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Cooking for Beginners books - any recommendations?

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Korey

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http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...&field-keywords=cooking+for+beginners&x=0&y=0

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/coo...yword=cooking+for+beginners&store=allproducts

This year I'm finally going to learn how to cook by learning 1 recipe per month, as I mentioned in the Seems to me that people spend a lot of their income on eating out thread.

Jan is almost over so I have to hurry up. I'm basically going to make the same dish once a week until I get it down pat, then learn a new one next month, and so on.

Anyone have any experience or success with cooking for beginners books? I'm gonna go to Barnes & Noble later to check out some books so I can go home and buy it on Amazon
 
I would actually strongly advise against "How to Cook Everything..." sorry entrement. I just don't think it's a good book for beginners at all, and I hate hate hate the layout. One of the first cookbooks my wife and I ever bought, and it mostly just collects dust. It's a nice reference for "everything," I suppose, but as you flesh out your collection with books on specific types of cooking you will find yourself turning to it less and less. At least, that has been our experience.

This might be a good reference book, though...my mom bought it for my dad a few years ago and he loves it. How to Boil Water

From my own shelf I might recommend Healthy in a Hurry and maybe one of the Betty Crocker cookbooks.

Also, Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen was the first cookbook my mom ever got me, right after I moved out. At the time it was indispensable, and there are still a small handful of recipes we will make every now and then.

Finally, get yourself a decent grill and Weber's Real Grilling as soon as it warms up. Grilling is stupidly easy, great for one person, generates less mess/won't heat up your house, and is almost always positively yum. It's pretty hard to fuck up at grilling as long as you get a good one.
 
I also have an app that i use, icookbook for android. It covers a variety of dishes.

Do you own a kindle? There are dozens of cookbooks on there for $3 or less.
 
Honestly, I'm not sure a crock pot is a good fit unless you're cooking for multiple people. It is very hard to screw up, true, but you will be limited to things that actually take all day to cook if you have a normal work schedule. These meals are almost always designed for a group of people, and while you can freeze some of it for an easy meal another night, it's just never as good.

Save your money for a Weber grill ;p
 
echoshifting said:
I would actually strongly advise against "How to Cook Everything..." sorry entrement. I just don't think it's a good book for beginners at all, and I hate hate hate the layout. One of the first cookbooks my wife and I ever bought, and it mostly just collects dust. It's a nice reference for "everything," I suppose, but as you flesh out your collection with books on specific types of cooking you will find yourself turning to it less and less. At least, that has been our experience.

This might be a good reference book, though...my mom bought it for my dad a few years ago and he loves it. How to Boil Water

From my own shelf I might recommend Healthy in a Hurry and maybe one of the Betty Crocker cookbooks.

Also, Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen was the first cookbook my mom ever got me, right after I moved out. At the time it was indispensable, and there are still a small handful of recipes we will make every now and then.

Finally, get yourself a decent grill and Weber's Real Grilling as soon as it warms up. Grilling is stupidly easy, great for one person, generates less mess/won't heat up your house, and is almost always positively yum. It's pretty hard to fuck up at grilling as long as you get a good one.
Click to expand...

If you had to pick one of those, for a first time cook, which would it be?

ReBurn said:
Get a crock pot and a crock pot cook book. Hard to mess up, plus delicious.
Click to expand...

outunderthestars said:
This man knows what's up. Crock pots allow you to make inexpensive, awesome meals.
Click to expand...

What does a crock pot do and what kind of meals does it make?

echoshifting said:
Honestly, I'm not sure a crock pot is a good fit unless you're cooking for multiple people. It is very hard to screw up, true, but you will be limited to things that actually take all day to cook if you have a normal work schedule. These meals are almost always designed for a group of people, and while you can freeze some of it for an easy meal another night, it's just never as good.

Save your money for a Weber grill ;p
Click to expand...

Yea, I'm a bachelor working a regular 9-6 type schedule.
 
jchap said:
Joy of Cooking

/end thread
Click to expand...

Nah. That is out dated. It relies heavily on canned fruits and vegetables instead of teaching you how to use in season produce and most of all it's very "fussy." Each recipe is 30 individual steps wish lots of tools required. In modern times speedy single pan dishes are what are stressed.


OP, I suggest a subscription to cooks illustrated.

p-41362.jpg


It's very geared towards the knowledge hungry cook as well as the person with a life. Most useful is it's "why did this go wrong" pictures. There really is nothing as simple, and in depth as it. Pick up an issue at a newsstand and tell me it's not the most relateable and useful information on cooking you've ever received.


