Best culinary arts & techniques books according to redditors
We found 3,117 Reddit comments discussing the best culinary arts & techniques books. We ranked the 664 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 3,117 Reddit comments discussing the best culinary arts & techniques books. We ranked the 664 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
This book actually became a bit of a meme a few years back because it's so sad and she talks about her husbands death and such which spawned the idea for the book.
Subsequently it sent the prices of the book on Amazon and such skyrocketing (at least for a book) at the time.
Here's the amazon link where you can find some humours reviews on it.
There is a lot of technique advice in here, which is all well and good. But these are all really basic things.
First, buy these two books:
http://www.cookingforgeeks.com/
and
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=pd_sim_b_3
Cooking is chemistry and art. It is chemistry not just in mixing things, but in how meat is cooked, and veggies brown. Those two books present the science of cooking, basic techniques, as well as some very advanced techniques. For the reddit crowd, they're perfect.
Learn what temperatures oils smoke at. (Smoke means turn dark and start smoking... oil at this point tastes nasty and makes whatever you're cooking in it disgusting.)
Learn how much fat by weight is in butter, margarine, sour cream, cream cheese, etc. Learn how much moisture is in each. These factors affect how they affect your recipe. So if you replace them, you will have different results.
A key example of this is cookies.
A very basic cookie recipe is 1 part sugar: 2 parts fat: 3 parts flour.
So this means 1 tablespoon of sugar to two tablespoons of butter to three tablespoons of flour. Adjusting this ratio in minute ways produces dramatically different cookies.
Add a bit more fat(in poppyseeds which are 75% fat by volume, and the fat renders out in the oven...) and the cookies become creamier.
Add some more flour, and they become stiffer.
Add more sugar and they become gooey.
Change the butter to lard, and it will be like increasing the fat.
Spices are volatile and under heat, they break down. So for stuff that is cooked for a long time, add the spices at the very end of the cook time.
Understand the physics of heating things. When you apply heat from the outside in, this creates a heat gradient. The length of time you apply the heat is how the meat becomes cooked. This is how you can burn a steak and still have it be raw in the center. It takes time for that heat to move, especially in thick steaks.
Learn the science behind techniques, and you will become a better cook. For example, to make a clear carrot-based stock, don't expose it to sunlight. Or, duck confit: the fat molecules are too big to get into the meat so all you're really doing is dry-cooking the meat with an efficient heat conductor. Cartilage and connective tissue turn to gelatin under heat and moisture. Absent moisture, the connective tissue becomes brittle.
My favorite recipe I made using science I learned:
Three day roast beef or: Pulled Beef.
-Marinate the roast in a 1:3 ratio of acids and oils. Only hot spices will be absorbed by the meat at this point, like pepper or garlic. Onion is too delicate. Do this for 24 hours in the fridge.
-Braise for another 8 hours on low in low-salt beef stock. Add some wine, shallots, carrots, garlic, and other spices. I like using dry mustard at this point for an added accent to the meat.
-Let the roast cool and chill in the fridge overnight. Reserve and chill the braising stock for gravy.
-Preheat oven to 300f
-Roast the beef for about 3-4 hours or until the center is hot.
-The braising stock will now have solidified lumps of beef fat floating on top. Use these with an equal amount of flour to make a basic roux. Brown the roux on medium, and add the braising stock on high, stirring vigorously. Add as much or as little stock as you need to the gravy. The gravy will thicken as the water boils off.
-Serve with side dishes such as roasted potatoes in thyme and rosemary.
What this does is produces fully cooked and flavourful beef, which retains its shape(isn't soggy), but is never tough to chew. This is because the cartilage has become gelatin, and chilling it overnight sets the gelatin. The gelatin helps the beef hold its shape, but is significantly less chewy than the original connective tissue.
Learn how to make basic sauces. Every sauce has as its base, a roux. Roux is basically a mixture of flour and oil, and browned or not browned. Add your desired liquid (1 tablespoon of flour = 1 cup of liquid) and stir.
Dairy will form a 'scum' if you heat at too high of a temperature. This is the origin of the word 'scum'. So heat it at low temperatures, with lots of stirring.
Always sear your meat on a very hot pan before you roast or broil your meat. This produces thousands of amazingly tasting chemicals that will add some flavour to your end result.
You rest your meat because its like a vessel of water under pressure. Heat = pressure. As the pressure lets off, the juices settle and won't squirt out as soon as you cut the meat. This ensures your meat will stay moist and flavourful.
Also: FIRST POST ON REDDIT.
Possibly the best review of the book by Kyle Kruczek.
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques (La Technique and La Methode in one book)
http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Pépins-Complete-Techniques-Pépin/dp/1579121659/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1404590318&sr=8-7&keywords=jacques+pepin
EDIT: Added title
I would go with things that start looking at techniques or at "why things happen."
Books I'd recommend:
I'm Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown
Cooking School published by America's Test Kitchen
And of course Jacques Pepin's Essential Techniques. The ebook is particularly nice.
One thing I liked a lot at that age was vintage cookbooks. The pictures in something like The Cooky Book were downright magical.
While those are amazing, you should check out the reviews for the book OP linked:
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
> "I originally bought this book as part of my suicide plans."
You don't hate healthy food, you just haven't found ways to eat healthy that you like. Look, I used to feel exactly the same. Then I got myself some cook books and learned how to cook beyond the "college" level (ie very rudimentary cooking skills).
It sounds old fashioned, but buy some cook books. Eating healthy does NOT have to mean (and shouldnt mean) eating boring, bland food. I have been eating quite a healthy balanced diet lately, but it doesn't suck and I enjoy everything I eat because I cooked it and it tastes really good. I am a pretty proficient cook now because I've learned enough from cook books that I can create something tasty on my own if I want to. But for the most part, I'd say I still follow recipes very frequently, mostly because a) I know it will turn out really well unless I royally screw up like forget an ingredient an b) I'm not that creative when it comes to meal planning - I'd prefer to flip through my cook books and pick out new recipes to try for dinner this week.
If you do take my advice and go the route of cook books, I will make a few suggestions below. You will notice that all of them are America's Test Kitchen. There's a reason I suggest mostly their books--they are totally idiot proof. Their recipes are thoroughly tested (it IS americas TEST kitchen after all...) They rarely have recipes that call for unusual or hard to find ingredients, and rarely call for unique appliances (like, most people probably do not have an immersion blender). Their recipes are very simple (I've come across a lot of books from other publishers that have incredibly drawn-out steps, or just countless steps, or a lot of unusual ingredients) and easy to follow, and they also include brief scientific explanations for something about every single recipe (example, why you would want to brown your butter when making chocolate chip cookies) which I have always found interesting, and theyre meant to help you build your knowledge in how to cook --ie its often concepts that can be applied elsewhere.
ATK/Cooks Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking
ATK Cooking School
ATK's The Make-Ahead Cook - great if youre into meal prepping
ATK Cooking for Two - great if you are alone or just cooking for yourself and significant other, and dont like having leftovers
ATK Comfort Food Makeovers - turns traditionally unhealthy foods into healthy meals
ATK Slow Cooker Revolution - if you have a crock pot, you NEED this book. I've made a ton of recipes out of here and every single one has come out great.
They have a ton of books out there, many of them for specific things (pressure cooker, paleo, gluten free, vegetarian, mexican recipes, etc.) but you may be saying, "Hmm, none of those books said "Health cooking/eating healthy/buzzwords about health" - they dont need to say that. Quite a lot of their recipes are generally healthy. I haven't encountered many things (outside the dessert chapters, that is) that I've said "oh, I don't think I ought to eat that, it's just not healthy" --but if youre a bit narrow minded in terms of what constitutes a healthy meal (and I find that is common with people who struggle to eat a healthy diet--this is because they think there's a very small amount of "healthy" foods out there) , then maybe these books arent for you. But if you mostly eat intuitively, and know that you should be getting a decent amount of vegetables and fruits in your daily diet, and a good amount of protein, and not an overwhelming amount of starch and net carbs, then youre golden. Get yourself a cook book and learn to cook. Once you eat food that's been properly seasoned and cooked, youll realize that eating asparagus doesn't have to be a boring, unpalatable experience. Brussels sprouts don't have to be awful. I used to hate brussel sprouts...until I had properly roasted sprouts. Holy shit, they are good!!! Peas can be tasty! Baked chicken breast doesn't have to taste bland and dry as hell if you learn about brining, seasoning, and proper cooking times.
TLDR - eating healthy doesnt have to mean eating bland food. You admit your cooking skills are rudimentary, so it's no surprise you are not enthused when you try to make something healthy. A lot of "healthy" foods (veggies, etc) are bland when you don't properly season them or pick the right cooking method. Get yourself a cook book or two and learn how to cook. You won't have a hard time eating something you previously thought unpalatable--like filling half your dinner plate with brussels sprouts and broccoli--when it's seasoned and properly cooked!
It is from a book called "Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman.
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/
It's better than this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882894560?tag=microwcookinforo
>-microwave cooking for one
This exists, by the way.
Here's my list of gift ideas! Mostly stuff I own and love:
EDIT: I guess I'm overflowing with gift ideas today, here are some more:
This is a fascinating question that's beyond the expertise of, well, me, but I shan't let that stop me.
There are nutritional benefits to cooking. See e.g. How Cooking Made Us Human which argues compellingly that cooking was necessary for human development. Cooking neutralizes phytic acid and oxalic acid, both of which bind to iron/calcium in many vegetables and make them nutritionally unavailable. Ditto raw eggs--avidin in the egg binds to biotin (a b vitamin) and makes it unavailable; cooking makes it available.
Compare to vitamin c, and a number of other good things, that are unavailable after cooking but are before.
So will you lose vitamin content by cooking? Absolutely. Will you lose vitamin content by not cooking? Bet your bottom dollar you will. What to do? As the roughest of rough guidelines, my thinking is this: fruits are literally designed to be eaten, so eat them raw if you're after nutritional value. Some vegetables are not keen (in the evolutionary sense) on being eaten and have evolved to encourage people not to eat them, so cook them some and eat them raw some.
There is an excellent essay from J. Steingarten in The Man who Ate Everything on this topic if you'd like further reading.
Generally, cooked vegetables will be better for you, nutritionally, than no vegetables at all, so go to town.
Say no more fam. I only hope it means as much to you as it has meant to me.
I have tried to use the application a few times. From my experience, it seems limited. I think as more information is added you will begin to see more depth.
If you are interested in flavor pairings I suggest you check out the book Culinary Artistry. It has a huge sample of flavor pairings. It is a great book that is easy to navigate.
https://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Artistry-Andrew-Dornenburg/dp/0471287857/ref=nodl_
Ruhlman's Twenty!
http://www.amazon.ca/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438
www.amazon.ca/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/0882894560/
I think I know what you're looking for
Thanks, but I'll stick with microwave cooking for one
There's a great book called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham that's primarily about the hypothesis that it was our ability to cook food that drove our evolutionary development as early humans, not our hunting ability to eat additional meat. In addition to providing a compelling case for this, he also brings together a bunch of disparate studies to almost accidentally prove a side case: that calories in, calories out is only part of the equation. An important one, but not the only one.
One examples I remember clearly from the book were a standard experimental/control set of rats. They were given food which had the same calorie count, but one of them was hard pellets, and the other one was a "puffed" version of the food; think cold rice versus unsugared rice krispies. Both sets of rats finished all of the food, but the puffed food rats gained weight while the unpuffed did not.
Similarly, a dietary experiment that wanted to look at the effects of eating a raw food diet vs. a regular diet was attempted. The experimental and control groups were served the same food, including olive oil, spices, etc. but the control group's food was cooked, while the experimental group's food was unprepared. It was meant to take place over the course of a few months if memory serves (I haven't read the book in years), but had to be cut short after a matter of a few weeks as the raw food group lost more weight than was considered safe.
Our way of measuring the number of calories in food is grossly inadequate. And from the studies that have been performed, which unfortunately are few and far between as most food research is done by the companies that make the food, even when we measure the calories int he food, we're often not actually measuring how easily our body processes and stores those calories.
Calories in, calories out is a good place to start. But saying that's all there is to it is like answering the question "how do birds fly," with "by flapping their wings." It's accurate, but also insufficient, as it ignores their lighter bone structure, aerodynamic qualities, etc. And expecting someone to lose weight just by watching calories without also changing the types of food they eat is often about as useful as expecting someone to fly by strapping on ersatz wings and flapping their arms.
The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook
Hi! Proportions depends on your body and your goals. Here's a typical grocery list in my house:
PROTEIN
CARB
FATS
RESOURCES
MEAL IDEAS
TIPS
That's a lot of info, I got a little carried away. Sorry.
Baby steps. Start with whatever. When you find yourself dreading your meals, spice it up. If meal prep stresses you out figure out how to make it easier (that's how I learned about shredding chicken with a mixer). When you falter (you will) figure out what went wrong and how you can improve.
also, Michael Ruhlman's Ratio
This may be useful as well.
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques and Larousse Gastronomique are both great resources for classical dishes and techniques. Much of classical French cooking is based around stocks and sauces (the 5 mother sauces, and their extensions) and finesse in cooking, i.e. precise cuts, elaborate platings, etc. Something like cooking a french omelet, a piece of fish a la meuniere (get real french and do it with skate wing or dover sole), or if you're into pastry, a simple pâte à choux or genoise, are good starting recipes. With those two books and a few recipes to practice should get you started.
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500
Maybe it's carbon steel. But yeah, it's hard to watch as I also assumed nonstick. This is my favorite technique video of his (his book New Complete Techniques is also a must purchase).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku5p1CcGn70&user=TopSecretPt
Edit: Misremembered the name of the book.
I could keep going but I should stop. So many great ones out there.
I cannot recommend this book enough:
https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cooking-School-Cookbook/dp/1936493527
It's practically a "behind the scenes" book on how the devs implemented the skill and reward system. And it has LOTS of really helpful pictures!
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cooking-Two-Cookbook/dp/1936493837/
My husband and I have a lot of cookbooks, but this one is probably our go-to. Along with great recipes (America's Test Kitchen recipes are virtually foolproof), it's got a great section about shopping for two and storage solutions.
Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is terrific. Highly recommended.
Pie in the sky. Joy of Cooking.
Realistic between time and bankroll. A man a plan a can and it's follow up
Edit parentheses can suck it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498696601&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=microwave+cooking+for+one&dpPl=1&dpID=51KJKZ01YZL&ref=plSrch
I got this one: "Microwave Cooking for One" for my son for a gag gift.
He said I was savage.
But the Amazon reviews made me larf.
I'm the same way. Have you ever read Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food"? It's all about food sciencey stuff, not just recipes.
Holy smokes! I almost didn't send my Dunkelweizen in, because I didn't think it was very good.
Here are all the details about the two winners, in case anyone is curious (I can also post this somewhere else, too):
Anyway, the recipes:
Walla Walla, Wallonia (Saison)
Fermentables:
Hops/Boil:
90 min mash at 147F
60 min boil
Yeast: Danstar Belle Saison
Water Profile: Bru'n Water Yellow Balanced
Der Onkel (Dunkelweizen)
Fermentables:
Hops/Boil:
60 min mash at 152F
60 min boil
Yeast: Safbrew WB-06
Water Profile: Bru'n Water Brown Full
If anyone has any questions, let me know. What a great competition!
Jimmy
The Joy of Cooking a classic cookbook that never goes out of date. I learned to cook with my mother's copy.
I can't believe Joy Of Cooking has not been mentioned yet. This book (I have a 10 year old copy) is my go to reference for almost anything I ever want to know how to cook and any ingredient I want to learn how to use.
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.
There's a cookbook built around this mode of learning to cook (though he uses "techniques" instead of "skills").
Michael Ruhlman's Twenty. I cannot recommend it – and anything else he's written – enough.
Microwave cooking for one
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/0882894560
He published a newer version of the book with color images and some new techniques.
Link to the book on Amazon
Get yourself a copy of Brewing Classic Styles - it's full of tried and tested award winning beers.
I'm a very visual learner, so I got good by watching Julia Child. She regularly peppers her shows with advice about how to get good at something, and how to customise a recipe when things go wrong, or when you want to switch things up a bit. She's got a decidedly French leaning, but French food is a very good place to start anyway. The full set of DVDs of The French Chef can get had for about $50 from ebay.
There's an episode where she was featuring four recipes for potatoes. She was trying to make a potato cake type of thing. She'd added plenty of butter to the pan, and threw in the boiled lightly crushed potatoes. She didn't let it set for a very long time, but tried to flip the whole thing over in one piece. Half of it ended up on the stove. Without skipping a beat, she scooped it off the stove, threw it back in the pan, and said the iconic line "When you're alone in the kitchen, who's going to see?" She then proceeded to dump it into a dish, throw in a load of cream and a few cubes of cheese, and instructed you to let it hang out under the broiler so that it gets bubbly and crisped up. She mentioned that you shouldn't ever apologise for how something came out, and just carry on as if that new thing is what you'd intended all along.
Whenever she had the ability to do so, she'd show you how to do something from scratch, including how to filet a fish, how to separate out a whole chicken, and how to break down larger steaks into serving sized portions. And, because you're watching her do it all for you, you get an idea of what it is you're looking for, step by step.
Another great resource (although their recipes are white, and tend towards the bland) is America's Test Kitchen's TV Show cookbook. On the show itself, they don't go into technique very much, but they certainly do so in the book. There are large, colourful pictures about how each step of the cooking process should look, and hundreds of recipes to try out. They thoroughly test out each recipe repeatedly, using tools that the average home cook will have access to, and taste test the results. It's an excellent resource to have on hand. You can generally find it used for about $20.
If you're curious to try out baking your own bread, I cannot highly recommend enough Bread by Eric Treuille.
https://www.amazon.com/Bread-Eric-Treuille/dp/1409352722/
It has HUGE full colour photos of the final product, and lots of foundational advice about the art of baking bread. They discuss various flours, how to combine them into an existing recipe, and the effects they have on the final loaf. It's one that I turn to whenever I have a craving for home made bread, and it's never lead me wrong.
If you want SOLID advice about how to quickly build up your cooking repertoire, Mike Ruhlman's Ratio is your best bet.
https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/
He realised that most basic recipes can be broken down into ratios, so that if you need to scale up or scale down, you can do so very quickly. His technique to teach you how to get comfortable with ratios is very good.
Another EXCELLENT place to start learning to build your own recipes is Julia's Kitchen Wisdom.
https://www.amazon.com/Julias-Kitchen-Wisdom-Essential-Techniques/dp/0375711856/
She gives some basic techniques on foundational recipes, and then tells you how to tweak the recipes to work with whatever you've got on hand. It's less a by the books recipe compendium, and more of a philosophical understanding of how recipes work, and what flavours should go together.
Speaking of flavour. Get The Flavour Bible by Karen Page.
https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400/
There are hundreds of ingredients, and the things that go well with them. Instead of giving you a recipe, it gives you ideas of things to combine together, so that they go together in delicious ways.
If you are going to get a ruler, go ahead and get a kitchen ruler:
https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-Culinary-Rules-Mini/dp/B00DT1XYDM/
It's small, but it has a TON of great information on it. Very useful to gauge whether or not you're hitting your marks for whatever size you're aiming for.
I personally like books by Ruhlman like techniques or ratio they aren't too chefy for me and are easy to read.
This is not a rule of SWPL cuisine, it's a rule of cuisine. Fat, acid and salt are the three things that make everything taste better. Acid and salt in particular are good at making other flavors more apparent.
This book is infuriatingly twee but discusses the subject well:
https://smile.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830?sa-no-redirect=1
Joy of Cooking
How to Cook Everything
The Art of Simple Food
Joy of Cooking will provide you a solid foundation.
I'm going to go another route and recommend How to Cook Without a Book because it helped me finally get into cooking. It's geared towards the home cook and teaches you easy recipe 'blueprints', and gives you examples of how you can adjust them to create a variety of dishes. There is nothing too fancy or advanced here, but it gives an insight into how these dishes work and how you can play with them.
For example, one chapter is just about frittatas. First it teaches the basics of how to make one, and then has a bunch of different frittata recipes (bacon & onions, zucchini & mozzarella, spinach & sausage, potatoes & artichoke hearts, etc) with notes on how to adjust the recipe to incorporate the various fillings. Another chapter I still reference often is the one on a roast chicken dinner. Again it outlines the basics first, and then gives you recipes for breaded dijon, rosemary lemon, BBQ, and tandoori chicken all cooked using the same technique.
I know it's not exactly what you're asking for, but it really helped me build enough confidence in my cooking so that I could start improvising more in the kitchen and take on more advanced techniques.
Also, youtube helped a lot.
More of a general suggestion for cooking, but I highly "How to Cook Without a Book". It breaks down types of foods into groups by type/method, and then presents a basic "recipe" for how to do it. For example, it shows you the method behind how to make a basic stir fry or a stew, and then all you have to do is plug your seasonal ingredients into the equation, you don't need to go searching for a specific recipe anymore. More of a "teach a man to fish" approach to cooking.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793
Alton Brown's Good Eats series give explanations, not sure of his other but apparently the I'm Just Here for the Food is also in that format.
I like Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff, provides some good baseline recipies to build upon and refer back to.
Ratio is the book about this that many cooks/bakers I know recommend. Developing your taste is just a matter of experience and paying attention. Start by making easy things with a few ingredients you like from scratch and get more complicated from there.
You’re going to need this...
Culinary Artistry really helped me as a young chef, helping to put together flavors that compliment as well as contrast. Highly reccomend http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0471287857
YES. I love referencing the flavor bible whenever I feel stuck on what components I need to add to really unify a dish. I should probably keep it in my knife kit! That book and Culinary Artistry really changed the way I approach food and techniques as a whole.
$250 certainly is not a huge food budget. Depending on how you feel about cooking, you can certainly work with it.
I recommend you look around at various food and cooking subreddits that take budget into consideration. We're talking EatCheapAndHealthy, not FoodPorn. Look at appealing and approachable recipes for common ingredients. If you cook those sorts of recipes, those common ingredients will be staples in your fridge & cabinets.
A few ideas:
On a related tangent, these are some sources that massively improved my cooking abilities. They might be useful to you, since you mention staying out of the kitchen.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat is so great at teaching you about the whys and hows of cooking instead of just giving you a recipe. It's my favorite one.
How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson is another great one.
​
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".
Ad Hoc at Home.
http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774
Brewing Classic Styles
or pick up a recipe kit. I like Austin Homebrew's kits.
Someone I know is a really good cook and an avid baker, so when I was lamenting my inability to cook (without recipes), he recommend three books: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking,
The Laws of Cooking: And How to Break Them, and especially Craig Claiborne's Kitchen Primer. :) I only have the last one thus far, but it's great, and I'm hoping to get the others soon.
Also known as cooking by ratios. Ruhlman's ratios comes highly recommended.
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.
As an avid cook and collector of cookbooks, I have three recommendations -
The first two will teach you the essentials of cooking. How salt, fat, acid, and heat work together to make delicious food. J Kenji Lopez Alt has a popular serious eats blog and his book will teach you everything you need to know about cooking perfect meat, eggs, burgers, etc.
Once you learn all of the basics from those books, use the Flavor Bible to be creative.
IF you already have a bug-in kit covering serious first aid, not just bandaids and Tums, water filtration, fire and cooking without power, etc......
The first two titles assume that you have at least some yard with reasonable sun access, or the potential for access to a community garden. (Could presently be a community park, a church lot, neighbor's land, whatever.) Books are presently roughly in the order that I'd replace them if my copies were lost. Buy used when you can. Some of these are available used for not much more than standard shipping.
The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
Where There Is No Doctor
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
If you have no comprehensive cookbooks that cover a wide range of garden veggies and game recipes, something like Joy of Cooking is probably in order. The point being that one way or another you may have to get used to enjoying whatever can be had, from an abundance of zuchinnis to rabbit, to acorn meal.
If you are not (yet) handy, find an old copy of something like Reader's Digest How to Fix Everything in a used bookshop for maybe $4.
A regionally appropriate guide to edible and medicinal plants such as A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America
Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation
optional, but cheap, Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis
That's such a great book idea that Michael Ruhlman already wrote it.
http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438
You can also use a blowtorch to caramelize the outer portion of the meat. I tried it on the last prime rib I did at home and it turned out great. Thomas Keller mentioned this method in Ad Hoc at Home. I find it to be both more convenient and less messy than pan-searing, especially for larger cuts of meat.
a customer picture of the book
Cooking is a real learn by doing hobby. I'd pick up a basics cookbook that focuses on technique and methods but within a culinary context--one of the things that bothers me about the /r/cooking circlejerk about Kenji/Alton/McGee etc. is the over-reliance on science as an explanation for cooking but i really think that it should be focus on culinary outcomes rather than process. Science as the sole basis for authority is like, one of reddit's biggest blindspots (DAE le STEM etc.) and a science-focused approach will teach you "how" to do something but it'll lose the over the over-arching "why" by getting bogged down in the molecules and shit. Plus the circlejerk about Good Eats and Serious eats is insufferable.
I like america's test kitchen because they use science as a basis for why they do what they do but they don't belabor it. I haven't cooked from it much but i imagine the cooking for two book will give you a good set of recipes without having an excessive amount of leftovers. Keeping things small when you're starting out is actually pretty important, and while I know that it's tempting to double recipes to get the most out of the ingredients you buy and use your time efficiently (after all, throwing out half of your can of tomato paste feels so wasteful when you only need a tablespoon or two) but it's better to keep yourself focused on the recipe as written. Most of the stuff can be re-used if you store it correctly (that tomato paste can be scooped into tablespoons and frozen, e.g.), and oftentimes doubling or tripling a recipe will end up backfiring and you'll be eating shitty leftovers for a week or even worse throwing it all out because you fucked it up and it sucked (speaking from personal experience here). You might end up with half an onion or something or half a bag of carrots left but that's ok. Cook what you like to eat or what recipes look good. A lot of the time people will say focus on techniques but if you keep things varied and stay curious you'll expose yourself to most of the important ones. As just one addendum, try and eat more vegetables than meat, because it's easy to zero in on making umpteenth variations of the same set of meat-based dishes (they provide more immediate reward) but i've actually found much more pleasure in coaxing awesome flavors out of produce (again speaking from experience).
I think taking an authoritative-sciencey approach as your core base of understanding and comfort in the kitchen is fine, but expanding from there towards an understanding of different, regional/international cuisines either classically (examples being Julia Child, Marcella Hazan) or more contemporarily (Rick Bayless, Fuscia Dunlop, Martin Tan, Zuni cafe, Mario Batali, Keller's Ad-Hoc, Maangchi), checking out more chef-driven methods that express a particularly unique perspective or have a distinct voice (April Bloomfield, Yotam Ottolenghi, Lucky Peach, Fergus Henderson); the fun of this is that by taking a perspective based approach, it allows you to draw inspiration from wherever without judgement, even someone like Guy Fieri might be able to contribute interesting ideas with regards to American comfort food. You can also expand by exploring different cooking techniques (smoking, sous vide, baking, fermenting, offal cooking) or even expand your knowledge on beverages like exploring craft beer/wine/cocktails. Also maybe challenging yourself with a more cheffy restaurant-book like the Bar Tartine books, or Sean brock's Heritage or Andy Richter's Pok Pok or the new Del Posto book. Keeping up with developments in the food world, either with magazines (Lucky Peach, Cook's Illustrated, Bon Appetite) or websites (Food52, Serious Eats that isn't just the food lab) is also a good way to inject fresh perspectives into your cooking.
