 1,000 photos illustrating every technique and recipe; the result is a comprehensive reference that’s both visually stunning and utterly practical.
Special Basics features scattered throughout simplify broad subjects with sections like “Think of Vegetables in Groups,” “How to Cook Any Grain,” and “5 Rules for Buying and Storing Seafood.”
600 demonstration photos each build on a step from the recipe to teach a core lesson, like “Cracking an Egg,” “Using Pasta Water,” “Recognizing Doneness,” and “Crimping the Pie Shut.”
Detailed notes appear in blue type near selected images. Here Mark highlights what to look for during a particular step and offers handy advice and other helpful asides.
Tips and variations let cooks hone their skills and be creative.


http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411914327&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+cook+everything

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a good start along with The Joy of Cooking

You need to pick up a copy of How to Cook Everything. It has loads of practical advice and techniques in a user-friendly format.

Pot
Frying Pan
Strainer
Baking Dish
Can Opener
Wooden Spoon
Mixing Spoon
Microwave
Turner
Cutting Board
Chef's Knife
Paring Knife
*Measuring Spoons/Measuring Cups

I also highly recommend How to Cook Everything. It is a great resource and actually discusses this exact topic. He gives basic and advanced cooking instruction and tips. Great book.

I see some good advice people have already given you.

Here's mine:

1. Read recipes just for the sake of reading them: If you take pleasure in cooking, then reading recipes will be fun as well. Even if you don't make them, it gives you some general knowledge about cooking and different processes. It's a bit like picking up another language by watching movies or listening to music. Every bit helps. I have some cookbooks on my nightstand.
   
   
2. Books and resources I highly recommend:
   
   Buzzfeed's food section - lots of good advice and recipes there, amazing walkthroughs and tutorials, too, for all levels
   
   Epicurious's Quick and Easy Section
   
   Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals Jamie Oliver has a book and series out, showing you how to make an entire meal in 30 minutes. Sure, I think it might take you about an hour instead of 30 minutes, if you're new to cooking, but this series is geared towards simplicity and speed, while not making any compromises when it comes to cooking. The food IS delicious indeed. It's also full of great food hacks, useful even for advanced cooks. Get the book, I recommend it. (He also has another one, Jamie's 15 minute meals, with even simpler ones)
   
   Nigel Slater's Real Food and/or Appetite Two great books which show you how to cook simple, basic things at home, with a great twist. Bonus points: The guy is an amazing writer.
   
   Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything This one is a classic. Get it.
   
   Mark Bittman also has a famous series on youtube for the NYT here Check it out
   
   
   
3. Clean your workspace and prep your meal before you begin cooking. It will save you lots of time and frustration.
   
   
4. Clean as you go along. Nothing is more frustrating than cluttering your kitchen with dirty bowls and utensils until you have no space to move around. You spill something? Wipe it now.
   
   
5. Taste your food as you cook it. Goes without saying that you don't taste things like raw chicken until it's cooked, but taste and adjust seasonings always.
   
   
6. Master the basics first. I'd recommend mastering simple things like cooking eggs, grilled cheese, soups, pasta first. Then move on to more complex things, like doughs, etc.
   
   
7. Don't be afraid of herbs and spices. Read up on what the basic classic combinations are, then go crazy and experiment. You'll get the hang of it soon enough.
   
   
8. Eat what you've made, even if it isn't great, and think about how you can improve it next time. Is the bread too tough? Maybe you've added more flour than needed. Too bland? Add more salt next time, etc.
   
   
9. If you go into baking, be extremely careful with substitutions. Baking is an exact science, unlike cooking (mostly), so it's not very forgiving to swapping ingredients at leisure.
   
   
10. Weigh your ingredients (esp. when baking)
    
    
11. ENJOY and share your food with the people you love
    

I also agree with the idea of going to the library or bookshops to browse before you buy. But for many years, my absolute go to cookbook has been Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. If I could only have one cookbook, this would be it. I like simple approaches to cooking, and Mark writes in a way that makes even the most daunting recipes approachable. For the same reason, I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks. They're written in the same way. If you ever get a chance to watch his early BBC series the Naked Chef it's wonderful. Technnology abounds however, and I find myself going more and more often to the wonderful and free New York Times Cooking app on my iPhone. Good Luck!

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a great cookbook.

It's sorted by ingredient in addition to dish type, so you can seek out recipes using whatever meats/vegetables/etc are cheap for you. As well, the book lays out "base" recipes and then provides options for customization.

How to Cook Everything and made the best French Toast I have ever had.

How to Cook Everything, which is the best reference cookbook in the world, IMO

Amost Vegetarian, in which I find a ton of practical and useful recipes

Le Cordon Bleu At Home. If you follow all the recipes in order from beginning to end, you'll be a very knowledgeable home chef at the end of it. Some of them are very time consuming and quite difficult, but I found the lessons indispensable.

I love the Jerk Seasoning blend from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. In the book he recommends adding fresh garlic and ginger prior to use, but I don't have time for that shit so I just use the supermarket powdered versions. I triple his recipe and make it about once every three weeks.

Cooking with it: put 1-2 tablespoons per pound of bite-sized chicken in a plastic bag, shake, and let marinate for 3 to 24 hours. Pan fry with butter, then deglaze with chicken stock, or wine, or whatever, add more butter, and BAM. You have amazing jerk chicken with an amazing sauce. Or toss it in rice. Or toss it on veggies (great with broccoli). Or eat it plain. Whatever!

• 1 tsp (or a tiny bit less) ground nutmeg
  
  
• 1 tbs ground black pepper
  
  
• 1 tbs cayenne
  
  
• 1 tbs powdered garlic
  
  
• 2 tbs powdered allspice
  
  
• 2 tbs ground ginger
  
  
• 2 tbs dried thyme (it says to use a mortar and pestle on the thyme, but it works fine if you don't)
  
  
• 3 tbs paprika
  
  
• 3 tbs sugar
  
  
• 6 tbs salt
  
  This makes about 1 & 1/3 cups of seasoning, keep it in a mason jar or a zip lock bag. Lasts for weeks and is suuuuper easy to cook with.

You poor thing. I laughed so hard reading this. Bless him for trying.

Tell him tastes are subjective. Tell him that something he can eat and love... Might not be a hit with everyone.

Then, buy this book for him. Tell him you want to encourage him learning to cook new and different things. Tell him it was recommended by a chef.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Recipes-Anniversary/dp/0764578650

I applaud your giving his terrible cooking a chance. You are very sweet and must really care about him. Help him learn to cook, subtly. And watch Good Eats with him. He will learn a lot, and stop sucking at cooking to boot.

You want Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It won't turn you into a French Chef in a week, but you'll be learning how to cook, quarter your own whole chicken, make proper stock, sauces and staples, and do anything else that needs doing in your initial forays into cooking.

The old one has over 350 reviews, and it's a five star cookbook, but it's the 10th anniversary newest edition that you want to buy.

The New Best Recipe is by far the most useful book I use in the kitchen. It's big, over 1000 pages, but the recipes are simple, everyday food, meaning you will pull this book out everyday.

It's done by the people who put out Cook's Illustrated magazine and everything I have made from the book has been flawless.

Cooks Illustrated cookbook, this is one of my favorite books.

This is my favorite cook book for basic/general recipes!

The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated Magazine

They test each recipe many times until they get it perfect.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-All-New/dp/0936184744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280507588&sr=1-1

Unless you have $500 to drop on Modernist Cuisine, On Food and Cooking is as good as it gets.

oooh thanks!

Is he the dude who wrote the stupidly expensive science of cooking books? (seems not but similar concept...) If I at somepoint in my life I happen to have £400 free and accessible I think they'd be a very interesting read!

It's from the book Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Freakonomics blogpost

Amazon OOP page for book

The mac and cheese recipe from Modernist Cusiine is supposed to be phenomenal.

>As for the mac & cheese: it was both the best and the easiest I've ever made. No gloppy sauce, remarkably intense cheese flavor (you get the "flavor release" concept when you eat it), and the pasta absorbs it thoroughly.

Basically, the difficulty in mac and cheese is that you want the cheese to be both creamy/melty and delicious. The problem is, there isn't much overlap there. Cheeses that melt really well aren't delicious (Velveeta) and cheeses that are delicious don't remain creamy when melted (Cheddar, Gouda, etc).

The typical solution to this is to take good cheese, and then use some roux to add to the melted cheese to make it creamy. This works (as is evident in her recipe). However, it's not perfect. You need a fair amount of roux which dilutes the flavor of the cheese.

Nathan Myhyrvold and his team avoid using the roux by creating an emulsification of the cheese by melting it with beer, iota carrageenan and sodium citrate. That pretty much turns whatever cheese blend you are using into something that melts like Velveeta. They use similar techniques to make home made cheeze whiz out of real cheese.

The end product people are describing as steps beyond any other mac and cheese they've ever had in terms of the cheese flavor. There is also a 'flavor release' that everyone mentions that makes sense when you try it.

I'd give you first hand impressions but Amazon hasn't shipped my book yet :(

If you have a limitless budget, Modernist Cuisine is great. It's a 5 book collection and the photography is beautiful. The first book is about history and fundamentals. The whole series is incredibly thorough, bordering on obsessive.

Cooking does have similar parrallels to science. I graduated with a degree in molecular biology and cooking is definitely a favorite hobby of mine. however, the concept of learning the theory of cooking has only been relatively recent because it has been largely looked down on as "women's work" for a long time.

plus I dare you to read modernist cuisine and not get a science boner

Also chemistry is basically applied physics as well so if you're going with that argument then chemistry must not be a science in your eyes either.

I would get you this book: https://www.amazon.ca/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

It's a pretty large book (6 volumes, ~300 pages each) and thus the chapter on food safety is itself pretty extensive.

Long story short, there are ways to calculate the remaining proportion of bacteria relative to initial amounts. A 6.5D reduction means there are 1/10^6.5 times the amount of bacteria in the item after cooking, a number which is considered safe.

FDA cooking temperatures and times disregard that, and instead specify temperatures that are way too high, leading to dry and bland meats.

Screenshot of a relevant graph. The grey line is the 6.5D threshold.

If you want, the book is available on Amazon or on more "shady" websites.

If you would like to learn about the science behind cooking and a lot of neat pictures to learn just about everything about cooking I would recommend Modernist Cuisine. You can probably pick up a copy of the whole set for pretty cheap used. It covers pretty much everything you can imagine.

http://modernistcuisine.com/


http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015

Also, I would mention that Modernist Cuisine at Home is an awesome book. It has some awesome recipes and the techniques they use have helped me in other areas of my cooking.

Also, does your husband have a sous vide? If not, I would ABSOLUTELY start with a sous vide. It's not as gimmicky as some of the other molecular gastronomy things and it has so many applications that it will become a staple in his kitchen as it has mine. I personally love the Anova Sous Vide, I have two of them. If you want to find out more about sous vide (used by Heston at Fat Duck and Thomas Keller at the French Laundry) check out /r/sousvide. Lots of great ideas and techniques just in that sub alone. Hit me up if you have any more questions.

Good lord, it sounds like you ought to be reading George R.R. Martin for his description of feasts. I seem to remember a cookbook based on it....

looks...

Oh gee. There's two.

• [A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook]
  (http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Ice-Fire-Official-Companion/dp/0345534492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344353796&sr=8-1&keywords=a+game+of+thrones+cookbook)
  
  
• The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cookbook: From Direwolf Ale to Auroch Stew - More Than 150 Recipes from Westeros and Beyond
  
  And there's apparently more where that came from, for instance:
  
  
• The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook: From Lamb Stew to "Groosling" - More than 150 Recipes Inspired by The Hunger Games Trilogy
  
  And I know I've stumbled across Harry Potter ones.....

This book is pretty entry level as far as actually applying chemistry to food. I wouldn't say the book is stellar, but it does an okay job of explaining some of the chemistry behind cooking without using too much chemistry jargon.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1569767068/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Even it would require some supplemental instruction on some concepts though.

You could go with the Moosewood Cookbook (which is mostly veg). here's the wiki page on it.

Other than that, he needs to learn technique, like shinerhead said. A pan seared chicken breast served over a salad doesn't sound hard, but making it taste good does. he'll have to learn about nutrition too. Maybe you could get him Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking too. Along with Alton Brown, it's gotten me the most interested in food.

> They too have the fresh cut fries. Delicious, delicious heart attack bait right there.

Well, if Alton Brown is to be believed, those kind of fries are actually healthier than mainstream, McFried fare. Properly cooked, thick cut fries, absorb less cooking oil per ounce than the slim ones do. (Especially if the oil pull out is timed correctly, which is more likely at a mom & pop or small chain than the conglomerated, undertraining places most people eat fried food at any more...)

This is how I did it a few years ago.

Read alton brown's book, I'm just here for the food

http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830

Which will teach you the basics and what you're trying to accomplish by using different cooking methods. It greatly increased my confidence in the kitchen. Also check out his good eats series.

Also I think a decent meat thermometer
Is a great purchase as it takes the guess work out of when meat is done cooking, is supremely useful for beginners, and something you'll be able to use forever.


http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/

The thermapen is the one I got but expensive but worth it.

Subscribe to a bunch of cooking subreddits.

And I'm gonna suggest something different now instead of buying a set list of things you need to cook anything.

Instead, I suggest finding something you really enjoy eating like something you're an expert on eating at restaurants, I chose burgers, you can do pizza, or spaghetti, hot wings whatever. Then go on seriouseats.com and find the appropriate recipe. Idea is to choose something you have an idea of how it's supposed to taste and like enough to cook a few different versions of. Then you buy the few things you need to cook that thing. A cast iron pot, a metal spatula whatever. And you learn how to do things/buy equipment as needed for various recipes related to it. For example you may learn how to sautée and Carmelize onions for a burger recipe.

Cook with someone else, it's way more fun, is a great date idea, doesn't matter if it's the blind leading the blind or someone that you can learn a lot from. It'll make you more comfortable in the kitchen.

Finally, you'll have to pay your dues for a little bit, I used to hate cooking, everything takes way longer then it should, you make a big mess, things don't work out like you planned, but pretty soon you make things that turn out great every once in a while. You still mess up occasionally, but you'll start learning why things don't turn out well and you'll start being able to save things if you make a mistake. Now that I'm pretty good at it I sort of enjoy it.

Probably the cheapest and healthiest cooking is a high heat saute of vegetables and a protein. Buy a Lodge 10-12" cast iron pan, a sharp knife and cutting board, and a good cooking oil and you will be good to go.

Cut up most veggies into small bite sized bits and toss in a pre-heated pan with less than a Tbs of oil. Make sure to season with a bit of iodized salt and don't stir too often.

But yeah, like /u/Khatib said, check out Alton Brown's book I'm Just Here for the Food. It will explain the techniques of cooking with heat. Master the Saute and you are all set!

Alton Brown: I'm Just Here for the Food. I read it cover to cover like I would any other book.
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830
I've got a copy of the Larousse Gastronomique, it's amazing.

Probably this

Gonna hijack a top comment here to give a plug for one of the most useful books I've ever owned, Gear For Your Kitchen. When I moved into my first real home after college and decided to make my kitchen a priority, Alton's book helped me to choose what kitchen tools to focus on and what to skimp on or what to avoid entirely.

Alton Brown has a rule - no uni-taskers!

His book on kitchen utensils fucking rocks!
http://www.amazon.com/Alton-Browns-Gear-Your-Kitchen/dp/1584796960

I fell in love with his cooking show after borrowing this book from a friend. Good stuff!

>Dude here.

Ditto.

> bride multitasking her way to a mental breakdown and groom just trying not to get yelled at.

Bingo.

>we are there to not fuck things up.

At first I was told my responsibility was to show up (mostly) sober and dressed.

> I'd wager he wants to be more involved too but doesn't know how.

See: and groom just trying not to get yelled at.

I like the idea of the weekly meeting, but getting closer I think that time frame would probably have to be shortened a bit. I know it was hard for her to get me involved, but like you suggest she found the things I was comfortable with and put those with me. Thankfully it wasn't anything I could really screw up either.

It started with something very basic: stuffing and sealing the various envelopes. From there she added picking up specific items from certain stores (texted to me so I could check numbers and such). I am at the point of building/painting pieces needed for the reception, printing stuff, and even helping to register (partial thanks to Alton).

