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I could pick up a textbook on cooking, but I wouldn't get feedback on whether I was doing well, right? Are cooking classes a worthwhile thing to look for? My goal is to be able to cook a delicious dinner for my girlfriend every week, ASAP. I want to get to that point, but I'm afraid that even if I get a food thermometer, any meat I cook is going to be either overcooked or dangerously undercooked, since I'm not sure how to know I'm correctly.putting the thermometer in the right place or if I'm missing something other subtle aspect of measuring temperature. And that's only the first thing I could think of. I'm sure there will be more.
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Mar 3, 2018 19:46
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Undercooking food is less of a worry than societal terror makes it out to be. Overcooking food happens. That's how you learn to cook. I used Fresh20 (it's a meal planning service) for years. I was a decent cook before that, but after doing made from scratch meals picked by somebody else for 4 years I had a lot more confidence and diversity.
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Mar 3, 2018 20:00
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FYI, there's a whole SA forum devoted to cooking: Goons with Spoons. Also, a lot of beginner cookbooks have tons of pictures to help you avoid doing things wrong. I don't know which ones are better than others, but How to Boil Water seems acceptable.
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Mar 3, 2018 20:02
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oliveoil posted:I could pick up a textbook on cooking, but I wouldn't get feedback on whether I was doing well, right? Are cooking classes a worthwhile thing to look for? This is the cookbook I started with when I moved out for university: https://www.amazon.ca/Jamies-Food-R...L40_&dpSrc=srch Really, don't worry about it too much. Baking is a pain in the rear end where precision is required or things gently caress up badly. Most cooking, however, is pretty resilient to poor technique or fuckups, and you'll get better as you practice. You'll eventually be able to cook most things by time and feel to the proper doneness, but until then just use a thermometer. There are tricks to get the most precise reading, but don't worry if things are a little bit under or overcooked -- it's not nearly as big a deal as people make it out to be, and most cases of food poisoning are caused by bad storage temperatures or cross-contamination (using tools/surfaces on raw meat, and then again on the stuff you're about to serve). The only other advice I'd give is make sure you read a recipe thoroughly. Make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment, and get them as close to ready as possible before you start actually the cooking part. The reason cooking shows look so easy is because they have all the ingredients chopped, measured, mixed, etc. before cooking. You can do that too, you just have to do all the preparation yourself.
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Mar 3, 2018 20:42
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Subscribe to one of those meal services like Blue Apron. If you can read a page of directions, you can have a delicious meal, and learn how basic ingredients are used. This works great if your situation is such that you and your GF want to cook together in the kitchen. The whole recipe, portions, directions are laid out for you; its really easy, tastes good, and you get to learn. Keep the recipe cards in a binder next to any cookbooks you accumulate. Flag certain recipes like sauces, side dishes, etc that you'd like to come back to.
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Mar 3, 2018 22:34
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Cooks illustrated has a yearly sub for about $50 and has a ton of recipes and a PBS show you can stream from their website. They spend a lot of time explaining the science of what you're doing and why it works. Also I would recommend trying the same dish multiple times. Not back to back but pick 5 or 10 recipes that look good and then rotate back to the beginning. Buy a good chefs knife. Victornox makes a good one for about $60. Watch some YouTube videos on how to use it and how to hone it. Dull knives suck so bad.
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Mar 4, 2018 02:38
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Go to allrecipes.com or seriouseats.com and search for vague terms of dishes you like (eg. "spaghetti bolognese" or "pork chops with gravy"), find a popular one with simple ingredients and not too many steps (this will be most of them). If you can't think of anything specific, just browse around. If there are any techniques you're unfamiliar with (chopping an onion, de-boning meat, etc) there's guaranteed to be at least one well-made youtube video about it. There's also a huge number of delicious dishes that are literally "take food, chop into bits, dump bits into cookware with sauce, add heat and wait." Don't worry so much about undercooking meat, just use the meat thermometer and test in the thickest part of the meat. Cross-contamination is the real concern, just make sure to wash anything that came into contact with raw meat (including your hands) in hot, soapy water before using it for something else like chopping vegetables or stirring. I'd avoid running out and buying a ton of equipment until you start to learn how you like to cook and what tools would make it easier, but yeah a good chef's knife, cutting board, assorted pots+pans and a good mixing bowl are essentials. I use this knife, and it's p. nice: http://a.co/2vWKLPP source: I never made anything more complicated than scrambled eggs before moving out, and have made decent to good food for the work week almost every single week since then. Either cooking is way easier than it looks or I'm some kind of culinary savant (it's the first one). Here's a starter recipe with 4 ingredients and 3 steps, one of which is pressing a button on your oven: 
redgubbinz fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Mar 4, 2018 |
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Mar 4, 2018 03:21
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Youtube has a massive amount of cooking videos. Once you have your mind set on a recipe or a technique you'd like to try, you can easily find a video of someone doing it. Edit: one more thing, sorry if this comes off as patronizing, but it's just something I've seen way too many times. You probably won't feel very confident serving food you've made for the first time, but keep that to yourself. Present it nicely, and let them form their own opinions about how good or bad it is. If you absolutely have to share funny anecdotes about how bad you hosed up while preparing the meal, save them until everyone's done eating. There's nothing that ruins an appetite quite like the cook saying they're not sure if the food's any good. StoryTime fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Mar 4, 2018 |
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Mar 4, 2018 11:05
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Also check out the Goons With Spoons subforum on here.
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Mar 4, 2018 13:57
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StoryTime posted:You probably won't feel very confident serving food you've made for the first time
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Mar 4, 2018 18:38
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Start cooking pasta dishes with simple sauces, move onto stews/hotpots, then cook standalone meats with separate sides, then follow your dreams. Literally never used a meat thermometer in my life btw and I'm a pretty good cook. It's basically for big roasts and that's it, and even then, just follow basic instructions as to weight/temperature/time to cook. Most cooking is easy, however to cook amazing/impressive dinners usually requires a significant outlay of time because it requires so many different steps. Being a great amateur cook is usually just having a good sense of flavour (tasting as you go!), understanding what ingredients work together and knowing a few tiny tips and tricks rather than any earth-shattering skill set. Although if you're starting from literally square one, it'll probably take a little while to get your head around all the basics.
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Mar 4, 2018 19:06
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Cooking 101: Stand facing the stove.
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Mar 4, 2018 20:09
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The best way to learn to cook is by doing it. Grab some recipes that look good and learn to follow them. When you start thinking "I'd like this more if..." that's when you start nudging them in various directions. You'll get a feel for cooking the more you do it. Also not everything has to be a nine course meal with eighty seven ingredients. Stuff like stir fry is balls easy to do and very good. Another thing worth mentioning is that most peoples' tastes are actually pretty similar. You can get a surprising amount of feedback from yourself. You know, cook something for just yourself, eat it, then ask "how was this good or bad?" I'm also going to recommend being honest with the GF; be all "I want to learn to cook for you but I'm not that good yet!" Unless she's a shithead she'll appreciate the effort and honesty.
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Mar 4, 2018 20:54
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Crock pot or instant pot. Can't go wrong unless you don't add enough water; you'll never overcook anything. Soups, roasts, rice, etc. It's a little self contained unit of lazy-cook.
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Mar 5, 2018 00:22
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Pro-tips: 1. Allow plenty of time. Cooking anything takes a gently caress ton of time. Instructions often say "20 mins", gently caress off, usually its 2x-3x of that time if you include all the setup, then prep and post-cooking serving plus cleanup. A single "20 min" meal can mean 2 hours of actual kitchen time. This is extremely difficult if you're not getting off of work until 6pm, commute an hour and then by the time you're in the door you're completely exhausted. If you need to practice cooking do it on a weekend when you have enough time to cook a proper meal. 2. Never ever loving cook while you are hungry. Never shop for food while hungry either. You're brain is going to think "ok this cooked long enough - i just want to loving eat now" or "extra seasoning/salt is a great idea, more flavor cant hurt"!, when in fact you are likely loving up your food. What you want to do is eat a small snack just prior to starting cooking so you're not tempted to eat raw ingredients or during the process of cooking the actual meal. 3. Never substitute poo poo unless you are a pro god-tier chefmans. This is a one-way ticket to poo poo tasting food if you don't know what you're doing, follow the recipe properly else cook something you have all the ingredients for. 4. Taste (not eat) as needed during the cooking process. Just don't taste raw uncooked stuff (like chicken, shellfish..etc). This tip mostly applies to sauces and soups so you can season it properly as it simmers. 5. Have a backup plan in case what you cook is terrible. Don't be afraid to throw away food or remember what your mom used to say about "starving kids in africa"...etc. Eating badly cooked food can gently caress your gut up, especially if its undercooked chicken! Just throw that poo poo away and grab a pizza. 6. Cooking for "one" is god drat nigh impossible. If you're going to go through the hassle make sure you're cooking for 4+ people. Most recipes make ALOT of loving food and unless you're going to be eating the same 12 servings of spaghetti all week (gently caress that), you better drat well have someone to not only help you eat it all and cleanup/chip in for the ingredients, but also provide you with actual real human feedback if what you cooked is hot garbage or amazeballs. Slayerjerman fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Mar 5, 2018 |
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Mar 5, 2018 07:48
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I was scared of undercooking food too so I started with things that are impossible to undercook to start getting a feeling for it. So lots of vegetable stirfrys and meals based on ground meat. I mostly made pastas, soups, and curries with that and then moved up to chopped up meats of various kinds. Afterwards it’s on your way to big slices of stuff!
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Mar 5, 2018 09:44
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Stir frys are an awesome place to start. They taste great, it takes about 10 minutes to cook, they're basically impossible to gently caress up, they're good for you, and they're cheap. Get a slow cooker, some cheap cuts of meat, find a recipe, throw everything in it in the morning, enjoy an awesome tender stew/soup/curry for dinner. Slow cookers are absolutely amazing for zero effort tasty meals. Pasta dishes like bolognese are easy too, and no need to worry about undercooking anything.
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Mar 5, 2018 10:19
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Most important thing about cooking food- don’t stress it. So you gently caress up? Nobody died, order a take away and have a boring anecdote about when you tried to cook. Cooking food is the same as any other activity- it gets easier with practice.
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Mar 5, 2018 11:30
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Cooking classes are pretty good IMO, I did one in Thailand and it owned. If you have no clue whatsoever I'd practice a bit at home first. But if you really want results ASAP, actual training is probably a good idea. A good starting point might be learning about some typical techniques so that when the recipe tells you to saute the vegetables and reduce the stock you know what the gently caress it's talking about. Even picking up some knife skills helps you along the way by making cooking less dangerous and time consuming. Check this out for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV8FPk5qN9k Then just pick some recipes you like and go nuts. There's plenty of stuff that's fairly easy to make and difficult to gently caress up if you follow the recipe. SeriousEats is a great source. I like watching some cooking shows occasionally too to pick up techniques and ideas, Ramsay in particular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8netrASUPU
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Mar 5, 2018 19:59
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Slayerjerman posted:1. Allow plenty of time. Cooking anything takes a gently caress ton of time. Instructions often say "20 mins", gently caress off, usually its 2x-3x of that time if you include all the setup, then prep and post-cooking serving plus cleanup. A single "20 min" meal can mean 2 hours of actual kitchen time. This is extremely difficult if you're not getting off of work until 6pm, commute an hour and then by the time you're in the door you're completely exhausted. If you need to practice cooking do it on a weekend when you have enough time to cook a proper meal. Start with foods you like and learn to make them yourself. Like tacos or fajitas? both super easy once you've done them a few times, and if you're afraid to screw it up the first time you can buy a kit at the store so that you have all the ingredients. Like steak? pick a cut, decide whether you're going to grill it, fry it in a pan, or broil it, look up the cooking time to get it medium rare (gives you leeway so it's still OK if you overcook or undercook it,) add salt and pepper, and you're done. Something classic like spaghetti and meatballs is easy, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make pasta (please salt the water, it's not optional,) and decide whether you want to do homemade meatballs or sauce. As everyone else said, check GWS and don't be afraid to ask questions and admit you're new to it. As far as knowing whether it's good or not, you want to cook for your girlfriend and yourself, so let her know that's the plan and ask for her feedback. She's going to be thrilled that you want to learn to do something nice for you and be supportive. Start experimenting, have fun, don't cook bacon naked, and don't be afraid to screw up while you learn.
