4 ms·

I've been looking for something like this in my life, but what's a good place to start learning how to cook? I'm a young single dude in his 20s, and the most I

I've been looking for something like this in my life, but what's a good place to start learning how to cook? I'm a young single dude in his 20s, and the most I can do is boil some pasta. I work from home so time is not really a huge issue, I just don't know where to start. Any tips?

jfim 11y ago
Learn basic techniques (how to make an omelette, how to saute food, etc.) and extrapolate from there. You can also just look up recipes and read them beforehand to see if they're too complicated. Lots of delicious things are actually pretty simple to make. For example, you can take some chicken thighs, pour some olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice on top and stick them in an oven at 425F and you have a meal in about half an hour or so.
HillRat 11y ago
Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" is a great book to read (it kicked off the popularization of food science), and Alton Brown's "Good Eats" was a fantastic cooking show full of great kitchen geekery. I've also heard that "The Four-Hour Chef" (yes, God help us, same guy) is actually a good starter book. Also, "Cookwise" and "Bakewise." Great books. More personally, let me say that the best way to learn how to cook is to go to the market, find some stuff that looks interesting, and then figure out what to do with them. Pretty soon you'll have an intuitive idea of techniques to use with almost anything you can find, which is when the fun stuff really starts. Don't get intimidated! If you can cook pasta without ruining it, you have it in you to make duck-egg carbonara with house-cured bacon and Swiss chard over homemade fettuccine. Oh, and get some good knives and keep them sharp. Trust me.
TheCowboy 11y ago
Take a project-based approach. Pick a dish or cuisine you enjoy and find yourself eating frequently, and attempt to replicate that dish. Try to understand the techniques used to achieve the results you like, often this requires doing some extra research. Pick one or two things and try to make it every week and improve upon it, or add in slight variations. Look at the processed food you buy and see if you can come up with tastier and healthier homecooked versions. Since you said you already know how to boil pasta, learning how to make your own tomato sauce or pesto is satisfying and easy. Borrow cookbooks from the library and read them. Since Mark Bittman was mentioned, his "How to Cook Everything" is a good general reference, and he's also a good writer. It also helps to have the ingredients with a longer shelf life on hand, such as spices and other staples, so you have everything you need. There isn't a bad place to start when you don't know much. I recommend against starting with the "technique-first" approach unless it appeals to you personally, at least until you get some experience. You really want to do something that captures your interest so you stick with it.
snogglethorpe 11y ago
I don't think there are any real tricks, cooking is all about practice. Just buy some recipe books or download whatever recipes tickle your fancy (I think Indian and Chinese are delicious, often simple, cheap, and healthy), choose stuff you think you can do, and start doing it. If you feel completely lost, a lot of cookbooks start with some explanation of techniques, but it doesn't take much to get started. You don't even need recipes to get good results quickly, just being able to saute some garlic in olive oil and chop vegetables to add to it (just buy whatever looks delicious in the market) can make your pasta a bazillion times better... Practice makes perfect (but getting started is pretty easy too)... :]
mangamadaiyan 11y ago
For /some/ ideas, may I suggest http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ http://www.cookingforengineers.com/?
hellbanner 11y ago
There are 3 kinds of foods I make: Sautees, Stews, Bakes * Sautees: * Oil your pan. Personally I use coconut oil & a cast-iron pan but do your research and find what works for you & your budget. Start heating your pan (low, 25%) Chop your toughest vegetables first. For me these are sweet potatoes & carrots & beets. Many recipes online say start with gaplic & onions but I've found that they burn too easily. I slice the tough veggies into slices so that a lot of surface area covers the pan. Experiment. Throw the tough veggies into pan, turn heat up between 35-50%. While they cook, prepare "softer" vegetables - Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Ginger (great for circulation!). Chop and throw in. As the tougher vegetables soften (6+ minutes), throw in Kale or Spinach for vitamins & flavor. These will shrink significantly so you may have to load multiple handfuls into the pan in sequence. As everything cooks down softly (sample it as you feel the veggies getting soft), add in: Eggs and/or Meat. If you do eggs I recommend pouring into a bowl, mixing yolk & white, adding spices (cumin, paprika, salt, cinnamon) first. Definitely add spice to your meat - and cutting your meat will help you gauge its Done-ness well. Cook until done, stir throughout every 20-45 seconds or so so nothing burns. Add oil if needed to avoid burning your pan. Be liberal on this to prevent burnt food and hardware. When it's all ready, turn your