It's all stuff that I am more than capable of dealing with on my own, but when you add in the complications of budgets and schedules and all that other stuff (like making sure she is happy) it can be overwhelming at times.

>I'd go Death on the Nile

Second, but just because I like the style.

I am a professional chef and while watching people prepare food is entertaining and sometimes also educating I actually recommend you to buy books and learn the basics first.

You can then use youtube pretty well in order to watch how to do specific things, like i.e. deboning a whole chicken for a gallantine, or how to trim certain pieces of meat.

Start with french cuisine. Once you have understood how things are connected you'll actually understand everything else.

If you want something simple and entertaining for the start I'd choose Anthony Bourdaine's Les Halles Cookbook. It's amusingly written and the recipes are fairly easy and they are all legit.

Then there is Paul Bocus. Living legend with three long-term girlfriends.

And of course you want to have Escoffier at your home. Doesn't get much more classic than that.

If you want to get a sense of what drives a top notch chef, watch In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumethal. Very very good stuff.

And finally, if you want to learn something about culinary history I highly highly recommend Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and to learn about our lifes as a chef you need to read the (admittedly exaggerated) autobiographicly Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain.

All this provided, you won't learn cooking without actually doing it.

Edit: Depending on your budget, I also heavily recommend Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine.

On Food and Cooking by McGee is the standard and was one of the earliest cookbooks to apply science to cooking. The latest version is excellent. It reads at times like a textbook but I swear that I've learned something useful from every single chapter in that book. I mostly use this as a reference now but well worth skimming if you enjoy science + cooking.

Second the nomination of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

Good Eats fans with an interest in the science might like Shirley O. Corriher's Cookwise, The Secrets of Cooking Revealed. She was The Science Lady on the Good Eats show.

I have it! I have not tried any of the recipes yet, but I'd say there is a good variation of easy and difficult recipes. I also like that they include modern versions of each recipe in the book, you know, in case you can't find any fresh snake for dinner. A few really tasty looking bread recipes as well. The Unofficial Cookbook also has a lot of Mead and Beer recipes, so I might have to pick that one up as well.

Couple of books that I found interesting and informative...

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393329429/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_nfpIAbT1ETDMW



Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1569767068/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FgpIAbWYYMYXZ

This book would combine my to favorite hobbies, science & cooking. I think having a better understanding of the reactions that go on would help me be a more intuitive cook and baker. Plus it just sounds so darn interesting! haha

I'm mostly a baker although I do like to cook. Baking came naturally to me as I just understood the ratios of ingredients better. I'd like to learn more about cooking though so I can improve my skills haha.

What are some of your hobbies?

I'm reading this currently and I think it's quite good. A little disorganized, and he takes the chemistry pretty slowly (which is good and bad) but overall I think it's worth checking out.

Moosewood Cookbook

Check out your library or more nefarious channels to get a copy of Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook. Not all is vegan, but vegetarian.
Her recipes are fantastic and stress fresh ingredients.

I like Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For the Food.

I realize that this doesn't exactly answer your question, but rather than focus on specific recipes, I would suggest that you learn all you can about the various cooking methods. Alton Brown does a nice job disucssing this in his first book, I'm Just Here for the Food. It's a fairly easy read for the basic cook. When you have an understanding of the science behind cooking, or why different foods react the way they do to different cooking methods, you've given your cooking skills a tremendous boost. Other resources I highly recommend are the publications of Cooks Illustrated and anything by Harold McGee.

DM me your mailing address. I’ll send you the cookbook that got me into cooking. https://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830
It’s the “why” not just the “do”. Once you understand, you can start to create/experiment.

Alton Brown changed my life.

I'm Just Here for the Food. Between that and The Bread Baker's Apprentice I can pretend to be a pretty decent cook.

Thanks to /u/compto35 for the link!

No, but Food + Heat = Cooking is Alton's book. It's basically the show in book form and exactly like what OP is looking for.

There is a subreddit /r/fitmeals that has lots of recipes already. I've subscribed to get ideas and recipes from there.

As for leftover veggies, I make stir-fry and risotto with them. There are lots of base recipes out there that show you the basics of making these dishes that you can build upon and add other ingredients to customize.

Oh and I also like the book by Alton Brown, 'I'm just here for the Food: Heat + Food = Cooking.' it really walks you through basics of creating meals.

What you should really do is get comfortable with the basics. How to properly season a piece of beef or fish, and how to actually cook it well.

Do this by trying things out - get a sense of how the meat should look / feel when it's time to flip it, rotate it, let it rest, etc.... Once you have that down, it's just fun to experiment with new things.

This book was actually really interesting, if for no other reason than Alton Brown is informative. Best of luck to you.

Alton Brown has a book called "gear for your kitchen" that is packed full of practical advice for selecting appropriate tools for a kitchen - I personally think it's a great resource. You can probably find it at your local library, or here's an amazon link.

My wife picked it up as a gift for me a few years ago and I read it cover to cover. I still pull it out when I'm in the market for a new device because he goes over what features are desirable/worth paying for and what features are shiny gimmicks.

And I forgot roasting pan. That's another one I use a lot, and you can find them cheap at restaurant-supply stores. And a steamer insert for your stockpot, if you like steamed veggies.

And I should add all I learned about kitchen gear, I learned from Alton Brown. His book, Gear for your Kitchen is awesome - it runs through all of the major things you might want, for all tasks from cooking, to baking, to small appliances. He believes in using cheap alternatives to pricey stuff (like using a block of a certain kind of tile from a home store as opposed to an expensive pizza stone).

I would recommend Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen. He's a huge fan of multitasking kitchen instruments and he really goes through what you need and what you don't. Probably not "minimalist" standards by any means, but it might help you.

Our family does a white elephant exchange where none of the gifts are allowed to be purchased (must find stuff lying around in your house). This year I ended up with a bunch of wire hangars. My husband? Signed copy of "Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen". The giver said, "I found this in a dumpster, saw it was in good condition, but I didn't know who Alton Brown was."

Seriously? Fuck ramen.

Learning how to cook will serve you well for the rest of your life. Better nutrition, less money, better taste, and everybody loves good food.

Get a copy of The Joy of Cooking for a compendium of awesome and some Alton, Brown, Books, to learn what equipment you need and how to cook.

(Commas to annoy Nazi's and show there are multiple links)

I'm cooking my way through The Complete Bocuse.

Larousse Gastronomique

Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Julia Child

Paul Bocuse:The Complete Recipies

Definitely. If you are interested in the science of cooking:

• McGee, On Food and Cooking
  
• Lopez-Alt, The Food Lab

I agree with JoC and would go further to recommend haunting used book stores and estate sales to find an edition from the late 40s and early 50s - much more technique, no prepared foods, and less hardware.

Also On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen-ebook/dp/B000PAAH1W/ref=pd_sim_351_3/147-8869483-3702847?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000PAAH1W&pd_rd_r=2daf29d1-5605-11e9-a162-3f617eb13ec8&pd_rd_w=4kHF0&pd_rd_wg=W6Our&pf_rd_p=90485860-83e9-4fd9-b838-b28a9b7fda30&pf_rd_r=V2VT6H04D5VJAJXTNWFJ&psc=1&refRID=V2VT6H04D5VJAJXTNWFJ

As many people have observed, there's a lot of science in cooking. If you really want to understand it, though, I suggest Harold McGee's master tome: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. If you think Alton Brown is a nerd, or even more Shirley Corriher, then you'll love Harold McGee. He's the god of food science.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498103306&sr=8-1&keywords=kenji+lopez

https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498103333&sr=8-1&keywords=flavor+bible

And this is a good primer for traditional French techniques, which most kitchens use extensively

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Set/dp/0307593525/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1498103367&sr=8-2&keywords=french+cooking

(but ALWAYS defer to the Food Lab, they use science)

https://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Version/dp/158479559X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1498103412&sr=8-4&keywords=alton+brown

If you go through these four books, then you'll be pretty set in basic knowledge.

You can buy the Kindle version from Amazon for about $15. If you've got time to wait for a physical book to arrive, don't order this version: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Set/dp/0307593525/ref=la_B000AQ0XXS_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417219641&sr=1-1

because the book and the print are small and it is impossible to keep the book open.

I suggest this version:http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Anniversary/dp/0375413405/ref=la_B000AQ0XXS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417219641&sr=1-2

which is much larger and easier to read. In fact, the 'look inside this book' feature at Amazon lets you see most of the cassoulet recipe.
Just click 'look inside' then search for cassoulet.

Every kitchen needs a copy. Buy the two-volume version. You will learn to be a much better cook! Suggest it as gift if someone asks what you'd like. Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Set/dp/0307593525/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1506372021&sr=8-2&keywords=mastering+the+art+of+french+cooking

The book is intense, I would definitely recommend getting the two volume addition: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Volume/dp/0307593525/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346545498&sr=8-2&keywords=the+art+of+french+cooking

In the second volume, the Potage, Creme D'Asperges Vertes (Cream of French Green Asparagus Soup) is absolutely amazing.

Weber's Way to Grill is an excellent book in my opinion. It explains all of the basics and did a pretty good job teaching me. I still have plenty to learn, but this was a great start.

Weber's Way to Grill is an excellent cookbook for beginning grillers. I refer back to it for temps and recipes all the time. Great book, even if you don't use a Weber grill.

Highly recommend these two books:

How to Grill

Weber's Way to Grill

I would definitely recommend getting Professional Cooking or The Professional Chef, then. Either of them will give you the solid foundation you're looking for.

Most anything coming from the Culinary Institute of America is trustworthy, as is Alton Brown and Julia Child. America's Test Kitchen (and Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country Magazines) is fantastic... they do a lot of recipe and product testing, which saves you the effort, energy & resources. They give you a recipe, but also go into a bit about WHY it worked.

Bittman's How to Cook Everything Fast is my new bible: http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Fast-Better/dp/0470936304

Serious Eats mentioned elsewhere here is also reliably great, especially The Food Lab. But I don't have the patience to cook a lot of the recipes. If you're like me, ditto the advice to cook big for a week. I'd add in crockpot recipes too.

Random other things that have helped me:

• Get prewashed and pre-sliced veggies and other things so you can skip a step or two
  
• Learn what can be prepped and saved ahead of time (like single serving rice in the freezer - and I say this as someone who is Asian and has a $300 rice cooker)
  
• Go all out on a collection of sauces and spices. They can make it easy to cook (sometimes just slather a sauce all over a piece of meat and cook it kind of easy) or they can make it easy to enhance a food without sacrificing healthiness. Also drastically lets me cut down on salt, which isn't great for you in excess. (Unfortunately I find it hard to go out and eat because so much is oversalted to my taste...)
  
• Keep some basics at hand all the time. My husband really likes to have sandwich fixings around for when it's 2pm and he forgot to eat lunch. My idea of basics is things like curry paste and coconut milk and bamboo shoots + leftover meat for a quick curry (and rice from the freezer ;) ) Bittman can help you with this at the beginning of the book I linked (and I think he also has a "cooking for beginners" type book as well in the How to Cook... series)
  
• Keep things simple and expand on the basics. One of my favorite meals is a cheese or chicken/bacon/leftover meat quesadilla, and a small side salad. Takes 5 minutes tops to assemble. I used the same technique to use leftover shredded pork Chinese delivery for moo shu pork with my own hoisin (remember the sauces?) and the fresh tortillas I had in my fridge. Then a breakfast burrito in the morning!
  
• Soup is a great way to get rid of leftovers.
  
• Smoothies are a great way to eat veggies. Blend in some spinach+kale with "strong" flavored fruits like frozen berries, mmmm! Don't forget to toss in some nut butter too :)
  
• In case you forget to eat altogether - my "secret" is Ensure. On-the-go drinks are super convenient and at least stop me from snacking endlessly until the next meal.

Recommended Reading. The recipes can be hit or miss, but there are some real gems. Most require very few pots and pans (skip anything that requires a breading station, never worth it). For cheap avoid the ones that require Kombu, Bonito Flakes, Crab, and Scallops and you should be good. The soups, salads, and americanized ethnic food are where it shines.

The Way to Cook - Julia Child

The one book that has changed my cooking game was The Way to Cook by Julia Child. It’s not the cheapest book, but can be gotten for $12 used it looks like.

I grew up with Mexican/Spanish cuisine being my forté. And I get Thai influence from my wife. But the fundamentals and education in that book are universally applicable. The great thing is that if I want a spin on one of Julia’s recipes, I can google it and a dozen people have made variations of each recipe due to her influence in the cooking world.

Serious Eats is a wonderful website for getting the why behind the how in cooking as well.

I wish you all the best!

just feel like this is the right time to plug my favorite book, "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the kitchen" by Harold McGee.
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465150176&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking

it'll change how you see the world of food.

Just FYI, you only need this much of any amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Or read this book. Amazing science up in here.

And also get and read this book,

On Food and Cooking: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0684800012

You'll see Alton Brown occasionally holding this book during his shows. It is NOT a cookbook, it is a manual on WHY cooking does what it does.

Instincts are developed by time in the kitchen.

Also, if the stock you're making is hot enough to boil, it's too hot, especially if it's a meat based stock. Once you get the bones above a certain temp, the pores in the bones close up and effective flavor extraction ends. That's why you slowly bring it to a boil, then lightly simmer while skimming.

You need to do some research. I suggest watching every episode of Good Eats, with Alton Brown, that you can. It's corny, but it's a great primer on the basics of a hugely wide variety of foods, food science, techniques, and cuisines over 14 seasons of the show.

Additionally, if you are inclined towards the technical side of things, On Food and Cooking; The Science and Lore of the Kitchen is a fantastic reference manual.

its NOT subjective. it is a finer piece of meat... you just cook it to a degree where your average supermarket grade steak tastes the same as an expensive well aged cut. temperature and chemical change... aka science.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311274459&sr=1-1

the above book is essentially the textbook for all chefs enrolled in culinary school.

I recently read Heat by Bill Buford--absolutely awesome, couldn't put it down. Also, this is actually on my to-read list but On Food and Cooking is supposed to be really very informative.

The recipe is from How to Cook Everything. It makes about one cup of sauce:

Put three egg yolks, two tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt in a
small saucepan over very low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until
light, foamy and slightly thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. (If at any point
the yolks begin to curdle, immediately remove from the heat and
continue to whisk for a minute before returning the pan to the stove).

Remove from the heat and stir in 6 tablespoons of not too cold butter, one tablespoon at a time. Return to the heat and continue to whisk until the sauce is thick and bright yellow. Whisk in lemon juice to taste. Some like to add a bit of cayenne too.

Egg begins to curdle around 70°C / 160°F, so you must stay below this temperature — just slightly too hot to touch. This presents a potential problem: salmonella bacteria can survive a while at 70°C. If you don't want to risk it, On Food and Cooking claims that you can increase the curdling temperature to up to 90°C / 195°F by adding the acid (lemon) before heating. I haven't tried this.

Or, just get salmonella-free eggs.

The sauce isn't technically paleo because it contains dairy, but I think most of you are OK with butter.

If this kind of stuff really interests you, you should read On Food And Cooking by Harold McGee. Amazing book about the history and scientific principals that drive modern cooking.

If you like to learn about the science behind your food, I strongly recommend On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

It's like an encyclopedia full of fascinating facts about food or cooking techniques, and it even manages to be a good read as well.

I think it's that they've got fancy machines to completely dry and pasteurize it.

I don't think it's preservatives, as an example, golden grains website says their ingredients are:
>DURUM SEMOLINA, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE (IRON), THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID.

I'm pretty sure the iron and B vitamins are there as nutritional fortification, not as preservatives.

this guy has a bunch to say about it, including:
>Commercial durum pasta is put through a more rigorous process of rapid, high-temperature pre-drying, followed by extended drying and resting steps. As Harold McGee explains in On Food and Cooking, the high-temperature method prevents discoloration and “cross-links some of the gluten protein and produces a firmer, less sticky cooked noodle.”

I've got that McGee book but I'm too lazy to go get it and find/read that chapter at the moment - I might later though, since now you've got me wondering about it too,

Harold McGee has you covered.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

Best of luck.

Don't forget to get your copy of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking.

