I'd like to learn how to make better food

[Midpack]

Thanks everyone for the many suggestions and recommendations. Now I have an idea on where I need to start focusing my attention.

This may sound odd, but how do you remember everything...like what "tweaks" you made to raise the taste level a notch, etc.?


omni

Maybe someone mentioned it and I missed it, but taste as you go! All great chefs do it! You might want to add more or less of ingredients as you go**, or add/subtract ingredients according to what you like or have on hand. If nothing else, do a final taste when you finish a dish to adjust salt, and err on the less salty side. People can add salt & pepper, they can't take it away. You have to add some salt to most dishes though, otherwise a great dish can be unnecessarily bland.

If you make major changes to a recipe, but all means update the recipe. DW & I like garlic, so if a recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic, I might use 3-4 (though I keep that in my head).

But even after you update recipes, some ingredients can vary pretty substantially - so you still want to taste as you go even when making something you've made before. There's a huge difference between fresh vegetables, herbs & fruits vs less fresh. We use chilies (serranos, jalapenos) a lot, and how hot they are varies dramatically even when they look the same. Garlic varies quite a bit. Dried spices vary dramatically with age. I could go on and on, but if you taste you'll stay on top of your final product.

Taste everything (within reason) as you go, you'll get recipes modified to your liking faster, and be more consistent with your final products thereafter.

Beyond that, a lot of it is technique as others have said, and that comes from practice & experience. Whether you like to read books, watch youtube or the Food network, or attend cooking classes - good fundamental technique will take you a long way. DW & I are both considered decent cooks, but DW is far better at baking than I am, because of her experience. I can bake and follow a recipe, but she is much faster and knows what batters/doughs are supposed to look like and can tell exactly when something is done far more easily than I can.

Having good tools in the kitchen helps. I'd rather have one great knife than a drawer full of mediocre knives. You need some quality pots & pans, but the 10-12 piece sets always have several pans you'll rarely use IME. IMO too many cooks think they need every cooking doo-dad that comes along, and I used to buy specialty items. Now I am looking for high quality versatile tools, and as few specialty items as possible.

** Baking is the exception IME. Where you can drastically change ingredient proportions in most (savory) cooking, precise measurement is usually critical in baking FWIW. Altering ingredients in baking requires a lot more experience. The first time you try a bake recipe, I wouldn't monkey around with ingredients at all.

 

[tmm99]

I think I became a much better cook by watching Giada's Everyday Italian. I watched other shows too, but the recipes on other shows I tried were either too greasy (Barefood Contessa), too simplistic (Rachel Ray), too processed (Sandra Lee), too many spices and/or often too complicated (Emeril, Test Kitchen, Julia Child), etc. Giada's presentations of her dishes were always pretty, and ingredients were straight forward, recipes relatively simple, and the food I made were often amazingly good (the kind people ask you for the recipes for when you cook them for people). That was about 15 years ago, I think.

I highly recommend her show Everyday Italian if you want to learn some light, tasty, Italian meals.


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[Meadbh]

Even a two year old can learn how to cook! Warning: cuteness overload!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AowzEtw4hyc

 

[H2ODude]

Agree with Midpack about avoiding equipment overload. I've invested (?) in some all copper cookware but only a few pieces and love them. Have had a mini food processor that was just fine for about anything. However, did get a standard size fp to do fresh pasta. I find cleaning up a fp to be more trouble than it's worth to just chop up the vegetable by hand unless you're going for a puree or fine chop. If you're going to put a lot of time into a tomato or alfredo sauce, the fresh pasta effort is more than worth it.

I've subscribed to Cooks Illustrated because I like their recipes although some for some reason can be a little hard to follow (I think they need to do bullet points for the steps or more lists).

 

[HFWR]

I mostly use the internets for recipes/tips. Sites like foodtv, epicurious, southern cooking, etc. A quick search will lead to recipes for about anything.

Another option is your local used book stores. Lots of cookbooks, many for a song...

And finally, food network, cooking channel, and PBS.

 

[Cobra9777]

Cooking has always been a passion for me, but I had a pretty limited set of skills, and tended to make the same dishes over and over, with just minor variations. Since ER, I've had more time to learn and try new things. Here's my MO: I go to the grocery store and buy some type of meat or vegetable that I've never prepared before. Once home, I go to the internet and read at least a dozen recipes, taking notes on what I like and don't like, while looking for the common elements. Then I condense all that into my own unique plan of attack. I often improvise once I get started, so I modify the recipe as I go. After the meal, I pencil-in some changes based on what DW and I liked or didn't like. Then I'll try it again in a week or so. Typically after 2 or 3 times, and I'm satisfied, I'll type it up on the PC and save it with my other recipes. I don't strictly follow my recipes, but I do like to refer to them before starting to make sure I don't omit some important detail.

 

[LinCella]

Mark Bittman - How to Cook Everything - great book by the NYT food writer. He works in a teeny Manhattan kitchen and still makes wonderful recipes!

I was very lucky to grow up in an Italian family where I watched my mother cook all my life. Then I became friends with a really wonderful cook who taught me some finer points and now I am fearless in the kitchen. Most of the time I cook without a recipe but I can follow recipes very well. Cooking is a great skill to have!

 

[MikeD]

I heartily reccomend "The Joy of Cooking" for a cookbook to learn from.

Also Alton Brown, The Barefoot Contessa, and, as we call her, "Giardia." for technique and ideas in general.

Plus, I just love watching Giardia, for some reason...

Mike D.