Help Me Learn To Cook!

Cafe Society
1

Okay.

At the ripe old age of 27, I figure it’s about time I learned how to make more than grilled cheese sandwiches and Bisquick pancakes.

I bartend, so I keep odd hours, and Mr. Levins and I have no children, so we pretty much live on takeout and convenience foods, with Mr. Levins providing the occasional home-cooked chicken breast dinner or simple pasta dish. I’ve never had much interest in cooking myself.

But I’m tired of the boring nature and expense of convenience and restaurant foods, and we just moved into a new apartment with a relatively comfy and large kitchen, and I just spent the last three hours poring over my copy of the Southern Living Cookbook. I found it both intriguing and inspiring. (And now I’m really hungry, dammit!)

I have very little in the way of kitchen/cooking gadgets. And only one cookbook. (Albeit a fine one.)

So what I want to know is…what should I buy? What do I NEED to have, and what would just be cool and helpful but not strictly necessary? Are there any gadgets that are a must? Exceptionally cool cheese graters or something? How important is a stationary mixer vs. a hand-held mixer, for instance? (I have the latter but not the former.)

And should I buy glass or metal baking pans and dishes? Does it make a difference?

Nonstick coated or plain metal skillets, pans, pots, etc? And how do you “season” a new iron skillet? And what about wooden cutting boards? Don’t you have to oil them or something…? Or should I just buy plastic?

AND WHAT ON EARTH IS A DUTCH OVEN?

You see I’m starting with a large level of ignorance. But I’m willing to learn!

Any other handy hints/clues/words of wisdom would also be appreciated. As would a simple “beginner” recipe if you have one that you’d like to share. (No baked Alaska, people.)

Help!

2

I recently taught my friend Equipoise how to cook, long distance, mostly via IM. I’ll ask her to come in and share what was most valuable.

3

Actually, my first most basic recommendation is to get a copy of The Joy of Cooking. It’s the most basic, fundamental cookbook out there. You could give a copy to a nutrionist from Venus and they would know almost everything they need to know about how and what humans eat. Each recipe section starts with a basic overview about that kind of food; history, uses, techniques, etc. An amazingly necessary book. (Try to find an old edition; it’s so regularly and so violently updated that the recent editions have very little in common with older editions. My favorite is from the late 70s; my mom’s from the 50s is an utterly different book, and the more recent ones are not as exhaustive, IMHO.

4

The best advice I can give is start cooking. Theres no list of things you should have. Simply pick a recipe in your cook book and make it. Go over the recipe and figure out what ingredients and what utensils you will need. Over the course of time you will slowly build your collection of spices and cooking items. Whe it comes to pots and pans I suggest non-stick and cheap. You will more than likely ruin a few. The opposite for a knife however, buy something well made and sharp. I suggest a Global chefs nife 9". As far as baking…Im terrible at it, but I do prefer glass. Oh, a dutch oven is this The best dutch ovens

5

Well, subscribe to Cooks Illustrated. A nice magazine with recipes for beginners and experts each month. It talks about what to buy, what gadgets work, which don’t, stuff like that. Plus there is an advantage of a magazine that gives you a little prod to get in the kitchen every so often.

If you a book person, perhaps you would like the massive Oxford Companion to Food. No recipes, but an amazing book. If you ever need to know what Penguin tastes like, this is the only book to go to.

6

This list is neither extensive nor absolutely essential, but just some of my personal preferences. You don’t have to spend a load of cash on it all at once; a lot of these things can be had relatively inexpensively.

A good, sharp, non-serrated chef’s knife. I prefer a 9". You don’t have to splurge and buy a Henckel’s right away since you’re just starting out, but do look for a good riveted handle and a shank-through construction. You will want a nice sharp non-serrated paring knife as well. I cook plenty fine with not much more than that (though I dream of a future filled with fine cutlery for every occasion). Also, a honing steel.

Ideally you should use a plastic cutting board for meats and a wooden or seperate board for everything else, to prevent cross-contamination.

Pots: some things are better than others for different things. Get a large cast iron skillet (great for steaks, fried potatoes, lots of things), a medium, broad mouthed stainless sauce pan (stainless tends to be sticky, this is good for establishing plenty of carmelized yummy bits, known as fond for sauces), and a non-stick omelette pan.

When you’re looking for pans, try to get something with a sturdy riveted handle, if it isn’t cast already into the construction (as in cast iron and enamelware). And I like to be able to move things from the oven to the stove and back if need be, so no plastics or anything funky. Oh and a dutch oven. If it’s just the two of you and you don’t plan on entertaining, a small one is probably fine. Stock pot is optional but I find I can’t live without mine.

