(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best cookbooks, food & wine books

Here's my list of gift ideas! Mostly stuff I own and love:

1. This blanket is soooo soft and warm and feels more expensive than it is. It's my fave blanket to cuddle up with on the couch. I've washed it a bunch of times and it doesn't get pilly. https://www.wayfair.com/bed-bath/pdp/eddie-bauer-fairisle-indiana-fleece-throw-blanket-erb1198.html?refid=TEM_WF178294&mmid=1836553907&csnid=2704DFEA-3249-43C6-A15B-609AA2148800&libra_c=&libra_d=&libra_g=&cltr=
   
   
2. Just bought myself this cute slouchy hat from Madewell. It's soft and the color is on point. https://www.madewell.com/kent-beanie-in-coziest-yarn-H3306.html?dwvar_H3306_size=ONE%20S&dwvar_H3306_color=PK6774&cgid=accessories-hats&position=7&position=7&activeChunk=0#start=1
   
   
3. This is my forever holy grail hair product! Makes my hair so soft. It's better for people with thicker/coarser hair, I think it could be a bit heavy for fine/thin hair https://www.sephora.com/product/hairdresser-s-invisible-oil-P375391
   
   
4. I've sent a box of Jenni's ice cream multiple times for a gift and it's always a hit. They send it on dry ice and the packaging is cute. There are fun flavors to chose from plus the classics (I sent this to my sister last year and she was obsessed with the Riesling Poached Pear flavor) https://jenis.com/gifting/
   
   
5. I read this cookbook this year and loved it. It's more of a book on learning to cook on your own, than a typical cookbook, but also includes recipes. https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830
   
   
6. Society6 has tons of stuff (total black hole for browsing, beware) but I own and have gifted their makeup bags which come in a zillion fun prints. They also have tote bags which could be a good gift. I'm a cat lady and use this one for makeup when I travel: https://society6.com/product/a-lot-of-cats_carry-all-pouch?sku=s6-998120p51a67v445
   
   
7. I think I'm about to gift myself this vest this year for Christmas :) https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/118915?page=mountain-pile-fleece-vest-misses&bc=12-27-610-504729&feat=504729-GN3&csp=f
   
   
8. This is on like every gift guide ever, but for a reason! My mother-in-law got me one of those Barefoot Dreams sweaters last year and it is SO soft and cozy. I love it for long airplane rides. https://shop.nordstrom.com/s/barefoot-dreams-cozychic-lite-calypso-wrap-cardigan-nordstrom-exclusive/3112763?origin=category-personalizedsort&breadcrumb=Home%2FBrands%2FBarefoot%20Dreams%C2%AE&color=black
   
   
9. Have you seen the Sephora scent samplers? I think these are the best deal ever. You get a sample of 15 different perfumes. And the kit includes a certificate to redeem for a full-size bottle of whichever of the 15 perfumes that you liked best. (The price of the full size bottles is pretty similar to the price of the kit, so it's like getting a bottle plus the 15 samples for free.) Maybe a good gift for a teen girl? https://www.sephora.com/product/holiday-perfume-sampler-P435370?icid2=products%20grid:p435370:product
   
   
10. Last one: My forever favorite gift is a gift certificate for a massage! My husband gets me this for my birthday every year and I always look forward to it :)
    
    EDIT: I guess I'm overflowing with gift ideas today, here are some more:
    
    
11. These wine glasses are pretty: https://www.worldmarket.com/product/recycled+stemless+wine+glasses%2C+set+of+4.do?sortby=ourPicks
    
    
12. These candles are a cute idea. I just got one for my sister but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't review it. https://homesickcandles.com/
    
    
13. If you want to send flowers or a real wreath, I have bought flowers through TheBouqs.com for a few years and loved them. Sending a holiday wreath could be a good idea for like an mother-in-law or grandma who already has everything.
    
    
14. Every year I send my Grandma a Williams Sonoma food gift. Last year it was these chocolate croissants. https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/chocolate-croissant/
    
    
15. My sister got me a few months of a Birchbox subscription last year. It was not something I would have bought for myself but I enjoyed it! You could also gift one of the cooking box subscriptions like Blue Apron, etc.

> Molecular Gastronomy

It helps to not call it that. It's misleading and doesn't describe what's being done. Most in the industry shy away from that phrase. Modernist cuisine is more accepted these days.

As for modernist chefs, others have mentioned Blumenthal. I'll list a few for you to look into:

• Ferran Adria is the grandfather of the entire movement, and is extremely open with sharing his knowledge with the world. He's done some lectures for the Harvard food and science lecture series. You can find videos on youtube from past years. (From my recommended list for you, I think all but Daniel Humm have done the lecture series at some point.)
  
• Grant Achatz is known for it as well. His creations are definitely a little more out there and conceptual, but utterly stunning to experience. One of the most fun meals I've ever had. If you're ever in Chicago, a meal at Alinea is worth going for if you've got the cash. Do make sure to swing by Aviary (also by Achatz) for drinks and bites, whether you go to Alinea or not. Drinks are each very unique and all good across the board. Don't miss out on the bites. (FWIW Chicago seems to be a city that's open to experimentation, so there's a few other places that do modernist food in town that aren't bad.)
  
• Jose Andres worked under Adria for a bit, but has been doing his own thing in the US. He pays homage to his roots, and does some great tapas. He's got a few locations across the States, so might be worth seeking out. I've only been to The Bazaar in LA/BevHills. Let me know if you want to know more about the food there, since I personally believe there are some things that you must get there, along with some that are good but not as interesting.
  
• Daniel Humm's Eleven Madison Park is also amazing, and worthy alternative to Alinea if NYC is easier. There's definitely differences, but worth seeking out. I haven't been, but I've heard very good things and it's on my list for the next trip to NYC.
  
• Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 is also interesting (NYC but closing soon IIRC due to location issues; may reopen or do other stuff at some point). He uses modernist techniques in an almost invisible way, where something may seem, smell, or taste normal, but it's actually made using something else entirely.
  
  I'm obviously missing a ton of chefs. Due to the history of El Bulli/Adria, there's a lot of modernist cuisine in various places in Spain. The above is by no means comprehensive, but just what I'm remembering off the top of my head as an American.
  
  But on modernist cuisine, the real exceptional chefs are the ones that use them as tools in their trade, instead of doing modernist techniques just for the sake of them. I've had way too many meals where they'd have a component of a dish where they probably thought it'd be cool and hip, but ended up adding absolutely nothing to the dish (Foams are a big problem here).
  
  For modernist cuisine, it really helps to go out to eat and experience it for yourself. Trying to execute without having experienced it is like trying to play Beethoven without any experience hearing it played by others before. This will actually likely be a small price to pay, given the $$$$$ you'll be sinking into equipment. When dining, feel free to ask questions. Waiters at most of these fine dining-ish establishments will know their shit, and will go ask the cooks/chef if they don't know the answer off-hand.
  
  There's also a lot of reading to be done, and you'll end up with just techniques to apply. But with it, you'll be able to do amazing things. For books, The Bible here is Modernist Cuisine, the 50-lb, 6 volume, 2400 page behemoth (at $500, again cheap compared to equipment). You can sometimes find it in libraries if the price tag is an issue. Don't skip to the recipes. Read each one cover to cover (and possibly in order), because learning the science behind everything is more important than following recipes.
  
  You won't find much video, because modernist stuff just isn't food-porn friendly. You tend to not have food sizzling on a hot pan and such. A lot of modernist cuisine is done with extreme restraint and focus, and frequently the results are way more interesting in the mouth than visually.
  
  But really, modernist cuisine is a means to an end. They're using it as a tool to create an experience that likely isn't possible using traditional means. But, the important thing is the experience, and not how it was technically achieved.

>what do I need to know before I start on my journey?

Aside from this forum and the FAQ, there are two books to choose from that are both fantastic but are from different points of view. For more engineering minded people I suggest How To Brew by John Palmer. For more art minded people Mastering Homebrew by Randy Mosher is fantastic. Either way you'll get a wonderful introduction introduction to brewing your own beer.

>What kit should I get?

There are many beer kits out there by you can also start with a simple cider instead. This will teach you about the basics of fermentation and help you find out if this type of activity is for you before you spend more than you need to on a kit. When you do go for a kit you will probably start with an extract kit. Just look for a style that you like to drink and go for it.

>What types of beer are best for learning?

To me a classic SMASH (Single Malt And Single Hop) is a perfect way to learn all grain brewing. For extract just any kit that you want to drink should be fine. Be sure to use a good online retailer if you don't have a local homebrew shop. MoreBeer is a popular, independently owned online retailer that I've had good experiences with.

>Anything else that you think may help.

RDWHAHB - Relax, Don't Worry, Have A Home Brew. This line from the great Charlie Papazian is probably the most often repeated line of advice in homebrewing. It's important to not freak out about anything. Brewing beer has some weirdness when you're new to it. There's a lot of vocabulary, acronyms, techniques, style guidelines, etc. Don't let it overwhelm you. Take it easy, follow basic good practices, and you will make beer.

Also, don't be afraid to look for local homebrew clubs. I didn't join one for many years and kinda regret that now. Some clubs are competition focused, some are social, some are event-centric. Look around for one that fits your interests and make some friends!

Finally, do not get tied down to styles or what beer is "supposed" to be. Brew what you want to drink and kick the haters to the curb.

Welcome to the obsession and cheers!

One of the first veg. cookbooks I got when I was just starting out was Linda McCartney's World of Vegetarian Cooking (also known as "On Tour"): https://www.amazon.com/Linda-McCartney-Tour-Meat-Free-Dishes/dp/0821224875/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386369&sr=1-5&keywords=linda+mccartney

It has recipes from all over the world, from North Africa to Asia, Europe to North America and everywhere in between. They're great starter recipes in that the ingredients are simple (and easy to substitute if necessary), and the instructions are clear. They're great to build on - I've adapted quite a few recipes to my own tastes over the years.

A much more recent couple of books are Ottolenghi's Plenty and Plenty More:

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386476&sr=1-1&keywords=ottolenghi+plenty

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3YR260YE36YRJAQVCP9G

These are books that celebrate plant-based cooking which is of course inspired by many cuisines, but is itself a wholly original cuisine. Many of the recipes are not knock-offs of popular meat dishes (e.g. lentil bolognese) or existing dishes that happen to be vegetarian (caprese salad) but rather truly original compositions. It's really refreshing for simple but beautiful meals made of creative (but not pretentious) dishes.

I bought Martha Stewart's "Meatless" cookbook last year and it has great recipes too. https://www.amazon.com/Meatless-More-Than-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0307954560/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386647&sr=1-6&keywords=vegetarian+cookbook

It's Martha Stewart, so it's not going to blow your socks off with complex spices and heat, but the recipes are again a wonderful place to start. Well-balanced, visually appealing and reasonably priced to make, you can always jazz them up yourself.

Finally, one of my favourite cookbooks, vegetarian or otherwise, is Anna Thomas' Love Soup: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Soup-All-New-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0393332578/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386804&sr=1-1&keywords=Love+SOup

The recipes are heavenly (and as they're soup, you can always tweak to your taste - it's the ideas that are important). But what's really special is the narrative. She really engages you with lots of personal anecdotes and context for the ingredients, recipes and meals in general. I sat down and read it like a novel when I was given it for Christmas one year! It's really lovely.

Ok I'm going to start with yeast which from here seems to be the culprit.
First off types of yeast:
Fresh
Also called called cake yeast this is non dried non grain yeast, I've never seen it in stores and only seen it in a few recipes. Most of the time the only people who use this are professional bakeries. Pretty much only here for posterity's sake. If you find a recipe generally you can substitute one of the two bellow adjusting your liquids as needed.
Active Dry
This is pretty standard stuff it has been dried and has fairly large grains. It is best stored in the refrigerator or freezer to keep it fresh, remember yeast is a living organism. Must be proofed before using (more on this later).
Instant
Also available in stores the grains are much smaller than active dry and do not need to be proofed. The smaller grains and possibly the way it is produced mean that it has a greater effect than active dry yeast. You can substitute one for the other. To use instant in the place of active dry reduce the amount by 25% so 1 teaspoon of active dry becomes 3/4 teaspoon instant. You can work the other way too just be sure to use 25% more of active dry when replacing instant.


Now lets look at the physiology of yeast and see what makes it tick. Yeast is a living organism we carefully add it to recipe allow it to grow and multiply to give us the effects we desire. Then we kill it. Cheerful thought.
So first we allow the yeast to grow. Yeast needs a few things to prosper: food, warmth, and a suitable environment. Yeast like everything else needs food to survive, we use sugars and the flour itself. Yeast uses any sugar (honey, cane sugar, malt) you add to a recipe to grow and in return it creates carbon dioxide, the air bubbles in bread which makes dough rise and makes the difference between cooked flour and bread. Yeast also breaks down some of the proteins in flour and converts them to simple sugars. Secondly yeast needs warmth to grow if you keep it in the fridge or freezer you slow the growth and you can prolong the life of the yeast. On the flip side when you want to encourage growth you need to make sure that there is enough heat to be active. So when you want your dough to rise leave it somewhere warm but not hot. Most places recommend something around 70 to 80 degrees if you can manage it. A laundry room is a good option. Just make sure it does not exceed 120 degrees because that is about when yeast will start to die.
This leads us to the second half, killing yeast. Killing yeast can be pretty easy and I suspect it happened inadvertently in a few of your loaves. First as mentioned above if it is too hot your yeast will die, this includes any water you add as a good rule of thumb your body temperature is ~96 degrees so if water feels neutral to you that's about how hot it is. Try to get a digital instant read thermometer. They are pretty cheap and very handy, you can also use it to check the internal temperature of bread to see if it is done. Secondly is the environment, direct contact with salt kills yeast. Most recipes will tell you to add the salt and yeast separately allowing each to mix into the flour so direct contact is not made.


Now to sum this all up into one topic technique, proofing. Proofing is what you do when you take the yeast (generally active dry) and add it yo the water you are going to be using in the recipe and allow it to sit for 10 minutes or so The water allows the yeast to wake up and start being active, you will see bubbles form on the surface, thus prooving that your yeast is alive. Some recipes tell you to add a pinch of sugar to the water, this gives they yeast something to process. Just make sure you don't add all the sugar the recipe calls for. This can cause a period of high activity and then a sudden crash when the yeast over exerts itself. The end result is a longer rise time. Instant yeast doesn't need to be proofed since the smaller grains dissolve instantly on contact with the dough but I do it anyway sometimes just to help get things started.


This is about all I have for yeast, a few other points I have. Salt is very important, it greatly affects the taste of the loaf and helps control the growth of the yeast. Check to see if your recipe was calling for kosher salt or table salt. Table salts grains are much finer and result in a much more concentrated amount per spoonful than kosher. Salt also has the annoying habit of attracting water molecules from the air causing it to swell, this changes the actual amount of salt you get in a spoonful. Try and go by weight if you can. A scale is an enormously useful tool for baking. Flour has a tendency to get packed down when scooped certain ways affecting the total amount you are actually adding to the recipe. Scoop and sweep is a good middle of the road approach that a lot of people use. My last point is that of freshness, see how old your yeast is you may need some new stuff, how long it lasts has a lot to do with how often it gets warm and where its kept. Yeast can last around a year in a freezer.


Finally for an excellent intro to baking try The Bread Bible you have to have a certain amount of conviction to name a book the anything bible but Rose Levy Beranbaum leaves no doubt that her book deserves the title. She carefully explains what you are doing and why in extremely detailed and percise instructions leaving little room for error.

Well that was quite the wall of text :p don't give up on baking yet. Send me a PM if you have any more questions or just want to chat. Good luck!

When I started out, I relied most of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, to be honest, but something like The Joy of Cooking, Bittman's How To Cook Everything or Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food would be good, too. Joy is classic, simple recipes with clear instructions, aimed at beginners. Brown is excellent at explaining the science behind why reciepes work the way they do. Bittman emphasizes showing a technique, then showing lots of simple variations, allowing you to learn a skill and then apply it to different ingredients.

You might also take a look at Rhulman's Ratio --- for a certain sort of personaility, that book can be like a lightbulb going off. It's all about the common principles that underlay many sorts of recipes. Some people find it too abstract, especially if they're just starting (most actual recipes break his rules a little, one way or another), but if you're more of an abstract logical thinker it can be quite helpful.

But cooking in general can be quite diffucult to pick up from books --- techniques that are quite simple to demonstrate can be super difficult to describe. Youtube/the internet can be your friend, here --- Jacques Pepin, America's Test Kitchen, and Good Eats are all good at demonstrating and explaining technique. Check out the Food Wishes youtube channel, too --- Chef John is a former culinary instructor, and he demostrates a lot of classic techniques in the reciepes he does.

At the end of the day though, cooking's like Carnigie Hall. Think of stuff you like to eat, find a recipe for that stuff, and just go for it. If you start off making things you know and like, then it will be easier to tell if you're getting it right as you go along, and that I think is the most crucial and most difficult part of becoming a skilled cook --- being able to tell when something's ready vs. when it needs 5 more minutes, being able to tell if the batter looks right before you cook it, if something needs more seasoning and if so what kind. All that's mostly a karate kid, wax on, wax off thing --- you just got to keep making stuff in order to have the experience to tell when something's right.

When I make burgers, if I'm grilling I just sprinkle on some Montreal steak seasoning (specifically this from McCormick) but if I'm cooking it on the stove I don't add anything, just cook it in a little butter or vegetable oil. The burgers themselves are always pure beef; usually good, fresh ground beef (frozen is acceptable if you have it, but fresh is the best) and never preformed unless you need to make dozens for a cookout or something. When forming the burgers, I generally go for 1/3 to 1/2 pound patties, as loosely packed as possible (just enough to hold together on the grill); when grilling, you'll want to add a dimple on top (just poke down the center to compress it a bit more), since burgers tend to poof a bit on the grill (though they don't seem to on the stove for some reason). I also make "premium" burgers on occasion by starting with steak and chopping it myself, although that's a much more involved process (I got the recipe for that from this Cook's Illustrated cookbook). No seasoning or other additives or sauces go into my burgers, just on top of them.

Unfortunately, I'm not the best at grilling, that's my dad's territory - however, it's pretty straightforward, you should only flip the burger once. I'd suggest listening to other's advice on when to flip the burger. You add the cheese when the burger is very close to being done, and make sure you toast the buns on the grill as well (timing isn't too important, you mostly want to crisp up the inside - still being warm is ideal, but it's okay if the buns cool off by the time you're eating). Stovetop cooking is also a viable option, one which I'm more experienced with, but I couldn't really tell you how to tell when the burgers are done. The cookbook I linked to above is where I'm starting from, I'm just experimenting from the basics I learned from that book (it's well worth getting even if you never make the burgers, just about everything in there is really good). The really basic version is what I said above, cook them in a pan with a bit of oil or butter and flip them only once.

For the cheese, I generally use either cheddar or jack. If all we have is the shitty processed cheese product (Kraft Singles or some generic version of them), I won't have any on my burger (it adds a lot, but isn't really necessary).

