Cooking

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I’ve decided I want to start cooking. But I need some advice on a good cookbook.

We rarely cook dinner; we usually order in or do takeout. I’ve decided I want to start saving money, expand our food horizons, and learn some good cooking skills. It seems like it would be fun.

I have some basic skills, because I used to cook for myself: I can sauté chicken and vegetables. I can make rice and pasta. I can cook vegetables by boiling them. I baked cookies once. That’s about it. To be honest, I’m a little intimidated by cooking. Also, I don’t want to go out and spend money on equipment and ingredients that I’ll never use. But I want to learn to become a better cook.

Regarding basic ingredients to keep in your kitchen, I’ve found this, this, this and this.

As for all-purpose cookbooks, I’ve looked at Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything, the Betty Crocker cookbook, the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, and a little bit at The Joy of Cooking – the latter just came out in a new edition, but there are also some earlier editions and people seem to have different opinions of them. I don’t necessarily want a book filled with recipes I’ll never make – I’d rather have a book filled with recipes I will make.

Any ideas for cookbooks?

16 thoughts on “Cooking”

  1. It’s taken me a few years to become a more comfortable cook, but it
    did happen. Don’t think that you’ll switch to making dinner every night; that will take a while. But if you can develop a few staples, then you’ll start to become more comfortable.

    The best bet, honestly, is to start watching Food TV and figuring out which recipes you want to try. Watching someone make something can make you feel more confident; all the recipes are on the website. I prefer allrecipes.com, because it’s fun to read the recipe reviews (where many improvements are often suggested).

    Also, pick up a few cooking magazines. I like Cook’s Country, because it isn’t very intimidating. Some magazines are way too difficult (Martha Stewart Living, I’m looking at you!). Just flip through a few to see if there’s anything that you’d like to try making.

    Here are the cookbooks that I return to the most:

    America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Comes in a three-ring binder. My mom has relied on her three-ring binder Betty Crocker cookbook for years (in fact, she pulled it out for Thanksgiving). Tells you the basics of cooking everything. A great place for me to start.

    I also use the America’s Test Kitchen The Best 30-Minute Recipe and The Best Light Recipe ALL THE TIME. I especially recommend the former, because the last thing you’re going to want to do is spend FOREVER in the kitchen creating a masterpiece. You want yummy, homemade food that doesn’t kill you to create.

    There’s also a new America’s Test Kitchen Best Recipes of 2007 volume out, that includes stuff from all of their publications (Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country, and many recipe books).

    By the way, every cookbook I own is filled with recipes that I will never make. That’s the nature of the beast. My main “cookbook” however is a folder of printouts from Foodnetwork.com and Allrecipes.com.

    Start with simple things: pasta with tomato or alfredo sauce; bagged salad with dressing and croutons; baked chicken with stuffing. Depend on pre-made mixes.

  2. You might look into the beginnner cooking classes at Peter Kump’s: http://www.iceculinary.com/recreational/index.shtml
    They usually focus on skills and the basics, so you learn the techniques that help you add more complicated stuff on your own. An all-day class is about $100, but it includes a big meal with wine and they always send you home with lots of leftovers. I’ve taken some great classes there.

  4. Jeff,
    What started as a way to save some money has turned into a real passion for me. However, the only rule to which I still abide is that baking and cooking have to fit into my schedule rather than vice versa. I highly recommend a great magazine Cuisine at Home. It’s practical and simple. My gold standard is a meal on the table in forty five min utes from the time I chop the first onion. This magazine keeps that in mind.
    While baking doesn’t really get the meals on the table, it certainly is a way to gain confidence in all aspects of the kitchen. Five years ago, I might have had one bag of flour in my pantry for a year. Now I’m baking about 10 loaves a week and loving it.
    Let me know if you need any pointers on stuff to keep around.
    Rich

  5. The Best Recipe Cookbook is terrific but given the post you might find it a touch intimidating?

    You might try Dad’s Own Cookbook. It’s sort of a basic cooking primer–lots of recipes for standard dishes, along with clear explanations of the cooking processes required.

    If that’s too basic for you, I’d suggest either The Silver Palate Cookbook or The Silver Palate New Basics.

    However, I also very much second the Peter Kumpf suggestion.

  8. I think cookbooks should be both useful in the steps for creation of good food, but also pleasing and fun to read. If the cookbook can’t sell you on the idea of trying new skills, or making good food, then it has no purpose.

    Therefore I recommend the following, as they are homey, fun, useful, and filled with good food.

    Start with The Essential Cook by Charles Delmar which does not contain recipes, but has incredibly useful information on the different tools available to use, how to shop for ingredients, cooking times and temperatures, how to quarter a chicken, dice an onion, and prepare and store certain foods and ingredients.

    Cooking A To Z by Jane Horn…..a review on-line hits the nail on the head as this was my VERY first recipe book…..There are gajillions of recipe books, but they generally assume a you’re working from a vast store of basic knowledge. One of the most useful purchases I’ve ever made in my life was a book called _Cooking A to Z_, edited by Jane Horn. It calls itself the complete culinary reference tool, and it’s not kidding. Even if you had someone sane teaching you how to cook as a kid, you can still learn all kinds of things you never knew you needed to know. That eggs are easier to separate when cold, but you want to beat whites at room temperature. Which kinds of fish you =don’t= want to buy when fresh. How to pick out the best cantaloupe. What went wrong with your fallen cake. How to choose the right wine and cheese combo. Oh, yes, and there are recipes, too. Lots of recipes, and color photos.

    Cold Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase…(you can do this!)….. More than 300 recipes range from bracing drinks for the first sign of autumn to glorious spring dishes for an Easter celebration. Warm Tomato Pie. Wild Rice, Mushroom, and Oyster Bisque. Pasta with Gorgonzola and Spinach. Plus Scallops in Sweet and Hot Lime Sauce, Deviled Beef Ribs, Broccoli with Toasted Hazelnuts and Pancetta, Sweet Potato Pancakes, Pumpkin Bread Pudding, Chestnut Mousse Cake, and Christmas Truffle Tart.

    Heritage of Southern Cooking by Camille Glenn…is perhaps my favorite cookbook as it evokes the warmth and of family and friends that are very much of the cooking and eating experience. My grandmother lived to be almost 100 year sold and as a child I recall her cooking on a cast iron stove, which was fueled by wood that was piled high in the yard. This book will pull you in with the tempting recipes…Country Jam Cake……..and so many more!

  10. Some cookbooks have recipes that don’t seem to have been tested. Everything at Martha Stewart’s website seems to have been tested a few times. Always great. Her EVERYDAY FOODS magazine has GREAT tips for new cooks, with pictures, menu ideas. You should at least pick one up and look at it in the grocery store.

  11. I’ve been making desserts using Martha Stewart’s Baking. Also, Better Housekeeping’s standard red-and-white-checkered-cover cookbook contains basic, American recipes. I find it useful for things like 3-bean salad or lemon meringue pie, although some are so middle-American that spices are absent.

  14. They talk about restaurants and stuff too, but I know that NYCnosh.com has a bunch of really great recipes on their site. I’ve made their latkes and polenta both.

  15. For awhile now i’ve been watching “America’s Test Kitchen” (PBS). The go through the most basic of steps for some of the most popular meals. They also review a number of the store-common brands for such items as canned tomatoes, pastas, etc.

    rob@egoz.org

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