You can get by just fine without a stand mixer or a food processor (though I love my Cuisinart). A stick blender is great for pureeing soups.

Cheesegrater: Box type are optimal.

Buy “Joy of Cooking” and catch Julia Childs if you’ve got the PBS. If you have Food Network, watch Good Eats. If you’re up late enough, catch Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class, too. All cover topics one thing at a time and give you a good foundation.

Expect to make mistakes. I’ve been cooking more or less since I was a kid and I still get colossal fuckups. Like all mistakes, they’re not so bad as long as you learn from them.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! Cooking should never be a chore.

7

oOOoo cooks illustrated. com webpage, i have a subscription so i have access to the whole run of the magazine…i can browse it for HOURS :smiley: and it isabout the same cost as a paper subscription but I can search all teh recipes, all teh hints, all teh comparisons on kitchen equipment …

8

www.soyouwanna.com is a very handy site with instructions on the basics of lots of different activities. There are some good pieces under Food & Drink including Soyouwanna stock your kitchen .

9

I agree with the recommendation to buy Cook’s Illustrated. It’s filled will well-tested recipes for more or less common but yummy things. They also have many cookbooks out, and as someone pointed out, a website.

I have Joy of Cooking, and although I occasionally use it for reference, it would be far from the first book I’d buy. The recipes are dull and many are out-dated. As a reference, though, it’s pretty good.

I’ve heard really good things about Mark Bittman’s “How to cook everything.” You might want to check that out.

A dutch oven is just a big covered pot that can be put in the oven. It’s usually pretty heavy, too. It’s used to do things like cook roasts or braise meats. Mine doubles as a soup pot.

Essential gear starts with a good 8" or 10" chef’s knife. I can’t stress how important this is. You can fudge other things, but a good knife is worth it’s weight in gold. If you can afford it, get a Henkel’s or a Wusthoff; it will last you a lifetime. If you can’t (they run ~$80-$100), go to your local cooking store and ask what will work for a bit cheaper. I know there’s places out there that make them.

Next in line is a good heavy frying pan, at least 10", and not non-stick (one nonstick is nice to have around, too, for cooking eggs, but you can’t get a good crust on meat with nonstick). Cast iron is good & cheap. Target carries some steel pans that are good, too. At the high end of the spectrum are pans like All-Clad. Pricy, but once again will last you forever. I don’t know what your budget is, but I do know you can get an adequate pan in any price range. They just get more adequate as you go up. :smiley:

Cutting boards: I like plastic, because I can throw them in the dishwasher. I have one wooden one I pull out to put on the table with bread when I have company. Other than that, it’s plastic all the way for me.

Mixers: a stand mixer is a wonderful thing if you can afford it. You can get along with a hand-held for most things, though. And unless you plan on doing a lot of baking, a stand mixer is overkill.

Recipes: What do you want to cook? What do you like to eat? Give us some ideas and I’m sure the recipes will come pouring in.

10

Cooks Illustrated really is a good resource; they cook every recipe dozens upon dozens of times and then report what works best. A caveat, though: I tend to read through the entire report (instead of going directly to the recipe) and can get bogged down. I know some people around here find their recipes to be more bland than they like. I haven’t - I’ve liked what I’ve made from them, but then again, I haven’t made much (get bogged down reading, you see).

That said, I really wish they’d publish more than 6 times a year - I just can’t justify the cost of a subscription; and other than the SDMB, I won’t pay for access to a website. However, they have promotions all the time - you should be able to pick up a copy of the magazine for free.

They have a sister publication, Cooks Country (I think that’s the name) that I recently got an issue of, and I really like it - it seems to be geared more towards the casual or the learning cook than Cooks Illustrated, so definitely give it a try. Again, you should be able to get a copy for free.

Other than that, watch some cooking shows. Alton Brown is a food god with tons of great knowledge and excellent tips, tho’ he’s quirky and isn’t to everyone’s taste. I also like Rachel Ray, tho’ there’s a number who find her annoying. Her recipes aren’t hard (her schtick is that you can prepare them in 30 minutes or less, which is true for her. The rest of us take a little longer.), they’re pretty tasty, and they take advantage of a lot of packaged or pre-prepared things that save you time and frustration. They’re also simple - there’s not a lot of new techniques to master or exotic ingredients to locate. If you can’t stand her show, she’s got a number of cookbooks out, and I find them easy to navigate and read. Both of these cooks have shows on the Food Network.

