(Part 2) Best cooking education books according to redditors
We found 2,018 Reddit comments discussing the best cooking education books. We ranked the 493 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
![All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China [A Cookbook]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pTtai+wtL.jpg)
![White Trash Cooking: 25th Anniversary Edition [A Cookbook] (Jargon)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61xcP2461dL.jpg)
I've used my very advanced internet skills to utilize a search engine to find and link to the very book:
https://www.amazon.com/Alton-Brown-EveryDayCook/dp/1101885718
Julia Child, The Way to Cook. My husband got it for me shortly after we got married, when I was already a pretty serious cook. Now that was about 25 years ago. Man did that book ever up my game. And also forced me to unlearn some things I had been doing that just didn't work out well. How I wished I had had the book all along. Of course, it was only recently published. I still use it fairly often, for desserts and other stuff I don't make frequently enough to have down pat.
It's definitely not a collection of recipes. Though she has chapters on soups, fish, fowl, meat, and so on the recipes are grouped by technique. She shows you how to make some dish or other as a "master recipe" then gives variations on it using the same technique but with different meat or what have you.
>Teaching is so important to the object of this book that it is one of the very few books I know which could easily serve as a good textbook for a course on cooking.
I could hve written this one:
>If you just have but 1 cookbook, this should be the one. Her recipes show you how and in a flawless manner. This is about the basics, techniques, etc. Many of my basic cooking skills and go to recipes are from this book
This is actually more of an anthropological/archaeological question than a historical one, as cooking pre-dates written records according to archaeological evidence. You might want to try /r/anthropology for more indepth answers.
However to give you a reference, Catching Fire written by a professor of anthropology at Harvard delves into the subject.
He elaborates on the idea (keeping in mind this idea is not without its dissenters) that humans evolved specifically to eat cooked food because it reduced the amount of digestive body mass needed to sustain ourselves, thus re-allocating body mass toward brain power.
Namely that cooked food universally results in greater food energy absorption, and is almost universally preferred by any animal that gets a hold of it, but is over time unhealthy because the act of cooking is carcinogenic.
Basically, the specific human adaptation is to have digestive systems that "reduce" (but not eliminate) the carcinogenic dangers of cooked food as a tradeoff for increased brain mass.
Finally - I can share my wok knowledge with someone actually interested!
A couple years ago I decided I really needed a wok. I don't know why. I've never owned a wok before, I'm not a chef (I barely even cook) but I love the idea of being someone who cooks a lot - and someone who can pull off a fridge toss that doesn't end up as an experiment in what not to do. I digress.
Anyway...true to my neuroses, I spent HOURS over the course of several days researching everything. And I mean everything. I've never been happier with a purchase. Below are the things I deemed necessary (again, after an inordinate amount of time researching what was - and what wasn't - needed for cooking with a wok). I also found some great deals (part of all that homework I did).
I bought 3 things: a wok, a wok turner and a book. I've listed them below and also linked to a video on "how to season a wok". I can not overstate the importance of seasoning your wok. Do it! As a bonus, I've included another video of Grace Young cooking live on a morning show (it was my justification for why I needed a wok - quick, easy and healthy!).
14 inch carbon steel wok (yes you need carbon steel. as for the size, trust me, that's the size you want, I didn't forget to look that up).
Joyce Chen 14 inch wok
The Pao (brand) stainless steel wok turner: Pao Stainless Steel Wok Turner
The book: Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young
*this book is $28 - if that's too much right now, you'll live with whatever you find online. I do recommend getting it at some point if you can though because it tells you how to cut things, what order to add things, which oils to use, etc.
How to Season a Wok by Grace Young
Grace Young on morning show, offering tips/advice and cooking live
Good look on your wok adventures. You're going to love it!
Edit: changed a word
Edit 2: forgot to mention...woks are not black! They are the color of stainless steel - they blacken with use.
When Borders went under I managed to score a brand new copy of this book for under $10 from my local one: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Duck-Cookbook-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/160819020X
I'm similar with not buying physical books very often anymore, but I make the exception for large coffee table books with beautiful illustrations; I love my kindle but it still can't replace the beauty and fun of having some of those around for guests to flip through etc.
Hey, thanks for your comments :-)
I'll definitely take on board what you've said about freezing the meat. I actually did freeze it for about 10 mins as it said to do that in the book, but I had no real frame of reference for when it said 'slice thinly'. To me, the way I'd sliced it was quite thin, but obviously I can see now that it's actually rather thick for this particular dish. I will take into account what you say here about using a long knife as well. What's butcher paper by the way? Can that be bought in most supermarkets?
I'm not sure what the brand of the noodles was. The noodles were something of an after thought and I didn't get the right ones. I'd spent quite a long time finding a butcher's that had bones that I could use for the broth, and when I finally managed to get them (had to go to three different butchers and drive around quite a bit before I managed to get what I needed) I didn't have much time left, so just got the best match for the noodles I could find.
I'll make sure to use the proper fine rice noodles in the future.
I didn't use thai basil (what's the difference between thai basil and standard basil? Is there a significant difference?), but we did actually use fresh mint and we also had lime.
I actually scooped a large amount of fat out of the broth as it cooked, but left a little bit in. I'm pretty sure the recipe said a little bit is ok, but again, I had no real frame of reference so made my own call on that. I'll remove as much as I can next time then.
It was all done with beef bones, so no chicken stock or anything like that. I'll write up the blog article tomorrow if I can, so you'll be able to see the full process from start to finish. I took pictures at each point along the way, so you'll be able to see exactly how I made it then.
The blog is called 'cooking from books', and the idea is actually to take recipes in published books and then cook them and post the results up for everyone to see. I came up with the idea after I started trying to learn cooking but found some books had no pictures in them, or only showed the very final product - I felt like it could be useful for other people, and it'd also push me to cook more stuff and try new things :-)
This is the book I got the recipe from
and this is my blog :-)
One final comment - would you be ok with me possibly using your comments here (and subsequent comments) in the article itself? I'm going to mention that I first found out about pho on reddit in the article, and it'd be cool to say how I posted up the results and got some good feedback from you guys :-)
Thanks!
I could keep going but I should stop. So many great ones out there.
Alton Brown's new cookbook? Definitely edible, definitely descriptive and easy to understand why it works to cook things the way he does. In general, I'd introduce her to Good Eats (and the website Serious Eats) as a way to get her into the whys and hows of food.
