Just recipes, no Javashit, no trackers, loads instantly.
Holy shit. This website is great. Thanks.
Does something similar exist in metric? It’s a chore to translate every item.
The search field uses javascript
But not Javashit :p
Can you follow directions? Congratulations, you can cook! It’s really not that difficult, cooking is just simple chemistry.
When I was young my mum bought me a cookbook and once a week, usually Sundays, we would make a recipe or two that were in it. Sometimes full meals, sometimes just desserts, etc. You’ll learn by doing, so get yourself a cookbook or find a cooking show to watch if you’re a more visual learner. Just put yourself out there and try. I believe in you.
Lots of people are recommending YouTube for learning recipes. That’s great advice, but carefully vet what channels you view. Lot’s of creators are interested in views, not education. Those recipes often gloss over important steps or are altogether fake. Avoid big personalities who make gimmicky dishes with exotic ingredients.
I can recommend Chef John, Kenji Lopez-Alt, Ethan Chlebowski, and Helen Rennie.
Don’t forget the godfather of educational cooking shows - Alton Brown
Brian Lagerstrom is great too. I combined parts of his and chef John’s chili technique to win a local chili cook off!
if you’re looking to get into BBQ, then Chef Tom from All Things BBQ (atbbq) and Bradly Robinson (Chudds BBQ) are some of the finest BBQ tutorials on youtube.
I second chef John. I love Kenji too, but his videos are not polished enough to be good for beginners. John provides all the detail you need in an easy to follow fashion which is great for beginners. His channel is called Food wishes for anyone looking for him since chef John might be too vague.
Not familiar with the others but if they’re mentioned in the same breath as them then I’ll definitely want to check them out!
YouTube
Instagram also a great source for good food with simple recipes.
In addition to what others have said already: make peace with the fact that you WILL make mistakes, that the first few tries WILL look weird and that you WILL forget an allegedly important step. This is just part of the learning courve and happened to literally everyone who ever learned to make meals in the history of cooking, so do not compare the first ever flattened sushi roll you made with something a master chef with 30+ years of experience is able to do or the heavily photoshopped pictures on food blogs.
You will learn from those mistakes, and you will gain more experience over time. Small progress is still progress.
Also, it can help to only make PART of a recipe yourself when you’re still a bit unsure how all of it works, like for example buying premade pizza dough and only add the sauce and toppings yourself, or buying premade pie dough and only make the filling. One step at a time.
Didn’t bother learning to cook until my mid 20s. You will be a disaster chef before your a master chef but sick with it and always have cereal on standby!
Start out with the basics: if you like pasta, try a basic tomato sauce recipe. If you like eggs, try an omelette with some veg. Figure out what you like and use that to keep you interested and growing your skills.
You will learn as you go on how to prepare/cut up different vegetables. YouTube is a great resource.
The more you do, the more confident you will become. Watching YouTube videos on cooking is no substitute for time in the kitchen cooking though!
You will cremate food, undercook food, over season, under season, ruin pans, smash dishes, have food weld itself into oven trays, laugh, and cry - and you’ll be all the better cook for it.
Good luck!
have cereal on standby!
And the number of a reliable pizza joint. You get tired of cereal.
Have three different cereals in the pantry. Variety is the spice of life.
I started with one recipe: split pea soup. I got this recipe from a coworker, followed the instructions exactly and started with a success. This made me want to try other things, and I got turned onto Good Eats with Alton Brown, easily the most entertaining and informative cooking show.
Then I just started collecting and trying recipes. I eventually got enough experience to try modifying recipes and toying around with ideas.
Especially at the start, recipes are your friend. Try a broad array of them, follow them exactly, and get the experience. Also, use tools. Yes, people can punch a steak to see if it’s about done, but that will never beat a thermometer.
If you’re into baking, avoid recipes that don’t use weight as a measure of ingredients. Those recipes get different results every time.