fire off and use an oven mitt to grip the skillet. Use a spoon to pour into a bowl. Let cool for 30 seconds and enjoy! * Stews: * Same principle as before - prepare heat, start with the tough ones. Boil your water in a pot. Add in lentils & quinoa - these each take ~20+ minutes. Let boil for a few minutes while you chop tougher vegetables. Through in the tough veggies, turn your fire down to medium. Add spices. Add greens - I recommend mustard greens, bok choy for flavor and vitamins. Drop a stick of butter in to add some much needed fat and improve the consistency. Or, mix tomatoes in after cooking to thicken the consistency. Make sure you use more water than you need -- better to use too much than burn your food. 20-30 minutes later, you've got yourself a nice meal. I use 1 cup of lentils + 1 cup of quinoa or oats at at ime, with all the veggies & eggs & meat from the sauteeing, you'll have plenty of food for at least a day. * Granola Bakes: * Open your oven, clean it. Remove burnt chunks and food. Close the door & preheat your oven to 325. Before this started, you shopped bulk and filled mason jars with nuts of your choosing to avoid wasteful & unhealthy plastic bags. I recommend: Excess Peanuts or Virigina Peanuts. A massive Oat base. Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds. Pour all of these onto a baking sheet inside of a baking pan. Pour several spoons of honey. Add salt. Add cinnamon. Mix around. Stick in oven, cook for 30 minutes, remove. Enjoy. I pretty much live off of these meals. Actual ingredients vary with the season and mood but the principles apply. Hopefully you can follow along and try these! Vary spices for more variety. You can freeze food to store for a long time - I recommend freezing half of a huge stew and fridging the rest to save yourself time.
2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
If you don't mind spending some money, take some lessons. If you don't know what you're doing even proven recipes can fail.
lmm 11y ago
Get Delia's How to Cook. Many thought the title was arrogant, but the reason it's called that is it really does start you off from zero and work up.
marincounty 11y ago
Years ago I as a cook. I was in high school, and this was my night job. The owner was a trained chef, but really didn't want to be there. He gave me some brief training. It lasted one, maybe two nights. First he showed me how to sharpen a chef's knife. He then gave me a told me all the dishes I would prepare would be out of one book. The book was called The Moosewood Cookbook. The only thing he actually showed me was how to make a roux, for cream based soups. Every other cooking technique, I learned in that book. That book taught me how to cook. It's all vegetarian recipes. She teaches cooking techniques along with her recipes. Try the Hungarian mushroom soup. I guarantee you will like it.
spodek 11y ago
Something that worked for me: This year I bought into a Community Supported Agriculture deal, where every Tuesday I pick up a load of vegetables and fruit from a farm, usually picked a day before. I made a rule for myself that I wouldn't waste any of it. It began with a flood I could barely keep up with. Many vegetables I had to figure what they were and what to do with them -- daikon radishes, chard, tomatillos, squashes, etc. Some I had never used, like fresh jalepenos. Without the flood, I was always planning, never doing. With the flood, I acted. That's where we learn -- by doing. My fallback with something I didn't know was to steam, then put on olive oil, salt, and pepper or to saute with garlic and onions. I ended up eating everything and much of it was the best I'd ever tasted (eating the cherry tomatoes was nearly a religious experience). In the process, I learned a lot about food and cooking. I don't consider myself a good cook, but at a farmers market yesterday I recognized everything, knew what to look for, and came home with radishes, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, Jerusalem artichokes, and a few other things I never or rarely would get. This year I'm just keeping up -- meaning a lot of steamed vegetables with olive oil, salt, and pepper, which is usually pretty tasty. Next year, with the experience, I'll make more recipes. One thing is for sure, I'll do this for the rest of my life. It's one of the best things I've done for myself. Side benefit: six-pack abs developing despite eating as much volume of food as ever, as vegetables replace less nutritious stuff that is no longer appetizing. Plus I enjoy this food more than what I used to eat. Side benefit 2: I spend less money on food now. Restaurants aren't as good in comparison, with all their rice/bread/other filler. Side benefit 3: I spend less time on food. I bring lunches with me, which saves time going out. Tldr: Buy into local farm share with so much vegetables you have to figure it out. Eat more, save money, save time, and lose fat.

jfim 11y ago

Learn basic techniques (how to make an omelette, how to saute food, etc.) and extrapolate from there. You can also just look up recipes and read them beforehand to see if they're too complicated. Lots of delicious things are actually pretty simple to make. For example, you can take some chicken thighs, pour some olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice on top and stick them in an oven at 425F and you have a meal in about half an hour or so.