The heat and movement of air will remove far more moisture than is created by combustion.

More humid air, which moves, will remove more moisture from a surface than dry, still air. It is the venting specifically which causes this increased air movement, and thus the removal of more moisture from the surface of the food.

My main source for all cooking related science is On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, which is about the science behind all the chemical reactions behind cooking, the biochemical makeup of foods, and chemically speaking why the procedures we follow in cooking work the way they do. It also covers quite a bit of culinary history.

The Flavor Bible is a good one, but you might also want to check out Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking. It's pretty much the food science bible.

Are you talking aboutOn Food and Cooking?Also a great book!

if you (or anyone) would like to know more, best book ever: http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

edit: for instance (I think this link will work), http://books.google.com/books?id=bKVCtH4AjwgC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA148#v=onepage

• nap cuddle blanket
  
  
• Fenix Flashlight
  
  
• On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

Jaques Pépin's Complete Techniques

and On Food and Cooking (not really a cookbook, but I think it's the most important book for anyone who is serious about food)

You'd be surprised; milk is exceedingly resilient to heat. You can literally cook all the water out of it without the proteins denaturing.

At higher heats it becomes easier for the milk to spoil, but there still generally needs to be an acid.

If you're interested in food science at all.

ya, they only talk about proteins in that the capsaicin bonds to the specific protein TRPV1 that makes your neurons sense spicy or hot; now tasty is another thing entirely :)



Harold McGee writes some cool shit on food science. It's how I learned to cook in the first place. Here's my favorite.

Gotta go with On Food and Cooking by McGee.

>Still no progress. Am leaving either tomorrow or Thursday for the Carolinas on a documentation trip. Hopefully I can get an interview up there while I'm out. I probably won't. Also, I told off a company for writing me off prematurely.

good luck!

>Pursuant to 1, obviously going nowhere. That said, I've done more travel this year than I have since 2003.

I live with my aunt and uncle. Living at home is pretty much normal for kids our age. Out of my 5 closest friends, only 2 live on their own. One is in Iraq the other is in Med School.

>3 Start paying off my massive debts.

I hear you there. Good luck I hope your father's cancer goes into remission. My dad died of a stroke in 2003. A parent's death is never ever good for mental health/financial stability.

>I'm down to 194.2 naked from a max at 252. I'm also just back from a 6 mile walk, which is what I'm up to now each day.

Keep up the good fucking work. I went from 230-169 over two years. Most of it was not eating so much. The last 20lbs was from dedicated exercise. You can do it if I can. Its all about willpower. I used Sparkpeople.com to track my calories. You really don't need as much food as you think you do. Swimming is the best exercise for sculpting body muscles and losing weight fast.

>5 Learn to cook.
Get On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of Food Its an entertaining read which allows you to understand the foundation of cooking so you can wing your own recipes based on your knowledge of the underlying chemistry.

you might enjoy investing in this book

This is a great place to start:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0684800012/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510944820&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=mcgee+on+food+and+cooking&dpPl=1&dpID=51qudKbLmaL&ref=plSrch

This is a great book on the science of cooking/baking: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0684800012/ref=aw_d_dsc_books

Sry...don't find a lot of time to post. And as far as finding ur post... I went looking for it. I cook a lot of proteins and I wanted to see what reddit had to say about chicken breast. It can be very unforgiving, but when done correctly it is an amazing meat. NOW, to address you concerns about nutrition. Yes, brining does increase the sodium level a bit, but lets face it, chicken needs a little help and when you brine its just les salt you will need to add when you season. If you have high blood pressure you may want to watch you sodium intake. Here is a site that attemps to tackel the "how much sodium does a brine add?" Question ( http://www.salon.com/2010/03/23/brining_meats_sodium_add_calculation/) . As far as brining subtracting any nutritional value; I would say, no, it does not measurably reduce nutrition. In my opinion overall; brining a chicken breast as part of my meal is far more delicious and healthy than ordering fast food (and less sodium). If creating a chicken breast meal that makes you want to continue cooking keeps you from ordering take out its a win. As far as my experience... I am just a home cook that grew up in a home that didnt know how to cook. At some point a the family of one of my friends started inviting me to dine with them at some very expensive restaurants. IT BLEW MY MIND!... I had no idea food could be that good. From that point on I made my mission to give food the respect it deserves. I read took the scientific approach, ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0684800012/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/189-1398983-1145564) read the cooking bible over and over and watch guys like alton brown ( http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KKr1rByVVCI).

For Italian food, I would recommend The Silver Spoon, it is by far one of the best cookbooks around.

Id try this, which I personally like a lot.

In general, I feel that cook books that explain why they do stuff and what are the essential ingredients to a dish and what is optional ("this dish needs the butter or it won't be smooth, but you can change the seasoning") good for learning how to cook.

For essential skills such as knife grips, how to prepare ingredients, and such, that is easier to learn from someone who knows how to do it. Reading about it isnt quite the same thing.

One of the better video blogs out there, IMO, is Foodwishes, check it out on youtube. He explains very well how you can make the food you want with the ingredients you want.

What you need to do is two things: First, in all major cities in Germany you can get vegetables delivered weekly directly from a farmer to your home. You pay a set amount of money every week and they send you whatever just finished growing. This way you cook with seasonal goods and you start to eat stuff you wouldn´t normally buy. Second, because you need to know how to cook with vegetables you have never heard of, get this cookbook: Silver Spoon. Its a traditional italian cookbook that covers even the most basic recipes and, more importantly, is sorted by ingredients. Combine both and you will expand your culinary horizon in no time...

My current favourite is quiche in every way imaginable. Start with this:

Get some puff pastry - "Blätterteig" (frozen or refrigerated) and cover the inside of an oven-proof casserole or cake pan. If you got some "Blätterteig" left after that, dont worry, you can use it later...

Now saute some onions, scallions or leek and some bakon cubes and put them in the casserole.

Beat some eggs (3 to 4), add 250 ml cream and one cup (the one you buy them in, not the measurement) creme fraiche, whip that shit, add salt and pepper and some ground nutmeg if you have and pour everything in the casserole.

Now scrape some cheese (Gruyere works best for me) over the casserole and put it in the oven at 180 C until the cheese looks yummy. Let it set and cool for a bit and eat, works best with salad.

In the end it should look something like this

As someone with too many cookbooks for her own good, here are some of my favorites.

I am not a vegetarian, but Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is the book that made me love vegetables. She doesn't approach vegetarian cooking in the way lots of people do, where you just substitute or omit meat from a dish, but creates recipes that center around and bring out the best from vegetables.

Gourmet Today is a huge book culled from the now-defunct Gourmet magazine. It's a good all-around resource with (as the title implies) a modern American bent to its recipes.

Steven Raichlen's How to Grill transformed me from a charcoal-shy indoors-only kind of cook into an aspiring grillmaster last summer. He lays the basics out in a very straightforward manner with lots of pictures and excellent recipes. It includes the basics of smoking as well.

I like reading cookbooks that blend recipes with a broader scope of information related to them, so I enjoy anything by Jennifer McLagan (I started with Odd Bits). She writes about ingredients that are less typical or even looked down upon, making the case that these are overlooked culinary treasures. Her chapter introductions include tidbits like history, cultural impact, and science behind the ingredients. The recipes are great but tend to be highly-involved.

For specific cuisines, a couple of my favorites are Bill Neal's Southern Cooking (the recipe for Shrimp & Grits is mind-blowingly good), The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, and Madame Wong's Long-Life Chinese Cookbook.

TL;DR: the first three are what I'd consider must-haves, the remainder are interesting and might broaden your culinary horizons.

Zo te zien is De Dikke Vegetariër de vertaling van het boek How to Cook Everything Vegatarian. DDV is wel nog de eerste druk, het gelinkte boek (ook op Bol te koop) is de nieuwe versie. Als je kijkt naar de "100 Essential Recipes" achterin bij de index lijkt 50%+ ook wel vegan, en de reviews laten het klinken alsof bij de gene die niet vegan zijn er staat hoe je ze makkelijk vegan kan maken.

Mocht de andere commenter niet meer reageren over DDV, dit is de productpagina van de 1e druk op Amazon (en dus het origineel van de DDV). Helaas geen inkijkexamplaar, maar misschien heb je wat aan de recensies.

It's the prefabbed meat substitute and fermented nut cheese section of the store that is too expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836

https://www.amazon.com/BOSH-Recipes-Amazing-Plants-highest-selling-ebook/dp/B0722J1XDB

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Vengeance-Delicious-Animal-Free-Recipes/dp/1569243581

Not all of these are student friendly - but there are plenty that are and plenty others that can be adapted simply.

http://smittenkitchen.com/recipes/#Vegetarian

http://smittenkitchen.com/recipes/#Vegan

Also, if you can't find a number of staples in this book then I couldn't help you:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836

Leek and potato soup. Rice pilaf. Veggie chili. Seriously, there's a whole world of possibilities. I recommend getting How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and going to town.

I am going to suggest this book (AKA the book that for me started it all). It's an older book, but still pretty good.

Also you can go poking around and find cookbooks (there is a good sized vegetarian cookbook section at my local used bookstore... so many cookbooks) including some more basic ones. Though I have to suggest this one it was a Christmas gift from my sister, and it goes through not just recipes but techniques and the like.

As a meat eater who only wanted to add more diversity in vegetables to his diet I'm going to recommend a book. It is seriously one of the best books I've ever bought. I'm not giving up meat, but this is bar none one of the best vegetarian recipe books I've ever found for simplicity and not being preachy.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483379943&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+cook+everything+vegetarian

Don't discount your problem, it's a big one. We can't survive as vegetarians/vegans if we're unhappy. I can tell you for certain though the longer you are a vegetarian the less you crave meat. I've been vegetarian for 10 years, and have absolutely no interest in meat anymore. Here's my suggestion, don't go cold tofurkey (see what I did there?) Try to cut a different meat out of your diet every two weeks or even every month. As you do that, also try to slowly phase non-meat dishes into your diet. I think you'll find that by taking it step by step it isn't as hard as you'd expect.

Moving onto the cooking part of your question, I recommend just giving it a try. There are few better feelings than eating a meal that you cooked. You savor the flavors that much more because you cooked it. Again, it will be tough at first, but if you can trust me, cooking can quickly become a fulfilling part of your life. You can also transition into this as you transition out of meat. Instead of immediately jumping to cooking every night, you can cook maybe once a week. If you for instance choose to cut chicken out of your diet first, eat with your parents unless they're eating chicken and on that night prepare something yourself. There are a ton of good cookbooks that teach you some basic skills instead of just telling you recipies. Others on here can suggest some, but my personal recommendation is How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

In short, I know it's tough. Don't discredit how tough it will be. However, I have faith that with a bit of time and a bit of work you'll be so very happy you made the leap.

Not sure I follow your math there ... but sure! Unfortunately a lot of our recipes are in books, not online. Lots of time checking the clearance section in bookstores. If you're looking to buy a book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is a great place to start, especially if you're not an avid cook already.

But there are a few online, so here goes!

• This week we're trying kimchi burritos. Look very promising, though I acknowledge that kimchi is a polarizing ingredient.
  
• Poblano and mushroom tacos.
  
• Shakshuka. SO GOOD!
  
• Fennel chickpea couscous.
  
• Chipotle pesto.

To save money on food you need to:

• Plan your meals in advance, perhaps a week at a time but at least a few days in advance. This not only avoids impulse buys but also allows you to make the most of the food you have bought for example - day 1 roast chicken for dinner (maybe to share with a date?), day 2 chicken sandwiches for lunch, chicken pot pie for dinner, day 3 chicken soup for lunch, chicken risotto for dinner, day 4 left over chicken soup for lunch. A whole chicken used properly is so much cheaper than chicken breasts. Take at look at The Kitchen Revolution, this is the website for a book which very elegantly deals with weekly food planning.
  
  
• Eat seasonally - fresh tomatoes are ridiculous cheap in the summer, silly in the winter. You can usually tell what is in season because it is cheap!
  
  
• Eat mostly vegetarian, using meat as a flavour enhancer rather than the main item on the plate. In my chicken dinner example, although the chicken would be the main item for the first couple of meals, by the time you are getting your last few meals out of it, you will be adding a small portion of meat to enhance your risotto or soup. Other wise beans are the thing. See Mark Bittman's excellent How to Cook Everything Vegetarian for really simple yet delicious guide to well almost everything you could want to eat (except meat), it has a particularly good chapter on legumes including lentils. He has a very relaxed style of writing which I think is very easy to follow.
  
  Good luck!

It's not that hard if you're not one of these reddit hivemind 'bacon is teh sex' type of people. Just be open minded. Be willing to try new foods that you've never heard of (e.g. tempeh).

I've been sort of vegetarian for 4 years, I guess. Since I am doing it for health reasons, I am willing to eat meat when I feel like it. I'll eat a delicious piece of meat if it is a special occasion. Fish more often than anything else, but definitely minimal red meat (once every 4-6mo maybe).

In terms of diet, research the nutrients that you need. A full amino acid protein profile takes thought (rice+beans, soybeans are the only vegetarian source with all the necessary AA) and this is especially important if you lift weights (I usually overload on skim milk). Maybe talk to a nutritionist if you worry about these things, but you will pick it up with time. Do not eat too many processed foods in an attempt to maintain your vegetarianism.

One big pro for me: it forces me to work on my cooking skills. It is easy to prepare meat to be pretty good. It takes a bit more thought for me to make a delicious vegetarian meal.

This cookbook is good. So is this one.

> Fast-Braised Tofu with Tempeh
http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374357118&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+cook+everything+vegetarian

Page 651 with the "look inside" feature.

So I just got done with a 4.25 mile run (35 minutes 4 seconds so I'm not exactly the Flash yet) and I became a vegetarian back in March, so I'm still relatively new to it, not exactly a distance runner but I regularly put in over 12 miles a week.

First: This is a very good book http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836

Second: The biggest thing you'll realize about being a vegetarian is that after you're done eating, you don't feel bloated or weighed down like you normally would after eating an enormous steak or something like that. Obviously this helps with running (like in the morning if you just eat some cereal with milk, a banana and some juice)

Third: People say eat a lot of nuts and peanuts. I can't do that or I will die (allergies), so I eat a lot of soy, eggs, eggplant, mushrooms, stuff like that.

Fourth: I really hate diet supplement stuff for workouts but I buy like four protein shakes a week from Ensure to offset what I might not get from meat. I get the Ensure ones instead of something like "MUSCLE MILK" because I'm not some juicehead muscle dude.

Fifth: Whenever possible, go whole grain/whole wheat when eating pasta/bread. There's a really good vegetarian/vegan-friendly pizza place near me that offers a lot of whole wheat stuff, so I always get whole wheat pizza crust. So good.

A lot of the time, people ask why I became a vegetarian. Really, the answer is "I felt like it." It started as a challenge (can I go the whole month of April without eating meat? Yes, I could, so now why should I stop?) Also I'm 6'4"~6'5" and about 200 lbs and I'd like to get down to 190 lbs or ideally 180, hence all the running.

TL;DR - sorry but there is no TL;DR, you have to read the whole thing!

Another great cookbook is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and all its variations.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0764578650/

You want this.

Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything.

There are better specialty books for specific cuisines and techniques, but I have yet to read anything better than this as a general introductory work on the process of cooking.

Here are the 2 books I cut my teeth on learning how to cook:
The best one for a new cook, cooking for a family would be "Cheap Fast Good" it gives you: Quick meals, healthy meals, bulk cooking (cook the basics like chicken, beef, etc now, freeze in meal portions, and defrost for use in recipes later), grocery shopping tips (if you have to start doing that), and lots of other cool stuff. I really can't more highly recommend another book for a brand new cook who wants simple family friendly but still healthy meals
http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Fast-Good-Beverly-Mills/dp/0761131760/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370293256&sr=1-1&keywords=cheap+fast+food

Once you've got the basics down and you want to start impressing guests and even yourself try getting Mark BIttman's "How to Cook Everything". This is my food bible. I go to it a couple times a week for stuff. It is worth the price http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370293332&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+cook+everything

This book is awesome! How to Cook Everything or anything by Mark Bittman.

