(Part 3) Top products from r/cookingforbeginners

The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner: http://www.amazon.com/The-Homemade-Vegan-Pantry-Staples/dp/1607746778

Vegan, not vegetarian, but there are some amazing recipes for really basic staples in there, like condiments, cheese, milk, stocks and broths, meat substitutes, pasta, breads, crackers, and a few simple desserts. There are also some recipes that build on others, like certain soups and stews, or using leftovers and scraps of one recipe to make something new. It's a beautiful book and everything I've made from it so far has been pretty simple and has tasted wonderful. And it's under $15 on Amazon for the hardcover physical version! I highly recommend it!

Buy a (very) basic cookbook and have at it. One of those "how to cook pretty much everything in one or two simple ways" collections. I'm a big fan of "The New Best Recipe" which would be pricey new but can be had for cheap secondhand. "The Betty Crocker Cookbook" is another one that gets a lot of love too.

Read it the important bits. There's stuff in there about types of pans, about the difference between cumin and cardamom and cinnamon and cayenne, about how to hold a knife without cutting your fingers off and how to boil water without setting the stove on fire.

When you have read the important stuff and have begun to get a feel for what you need to do, select a simple recipe and make it. Start small. A pasta sauce maybe, a casserole.

Here's a piece of advice, too: Take notes. Write in the margins or get a notebook but keep track of whether you substituted oil for butter or if you needed less cooking time. It can save you some tears in the future, help you replicate happy accidents.

This book was given to me by my uncle when I first started working in kitchens when I was a kid. It has great pictures and instructions on knife work and techniques. It is a very valuable part of my collection almost 20 years later. This book, The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook is just a whole lot of fun.

Edit: I forgot two.

The Prudhomme Family Cookbook: Old-Time Louisiana Recipes by the Eleven Prudhomme Brothers and Sisters and Chef Paul Prudhomme another fun one.

If you have a place like Half Priced Books go and look though the Culinary section. You will find all sorts of books from textbooks to mom and pop recipe books printed by the local rotary club. Start simple and work your way up. Good luck.

OK, this isn't meant to be condescending, but I was looking for a learn to cook book to help teach my daughter and picked up a second hand copy of Usborne's "Beginners Cookbook", which I have found to be really, really good. It does presume you're a small person, so the supplies list won't be much use for a good chef's knife, but it really is an easy to follow guide which presumes no cooking knowledge.

I have never used a real cookbook, but I watched this mini series on Netflix called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and it was fantastic. Highly recommend it. I just looked up some cookbooks on amazon for you and saw the book there with stellar reviews. It has 100 recipes and also teaches you some fundamentals of cooking and how the ingredients work together. Sorry I don’t know any other books to recommend, I grew up on the internet!

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476753830/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_65lyCbDD3YSJB

A great cook book I found for beginners and those on a budget is called cooking light, a dinner time survival guide.

This book uses common ingredients that you should already have on hand.

Here is the amazon link.

Cooking Light, Dinnertime Survival Guide

The book is about 15 dollars and even covers topics such as kitchen tools and appliances and even shopping and budgets. All the recipes are nutritious, tasty and easy to make in a short time.

This is one guy all you beginners should check out and follow. The man literally wrote the book http://www.amazon.com/La-Methode-Illustrated-Fundamental-Techniques/dp/0812908368 but I'm not telling you to buy it from Amazon, I was a little surprised at those prices myself. I'm sure you can find it cheaper but every cook should have these books in their library. He's a master and a very good teacher.

My advice - follow a reliable cookbook(like this one, my favourite), not recipes online. Once you get better, you can easily determine if an online recipe will actually work.
When I first started baking, I relied on online recipes and they never worked out. Which, I learned how to bake from my grandmothers so it wasn't like I was diving in without experience.
Then someone gave me an old-school copy of the book I linked above and it was a life-changer. Every baked good from that book has turned out perfectly including a Pumpkin Pie from scratch.


Another thing I learned is that people leave out the salt and other ingredients that seemingly don't have a place in baked goods. Don't skip out on those 'weird ingredients' - they are in the recipe for a reason.

Hey all! I wrote a book! It's designed to be a very short introduction to baking, with an emphasis on why recipes call for specific ingredients, what various techniques actually do to the dough, and how to tweak a recipe to fit your needs, while not taking itself too seriously. I'd really appreciate your feedback and support!

Flour, Water, and Everything Else

Awesome. Check out the book 5 Spice, 50 dishes. It's all about using 5 spices to make all sorts of indian dishes. I think it's around $10. Well worth it IMO.

Amazon. This is my latest and I love it! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688131352/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2E8L0E8G9VTFN

Baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli. Rice and beans. Pasta with garlic sauté in some olive oil, with Parmesan cheese. Edit: This may have a lot of good ideas too. http://www.amazon.com/Starving-Students-Cookbook-Dede-Hall/dp/0446679615

My FAVORITE veggie cookbook is The Vegetarian Planet. I am also not a vegetarian, but I like making these as sides or just changing the recipe to add a meat if I want to serve it as a main dish.

The Bob's Burgers Burger Book

Cooking Basics for Dummies?

How to Cook Everything, The Basics?

$10 for the book
https://www.amazon.com/Jerrys-Homemade-Cream-Dessert-Book/dp/0894803123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497364560&sr=8-1&keywords=ben+and+jerrys+ice+cream+recipe+book

ice cream base is a pint of cream, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 2 cupts milk. the rest is up to you.

one of Linda McCartney's books.

Book.
Site.

Found these for you. I have the second one but admittedly haven't made anything out of it yet.

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5 Ingredient Recipes

6 Ingredient Recipe Book