The bun is really important, but that is the hardest to tell you what to get - what's available in UK stores may be wildly different from what's available in the US, even finding the same brands in different parts of the US can be hard. To start, just look for a bun from a company that makes good bread (the best regular loafs of bread around here (Connecticut in the US) are from Martin's and Freihofer's, and the best burger buns come out of the same bakeries).

As for the toppings, you can do whatever you like. My preferences are either ketchup (Heinz) and mayo or barbecue sauce (something ketchup-based, not vinegar-based). Bacon is great anytime I can get it, but it's not necessary. The closest thing to a vegetable that I'll put on (aside from the ketchup) is this stuff (not necessarily that brand, I use something from a local spice store, but it's the same thing). Experiment to find what works, but to start with I'd go for just cheese and ketchup and mayo.

edit: Oh, and drink some good root beer or sarsaparilla with the burger. A&W is my preference among the big companies, although Barq's is a close second. Locally-brewed stuff can be really good, though, I generally drink sarsaparilla from Hosmer Mountain with mine.

What exactly do you mean by 'healthy?'

Is it about calorie reduction or getting more nutrients? Or both?

A very simple, tasty one is roasted cauliflower. Cauliflower really benefits from browning. Preferably roasting. Just wash and dry it (thoroughly), cut into equally sized pieces, whether it be bite size or "steaks," toss in olive oil, salt & pepper (and garlic if you want), spread evenly on a roasting pan, but don't crowd it too much, and roast in the oven on the middle rack or higher at about 425-450F until brown... even nearly black in a few places. It's so simple and delicious.

It makes a great soup too, just blend it with either veg or chicken stock and either some fresh parsley or thyme.

Another veg that does well with char is broccoli. Steam, blanch (heavily salt your blanching or steaming liquid) or microwave (if you must) the cut broccoli stalks until about half done, drain and dry. Toss in olive oil, salt, minced garlic and chili flakes and grill on very high heat or broil until slightly charred. You won't believe how good it is.

Some great books for veg dishes are:

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

Tender by Nigel Slater (this one has a great chocolate beet cake)

The Art Of Simple Food II by Alice Waters (So many simple, classic veg preparations in this one.)

--

Regarding Mac & Cheese, here is page from Modernist Cuisine at Home:

http://i.imgur.com/E4dd4lQ.jpg

It involves using Sodium Citrate. Calm down! Don't be afraid. It's a type of salt derived from citrus fruits. If you like to cook with cheese this stuff will be your best friend. The only issue is you don't need very much of it, so you will need an accurate scale that can handle very small weights, but they're not that expensive and it'll pay for itself quickly in the amount you'll likely save in cheese costs, because.....

What it does is it helps emulsify the fats and solids of cheese when it melts and it can be used with just about every type of cheese that can melt, so that means you can use it to emulsify multiple types of cheeses at the same time. Why this matters for you? If you're trying to reduce calories you can mix your favorite cheeses with some lower calorie cheeses (like drained cottage cheese) and still end up with a really creamy sauce without having to add cream or butter. This stuff doesn't make Pasta & Cheese "healthy" but it does help you reduce the caloric value of a cheese dish without sacrificing texture... in fact it improves it.

Check it out: http://youtu.be/gOLgLi5ZJOY

Here's some good resources that I usually tell people about when they ask what can help them cook more better.

• Alton "The Man" Brown. His book, I'm Just Here For The Food, is fantastic for those of us who are just getting into cooking. He teaches you how to cook, not how to follow a recipe...because they're two totally different things. You can find Good Eats, his show, around on the web too...it's like if Bill Nye had a cooking show. Just great stuff.
  
• The Start Cooking blog has recipes, but focuses more on beginner techniques and information. When you're getting started you'll ask yourself stuff like... What kind of knives should I have? Or... How do I get that giant pit out of an avocado without getting green crap everywhere? Or even... How do I mushroom? Which is the kind of existential question I know I've asked myself a dozen times or more.
  
• Working Class Foodies - They make some really good food, have some good tips, and it's all done on the cheap. Definitely a good channel to subscribe to on the YouTubes.
  
  And as for getting comfortable with using your knives, here's my advice. Make sure you have a GOOD knife. You can go to a restaurant supply store and get good knives for cheap, if you aren't at a spot where you can part with the cash to get superknives. Having a good, sharp knife is extremely important. Getting familiar with terms and handling is important, too. And finally, just cut stuff. Buy some potatoes and get to cutting...slowly at first, but once you get more comfortable pick up the speed. Make some mashed potatoes, hashbrowns, home fries, french fries, whatever. If you get sick of potatoes, use carrots or peppers. Just get some experience under your belt and you're well on your way.
  
  Good luck!

The last couple of weeks I've been going with this one: Spent grain bread

Also, this book is a pretty good one for low active-time bread making.

This sourdough is awesome, but it's getting more varsity level and greater time commitment.

Making a passable loaf of bread is pretty easy, though. Start off with 3/4 cup or so of warm water, and dissolve one packet of yeast in it. Wait 15 minutes (yeast will have gone all bubbly in this time). Add a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of honey (or molasses, or sugar, or none at all), a splash of oil, and a couple of cups of flour (I use a mixture of whole wheat and bread flour) - I can't tell you how much exactly, because I normally do it by feel. What you want is for it to not be liquidy, but still a little bit sticky (just a little) when you've mixed it all together in the bowl.

Now you sprinkle a bit of flour on the counter and flop that glob of dough on there, and knead it for 10 mintues or so, until it's all homogenous and elastic (some folks use a mixer attachment for this, but I think it's the best part, so I do it by hand). Then pour some oil in the bowl, coat the dough in oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a tea towel. Let that sucker sit somewhere warmish for about 1 to 1.5 hours, until the dough had doubled in size. Gently press the air out of it and lay it out again on the lightly-floured counter, pressing it into a rectangle a couple of inches thick. Roll it sort of like a swiss cake roll, folding the ends under and making the whole thing more-or-less loaf shaped. Oil a loaf pan, and plop that dough in there, cover again, and let it rise until doubled. It will take less time to rise this time around, more like 30-40 minutes.

In the meantime, heat up the oven to 450F, and add a pan of water at the bottom. The steam gives you a wonderful crust. When the oven is hot and the dough risen, pop it in there. After 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 375F, and let it bake another 40 or so minutes. Minimize the times you spent opening the oven, especially during the beginning. Every time you let heat and steam out you're compromising that poor bread in there. After the loaf is all browned and making your house smell too good to bear, take the steam pan and bread out of the oven. I like to pop the loaf out of the pan and bake it another 5-10 minutes alone to crisp up the crust that was in the pan. Then let it cool and dig in!

It will take a bit of practice, and you might want to start with recipes, but eventually you just run with it and throw in extras (I like flax, sesame and poppy seeds in mine, and the occasional handful of rolled oats, some herbs, etc - it's pretty forgiving). Good luck!

Sure, tons! In no particular order:

1. Pick up a book. The two best intros are How to Brew and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. My girlfriend and I started with How to Brew. It can be a little science-y, but it was a great beginner's book that starts with the basics and gets more complicated as it goes. Basically the first chapter is enough to brew a beer, but the next few chapters help you learn how brewing works, and so on. I've never read The Joy of Homebrewing, but I've heard it's just as good, only a little less science based and more "fun and accessible." Really, either one is probably great.
   
   Also, How to Brew is based off a blog, and a lot of the book is on there. If you don't know which book you'd prefer start with A Crash Course in Brewing and decide if it's for you or if you'd like something a little more readable.
   
   
2. Google around and see if you have a local homebrew shop. Lots of them offer classes, and sometimes local breweries will have homebrew classes on groupon or living social. Often times the beer you drink is work the price of the class, and it's super helpful to see brewing done first hand. This is actually how I got into it: I used buy beer at my LHBS in Ft Lauterdale, and saw that classes were only $30 and came with beer and food. I signed up with my girlfriend - no intention to start brewing, just thought it'd be a fun Saturday - and wound up totally hooked.
   
   
3. Use the community, people love talking about brewing. If you're not sure how to make something work for you, someone's probably been there. Ask folks in your LHBS if you have one, post in /r/homebrewing, heck even just come back some time and reply to this post and I'll be more than happy to tell you what I know. I was worried because when I moved to DC I lost the outdoor space I used to brew in Florida, and couldn't get 5 gallons of beer boiling on a regular stove. I mentioned it casually to another brewer and he walked me through adapting recipes for smaller, more concentrated boils to be topped up to 5 gallons afterwards. Now I can brew on my electric apartment stove and haven't seen any loss of quality.
   
   Sorry if that's a total data dump, I just love chatting about and getting new people into brewing. If you ever give it a try, let me know how it goes!

No one has mentioned it yet, but I learned a lot from cook books.

These are not just lists or recipes, but instruction about techniques and methods and processes.

Some good ones are:

• How to Cook Everything: The Basics
  
• Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
  
• Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
  
  Having an actual dead tree book can be more convenient in the kitchen than a laptop or mobile device with an ebook.
  
  If you can find episodes of Good Eats by Alton Brown he is really good at explaining things. Videos can be good, but a lot of times but really only when you know what it is you're looking for. With a book it is going to give you topics that you might never have thought of.
  
  But for reals now, you are going to get the best value learning how to cook the basics. Your Instant pot is AWESOME for cooking dry beans. Get pound of dry black beans and 3 pounds of water (obviously you need a good kitchen scale). I just put the inner pot of my Instantpot on the scale, dump in the beans, tare it, then pour water in with a big cup till I have 3 lbs. Put in 1/2-1 teaspoon of salt. I also add granulated garlic and powdered onion and some cumin but you don't have to. Set your instanpot to manual for 45 mins and wait. Let it naturally release, if you manually release the pressure the skin on the beans will break, to me it still tastes the same but you have far fewer whole beans. Now you have a weeks worth of delicious, healthy black beans. No need for overnight soak or anything.
  
  Small white beans (a.k.a navy beans) can be cooked the same and they taste different but just as good. Or you can add the extra ingredients and make pork and beans.
  
  You can cook pinto beans with the same basic recipe, and they taste great too. When you want to take the extra time, then with a slotted spoon dish the cooked beans into a large frying pan with some lard or shortening and make your own refried beans. You smash the beans with the back of the spoon or a spatula, and use the bean broth to add liquid till you like the texture.
  
  If you can't tell I like cooking beans in my Instantpot. I have a rice cooker but you can cook rice in the Instantpot too. Beans and rice is healthy and cheap!!! (cook them separately and mix them after cooking).
  
  

Learn the basics. I picked up this book a couple years ago and have tried most of the recipes in there. You learn how to cook something basic, like a big skillet-sized potato cake, then learn how to adapt the same recipe into other things. I bought Alton Brown's cookbook a year ago and he has learned a lot from it.

The reality is that you're going to need to stop eating foods you currently love and find something new that you enjoy. Find a community support group for people with celiac and try to make some friends. I've enjoyed cooking a lot more when I'm learning new recipes to take to a GF potluck.

Off the top of my head there are some quick & easy foods I enjoy:

DISCLAIMER: READ THE LABELS. Ingredient lists change and not all brands guarantee GF across all of their products!

1. Amy's brand foods. Almost all of their soups are GF and they have some excellent frozen GF pizzas, among other frozen foods. Use their product search: http://www.amys.com/products/product-search
   
   
2. Rice & beans. Rice and beans are easy to cook and a healthy side to a meal or snack with plenty of carbs & fiber to keep you happy. You can do pretty much ANYTHING to rice and/or beans and make it different. My current kick is cooked brown rice with some GF hoisin sauce, some sriracha (Rooster) sauce, and a pat of butter. I eat this as a snack or as a side with a piece of grilled chicken and some steamed veggies. Beans are also cheap and easy as hell to cook. Usually you need to rinse them, soak them, and then dump them in a pot with whatever spices or veggies (onions & garlic roughly chopped usually do the trick) and maybe a big ham bone. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer until the beans are tender but solid. If you don't want to fuss with cooking your own rice or beans then go for some "boil in a bag" rice that you throw in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and cans of beans. I always keep a few cans of black, kidney, and white beans on my shelf to make a quick side dish or snack. Plus, they are great on nachos.
   
   
3. Tamales. If you like Mexican food then find a brand or a local seller that makes GF tamales (I live in southern AZ so I can find people on street corners that sell fresh homemade tamales). I'd say 99% of the tamales I've found are GF, but always check & inquire.
   
   
4. Corn tortillas. Check labels (I know I sound really redundant here), but corn tortillas serve as a perfect vessel for almost anything you can put on bread. I stack two tortillas and cut them to size for a hamburger or roll some sliced turkey meat, cheese, and a piece of Romaine lettuce up to dip in some dressing or hummus. Also, you can always open a can of refried beans, heat it up, smear on a corn tortilla, sprinkle with chunks of your choice of meat, add some cheese, and stack. Pour some salsa on top and enjoy your delicious Mexican lasagna.
   
   
5. Find a local place that makes gluten free french fries. Make absolutely sure they don't use the fryer/oil for ANYTHING that is breaded. I am lucky enough to have a local chain of fast food restaurants with delicious crinkle-cut french fries that are 100% GF. When I'm really itching for something quick when I'm out on the town I get a large fry from there.
   
   
6. For gluten-free beers I really like Redbridge. I snatch up a dozen when they go on sale and keep them around for when I have a beer craving. My boyfriend, who isn't GF, likes it quite a bit and sometimes prefers one of my beers to what he is drinking. I also enjoy Woodchuck and Ace (who has a seasonal pumpkin flavor) ciders.
   
   Overall, I know it sucks, a lot. I worked at a family-owned mom & pop pizza joint for years with celiac and sometimes I would just break down and eat whatever looked most delicious to me. But, damn, it was absolutely never, ever worth the pain afterwards.
   
   The main problem here is that GF isn't a thing you do for a few weeks. It is a lifestyle change. There is a lot of stuff you can't do or enjoy as much as you used to, but after a year GF I can certainly say I have a much better outlook on life and I feel great all the time. I was severely depressed and suffered from anxiety problems for years and I seriously think that being diagnosed with celiac and going GF has helped the most. I don't wake up feel like a train ran me over during the night, and eventually you'll find your point where it clicks for you, too.

1. Eat (and learn about) what you enjoy
   
   If you go searching for learn-how-to-cook tutorials and get stuck making some boring ass chicken recipe but don't even like chicken, you'll make the food correctly but have trouble enjoying the results. It's homework. You won't last making food you don't like.
   
   To stay interested, follow the foods you already love.
   
   For me, it was pasta. I went nuts. My first year or so learning, I was making an insane amount of pasta and was always stoked to eat the results, even if they sucked.
   
   
   
2. Learn from someone who actually cooks.
   
   Too many recipes have one-off ingredients you'll never use again. You want to learn how you can improve your food with what you already have (i.e. Don't worry about the imported, smoked, Himalayan pink salt yet).
   
   A person who understands food will give you so much more than a checklist and directions can. Understanding trumps a recipe every time. And you'd be surprised how little you need to make great food. A good cook knows how to do this.
   
   I was really fortunate to have a roommate who's Italian grandma was an amazing cook. He knew his shit. He would coach and correct everything I was doing with my horrible attempts to make pasta. It was fun and quickly showed me how to improve--all with no recipes. It showed me you can taste as you go.
   
   
   
3. Most cookbooks are shit for learning
   
   Today there a more books telling you what to do, and less telling you why you do it. The latter is the key.
   
   These two books really opened a lot for me regarding understanding food and how to make it better:
   
   I'm Just Here For The Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
   
   Cooking (James Peterson)
   
   Honorable mention:
   
   Ratios: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
   
   Cheers, and best of luck. Now go eat!
   
   
   Also Good Eats and Mind of A Chef are amazing shows to watch. We are so visual nowdays.

Lots of people will say to look at the Instant Pot which is a combination electric pressure cooker/slow cooker/rice cooker ("multi cooker"). I had a bluetooth enabled "IP-SMART" 6qt model of theirs (actually three: first had a safety recall, second was dented on arrival, third still exhibited regulation issues). Lots of people are happy with Instant Pots, but I had a lot of issues with the pressure control being flaky for certain recipes. Additionally, much of what makes slow cookers safe when you are out of the house is their low wattage heaters... typically 250-400W... and low complexity (basically it's a small electric blanket that is wrapped around a very heavy ceramic pot). The Instant Pot has a 1000W heater, and is more complex (microcontroller + a thermocouple), so this negates some of the safety aspects of unattended slow cooking... though it is UL listed and has a thermal fuse in case anything goes wrong.

My recommendation if you are interested in pressure cookers and slow cookers:

1. Presto 8qt stovetop http://www.amazon.com/Presto-01370-8-Quart-Stainless-Pressure/dp/B0000Z6JIW $69 More volume than electric pressuer cookers (8qt > 6qt) which is important since safely pressure cooking needs lots of headroom between the food and lid valve so as not to clog. Typically headroom is 1/3rd volume for most foods, 1/2 for foamy foods like rice, etc. Thus a 8qt pressure cooker effectively has a volume of 4-5qt. When using it without building up pressure, it can double as a large 8qt stockpot. I ended up preferring stovetop over electric since I can get an initial brown on meat without having to use multiple pots, and I don't have to wait for an electric heater to come up to temperature (10+ minutes on the Instant Pot for me).
   
   
2. Hamilton Beach 6qt set'n'forget slow cooker http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33967A-Programmable-6-Quart/dp/B00EZI26DW $50 Check reviews on thesweethome.com for it, but it beat out a lot of more expensive crock pot models. Oval shape lends itself better for some slow cooker recipes, such as mini, chocolate lava cakes, roasts, etc.
   
   $120 for both.. around the ballpark of the cheaper Instant Pots, you gain an additional pot for stove use, pressure cooker is of bigger size, slow cooker is safe unattended and a more conventional shape, and IMO will last longer. You lose automatic rice cooking capabilities but... by a $20-$30 rice cooker and probably get better rice, or just do it on the stovetop.
   
   By the way, no idea what food you like to eat, but these are two of my favorite cookbooks if you are getting started and wanted to build up some experience:
   
   

• America's Test Kitchen 100 Recipes http://www.amazon.com/100-Recipes-Absolute-Best-Essentials/dp/1940352010/ Good for in-depth explanation of 100 recipes across a pretty big range of techniques.
  
  
• Cook's Illustrated Cookbook http://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbook/dp/1933615893/ Shorter explanations but lots and lots of recipes.
  
  And major shout out to Kenji's (from Seriouseats.com) new book if you want more detailed science information:
  
  
• The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking through Science http://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087
  
  This post ended up being much longer than I expected, but those are my recommendations if you are just starting out. ;) The main thing I've learned since beginning to cook is that 90%+ of the recipes online (and even in print) are untested crap, and to look for recipe sources you can trust. The second thing is that a finished recipe is much more dependant on the technique (the steps you use to modify ingredients at specific times, temperatures, and textures) and way less dependent on the ingredients themselves (you can easily sub ingredients for many recipes once the core techniques are understood).