Also under-recommended is to taste more of what other people are cooking. Order a dish at a restaurant that you've never tried because it looks interesting. Actively analyze what you eat when you go out and try and pick up on flavor combinations that are interesting or exciting. Maybe spend money on a fancy tasting menu place to see what professional kitchens are doing.
I think a good way to go about crafting your own recipe is to learn a bit about what makes a particular beer style unique. There are tons of guidelines that differentiate one style of beer from another. It has a lot to do with the amount and types of malt that are used as well as the hops and yeast.
Books like Brewing Classic Styles give you a good "baseline" recipe for each beer style as well as what types of ingredients (and in what proportion) are used to create that style.
You can also use some online recipe database like Brewtoad. There are loads of recipes on there all labeled by style.
One thing that I like to do is pull up 3-4 recipes of a style that I'm shooting for and take a look at the average ratios of each type of malt and hops. Then, I kinda wing it from there based on qualities I want in my beer (higher/lower gravity, lighter/darker color, particular hop varieties, etc...)
The real answer to your question though, is to try a lot of pre-made recipes that work well. The American Homebrewer's Association has tons of great recipes, many of which have won awards. After brewing a lot and paying attention to the ingredients, you'll get a pretty good handle on things you like/dislike about different beer styles and recipes.
Truth.
The Flavor Bible
and
Ratio
are great resources if you want to start cooking like this.
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!
https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
You might enjoy this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
So I've finally decided to get serious about my beer brewing after making a half dozen or so more-or-less successful batches in my basement over the past 3 or 4 years. (Partial mash style for now, all-grain will come later.)
I picked up this book which seems to be a fantastic resource; I knew what all the steps were, but that book really cleared up why each step is necessary. And now I finally know what the actual difference between an ale and a lager is!
So now I'm planning on converting my propane-fueled outside burner to natural gas and to pick up a used chest freezer so that I can use it as a fermenting fridge. This is turning into an expensive hobby... but that should be the last of the capital equipment expenses (except for that really, really sweet looking conical fermenter).
Mark my words: I will master Pilsner.
Ultimately, I'd really like to compete in Beau's Oktoberfest homebrew competition. The winner gets to make a batch of their recipe at a commercial scale at Beau's facility and then they'll actually sell it in store alongside their own!
It's a classic, but there is probably no cookbook I turn to more than The Joy of Cooking. It just seems to have everything. All of the recipes are pretty simple and easy to riff off of, and it'll give you a great baseline for just about anything.
I read in [Ruhlman's Twenty] (http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373518144&sr=8-1&keywords=ruhlmans+twenty) by Mike Ruhlman that you should soak the chicken in water for the same amount of time you overbrined it. EDIT: I've made [his] (http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/12/11/sage-garlic-brined-pork-chops-recipe) brine for pork, but used pork loin in the oven and it and it came out great.
You keep following advice of the chumps in here and this is the book you're going to need
How To Brew is your best bet to start, however, I would recommend picking up the book as well. The online free version is the 1st edition of the book. While about 85% of the material is still true, it is about 15 years old at this point. The current print edition is the 3rd edition and there have been a number of updates.
You can also check out the 4th edition of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie P which was most recently updated in September of last year.
A very sketchy source. After all, our chimp cousins eat meat as well, and we have incisors, so it's reasonable to assume our common ancestors did.
Pre agriculture humans were scavengers that ate anything they could find. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've read studies that show that learning how to cook meat was critical in our development, because it allowed us to digest energy faster, so our brains could grow larger and we spent less time foraging, and could develop communities.
Edit: One source for what I mean: http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350932227&sr=1-1&keywords=catching+fire+richard+wrangham
I realize that you've asked for something more like a textbook, but I think you should consider The Joy of Cooking. It's got recipes, but it's also a fantastic reference for everything cooking-related. It can teach you how to make stocks, soup bases, prepare shellfish, pluck and dress a bird, roll pie dough, cook in a pressure cooker, can vegetables, smoke meats and fish, etc. The recipes will tell you what page to look on for any ingredients that require extra prep. I bought mine at a used book store for $6 (it's the 1975 version, but they also had a 1997 edition for $10 that I bought my sister). If you're trying to learn how to cook but not become a professional chef, I don't know if there's anything better.
EDIT: I also have this link saved of Alton Brown listing his favorite cookbooks. Ratio is one I've been meaning to pick up. I'll also mention that for all his shouting on other shows, I like Gordon Ramsay's "Cookalong" series quite a lot, and much of it is up on YouTube.
Michael Ruhlman's Twenty discusses twenty techniques and recipes using them. It sounds like exactly what you're looking for.
I'd go with Ruhlman's Twenty for some one that needs to learn the fundamentals.
And I thought this was sad.
Jacques Pepin is awesome at teaching techniques, and especially good at giving detailed instructions that are easy to follow (even if not so easy to execute without practise).
Besides his numerous youtube videos, his Complete Techniques book and DVD (i have both) are really good. Like how to cut vegetables, cook eggs in various ways, debone a chicken etc. I find the DVD easier to follow.
Book: http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110
DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000LXHJZA/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1457271533&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=jacques+pepin+dvd&dpPl=1&dpID=51RpoAjNx9L&ref=plSrch
His video on making an American omelet and a French omelette. This video is the best there is, and i have seen dozens of other videos about making an omelet.
https://youtu.be/s10etP1p2bU
Edit: His scrambled eggs recipe since you said that is your next goal.
https://youtu.be/u8QIDHla6iA
(From 11:40, but if you go back a few minutes, he also tells you how to make mushrooms to accompany the scrambled eggs)
America's Test Kitchen complete TV show book or their Cooking School book are both excellent as large compendiums of a variety of recipes all of which have been thoroughly tested, are well-written, and have two or three paragraphs explaining why the recipe is the way it is. These are books I would recommend to anyone looking for a big book of recipes to cook at home and get good results.
My personal favorite is Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller. The food in that book is just so wonderful -- pretty much perfect examples of every dish attempted -- and the recipes execute it perfectly but are generally not too complex or difficult for a home cook. If we had to eat food from just one cookbook for the rest of our lives I think we would all give priority to huge compendiums with 500+ recipes in them, but if we had to choose from single-author cookbooks with ~100 recipes or so, I would pick Ad Hoc at Home.
My wife and I were gifted this cookbook. It is pretty good and it helps you not cook for four and have too many left overs.
America's Test Kitchen The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook
/thread
Brewing classic Styles has some great info and recipes.
I thought OP was just trying to sell copies of Microwave Cooking for One.
Check out the book "Brewing Classic Styles" to learn more about recipes and beer styles. Designing Great Beers is another helpful book.
In most cases, using a secondary vessel for fermentation isn't required and in fact increases your chances of infection or oxidizing your beer. You can read more in the wiki here.
I'm going to give a little balance to what /u/brock_lee said.
It is very easy to make good beer. It is really hard to make great beer. Doing a partial volume boil with extract and some steeping grains, using top-off water to chill it and then tossing in some dry yeast and setting it in a closet to ferment is how most of us start. Brewing that way produces good beer. The initial beer you make should make you happy.
Many of us however aren't happy with just good beer, we want to make great beer. Like the sauce example above, while making tomato sauce using paste is good enough for most people some people want to go above and beyond, selecting the right type of tomatoes, boiling them down and doing everything with more care and attention to detail.
So in the pursuit of great beer: we set up fermentation temperature control; grow our yeast with yeast starters; use RO water that we control the mineral additions to; switch over to an all-grain brewing method; put everything in to kegs to better control carbonation; use conical stainless steel fermenters; setup electronic brewery controls to better control variables during brewing; crushing our own grain to better control the sugar extraction during mashing. All of these things produce better beer so most of us still have that "one last upgrade" to make to the brewery before we are "done". So like many hobbies there is plenty of enjoyment out there for cheap and a deep dark well of effort, technique and polish out there if you decide to develop your hobby into a craft on a never ending journey for the perfect beer.
Oh, and for a great collection of recipes starting out I would recommend Brewing Classic Styles. A nice wide range of recipes that all have both extract and all-grain versions.
You're not letting salt do its work, AKA osmosis. Salt your chicken a day in advance. You're seasoning way too close to when you cook, which is drawing out the moisture while it's in the oven making it even drier. If you give salt enough time, it draws out the moisture but then restructures the proteins in the meat so they reabsorb the salty water and retain the moisture. For more check out Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is not exactly this concept. But would definitely be a great tool for building skills, concepts, and what kit you actually need.
It gets worse
> $549 retail
Damn it, I have to do math again....
For $550 you can also purchase the following:
That's really everything you need for one batch and we're only up to $218...
To fill the gap of $282, how about 7 extract kits estimating about $40 per kit?
So with my plan of $548 (that's one dollar cheaper!) you get 40 gallons of beer! How much does the competitor make per batch?
> The newer keg, which is the same volume (1.75 gallons) as the old keg will have simplified connectors.
most of my knowledge on this subject is coming from what I recollect of a single chapter from this fantastic book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Homebrewing-Fourth-Edition/dp/0062215752 plz excuse any errors i make in formatting, this is my first time actually saying anything on reddit!
The simple answer of course, is Prohibition.
The years of prohibition in this country destroyed the beautiful rainbow of different beer styles previously available in this country. Most smaller breweries simply dissappeared, as their product became illegal, while a few larger ones turned their grain processing facilities towards cereal production.
When prohibition ended, some of these companies, and I suppose a couple new ones, decided to go ahead and profit once again from alcohol production. But the problem they faced, was how to overcome the stigma still associated with alcohol consumption? Beer was considered by many to be a "dirty, sinful" product, consumed by criminals. Basically they decided that they needed to market their product to the ladies. If women could be seen drinking beer, then the public would decide it must be alright.
So, in an effort to make it appealing to more women, they set out to brew the lightest, smoothest, "dainty-est" style they could think of. Which happened to be a newer style from Czechoslovakia, called "pilsner". It was basically the fruity wine cooler, "liquid panty remover" of its day. Since the only brewing companies left standing after prohibition were the few really big ones, they cranked out millions of gallons of the stuff in huge batches, and took over the market with it. The pilsner style became the norm, and adjectives like "smooth, crisp, cool, refreshing etc." became imprinted on the mainstream mind as the idea of what beer "should" be.
Watch a lot of american beer commercials and you'll see for instance how much attention they focus on the WATER which goes into making their beer; not the hops, nor the grain, and certainly not what strain of yeast is involved; no, they like to prattle on about what sort of water they use, and also how cold it is. Kinda bizzarre huh?
Now, as for what we call "light" beers in this country, another poster seems to have mentioned that apparently "light beer" means something a bit different in Australia?
Well as previously mentioned, here it means "low calorie", basically "diet beer" and there is some idea (esp. among college kids) that light beer actually has MORE alcohol, as it well might in some cases, at least where pilsners are concerned. Lowering the caloric content of beer usually involves reducing the carbohydrates (sugars) of the final product, and one way to do this is to ferment more of those original sugars into alcohol.
They also tend to use adjuncts like rice and corn. (i think rice and corn convert more easily to alcohol maybe? not sure)
EDIT: After a bit of digging, here's a link to an article they should have linked to. Choice pullquotes from Pollan:
> “[The appreciation of cooking was] a bit of wisdom that some American feminists thoughtlessly trampled in their rush to get women out of the kitchen.”
> Yet there he is again, in the New York Times Magazine, dismissing “The Feminine Mystique” as “the book that taught millions of American women to regard housework, cooking included, as drudgery, indeed as a form of oppression.” In the same magazine story, Pollan scolds that “American women now allow corporations to cook for them” and rues the fact that women have lost the “moral obligation to cook” they felt during his 1960s childhood.
I don't know. I know he's getting lots of hate because he dared to speak out against feminism...yet I know people my age where the woman of the household just flat out refuses to do housework. Her turn to cook? It better be in a can, or there better be some cash for going to a restaurant. She not only won't cook, she can't cook, and won't learn anything about it, and God help you if you'd like for her to wash your clothes while she does hers. And sometimes we're talking about married couples.
Yes, I also know guys my age who just flat out demand that she do all the housework...I'm sure that works out great for them.
EDIT: A couple of choice edits from another graf:
> When much-lauded food writer Michael Ruhlman writes, “I know for a fact [emphasis added] that spending at least a few days a week preparing food with other people around, enjoying it together, is one of the best possible things in life to do, period. It’s part of what makes us human [emphasis added]. It makes us happy in ways that are deep and good for us,” he’s writing from the point of view of a food writer, someone who enjoys cooking and has freely chosen it as his vocation. That’s a privileged position, and a frankly absurd one. To borrow Ruhlman’s wording, I know for a fact that plenty of people don’t like to cook and it’s not because they haven’t been properly educated or had the “revelatory” experience of eating an exquisitely ripe peach or a simple-yet-perfect slice of sole meunière. I know for a fact that plenty of people aren’t even that interested in the experience of eating, and I bet you do too: the absentminded friend who has to be reminded to bolt down a granola bar before heading to her after-work Italian class; the picky-eater sibling who, though grown, still happily subsists on spaghetti and bananas and diced red peppers. The term “foodie” was originally invented to describe people who really enjoy eating and cooking, which suggests that others do not. Yet today everyone is meant to have a deep and abiding appreciation for and fascination with pure, wholesome, delicious, seasonal, regional food. The expectation that cooking should be fulfilling for everyone is insidious, especially for women. I happen to adore cooking and eating, and nothing is more fun for me than sharing a home-cooked bowl of pasta puttanesca and a loaf of crusty bread with friends. Yet, I know for a fact that others would much rather go kayaking or read magazines or write poems or play World of Warcraft or teach their dog sign language. And, unlike Ruhlman, I don’t suspect them of being less than human.
Because having the leisure time to go kayaking or teaching your dog sign language (seriously???!?) totally aren't privileged activities. And expecting people to enjoy cooking is insidious? Really? I'm thinking that when he said that, he may have been speaking, or at least thinking, about this book.
EDIT3: Here's a pullquote from an article entitled, "Michael Pollan Says Men Need to Get Back Into the Kitchen, Stat":
> "If we're going to rebuild a culture of cooking," Pollan says, "it can't mean returning women to the kitchen. We all need to go back to the kitchen." He continues:
> "First, we need to bring back home ec, but a gender-neutral home ec. We need public health ad campaigns promoting home cooking as the single best thing you can do for your family's health and well-being."
I'm guessing the feminist blogs just overlooked that one.
Does your Dad enjoy creating recipes? If so, I would look at buying him this book: Culinary Artistry
It's a great resource, think of it like a mix/match reference book that's intuitive and allows you to learn and use classic flavour pairings while opening up your creativity. It let's you start experimenting without making major composition errors.
Well, other than rice and pasta, what do you like to eat?
Some subreddits that are good for ideas are r/Cooking, r/cookingforbeginners, r/EatCheapAndHealthy. Another idea would be to get a cookbook and just start doing the recipes in it. If you want some simpler cookbooks to start with, here are a few suggestions: A Man, a Can, a Plan, The $7 a Meal: Quick and Easy cookbook.
I've used/have both of those cookbooks, and find a lot of the recipes to be favorites. Cooking can be as complicated or as simple as you like. The best way to get better though is just to cook. Hope this helps!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1579546072/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_CP5FzbYNGJAHP
Invest in some professional chefs cook books. I recommend this one. super delicious recipes, but not impossibly complicated. Also the photos are spectacular.
PM me your address and I will send you this. It is a great cook book that teaches you recipes and techniques. I feel your pain, as my parent's split up when I was a teen and had to learn how to cook to feed my younger brother.
The Amazon reviews are pretty funny for this book.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/1565546660/ref=cm_cr_getr_mb_paging_btm_3?ie=UTF8&pageNumber=3
Lonely, but not quite the loneliest.
Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques
The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Great Cook
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
From here you can move on to:
Institut Paul Bocuse Gastronomique: The definitive step-by-step guide to culinary excellence
&
Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia, Completely Revised and Updated
These are all great resources. Also look for culinary school text books and always youtube.
The resources are out there and with everyone having a different way to learn and adopt information the variety in options is tremendous. Good luck and keep cooking. If you have any questions please reach out and if I can help I will.
As The Flavor Bible has been mentioned already, I'll add Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
https://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51QkBbNStmL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=E6S63V8X7MYR2V32N7V9
You could also try getting a cookbook and cooking your way through it. Ad Hoc At Home is pretty accessible. Check out French Laundry At Home for some inspiration.
I'm no chef, just a hobbyist. Below are things I've learned over the years.
Resources
I'd recommend Americas Test Kitchen Cooking School cookbook.
Also Rouxbe Online Cooking School is really good.
Jaque Pepin is an amazing cooking teacher, absolutely wonderful. He had a PBS show for a while, search your library for the DVDs.
While I don't use that often anymore, during learning I liked the Zwilling J.A. Henckels Complete Book of Knife Skills. In fairness you can learn a lot of this from youtube.
Knife Skills
When cutting with a knife stay safe by keeping your fingers tucked away using the "Claw Technique" See Picture
Celery is a cheap vegetable which you can use for practicing knife skills.
Get a good chef's knife, santoku knife, and paring knife. I like santoku knifes for cutting potatoes, since the blade is the same thickness from top to bottom it doesn't "wedge" like a chef's knife.
Those little indents on the knife are called grantons. They make it so vegetables don't suction as easily to the blade. I like it for my Santoku knife.
You should learn to properly slice an onion. Jamie Oliver has a good video on this.
Garlic has a few technique, first breaking open the head by just smashing it with your palm.
Next removing the paper by crushing the clove with a knife then pinch one side, lift it in the air, and whack it with the knife.
Lastly chopping it, just watch [Jacque Pepin] (https://youtu.be/1y5h1pDHhzs).
If you have to peel a ton of garlic put the whole head in a mason jar and shake really hard, it will peel them all. See Video
When chopping fresh herbs roll them into a ball first. See video
Learn to cut a bell pepper
When you cut meats cut "against the grain". This will cause the meat to seam more tender when you chew.
Pan Searing
Some meats like steak should be "temped" which means leave them out on the counter for a bit before cooking. The idea is if it's warmer it needn't cook as long. Google safe times.
While a pan is heating up the metal pores open and close sporadically which can “bite” the food causing it to stick. Prevent sticking by first properly heating the pan.
Heat your pan to temp before adding oil as the heat breaks down the oil. Just wet your fingers and flick the water on the pan. If the water dances it's ready. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XokCISVqgjU](See video)
When you heat your oil wait until it just starts to smoke then throw the meat on.
Remember when you add the meat it's cold and can drastically lower the temperature of the pan. Certain metals hold heat much better. Cast iron holds heat really well, so when cooking meats a cast iron skillet can give you a better sear.
Also remember the side that goes down on heat first will get the best sear so presentation side should go down first.
Try to get your meat a consistent thickness throughout by pounding it. Uneven meat means you'll over cook the thin portion in order to get the thick portion to a safe cooking temperature. Put meat in saran wrap folded over then pound, this prevents juices from flying everywhere in you kitchen.
Pat your raw meat dry with a paper towel before putting it on heat. Water does not reach above 212 degrees, if there is water on the meat surface it has to all boil off before it can reach a higher temperature. If you dry the meat first it can get a much better sear because the heat hits fast.
Don't crowd your pan. Pan crowding brings down pan temperature and encourages steam thus preventing proper sear.
When cooking use your ears! Listen to pan sizziling to know when to control pan temperature. Intense sizzling means it’s too hot. Home cooks want a gentle sizzle. Low sizzle means more heat is needed.
Get a good meat thermometer like a thermapen and learn the different safe cooking temperatures or get a fridge magnet which tells you.
Those brown bits on the bottom of the pan are gold, it's called fond, don't throw those out, scrape them off to incorporate into the sauce.
Be sure to rest meat after cooking. This is very important, if you don't then when you cut into it the juices will rush onto plate. Resting allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. Just tent foil over the plate and wait 10mins or so for a steak.
Misc
Know that if meat is left out in the danger temperature zone for too long you cannot simply reheat it to a safe cooking temperature. What happens is the bacteria (which can be killed with heat) produces waste or toxins. These toxins are not affected by heat so you can't kill them.
Chicken is a dry meat in my opinion, brining is a neat trick where you put the chicken in a salt water solution. The cell walls of the meat want to keep an equilibrium of salinity so they open up to allow more water in their cells which allows the meat to seem juicier.
Remember your dry spices have a shelf life. I like to replace mine at a local spice shop every 6 months. Consider having a small herb garden if you're able it's way cheaper than buying fresh herbs all the time and pretty easy.
I love reheating meats using Sous Vide, which is where you put your meat in a vacuum sealed bag and then but it in a pot of water at the desired temp. This makes it so the meat doesn't dry out and you can't overcook it since the water temp is right. I do this a ton for smoked meats like ribs and brisket (check out a weber smokey mountain and flameboss controller)
Get this book: https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cooking-School-Cookbook/dp/1936493527/ref=nodl_
(Most libraries have it too)
It teaches you the general techniques and then gives you recipes to try. I’ve been cooking since I was 10 (40 years ago), and I’m still learning interesting new things. And you will ALWAYS be able to woo potential love interests with a good homemade meal ;-).
Can you preemptively send out a call for recipes from your guests via email? Then format them how you wish. Anyone who doesn't send one can add on to the white space. You know, make this into a way bigger project than it needs to be?
My favorite cook book is this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936493837/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_yvHmDbE1PS7GE
The pages are semi-glossy but could be written on in normal ballpoint pen. Everything has been good, but the weeknight baked chicken changed my chicken cooking life. The worst part is that they aren't kidding about "cooking for two" you wont have leftovers if it's good (which it will be).
My favorite extract kit is a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/sierra-madre-pale-ale-extract-kit.html
Also, the book Brewing Classic Styles has recipes for most styles you would care to brew, in both extract and all-grain options: http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
How to Brew - John Palmer
Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels
Brewing Classic Styles - Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer
Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus
Clone Brews - Tess and Mark Szamatulski
Yeast - Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White
Beer Captured - Tess and Mark Szamatulski
Radical Brewing - Randy Mosher
Brewer's Association Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery - Randy Mosher
Brewing Classic Styles
it will thoroughly explain to you how to brew a classic example of most styles of beer. all the way from grain/hop selection through fermentation temps.
Well, you found a great spot here already! Also Brulosophy, John Palmer, American Homebrewers Association, Homebrew Talk Forums are all good starting points for websites.
For books, definitely How to Brew is recommended (there may be a newer edition out if I recall), followed by Brewing Classic Styles, Water, Yeast, and, of course, American Sour Beers written by a user on this form by the name of u/oldsock who also has a great site.
For now, work on the process of making beer. Take a look a little later on into something called Beer Smith as it will really help you with dialing recipes in.
Hands down, the best "single" place for recipes is Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff
Do this, seriously... now. First head over to HowToBrew.com and get some knowledge so you don't make shitty beer. Homebrewing = good beer for cheap (like a $0.25/beer if you go all-grain). Plus, you can tell your friends you made that liquid gold they are drinking. But don't punk out, the reason everyone and their momma don't homebrew (although back in the middle ages everyone's mom homebrewed) is that it takes time, patience, and attention to detail if you want good beer.
Get yourself a beginner kit and ingredients for your first batch. Mix that shit up, boil it an hour, throw it into a bucket, and forget about it for 3 weeks. Then you get to bottle it and forget about it for 2 more weeks (I told you this takes time). Chill those bottles down and giggle like a baby when you hear the pssst as you open your first bottle of your own creation.
Once you've done a few batches, get yourself a copy of Brewing Classic Styles and make every style of beer you can imagine. While you're brewing, commuting, or just dicking around, listen to BrewStrong and become an expert brewmaster. And of course don't forget r/homebrewing if you have questions, want some ideas, or drool over someone else's home bar.
That's it. Now get brewing!
By the way, all you need for homebrewing is a big pot, a bucket, and some tubing. There's a couple small items like airlock and bottle capper. Also start saving your bottles (no screw-tops) so you have something to put all this beer you'll suddenly have. Or you can get the kit and not worry about making sure you have everything.
And talk to the shopkeeper at the LHBS (local homebrew shop), they are wise and can show you the way to beer-vana.
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.
Which, for the record, is hella cheap today.
This book.
[Maailman surullisin keittokirja apuun] (https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660)
Looks like you need to get yourself a copy of this.
The complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
I think is by far the most approachable book for any novice. Palmer's book is certainly great, but far more technical and just plain overwhelming for a beginner. Perhaps unless you have a strong science or engineering background (as I understand Palmer does) I find Palmer's book more like a textbook, and Papazian's more like a handbook.
How to Brew was my first book and it was tough, I was often confused and just powering through chapters trying not to get confused. The Joy of Homebrewing takes a much softer approach and simplifies a lot of the more advanced concepts, and is written in much more casual language.
"Relax. Don't worry. And have a homebrew."
Aiello and Wheeler 1995 was the first to really get the ball rolling. Now the cause is being taken up by Richard Wrangham. His book Catching Fire: How cooking made us human is a more layman's introduction to the topic. Here is one of his peer-reviewed articles from last year.
I'm reading a book called Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham. It makes the case that cooked food was essential to human evolution, as opposed to simply a cultural side-effect. He cites a study by Corinna Koebnick called the Giessen Raw Food study, which examined the diets of a group of raw-foodists in Germany. I'll quote the relevant passage below:
> In the Giessen study, the more raw food that women ate, the lower their BMI and the more likely they were to have parital or total amenorrhea [failure to menstruate]. Among women eating totally raw diets, about 50 percent entirely ceased to menstruate. A further proportion, about 10 percent, suffered irregular menstrual cycles that left them unlikely to conceive.
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)
Ruhlman's Twenty
Excellent book not only gives good recipes - but also discusses important techniques. Will show you how to make amazing dishes AND discuss why you are doing what you are doing. Must have IMO. Also echo stra24's suggestion to The Joy of Cooking - those two books are all I use apart from internet recipes.
For strength training, Easy Strength by Pavel and Dan John. There is something in there for anybody.
For cardio training, it's not a book, but Lyle McDonald's series on methods of endurance training, also pretty much anything by Joe Friel.
For diet, Ruhlman's Twenty. It's not about nutrition, but it can teach you all the techniques you need to cook your own healthy (and on occasion not so healthy) foods so that you won't be tempted to go off the reservation and order a double deluxe pizza and chili fries when you don't know what else to eat.
Edit: For something very sport specific, there's also Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribiero and Kevin Howell. It's pretty much the beginning BJJ bible.
Cooking food makes the calories in the food more bioavailable, but it doesn't magically create more of them.
Check out Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human for tons of references, explanation about how our digestive system is adapted to cooked foods, and a compelling theory on how discovering cooked food led to our large brains.
I second The Flavor Bible. Also check out Culinary Artistry and The Elements of Taste.
I LOVE the book Culinary Artistry for this exact reason. A big portion of it is a compilation of pairings and components, both for specific cuisines (Italian, Indian, English, etc etc) as well as ingredients. So if you look up Limes, it'll give a list of items that it pairs well with, an well as which cuisines. A great cross-reference for when you want to branch out and try coming up with something on your own!
