resources to learn to cook from?

M

Morvack

Veteran
Joined
24 Nov 2014
Local time
2:01 AM
Messages
7
Hello. I have been trying to learn to cook for a while now, but I could use some recommendations on resources. I have mainly been looking on wiki how and youtube for simple recipes. The problem is, I am really busy in life, and I don't have a lot of money, so I can't sit down and mess with things until I figure them out like I'd like. Is there a book or website or something that explains the sciences behind cooking anything? For example : Pancake batter. I learned the hard way that salt really can mess up the bonds the egg and flour molecules create when mixed together.

I would love to read le technique, but I don't speak french.

In short, I'm looking for something that tells me why putting all of these ingredients together works, instead of something just telling me "mix X, with Y and Z and set your heat to 250".
 
If you have cable, I would highly recommend that you watch the food network. There are a whole bunch of different chefs with different styles and you will be able to watch how they are doing what they are doing while they talk about it. Even if you don't sit down and intently watch the show, just having it on and absorbing information will really help you get a better feel for ingredients and flavor combinations and some of the different cooking techniques you can try.
 
The only why answer is a cookery class, which sits you down and makes you study. It makes you follow the xyz approach to learn what works and why. Learning to adapt comes later.

Certain things need the xyz approach. That more or less includes pancake batter and anything that has a similar recipe and anything like sponge. I categorise this area as 'baking' mentally, though anything off my griddle or tawa also falls into this category. There are obviously exceptions to this.

Things like stews and soups, casseroles, rice based dishes are more a general thing where quantities don't really matter, it is more about taste and mixing certain spices together and the best option there is too get a proper cookery book, one that does not say take a packet of this, a tin of that, one that has you making your own spice mixes and toasting them yourself. The old fashioned cookery books and books that often don't sell well because people want fast solutions today. The sort that tell you a recipe is going to take 2 days to make because first you need to grind the rice, then you have to ferment it overnight... They are the type of books you need to be reading, trying the recipes out and working out what you like from those and then learning to adapt them to your own tastes.

My husband is excellent at following recipes. So anything that needs the exact xyz approach he is fine with. I'm not. He is however useless at the loads of flavour, soups, casseroles, stews side of life because he can not adapt recipes according to how they are tasting - veg tastes different at different times of year, spices age and lose flavour overtime but he does not take this into account and the stuff that needs a much less strict approach to never tastes right when he makes it sadly.
 
Morvack said:
In short, I'm looking for something that tells me why putting all of these ingredients together works, instead of something just telling me "mix X, with Y and Z and set your heat to 250".
Click to expand...

Yes I know of a resource for this, it's "Cooks Test Kitchen". They have a show on PBS, a subscription magazine, and cookbooks. They have page long writes ups for each recipe, explaining why they put certain ingredients together and a bit of the science behind why things need to be done the way they are. I have one of their cookbooks and each recipe is like an in-depth school lesson. It's all too much info for me! But if you are interested in learning about cooking without going to school, these write-ups and recipes are the closest thing I have found.
 
For cooking shows I really like Gordon Ramsey's ultimate cookery course. It is all available on youtube. In each episode he makes a simple meal, talks about tips to make cooking easier and visits some farms and food production type companies. If you want to learn baking Nigella Lawson is great too!
 
http://www.springer.com/food+science/book/978-3-540-67466-5
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-improve-your-home-cooking-with-the-power-of-scie-511405909

When I saw the title I really came to tell you that one of the greatest resources is this forum. When I read your post you were actually looking for something much more. The Science of cooking. You actually caused me to think more about cooking and how there really is a science to it. I don't know if the links above will help you,but I am definitely going to be reading more about the science of cooking.
 
Thinking of cooking in terms of a scientific approach scares me, but it totally makes sense since you have to measure out ingredients much like you would measure things out if you were making a compound or mixture. Most of what I know now, I learned from my mom and then adapted over the years by researching online, and reading cook books. Cooking is an evolutionary process and you only get better overtime as you practice and learn new techniques.
 
Morvack said:
Hello. I have been trying to learn to cook for a while now, but I could use some recommendations on resources. I have mainly been looking on wiki how and youtube for simple recipes. The problem is, I am really busy in life, and I don't have a lot of money, so I can't sit down and mess with things until I figure them out like I'd like. Is there a book or website or something that explains the sciences behind cooking anything? For example : Pancake batter. I learned the hard way that salt really can mess up the bonds the egg and flour molecules create when mixed together.

I would love to read le technique, but I don't speak french.

In short, I'm looking for something that tells me why putting all of these ingredients together works, instead of something just telling me "mix X, with Y and Z and set your heat to 250".
Click to expand...
The internet is packed with a bunch of great videos to help you learn to cook. It's really just as simple as finding the type of foods that you like and just searching on your web browser.
 
A cookery class sounds good, I think that will be a good place to pick up a lot in terms of techniques and so forth!
The internet also have a few things like kamarsun1 said, you can watch a full length cooking instructor on YouTube and TV is also a good one to visit, there are plenty of cooking shows these day and they really go step by step with their instructions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom