What is the best way to learn to cook?

Pledge yourself to cooking for someone else on a regular basis.

If you have to feed friends and/or family a few times a week or even daily, you will figure it out.

Get a comprehensive cookbook like The Joy of Cooking, which has recipes for every possible occasion.

I second the Joy of Cooking. I also like Craig Claiborne’s NY Times Cookbook. The important thing though is to just try new things, everyday. doesn’t have to be complicated, it’s the doing that teaches.

Get a book called the “New Best Recipes” from the the editors of Cooks Illustrated.

www.videojug.com has lot of great cooking videos.

I’m not much of a cook myself, but I worked in the Lifestyle section of a national bookstore chain for 6 years.
I’ve looked at The Joy of Cooking, and honestly, I think there are better books out there for your money. While I’m sure Joy is great, there are a lot of recipes in there that you’ll likely never use, and to be honest, it’s a huge book that’s pretty intimidating for first-time cooks. There’s a Betty Crocker cookbook that’s pretty great; it has lots of photos and teaches you the basics, with lots of recipes that look awesome. You might also want to look at the Better Homes and Gardens basic cookbook, or Taste of Home magazine’s cookbooks; all three sold very well consistently.

Chef Michael Smith has books out and a cooking show. He will tell you how to simply stock your pantry and how to cook delicious easy things stress free. He’s very down to earth and doesn’t ask you to use ingredients that you have to go to Timbuctu for.

Some suggestions:

1. Buy (or borrow from the library) a cookbook designed for beginning cooks. You can find them online, but I think you would be better off going to a bookstore so you can flip through the book and find one that has recipes you will actually eat. Cookbooks I would suggest would be:
Betty Crocker’s Cooking Basics
America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
The Joy of Cooking
These cookbooks all have much more than recipes. For example, let’s say you decide to cook a whole turkey. A good cookbook will have a section you can read about choosing a turkey, preparing it for roasting, what equipment you will need, and anything else you could want to know. This is helpful because when you get to the recipe, you will know why you are doing what the recipe is telling you to do.
2. The cookbook should have features like: explanations of cooking terms, instructions for cooking techniques, explanations for things like cuts of meat, types of vegetables, etc., with clear photos where needed.
3. Recipe websites can be a big help. I like www.allrecipes.com best. In order to make the most of the site, you should read the reviews people post about the recipes. They often give good advice or offer substitutions. There are also videos and tutorials for things you might not know how to do.
4. Start simple. Look for recipes that don’t take a lot of preparation or fancy ingredients. On Food Network’s website, the recipes are designated “easy” to “expert” or something like that. Get the hang of the easy things before you try something difficult.
5. Practice, practice, practice!! The more you cook, the more confident you will be.
6. Go easy on yourself. Don’t start out planning a four course meal from scratch. It’s OK to just make the main dish, then serve frozen veggies and a salad or fresh fruit.
7. If there’s a community college, adult ed center, or kitchen supply store near you, see if they offer cooking classes.
8. Invest in decent pots and pans, spatulas, a meat thermometer, skillets, a mixer, whisk, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, cutting boards, and knives. You don’t need top of the line stuff or hundreds of gadgets, but you do need the basics. Also, common spices and seasonings, things like flour and breadcrumbs, sugar, brown sugar, olive oil, etc. Most cookbooks will have a list of things to stock a kitchen.

Most of all, have fun! Get some friends over and make cooking together a social thing. Have a dinner party where you make the main course but friends bring over appetizers, sides, and dessert. Then, you all exchange the recipes. Good luck!

@Seelix While I’m sure Joy is great, there are a lot of recipes in there that you’ll likely never use

If your edition Joy of Cooking doesn’t include the drawing of skinning a squirrel, you have to get a REAL copy.