Do you have any sort of On Demand programming (it’s a feature of digital cable; at least in my neck of the woods, anyway) - sometimes they have short little cooking features that you can watch whenever you want. Before I got rid of my digital cable, I wish I would’ve taken advantage of these more often.

11

Buy this cookbook IMMEDIATELY. It is the greatest cookbook in the history of the universe. I [heart] it.

And it gives a list of 11 gadgets and 17 ingredients that every well-stocked kitchen should have.

12

We got my brother, a freshman college student the following book:

Help! My Apartment has a Kitchen

I wanted to keep it for myself.

He’s out on his own for the first time, and found that cooking for himself is much cheaper than trying to find cheap takeout.

Though, you also have the internet, recipies abound, as do great instructions. Search for the recent Lasagna threads. Cooking isn’t tough, start with something simple, and work your way up!

Marinade some steak tips, and server over salad. Or use chicken, or shrimp!

Brown some meat, sautee some onions, stir in a packet of taco seasoning and do the same!

Use that same combination to make tacos, roll them up into burittos (<gurgle> fry the burittos to make Chimichangas!!! </gurgle>)

Roast a chicken (Cover with spices/salt/pepper, toss a few chopped up potatoes and some veggies in the pan, and cook at 350F for about 20min/LB)

If you mess it up, try to figure out what went wrong, and try again another time! And then have a good laugh, as you make attempt #2 at dinner.

13

I’m terrible at remembering things like “how long do I bake this potato” and “how do I make pan gravy…” so Joy of Cooking is wonderful for that.

Other than that, I mostly experiment. I also ask for advice here. I learned how to make both chicken piccata and fettucini alfredo here.

14

You don’t need a stand mixer unless you plan on baking a lot. A hand mixer is fine.

My best advice is to identify what you, personally, like to eat, and then look for recipes. My husband and I work irregular hours, and I weigh heavily in on the large-pot-of-soup or chili or stew type of cooking. Neither of us has a problem with eating the same thing a couple of days in a row.

For cookbooks, I suggest Appetite and Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater. You can find them used on Amazon. Slater is an excellent, fun writer who provides good instructions and damn good, interesting recipes. And beyond that, he always encourages experimentation, and usually has a number of variations per dish. Highly, highly recommended.

15

Get an apron and a chef’s hat. Wearing them will really help make cooking more fun.

I started cooking about 6 months ago. The first things we bought were a large plastic cutting board & a good knife. We got a Santoku instead of a Chef’s Knife, because it looks cooler. Also, find a “Knife Safe” to store your good knife in, as they tend to be really sharp.

If you really have NOTHING as far as pots/pans/baking dishes, look for the sets that come with multiple sizes (target or bed bath & beyond). Those pyrex glass baking dishes are good too, as many recipes call for a 13" x 9" dish.

Other than that, get a book with lots of pictures and not too complex recipes, and just do it. You can buy things as you find you need them. I find that wok recipes are pretty simple, although you’d have to buy a wok for that.

16

I’ll add yet another vote for picking up a copy of The Joy of Cooking - not so much for the recipes, but for the reference parts of it. The recipes for basic stuff are good though - like gravy, white sauce, herb butter, and the like. Most cookbooks don’t contain recipes for basic things like that, but if you’ve never made them before, you need them.

Here’s the cookbook I learned how to cook from:

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

I recommend it as a good starter cookbook because it’s got lots of well-tested, basic recipes, with simple, clear instructions and it’s hard to eff 'em up - even if you do, you still will most likely come out with something that is still edible.

Get the ring-bound edition - it will lie flat on the counter for you.

Both of these books are inexpensive to buy and you will refer to them over and over again.

17

Me too. Absolutely essential.

Dull? Well duh; I almost said as much. But so is a first-grade reader. Basic is dull. It can’t really be beaten as a starting point though.

18

One more tip: if you read a recipe and don’t understand what one of the steps means, do a bit of research. Don’t just skip the step.

My BIL taught my brother how to cook, but my brother was in the habit of skipping steps if he didn’t understand them. Such as, for example, “draining” the ground beef after you’ve browned it. I came home from work after my brother had browned the beef; he was about to toss it all in the casserole dish. He turned green when I told him what draining the meat meant, and then, after we’d poured the fat off, said, “Last time I ate all that.”

