That cooking is an ongoing life skill. If you're asking the question then I don't have to give you a pep talk/whole song and dance about the benefits of it, you know... so I will just say that you can learn basic techniques and terminologies (like the difference in pre-browning meat as opposed to just putting it in the oven, how to use a knife, how to make a bechamel (basic white sauce), etc. etc... all these things will serve you well. But if the particular dishes don't turn out well, don't give up. Every new dish has to be tried, practiced, and probably tweaked. There will be a lot of meals where you wish you had a dog next to you. They appreciate most things. And if you're really serious about learning, and are up for reading (not just youtube tutorials or cooking shows, which are also ok) buy this book. Kenji is amazing. It's very theoretical, but not too technical to absorb. It's not so much about recipes, but it also has some of those too. This is a foundational book of cooking. Don't know what country you're in, your account doesn't say, so I am giving the link to the amazon U. S. store: www.amazon.com/.../B00TG24C34
#1 - Don't start big. Start with the basics; pasta, eggs, waffles/pancakes, rice, roasted veggies, etc. Get the basics of cooking down, then jump into the harder recipes.
#2 - Measure. I mean, I'm a hypocrite here since I usually wing it now but in the beginning, I was lazy about measuring and my cookies tasted like straight up salt, so don't do that and get yourself some measuring utensils.
#3 - Keep the kitchen clean. If you have raw meat/eggs on a surface, sanitize it to avoid food poisoning.
#4 - Follow recipes in the beginning, then begin to experiment. I think it's good to get the fundamental basic recipe down and tasting good before you get adventurous.
#5 - Ingredients matter. If I use thawed frozen strawberries in icing, there will be a noticeable difference. Like it's fine to use frozen in some dishes but fresh ingredients often produce a more flavorful dish.
#6 - Buy an apron if you don't have one. I put this off for years and I stained many shirts. Like just buy an apron right off the bat.
Get a couple of foundational books/cookbooks: Betty Crocker Cooking Basics, and Cook's Illustrated "The Science of Good Cooking". Disclosure- I make zip from these places. Once you know how and why certain things happen in a recipe, you can then easily transfer that info to other new dishes. ie What's the difference between caramelization and the Maillard reaction? (C is with sugar, M is with protein). Once you know, you can caramelize onions for onion soup, burgers, pizza, etc, and grill steaks. Or add sugar for a more well-seared steak. Make a basic milk sauce & you may make soups, cheese sauces, gravies & lots of others. Make a basic bread dough/baguette, (put ice in the oven for crispier crust - really!) Practice to make a couple of whole meals, by memory- pasta carbonara, garlic bread, tossed salad or salad caprese is impressive, yet rather easy, for example. Practice a stir-fry- saute veggies with a bit of oil, (good to empty the fridge) add flavors & sauce = fajitas, sweet sour chicken, - - - - lastly - - - - taste, taste, taste all the time!
My favorite way is to pick a dish you want to make, like say Chile Con Carne.
Then look up multiple recipes. Note what they have in common: the lowest common denominator ingredients. That makes up the fundamental ingredients of the dish. Then grab those and maybe fool around with some of the additional ingredients you find in various recipes and experiment and adjust.
I find that the most fun and you get to come up with your own original variation tailored to your specific taste. And with something like a stew or soup, it's very forgiving since you can add ingredients and seasoning slowly, taste it, then tweak, then taste, then tweak, and keep repeating until it's just the way you want it.
By experimenting this way you also get to rapidly accelerate your understanding of how lots of different ingredients, and spices, and seasonings subtly alter the taste of a dish. And you start building a sort of vocabulary of taste, and a sense of what ingredient a dish might be missing to just give it that little "oomph". There are some counter-intuitive ones too, like some people add coffee or chocolate to their Chile, for example.
Start with something you enjoy but isn’t too complex.
Eg, a roast dinner is lovely but has lots of elements and time management. Start with something you can do in sections, like a cottage pie.