35 grams of salt :)

In baking one should ALWAYS weigh ingredients, the most important tool in a bakeshop is a scale. Your final product will taste the EXACT same every time if everything is weighed. For home use you just need a little scale, I use this little guy at home.

Most home bakers hate weighing eggs and find it ridiculous so just keep this simple rule in mind. 1 large egg = 50g. So 2 large eggs for every 100g needed.

The reason for weighing literally everything over using cups, teaspoons and other volumetric amounts is definitely well worth reading into as well. Pretty much every book worth its weight will be done in with weights instead of volume and will have a section explaining why. But essentially with baking its chemistry, everything is done to cause a specific reaction and that reaction is done to a certain degree in the end product.


EDIT: If you want some cookbooks I made a post previously about what I recommend for people depending on what they are into making, so I'll post that up in here

Bibles

• Baking Bible
  
• Cake Bible
  
• The Pie and Pastry Bible
  
  Bread
  
  
• Beard on Bread
  
• Bread
  
• Bread Baker's Apprentice
  
• Flour Water Salt Yeast
  
• Josey Baker Bread (I just genuinely like this guy tho lol)
  
• All of the Tartine books (just get all of them, Chad is the man when it comes to bread)
  
  Caramels/Candys/Ice Cream
  
  
• Ample hills creamery
  
• Artisan caramels
  
• Chocolates & Confections
  
• The Sweet Book of Candy Making
  
• Sweet Cream And Sugar Cones
  
  Jack of all trades
  
  
• Baked Occasions
  
• Baker's four seasons
  
• Flour
  
• Flour Too
  
• Model Bakery Cookbook
  
• Momofuku Milk Bar
  
• Ovenly
  
  Pastry/Pies
  
  
• The Art of French Pastry (this is one of my all time favorites)
  
• Creative Eclairs (whole set is great for beginners to intermediates)
  
• First Prize Pies
  
  Textbooks
  
  
• Baking and pastry
  
• On Baking
  
  
  I'm sure I am leaving out a bunch of great ones but if I had to suggest just 1 to anyone it would DEFINITELY be The Art of French Pastry. Best for somebody who has done basics already and looking to try a little more. Even as a professional baker I find myself coming back and just reading the little spots like how he burned himself on his caramel. Great, great book!

Sure, no problem! Here are some of my favorite resources.

The web site SeriousEats.com has a lot of good posts. Specifically, I like this guy's work. He puts in the research to really refine techniques. Some of this is cooking is "elaborate," but not overly so:
http://www.seriouseats.com/user/profile/Goodeaterkenji

And, he has a really good cook book:
http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab

https://www.chefsteps.com/ is amazing. You want elaborate? This is the place. there's even a term for it: modernist cuisine. These guys have a lot of free content, but there's also a premium membership (one time purchase) which gets you access to a vast amount of videos, with more being made all the time.

Here is a related cookbook, which is stellar:
http://modernistcuisine.com/books/modernist-cuisine-at-home/

The above book is the "at home" version. This is the FULL version, including recipes that require lab equipment like centrifuges! You want elaborate? This is the pinnacle of elaborate cooking. Yes, it is like $500!
https://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007

Into BBQ or grilling? Meathead's your man and his site is full of no-BS guides. He also has a cookbook but just the site will keep you busy for a long time:
http://amazingribs.com/

If you want to get started in fancier cooking I strongly recommend getting a sous vide apparatus, such as this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Sansaire-Sous-Immersion-Circulator-Black/dp/B00KSFAB74

Sous vide is an entirely new (to you!) way to cook and you can do things with it that are not possible in other ways. All of the "modernist" cooking guides out there use it heavily. There are many options for the hardware at all price points... Anova gear sometimes goes on sale for $100-150.

Here's a specific easy modernist recipe you can try. It benefits from, but does not require, a sous vide machine... they tell you how to make do without one. If you think this looks fun, ChefSteps will be your new addiction.

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-salmon--2

Lot of comments on smoking, which would be an incredibly positive accomplishment on its own. I wanted to comment on the eating out. Other than my wife, my greatest love is cooking. I'm a cheap bastard, and my love of cooking is the best thing for that. It may not be for you, but cooking can be a really amazing hobby that also saves you money and provides you with a sense of accomplishment.

I will always recommend Alton Brown to people learning to cook. It's a great way to save money (my wife and I eat great and spend only $300 on food a month) as well as a hobby that has quick, positive results.

This is how I did it a few years ago.

Read alton brown's book, I'm just here for the food

http://www.amazon.com/Im-Just-Here-Food-Cooking/dp/1584790830

Which will teach you the basics and what you're trying to accomplish by using different cooking methods. It greatly increased my confidence in the kitchen. Also check out his good eats series.

Also I think a decent meat thermometer
Is a great purchase as it takes the guess work out of when meat is done cooking, is supremely useful for beginners, and something you'll be able to use forever.


http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/

The thermapen is the one I got but expensive but worth it.

Subscribe to a bunch of cooking subreddits.

And I'm gonna suggest something different now instead of buying a set list of things you need to cook anything.

Instead, I suggest finding something you really enjoy eating like something you're an expert on eating at restaurants, I chose burgers, you can do pizza, or spaghetti, hot wings whatever. Then go on seriouseats.com and find the appropriate recipe. Idea is to choose something you have an idea of how it's supposed to taste and like enough to cook a few different versions of. Then you buy the few things you need to cook that thing. A cast iron pot, a metal spatula whatever. And you learn how to do things/buy equipment as needed for various recipes related to it. For example you may learn how to sautée and Carmelize onions for a burger recipe.

Cook with someone else, it's way more fun, is a great date idea, doesn't matter if it's the blind leading the blind or someone that you can learn a lot from. It'll make you more comfortable in the kitchen.

Finally, you'll have to pay your dues for a little bit, I used to hate cooking, everything takes way longer then it should, you make a big mess, things don't work out like you planned, but pretty soon you make things that turn out great every once in a while. You still mess up occasionally, but you'll start learning why things don't turn out well and you'll start being able to save things if you make a mistake. Now that I'm pretty good at it I sort of enjoy it.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart is my number one recommendation for bread. Im also a big fan of Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. His first book, Tartine is also great btw. I would skip out on Tartine Book No.3 though which seems to have too many errors for my liking. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish is also one of the better bread baking books out there.

For general baking, im a big fan of Bouchon Bakery. And one book that will surely help you improve as a baker and I highly recommend you cook through is The Art of French Pastry by Jacquy Pfeiffer. Its like a pastry arts class in a book. I am actually cooking my way through this. If you have a serious sweet tooth, Momofoku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi will probably be what you're looking for. And as someone else recommended, the Baked books are all great.

For cakes, it has to be The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Bernanbaum. This is probably the best cake book of all time. I would supplement this with Toba Garrett's Professional Cake Decorating book.

For pies, my favorites are Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Hoosier Mama. One that I haven't tried but am planning to buy is First Prize Pies. If the book lives up to their reputation, it should be an excellent book.

For plated, more ambitious desserts, I like Payard Desserts. I refer to this when I want to impress company.

Hey man, when I started this I had roughly the same stats as you. A few months later, I'm at about 50 pounds lost and far fitter.

I hope you're a reader because my suggested first step is to read Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. It helped me immensely to understand why, scientifically, I was the way I am. Once I knew, I made the appropriate changes.

For me, the first 30 pounds was diet change alone. No more sugary sodas or processed foods; I typically don't eat anything that comes in a box. My meals consist of grass-fed or free-range meats and organic fruits and vegetables; I don't count calories or fat or anything, I just make sure I know what I'm putting in my body. This goes a long way in making you healthier overall.

Once I dropped the 30 pounds, I started Couch to 5K (C25K) but I truly could've started at the beginning of my journey, I was just lazy. I'm in the forth week of the C25K program, which is about 15 minutes of running separated by small walking breaks, and it's an amazing high when I finish. Just today when I started the first run, I was about a minute in before I had to start breathing heavier. I couldn't go up five steps without wheezing; now I can sprint and it's a piece of cake. IT FEELS AWESOME.

That combined with the consistent, sensible eating has got me to 50 pounds lost and still dropping.

To sum up, STUDY why you're the way you are. CHANGE YOUR DIET and a great subreddit is /r/paleo to help you make wiser eating choices. START RUNNING NOW with C25K and guess what, another great subreddit for that at /r/c25k.

Power through that first week and trust me, it becomes an addiction and a joy, not a struggle.

Here's one that I got from Alton Brown.

You'll need a good steak. Costco sells good ones, but you have to throw a party to eat them all. I've also had success with higher-end grocery stores.

You'll also need a cast-iron pan. Iron holds more heat than aluminum or stainless, and is a bit more affordable than copper.

A good ventilation hood is nice too, because this recipe makes lots of burning-protein smoke.

Set the meat on your countertop for 20 minutes. This allows it to come to the right temperature - if it's too cold, the insides will cook less; too warm and it'll cook too much. Obviously this is a variable you can adjust to how you like your steak; I like mine rarer than most.

Put your pan on the stove and set it to high before you do the rest. You want that pan HOT.

Next, rub a small amount of olive oil on each side of the steaks, a couple of drops for each side. This acts as a heat conductor, like thermal paste on your CPU heatsink. Sprinkle a pinch of salt (kosher if you have it) on each side, and massage it in. Let the steaks sit for 5 minutes.

Now you're ready to cook. Pick up the steaks with tongs, and gently lay them down in the pan, and leave them absolutely alone for 2 minutes. If you slide the steak around, you'll ruin the nice crust that forms on the outside. At this point you'll want to turn on your hood. When the 2 minutes is up, flip the steaks (again, with tongs - good steak shouldn't have a fork stuck in it until it's on the table), and leave them alone for 3 minutes.

Remove the steaks from the pan, and set them on a plate. Cover it with aluminum foil or a big mixing bowl, and let them sit for 5 minutes. The steak is actually still cooking on the inside, and this lets some of the juices soak back to the outside surface. Serve and enjoy - they shouldn't need any A-1.

Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher is my go-to intro guide that covers a huge range of beer topics.

The Brewmaster's Table By Garrett Oliver would probably be good for you if you're working for a grocery store, as it could help you make pairing recommendations.

The BJCP Style Guide is a good online resource for styles. It's designed for judging homebrew competitions, so it isn't the last word on the more flexible world of beer styles that may be available, but it's about as good as it gets for a general guideline on what's out there.

Palmer's How To Brew is a classic guide to the basics of how brewing works, though there are also a quadrillion other good homebrewing books out there.

The Brewing Elements series of books is more technical, but I'm a big fan of them. They cover a lot of the how and why of beer.

If you can, find a local beer tasting group and kick it with them. That'll help you get a sense of what's cool and new in the beer world so you can stay ahead of trends. You'll hopefully know what the biggest sales are from your work itself, which should cover most of the beer just fine, but the best beer selections have the things that sell well today and at least some things that will sell well tomorrow.

Plan 1: Grab a general purpose beginner's book like Ruhlman's 20, How to Cook Everything: the Basics, or The Four Hour Chef and get cracking.

For the record, I would start with Ruhlman since he's the most oriented towards principles, techniques, and general purpose stuff. Bittman's great, but he mostly teaches via recipe which isn't that helpful when you're just barely starting out. Ferris' book is incredible and I would wholeheartedly recommend it, but it's huge and filled with a lot of rabbit trails about learning styles, foreign languages, memorizing playing cards, and shooting 3 points. If you like watching Tim Ferris ADD on neat stuff (and I do) it's a great read, but it definitely isn't only about cooking.

Plan 2: Get this poster. Ideally here. Get the veggie if you need it. Buy the stuff, make the stuff. This won't be quite as much initial layout as buying a book, and it's not nearly as intimidating. But it's not nearly as detailed so you're going to have to do a lot more guess-and-check type stuff and be ready to throw out your mistakes, which is probably going to cost more and be more frustrating in the long run.

tl;dr - Ruhlman

Disclaimer: links are for convenience only. I receive no benefit other than sharing my favorite sources.

It's one of those 'personal preference' issues, really.

I've read a lot of the books that others have mentioned, but I haven't bought my own copies, mostly because I'm satisfied with Rose Levy Beranbaum's books, and have stuck with those. She's a good teacher who seems to understand the specific challenges of baking at home with the ingredients I can find. (Lots of other cookbooks seem to be focused on professional type baking situations, and on artisanal baking. Not what I need or want to use.)

Her recipes have been consistently reliable, approachable and the end results have been very tasty.

Some projects are apparently more than I want to manage, so I haven't baked EVERYTHING in her books, but I do own them all, if that tells you anything.

I learned a lot from her Bread bible.
http://www.amazon.com/Bread-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/0393057941

Her newest, The Baking Bible also looks great (just got it, haven't yet worked my way completely through it.

http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Bible-Rose-Levy-Beranbaum/dp/1118338618/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

There are a lot of different approaches to this kind of project. Along the way in my experiments, I learned that I'm not really all that fascinated with rustic artisanal breads, and that most professional cookbooks just aren't what I'm looking for in the way of specific advice on projects I can manage at home. For one thing, living where I do, finding top quality flours is a problem (i.e., online only).

Editing to add: I think it's probably best to buy a cookbook produced in your own country, whatever that might be. For example, ingredients can be hard to source, and wording can be a confusing issue. (British cookbooks have given me a lot of great ideas, but living in the US, I find I need to double check my understanding of the instructions and the ingredients. Metric measurements are a godsend, though, they simplify a lot. Other measuring standards can be more confusing.)

I love cookbooks, and have probably fifty in my collection.

The ones I keep going back to are:

• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi - He's an Israeli-born chef in London, and his recipes are a great combination of creative, relatively easy, and unique. He has a knack for combining unusual flavors, and I've never disliked anything I've cooked from him. If you're relatively green, don't get Nopi (too advanced). His other three or four books are all great.
  
  
• Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless. Bayless has a PBS show and owns several restaurants in Chicago. He's a great chef and his recipes are accessible and fun.
  
  
• The Food Lab by u/J_Kenji_Lopez-Alt. I was skeptical at first, since Lopez-Alt's website is so comprehensive, but the book is absolutely beautiful and contains both recipes and explanations of technique and science.
  
  
• Modernist Cooking at Home - It's expensive and many of the recipes are challenging and/or require special equipment, but the book is truly groundbreaking and never fails to stoke my creativity. It's the home version of his 6-volume tome which many think is one of the most innovative cookbooks in the last 20 years.

Id ask r/Homebrewing about mead and whatnot, i brew beers ciders and wines myself and one thing i can tell you is that there are inumerable ways to screw it up, super easy to ruin a batch, afaik mead takes months and months, ale idk but i can brew a decent batch of beer in 2 weeks. Best guess assuming 5e id start with a general intelligence check and a nature check for portions and whatnot then maybe a survival check on behalf of the yeast, it is possibke to give it so much sugar it just says fuck it and dies (not actually what happens but you get the gist) then either a history, insight or medicine check for proper storage, i doybt your going to have them bottle it but you still gotta rack it off/ditch the trub before you let it sit as that can drastically alter the flavor, as well as skunking beer with too much light, though some people (weird people) like it. That's just what i could think of off the top of my head though, theres plenty of ways to brew

Edit i can't personally vouch for the book as i'm still waiting for payday to buy it, but the reviews seem promising on not only numerous varieties of beer but also more ancient methods of brewing, so on reviews alone i'd recommend taking a look at this book
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937381667/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Editedit forgot to mention that while its super easy to screw up, if you don't screw up than it's super easy to make homebrew, sounds weird but that's how it is.

Edit^3* as for how much it can produce i'm not sure on portions for mead but when i do countrywines 3lbs of fruit/veggies/roots/whatever makes roughly one gallon of wine finished product

End ramble.

If you love to read, then I completely back up those who recommended J Kenji Lopez-Alt's "The Food Lab". He also spends some time on /r/seriouseats, which I think is really great. Food Lab is great because it explains not only HOW to make a recipe, but the WHY a recipe works the way that it does, and allows you to expand your cooking skills. His is not the only book that does this, but I've read Salt Fat Acid Heat and The Science of Cooking and a good portion of the tome that is Modernist Cuisine, but Kenji's style of writing is exceptionally approachable.

But my actual suggestion to someone who wants to go from never cooking to cooking healthy meals at home is to watch the recipes on Food Wishes, because he shows you what each step of the recipe is supposed to look like, and his food blog is not filled with flowery stories, but helpful tips.

Another great online resource that I used when I started cooking about 5 years ago was The Kitchn. They offer up basic technique videos on how to cook proteins and vegetables that are really simple to follow for beginners.

My advice to you is this: don't feel like you need to dive immediately into recipes. First learn how to season and cook a chicken breast or steak consistently, and roast the different kinds of vegetables. Then just start jumping into recipes that you want to try. And don't be afraid to ask questions here :)

>Unrelated question, I read that meat should be poached with the liquid starting cold and then gradually increasing the heat so as to cook the meat evenly. However when grilling or baking an oven is required to be preheated, and I read the reason is again, so that the meat cooks evenly. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I know the medium of cooking is different but why is this contradicting?

Let's start here. You can safely ignore advice for starting things cold in any aqueous cooking method (poaching, braising, making stock, boiling vegetables) -- whether it starts hot or cold will have minor differences when it comes to when and which compounds move from your solids to your liquids, and other details like clarity of your final liquid (e.g. a broth or stock). These are fine finicky details however, and will have very little effect on the final flavor of your dish. When it comes to poaching meats, what matters it the final temperature of the meat. The closer the temperature of your poaching liquid is to that target temperature, the better -- whether it starts hot or cold when the protein goes in. The same basic principles apply for meat cookery when grilling or roasting, with the added caveat that you usually want to create a crust through the maillard reaction and caremelization, which requires high heat. Hence the very best methods are a combination of low and high heat, such as Sous Vide and Reverse Searing.

As for categorical learning, there are lots of resources!
One of my favorites is the website Serious Eats which is very science based and has plenty to learn sorted by technique or by recipe.

I personally learned with Alton Brown -- seek out the show Good Eats, or check out some of his books 123

There is no right or wrong way to learn to cook. In fact, the only real way is to just get in the kitchen and cook. Yeah, you will screw some stuff up, burn some stuff, and maybe make some truly awful food. But you will make great food as well.

Hi! I would suggest finding a cookbook you like the looks of and getting into it. I usually really like Ottolenghi's recipes, for instance.

I also started my own personal cookbook/collection, too. I started with family recipes, and would take other people's recipes and add to it. It's huge now, but I still have a couple of great standalone books.

Some dishes that have kept me alive over the years:

Risotto. This took me through university. (I don't add butter, and I sometimes add mushrooms.)

Curry. I live off of curry. This recipe is an OK starter (but use chili pepper, not cayenne). There are a lot of bad curry recipes out there. It took me a lot of years to get the recipes right, so I might suggest finding someone who is good at curries and learning from them.

Peanut sauce. You can steam green vegetables, make some rice/soba noodles, and throw this sauce on top. Add a bit of tempeh for protein. Easy peasy.

If you can get into a cooking class and food is something you want to brush up on, I would highly recommend it. I took a bunch of classes, and even the most basic ones helped me learn tricks and tips that I still use.

Good luck!

I am in a unique-ish spot. I race pretty competitively, but also don't get to race all that much.

1. I don't do much off bike. I am an endurance racer, so weight training is less important than sprinters. And I hate working weights. I do my strength training with hill repeats and over geared jumps.
   
   
2. Eating prior is just general try to eat good. I stick to my regular meal plans. I plan my long hard work outs at least an hour after a meal. Having general good eating is essential. Also on the ride, anything lasting more than ~45 minutes you need on bike food. Some classics are bananas, clif bars, peanut butter crackers, etc. This book is really awesome, if you like to cook. http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-On-Go/dp/1937715000 Post ride its all about quick protein, and then more good sustainable food. I go with a big spoonful of peanut butter. Then shower, then a protein heavy meal. Timing is pretty important. You need that shower, and first shot of protein pretty quick after the workout
   
   
3. Really hard to give advice without knowing your goals. What are you trying to get out of your on bike work outs?

Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food is a great primer on the science of cooking. I read it in culinary school, and it was a great distillation of the main concepts (which cuts are of meat are good for braising, searing, roasting, etc. and how to properly perform each technique). If you end up enjoying Alton Brown's style, I would also recommend Fish on a First Name Basis for fish cookery. Lastly, Cook's Illustrated is a wonderful resource on food and cooking. The yearly online membership is only approx $25, and you get access to all previously published recipes and equipment reviews.

In terms of equipment, the knife I personally use is the Victorinox 10-inch chef knife. Japanese steel is great and all, but for the same price you could get this knife, a good electric knife sharpener, and a honing steel and still have some left over. The best knife is a sharp knife after all. I would also highly recommend a T-fal non-stick pan for a solid multi-purpose first pan.

Finally, for an herb garden, I generally try to aim for either expensive or infrequently used herbs for indoor gardening. The reasoning behind growing expensive herbs is pretty straightforward. I primarily grow infrequently used herbs to avoid wasting what I wouldn't use up when cooking (as you mentioned is oft a problem). In my region, basil, sage, thyme, tarragon, and oregano would all be good candidates to grow. Parsley, cilantro, and bay leaf tend to be cheaper at the market in my area, so I usually just purchase those.

I've found concept books in combination with cookbooks to help. My favorite is Culinary Artistry by Dorenburg and Page to be the most helpful. I try to limit myself to either a single ingredient, or a pair, or even just a cuisine. The cookbooks give me recipe basics, while the concept book helps me twist them in ways that I maybe haven't tried before.

Checking for what's locally available can also be a way of narrowing down options and being creative.

Overall, I find creativity in the idea that there is freedom in limitation. Hope this helps, and good luck! I've always aspired to be in your position, I hope you find a way to make it work and enjoy it!

This is probably my favorite cookbook ever, but I am not sure if it's a book that everyone would really enjoy reading. For me, the book is fascinating because it goes into an enormous amount of detail on ingredients, technique, and food science; at the same time, you kinda have to be a total need to read and enjoy such a sense book.

For something that everyone should read, I like to recommend Alton Brown's book "I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking"; it is basically the science and techniques from the first seasons of Good Eats, so I see it as kind of a Food Lab "lite", a great and very accessible way to introduce people to food and cooking,.

your method is a little different but the end result looks very similar to my own favorite carnitas recipe.

my recipe comes from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (page 420!), and since i started making it a few years ago it has become a favorite in my house. even my picky 3-year-old loves it!

i've never used ancho chiles or the peppers in adobo sauce, and i add some citrus flavor by juicing an orange and cooking the pork with the orange rinds mixed in, and a little different spices (i use onion powder, garlic powder, and like 5x more cumin lol), but otherwise this looks very very similar to the recipe i use.

i cook mine in a dutch oven for 2 hours then crisp it under the broiler for ~10 minutes. i also reduce my cooking liquid in a skillet before putting it on the pork under the broiler.

some fresh garnishes (onion, cilantro, lime juice) and sour cream complete the ensemble. its seriously amazing.

great post. made me hungry. 10/10 would upvote again.

For what it's worth, I think that The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum does an excellent job of detailing what's going on in the baking process so that you can experiment on your own and create your own recipes. Off the top of my head, I believe it goes into a fair amount of detail on what happens when you under/over rise bread, the effect of dough starters (from simple night-before starters to making your own sourdough starter from scratch), the impact of water content on the finished bread, what different glazes/coatings (ie water, flour, eggwash, etc.) do to the crust, and a bunch of other great information. It's not necessarily as scientific as you might expect from homebrewing resources, but it does provide a lot of useful, easily understandable information to help you make bread.

Overall, I've been finding that breadmaking is a lot like homebrewing—when you first start out, the number of "rules" involved is intimidating, but as you get better you realize that although there are definitely a few things you need to get right, most everything else is pretty flexible.

I found new joy in cooking when I learned about all the processes of how things cook. Like learning how to smoke meats with an electric smoker, learning how to bake breads, make cheese, curing meats, pickling, using a pressure cooker, a sous vides oven, how to grill, how to slow cook. Each lead to more. I read the book Modern Cuisine at Home by Nathan Myrvhold. A super important thing for me was how to preserve foods without refrigeration and smoking meats, pasteurization versus cooking.

Here are the absolute musts I think you (everyone) should learn with tons of easy to find resources (and why important):

1. Absolutely master the temperatures meats must be cooked at. Memorize. Buy a meat and a laser thermometer. (This is important because you don't want to overcook your stuff and you'll be amazed at how different temps affect food taste and texture)
   
   
2. Learn how to make the five standard French sauces. Learn about stocks. Make mayonnaise. (This will open a whole new world, master these five than add personal variables to infinite awesome)
   
   
3. Learn knife skills what each knife shape and size does, what the various types of cuts are. Learn how to "French" a meat cut. Buy at least a paring knife.
   
4. Learn how to debone and stuff a chicken. Use butchers twine.
   (You'll be amazed how much more you can do with some simple meat tweaks, also important for vegetarians)
   
   
5. Learn the difference between baking soda and baking powder and bread flour versus cake flour.
   
6. Bake bread by using a starter culture.
   (There is nothing better than baking home made breads and cakes and stuff. You can make oodles of variations, tarts sweet and savory, pasties and pastries awesome)
   
   
7. Learn about salt, yeast, curing and fermentation. Make pickles through fermentation.
   (Sounds scary but so opens the magic shut doors between amateur and professionals. Is easy and important an art that people have been doing for thousands of years.)
   
   
8. Learn the different meat cuts.
   (Learn about and buy cheap cuts of meat, you won't be upset if you screw something up and the cheaper the more flavorful)
   
   
9. Discover new devices to cook with; the easiest is the slow cooker (in fact these are all easy just slightly different) an electric smoker, pressure cooker, barbecue grill, sous vide, cast iron dutch oven. (You are probably saying; this guy is nuts but this can open huge doors to amazing flavors.)
   
   
10. add different textures and items for colors flavor combinations
    
    A big thing for me
    http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015
    (This book is great for the science behind cooking, an incredible and overlooked aspect behind cooking)
    
    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Masterbuilt-30-Electric-Smokehouse/7811422
    (This was something that really changed everything for me. I know you have a crappy apartment so do I, I keep mine on the patio and use it like a slow cooker, shovel wood in set temp come home to incredible food. Plus with black friday coming up there are huge discounts available although overseas I dunno.)
    

Smoking can really be broken down into a couple different things.

• Building/maintaining a fire to provide a consistent temperature
  
• Butchery, removing silverskin and unnecessary fat from your product
  
• Seasoning - a great place to start is as simple as it gets, Salt and Pepper. A great cut of meat can stand on it's own without adding 30k different spices. I'm a huge fan of the dry brine method, which is where you salt whatever cut you're doing 12-18 hours prior (obviously excluding products that don't require being salted, like sausage), and allowing it to dry age in the fridge. This provides a dry exterior which lends to creating a nicer crust.
  
  I would highly recommend starting off with a small/inexpensive cut of meat, and working up. Top Round is a great choice. Pork Chops, Polish Sausage... get those down and move up to a rack of ribs, or a pork shoulder. Once you're confident with those, move on to a Brisket.
  
  
  Once you're happy with those results then try different things like injections, various spice rubs.
  
  
  My preferred books are:
  
  
  Franklin BBQ - A Meat Smoker's Manifesto & Meathead: Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling

Stick with your Mr. Beer kit for a few more sessions. Refills are $20 for two gallons which seems reasonable. Just stick with ales and don't brew lagers. The more flavorful the beer is supposed to be the easier flaws are turned into tasty features. I'd go with this porter: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Beer-Churchills-Homebrewing-Sanitizer/dp/B01D5J7ZIW/ref=bdl_pop_ttl_B01D5J7ZIW

The amber ale and stout would be on my list too. If you like IPA's try that.

If you want a piece of equipment I'd buy a hydrometer or a bottle capper. https://www.amazon.com/Homebrew-Guys-Hydrometer-Specific-Potential/dp/B012YLS62G/ref=sr_1_21?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1524334825&sr=1-21&keywords=brewing+hydrometer

Make sure you do a good job sanitizing everything and you'll be 90% there. Star-san is an excellent sanitizer. I don't know what Mr. Beer uses. Bleach or iodine can also be used if done correctly.

If I were to suggest one thing to buy, it would be a good book. The John Palmer How to Brew is an excellent choice. What you learn will apply to Mr. Beer kits and as advanced as you want to go. https://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Great-Every/dp/1938469356/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1524335575&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=palmer+how+to+brew

Lastly, I'll double down on my advice to stick with flavorful ales and stay away from lagers and pilsner. Best of luck.

not sure how much I can help...

I've "captured" several starters over the years. I use the pineapple juice and rye flour method described here: https://breadtopia.com/make-your-own-sourdough-starter/ (see the rather long essay linked from that page for a truly in-depth analysis of the process). I really enjoy the result from a whole-grain coarse rye flour I get from a local specialty supplier, but i've had success with normal grocery store rye as well. After about 3 or 4 days of reliable activity, I transition off juice to plain water and a 50/50 white/whole wheat flour "spiked" with a little of the left-over rye.

Once I have a healthy starter, I use the Tartine recipe/process from the Tartine Bread book, but since we don't eat so much bread (only two of us) I usually do a 500g half recipe for a single loaf.

Good luck!!

edit: forgot to mention, i don't really put much stock in the "float" test... I typically just look for lots of bubbles. I also keep my starter in glass or clear plastic which aids in checking for healthy bubbles

Here is my photo album with different angles.

bottom

crumb

This is my first try at making something other than no knead bread. I followed the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe here and here pretty closely, but added a bit more water to the poolish because I thought it looked too dry. I baked it at 475F for 25 minutes instead of the instructed 20 minutes to give it more color.

I think it came out alright for my first try. I'm surprised that it tastes pretty good - it has a nice crispy, crackling crust that shatters when I bite into it. It's seasoned well too, the salt brings out a lot of flavor. The crumb is more dense than I hoped for - I think it's because I over kneaded the dough. Obviously, I need to work on the shape.

Honestly, I prefer this drier type of bread compared to all of the no knead bread I've been making - it's not so moist and spongy in the middle.

Tips and critiques welcome!

If he has a particular team he supports for football, maybe some gear to wear or tickets to a game (I realize the season is almost over but long shot here.)

You mentioned cooking/grilling... along those lines, if he has room for it and enjoys bbq type good, you might consider a smoker
If you do opt for this route, there is a great book that you could get to go with it.

Just trying to help think outside the box. Good luck!

Je te conseil ste livre la : https://www.amazon.ca/How-Brew-Everything-Right-First/dp/0937381888 sinon, son site web gratuit : http://www.howtobrew.com/ Je sais pas si il est a jour comparer au livre. Ya eu plusieurs découverte de brassage depuis quelques années. C'est un super de bon livre avec la grande majorité des choses que t'as besoin de savoir concernant le brassage de la bière et c'est super bien expliqué.

r/homebrewing peux t'aider aussi. Super belle communauté consacrer au brassage de biere et plein de gens qui veulent t'aider. Incluant John Palmer lui même (auteur de How to Brew).

Ya aussi ste gars la qui fais des cherches sur des bieres historique anglaise : http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/ Super de bon stock qui t'apprend les ancien type biere avant la révolution industriel et les guerres qui a eux qui a tout changer.

Je recommande aussi http://brulosophy.com/. Super de bon blog qui teste des mythes de brassage de façon scientifique et les prouve correcte ou non.

Tout ca c'est le brassage de biere de type Anglais. Si tu veux du stuff de biere belge (ce qu'on a beaucoup au Quebec) je te recommande la serie - Brewing Farmhouse Ales, Brew like a Monk et Brewing with Wheat. https://www.amazon.ca/Farmhouse-Ales-Craftsmanship-European-Tradition/dp/0937381845/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519234800&sr=1-1&keywords=brewing+farmhouse+ale&dpID=51oI7VkdTwL&preST=_SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Si tu cherche du stuff des biere Allemande/Czech je te conseil ste livre la : Brewing Lager Beer : https://www.amazon.ca/New-Brewing-Lager-Beer-Comprehensive/dp/0937381829/ref=pd_sim_14_18?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YJKTZ5QSPD8KH7MZQ48Z

ET Si tu cherche plus des recettes qui fonctionne que son selon les styles BJCP, je te conseil ste livre la : https://www.amazon.ca/Designing-Great-Beers-Ultimate-Brewing/dp/0937381500/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S5CFF5PGSYQN6YW5HNZH

Si tu cherche du stuff concernant les biere surrette (Lambic, Brett, Lacto etc) regarde ste livre la : https://www.amazon.ca/American-Sour-Beer-Michael-Tonsmeire/dp/1938469119/ref=pd_sim_14_9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DF5N9XVQ8FWQCNK6NKS3

Je connais malheureusement pas de literature en francais.


Sur ce bonne chance et lache pas! C'est super interessant!

If you like reading, a couple books that I'd recommend would be The Food Lab and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. They'll help you understand a lot more about the tools and ingredients you want to use and learn how to use them. There's plenty of recipes too! These are both award winning books that I think should be in your local library too if you don't have the money to buy them! Happy cooking!

The meal prep subreddit might give you ideas too on big batch meals.

Do you think your dad might help you cook or help you learn? It could be a cool thing to do together and maybe you could help him learn somethings and give him some autonomy!

My grandma recently gave me an old Chef Paul Prudhomme cookbook from the 80's that is great. I'm a huge gumbo fan and I think there's like 5 separate recipes in there just for that, with different variations for chicken/sausage, seafood, duck, etc.

But, what I really came here to say is there's a newish book called Salt Fat Acid Heat that isn't directly tied to cajun food, but is excellent at explaining the science of food and why things are delicious. I like this instead of a cookbook that just gives you a list of ingredients and specific steps to follow, with no reasoning for why you're doing each of the steps. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Fat-Acid-Heat-Mastering/dp/1476753830... there's also a Netflix special that has the same title that's good as an appetizer to the book if you're interested.

Do my best. CI is really good about keeping their recipes off the net and this is from memory. I highly recommend the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, I've never made a bad meal cooking from one of their recipes. (Except that lentil soup, but that was my fault for buying old lentils.)

Take your 4-5lb roast and pull it apart by the natural seams and remove most of the fat. Tie it up into two smaller roasts with kitchen twine. Season with salt and pepper and let sit at room temperature for a couple hours.

Take a bottle of Pinot Noir and start reducing it (and I don't mean by drinking it). Continue until your 750ml is approx 2c.

In your dutch oven, cook 3-4 strips of bacon, cut into 1/4" pieces, until crispy. Remove and reserve. Pour out most of the grease. Brown your roasts on all sides and set aside.

In your dutch oven, add one onion, chopped fine, and cook until starting to go translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Add a three cloves of garlic, chopped, and a tbsp of all purpose flour. Cook until fragrant, maybe 3-4 minutes.

Add your wine reduction and 4c beef broth. Add a few sprigs of fresh parsley, three sprigs of fresh thyme and a couple bay leaves tied together with twine to the pot. Add in reserved bacon. Place your roasts on top of this concoction and place in a 300°f oven. One of the tricks here is to cover your dutch oven with tin foil before putting the cover on. This gives you a much better seal and keeps more liquid in the roast. This is apparently a pretty important step.

This will cook for 2-3 hours, until a fork slips in and out easily. Turn your roasts once an hour. When cooking has approximately 1 hour left, add four carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise into quarters by about an inch and a half long.

While waiting for it to cook, take 10ish oz of frozen pearl onions (thawed) and cook them in a saute pan in a cup of water and three tablespoons unsalted butter, covered, 12-15 minutes until soft. Uncover and cook until all water has boiled off. Add 8oz button mushrooms, quartered, and cook until everything is evenly browned.

When your roast is cooked, remove it from the oven, remove the roast from the dutch oven and tent with foil to keep warm. Add your pearl onion and mushroom mix to your braising liquid. Place the dutch oven back on the stove and reduce liquid by about a quarter. Skim as much fat off the top as possible. This will be your gravy for the pot roast. When nearly finished, add a tsp unflavored gelatin to the sauce to add richness.

And there you have it. By far the most prep I've ever done for a pot roast, but, bar none, it's the best I've ever had.

These look icky. Recipe looks unreliable, too. If you want a good bagel recipe, I suggest you buy this book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348260951&sr=8-1

...and follow the bagel recipe in here, because it's delicious and much better. Actually, all of their bread recipes are awesome, and super fast to make, and because it's homemade it's definitely budget-friendly. I have this book and their Artisan Pizza and Flatbreads book as well, and I love 'em.

This is my full list of books from /r/homebrewing but it includes pro level books:

New Brewers:

• How to Brew - John Palmer
  
• Brewing classic styles- Jamil Zainasheff
  
• Designing Great Beers - Ray Daniels
  
• The Complete Joy of Homebrewing - Charlie Papazian
  
  Continued Learning:
  
  
• Water - Palmer and Kaminsky
  
• Yeast - Zainicheff and White
  
• Malt - Mallet
  
• Hops - Hieronymous
  
• Experimental Brewing - Drew Beechum and Denny Conn
  
• Radical Brewing - Randy Mosher
  
• Brewing Better Beer - Gordon Strong
  
  Specialty/Advanced/Other:
  
  
• American Sour Beers - Michael Tonsmeire (/u/oldsock)
  
• Brewing with Wheat - Stan Hieronymus
  
• IPA: Brewing Techniques - Mitch Steele
  
• Farmhouse Ales - Phil Markowski
  
• Brew Like a Monk - Stan Hieronymus
  
• New Brewing Lager Beers - Gregory J. Noonan
  
• Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers- Stephen Harrod Buhner
  
• Drink: a cultural history of alcohol - Iain gately
  
• Principals of Brewing Science - George Fix
  
  Business Books:
  
  
• Brewing Up a Business - Sam Calagione
  
• Brewers association Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery - Cantwell, among others
  
• SO you want to start a brewery - Tony magee
  
• Beyond the Pale: The Story of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co - Ken Grossman
  
• Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery Paperback –Steve Hindy & Tom Potter
  
  Technical Readings (Textbooks might be expensive):
  
  
• Brewery Operations Manual - Tom Hennessy
  
• Beer Packaging - Master Brewers Association
  
• Technology Brewing and Malting - W. Kunze, 5th Edition
  
• Malting and Brewing Science, Volume 1 - Many Authors
  
• Malting and Brewing Science, Volume 2 - Many Authors
  
• Brewing yeast and fermentation - Boulton and Quain

It's all about taste and palettes. If you don't like sours, that's fine. A lot of folks don't. I gather the recent shift isn't far different than the lupulin threshold shift. It's my perception that sour fan-boi's are a bit more strong in their opinions and beliefs due to the amount of time and effort that goes into creating proper, delicious sour beers. An excellent IPA can be cranked out in less than a month, while sour beers require many months, even years to make, and require some advanced techniques such as blending in order to achieve a desired flavor or for consistency. Some may come off as elitists, or beer snobs because of this extra effort required, which isn't going to help them bring more to their cause.