So, yes, ask. I second the Joy of Cooking recommendation, along with all the caveats given. It’s a great basic reference book, but the recipes are mostly boring. Also, don’t go out and buy a lot of stuff to start with. As you find you need something, get it. That’s easier on your pocketbook and you’ll also find that there are lots of work-arounds. You don’t need every fancy kitchen gadget out there. Knife, cutting boards (separate ones for meat and non-meat), skillet, pot, casserole dish. Same with spices. Don’t go out and load up on what you need. Buy them one at a time when you think you need one for a recipe. Good luck!

19

Yeah, this is really important. My mother and I go through this all the time - we’ll make the same recipe, and she always tells me that mine is SO MUCH BETTER. With some investigation, I find that she used milk instead of cream, skipped the part where you were supposed to brown the meat, and left out the wine. Um, Mom, if you just follow the recipe, it’ll turn out like mine.

Re: Joy of Cooking: One of the beefs I have with Joy of Cooking is that a beginner doesn’t have the experience to tell what parts of it are good and what parts are to be avoided. Interspersed with the good parts are a lot of bad or mediocre recipes, and how is a beginner to know that, for example, the hollandaise sauce recipe is a classic and OK, but that the recommendation for hard-boiled eggs cooks them waaaaay too long? It also doesn’t explain enough of the theory behind cooking to be a truly great reference book.

To directly disagree with lissener, I think it can be beaten as a starting point. There’s books out there that are both good references and don’t have the miserable recipes that JoC have - I think Cook’s Illustrated does is better, for example. But I know I’m in the minority, so I’ll shut up now. :smiley:

20

I picked up this America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated cookbook last month, and I prefer it to How To Cook Everything and The Joy of Cooking for beginner use. I think it’s a greatest-hits of the first few seasons of America’s Test Kitchen -the recipes seem to come from that. Also recommend watching ATK on PBS and Good Eats on the Food network for explainations on why you do certain steps.

And if you are a beginner, don’t be afraid to go the convenience food route at first. Make some recipes off the sides of the Campbell’s cans. You will still be picking up some skills.


Chicken paprika

Boneless Chicken, cut into bite size pieces (2 breasts or 4 boneless thighs)
1 small onion cut into half inch pieces
6 fresh white mushrooms,sliced into 4 pieces each (optional)
2 teaspoons paprika (if you don't have measuring spoons, 1 regular spoonful)
cooking oil-enough to cover the bottom of the saucepan-2 soupspoons should do 
1/2 Cup sour cream mixed w/ a tablespoon of flour (1 soupspoon-ish)
1 Cup chicken broth (1 can of store bought Low Salt broth will work too)
Dry Egg noodles-about 1 handful of dry noodles per serving 

Equipment: 2 saucepans, with lids. Should hold about 4 quarts each. Knife and plastic cutting board.  1 cereal bowl to mix the sour cream stuff, 2 more to hold veggies.  Kitchen timer. Bowl big enough to hold the cooked chicken. Strainer- get one at the dollar store, should be able to hold about a gallon.

Cut your veg: Peel skin from onions, then chop onion up. Put in a cereal bowl. Chop up the mushrooms if you are using them, put in the other cereal bowl. Now cut the chicken into the bite size pieces. Keep on cutting board.*

-Put saucepan on stove and turn heat to medium. After about 5 minutes, wet your hand under the sink and splash that in the pan. If the water sizzles up in a second, it's hot. Add the oil . Then add the chicken pieces, stirring occasionally until the pieces turn light brown(probably takes 15 min. , but check after 10 minutes.) It gets some more cooking time later so if it seems underdone (piece is pink inside), no worries. Move the chicken to the big bowl

- put the onion & paprika in the pan. (the paprika goes in now, so it has a chance to cook up and blend it's flavor in with the onion).Cook until the onion is tender and see through, then put the chicken back & toss it around. 

-Add the broth(and mushroom, if using), stir, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat & simmer (one bubble popping up every second or so) for 20 min. 

-Now, get the other pan, fill 3/4 with water and boil. When boiling, cook noodles to package directions. By the time the water boils and the noodles cook, the chicken should be ready.  

-After the chicken and broth have cooked, put the sour cream/flour mixture in the chicken pan. Stir, and raise the heat slightly. Cook until thickened (probably 5 minutes), stirring very frequently. 

-Drain the noodles in strainer over sink. Put some noodles in serving bowls (pasta bwls are good, this is too messy to eat off plates) then spoon chicken and sauce over the noodles. Seves 2-3.

*we chopped the veg before the chicken so that the raw chicken juices would not contaminate the raw veg. Never use a cutting board or knife that has been used for raw meats on other things until they have been well cleaned.