The best Quick & Easy Cooking books: Reddit reviews

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This book actually became a bit of a meme a few years back because it's so sad and she talks about her husbands death and such which spawned the idea for the book.

Subsequently it sent the prices of the book on Amazon and such skyrocketing (at least for a book) at the time.

Here's the amazon link where you can find some humours reviews on it.

Harold McGee's book "On Food and Cooking", has great explanations of the science behind foods and cooking techniques.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_2

If you're looking for pairing suggestions/ideas, the flavor bible is a great resource for pairing flavors. It can provide great suggestions for flavors to pair with your protein and even great flavors to enhance your current sides.

Hey! I just wanted to say, if you do decide to eat veg, it's completely okay if it doesn't happen all at once. I know I had this idea of "going vegetarian" that meant I would just pick a day, and suddenly stop eating meat.

But if you've eaten meat products your entire life, that's really hard, and you'll probably be healthier and happier if you gradually find plant-based foods you like and incorporate them into your diet over time. I did the "all at once" approach, and spent way too much time eating junk/heavily processed food and pizza because that was the only meatless stuff I was familiar with.

Changing habits and lifestyle takes a while, but small, consistent changes will get you there. You don't have to be perfect. Here's my favorite cookbook! :)

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee is highly regarded as a comprehensive background for history, and science of food. It does not have any recipes though.

How to Cook Anything replaced Joy of Cooking as my favorite general cooking reference.

Need to know how long to steam a artichoke, or the ratio of stock to rice in risotto, or what to do with that random ingredient you bought at the store. It's got all the basics covered.

The Flavor Bible. Its my favorite cookbook that oddly has no recipes in it.

Its a giant cross reference chart of what ingredients pair with what according to 40 chefs. You can look up eggs for example, and they list everything that goes good with it... meats, veg, fruits, herbs and seasonings, etc. with the best ones highlighted.

On top of all that theres musings from the consulting chefs on how they like to use ingredients in sidebars near the entries. Famous dishes that made good use of the item in question (but no recipes). And other little tips like when certain ones are in season, if they have a strong or subtle flavor that might overpower, or be overpowered by, others. And more.

I have both these books plus The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316118400/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_atIyAbZ73DT45

I can say I open the food lab for just about every meal. Well worth the money!

Sorry for not making that a link. I'm on the app and can't figure out how to change the displayed text of the link.

The Flavor Bible gets thrown around a lot, but for good reason. It's a great resource when trying to formulate your own recipe. It focuses on things like which foods have affinities for other foods, seasonality, and sensations different foods have. It's a great thing to page through when you have whatever the equivalent of writer's block is for cooks.

here's where I break out my copy of The Flavor Bible:

SWEET POTATO Flavor Affinities

1) allspice + Cinnamon + Ginger

2) apples + sage

3) bacon + onions + rosemary

4) chile peppers + lemon zest

5) chorizo sausage + orange

6) cilantro + lime juice

7) kale + prosciutto

8) maple syrup + pecans

yes I know the first 2 don't really fit with what you may traditionally think of when you think of soup. But #3, #4 and #7 sound really good.

The Flavor Bible isn't really what you're asking for, but it might be useful. https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1520779413&sr=8-2&keywords=the+flavor+bible

Here are a couple of things that helped me:

Binging with Babish Cooking Equipment- This will give you an idea of the right tools that will help. If you can only afford one of these, get a knife. You can get like a $30 knife on Amazon here. I use this one and it's great. You don't have to spend $150. Some of these tools will be unnecessary for a beginner, but you'll start to get an idea of some of the most helpful tools.

How to Cook Everything: The Basics- I recently bought this book because I wanted to learn some of the easy things (how to cut a chicken, how to make the best eggs, etc). This book is GREAT - it assumes you know nothing. It has pictures of what the recipe should look like during prep, during cooking, and when finished and that is SO helpful. I've made probably 25% of the recipes in it (that's a lot in one book, for me). Read through the summary sections (he also includes a more thorough - and probably more realistic - equipment list) before you start to cook, and it'll give you a great ground level to start on.

It sounds like you're on the right track regardless. Hope these recs help.

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs $23 hardcover on amazon brotha 👌

The Flavour Bible or The Flavour Thesaurus

classic cook book is "How to cook everything: the basics". I believe the first recipe is how to boil water (for later how to boil an egg). It grows in complexity to recipes such as pizza. It details what tools you need and how to wash vegetables

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Basics-Food/dp/0470528060

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YouTube is your friend. Most cookbooks don't have enough pictures whereas, in the video, you can see all the in-between information (ie just how vigorously do you stir it) that the new cook will not know but is easily filled in by veteran cooks.

Downers Grove sounds like an awesome place that makes depressing products with the best of intentions, like "Microwave Cooking for One".