Personally, I think the first thing to master is a stir-fry. It is one pan and teaches you how to cook a variety of elements to their ideal state.
 
I'll keep a close eye on this thread. I've been wanting to learn to cook. Would be an invaluable trait to have when I have to support myself.
 
I wish cookbooks didn't change covers so often. I think this is my favorite stir-fry cookbook, though I have a much more recent edition (with a green cover). Might be tough to find but it's a good one. An impressive variety of recipes...one of my favorites is a greek stir-fry with lamb or beef...another is a fajita recipe which my wife just made and is even now making my house smell completely awesome.

If you're going to be doing a lot of stir-frying, invest in at least one really good knife and learn to use it. Chopping is the hardest part (mostly due to the time investment, not technical proficiency), and it can be rather tedious if you don't know what you're doing.
 
This is a very good cook book for people learning how to cook. Americas Test Kitchen Family cookbook. It is by the makes of Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country. There is also a baking cookbook as well.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615486/?tag=neogaf0e-20


It is similar to Better Home cookbook, but it is more informative and will tell you about the common mistakes new cooks make. Americas Test Kitchen shows you how to make the recipe, but at the same time shows how the recipe could fail. It is good for learning and it has a huge range of recipes from many regions. The book also goes over cooking equipment, techniques and explaining different cuts of meats, vegetables and herbs/spices. It is a great source you will use for years even after you learn the basics of cooking.
 
Zertez said:
This is a very good cook book for people learning how to cook. Americas Test Kitchen Family cookbook.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615486/?tag=neogaf0e-20


It is similar to Better Home cookbook, but it is more informative and will tell you about the common mistakes new cooks make. Americas Test Kitchen shows you how to make the recipe, but at the same time shows how the recipe could fail. It is good for learning and it has a huge range of recipes from many regions. The book also goes over cooking equipment, techniques and explaining different cuts of meats, vegetables and herbs/spices. It is a great source you will use for years even after you learn the basics of cooking.
Click to expand...


America's Test Kitchen is the company behind Cook's Illustrated. They are indeed the best at breaking cooking info down for everyone.


echoshifting said:
I wish cookbooks didn't change covers so often. I think this is my favorite stir-fry cookbook, though I have a much more recent edition (with a green cover). Might be tough to find but it's a good one. An impressive variety of recipes...one of my favorites is a greek stir-fry with lamb or beef...another is a fajita recipe which my wife just made and is even now making my house smell completely awesome.

If you're going to be doing a lot of stir-frying, invest in at least one really good knife and learn to use it. Chopping is the hardest part (mostly due to the time investment, not technical proficiency), and it can be rather tedious if you don't know what you're doing.
Click to expand...


Stir-fry's really are the best thing to learn because every culture uses it in some way. Once you learn the what and why of how they work you can apply that knowledge to soups, side-dishes, and most every dish.
 
Ok just came back from the bookstore. I checked out a bunch of books recommended in this thread.

The best one for a beginner that I found (from skimming them) is:

519D1Q0Q0NL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


The recipes in there were actually simple and things I would eat. The instructions were clear and there were a few pictures.




This one was also good and had the most pictures by far:

51khcXGqdML._SL500_AA300_.jpg


The only bad thing was the recipes didn't look like things I wanted to eat. I think I may have a limited palette. But the good thing was it had tons of pictures, like one for each step. So I may get this in the future. Basically, it's an advanced dish book with a lot of pictures.




This one was ok but seemed kind of intimidating. It's more a book of recipes than a book that wants to teach you how to cook:

61LKFDBxxuL._SL500_AA300_.jpg





Absolutely not for beginners. It's only text. And just endless lists of recipes.

510X20-aW1L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg





This was wrapped so I couldn't check it out. The old school one I flipped through and was...really old school and more for experienced cookers I think.

51DE3T1BFTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
 
Thanks for starting this thread, it is appreciated. I like the idea of starting out with the basics like How To Boil Water and move on from there... baby steps and all that.

I also like the idea of the Weber's Real Grilling book, since I don't have a grill and am probably missing out when cooking for one. How is the cleanup with a grill?!?

Might have to look into picking up a grill in a few months once I have the basics down.

*edit -- might have misread the grilling book description... seems to be talking about an outdoor grill, and I was thinking one of those indoor electric countertop grill things.
 
Maybe look into Le Cordon Bleu Cuisine Foundations or Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques.

These do a good job at getting into some of the basic skills as well, with tons of pictures.
 
If you like curry I recommend getting a curry cookbook. Curries are easy to make and impossible to screw up. The only thing is you need to buy a few spices and stuff at the start.
 
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