Reddit Reddit reviews How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart

We found 24 Reddit comments about How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart
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24 Reddit comments about How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart:

u/atreyuno · 22 pointsr/fitmeals

Hi! Proportions depends on your body and your goals. Here's a typical grocery list in my house:

PROTEIN

  • Chicken breast
  • ground chicken
  • ground turkey
  • Tilapia
  • Beef (weekly)
  • Tuna
  • 0% greek yogurt
  • Bean pasta (Explore Cuisine has 22g Protein per serving and <$4 a box)
  • protein powder

    CARB

  • quinoa
  • brown rice
  • white rice (moderation)
  • salad
  • beans
  • onion/ peppers/ garlic (& other accompanying vegetables)
  • spaghetti squash (instead of pasta, or in a tuna casserole)
  • pasta sauce
  • rice cakes
  • oatmeal (1-minute & rolled)
  • sweet potato
  • FRUIT!
  • Bananas (yep, deserve a separate line)
  • FROZEN FRUIT!!
  • frozen veggies (peas & corn mostly)
  • bread (in moderate amounts)
  • almond milk

    FATS

  • eggs
  • avocado
  • nuts (raw)
  • peanut butter
  • almond butter (MAPLE ALMOND BUTTER)
  • half & half (in your coffee)
  • cheese (moderate amounts)
  • olive oil
  • coconut oil
  • other oils

    RESOURCES

  • skinnytaste recipes
  • the only cookbook you'll ever need
  • simply shredded athlete interviews (they all talk about their diet)

    MEAL IDEAS

  • bean pasta and pasta sauce
  • fillet of chicken (or fish) plus a carb
  • enormous salad (beans, green onions, peppers) with chicken
  • protein smoothie
    • 1/2 frozen banana (key to smoothieness)
    • 1 serving frozen fruit (I mix kinds for a total of 1 serving)
    • 1 serving rolled oats
    • 1 scoop protein powder
    • almond milk
  • spaghetti squash tuna casserole
    • (I literally make this up every time I'm happy to write it out if you like)
  • one skillet sweet potato burrito bowl (add chicken, modify the recipe however you like)

    TIPS

  • portion and bake 3lbs of chicken & 3lbs of tilapia at once. let cool and freeze on baking sheet. Transfer when frozen solid to a freezer bag. Defrost a portion overnight.
  • you can replace anything white with 0% greek yogurt (sour cream, mayo, whipped cream)
  • pick up a carton of your favorite protein bars and save them for emergencies (when you couldn't shop or prep)
  • make perusing recipe resources a regular habit to maintain inspiration
  • you can shred chicken with an electric mixer (it's kind of amazing)
  • make an enormous salad on Sundays, eat for 4 days
  • sweet potato microwaves easily, just throw one in your lunch bag with your fillet and you're set
  • chili is your best friend!
  • so is mustard! All the kinds
  • so are pickles (except for bread and butter pickles... the best kind)
  • so is hot sauce!
  • anything you make with ground beef you can make with ground chicken or ground turkey (sloppy joes, tacos, chili)
  • keep a list of all of your favorite recipes/ meal ideas (things to try) where you can easily review it and build your shopping list. I do it all in one place here and organize my grocery list by department to make shopping happen faster.

    That's a lot of info, I got a little carried away. Sorry.

    Baby steps. Start with whatever. When you find yourself dreading your meals, spice it up. If meal prep stresses you out figure out how to make it easier (that's how I learned about shredding chicken with a mixer). When you falter (you will) figure out what went wrong and how you can improve.
u/hereforcats · 14 pointsr/fitmeals

More of a general suggestion for cooking, but I highly "How to Cook Without a Book". It breaks down types of foods into groups by type/method, and then presents a basic "recipe" for how to do it. For example, it shows you the method behind how to make a basic stir fry or a stew, and then all you have to do is plug your seasonal ingredients into the equation, you don't need to go searching for a specific recipe anymore. More of a "teach a man to fish" approach to cooking.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793

u/Spacey_Penguin · 14 pointsr/Cooking

I'm going to go another route and recommend How to Cook Without a Book because it helped me finally get into cooking. It's geared towards the home cook and teaches you easy recipe 'blueprints', and gives you examples of how you can adjust them to create a variety of dishes. There is nothing too fancy or advanced here, but it gives an insight into how these dishes work and how you can play with them.