First, get a good persian cook book: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1540326251&sr=8-2&keywords=new+food+for+life
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My wife puts a couple tbls spoons of Rose Water in our water container, and we drink that. No sugar, and its delicious.
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Buy Tumeric. Costco sells Tumeric pills for like $30/50 pills. You can buy it cheap.
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Dried Mint and dried Shallots. Use the dried mint crumbled in your yogurt. Let the dry shallows soak in warm water, then chop, put in yogurt for a delicious dip.
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Not an answer to your question, but just to be sure that you are aware, there is a POB cookbook.
Agree with /u/X28.
Andrea's book should be considered as a primary text for Vietnamese cooking (much like David Thompson's Thai Food for Thai, or Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes for French).
Luke's books are great (as well as his shows that sort of accompany the books, or the other way around).
I am assuming that you are asking about the book "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog"? If so, yes, it is an outstanding book written by a mother and daughter team. Many food and drink recipes from the books and lots of great narration. Works as a great coffee table book too. And yes.. they even do Miller's in Onion Sauce.
Might I suggest an alternative method? In my experience, the study of the techniques to cooking are at least half the battle in laying a foundation for a good culinary education. Rather than take the direct simple-to-complex recipe route, perhaps there is value in utilizing a hybrid method of learning where the recipes are centered around the use of particular skills in the kitchen. Some useful materials that come to mind are "Complete Techniques" by Jacques Pepin or "The Way to Cook" by Julia Child. Once these types of technical skills are engrained in your cooking process, you will find the true joy of cooking which is much less about following instructions and more to do with finding your "culinary groove".
I am by no means a Chinese food expert, but I do spend way too many hours investigating and browsing cookbooks (I own over 150).
All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China is not by a native Chinese author but she lives in China and the food is absolutely her passion. She pours her soul into this cookbook. My understanding is everything including the illustrations were done by her.
What's neat about this book is it covers all the geographies of China including ones that don't really reach the Western world.
Edit: wanted to add like another poster pointed out this really only whets your appetite recipe wise - there's just too much to cover but she does a phenomenal job explaining the high level differences between regions.
For you.
Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.
With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.
Japanese
Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.
Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.
If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.
Chinese
What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.
For your reading pleasure:
Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.
Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.
Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.
All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.
Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.
Go forth, make bao.
Korean
Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.
You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.
Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.
Thai
David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.
Vietnamese
Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.
TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?
Here you go!
https://www.amazon.com/Alton-Brown-EveryDayCook/dp/1101885718
If you are interested, the book Catching Fire is a fascinating look into how humans may have evolved after learning to cook food with fire.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0097D71MQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
He has a great book as well. I wish I had gotten to visit the restaurant. RIP Kenny
https://smile.amazon.com/Eat-Me-Philosophy-Kenny-Shopsin/dp/0307264939?sa-no-redirect=1
Small things i learned from this book:
don't use salt in eggs before you cook them, it breaks down the protien prematurely.
Spicy brings out the sweet, and sweet brings out the spicy.
http://www.amazon.com/Culinary-Reactions-Everyday-Chemistry-Cooking/dp/1569767068
I think a term that may be helpful for you here is foodway, a relative of folkway. To be lazy and lift it directly from Wikipedia,
> In social science, foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food. Foodways often refers to the intersection of food in culture, traditions, and history.
You might be interested in Louisiana's food history. The cajun vs creole dynamic is fascinating, drawing from indigenous, slave, domestic and aristocratic cuisines—the aristocracy in question being both American and French. Cajun cuisine is influenced more heavily by subsistence cooking, similar to northeast Thai cuisine (Isan cuisine is very spicy for the exact reasons mentioned by the other comment), while New Orleans' creole cuisine is much more heavily-influenced by the aristocracy of France and Spain, in the way that Thai cuisine in Bangkok orients itself around the royal court.
The most well-known older cajun cookbooks, River Road Recipes and Talk About Good!, are time capsules of mid-century American cooking that give us a snapshot of post-WWII, pre-Julia Child American cookery and also happen to provide a very on-the-ground view of Southern, and specifically Louisianian, cooking smack in the middle of the Civil Rights era. You can find used copies of both for cheap online, and while neither is especially useful for actual cooking in 2019 (shortening and salad oil, anyone?) both are a great look at the distinctly American foodways that Julia Child tried, more or less successfully, to smash with her great book, which introduced the idea of the "foodie" in the US. Speaking of cajun cuisine specifically, I don't know that Paul Prudhomme or Emeril Lagasse would exist without Julia's influence, and writers like George Graham are definite beneficiaries of her legacy.
But "food culture" is just history, and thinking about what that means can be endlessly interesting. English cuisine has this hilarious reputation of being absolute shit, and yet it's been shaped by so many amazing historical influences that you can't help but be fascinated by it. Baked beans and blood sausage for breakfast, the first popular Western curries, marmite, tea, and a limitless number of classist rules about who gets to eat what and when, and on what holidays. Why are French and English cheeses so different in 2019? The answer is WWII, but not for cheese snobs it's not. For them it's just the right way to make a particular cheese. Both are valid replies! Why does Whole Foods in the US sell Mulligatawny soup? Because of the British colonization of India that began to westernize south Asian food . Why is there a whole cookbook for Patrick O'Brian fans? Because of the same English navy that, in part, gave us Mulligatawny soup. These are all foodways, going back centuries and still on your supermarket shelf today.
Books like "Near A Thousand Tables" or "Salt" or "Cod" would probably be very interesting to you. "The Book of Jewish Food" by Claudia Roden is an incredible history of diasporic foodways. Cuban cuisine in Miami is an interesting example of diasporic food—Cuban immigrants have, for the most part, been able to hold on to the middle-class status they arrived with, and their food heritage is a cool example of ways that traditions have been maintained by a moneyed class, as opposed to something like Dhania chicken in Kenya, which is a curry that was invented by poor laborers imported from India who didn't have the money to bring their cuisine along with them. Dhania chicken is, by the way, one of the best things you'll ever taste.
Anyway, sorry for the essay and I hope some of that is of interest to you. Just the history of British curries could fill several volumes, and it covers so much ground that it might make a great place for you to start. Shit, I feel like "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith is basically a novel about curry, which it most certainly isn't, but it's a solid launchpad for the great mashup of cuisines that gives English food its horrible reputation, its romance, its colonial history and its obvious place at the intersection of East and West. There's no other cuisine that has representation, if only tendrils, in upstate New York, downtown Calcutta, and every grocery store in New Zealand, from baked beans to beer.
