Learning to cook

[Anonymous No.14956392]

I am 27 yo and I only know how to do scrambled eggs and boil water.
How do I start learning to cook? I always wanted to make cakes and shit but looks like a clusterfuck

[Anonymous No.14956440]

>>14956392
step 1: find recipe online
step 2: follow recipe
step 3: eat

not that hard, anon. I started baking simple things like beer bread and gradually made more complex food, just takes practice

[Anonymous No.14956457]

>>14956440
>step 1: find recipe online
>step 2: follow recipe
>step 3: eat
This is not learning how to cook, this is already having the basics down and the materials at hand, which OP clearly doesn't.

[Anonymous No.14956532]

>>14956392
get a cook book, start with either "Joy of Cooking" or "How to Cook Everything". Read the front part of the book, that explains terms of what things are. Find a recipe you think looks good. Read the entire recipe through first. Gather the ingredients and carefully measure them as per the recipe, follow all the directions closely. You can also watch cooking videos too, but learning by doing is better. Learn to make spaghetti and meat sauce first. watch videos on how to do the different techniques (like how to cut an onion). https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/magic-potion-meat-sauce-for-spaghetti/a6e298a1-d487-4cc2-9beb-e849b11cd9e6
In this recipe you are asked to purchase bulk italian sausage. that just means sausage that isn't in a casing, it looks like ground meat. if you can't find that you can use ground pork in the same amount. The onion and the bell pepper are to be chopped. Cut them into very small squares the best you can. The garlic is supposed to be finely chopped. Smash the clove with the flat side of your knife so it squishes out of the papery skin and discard the skin. Then chop it into TINY pieces. Cut the carrots a small as you can, you want them to be smaller in size than the onion. The crushed tomatoes, undrained means to dump the whole can in. Don't drain it. Tomato sauce is found near the canned tomatoes, it is not the same as jarred spaghetti sauce. Make sure to write down the size of the cans they are listing so you buy the right size. Packed brown sugar means you scoop it into a measuring cup and push down with a spoon in the cup to squish it down so it is packed. Salt the water when you cook the pasta, so when you taste it, it tastes like sea water. Once the water is boiling then put your pasta in and cook it for however long it says on the package I hope that helps. good luck.

[Anonymous No.14956546]

start with some easy ass recipes like shakshuka and pancakes
you could even try meal kit subscriptions like blue apron

[Anonymous No.14956550]

>>14956392
It's shocking to me people like you exist.

How did you eat growing up? Did your mom cook or did you eat frozen shit and takeout for every meal?

[Anonymous No.14956551]

>>14956532
Based anon with helpful advice

[Anonymous No.14956558]

>>14956550
I'm not him but yes, mom and dad were separated and cooked next to nothing. When they did "cook," it was shit that barely counted as cooking and taught no lessons. It wasn't until I took a home economics course in school that I could even learn what shit like baking possibly entailed.

I'm still a TERRIBLE cook. I can make food, but it's almost all bad.

[Anonymous No.14956567]

>>14956392
baking is a far more delicate art, you mentioning cake. But as for cooking? Learn how to chop an onion, learn how to panfry a protein-entree, you're most of the way there.

[Anonymous No.14956568]

>>14956532
blessed and helpful

[Anonymous No.14956570]

>>14956558
That's criminal, sorry to hear that buddy

[Anonymous No.14956594]

>>14956570
Thanks, but it wasn't that bad. My parents fed me well and I was always in good health, it just came from a restaurant or pre-prepared stuff. I'm a little envious of people who can cook well, quickly, and efficiently in respect to cost/stretching out food purchases.

Everything I ever try to cook is expensive, spoils, and too much for one guy before I'm tired of it.

[Anonymous No.14956602]

>>14956457
>already having the basics down
Chopping and using a heat source?

[Anonymous No.14956604]

>>14956457
You can only get Yuke basics down by doing them, though. Cooking basic recipes is how you practice. You can't learn them by just asking.

[Anonymous No.14956648]

>>14956602
Knowing when to use a pot or a pan, knowing how to chop, knowing what it means to reduce something, knowing how to measure ingredients... there's so much shit you baselessly assume people already have learned in life. The difference between a pot/pan/skillet is learned, it's not something you're born with. Same with how to chop. I never chopped a single food before I was 16. If you'd told me to "chop an onion," I'd probably cut it in half and hand it back to you.

>>14956604
I don't know what "Yuke basics" are unless you just had a typo, but you're another person not getting it. Until I took that class, I didn't know what a whisk was, or what whisking was. I literally thought a grate was exclusively related to sewers.

No one can "follow a recipe" when the tools and concepts are completely foreign.

[Anonymous No.14956652]

>>14956558
>I'm still a TERRIBLE cook. I can make food, but it's almost all bad.
Start simple.
Learn how much salt is the right amount.
Learn how cooked is raw/almost done/done/overcooked.

Beyond that, if you watch a Pepin video and mimic what he does, you'll probably be close enough to right to not utterly embarass yourself.
https://youtu.be/CshkecuFfMc

[Anonymous No.14956667]

>>14956652
Thanks for that. I skimmed it really quick, but I'll watch it more. As I've said, I'm not OP, but the challenge is having the resources on hand and some understanding of how something looks.