I recommend the Joy Of Cooking. I don't know how common it is and maybe it's a cookbook your grandparents will have on a shelf, but everyone has one in my family. It pretty much has a recipe for everything inside it, and a how to. Great for those who want to learn, and those who are seasoned in the kitchen. Every time I've found a disappointing recipe on the internet, the Joy of Cooking has always given me a positive second go around.
It's also my go to for Thanksgiving. This book will teach ya how to make a pretty damn good turkey.
I highly, highly suggest asking for a copy of "Joy of Cooking" as a send-off present.
I largely learned to cook using just that book. It has easy to follow directions on nearly every type of food (4500 recipes) and sections devoted to everything from carving up a chicken to the fundamentals of cooking eggs. Generations of Americans have learned to cook using it. The index and glossary are comprehensive and speedy to use as a reference as well.
In college, I found a second copy at Goodwill and left it in the bathroom. I probably read that copy 3 times and can now cook nearly anything from memory.
I get all my best recipes from good cook books. I highly recommend Cooks Illustrated ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615893/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KbjOAb6PBRC4Y ) and if you want to learn everything in and around food for any occasion then try Joy of Cooking ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743246268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_TcjOAb55Z5TRH ).
joy of cooking is a good thing to have...
joy of cooking
It has never failed me, their recipes are so solid, no matter what I decide to make.
the saddest book ever
One of my all-time favorites: it combined the two classic texts, La Technique and La Methode into one book.
https://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659
Jacques Pépin's New Complete Techniques is the bible of technique. It combines La Technique and La Methode which have taught some of today's top chefs.
Jacques Pepin's New Complete Techniques.
https://smile.amazon.com/Jacques-Pépin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110
And don't get the Kindle version.
I’ll recommend three books that have upped my research as a home cook; The Professional Chef by CIA, Techniques by Jacques Pepin, and Ratio by Michael Ruhlman.
Of course there are hundreds of books but I often reference these in particular for education.
If you are 'not much of a cook' currently then you might enjoy the America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. What to stock in your pantry is covered in the first part. Lots of recipes and plenty of clear instructions on how to achieve them.
America's Test Kitchen has some awesome books too. Got the Cooking For Two one from my Reddit Secret Santa last year and it's been fantastic.
I don't have it but I imagine the Cooking School Cookbook from them would be pretty much exactly what the OP needs.
[The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936493837/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_23U1CbE5CPG6W) has easy recipes, less waste since you know exactly how much to buy, plus I've found that it keeps me from gaining weight because I'm not cooking a meal for 4 people and eating most of it myself.
The first cookbook I ever owned was this one: America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. (I have the 2016, version, though.) It has a great many recipes from different cuisines and will teach you technique while it's guiding you through it. I didn't find it intimidating and pretty much everything I've made from there was delicious.
The only caveat I'd make is that not all the meals are the same size. And sometimes you don't want to cook 6 servings. In which case I'd recommend The ATK Cookbook for Two. I gave it to my father last Christmas. He has a lot of cooking experience and he picked it up and immediately learned new things and enjoyed the results.
Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew
Cannot recommend this book more! Includes excellent recipes and descriptions for all BJCP styles.
A physician who has already made their mind up about Crohn's disease. Such a rarity. :)
Some quotes from the major texts on the subject:
From Lichtenstein's "Crohn's Disease: The complete guide to medical management."
"Retrospective studies have suggested no significant impact of ulcerative colitis on pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or fetal demise, when compared to non-IBD controls."..."More data support the position that Crohn's disease has a generally greater impact on fetal outcome than ulcerative colitis. Retrospective studies suggest that the rates of prematurity, fetal loss, and congenital abnormalities in Crohn's disease approximate the incidence of these findings in the normal population." Ileal disease is linked with low birth weight, and being small for gestational age.
From "Inflammatory Bowel Disease: from Bench to Bedside."
From "Kirsner's Inflammatory Bowel Disease," edited by the two major deities in the field:
That particular chapter comes with 91 references alone. I would suggest your potential hubby read these texts (these major texts on the subject), rather than rely upon anecdotes from his GI buddies.
I would also make one big-ass suggestion for once you have children: feed them well. It would be very difficult to do so, but the advice from Nourishing Traditions would be a good place to start. The chance your progeny will have CD or UC is 5% and 1.6%, respectively, higher if one or more proband is Jewish.
You're gonna love it. I've never tried the gizmo to which you link, but it looks interesting. I do my fermentations the easy way, with one of these crocks. I have never worried about an airlock (for this anyway, homebrew beer is another story...).
I would recommend two books to get you started. Between the two, they've probably got a recipe for everything fermented you could ever want. Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions. My local library had the Nourishing Traditions one.
I've made a couple of batches of sauerkraut and a batch of kim-chi. The sauerkraut I am enjoying this week with home-corned beef. YUM! Here's my sauerkraut "recipe":
Chop/shred about 5 heads of cabbage. Discard cores, or put 'em in the crock to ferment with the rest, your choice. As you chop a cabbage, start putting it in the crock, with a little bit of salt. Once you get a decent amount of cabbage built up in the crock, start pounding it with a mallet or your hands. Keep adding cabbage and a bit of salt as you go. Feel free to add any spices you want- suggestions include dill seeds and/or caraway seeds. As you continue adding cabbage, salt, and pounding it, liquid will be released from the cabbage. Once you've got all the cabbage in the crock that you are going to add, weigh the cabbage down somehow to keep it below the level of the brine. You can do this with a plate, but I prefer a ziploc bag full of salt-water (the salt-water is in case it leaks into your sauerkraut). More liquid will be released for the first day or two as active fermentation begins, and your crock may overflow, so plan for that. Capture the overflow if possible, and add it back in to the crock (the volume will reduce as the cabbage ferments). Check it as often as you want, sample as you go. It's ready when it tastes like sauerkraut. In my last batch, 5 heads of cabbage were packed into a 1 gallon crock, final volume of sauerkraut was about 1/2 gallon. Enjoy!
Just get the book, it's $11: http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/
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.
https://www.epicurious.com/ has some great recipes for novices. Also the book SaltFatAcidHeat gives you a really direct and wonderfully written foundation on what to think about while cooking.
Food doesn't have to be expensive, especially while cooking for one, but a lot of grad students (and college students in general) should consider a "meal day" where you pre make large portions and divide them up and store them in the freezer/fridge for the rest of the week to eat at your convenience.
Lots of Burrito/Bean dishes etc are really popular. quick, easy, can eat cold or be microwaved. Cheap to make in bulk and there are a thousand recipes on this subreddit
bought this book
Brewing Classic Styles is awesome too, it has a ton of great example recipes.
The standard ones: The Brewmaster's Bible by Stephen Snyder
How to brew by John Palmer
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels
Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff & John Palmer
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus
Yeast by Jamil Zainasheff & Chris White
(= I own this book)
check out the book Brewing Classic Styles. It has example recipes and a general rundown of all the different beer styles and sub-styles, how they should be characterized flavor/aroma/color-wise. And advice about what types of ingredients are appropriate for each style.
Brewing Classic Styles is very good. It has extract and All Grain recipes for every BJCP style, the style guidelines as well as giving a quick run down of how to tweak the recipes while staying in those guidelines. If you're looking to adhere to specific styles, this is a great place to start, but it is pretty set on the styles.
 
As /u/Mazku pointed out, John Palmer's How to Brew is the standard. If you are a science major, honestly I can't think of a better place to look. The link I provided is to the free edition Palmer offers and it isn't a trial, it's packed with in depth information. There are newer editions available for purchase, but free is for me.
Yep, Designing Great Beers is the one you want. You might also find Brewing Classic Styles useful, since it'll give you a couple recipes per style with a write-up.
The reason many researchers depend on observation is because it is generally a more holistic approach, and especially in the field of nutrition, this is important. Vitamins, minerals, and lipids act together to affect the body as a whole. The most difficult part in applying the scientific method to study nutrition is that most studies in the past have attempted to isolate nutrients in order to determine the effect it may have on certain things so as to minimize the variables. This isn't how the body works, and often nutrients, when combined with other nutrients, have compounded or even different effects compared to when a nutrient is isolated, which can make for inaccurate or misleading conclusions.
*Edit - It appears NuSI is set up to refute the dietary guidelines issued by the USDA. I'm referring more to researchers that have already refuted that. Nourishing Traditions is an excellent source of information on research that has been done on nutrition, and it looks nothing like USDA guidelines.
Hi, I went vegan straight from eating meat, dairy etc, I had like 2 weeks as a transition phase as that all I felt I needed.
Some of my reasons were health, some were ethical. I'm going to try to keep this fairly short.
The ONLY "ethical" eggs you will find are ones that come from a neighbour's/friend's/relative's backyard, even commercially available "free-range" "organic" eggs aren't that fair to the chickens.
There is NO ethical dairy. No matter what a female cow is kept pregnant on a very regular basis, her calf is taken away from her, they are often tortured and turned into veal. The mother and infant both become incredible distressed by this, they understand that their infant is being torn from their side. She is then milked, given high doses of antibiotics to keep the pus from her mastitis at a low level, but this doesn't really work so it still ends up in our milk. then the cycle repeats for a few year and then she is killed. In the wild cows will live around 20 years, a LOT longer than they do in any farm.
So that is a HUGE reason I went vegan, I used to consume a SHIT LOAD of dairy and then I came to understand that and I (just me personally here) became really, really saddened and disgusted in myself for supporting this. After I went vegan I read a quote somewhere that as some dude went vegan he just "saw a slice of veal in every glass of milk". So there really isn't any such thing as ethical dairy.
Egg replacer products are easy to find and you can get used to non-dairy milk, I got used to it by drinking the chocolate kind with a snack, it helped. Here are some (hopefully) useful links for you, if you don't get to cook on campus then you may have to wait to go home to use them:
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-advice/student-needs-easy-healthy-diet.php
http://www.skinnybitch.net/
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=vegan%2Bstudent&x=0&y=0
Good luck! (:
It might be just a different sensibility but I find cooking from principles and ratios far more useful than any cookbook. For example the salt fat acid heat approach is more like teaching you to fish while a recipe is giving you fish. Ratio cooking and baking is the same idea except you can apply it to the more exact practices of baking (or even home job chemistry really). When you know that pound cake is 1:1:1 flour:fat:sugar you can pretty much substitute anything you have around into that ratio and make something tasty. (i should say as a caveat i haven't read these books; they just express an approach to cooking that I take)
Mostly these kinds of books give you the principles to tap into the craft, creativity and artistry of cooking while recipes are specific. It's sort of like the difference between agile and cascade project management styles.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
And Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller.
If she really wants that master chef vibe I recommend Buchon and The French Laundry.
It is really, really, really hard to cook efficiently for one.
Some people do meal prep and eat the same thing day after day.
I gave up and use a service that delivers me a cooler full of dinners (not frozen) every week. Freshly would be the national equivalent, but I found their portion sizes to be too small and they use a lot of packaging. I leave a few nights empty so I can go out to dinner on a date if needed.
Even paying someone else to cook for me, the cost per meal is less than what I was spending at the grocery store after waste was accounted for.
I also don't have a dishwasher so I hate involved recipes. If you have a dishwasher, you might have luck with preportioned cooking kits like Blue Apron and the like.
If you don't want to do any of this and still want to shop at the store, I find salads to be the best way to go for scaling things up/down.
Bonus link to the world's loneliest cookbook because I love the cover: https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=microwave+cooking+for+one&qid=1566792626&s=gateway&sr=8-1
I agree with the reading bit but I did too much reading on the internet and got overwhelmed with all the different advice. I wish I'd brought The Complete Joy of Homebrewing earlier. It's got all the information you need to get started extract brewing through till all grain.
You can't go wrong with two books, both of which are readily available on Amazon.
I'd start out with the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, and then move on to Designing Great Beers.
After that, I would recommend joining a local homebrew club, and there will be a big community to support you. And if you need yeast, come on down to Sixpoint with a clean mason jar and we can hook you up.
Let us know how it goes!
If there are red flags I'm doing in these pictures, please let me know.
edit:
1st batch: Craft-A-Brew APA Kit
2nd batch: Northern Brewer's 1 Gallon Bavarian Hefe Kit
3rd batch: DrinkinSurfer's Milk Oatmeal Stout Recipe @HBT
If I could start over I would go straight to the 3-gallon batches. I hovered around them but I think it's the perfect batch size for beginners -- 1) Most people have a stockpot lying around the kitchen big enough to hold three gallons, 2) The batches are small enough so you don't have to drink two cases of bad brew, but big enough so if you enjoy it [which I'm thoroughly enjoying my first APA], you'll have plenty to taste and rate the evolution of the flavors over various weeks of priming and give out to family friends who are interested to try out what you made, 3) I ordered 3 Gallon Better Bottles for several reasons including worrying about shattering a glass carboy as a newbie. They also qualify for free shipping on MoreBeer's website with purchases above a certain price. 4) Even though I brewed a 5 gallon batch, and since I'm brewing solo, I'm already not looking forward to bottling the whole batch at once so I plan on breaking up bottling between two days.
For resources, I lurk this sub like a crazy stalker. The Daily Q&A is full of information both crucial and minute. I listen to James Spencer's Basic Brewing Radio podcast and practically substituted it for all music recently. It's family friendly and entertaining [I heard the other podcasts aren't so much]. I read Charles Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing, 2nd ed. and For the Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus to get a better understanding of the hops varieties and characteristics. I plan on reading John Palmer's How to Brew and Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers in the future, as well as Brew Like a Monk. Also, the HomeBrewTalk stickies in the forums provide good picture tutorials for several different styles of brewing.
I got into homebrewing so I can brew the, then, only beer style I liked: Imperial Stouts. But as I learned more about the balance and flavors of beer I surprised myself by branching out to enjoying other beers [even the odd IPA every so often]. My narrow scope of beer has broadened more vast that I ever would've imagined it. My brother got me this beer tasting tool kit used for blind taste tests so I try to keep good records and actively taste and appreciate craft beers. I even keep a couple in my wallet for tasting beers on draft.
I really wish I had an immersion wort chiller, a bigger boil kettle, a mash tun, and a propane burner. Those few equipment pieces hinder me from exploring more advanced style of homebrew. I intend to upgrade to all-grain but making the switch is really expensive. I'm still in the look-to-see-what-I-have-lying-around-the-house phase equipment-wise.
Which leads me to: don't be scared to spend money while DIY-ing. Many of you have probably seen my (and many others', most likely) shitty stir plate. DIY should be a balance of doing things on the cheap, but still making it work and function well. There's no point in DIYing if you're not going to be happy with it and just end up buying the commercial equivalent anyway. That's where I am right now.. I'm currently trying to salvage a cooler [no-spigot] I found in my garage and turn it into a mash tun instead of just buying a new cooler with a plastic, removable spigot. I'm certain it would make DIY easier but slightly more expensive.
But the suckiest thing for me about homebrewing is that I don't have a car so getting local, fresh ingredients and supporting my LHBSs is a piece of PITA bread.
It's not just to make sure the food is safe to eat, it also allows us to get more energy from the food. Cooked food gives much more energy than raw food, and so early humanoids that ate cooked foods wouldn't have to spend as much time eating. There's a hypothesis that cooking food is what caused our jaws and digestive systems to shrink, since we didn't have to expend as much energy digesting raw food, allowing us to devote more energy to a energy-devouring brain.
book on the subject
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/eating-cooked-food-made-us-human-study-finds
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121026-human-cooking-evolution-raw-food-health-science/
http://www.pnas.org/gca?allch=&submit=Go&gca=pnas%3B109%2F45%2F18571
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:
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.
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
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.
I think as a new cook you would benefit from How to Cook Without a Book. It's not about pressure cooking, but it's about mastering the techniques that will make you feel comfortable improvising in the kitchen. It's a fantastic book that taught me a lot. As of now you can get a used copy for four bucks on amazon.
You guys are assholes...she said she wants to do something for herself.
Whenever I get some spare time, I like to read. May I suggest this or this ?
Yeast. Highly recommended.
Brewing With Wheat. Great book, but you'll get the most out of it if you feel comfortable taking some basic parameters and building a recipe yourself.
Radical Brewing. Lots of weird stuff, but I thought it was surprisingly strong on the basics, too.
Brewing Classic Styles. Good resource for tried and true recipes. One or two recipes for each BJCP style might be either a strength or a weakness, depending on how varied your brewing interests are.
People need to just learn how to use it properly
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660?pc_redir=1406606479&robot_redir=1
I don't own it, but I'm pretty sure that Microwave Cooking for One may be the worst (saddest?) cookbook of all time.
Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques might be of interest to you.
It sounds as if you are a novice? If you are and you are looking for books as your guide I suggest anything Jaques Pepin produces like this.
Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques
https://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Pépin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520771297&sr=1-3&keywords=jaque+pepin+cookbooks
Jacques Pépin is a masterful teacher. There are also youtube videos and TV shows that would add to anything you get from his books. I highly encourage you to seek them out.
Beyond that, if you are looking for more a narrative form and you are more than a novice, consider:
Simple French Food by Richard Olney
Thats just a start, I'm sure there are many others that deserve consideration. In my experience Jacques Pépin; however, is one of the most approachable of the masters and I have a long-standing admiration of him, so my opinion is likely biased.
edit: a letter
This particular recipe happens to be one of my family's favs - and it's incredibly easy. It is from TK's book Ad Hoc at Home. Every recipe I've made from the book is amazing. Even better, the book is full of very insightful kitchen tips that you can apply in everyday cooking, no matter the recipe.
The do look amazing, the funniest thing is that I looked up the book and on Amazon's website they have the recipe, enjoy!!!
Ad Hoc at Home:
Check out the video on the Amazon page here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579653774/ref=oss_product
No- his books are reasonably priced. A very funny guy who filmed the first season of the show out of his own home, he just wants to bring "good eats" to the masses.
>Unrelated question, I read that meat should be poached with the liquid starting cold and then gradually increasing the heat so as to cook the meat evenly. However when grilling or baking an oven is required to be preheated, and I read the reason is again, so that the meat cooks evenly. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I know the medium of cooking is different but why is this contradicting?
Let's start here. You can safely ignore advice for starting things cold in any aqueous cooking method (poaching, braising, making stock, boiling vegetables) -- whether it starts hot or cold will have minor differences when it comes to when and which compounds move from your solids to your liquids, and other details like clarity of your final liquid (e.g. a broth or stock). These are fine finicky details however, and will have very little effect on the final flavor of your dish. When it comes to poaching meats, what matters it the final temperature of the meat. The closer the temperature of your poaching liquid is to that target temperature, the better -- whether it starts hot or cold when the protein goes in. The same basic principles apply for meat cookery when grilling or roasting, with the added caveat that you usually want to create a crust through the maillard reaction and caremelization, which requires high heat. Hence the very best methods are a combination of low and high heat, such as Sous Vide and Reverse Searing.
As for categorical learning, there are lots of resources!
One of my favorites is the website Serious Eats which is very science based and has plenty to learn sorted by technique or by recipe.
I personally learned with Alton Brown -- seek out the show Good Eats, or check out some of his books 123
There is no right or wrong way to learn to cook. In fact, the only real way is to just get in the kitchen and cook. Yeah, you will screw some stuff up, burn some stuff, and maybe make some truly awful food. But you will make great food as well.
Alton brown is amazing. Pretty much everything of any practical application that I learned in 3 years of Culinary school he managed to Cram into 2 pretty easy to read books. I highly recommend them to anybody looking for the Why of cooking instead of just the how.
Ninja Edit: Books Here.
That top review is epic
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/1565546660/R1YTRFFOEP53JA/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_rvw_1?ie=UTF8&cursor=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/178-7598145-0323454#immersive_view?1397930104879
Amazon is your best bet.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/B000NZW3JS/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_see_rcnt?ie=UTF8&s=sd
Be sure to read the reviews.
People who bought this shirt also bought this. (read reviews too)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
You might also like http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/
This should help.
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques
An excellent book for you at this point would be Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques. From the description:
"Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques features everything the home cook needs to perfect: poach an egg, whisk a perfect hollandaise, knead a crispy baguette, or bake an exquisite meringue with the perfection and efficiency of a professional chef. Featured throughout the book, Pepin's classic recipes offer budding masters the opportunity to put lessons into practice with extraordinary results."
It also covers things like knife technique and other fundamentals, which you mentioned.
As far as French cooking goes, although they've been around awhile, two books that are still definitive on the subject are Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Volume One and Volume Two. All three of these books (Pepin plus these two) are foundational to learning about cooking. There are others, but these will give you a very good start, and will increase your cooking skills and knowledge exponentially.
If those aren't enough, you can also check out The Professional Chef, which is a fantastic book of recipes and techniques put out by the Culinary Institute of America. It's a bit spendy, but worth it if you want to learn. The Amazon links are provided for reference; if money is an issue you can quite easily find all these books used.
[Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques]
(http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659)
I cannot recommend this book enough.
Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques
http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659
"The fully illustrated bible of cooking techniques from the world's best-known French cook "
https://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Pépins-Complete-Techniques-Pépin/dp/1579121659/ref=nodl_
As a chef, The Flavor Bible is a great reference for and understanding flavor combinations as opposed to just following a recipe.
For technique, Jacques Pepin's Complete Technique is basically what I learned in culinary school with step by step pictures.
Specifically you should learn to make your own stock, the mother sauces, and break down (butcher) poultry, seafood, and meats.
The first thing I learned was knife skills: grab a bag of potatoes and carrots and learn how to make all the cuts. Use them later for stock or stew.
If you're looking for basics, it's hard to beat Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything The Basics.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-The-Basics/dp/0470528060
It's exactly what you're looking for. It covers the basics of cooking, with 1,000+ photos.
Another go-to recommendation is Jacque Pepin's New Complete Techniques, a fantastic 2012 update of his epic masterpieces La Technique and La Methode, with 1000 new photos.
http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110
Both books are great. I prefer Pepin's book since it's based solely on classic French technique, but Bittman's book would be better for an absolute beginner.
His book is all anyone needs.
This book is great. It's from men's health. Most meals are 3-4 cans/items. Combine, heat, eat. Has pictures of the cans and everything.
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
a man a can and a plan isn't a bad place to start either!
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
Maybe check out A Man a Can a Plan. Hah, this is how I learned to cook in college :) Definitely some stuff you can cook in a microwave in there :) Cake day soon?
Other than that, I'd just add:
This was my meal every day for a chunk of time in grad school:
I lived on $10-20/week in DC. Awesome. No variety, but it'll do in a pinch.
Edit: I accidentally a word.
Ad Hoc at Home: Family-Style Recipes I think this is one of the best options, beautiful as well as lots of information and many different methods.
So most of my cookbooks are either text dense reference manuals or obnoxiously difficult like The French Laundry Cookbook, but here's a few that are relatively simple with excellent photography:
La Cocina - Cookbook from an organization in San Francisco that teaches low income people to successfully grow food businesses. Photos are incredible.
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The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook - Excellent photos with a lot of obscure produce.
-
Ad Hoc at Home - Thomas Keller's family style recipes with wonderful photography.
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Flour Water Salt Yeast - Focused on baking bread and making pizza, but a lot of step by step photos and some awesome pictures of the final product.
Just a some that likes cooking alot here. Maybe pick one of these bad boys up and start playing.
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470421355
http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579654355/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-2&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579651267/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-3&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579652395/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-4&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Under-Pressure-Cooking-Sous-Vide/dp/1579653510/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-6&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-9&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373678139&sr=8-1&keywords=ratio
Thomas Keller does something similar to this in Ad Hoc at Home. He has a creamy polenta recipe (if you don't have the book, here's an adaptation of it) that he pan fries once it's cooled. I've tried it, and it's delicious and totally firm. I cut mine in wedges, and it works perfectly.
The best fried chicken I ever made was from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home book. The amazon page includes the fried chicken recipe, so you don't even need to buy the book. It was a lot of work though, and required brining the chicken overnight. http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342457237&sr=8-1&keywords=ad+hoc+at+home
Watch Good Eats, for a start. I think pretty much every episode is up on youtube, and S1E1 (Steak) was what got me started on cooking. The show feels pretty corny sometimes, but it's full of great information and flexible recipes.
When you're good on basic techniques, you can pretty much pick up any cookbook and make things work. I suggest Keller's Ad Hoc at Home for some mind blowing (and thoroughly explained) stuff, and Mark Bittman's How to cook Everything series for pretty much everything else.
If you haven't cooked much, I would recommend picking up Alton Brown's book 'I'm just here for the food' It covers cooking from a science and chemistry perspective, and understanding why something happens makes you a better cook. It also helps keep you from developing bad habits, or working on erroneous information (like
browning meat 'seals in juices'.) Also some very good recipes.
Link: I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/158479559X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_g-7eAbXGFVZ5R
For the 'what do I need part' you can get enough equipment to get started from a thrift store, and cast iron skillets are cheap. A skillet/ saute pan, stock pot, mixing bowl and baking sheet will cover most things. For spices I would at least stock garlic, pepper, kosher salt. Lawry's can work in a pinch although I otherwise avoid spice mixes. If you're making Christmas treats, you're probably going to want cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, vanilla, maybe allspice/ mace depending on the recipe. Buying those and the rest of your groceries at Aldi or Trader Joe's is more economical if there is one nearby. International food stores/ Indian groceries sometimes have much better prices on spices as well.
My go to for the holidays is the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, it's all over the internet. Favorite cookies anywhere when they're fresh out of the oven :)
I'm a fan of Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For the Food.
Only book I know that covers everything from the very basics of starting cooking to advanced techniques. I also love that he doesn't tell you what to do, but the why; the science behind cooking.
Very easy to read and tons of great info.
His books are pretty good for getting into some of the specifics more than the show.
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Version/dp/158479559X/
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-More-Food/dp/1584793414/
Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food is a great primer on the science of cooking. I read it in culinary school, and it was a great distillation of the main concepts (which cuts are of meat are good for braising, searing, roasting, etc. and how to properly perform each technique). If you end up enjoying Alton Brown's style, I would also recommend Fish on a First Name Basis for fish cookery. Lastly, Cook's Illustrated is a wonderful resource on food and cooking. The yearly online membership is only approx $25, and you get access to all previously published recipes and equipment reviews.
In terms of equipment, the knife I personally use is the Victorinox 10-inch chef knife. Japanese steel is great and all, but for the same price you could get this knife, a good electric knife sharpener, and a honing steel and still have some left over. The best knife is a sharp knife after all. I would also highly recommend a T-fal non-stick pan for a solid multi-purpose first pan.
Finally, for an herb garden, I generally try to aim for either expensive or infrequently used herbs for indoor gardening. The reasoning behind growing expensive herbs is pretty straightforward. I primarily grow infrequently used herbs to avoid wasting what I wouldn't use up when cooking (as you mentioned is oft a problem). In my region, basil, sage, thyme, tarragon, and oregano would all be good candidates to grow. Parsley, cilantro, and bay leaf tend to be cheaper at the market in my area, so I usually just purchase those.
Je voudrais m'acheter un livre de cuisine qui parle un peu de la science derrière et qui explique à quoi sert chaque étape.
J'ai quelques références en anglais, du genre I'm just here for the food ou Cooking for geeks, est-ce que quelqu'un aurait de bons livres en français sur le sujet (ou de meilleurs bouquins en anglais)?
If you like Alton Brown, try checking out his books.