It also may have something to do with the recent release of /u/oldsock's book back in June, which is one of the only really well written books on sour beers. Even if you don't like them, it's a great book to read through, as it really does open your eyes to just how complex they can be, and why their is such an appreciation for them among their loyal tasters.

No real need to buy a book unless you want to this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393057941/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1420742471&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=51IPIUozm7L&ref=plSrch is a great one.

I would check out www.thefreshloaf.com it's probably my favorite bread site around. A lot of the recipes deal with ratios and weights. That can be a bit confusing, but a quick google search for conversion to volumetric measurements will square you away. If you're serious about finding good recipes this site has them. Don't get scared away by the funky measurements and ratios!

I also love this type of bread. It's a bit tricky because there's a lot of extra chemicals in there that make your yeast so funny things. Probably the most important thing to do is to soak any of the seeds you're using, make sure your yeast is thoroughly proofed and read to ferment, and of course proper fermentation of the dough. In my experiences all but soaking takes some trial and error. The fermentation process has a lot to do (for us home baker types) with texture, touch, and what the dough looks like.

Good luck!

Bakers make great modernist cooks because it requires so much forethought/calculation. As for resources, my first book was Cooking for Geeks, then the Modernist Cuisine book set from Nathan Myhrvold (and have it signed by him "For Science!") which is the bible, but free options include their website, Seattle Food Geek, molecular recipes, this YouTube playlist from Harvard and the usual science-based cooking resources like Good Eats, America's Test Kitchen, and Chef Steps.

I learned not to overthink the ice sphere mold: fill it with water and take it out after three hours, then melt a hole in the top and suction out the liquid water with a syringe. The chocolate was tempered then about a tablespoon was dolloped into each half, joined, and tumbled for coverage. Turn every 15 minutes in the fridge until it pulls away from the mold.

The goat cheese was thinned to an oozy consistency with goat's milk to get the desired "popping" effect. I wanted to do something creamy that would complement the char on the lamb and acidity of the vinaigrette.

Best things to sous vide: Eggs to various stages of yolk doneness, well-marbled but tough cuts of meat (think USDA Prime grade Chuck steak and pork ribs) over 72 hours at 140F, salmon with smoked salt to 113F is spreadable like butter

Hey,

I weighted 257 lbs back in February 2011. I've lost approx. 50 lbs since on a low carb diet, while doing absolutely no exercise for the first three months or so due to a sciatica. It is not an easy transition, but it's easily the best thing I've ever done diet wise. It's not a matter of losing weight anymore, but living better overall. I can't tell you how many advantages there are to cutting carbs, but apart from the weight loss, the energy levels always stay constant. No more feeling drowsy or tired after a meal. No more heartburns (which was a daily occurrence for me). No more cravings for sugar before or after a workout or long bike run, or a long day at work. No more feeling bloated.

I've never counted calories during this period. Not a single instant. But I watch the carbs I'm eating very carefully. Still, not to the point of obsession. Most carbs are easily discarded: sugar, bread, starchy vegetables, pasta, etc. Mayonnaise is now my main condiment (not proud or anything, just saying).

I've started biking again recently. I do approx. 250 to 300 km a week with a friend of mine over the course of three, sometimes four rides. During these rides is the only time I "carb-up" (eat a significant amount of carbs). I've literally struggled to keep losing weight since I started biking. Why? Because exercise makes me hungry. I compensate before/during rides, but I'm not doing it to LOSE weight. I'm doing it because I love it and I feel better doing it. Exercise does not help weight loss. It helps build lean mass and make you feel better, but the energy spent will be "asked" for by your body -- hunger, cravings, etc. Exercise is a zero-sum game. Energy spent will come back in. If not, you'll just be suffering for no reason!

When I do fall off the low-carb diet (special occasions, sometimes just for fun), I do end up gaining some pounds very rapidly. Eating pizza one night does often result in seeing a huge increase on the scale (2 lbs easily), but it's temporary. The weight goes away just as fast when going back on the low-carb diet.

I aim to eat less than 20 grams of carbs (except fiber) a day. This is typically called a ketogenic diet, as it results in your body going into ketogenesis. I'm just human, so I'd guess that my average was closer to 30-35 grams a days. I've tested for ketogenesis a few times during the last few months. It was obvious I was in keto after bike rides, but not before.

Oh, and my blood pressure was significantly lowered. My cholesterol levels are better than they were, but not yet perfect. I still have a lot to lose.

Anyways, do you have any time to read? If so, PM me. I'd like to send you a copy of Gary Taubes' Why we get fat. Got the Kindle edition recently, and I have no more use for the printed edition.

There's a cooking for beginner's subreddit as well by the way.

---

I found certain cook books more helpful than others. As a science type, I deeply appreciated this time which should be in your local library. It explains what "meat" is: muscles, and how it all works, and how heat affects it chemically. All the steps are very clear, the photography is beautiful, and steps are written exactly like a chemistry lab.

The meat chapter explains why different cuts of meat are different and what to do with each.

---

Start with beef or good quality fish: both are safe to eat even if undercooked. Maybe take a scientific approach, even: cut up different chunks of the same size, blot dry with paper towel to minimize splutter.

Put pan on stove at medium setting, add about teaspoon of oil and spread across surface evenly. When you can feel heat on your hand about 3 inches from the heated surface, add meat.

After one minute remove one chunk and rest on plate. After another minute remove another. And so on. Observe the differences. Now taste them. Then add little salt and pepper and taste again.

Small steps. :)

I used to be the kid who threw pop corn kernels on the stove without oil and almost set the house on fire. My then boyfriend needed to walk me through cooking my first egg. We all start somewhere.

Books are a great way to educate yourself and keep you motivated. Check the FAQ for resources. I'm enjoying Gary Taubes' Why we get fat book. I found Tom Venuto's Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle to be a great start also. There are plenty of audiobooks too that you can listen to while running or working out.

Food scale, as suggested earlier, is a must if you're planning to use calorie counters and having more control of the things you eat. And form your comment about weighting your bowel movements, I'm sure you'll have fun using it.

Resistance bands and push-up handles are way cheap. I know fittit will prefer barbells and dumbells and I know they're right. But as you, when I initiated (recently) I wanted to have a range of "equipment" for cheap to get myself started and motivated and all of these stuff I mention helped me.

Work out videos/programs (P90X, Insanity, etc) help too, not only as routines but as a way to learn about exercises/form/stretching. I've been doing Power90 (not P90X) for a few months and I'm waiting for my copy of Starting Strength to arrive and looking to get myself a bench press and barbell/weights.

And mostly r/fitness! Good luck!

Hi Alton,

I just wanted to say that I absolutely loved your book I'm Just Here for the Food. I actually found it at the SF public library, and having seen Good Eats and knowing how entertaining you were, I figured it was worth a try. I was right! It was the first cook book I had ever seen which tried to teach the theory behind cooking as opposed to just being a collection of recipes, and I found it to be both a handy guide to cooking, and also just a fun and interesting read in general (I really liked the food-science kind of approach).

No questions, just wanted to say thanks for the entertainment, and the help learning to cook!

I do have a house strain I harvested from my coolship. I've used it a few times. Its good, but nothing fantastic. I've also built up starters from Crooked Stave and Allagash that have come out well.

Commercially I use most the ECY blends I can get my hands on, ECY20 and ECY01 being favorites. Roselare, Lambic blend from Wyeast, Brett C, Brett Troix are also ones I enjoy.

I plan on using UPack to get most stuff home. It's by volume instead of weight, so I'll just fill all the kettles, etc. I'm trying to figure out a way to plastic line my kegs and fill them with grain, ingredients, etc since they're much cheaper here and it doesn't make sense to ship empty containers.

Bread info can be found here and shaping is on the same page. I use a method close to the Tartine method, and I highly recommend this book (although I do go through it on my blog.) Lately I've been shaping using more of a king arthur method and have been getting great crumb. I enjoy making batard, personally.

For the tomatoes, Alice Waters has a GREAT recipe for tomato confit (recipe from Culinary Artistry):

>Allow about two tomatoes per serving. Make a bed of basil leaves in the bottom of an ovenproof dish that will hold the tomatoes snuggly in one layer. Peel and core the tomatoes and place them core side down on the basil. Lightly salt and pepper. Pour enough extra virgin olive oil to come up halfway up the sides of the tomatoes. Bake for 1 1/2 hours in a preheated 350 degree oven, until the tomatoes are soft and lightly caramelized and have infused the oil with their perfume. Season to taste and serve spooned over cooked and drained fresh noodles.

As for the squash, sometimes I like to turn them into french fries (egg and breadcrumb them, bake them till crispy), but more often, I will braise them (lightly saute, add some stock, simmer until liquid is gone and add a little olive oil to glaze them with the reduced stock, season to taste), then serve it with the tomato confit I mentioned earlier, or some tomato jam (cut tomatoes in half, seed them, roast them on top of a bed of [insert herb of choice here] with some olive oil, salt, and pepper at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, cool to room temp, peel and remove cores, then chop in food processor just until the flesh is broken up, then salt to taste and hang in a quadruple layer of cheesecloth for like 2 hours, discard liquid, then combine with a little bit of vinegar, olive oil, and salt.), and serve with some fresh chévre and some mint leaves (ans squash blossoms if you have extras!).

Or my other favorite, which is, quarter and seed the zucchini, then cook some garlic in a pan with olive oil until golden, then turn pan to high and add the zucchini, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn't gain any color, for maybe a few minutes. Cover with a parchment paper lid, turn the heat to medium low, and cook until tender. One cooked, mash zucchini with a fork and fold in some chopped mint and squash blossoms and season to taste.

As for the Green beans, I would TOTALLY make some minestrone broth, lightly roast the beans, then pour the broth over them and serve. For my broth, I sweat some leek, zucchini, carrot, celery root, and garlic until tender, then add some tomato paste, then some white wine, potatoes, chopped tomatoes, and enough stock to at least cover and simmer for like maybe a half hour. After, I take it off heat and put in some herbs (basil and oregano?) and let it steep for like 20 minutes. Strain, then return the liquid to the pot (sans solids) and reduce till maybe half the volume, then whisk in some olive oil and lime juice.

Onions! Take those onions, and seriously just half them and braise them. Drizzle them in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and bake at 425 till golden and delicious.

Lastly, I just remembered that Daniel humm has this recipe for a tomato soda, if you are adventurous!



Soda Base

Ingredients:
-18 large heirloom tomatoes
-2 stalks diced celery
-6 tablespoons finely grated horseradish
-4 1/2 tablespoons salt
-basil leaves from 2 large bunches
-leaves of 9 sprigs lemon thyme
-1 1/2 jalapeño chiles, stemmed and seeded.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Core the tomatoes and, with a paring knife, score the bottoms with an X. Blanch in the boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds, then transfer to an ice bath. Once they are cool, peel them and cut them into quarters. Puree tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients in a blender. Line a colander with a quadruple layer of cheesecloth. Hang the tomatoes in the cheesecloth overnight in the refrigerator, saving the liquid in a bowl underneath. Discard solids. You should have 3-4 cups of soda base.

To finish:

-1/4 cup simple syrup (boil sugar and water in a 1:1 ratio until sugar dissolves)
-1/4 cup lemon juice
-ice
-basil sprigs

Combine 3 cups of the soda base with the simple syrup. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine. Transfer to a seltzer bottle and charge with a CO2 cartridge. Fill 4 glasses with ice and dispense the soda into the glasses. Garnish with basil.

This is great advice. One of the best instructional "cookbooks" in my opinion, is Ruhlman's Twenty. I hesitate to call ot a cookbook, as it is more like a cooking manual. It covers 20 essential principles and ingredients that everyone should know. For example, there is a whole chapter on just salt and how to use it properly. Each chapter also has a bunch of recipes which then utilize the concepts taught in that chapter. On top of all that, the pictures are great. The instructional photos are not glamoir shots. They show how the food should actually look while you're cooking it, and include examples of what it will look like if you do it wrong (overcook, undercook, not stirred properly, etc.)

I bought it for my wife (who was already a great cook,) and her cooking improved across the board. I've never been a great cook, but this book helped me build a foundation that made me confident about how to use eggs and onions, as well as roast the perfect chicken everytime.

I recommemd the book to anyone.

Tuna cakes, kale salad, and maybe mashed potatoes if I am super hungry.

My favorite slow cooker recipe is Kalua Pig, especially now that I've figured out that the pork shoulders I've been buying only need to cook for 12 hours instead of the prescribed 16. I'm headed out the door but I have tons more suggestions and I'll add them here later.

ETA more slow cooker things:

• Haven't tried this chicken tikka masala recipe but I want to go to there asap.
  
• I really like this whole chicken with gravy, but it can only cook for 6 hours on low, so it's usually a weekend project for me since I'm out of my apartment about 10 hours for work. For bonus points, put leftover gravy on biscuits the next day.
  
• Tomato balsamic pot roast is amazeballs. You could probably add carrots if you were so inclined.
  
  If you're in the market for cookbooks, we've had success with Slow Cooker Revolution (make the Moroccan chicken and chickpeas!) and Nom Nom Paleo (make the pho broth overnight, stash it in the fridge during work, defat and reheat for dinner). I'm not sure why so much of my slow cooker recipes are paleo, but whatever, they're awesome.
  

The only criticism I'd have is to find a better dressing. You can find ranch/Caesars that are 1-2g per serving.

Lettuce is good, but there are more nutritious greens. Broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, spinach, etc... Make friends with all of these.

As for 20g of carbs, it's definitely a good hard limit to start. At first generally the closer to 0 the better, (which you'll never do unless you neglect veggies, which you shouldn't do). But people can go as high as 50g or more and still be in keto. Everyone's different but just don't freak out if you're at 25g a day or something. You'll learn your limits.

Also, don't pay much attention to calories, and read Why We Get Fat.

Good luck!

Hey guys, I've been brewing Gruit for a couple of months now. Got turned onto it by my neighbor who has been doing it for years. Here is a video of his process Brewing Beer Over A Fire Pit, and we will try to upload more as we go.

The brew bible we are working from is Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, by Stephen Harrod Buhner. I've been doing research trying to find more information and recipes for gruits, and this book seems to be a major resource for almost everyone. It's also a great read, exploring the history of brewing around the world.

The main reason I love gruit, is that without the hops you don't feel tired or full when drinking it. And with the yarrow and wormwood you get a mild psychotropic effect so you feel pleasant and alert. My friend drinks it every night during the winter because these herbs are used for skin care and drinking a bottle or two a night keeps his skin from cracking when he's working outside the next day.

I'm starting to experiment with new recipes, just tried a sage ale and a ginger beer. Bottling tonight, if there is interest I will post info/pictures.

I've been baking bread semi-regularly for about a year now with just my sourdough starter or yeast, flour, water, & salt. It does take several steps over 24-36 hours, but it's really super simple once you get it down, only uses one large bowl & then a small bit of counter space to actually form the loaf. The method I mostly follow now is from the Tartine Bread book, which really helps you make amazing bread.

At first, I don't think it sounds that simple to most people, but just throwing it out there as a suggestion because it's totally worth it to me to plan bread baking in my schedule, it's cheap, & could easily be done in a college suite.

You are asking an excellent question.

Extract is good starting point; most of us started with that and made very drinkable beer. It is nice as all of the variables are taken care of for you - all you need to do is boil the extract, add the yeast, and make sure kept everything sanitary. If you follow the directions, you will have a beer at the end of it.
It is my belief that most people will encourage that route as it is a nice way to ease into homebrewing.

The downside of extract kits, especially in Canada, is that they can be pretty darn pricey. My LHBS (local home brew store) sells the Brewer's Best 5 gallon extract kits for between $80-90 a pop (probably cheaper other places - don't get me started on my LHBS...) whereas I can throw together a similar 5 gallon all-grain brew for around $20-40 depending on what I am making.

Most brewers will transition from a few extract brews to all-grain, or at least to the BIAB (Brew in a Bag style) all-grain brewing. And, most people will then need to purchase a larger kettle, somewhere in the realm of 8-10 gallons is often suggested.

I would have no qualms about someone jumping straight into all-grain brewing right away. Most of us get there anyways, and really it is not all that difficult after you get the hang of it.
Pick up a copy of John Palmer's How to Brew and Brewing Classic Styles and you will be set with a good resource on brewing and quality, tested recipes. A bit reading, this sub, and YouTube will make a good homebrewer out of you. Also, Homebrew Talk is a great resource for all things beer making.

Others want to just dabble in some beer making before spending that kind of cash on a set-up to discover that they actually don't like doing it or don't have the time/space/patience for brewing.

So, my personal recommendation is, if you are up to the task of taking on all-grain brewing sooner than later but want to do a few extract brews first, is to buy a kit that doesn't have a kettle and instead purchase an 8-10 gallon kettle separately. It will handle extract brews and all-grain. Everything else that comes with the basic kit you will use whether you are an extract brewer or an all-grain brewer so you don't lose anything, and are actually ahead if you do go all-grain.

I usually tell people to check out How to Cook Without a Book. It has some recipes, but it's more about giving readers a better understanding of techniques, how to put something together from what you already have on hand, and what things you should just keep around at all times because of their usefulness. As opposed to a lot of books I've seen that give a list of things to buy which will then need to be prepped with tools you might not have.

edit: If you got money to spend and really dig the art and science of cooking there is also Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. At just under $550 USD it's the most expensive and most beautiful cookbook I've ever seen.

Probably the best way to start is with a starter kit. Most all brewing supply stores have these kits available at various levels. As an example, here's a basic kit:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/home-brewing-kit.html

Most people start with malt extract kits and brew a few to become familiar with the basic process. This kit, along with a 5 gallon kettle and about 2 cases of 12 oz. bottles will suffice. You'll also need an ingredient kit.

This kit includes a kettle, ingredient kit and a few other handy goodies. All you need with this are the bottles. https://www.morebeer.com/products/deluxe-home-brewing-kit.html

If you drink craft beer the bottles shouldn't be a problem. They come free with the beer. Twist tops don't work well and you want brown glass. You can also purchase new bottles:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-bottles-12-oz-case-24-1.html

Last, but not least, I highly recommend How to Brew by John Palmer. It starts at the beginning, with instructions for your first brew and continues on to move you into the more advanced techniques.

https://smile.amazon.com/How-Brew-Everything-Great-Every/dp/1938469356/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1GIVLHG1JENP4&keywords=how+to+brew+john+palmer&qid=1562623249&s=books&sprefix=how+to+brew%2Caps%2C488&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1

If you enjoy the hobby and move on to more advanced methods, you'll find a place for most everything in these kits.

Happy brewing.

Not OP, but interesting blurb in the Franklin Barbeque book about different woods for smoking (an amazing book for anyone who's ever spared a thought for how real bbq is made).

>Pecan - Actually a member of the hickory family, pecan is also plentiful throughout East and Central Texas. It doesn't burn as hot as oak, but its gentle, sweet flavor is delicious. Nor does it burn as long as oak, so I like to use it for short cooks. Fish, chicken, and especially pork take to its mildness.

He also mentions that most of the firewood sold in stores nowadays isn't fit for barbecuing because it's kiln dried. Kiln drying makes it incredibly easy to light, but also that the wood will burn quickly with little to no smoke.

Does he have a nice insulated mug/water bottle for when he is doing the outdoor stuff? A personal colored or engraved Hydroflask would be a nice gift to keep water cold or coffee/tea hot!

You could also get him a recipe book. These two are on my Christmas list, the first one has SO MANY recipes for everything you can think of and more, fun to get new meal inspiration. The bottom has a Netflix show, but is the basics of cooking and how to boost flavor with amazing illustrations.

You and your FH can write personal messages in the front cover to thank him.

America’s Test Kitchen Complete Cookbook

Salt Fat Acid Heat

I make my own bread about once or twice a week and then can store the dough in the refrigerator for up to about 2 weeks. Whenever I'm craving some I whip up a batch on the baking stone and its good to go. I will never go back if I can manage not to. All you need is flour, water, yeast (you can culture your own or keep little bags in the fridge), and salt. I generally add olive oil and whatever else I am feeling inquisitive with at the time. Last week I made some with chipotle salsa mixed in. I have a kitchenaid mixer, not cheap but IMO worth it that simplifies the process immensely. I love making my own bread and people would be surprised at how easy it is. If you are interested in the way I learned check out the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Very much agreed.

To expand on this point:

A slow cooker does wonders; it should be standard equipment in everyone's kitchen. For anyone who doesn't have one yet, Consumer Reports and Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen provide reviews. I also would strongly recommend the book Slow Cooker Revolution for recipes.

You can throw together a beef and vegetable stew on Sunday (I recommend the Bachelor Beef Stew, and Super Veggie Beef Stew, from the aforementioned book), and save it in a large food container. Those recipes make somewhere around 3 kilos (6 or 7 pounds) of stew at a time. You'll have enough to portion out bowls of it for a week (or two!), easily reheatable in the microwave. You can make large batches of chili the same way. And slow cooked, steel cut oatmeal is so amazing, it's like you've never had oatmeal before.

OP's situation is practically begging for a slow cooker.

It's relative. If 200w is low for you but high for the skinny person, then yes. If 200w is about equal for both, then no. I base food intake on time and effort. I normally don't take anything unless I'm out for longer than 2 hours. Hard effort will shorten that time all the way up until an hour or so.
If you want to drop fat, focus on your diet. It will be way more effective than trying to burn it off by cycling. If you want to use cycling to speed up the process (provided you have a good diet), go on long slow rides. You'll adapt to using more energy from fat that way. This book has some handy info on bike nutrition in the first section of it. Don't just try to emulate the pros. They get pros like nutritionists to help them with that kind of stuff and they are at a much higher fitness level than most of us.

Brewing a sour can be only slightly more difficult (if kettle sour) or painfully tedious (if cold side sour) from a normal beer.

Assuming you know the standard process, kettle souring is throwing a bug into the sweet wort after you collect from the mash but before you boil (and depending on the bug, you might need to chill this first). You then get to sit on your pot and wait overnight to 2 days for the bacteria to get a foot hold and drop your pH to a respectable low 3 or high 2. Then you boil it and continue like normal.

Cold side sours are just like making a normal beer. The only major difference is you can't put a lot of hops in the boil since most sour cultures don't like them. Where it becomes tedious is after everything is done you need to super clean all of your gear or every beer you make from now on will be a sour.

Some great reading on how to make sour beer in your own home is the book American Sour Beers by u/oldsock

Also you know, thinking about this, here's my best advice for you:

Try to move away from the idea of needing "recipes" and think about cooking more holistically. You don't really need a recipe for a roasted chicken. You need a chicken and an oven and a basic idea of time/temp. After that it's all in what you like? Coat it with olive oil? Sure. Add lemon pepper? Sure. Use BBQ rub? Why not! Stuff the inside with an onion and some rosemary? Go for it. Use butter rather than olive oil? Absolutely.

So much of cooking is not about adhering to recipes but understanding the basics of how to cook and then applying your own tastes.

A fantastic book, if you're really interested in learning how to cook w/out having to rely on recipes all the time is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438

The book takes 20 cooking techniques - things like braising, frying, baking, sauteeing, and explains how and when you would use them. He does provide recipes in each category, but overall you learn how to apply the techniques to just about anything and it really opens your understanding of how to cook ANYTHING.

It is not a requirement. However, if we stopped eating meat we would, none the less, have to kill off all of the animals we currently eat because releasing them or keeping them as pets would not be sustainable. Lots of vegetarians claim that "meat eaters" have a larger environmental footprint and that if we stopped eating meat that we could somehow feed those who have trouble getting it now.

This position is a bit naive. We currently produce more than enough food to feed the world. The problem isn't with producing the food, it is with paying for, and transporting, it to those who need it. Switching from our current omnivorous diet to a strictly vegetarian one would make this problem worse, not better, because it takes more space to provide sufficient nutrition without meat.

So, while there are just a few self-selected vegetarians they might have a slightly smaller footprint than the average American, but if everyone were to become one we would be worse off. Additionally, the idea that a vegetarian diet is more healthy is also not nearly as clear cut as many vegetarians would like to believe. If you look into the research on how carbohydrates affect obesity (Here is a good source) you can see that it's not the meat that is making us fat. It's the sugar and bread.

Finally, animals (specifically the fat in animals) is delicious and our bodies crave it because it is a good source of long-term energy without causing the insulin spike that carbohydrates cause. So, eating more fatty meat actually helps to regulate hunger and reduce our consumption.

TL;DR : Animals are delicious and good for you but it is possible to exist without them.

I'm a vegetarian that is always craving variety too! Some of my favorite websites for inspiration are:

https://smittenkitchen.com/ (one of the originals, she is GREAT)

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

http://www.veganricha.com/ (a lot of Indian and international cuisine)

http://www.isachandra.com/recipes/

http://cookieandkate.com/

Finally, I recommend Plenty and Plenty More - two cookbooks celebrating vegetables from the famed Ottolenghi. His cooking is fantastic (ignore the pomegranate seeds on the front cover, I promise it's so much more than that, he just happens to be middle eastern!)

https://smile.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=J1TA1NT14PVDZVX7G173

https://smile.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1607746212&pd_rd_r=J63PHF1F8H0ZEMPVJTSR&pd_rd_w=PCmMs&pd_rd_wg=dsz8A&psc=1&refRID=J63PHF1F8H0ZEMPVJTSR

Two great books about baking bread are The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Tartine Bread. Both will teach you how bread baking works, as well as giving you recipes for many great breads. I much prefer baking bread like this, rather than using a bread maker. Hope that helps.

I do a little. It's not too difficult, it's pretty much like cooking anything - follow the recipe at first until you figure out what to change on your own to make different flavors. I'd recommend starting out with How To Brew by John Palmer. It has a good blend of technical plus practical advice.

Get yourself a simple kit, some grolsch style bottles and an ingredients kit. The most important part of brewing beer is sanitation - clean and sanitize everything! You don't want any stray bacteria getting into your batch and ruining it. If you've got a basement, that's a pretty good place for fermentation, otherwise a closet works just fine. The biggest problem I have is finding people to drink 5 gallons worth of beer.

Head over to /r/homebrewing for even more advice.

I can't believe nobody else has said this yet (though maybe they did and I missed it):

Low-carb. Go low-carb.

Do you eat sugar and starches compulsively? Does it feel as though, no matter how much you eat, you still need more food? An hour or two after a meal, do you already want another one? Does trying to just "cut back" or count calories make your body scream at you to eat?

You need low-carb.

To put it as simply as possible, if you eat a lot of carbs, your body has likely been thrown completely out of whack. You eat flour or sugar, and your insulin levels go rocketing upward; a while later, they drop precipitously, making your body cry out for more in an attempt to stabilize the situation. But eating more only makes them rocket up again, and around and around you go. After years/decades of this, your body is pumping out vast amounts of insulin on a routine basis, leaving you with far too much in your system; however, your tissues have become numbed to it (ie, have become insulin resistant), meaning that it continually takes more to keep your blood sugar under control. Eventually the system begins to break down, leading to pre-diabetes, and later on full-blown Type II. Additionally, all the insulin coursing through your veins is the primary cause of your body's over-enthusiasm to store fat.

That's all terribly over-simplified, but for a more in-depth explanation, read this, and for an even more in-depth explanation, read this. To get you started for now, read this.

I am not shitting you: if you have carb issues (and as a pre-diabetic, you almost certainly do), going low-carb can change EVERYTHING. It can be a little bit of a challenge at first, but after a week or so it gets much easier -- it was far easier for me than any of the standard calorie-restricted, low-fat diets I've done, and I've done more than my share of them. Once you're on track, the compulsive eating vanishes. Your appetite drops off, your energy levels go way up, a surprising number of assorted physical complaints diminish. And most importantly, your weight starts to drop, quickly and without struggle.

I can vouch for this, because this is what happened to me. I've been obese for my entire adult life, and have made so many long, grinding efforts at standard diets -- always failing in the end -- that I was convinced there was just something inherently wrong with me. Then someone right here in r/loseit told me about low-carb dieting, and I decided, what the fuck? Why not give it a try? The worst that happens is that in two weeks, I'm still fat, which was going to happen anyway. So I tried a two-week "experiment," just to see what would happen.

That was nearly seven months ago. Since then, I've dropped roughly 80 lbs (of roughly 150 total that I need to drop) and feel for the first time in my life that I can be whatever size I want to be. Hell, a lot of the time I don't even feel as though I'm "on a diet"... it's more like, in soviet russia, diet goes on you. As long as I don't eat more than a certain number of carbs per day, the weight and everything that goes along with it, that all just takes care of itself.

Low-carb diets aren't a fad, they're not a crash diet, they're not unhealthy, though people will tell you all of these things. What a low-carb diet does is allow your body to regain its equilibrium and begin to correct all of the problems that have accumulated from a lifetime of eating refined carbohydrates. There are a lot of ways to go about it -- it's not all Atkins, although that's a perfectly valid place to start. But even just getting the major sources of carbs out of your diet -- the flour, sugar, and starch -- will almost certainly make an enormous, rapid difference in how you feel and what you weigh. It does require some effort, and it does require some sacrifice. Changing how you live your life is never easy. But compared to the tortures of a carb-based, low-fat, calorie-restricted diet (that doesn't work to address the real problem anyway), it's a walk in the fucking park.

If nothing else, it's worth a try. It's worth considering. For me, it literally changed my entire world. And I'm an Oregonian, too -- would I lead you astray? :)

Good luck, girl. I hear you so loud and clear my ears are bleeding. Think about this, and please, please ask if you have questions.

Cooking really isn't too hard once you understand the science of it. I would suggest getting a cookbook that explains why a recipe is cooked a certain way. For example, this one by Alton Brown. You could and probably should look up some of his stuff on youtube, too.
I'll give you a few basic tips to start -

• high heat generally means you want crispy or burnt on the outside and soft/underdone on the inside. It's really only used for searing and boiling
  
• low heat usually means you're cooking something slowly and will make things soft or soggy
  
• taste as you go, when possible
  
• if you're cooking something in oil, let the oil get hot first or the food will stick to the pan
  
• don't be afraid to use spices, herbs, salt, and pepper. Simple things I like are onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. You can also get Mrs. Dash blends.
  
  You can always subscribe to r/fitmeals, r/cooking, or r/food too.
  
  Learning to cook will take some time. For now, I'd recommend baking a lot. Roast veggies, bake some chicken breasts, stuff like that.
  Roasting veggies is really easy. Cube the veggies of your choice, coat in olive oil, salt, and pepper and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until tender.
  
  Good luck! And be proud of yourself for figuring this out before you actually have a problem. It will be so much easier to start since you're at a healthy weight.

If you are still pretty new, you'll want to be comfortable making clean beers before trying your hand at sour and wild beers. There are so many factors that go into sour/wild ales, that you'll definitely want to have your brewing process down because one small variable can have a huge impact on the final product more so than a clean beer.

That out of the way, nothing says you can't start reading up on it. A good resource on sours is American Sour Beers by Michael Tonsmeire and his website The Mad Fermentationist, which has a bunch of recipes. I also highly recommend the Milk the Funk website, wiki, and Facebook group.

Never made gels, but every monday I make various rice cakes and other portables and eat them throughout the week. I used the book The Feed Zone Portables to get started and branched out to my own tastes from there. I can't do gels. I find them extremely off putting. Liquids like Perpetuem supplemented with something more real is much better for me.

Even if you never make any of the recipes the book has some really great information on nutrition for endurance sports. Basically the first half of the book is about the hows and whys of fueling and nutrition strategies. It's worth a read for sure.

A lot of people have recommended How to Brew, and I cannot recommend that enough. Click this link to start reading the free version of the book. This was my single best resource when I started last year. Here is a link to the book on Amazon. The book is less than $17 and worth MORE than every penny if this is a passion for you. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to message with any questions at all that you may have.

Thanks for doing this Kyle! I think it was advertised as "for beginners" but there's a lot to learn for anyone (well, for me. I'm not a beginner but I still don't know much.)

1. I use gu as fuel. I don't run far enough to require that many--with the exception of my marathon, I think I've maxed out at 2 per long run. So I don't typically run into digestion issues. To be honest, the reason I picked gu is because it has the smallest packaging and I started using these things before I ever heard of a spiebelt (or similar) so I wanted something that would actually fit in my pocket! What I dislike most about them is the packaging. But I'm not sure I'd get around that by using something homemade either; I'd have to wrap it...?
   
   
2. I have not tried "real food" during running. I use real food while cycling, in particular during cycle touring, which is long but easy-paced. In that case I just have a bunch of normal food (I'm particularly fond of croissants with cheese, and mixed nuts) in my pockets or in my "snack box" that's strapped to my bike. Also, when I'm riding my road bike, a lot of my cycling friends will show up with a banana in their jersey pocket.
   
   
3. I'm not super-concerned with eating "natural" but part of that is probably because my gel consumption is relatively low. I guess this may change. Have you seen this book, Feed Zone Portables?
   
   Edit: I have a question regarding timing. Let's say I'm doing a long run or marathon (I'm pretty much never doing to do an ultra). Let's say I want to eat a gel every 30 min. Do I really need one 30 minutes into the run? Or can I go for the first hour without anything, and then eat every 20-30 minutes after that? That's what I always want to do based on how I feel, but I'm not sure if it's right. Often I force myself to have one after 45 minutes.

I personally like America's Test Kitchen's cookbooks. I have their Family Cookbook, which has a handful of recipes for the slow cooker, but I'm sure their Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook would be pretty good. They have a healthy version as well.

It looks like you have plenty of awesome ideas here. I am going to make a recommendation of a really excellent book for deciding what flavors pair well together and how to balance a flavor pallette: Culinary Artistry. It's a terrific resource for people who are trying to move away from recipe-based cooking and into creating their own dishes. It's reasonably accessible-- some of the sample menus are a bit 'out there' but the fundamentals are strong. You might enjoy it!

Alton Brown is a huge geek and had a career in making film/tv before he became a cook and than a cooking show host. He actually filmed this music video for R.E.M. early in his career..

Yeah, huge geek. I highly suggest his books, too. I have his first one, I'm Just Here For The Food, and it contains my favorite recipe in the world. Get it, find the page with his Chicken with Garlic and Shallots, cook it in a slow cooker and omfgbbq, IT IS AWESOME. It's also insanely easy to make.

Once you've started down the road with Alton, there's a bunch of other books I can suggest. Feel free to drop me a line anytime.

Edit: Oh, and while watching the show, pay attention to any clock in the background. A good deal of the time they're set to 4:20.

they used herbs like mugwort and wormwood in everything, read this book

some ale spoiled

some ale was exquisite

Belgian Lambic is a great study in natural fermentations

I don't have any problems with bacterial infections, but I use all glass or stainless steel and any hose or air lock or cork I use gets rinsed in Starsan so that the surfactant and phosphoric acid form a no rinse layer of acid that is uninhabitable for the spoiling bugs.

Just start some good brewing habits, brewing GREAT beer is easy, when you know how

One of the best "reference" sites is Meathead Goldwyn's amazingribs.com. He also just released a book -- more technique than recipes, although there are a bunch.

Another really great smoking book is Franklin Barbecue. This one is much more about the technique and has only a few recipes. But reading it helped my understanding of the process and really ramped up my game. (and I'd already been smoking for several years.)

And of course anything by Steven Raichlen - http://www.projectsmoke.org

Meathead's Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/054401846X

Franklin book: https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Barbecue-Meat-Smoking-Manifesto-Aaron/dp/1607747200

Good luck -- smoking is a lot of fun and you never quite "get there" -- you are always learning something new...

I don't really think it's cheating if it isn't the major component of the recipe's flavor profile.

If you're looking for great slow-cooker/crock-pot recipes, Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen is amazing. They use chicken and beef broth a bit, but that's not much different from using stock in a recipe. I suppose you could do it from scratch and make your own stock if it bothers you. Every dish I've made from that cookbook has turned out fantastic. There may be a little bit of prep work (sautéing, searing, or microwaving mostly) at the beginning or end of the prep but it is definitely worth it. The Bachelor Beef Stew only requires a bit of microwaving and is absolutely amazing.

I doubly recommend the digital kitchen scale & Cook's Illustrated cookbooks. I also recommend:

• Sideswipe blade if she has a KitchenAid mixer
  
• silpat mat
  
• no-knead bread cookbook
  
• gift certificate to Container Store or Amazon so she can pick out some new bulk food storage containers (I happen to be partial to these OXO ones)
  
• gift certificate to Penzeys Spices
  
  If money is no object, how about a promise to a romantic dinner for 2 at a top rated restaurant like Per Se?

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

The great thing about cooking is that there is no template! Do what tastes good to you! That said, there are plenty of cookbooks for beginners that will give you basic ideas. This book by Michael Rhulman will give you several recipes for each of 20 basic cooking techniques. It's a great base to start from.

On wine, I completely jettisoned the idea that whites are for some things and reds are for others. You should drink what you like is the bottom line and be less concerned about pairings. If you like reds then just have a light bodied red, like a Burgundy, with chicken or fish and save the big Boudreaux for your steak. Likewise, there's no reason you can't have a nice oaky Chardonnay with a tomato based pasta, etc.