My advice to OP, or people who simplify it as "find a recipe and follow it" is essentially to try to find a class or video that will walk you though the very basics. If I didn't have that teacher who showed me "this is a pot, this is a pan, this is a measuring cup, this is a shortening knife," I would be incapable of following a recipe.

[Anonymous No.14957024]

OP what materials do you have? If you have a chefs knife, you can probably start. Buy a $6 sharpener on Amazon. Sharpen said knife.

Then find things you want to eat. Look up recipe. Attempt making it.

I started by rotating egg dishes from scrambled eggs to eggs benedict. The more you practice, the better you’ll be. God speed anon.

[Anonymous No.14957044]

>>14956648
>I literally thought a grate was exclusively related to sewers.
lol

Well then look up videos with these recipes and watch the people cooking them. When they use these words and do these things that you've somehow never seen your mother do, you will know what they mean when you see the person in the video doing it. Then just do the same thing yourself.

[Anonymous No.14957049]

how does a retard get to 27 in the internet age and not have any idea how to learn something new?

[Anonymous No.14957090]

>>14957024
I'm gonna keep slamming people like you.
>If you have a chefs knife
OP doesn't know how to do more than make scrambled eggs or boiled water. He does NOT have a chefs knife.
>Sharpen said knife.
For fucking what? Shouldn't you be telling this person how to heat an oven? Use a stove? What spices to stock?
>Look up recipe. Attempt making it.
Recipes do not teach you the basics of cooking. OP will burn his house down.

[Anonymous No.14957118]

>>14957049
bruh, I have seen dudes trashing or selling electronics because they lost their charger
this generation is fucked

[Anonymous No.14957140]

>>14957090
lol slam me all you want. You learn by doing, not by jerking off in a class room.

And fun fact, when I started I was little beyond OP in skill and I had a shit tier chefs knife.

>>14956392
Previous advice stands. Just start.

Cook > Review good/bad > Learn something new via book or video > Cook again > Repeat

[Anonymous No.14957164]

>>14957140
>You learn by doing, not by jerking off in a class room.
Cool, yeah, jump in a car when you've never seen one and go, you'll totally get it. Don't worry, the pedal, steering wheel, brake? Totally natural.

>How do I start learning to cook?
>Cook
Yeah, good advice anon. It's fucking meaningless.

[Anonymous No.14957187]

>>14957140
Fuck it, I'm gonna reply again.
>Grug make fire
Someone asks "how do I make fire?"
>Grug say "make fire, try again"

[Anonymous No.14957197]

>>14956392
Go to the library and flip through some of the cookbooks meant for millenials. Many of them presume the reader lacks basic cooking skills and will teach you literally everything. Some celebrity chefs/youtubers like Alex French Guy and Alton Brown go in depth on food science and cooking skills so you can also learn a lot from them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94d7ZXySplo

[Anonymous No.14957198]

>>14957164
OP is 27 not 15 nor is he operating a thousand some pounds motor vehicle which could kill other people.

You’re either max autist or mentally feeble. Either way, your “advice” is not only shit but vague and pointless. Good night and good luck.

[Anonymous No.14957200]

>>14956667
>find a class or video that will walk you though the very basics

That particular video starts with how to put on an apron... and why.
Then moves on to advanced topics like how to hold a knife... and why.
Which knife to use... and why.
How to sharpen that knife... and why.
How to use a vegetable peeler.
How to cut vegetables.

I think the first hour of the 3+ is all foundational knowledge, before he starts cooking.

[Anonymous No.14957205]

do anyone have a video on how to eat

[Anonymous No.14957229]

>>14957198
OP is 27 and has no skills past eggs and boiled water. He doesn't have any fucking ability. You're just assuming people know shit that they don't really know, and telling him to get a chef's knife is fucking dumb as shit. What's he going to do with a chef's knife? Crack his eggs?

>your “advice” is not only shit but vague and pointless
Your "advice" is baseless and full of assumptions about how much people should know when they don't. Anyways, fuck off and goodnight.

>>14957200
I wasn't criticizing that video. I'd say it's a little advanced, but definitely one of the better things posted here.

[Anonymous No.14957413]

>>14957229
>it's a little advanced
>Starts with how to put on an apron

You watch the video, you learn a few things, and suddenly you're 10 times more comfortable and far more competent in a kitchen.
You don't get good until you've spent a few years doing, but learning to do through mimicry is a good place to start, and can get you some workable (nonsuck) meals along the way.

[Anonymous No.14957430]

>>14956648
>Until I took that class, I didn't know what a whisk was, or what whisking was. I literally thought a grate was exclusively related to sewers.
OK but not everyone is so retarded that they can't google "what is a whisk", instead of paying for a class, that might just be you.

[Anonymous No.14957439]

Hah. You think you know how to scramble eggs and boil water, until you post your scrambled eggs and boiled water.

[Anonymous No.14958120]

>>14956648
fucktard

[Anonymous No.14958151]

Best way is to ask friends for help, so much easier to have someone there.

[Anonymous No.14958158]

>>14956392
Watch A Taste of History with Walter Staib in it's entirety.

[Anonymous No.14958444]

>>14958151
>having friends

[Anonymous No.14958452]

>>14956392
step one: get things you want to eat
step two: apply heat