I personally recommend All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China, by Carolyn Phillips.
It goes through the different regions of China and describes their food, different influences and flavors.
It has Uyghur food from Xinjiang, Hakka food from the South, Russian food from Dongbei.
It doesn't have pictures like some cookbooks, but the illustrations are charming and will explain how to do some more complicated maneuvers. I checked it out from my library a last year, and loved it so much that I bought it when it went on sale a little bit ago!
Buy this Weber's Way to Grill: The Step-by-Step Guide to Expert Grilling (Sunset Books) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0376020598/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_S8cJub1NWHPC9
Seriously, everytime someone asks me about technique, there's more than one, which you need because you're cooking more than one thing all the time. It's full of food prep and grill prep ideas for everyone front beginners to seasoned vets cooking off the same grill for 35 years :)
Next, get some good tools. The Weber 7416 Rapidfire Chimney Starter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WEOQV8/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_6bdJub1V731HB is almost must have, they do make a smaller one, but if you use a 22.5" smoker as well, you should already have one of these. I also use a Bond Mini Shovel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X47NJY/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_SedJub063DKB0 for moving the coals around. It's a hell of a lot easier than tongs. Also handy if you have midgets burying things for you.
It's called "The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cook Book" There are a lot of good dishes in there, but watch out for spoilers if you're not caught up.
There is also "A Feast of Ice and Fire" No idea about this one . . . yet.
I haven't looked at a lot of alternatives, but I bought Into the Vietnamese Kitchen on a whim and haven't been disappointed. Well written and has nice pictures, each recipe has some backstory about its place in Vietnamese cuisine and culture.
For Italian cuisine, The Silver Spoon is often recommended as a cornerstone of Italian cooking, but I found it to be pretty unsatisfying, at least in the translation. Light on technique and a lot of recipes that may be authentic, but aren't something you're ever likely to make (assuming you can even find the ingredients).
I believe they both liked them (they are quite good!). We got that particular recipe from the unofficial Game of Thrones cookbook.
link for anyone who might want to buy it. Lot's of fun recipe's in there.
My everyday cookbook is How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman. I recommend it for anyone who's past the boiling water phase and is competent at reading recipes, but who wants to learn to put things together on their own - the stage I was at when I got it. I could prattle on about this book, but the most important things to me as a novice cook are:
By the way, it's crazy cheap on Kindle right now. I'm not a huge fan of the e-book layout - I vastly prefer my paper book - but if you wanted to check it out for $3, now's the time.
I'd recommend anything by Bittman. There are a lot of New York Times articles you can read by him for free, too. He takes a very laid-back, intuitive approach to cooking that encourages experimentation, and I love that!
Another favorite that used to be on my shelf but I lost in a move: Kitchen Quick Tips from Cook's Illustrated. I recommend just about anything from the America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated family. It's not a cookbook, but it's full of little tips on all sorts of kitchen things - the most efficient way to dice an onion, peel a potato, remove a stuck wine cork, etc. It's the sort of stuff you'd see on /r/Lifehacks but all collected into one place.
I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:
Pan-Asian
Burmese
Cambodian
Chinese
Indian
Indonesia
Japanese
Korean
Malaysian
Middle Eastern
Philippine
Russian
Sri Lankan
Taiwanese
Thailand
Turkish
Vietnamese
(edit: screwed up a couple links)
maybe I can save you some money and maybe I can't, but I'll try anyway.
Anything you learn in school is something you'll learn by working in a restaurant. The only difference is that you'll get a knife roll, probably this book, and 15K - 30K in debt if you do school. Instead, you can make money, read that book, buy your own knife roll, and not try to pay off a student loan for the next 15 years while you make 12 bucks an hour.
If you really want to go, OCI is the cheapest and has good chefs.
>Unrelated question, I read that meat should be poached with the liquid starting cold and then gradually increasing the heat so as to cook the meat evenly. However when grilling or baking an oven is required to be preheated, and I read the reason is again, so that the meat cooks evenly. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I know the medium of cooking is different but why is this contradicting?
Let's start here. You can safely ignore advice for starting things cold in any aqueous cooking method (poaching, braising, making stock, boiling vegetables) -- whether it starts hot or cold will have minor differences when it comes to when and which compounds move from your solids to your liquids, and other details like clarity of your final liquid (e.g. a broth or stock). These are fine finicky details however, and will have very little effect on the final flavor of your dish. When it comes to poaching meats, what matters it the final temperature of the meat. The closer the temperature of your poaching liquid is to that target temperature, the better -- whether it starts hot or cold when the protein goes in. The same basic principles apply for meat cookery when grilling or roasting, with the added caveat that you usually want to create a crust through the maillard reaction and caremelization, which requires high heat. Hence the very best methods are a combination of low and high heat, such as Sous Vide and Reverse Searing.
As for categorical learning, there are lots of resources!
One of my favorites is the website Serious Eats which is very science based and has plenty to learn sorted by technique or by recipe.
I personally learned with Alton Brown -- seek out the show Good Eats, or check out some of his books 123
There is no right or wrong way to learn to cook. In fact, the only real way is to just get in the kitchen and cook. Yeah, you will screw some stuff up, burn some stuff, and maybe make some truly awful food. But you will make great food as well.
The absolute best resource I've come across on the myriad regional Chinese culinary traditions is All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips. It's incredibly compare wove, covering the THIRTY-FIVE distinct food cultures that exist in China. I highly recommend this book.
Some cookbooks that I use or are on my wishlist:
Great British Chefs also has some recipes from Michelin starred restaurants.
I have a few favorite cookbooks. One is "White Trash Cooking" by Earnest Matthew Mickler. No I'm not kidding and I'm definitely not not attempting to belittle anyone here. https://www.amazon.com/White-Trash-Cooking-Anniversary-Jargon/dp/1607741873
The others are Mexican/South American cooking books by the flaming gringo Rick Bayless. That white boy really knows how to cook Latino cuisine!
Get this book, it's the best Weber's way to grill
I am in the same position you are in. Love cooking, no formal training, but love the science, theory and art behind it all. I have a few books that I find to be indispensable.
And mentioned in other threads, Cooking for Geeks is a great book too, On Food and Cooking is WONDERFUL and What Einstein Told His Chef is a great read as well. Modernist Cuisine is REALLY cool but makes me cry when I see the price.