> Does it matter if fat is unsaturated or saturated? I know saturated is bad for you, but would you just burn it off anyway?

Saturated fats are not bad for you, that is another of those myths surrounding dieting that came about during the "low fat" hype. Yes, certain mono-unsaturated fats, such as olive oil or fish oil, are better for you, but saturated fats aren't bad. A great resource for this information is Gary Taubes' book Why we get fat and what to do about it. When looking for fats, think of the ones that don't require a lot of processing, such as olive oil, coconut oil, lard, butter. Canola and other vegetable oils require a lot of processing and would not have been easy to get during paleolithic times.

> Since it can be hard to get a lot of fat, would it be a good idea to cook with butter/extra virgin olive oil whenever possible?

You should cook with butter/extra virgin olive oil, but getting enough fat isn't too difficult, especially if you are eating fattier meats, such as bacon or steaks. For salads, I love to use just olive oil for dressing.

I would avoid getting her a new Garmin - though it's an incredibly thoughtful idea, she may have a different one in mind! Instead, perhaps a gift card to a running store or a card with an "IOU a running watch of your choice" message. I say this only because I did an incredible amount of research before buying my watch and was pretty set on that choice.

Otherwise, I'd recommend a FlipBelt (I just bought one for myself and I LOVE it.)

Or a runner's cookbook? ONE and TWO

Also, I would mention that Modernist Cuisine at Home is an awesome book. It has some awesome recipes and the techniques they use have helped me in other areas of my cooking.

Also, does your husband have a sous vide? If not, I would ABSOLUTELY start with a sous vide. It's not as gimmicky as some of the other molecular gastronomy things and it has so many applications that it will become a staple in his kitchen as it has mine. I personally love the Anova Sous Vide, I have two of them. If you want to find out more about sous vide (used by Heston at Fat Duck and Thomas Keller at the French Laundry) check out /r/sousvide. Lots of great ideas and techniques just in that sub alone. Hit me up if you have any more questions.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brew-Your-British-Real-Camra/dp/1852492589 is excellent - gives clear simple advice, as well as having a good selection of British ales, milds, porters and stouts - if that's your thing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sacred-Herbal-Healing-Beers-Fermentation/dp/0937381667/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368899642&sr=1-1&keywords=sacred+herbal+beers is also a really interesting book - an anthropological of the history and mythology of brewing, complete with recipes! A lot of the recipes are a bit simple, or sugar-based, but it (like Radical Brewing) is a really good source of inspiration and historical knowledge.

Advice? Get a bottling wand and a vinator and bottle draining rack and shave tons of time off your bottling day.

My go-to gift is the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. This thing is HUGE and reasonably priced, and every recipe in it is awesome. It's great for all the kitchen-gadgets she'll be getting :)

This is a really good read - these are the opening lines of the book’s introduction:

> Anyone can cook anything and make it delicious.

> Whether you’ve never picked up a knife or you’re an accomplished chef, there are only four basic factors that determine how good your food will taste: salt, which enhances flavor; fat, which amplifies flavor and makes appealing textures possible; acid, which brightens and balances; and heat, which ultimately determines the texture of food. Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat are the four cardinal directions of cooking, and this book shows how to use them to find your way in any kitchen.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat

Here's what you really want:

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman: pretty much everything you'd like to do as a normal home cook will be in here. Debone a chicken, choose the best meat, veggies, fruits, how to cook every vegetable, fruit or meat you're likely to use, in different ways, with variations. Breakfasts, dinners, deserts, technique, theory. It'll cover about everything you'd want to learn.

If you want to go a bit further into theory:

Ruhlman's Twenty: twenty topics for the home cook to study and learn, with applicable recipes. The basics every interested cook ought to know. Think, Salt, Water, Onion, Acid, Egg, Butter, Dough, Batter, Sugar, Sauce, Vinaigrette, Soup, Sauté, Roast, Braise, Poach, Grill, Fry, Chill.

That'll get you pretty far, I reckon.

I bought my Joy of Cooking as a poor college student. It is now 26 years old, and it will be handy to the kitchen for the rest of our days. Terrific book.

Alton Brown's your man, via TV, the web and the first book, especially. I'm Just Here For The Food is a better teaching book than Joy, though nothing beats Joy's comprehensiveness.

And, IMHO, Julia Child is the woman, though I'd recommend her The Way To Cook as the one book to get, if you have to pick one. We actually carry it with us when we travel for Thanksgiving. I was going to leave our copy at the in-laws, but my wife didn't want to part with it, even though I was going to order another one. Mrs. Child considered it her magnum opus, and she designed it carefully to teach someone how to cook.

What everyone says about 'just try it' and 'tweak your recipes' is true. Practice is where it's at, but informed practice will get you where you want to go much more quickly.

Happy cooking and Bon Appetit!

If you haven't cooked much, I would recommend picking up Alton Brown's book 'I'm just here for the food' It covers cooking from a science and chemistry perspective, and understanding why something happens makes you a better cook. It also helps keep you from developing bad habits, or working on erroneous information (like
browning meat 'seals in juices'.) Also some very good recipes.

Link: I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/158479559X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_g-7eAbXGFVZ5R

For the 'what do I need part' you can get enough equipment to get started from a thrift store, and cast iron skillets are cheap. A skillet/ saute pan, stock pot, mixing bowl and baking sheet will cover most things. For spices I would at least stock garlic, pepper, kosher salt. Lawry's can work in a pinch although I otherwise avoid spice mixes. If you're making Christmas treats, you're probably going to want cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, vanilla, maybe allspice/ mace depending on the recipe. Buying those and the rest of your groceries at Aldi or Trader Joe's is more economical if there is one nearby. International food stores/ Indian groceries sometimes have much better prices on spices as well.

My go to for the holidays is the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, it's all over the internet. Favorite cookies anywhere when they're fresh out of the oven :)

A lot of the comments are focused on learning simple techniques and skills, and having a basic understanding of processes. Check out this book by Michael Ruhlman.

From the blurb: " Twenty distills Ruhlman's decades of cooking, writing, and working with the world's greatest chefs into twenty essential ideas from ingredients to processes to attitude that are guaranteed to make every cook more accomplished. Whether cooking a multi-course meal, the juiciest roast chicken, or just some really good scrambled eggs, Ruhlman reveals how a cook's success boils down to the same twenty concepts."

Plenty (or any of the Ottolenghi) books sounds like a good fit based on her previous dishes. It's vegetable focused, healthy, not too complicated, and will definitely make her a better cook by introducing new techniques.

You're likely not kneading enough; that's how my breads used to turn out. Like what Protheanunicorn said, if there's not enough gluten development, you'll just have a fine crumb rather than delicious chewiness. If you're serious about bread baking, invest in a stand mixer that comes with a dough hook, to ease the strain on your hands.

A reliable trick I learned from Alton Brown to figure out if the dough is kneaded enough is to pull off a small piece of dough, hold it with the middle pinched between your thumb and index knuckle, and stretch it; you should be able to stretch it to the point where you can see light through it but it doesn't break. It should stretch pretty thinly, too. Here's a helpful video (at 3:30ish). You could also watch the full episode at the link for a lot of tips of the basics of bread making.

Also, find reliable recipes; easy recipes on generic websites tend to yield loaves of lesser quality. I can think of The Bread Bible, Cook's Illustrated, and King Arthur Flour's recipes.

What you should really do is get comfortable with the basics. How to properly season a piece of beef or fish, and how to actually cook it well.

Do this by trying things out - get a sense of how the meat should look / feel when it's time to flip it, rotate it, let it rest, etc.... Once you have that down, it's just fun to experiment with new things.

This book was actually really interesting, if for no other reason than Alton Brown is informative. Best of luck to you.

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (Revised and Updated) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393240053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_9JbiDb82S780M


This book is amazing, i have a 15lb ham hanging in my dining room drying. I used their basic dry cure, pulsed about 5 ancho Chiles in a magic bullet until they were powder put the cure on the belly flipped every other day for 5-7 days pulled it out of the bags, cut a piece rinsed and fried it to check my salt level(at this point you can let it cure longer they say up to 10 days but it gets super salty. After you’re happy with your salt level rinse thoroughly and pat dry let sit in fridge(or the garage if it’s cold out, hence why i like doing it in January/February) over night suspended and uncovered. Then cold smoke for about 16 hours on applewood(I’m a big fat cheater and use the masterbuilt cold smoking attachment about $50 on amazon and cut a hole in a 55gallon drum absolutely perfect setup) if you’re afraid it’s gonna get too warm keep a tub of ice in the bottom.

I have a wife who likes to cook.. She actually gets way into it and I don't make anything better by participating (I get in the way).

For my first project in our new place, I actually put up a little LCD TV for her so she can be entertained while she makes delicious stuff.... I go outside, have a cigar, and be thankful.

I do know she's dumped a beef roast and a jar of pepperoncinis in that thing in the morning, and by 7:00 at night I'm having delicious shredded beef sammiches.

To answer your question directly (and I texted my wife to confirm this) the book she uses most is Slow Cooker Revolution She has a shelf of cookbooks and this one gets the most use by far.

Hope this helps, enjoy the new place, and maybe some new grub!

I like Ad Hoc At Home for relatively simple food done very well. It will help teach you to respect good ingredients while opening your eyes to some interesting flavor combinations.

I also have On Food and Cooking, which is dense but will teach you about food so that when you do pick up a "super fancy" recipe you may have a chance of actually understanding what the chef is doing and why.

And, of course, there's Ruhlman's Twenty, which is also very informative but is much more accessible than On Food and Cooking.

Great tool, hadn't seen that before.

And yep, OP your answer is right here. You can fuel yourself with pretty a mix of many "normal" foods while out riding if you're going gentle enough (all day endurance riding) but for any kind of hard efforts at least you're going to want to focus on carbs primarily, which are consumed by your body in the key metabolic reactions that give you energy.

Carbs range from things like fruits, candy/sweets, cans of coke, bread, rice, oats, starchy vegetables like potatoes, milk, honey, pasta, jam.

If you don't like energy bars or granola bars, consider some bananas, some dates or raisins.

Or if you're willing to put a bit more effort in, make your own bars based on your own preferences - see https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feed-Zone-Portables-Cookbook–Go/dp/1937715000 for some great ideas

11mi. [2E, 2x(1T, 1min rest), 30min E, 2x(1T, 1min rest), 2E]

The run was gloriously cool. Like 43° cool. Like "glad I grabbed my running shell on the way out" cool. We haven't seen temps like that this season yet.

I'm continuing my experimentation with fueling for long workouts. I ate a Cinnamon Apple Rice Cake from "Feed Zone Portables" (150cal, 35g simple carb) ~15mins before this morning's run. Felt good until mile 9. Then couldn't hold my easy pace. No GI issues. Think I'm going to try 100cal/hr next >2hr workout.

>A diabetic patient is recommended to have foods rich in Carbohydrates

ಠ_ಠ

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307272702

>If the USDA dietary guidelines—recommending that highly caloric grains and carbohydrates comprise 45 to 65 percent of daily caloric intake—are so healthy, why, he asks, has obesity among Americans been on the upswing? Why has this same diet, endorsed by the American Heart Association, not managed to reduce the incidence of heart disease?

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16717

I agree with the ATK book posted here by /u/PM_ME_A_FACT, but would also like to add the book "Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi." The ATK book is more of a begginers book than Plenty, but both are great resources.

Plenty on Amazon

I realize that this doesn't exactly answer your question, but rather than focus on specific recipes, I would suggest that you learn all you can about the various cooking methods. Alton Brown does a nice job disucssing this in his first book, I'm Just Here for the Food. It's a fairly easy read for the basic cook. When you have an understanding of the science behind cooking, or why different foods react the way they do to different cooking methods, you've given your cooking skills a tremendous boost. Other resources I highly recommend are the publications of Cooks Illustrated and anything by Harold McGee.

So this isn't exactly in line with what you're thinking... but by far my favorite use of my dutch oven has been making bread. Tartine Bread is a fantastic book that teaches how to make some of the best sourdough bread I've ever had and it very much hinges on using a dutch oven.

I'm not sure I would exactly call it a cookbook as it really only tells you how to make one thing... but that one thing is incredible.

It really depends on the person and the cook book and they can be great tools to learn from, especially for novices. I only have one cookbook, Cook's Illustrated, and I've learned a ton from it. It's made by the folks at America's Test Kitchen, which if you are unaware of who they are, are exactly what it sounds like. They test all sorts of recipes trying different techniques, temperatures, methods, etc, until they find the "best" way to cook a dish. The cookbook gives easy instructions, explanations as to why what they say to do is the best, and provide multiple variations for each recipe so you learn how to cook with a basic technique and then change it up however your imagination desires. My cooking has improved immensely from this one book.

I LOVE the book Culinary Artistry for this exact reason. A big portion of it is a compilation of pairings and components, both for specific cuisines (Italian, Indian, English, etc etc) as well as ingredients. So if you look up Limes, it'll give a list of items that it pairs well with, an well as which cuisines. A great cross-reference for when you want to branch out and try coming up with something on your own!

I cannot claim to have made the "perfect" loaf, but I came pretty damn close a couple of times, using no-knead based recipes from this book.

The recipes in here work on the same principal as the Sullivan Street Bakery no-knead bread recipe that's floating around the internet, where you have a long rest and rise period do most of the work. This book is great b/c it has a lot of different recipes in there beyond the basic "master recipe" (Their recipe for a crusty white bread that is similar to a French Boule).

I assume when you're talking about a white loaf, you mean something akin to sandwhich bread. The one that came out closest to this was their Buttermilk white loaf recipe . I've made this twice, and it is probably some of the tastiest sandwhich bread ever to come out of my oven. Theres also a white bread recipe in there that uses shortening or butter, so its supposed to be more like a soft "wonder-bread" consistency, but I never tried it.

I would post the recipe for you to see, but you know ... I don't want to get sued or anything :)

Alton brown is amazing. Pretty much everything of any practical application that I learned in 3 years of Culinary school he managed to Cram into 2 pretty easy to read books. I highly recommend them to anybody looking for the Why of cooking instead of just the how.

Ninja Edit: Books Here.

Are you (or your SO) interested in cooking? You might consider Modernist Cuisine at Home. It's very cool, informative, geeky and beautiful.

Also, you might want to check out Edward Tufte's books (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information; Envisioning Information; Beautiful Evidence) to see if they are of interest to you.

It might not sound like it makes sense what BaconGiveMeALardon said, but it's true. If you can get your hands on Modernist Cuisine then you can read more about cooking with woks. To sum it up, you need a lot of heat all the time. The Veggies on the bottom cook really fast, as soon as they are in contact with the metal. If you aren't careful, you can burn the food easily. That's why wok cookers always toss the food in the air, that way the hot steam also cooks the veggies higher up while at the same time not letting those on the bottom burn. Here's a pic I found from the book detailing the way a wok cooks food. You have to basically heat up the skillet to around 750 °C / 1400 F, and for that you need a flame 25 times more powerful than a typical home appliance can offer.

For a long time I tried to figure out a way to get wok cooking done at home. I thought of buying a portable wok cooking system hooked up to a propane tank. That was too much of a hassle, though. I will have to enjoy woked meals in restaurants, I suppose.

I'm a fan of Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For the Food.

Only book I know that covers everything from the very basics of starting cooking to advanced techniques. I also love that he doesn't tell you what to do, but the why; the science behind cooking.

Very easy to read and tons of great info.

I'll start off by commending you for taking this step. I wish you the best of luck.

The FAQ in the sidebar is a good place to start. I personally started after reading Gary Taubes' "Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It". It provided a great overview of the science behind keto, and the health benefits that could result from it in addition to weight loss.

Beautiful-looking. I can practically hear the crunch of the crust. Previous commentor said to read Chad Robertsons's Tartine book. It's very good.

• Look at Chris Kelly's video ~ an adaptation of Robertson's techniques that I've tried and like Kelly's easy and less time-consuming take on it. His calls it: Tartine for Dummies. It's not dumbed down at all, just a nice variation.
  
• Strong, the yeast in sourdough is ~ Yoda says.

The only one that I own and have read is Aaron Franklin's book. It's kind of a mashup of a cook book and a biography. It really does a good job of discussing his thoughts and methods on the BBQ process (which he has a lot to say about) while intertwining into that his life story, how he started, and how he has reached the level of success that he has. Tons of good visual imagery as well. If you're at all interested in BBQ, it's a must read without a doubt.

For strength training, Easy Strength by Pavel and Dan John. There is something in there for anybody.

For cardio training, it's not a book, but Lyle McDonald's series on methods of endurance training, also pretty much anything by Joe Friel.

For diet, Ruhlman's Twenty. It's not about nutrition, but it can teach you all the techniques you need to cook your own healthy (and on occasion not so healthy) foods so that you won't be tempted to go off the reservation and order a double deluxe pizza and chili fries when you don't know what else to eat.

Edit: For something very sport specific, there's also Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribiero and Kevin Howell. It's pretty much the beginning BJJ bible.

You don't need to, but it can come in handy. If you are interested in what goes on under the lid, get this book. Truly breathtaking photography, great writing and all the information you'll ever need.

Thank you for the shoutout.

/u/StanMikitasDonuts should start out with some light reading. Get yourself Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn, In the Charcuterie by Boetticher and Miller, and maybe a simple recipe book like Cured by Charles Wekselbaum. That will give you a really strong foundation of recipes to work with.

Most people will start off making Duck Breast Prosciutto (Prosciutto D'Anatra) because it requires only duck breast, salt, and 7-10 days of waiting... and does not require a curing chamber. Beyond that, bacon is a popular and fairly foolproof early project. Fresh and hot-smoked sausages are a good foray into charcuterie as well.

Once you get into whole muscle curing (like OP's pork loin idea) and fermented sausages like salamis, et al, you start needing to account for more ingredients, more processes, and more equipment. A curing chamber is essential for anything that is going to hang for long periods of time. You'll need lacto cultures and mold starters. None of it is difficult or particularly expensive (especially compared to buying these products retail)... but it does become a more immersive hobby once you've got appliances dedicated to making meat logs.

Culinary Artistry - This book contains a long list of ingredients and the flavor combinations that work well with each ingredient. It also gives the season in which the ingredient is best. It's really great for getting recipe/menu inspiration or for just figuring out what to do with random stuff in your fridge. It also has some recipes, menus and stories from various famous chefs.

Seriously? Fuck ramen.

Learning how to cook will serve you well for the rest of your life. Better nutrition, less money, better taste, and everybody loves good food.

Get a copy of The Joy of Cooking for a compendium of awesome and some Alton, Brown, Books, to learn what equipment you need and how to cook.

(Commas to annoy Nazi's and show there are multiple links)

As an avid cook and collector of cookbooks, I have three recommendations -

1. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
   
2. The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez Alt
   
3. The Flavor Bible
   
   The first two will teach you the essentials of cooking. How salt, fat, acid, and heat work together to make delicious food. J Kenji Lopez Alt has a popular serious eats blog and his book will teach you everything you need to know about cooking perfect meat, eggs, burgers, etc.
   