I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 and I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking
They also recently released a comprehensive book companion to the Good Eats series which is very good. Here
You need Alton Brown's cookbook. It will teach you how to actually cook food as opposed to simply telling you how to mix a bunch of expensive spices together. It goes through the basics of cooking (the application of heat to food), which is sorely overlooked in most recipe books. Highly recommended.
Here's some good resources that I usually tell people about when they ask what can help them cook more better.
And as for getting comfortable with using your knives, here's my advice. Make sure you have a GOOD knife. You can go to a restaurant supply store and get good knives for cheap, if you aren't at a spot where you can part with the cash to get superknives. Having a good, sharp knife is extremely important. Getting familiar with terms and handling is important, too. And finally, just cut stuff. Buy some potatoes and get to cutting...slowly at first, but once you get more comfortable pick up the speed. Make some mashed potatoes, hashbrowns, home fries, french fries, whatever. If you get sick of potatoes, use carrots or peppers. Just get some experience under your belt and you're well on your way.
Good luck!
It isn't a cookbook, but a book on how to cook. Alton Brown's I'm just here for the food 2.0. Love it. Also have several of his others in the series which are equally good IMO.
I'm going to admit to not having any idea about them. Sorry.
The two I know about are Rouxbe and America Test Kitchen's Cooking School.
I prefer books. ATK has The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. I imagine this is everything, or close to it, from their online offering in a book. Read at your own pace. Pay once for the book, and don't worry about "finishing" the course in a month.
Again, I have no idea really what the online courses actually offer. Maybe they're worth it. Others will chime in.
America's Test Kitchen Cooking School
This is what you're looking for. It's worth the money.
to add to this, for a college kid "The Complete Cooking for Two" would serve him well as I doubt he cooks for more than just the two of you all frequently - http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Cooking-For-Cookbook/dp/1936493837
Plus it's only $20
That seems like a lot of money for food, so I'm writing down the following on the assumption that a lot of it gets thrown out because it goes bad before she can eat it. Maybe she's stocked up on a lot and she forgets it's even there. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
A couple of tips I'd like to add are creating something like a meal plan of recipes she likes and maybe blanching/freezing some of her fruits and vegetables. That way, she'll know how much to buy and what portion of that to prepare and freeze. Then I write down how much is in each bag/container and then the date I froze it.
What I do personally for a meal plan is somewhat loose. It's less of a "plan" and more of an on-hand "menu," where I cross out items I've made/ran out of ingredients for and can keep track of what I still am able to make with what I still have while still being able to decide what I'm in the mood for. It feels less constraining this way.
Also, maybe she should try altering recipes to reduce the amount of servings. If her issue is making meals meant for a lot of people but only having herself/two people to feed and not being able to get through her all her leftovers before they go bad (or just getting sick of them), then that might be helpful, too. I bought a cookbook for two for this very reason.
How I started was an extract kit and simple brewing kit that included a couple of buckets, 5 gallon carboy, cleaning brushes and cleaning and sanitizing solutions. Plus some air locks and other stuff you need. It was like $75 or at most $100. Kinda like this kit but without the kettle and it had a glass carboy. That kit is better than the one I had but the same brand. I had a turkey frying kit my brother had bought me like six years earlier but I had never used so I used the kettle and propane burner for brewing instead. Worked pretty well for a while. I did like six or seven extract batches batches my first couple years. Then I moved to all grain and built a mash tun from an igloo drink cooler and using a stainless steel braided line like this but I made my braid into a circle to avoid crushing it with the weight of the grain. For two years after I moved to all grain I just brewed recipes from Brewing Classic Styles twice a month till I felt like I had my process down before messing with doing my own recipes or doing more difficult styles. Hope some of that helps you get a start.
https://www.amazon.ca/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
Because everyone I have ever heard talk about it only says great things.
I would also recommend Brewing Classic Styles
This is my full list of books from /r/homebrewing but it includes pro level books:
New Brewers:
Continued Learning:
Specialty/Advanced/Other:
Business Books:
Technical Readings (Textbooks might be expensive):
I'll second Brewing Classic Styles. I use it as a starting reference for just about any style I brew. I then will make changes to his recipe based on what I want and info i've found primarily searching through homebrewtalk and r/homebrewing.
Brewing Classic Styles has always been a great reference for me. The Belgian Pale Ale recipe is pretty solid.
How to Brew is pretty widely excepted as the must have piece of reading material. There is an online version, but it is pretty outdated. Definitely spend a few bucks and buy the most recent edition. It is totally worth it. Other than that I think Brewing Classic Styles is great to have around as well regardless of skill level.
The classic go to's are How to brew and brewing classic styles, in my opinion.
I like brew like a monk because I'm a belgian freak.
Your wife has done research slanted toward what she already believes. Check out these books:
The Vegetarian Myth
Nourishing Traditions
Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions has a whole mess of recipes for things made with whey. Ricotta, buttermilk and adding it to soups have already been mentioned. I have found it makes wonderful live-culture beverages and tonics.
Beet kvass is one of my favorites.
Here are the links:
Nourishing Traditions, and
the Weston A Price Foundation.
Price's book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, about his studies of the nutrition and health of various traditional cultures from around the world during the 1930s, is well worth a read.
I recommend Peta's Vegan College Cookbook for recipes. I don't know if you mind the vegan diet, but it has about 300 recipes that can all be cooked in a microwave and are made with easy to obtain, cheap ingredients http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
Will you be living in an apartment or a dorm? I ask because most dorms don't have any cooking access besides a microwave. If that's the case, there's PETA's book about cheap college vegan recipes (HERE) It's not necessarily the best food, but it is really cheap and microwavable. A lot of them are absurdly simple like "Take bread and put vegan cheese in it and cook it," so it gets ridiculous. It's also not really the healthiest, but I think overall it is worth a look to get ideas.
There's also another book called Vegetarian 5 ingredient gourmet. I don't have it, but I saw it at the bookstore yesterday. It might be worth it, too. Here
One standby that my ex always ate, and I do now, is to use a rice cooker to make rice and beans. It's super simple. Just use whatever amount of rice the cooking times tell you, add your favorite salsa and your favorite beans and the amount of water it says to use, and cook it. It's simple and cheap, but has plenty of nutrients.
I make a vegetarian slow cooker chili (I'll update this comment with the recipe in a bit), but this cookbook is a godsend for veg-heads in college.
The book Ratio by Michael Ruhlman is probably your best bet. Although it's not a quick cheat sheet, it explains exactly what you're looking for.
I've been baking for about 10 years so if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask and I'll see if I can help!
Edit: a word
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.
For using your stock this time, I'd make something simple that shows of the stock's flavor without too many overpowering flavors (i.e. no coconut milk, tomato soup, etc). Something like Alice Waters' chicken noodle soup.
Other stock advice:
Overnight is not necessarily too long, but it's also not really necessary. I give my stock 3-4 hours on the stove at a bare simmer (a bubble breaking the surface every few seconds) and it's always rich and delicious.
I avoid dried herbs - they tend to have a really strong flavor that you don't need in your stock. If it's a flavor you want for a soup later, just add it when you make the soup. A few fresh parsley sprigs are nice, though.
I like to keep stock a blank slate: just carrot, celery, onion, and bay leaves for aromatics.
I generally rely on Michael Ruhlman's Ratio for stock technique. The game changer for me was his advice to add vegetables only for the last hour or so of cooking. After that, they break down and their flavor gets muddy.
Edited to add: of course, the most important stock advice: NEVER LET IT BOIL, and NEVER STIR. Leave it alone!
second this. One of my favorite kitchen books. Also included in this list is The Joy Of Cooking, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking (Julia Child) and Ratio
This may be what you are looking for. I've heard good things, and I have two of his other books, which I've found pretty useful.
https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
"Description
Michael Ruhlman’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller takes us to the very “truth” of cooking: it is not about recipes but rather about basic ratios and fundamental techniques that makes all food come together, simply.
When you know a culinary ratio, it’s not like knowing a single recipe, it’s instantly knowing a thousand. "
James Peterson's Cooking. It has lots of good recipes and not just the how, but the why. Also, How to Cook Without a Book and Ratio to learn how to improvise.
> Ratio von Michael Ruhlman
hier der Link zu den Rezensionen
> Bryant Terry meintest Du dies?
>Silberlöffel
this one? i might check it out next, thanks.
i was between this and Bread Bakers Apprentice but i read Forkish's pizza book and like his approach on starting out.
There's a cookbook called ratio that talks about ratios of inredients to get good flavors.
My grandma recently gave me an old Chef Paul Prudhomme cookbook from the 80's that is great. I'm a huge gumbo fan and I think there's like 5 separate recipes in there just for that, with different variations for chicken/sausage, seafood, duck, etc.
But, what I really came here to say is there's a newish book called Salt Fat Acid Heat that isn't directly tied to cajun food, but is excellent at explaining the science of food and why things are delicious. I like this instead of a cookbook that just gives you a list of ingredients and specific steps to follow, with no reasoning for why you're doing each of the steps. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830... there's also a Netflix special that has the same title that's good as an appetizer to the book if you're interested.
Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat has a handy flavor wheel chart that explains flavors by nationality. It's pretty handy, I actually photocopied mine and hung it on my kitchen wall. The rest of the book is super interesting too, definitely worth purchasing.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is a great cookbook as well- like Brown's stuff, it teaches you the why's of cooking, and how to improvise with whatever you have on hand:
https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
Well explained the why's of using each element. Very well organized and good recipes to try. Uses basic ingredients too, so won't break your budget.
amzn link
I'd definitely recommend Samin's book Salt Fat Acid Heat! Rather than just recipes, it teaches you the fundamentals of recipe creation and cooking. Kenji's The Food Lab is also an awesome contribution.
Nächster Geburtstag: Das Mikrowellenkochbuch für eine Person!
Another good heart warming microwave cook book for one
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
I have something even better for you.
me too
I know this is counterintuitive to your desire to pack light, but I do think you should go to a thrift store and try to buy a pan. It opens so many doors when you can fry meat, eggs, vegetables...
ETA: get this book
> microwave cooking for one
If anyone can't find it at Goodwill, it's available on Amazon.
Other great microwave cooking books:
250 Best Meals in a Mug: Delicious Homemade Microwave Meals in Minutes
125 Best Microwave Oven Recipes
A Man, a Can, a Microwave: 50 Tasty Meals You Can Nuke in No Time
> I don't know how to cook for
YOURE WELCOME
Here you go:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565546660/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_YWfWzbS1XSW8W
All the LHBS staff in my area swear by The Complete Joy of Homebrewing: Fourth Edition by Charlie Papazian.
I’d recommend it as a good read but with a few caveats. Some of the advice is a little outdated compared to methods that homebrewers are using these days, for instance, I haven’t seen a single mention of brew-in-a-bag in the advanced chapter of the book. The author also regularly plugs his other book intended for a more advanced audience. I don’t find this too egregious because the quality of the information he provides is sufficient for a beginner IMO, but if you really want to know everything the author knows/thinks about a certain topic, you essentially need two books.
There are also a few things I like about this book. First off, the history of beer and brewing is covered to an extent, and I found that to be a great read. Secondly, there are some pretty good charts and reference tables that you can use as a guide if/when you start thinking about developing your own recipes. Also, on the topic of recipes, the author provides a selection of 45 recipes to get you started (in my experience, your LHBS will also have some recipe sheets available most likely). Finally, the author also cracks dad jokes routinely, so you’ll get a chuckle every once in a while to break up the information overload.
Overall, my opinion on this book is that it’s a great entry to homebrewing, but it shouldn’t be the only resource you use.
Microbrewed Adventures by Charlie P. is a great read. The idea is basically he pairs homebrew recipes to stories about his adventures discovering new beers.
Edit: Also, it's a great companion to his more famous The Complete Joy of Homebrewing
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is good. I would say just do it. Get a good kit and try and find someone to guide you along. Then keep reading all you can about brewing. Blogs, books, go to a homebrew store. Don't be afraid to ask for advice. Brewers are like guys with big dicks; they love to show off.
You're still misunderstanding evolution. Biologists don't consider animals in terms of "inferior" or "superior".
As for the laws of physics, organ systems require energy, and an organism has a total energy budget to run its systems based on the total energy it can consume. Brains are metabolically expensive, so evolving a large brain requires lots of energy. This energy cannot just come from eating more, however, because there is a practical threshold to how much energy an animal can actually extract from the environment: the more food an animal eats, the more energy it has to spend digesting that food; at a certain level it hits a plateau, and this plateau is below the level of energy it takes to run a human brain. Humans got around this by externalizing part of our digestive process, by cooking and processing food: instead of using our own energy to digest our food, we use external energy sources to digest part of it for us. This allowed us to reduce the energy budget of our digestive systems and divert that energy into running a brain larger than physically sustainable under natural conditions. Brain size in human ancestors was only moderately larger than chimpanzees before Homo erectus, but by the time controlled use of fire was habitual human brain size had doubled. Controlled use of fire is not an accepted or commonly reported bigfoot behaviour, and it is not consistent with them being so elusive since smoke would make them easier to find; without some mechanism to break this energy plateau it is not possible for bigfoots to feed an exceptionally expensive brain like humans have.
A seminal paper on the bioenergetics of brain evolution was Aiello and Wheeler's (1995)Expensive Tissue Hypothesis, which described the unique relationship between human brain and gut size, and Richard Wrangham has bud part of his career on the relationship between controlled use of fire and human brain evolution, including his 2010 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human
This is my favorite hypothesis.
Basically, cooking food enabled us to use the energy derived from our diets for larger brains. Most animals spend a significant portion of the energy they get from food on digesting that food. Cooking means that we don't have to do so and can use that energy elsewhere.
Hummingbirds are another example of a low digestive energy species. Instead of using that energy for their brains, they use it for flight - that's how they can hover and fly backwards.
Let's see, to be smart, like us, a big brain is required. A big brain needs more energy than raw food can deliver so your super smart, super special mystery monkey has apparently learned how to cook it's food (https://www.amazon.ca/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410).
Awesome, you don't have to search for tree structures anymore, just claim that firepits are proof of sasquatch BBQ's.
I've found concept books in combination with cookbooks to help. My favorite is Culinary Artistry by Dorenburg and Page to be the most helpful. I try to limit myself to either a single ingredient, or a pair, or even just a cuisine. The cookbooks give me recipe basics, while the concept book helps me twist them in ways that I maybe haven't tried before.
Checking for what's locally available can also be a way of narrowing down options and being creative.
Overall, I find creativity in the idea that there is freedom in limitation. Hope this helps, and good luck! I've always aspired to be in your position, I hope you find a way to make it work and enjoy it!
Cooking isn't as fussy as people try to make it seem. Baking (especially high end baking) is fussy. Not so much with making meals. Take food add heat, never forget salt. That's one of the most important things about cooking, always remember to taste while you do it and add a dash of salt. Salt brings out the flavor of food. [This] (http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disneys-Mickey-Mouse-Cookbook/dp/0307168123) was my first cookbook. Got it when I was like 6 or 7 and then graduated to The Joy of Cooking. One of the Great things about kid's cookbooks is that the recipes are designed to be cheap and easy. The instructions are very easy to follow, and the pictures have cartoon characters. How fun is that?
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a good start along with The Joy of Cooking
Start with recipes that you get from reputable sources. Get a cookbook like Joy of Cooking or spend some time on the food network. The Joy of Cooking can be a pretty daunting book. I find that watching videos can be very helpful if you're not confident because you actually see a person do what you're going to do - the ambiguity of language isn't there. I find Alton Brown to be one of the best in terms of clarity, but his recipes aren't always the healthiest. And if you do encounter a term that you don't know, look it up. Google will bring you to explanations and/or videos for pretty much any term that you find.
The hardest part of cooking for me (still) is when recipes say things like "cook until done." I always try to find recipes that state approximate cooking temperature and time, and I advise you do the same until you get the hang of it. And once I figure out a cooking time for a recipe that doesn't include it, I write it in (I re-type successful recipes in Word and keep them all in a folder on my computer).
Also, record what you do, whether it works or not. I'm a chemist, so this is a habit for me. I record recipes that I try and what went right and what went wrong. If I cooked over high heat for 10 minutes and the outside got burned while the inside didn't cook, I note that and note that I should try a lower temperature next time. Practice makes perfect.
I got The Joy of Cooking for Christmas. I have only used it a couple times, but it is incredibly comprehensive. It is divided into sections like "Meat," "Fish," "Desserts," etc., and gives careful instructions on every cooking technique, kind of food, and anything else you would want to know about every recipe in there. It is almost too big though - very overwhelming. I have had nothing but success with it so far.
Thanks. I may buy a copy on payday
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0743246268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_RPy6Cb79VVEVB
Joy of Cooking. Dadrin finden sich wirklich Rezepte für alles. Die Erstauflage ist aus den frühen 30ern wo es noch keinerlei Fertigprodukte gab, deshalb findest du dort auch Rezepte für sämtliche Grundzutaten die man heute eigentlich selbstverständlich im Supermarkt findet. Wenn du aber mal selber eine Bouillon, Joghurt, Nudeln oder Butter herstellen willst findest du die Rezepte dafür auch in diesem Buch. Wenn du selber Muscheln oder Tintenfische oder sonstwelches Tier oder Gemüse zerlegen musst findest du hier gute Anleitungen. Ein Großteil des Buchs ist sämtlichen für die Zubereitung benötigten Techniken und Utensilien gewidmet. Selbst wie man für jegliche Gelegenheiten den Tisch deckt und Menüs zusammenstellt ist dort erläutert. Man erkauft sich diese breite Auswahl an Material halt durch Verzicht auf bunte Bilder, und die meisten Rezepte sind lediglich Grundrezepte zu denen noch ein paar Tipps gegeben werden, wie man sie variieren kann. Ganz allgemein regt das Buch auf jeden Fall dazu an selbst zu experimentieren. Ist das einzige Kochbuch was ich nach meinem letzten Umzug behalten habe und für mich die absolute Küchenbibel. Es sollte allerdings beachtet werden, dass die Mengenangaben ausschließlich in amerikanischen Einheiten angegeben sind, also lbs., cups, Tbsp. usw.
Start by learning to cook some of the foods that you eat from restaurants or buy boxed. Modify where appropriate.
Things like burritos are very easy. Make rice, add beans and assorted vegetables. You can buy pre-mixed seasonings for your beans, or just buy them already seasoned.
Soups and stews are also really easy. These are almost impossible to screw up.
Chop up an onion, two carrots, two ribs of celery and some garlic (1-3 cloves). Saute until semi-cooked. Add chicken (or veg) broth (canned or boxed is fine. Use low sodium, you can always add more salt.) Add (chopped cooked) chicken/turkey, potatoes/rice/pasta, and two or three of the following corn, peas, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers (any colour), broccoli, asparagus, turnip, and/or beans (green, lima, kidney, etc). Voila! Chicken vegetable soup! Just add bread for a very pleasant meal. This is great for cleaning out the fridge.
Roasting chickens is very easy and will provide several kinds of meals. You can eat the chicken for dinner, make sandwiches with the sliced meat or make chicken salad, and use the remaining meat for soup or pot pie.
Ultimately, you will want to buy a cookbook for beginners. The Joy of Cooking is a classic and highly recommended. They also have a website.
I would recommend a cookbook instead of looking up recipes on the internet. The authors will use the same style to write all of the recipes and after you make a few, you will get a feel for them. You will know how they like to begin, how salty/spicy their dishes tend to be, etc. This makes getting good results a lot easier. After you have a feel for the cooking process, you can branch out more easily to new foods, new recipes or new flavours.
A classic! 1,200 pages and 4,500 recipes.
I recently got, and have been really enjoying, How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart. It focuses on techniques that are simple enough to memorize yet open to endless variations with whatever you have on hand. Useful for cooks like me who resent having to measure things and follow recipes!
Go pick up a copy of How to Cook Without a Book. It will seriously change how you look at food. Also, watch every episode of Good Eats.
Experimenting is great, but doing a bit of reading along the way wouldn't hurt and might spare you some disasters.
On the cheap, Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book was a good starting place for me when I had similar questions / concerns in college. It focuses on a few basics and then builds upon them with variations. Moreover, this text is a quicker read than many of the other tomes out there. You can get it used for $12 including shipping. Used cookbooks are seriously the sh*t.
If you wanna drop a bit more money (~$26), James Peterson's Cooking has far more visuals and recipes than Anderson's. Beautiful text, mouth-watering recipes.
Lastly, I think it makes sense to focus on a certain style of food for a while so you get it dialed in before moving on. That way, you build momentum and better retain the lessons you learn. With Anderson's book, for instance, you could riff on a homemade pasta sauce for a week or two, or mess with sauteing chicken and vegetables a few different ways. Keep a list of what you make so you get a sense of where you've been in the kitchen, what you've accomplished, and what you might want to try next.
Oh, and keep coming back to cookit to discuss. Hooray community!
Not a blog but there is a good cookbook called something like, how to cook without using a book. Teaches techniques, not recipes.
Edit: Found it!
Plan 1: Grab a general purpose beginner's book like Ruhlman's 20, How to Cook Everything: the Basics, or The Four Hour Chef and get cracking.
For the record, I would start with Ruhlman since he's the most oriented towards principles, techniques, and general purpose stuff. Bittman's great, but he mostly teaches via recipe which isn't that helpful when you're just barely starting out. Ferris' book is incredible and I would wholeheartedly recommend it, but it's huge and filled with a lot of rabbit trails about learning styles, foreign languages, memorizing playing cards, and shooting 3 points. If you like watching Tim Ferris ADD on neat stuff (and I do) it's a great read, but it definitely isn't only about cooking.
Plan 2: Get this poster. Ideally here. Get the veggie if you need it. Buy the stuff, make the stuff. This won't be quite as much initial layout as buying a book, and it's not nearly as intimidating. But it's not nearly as detailed so you're going to have to do a lot more guess-and-check type stuff and be ready to throw out your mistakes, which is probably going to cost more and be more frustrating in the long run.
tl;dr - Ruhlman
Disclaimer: links are for convenience only. I receive no benefit other than sharing my favorite sources.
A lot of the comments are focused on learning simple techniques and skills, and having a basic understanding of processes. Check out this book by Michael Ruhlman.
From the blurb: " Twenty distills Ruhlman's decades of cooking, writing, and working with the world's greatest chefs into twenty essential ideas from ingredients to processes to attitude that are guaranteed to make every cook more accomplished. Whether cooking a multi-course meal, the juiciest roast chicken, or just some really good scrambled eggs, Ruhlman reveals how a cook's success boils down to the same twenty concepts."
Here it is on Amazon!
And the official site!
Become a facebook fan!
Brewing Classic Styles is also often recommended. Especially for an extract brewer converting to all grain, as the recipes are presented initially for extract or extract + steeping specialty grains and then every recipe has a section on what grains and amounts should replace the extracts for an all-grain brew. That gives you an empirical feeling for how grains and extracts relate.
You may want to think about these two books:
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410207249&sr=1-1&keywords=brewing+classic+styles
I've been making some beers out of Brewing Classic Styles (https://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468538316&sr=8-1&keywords=brewing+classic+styles) recently. I've found that I usually have to reduce the amount of grain slightly, since efficiency with the GF tends to be a little higher than whatever he's getting in that book.
I also second getting a copy of Beersmith or something similar like Brewer's Friend, which is what I use. Even for making someone else's recipe, they're really, really helpful for keeping notes on each brew day as well as what OG/FG to expect with a recipe on your system.
I would also add Jamil Zainashef's Classic Styles to recipe formulation. It is a great BJCP style guide. Gives sample recipes for each BJCP category, along with a ton of history, ingredients, recommendations, processes, etc. about each style.
Brewing Classic Styles is a great reference for basic recipes to match almost any style. I like to take those, then tweak them as I want for the flavors of characteristics I want.
I got started using this book Complete Joy Of Homebrewing I felt this book was super friendly as introductory material.
There is also this book How To Brew I think most people will tell you John Palmer's book is better but honestly both will contain all the information you need to get started. I am sure someone more resourceful than me will be able to direct you to some great (and free) internet resources to take a look at as well.
Edit: A quick Google search yielded This Have fun and welcome!
I haven’t seen it yet but The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Fourth Edition: Fully Revised and Updated https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062215752/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XiQoDbVWK4YK0 is worth a read.
Also like everyone else was saying, just take it one step at a time. Just enjoy it. And start kegging ASAP because bottling sucks.
I’d say try not to make too many changes to your brewery all at once, so you can stay familiar with how long different things normally take, and it limits the hiccups you might have. Obviously there’s going to be pretty big steps, like going all grain.
My top suggestion would be "How to brew" By John Palmer or "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" By Charlie Papazian and read before buying anything. You will get a strong understanding of the process and be able to make sure it's something you will want to do before dropping $100 dollars on getting started.
If you want to jump in with smaller batches (1 Gallons) I would suggest buying one of Brooklyn Brew Shops kits or another small batch kit. The process is pretty much the same just in smaller portions. If you decide from there you want to go bigger you always can and then you have a better grasp on the process and what will be needed to make better beer.
Little bit of a different issue, but I would also suggest having a homebrew session with the staff before you open one day. Nothing will teach you about the process of making beer better than doing it yourself, and it really isn't hard. If you still want to accompany that lesson with literature, two great books on brewing are How to Brew by John Palmer (aka the home brewer's bible, full text is also available for free online) and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
As far as general history and beer tasting knowledge, I'll back up those who have recommended Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher, and pretty much anything written by Michael Jackson. Many of Jackson's books are separated by regions, so it would be helpful to find which one applies to the area your pub/the beers your serve are from
To follow up on /u/unsungsavior16's comment, I'd suggest The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. I read this after Palmer's book and loved both of them!
The advice in these comments is good. Also, Beginner's brewing books like The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and The Brewmaster's Bible have sections with generic recipes by style. The also have good general descriptions of various varieties of hops and their typical uses for bittering, flavoring, or aroma.
First buy this book.
I'm so old I have the second edition from when I started homebrewing back in the early 90's.
Start saving your bottles. Tell all your friends to start saving their bottles too. Just accept that brewing is a craft and you'll get better with experience. But also that you may never make a beer a good as the best beers you can buy. Have fun!
8 gallon kettle, 6+ gallon fermenter (buckets are fine), airlock, bottling bucket, racking cane or autosiphon, good instant read thermometer, hydrometer, sanitizer (i use StarSan religiously), cleaner such as PBW or oxiclean free, about 70 - 12 oz bottles, bottle caps, capper. You can find all of these items sold together as a starter kit at many online retailers - except probably the thermometer and bottles. Or check your local homebrew store.
I say those measurements so you won't be rebuying in a month when you want to do a full boil. You can boil a full 5gallons batch in an 8 gallon kettle.
Yes, you can spend $10k and want more. But there is no need to spend anywhere near that to make excellent beer.
And unless you've read and understand a few books or have a mentor that's gonna watch over you, start with extract and some specialty grains. It's easy to get in over your head with all grain and no experience. Start with a kit for sure. That way of it doesn't come out as advertised you will know it's something wrong with your process and not something wrong with the recipe you concocted. Sanitize everything that it going to come into contact with your beer after the boil. If you have questions post again.
And read a book. I started with Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. Others will recommend Palmer's book but I haven't read it.
Cheers. RDWHAHB.
Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" is what you want.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0062215752/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487716562&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=charlie+papazian&dpPl=1&dpID=51UwlRbkPVL&ref=plSrch
In this post, I'm going to link to examples. They are examples: I'm not necessarily recommending that specific item. (I'm pretty much doing a search on Amazon and linking to the first thing in the search results that is actually what you need.) It's just an example to let you know what you're looking for.
Yes, you will need a metal stockpot. Five gallons should be sufficient.
You will need some type of stirring apparatus. Some would recommend a large metal spoon, but I recommend using a plastic mash paddle.
I would recommend getting some type of thermometer to put on your stock pot. A candy thermometer is where I'd start, but, if this is a hobby that you'll stick with, it's probably worth investing in something better.
Also, I see that they put a hydrometer in your kit. If you want to take measurements with the hydrometer, you'll need either a turkey baster or a wine thief. I'd start with the baster.
If you need a book on homebrewing, Palmer's How to Brew is pretty much the standard, but Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is well regarded. Palmer's book is in its third edition, but you can get the first edition of the book online for free.
Depending on the ingredients that you use, you may need common kitchen items like scissors or can openers.
You'll also need bottles. If you brew a five gallon batch (which is pretty typical… at least in the United States), you'll need about fifty-four twelve-ounce bottles. However, you can't use twist-off bottles; they're no good.
Lastly, you'll need ingredients. Different recipes call for different ingredients. My advice is to buy a kit from a local homebrew store (LHBS) or one online. Some kits make you buy the yeast separately. If so, make sure that you purchase the right strain of yeast.
Fantasy: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. The first book is good, but the second and third are fantastic.
Non-fiction: Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human by Richard Wrangham. Flat-out the most fascinating book I've ever read. About evolution and shit.
Literary Fiction: Orsinian Tales by Ursula K. Le Guin. The writing is so beautiful, moving, exquisite, all that good stuff. Le Guin's best work, imo.
Science Fiction: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Sooooo awesome. Has some elements of fantasy in it (the medieval part anyway.) Basically, knights vs. aliens.
This appears to be the primary reference.
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
Richard Wrangham is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University - since I sense you are about to question his credentials.
The relevant research is by Dr. Wrangham and associates and has been summarized in his book Catching Fire: how cooking made us human. I don't recall them specifying fish but just cooked food in general.
read this book
Culinary Artistry is a WONDERFUL book, and has a lot of useful information related to what you want.
Ditto on The Flavor Bible, and The Flavor Thesaurus.
This book deals with this question in a really down-to-earth manner, while coming from widely knowledgeable sources:
http://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Artistry-Andrew-Dornenburg/dp/0471287857
It's basically a book-sized version of the info-graphic that ninjabk posted.
Culinary Artistry has a ton of charts in it that offer traditional and non-traditional flavour pairings for ingredients, as well as how to use those to your advantage with seasonality. It's great! I use it anytime I am stuck for ideas when looking at the ingredients I have to work with.
You sound a whole lot like me. Try: http://www.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400 or http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0471287857/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452484877&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=culinary+artistry&dpPl=1&dpID=51f2cXjryYL&ref=plSrch
They are amazing resources that teach you about flavors and how they complement each other.
Culinary Artistry This is one of my favorite books. It has some recipes, but the best part of the book is the flavor profiles. Ingredients, flavors, and tastes and are complimentary. So, if you look up asparagus, it will list other items and spices that pair well with it.
Eventually, you are going to get to a point where you no longer rely on recipes. You rely on experience. This is the kind of book for that level of cooking.
http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer/dp/0743246268
If you want to learn the answers to these questions (or have an on-hand classic reference at any given time) I recommend The Joy of Cooking. It explains the result of the particular techniques and why it is important to prepare things a certain way. Often I find that there are perfectly delicious recipes that skip these techniques and work fine, but it is a good explanation of the classic way of doing everything. It is a great reference for cooking and baking.
The Joy of Cooking is a great basic book! It has a zillion very basic recipes that you can doctor and tweak based on your preferences. I've been annotating mine with my favorite variations, and it's fantastic. It teaches you how to do both complicated recipes and very basic things, too, which is really helpful.
Not a book, but I highly recommend everything Alton Brown has ever done. He has a YouTube channel and a few books, but Good Eats is how I learned. Good Eats is a great place to start because he explains the science behind why things work the way they do. Once you know why ingredients or techniques work, you have so much more independence in the kitchen. If a recipe isn't turning out the way I'd like, I can fix it based on what I know about the science behind what's happening. He also teaches you how to do things without complicated tools or specialized equipment, so it's also helped me build my kitchen tools up with things I use all the time.
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.
Do yourself a favor and get a copy of The Joy of Cooking. If you can't afford it, get it second hand or ask for it for xmas or something. If you find a good and/or cheap ingredient, use the glossary to look it up, and there's usually information about it. Once you have the kitchen skills to follow a recipe reasonably closely, you're golden.
Another tip, think about a food you LOVE to eat (something reasonably healthy, whose ingredients are in your budget). Look up a recipe for that, then make it any time you don't know what else to make (why not make it every day?). Keep making it until it is exactly what you want, and you've internalized the recipe; then, move on to another dish.
My advice is to get stuff to measure as you cook, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a thermometer, and a scale. Try to be accurate when you cook.
Familiarize yourself with using knives. Find out how to do basic cuts. Get a chef's knife, everything else, buy as you need them. Do take care of your knife(s), keep them fairly sharp (sharp knives are safer than dull ones). Things shouldn't take lots of force to cut (if you do, you may be doing it wrong)
Familiarize yourself with fundamental techniques: roasting, sauteing, steaming, boiling, blanching. Easy, once you know how.
Everything else (pans/gadgets/dishes), buy as you need them.
In my experience, everything goes on sale at one time or another, so being able to process any given raw material into edible food is important. The more you cook, the better you'll be.
Also, I don't know if you have time, but some cooking shows are very good at teaching cooking. I really like good eats, which is available on netflix. Never be afraid to ask somebody how to do something.
Good luck.
Not tech related but the first anniversary is considered the “paper” anniversary (technically that’s for weddings but whatever). You could look for a nice print or, going with the cooking motifs, get a copy of The Joy of Cooking (https://www.amazon.com/Joy-of-Cooking/dp/0743246268) and write a nice personalized note in it. It’s a classic and would be a good addition to any cooks kitchen.
Happy anniversary!
Books
Sites
well if you're looking for a cookbook, you cant really go wrong with The Joy of Cooking. It has pretty much everything ever. My Grandfather actually refers to this as the bible.
My best advice to you is to get items that multitask. It will save you money and space. Use your pots to cook rice in instead of getting a rice cooker. (Rice is insanely easy to cook on the stove, just follow the instructions.) Get a nice blender that will also blend ice.. Get a decent vacuum with attachments - but you could probably find one dirt cheap at a yard sale. I'd also suggest investing in some good [Corelle] (http://www.amazon.com/Corelle-Livingware-16-Piece-Dinnerware-Service/dp/B0000DDU2O/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1373456893&sr=1-2&keywords=corelle+dinnerware) dishes. They are lightweight and last forever. One more thing, I'd recommend a good cookbook such as The Joy of Cooking. It'll even teach you how to boil an egg. You'll be surprised how much money you can save if you can cook the basics.
Also, talk to your roommates (I'm assuming you will have at least one roommate) and find out what they can contribute. Assuming that you are a broke college student like most everyone else (and will probably be graduating with thousands of dollars of debt) you don't want to spend a lot of money on things for your apartment - hence, the multitasking items. You'll find that you really don't need much!
The Joy of Cooking has all of this and has stood the test of time to prove its value.
The Joy of Cooking
I also like the Better Homes and Garden cookbook (a suggestion on that link) for basic, timeless recipes. Joy of Cooking has more "How To" areas in it.
EDIT: sorry, not really recipes you "can't mess up"; but a thorough, yet basic guide from everything to making pie crust, butchering meat, or peeling vegetables.
fear cuts deeper than words
Edit #1 - Replaced #1 #2, #9, #13, #15, edited some text, added bonuses
Okay, so a lot of my items are similar, or are kind of "flexing" the rules, but I will leave official rulings up to you. Here goes!
Strip of magnesium- This actually just got gifted to me. This coal trash can is silver, which is basically grey :D2)Something reminiscent of rain -
Zen Garden - Flexing the rules. It's only related because it's a garden.An umbrella!! I don't have one of these, and I have no idea why.6)Item less than a dollar - MP3
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO%C2%AE-Architecture-Brandenburg-Gate-21011/dp/B0050R0V3O/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=E9RD1GO4V1KF&coliid=I22USNN7FC4LVL)
It's actually the guitar, so I went with the 2nd most expensive which is a Logitech G19 keyboardNope. It's actually this amp.Not sure if a k-cup would count, but I threw it in there. If it doesn't count, I will find something elseIt doesn't. Here's some ship and anchor cufflinks I really want for my wedding :)Kind of cheating, but a different k-cup. Donut shop coffee is the BEST.Changed to a different beverage. I have a horrible addiction to this stuff, and it smells wonderful (to me)againbecause it's helpful to have something peaceful when going back to schoolBONUS #1 - I looked through your reddit history (not very hard, but I did look), and came up empty, so I'll just post something later that might fit.
BONUS #2 - These blankets are made in Oregon, and look SUPER cool. Not on my WL (I have more than enough blankets), but I really like them.
I may attempt the bonuses tomorrow, we will see. This is definitely a placeholder until rulings on some items are made.Fix'd :DAs far as cookbooks go, I would suggest just some basic ones such as Better Homes and Gardens Cookcook which has a bunch of basic recipes that you can elaborate yourself. For a little more specific but usually simple recipes, I'd suggest The Joy of Cooking; it has a bunch of usually pretty simple recipes and goes into some details about food pairing, knives and cuts of meat...
If you have trouble understanding some of the cooking terms or just want to know more about it, my mom gave me The Cordon Bleu's Cooking Techniques which gives instructions about how to cut and prepare vegetables, fruits, meats, etc... It also has some basic recipes in there for you. I use it a lot; I know you can look up these things online but I rarely ever bring my computer to the kitchen.
As far as knives go, I would buy a couple of high end ones that you would use frequently and, if you want more, you can buy the cheap ones that have serrated edges. I do have a lot of cutting and peeling of veggies and fruits, so I have 3 paring knives. One small one for small stuff. A Tourne Knife (paring knife that is curved w/ sharp edge facing inwards). And a larger paring knife that I use for cutting most vegetables. You probably don't need a Tourne knife unless you discovered that you do a lot of peeling. When I say I bought "expensive" ones, I mean I went to like Sur La Table and bought ones that were like 10 bucks each and not the 100-200 USD ones. After that all you probably need is a chef's knife. With those you can cut/peel/trim almost anything quite easily.
Kitchen scissors can be useful for cutting off fat of pieces of meat (or skin). I found a decent pair at Costco that wasn't too expensive. But you don't really need that. So if it is out of your budget, then don't get it.
Next up is tubberware (or whatever you want to call it). Make food for multiple people (even though it is just yourself), save it and throw it in the fridge for later. I do this and bring leftovers to work everyday. It saves me money from having to go out and I tend to eat healthier so it is ok.
I tend to make every week or two, a pound of brown ground beef w/ a basic tomato based sauce in there. From there I can make chili, pasta sauce, add a little more veggies and I throw it into bell peppers (which gets thrown in the oven - yum), etc... You can probably do multiple things w/ it. But it is nice when I have a long day at work and don't really feel like doing a lot of cooking; I can just throw together some pasta.
In the winter time, I tend to make some kind of big stew on weekends. It lasts me a couple of weeks and is very tasty and hearty when it is cold out. Stews involves cheap cuts of meat as you cook them for a long time so it tenderizes them.
That is all I can really think of right now. Feel free to message me.
Order Joy of Cooking and thank me later.
The classic Joy of Cooking has baking basics as well.
I understand from my experience recomending books on the cooking sub reddits that no one wants any information from books, only the internet. However there ARE BOOKS THAT EXIST IN REAL LIFE that can tell you everything you need to know about most aspects/disciplines of cooking. The one that has taught me the most is called THE JOY OF COOKING
Try a simple pasta dish...it's very hard to mess up pasta, and there are a ton of recipes online. Once you have one success under your belt, I think it will be easier to move on to other dishes. Pastas and stir frys are usually pretty simple. Salads and soups are usually pretty simple as well. I usually stick with simple because I can easily get lazy about cooking. The internet is a great resource for easy recipes and there are a ton of books that specialize in easy recipes. I think this book is a good resource for easy cooking:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793
I hate recipes because I never have what I need and they're complicated. I started cooking by buying processed and frozen foods and making them healthier. I tried to find foods where I could omit or use less sauce (reduce carbs and salt) and I would buy bags of plain frozen veggies and put extra veggies on everything. Frozen pizza? Add extra veggies? Nachos? Add tons of spinach. Mac n cheese? Add diced tomatoes or mixed veggied or frozen spinach.
Eventually I stumbed across this book and it was so long ago that I remember nothing about it. I'm going to check it out again and see if it hwlps me figure stuff out all over again.
Recently I've developed a couple new food sensitivities and need.to do a stricter elimination diet. I'm doing a Whole 30 (paleo) but modified. It's a pain in the ass because I have to learn to cook all over again since I can't follow paleo recipes (other than hating recipies, they need to be modified and I don't know how to substitute for recipes that are already substituting and working around stuff).
I'm just trying to figure out formulas, what grouos of things and flavors go together. I'm hoping in a way that will let me mix and match easily, so I can prep a bunch of ingredients and cook or prep them different ways for different meals. Pretty much everything tastes bad and sucks, I'm trying.to make it taate good so I'm not subsisting off unhealthy processed foods thst arent' really compliant anyway.
Give "How to Cook Without a Book" a shot. It really helps break down the pieces that are pretty much in every recipe. I suck at formatting on Reddit, but here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0767902793&pd_rd_r=9d03edaa-e125-11e8-9704-5356cc4fab24&pd_rd_w=hUDFT&pd_rd_wg=mCIUR&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=3EYBEJTXDAGRSBJSCR0G&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=3EYBEJTXDAGRSBJSCR0G
Pam Anderson's books are great if you get stuck on this, or need a starting boost.
How to Cook Without a Book is a great one for those wanting to learn basics.
Practice makes perfect. Don't fret if things go badly; they do for every cook once in a while.
Me too! That recipe is really good, I got it from How to Cook Without a Book which gives cooking theories and basic recipes that can be customized to what you have on hand.
Cooking, even good cooking, is much simpler than most people think. the mistake almost everyone makes is to start reading recipe books and following famous chefs recipes, which tend to be overly complicated and not explain the "why" behind the steps. Clearly not the case for a burger, well done in this case.
Cooking is a series of very basic techniques, used appropriately. By far the best introduction to cooking is https://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438. Just 20 basic, universal techniques each illustrated by a simple recipe, will give you a better foundation than 99% of home cooks
This popped into my head. It's not all ingredients, but the main ones are there and how to use them. Some of which are - Eggs, water, salt, sugar, butter...
The first 10 or so are ingredients the second are prep techniques.
http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438
[Ruhlman's Twenty](Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques 100 Recipes A Cook's Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/dp/0811876438/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_iI7Nub01N560D) so I knew the basics backwards and forwards when I was done.
Haven't bought/read it yet, but it's the only cookbook I've ever pined for.
Ruhlman's Twenty.
The Flavor Bible and Ruhlman's 20 are both good guides to that kind of thing - not really about recipes, more about techniques. Flavor Bible has a really useful section where you can look up different ingredients and it will list the other ingredients or favors that will complement it. Both are also available digitally if that's your thing.
Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques 100 Recipes A Cook's Manifesto
Ruhlman's Twenty may not be exactly what you have in mind but is an excellent book. Easily accessible, adaptable, and covers things you may not even really consider.
Nice! Life changing book for me, along with his James Beard award winning Twenty (http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438)
Check out most books by Michael Ruhlman. Twenty is a good one especially.
Ruhlman's twenty. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0811876438
Ruhlman's Twenty. Interesting, informative, and includes some fantastic recipes to illustrate the techniques discussed.
Available now: http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/0882894560
Only $18.57!
Good point.
So we have to have at least two metrics for 'forever alone'.
One is the level of sad emptiness.
The other is the level of authenticity.
So my second example, like the Milhouse example by TrainFan, is high in sadness but low in authenticity.
The hot, rich guy in the movies who doesn't get the date this particular Friday, and thinks he knows how the rest of us feel as a result, is very low in sadness but high in authenticity.
Thus, Marie T. Smith wins. Without question. FAlvl100.
I hate to say this, really I do because I don't want to be the guy who tells you to start on extract, but get yourself an equipment starter set from one of the big brewers supply places like Northern Brewer or Midwest and a kit beer for your first go round. Caribou Slobber and Dead Ringer are good Northern Brewer kits that anyone can make without fucking it up.
Now, go spend the rest of your investment money on a refractometer (measuring the SG of hot wort accurately is the shit, $25), a couple 5 gallon and 1 gallon paint strainer bags from Lowes/Home Depot (BIAB starter set, $2.48 and $3.98 depending on size at HD), and the book Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Z(fuck if I can spell his last name).
Once you've decided that; yes, you and your friend are going to be amazing brewmasters some day (I really miss the boundless optimism of my first few brews before I learned to taste the imperfections), read the book cover to cover. Pick out a style you enjoy, brew the next beer based on the recipe in the book (use the all grain recipe and use the strainer bags with Brew In A Bag techniques). Be amazed that you did this!
Next time, screw with the recipe from the book a bit and make it your own. Change the hops to something different. Use a different Specialty Malt. Use a different yeast... Little changes make huge differences so do one at a time.
Kiss your disposable income goodbye.
You should check out the book "Brewing Classic Styles - 80 Award winning recipes" by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.
All the recipes are extract with an all grain option. I made the Blonde Ale from there to give to my friends, as that is an easy to like style for people not very familiar with craft beers. They all approved :)
Amazon Link
Here is the recipe for the Blonde Ale
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
I have a lot of books but I mostly refer to Palmer's How to Brew which has already been mentioned and the classic styles books. The other 2 I use when building recipes are:
Designing Great Beers
Brewing Classic Styles
here you go.
First step is to buy this book.
We had some fun reviewing this book a few years back when someone posted it on reddit.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510080580&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=microwave+cooking+for+one
Let me help. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660?pc_redir=1408765206&robot_redir=1
Guys look at this Amazon review. Now I'm buying it!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/1565546660/R1YTRFFOEP53JA/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_rvw_1?ie=UTF8&cursor=1
For those who are interested: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?pc_redir=T1
Temporarily out of stock :(
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)
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.
If you're a complete beginner you don't need a book of recipes: You need a book on techniques.
Something like Jacques Pepin's New Complete Techniques will teach you HOW to cook, not what to cook. Then you can find good recipes all over the place.
Jacques Pepin’s “Techniques”
Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques https://www.amazon.com/dp/1579129110/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_AmdCCbPKNCZ8D
Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques
French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David
While it does have recipes, it also has a ton of pictures and descriptions of a variety of techniques: New Complete Techniques, by Jacques Pepin
I've seen a couple I like, but where's La Technique by Pepin. Or more likely, one of the updated versions.
This got me through my early twenties. After a little while, I just learned what flavors go well together and started making my own food.
A Man, a Can & a Plan.
With cookbooks there are a lot of crap out there. Either you get something with a billion recipes you are never going to use, one with glossy photos that your food will never resemble, or one with ingredients that you will never be able to find, if you would afford them.
Look at something simple like A Man, A Can, A Plan.
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
Or.
Help! My Apartment has a kitchen
http://www.amazon.com/Help-Apartment-Has-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/0618711759/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394027390&sr=1-1&keywords=my+apartment+has+a+kitchen
Sounds like you need a guy's cookbook.
There are two I'd recommend:
A man, a can, a plan
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
Muscle Chow
http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Health-Muscle-Chow-Workouts/dp/1594865485/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303829929&sr=1-1
Both have fairly easy recipes that are geared towards a guy's taste buds and they keep hassle and cooking to a minimum.
All recipes give you a breakdown of calories, protein, carbs, etc. so you just need to figure out how many calories you need each day and then choose the recipes that add up to that total.
Hope that helps!
a man, a can, a plan is a crappy "single guy" cook book, it's lame but could prove usefull because it take little to no skill.
This book will help you
There is even an extra easy version
A bit short on recipes (only 2 involving 'Rice'), but I suppose that will be remedied over time.
I had considered building something like this a long time ago, but found the A Man, A Can, A Plan book and that was good enough for me.
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.
It's a recipe from a book called Ad Hoc:
http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774
Sweet, here it is if anyones interested: http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774
When learning to cook, start small and work up. Also a cooking class may be helpful or beginner cooking shows. One of my favorites is Good Eats, it does a lot of skill building for the different episodes. I also like his book.
I'm Just Here For the Food by Alton Brown. Contains the basics a beginner need to know, and get into the science of what is happening during the process.
Watching episodes of Brown's old show Good Eats is also a great idea.
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.
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)
Alton Brown's book "I'm Just Here For The Food" would disagree with you. He begins the book by telling tales of people who have followed recipes straight into disaster. The only way to understand how to avoid that, is to have a basic understanding of the three main elements of cooking: heat, salt, and water (IIRC).
Big fan of Seriouseats.com and I have The Test Lab cookbook but haven't cooked anything out of it yet :(. I also checkout http://www.budgetbytes.com/, http://www.thekitchn.com/, http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ and Alton Brown recipes.
We have
3(boy was I wrong) 5 America's Test Kitchen cookbooks:These get used frequently.
America's test kitchen cooking school has varying levels of financial involvement. You could buy the book then look into some of the videos/online supplements if you get into it.
An awesome cookbook that will pair nicely with this sub: http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cooking-School-Cookbook/dp/1936493527/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451170560&sr=8-1&keywords=cooking+school
A stand mixer: http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KSM150PSCU-Artisan-Pouring-Shield/dp/B004GUVD6K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451170611&sr=8-1&keywords=kitchENaid+stainless+steel+mixer
This cool measuring beaker: http://www.amazon.com/Emsa-2206-050096-Perfect-Beaker/dp/B001BDLWE8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451170682&sr=8-1&keywords=measuring+beaker
This awesome plunger things for dry and sticky ingredients: http://www.amazon.com/Plunger-Metric-Adjustable-Measuring-BigKitchen/dp/B000I1X3WS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451170718&sr=8-1&keywords=measure+dry+and+sticky+ingredients
A baking mat
A super nice Williams and Sonoma skillet with a lid
I'm super excited to try everything out!!
Sounds like you're looking for a cooking school book. Not sure if there is a vegan one already.
The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook
The Professional Chef
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1936493527/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1485459078&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=americas+test+kitchen+cookbook&dpPl=1&dpID=51otfjwt5fL&ref=plSrch
This book is extremely detailed with pictures of step by step instructions. I can't recommend this book enough for learning how to cook.
Try this one. It sounds like it might be what you're looking for. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1936493527/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480921783&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=americas+test+kitchen+cookbook&dpPl=1&dpID=51otfjwt5fL&ref=plSrch
Yes!
We got it as a wedding present.
First of all, your mother was wrong for doing that and it's really common in raisedbynarcissists homes, though I'm not sure that she is a narc...because this is only one small example and could be applicable to non-narcs. That being said, it's never too late to learn how to cook. I was in the same boat as you were and was really frustrated by youtube videos because they taught things from a perspective of already knowing cooking basics and I didn't even know that much.
I'd strongly recommend this cookbook because it teaches you the basics to the basics. It actually shows you how to cut veggies properly and what brands to buy based on testing and gives it's reasoning and logic as to why. The recipes are easy to follow with lots of pictures and clear instructions and always come out as restaurant quality (for the record, I got this book in December 2018 and 2019 was the first time I ever cooked in my life) and have been able to make quite a few showstopping recipes (I started out by setting aside one day to try a new recipe, for example, I would decide ahead of time what I was making each Sunday which was when I would cook from this book as I have a full-time job and a child). So it depends on you how much time you have but honestly, one recipe a week has taught me so much about cooking in general.
I can't express how good the food is. My fully British bf loves Indian food (has all his life, of course) and we made a Chicken Tikki Masala from this book..he told me he's had this made gourmet at his favorite restaurants and that there was no way it would turn out as well for us (we were cooking together and he was trying to convince me to deviate from the actual instructions) unless he added stuff. I stood firm and told him that he had to try it their way first and to just try it before trying to change it...it ended up being so good that both of us now have a new favorite Chicken Tikki Masala recipe lol.
I'd also recommend a small scale if you don't already have one because it makes it much easier to cook meats if you actually cut them down to the right size. For example, if it say's 6-8 ounce chicken breasts, I buy chicken breasts and cut off all of the fat until it's close to 6-8 (usually closer to 8.5 but close enough). Because then when the recipe says cook 4 minutes on each side, you can literally follow that exactly and it should come out perfectly every time. Hope that helps but please let me know if you have more questions/anything else that I can help with! I linked the one we use but it's up to you, of course.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cooking-Two-Cookbook-Everything/dp/1936493837/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=cooking+for+2&qid=1563201487&s=gateway&sr=8-3
https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Multifunction-Stainless-Batteries-Included/dp/B0113UZJE2/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=small+scale&qid=1563201838&s=gateway&sr=8-7
America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I have the older edition, but I assume the new one is good as well. It has both basic recipes (such as different ways to cook eggs or the best way to make a baked potato) as well as typical classics (lasagna, roast turkey, steak with pan sauce, pizza, etc.).
Basically if you're looking for one cookbook that covers all common American fare, this is a great option. Also has equipment and ingredient brand recommendations. It's spiral-bound, which is great for a cookbook since you can lay it flat on the table.
America's Test Kitchen Cooking For Two. Many of the same recipes as above sized for two people. Plenty of different ones as well. A lot of focus on easier weeknight meals.
I have the same problem. Someone suggested to get this cookbook which is good for two people. I’ve only tried one recipe so far. I made chicken Marsala last night and it tasted delicious! It’s not the simplest recipes, but it helps me decide what to make, and learn a few cooking techniques as well.
Well, if he can get past the gadgety-ness of it, an electric grill (so he can do it year round!) and rice cooker might be good.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Foreman-GR136B-2-Serving-Classic/dp/B00LU2HXRK/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1449489548&sr=1-2&keywords=george+foreman+grill
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-RC3406-Cooked-Cooker/dp/B000UWD9OW/ref=sr_1_5?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1449489490&sr=1-5&keywords=rice+cooker
That with a vegetable steamer (if they don't already have one) opens up the door to lots of easy and healthy meals.
http://www.amazon.com/Sunsella-Vegetable-Steamer-Stainless-Steel/dp/B00KYDZHSI/ref=sr_1_9?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1449489827&sr=1-9&keywords=steamer
Also, maybe a simple cookbook could help?
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cooking-Two-Cookbook/dp/1936493837/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1449463366&sr=8-4&keywords=cooking
As for Blue Apron, I wouldn't recommend it. Their meals are delicious, but most of them have a lot of steps and might be overwhelming for someone that doesn't cook much.
America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two is a great book. The recipes are great and make two good sized portions. There is also a ton of other useful info within the book, like how to use leftover ingredients, how to best store things, recommendations, etc.
Blue Apron is surprisingly good source for recipes with only two portions. They are smaller portions that most Americans are used to. If I were really hungry, I could probably eat both portions. Some of their recipes call for one or two hard to find ingredients, which can usually be substituted.