HillRat 11y ago

Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" is a great book to read (it kicked off the popularization of food science), and Alton Brown's "Good Eats" was a fantastic cooking show full of great kitchen geekery. I've also heard that "The Four-Hour Chef" (yes, God help us, same guy) is actually a good starter book. Also, "Cookwise" and "Bakewise." Great books. More personally, let me say that the best way to learn how to cook is to go to the market, find some stuff that looks interesting, and then figure out what to do with them. Pretty soon you'll have an intuitive idea of techniques to use with almost anything you can find, which is when the fun stuff really starts. Don't get intimidated! If you can cook pasta without ruining it, you have it in you to make duck-egg carbonara with house-cured bacon and Swiss chard over homemade fettuccine. Oh, and get some good knives and keep them sharp. Trust me.

TheCowboy 11y ago

Take a project-based approach. Pick a dish or cuisine you enjoy and find yourself eating frequently, and attempt to replicate that dish. Try to understand the techniques used to achieve the results you like, often this requires doing some extra research. Pick one or two things and try to make it every week and improve upon it, or add in slight variations. Look at the processed food you buy and see if you can come up with tastier and healthier homecooked versions. Since you said you already know how to boil pasta, learning how to make your own tomato sauce or pesto is satisfying and easy. Borrow cookbooks from the library and read them. Since Mark Bittman was mentioned, his "How to Cook Everything" is a good general reference, and he's also a good writer. It also helps to have the ingredients with a longer shelf life on hand, such as spices and other staples, so you have everything you need. There isn't a bad place to start when you don't know much. I recommend against starting with the "technique-first" approach unless it appeals to you personally, at least until you get some experience. You really want to do something that captures your interest so you stick with it.

snogglethorpe 11y ago

I don't think there are any real tricks, cooking is all about practice. Just buy some recipe books or download whatever recipes tickle your fancy (I think Indian and Chinese are delicious, often simple, cheap, and healthy), choose stuff you think you can do, and start doing it. If you feel completely lost, a lot of cookbooks start with some explanation of techniques, but it doesn't take much to get started. You don't even need recipes to get good results quickly, just being able to saute some garlic in olive oil and chop vegetables to add to it (just buy whatever looks delicious in the market) can make your pasta a bazillion times better... Practice makes perfect (but getting started is pretty easy too)... :]

mangamadaiyan 11y ago

For /some/ ideas, may I suggest http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ http://www.cookingforengineers.com/?

