/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.17625908]

What are the best ways to build up your confidence cooking? I'm pretty crap at the moment (scrambled eggs and spaghetti bolognese level) - so what's the best way to work up from there without being completely intimidated? Budget isn't an issue (within reason).

I want to try and avoid the meme/shill paid courses, but if anyone has any legitimate good courses for cooking basics, I would be interested.

[Anonymous No.17625917]

That egg has seen some unpleasant shit

[Anonymous No.17625925]

Also, before you all say it, I am a fucking manchild. I just want to get a few tips from people that will tell me the truth and not try and shill me something.

[Anonymous No.17625927]

>>17625908
7 tours in nam, man.

[Anonymous No.17626023]

>>17625908

Focus on the basic things, cook to please the others, don't watch TV/gear/recipe show about cooking (that's bullshit).

[Anonymous No.17626035]

>>17625908
I started cooking when I was 8.

[Anonymous No.17626055]

>>17625908
Turn that frown upside down, anon.

[Anonymous No.17626338]

>>17625908
why so mad, son?

[Anonymous No.17626376]

>>17625908
I find that i have more motivation to cook and do a better job if i cook for someone else and not just myself.

[Anonymous No.17626428]

>>17625908
I would suggest an old cooking series called How to Cook Well with Raymond Blanc. He walks through different cooking techniques in each episode and makes a different course utilizing the technique. He also explains what each technique is good for and what the goal should be. Understanding the basics first is super helpful for when you actually try and cook something.

New cooks tend to follow recipes exactly. Unless you are getting the recipe from a very well renowned book or actual chef, they are NOT exact directions and following them blindly will result in a poor meal.

This was a big issue with my wife when she first was getting into cooking, she thought she sucked because she followed some recipe and it turned out like shit. You have to use some common sense and agency when you're working with any online or random cookbook recipe.

Honestly there's a ton more info I could post about basic gear you should have and some early things to focus on, example dishes to cook, etc. If that interests you let me know and I'll post more. Super bored today.

[Anonymous No.17626526]

Keep doing it I suppose.

Also try cooking a steak like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOc2LwR2gzY

[Anonymous No.17626535]

>>17626428
Thanks, you seem very knowledgeable. I figured that was a big issue, people following recipes like a formula without the prerequisite skills, and I really don’t have them, so I feel like I just need basic tips that can apply to most meals to get that level of common sense.

[Anonymous No.17626606]

>>17625908
idk start with baking. I found making things like bread, pizza crust, pancakes, cookies, shit like that is stupidly easy. You can also do stuff like make your own tomato sauce if you have a blender.

If you want to eat healthier look into cooking whole meats like beef, poultry, or pork, and roasting vegetables like potato, carrot, etc.

[Anonymous No.17626619]

>>17626606
Oh I can bake, and cook/roast meats - I’m not completely retarded, it’s just my meals are very very basic and only are comprised of a carb, protein and vegetables with literally no flavour profiling. I can cook but I can’t make a meal.

[Anonymous No.17626638]

>>17626428
Fuckit I'll do it anyways. Key skills to get better at cooking, in order of importance.

>Heat and Moisture Control
Imo the most important skill and probably one of the hardest to perfect. Having the best flavors and proper seasoning won't mean shit if the chicken comes out of the oven raw or if you steam a steak.

Focus on your heat levels and change them accordingly, don't just put the stove on medium. Two extremes would be searing and slow-cooking. Searing is done at high temperatures with minimal moisture, slow-cooking is done at low temps with lots of added liquid.

Pay close attention to the appearance, texture/feel, smell, and internal temp throughout the entire cooking process making small adjustments to heat and moisture to achieve desired results. Invest in a food thermometer.

>Seasoning (Herbs, spices, salt, sugar, condiments/marinades)
Seasoning is very important to a dish and will set the overall tone. While you'll notice cooking methods are almost ubiquitous throughout the world, seasoning greatly influences the perceived cuisine.

>Building flavor
This is largely a combination of the first two. You're layering different methods of seasoning to produce deeper and more complex flavors. (e.g. searing a piece of meat and browning veggies before it's covered in liquid to slow cook.)

[Anonymous No.17626644]

>>17626638
>>17626535
Oh cool didn't see you responded, I posted more below on basic skills that are really important to elevate your cooking.

[Anonymous No.17626696]

>>17626644
Yeah, like I said before, I can cook but I can’t make a meal. I literally just make very basic dishes with 3-4 ingredients and store bought sauces, and I am definitely guilty of not caring about stuff like searing my meats and making sure the moisture levels are right - which is why most proteins I cook are super dry and I compensate with shitloads of sauce. I’ll look into that Blanc cooking series - I don’t want to run before I can walk, and I’d like to be able to cook for someone other than myself by the end of the year.

[Anonymous No.17626705]

>>17626638
>Building flavor continued (balance)
So as you are seasoning your dish through out the cooking process, you'll want to be tasting it. While you taste look out for indicators that you might have something out of balance.

Salt, sugar, spicy, and acidic ingredients probably have the largest impact on balance. Adding these ingredients, or other ingredients that contain large amounts of these ingredients will change the flavor profile. The key to seasoning and tasting throughout the process is that you can start to learn where your flavors are and predict where they'll end up. This act of balancing, tasting, and seasoning throughout the cooking process will build flavor.

By following these sort of more general guidelines it should allow you to make more educated decisions when cooking and on the fly adjustments that can save a dish. Obviously there's tons more to it and people literally write books on it, but these 3 things should really get you going.

[Anonymous No.17626709]

>>17626696
cool stuff dude, for sure you'll be able to achieve your goal. Also unironically the first 1-3 seasons of Mind of a Chef are awesome. Again you won't have tons of specific recipes to try, but it will change the way you cook and hopefully inspire you.

[Anonymous No.17626741]

>>17626696
The first time I cook burger patties I used way too high heat. They end up burnt outside and raw in the middle. Don't be discouraged by mistakes like that.

[Anonymous No.17626754]

>>17626741
I’ve never had a problem with burger patties, because I’ve only ever cooked store bought ones on the barbie which are thin and nearly impossible to fuck up. I would love to get to the point where I can cook a proper thick burgah

[Anonymous No.17626880]

Pick a couple of simple things you like and read/watch lots about them. Try to learn what goes to making them really good and practise getting the right. You will learn about heat control and seasoning and you can apply it to other dishes.

[Anonymous No.17627177]

>>17625908
The most central skill in cooking is understanding heat transfer. This can only come with experience.
So just start cooking a bunch of different recipes and they will start out horrible and improve.