Andrea Nguyen, cookbook and blog (and some suggested cookbooks from her blog). Also Charles Phan has a couple good cookbooks.
I like Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Her blog Viet World Kitchen is also good (I'm on mobile, otherwise I'd link). Most of the Vietnamese dishes I regularly make started with Nguyen's book or website.
EDIT: Links to both: http://www.amazon.com/Into-Vietnamese-Kitchen-Treasured-Foodways/dp/1580086659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449674932&sr=8-1&keywords=into+the+vietnamese+kitchen
http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/
>The channel also refused to let him use the metric system, he said.
Good Eats was so entertaining with Alton demonstrating the science of cooking with puns thrown in. Although, my interest waned whenever ounces, cups, etc. were referenced.
>Brown’s latest cookbook, EveryDayCook: This Time It’s Personal, came out in September.
I previewed the cookbook on Amazon. Apparently the publisher wouldn’t let him use the metric system either. I’m hopeful that he’ll let loose with metric on his new show.
Pasting my comment from a recent thread:
>Dean King's Sea of Words and Harbors and High Seas are pretty essential, I find.
>
>I also like Patrick O'Brian's Navy: An Illustrated Guide to Jack Aubrey's World, though it's more 'additional reading' than a must-have, for me.
>
>And of course, Lobscouse and Spotted Dog is the essential culinary companion, if you've a mind to spend some time in the galley and want to shout "Which it'll be ready when it's ready!" as authentically as possible.
>
>I've heard good things about the Patrick O'Brian Muster Book, but I haven't used it so I can't speak to it personally.
You can actually make crepes using flour tortillas! That's what Kenny Shopsin does, believe it or not (http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Me-Philosophy-Kenny-Shopsin/dp/0307264939). And then this person took it one step further: http://www.bonappetempt.com/2010/04/meyer-lemon-crepe-cake.html
Well, I'm half-Chinese. I'll give you two cookbook recommendations which are full of recipes which really resonate with that part of my background:
In addition to the aforementioned Chinese food, I'm just a fat piggy who loves to eat. Here are a few more recs:
Feel free to drop me a line if you need more recommendations. I've got quite the cookbook collection (I love to cook, it's not just cookbook porn) and love to share my thoughts.
Get a pestle and mortar (small as you can find), and dedicate it only to saffron. You'll want to make sure you grind it up so you can get the mileage out of it.
I use saffron for rice quite a bit. Make some basmati rice, take a portion of it (about 1/4 - 1/3) and put it in a bowl with some butter. Take a pinch of ground saffron and put it in a shot glass, then dilute it with just under boiling water (until the glass is 3/4 full). Put it in with the buttered rice and then stir it in with the rest of the (white) rice.
Also, here's my favorite cook book that uses saffron.
I won't attempt to pick one as the best, but here are some good resources:
if you're being honest about her already being above average and having everything, knowing a lot-- take it to the next level:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e71f/
http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Kit-Artistre-600-grams/dp/B0045KOOXU/ref=pd_sim_k_3
tangents you may pursue:
http://www.stevenrinella.com/book/the-scavengers-guide-to-haute-cuisine/ non-fiction book about cooking and hunting and gathering. highly recommend. won't improve her kitchen skills one iota.
http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Adventures-Culinary-Underbelly/dp/0060934913 speaks for itself
http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Duck-Cookbook-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/160819020X/ref=pd_sim_gro_6 original mole gas guy. old-new school, mother fucker.
I recommend this. It's my grilling bible.
If you like self-studying, here's a college-level textbook: Wayne Gisslen - Professional Cooking
Julia Child's [The Way to Cook] (https://www.amazon.com/Way-Cook-Julia-Child/dp/0679747656)
I am a professional chef and while watching people prepare food is entertaining and sometimes also educating I actually recommend you to buy books and learn the basics first.
You can then use youtube pretty well in order to watch how to do specific things, like i.e. deboning a whole chicken for a gallantine, or how to trim certain pieces of meat.
Start with french cuisine. Once you have understood how things are connected you'll actually understand everything else.
If you want something simple and entertaining for the start I'd choose Anthony Bourdaine's Les Halles Cookbook. It's amusingly written and the recipes are fairly easy and they are all legit.
Then there is Paul Bocus. Living legend with three long-term girlfriends.
And of course you want to have Escoffier at your home. Doesn't get much more classic than that.
If you want to get a sense of what drives a top notch chef, watch In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumethal. Very very good stuff.
And finally, if you want to learn something about culinary history I highly highly recommend Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and to learn about our lifes as a chef you need to read the (admittedly exaggerated) autobiographicly Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain.
All this provided, you won't learn cooking without actually doing it.
Edit: Depending on your budget, I also heavily recommend Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine.
Whether it is actually better or not, that's highly debatable and according to taste. But the cuisine in London/ UK is not neglectable and has a very rich background.
One of the most influential chefs in the world such as Heston Blumenthal (which is largely inspired by Harold McGee, an American), Marco Pierre White (he partly wrote modern cuisine, also an awesome person to hear) and Michel Roux (both senior as junior) have worked their careers in the UK. Each of them have defined a part of cooking/ cuisine in their way.
Not to forget the Commonwealth as well indeed, which brought a lot to the UK.
Really been watching too much MasterChef UK/ Australia and to one of my cooking teachers who really loves to read about history/ science of food. Then again, it's awesome to hear and to know as food is a way of sharing love, express your creativity and bonds and is such an important aspect of our lives/ society/ culture.
Some books which are awesome and I also have in my collection are:
Honestly, couldn't forget the latter of course.
The problem isn't just parasites, it's that you don't get as much net calories from raw foods, because they take more energy to digest.
When people ate raw meat, they survived because they didn't need as many calories, because their brains were smaller. Learning to control fire and cook is what allowed hominids to evolve into modern big-brained humans.
Sources: article, book
(Not everybody agrees with this hypothesis, but more do now that there's evidence of fire being used a million years ago.)
Here's another interesting article about other effects of fire on human evolution.
If you're up for a longer read, I would actually recommend Salt: a world history. You might be surprised at why salt is actually as expansive as it is.
"Look Homeward Angel" by Tom Wolfe is pretty good, as is anything by Gurney Norman; Jessie Stuart is a poet, and some of his work tends towards the sentimental. "Plundering Appalachia" is a multi-authored work on the problem of mining and how it affects people there; I highly recommend that. I also recommend this one as well: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1607741873 Its the book on White Trash cooking, and actually has some decent recipes.
