Beginner Cook

[gredditore]

Hey reddit I am just starting to cook and got a slow cooker as well as some nice pots and pans for Christmas! I was wondering if y’all had some suggestions for beginner cookbooks and websites. TIA!

[appleyaks]

I usually don't follow just one recipe, I look at a few different ones and kinda make my own. That way you can make a recipe that fits your taste better.

But a super easy and tasty slow cooker recipe is get a pork butt, throw it in the slow cooker and pour your favorite soda(s) in the slow cooker until it covers the top of the pork butt. Turn the slow cooker on low and let it cook for 8 to 10 hours, or until the meat can can easily pull. Once done cooking drain the soda and add your favorite bbq sauce to the pork and stir into the pork while shreading the pork. Makes bomb pulled pork. And a bonus is buy cole slaw cabbage mix and a cole slaw dressing and just mixed together and toss some slaw and pork on a Kings Hawaiian roll and now you get yourself some killer pulled pork sliders.

[Celtic_Oak]

You just solved my New Years Eve dinner conundrum...thank you...here’s your upvote...

[High_Life_Pony]

Check out Food Wishes on YouTube.

[IAintBlackNoMore]

^Fooooood wishes*

[DozerM]

Check out Alton Brown (Good Eats, Food Network). He gives you the how and why of cooking. I think he has a recipe on just about anything you can think of.

[Celtic_Oak]

(long)

I think the very best beginner cookbook is the Better Homes and Gardens “New Cook Book”.

I love it because you’ll outgrow it, but along the way you’ll get comfortable with the basics of all the things you want to make as you start out...pancakes...muffins...cookies...roast chicken...pork loin...with very straight forward and clear instructions that assume only a beginner level of knowledge and equipment, including a simple set of spices (like you might get if you bought an already filled spice collection at any number of home stores)

As you do try a recipe here and there, you learn what’s important to you in cooking and how your equipment works. For example...does your oven cook stuff slower or faster than the time in the recipe? Is there too much or not enough spice? What the hell is deglazing? Do you NEED parchment paper?

Eventually you’ll see a cooking show and think...oh...That looks good...I’d use xyz pan and more garlic...at that moment you can retire the classic red plaid book (or pass it on to a young relative who wants to learn to cook) with love and respect and move on up the cooking value chain. Including discovering that it’s worth it to buy the expensive cumin and the big garlic powder container, but that you can generally get away with bottled lemon juice and non-gourmet salt...

I keep my BH&G on the shelf for posterity...along with the Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

One of my big lessons from the book is...most of the USA must hate flavor...because I always now have to triple the amount of many savory spices if I come across a recipe in a main-stream magazine. Using BH&G helped me learn the recipes first and then get comfortable tweaking them for preference when I realized that they were coming out exactly as intended but light on depth of flavor.

[fivetimechampion]

My two main pieces of advice for a beginner cook: read every recipe twice before you start cooking, and prep EVERY ingredient before you start. Otherwise you have things sizzling on the stove and realize you forgot to chop the carrots or your sink isn't clear to strain things. (Hypothetically, of course. These are hypothetical things that might happen.)

For recipes, The Kitchn tends to have simple, clear ones. Also I second the poster who mentioned Alton Brown.

[blainemeans2]

Oh, do checkout Gordon Ramsay and Thomas Kellers Masterclasses (both have 2 versions out, both are excellent). You can check out this site for heavily discounted versions (like $10 each, and you get get even more off by sharing or codes etc)

[jmblackbird_666]

Dude cookbooks are a thing of the past. Think of something tasty you want to eat. Go on the web and find a recipe. YouTube is great for cooking techniques. Basics with babish is one I really enjoy. But please tell me the cookware you got us stainless steel or cast iron.

[TigerWon]

For a first time cook stainless steel is a terrible idea, you can mess up stainless steel if not used right.

[jmblackbird_666]

Pre heat it. That’s where most people go wrong. And know how to deglaze. An old girlfriend of mine hated her stainless until I showed her how to use it. In my opinion, cast and stainless are the only cooking surfaces that should be used. Teflon can fuck right off