/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.3712536]

Hey, /ck/, I figure there must've been a million visitors asking you this... as someone who has absolutely zero experience in cooking and food-preparing(like, literally, I'm struggling just to make a good sandwich), what is his go-to path to teach himself how to cook? How did you guys learn to cook? Mom's recipes? Any sites? Do you happen to have a Wiki or something?

Where do I begin? I'm surprised there isn't a sticky on the front page.

[Anonymous No.3712541]

Decide on a meal you would like to cook, preferably something simple. Google recipes. Try one. If you like it, come back here and talk about how your trip to Japan went so well that you can tell the rest of us how we should enjoy our food.

Also, try Good Eats. Alton Brown is kind of a preachy fuck, but his foundations are good. Look up KatJaneway on Youtube for episodes.

[Anonymous No.3712546]

It's not that hard unless you are completely retarded. Or you absolutely want to make literally everything yourself (like the pasta and sauces and such) despite not having the necessary experience and knowledge. Don't be such a helpless retard.

[Anonymous No.3712554]

>>3712546
Making your own pasta or sauces are fucking easy things to learn. You can't even fuck up a tomato sauce if you know how to operate cutlery, an oven, and your brain. Don't talk down to him just because he's new. You shit. You're why people think /ck/ is full of elitist pricks who cry about Wagyu being a sham and then fisting your face hole full of Easy Cheese.

[Anonymous No.3712562]

[Anonymous No.3712637]

>>3712541


So watch Good Eats. Okay.

[Anonymous No.3712665]

op will never learn until he gets a daddy figure to hold his hand through literally everything. if you can't figure out how to do things by testing and retesting.. give up. you will literally fail at everything you do.

[Anonymous No.3712667]

>>3712536
Cooking is like anything else, looks intimidating but easy as shit in reality.

Keep it simple, OP.

I suggest we post simple recipes for OP like pic related.

OP, just start off by looking up simple recipes and then try more stuff and experimenting when you're comfortable

[Anonymous No.3712669]

>>3712554
Pasta sauces I'll give you, but the pasta itself? No, unless you're willing to buy the right equipment or eat only ravioli. Why bother when you can easily buy good quality fresh or dried pasta cheaply anyway?

[Anonymous No.3712670]

Look, OP, I didn't know how to cook, either.
Then I followed some instructions on the internet. Start out with simple foods, like eggs, or vegetables (those are easy as fuck to cook, if you ask me). Then move on to other things, like meat or cake. If you want to use your newly developed skills, add the simple stuff to the other stuff. Make your own "special" dishes as you go along. You'll learn from mistakes. All the great chefs did. That's just how cooking is. Have fun on your journey.

[Anonymous No.3712674]

There is this show called Good Eats. Watch it. Also try to cook with him. Replicate his recipes. If you do all that you'll be a decent cook by the end of season 1.

[Anonymous No.3712681]

Google "Good Eats S1E1P1". It will take you to the first season's first episode. Watch all the episodes for season 1 and as many as you like for the other seasons.

[Anonymous No.3712719]

>I'm surprised there isn't a sticky on the front page.

So are we.

[Anonymous No.3712759]

OP
>Step 1; get this book, or anything by nigel slater
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0609610783/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1341334707&sr=8
-1&keywords=nigel+slater+appetite&condition=used
>Step 2: follow the cheap, simple, delicious recipies
>Step 3: ???
>Step 4: Profit!!!

[Anonymous No.3712783]

>>3712719

Yeah our mods are the best...

[Anonymous No.3712840]

I think a lot of posters here underestimate how bad someone can be at cooking.

I saw a couple people who have no fucking clue what the fuck they were doing.
If you grew up never setting foot in the kitchen you won't be able to follow the most basic recipe instructions.

Hell, some have a hard time naming and buying the ingredients. "I didn't know celery stalks look like this!!!"

Forget using fire, they will have a hard time estimating how hot the pan/pot is, when water boils, how oil reacts, how shit burns.

Also they usually have problems with portions (holy fuck you think you can eat that much?), cleanup, seasoning, etc.
Oh yeah, these people can't cut for shit either (naturally).


Yes, making pasta sauce is easy if you have these fundamentals down. Just follow instructions. It just takes some effort.

[Anonymous No.3712857]

>>3712669

the same reason people make their own bread or bake their own cookies. it's infinitely more delicious

[Anonymous No.3712860]

Buy a scale.

Not a "damn I'm fat" scale, but a scale for weighing out your cooking ingredients. Should probably cover 1g-5000g (up to about 10 pounds). 1-2500g (5 pound) will work pretty well for normal sized recipes; you may have to measure in two steps if you're doing something huge.

Suddenly, you can know how much pasta to use, based on the package's recommended portion sizes.

You'll also want some measuring cups, but most people can scrounge something up.

>struggling just to make a good sandwich
... makes me wish I saved my turkey sandwich recipe. (Anon? You saved it, right? Mentions the C/Z folded turkey?)

[Anonymous No.3712944]

>>3712840
>Also they usually have problems with portions (holy fuck you think you can eat that much?)

I love it when people say this to me. It's how I know it's time to unleash the Bulldozer inside.

