/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Don't just start buying random kitchen gadgets.

Make sensible purchases that fit a need.

You'll need a saucepan (about 3 quarts), a saute (frying) pan (about 11"), a few mixing bowls (8" to 12" in diameter), lids for those pans, maybe a collander (pasta drainer bowl), maybe a baking sheet and pie pan (dollar store quality is more than fine until you know better), some turning implements (i like wooden spoons of various shapes and a few plastic pancake flippers and a set of metal tongs). You're going to need a sharp knife or two.

Don't think too much about more hardware until you feel limited by this stuff. 90% of the time, these are the things you USE.

Start with something basic, like an omelette. (Find the Julia Child video. Then find her other videos… "The French Chef" series. You will likely learn a lot.)

Figure out what else is missing from your food. Learn to make that.

Don't be afraid to watch Cooking with Dog or any of the other cutesie instructional videos… and try the methods shown.

>>11441

Oh and obviously if you are actually brand brand brand spankin new. You are going to need to get some pots and pan to cook with. And a wooden or metal stirring spoon and all the other appropriate kitchen and eating utensils you'll need to cook with and eat with. Baking dish. Deep pan for things like lasagna/meatloaf/etc. You should be able to figure it out just going through the pots and pans and kitchen utensils aisle. If you start getting ready to be cooking later and see you've missed something. Just make another trip to the store sometime.

Alice Waters

Thomas Keller

Heston Blumenthal

Giorgio Locatelli

Claudia Roden

Michel Roux Sr.

Antonio Carluccio

Harold McGee

Gordon Ramsay

Just a few people who have really good, basic books in English. Forget about Julia Child, Pepin, Batali, Nigella Lawson, whatever. Learn the basics and learn them correctly.

Forget about tools or diets for now too.

>>11443

> Forget about tools or diets for now too.

This presupposes that someone who has not cooked before has basic implements of cookery somehow.

>buy the food you need/want to eat

>look up ways to cook what you have on hand into simple dishes

>just like cook thing

When in doubt, follow a recipe word for word. It's not rocket science.

>>11443

Ignoring Julia Child (or Rombauer, for that matter) is foolish.

Their stuff works, and they usually explain enough about what's going on so that you learn a larger concept, not just how to prepare one dish.

I will agree that Nigella is better with the sound off.

>>11449

Rombauer came from another era, I think. Much like Fernand Point, Escoffier etc.

My main issue with Julia Child (Pepin, Hazan, more recently Jamie Oliver…) is that they don't teach you enough to actually get that larger concept.

Perfect example is Gordon Ramsey: if you just watch his shows, you'll learn nothing substantial at all (in my opinion). Yet his book "3* Chef" is worth the while, whether you're a novice or trained.

Bocuse, Raymond Oliver (not related to), Bras, Troisgros… all had/have cookbooks that'll teach you lots more than those moneygrabbers ever will.

Buy the essentials like beans, eggs, lean meat, stuff like that. Don't worry about being fancy; it's essential to first follow a recipe, then improvise where you see fit (such as increasing pepper or cutting out an ingredient altogether).

>>11431

>>11448

This

>>11456

Well shit. Now I'm feeling old.

If you have (had?) grandparents who survived the great depression, then Rombauer isn't that much older than you are.

The Rombauer books (Joy of Cooking) were written right about the time when home refrigeration was no longer exotic, but it was quite common to hunt fresh game for dinner.

It nicely balances the options of going to the supermarket, growing food in the garden, hunting or fishing, stored food (pickled/preserved/frozen/dried)…

Covers it all, because it was from a time when you might not be able to rely on any one source of food. The baker might go out of business, but you might have flour. You might have a can of vegetable soup, but you can improve the flavor and nutrition with a handful of garden vegetables you froze.

So yeah; a lot of it may not be sexy, but you ain't going to starve because Rombauer let you down.