These are the best tips I have for starting out. As you get experience, discard the ones that no longer apply.
You start by learning how to pour cereal
keep a fire extinguisher handy though
Everyone has overcooked their fruit loops at least once, it’s a rite of passage
No matter how you learn, remember that you will mess up a lot and don’t let that discourage you. Just try to learn from it and remember it for next time.
I learned from trial and error, asking for help from those who could, and cooking shows. Specifically good eats with Alton brown, he explains the science behind different aspects of cooking and it helps you to understand the *why * of each step instead of just doing what you’re told.
Meal kit delivery services are awesome, in my opinion. They send you the ingredients for like 3 meals every week. For me personally, the worst part about trying to cook was always looking at a cookbook and realizing you don’t have all the ingredients. So this takes the shopping out of the equation, which just makes it super simple. I’ve talked to a few people that don’t like them, so they’re not for everyone.
of the websites that I used to learn how to cook some fifteen, twenty years ago, serious eats is still pretty reliable. I like their articles - they tell you why food cooks the way it does. I learned to cook on a basic red pasta sauce what’s been going around the family for generations so I’d recommend looking at their italian and starting there.
Start simple. Like pasta. You boil water, add pasta, set a timer, stir. Drain the water when the timer goes off, but taste it first to make sure. Boom. You cooked pasta.
Beyond that, I would say that you have to make sure you read the recipe to completion, at least once, before you start cooking. Don’t have the recipe ready, and start cooking without having read the whole thing.
Then break it down. Get all your prep work done before you turn on the heat. Have stations for different processes, and have any utensils & bowls you’re going to need, during cooking, ready to go.
Have all the things you’re adding on the side of your weak arm, while your dominant arm stirs, and have all the things lined up in order, so you don’t have to think beyond “grab closest thing & dump.”
Get as much of the thinking done before you turn on the heat, and have everything ready to go, lined up, and sorted out. Then you’ll be able to fully focus on the cooking, not getting things ready at the last minute.
Youtube.
Start with the suoer basics. Such as: how to boil rice, how to boil pasta, or something like that.
Boiling is the simplest. With pasta you can grab a bit and just taste it. If its still solid on the inside, its not done yet.
But read the instructions on the package. Its usually pretty accurate.
When youve nailed one you move on to make something else. Like… frying an egg etc
Remember when cooking… you almost NEVER turn the heat all the way up.
My stove only goes up to 3. So i keep it around 1.5 or 2. If i set it to 3, the food will get burnt on the outside but still raw on the inside. (This is ok for steaks but not much else)
Practice! Dont give up. Just because you screwed up cooking some chicken once, soesnt mean you cant learn it. Consider what went wrong, try to prevent that from happening again.
When things are just boiling or slowly frying, instead of staring into the wall or your phone, clean up stuff. This makes it more managable. A dirty kitchen is not a good idea.
Also when it comes to salt… too much salt means you cant eat it. Too little salt? Just add more. So, when in doubt, add little to no salt. You can always taste it, then add more.
With pasta you can grab a bit and just taste it. If its still solid on the inside, its not done yet.
/Just over the hill many Italian people flail their arms wildly after hearing this.
Pasta should have just a little bite, just a little hardness on the inside, to be the perfect al dente. And if you’re cooking it again (eg a pasta bake) then you should boil it even less or not at all (I don’t know of anyone who boils lasagne sheets).
But at the end of the day most of what you do with food won’t ruin it completely, and much of it comes down to personal preference. The secret is to taste everything (except raw meat, of course) - if you’re adding something, taste or smell the dish then taste/smell the thing you’re adding to help guess how much you should add, then taste again after adding and stirring. If you cook food to your own taste then you’ll pretty much always enjoy it.
Used to watch julia child back in my day but with so many home chefs and professionals uploading videos to social media or youtube, just doing a simple search is honestly the best way to start now. If you dont feel confortable start off with something small, like the numerous ways to cook eggs, to get some practice.