Jane Grigson's English Food (1979) is probably as close as you'll get to an English Mastering the Art. It's as much a history and anthrolpological study of English food as it is a collection of recipes, but its recipes are extensive and excellent.
Elizabeth Luard's The Old World Kitchen (1987), which ranges across the European continent, nonetheless contains a fine, idiosyncratic collection of English recipes in its midst (and is probably the best single-volume reference of old world peasant cooking traditions).
The incomparable Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977) covers every inch of the English bread-making tradition, from milling wheat to presenting at the table. David's attentions were usually focused in a more southerly direction -- the foods of France, Italy -- but she treats the baking traditions of her home nation with as much detail and respect as she does those of more foreign locales
If you want a more contemporary, chef-y book, check out Fergus Henderson's more recent The Whole Beast (2004), which is delicious, detailed, and delectable.
And finally, if you want something a lot more chef-y, Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck Cookbook (2009) will show you contemporary English gastronomy at its most ambitious (but also, maybe, its most pretentious). It sure is pretty to look at, tho.
Good lord, it sounds like you ought to be reading George R.R. Martin for his description of feasts. I seem to remember a cookbook based on it....
looks...
Oh gee. There's two.
(http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Ice-Fire-Official-Companion/dp/0345534492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344353796&sr=8-1&keywords=a+game+of+thrones+cookbook)
And there's apparently more where that came from, for instance:
And I know I've stumbled across Harry Potter ones.....
I don't know about an e-book version, but yeah. There are three hardcovers, covering each episode of the show in chronological order.
Here's the first: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Eats-1-Early-Years/dp/1584797959/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480898360&sr=8-2&keywords=good+eats
They're pretty great, and they're certainly easier than trying to find and re-watch specific episodes. Also, I believe he's tweaked a few recipes where he felt he made a slight mistake on the show, so you're getting the most up-to-date version of his recipes that you won't find anywhere else. They're pretty darn great. Well worth the money.
Edit: He also released a book this year called Everday Cook. I haven't read it yet, but if I could only buy one it would probably be this one (and there's a kindle version):
https://www.amazon.com/Alton-Brown-EveryDayCook/dp/1101885718/ref=la_B001JRWOIO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480898478&sr=1-1
Regarding the place with solid info on wok seasoning: I used a combination of two methods. The first is from a very in depth amazon.com review of a 16-inch carbon steel wok. The second was from Chinese cookbook Stirfrying to the Sky's Edge.
The reviewer recommended a three phase seasoning involving crisco, vegetable oil, and food grade mineral oil. He seemed to really know what he was talking about regarding his oven method (which I followed), but I didn't have mineral oil or crisco, so I believe I used peanut oil. The cook book spends even more time on wok seasoning and is very well illustrated showing woks in different stages of seasoning (brand new, after first seasoning, month of use of first seasoning, year of use, etc). As a complete novice to woking it's a pretty good purchase. I don't really like all the recipes but the extensive information on seasoning and unfamiliar chinese ingredients wes very helpful.
From what I remember, I used peanut oil (may have been veg oil), turned my oven as high as it would go, and used fans to direct the smoke out of my kitchen and onto the patio. For a more detailed description of the method, refer to the book or the reviewer. One thing I will add to what they said is to not over oil it before the seasoning. I think the cookbook called for a tsp of oil and I thought "well that can't possibly be enough, it doesn't feel oily at all." I added a bit more and the oil accumulated in streaks on my wok. It turned out fine, but was a little gummy at first as the reviewer describes. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably use crisco as the reviewer recommends.
Another thing I will mention is that all these methods are describing the seasoning of a carbon steel wok. If you have stainless steel, they won't work. There are ways to achieve non-stick cooking in a stainless steel vessel (outlined by BlackfricanAmerican above), but once again carbon steel is standard. Well, actually, I've heard cast iron woks are standard as well, but I don't know how the seasoning method differs.
Regarding heat: this depends on what you're cooking on. I use an outdoor 65,000 BTU propane burner which produces a very adequate flame that is perfect for my round bottom wok. The cook book author talks about round bottom carbon steel woks like mine, but her recipes are written for flat-bottom carbon steel wok users who cook on gas stoves. Her reasoning is that most amateur wokers will be using this setup because it is more accessible. Her measure of appropriate heat is that when a bead of water evaporates in 1-2 seconds after contact on the wok surface, it's ready. She also says more oil is required to achieve non-stick cooking with a flat bottomed wok than a round bottomed wok. And still more oil must be used for a skillet that a flat-bottomed. I don't really know how well this works because I don't have a gas range or a flat bottom wok, but if you do, I'd recommend the book. If you have a round bottom carbon steel wok like I do, then experiment with getting your heat to just below the oil's smoke point. You can do this by preheating your wok to a temperature you suspect is around the oil's smoke point and then add the oil to see if it smokes. If it doesn't try to go hotter.
If you have an electric range however, I don't have any experience.
Further regarding sticking: even with my completely seasoned wok, some sticking still occurs when I add sweet sauces to my stir fries (like hoisin or a miso I've added sugar and sake to). The sugar will burn onto the wok if the heat is too high). Meat, however, never sticks.
Good luck, I'm afraid I can't be more specific without knowing your setup. If you have any more questions I'll try to answer them.
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook
Go big, or go home. =)
EDIT: Yay, I just learned there's a cheap version. No content was removed. http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Duck-Cookbook-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/160819020X
i was gifted the weber grilling guide. It will not be as comprehensive as the amazing ribs thread, but will be something that you can use has a tactile (remember books?) reference when outside on the grill. I've made the transition to charcoal recently, and have used several of the recipes and techniques mentioned.
http://www.amazon.com/Webers-Way-Grill-Step-Step/dp/0376020598
This book is pretty entry level as far as actually applying chemistry to food. I wouldn't say the book is stellar, but it does an okay job of explaining some of the chemistry behind cooking without using too much chemistry jargon.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1569767068/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Even it would require some supplemental instruction on some concepts though.
https://www.amazon.com/Alton-Brown-EveryDayCook/dp/1101885718
Couple of books that I found interesting and informative...
What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393329429/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_nfpIAbT1ETDMW
Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1569767068/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FgpIAbWYYMYXZ
I'm cooking my way through The Complete Bocuse.
I was in the mood to experiment, so dinner was kind of late while I farted around...
Weber's Way to Grill is an excellent book in my opinion. It explains all of the basics and did a pretty good job teaching me. I still have plenty to learn, but this was a great start.
