Something you would buy for a young adult who has very little cooking experience but is interested in learning. It should have a good amount of recipes, but also a lot of very basic information about how to cook. Lots of photos is a plus.
I see tons of them on Amazon; right now I’m leaning toward How To Slice an Onion.
Thanks,
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My wife says the Better Homes and Gardens “New Cookbook” has been popular for a lot of years and might be worth taking a look at. http://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Plaid/dp/0470556862/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287945622&sr=8-1
You really can’t go wrong with The Joy of Cooking. It’s rather light on photos (actually, there are none, only a few line drawings), but it’ll explain to you how to make just about anything.
A perfectly good OP for Cafe Society. Moved from GQ.
samclem Moderator
Is this a person who is learning the art of cooking, or someone who needs to learn a few good main dishes to get by in their first years on their own?
For the first, I’d recommend “Ratio.” It teaches the basic ratios of basic recipes of every sort, and encourages creative cooking at any level. I can’t understand why anyone would go on "Top Chef without first memorizing this book.
For the second, I’d say “Eat Cheap, Eat Well.” http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Cheap-but-Well/dp/0470293365
I’m Just Here For the Food, by my TV boyfriend, Alton Brown.
It’s an easy to read book with lots of pictures and it covers the basics of cooking, rather than a thousand recipes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got plenty of recipes, but it uses each one as an example of a fundamental cooking technique. So he talks about broiling, for example, explaining how it’s really grilling upside down and indoors, and then gives “applications” (ie, recipes) for Marinated Flank Steak and Broiled Chicken. A smart kid can then apply the lessons to other foodstuffs, creating their own food, rather than being a recipe-only cook.
If she really gets into cooking, then The New Best Recipe, by America’s Test Kitchen (aka Cook’s Illustrated) is another wonderful tome. They do a ton of research, compiling common recipes and breaking them down, testing each step and optimizing the results, which are the recipes they publish. They explain what they’re doing in simple language which makes for better cooking experimentation on your own. But it’s really a more advanced book, and the size and small print are likely to be daunting to a new cook.
I see they also have a The Best 30 Minute Recipe book, but I don’t have that one. I expect it’s as good as their other one, and perhaps better suited to weekday cooking.
My fave for gifting young folks first out on their own is the standby Betty Crocker Cookbook. It’s basic enough to explain a few of the whys, but includes variations for when you want to branch out a bit. My personal favored edition is the one from the late seventies. No micro recipes, but more cook-it-from-scratch stuff.
Granted, this wouldn’t be for a kid who is into the art of cooking, but for someone just starting out, it’s a good reference. I actually bought a copy for my dad when he took over the kitchen duties after Mom became disabled (he had never done anything more complicated than coffee or popcorn before).
Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, followed by Joy of Cooking. That covers 99.99% of anything anybody will ever need to know in the kitchen.
I like the old Fannie Farmer cookbook. Recipes are rated easy to hard, there is a great guide in the front with drawings that explain cooking terms like “mince” or “braise”, an illustrated guide to some specialized utensils and even some good info on how to choose edible produce.
We have that one, and I really like it. I don’t use it (or any cookbook, really) very often, being more of an eyeball it kind of girl, but I’ve really liked the recipes I’ve done from it.
“How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman is great.
My edition of “Joy of Cooking” is 1972 and I adore it. But I’d choose HtCE over the most recent edition of Joy.
EatingWell for 2 is fantastic. Taught me how to cook.*
*Before EatingWell 2 years ago, I knew how to boil pasta and use a jarred sauce, I knew how to boil eggs and how to make omelettes and scrambled eggs and use a George Foreman for chicken. And…that’s about it
Another vote for Joy of Cooking, and I agree with Hello Again that the 70’s & 80’s editions are better than the later ones.
The thing about JoC is that while most of the recipes are weirdly bland, they always work. That is, the texture and consistency always come out right. They’re never inedible. And they usually explain why. They cover the salient points of most of the ingredients you’ll use in your lifetime as an American cook. If you want to know anything about any cuisine that uses spices, or that derives from any ethnic tradition other than European, you’ll need another reference, but IMHO everyone needs a copy of *JoE *for basics.
The later editions aren’t nearly as thorough, and they seem to try (and mostly fail) to include non-Eurocentric recipes. I also get the sense that they tried to make the recipes “healthier” (mostly by cutting fat) but didn’t test the results as thoroughly as the original recipes.
I liked How To Cook Without A Book, which is aimed at acquiring techniques and adapting them, rather than simply listing recipes. Not so many pictures, though.
Joy of Cooking is awesome, but a bit daunting to a beginning cook. You can pretty much look up anything in there, though, so it’s a really good second cookbook.
Anything by America’s Test Kitchen is good. They have little stories about how they tested changes to each recipe, and what worked and did not work. Plus, usually lots of product comparisons and stuff. Instead of one of the cookbooks, though, I’d recommend giving a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated.
I came in to also suggest “How To Cook Without a Book”, which is excellent for teaching a few basic cooking techniques and then how to elaborate on them and combine with ingredients and cuisines to make a whole repertoire.
“The Better Homes and Garden Anyone Can Cook” cookbook is the most basic of the BH&G books that I am aware of. Example: it has a short chapter on “How do I measure things?” and actually has a page dedicated to how to scramble an egg. You will get the basic down without being overwhelmed.
This was my first cookbook and I love it. I’ll be giving a copy to each of my sons when they’re ready to move out of the house, as well.
The New York Times Cookbook - no pics, millions of recipes.
The Way To Cook by Julia Child - lots of pics.
Those are actually the only two I ever find myself using any more, as far as actually cracking open a book.
Most of the recipes are pretty complex. I made the tarte tatin [french apple tart] out of that cookbook once. Tasted fabulous - took 4 hours. This is a great book to step up to once you’ve nailed the basics. But I wouldn’t recommend it for true beginner cooks.
Seconded. I like this and Joy of Cooking as good, general cookbooks. The BH&G cookbook, is a bit more basic, and is more spelled out than Joy.
Joy assumes that the reader possesses a basic knowledge of cooking. BH&G does not.