I would recommend against Joy as a first cookbook. It’s a great book. I love it. However, it’s not for people who “can’t smeg won’t smeg”.
Better Homes & Gardens has a new cook book - Anyone Can Cook . We gave that to my Brother-in-Law’s new wife for Christmas. She loves it. She’s one of those who cannot boil water without setting off the smoke alarms.
Ha! At least it’s not just me…
That said, I can also highly recommend America’s Test Kitchen 's Family Cookbook. Don’t let the size blow you away. (Over 1200 recipes) They certainly have a ton of more challenging recipes in there, but there are also a ton of quick and easy ones.
I came in here to mention this book. It truly is helpful to the person who doesn’t want to be a gourmet cook, just be well-fed without relying on prepackaged or frozen foods.
The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook is my cooking bible. I know you said no cookbooks, but this one is wonderful. Many of the recipes are very basic. Nothing tricky, no exotic ingredients. And the beginning of each section has explanations of what all the cooking terms mean. So, if you are baking cookies and it says “cream the butter and sugar” and you have no idea what that means, you flip to the front of the chapter and it tells you exactly what it means and how to do it. The meat chapters tell you all about the different cuts and the best ways to cook them and the time you need to cook per pound. I think it’s an absolute essential in every kitchen.
I also second the Alton Brown book. If only because he is a god. Well, that and it is a great reference.
The Food Lover’s Companion is essentially a glossary of terms. It will tell you what a roux is. It will not tell you how to make a roux.
Get the previous edition of Joy of Cooking (the Rombauer/Becker version). It has illustrations and descriptions of how to skin a squirrel and remove its scent glands, among other amusements.
Look up something like What Einstein Told His Cook on Amazon, then look at the related books for more of a physics/chemistry approach to cooking.
AB’s book includes a page of meat magnets, sorta like this except much cooler. Never again will you ponder the difference between cuts of steak or chops.
Seriously, what carnivorian fridge doesn’t need meat magnets?
That’s two editions ago. The newest one isn’t bad. The one before that, OTOH…
But As I said above: for the novice cook, Joy isn’t a good fit. It’s like suggesting a shop guide to someone who wants to put some air in their tires.
Got it in two.
This book is precisely what you are after. The art and science of cooking explained, step by step and most importantly…why!
::: Looks at link:::
OK,
Upper left Lamb
Upper right pig
Lower left beef
Lower right Dog? :eek:
I could tell you why, but then I’d have to charge you. 
Nope, it’s a poorly illustrated chicken.
Pig, cow, sheep…next one has to be chicken, so that’s what I’m going with.
Alton’s meat magnets have a chicken, and certainly not a dog, so chicken, chicken, dammit, chicken!
Good to know. I stopped with the 1995 (?) edition because we’ve got around 125 cookbooks and have never really used that 3rd Joy.
Friedo, my advice is to look for cookbooks aimed at college students. The authors of these books assume their readers are beginning cooks who have minimal cookware and ingredients in their kitchen.
Stole my post. :mad:
Any of Peg Bracken’s “I Hate to Cook” cookbooks. Long out of print, but easy to find on eBay or in second hand shops. “The Compleat I Hate To Cookbook” is great.
Trivia time: Peg Bracken once worked on a newspaper, writing a column with Homer Groening. Homer’s son Mark went on to greater things.
Mark Groening?
Three generations of my family have relied with some success on The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook , but we all call it “Fannie Farmer”.
It is mostly recipes, but also includes quite a bit of basic information such as identifying cuts of meat, and various techniques.
A quick look at Amazon reveals that there’s an all new revised and updated edition and I can’t vouch for that. I have my grandmother’s second or third one and one purchased in the 80s. There aren’t many changes between them…fewer aspic recipes in the later one, but there are a few.
MATT Groening. Mark is his twin brother. His mother Marge had a lifelong friendship with Braken.
Speaking of cooking, I need coffee…
Don’t Sweat The Aubergine a cookbook written by a non-chef who is happy to point out the BS in most cookbooks.
Cooler than meat cut plates? That include dog cuts? Bah.
I’m pondering whether I should track those down for my our-dogs-are-like-our-kids friends. It would be a wonderfully Evil gift… but I suspect that would be wrong of me to do. sigh