Not bad for a first attempt, don't be too hard on yourself!! I think you used bun instead of pho noodles and agreed the beef should be sliced thinner.
You have to buy the bible, this is my favorite Vietnamese cookbook and has the best pho recipe (grandmother-approved!!):
Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen
Oh and looks like the author posted the recipe on her blog:
Andrea Nguyen's Beef Pho Recipe
For Italian food, I would recommend The Silver Spoon, it is by far one of the best cookbooks around.
Id try this, which I personally like a lot.
In general, I feel that cook books that explain why they do stuff and what are the essential ingredients to a dish and what is optional ("this dish needs the butter or it won't be smooth, but you can change the seasoning") good for learning how to cook.
For essential skills such as knife grips, how to prepare ingredients, and such, that is easier to learn from someone who knows how to do it. Reading about it isnt quite the same thing.
One of the better video blogs out there, IMO, is Foodwishes, check it out on youtube. He explains very well how you can make the food you want with the ingredients you want.
This book would combine my to favorite hobbies, science & cooking. I think having a better understanding of the reactions that go on would help me be a more intuitive cook and baker. Plus it just sounds so darn interesting! haha
I'm mostly a baker although I do like to cook. Baking came naturally to me as I just understood the ratios of ingredients better. I'd like to learn more about cooking though so I can improve my skills haha.
What are some of your hobbies?
I'm reading this currently and I think it's quite good. A little disorganized, and he takes the chemistry pretty slowly (which is good and bad) but overall I think it's worth checking out.
You might be interested in this book inspired by the Aubrey Maturin series of nautical novels. Perhaps the OP has a professional opinion about this work and the novels.
Los gehts mein herr.
What you need to do is two things: First, in all major cities in Germany you can get vegetables delivered weekly directly from a farmer to your home. You pay a set amount of money every week and they send you whatever just finished growing. This way you cook with seasonal goods and you start to eat stuff you wouldn´t normally buy. Second, because you need to know how to cook with vegetables you have never heard of, get this cookbook: Silver Spoon. Its a traditional italian cookbook that covers even the most basic recipes and, more importantly, is sorted by ingredients. Combine both and you will expand your culinary horizon in no time...
My current favourite is quiche in every way imaginable. Start with this:
Get some puff pastry - "Blätterteig" (frozen or refrigerated) and cover the inside of an oven-proof casserole or cake pan. If you got some "Blätterteig" left after that, dont worry, you can use it later...
Now saute some onions, scallions or leek and some bakon cubes and put them in the casserole.
Beat some eggs (3 to 4), add 250 ml cream and one cup (the one you buy them in, not the measurement) creme fraiche, whip that shit, add salt and pepper and some ground nutmeg if you have and pour everything in the casserole.
Now scrape some cheese (Gruyere works best for me) over the casserole and put it in the oven at 180 C until the cheese looks yummy. Let it set and cool for a bit and eat, works best with salad.
In the end it should look something like this
"The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos" by Robb Walsh fits the description. It's full of stories about the history of Tex-Mex, and the recipes are pretty good, too.
https://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880
Weber's Way to Grill is an excellent cookbook for beginning grillers. I refer back to it for temps and recipes all the time. Great book, even if you don't use a Weber grill.
The cuisine of the trashy.
The Way to Cook - Julia Child
I was fortunate to receive some awesome stuff on my wishlist: a mandoline, Thermapen, and a 7 1/4 quart enameled Dutch oven.
I also got some cookbooks:
Persiana,
Food of Life, and
Ceviche: Peruvian Kitchen
Edit: formatting
Bittman's How to Cook Everything Fast is my new bible: http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Fast-Better/dp/0470936304
Serious Eats mentioned elsewhere here is also reliably great, especially The Food Lab. But I don't have the patience to cook a lot of the recipes. If you're like me, ditto the advice to cook big for a week. I'd add in crockpot recipes too.
Random other things that have helped me:
Larousse Gastronomique
Mastering the Art of French Cooking - Julia Child
Paul Bocuse:The Complete Recipies
Highly recommend these two books:
How to Grill
Weber's Way to Grill
Hey, it's no bother! I've been powering through all the novels (there are 20 of them) and my wife got me this cookbook that has recipes for all the food mentioned in the books: http://www.amazon.com/Lobscouse-Spotted-Dog-Gastronomic-Companion/dp/0393320944
This is what you are looking for . It's a good read for the history and the recipes are spot on.
http://masteringpersiancooking.com/2014/12/10/khoresht-gheymeh-bademjan/
You didn't mention split peas so it could've just been khoresht bademjan.
https://www.196flavors.com/iran-khoresh-bademjan/
I highly recommend the cook book Food of Life, if you're interested in other persian cooking. https://www.amazon.com/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X
The one book that has changed my cooking game was The Way to Cook by Julia Child. It’s not the cheapest book, but can be gotten for $12 used it looks like.
I grew up with Mexican/Spanish cuisine being my forté. And I get Thai influence from my wife. But the fundamentals and education in that book are universally applicable. The great thing is that if I want a spin on one of Julia’s recipes, I can google it and a dozen people have made variations of each recipe due to her influence in the cooking world.
Serious Eats is a wonderful website for getting the why behind the how in cooking as well.
I wish you all the best!
I have it! I have not tried any of the recipes yet, but I'd say there is a good variation of easy and difficult recipes. I also like that they include modern versions of each recipe in the book, you know, in case you can't find any fresh snake for dinner. A few really tasty looking bread recipes as well. The Unofficial Cookbook also has a lot of Mead and Beer recipes, so I might have to pick that one up as well.
Melt the butter, add the rest of it, mix well, pour over strawberries that are set into a 9 by 9 (or so) baking dish you can put on the grill, grill on direct high for 8-12 minutes (my original time was off).
If you are curious it's from this book which is awesome
I've really enjoyed everything I've made from Viva Vegan, which is chock full of Latin food from Central to South America (so definitely different from a Mexican cookbook, and not Mexican food heavy in the slightest, so probably not a lot of overlap). It has more of a this is how my mom/abuelita/tia/o made it point of view than a this is how they made it ages ago because blah blah grow really well in this region kind of thing.