For the sake of argument let’s just say you like that! You can prepare the veg while the pan heats and slowly cook the meat and veg. If you’re not confident dealing with mash at the same time, you can put the meat and veg to one side and then do the mash. Then the meat layer into a dish, add the mash and bake (or put in the fridge until you want to cook it).
This meal is a classic way of learning timings of how quick things cook, you can take your time (literally hours if you want!) and nothing is ruined.
Don’t try to be too ambitious :) stews and soups are great for perfecting flavours as they are long and slow and minimal attention. Also, remember that recipes are guidelines not rules. Eg if a recipe asks for Stilton cheese and you hate the stuff; don’t use it! Sub a cheese you like or if you don’t like cheese don’t use any. If a recipe says “cook high for 10 minutes” but you’ve got loads to do, put it on low for however long. The more you cook the more you learn when something’s done (think of it like toast. You know when it’s burnt or not cooked by looking and learning the timing)
Try winging something first. Don’t look at a recipe and just try to make something that you enjoy eating. I find that this is a fun way to enter the cooking scene. This is how I started cooking at around 6. From there, try improving and looking at recipes until you get the dish to a level that you like. Try to perfect a few simple dishes like rice, pasta, and maybe some sort of casserole or bake. From there step out of your comfort zone and try making something a little more difficult. Also try experimenting with different types of food. For example, you may find that you like baking more than cooking.
Try to not speed up the process because then you just burn the food and set off all the smoke alarms, waste all the money spent on food. Then you just give up from cooking altogether from there on out... and life. Its just all a downward spiral from there🤦♀️
I love cooking. I've been doing it since I was 5. I used to bring a chair up to the stove and go at it. My reccomendation is to Google foreign recipes. Not only will it expand your repitoire of things you enjoy, but it will teach you techniques that you don't know. You will soon realise that cooking is easy as fuck. If you mess something up, do it again another day. I cook really amazing tasty things every day if I don't say so myself but I ate chicken nuggets for lunch the past 3 days. It's not a bad thing. Just give it a go and remember that every mistake is something you can learn from.
*Taste regularly as to not over or under season *Youtube is a great friend in learning *Don't let a bad outcome stop you from cooking again (practice makes perfect) *Start with simple things, then work your way up *make sure you font cross contaminate, make sure if you are working with raw meats and such that you wash all utensils, cutting surfaces, your hands, etc, before you use then for something else
How much do you want to expand it? Start with getting a recipe book like One Pan, Two Plates and following the recipes exactly. Also, Pinterest. Also, Youtube. Both have tons of recipes and things to get you started. The biggest thing in cooking is to just follow instructions and to pay attention (no multi-tasking).
If you want to get super in-depth, The Science of Good Cooking by Cooks Illustrated will teach you everything you need to know.
Marinades, research them. Fat, acid, spice. Learn the difference between saute, fry, broil, boil, bake, braise, roast, and grill, there's more. That's just a good start. Get a cookbook. Experiment with some meat you cut into smaller parts. Experiment with sides. Salt, pepper, garlic, chili powder, corn starch, cream, honey, sugar and vanilla are all absolute essentials. Ginger, cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, dill, oregano, basil, and rosemary are all good to have. Fresher is better almost without fail. Taste spices and sauces. Don't be afraid to watch videos or look up recipes. Don't be afraid to fail. Above all, get you some non-stick pans and pyrex high side trays, silicone cooling mat, a couple good knives, silicone spatula (not flipper. Make sure this is right) good metal nonstick flipper, and a cutting board.
5 parts Lemon juice, 1 part sesame oil, 1 part soy. 1/4 part salt 1/4 part pepper, 1/2 part fine chopped ginger root. Mix well. Fire. Meats, especially fish, healthy salad dressing, MMM. 6 parts soy sauce. 2 parts fine mines garlic cloves. 2 parts olive oil. 1 part Italian seasoning/ oregano basil rosemary mix, equal parts. 1 part white or balsamic vinegar, depending on target flavor. Use fork or potato masher to middle garlic into the fluid. Another fire one on meats, especially darker meat. Flavor really gets into the outer layer. Experiment, have fun!