I started with asking my mother and grandmother for easy recipes to try, then just got in there with no fear and did it. I was SO scared the first time I attempted my grandmother’s dressing, but it turned out fine. Since then, I pay attention when a friend or coworker mentions a recipe they like and if it sounds easy enough, I’ll try it out. I like to look through recipe books, pick something that sounds good, and commit to trying it out. I recently did that with eggplant lasagna (which I was nervous about) but it turned out great! I would say this: don’t be afraid of messing up as long as you’re following the recipe just right. Once you gain a little confidence, start experimenting with different spices, veggies, and so on. The most important thing is just to practice.

@jaytkay—Why did I look at that? Poor little squirrel having his pants taken off by someone in clown shoes…

I own Joy of Cooking and use it regularly (although not to skin any squirrels!)- just made some citrus marmalade this morning from one of its recipes- yum! It’s a great book, but the recipes aren’t very “modern”- lots of fat and cholesterol, lots of time, etc.

I’d start with what you’d like to do. Is there a cuisine or specialty you’d like to explore? There are great beginner cookbooks about almost every cuisine.

As an example, when I became a vegetarian,. Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking was my absolute favorite, with its simple and very detailed recipes on how to prepare so many tasty things.

What do you already like to cook, or want to know how to cook?

If you want to transition into cooking Sandra Lee’s Semi-homemade Cooking on the Food Network might be a great place to start. She starts with pre-made stuff from the grocery and does delicious things with them. Her recipes are great ways to get comfortable, and then you can start replacing some of the convenience items with from-scratch components.

Let me third Joy of Cooking. In addition to recipes, it tells you about cuts of meat, measurements and all kinds of kitchen background.

Take a p/t job in a restaurant doing prep work or sign up to work on call for a catering businesses kitchen prep. I did both jobs when I was a kid and they really helped me open up to new foods as well as efficient and quick ways to store, clean and cook them.

The best way is to learn by watching a parent who cooks. My daughter was watching me tonight, expressly to learn how things go together. She was learning how to use coconut cream/milk, and how to stir fry.

I gather that option is not available to you. I think the principle is the same. Find someone else’s kitchen to be in. Maybe a friend’s, or a class, or if that isn’t possible, a video, and finally books. Still, books never answer all your questions and you’re always wondering if you’ve done something right. I would recommend Julia Child’s picture book as being very instructional.

@wundayatta

I would add to that that it isn’t just watching, it’s participating. Some of my best early memories are cooking with my mom. It’s really a thing where you learn by doing.

Depending on how much time and money you’re willing to spend on this endeavor, I have a couple of easy suggestions. One, of course, is a good teaching cookbook that is very accessible to the beginner cook. Hands down, my recommendation is Fannie Farmer. My mom is a chef and when I first moved out on my own, she insistently pressed this cookbook on me. I was ambivalent at the time because cookbooks all seemed the same to me, but almost 15 years later, I see the wisdom in it. :)

Fanny Farmer is like a cookbook and a cooking encyclopedia at the same time. You have your measurement references, of course, but it goes beyond that. It explains terms and techniques, it talks about how to handle different ingredients and why, there are pictures for reference, and really, none of the recipes are terribly complicated. It’s a great set of training wheels to get you started. I’ve since outgrown Fanny Farmer and moved onto more complicated cooking, but I still use my FF for reference. For example, I rarely boil eggs and I can never remember how or how long.

The other thing, if you want to learn cooking and cooking techniques on your own time, is a fantastic site called Rouxbe, which is basically an online cooking school. There are loads and loads of videos, tutorials, and recipes. I’ve used it for learning new skills and it was helpful and great.

A recipe is a set of instructions. If you can follow instructions, you can cook.

Start by picking out recipes that appeal to you and following them to the letter. As time goes by, you will begin to notice the patterns and nuances of cooking. Repetition may not be the newest way of learning but it is a proven one.

or hire me. i work for beer.

