Big plus one. The Nth Edition of Fannie Farmer's Cookbook (or equivalent) is a great entry point for self-starters. Playing with the basic recipes in there hel

Big plus one. The Nth Edition of Fannie Farmer's Cookbook (or equivalent) is a great entry point for self-starters. Playing with the basic recipes in there helps develop an instinct for ingredients and the cooking process, with relatively low-risk ingredients and processes. Once you've mastered those fundamentals, you develop an ability to simulate whether a recipe, ingredient substitution, or bizarre process "makes sense" or not, which is invaluable in deciding whether to risk a dinner on some crazy recipe recommended to you by the internet. The internet is a great place to deepen a knowledge of cooking, but it's hard to dive in without the fundamentals. And for the time and money, these great cookbooks are the easiest way to acquire the norms and fundamentals.