For example, one chapter is just about frittatas. First it teaches the basics of how to make one, and then has a bunch of different frittata recipes (bacon & onions, zucchini & mozzarella, spinach & sausage, potatoes & artichoke hearts, etc) with notes on how to adjust the recipe to incorporate the various fillings. Another chapter I still reference often is the one on a roast chicken dinner. Again it outlines the basics first, and then gives you recipes for breaded dijon, rosemary lemon, BBQ, and tandoori chicken all cooked using the same technique.

I know it's not exactly what you're asking for, but it really helped me build enough confidence in my cooking so that I could start improvising more in the kitchen and take on more advanced techniques.

Also, youtube helped a lot.

u/rocksolidostrich · 11 pointsr/AskCulinary

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat is so great at teaching you about the whys and hows of cooking instead of just giving you a recipe. It's my favorite one.

How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson is another great one.

​

u/nipoez · 11 pointsr/internetparents

$250 certainly is not a huge food budget. Depending on how you feel about cooking, you can certainly work with it.

I recommend you look around at various food and cooking subreddits that take budget into consideration. We're talking EatCheapAndHealthy, not FoodPorn. Look at appealing and approachable recipes for common ingredients. If you cook those sorts of recipes, those common ingredients will be staples in your fridge & cabinets.

A few ideas:

  • /r/EatCheapAndHealthy/top/
  • /r/7dollardinners/top/
  • /r/budgetfood/top/
  • /r/collegecooking/top/
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/336mmw/how_can_i_eat_clean_and_healthy_on_a_limited/

    On a related tangent, these are some sources that massively improved my cooking abilities. They might be useful to you, since you mention staying out of the kitchen.

  • How to Cook Without a Book covers basic techniques followed by several recipe variations using the technique. There's a chapter on vegetable puree soups talking about rough volumes and techniques, followed by potato leek soup, broccoli cheese soup, and several others. It lets me stare at the fridge for a minute or two, then start grabbing our random ingredients to throw together. If you're cooking with staples instead of cooking to a recipe, this is a vital skill.
  • Good Eats by Alton Brown, some of which are on Netflix. They're great 20 minute shows on a wide variety of topics that get into the science behind cooking at a high level. Really helpful for understanding the reasons behind recipe steps.
  • Serious Eats is my current go-to cooking and recipe site. Any time I want to make a specific thing, I check to see if they covered it first.
u/factor0 · 4 pointsr/AskReddit

You guys are assholes...she said she wants to do something for herself.

Whenever I get some spare time, I like to read. May I suggest this or this ?

u/entrelac · 4 pointsr/PressureCooking

I think as a new cook you would benefit from How to Cook Without a Book. It's not about pressure cooking, but it's about mastering the techniques that will make you feel comfortable improvising in the kitchen. It's a fantastic book that taught me a lot. As of now you can get a used copy for four bucks on amazon.

u/GlamorousHousewife · 3 pointsr/Cooking

Not a blog but there is a good cookbook called something like, how to cook without using a book. Teaches techniques, not recipes.

Edit: Found it!

u/pl213 · 3 pointsr/Cooking

James Peterson's Cooking. It has lots of good recipes and not just the how, but the why. Also, How to Cook Without a Book and Ratio to learn how to improvise.

u/moogfooger · 3 pointsr/Cooking

Experimenting is great, but doing a bit of reading along the way wouldn't hurt and might spare you some disasters.

On the cheap, Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book was a good starting place for me when I had similar questions / concerns in college. It focuses on a few basics and then builds upon them with variations. Moreover, this text is a quicker read than many of the other tomes out there. You can get it used for $12 including shipping. Used cookbooks are seriously the sh*t.

If you wanna drop a bit more money (~$26), James Peterson's Cooking has far more visuals and recipes than Anderson's. Beautiful text, mouth-watering recipes.

Lastly, I think it makes sense to focus on a certain style of food for a while so you get it dialed in before moving on. That way, you build momentum and better retain the lessons you learn. With Anderson's book, for instance, you could riff on a homemade pasta sauce for a week or two, or mess with sauteing chicken and vegetables a few different ways. Keep a list of what you make so you get a sense of where you've been in the kitchen, what you've accomplished, and what you might want to try next.