This one isn't vegetarian, but it's a great book anyway, and probably a good compliment to an actual Mexican food cookbook - Tex-Mex by Robb Walsh has history and historic recipes from Texas' chili queens, the original Ninfa's, and so many other huge Tex-Mex institutions in Texas that we, our parents, and grand parents grew up with. I'm vegan now, but frequently go back to this book when I want to make something at home that I could easily use seitan/jackfruit/Daiya/whatever in and could never get out at a restaurant.
How do you like Salud? I've been thinking about checking it out.
http://www.amazon.com/White-Trash-Cooking-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1607741873
Mrs Henry Dorsey Short's Real Country-Smoked Ham is incredible. It's basically a bourbon-braised slow-cooked ham. Our cousin cooked this for us and you could smell it all the way to the mine. It was so tender and delicious I broke up with her mom and married her instead.
This book will change your life. http://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880
Recommended Reading. The recipes can be hit or miss, but there are some real gems. Most require very few pots and pans (skip anything that requires a breading station, never worth it). For cheap avoid the ones that require Kombu, Bonito Flakes, Crab, and Scallops and you should be good. The soups, salads, and americanized ethnic food are where it shines.
I would definitely recommend getting Professional Cooking or The Professional Chef, then. Either of them will give you the solid foundation you're looking for.
Most anything coming from the Culinary Institute of America is trustworthy, as is Alton Brown and Julia Child. America's Test Kitchen (and Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country Magazines) is fantastic... they do a lot of recipe and product testing, which saves you the effort, energy & resources. They give you a recipe, but also go into a bit about WHY it worked.
No problem. I'll be posting more vegetarian dishes here (hopefully mainly vegan ones), Iranian cuisine is very veg friendly :) If you're into cookbooks, the famous anad amazing Iranian chef Najmieh Batmanglij has a released a book called Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies that has vegetarian recipes, shouldn't be too hard to veganize them
If you like Tex-Mex, I recommend The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh. Interesting read, fun old photos, and really good recipes. I grew up in Houston, and moved across the country 16 years ago. These recipes take me right back to Texas.
This book covers it nicely. Our digestive system is not an exact match of our fellow great apes. We have extremely small stomachs which lack the capacity to thrive entirely on uncooked food. It is possible to survive on uncooked food but the our system is so inefficient at it that at maximum stomach capacity all day you are barely getting enough calories to stay alive. Without modern genetically engineered energy-dense raw foods as well you would lose ancillary functions on a raw food diet such as sexual function. Our saliva and enzyme system, chewing, cooking, small stomach, unique intestinal flora make us a very different kind of ape.
I love this book [Weber's way to grill] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0376020598/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=56001599729&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=753396277644651227&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_6qoi7y1woo_b)
Just got this yesterday.
Hopefully I can start creating some of these wonderful dishes at home.
Aside from the salt.
Recommended reading:
https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky-ebook/dp/B00BPDN33W
10 or under
Game of Thrones cookbook
you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.
I'm not Italian, but I know Italian-American chefs who swear by it. I've cooked some of the recipes and they were great, however steer clear of the baking section, something happened in the translation or something (at least in the edition I used) because the baking recipes are useless.
I bought my Joy of Cooking as a poor college student. It is now 26 years old, and it will be handy to the kitchen for the rest of our days. Terrific book.
Alton Brown's your man, via TV, the web and the first book, especially. I'm Just Here For The Food is a better teaching book than Joy, though nothing beats Joy's comprehensiveness.
And, IMHO, Julia Child is the woman, though I'd recommend her The Way To Cook as the one book to get, if you have to pick one. We actually carry it with us when we travel for Thanksgiving. I was going to leave our copy at the in-laws, but my wife didn't want to part with it, even though I was going to order another one. Mrs. Child considered it her magnum opus, and she designed it carefully to teach someone how to cook.
What everyone says about 'just try it' and 'tweak your recipes' is true. Practice is where it's at, but informed practice will get you where you want to go much more quickly.
Happy cooking and Bon Appetit!
His newest book is EveryDayCook.
You can also find more of his older books (besides the big 3) on his Amazon Profile.
That documentary is one of the best I've ever seen. He has a book out now.
http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Me-Philosophy-Kenny-Shopsin/dp/0307264939/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301019170&sr=8-1
Jeweled Rice from this cookbook. Yes, worth it! https://www.amazon.com/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307264939/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Iz5xCb5MCAZ0W
The Way to Cook by Julia Child - 1993 It's a classic. I use it once a week.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Cook-Julia-Child/dp/0679747656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413930864&sr=8-1&keywords=the+way+to+cook
Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking by Simon Quellan Field.
I highly recommend it! It is one I frequently lend to friends by their request.
Link
The Big Fat Duck by Heston Blumenthal is a book I dream about owning, but probably never will. The Fat Duck is probably more feasible. Hopefully this opens up a rabbit hole is your search.
She might enjoy “Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking” by Simon Field. It’s a bit disorganized but has some interesting recipes/experiments and is fairly accessible.https://www.amazon.com/dp/1569767068/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2ed-BbHSMXF8N
Seconding the Serious Eats Wok 101 series. And if you're ever going to get a book about wok cooking, Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge should be it.
As for my personal experience, a wok works best on gas stoves, okay on electric coil, really terrible on those flat top surfaces. They're good for small kitchens since they're clean with a quick wipe of water in the sink and can generally take the place of several other pots and pans, though it might be hard to find dedicated cabinet space for it. And think outside of the box: the wok can be used to make popcorn, or a breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, not just traditional meat-and-veggie stir frys.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BPDN33W/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Please avoid requests for recipes for specific ingredients or dishes (unless it's obscure and Google has failed you) and prompts for general discussion or advice. As a general rule, if you are looking for a variety of good answers, go to /r/Cooking. For the one right answer, come to /r/AskCulinary.
This being said, generally speaking taco's and nacho's are both made from Masa flatbread which are called tortillas. Burritos and quesadillas are going to be made from a wheat flour based flat bread.
Though you will find Taco's south of the border, it looks like the cuisine you are actually interested in would be Tex-Mex or Southwestern US cuisine. Nacho's, Quesadillas, and Burrito culture is largely Americanized even though some of them still have roots in Northern mexico.
Additionally, Mexican cuisine is both diverse and very regional. The essential cuisines of Mexico is supposed to be a very good cookbook if English is your first language. It is by Diana Kennedy. I would not expect that it is really going to show you the kind of cuisine you are actually looking for though. Oaxaca Al Gusto was also highly recommended by Kenji of serious eats as well.