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Mar 6, 2018 04:11
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Slayerjerman posted:2. Never ever loving cook while you are hungry. Never shop for food while hungry either. You're brain is going to think "ok this cooked long enough - i just want to loving eat now" or "extra seasoning/salt is a great idea, more flavor cant hurt"!, when in fact you are likely loving up your food. What you want to do is eat a small snack just prior to starting cooking so you're not tempted to eat raw ingredients or during the process of cooking the actual meal. Counterpoint: always cook when hungry. Food inspiration always strikes the hardest when you're hungry. "What if I put this in instead of that??" And food always, always, always tastes better when you're hungry. Unless it's something that needs to cook for like an hour or longer, in which case being hungry ends up just getting more frustrating than anything else so just go ahead and help yourself to some crackers or something. Also eating the raw ingredients as you cut them is the most fun part of cutting them in the first place. There's nothing like chomping down on half a carrot while you dice the other half for your soup or whatever. Long as you have the self discipline to stop before you fill up on them, and hey even if you do fill up that just means you'll have more leftovers from the finished meal for lunch then next day.
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Mar 6, 2018 09:10
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Slayerjerman posted:Pro-tips: Going to qualify this. (1) I have a set of recipes that take from anywhere between 0 minutes to 1.5 hours to make. For example, suppose I want to make a bowl of Udon - it takes 20 minutes since I have mastered making the soup, cooking the udon, cooking the protein, and cooking the vegetables all around the same time such that when the udon is ready after 15 minutes all I need to do is plate everything. Standard garlic vegetable stir fried takes 10 minutes, and that is one of 2-3 dishes that is required to go well with rice. (3) I substitute all of the time. It's important to know which sets of things work and do not work. For example: Any choy, Chinese/Japanese broccolli, and many mountain Japanese vegetables can all be simmered, stir fried, or be paired with sesame in the same way. Most mushrooms can be used in takekomi rice (mixed rice with mushrooms in vegetables), along with every root vegetable that isn't radish based. You just have to know which set of things are actually similar to other sets of things. I substitute X fish instead of Y fish in miso soup. Do not substitute spices, unless it's very basic/obvious. (6) I cook for one a lot. It's a skill to learn.
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Mar 6, 2018 20:12
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Cooking for one is easier if you get 80% of your daily calories from a single meal.
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Mar 7, 2018 00:50
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ntan1 posted:Going to qualify this. This is a thread about an absolute novice. You can do these things because you know how to cook, unlike the OP, who is not ready to be substituting poo poo just yet, or cooking for one, or popping out dinner in 10 minutes on a weeknight.
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Mar 7, 2018 00:57
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Cook a lot and watch all of Good Eats.
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Mar 7, 2018 01:15
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oliveoil posted:My goal is to be able to cook a delicious dinner for my girlfriend every week, ASAP. I want to get to that point, but I'm afraid that even if I get a food thermometer, any meat I cook is going to be either overcooked or dangerously undercooked, since I'm not sure how to know I'm correctly.putting the thermometer in the right place or if I'm missing something other subtle aspect of measuring temperature. It's not science. One person may eat their meat rare, while another likes it well-done. One person may want pasta al dente, while the next likes it overcooked and soft. One person likes their scrambled eggs hard, another runny and fluffy. Temperatures and times are more relevant for baking than for general cooking, which is so heavily influenced by personal preference. Really, the first step is figuring out what kind of cooking you want to do. Different cultures use very different techniques, tools, and spices. If you are cooking for yourself and your girlfriend, what sorts of foods do you want to learn how to make? Are there any unusual restrictions, like vegan or gluten-free? Are there specific styles of food that you both prefer?
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Mar 7, 2018 01:48
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Buy “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman. It’s the first cookbook you need, definitely not the last, but something that covers 99% of the basics. It suggest pairings of one dish in the book and others, covers novice techniques very well, and is just a really good jumping off point. What kitchen gear do you have?
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Mar 7, 2018 02:23
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Click the "subscribe and save" button for Soylent on Amazon and find a new girlfriend, OP
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Mar 7, 2018 23:54
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The Moon Monster posted:Cooking for one is easier if you get 80% of your daily calories from a single meal. The other thing is that it's easier if you don't mind eating the same thing repeatedly. I tend to make big pots of soup and just eat at it until it's gone. Sometimes just the soup; other times like the soup and a sandwich or something. Really a pot of soup in the refrigerator can be nice, especially on those "I don't feel like cooking at all" days.