   Once you learn all of the basics from those books, use the Flavor Bible to be creative.

I've had pretty good success with the recipes from Slow Cooker Revolution from America's Test Kitchen. There is a bit more prep involved instead of dump-and-run, but the results are always yummy. Favorite recipe = Bachelor Beef Stew

How To Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Great Beer Every Time https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938469356/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_LOFNDbTQ8KM55

This book has been recommended to me by multiple people. It's well written and breaks everything down in a way I believe is easy for anyone to understand. It's been a great resource so far.

I've recently started making my own food. So far it's great. Easy enough to make and, most importantly, working very well for me out on rides.

I highly recommend this book, which is full of recipes for this exact thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Zone-Portables-On-Go/dp/1937715000

If you really want to learn the ins and outs of taking recipes to the next level, I strongly recommend the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat. I've been a pretty serious home cook for about fifteen years, but this book has really opened my eyes to how easy it can be to get amazing, flavorful results with some fairly basic techniques.

One of my favorites that I just acquired is a cookbook called Plenty. It's filled with lots of really vibrant photographs and tasty, often Indian- or Middle Eastern-inspired recipes that always get my mouth watering. I'll sometimes find myself flipping through it for no good reason, just to admire the delicious food.

I get all my best recipes from good cook books. I highly recommend Cooks Illustrated ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615893/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KbjOAb6PBRC4Y ) and if you want to learn everything in and around food for any occasion then try Joy of Cooking ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743246268/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_TcjOAb55Z5TRH ).

Not at all, this book starts off very easy. It's this book!

Some recipes are fussy with temperatures and time for rising/proofing etc, but this book literally has you throw your water, salt, yeast, and flour into a big container, let it rest at room temp for 2 hours, and then refrigerate for up to like 2 weeks. When you want to make bread, you just cut off a chunk, shape it with a touch more flour, let it rest for 40 minutes, and bake. Super easy!

If you are interested in another book that really gets into the science and art of BBQ, I highly recommend Aaron Franklins book. I cooked a brisket after reading his book and right off the bat it was the best brisket I ever made by a mile and some of the best I've had period.

http://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Barbecue-A-Meat-Smoking-Manifesto/dp/1607747200

Wild Brews is a great book if you're interested in Belgian style wild beers (i.e. Flanders and lambic style). As others mentioned, /u/oldsock's blog is a great all around resource, and he's also coming out with a book that's bound to be good.

I'm a little late to this and have only leafed through it myself but Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking might be of interest to you. It breaks down those four ingredients (and others) and how to use them/why they're important. Helpful for baking of course. Additionally, the illustrations are so cute. They remind me of Quentin Blake's illustration for Roald Dahl books.

I've read Designing Great Beers and it's a great resource as a style guide, but it leans much more towards the empirical side when it comes to explaining things. If you're looking for something a little more scientific and data-driven there are some other really good options.

Suggestions:

• The Brewing Elements series: Water
  / Yeast
  / Malt
  / Hops - Very specific and science driven focus on each element.
  
• American Sour Beers - Mostly focused on sour beers, but gets really deep into the scientific aspects of it all (bonus: written by /u/oldsock).
  
• Vintage Beer - Data-driven resource on the science behind long-term aging.

Ah, so you'll probably mostly have to focus on vegetables and fruits:

this is a great guide for roasting vegetables. I imagine simple roasted vegetables being one of the easier things to feed a child of that age.

Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty is a good resource for a lot of amazing vegetable recipes. A number of the recipes contain eggs, dairy, and/or grains, which you can probably substitute, reduce, or leave out.

There's a really simple sourdough bread recipe. It's by no means the best, but it's really simple.


300 grams flour

200 grams water

100 grams sourdough starter

12 grams salt

Mix, then knead until it passes a windowpane test (look it up on youtube for a good description of this. In short: Take a small piece of the dough, and gently stretch it. The dough is done when it forms a windowpane that's translucent without tearing.)

Put the dough in a covered bowl in a warmish place, come back in 60-90 minutes and knead the dough for 30-60 seconds. A lot of recipe's say "deflate" the dough, but the idea shouldn't be to degas the dough but rather redistribute the yeast in the dough. Put it back in the bowl, covered, and back in the warmer area. After another 60-90 minutes take the dough out of the bowl and shape it. Let it proof for 90 minutes, then bake at 500 for 15 minutes, then another 25 at 425.

This is just about the simplest recipe I've used. At higher hydration you stop kneading and start with stretch and folds. If you're really interested in more on baking stop by /r/breadit, or check out Peter Reinhard's "Bread Baker's Apprentice" ( AMAZON) or Chad Robinson's "Tartine Bread" ( AMAZON)

>If you take in more calories than you use, then you will gain weight.

That's kind of obvious, but it's about as relevant as saying "Only cars with wheels get in collisions." Sure, but it's not helpful since all cars have wheels. Also pretty much everyone consumes more calories than their body "uses". The relevant question is what your body does with the excess calories. Does your body convert those calories to fat or does your body expel them?

Everyone knows someone who can eat ridiculous quantities of food without gaining weight (I'm included in that group). Yet other people eat more moderately yet still increase in size. Hormones have a huge effect on how our bodies handle excess calories, specifically how sensitive our bodies are to insulin and cortisol. On the same diet, someone who is more sensitive to those hormones will end up gaining weight while someone who is less sensitive will not.

I get these ideas from the science writer Gary Taubes. From the amazon page for his book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It:

>In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today.

>[he explains] in layperson’s terms the science that debunks the idea that weight control is a matter of burning more calories than one consumes...

I've never been overweight, but I've always found the argument judgmental that "it's as simple as calories in vs calories burned, and if overweight people could simply show some self control they would be thin". Lots of people don't have to live counting calories (like myself), and I know I eat a shit-ton more calories than I "use" (or exercise off, I guess is what people mean), but I don't gain weight.

In light of that is it really that useful to go around pointing out that fat people eat more calories than they burn, when that's not really the issue?

https://www.epicurious.com/ has some great recipes for novices. Also the book SaltFatAcidHeat gives you a really direct and wonderfully written foundation on what to think about while cooking.

Food doesn't have to be expensive, especially while cooking for one, but a lot of grad students (and college students in general) should consider a "meal day" where you pre make large portions and divide them up and store them in the freezer/fridge for the rest of the week to eat at your convenience.

Lots of Burrito/Bean dishes etc are really popular. quick, easy, can eat cold or be microwaved. Cheap to make in bulk and there are a thousand recipes on this subreddit

Ofcourse you could make it yourself, depending on how aged you want it it can be ready from anywhere between 1 month to a few years. Here is a good link: http://www.bardicbrews.net/. Also wholefood and Central Market have a few varieties. BTW meads are excellent, a superb book on the origines of mead and other indigenous fermentations: Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers

I realized over the weekend, to give credit where it's due, I got this information from Michael Tonsmere's book and not from Chad Yakobson. Sorry!!! (It's a great book FYI, definitely worth a read)

http://www.amazon.com/American-Sour-Beers-Michael-Tonsmeire/dp/1938469119/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

If you would like to learn about the science behind cooking and a lot of neat pictures to learn just about everything about cooking I would recommend Modernist Cuisine. You can probably pick up a copy of the whole set for pretty cheap used. It covers pretty much everything you can imagine.

http://modernistcuisine.com/


http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-Home-Nathan-Myhrvold/dp/0982761015

Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat has a handy flavor wheel chart that explains flavors by nationality. It's pretty handy, I actually photocopied mine and hung it on my kitchen wall. The rest of the book is super interesting too, definitely worth purchasing.

Stephen Harrod Buhner's Sacred and Healing Beers

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937381667/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/184-4529911-3710004

This is the book that got me into herbs and medicinal brewing. Not only is it full of recipes and plant profiles but great lore and history and perspective. A must read- a great chapter on bee products too. I've been eating pollen and honey by the spoonful ever since.

Yes, he lives in DC. He consulted (or consults?) with Modern Times in CA. He wrote American Sour Beers which I highly recommend. He's also pretty active in /r/homebrewing answering questions from people like me who are just getting into making sour beers.

I would recommend Modernist Cuisine at Home to anyone looking into a scientific approach to cooking without a second thought it is absolutely fantastic.

The full version of Modernist Cuisine is wonderful and interesting and I would say only about 15% of the recipes can be recreated using a standard home kitchen. If you're looking for practicality and recipes you can make yourself with a more scientific approach I would go with Modernist Cuisine at Home but if someone wants to know the ENTIRE in depth science(and history) behind the dishes Modernist Cuisine is the best.

1. It depends but that should be close. A rough estimate is 1 hour per uncooked lb.
   
   
2. Yes. For an example it was about as cold as it ever gets in Central Texas last week (14 degrees). I smoked a brisket over night and I had a heck of a time keeping the smoker hot enough even with as big a fire as I could manage. I ended up having to finish it in the oven (it still turned out great though https://imgur.com/gallery/zOdoX). If it is cold outside you need a bigger fire and some smokers are not up to the task.
   
   
3. Franklin's BBQ in Austin is considered the master of Brisket in a land in which you can throw a rock and get good BBQ anywhere it lands. He has a ton of good youtube videos and even a book if you want to learn more.
   
   Video: https://youtu.be/VmTzdMHu5KU
   
   Book: https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Barbecue-Meat-Smoking-Manifesto-Aaron/dp/1607747200

I saw a recipe once for pocket burritos that was really good...I don't remember the exact portions, but it was cooked white rice, bacon, olive oil, a bit of scrambled egg, and salt to taste wrapped into a square in a tortilla. Perfect size for a jersey pocket, easy to eat on the bike, and the right combo of carbs and protein for the ride.

I'd also recommend the book "Feed Zone Portables" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1937715000/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1464819807&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=feed+zone+portables&dpPl=1&dpID=61Q18Q80c1L&ref=plSrch)

Well you can spontaneously ferment the beer using wild yeast in the air, use the yeast leftover from the cider, or pitch a lab culture of sour yeast, just as you would for regular yeast. The easiest method would be to clean and sanitize the 1 gal carboy and your 5 gallon carboy on your brew day, and then rack 1 gallon into the smaller carboy then rack the rest into your 5 gallon. Then, pitch a sour culture into the smaller and your other yeast as you would normally into the 4 gallon carboy. http://www.milkthefunk.com is a good place to read about these other yeasts, and I would recommend reading http://www.amazon.com/American-Sour-Beers-Michael-Tonsmeire/dp/1938469119 as well.

If you're into that, you might like to read this book: Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers. I think the author gets a little too caught up in the sacred/spiritual malarkey behind the beverages, but there are really quite a lot of interesting beer-like creations in there, most of them with recipes of various levels of detail (most will at least take some guesswork and creative sourcing of ingredients).

This is my cooking bible. Think of any major, favorite or well-known dish and I almost guarantee it's in this book. Very solid and dependable recipes all around.

My one minor criticism is I think they might compromise the ethnic dishes a little too much towards western cooks. They always prefer using easily found supermarket ingredients.

Regardless though out of almost 50 recipes I've cooked out of this book I haven't run across a bad one yet. It's also a really great resource for making that classic dish you already know just a little bit better.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbook-Americas/dp/1933615893

I've been searching for these sorts of recipes recently too. So far my favourite i've tried from reddit is this Afghan Chickpea Recipe (ignore the unappetizing photo, it tastes much better than it looks).

Apart from that the most success i've had is from the America Test Kitchen Slow Cooker books which aren't focused on veg recipes but they have a bunch in there, and i can pretty much count on them being quality. Here's the ones i use:

• Slow Cooker Revolution
  
• Slow Cooker Revolution Vol. 2
  
• Healthy Slow Cooker Revolution
  
  The recipes i've tried are the Turkish Eggplant Casserole, Spanish Lentil Stew, and Veg Indian Curry, all pretty tasty.

DO NOT buy one of those "kitchen in a box" starter kits for $99. You will only learn how to burn things because the steel is so thin! You will end up years from now either donating them all to Goodwill or using them only to boil water. Buy one nice pan every month or two and you will never regret it.

Required Reading For New Cooks:

• Alton Brown: I'm Just Here for the Food Not only teaches you the kitchen basics, but the science behind why it is so.
  
• Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen Not just gear, it also has some recipes :)
  
  Happy cooking!

The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. I'd also suggest subscribing to the magazine.

They're like the Popular Mechanics of cooking. No ads, no sponsors, just lots of great recipes that have been refined through many trials and variations. The Cookbook has thousands of recipes with detailed info on why a particular ingredient or process works or doesn't work. They've taken all of the guesswork out of it, just follow the instructions. Great if you just want a tested recipe to follow or if you want to understand more about why a recipe works. Highly recommended.

Aaron Franklin's book has excellent instructions and descriptions of the entire process. Helped me produce some really good ones recently as a smoking noob. Keep at it and you'll get better and better!

Just cook. Experimenting, watch cooking shows, get cookbooks(Cooks Illustrated 20 year book is an amazing book) from the library. But most importantly don't give up and don't be afraid of a challenge. That's how we learn by pushing ourselves. Everything you make won't be a success but in the long run it will be. Also remember to just have fun and enjoy it. Heck I have been cooking for over 20 years and my lastest experiment just totally flopped, but I tried something new and learned from it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1933615893/ref=cm_sw_r_other_taa_i_AszbBb6PHTS6R

Baking is a learning process. I’ve selected a list of a good references:


Getting started

https://www.instructables.com/class/Bread-Class/

My favorite books


https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Bread-Lessons-Master-Baker/dp/031620062X

https://www.amazon.com/Tartine-Bread-Chad-Robertson/dp/0811870413/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D3W0A522YN0Z49Y37CR2

https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/132-2200314-5814741?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=160774273X&pd_rd_r=d2b81337-6b5d-11e9-9f49-5707d913d0fd&pd_rd_w=aXXDJ&pd_rd_wg=GprXQ&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=AKFEA35FM58RZV98V93X&psc=1&refRID=AKFEA35FM58RZV98V93X


Good and reliable websites


https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/

Enjoy!

Nope, I think you underestimate the self-limiting nature of fat and protein vs. the human bodies nearly endless ability to gorge on carbs.

If you're serious about getting healthy, I would HIGHLY recommend reading this book. I can honestly say it changed my life as well as my understanding of obesity.

Does your Dad enjoy creating recipes? If so, I would look at buying him this book: Culinary Artistry

It's a great resource, think of it like a mix/match reference book that's intuitive and allows you to learn and use classic flavour pairings while opening up your creativity. It let's you start experimenting without making major composition errors.

Culinary Artistry This is one of my favorite books. It has some recipes, but the best part of the book is the flavor profiles. Ingredients, flavors, and tastes and are complimentary. So, if you look up asparagus, it will list other items and spices that pair well with it.

Eventually, you are going to get to a point where you no longer rely on recipes. You rely on experience. This is the kind of book for that level of cooking.

There is definitely something to say about "real food" on the bike. I have not personally tried any of these recipes, but I know people who have said good things about the Feed Zone Portables Cookbook.


Its written by Dr. Allen Lim and Biju Thomas, the same guys behind Skratch, and I love me some Skratch.

For anyone looking to up their brewing game, I always recommend Brewing Better Beer. It's all about fine tuning your process and simplifying your recipes to only include what you need. It's a sort of zen approach that seems applicable to abbey ales.

Although it's getting a bit out into the weeds, if you're more interested in the farmhouse/wild side of brewing, you might want to have a look at The Drunken Botanist and Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers. It gets into using things that aren't hops in your fermentations. Even though Belgian brewing only grazes herbs and spices, you might find some value there.

Cooking, even good cooking, is much simpler than most people think. the mistake almost everyone makes is to start reading recipe books and following famous chefs recipes, which tend to be overly complicated and not explain the "why" behind the steps. Clearly not the case for a burger, well done in this case.
Cooking is a series of very basic techniques, used appropriately. By far the best introduction to cooking is https://www.amazon.com/Ruhlmans-Twenty-Techniques-Recipes-Manifesto/dp/0811876438. Just 20 basic, universal techniques each illustrated by a simple recipe, will give you a better foundation than 99% of home cooks

> bread is a really tedious process that would take a couple of hours (at least) to do it right.

Nope. 10 minutes the day before, 5 minutes the day of. And 5 minutes the next day for the other half of the dough. The mixing bowl half-full of dough in the fridge will add credibility as well - "I cook all day - when I get home I like to do things quickly in the kitchen."

Bread geeks will look down their nose a bit, but it makes a very competent crusty loaf. I particularly like the peasant bread. And the pizza dough comes out almost exactly like good cheap NYC pizza.

I think OP's lack of knife skills are going to be his undoing, though. Can't cram for knife skills.

I run our parish's annual yard sale. The things I can guarantee will be there every year are bread machines and exercise machines (we no longer accept piano's because disposing of those after the sale is too expensive). Obviously there must be people who use them, because they are still being made, but if your wife has a stand mixer, I suspect your gift would be ay my next yard sale. If you want to honor her for baking bread, perhaps The Bread Bible would be a better choice.

Yotam Ottolenghi has some nice cookbooks with great recipes and beautiful photos that I've given as gifts.

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/1607743949/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Ottolenghi-Cookbook-Yotam/dp/160774418X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I recently read Feed Zone Portables. It's "a cookbook of on-the-go foods for athletes". I can recommend it just for the first few chapters, which discuss fueling and hydration needs and how to go about thinking about these things in a very practical, scientific way. The rest of the book consists of something like fifty recipes: things like rice cakes, little rolls, and "two-bite pies". Anyway, it's all good "real" stuff. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to experiment with a few of them myself.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Borzoi/dp/0307272702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299642695&sr=8-1

I really liked this book for explaining exactly why low-carb works and why eating lots of fat is healthy

http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Solution-Original-Human-Diet/dp/0982565844/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299642745&sr=1-1

This book is really good for applying what Taubes says to your life and has a nice plan.

> When you first make the switch to homemade food, you begin to appreciate bitter flavors.

I would argue that you don't appreciate the bitter flavors, you just become tolerant. The real problem outstanding for all of this is that processed food just tastes way better, with a small nod to the neuro effects of simple carbohydrates. It's a problem without any great solutions. I think the only real success we'll have in the long term is just improving the nutritional quality of processed food while maintaining the tricks learned in the past to actually get people to eat the darn stuff. We're never going to make any progress telling people to eat the "healthy" stuff that typically costs more, takes longer to prepare, and absolutely tastes inferior (ever tried whole wheat pancakes?). We've tried preaching to consumers for decades and it has done nothing to slow the obesity epidemic.

I digress a little but basically I don't mind when people choose not to consume more processed food, my issue is when they get a huge chip on their shoulder and rant about how gross it is, but they are simply incorrect. There is a lot of interesting discussion about this subject in Nathan Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking. Great books that reads a lot like a science text book on food.

Edit:links

Read the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes. Super easy and really good bread. You can probably google the base recipe and it gets better as the dough sits in your fridge. Makes a bunch of dough at once. Want some bread tonight? Cut a piece off, let it sit on counter, and throw in oven.

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Sample recipe