learning how to cook

[Anonymous No.14462482]

Theres no sticky to look at so forgive me for posting this
I would like to get better at cooking and get over my fear of undercooking food.
Growing up my mom has overcooked the shit out of everything except the meals she was extremely confident in because she was always paranoid about overcooking food, and that paranoia has passed down to me.

[Anonymous No.14462491]

>>14462482
What do you overcook? Lots of stuff is perfectly safe to eat even if it's undercooked, so you don't have to worry so much.

[Anonymous No.14462504]

>>14462482
Start by watching good cooks and learning the basics
Marco Pierre White and Alton Brown are the two that I watched loads of when I was a kid

The best way of learning to cook something is to pick a genre of food, then make progressively more complex versions of that dish, learning more about it each time

For instance, if I wanted to make a curry and I had never cooked before
Start by making Japanese curry, you can buy the curry blocks pre-made and you just need to chop the meats and vegetables. Learn how to chop and dice things, how to brown the diced chicken, that sort of thing

Next time, use chicken stock instead of water, add some spices that would go well based on what was in the pre-made curry block

Next time make your own roux, maybe use beef broth and a cup of wine or something

Aspire to keep elavating the dish until you understand what each ingredient and step will do to affect the final product
Once you have a good enough understanding of how the steps work with each other you can probably eyeball ingredients and amounts and have it still come out delicious, and improvise more

Start with something simple that you're interested in and build on it

[Anonymous No.14462505]

>>14462482
Sorry to hear it OP. I'm confident you'll work through this with time. I'm assuming you're talking about meat because you don't need to be afraid of raw vegetables? So maybe you should learn some vegetarian recipes. But otherwise cook stuff that you can eat raw! Like (high quality) salmon-- undercooked salmon is still delicious and won't hurt you. Or learn eggs-- there's a lot to learn with eggs and they're actually quite safe raw!

But rarely do you have to worry about undercooking food, even meat. Try learning braises, they cook forever and will teach you a lot about different important cooking concepts, or get a sous vide device, where you reach a uniform temperature throughout whatever you're eating.

And think of the bright side-- being a little worried about reaching temp throughout birds for example is a good thing! Get a high quality instant read thermometer and familiarize yourself with appropriate temperatures. On that note, maybe read up about food safety and how likely you are to get sick of undercooked food. The more you learn the more confident you'll be. Good luck!

[Anonymous No.14462520]

>>14462505
I actually tried cooking ramen last month with a poached egg in the noodles and some chicken. It tasted delicious but I got extremely sick afterward and had stuff coming out of both ends.
My parents claim that I undercooked the egg and that sounded like the most logical idea to me.

[Anonymous No.14462539]

>>14462482
Biggest tip, get a meat thermometer
write the safe Temps of all the meats on the side, never bite into raw chicken again

[Anonymous No.14462545]

>>14462491
I don't cook much to begin with, but I'd like to start cooking various meats.
I can cook burgers kinda ok but that practically the extent of my stovetop cooking knowledge. Most stuff I eat is either prepared for me or its cheap instant food like top ramen or sandwiches

[Anonymous No.14462605]

I have IBS and I'm terrified of eating any food thats not extremely bland desu

[Anonymous No.14462620]

>>14462504
Yes, and make sure you use at minimum four Knorr Stock Pots in any recipe. The rest of the ingredients are optional, but the Knorr Stock Pots are mandatory. While you're at it, use some Knorr Touch of Taste sometimes too.

[Anonymous No.14462639]

>>14462482
>undercooking food
There is always a risk with eating raw food, but it already has to be infected at a rate that's dangerous. Another thing is the byproducts of bacteria which can make you sick. If you're using fresher meat that hasn't been sitting in a fridge for two weeks you're fine.

Steaks and fiberous meat you sear isn't as much of a risk. The bacteria is typically only surface level and killed by heat. Chicken and pork are different, but there are methods to retain their juice and prevent overcooking. Also learning what cuts are best. Ground meat must be cooked throughout. Just know you can stomach most threats within reason, as long as most standards are met. When people get sick at restaurants, it's typically from bad handling and cross contaminating, leaving shit out or exposed you know. Don't be afraid of meat if you respect it, we're animals after all.

[Anonymous No.14462647]

Practice makes perfect, just keep on cooking man
BTW An instant read thermometer is one of the most useful items in my kitchen...

[Anonymous No.14462651]

>>14462520
It was more likely the ramen than the egg. I could eat a raw egg right now and be fine. Drink kefir.

[Anonymous No.14462653]

>>14462651
It was just the cheap shit prepackaged ramen. Idk why it would trigger my stomach so hard.

[Anonymous No.14462674]

>>14462482
My mom overcooked everything. First thing to do is get a thermometer, saves you the hassle of guessing when it's done. Some foods are more forgiving in how long you can cook them, steak can just be seared on the outside and eaten as rare as you like, with eggs you can get away with a runny yolk. Ground meats have to be cooked all the way through, same with chicken and pork. If you're afraid of undercooking a chicken breast for instance? Butterfly it. Reduces the cooking time and gives you more crisp surface area. Look into marinades and wet/dry brining too, these all help lock in the juices so if you do overcook something a bit it won't turn into shoe leather.

[Anonymous No.14462683]

>>14462482
/ck/ has a mega

https://mega.nz/folder/VrgHmQTT#HEXDgmzBWRgSt-_M4hZhiA

[Anonymous No.14462690]

>>14462504
To add on to what you said, when I was a kid my mom learned a lot of her skill in cooking Chinese food from the PBS show Yan Can Cook. A lot of his episodes are on YT now and his whole thing was showing how many chinese dishes are fairly easy to cook when you know how.

[Anonymous No.14462715]

>>14462482
You have a 1% chance of catching E. Coli poisoning or Salmonella from raw beef/chicken respectively (and 10% of E. Coli is lethal). I accidentally undercooked meat a few times and looked it up. Cooking just eliminates the risk entirely.

[Anonymous No.14462789]

>>14462653
You could try again, omitting the egg.
See if it's the high salt or possibly a mild egg allergy (full cooking denatures some proteins that some people are allergic to; partial cooking leaves enough intact to maybe have both ends vent).
Also, if you're going for gooey eggs, fresher eggs from a reputable source will have less potential pathogens than dubiously sourced eggs that hang around for a month.