I hate learning something by reading how to do it, especially if I have very limited knowledge to begin with on the topic. I think taking a class is a grwat idea to get started, and then once you have more of a feel for cooking you will be able to stumble through recipes more easily. You will also be able to read a recipe and know how it will probably taste and turn out once you start cooking more.

Another idea is to ask a few friends or relatives to show you how they make your favorite dishes. I do this with my mother-in-law to learn how she makes my husband’s favorite foods. She is Mexican and I really had no idea how to make any of the dishes she makes, totally different ingredients than I am accustomed to, different method. So when she visits, or we visit there, she lets me help her cook, and I write down the recipe and what she does. Many times she is not using measurements, many people don’t when they cook, they do it by sight and taste, so I really need to see how much of each ingredient she is throwing in and how liquidy or dry things are, etc.

@crisw – I would say that it depends on a person’s learning style(s). I’m both a visual and a kinesthetic learner and I can learn a lot by watching someone, especially if I’m able to ask questions while they work; enough to be able to go on and replicate what they’ve done. Admittedly, with varying degrees of success, haha. I am honestly kind of amazed at how much stuff I picked up just by sitting in the kitchen with my mom while she cooked.

Actually read a cookbook all the way through. Most people can follow a recipe and still don’t know how to cook. There a lot of tips and ideas in the books that get overlooked.

Help someone else cook. Take some cooking classes at the adult education center.

If you have a friend or relative who knows how to cook and is willing to take you under their wing, that is a really great way to learn—by watching someone who knows how to do it. Explain your dilemma to them and have them teach you some basic recipes (meatloaf, fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, enchiladas, chili) and how to do basic prep work (like chopping and prepping vegetables, cooking spaghetti and making sauce, prepping meat if you’re not a veg like me, and making cookies, cake, quickbreads and biscuits)

Watch Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals, Emeril Lagasse and Paula Deen’s show, they make delicious stuff and they’re easy to follow.

There’s a good cookbook called How to Cook Everything that you can check out here

See if there are any local cooking schools. The ones in my city offer many one day classes for preparing just one item (such as spring rolls) or one meal like an Italian dinner. Do a search in your city online to see if they have any beginner’s cooking classes.

You should also make sure you learn about kitchen safety—cleanliness, knife safety, how to put out fires and how to keep your pots on the stove from tipping over, and avoiding getting burned etc, using good practices to avoid food poisoning etc. This site has some very good information on food safety and kitchen cleanliness for you to keep handy. This one is good for fire safety and safely using the stove and being careful around kids. And this one is very good for explaining how to properly prep your food (before, during and after preparing) and how to keep your kitchen, tools and prep items clean to avoid food poisoning.

Have fun! Bon Apetite!

If you have any fabulous-chef-friends, or at least friends you like the food of ask if you can come over to make dinner, desert, whatever, for a few nights, maybe breakfasts on the weekends. You get to learn to cook, spend time with people you enjoy, and eat delicious food with them.

I learned to cook because I grew up in a family that made everyone homemade. I think it’s the best way to learn: you get to learn all the tricks that books and recipes won’t necessarily tell you, at a slower pace than TV will provide. (How to measurea cup of flour vs a cup of brown sugar lightly scooped vs packed; how to tell when an oiled/buttered pan is hot flick on some water and see if it dances) Of course, I think it’s the best way because it’s the way I learned. So I’m biased.

[oh: I’ve just said pretty much what @a-lot-of-people already said… way to go to me for not reading throughly before posting

Watch America’s Test Kitchen… the BEST show EVER.

@SuperMouse, you’re welcome over to our house anytime. We’ll cook together.

As a kid, I was always in the kitchen just watching my mom cook. As I got older, I was able to help more and more. I remember making my first pan of lasagna on my own as an adult. Just did what I saw my mom do for years. Pay attention, (watch), to friends and family, check out websites for easy recipes, some sites also have brief video clips and if you have access, watch the food network. Semi-homemade might be a good start.

Check for meetup.com groups in your area for cooking. This was just brought to my attention…