hellbanner 11y ago

There are 3 kinds of foods I make: Sautees, Stews, Bakes * Sautees: * Oil your pan. Personally I use coconut oil & a cast-iron pan but do your research and find what works for you & your budget. Start heating your pan (low, 25%) Chop your toughest vegetables first. For me these are sweet potatoes & carrots & beets. Many recipes online say start with gaplic & onions but I've found that they burn too easily. I slice the tough veggies into slices so that a lot of surface area covers the pan. Experiment. Throw the tough veggies into pan, turn heat up between 35-50%. While they cook, prepare "softer" vegetables - Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Ginger (great for circulation!). Chop and throw in. As the tougher vegetables soften (6+ minutes), throw in Kale or Spinach for vitamins & flavor. These will shrink significantly so you may have to load multiple handfuls into the pan in sequence. As everything cooks down softly (sample it as you feel the veggies getting soft), add in: Eggs and/or Meat. If you do eggs I recommend pouring into a bowl, mixing yolk & white, adding spices (cumin, paprika, salt, cinnamon) first. Definitely add spice to your meat - and cutting your meat will help you gauge its Done-ness well. Cook until done, stir throughout every 20-45 seconds or so so nothing burns. Add oil if needed to avoid burning your pan. Be liberal on this to prevent burnt food and hardware. When it's all ready, turn your fire off and use an oven mitt to grip the skillet. Use a spoon to pour into a bowl. Let cool for 30 seconds and enjoy! * Stews: * Same principle as before - prepare heat, start with the tough ones. Boil your water in a pot. Add in lentils & quinoa - these each take ~20+ minutes. Let boil for a few minutes while you chop tougher vegetables. Through in the tough veggies, turn your fire down to medium. Add spices. Add greens - I recommend mustard greens, bok choy for flavor and vitamins. Drop a stick of butter in to add some much needed fat and improve the consistency. Or, mix tomatoes in after cooking to thicken the consistency. Make sure you use more water than you need -- better to use too much than burn your food. 20-30 minutes later, you've got yourself a nice meal. I use 1 cup of lentils + 1 cup of quinoa or oats at at ime, with all the veggies & eggs & meat from the sauteeing, you'll have plenty of food for at least a day. * Granola Bakes: * Open your oven, clean it. Remove burnt chunks and food. Close the door & preheat your oven to 325. Before this started, you shopped bulk and filled mason jars with nuts of your choosing to avoid wasteful & unhealthy plastic bags. I recommend: Excess Peanuts or Virigina Peanuts. A massive Oat base. Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds. Pour all of these onto a baking sheet inside of a baking pan. Pour several spoons of honey. Add salt. Add cinnamon. Mix around. Stick in oven, cook for 30 minutes, remove. Enjoy. I pretty much live off of these meals. Actual ingredients vary with the season and mood but the principles apply. Hopefully you can follow along and try these! Vary spices for more variety. You can freeze food to store for a long time - I recommend freezing half of a huge stew and fridging the rest to save yourself time.

2muchcoffeeman 11y ago

If you don't mind spending some money, take some lessons. If you don't know what you're doing even proven recipes can fail.

lmm 11y ago

Get Delia's How to Cook. Many thought the title was arrogant, but the reason it's called that is it really does start you off from zero and work up.

marincounty 11y ago

Years ago I as a cook. I was in high school, and this was my night job. The owner was a trained chef, but really didn't want to be there. He gave me some brief training. It lasted one, maybe two nights. First he showed me how to sharpen a chef's knife. He then gave me a told me all the dishes I would prepare would be out of one book. The book was called The Moosewood Cookbook. The only thing he actually showed me was how to make a roux, for cream based soups. Every other cooking technique, I learned in that book. That book taught me how to cook. It's all vegetarian recipes. She teaches cooking techniques along with her recipes. Try the Hungarian mushroom soup. I guarantee you will like it.

spodek 11y ago

Something that worked for me: This year I bought into a Community Supported Agriculture deal, where every Tuesday I pick up a load of vegetables and fruit from a farm, usually picked a day before. I made a rule for myself that I wouldn't waste any of it. It began with a flood I could barely keep up with. Many vegetables I had to figure what they were and what to do with them -- daikon radishes, chard, tomatillos, squashes, etc. Some I had never used, like fresh jalepenos. Without the flood, I was always planning, never doing. With the flood, I acted. That's where we learn -- by doing. My fallback with something I didn't know was to steam, then put on olive oil, salt, and pepper or to saute with garlic and onions. I ended up eating everything and much of it was the best I'd ever tasted (eating the cherry tomatoes was nearly a religious experience). In the process, I learned a lot about food and cooking. I don't consider myself a good cook, but at a farmers market yesterday I recognized everything, knew what to look for, and came home with radishes, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, Jerusalem artichokes, and a few other things I never or rarely would get. This year I'm just keeping up -- meaning a lot of steamed vegetables with olive oil, salt, and pepper, which is usually pretty tasty. Next year, with the experience, I'll make more recipes. One thing is for sure, I'll do this for the rest of my life. It's one of the best things I've done for myself. Side benefit: six-pack abs developing despite eating as much volume of food as ever, as vegetables replace less nutritious stuff that is no longer appetizing. Plus I enjoy this food more than what I used to eat. Side benefit 2: I spend less money on food now. Restaurants aren't as good in comparison, with all their rice/bread/other filler. Side benefit 3: I spend less time on food. I bring lunches with me, which saves time going out. Tldr: Buy into local farm share with so much vegetables you have to figure it out. Eat more, save money, save time, and lose fat.