That’s exactly the book I have, Shetts. Got it from my mother.
Not sure if it hits all of ElGuapo’s original requirements, but we’ve used this for many, many years. Worth it for Cheesecake Deluxe alone.
https://www.amazon.com/New-York-Times-Cook-Book/dp/0060160101?tag=qt3-20
Kenji’s Food Lab book is on sale for a historically low price today, if you don’t already have it. Which you should!
https://smile.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087
Price history:
https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/0393081087
I’m mostly responsible for making dinner. The problem is…I suck at it. I have a couple of staples that I make, like chili, hamburgers, tacos, burritos. I’m looking for a beginner cookbook that has easy, healthy meals. My wife doesn’t eat fish or chicken, but is ok with beef and pork. I want to make dishes that don’t have a lot of sodium, saturated fat, or added sugar. Also, I like to use whole grains where possible. The meals are for 3 people - me, my wife and son. I don’t like spicy foods - like at all.
Any suggestions? Thanks
The approach that Kenji’s Food Lab book, in the 2-years-ago post right above yours, focuses on teaching you techniques with tools (kitchen gear, ingredients) rather than specific recipes. Yea, there are recipes for guidance/examples, but the book is more about learning the different ways, and how, to cook meat, eggs, veggies, etc. The “what happens when I do X with Y and the reasons for the results” helps me learn and experiment with food when making dinner versus how my parents just want very specific and rigid recipes.
Also, a fair amount of the stuff in the Food Lab book is also free online – look for Kenji’s specific articles on Serious Eats. He also posts YouTube videos, but lately, those are less about Serious Eats / Food Lab fundamentals, and more about his recent cook book focused on the wok (which I also own).
Additionally, America’s Test Kitchen also has reliable cook book tomes.
For me, at least at this moment, I just want some books that tell me how to make specific, healthy, easy recipes. When it comes to cooking, I don’t want to have to decide what to do other than, hey that recipe looks like it might taste good and be simple and healthy - I’ll make it. Maybe at some point I’ll want to learn how to be a better cook but I’m just struggling to figure out what to put on the table.
I have no idea if these books will fit the bill, but I ordered them. I’d take other suggestions if people have experience with books that would also fit my needs. While I do want easy, I’m not looking for here’s how to make yogurt parfait - add yogurt, fruit and granola. I’m moderately more skilled than that :-)
How To Cook Everything―completely Revised Twentieth Anniversary Edition: Simple Recipes for Great Food Amazon.com
Do you think How To Cook Everything would be better for a novice like me than How To Cook Everything - The Basics? I see that HtCE is updated and published later, so maybe that makes it better right there.
Is this the same type of book that @Thierry_Nguyen mentions (Kenji’s Food Lab) or does this focus a bit more on specific recipes?
Thanks!
Edit: After digging around, we have these following cookbooks already:
OK, maybe I do need to learn some things about cooking, but also need recipes so I don’t just freeze when I need to decide what to make for dinner. What would be the best place to start:
How To Cook Everything
How To Cook Everything - The Basics
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
How To Boil Water
Some other book
I know @ArmandoPenblade is an awesome cook, do you have any thoughts about the above books (or others) for starter books that teach the basics and have recipes so I don’t spin my wheels trying to decide what to make. My skills are very low, I don’t want to spend a ton of time and I’d like to primarily make healthy dinners.
Sorry, not familiar with those other options so I couldn’t say. HtCE is massive with tons of recipes. Get the hardcover version, the trade paperback will fall apart.
I decided to go with How To Cook Everything, in addition to the 2 books I ordered above. Hopefully I don’t just put them on the shelf and never use them. I don’t need a cookbook backlog :-)
Are you willing to watch YouTube? So much stuff on there.
Ethan Chelbowski has been my goto for awhile now and he is newbie friendly. Then there are old standbys like Food Wishes and Kenji Lopez-Alt who puts up videos of him cooking stuff. Great way to learn by watching it done.
I probably do better with something a can easily reference in the kitchen and not have to rewind. I don’t do well working off my phone. I don’t doubt there are good videos but probably not the best way for me to learn and remember stuff.
Ethan has a website with all his recipes you can print out after watching the video to see the technique. He’s very healthy focused, especially on high protein, low carb preps for his workout heavy life. You should definitely check him out!
I own How to Boil Water and honestly still use some recipes and techniques from it to this day. There’s this great section in the middle with how to roast or boil basically any vegetable in a way that won’t overcook it that’s super handy as a quick reference. It doesn’t focus specifically on healthy first options, but most recipes include one or two alternative tweaks you can do to change them up so they don’t get old, or to adapt around dietary restrictions.
It’s not the best cookbook ever, but it was genuinely a great resource for me when I was just starting out!
Sounds good, thanks! I’m definitely not trying to reach your level of awesomeness, but I do want to be able to serve dinner that don’t suck or have the same things every week. My guess is between How To Cook Everything, How to Boil Water, The Easy 5-Ingredient Healthy Cookbook, and I Don’t Want to Cook Book - I should hopefully learn enough to get a couple dozen meals to choose from.
I’d also recommend Salt Fat Acid Heat for understanding what you’re doing rather than just following a recipe.
There’s also a Netflix series based on that cookbook!
Just jumping in to say don’t sleep on America’s Test Kitchen, they are broadly unimpeachable in their methods and recipes. Get the magazine, subscribe to the website.
Well, let’s say I had mixed results :-)
My first dinner was mostly a failure. I made pan fried pork chops. The chops I bought were twice as thick as I thought. I bought a pack at Costco and thought there was 2 layers of them, but they were just really thick. I didn’t sear them quite enough in retrospect too. Then I took their temp at was low by 10-15 degrees and over estimated how long it would take and I overcooked them. Dry and tough. I think those are problems I can fix. I bought a temp probe that I can leave in so I don’t have to guess.
Then I made baked salmon (with my new temp probe) and it was cooked nicely. I may try to pan fry it next time to see the difference. Hopefully I don’t screw it up.
Last night I made meatballs and pasta. I’ve made meatballs before, but I used a recipe from one of the new books. Just boxed pasta and jarred sauce - one thing at a time :-)
We used to almost always just have microwaved veggies, which are never very good - especially since I don’t actually like most veggies. But they are so much better when those same veggies are tossed in olive oil, sprinkled with some garlic powder and baked in the oven.
Thanks for asking!
Another option on pork chops is to brine them first. Basically a salt bath. It helps with flavor and makes them nice and juicy. Also a good thing to do with chicken. I dry brine chicken breasts before cooking them. For thick pork chops you are better off baking them as well, IMO.
As you already discovered, for most veggies, 450º oven with a little bit of olive oil, garlic and salt makes anything good. Broccoli goes from meh to really quite good for me.