Oh, and keep coming back to cookit to discuss. Hooray community!

u/xixoxixa · 3 pointsr/Frugal

Go pick up a copy of How to Cook Without a Book. It will seriously change how you look at food. Also, watch every episode of Good Eats.

u/possum_player · 3 pointsr/Cooking

I recently got, and have been really enjoying, How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart. It focuses on techniques that are simple enough to memorize yet open to endless variations with whatever you have on hand. Useful for cooks like me who resent having to measure things and follow recipes!

u/gorillakitty · 2 pointsr/WhatShouldICook

Me too! That recipe is really good, I got it from How to Cook Without a Book which gives cooking theories and basic recipes that can be customized to what you have on hand.

u/Boston_Pinay · 2 pointsr/Cooking

How to Cook Without a Book is a great one for those wanting to learn basics.

Practice makes perfect. Don't fret if things go badly; they do for every cook once in a while.

u/lightsource1808 · 2 pointsr/Cooking

Pam Anderson's books are great if you get stuck on this, or need a starting boost.

u/gotja · 2 pointsr/CPTSD

I hate recipes because I never have what I need and they're complicated. I started cooking by buying processed and frozen foods and making them healthier. I tried to find foods where I could omit or use less sauce (reduce carbs and salt) and I would buy bags of plain frozen veggies and put extra veggies on everything. Frozen pizza? Add extra veggies? Nachos? Add tons of spinach. Mac n cheese? Add diced tomatoes or mixed veggied or frozen spinach.

Eventually I stumbed across this book and it was so long ago that I remember nothing about it. I'm going to check it out again and see if it hwlps me figure stuff out all over again.

Recently I've developed a couple new food sensitivities and need.to do a stricter elimination diet. I'm doing a Whole 30 (paleo) but modified. It's a pain in the ass because I have to learn to cook all over again since I can't follow paleo recipes (other than hating recipies, they need to be modified and I don't know how to substitute for recipes that are already substituting and working around stuff).

I'm just trying to figure out formulas, what grouos of things and flavors go together. I'm hoping in a way that will let me mix and match easily, so I can prep a bunch of ingredients and cook or prep them different ways for different meals. Pretty much everything tastes bad and sucks, I'm trying.to make it taate good so I'm not subsisting off unhealthy processed foods thst arent' really compliant anyway.

u/raspberry_swirl116 · 2 pointsr/Cooking

Try a simple pasta dish...it's very hard to mess up pasta, and there are a ton of recipes online. Once you have one success under your belt, I think it will be easier to move on to other dishes. Pastas and stir frys are usually pretty simple. Salads and soups are usually pretty simple as well. I usually stick with simple because I can easily get lazy about cooking. The internet is a great resource for easy recipes and there are a ton of books that specialize in easy recipes. I think this book is a good resource for easy cooking:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/glutenfree

Learn the basics. I picked up this book a couple years ago and have tried most of the recipes in there. You learn how to cook something basic, like a big skillet-sized potato cake, then learn how to adapt the same recipe into other things. I bought Alton Brown's cookbook a year ago and he has learned a lot from it.

The reality is that you're going to need to stop eating foods you currently love and find something new that you enjoy. Find a community support group for people with celiac and try to make some friends. I've enjoyed cooking a lot more when I'm learning new recipes to take to a GF potluck.

Off the top of my head there are some quick & easy foods I enjoy:

DISCLAIMER: READ THE LABELS. Ingredient lists change and not all brands guarantee GF across all of their products!

  1. Amy's brand foods. Almost all of their soups are GF and they have some excellent frozen GF pizzas, among other frozen foods. Use their product search: http://www.amys.com/products/product-search

  2. Rice & beans. Rice and beans are easy to cook and a healthy side to a meal or snack with plenty of carbs & fiber to keep you happy. You can do pretty much ANYTHING to rice and/or beans and make it different. My current kick is cooked brown rice with some GF hoisin sauce, some sriracha (Rooster) sauce, and a pat of butter. I eat this as a snack or as a side with a piece of grilled chicken and some steamed veggies. Beans are also cheap and easy as hell to cook. Usually you need to rinse them, soak them, and then dump them in a pot with whatever spices or veggies (onions & garlic roughly chopped usually do the trick) and maybe a big ham bone. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer until the beans are tender but solid. If you don't want to fuss with cooking your own rice or beans then go for some "boil in a bag" rice that you throw in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and cans of beans. I always keep a few cans of black, kidney, and white beans on my shelf to make a quick side dish or snack. Plus, they are great on nachos.