My pleasure! Photography is expensive, but cooking is a hobby that's easy to get into in measures. I would recommend How to Cook Everything by Bittman as an excellent, excellent first (or even only) book. Check it out next time you're in a bookstore with a decent cooking section - FYI, the newer red cover is updated and (generally) better than the older yellow cover. It's the sort of book you can spend a little time on a Saturday perusing, make a trip to the grocery store, come home, and try something new. And then leave on your shelf for a few more weeks. But if you keep doing that long enough, you'll get pretty decent at cooking. =)

Not an off gridder, but I've found this cookbook to be very comprehensive and I've been happy with everything I've made from it.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Recipes-Anniversary/dp/0764578650

I have the vegetarian version of this book
and it is absolutely wonderful. It doesn't have a lot of pictures, but many of the recipes are simple and it does a very thorough job of explaining... well... everything about cooking such as what to look for in a knife, how to store vegetables, what to keep in your pantry, how to fold an omelette, etc. It is massive and a bit difficult to work with (since things get a bit messy in the kitchen), but I highly recommend it as a place to start. I also think it is a book that grows with you as your skill grows because while the basic recipes are simple, he also has quite a few variations on things that are more complex.

My husband and I used to eat out a lot too and are just starting to dabble in cooking. It's a fun thing for us to do together.

You may want to try http://foodgawker.com/ or http://www.tastespotting.com/ to get some ideas.

I really like http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ too. It's like the scientific method applied to cooking. :)

A good all purpose cookbook is America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It's relatively cheap, and it has a little bit of everything. There is a lot of information about technique and ingredients, as well as what a well-stocked kitchen should have. Many people recommend How to Cook Everything, but I have never used it, so I can't give an informed opinion.

Mark Bittman wrote some great basic cookbooks with good recipes. But also youtube, cooking channel and watch how they do things. If you follow a recipe in detail, things will usually work out!

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Recipes-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MDHHKXHAQWFZT21RQRTS

Personal bias, but I would pick a good cooking technique or cookbook. For example Complete Techniques is a very good technique book if you don't have it. Otherwise Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything are both good cookbooks to have.

How to cook everything, and Ratio are great first cookbooks, covers equipment, theory, and basic recipes.

Alton Brown's old show Good Eats is decent too if you can handle the grainy video quality of the feeds out there.

Video series or anything? I really learned a ton reading The Professional Chef, which is a textbook in a lot of culinary schools I hear. I have the eTextbook version that has a lot of video links and interactivity.

If you're into the science behind cooking I'd also really recommend The Food Lab, I have the hard back version and it's also just a beautiful book.

I also have Cooking and Sauces by Peterson, also textbook quality books.

And of course, the ever popular Better Homes & Gardens Ring-Bound Cookbook, How to Cook Everything, and The Joy of Cooking are staples on my bookshelf as well. Great for reference or a quick look to find a particular recipe just to see how others do it.

I also browse a lot of websites and watch a lot on YouTube. I'll save recipes I find online using the Evernote Web Clipper and tag them so I can find them easily in the future. This works great because I can pull them up on my iPad while I'm cooking.

When a recipe calls for a method, tool, or ingredient I'm not very familiar with I'll usually just search it on YouTube and get some ideas about how to use it. That's worked really well for me so far.

My fellow Americans and trading partners, I've been cooking for myself for several years. On a tip from the internet (reddit, possibly) I bought a used copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. In the interest of full disclosure I am in no way affiliated with Mark B. although I did like the interview he did on NPR where they asked him about the book then quizzed him on Batman trivia. Solid source for basic cooking. I recommend taking an American staple like pie or fresh steak, then try new things, going from simple to complex. Make mistakes then improvise on what you learn. Latest project: buttered lobster curry over boiled potatoes with pepper. Get at me.

When I moved off-campus back in college, Mom gave me a copy of The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. Covers a lot of basic cooking information; has some decent recipes.

I personally think this is better though.

If you're really on a budget, your local library may have these and more. Allrecipes is a good resource as well.

Bittman is the man when it comes to simplicity. When you're ready, go pick up a copy of How to Cook Everything

And here's his
Roast chicken recipe. I like the version where you roast veggies (carrot, potato, celery, maybe some parsnip) in a 450 ° oven for 15 minutes, then toss chicken parts on top, do 15 minutes more, then baste w/ juices, then 15 minutes more. 10 minutes of chopping and prep and 45 minutes of cooking time = dynamite chicken

This book is a great primer.

Or How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.
It's the most comprehensive book I can think of for anyone just starting out. It's certainly not the most compelling read, but I still go to it for referencing certain techniques I've never tried before. It's should be a cornerstone to the rookie cook's library.

bacon is a good start! this book (and youtube!) taught me how to cook: http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650

This:
http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650

Any Bittman really. Any time I find myself staring at an ingredient, having no idea what to do (eggplant, turnips, even chicken) he gives a great, simple starter recipe. Get creative from there.

Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen is a fantastic second step. Once you are like "okay, I got down roasted veggies," ATK will class it up for you, with some really great explanations of why they chose to do the recipe they did.

Meh. His cooking style is very "American" in a way that I don't always like. It's very meat and potatoes and bland palate. I'm a fan of Mark Bittman and his How to Cook Everything. He teaches the essence of many different cooking styles distilled down to recipes that can be cooked at home.

Alton Brown's cookbooks are quite good, so I'll add my voice to those recommending them.

If you don't need color glossy photos, "The New Best Recipe" from the folks at Cook's Illustrated magazine has great recipes and thorough instructions.

When you someday move beyond the basics, I'd also throw in a plug for Michael Ruhlman's "Ratio" and Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques". Ruhlman's book breaks some recipes (like doughs, batters, and custards) down to their basic components and will help you understand how to modify or even improvise with some kinds of recipes, and Pepin's book has great illustrations that can help get you through some of the techniques mentioned by not described by cookbooks. Pepin's Techniques might even prove useful to you now as a reference, depending on what other cookbooks you're working with.

My favorite cookbook is The New Best Recipe, a compilation of over 1,000 recipes from America's Test Kitchen. I love it because they give in-depth descriptions of all the different things they tried in order to perfect every recipe, and so not only do you get a great recipe but you can learn all about why it is great. Most recipes have one or two additional variations included. They cover different products and techniques, and all sorts of information that is useful for both new and competent cooks. It is so interesting that I sometimes read it just for fun.

The chapters cover everything from appetizers to different types of main courses, but also includes lots of chapters on baked goods -- breads, cookies, cakes, pies, crisps, puddings, and more. I would highly recommend it to anyone, and everything I've made from it so far has been delicious!

I'd recommend the Cook's Illustrated "Best Recipe" book. A few nice features:

• the philosophy of CI strikes me as very reddit-friendly
  
  
• each recipe is prefaced by an article explaining the many dozens of ways they tried to perfect this recipe, typically explaining why steps that seem odd (e.g. combine wet ingredients, then dry, then mix all together? Add lemon to the sauce, then wait?) are actually essential
  
  
• the recipes are all fantastic

I'd get him this one. America's Test Kitchen makes the best cookbook I have ever used.

The New Best Recipe from Cook's Illustrated is positively fantastic. It's my bible for how to cook everything. The biggest thing to me is each recipe has an in-depth explanation for how they came up with the recipe, how they tested it, what works, and why.

This book is fabulous! In it they tell you a couple of methods they tried while making a recipe and why they decided a method worked best. This is the goto book I would purchase for anyone beginning to cook or looking to improve their cooking. Feel free to msg me if you want further details about the book. https://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744

I highly recommend any cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. They also have a segment on NPR & PBS.

Any of the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks are fantastic for people learning how to cook. My boyfriend, like you, was a sandwich-pasta-burrito guy before these cookbooks. Now he can turn out a mean baked ziti and a pan of brownies :)

They've tested recipes extensively to find the easiest ways to create the most delicious, flavorful, fail-free versions of favorite foods. For each recipe, they describe the most common pitfalls of a recipe and how they avoid them, provide helpful illustrations, and make suggestions for the best cookware and ingredients to purchase (if you don't already have them). They most often do not recommend the most expensive option ;)

I recommend the Skillet cookbook and the New Best Recipe for starters.

There is a cookbook called The New Best Recipe that has lots of amazing recipes. Also, they tell you all the different versions of each recipe they tried and why their certain recipe works best.

I highly recommend "The New Best Recipe". It applies a laboratory method to cooking and, backed by America's Test Kitchen, they almost always vet their recipes thoroughly. It's also fun to read when you're not cooking, so that's a major plus.

But to get the best grip on everything, try "Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking".

These two tomes will have you a pro about the kitchen in no time.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0936184744/

The New Best Recipe is one I don't see recommended as often, but explains the process they went through to get the recipe they ended up with. Everything I've made from it has been delicious, and it explains things very clearly.

Sure, no problem! Here are some of my favorite resources.

The web site SeriousEats.com has a lot of good posts. Specifically, I like this guy's work. He puts in the research to really refine techniques. Some of this is cooking is "elaborate," but not overly so:
http://www.seriouseats.com/user/profile/Goodeaterkenji

And, he has a really good cook book:
http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab

https://www.chefsteps.com/ is amazing. You want elaborate? This is the place. there's even a term for it: modernist cuisine. These guys have a lot of free content, but there's also a premium membership (one time purchase) which gets you access to a vast amount of videos, with more being made all the time.

Here is a related cookbook, which is stellar:
http://modernistcuisine.com/books/modernist-cuisine-at-home/

The above book is the "at home" version. This is the FULL version, including recipes that require lab equipment like centrifuges! You want elaborate? This is the pinnacle of elaborate cooking. Yes, it is like $500!
https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Into BBQ or grilling? Meathead's your man and his site is full of no-BS guides. He also has a cookbook but just the site will keep you busy for a long time:
http://amazingribs.com/

If you want to get started in fancier cooking I strongly recommend getting a sous vide apparatus, such as this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Sansaire-Sous-Immersion-Circulator-Black/dp/B00KSFAB74

Sous vide is an entirely new (to you!) way to cook and you can do things with it that are not possible in other ways. All of the "modernist" cooking guides out there use it heavily. There are many options for the hardware at all price points... Anova gear sometimes goes on sale for $100-150.

Here's a specific easy modernist recipe you can try. It benefits from, but does not require, a sous vide machine... they tell you how to make do without one. If you think this looks fun, ChefSteps will be your new addiction.

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-salmon--2

Over $400 on Amazon

It might not sound like it makes sense what BaconGiveMeALardon said, but it's true. If you can get your hands on Modernist Cuisine then you can read more about cooking with woks. To sum it up, you need a lot of heat all the time. The Veggies on the bottom cook really fast, as soon as they are in contact with the metal. If you aren't careful, you can burn the food easily. That's why wok cookers always toss the food in the air, that way the hot steam also cooks the veggies higher up while at the same time not letting those on the bottom burn. Here's a pic I found from the book detailing the way a wok cooks food. You have to basically heat up the skillet to around 750 °C / 1400 F, and for that you need a flame 25 times more powerful than a typical home appliance can offer.

For a long time I tried to figure out a way to get wok cooking done at home. I thought of buying a portable wok cooking system hooked up to a propane tank. That was too much of a hassle, though. I will have to enjoy woked meals in restaurants, I suppose.

I have not listened to this particular episode of This American Life. I pretty much know little to nothing about this Nathan Myhrvold. With that said however, I do want to point out that this particular guy's downfalls may not necessarily contribute to the actual content of these books. From a strictly culinary point of view, his books have been endorsed/advertised by the likes of Ferran Adria, David Chang, Wylie Dufresne, and Harold McGee (yes, the same person that everyone has offered as an alternative to this book). These are chefs that a lot of "foodies" highly regard so their opinions might attest to the quality of these books? Also, this may be a stretch but Heigegger's morally questionable life decisions does not necessarily detract from how great some of his philosophical works were.

Nathan Myhrvold (Microsoft CTO turned food scientist) just came out with his self published Modernist Cuisine.

Each copy uses 4 pounds of ink.

You might want to pick it up if you have $500 laying around.

It should be molecular gastronomariffic.

Do you mean Modernist Cuisine? That came out in 2011.

• Buy Modernist Cuisine ($507).
  
• Resell on eBay for 10% off.
  
• Profit.

I don't know much about it, but as far as I know Modernist Cuisine: the art and science of cooking is supposed to be a modernist Bible.

Edit: Modernist Cuisine at Home is probably more suitable for your needs though.

http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Another book set you might consider is:
Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine.

Wikipedia Link

Amazon Link

The modernist cuisine cookbook series. I don't even ever expect to own this, but it is sooo tempting.

Any of the Thomas Keller books, French Laundry, Ad Hoc at Home, Bouchon, and Bouchon Bakery. The only one you'd probably want to avoid is Under Pressure.

Also, Heston at Home and In Search of Perfection are great books.

If you're into southern food, check out Sean Brock's Heritage and Ed Lee's Smoke & Pickles.

Finally, I'd suggest Modernist Cuisine at Home if you're up for splurging.

this is the tome you want to elevate your meals to the Next Level. Mind you, it requires a sous vide machine & vacuum sealer.

I'm glad to hear you enjoy adobo! The first time I ever made it was also the first time my boyfriend ever tried adobo. Luckily, everything went better than expected - the adobo turned out great, and it is now one of his favorite foods.

Chicken Adobo

From How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

Makes: 4 servings
Time: About 1 ¼ hours

This Philippine classic has been called the best chicken dish in the world by a number of my friends and readers. It is cooked in liquid first, then roasted, grilled, or broiled. Here, however, the initial poaching liquid is reduced to make a sauce to pass at the table for both the chicken and white rice, the natural accompaniment.

The coconut milk isn’t mandatory, though it does enrich the sauce considerably.

Other protein you can use: pork chops (bone-in or boneless).

• 1 cup soy sauce
  
• ½ cup white or rice vinegar
  
• 1 cup water (this was not listed in the ingredient list in the book, but it is mentioned as an ingredient in the recipe)
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1 ½ cups coconut milk (optional)
  
• 1 whole chicken, 3 to 4 pounds, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 8 pieces, or any combination of parts
  
  Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, pepper, 1 cup water, and half the coconut milk, if you’re using it, in a covered skillet or saucepan large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the chicken; reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, turning once or twice, until the chicken is almost done, about 20 minutes. (At this point, you may refrigerate the chicken in the liquid for up to a day before proceeding; skim the fat before reheating.)
  
  Heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or heat a charcoal or gas grill or the broiler to moderate heat and put the rack about 4 inches from the heat source. Remove the chicken pieces from the liquid and dry them gently with paper towels. Boil the sauce, along with the remaining coconut milk if you’re using it, over high-heat until it is reduced to about 1 cup; discard the bay leaves and keep the sauce warm. Meanwhile, grill, broil, or roast the chicken until brown and crisp and hot, turning as necessary, 10 to 15 minutes total (roasting will take a little longer). Serve the chicken with the sauce.
  
  -----
  
  I have never used coconut milk when making adobo. My Mom and Grandparents never used it, so I just went along with that school of thought. It sounds like it would be an interesting addition though! I have used bone-in and boneless chicken, as well as bone-in and boneless pork for this recipe and have never been unhappy with the results.
  
  I have followed this recipe step by step, including finishing it on the grill, and it turned out great. However, when my Mom or Grandparents made adobo, they would just keep the protein simmering in the liquid and I enjoy it that way too. I have also used this recipe as a reference for proportions, browned the protein, and put everything in a crock pot on low for a few hours. Depending on what types of flavors you like, you can also add onions, peppercorns, whole garlic cloves, extra bay leaves…I’m just naming things that I would find in my adobo when I was growing up. Haha.

make pastor tacos, it easy as hell and extremely tasty. Artichokes are also very easy. Roasted cauliflower is easy and tasty. My favorite cook book is mark bitmins 'how to cook everything'. It is great for people starting to cook, every recipe has lot of details and even substations for stuff, he talk about tastes and more.
heres a link: http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320011362&sr=1-1

Having the book How To Cook Everything handy in the kitchen has helped me improve my cooking by leaps and bounds. There's a vegetarian version too.

I like having the Internet available, but handling a smartphone or laptop while I'm cooking is risky.

If you want to learn how to cook, try How to Cook Everything - and don't get the e-book version.

There's over a thousand recipes, but they're all pretty simple and he kind of lets you know that you can modify as you need. I think it really gives you the basics on how to cook so you can learn to modify what you've got into a decent meal.

If you're just looking for simple recipes, really, just Google + the word "quick" or "easy" will give you something.

A Thermapen has stepped up my grill game immensely. $100 seems like a lot but I've easily spent that on cheaper thermometers that ultimately weren't very reliable. It's probably overkill for the novice griller but if you ever want to have your in-laws over for steaks or something, you know you gotta be on point.

How To Cook Everything is the book I refer to most. The grilling tips mostly refer to charcoal grilling, but you'll get the gist (medium heat, high heat, etc). Plus, it has a super handy meat doneness chart inside the back cover that shows both USDA recommended temperatures and the If-You-Want-Your-Food-To-Taste-Good temperatures. As for recipes on the web, I generally trust anything by Alton Brown.

Ha! Yeah, I've got the Mark Bittman book, and I use recipes from Serious Eats for virtually everything.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0764578650/

This is an absolute must-have cook book for anyone.

This is a great cookbook for beginners.

You want How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

If you are willing to make a bit of an investment, you can't beat The Flavor Bible.

My other favorite book for cooking is How to Cook Everything.

Between those two books I can pretty much figure out how to make any meal I want in any style that sounds good to me.

I personally have not used this cookbook, but I had a friend once that loved it. May be worth a look for your husband - the description (as well as several reviews) state that it does a great job at explaining things in detail

There is also this book by the same author that is apparently more basic and focused on learning proper cooking techniques.

Cook here. If you're interested in getting better at cooking in general, the best thing you can do is buy a beginner's cookbook that lays out proper technique for the average joe, and follow the recipes. My personal favorite remains Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, as it is very no-nonsense, economical, accessible to even the most inexperienced cook, and explains every cooking technique necessary to make each recipe. Really couldn't recommend it more. It's how I got started.


As for chicken, I posted this recipe elsewhere in the thread, maybe give it a try.

It sounds like you need a good cookbook. Books are great because usually they don't just contain recipes, but will have information about techniques, explanations and substitutions for ingredients, even general ideas on how to approach cooking.

I started learning to cook using Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's not perfect but it's a good place to start and has a lot of explanatory information in addition to recipes.

Other suggestions:

• The Joy of Cooking is the Bible of American cooking, I'd recommend it if you don't mind big encyclopedic texts.
  
  
• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan is an incredible cookbook if you like Italian food.
  
  
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat and Ratio by Michael Ruhlman are both supposed to be great beginner cooking texts that look at more of the general approach to cooking than particular recipes. I haven't read either so can't personally say, but they might be worth a look.

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

Invest in a good cookbook, like How To Cook Everything. This cook has an incredible amount of recipes but most are just basic directions on how you cook any particular dish. Lots of focus on the proper process combined with suggestions on how to use what you have to influence the flavor of the dish.


An added bonus of this book is suggestions on how to cheaply stock your kitchen with a few ingredients that can be prepared into very diverse dishes.

Tips I find help me out:

• Things where brand names outperform generics: paper products (e.g. toilet paper, paper towels) and soap products (e.g. hand soap, dish detergent). Almost everything else can be the generic brand with no noticeable decrease in quality.
  
• Pay attention to the unit price, not the actual price.
  
• Buy the largest size you can use before it goes bad. That means buy the gallon of dish soap and refill your dispenser. Don't buy the gallon of milk if you can't drink it all (even if the unit price is lower). Throwing food in the trash is equal to throwing money in the trash.
  
• Never shop hungry. You will always come away with more than you need.
  
• If something goes on sale, buy as much of it as you can use before
  
  1. It likely goes on sale again (every week/every month?)
     
  2. It goes bad and must be thrown away (buying 100 apples because they're on special is silly)
     
• Related to above, use the circular to see what's on sale. Make those things into means (salmon is on sale, not tilapia? There's your fish meal.)
  
• Learn to saute, grill, and pan fry. These will let you cook meals in as much time as it would take to deliver them, and for less money. Learn to make sauces and chili. These are meals that just sit there simmering for awhile, and then last for a few meals. The ingredients are always inexpensive (beans and canned tomatoes), and more meals = less money per meal.
  
  I'll recommend Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, Michael Ruhlman's Ruhlman's Twenty and Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For the Food. Plain English instructions for very simple recipes requiring few ingredients.

Hey, that's awesome! If you're starting out and want to learn technique and stuff, I can't not recommend Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything enough. There is also a basics version for people in a more beginner level that literally starts with how to boil water and advances up to more complex entrees.

First, to answer your question, I have found that How to Cook Everything has really helped me get comfortable with some basics like pan sauces/gravy and seasoning profiles.

As mentioned, obviously you can reduce a recipe proportionally, but as far as instructions go, a 3-4 pound pot roast will take much longer than a 1-1.5 pound one. You really just need to understand what the goal is. Is it color, tenderness, and/or temperature? A thermometer is key. The other two come with experience in adapting recipes.

Another thing about expiring ingredients. This has a lot to do with meal planning. So you have a small bag of golden potatoes. Maybe one night you decide to be classic and have steak & potatoes. So you boil 4 small potatoes, drain, quarter and add butter and dried parsley. Then, maybe later in the week you do breakfast-for-dinner and have eggs, homefries, and maybe you have some leftover steak to make it easier. Another example: Hot dogs one night? Don't let the buns collect mold -- make some garlic bread for some sort of pasta dish a couple days later.

I'm with you on fresh herbs. I use mostly dried spices and it works out for me pretty well. Occasionally I'll buy cilantro or basil, but not always. I only use chopped, minced garlic in the big jar. But I always have onion and bell pepper on hand. Something to check out is the website Still Tasty. I don't really use it often, but I have referenced it from time to time if I'm considering cooking with a produce item I don't use often.

Also, just a tip, buy family packs of meat and use a vacuum sealer such as a FoodSaver to individually package your proteins. You save money in the long run and have better quality ingredients, even if they've been in the freezer for a couple months.

How To Cook Everything is a solid option, gives you the techniques, tools, how to spice, etc and a bunch of solid recipes.

https://smile.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Recipes-Anniversary/dp/0764578650?sa-no-redirect=1

How to cook everything by Mark Bittman is a great resource. It discusses basic techniques in plain language and even gives examples on how to improvise and expand upon the recipes in the book. And there is a bit of everything in this book. Pasta, breads, cakes, sauces, roasts, pies, soups, everything.

BTW had to edit and add the beer bread recipe in the book is amazing. A little odd but amazing.

Here's what you really want:

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman: pretty much everything you'd like to do as a normal home cook will be in here. Debone a chicken, choose the best meat, veggies, fruits, how to cook every vegetable, fruit or meat you're likely to use, in different ways, with variations. Breakfasts, dinners, deserts, technique, theory. It'll cover about everything you'd want to learn.

If you want to go a bit further into theory:

Ruhlman's Twenty: twenty topics for the home cook to study and learn, with applicable recipes. The basics every interested cook ought to know. Think, Salt, Water, Onion, Acid, Egg, Butter, Dough, Batter, Sugar, Sauce, Vinaigrette, Soup, Sauté, Roast, Braise, Poach, Grill, Fry, Chill.

That'll get you pretty far, I reckon.

Similarly lazy cook here, I highly recommend Bittman's How To Cook Everything. It's not just a list of recipes but rather just how to cook stuff. It's the only cookbook I find myself flipping through for ideas and it actually encourages experimentation/improvisation, which is good for me since I'm pathologically opposed to measuring anything.

I tried out Mark Bittman's flaky pie crust recipe, which can be found in his book, "How to Cook Everything" (which should be your kitchen bible, by the way)...or here. I've made a couple pie crusts before, but this recipe was the easiest to follow.

I didn't follow a recipe for the filling, but it was basically just a bag of cherries (pitted and broken up into pieces), a tablespoon of cornstarch, a dash of cinnamon, a couple tablespoons of sugar, and topped with some buttah!

How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is my favorite reference for this kind of thing.

You said this is post-college food, so definitely try starting with How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. It has tons of instructions, from how to properly prepare different kinds of meats to plenty of meals and the differences between esoteric things like the different ways to make coffee. It also has pictures! +1 to a good chef's knife as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Everything-Completely-Revised-Anniversary/dp/0764578650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290839448&sr=1-1

YTA. When someone says no, don't make them have to say no again. You are a grown ass man, it's time to learn how to cook and this book can possibly help you. People don't just know how to be good at cooking, it takes practicing so get to practicing.

Also youtube. Youtube has many many how to cook tutorials.

This it?

Another good book is How to Cook Everything

Covers the basic kitchen utensils you need and walks you through every basic technique.

How to Cook Everything (And How to Cook Everything Vegetarian) are two great staple cookbooks. They're more guidelines than actual recipies for a lot of things, but tell you a lot about each ingredient and how to use them well.

Are you looking for the book?

I'm guessing the info you're seeking is in this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0764578650

EDIT: He's got another one called Kitchen Express that actually sounds more like what you might be looking for.

EDIT2: Formatting.

If you want just one:

The New Best Recipe:

https://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744

Will teach all manner of things.

Skip the Flavor Bible until (maybe) later. Ruhlman's 20 is good for beginners (and everyone).

Unless you're looking to learn BAKING... I'd say just cook little bits of things as you'd like and taste 'em. "What do two thin slices of baked red pepper taste like?" "What's a pork chop taste like plain at 165 degrees?" Start with very few ingredients and get to know them and what they DO. Eat raw garlic, seared garlic, and roasted garlic. Same with onion. Same with ginger.

For books go with the sciency ones. People who explain the why and the how.

This. Before you start, though, find a reliable cookbook (I like Cook's Illustrated's New Best Recipe for this, as well as Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, generally). Nothing worse than spending your time and money on making a crappy recipe.

I started out with The New Best Recipe. Cooks Illustrated is a pretty good magazine in general.

Okay. Welcome to the wonderful world of chemistry and fire that results in yummy! Hopefully this is going to be a nice, little primer for the absolute essentials for a working kitchen.

The equipment you absolutely must have:

A 10" skillet. Thick-bottomed (the thin ones just warp and get unusable)

An 8" skillet. Sometimes you've gotta cook two things at once.

A quart pot, with lid. A second one is a smart idea, but it can wait.

A spatula.

A wooden spoon.

A liquid measuring cup. I'd get a 2-cup one first, and a 4-cup one later.

Measuring cups. Don't try to get away with measuring liquids with your dry cups. It always ends in tears.

Measuring spoons.

The New Best Recipe. It's like The Joy of Cooking, except more comprehensive, based on the chemical science of food, and half the price. Also, the recipes are frickin' DYNAMITE.

A quality 8" chef's knife. This is a great first knife, and will last you many happy years. I know the 6" one is cheaper. Trust me--you'll be glad for the bigger knife in the long run.

TWO cutting boards of a reasonable size. Mark one as being for raw meat only.

A pair of tongs.

A vegetable peeler

Your basic cooking staples that go into making more or less everything:

Salt.

Pepper

Garlic powder. NOT Garlic salt.

Chili powder

Oil. Olive Oil tastes better, but Canola is more forgiving to learn on.

A cheap-ass bottle of Cabernet. Some of your food's chemical compounds are alcohol-soluble, but not water-soluble. A little cheap booze will liberate them.

Onions

Canned tomatoes. I go with diced. No salt added is a plus.

Flour. All purpose is good.

Sugar

Eggs

Rice

Milk

Boneless/Skinless chicken. Breasts or thighs, your choice.

Chicken stock. The granulated or powdered stuff keeps well and is easier to work with than the cubes.

So, I'll get to a starter recipe in a minute, but before I do, I want to talk about a couple of kitchen axioms before we get there. Follow these guidelines across the board and you'll have an easy time of things.

Read the whole recipe before you start cooking. Always! Every time! Seriously! You'll fuck it up otherwise!

When you're cooking on the stove, if you think you're at the right temperature, decrease the heat. The most basic screw-up is cooking your food at too high a heat.

Never, ever, ever cut raw meat on the same cutting board as anything else. You'll make yourself and others sick.

Do your prep work before you start to actually cook. That means cut your veggies, measure your spices and liquids, and so forth.

Keep your knife razor-sharp. Most kitchen injuries come as a result of dull knives. If it feels like you have to work to cut something, your knife needs to be steeled (don't worry about it for now) or sharpened.

Clean your gear as soon as you're done eating.

The chef's knife NEVER goes in the dishwasher. Dish detergent will screw up your blade.

And now, a recipe to get you started: Parmesan Chicken Risotto.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, thawed and patted dry with paper towels.

2 Tablespoons of oil

3/4 Cup of rice

1 cup of chicken broth

1/4 cup of cooking wine

1/2 cup of SHREDDED Parmesan. The grated stuff doesn't work quite right.

1 onion, diced fine.

2 teaspoons of garlic powder.

A carrot, peeled and chopped fine.

1 teaspoon of dried thyme. You can skip this if you really have to, but it's better with.

Salt & pepper, to taste.

Step 1: Put a tablespoon of oil in a quart pot and turn your stovetop to medium-high (a 7, at most). When the oil looks kind of shimmery, but isn't smoking, put the chicken breast in. Let it sit and cook for about 6 minutes. Flip it over with a pair of tongs, and give it another 6 minutes. Take it out and set it aside for now.

Step 2: Turn the heat down to medium-low (like, 3 or 4) and take the pot off of the heat. Let the pot cool down some, then add the other tablespoon of rice. Once it's warmed up, add in your onions and garlic powder, and stir to combine well. Once the sizzling sound has died down, put the pot back on your burner and cook for 8 minutes. If the onion starts to brown at all, take it off the heat and let it cool down. You're looking for translucent white onions with no browning at all. (BTW: This is called sweating, and it's a fundamental cooking technique. Learn it and practice it, because it's the key to almost any dish you cook with onions, celery, peppers, garlic, and a wide variety of other vegetables.)

Step 3: Add in the thyme, carrot, and the rice, and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Scrape up the brown stuff on the bottom of the pan that's leftover from the chicken. It's tasty. Cook the rice for about 3 minutes, stirring very frequently, but not all the time.

Step 4: Add the brother and wine, and stir to make sure that no rice is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Lid the pot, bring to a slow boil over slightly higher heat (4, or 5 at the most), and set a timer for 10 minutes. Stir it three times during the 10 minutes.

Step 5: Put the chicken breast on top of the cooking rice, put the lid back on, and set the timer for 15 minutes. Stir it four times during this period. Move the chicken around as needed.

Step 6: Take the pot off the heat, remove the chicken, and stir the Parmesan into the rice. Take two forks and shred the chicken, then put that into the rice. Let it sit for a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt and everything to come down from scaldingly-hot to pleasantly warm.

Step 7: Eat.

I'm surprised so far no one has mentioned Larousse which is generally my go-to along with The New Best Recipe for more generalized fare.

I generally don't cook from cookbooks, but I do use them for inspiration or fundamentals.

with a family like that, I'd probably just say fuck it -- lock your doors, turn off the lights, and leave a couple pizzas with a few bags of coal out on your front porch. lol

for what it's worth, Cooks Illustrated "New Best Recipes" is pretty much the most reliable cookbook I've ever owned and can be had used pretty cheap -- http://www.amazon.com/Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184744. the recipes in there have never failed me, and they take the time to actually teach you why you're doing things certain ways.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744/

I don't have a subscription either but it's also in my favorite cookbook:

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421716625&sr=8-1&keywords=best+recipe

Pan Seared, Oven Roasted, Thick Cut Pork Chops

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup salt
4 bone in rib chops 1/1/12 inch thick
1/2/ teaspoon pepper
1 tbsp oil

dissolve the brown sugar and salt in 6 cups cold water in a gallon size zipper lock plastic bag. Add the pork chops and seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible. Refrigerate until fully seasoned about 1 hour. Remove the chops from the brine, rinse, and pat thoroughly dry with paper towels. Season the chops with the pepper.