Budget Bytes is a good source for recipes that use similar ingredients. For example, if you buy a big jar of Kalamata olives for one recipe, there are many others that will use them as well. With that said, a lot of her recipes start to taste very similar after a while.
So because no one else mentioned any resources for recipes yet I will suggest this book. Its "Cooking for Two" but it is extremely helpful for food budgeting and saving, as well as recipes. I think you could easily make one of the recipes and have leftovers to eat the next day or for lunch or something. It has helped me SO much and I've only had it for about 2 weeks or so. I was overbuying and overcooking and wasting so much food. The recipes are simple enough that a novice cook would be able to follow easily and a more experienced wouldn't find to boring.
Another thing I would suggest would be planning meals out. I make a schedule and do my best to stick to it. Obviously life happens but knowing how much food you have and what you need to cook helps immensely with stopping food waste. Which will be important for a food budget.
Another good one is Brewing Classic Styles. This is more of a recipe book, but they are "tried and true" recipes that make a good starting point for any beer.
Brewing Classic Styles has "80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew" and they're all extract recipes, with all-grain options.
Look up "Brewing Classic Styles". I have that book, and almost every recipe is extract.
I have found Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainashelf to be a really good resource for extract brewing recipes.
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417282851&sr=1-1&keywords=extract+brewing+style
The recipes in it are for LME instead of DME but you can easily convert these quantities. (1 lb of LME = 0.8 lb of DME).
https://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TKTBXHX5PXA5KM2XJRBT
How to brew is worth reading to learn good process, recipe is really not that important in the grand scheme of things that can (and usually do) go wrong with novice homebrewers: https://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Great-Every/dp/1938469356/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TKTBXHX5PXA5KM2XJRBT
Meh... already done (2007) and done better
http://homebrewer2005.blogspot.com/2011/12/bcs-hop-flavor-wheel.html
http://beermeabeer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/hop-wheel2-231x300.jpg
Page 20 if you've got Brewing Classic Styles: http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
I would always recommend people start with 'The Compleat Meadmaker, by Ken Schramm'. This has been the meadmaking bible for a very long time. You can find supplementary information about staggered nutrient additions, pH buffering compounds, new sanitizers, etc online in various articles and forum sites. Of course, understanding your ingredients can also be very good for any brewer, and water is a huge ingredient. So besides the other element series book 'Yeast' by Christ White and Jamil Zainasheff I highly recommend 'Water' by John Palmer and Colin Kaminski. For those of us making mead in Ferndale, our water is a very key ingredient which comes to us from an underground aquifer treated by the city of Ferndale, and is of very high quality (even compared with the high quality water from the City of Detroit). Understanding honey is a huge area of study. There are many classic textbooks on honey and honey-hunting by Eva Crane that are considered primary sources (but these can be prohibitively expensive for most mazers, and honestly, Ken's book does an awesome job of summarizing her contributions, as well as other historical information about meadmaking, honey, etc). I feel a basic understanding of beekeeping can be highly instructive for meadmakers, and so I recommend that you get your hands on some beginner beekeeping books, e.g. 'Beesentials' by L.J. Connor and Robert Muir and/or the 'Beekeeper's Handbook'. A solid background in wine or beer-making doesn't hurt, either, and there are multitudes of books I can recommend to you on the subject of beer specifically (this is my homebrewing background). My two absolute must-haves for beer brewing are 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels and 'Brewing Classic Styles' by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff. Learning to brew beer can help you if you decide you want to try your hand at braggots.
Extract, partial or allgrain?
Id recommend Jamil Z's Dubbel out of Brewing Classic Styles
3- I really enjoy "Brewing Classic Styles" by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. It's a great transition book for beginners who want to get their feet wet. They go through all the different types of beer, tell you about the styles, and then give you a recipe to make it. The recipes are all listed in extract, but they also give conversions for all grain if you decide to go down that road after you get a few more batches under your belt.
Brewed a sweet stout from the Brewing Classic Styles book.
Tasted it prior to going into the fermenter, tastes pretty sweet already, nice coffee / chocolate notes. Hopefully it comes out well. Woke up this morning and found my carboy covered in krausen, quickly cleaned it up and got a blow-off tube inserted.
My plan is to take a gallon of it and try to make a coconut milk stout in a small secondary.
For this style of beer, Light DME is going to be Pilsner malt and Amber LME is going to be Munich malt.
Percentages of the total grain bill for each vary by brewer, but if you use a quick calculator like this you can figure out how much actual grain you need.
I don't know anything about melanoidin malt, but there is a quick explanation before this exbeeriment.
A legit Maarzen is going to be a lager yeast and actually lagered. But since its the last week of september and I'm assuming you want this in the next few weeks, I'd just use US-05.
Brewing Classic Styles recommends WLP820, W2206, or S-23.
Either:
or
If your LHBS doesn't have it, you can buy quantites of Pale Chocolate Malt down 1/2 pound at Midwest Supplies. Buy a bag and even if you use a couple ounces of it. It's cheap enough that if after a couple months of not using it, you can throw it away.
like /u/THATS_A_EGG said, Brewing Class Styles by Jamil Zainescheff is a great book that includes recipes for both extract and all-grain.
I'm fairly inexperienced as a homebrewer, but I can tell you where to find some good information. Most people seem to love Jamil Zainasheff's recipes. Here are some samples with links to his webcast and there are more in his book, Brewing Classic Styles, that he wrote with John Palmer, author of How to Brew (for the updated edition, you have to buy the book). How to Brew is the best book for starting out, imho, but there are some other great books, too, particularly if you move to an all grain setup and get more comfortable with brewing. There are also solid recipes in Zymurgy, the American Homebrewers Association magazine, and Brew Your Own is a pretty good magazine, too. HomeBrewTalk is a friendly, knowledgeable and active community and they're always up for sharing and helping out. There are a lot more websites out there, of course.
Anyway, I'm sure that some redditors have some good recipes to share.
Best advice is to take an existing recipe that is known to be a good example of the style and start there. This is why Brewing Classic Styles is such an ubiquitous book in most homebrewer's libraries. There are other sources too like the AHA Recipe Archive (although some are locked behind membership), Brewers Friend, or Beersmith. Starting with a good, known recipe helps you learn the style as well as the nuances of the brewing methods for it.
Second piece of advice: Avoid the kitchen sink problem. With big, bold beers like this it is soooo tempting to start adding "all the things" and then you end up with a muddled, murky thing. I've had a lot of Imperial Stouts that have this issue. Especially Xmas stouts with every single spice in the cabinet thrown in. (Not that any of my brews have ever had this problem, nope!) Just focus on learning the style and a couple of main flavors. I just brewed one yesterday that's targeting chocolate and cinnamon as "high points" with some minor other ingredients to play support (a pinch of vanilla for example to augment the chocolate).
Finally, don't be afraid to make less in either ABV or volume. When you have limited space (I'm in this boat as well) it's important to get rid of the "I must make 5 gallons!" mentality. Consider making a half batch at 8% ABV instead of trying to force a full batch at 12%. Big beers in a BIAB set up can be tricky to accomplish.
Have fun, be sure to post results! Cheers.
If you can, talk to your local brew shop. Get a starter kit with an > 8 gallon brew pot if you can. Read How To Brew; and get a copy of Brewing Classic Styles, which I couldn't recommend highly enough.
And if you have any specific questions, post them in this sub!
Cookie Crisps just have more air per serving than the Quaker Oatmeal Squares.
Any nutrition books with the words "Intro" and "Basic" will suffice. Here is an interesting read that's not only cheap but easy to follow.
I would suggest reading books like that from Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules like hahaboohoo said) or watching his documentary Food Inc.. A few others worth reading are Marion Nestle's Food Politics and Marie-Monique Robin's The World According to Monsanto. An Associate Prof at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center, Christopher Gardner, PhD, found that students taking a "Food & Society" course (n=28) wound up eating better (more vegetables and less full-fat dairy was considered good) than students taking more biologically-related courses (n=72). From reading this insightful piece of research and books like In Defense of Food, I'd suggest being cognizant and learning more about the environmental & social impacts of food as a way to eat healthier rather than focusing on nutrients that reductionist science compels us to do.
Not offhand, that article came up pretty quickly on google. I have Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and it gets preachy, but has a lot of good info about traditional methods of preparing food and why we should do it like that. You might also look at Botany of Desire and Omnivore's Dilemma, both by Michael Pollan.
ETA: over on the right in the posted article is a list of similar articles. I'm sure you could really go down the rabbit hole on PubMed.
I have been getting really into cooking, and expanding my repertoire of recipes and specialties. I have always been skilled at cooking but I'm trying to amp up my abilities and start mastering more complex dishes. The Newlywed Cookbook should be in everyone's bookshelf. Truly, I have not made a bad recipe from this book. 10/10 would recommend!
I have also always been on the "alternative diet/food lifestyle" train, but my mother recommended "Nourishing Traditions" to me and reading it has been great! I am learning so much more about nutrition and ancestral cooking. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking to increase their level of natural, personal wellness, and anyone interested in bone broth, home fermentation, and the like. Even if you don't subscribe to everything she says, there is still so much to learn and take away from this book!
The Zeitgeist original movie (2007, all parts unless you already know intensive levels of how Xtianity is proven fake, as in actually and literally proven, that myths are re-used etc. If you know that already, then only parts two and three can show you... but part one may, in that case, be as proof that the creators are knowledgeable, as it was for me, but I did watch it in 2007, before we knew that research levels must be intense).
And also this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0967089735
Basically any vegetable can be fermented. Even garlic. Whether you like the taste is another matter of your own preference. But basically anything, if done correctly, can be fermented.
If you're looking for specific recipes, check out Katz's The Art of Fermentation and Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.
Here ya go: http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
are you good with recipes? maybe a beginer level cookbook would be your jam.
peta's always good for cookbooks.
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
and veganomicon is quite popular as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416511134&sr=1-1&keywords=veganomicon
both are good starter level cookbooks.
i'd reccomend cooking in big batches and freezing stuff.
if this doesn't work, try your local asian or indian grocery store. they have a ton of instant meals for dirt ass cheap (like a buck or 2 each) many of which are vegan..
congrats on going vegan too, btw!
Have you seen the Vegan College Cookbook from PETA? The recipes are VERY simplistic but a lot of it got me through college a few years ago.
Peta has a book called Vegan College Cookbook, all cheap and easy to make recipes. You can get it here http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
Yes get a rice cooker! If you have a blender you can make smoothies with both fruit and vegetables (well, green, leafy ones at least). The other vegetables you could totally be able to put in the microwave, which you should have!
You can get your hands on a few cookbooks like PeTA's:
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
There are other college cookbooks that also come up on the search.
And here are some relatively easy recipes:
http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/ (this is more for the munchies)
http://www.collegiatevegan.com/recipes
http://www.foodandloathing.com/2012/10/the-easiest-beginners-vegan-recipes.html
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianfamilies/qt/collegeveg.htm
http://theveganzombie.com/webisodes/
http://ohsheglows.com/categories/recipes-2/food-quick-n-easy/
Since you're broke here are some ideas on eating on the cheaper side of things:
http://plantbasedonabudget.com/
http://www.peta.org/living/food/making-transition-vegetarian/ideas-vegetarian-living/vegetarian-eating-budget/
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/6-tips-to-eat-vegan-on-a-budget.html
http://www.cok.net/blog/2013/08/eating-vegan-on-a-budget/
http://www.foodispower.org/eating-on-a-budget/
http://veganbodybuilding.com/?page=article_mindy_003
And don't forget proper nutrition:
http://veganhealth.org/
http://www.theveganrd.com/food-guide-for-vegans
http://www.vrg.org/
http://vegankit.com/eat
http://jacknorrisrd.com/
http://nutritionfacts.org/
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman
Two more great books on top of the many already recommended here. (Food lab has both of my thumbs up).
RATIO - Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416571728/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6nsIAb75YQ913
And
HOW TO READ A FRENCH FRY - How to Read a French Fry: and Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science https://www.amazon.com/dp/039596783X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_MpsIAbFBT37AQ
Here's a great 'cookbook' to get started on cooking by weight ratios:
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/?ie=UTF8&qid=1397742275&sr=8-1&keywords=ratio+cookbook
I love Budget Bytes for her affordable, family-sized recipes. Most of her dishes are vegetarian because it's just cheaper than buying meat. Also, investing in a book like The Flavor Bible, Herbs and Spices, The Flavor Thesaurus, or Ratio can really help someone learning.
A little spendy, but I really like this one: Essentials of Professional Cooking
Not sure how it compares to others mentioned in this thread, though. It's more of a text book of techniques & standard practices.
I'd also grab a copy of Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
Of course. I would encourage anyone that is interested to bake bread. My usual first suggestion is to get a digital scale, only because before I made the purchase I absolutely hated baking, as nothing was ever consistent. It's also useful for cooking with ratios a la Ruhlman.
Highly recommend this book!
Ratio
And
The Bread Bakers Apprentice
Are the two I"m always pulling down off my shelf to look at besides the Flavor Bible.
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.
My grandmothers, but my current footnote is Ruhlman. At 61 with decades of serious cooking under my belt, I fiddle with all sorts of stuff, including his ratios, but they are a reliable touchstone and starting point. I think everyone who enjoys cooking should know basic ratios. It is like mixing blue and yellow to make green - a tool for creativity.
You'll love this book.
You should read this book about cooking Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.
He breaks down recipes into their most basic forms, explains why the ingredients are there & how preparation changes the outcome, and then gives recipes on how to build up from the bare-bone basics with several variations.
examples
pie dough
biscuit dough
cookie dough
A pound cake is the same ratio of ingredients as a sponge cake, just the order they are mixed is different.
Pound cake
1 part butter:1 part sugar:1 part egg:1 part flour Cream the butter & sugar first.
Sponge cake
1 part egg:1 part sugar:1 part flour:1 part butter Beat the eggs & sugar first.
(not associated with the book in any way, just a fan of the way it explains things.)
First off, for all the "screw the recipe" folks, let me recommend Ratio - I love the book, and it helped quite a bit with my desire to not worry about what the recipe says.
I love cooking and baking, and often do it as stress relief, or just to take up time. It has long been one of my obsessions, and I suspect part of the reason why is because it's so difficult to get a competent level in all areas of cooking. Each new dish is another skill that needs mastering, and so it has held my interest for a long time.
I'll follow a recipe the first time I make something. After that, I go by memory, or feel.
I'm not a great cook, but this is exactly what fascinates me about cooking.
I came across a book a few years ago, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. Completely changed the way I look at food.
I still have problems with spices. Knowing the flavors, how they interact with each other, and the right amount to use.
As a side note: After many years of not keeping lard, I do now. It's amazing how easy making a pie crust can be, and the taste is so much better than pre-made. I'm really into savory pies at the moment. Been doing pot pies for a while, and just ventured into hand pies. And biscuits. And pancakes. So many different pancakes. Been playing with butter/lard substitution and at what point it impacts flavor.
And another side note: I used to have a good collection of old cookbooks. Not depression era, but self-published fund-raiser type cookbooks where you get all Grandmother's Old Recipes. Those are some interesting recipes. And they all turn out awesome. Unfortunately, I lost a whole box of them during my last move. I would love to replace them.
Un des livres que j'utilise le plus souvent c'est "Ratio" de Michael Ruhlman.
Ce livre te donne les proportions d'aliments pour à peu près toutes les recettes de base.
Puisque ce sont des ratio, au lieu de seulement des quantités précises, ça permet de facilement moduler la quantité. De plus, chaque ratio de base est présenté avec des variations, ce qui est très inspirant.
bémols : en noir et blanc, presque pas d'illustrations, et en anglais seulement quand je me le suis procuré il y a de cela quelques années.
http://www.amazon.ca/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
You should check out Ruhlman's Ratio book ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416571728?pc_redir=1411941661&robot_redir=1 ). It goes through the base ratios of quickbreads like cupcakes and muffins, or the basic cookie recipe in terms of proportioms flour, fat, and liquid. Once you learn the basic he does how to modify so then you can create your own. Eg once you understand the fundamental muffin recipe, then how to modify it for blueberry.
Check it out from your local library if you want to test it out before buying. It doesn't have a lot of pictures but it's packed with information.
No grocery lists, but if you really want to learn how to cook, do yourself a favor and pick this up on amazon
Zwei Bücher die dir von Grund auf an alle Prinzipien des Kochens erklären sind:
https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830
Gibt's auch ne Serie auf Netflix.
https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Chef-Cooking-Learning-Anything/dp/1328519163/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Four+hour+chef&qid=1557678541&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Kannst die ersten 50-100 Seiten überspringen, wenn dich Lernprinzipien nicht interessieren. Danach kommen aber einfache Rezepte die dir spezielle Kochtechniken beibringen.
https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830
There's a new book called "Salt Fat Acid Heat" which looks amazing. I checked it out from the library but haven't started it yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830
I found it for $13.73. Here's the link
It's $13 right now on Amazon, that's a pretty bangin price. Might have to get myself a christmas present early!
​
https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=salt+fat+acid+heat&qid=1574274029&sr=8-1
The gold standard in cooking for one.
Forever Alone
I got you fam
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660/ref=nodl_
some good reference material
edit: nevermind
Here you go!
Microwave cooking for one.
I had to go a few days without gas in April when I moved in to my new apartment as well. Basically, cold super quick showers. If you have one of those electric kettles you could heat up some water and pour it in a bucket/bin and bathe yourself with it. (By pouring/splashing, unless you're small enough to fit in the bucket.) Or you could try baby wipes.
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
Here is a relevant link
Has anyone tried reading the Amazon reviews for this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565546660/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_vote_lft?ie=UTF8&voteInstanceId=R2T4T44VO0POT0&voteValue=1&csrfT=gqbklUkXuIzfPmte%2FRWWhopQwYEZdkuRajzs0moAAAABAAAAAFvrbiFyYXcAAAAA%2B4kUEk%2F7iMGR3xPcX6iU#customerReviews
Microwave Cooking for One https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565546660/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_hft-BbE30F0V4
u/norahnerd
Microwave Cooking for One? That's a very sad book.
Between the Caramunich and the Caramel60 that's a massive amount of caramel malts. I'd dial that down by at least half, probably more.
For comparison the milk stout in Brewing Classic Styles uses 0.75 pounds of crystal 80.
Janet's brown ale is my favorite. It's hopped to IPA levels. You'll find the recipe in Brewing classic styles along with other brown recipes. This is an excellent book, can't recommend it enough.
Pick up brewing classic styles by Jamil.
I'm hoping that as time goes on, I'll get better at everything including malts . I have heard that bace malts dont add before, but its not believed by all.
So.. many of the extraxt brews in Brewing Classic Styles have a base extract plus 1 pound of Maris otter extract. Who has two types of Extract? So I asked my local brewing supply store about this, and one of the employees suggested to steep the grains.
I'm not going to suggest that it will do as much as an all grain brew, but I want to believe it does something.
Hey, that might be an example of a future show, thanks
These books are great resources:
Designing Great Beers
Brewing Classic Styles
Buy a copy of Brewing Classic Styles. I am also a fairly novice brewer - 10 batches in the past 6 months and it has helped me immensely. So far I haven't ventured into all grain, but all of my batches have been partial mashes with steeped specialty grains and extract. Will venture into all-grain soon - just don't have the equipment yet. All of these brews have turned out beyond my expectations.
Soak and scrub with oxyclean (be sure its oxyclean free, no fragrances or additives) or use PBW (powdered brewers wash) and store bottles upside down in boxes to keep debris and nopes out. Then sanitize on bottling day before use.
I love "Brewing Classic Styles" by Jamil, plus it has some great basic recipes you can build off of.
This.
My take on this idea is to get a nice Alum pot online and maybe a bucket based homebrew kit then get this book
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926/
Pick out a recipe from that and either order ingredients or get them from a LHBS.
Here's a recipe database. If you have an extra $16 after you buy equipment, this is a great buy.
+1 on reading howtobrew.com
How about home brewing. It may take you a few times to get the hang of it, but you can make some pretty awesome belgians if you take your time. There are a few really good books out there that will give you clone recipes so you can recreate your favorites without starting from scratch. Watch out...it's a rabbit hole :)
Clone Brews
http://www.amazon.com/CloneBrews-Homebrew-Recipes-Commercial-Beers/dp/1580170773
Brewing Classic Styles
http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
Belgian Ale
http://www.amazon.com/Belgian-Ale-Classic-Beer-Style/dp/0937381314/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344644397&sr=1-6&keywords=belgian+beer
American Wheat, American Pale Ale, Irish Red. Recipes from Brewing Classic Styles: https://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926/ref=asc_df_0937381926_nodl/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266431122409&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2665485936419906793&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007866&hvtargid=pla-435593711721&psc=1
to piggy back this. You can steep the Crystal Malts, but not the 2-Row.
Just for reference I looked up this style in Brewing Classic Styles and they have the steeping grains as: 1/2lb Crystal 120, 3/4lb Crystal 40, and 1/2lb Victory 28. Again this is just a starting point and not meant to be gospel. It's your recipe and can experiment as you wish. That is the beauty of homebrewing. But your on point with having roughly two lbs of steeping grains.
I think any time a group of people are in the minority they can have a tendency to become rather cultish. I would point out a lot of the passion is probably based on people who have a lifetime of struggles with weight finally being able to get control of the issue. A lot of people here have gone through the recommendations for the Standard American Diet (SAD) only to find themselves made sick. When they realize a lot of the information they have been given is not true it can make them rather testy.
The Weston A Price foundation, headed by Sally Fallon has a some what different philosophy of eating. They do support eating whole grains but they are very specific that most grains need to be fermented before consuming. They are big on organ meats, butter, fatty meat, fatty fish, lacto-fermented vegetables, eggs, sprouted graines, cheese, raw milk, fermented cod liver oil etc. The organization is very much opposed to polyunsaturated vegetable oils, lean meats, unfermented soy, unfermented grains, pasteurized milk.
If you're interested in that view point as opposed to keto here is some more information....
Nourishing Traditions - Sally Fallon and Mary Enig PHD Nutritional Biochemistry
Nourishing Traditional Diets - Sally Fallon - 2hr presentation
Oiling of America - This is great information about the dangers of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs)
Wise Traditions London 2010 - Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride - lots of information about the benefits of fermented foods
Dr Mary Enig On Saturated & Trans Fats
You're right I did :)
I'm going to address this in three parts: home cooking, time saving, and content of meals
In terms of home cooking, I am an ardent advocate of whole foods with little to no processing. You can nearly guarantee that the children will be eating pretty healthy. Check out [Brazil's new food guidelines] (https://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/brazil-food-guide-takes-practical-approach-fighting-obesity-152211906.html), which emphasize home cooking and eating together - you're halfway there!
Obviously, home cooking takes time, but nutrition is SUCH an important part of children's lives and habits for their future that I don't think you should compromise. Check out things like once a month cooking and google 'cooking in bulk' to save you time. Something like a vegetable heavy lasagne can meet all your nutritional requirements in one fell swoop. Other tricks, like a 'prep day', example 1 example 2, can also save you time and stress when you're with the kiddos. Great things to prepare ahead of time that last: spiced nuts, homemade gummies, jerky, or fruit leather. I loved the rice cooker idea above, and you can kill several birds with one stone and get a [6-in-1] (http://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-review-instant-pot-6-in-1-electric-very-good/) so that you can cook meat faster as well, and do some slow cooking (you can make a great beef vegetable barley soup, served with a slice of bread and milk, and you're done). Things like a bread maker are great fun at daycare - my kids used to help me make a cinnamon bread, and when they woke up from their nap the smell would permeate the daycare. It was so pleasant and homey. I also find that the more kids help in making things, the more willing they are to eat it.
I took this course last year and it changed the way I cook and ate. Its referred to as the traditional food movement and if you're interested, check out the [Weston A. Price foundation] (http://www.westonaprice.org/about-the-foundation/about-the-foundation) and [Sally Fallon's] (http://www.amazon.ca/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735) book for more info - SO COOL.
In terms of the content of your meals, walk the permitter of your grocery store. That's where you live; meat, cheese, produce, and whole grains. Grains, nuts and seeds are easier to digest and more nutritious when soaked/sprouted.
Hope some of this helps. I love talking about children's nutrition and how it impacts their lives and education. Sorry to get all carried away.
These products have a lot of highly processed products in them, including and especially soy-based proteins and vegetable oils, both of which are highly indigestible and unhealthy. I would not recommend anyone trying to be more healthy eat these products or any processed foods in fact.
Check out this book. It is an amazing beginner's resource for anyone trying to improve their relationship to food and food sources/traditions. It is also a great portal to other tomes of information.
This is one of the major principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation. A good book to read on the subject is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. We need good fat to build our brains. I'm afraid we've been sold a bunch of bullshit with our current food pyramid.
And BTW, heart disease was practically unheard of at the turn of the 20th century. Our modern diet - low fat, plenty of carbs, sugar-sugar-sugar - has created this beast.
I was just reading about gelatin in Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats https://www.amazon.com/dp/0967089735/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_O7tmub0B55EPK
Thank you!
Nice list, but for the minimalist, I'd recommend Sally Fallon's Nourishing traditions. Its all I've ever used.
I don't waste my time with diet losers who live in food mythology. If weight/health advice means you have to live differently than people have for 100s of 1000s of years, they are probably full of it. With this said I offer you 3 books that changed my girlfriends life.
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto-ebook/dp/B000VMFDR2/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289835775&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-Myth-Food-Justice-Sustainability/dp/1604860804/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289835884&sr=1-1
edit:sp
This is just plain wrong. http://www.thepaleodiet.com/ and http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/ are 2 examples.
Also look at this book : http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-
Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735
What the FDA is telling us is all wrong. Tons of research to show this. Won't get into long winded argument on this now, but modern food processing and grain based diets are killing us.
The subjects got very ill when fat was removed from their diet.
This is a really interesting study. I love stuff like this that goes counter to modern diet orthodoxy. For a whole cookbook based on similar (but not as dramatic -- it has vegetables!) ideas, check out Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.
I haven't read it myself, but [Peta's College Cookbook] (https://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850) is a book full of microwave vegan meals.
Here is PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. It's an alright cookbook but I personally think Vegan on the Cheap is way better. I'm sure there are plenty of other good cookbooks too. I also recommend the Vegan Stoner blog, like rockmeahmadinejad said. It's a great site even if you don't smoke!
I have a million vegan cookbooks and my favorite is still the PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. It's probably just me though, I'm lazy and cheap.
It's really the most practical cookbook I own because all of the recipes only have a few ingredients and can all be quickly made quickly in the microwave. Many of the recipes are common sense, like "veggie burger", but many of them are really creative and worth checking out.
It's not a vegan cookbook focused on health, like many you see, so it includes a lot of fake meat and dairy substitutes in it's recipes. At the same time, none of the recipes are that unhealthy either.
Have the book in my hands now, (the one suggested earlier)! It's called Peta's Vegan College Cookbook, conveniently broken down into sections. Haven't tried too many of the recipes but they're all very simple to make and there's room to tailor the recipes for your specific palette, switching out topics or seasonings here and there. Of course nuked spuds aren't as great ones slowly roasted but the recipes still seem nice. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850. Enjoy!
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311538779&sr=1-1
It's vegan. But. There's hella good food in it. I'm a vegetarian and I love it.