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Mar 8, 2018 01:07
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Buy a copy of the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook (ca. 1980). It is the best cookbook. It basically starts from the assumption that you have never been in a kitchen before, and if you live in a cheap rear end apartment like me all your appliances will also be from the 1980s so it's perfect.
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Mar 8, 2018 04:55
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I wonder if the fastest way to learn to cook is to be abducted into a competition where you must cook to survive in successive cooking challenges where the weakest contestant is executed, and then possibly cooked. Or cooked as a method of execution. Either or, really.
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Mar 8, 2018 15:50
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I don't really get the hate for cooking for 1. Unless you're making a giant pot of something a lot of recipes are going to give you maybe 4 or 5 servings, which is a perfect amount of leftovers if you don't feel like cooking every day. And if you are going to make a giant pot of something, just make it something delicious. Anyone who won't eat jambalaya for lunch and dinner 6 days in a row is a loving retard.
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Mar 8, 2018 18:53
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Straight White Shark posted:I don't really get the hate for cooking for 1. Unless you're making a giant pot of something a lot of recipes are going to give you maybe 4 or 5 servings, which is a perfect amount of leftovers if you don't feel like cooking every day. twodot fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Mar 8, 2018 |
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Mar 8, 2018 19:44
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If you don't want to eat the same thing for 4-5 days in a row maybe make less of it? I really don't get the issue. If you're cooking for one, cook less.
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Mar 8, 2018 20:21
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Elukka posted:If you don't want to eat the same thing for 4-5 days in a row maybe make less of it? I really don't get the issue. If you're cooking for one, cook less.
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Mar 8, 2018 20:31
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Cooking for one is actually much better because when you gently caress it up you can just sprinkle cheese on the top and eat it anyways and there is no one to judge you.
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Mar 9, 2018 00:20
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Elukka posted:If you don't want to eat the same thing for 4-5 days in a row maybe make less of it? I really don't get the issue. If you're cooking for one, cook less. See, part of knowing how to cook is knowing your audience. If you're only cooking for yourself and you know the number of times you're willing to repeat then you don't cook things that are only huge or alternately cook such a thing only when you have friends over. If you find something you don't mind eating 12 times in a week or really are fine with eating the same thing 50 meals in a row but are too lazy to cook often then you do make the huge thing.
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Mar 9, 2018 01:32
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When I started it was with stir fries first, usually made with ready cooked prawns and whatever vegetables I liked the most. Gradually I started making sauces and trying out things and went from you. Try making chilli or spaghetti bolognese without using a recipe. These are easy to make and good to experiment on. They consist of four basic ingredients - mince, onions, garlic and canned chopped tomatoes. For the chilli add chilli peppers and spice to your taste, while with the bolognese season to your taste and add a beef stock or a half a bottle of red wine (drink the rest while cooking  ). Good additions to chilli are chopped chorizo for extra meat, while olives work great with spaghetti. Seasons should be a teaspoon or two of thyme, basil, oregano or parsley. You can play about with the seasons and get different tasty results that very rarely can go wrong.quote:If you don't want to eat the same thing for 4-5 days in a row maybe make less of it? I really don't get the issue. If you're cooking for one, cook less. If you don't want to eat the same thing several days in a row then don't. Freeze it. Buy lots of tubberware boxes, wait for your food to cool down after dinner and stick it in tubberware. You can then either store it in the fridge and have it up to 2 nights, or you can stick it in the freezer and store it for up to 6 months. That way you can continue to cook the serves 4 dishes without having to try reduce down. It's better and more cost efficient to buy bulk and store things than to try buy ingredients over and over every day. Communist Bear fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Mar 9, 2018 |
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Mar 9, 2018 13:13
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Cooking a ton of the same stuff at once is a good idea to save time/money, I do it all the time by e.g. grilling a ton of chicken for my lunches. What it's not so great for is developing your cooking skills quickly, I definitely feel like I'm not improving nearly as well as I could be because I cook only a few times per week instead of every day.
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Mar 12, 2018 12:09
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Buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Living-Home-Cooking-Basics/dp/0848735153 It's not recipes, or not many, but is 100% full page full color photos of all the kitchen tools, what they do, why you need them, and how to slice each vegetable. The very best thing for a ground zero noob like the OP, and also cheap.
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Mar 19, 2018 01:24
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