Adjust an oven rack to the lower middle position, place a shallow roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and heat the oven to 450 degrees. When the oven reaches 450 degrees, heat the oil in a heavy bottomed 12 inch skillet over high heat until shimmering. Lay the chops in the skillet and cook until well browned and a nice crust has formed on the surface, about 3 minutes. Turn the chops over with tongs and cook until well browned and a nice crust has formed on the second side, 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Using the tongs, transfer the chops to the preheated pan in the oven. Roast until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of a chop registers 125 to 127 degrees 8 to 10 minutes turning the chops over once halfway through the cooking time. Transfer the chops to a platter, tent loosely with foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Check the internal temperature; it should register 145 degrees. Serve immediately.

Sweet and Sour Pan Sauce and Bacon

5 ounces bacon
2 shallots
1 garlic clove
4 plum tomatoes
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup dry Marsala
4 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper

Pour off the fat in the skillet used to brown the chops. Place the skillet over medium high heat and cook the bacon until crisp about 6 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate; pour off all but 1 tbsp of the bacon fat. Reduce the heat to low, add the shallots and sugar, and cook until the shallots are softened, about 1 minute. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Increase the heat to medium high, stir in the tomatoes and vinegar, and scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits. Add the Marsala and simmer until reduced by half about 5 minutes. Whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, until melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook's Illustrated: The New Best Recipe

Gives an in-depth explanation of how they came to each recipe before it's given. I learned so much from this book.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744

This one is great to learn how to cook new dishes

Ooh ooh

Get the whole damned Cook's Illustrated book series (Start with The Best Recipe) and get "On Food and Cooking"

Read both, cover to cover, especially that second one. Now cook!

I recommend Cook's Country's Best New Recipe that will give you the how, the why, and how they figured out the how and the why.

These goals are cool! You are going to get a lot of advice on the losing weight stuff, but cooking is my jam. Its hard to get over the hump from making recipes to just cooking what's in the fridge. So in the meantime, you will do well to try a variety of things that from cookbooks that you think sound good.

My favorite cookbook right now is: http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744. It is full of all the staples you will need, and each recipe comes with a long explanation which gives insight about why they cooked it the way they did. It is huge, but very accessible.

I also occasionally bust out my 1953 Better Home and Gardens cookbook, but that is pretty rare and only when I just need to feel like a housewife.

Cooking for yourself will help your other goals - cooking is its own craft project, and knowing exactly what you are putting into your body will help you understand what needs to change in order to lose weight.

I bought their book. Definitely worth the $10 price used many times over. It's a great reference along with Bittman's How to Cook Anything. I've perused a few issues of the magazines while at friend's houses and don't think that I would get more value if I had subscribed.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Best-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503484874&sr=8-1&keywords=best+recipe+cooks+illustrated

Cook's Illustrated: New Best Recipe

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0936184744/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The people who wrote this book not only give very detailed instructions, but they also tell you what they have tried and what didn't work. That way, you not only have better knowledge of the recipe, but it helps you learn how to better improvise.

Also, the recipes are amazing. A+++++++, would buy again and again.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Cooking-Peter-Barham/dp/3540674667
Explains science behind cooking methods

http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406300067&sr=1-2&keywords=Modernist+Cuisine
Best of all haven't read but i just know it is the most best and complete book

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=le%20cordon%20bleu&sprefix=le+cordon+%2Cstripbooks&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Ale%20cordon%20bleu
Explains classic recipes and techniques

Don't know your budget, but this one looks like fun: http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-The-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Not gadgets, but look into the Modernist Cuisine books: https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Obviously not all at once because of cost, but look into maybe getting a kindle and the digital version or something similar 😂
Or just go to a store, browse through the books and look for neat gadgets to get (as suggested in the books).

I'll buy your copy of Myrhvold's The Art and Science of Cooking, or just borrow it until you can make some bespoke shelving. I'll pay shipping costs.

Here's a $500 cookbook.

I never specified where I wanted it shipped to, that was just an assumption you made. The fact is not everyone lives in the USA, so you need to assume that US shipping doesn't apply to everyone.

As for the actual shipping cost. If I can get this - http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322550804&sr=8-1 shipped to Australia from the USA for ~$20, you really start thinking someone is making a killing off these shipping fees along the way.

You might be interested in this

And the related articles I'm sure you can find via google. Myrhvold has done some remarkable job researching and collection information about the science of cooking.

Volume 4 of Modernist Cuisine, https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007, has many handy charts for starches and other hydrocolloids. Most are in percentages, but there are enough example recipes in there to learn about how to use and work with percentages.

The [Modernist Cuisine](https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3N7LB10S5PIHV&keywords=modernist+cuisine&qid=1568141180&s=gateway&sprefix=modernist%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-3) books have won awards for their amazing photography. There is also an At-Home version for less $$$. Both have fabulous photography that I think would fascinate a kid. I think there are also books that contain just the photography for less $$$, but not sure about that.

You don't need to, but it can come in handy. If you are interested in what goes on under the lid, get this book. Truly breathtaking photography, great writing and all the information you'll ever need.

I could never afford the book, but I heard an interview with the guys who did this book http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-The-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007 and they said it was more like one hour.

It's all about cooker temperature, outside meat temperature, and condensation. In the same way that water vapor condenses on a cold glass but not a warm one, smoke condenses on cold meat but not as much on warm meat. They were also talking about pork. I have murdered beef with smoke before, so I can guarantee that I didn't do it in the first hour, I needed some help in the subsequent 10 hours.

I've heard that the Modernist Cuisine books were very good however they are quite pricy. The cheaper one is the PDF version of those books but the hardcover one I saw listed for over $500.

There is a cheaper Modernist Cuisine at Home for about $100 hardcover.

Everyone else suggested ChefSteps and I have been using that. Get the premium membership.

All links are non affiliated.

Is this from the Anarchist's Modernist Cookbook?

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

Modernist Cuisine at Home

There's always the $600 cookbook.

No, they're actually right. This isn't a book for reading.. It's high falutin' decor. I've spent a lot of money on high quality print books like this. They aren't going to print a hell of a lot of these things, and when you're talking about making something of this quality, it just costs a fuck of lot to do. If you wanted to replicate this thing yourself, it would likely cost you a good bit more at the printers.

Kaikkien kokkikirjojen äiti: Modernist cuisine https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

25kg täyttä asiaa. Löytyy myös pdfnä netistä.

The god of future cooking - Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. I want so bad! This will be the book reflecting my foodculture.

> When you first make the switch to homemade food, you begin to appreciate bitter flavors.

I would argue that you don't appreciate the bitter flavors, you just become tolerant. The real problem outstanding for all of this is that processed food just tastes way better, with a small nod to the neuro effects of simple carbohydrates. It's a problem without any great solutions. I think the only real success we'll have in the long term is just improving the nutritional quality of processed food while maintaining the tricks learned in the past to actually get people to eat the darn stuff. We're never going to make any progress telling people to eat the "healthy" stuff that typically costs more, takes longer to prepare, and absolutely tastes inferior (ever tried whole wheat pancakes?). We've tried preaching to consumers for decades and it has done nothing to slow the obesity epidemic.

I digress a little but basically I don't mind when people choose not to consume more processed food, my issue is when they get a huge chip on their shoulder and rant about how gross it is, but they are simply incorrect. There is a lot of interesting discussion about this subject in Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Great books that reads a lot like a science text book on food.

Edit:links

It's just a teaser, they'll cover both traditional and modern techniques. The creators were part of the Modernist Cuisine team, so that's probably why they decided to feature sous-vide for their teaser videos (because that's what they're known for).

What about a copy of modernist cuisine?
Also, I like the class idea. And you two could maybe go together?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0982761007?pc_redir=1404527466&robot_redir=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0982761007/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1342108151&sr=8-1 this right here.

Tools: another knife, or a end-grain cutting board. Digital scales are always handy. Pressure cookers can be had for under $100 and a water circulator (sous vide machine) will fall slightly above that price range.

Ingredients: Foie gras makes a good gift. I would be delighted to get some high-end pork product. for a gift.

Books: Modernist Cuisine at Home is as much a book as it is a reference guide and set of projects. On Food and Cooking is an essential book for food nerds.

Are you (or your SO) interested in cooking? You might consider Modernist Cuisine at Home. It's very cool, informative, geeky and beautiful.

Also, you might want to check out Edward Tufte's books (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information; Envisioning Information; Beautiful Evidence) to see if they are of interest to you.

There's also a version they put out for home cooks called Modernist Cuisine at Home that's also amazing and far cheaper. The Food Lab is another great option.

Modernist cuisine at home o se hai il grano, Modernist cuisine

Under Pressure

Meat

quanto arriverà (ancora senza data né titolo definitivo) il libro di Dave Arnold sulla carne rischia di essere anche quello imperdibile

come sempre, esplorare i related può darti anche altre idee validissime.

Actually, his "home" cookbook which concentrates on things the home cook can do can be had for $100, or less. I got mine last year on sale from Amazon for $95:

http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015

I found new joy in cooking when I learned about all the processes of how things cook. Like learning how to smoke meats with an electric smoker, learning how to bake breads, make cheese, curing meats, pickling, using a pressure cooker, a sous vides oven, how to grill, how to slow cook. Each lead to more. I read the book Modern Cuisine at Home by Nathan Myrvhold. A super important thing for me was how to preserve foods without refrigeration and smoking meats, pasteurization versus cooking.

Here are the absolute musts I think you (everyone) should learn with tons of easy to find resources (and why important):

1. Absolutely master the temperatures meats must be cooked at. Memorize. Buy a meat and a laser thermometer. (This is important because you don't want to overcook your stuff and you'll be amazed at how different temps affect food taste and texture)
   
   
2. Learn how to make the five standard French sauces. Learn about stocks. Make mayonnaise. (This will open a whole new world, master these five than add personal variables to infinite awesome)
   
   
3. Learn knife skills what each knife shape and size does, what the various types of cuts are. Learn how to "French" a meat cut. Buy at least a paring knife.
   
4. Learn how to debone and stuff a chicken. Use butchers twine.
   (You'll be amazed how much more you can do with some simple meat tweaks, also important for vegetarians)
   
   
5. Learn the difference between baking soda and baking powder and bread flour versus cake flour.
   
6. Bake bread by using a starter culture.
   (There is nothing better than baking home made breads and cakes and stuff. You can make oodles of variations, tarts sweet and savory, pasties and pastries awesome)
   
   
7. Learn about salt, yeast, curing and fermentation. Make pickles through fermentation.
   (Sounds scary but so opens the magic shut doors between amateur and professionals. Is easy and important an art that people have been doing for thousands of years.)
   
   
8. Learn the different meat cuts.
   (Learn about and buy cheap cuts of meat, you won't be upset if you screw something up and the cheaper the more flavorful)
   
   
9. Discover new devices to cook with; the easiest is the slow cooker (in fact these are all easy just slightly different) an electric smoker, pressure cooker, barbecue grill, sous vide, cast iron dutch oven. (You are probably saying; this guy is nuts but this can open huge doors to amazing flavors.)
   
   
10. add different textures and items for colors flavor combinations
    
    A big thing for me
    http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015
    (This book is great for the science behind cooking, an incredible and overlooked aspect behind cooking)
    
    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Masterbuilt-30-Electric-Smokehouse/7811422
    (This was something that really changed everything for me. I know you have a crappy apartment so do I, I keep mine on the patio and use it like a slow cooker, shovel wood in set temp come home to incredible food. Plus with black friday coming up there are huge discounts available although overseas I dunno.)
    

Home Version

Thanks a lot! The first suggestion seems absolutely amazing but sadly out of my budget. Do you know much about the book Modernist Cuisine at Home?

Check out Modernist Cooking at home if you have the means. Or maybe look online for his melted cheese recipe. It's good, and you can make it with a lot of different kinds of cheese. I know shredded cheese is typical for tacos, but this stuff is good.

There's a cooking for beginner's subreddit as well by the way.

---

I found certain cook books more helpful than others. As a science type, I deeply appreciated this time which should be in your local library. It explains what "meat" is: muscles, and how it all works, and how heat affects it chemically. All the steps are very clear, the photography is beautiful, and steps are written exactly like a chemistry lab.

The meat chapter explains why different cuts of meat are different and what to do with each.

---

Start with beef or good quality fish: both are safe to eat even if undercooked. Maybe take a scientific approach, even: cut up different chunks of the same size, blot dry with paper towel to minimize splutter.

Put pan on stove at medium setting, add about teaspoon of oil and spread across surface evenly. When you can feel heat on your hand about 3 inches from the heated surface, add meat.

After one minute remove one chunk and rest on plate. After another minute remove another. And so on. Observe the differences. Now taste them. Then add little salt and pepper and taste again.

Small steps. :)

I used to be the kid who threw pop corn kernels on the stove without oil and almost set the house on fire. My then boyfriend needed to walk me through cooking my first egg. We all start somewhere.

10 or under

Game of Thrones cookbook

Here's a drawing of a penguin I did, sorry I didn't write the timestamp and my username on the picture- I only realised I had to after I had scanned the picture in :L Hope you like it, I like him- he's a cutie ;3 I would absolutely love this GOT cookbook! :D

Could I ask for a combo of items? I need these books (used if possible :P) for next semester:

$5.71 Nihilist Girl

$3.15 Notes from the Underground

$4 Italian Dictionary

And then these:

$6.62 Game Of Throne cookbook

$5.13 Hunger games cookbook

=$24.61

Yay!

Thanks for this contest.

Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking by Simon Quellan Field.

I highly recommend it! It is one I frequently lend to friends by their request.

Link

She might enjoy “Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking” by Simon Field. It’s a bit disorganized but has some interesting recipes/experiments and is fairly accessible.https://www.amazon.com/dp/1569767068/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2ed-BbHSMXF8N

If you can get to a library, the book Culinary reactions is a fabulous layman-level book about food chemistry.

One VERY easy concept is the use of baking powder in food! This should be a good place to start

This looks like an awesome book! It's in the hardcover paperback list. Thanks, and I hope everything has gone well!

Don't force yourself into any diet. Start just being healthy, exercising, meditating, etc. and slowly eat less meat. Don't go cold turkey (unintentional pun ^_^ ) and be open to trying different fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, etc. Eat organic, when affordable, and get a good cookbook for food ideas.
The more your body purifies itself, the less you'll have these cravings and eventually (probably sooner than later) you'll get to a point where you have no desire for meat.
The vegan or vegetarian lifestyles can be healthy...if they are done right. The problem is people like to take shortcuts and you just can not afford to do that with your health. I've seen "vegetarians" survive on grilled cheese sandwiches, fried in butter. What sense does that make? First of all, no nutrition and it is fattening. Secondly - rennet aka cow stomach mucosa is used in the cheese making process.
It's too hard to draw lines. Look for good, whole supplements (highly recommend this, takes care of all bases)....but you're right: they should never replace food, they should just complement it.

No, the original Mollie Katzen one.

I highly recommend the Moosewood Cookbook. There are a lot of very easy, very delicious recipes in there, all of which are vegetarian.

I think you'd like Alton Brown's book I'm Just Here for the Food. It does contain recipes, but its focus is teaching you to understand how cooking techniques work so that you can apply that knowledge as you will. Relatedly, I've heard CookWise is something like what you're looking for.

Also, get your hands on Alton Brown's book and watch every episode of Good Eats you can find.

Yes, AB's books are excellent. I own his first 2 books and they are excellent for learning technique.

I'm Just Here For The Food
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404671790&sr=1-2&keywords=i%27m+just+here+for+the+food

I'm Just Here For More Food
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-More-Food/dp/1584793414/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404671790&sr=1-3&keywords=i%27m+just+here+for+the+food

Alton Brown is a god. If only I could possibly absorb all his lessons- I learn so much from each 30 minute episode.

Also, his cook books are golden; if you have an inclination to buy a cookbook, I'd recommend one of his, like I'm Just Here For The Food which explains basic and more complicated cooking methods in a fun way.

I highly recommend getting a copy of Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food.

He really teaches the hows and whys of different cooking methods and then gives you recipes to demonstrate those methods. Then you have a better understanding of braising, sauteing, roasting, frying, broiling and when to use which method for what types of cuts of meat or veg. Once I was really able to grasp the science of what occurs chemically to food when cooking it, it helped a great deal in improving all of my meals.