It's both. He's got some information on kitchen tools, technique, herbs, sauces, then recipes with tips sprinkled throughout. It doesn't have any pictures of finished food though, since he's shoved 2000 recipes into the book. There are illustrations on techniques though.

Amazon has a preview with a good sampling of what's in the book.

In the meantime, check out "The Flavor Bible." It's a few bucks on Amazon but it's well worth the price. It shows you which spices/herbs work great with different types of food.

I didn't go there but most of my culinary instructors went to CIA and two of my friends are currently instructors there. I also worked in a culinary school so can confirm that students are all over the map when it comes to skill level when starting out. Some had a couple years in restaurants, some were newborns. It is a rigorous program but you will make contacts there that will serve you for life. Its a 'you get out of it what you put into it' kind of place.

A lot of chefs are pretty bad at the non-cooking elements of the business- food costing analysis, recipe conversions, purchasing, labour costs, etc. so its great that the program includes these types of lessons. The reason they want to drill you on moving from volumetric to cooking by weight is because thats the biggest difference in working from books meant for the home cook vs. how we operate in professional kitchens. Lean into the non-cooking bits and it will pay off in real life. The public facing restaurants will also give you a chance to experience restaurant cooking with the support of chef instructors- so baby steps before you leap into the real world of hot line cooking.

For summer school, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking which will give you the science of how cooking works. As well as a decent amount of food history. Read that and work on your knife skills.

As for Hyde Park, its beautiful and has a ton of colleges in the area- Vassar, Marist, SUNY New Paltz, so lots of young people and social life for when you do get time off. But make friends with someone who has a car asap.

You might want to also ask this over in r/chefit [and read thru some of the posts on r/kitchenconfidential] where more pros hang out. Keep in mind, a lot of pros don't put a lot of value into going to culinary school so don't get offended if you get a little push back.

Buy the book ON FOOD AND COOKING the science and lore of the kitchen by Harold McGee. It is fascinating

Came here just to recommend the same book. Harold McGee is great at explaining the science behind all sorts of cooking techniques and food questions. Amazon has it here: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012

This'll probably get buried, but you should consider getting them The Flavor Bible. It's basically a guidebook for experimenting with flavors in a way that won't kill taste-testers. ;)

I used to think not. I actually always used 15%, but after I bought and read this book my thought totally changed.

Now I only use heavy cream. Everything I cook is measurably better in taste and texture. I don't cook a lot with cream, but when I do, only heavy or crème fraiche when called for.

Sugar always wants to be in its crystalline form. Only when you break the molecular structure down by heating them to the point of breaking (caramelization), will it no longer be able to crystallize. Most people use the wet sand method, many cover the pan, others brush the sides, etc. By using any of these methods, the sugar has to slowly go through the stages from soft ball to hard crack, which is essential for candy making. After the water mostly cooks off through evaporation, you have the caramel stage, from which you cannot return!

While this is the typical method for making most caramel, you do not need to add water to make it. You simply add some sugar to a pan and apply a medium heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture has melted and become caramel. Since there is no water, it will not go through stages, so this will not work for candies. It is very easy to overcook using this method. Think of creme brûlée.

For more on the science, check out Harold McGee : On Food and Cooking It’s a total science/foodies geek dream.

Sure, "How To Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. It's the new "Joy of Cooking," written for an audience that's been exposed to The Food Network for the past twenty years, i.e. a more cosmopolitan book than JoC's super-American scope.

To your specific example, depending on who you ask a medium pot is 4-6qts. Salted water is water with a teaspoon or so of salt -- I never measure, I just give a healthy pinch from my salt bowl. You're not an idiot, it's just that cooking is effectively an oral tradition, no matter how much written detail a recipe might have. Authors like Mark Bittman try to cut through that fog a bit.

Buy this book https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316221902/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_Gfv0FbZ2SC28R I haven't had a bad recipe out of it, and most are quite easy to make. The red pepper mac and cheese is our current favorite.

Has anyone tried reading the Amazon reviews for this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/1565546660/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_vote_lft?ie=UTF8&voteInstanceId=R2T4T44VO0POT0&voteValue=1&csrfT=gqbklUkXuIzfPmte%2FRWWhopQwYEZdkuRajzs0moAAAABAAAAAFvrbiFyYXcAAAAA%2B4kUEk%2F7iMGR3xPcX6iU#customerReviews

Also there is one last book you may want to check out: The Flavor Bible.

This is a tool that will help you think in terms of flavors rather than recipes, and it could be the last step going from cook to Chef!

Personally I recommend Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

I've used it for years now and it's still useful.

You can't go wrong with Mark Bittman to guide you. He's got a vegetarian cookbook as well which is wonderful, but his basic 'how to cook everything' cookbook has my faves, I like a little meat with my veggies.