If you're a microwave chef like myself PETA's Vegan College Cookbook is great because it is EASY PEASY! I'm a vegetarian not a vegan so occasionally I add cheese, use real milk and so on.
Here are some great cookbooks to get you started:
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-College-Cookbook-Hassle-Free-Students/dp/B003156G0Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265384294&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-College-Cookbook-Alexandra-Nimetz/dp/1603420304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265384294&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265384294&sr=8-15
I don't know your level of food tolerance (e.g. vegan, pescetarian, etc) so I threw in that last one just in case. And, on that, here are a few pointers:
Hope this helps.
Peta wrote a cookbook of only recipes which can be made in the microwave: <http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1266097407&amp;sr=8-1&gt;
Also, if you have access to a fridge, keep fake lunchmeat and bread around; pretty easy to make a sandwich.
Rice cookers are the greatest invention ever; rice is retardedly cheap and a rice cooker means you need no skill whatsoever to cook it; many come with a steamer on top so you can steam vegetables at the same time as cooking the rice. At my university you're allowed to keep them in the dorm.
Welcome and congratulations! Watching Earthlings is what did it for a lot of us.
I recommend getting this book. http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850 I don't have it personally but I looked through it at the bookstore and wished that I had had it when I first became vegan. Lots of very easy simple things to make!
If you're on facebook I also recommend joining the group Veganism as they have a lot of good advice and I feel the more support systems you have the easier time you'll have on this major lifestyle change.
The best of luck to you my friend.. you've made a wonderful decision. The animals and all of us here thank you! :)
If you go searching for learn-how-to-cook tutorials and get stuck making some boring ass chicken recipe but don't even like chicken, you'll make the food correctly but have trouble enjoying the results. It's homework. You won't last making food you don't like.
To stay interested, follow the foods you already love.
For me, it was pasta. I went nuts. My first year or so learning, I was making an insane amount of pasta and was always stoked to eat the results, even if they sucked.
Too many recipes have one-off ingredients you'll never use again. You want to learn how you can improve your food with what you already have (i.e. Don't worry about the imported, smoked, Himalayan pink salt yet).
A person who understands food will give you so much more than a checklist and directions can. Understanding trumps a recipe every time. And you'd be surprised how little you need to make great food. A good cook knows how to do this.
I was really fortunate to have a roommate who's Italian grandma was an amazing cook. He knew his shit. He would coach and correct everything I was doing with my horrible attempts to make pasta. It was fun and quickly showed me how to improve--all with no recipes. It showed me you can taste as you go.
Today there a more books telling you what to do, and less telling you why you do it. The latter is the key.
These two books really opened a lot for me regarding understanding food and how to make it better:
I'm Just Here For The Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
Cooking (James Peterson)
Honorable mention:
Ratios: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
Cheers, and best of luck. Now go eat!
Try Ratio.
no lie, The Ratio pie crust is solid.
Bon Appetit Desserts
Ratio
4! :) Any item on my wishlists under $20 is equally wanted, but I guess I will link a random one anyways!
I'd love this book!
I know that this is an OLD thread but I just found it, and thought I'd share with you my favourite cook book of all time. It sounds like it's right up the alley of what you're after.
I like to think of myself of a fairly decent home cook, and very experimental, but I found Michael Ruhlman's Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking seriously fantastic.
It gives you the ratios, then explains them, and then talks about how you can change them.
I mean, once you know that 2 parts flour and 3 parts liquid (as per that chart) make bread, you can add whatever you want into it to make it just the way you want it. Change the flour, change the liquid, etc.
In the last 12 months that I've had the book I've memorised most of the ratios and now find my cooking greatly improved.
For a bachelor it might just be the perfect book because he doesn't have to think "I need 3 cups of this flour and 5 cups of this liquid", after a while he can think "I have some flour, and I have some liquid, just ratio it out and VOILA".
Hope that helps
This book is pretty neat. :)
Baking recipes are simply variations on very basic ratios. There is actually a book full of these ratios. Called "Ratios" http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
An amazing read actually.
Source: Professional Chef
have you read Ratio ? it's totally eye opening.
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1301148306&amp;sr=8-3
I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but I have this book: https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
Some of it seems outright wrong, but most of it is still a good reference.
And knowledge from a book like Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking you can really expand what you can do.
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?
It's a pretty basic recipe. Try the one in this book! It's bulletproof works every time. Also this is just an incredible book...Buy it now and thank me later ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
You might like this cookbook:
https://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
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He shows you the base ratios of ingredients and explains why they are what they are and then provides a few recipes for each to show how the individual dishes are variations on that base ratio.
Is This The book you're referring to? I'm big into baking, and I want to make sure I'm looking at the right book.
I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for, but I enjoyed Ratio:
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
It doesn't really focus on flavors, but it does explain why certain ingredients are used in specific ratios to create certain types of food, e.g. bread, cookies, stocks, sauces, custards. I really enjoyed it.
These would be perfect for what you're seeking:
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728
and
http://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400/
Ratio is an interesting read. It's not perfect, but it does provide a solid foundation for creating your own recipes.
Ratio.
As you have some cooking things on your list, I thought you might like this cookbook. It's one that I've been wanting for a long time - it breaks down cooking into ratios, so that you can learn to develop your own recipes. It's come very highly recommended!
Ratio was an eye-opener as far as how I thought of recipe structure.
Ratio, really great fundamentals book! http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416571728?pc_redir=1404532849&amp;robot_redir=1
I recommend this one: My Weigh KD 8000 Digital Weighing Scale
$40.33
A really great scale. It allows percentage weights which is great for ratio recipes.
See also: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
really?
The primary advantage of a bread maker is the timer.
You can bypass this cost if you're willing to invest minimal time and effort.
Read Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. He does a great job of simplifying bread. His basic recipe of 5 parts flour, 3 parts water, a little salt a little yeast, and Time, is a very easy and very tasty recipe.
I'm a little late to this and have only leafed through it myself but Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking might be of interest to you. It breaks down those four ingredients (and others) and how to use them/why they're important. Helpful for baking of course. Additionally, the illustrations are so cute. They remind me of Quentin Blake's illustration for Roald Dahl books.
I have never used a real cookbook, but I watched this mini series on Netflix called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and it was fantastic. Highly recommend it. I just looked up some cookbooks on amazon for you and saw the book there with stellar reviews. It has 100 recipes and also teaches you some fundamentals of cooking and how the ingredients work together. Sorry I don’t know any other books to recommend, I grew up on the internet!
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476753830/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_65lyCbDD3YSJB
As others have said, practice.
With that said, books like Ratio and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat have also been a huge help to me.
They both teach you more about what things work well together rather than how to follow particular recipes. Ratio is about what flavors compliment each other and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat demonstrates how the combination of those four elemental units in cooking can up your game across the board.
Just some bits and pieces that might help:
You need to learn the quirks of your stove/oven. They aren't all the same. Gas vs electric is a huge difference, but even two gas or two electric setups can be different from each other. Just because a recipe says you put something in on X temperature for X time doesn't actually mean that's how it's going to work for you. At my last apartment, my oven ran hot and things went from done to overcooked extremely fast. At my new apartment, it's the exact opposite. Get a meat thermometer and accept that it'll take some time to figure out your setup.
For dishes you make on the stove, or one sheet pan meals in the oven, the #1 rule is do not crowd the pan. If you add too many things at once, your food is going to steam in the water that its neighbors are releasing, not sear. You want them seared for that Maillard reaction. This is related to the Chinese phrase wok hei.
Better seasonings helps a lot. Subscribe to Penzeys emails, the owner hates Trump and has been doing crazy giveaways every time he gets mad at Trump (I'm not trolling or shilling, he really does do these giveaways.) The spices/herbs/seasoning mixes are high quality and they make a huge difference.
Hands down the best book for learning the WHY of cooking, not just the how, is Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
Get the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. It teaches you how to think about your dish from first principles, rather than being bound to a recipe. It's really good!
This one is very popular and it's still on sale. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476753830/?coliid=I33BRJN8OJCTRL&colid=2LU4E1DJMSPDA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Oh. I poked around. Is it Salt Fat Acid Heat?
If so, here’s the link: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476753830/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_l0G0DbT4XX0MZ
This is a really good read - these are the opening lines of the book’s introduction:
> Anyone can cook anything and make it delicious.
> Whether you’ve never picked up a knife or you’re an accomplished chef, there are only four basic factors that determine how good your food will taste: salt, which enhances flavor; fat, which amplifies flavor and makes appealing textures possible; acid, which brightens and balances; and heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food. Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat are the four cardinal directions of cooking, and this book shows how to use them to find your way in any kitchen.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat
Does he have a nice insulated mug/water bottle for when he is doing the outdoor stuff? A personal colored or engraved Hydroflask would be a nice gift to keep water cold or coffee/tea hot!
You could also get him a recipe book. These two are on my Christmas list, the first one has SO MANY recipes for everything you can think of and more, fun to get new meal inspiration. The bottom has a Netflix show, but is the basics of cooking and how to boost flavor with amazing illustrations.
You and your FH can write personal messages in the front cover to thank him.
America’s Test Kitchen Complete Cookbook
Salt Fat Acid Heat
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
I GOT A WEIRD OFF VIBE FROM MAN FRIEND THIS WEEKEND AND IT'S VERY UPSETTING. I AM MOVING IN 19 DAYS AND I AM SO STRESSED OUT. IT FEELS LIKE STABILITY IS NEVER GOING TO BE A THING THAT I GET TO HAVE. AMAZON RECOMMENDED THIS BOOK TO ME AND ALSO THIS BOOK. IT'S MY FUTURE.
That is much less depressing than this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
This was a personal favorite of mine at your age.
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=microwave+cooking+for+one&amp;qid=1566364111&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1
Not bear related, but some of the reviews for this are truly inspirational.
Sad Dad needs to hook up with this lady
I see your monstrosity and raise you.... this
The loneliest book in the world
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1332336631&amp;sr=1-1
I wonder if he got the recipe for jerk chicken, eaten alone from here?
You’ve been reading “Microwave Cooking for One!”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/product-description/1565546660
Omg those reviews.
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-One-Sonia-Allison/dp/1852250437
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
I was gonna post that, have an upvote.
the full page:
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
Try this!
GET EDUCATED, /u/Baumbeard !!!
but how did they cook them
Worse... Microwave cooking for one
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
This is good too: http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
Charlie Papazian's - The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is what got me started. It's not overly technical, but it gives you step by step instructions on what equipment you need, what the brewing process actually entails, and how to store and care for your beer. One stop shop.
There is no reason you can All grain first. You will just need more time and some extra equipment. Find a good book that will walk you through the steps and set aside 4-5hours for brewing and clean up.
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is the book I started with.
My copy is from 1991 so I haven't seen the changes in the newer version.
Sure, tons! In no particular order:
Also, How to Brew is based off a blog, and a lot of the book is on there. If you don't know which book you'd prefer start with A Crash Course in Brewing and decide if it's for you or if you'd like something a little more readable.
Sorry if that's a total data dump, I just love chatting about and getting new people into brewing. If you ever give it a try, let me know how it goes!
https://smile.amazon.com/Complete-Joy-Homebrewing-Fourth-Revised/dp/0062215752/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
This is the best guide.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Joy-Homebrewing-Fourth-Revised/dp/0062215752
There's a fourth edition now.
Here's my advice to a beginner from a recent beginner.
A lot of people start with a small batch kit like Mr. Beer or Brooklyn Brew Shop that they got as a gift or bought on a whim. However, if I were going to recommend a 1-gal starter kit, I'd probably go with something like the one from Northern Brewer. Or you can get a 5-gal setup for just a little bit more and you get a lot more beer for you money, and it's really not that much more work. However, it was nice learning the process on a 1-gal batch, because it's a lot more manageable and you can easily do it on your stove with a pot you already have. Also, if you stick with it, and upgrade to bigger batches, you will still be able to find good uses for your old 1-gal equipment.
Whether you decide to test the waters with a small batch or jump right into a 5-gal batch, I would do an extract w/ specialty grain kit for your first brew. All grain is not that much harder, especially with small batches, but for your first few brews it's nice to just learn the process without having too many variables to worry about.
Also, buy a copy of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing or How to Brew or both and read the first chapter or so and you will have a good idea of what you're in for.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062215752/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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This was my first. I'm working on a Dave Miller book now.
Catching Fire explains why raw food diets don't work for humans.
> Isn't it strange that we are the ones who are lucky enough to be in the world of technology?
Technology is 2 million years old: https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/
Yes! So many people get this confused. Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire. I had to read it for an evolutionary biology class and it was wonderful, if I remember correctly.
If you are interested in this kind of thing, check out Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. It traces the evolution of gender roles, from early man until today. Very interesting stuff.
Being able to digest/handle rotten meat or raw low-nutrition plants (grass) takes special organs that require additional energy.
Inventing fire and cooking helped early hominids to simplify their digestive track since it now digests mostly cooked food.
The freed up energy used by our guts and redirected it to power the brain.
The brain in fact uses so much energy that one out of five meals eaten is used to just power the brain.
"Catching Fire" is a book on this.
http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1381948456&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=cooking+human
I'm not sure if anyone's linked to it yet, but there are some fascinating answers to your question in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374682314&amp;sr=8-1-fkmr1&amp;keywords=how+cooking+allowed+us. Maybe not written on a five-year-old level, but if you want a college-level understanding, you might find it interesting :)
We've evolved to eat cooked food - including meat.
Catching fire
CookWise by Shirley Corriher
Culinary Artistry by Andrew Dornenburg
Culinary Artistry and a notebook.
Culinary Artistry has lists of ingredients, what pairs well with them, and the best ways to cook them. The most basic, most helpful guide to cooking independently of cook books.
Sustainable Table.
Also really like Culinary Artistry, and The Flavor Bible.
It looks like you have plenty of awesome ideas here. I am going to make a recommendation of a really excellent book for deciding what flavors pair well together and how to balance a flavor pallette: Culinary Artistry. It's a terrific resource for people who are trying to move away from recipe-based cooking and into creating their own dishes. It's reasonably accessible-- some of the sample menus are a bit 'out there' but the fundamentals are strong. You might enjoy it!
A while ago my wife had bought me a book called Kitchen Sense by Mitchell Davis. This book was packed with incredibly useful information. I wound up losing this book in a move and have been very upset.
The other book I use a lot is called Culinary Artistry. This book doesn't have many recipes but a great wealth of information about putting flavors together.
By the same authors, Culinary Artistry is basically a large guidebook for telling you exactly what product tastes good with the product you're cooking.
http://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Artistry-Andrew-Dornenburg/dp/0471287857
https://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Artistry-Andrew-Dornenburg/dp/0471287857/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1498065948&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=culinary+artistry
This book changed the way I think about food. It provides insight into how chefs think when creating menus and gives in-depth breakdowns of ingredients including seasonality, flavor profiles, and known flavor combinations that work well.
Culinary Artistry - This book contains a long list of ingredients and the flavor combinations that work well with each ingredient. It also gives the season in which the ingredient is best. It's really great for getting recipe/menu inspiration or for just figuring out what to do with random stuff in your fridge. It also has some recipes, menus and stories from various famous chefs.
Oldie but goodie: Culinary Artistry
This book is great for that https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471287857/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
I've just purchased Culinary Artistry by Dornenburg & Page, which is supposed to be very good on this. Currently at Amazon UK it is reduced by over 70%.
Joy of Cooking and America's Test Kitchen Cookbook are both super highly recommended cookbooks based on both recipes and their value as references when learning new techniques
Joy of Cooking is a classic.
https://www.amazon.ca/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer/dp/0743246268
Don't worry about exact measurements. Except for baking, that matters. But if you don't like salt, add less. If you really like lemon on your fish, and it only calls for a little, fuck them. Learning how to cook chicken is a good start, so is pasta or a stir fry. Fish is also pretty easy, except a lot of people cook it way too long. Grab a decent cookbook. I REALLY recommend Joy Of Cooking ( https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer/dp/0743246268 ), I don't really need another book. It covers basically everything, from how to set a table and choose the right kitchen equipment to all out fancy shit that you'll never need, and explains everything ELI5 style.
Edit: Oh, and YouTube is an AMAZING resource (and not the celebrity chef videos, although Ramsay does some useful ones). Even if you get overwhelmed by a recipe, it'll click once you see a video of a real person doing it. Plus, they usually respond to comments, and often the question is already asked and answered (a huge one is "what can I substitute for this").
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.
the number of cook books over 500 pages, made before 2000 is innumerable BUT we can probably narrow it down to the few books that are super common. First thing that comes to mind is "Joy of Cooking" which is extremely common. Joy of Cooking
although if you were before 2000 the cover probably looked more like this : Joy of Cooking 1997
did i get it?
Let's face it, there is no ramen "like a boss". Pick up Mastering the Art of French Cooking and/or The Joy of Cooking.
Leave the ramen for the peons.
I think probably one of the single greatest resources is The Joy of Cooking. This is a truly amazing book. My mother purchased me a copy when I left home. (Got destroyed in a fire, and she went right out and got me another!) It is an invaluable reference book. Anything you could ever yearn to know, techniques, drink pairings, cocktails, info about beer/wine, breakfast/lunch/dinner/party menus, pages upon pages of solid recipes, sauces, marinades, instructions to cut meat, info about various cuts, nutritional information, equipment information, etc... I cannot stress how amazing this book is.
I tend to cook without much of a plan. Taste/smell is how i work it, which has its failings sometimes but I find trial and error exciting and fun. Just keep a frozen pizza on hand in case you set off the smoke alarm too much and burn it :D
I also second The Joy of Cooking, and would like to add the following to your list:
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!
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.
I'd say one of the first steps is to avoid turning the heat all the way on high on the burner - especially if you have Teflon pans.
For starters, just learn how to pan fry basic ingredients like potatoes and onions. Next, get some spices (or even spice mixes) and use your nose to guide that flavor. I know this might be really general, but most of cooking is just repeating basic steps.
A great cookbook is The Joy of Cooking. Don't be afraid of its size - it's a nice place that can help you learn how what you need to know about making food. It even has the rules for place-setting a table!
Everybody just do yourselves a favor, stop googling recipes, and buy a decent cookbook
budgetbytes.com is great for relatively healthy and inexpensive food that tastes good. I've gotten some of my favorite recipes from there.
Also, Amazon is currently selling Joy of Cooking for 55% off right now. This is the mother of all cookbooks. It concentrates on giving no-nonsense, dependable recipes that you can add to and customize as you gain confidence as a cook, instructions for beginners to cooking, and information on a large number of common ingredients to help you stock your shelves. Not everything in it is healthy, but it is an AMAZING resource for anyone new to cooking. Hope that helps.
This is my go-to cookbook, as well as the Joy of Cooking, you can usually find an early edition at a used bookstore.
Essential:
http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer/dp/0743246268
The Joy of Cooking
Have you tried the Joy of Cooking? I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for exactly, but I've been using it for years, it's my go to when I need to prepare a cut of meat I'm unfamiliar with.
Kind of tradition in my family - when my mom got her first place my grandmother got her the Betty Crocker Cookbook. She got one for me, and I got one for my oldest when she moved out.
Now that my mom lives with me, I have inherited all of her cookbooks. The most-used one is the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook followed by the Joy of Cooking.
One of my personal favorites is the Taste of Home Simple and Delicious Cookbook. It has stuff that is easy to fix on nights when I don't have much time to spend in the kitchen. Honorable mention also goes to Desperation Dinners - another great one for quick and easy but tasty meals.
Most things I cook come from the internet, but I still love looking through my cookbooks to get ideas, plan meals for the week, and make a grocery list.
http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer/dp/0743246268/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1425441889&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=joy+of+cooking
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
You sound exactly like my fiancé. He's gotten better, but when we first started cooking together, I was always a little worried because he didn't seem to understand any of the basic kitchen skills I took for granted.
Although you've mentioned your girlfriend is too stressed/busy to cook, consider finding a time where she's actually free, and ask her to walk you through cooking a meal. Like she can demonstrate something and then you finish up, or she can be the one reading the recipe to you, and you just ask if you are unfamiliar with a term/concept or need help executing a task. That is good because then you'll also sort of learn to do it "her way" and she won't come in later to be like "why the heck are you chopping onions like this?? ahhh" (exaggeration there, but still.) Some people are very particular about kitchen things...
Definitely also recommend Good Eats and other cooking shows. There was a YouTube guy named something like "Bachelor Chef" that was really good and entertaining, and geared toward simple recipes for bachelors (or in your case, younger men with a limited skillset in the kitchen). Videos are good because then you just follow what they do and you begin to know what things look like (the difference between a chop, mince, and julienne, for example).
It might be helpful to pick up a cooking dictionary/glossary. My "cooking bible" is "Joy of Cooking" which has a pretty comprehensive index and list of terms, plus basic recipes for almost everything imaginable. Even in the age of the internet, a few hard-copy cookbooks are nice to have as a quick reference, especially if you don't have an ability or desire to bring your computer into the kitchen.
But anyway, just familiarizing yourself with a lot of the terms that appear in a recipe (such as sauté) and knowing basic measurement techniques and conversions (3 teaspoons to a Tablespoon). Oh yeah, and abbreviations for measurements, although most of them are fairly logical.
But really, just go out there and do it. Start small and/or semi-homemade; someone else mentioned doctoring a pasta sauce - that's a great start. Then begin to branch out, adding more and more different ingredients. Also start to develop your palate - be able to taste a sauce and figure out what flavors it needs to be better (if it's too bland, maybe it needs salt? But maybe it actually needs a little sweetness to balance the tartness of another ingredient). That's an invaluable skill as a home cook, because you can actually make a dish you love instead of someone else making something you sort of like, but would have changed.
I'll also suggest "The Joy of Cooking"
A couple of other books that are filled with perfect and realistic versions of food everyone will recognize and want to eat are:
The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2014
These two books are very similar so you don't need both of them, but I think having at least one of them is essential.
Here you go dude, every household needs a copy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743246268/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1510205345&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=joy+of+cooking&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51ovtQ4OTVL&amp;ref=plSrch
How to Cook Without a Book gives you lots of ideas and recipes that include generalized techniques that can be duplicated with out specific recipes.
These are two fantastic books for beginning cooks, so much so that I've been buying them as wedding/hosewarming presents as part of my gifts to newlyweds/new homeowners just starting out.
How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart by Pam Anderson
The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen
The ATK book apparently has a new edition coming out in October. They also have a similar version if you are less interested in perhaps the best tasting versus the more healthful options.
Well if his only restrictions are no red meat or alcohol, he's got a lot of options! But if he can only eat chicken, fish and vegetables, then he's going to be a lot more restricted.
I'd look into paleo, or Whole30 (paleo, but also no dairy, grains, sugars or alcohol) diets and just ignore recipes with red meat - a friend on chemo has had a lot of reduction in chemo symptoms that she attributes to Whole30, recommended by her oncologist.
I like the blog Nom Nom Paleo and she has a cookbook too. Here's her list of Whole30 recipes to give you an idea of what that's like:
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/42057515329/the-round-up-30-days-of-whole30-recipes
And here's the recipe index, you can see you can avoid the ones with red meat, or alternatively just focus on the ones made with chicken and fish: http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex
In general, though, if he has some basic techniques under his belt he'll be able to make lots of meals that meet the restrictions his doctor has recommended - my favourites for that are:
How to cook without a book
How to cook everything
Appetite
All the very best to your dad and hope he gets well soon!
Popping in to recommend the book How to Cook Without a Book. Lots of basic recipes covering all the courses and stand-bys, plus the mechanics of cooking, recipes for variations, and pointers for other variations.
First time trying to format a link. Hope this works...
I'd suggest Ruhlman's Twenty, he goes over techniques and then has GOOD recipes you can apply said techniques. http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438
If you want something more in depth start looking up books by Harold McGee.
One of my favorites, but any of Ruhlman's books are worth getting.
ruhlman's twenty
Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques 100 Recipes A Cook's Manifesto
This is great advice. One of the best instructional "cookbooks" in my opinion, is Ruhlman's Twenty. I hesitate to call ot a cookbook, as it is more like a cooking manual. It covers 20 essential principles and ingredients that everyone should know. For example, there is a whole chapter on just salt and how to use it properly. Each chapter also has a bunch of recipes which then utilize the concepts taught in that chapter. On top of all that, the pictures are great. The instructional photos are not glamoir shots. They show how the food should actually look while you're cooking it, and include examples of what it will look like if you do it wrong (overcook, undercook, not stirred properly, etc.)
I bought it for my wife (who was already a great cook,) and her cooking improved across the board. I've never been a great cook, but this book helped me build a foundation that made me confident about how to use eggs and onions, as well as roast the perfect chicken everytime.
I recommemd the book to anyone.
I'd go Ruhlman's Twenty. Does a great job of explaining 20 "things" every cook must know, and why.
https://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438
Tips I find help me out:
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.
The great thing about cooking is that there is no template! Do what tastes good to you! That said, there are plenty of cookbooks for beginners that will give you basic ideas. This book by Michael Rhulman will give you several recipes for each of 20 basic cooking techniques. It's a great base to start from.
On wine, I completely jettisoned the idea that whites are for some things and reds are for others. You should drink what you like is the bottom line and be less concerned about pairings. If you like reds then just have a light bodied red, like a Burgundy, with chicken or fish and save the big Boudreaux for your steak. Likewise, there's no reason you can't have a nice oaky Chardonnay with a tomato based pasta, etc.
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.
Also you know, thinking about this, here's my best advice for you:
Try to move away from the idea of needing "recipes" and think about cooking more holistically. You don't really need a recipe for a roasted chicken. You need a chicken and an oven and a basic idea of time/temp. After that it's all in what you like? Coat it with olive oil? Sure. Add lemon pepper? Sure. Use BBQ rub? Why not! Stuff the inside with an onion and some rosemary? Go for it. Use butter rather than olive oil? Absolutely.
So much of cooking is not about adhering to recipes but understanding the basics of how to cook and then applying your own tastes.
A fantastic book, if you're really interested in learning how to cook w/out having to rely on recipes all the time is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438
The book takes 20 cooking techniques - things like braising, frying, baking, sauteeing, and explains how and when you would use them. He does provide recipes in each category, but overall you learn how to apply the techniques to just about anything and it really opens your understanding of how to cook ANYTHING.
I thought this was fake but apparently it's real:
http://www.amazon.ca/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/0882894560/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1319067153&amp;sr=8-7
There's a second Microwave Cooking for One book here too, the top comment is gold.
There is only one cookery book.