Lot of comments on smoking, which would be an incredibly positive accomplishment on its own. I wanted to comment on the eating out. Other than my wife, my greatest love is cooking. I'm a cheap bastard, and my love of cooking is the best thing for that. It may not be for you, but cooking can be a really amazing hobby that also saves you money and provides you with a sense of accomplishment.

I will always recommend Alton Brown to people learning to cook. It's a great way to save money (my wife and I eat great and spend only $300 on food a month) as well as a hobby that has quick, positive results.

This book talked plenty about the theory behind cooking. I am kind of a geek when it comes to cooking. I enjoy knowing "why" instead of just "how".

http://www.amazon.ca/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291937502&sr=8-4

Hi Alton,

I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved your book I'm Just Here for the Food. I actually found it at the SF public library, and having seen Good Eats and knowing how entertaining you were, I figured it was worth a try. I was right! It was the first cook book I had ever seen which tried to teach the theory behind cooking as opposed to just being a collection of recipes, and I found it to be both a handy guide to cooking, and also just a fun and interesting read in general (I really liked the food-science kind of approach).

No questions, just wanted to say thanks for the entertainment, and the help learning to cook!

http://www.foodsubs.com

And also, http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1584790830?pc_redir=1409138276&robot_redir=1

(Or just watch Good Eats)

I love Alton Brown for beginners and his book "I'm Just Here for the Food" is a wonderful place to start. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1584790830/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520825381&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=i%27m+just+here+for+the+food&dpPl=1&dpID=51RK497861L&ref=plSrch

He has a few others that I've found helpful but this beautifully explains the basics for beginners and the science behind cooking.

Alton Brown for my husband. He loves this guy! Would love to add more books to his collection!

Thanks for the contest :-)

Looks cheap and space consuming - a unitasker. Personally, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot chef's knife. If you want something to do the same job (and since you mentioned you were trying to save money), go to Goodwill or other thrift store and get a real food processor.

FYI, I also recommend getting a used copy of Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen. You can get it for under $10, and it'll help you avoid redundant or cheap stuff while helping you figure out what you really need. My wife used mine when we set up our gift registry and we were very happy with the results.

There's always his book: Gear for Your Kitchen

In his book, he refers to those things as "specialty items" and thinks you should get rid of them if you don't use them at least once every six months (stuff like waffle irons, ice cream machines, etc.). What the above video is about is tools designed for one purpose, which other tools could do just as easily or better. For instance, you can slice strawberries with a strawberry slicer, or you can slice strawberries, and everything else, with a knife; you could cook eggs in a rollie, or you could cook eggs, or anything else, in a standard pan.

Check out this book. My wife got it for me for Christmas a couple years ago. It's full of practical knowledge about selecting kitchen gear.

While it does make a few direct product recommedations, it focuses more on educating the reader about what they should be looking for when buying equipment. I think that's a great idea, because while I could tell you about all my favorite kitchen tools, you might have some different preferences.

This book will tell you what too look for in a good product, and it covers everything from graters, knives, and cutting boards, to pans, pots, thermometers, and cooling racks.

That article is bad. Cheap cookware takes more time to work with and produces bad results.

The trick is just to be selective and pick up just what you will really use. There are plenty of quality items available for moderate prices. Gear for Your Kitchen (amazon link) is probably the best book I've read on the topic. Brown is very essentials/pragmatic about supplies on his Good Eats show too.

get Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen. It explains what's good and why, what you shouldn't get and why, and what you need depending on what you cook. That and it's an excellent read, Alton has a great way of writing.

Consider picking up Alton Brown's "Gear for Your Kitchen".

If you just need to know what the best blank is, try googling whatever item you are looking to buy, followed by the words "cook's illustrated." They rigorusly test and review kitchen gear, and give their recommendations as to the overall best and also the best value.

Here is a list of their "best" cookware.

Alton has had a few endorsed products and specifically designed pieces come out on the food network website! Give me a bit to find links and I will edit my comment! I have a measuring cup from him I will never give up.

Edit!

"“Alton Brown’s Gear for Your Kitchen,” his long-awaited homage to tools and gadgetry, was published by STC in September 2003 and was nominated for both a James Beard Award for Best Cookbook in the Tools & Techniques category and an IACP Cookbook Award in the Food Reference/Technical category. Gear is an essential guide to all the “hardware” you need in the kitchen packed with practical advice and tips, this book takes a look at what’s needed and what isn’t, what works and what doesn’t." (This is more of a guide for the whole kitchen, but this is a start)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1584796960/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/176-8554438-3212524?ref_=pd_bxgy_b_img_c


Off the Good Eat's Fan Page here's a more specific list, and I know back in the day he has endorsed all-clad and Viking cookware (most chefs will endorse all-clad)

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/References/Equipment.htm


Hope this helps for anyone who is curious!

A good book to get is Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen
http://amzn.com/1584796960 (I'll fix the link when I get home). It breaks down your must haves, the nice to haves and the kitchen luxury items in almost all categories.

With that said, I had good success with my Paderno pots and pans. They go on sale a few times a year and you can get awesome deals on them. Mine was a $1000 set and I got it for $300.

I love my Shun knives. I know you said you have knives already, but they make some nice sushi knives in a few of their lineups.

A carbon steel wok is also a great thing to have. If you season it properly, it will be an amazing asset in the kitchen for all kinds of cooking.

Not mentioned yet, but a good pepper mill is a pretty valuable tool as well, especially if you're seasoning a lot of meats. Something with a crank that is sturdy enough to quickly grind up a bunch of fresh pepper for a recipe is pretty awesome to have.

I would look at this book:
Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/208020095X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rkkjybM2R3694
It contains many recipes for traditional French dishes like onion soup, sole meunière, bœuf bourguignon.
As far as techniques go, I found this book to be the best:
The Professional Chef https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470421355/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_vmkjybW84N5YZ
Especially the section on stocks. It also has a lot of French recipes.

I thought though the saline level was much higher for salted lemons.

Edit: Well Harold McGee says 5-10% similar to olive brine: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PAAH1W

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

There is some great fundamental technique in those pages.

If you're a julia child fan there's this beautiful cookbook set.

If she likes classic cooking, you can get a nice hardcover set of both of Julia Childs "The Art of French Cooking" cookbooks for around $60, i believe. That plus a great cast iron pan and maybe some spices that are a bit of a splurge (think saffron and vanilla bean) would be a great cooking themed gift!

I love this book [Weber's way to grill] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0376020598/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=56001599729&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=753396277644651227&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6qoi7y1woo_b)

I like roasting it at a real high temp to get super crispy skin and tender meat... I think I used a test kitchen recipe but here's another http://www.savorsa.com/2013/01/easiest-and-best-high-heat-roast-chicken-gets-our-vote/
And best book for spice blends or marinades (for ALL types of meat) is this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0376020598?cache=91b502bf1ba3a7cb7e324514d079bfe2&pi=SL500_SY115#ref=pd_aw_sims_1 also really, really great, easy, sophisticated grilling recipes.

I recommend the cookbook How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman.. It has lots of recipes with easy-to-follow instructions and suggestions of how to adjust many of the recipes. Local libraries have copies if you want that: link.

So, the best cook book I know of for learning specifically is how to cook everything fast by Mark Bittman. It covers how to interweave prep, recommends side dishes to go with main dishes, and has reasonably accurate time breakdowns of timing.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Fast-Better/dp/0470936304

A cookbook that shows you how to cook fast It's always nice to be able to cook yummy food and not have it take all day. I think you should go to the movies this weekend. I love watching movies.

I bought my Joy of Cooking as a poor college student. It is now 26 years old, and it will be handy to the kitchen for the rest of our days. Terrific book.

Alton Brown's your man, via TV, the web and the first book, especially. I'm Just Here For The Food is a better teaching book than Joy, though nothing beats Joy's comprehensiveness.

And, IMHO, Julia Child is the woman, though I'd recommend her The Way To Cook as the one book to get, if you have to pick one. We actually carry it with us when we travel for Thanksgiving. I was going to leave our copy at the in-laws, but my wife didn't want to part with it, even though I was going to order another one. Mrs. Child considered it her magnum opus, and she designed it carefully to teach someone how to cook.

What everyone says about 'just try it' and 'tweak your recipes' is true. Practice is where it's at, but informed practice will get you where you want to go much more quickly.

Happy cooking and Bon Appetit!

The Way to Cook by Julia Child - 1993 It's a classic. I use it once a week.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Cook-Julia-Child/dp/0679747656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413930864&sr=8-1&keywords=the+way+to+cook

If you really want to learn the details of what cooks do and why, I strongly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012, it is, IMHO, the cooking bible.

The Food Lab is also a good resource and there are lots of videos: http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab

Other than what the others have suggested (Jacques Pepin, Alton Brown's "Good Eats"), I would also recommend to watch Julia Child's videos (mostly French fare) and Heston Blumenthal's "How to cook like Heston".

Se que pasaron 9 dias y seguro nadie lee esto a menos que lo googlee:

Estuve investigando desde que hiciste el post porque yo también andaba con ganas de aprender potente, hasta ahora las 2 mejores cosas que encontre fueron:

Un libro de Herald McGee, https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Si buscas el on food and cooking pdf te salta primero

Y lo otro que encontre es esto:

https://www.edx.org/course/science-cooking-physics-food-harvardx-spu27-2x

Un curso by harvard que es gratis y es de la cienca detras de cocinar, que basicamente te hace poder pensar las recetas en base a como interactuan cosas por lo que voy viendo de lo que va el curso.

Casualmente en este curso aparece el que escribio ese libro. También estudian platos de Ferran Adria

Gl

the book you need to read is 'on food and cooking' by harold mcgee

If you are looking for basic cooking information the Joy of Cooking is obligatory.

A couple things I've learned along the way is first to start slow and work through cookbooks. It's easy to keep buying book after book but they are just decoration if you don't know them well. Secondly, be wary of books with lots of pretty pictures! In my experience they are full of single-purpose recipes that don't teach you the true nature or source as you spoke of above.

As far as source recipes I'd second everything mentioned so far but if you are looking to blow people away with Italian and Mexican dishes (my particular favorite styles)... look no further than:

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan - Possibly my favorite author of cookbooks of all time. This is definitely the one to start with in my opinion.

The Art of Mexican Cooking - Diana Kennedy - If you are looking for real mexican food this book is a great place to start.

Bonus Book... not a cookbook but a great way to learn about cooking

Thanks. Here's an Amazon link if anyone else is also interested.

If this is the sort of thing that interests you, you need a copy of Harold MeGee's On Food and Cooking.

Check it out, it is a classic culinary science text

http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398638067&sr=1-1&keywords=mcgee+on+food+and+cooking

I assume they meant this.

Watch Jacques pepin videos on youtube he is a master of technique and the reasons why we do things the way we do in a kitchen. This is a great book.

• http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Pepins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579122205/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318406390&sr=8-2 *
  
  
  Yeah practice practice practice and always stay clean, messy cooking can sometimes lead to getting sick or knocking things over and starting fire who knows a clean station is a happy one. Also Harold McGee is great he does allot of food science (I.E. what meat does in different stages of being heated and why)
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318406624&sr=1-1-spell
  
  
  Finally a great little utility is the food lovers companion its got conversion charts meat cut charts and its a fully glossary of ingredients (like every ingredient)its really handy
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Companion-Barrons-Cooking-Guide/dp/0764112589/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318406737&sr=1-2-spell
  
  
  If your a visual learner and want to know how to do something In cooking you tube has tons of great videos.

Real cooks know ratio's and are intimate with every facet of the ingredients they are working with. If you want to learn how to cook, for realz, go here http://ruhlman.com/, and check out his books as well. If you are really getting into cooking here this book will make you a better cook, and also a better person.

Books. Has he/she mentioned a cookbook or food reference book lately that he/she wants? Good cookbooks are awesome as gifts, since most cooks don't often have time to make it into a bookstore. Just as long as you get a good one (no Rachael Ray or Sandra Lee bullshit).

If your chef friend doesn't already have one of these books, any of these are a good gift:

Food Lover's Companion

On Food and Cooking

River Cottage Cookbook

French Laundry Cookbook

Also awesome, a subscription to Lucky Peach magazine.

What kind of restaurant/cuisine does your friend cook for? I have suggestions for more cookbooks if you want, but a little bit more information would be helpful.

Edit: Forgot to mention Art Culinaire, a hardback quarterly for chefs and cooks.

dude, read this: http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

One of the best things you can do is to train your palate. This way, when you taste something, you can figure out what's in it, and make it yourself if you want. It will also help you to learn what goes with what. For example, dill goes with salmon, lemon with raspberries, tomato with onion and cilantro or basil, etc. That kind of knowledge will help you to invent your own recipes which are catered directly to your tastes.

If you really want to know what makes food do what it does, I would recommend the following books:

• For general culinary science, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. It is one of the best books ever written which actually explains why things happen in the kitchen.
  
• I usually buy a copy of Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise for anyone who says they want to learn to cook. It is perfect for beginners and has lots of very useful recipes. If you watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats", you will see Ms. (or is is Dr.?) Corriher explaining some of the science.
  
• If you want to learn how to bake incredible cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible is indispensable, same for her Bread Bible and Pie and Pastry Bible. I rarely fuck up a cake now, and if I do, I know why. And her cake recipes are brilliant. From learning to make her chocolate butter cake, I also discovered the secret to making the BEST cup of chocolate ever. The aforementioned Ms. Corriher's BakeWise is also excellent for beginners.
  
• The Larousse Gastronomique is probably the most famous book on cuisine. It's an encyclopedia which contains pretty much every cooking term. It's a pretty high-level book, but it is the authority.
  
  Have fun with it! =)

It's not bro-science, it's the chemistry of cooking.

A good book on cooking and it's benefits is Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham.

This is from Chapter 3: The Energy Theory of Cooking, page 65
>Denaturation occurs when the internal bonds of a protein weaken, causing the molecule to open up. As a result, the protein molecule loses its original three-dimensional structure and therefore its natural biological function. The gastroenterologists noted the heat predictably denatures proteins, and that denatured protein are more digestible because their open structure exposes them to the action of digestive enzymes.

The gastroenterologists (digestive system scientists) mentioned here were specifically looking at egg protein digestion. On the preceding page of the above quote, these guys found that cooking egg whites increases the bio-availability of the protein by 40%.

Davies, et al. found that the protein in beef was 4 times more digestible when heated to 95^0 C for 20 minutes.

Another really good book on the effects and benefits of cooking is On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

As far as links, I don't really have any. But the Wikipedia pages on denaturation, cooking, and protein are all good places to start.

I'd recommend a few books on the general principles of food.


Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman - I highly recommend this one, because it will really break you out of following recipes instead of actually cooking.


On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee - This might be a little bit more involved, but again, you're learning the principles of food, not recipes.

These two books and a subscription to Cook's Illustrated will get you a long way.

I haven't read that one but I do have On Food and Cooking. I got it for my girlfriend who is a chem grad student and loves to cook. It's a really excellent reference book.

I had actually read about this in the book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. It's a great book (and a nice gift idea!) and may answer your future food-related questions. :)

Im not an expert but I would say poor ventilation is your issue. The humidity in ovens seem to very greatly. From what I have experienced, electric ovens tend to be completely dry, whereas propane or natural gas ovens have that little bit of humidity present. Gas ovens usually have those ports on the bottom on each side right above the burners and the vent is usually located in the back above the racks.

Also, I've seen better results with these ovens when cooking on a much higher heat.

Humidity is vital in bread baking for browning and crisping as well as other aspects of baking. There is a good book you can get that would it explain it in a more scientific way.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

I second Keller's Ad Hoc At Home. Probably #1 on my list.

Also huge props to Andy Ricker's Pok Pok cookbook. I've only dipped my toes into this world but it has already changed the way I look at cooking.

As a reference book, Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is invaluable.

Not indian but since you seem to actually care about food check out, On food and Cooking I have this book and it's amazing. I also have a friend going to the Portland culinary institute and he mentioned that ALL his professors recommend it.

It's not so much a cookbook, but it's a great book on cooking and the science behind it but I like On Food and Cooking

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

It's much more into the hows and whys of cooking than "this is how you make a creme brulee" but it's a cool reference. Alton Brown's books have a little bit more of the recipe + science.

For actual cooking tutorials, Julia Child probably does the best. It's a classic book for a reason.