Oh, and some cumin (like 1/16th part if that, it's strong) can Really push the 2nd one to a different place. Ooooh! That reminds of one rule to remember: You can almost always add more, but you can't take it back out. Especially true with salt and sugar.
That's a very opposite view from mine! When I put something in the oven, it's like there's so much room for catastrophic errors! :-D Whereas I think if it's like a stew, and I can taste and tweak (assuming the tweaks aren't too heavy-handed), I can keep tweaking until it's just right -- nothing explodes or comes out the oven much later (without my ability to taste/tweak) being all bland or anything.
With pastries or something, that's hopeless for me. I gave up years ago. :-D But it's like I put a roast in the oven and it comes out all bland, or dry. I have learned some ways to "rescue" these things, like gravies and such, but it's very hard for me to consistently get them coming out right.
I would say cook from the heart and not so much by the cookbook.
Put your own spin of favors on your food. Don't be afraid to experiment. Mixed different culture's of food together. Watch cooking shows and try learning thier technical use of kitchen tools.
Ramen is a common breakfast food in asia. The noodles prepare themselves. The flavor is in what's added to the noodles. Ramen is a great start to preparing foods as ingredients and creating a balanced meal that can satisfy energy needs. Because ramen is so easy to make and the flavor relies on the ingredients making it is good practice for creating soup and salad.
Because chicken nugget meat is so tender chicken nuggets are good practice for creating soft deep-fried food like Chile Relleno.
Watching YouTube videos on cooking is a good way to learn how to cook. Also, if you're able to follow along with them, watching cooking shows is a good way to learn too. Hell, just getting in the kitchen and attempting to cook something is also a good way to learn. You'll make mistakes, but if you learn from them you'll improve. Always use recipes, but never be afraid to experiment.
I do not cook as much as i throw together whatever i think got decent nutritional value. If you want to subscribe to that philophosy you basicly just read all you can procces get hands on about nutrition and you will gradualy make healthier food since you will learn their attributes
Follow directions and make sure you have all ingredients. If it says stir for 5 min, get a timer, time it for 5 min, and stir for five minutes. Doesn't hurt to have a couple of recipe books and free subscriptions of YouTube channels. Following the directions is very important, you won't screw up if you do.
Pick foods you like and look for recipes and do everything from scratch and avoid the freezer shortcuts and spice blends. Watch chefs online. Start a spice collection, get a good chefs knife and learn technique, cook for others any chance you can!
Whenever you turn up the stove on high temperature. That doesn’t mean the meal will cook faster and better. Always set the temperature on medium or medium/high, so it can cook the meal 🥘 evenly.
Learn how to construct a dish using opposing textures and pairing different flavours. Seek out things you've never eaten before. Invest in a waterbath and vacuum packer, they make life easier.
A lot of newbies forget that the stove is on, and everything ends up burnt... so stay close and watch your food. Also, try the seasoning while you're cooking. That way you can fix it before you're eating.
I'm not much of an indoor cook i have no desire to be. But I certainly. Enjoy smoking some ribs and Grill some steaks and hamburgers etc etc. Outdoors. if you really want to learn to cook inside go to cooking school or take classes
It's not as hard as you think. Can you slather a roast with a spice rub? If you smoke your meats, I'd think so. Can you put it in a high side pan, surround it with chopped veggies, cover it with foip, and bake it til the meat thermo says done? Sir, I think you can. And stovetop is not any harder, just more involved. I get where you're coming from, but you don't need schooling to chef up some awesome shit
I don't have time to cook inside the house everyday I come home many times near midnight and I'm totally exhausted. I need to find a girlfriend to help me out
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