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cuisines-Mexico-throughout-recipes/dp/0609603558/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Rick Bayless is another go to. Mexican Every day is another very highly rated cookbook for mexican cuisine.
https://www.amazon.com/Mexican-Everyday-Recipes-Featured-Season/dp/039306154X/?tag=serieats-20
I believe something like this though will be closer to what you are actually wanting.
https://www.amazon.com/Tex-Mex-Cookbook-History-Recipes-Photos/dp/0767914880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299551913&sr=8-1
Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin
or possibly
Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen
they both look like a lot of fun.
If you can get to a library, the book Culinary reactions is a fabulous layman-level book about food chemistry.
One VERY easy concept is the use of baking powder in food! This should be a good place to start
Here's a drawing of a penguin I did, sorry I didn't write the timestamp and my username on the picture- I only realised I had to after I had scanned the picture in :L Hope you like it, I like him- he's a cutie ;3 I would absolutely love this GOT cookbook! :D
I recommend the cookbook How to Cook Everything Fast by Mark Bittman.. It has lots of recipes with easy-to-follow instructions and suggestions of how to adjust many of the recipes. Local libraries have copies if you want that: link.
Publix publishes recipes in its stores, and I have one of their binders with a handful of the ones I thought seemed good.
Also have to second The Joy of Cooking (mentioned by someone else).
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-season-a-wokcooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-171893
From this website you will find a few basic recipes from Grace Young. She is my wok guru, if such a thing ever existed. My partner purchased one about six months ago, I found the link above and never looked back!
For under $100, you could get yourself a nice wok, spatula (I found mine at BBB for $10, and they always have coupons. Couldn't find it on their website but here it is at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Silicone-Flexible-Omelet-Turner/dp/B000JPXRGK/ref=pd_sim_k_4), her cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Stir-Frying-Skys-Edge-Ultimate-Authentic/dp/1416580573/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345839270&sr=8-1&keywords=grace+young+stir+frying+sky%27s+edge), and a few essential reoccurring ingredients. Happy woking!
and then read his cookbook!
For what it's worth, my meals were
and I used the Homesick Texan's food blog and "The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos." Best sources, in my opinion. And the cookbook can go on my coffee table, too...
The Silver Spoon is also my favorite Italian cookbook :))
If you don't already have this, get it:
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Life-Ancient-Persian-Ceremonies/dp/193382347X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343693916&sr=8-1&keywords=new+food+of+life
All my favorite recipes are right out of Grace Young's Stir Fry to the Sky's Edge so here's the Amazon link. Salt and pepper shrimp, stir fried beef noodles, chicken fried rice, stir fried bok choy (any vegetables really). Instructions are straightforward, there are plenty of pictures to whet your appetite and I really enjoyed the introduction chapter on seasoning the wok and wok techniques. She gives just the right amount of information without overwhelming a newbie.
This looks like an awesome book! It's in the hardcover paperback list. Thanks, and I hope everything has gone well!
here it is
http://www.amazon.com/White-Trash-Cooking-Anniversary-Edition/dp/1607741873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376269849&sr=8-1&keywords=white+trash+cooking
I would look at this book:
Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/208020095X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rkkjybM2R3694
It contains many recipes for traditional French dishes like onion soup, sole meunière, bœuf bourguignon.
As far as techniques go, I found this book to be the best:
The Professional Chef https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470421355/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_vmkjybW84N5YZ
Especially the section on stocks. It also has a lot of French recipes.
Cooking / use of fire is one characteristic that all human societies have, and no nonhuman animals have. Relying on heat to pre-digest our food (break it down) allowed us to grow big brains and become human. This book describes how in great detail, and even finds evidence in the fossil record for when our ancestors started regularly using and controlling fire.
Tl;dr: Horses are evolved to eat grass, cats are evolved to eat raw meat, humans are evolved to eat cooked food.
Also: apparently all animals prefer cooked food when offered.
So, the best cook book I know of for learning specifically is how to cook everything fast by Mark Bittman. It covers how to interweave prep, recommends side dishes to go with main dishes, and has reasonably accurate time breakdowns of timing.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Fast-Better/dp/0470936304
A cookbook that shows you how to cook fast It's always nice to be able to cook yummy food and not have it take all day. I think you should go to the movies this weekend. I love watching movies.
Could I ask for a combo of items? I need these books (used if possible :P) for next semester:
$5.71 Nihilist Girl
$3.15 Notes from the Underground
$4 Italian Dictionary
And then these:
$6.62 Game Of Throne cookbook
$5.13 Hunger games cookbook
=$24.61
Yay!
Thanks for this contest.
Near a Thousand Tables is a great history of food and cooking. Salt: A World History is also really interesting and thorough, though long (I never finished reading it). It covers many aspects of human history through the lens of salt - think trading, food preservation, geopolitics - which I found fascinating and a novel way of tying many different fields together.
My dear friend, one can learn a lot about a culture by their history of food. Texas is known as a BBQ state. What you may or may not know, is that Texas was once part of Mexico and there is a Mexican influence, it's known as Tex-Mex. There is a guy named Robb Walsh who has written two great books on each topic. What I like about each book is they have recipes but they also have details history about how and why, with small stories about regardless of differences in color, culture or class, everyone loves great food.
I would suggest the following books for you to read:
Legends of Texas BBQ and The Tex-Mex cookbook
Here is the mobile version of your link
I like roasting it at a real high temp to get super crispy skin and tender meat... I think I used a test kitchen recipe but here's another http://www.savorsa.com/2013/01/easiest-and-best-high-heat-roast-chicken-gets-our-vote/
And best book for spice blends or marinades (for ALL types of meat) is this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0376020598?cache=91b502bf1ba3a7cb7e324514d079bfe2&pi=SL500_SY115#ref=pd_aw_sims_1 also really, really great, easy, sophisticated grilling recipes.
My bookshelf for cooking includes:
I am well beyond your average home cook but I hate dealing with the cleaning up, I'm not cooking for anyone but myself and dealing with getting groceries is just a pain & a combination of laziness on my part.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Link: Game of Thrones
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).
Is that from the White Trash Cooking book?
Upvote. Thanks for the link. Rob Walsh is one of the best food writers Texas has ever produced. Used to write for the Chron way back in the day, then was food editor for the Houston Chron later on. Always a great read.
His book on the history of Tex-Mex food should be required reading. He also is part owner of one of the best Tex-Mex restaurants in the state.
He's got a great blog, too. Covers many aspects of Texas food and food happenings in Texas. Goes way beyond Tex-Mex.