Howard McGee's On Food and Cooking is indispensable.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
http://www.amazon.com/On-Food-Cooking-Science-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331916049&sr=1-1

It doesn't matter what kind of food she likes, this will apply. If she is wondering how mayonnaise binds together, this will explain why down to the molecular level. This is an indispensable resource.

If she doesn't have a copy of McGee, it is worth picking up. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with The Joy of Cooking.

Or, like BBallsagna said, anything by Rick Bayless.

My reference text was Harold McGee - On Food and Cooking

Sounds nice, but Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a bit more practical.

Gastronomique is an incredible resource for all pretty much anything edible.

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is also a great resource but is more like a text book than a cook book.

The Ideas in Food books are pretty good too.

I guess I've been leaning more towards "educational" type reading lately (opposed to recipe tomes). Ratio is also very good. Does reddit like Ruhlman?

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

One of the worlds foremost experts on food science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_McGee

His book is a fantastic reference to have if you like to cook: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

I think that's still being debated. There are lots of misinformation regarding nutrition out there. In general there is no need to be concern about little things too much as long as you are eating various types of food. Not all kinds of heating with food is bad, there's a reason why our ancestors discovered cooked meat.

Cooking is chemistry. When you heat food up the main thing it does is that it's unfolding the protein in food. If you're interested in the break down on cooking and food perhaps you would be interested in this book.

If you haven't read/studied [Harold McGee] (https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537944622&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking+harold+mcgee), that'll set you up with a solid foundation for knowledge.

As for skills, that's on you to practice. Definitely subscribe to quality content from quality sources that help keep the passion alive and learn from that. Buzzfeed Tasty is probably the best way to injure yourself over mediocre slop if you were to mimic them (Although I think I've seen one set of hands use a knife safe and proper.)

From this book:

Adding salt and vinegar to the cooking water, for example, does speed
coagulation, but it also produces shreds and an irregular film over the egg surface.

Also heard Heston Blumenthal saying that you shouldnt swirl and/or add stuff the the poaching water.

^ This. Especially tweaking recipes, that's where I started. Just make a substitution, add a little bit of some spice, switch the fat you're using. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend this book, especially if you are science-minded (as a chemical engineer, it's awesome to make connections from stuff I learned in class to the kitchen)

The Food Lab is a fantastic book!

Also love On Food & Cooking by Harold Mcgee

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

Overall there are whole books written about this, MIT has a course too. So there's a lot more to say about it than could be possibly be stated here.

As for your specific question:

> Is there a chemical difference between boiling on high until 12oz of liquid has evaporated?

It depends on what's in your stock, but there definitely is. Now, as long as the thing is boiling in an open container, the temperature will remain at (or near) the boiling point. So the only real difference there is that with more liquid, you'll be holding it at the boiling temperature for longer.

In some situations, you need to cook things for a long time (e.g. tough meats like brisket require a long cooking to gelatinize the collagen fibers). But heat also tends destroy many compounds that give flavor (and nutrition, e.g. vitamin C is quite temperature-sensitive). So most cooking utilizes either lower temperatures over longer periods or hotter temperatures under short ones.

In some cases, I think bringing things to a boil, adding ingredients, and then letting boil slowly, is really more a way to control the temperature and cooking time, since the temperature will remain constant at the boiling point. For instance, I doubt that anything special happens with pasta at 100 C that requires it to be cooked in boiling water rather than say, 60-70 C. It's just that it takes longer at a lower temperature, and it's more difficult to gauge and maintain the lower temperature, making the cooking time more unpredictable.

Chemical reactions proceed more quickly at higher temperatures. But it's not a linear relationship, and different reactions have rates with a different temperature-dependence. So for more complicated cooking processes, it's not a simple trade-off between temperature and cooking speed. You also have to take into account the fact that things don't get evenly heated in most cooking. You might cook a roast in the oven at 180 C (the external temperature), but the temperature of the innermost parts wouldn't usually exceed 70-80 C or so. (or you've overcooked it)

I like Ad Hoc At Home for relatively simple food done very well. It will help teach you to respect good ingredients while opening your eyes to some interesting flavor combinations.

I also have On Food and Cooking, which is dense but will teach you about food so that when you do pick up a "super fancy" recipe you may have a chance of actually understanding what the chef is doing and why.

And, of course, there's Ruhlman's Twenty, which is also very informative but is much more accessible than On Food and Cooking.

continued

Homemade Soda by Andrew Schloss

Mix Shake Stir: Recipes from Danny Meyer's Acclaimed New York City Restaurants compiled by Danny Meyer

Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2010 by Jim Murray

And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis

Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, Revised by Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron

Great Beer Guide: 500 Classic Brews by Michael Jackson

Old Mr. Boston DeLuxe Official Bartender's Guide 4th Edition

The Seasonal Cocktail Companion: 100 Recipes and Projects for Four Seasons of Drinking by Maggie Savarino

The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks by Dale Degroff

Iconic Spirits: An Intoxicating History by Mark Spivak

Bottom Row:

The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil

Absinthe, Sip of Seduction: A Contemporary Guide by Betina Wittels & Robert Hermesch

The Complete Bartender: Art of Mixing Plain and Fancy Drinks by Albert Barnes (Espresso Book Machine Reprint)

Michael Jackson's Beer Companion by Michael Jackson

The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

Food & Wine Cocktails 2013 edited by Jim Meehan

Food & Wine Cocktails 2012 edited by Jim Meehan

Food & Wine Cocktails 2011 edited by Jim Meehan

The Craft of the Cocktail: Everything You Need to Know to be a Master Bartender, with 500 Recipes by Dale DeGroff

Cocktail Techniques by Kazuo Uyeda

Shake, Stir, Pour: Fresh Homegrown Cocktails by Katie Loeb

Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis by Kingsley Amis

Tequila: A Traditional Art of Mexico edited by Alberto Ruy Sanchez & Magarita de Orellana

The New York Times Book of Wine: More than 30 Years of Vintage Writing edited by Howard G. Goldberg (pre-release copy)

The Northern California Craft Beer Guide by Ken Weaver

A Field Guide to Hendrick's Gin

The Oxford Companion to Beer edited by Garrett Oliver

The Book of Gin: A Spirited World History from Alchemists' Stills and Colonial Outposts to Gin Palaces, Bathtub Gin, and Artisanal Cocktails by Richard Barnett (pre-release copy)

Modern American Drinks: How to Mix and Serve All Kinds of Cups, Cocktails, and Fancy Mixed Drinks by George J. Kappeler (Espresso Book Machine Printing)

Edible Cocktails: From Garden to Glass - Seasonal Cocktails with a Fresh Twist by Natalie Bovis

Straight Up or On the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail by William Grimes

Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World's Craft Brewing Revolution by Joshua M. Bernstein

The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock

Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast's Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home by Sam Calagione

Wine for Dummies by Ed McCarthy & Mary Ewing-Mulligan

Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass by Randy Mosher

Not Pictured:

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

Craft Cocktails at Home: Offbeat Techniques, Contemporary Crowd-Pleasers, and Classics Hacked with Science by Kevin Liu

Beachbum Berry Remixed by Jeff Berry

How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well by Eric Felten

Let me know if you have any questions about any of the books.

It's difficult to tell exactly what you're after, but perhaps this might fit the bill. Check the description and the reviews, even the related books. As a professional cook, I consider it both essential and easy to understand.

Mcgee on food and cooking is a great source of information on ingredients and the chemistry and physics behind techniques.

I'm not Italian, but I know Italian-American chefs who swear by it. I've cooked some of the recipes and they were great, however steer clear of the baking section, something happened in the translation or something (at least in the edition I used) because the baking recipes are useless.

The Silver Spoon is also my favorite Italian cookbook :))

Well, if you own a grill, then go get some steaks, chicken pieces, fish, etc.. I recommend this book. I also like to grill veggies such as asparagus, squash, and zucchini. That book will show you how. Also check out /r/grilling and /r/bbq.

A crock pot will allow you to do a simple roast or chicken, but its not necessary. Check out /r/slowcooking.

if you insist on a book and/or are new to outdoor cooking in general this book is worth its weight in gold. it is a bit redundant with the how to light the grill instructions but it is a great book with very detailed explanations and lots of pictures

http://www.amazon.com/How-Grill-Complete-Illustrated-Techniques/dp/0761120149/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1416502421&sr=8-5&keywords=steven+raichlen

The Bible

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836

I was vegetarian for almost 8 years. This was very upsetting to my carnivorous hunting family. They saw it as an act of rebellion and the "big" city I moved to changing me. The reality for me was: factory farmed meat disgusted me, both on the ethical and quality levels. I quit all meat and dedicated myself to an extremely balanced and healthy eating lifestyle.

If you are willing to cook for yourself and try new things, you should never have to worry about your food choices as a vegetarian. "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" by Mark Bittman is a fantastic and EXTREMELY thorough cookbook that walks you through the A-Z of vegetarian/vegan eating without being too complex or condescending. Especially if you locally source your tofo and produce, you can take care of yourself quite well without meat. Another great book (ignore the stupid hype-y praise on the outer covers, it does actually have a lot of good info) is "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrmen, it breaks down a lot of what is in basic foods and underscores the protein/fiber richness a lot of common veggies have.

With all that said, especially after my chickens started laying eggs, I realized I wanted meat in my diet. So, I turned to my family members that still hunt and get fresh/pristinely-sourced/humane meat and split the cost of a pig that lived a happy life from time to time.

I think what is vastly more important than what people end up eating is how they eat it and how mindful they are. Up until the 1950s, it was common to have backyard chickens for eggs and/or meat as well as shared access to a cow or backyard goats for milk. I am grateful to live in a city where this is becoming common again.

Best of luck with eating. :-)

Find a good vegetarian cookbook. Two fantastic ones for vegetarians are How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman, and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. Both of them have tons of recipes which don't use fake meat or processed ingredients.

If you're serious about reducing or avoiding all animal products, you might want to look for a good vegan cookbook as well. I like the Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Romano. It's good because it covers a huge range of dishes, and if there something you're especially craving (like Sloppy Joes or Chicken Pot Pie) you can usually find a reasonable analogue.

I'm basically vegetarian for practical reasons when I eat with friends or at restaurants, and vegan when I cook for myself at home. If you're going to be relearning how to cook without meat, I've found it's really pretty easy to take the extra step and cut out dairy and eggs as well.

Try your local library, they probably have a few vegetarian cookbooks. This is one that I have used: http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836 by Mark Bittman

Good on you for deciding to make a healthy change! Definitely check out the /r/EatCheapAndHealthy/ sub. It's a kind and helpful group that routinely gives great tips and recipes.

If you're just starting out, investing in a basic cookbook is an excellent way to learn cooking skills at your own pace. I'd get one that starts with boiling eggs and such basics, then progresses to simple recipes. How to Cook Everything: The Basics and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian are good ones, both by Mark Bittman. Another good resource is BudgetBytes.com.

Also, you might do some reading up on meal planning. IMO, it's just as important as the cooking and eating.

Buy this book: Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" [amazon page]

It alone has nudged my frustration with my girlfriend's vegetarianism up into appreciation levels.

Just a couple of links to help you out.
The stonesoup has great (mostly) 5 ingredient recipes and can be easily made vegetarian.
I highly recommend How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and Appetite for Reduction for simple, basic recipes.
Also, quesadillas are a great, quick meal on a stove. If you're looking for a good vegan recipe, these Smoky White Bean Quesadillas are awesome and can be made easily without a food processor.
And this Easy Breezy Cheezy Sauce (scroll down) is delicious, cheap and easy with pasta or steamed veggies. I had a kitchen this size when I studied abroad in France a couple years ago and it can be done. You just have to learn to be creative. :) Good luck!

I like the idea of being a weekday vegetarian, or at least making sure that meat dishes are special enough to remember. I first heard of that idea from a TED talk by the founder of Treehugger. Anyway, that talk got me to get Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and it's looking like it's got some good recipes. Bittman, opens by saying he's not trying to tell anybody what to eat. I like his idea of not having to have one "main" dish, but rather to have several savory vegetable dishes that compliment each other.

Weirdly, I know how to bake (though I can barely boil an egg... I know how to boil water, but my eggs always come out funky for some reason. ugh.). My grandmother taught me. I even know how to leave out ingredients (a lot of the time anyway). So, I guess that is something I can be proud of. My main challenge with baking right now is collecting recipes that I like. Unfortunately, my moderate ability in baking hasn't translated into cooking for me.

I have a cookbook too that I work with, though I am realizing that I don't love it. I suspect that I may have to test out a few books before I find one where I really like the recipes. So far the internet has been more helpful to me than Mr. Bittman... I like allrecipes.com too!

Good for you!

A few cook books I would recommend are compendium types. They are not good for keto, but they have recipes for everything, so if you don't have experience, you can find lots of possibilities.

The Joy of Cooking

How to Cook Everything

The Good Eats Compendiums 1, 2, & 3.

And we use Cooks Illustrated magazine more than anything.

My bookshelf for cooking includes:

• The Flavor Bible
  
• Professional Cooking
  
  I am well beyond your average home cook but I hate dealing with the cleaning up, I'm not cooking for anyone but myself and dealing with getting groceries is just a pain & a combination of laziness on my part.

For a non-cook, I think a good place to start is a vegetarian or vegan cookbook. Meat's pretty easy to cook. Vegetables take more technique. Just practice! :)

You don't have knives? Buy this knife. There are lots of great, expensive knives that you'll never need (I have a few). This one is the best, if you ignore the blade-heads out there who don't spend less than $150 on a knife.

Do you have a Crockpot? The most inexpensive cuts of meat require long cook times, and a slow cooker will knock that out while you're at work. If there are only two of you, a 2-qt. Crockpot runs $15.


Do some reading on paleo fats. Fat is what will keep you running throughout the day.

Enjoy your kitchen!

Boiling the potatoes whole is the only way to make mashed potatoes. It traps in all the flavor and prevents the potatoes from getting all water logged. I read in The New Best Recipe cookbook (which I totally recommend cause they have experimented with foods and found the absolutely best way to cook most standard dishes), I've never peeled a raw potato since!

I usually tell people to check out How to Cook Without a Book. It has some recipes, but it's more about giving readers a better understanding of techniques, how to put something together from what you already have on hand, and what things you should just keep around at all times because of their usefulness. As opposed to a lot of books I've seen that give a list of things to buy which will then need to be prepped with tools you might not have.

edit: If you got money to spend and really dig the art and science of cooking there is also Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. At just under $550 USD it's the most expensive and most beautiful cookbook I've ever seen.

If you have an extra $450 to spend. I would greatly recommend this book: Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking

http://amzn.com/0982761007

(Or just search the internet cause that shit is expensive!)

EDIT: Awesome making of video: http://vimeo.com/24902737

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: Modernist Cuisine at Home


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|




This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

If she loves trying to cook tasty food and is at all technical then there is nothing better than the Modernist Cuisine book. A huge tome of recipes, skills, techniques and amazing photography.

http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015

It is pricey, but worth it. Check the reviews.

Fingers crossed for the key! Liking your stuff.

This book is awesome --> http://www.amazon.com/Moosewood-Cookbook-Katzens-Classic-Cooking/dp/1580081304/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398378500&sr=8-2&keywords=moosewood+cookbook

i started with this and i am still going

For that kinda cash, I'd rather get this

Like I said, if your just doing this at home then don't worry about it. But if you want to be the best cook you can be (and why wouldn't you) then following the tiny rules and suggestion adds up to a better, more consistent product.

That said, what your saying is not totally correct, the comment I linked is about there being no reason to ever salt them before they go into the pan and that since the water retention is higher, the eggs will cook faster allowing you make your eggs actually lighter and fluffier because you can reduce the time the eggs spend on the burner. Infact the comment directly stated that its better for omelette (really it's just better for everything). OPs omelettes are tough because their heat is too low, although that's not what the top comment is saying.

Source: I've made thousands of omelettes and thousands more different egg dishes. I do the best I can.

Infact talking about this so much made me make myself one just to make sure I wasn't getting something wrong and, it was a damn fine omelette. Little hole in the middle but you just serve that side down on the plate :)

Second source : I own the book, everyone should own this book.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0684800012/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511870140&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=on+food+and+cooking+harold+mcgee