Sorry, Marie Smith beat him with Microwave Cooking for One
My favorite part of this cookbook is the reviews
>I originally purchased this book as a part of my suicide plans. Each microwaved meal was prepared in order from the beginning to the end of the book without regard to course type. Some days it was nothing but main dishes, others just desserts, but I did not want to leave this world without enjoying the kind of culinary adventure my intense fear of pavement and obtuse angles (makes it difficult to read books properly!) prevented me from embarking on. After cooking, eating, and cleaning up after the last recipe in the book, I had planned on hanging myself from a cross beam in the basement. However, as I sat there, bloated with what I believed to be an impacted colon owing to the book's cheese-based meals, I had what can only be described as a gastronomic revelation. With a few tweaks here and there to the otherwise masterful recipes in this sacred (yes, sacred!) cookbook, I could open my own restaurant. Yet my phobias kept me confined to my (assumed) dead grandmother's basement and only after exhaustive research on the Lycos, I discovered that various bleaching and coloring chemicals applied to the face and scalp dulled my senses just enough to mask the pavement and angles that had plagued me since I was a little boy. With unsteady gait, squinted eyes, and slurred speech, I emerged from my hermitage and stumbled to the local B of A, whose wise loan agents recognized the genius of my vision. Sure enough, my plan worked beyond all of my expectations, and my one restaurant built on this little cookbook, became a media and culinary empire! I still suffer the side effects of my anti-anxiety treatments daily, and the impacted colon is yet unresolved, but I am now hailed as one of my generation's greatest chefs and entrepreneurs. Marie: If I didn't (secretly) love men, I would make sweet, sweet love to you on a dining room table laden with dishes from pages 10-22 in your masterful, Bible-esque tome.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0882894560?pc_redir=1409922727&amp;robot_redir=1
You may find this book helpful. It's also the ultimate "forever alone" cookbook there is.
A few months ago I scored some WLP885 Zurich Yager Yeast that was generously given to me by /u/GirkinFirker. I decided to put it to good use and brew a maibock using a recipe from Jamil Zainasheff's Brewing Classic Styles book.
Recipe
false, that would be microwave cooking for one
Found it on Amazon. You are welcome.
Not that I want you to be even more depressed, but this might be helpful.
since you are a cerialthriller, the new thrill would be to actually do something for yourself. though intimidating, different from your norm, and requiring work the benefits are great. and if this is too much to handle, i'd suggest continuing to eat what you eat, become obese, work on creating breathing problems (smoking works wonders), purchase oxygen tanks, 3-wheeled scooter, beater car and live in style.
that microwave will definitely come in handy when all you CAN do is push buttons.
[microwave cooking for one] (http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1269544306&amp;sr=8-1)
[other microwave cook books] (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&amp;field-keywords=microwave+cooking+for+one&amp;x=0&amp;y=0&amp;sprefix=microwave+cooking)
This book has made me attempt suicide twice: http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660/ref=pd_sim_b_4
I just eat leftovers for the next few days.
But if you're not into that, there's always this classic book.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660?fp=1&amp;pc_redir=T1
I always go for home cooked. I use this,
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565546660/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1479977646&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=SY200_QL40&amp;keywords=microwave+cooking+for+one&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51KJKZ01YZL&amp;ref=plSrch
Get the Food network or watch cooking shows.
I've picked up so many techniques and tricks from watching others cook. I'm a visual learner, so picking up a book doesn't always do it for me.
When you have a question, google it or get a technique book to help explain the basics. As someone mentioned, there is a correct technique for cutting an onion (and other vegetables for that matter) and it makes a big difference. Personally, I've never read this book back to front, but I've used it many times:
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques
In all honesty you have to take recipe websites with a grain of salt, most of the time they are just posted and the person who wrote them probably never cooked them.I tend to find this to be true when you are cooking something from the recipe and the proportions are all fucked up. I really am a fan in buying actual cook books I have had great luck with them. Start with this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques is worth a look. If you want something more professional (and a lot more expensive), the Culinary Institute of America's book, The Professional Chef is very thorough.
Jacques Pépin - New Complete Techniques
Jacques Pépin's New Complete Techniques.
I LOVE Joy of Cooking. I have made every single recipe in the cookies section (from my 1985ish edition).
I also recommend Jacques Pepin New Complete Techniques. Some of it is challenging, but some of it is just..."oh, so that's how you do that!!"
And...a crock pot. I made at least 1 meal a week in my crock pot. Super easy and cheap!
Jacques Pépin - New Complete Techniques possibly?
The updated one combines the two. This one is the most up to date one. Here is the Kindle version.
It is from Jacques' Techniques series:
https://www.amazon.com/Jacques-Pépin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=RA2N5BG269A24BTRJQ6F
I think it comes with at DVD in the book, but I am not sure.
I was about to list out all my favorite resources, the ones where, looking back, I can point to as being the bedrock of all the cooking knowledge I've cobbled together over the years, and I noticed they have one thing in common: PBS. The cooking shows that air on PBS (and their companion materials) are just awesome. They're not gimmicky, they don't have puppets or catch phrases, but they're reliable. There are other great sources of food knowledge, but if somebody's on PBS, you know they're the real deal.
If I had to learn it all over again starting today, here's what I'd be looking at, in rough order:
Martha Stewart's Cooking School
Martha's got a great new show and companion book to go along with it. The reason I'd start here is because it's structured the way you want it: an emphasis on technique, with clear goals for each lesson. Just about every one of your topics listed above is covered in here, and the recipes are almost secondary. Like, a show or chapter will be about braising, not about boeuf bourguignon. Pretty heavy emphasis on French and European cuisine, but some nice forays into other cuisines, too. Covers all the basics: equipment, stocks, sauces, cuts of meat. Lots of good reference sections, too, like charts on cooking techniques for different rices and grains.
It's mostly pretty traditional stuff. No "hacks" or "science", but she will occasionally throw in some neat updates to a traditional technique. In particular, her hollandaise method is the best I've ever come across. Almost completely traditional, double-boiler and all, but she uses whole butter instead of clarified. Really easy and probably tastes better, too.
Incidentally, most of the substance of the show probably comes from editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living, Sarah Carey, who happens to have an awesome YouTube channel.
Julia Child
Julia needs no introduction. She made French cuisine accessible to us servantless American cooks half a century ago, and I don't think anyone has done it better since. You'll want to watch every episode of The French Chef you can get your hands on, and also grab a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
You could start with Julia, but her show seems to focus on the recipe first, followed by the technique. So Julia's episode on boeuf bourguignon will be about boeuf bourguignon. She'll teach you all about technique, too, of course, but I think it's easier to start with Martha if you want a run-through of the basics of a technique.
Jacques Pepin
Probably the most talented cook to ever appear on television. The man elevates mincing an onion to an art form. Probably the best shows of his are Essential Pepin, Fast Food My Way, and Julia and Jacques Cooking at home (which used to be on Hulu, if you have that).
Every show he'll cook through a bunch of recipes, and he'll make these off-the-cuff comments on why he's doing what he's doing. How to peel a carrot. How to puree garlic with a chef's knife. Adding a splash of water to a covered skillet to steam the contents from the top while cooking them from below.
There's also a lot of his older stuff on YouTube that will show particular techniques: parting and deboning a chicken, preparing an omelet, and so on. He's remarkably consistent, so if you just watch enough of his stuff you'll get the spiel on every topic eventually.
Jacques does have a compilation of technique, but frankly I think Martha's is better. The photography in Jacques' book is pretty poor, and he devotes an awful lot of space to techniques that have probably been out of fashion for forty years. That said, there's a lot that's still useful in there, so it's worth at least checking out from the library.
(By the way, while you're at it, you should read My Life in France and The Apprentice, Julia's and Jacques autobiographies, respectively.)
There's a lot more to learn, but if you start with Jacques, Julia, and Martha, you'll have a rock-solid foundation upon which to build. Once you've got the basics down, my favorite new-fangled cooking resources are Serious Eats and ChefSteps.
Happy cooking!
well, it's not 'only' pictures, but it does have a lot of pictures - New Complete Techniques by Jacques Pepin. it's very comprehensive & easy to follow. there are photos for just about everything, in both color & black & white. and whatever text there is, is presented in digestible bits, alongside the photo illustration.
If you want a cookbook that will teach you classic French cooking techniques and also provide recipes, I'd recommend Jacques Pepin's New Complete Techniques. The Julia Child book was good for its time and definitely popularized French cooking, but it's more of a historical touchstone at this point than a functional guide for 21st century cooks. It assumes that you already have a lot of cooking knowledge.
what you really want are recipe inspirations with common ingredients, not necessarily techniques. There are tomes out there like the CIA's Professional Chef or Pepin's New Complete Techniques which go into minute details on very classical preparations expected at high-end restaurant kitchens, but for the avg home cook that's overkill.
I think your ultimate goal is to develop a set of protocols to guide you in creating dishes on the fly, which actually is a really difficult thing to do even for skilled cooks. The only advice i can give is to cook broadly, learning preparations for various cuisines, from Italian dishes, to Lebanese/Israeli, to Indian, Chinese and Japanese. Many ethnic/cultural cuisines have a certain flavor profiles, with specific spices and ways of combining proteins & starches. But you need to read & practice so these protocols come instinctively.
Start here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0470421355/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518328836&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=cia+cookbook&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=41rNtxGGDYL&amp;ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316118400/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvp_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518328931&amp;sr=1&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_p=2972396462&amp;pd_rd_wg=nq5yM&amp;pf_rd_r=YWY3G2TH6PPKJDW69WQG&amp;pf_rd_s=mobile-sx-bottom-slot&amp;pf_rd_t=9701&amp;pd_rd_i=0316118400&amp;pd_rd_w=Ra06B&amp;pf_rd_i=culinary+school+book&amp;pd_rd_r=6d45f769-fe0f-4f25-870c-9833a3a902fb&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1579129110/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518329071&amp;sr=8-2&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=jacques+pepin&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51Ob6blpRqL&amp;ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0778802566/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518329157&amp;sr=8-2&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=knife+skills+illustrated&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=513Oqyg2uPL&amp;ref=plSrch
my mom bought one for my brother called "a man a can and a plan" maybe is same one? https://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1473533780&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=a+man+a+can+and+a+plan
She's actually over spending on a lot of semi-convenience foods [canned beans, baby carrots, small bag rice, bags of granola (which is insanely cheap, easy, and delicious homemade), Greek yogurt...]
Reads like a more in-your-face, attitude laden A Man, A Can, A Plan; direct and simple enough that people with no experience cooking for themselves could easily follow
Bwahaha sorry OP. But seriously? I didn't think there are people that actually needed this but apparently there are. My family got it for me...right after I cooked them a multi-course dinner.
The pages have pictures of the needed cans and are made out of durable cardboard. Its sturdier then any baby book I have seen.
I believe it was a man a can a plan but I could also be thinking of something else. I think he mentioned getting it when moving out for college
And a plan.
I know you're probably making a One Guy, One Jar reference but I have a cookbook called A Man, a Can, a Plan and I don't think I'll ever look at it the same.
I like to cook French and Asian/Indian foods the most. Here's my base list for any type of cooking: kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, olive oil, canola oil, eggs, flour, potatoes, onions and shallots, cream, butter, bacon, cheese, rice, canned diced tomatoes, garlic bulbs, red and white wine, vinegar (rice wine or balsamic). Root vegetables can be added too, but I prefer to get them specific to the meal.
A few extras I tend to use a lot are ginger root, oyster sauce, and red cabbage. Not exactly stock-worthy to some people though.
But actually, I think this is the wrong approach. I suggest finding a good cook book, perhaps Ad Hoc at Home, and just start reading it. I did this with Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles book and it revolutionized how I think about cooking. I wish I had done it from the start to develop the thought process first, which then leads to better food preparation. When you cook a specific meal you can go to the store and look at each food separately for the meal you're preparing. When I'm at the market looking for specific ingredients and not "grocery shopping" I'm able to think about the food in a different way. Gradually, you can build up foods and spices over time, but in doing so you'll build good habits, good recipes, and a more mature approach to food in general. My approach before was very much like a shotgun blast of spices, whereas now I'm able to more precisely pinpoint the flavor profile I'm going for.
A word on spices: Buying in bulk will save you lots of money. People suggest dating them, so as to know when they're going bad, but this might be out of your scope right now. I know Central Market here in Texas has a pretty nice bulk spice section, and I imagine other whole foods places do as well.
Herbs: Fresh herbs are key. You want something to have at the ready? Fresh herbs you can get from the store. But really you should invest in a $.25 pack of basil seeds, rosemary seeds, and thyme seeds. These plants are hardy and tough to kill (maybe not so much with basil) and will make everything taste more expensive.
These are deep fried. I used the same method for dredging and frying as described in this cookbook's fried chicken recipe (the recipe is actually on the linked page). The final coating is substituted corn meal and graham flour instead.
Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller
http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1256231136&amp;sr=8-1
Just came out, GREAT cook book and learning tool.
Either Miracle Fruit Tablets or Ad-Hoc at home Only the second cookbook I have actually wanted... Alton Brown's was the first.
I just got a copy of [Ad Hoc at Home](http://amzn.com/1579653774 from the library and it's got a toooon of good easy recipes.
I'm all over that homestyle comfort food.
I think Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food is a really good starting point.
It does a fine job of explaining why and how different cooking methods work, and pairs multiple techniques with recipes. I think the way they're presented is really good for someone who is learning.
Tangentially related, I would get his books as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Version/dp/158479559X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291527138&amp;sr=1-4 (This one is about cooking)
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-More-Food/dp/1584793414/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291527138&amp;sr=1-6 (this one is about baking)
Read through those and you'll feel much more confident.
If you are cooking meat, I'd suggest getting a probe thermometer: http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-1470-Digital-Cooking-Thermometer/dp/B00004XSC5/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291527262&amp;sr=8-2
You'd be amazed how good any kind of meat tastes just with some salt and fresh pepper cooked to the exact right temperature tastes...
Why add violently boiling water when you can get better results from baking the egg?
I'm Just Here for the Food - Alton Brown
http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Version/dp/158479559X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1250012904&amp;sr=8-1
Alton Brown puts out a cookbook called I'm just here for the food that was a significant resource for me. A lot of the more basic applications of heat to food are discussed in the book, which helped kick-start me, and it's written in an "Alton Brown" style that's pretty entertaining. There are a few recipes, but each one focuses on a "style" of cooking (braising, roasting, sauteing, etc.)
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087
https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cooking-School-Cookbook/dp/1936493527/
Both are incredibly clear, well-illustrated and written, and provide not only instruction on basic cooking techniques, and help a novice cook select the equipment necessary for a successful kitchen. SeriousEats.com and AmericasTestKitchen.com are great resources as well if you're not keen on buying a cookbook.
Alton Brown's Good Eats is also a great how-to resource presented in a friendly, informative and entertaining format.
Finally, I like to recommend You Suck At Cooking to people who say they can't cook. Yes, the videos are mainly comedy skits involving ridiculous things being done to produce, but there are actually some really good nuggets of information skillfully hidden in the chaos of what's going on. It barely qualifies as instructional, but it certainly is entertaining and involves food.
I would recommend the America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cooking-School-Cookbook/dp/1936493527
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1936493527/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_inactive_ship_o0_img?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
I bought this book for my teenage brother and he uses it almost every day. He used it to cook the perfect Thanksgiving turkey 2 years ago at 16. It is super user friendly and tells you why you are doing each step so that you can apply it across the cooking world. It's almost a text book of cooking.
What do you like cooking?
Cooks Illustrated has a great cookbook for beginners that goes over technique and has awesome recipes. Might be worth looking into
Surprisingly it's called "the complete cooking for two cookbook". By america's test kitchen. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cooking-Two-Cookbook/dp/1936493837 :)
I really like the America's Test Kitchen guys, but instead of their generic cookbook, I'd suggest the one they make for two. All of the recipes are portioned out for just two people. If you find you end up using this book, then pick up one of the larger volumes and modify as you need.
Relevant: Microwave Cooking for One
My first thought was Jacques Pepin's [Techniques] (http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659) book. It's more than a recipe book - and I love his writing...
A Man, a Can, a Plan : 50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Can-Plan-Great-Meals/dp/1579546072
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.
Ah, I see. I'll just drop this beauty right here, Microwave Cooking for One, the saddest cookbook I've ever seen...
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/0882894560
I suggest you try going vegan. Try it for two weeks and see how you feel. If all is well, try again for another two weeks and keep going if you are finding yourself healthy. Keep re-assessing every month or so to see if your new diet is providing you health while also helping your conscience. You may have the type of digestive system that thrives on a plant-based diet.
One thing that the pro-vegan movement believes is that ALL digestive systems work the same. That you "just need to get used to it" (eating vegan). I'm not 100% up on the microbiome research, but I bet (if they haven't already) that they will start pointing out who is best suited to switch to vegan and who is best to stick to animal protein.
I've known lots of vegans who basically starved themselves over time. Their value system/ethics was so powerful, that they overrided their body's needs. And they were not absorbing/digesting the nutrition from their vegan diet enough to fully thrive. They got sick more easily, felt weak, tired all the time, lost unhealthy amounts of weight, etc. Not right away, mind you, but over the course of 5-20 years. Those who switched back to including some animal protein in their diet felt a renewal of vitality and gained a bit of weight.
I *do* believe that eating vegan is possible. I just think it takes a certain constitution for it to work. If people find out more about how their own particular digestive system works, they could make healthier decisions for themselves.
The issue of animal cruelty in our food system is a very real and valid one. If you decide to improve the quality and ethics of your meat, seek out a small farmer who raises, slaughters and butchers the animals ethically (yes, this is possible) and you will find a difference. One difference of course will be in the price, it will be much more expensive. As recent as 100 years ago, meat used to be very expensive. People tended to raise their own animals or simply didn't eat a lot of meat. It has become (through industrial farming practices) extremely cheap and sadly largely at the cost of the well-being of the animals involved. Don't eat this stuff if you can avoid it. To keep the cost down, simply eat less meat and supplement with plant protein (I suggest a "real food" like tempeh, which is not a frankenfood like much of the plant protein convenience foods.) I don't mean only eating 2-3oz of animal protein a day, but wolfing down an 18oz steak is generally way way overboard.
Perhaps 90% of animals products sold in grocery stores will then be off your menu, because they were derived from industrial-style farming/ranching, which tends to be where most of the cruelty happens. Meat labeled as "organic" or "pastured" is not perfect, but it does tend to provide better living conditions for the animals. Organic is a regulated word, so you're better off with that. Pastured can mean whatever what someone thinks it means -- however, if it truly is pastured, then it will be better meat than most organic. If you want some inspiration for why pastured meat is better, a popular book on the subject is, Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.
You are funny. You get the knowledge to cook by learning from others---e.g. your mother, friends or books---and by experimenting. Strict recipes are one of the worst ways, because you won't learn the background.
And the test for finding if your food is good or not for you, is just tasting it. If you need an external standard, go to a restaurant of your choice (or visit a friend who can cook), and compare to their taste.
The book `Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking' (http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1334929957&amp;sr=8-1) makes a similar argument. And it's written by someone who went to a culinary school. He argues that you should know the basic ratios that make recipes tick (E.g. bread dough is around 5 parts flour to 3 parts water plus 2% (of flour) salt. All parts in weight, not volume.), and then experiment on your own.
Acid is a fundamental building block of cooking and flavor. Some would argue the four elements you must always keep in mind to create a dish are Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
https://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
Microwave Cooking for One
http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Cooking-One-Marie-Smith/dp/1565546660
I don't actually own this yet but maybe someday I'll give up.
(page 3)
Question (byobbtypo):
> Do LARPers get carried away and just end up beating the shit out of each other?
>
> Example:
> You: I hit you with a magic missile!You're dead!
> Them: Nope you missed!
> You: You're fuckin dead BITCH (throws punch)
Answer (kubit):
> We've actually had a few brawls here and there, but they're usually all talk. You can imagine with all of those endorphins that sometimes people get carried away and hilarity ensues, but this stuff is pretty frowned upon and rare. We do have a full-contact system of combat that requires verbal consent from whichever party you're going to tackle/maul for all of your aggression needs.
>
> Most of the serious fights actually happen with people who are in campsites near ours. One lady let her dogs loose and tried to get them to attack us because we were being rambunctious in the middle of the night. Shouting matches with normal people is pretty much expected.
Question (swankmotron):
> Why aren't you working on a novel?
Answer (kubit):
> Too busy LARPing and writing LARPing lore for successful careers! BAAARGH!
Question (MrSphincter):
> So lets say we're LARPing in the woods like you said. I suddenly get the impulse to massacre people (LAPRPingly of course). Does that count as a death or only during battles?
Answer (kubit):
> I'm assuming this isn't a death threat. Am I giving you too much credit here?
>
> I've stalked people for a few hours and then murdered them (LARPingly. The statute of limitations doesn't expire on murder, so) when they went to sleep and then dragged them in the forest to bleed to death. Anyone can take a death at any time.
>
> My favorite thing to do is follow people around until they let their guard down and then go to town. It's the best kind of hide-and-seek.
Question (byobbtypo):
> So you could just challenge someone and throw down right then and there? That sounds just amazing.
>
> Aaaaand, I'd probably think twice about trying to mess with a campsite full of drunk people wearing armor.....
Answer (kubit):
> Yeah. We've had gentlemanly fisticuffs break out during "formal" events that ended in black eyes, goose eggs, and worst of all, spilled home-brewed rum. We're fine with full-contact fight club brawls as long as both parties have verbally consented in front of a few witnesses. It's usually like, "I'm going to jump on your back and try to make you pass out!" "Okay!"
>
> Yeah. I'd never hurt a dog, though. If that lady came over, I'm not sure what would've happened. I daydream about it sometimes.
Question (MrSphincter):
> I've always wanted to try LARP especially the battle portion of it. Now that you mention that I can suddenly murder anyone on a whim makes the incentives far greater.
>
> Does being athletic help?
Answer (kubit):
> Yeah, it definitely does. I'm pretty out of shape myself despite not being "fat". I have athletic and allergy induced asthma, which is why I prefer to put on leather socks and stalk people as opposed to running around carrying an 80lb shield and a great sword.
>
> One of the most in shape people I know (Panacea, who posted on this thread) uses two swords and basically runs around, jumping and pummeling the shit out of everything, with great results. It helps when you can real-life dodge as opposed to using the limited number on your character sheet.
>
> I, however, cannot dodge for shit.
Question (x3rs1st):
> Wanna LARP at my place? I have boxed wine and pizza rolls.
Answer (kubit):
> No way, bro. Even hobbits can afford bagel bites.
Question (iwantitalliwantitnow):
> Nice! Glad you have so much fun. I remember some classmates and I stumbling into the middle of a LARP group while doing a class project. One of our classmates got stolen, and we had to join up with a the other team in a raid to get her back. It was fun.
Answer (kubit):
> That sounds amazingly awesome to stumble into. Did you guys use foam weapons or anything? I've done this for a birthday party! The little sister of my boyfriend at the time wanted us to do a kidnap-and-rescue module, in which I played an evil dragon queen named Onyxia. Don't judge me!
Question (mortaine):
> Are you bisexual?
>
> There's kind of an urban legend that all female larpers are bi, but I'm not sure if that's just limited to World of Darkness larpers.
Answer (kubit):
> I'm attracted to cookware, actually. Laci Green explains this phenomenon better than I ever could:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv5k9w6Hpi4
Question (MrSphincter):
> I happen to be like a hybrid. I train in boxing and Muay Thai on a daily basis yet during childhood had a lot of nerdy influences. I became that dude who happens to fix computer/tech problems but also punches/kicks people in the face since I fight. So living the fantasies of LotRlike worlds sound fucking amazing.
>
> Also I wanna go Conan ape shit crazy and hear the lamentations of their women. (With full Arnie crazy eyes look)
>
> What are the choices in weapons?
Answer (kubit):
> I totally get that. As a kid, I did competitive swimming and Iaido, but then I started playing DnD with my best friend's brother. I'm pretty lame now in comparison as far as body treatment goes, but I think my delusions of LARPing grandeur come from watching too many Kurosawa films.
>
> The women our this game don't generally lament unless their food is covered in dust, which happens a lot when fights break out during food time.
>
> There are weapon details and restrictions. Daggers, swords, longswords, polearms, hammers, axes, etc all have design specs that need to be met, but otherwise it's go crazy nuts. Also, shields and thrown weapons. There's a LOT of variety.
Question (dannyboylee):
> Have you seen The Wild Hunt?
>
> What do you think of it? Is it accurate at all?
Answer (kubit):
> Holy crap, no. I haven't seen that at all. Is it good?
>
> From the look of the trailer, yes, it's accurate. That's generally how we get new players... by kidnapping them. Although the women in our game generally prefer to play deadly things rather than princesses.
Question (Puppy_in_love):
> I greet you, milady, hoping that we can once cross blades.
> Now i have a question for ye. What kind of weapons do you use? Foam or?
Answer (kubit):
> Latex, usually. I have one of these:
>
> http://www.strongblade.com/prod/sbif-dag-corsair.html
>
> We could totally cross blades. Except that my favorite character class is assassin, so if we're crossing blades, I'm doing my job completely wrong.
Question (iwantitalliwantitnow):
> Not judging. And no foam weapons, but many war cries were had. We had interviewed them earlier, so when half of them took one of our group and ran off, we weren't too worried.
Answer (kubit):
> All I can imagine is a horde of nerds running over a hill and summarily potato-sacking one of your professionally dressed friends and disappearing back over the hill. The best imagery.
Question (MrSphincter):
> Maybe I get go use the fancy ass footwork from the training. I guess it does help that I have to dodge forces with the intention of knocking me out.
>
> The lamentation line is from a Conan the Barbarian movie btw and ooooohhh... hammers and daggers!
Answer (kubit):
> Oh yeah, I'm totally familiar with Conan. I just want you guys to know how GODDAMN TOUGH I AM. ROAAAAAR!
>
> We also make pots, pans, instruments, cups, etc. out of foam to hit each other with. Those are especially hilarious. One guy I knew made a bunch of glow-in-the-dark foam skulls to throw at people in the middle of the night.
Question (dannyboylee):
> Looks like you need to get yourself a copy of this.
Answer (kubit):
> Make that Microwave Cooking for Two. Bow chicka bow wow.
Question (Puppy_in_love):
> I am also an assasin. A duel between us is aceptable.
Answer (kubit):
> Sweet.
Question (Puppy_in_love):
> And if i am to die, let it be by your hand.
Answer (kubit):
> Double sweet.
*****
(continued below)
Good to hear that, C. Do you just want a bunch of references you can bury yourself in for the next few months, or do you also want some practical advice/shared experience that you can take on faith until you catch up with the theory, so you could start right away?
If the latter, it might help if you provide some specifics - what area you reside in, do you have a house or an apartment, how large is your family, are your kids picky eaters, would others in your family take you seriously, what do you eat, what you don't eat, any health issues you might want to share, etc. I will try to see what resources you might have available around you.
Also, for background - are you familiar with evolutionary considerations as far as nutrition is concerned? Why do you think the soils may be depleted, what do you think are the most nutritious parts of an animal?
This book is a must - not only does it have a lot of healthy recipies, it gives background on why certain methods of preparation must be used, the biochemistry of the processes, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0967089735
May get those as well right away to qualify for free shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1890612340
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0929173252
I am a bit pressed for time now - need to replace a family dog, not to mention general burden of large family. So I will likely write piece by piece and then we could put everything together.
Microwave cooking for one!
Change your diet. Try this for 6 months: no packaged foods, no soft drinks, no fruit juices, no sweets, no bread, no pasta, nothing made from white flour. Eat a lot of biological meat eggs and animal fat (yes, they're good for you). Eat a lot of vegetables; aim for variety. Learn to cook (get this book for recipes). Also, listen to/buy this audiobook. And for fuck's sake, stop taking experimental medication. Putting things in your body that we've never encountered in our 2 billion years of evolution and don't know how to handle might actually do you more harm than good.
I personally don't care to see this recipe. A honey ale by extremely amateur brewers... I think I'd rather have a recipe from an accomplished brewer.