  3. Tamales. If you like Mexican food then find a brand or a local seller that makes GF tamales (I live in southern AZ so I can find people on street corners that sell fresh homemade tamales). I'd say 99% of the tamales I've found are GF, but always check & inquire.

  4. Corn tortillas. Check labels (I know I sound really redundant here), but corn tortillas serve as a perfect vessel for almost anything you can put on bread. I stack two tortillas and cut them to size for a hamburger or roll some sliced turkey meat, cheese, and a piece of Romaine lettuce up to dip in some dressing or hummus. Also, you can always open a can of refried beans, heat it up, smear on a corn tortilla, sprinkle with chunks of your choice of meat, add some cheese, and stack. Pour some salsa on top and enjoy your delicious Mexican lasagna.

  5. Find a local place that makes gluten free french fries. Make absolutely sure they don't use the fryer/oil for ANYTHING that is breaded. I am lucky enough to have a local chain of fast food restaurants with delicious crinkle-cut french fries that are 100% GF. When I'm really itching for something quick when I'm out on the town I get a large fry from there.

  6. For gluten-free beers I really like Redbridge. I snatch up a dozen when they go on sale and keep them around for when I have a beer craving. My boyfriend, who isn't GF, likes it quite a bit and sometimes prefers one of my beers to what he is drinking. I also enjoy Woodchuck and Ace (who has a seasonal pumpkin flavor) ciders.

    Overall, I know it sucks, a lot. I worked at a family-owned mom & pop pizza joint for years with celiac and sometimes I would just break down and eat whatever looked most delicious to me. But, damn, it was absolutely never, ever worth the pain afterwards.

    The main problem here is that GF isn't a thing you do for a few weeks. It is a lifestyle change. There is a lot of stuff you can't do or enjoy as much as you used to, but after a year GF I can certainly say I have a much better outlook on life and I feel great all the time. I was severely depressed and suffered from anxiety problems for years and I seriously think that being diagnosed with celiac and going GF has helped the most. I don't wake up feel like a train ran me over during the night, and eventually you'll find your point where it clicks for you, too.
u/Godphree · 1 pointr/food

Popping in to recommend the book How to Cook Without a Book. Lots of basic recipes covering all the courses and stand-bys, plus the mechanics of cooking, recipes for variations, and pointers for other variations.

First time trying to format a link. Hope this works...

u/BleachBody · 1 pointr/cookbooks

Well if his only restrictions are no red meat or alcohol, he's got a lot of options! But if he can only eat chicken, fish and vegetables, then he's going to be a lot more restricted.

I'd look into paleo, or Whole30 (paleo, but also no dairy, grains, sugars or alcohol) diets and just ignore recipes with red meat - a friend on chemo has had a lot of reduction in chemo symptoms that she attributes to Whole30, recommended by her oncologist.

I like the blog Nom Nom Paleo and she has a cookbook too. Here's her list of Whole30 recipes to give you an idea of what that's like:
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/42057515329/the-round-up-30-days-of-whole30-recipes

And here's the recipe index, you can see you can avoid the ones with red meat, or alternatively just focus on the ones made with chicken and fish: http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex

In general, though, if he has some basic techniques under his belt he'll be able to make lots of meals that meet the restrictions his doctor has recommended - my favourites for that are:

How to cook without a book

How to cook everything

Appetite

All the very best to your dad and hope he gets well soon!

u/jffiore · 1 pointr/Cooking

These are two fantastic books for beginning cooks, so much so that I've been buying them as wedding/hosewarming presents as part of my gifts to newlyweds/new homeowners just starting out.

How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart by Pam Anderson

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen

The ATK book apparently has a new edition coming out in October. They also have a similar version if you are less interested in perhaps the best tasting versus the more healthful options.

u/Glaserdj · 1 pointr/Cooking

How to Cook Without a Book Best instructions to throwing together meals.

u/Francisz · 0 pointsr/Cooking

I usually tell people to check out How to Cook Without a Book. It has some recipes, but it's more about giving readers a better understanding of techniques, how to put something together from what you already have on hand, and what things you should just keep around at all times because of their usefulness. As opposed to a lot of books I've seen that give a list of things to buy which will then need to be prepped with tools you might not have.

edit: If you got money to spend and really dig the art and science of cooking there is also Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. At just under $550 USD it's the most expensive and most beautiful cookbook I've ever seen.