>be a little 5'7", 130 pound shit
>visiting extended family last year
>eating at a steakhouse
>they're picking up the tab so I decide to be polite and not get something expensive
>"No, get whatever you want" aunt assures me
>really, it's fine, I'll just
>"Get whatever you want. You don't seem to eat that much anyway"
>It begins
>I like steak (like, really) so I order the biggest porterhouse they've got
>Thing comes and it's enormous; aunt chuckles that it barely looks like it would fit inside me
>Tear into it like the Red Army and level it
>She appears to think that I'm done
>is_this_nigga_serious
>Proceed to the baked potato and vegetable sides
>Raze them completely
>waiter returns and takes the plates
>aunt: "well, that was unexpected, but I guess you're-"
>her face when I order dessert

[None !ddB8dxMZ/s No.3712950]

Eggs.

Learn to cook eggs.

Whip them up in a bowl, stir them w/ a spatula on medium until fully cooked.

Then branch out from there.

[Anonymous No.3712980]

>>3712857
It isn't though. I make my own bread and the quality is vastly better than shop bought. I have made my own pasta and the difference is negligible.

I do however notice Americans on this board refer to pasta as noodles and boil it for far too long, so maybe the dried stuff in your country is shit. It certainly sn't in the UK and even quite small supermarkets tend to have at least 40 to 50 varities.

[Anonymous No.3712995]

>>3712840
Dude, there is no freaking way someone is too bad to cook fucking pasta. There is NO effort at all. Nothing, nada, niente. Pour water in a pot, put the pot on a heatsource, wait till it's cooking and put your pasta in it with some salt. Wait 10 to 20 minutes, stir sometimes, just try if they're good, eat them. That's pretty much it(for the typical beginner at least). If they cooked to much pasta, they can eat the rest the next day and will know how much to take next time.

I understand that people who never ever cooked in their life won't just cook a perfect 5 course-meal with ease, that's just perfectly normal and fine with me.But acting like everything is hard as fuck(and telling someone you're too stupid to make a goddamn sandwich ffs) is just a whiny wimp-attitude.
I learned cooking at the age of 12. I did it by myself, without the help of books or the internet or parents or anything like that. It's pretty much just about the ability to think logically. Something is in a hot pan? Well, better stir it every now and then, or it will burn. Something seems like it may taste good mixed with something else? Well, it will probably be the case, so just try it. Doesn't taste good? Well, you've learned something know, don't mix it again and it's fine.
As soon as you've mastered the basics, advance, look out for recipes, try to broaden your horizon. I fully support that motion. But seriously, OP isn't even trying
/sigh

[Anonymous No.3713004]

I learned from watching my dad. He loves to cook and is quite good at it and has acquired quite the collection of gadgets over the years. (he has one of these badboys in the back yard, pic related)

However, I didn't really start cooking until I had a live in boyfriend when I was 19. I started off crappily, having a lot more failures than I do now. I always say if you can read, you can cook. Of course, that's not to say that there's no element of learned technique and natural skill. Learning to control heat is key, your first instinct is to have the burners at full blast, this is a fallacy and a rookie mistake.

But basically, experience is key. Keep trying and failing and learn from your failures.

[Anonymous No.3713020]

>>3712995
>I can cook and don't see the problem

You have an intuitive grasp of what needs done.
Not everyone else does.

OP: Watch cooking shows. I learned by watching Frugal Gourmet and Yan Can Cook. Yes, just seeing it a few times does make you less dumb as you see how they do stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jTL5W73k_o

That gonna start you cookin'. Two, maybe 4 ingredients, 45 seconds.

(Julia Child isn't fancy - she's actually pretty basic, when it comes to complexity.)

[Anonymous No.3713026]

other boards will eat new posters alive, here, we saute first.

[Anonymous No.3713043]

>>3713020
>>I can cook and don't see the problem
>You have an intuitive grasp of what needs done.
>Not everyone else does.
That's pretty much exactly the reason I told you I learned cooking with the age of 12. There is no intuitive grasp to cooking(well, at least there was none for me). I, too, struggled to cook more complex things in the beginning, and my first few servings of pasta didn't taste anywhere near my mothers' pasta.. But now here's OP, not googling, not even trying to teach himself just a little bit. I don't know, I just don't like that attitude.

[Anonymous No.3713141]

>>3712944
that's amusing because you're tiny

[anonymous No.3714400]

i personally learned from my mother, and a lot of food network watching... like a lot and also i usually look up a recipe and experiment with it.
believe me you can learn im 15 and ive been interested in cooking for about 2 or 3 years, and i keep learning new things every day

[Anonymous No.3714407]

>>3714400
Good post, very true. Now enjoy your ban.

[Anonymous No.3714430]

just mix oil vegetables and meat in a pan. Cook then add the vegetables. Congrats you have stir fry. Buy a bag of rice and follow the instructions. You now have rice.

Feel free to add the rice to the stirfry after making it.

Want to start baking? I recommend starting by making your own pizza from scratch or making something like cinnamon rolls. Just google recipes for pizza dough/cinnamon rolls compare them to other recipes you find and decide which sounds best.

Your first foods might not be very good. They might even fail completely but unless you have a rock for a brain within 3 times of making it you should be starting to refine it.

Try to understand why you're doing something in a recipe rather than mindlessly following it.
>Youtube Cooking channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/runnyrunny999

http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog

>How to make bagels:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xDAk-ldMBY&feature=channel_video_title

>Home made Gummy Candy

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/01/06/homemade-gummi-candy/


Doing these things, watching these videos, reading these websites and doing your own research should give you the basic cooking skills you'll need for your life to come.

[Anonymous No.3715032]

>>3713043
I learned how to cook by age 8. I guess OP was just used to eating pre-packaged shit since there are a lot of people who are entitled to do so.

Such is life when you're the youngest and the older siblings hate cooking.