(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best culinary arts & techniques books

Yay you! I'm a chef and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to hear when people start their journey into the Art Cullinaire - come to the Foodie Side, we ALWAYS have brownies!

So, let me give you a few quick tips to help you jumpstart your skillz:

FoodSafety.gov is a wonderful website. I say go over and browse the whole site, but the most, most, most important thing to ever know is Temperature Control. And they have a nice chart of Safe Cooking Temperatures, to make it easy! Print it out, and buy yourself a cheapo $5 thermometer, and from now on, you can most certainly enjoy a steak cooked to rare, medium, medium well, or whatever YOUR preferred temperature is. It will be perfectly safe to eat. These thermometers are super simple to use - you keep them in a drawer and when you want to check the temp, you just pop it in up to the little groove/notch and wait about 10 seconds for it to finish registering. Wipe it with bleach water to sanitize it and pop it back into it's plastic case and you're done.

Cookbooks like the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (get the ring-bound edition) are perfect for the beginning cook, but don't just use them 1 recipe at a time, or you'll miss out on the bulk of what they can offer you... real knowledge that can save you a ton of money and headache in setting up your kitchen and stocking it. Read it like a regular book, cover-to-cover at least once, and you will find advice on setting up your kitchen, charts on butcher's cuts, notes on technique and tools, and yes, my beloved Food Safety as well.

Know what the USDA and FDA do for you - they are fabulous resources to learn about food and nutrition. There is so much there that you can get lost in it all. But the easiest and most money-saving thing you can do is look for the USDA label. What that tells you is the food product is adhering to the standards of quality set by the US Dept. of Agriculture. What does that mean? Grade AA Butter is Grade AA butter, even if one of the brands is $2 more per pound, it's not better. Ditto on cooking oils, pastas, or anything else with that label on the packaging - it's monitored and has to meet certain quality standards. If you notice a difference in taste, it's usually due to freshness, quality of packaging in preserving the product's shelf life, on, like in the case of the biggest national brand of butter - proprietary patented wrapping to keep out other flavors in your fridge from infusing in (and a higher salt content).

Good luck on your future culinary adventures. You're learning to cook at the perfect time - YouTube has ALL the classic cooking techniques, there are a million TV shows that show you how to do them, and the availability of products has never been better. It's a set of skills that will make you healthier, happier, richer, and more connected with people. Welcome to the Foodie Club!

Impress yourself! Because you are worth it, and you deserve a nice dinner. Make a very simple roast chicken; much easier than you'd expect. You can often find a chicken (at least where I am) for about a dollar a pound, and you'll get a few dinners out of it. Can save the bones to make soup or stock if you like, but for now...

I am a fan of two recipes, but there are 10,000 variations. Neither of these call for butter or oil, or anything exotic. So, it's basically just you and the bird. Roasting pan or cast iron, some way to raise the bird up (roasting rack, or one of those silicon trivets will do it, too), salt, pepper are the themes between both. The second recipe is slightly fancier and also calls for a lemon and some rosemary. You can use dried rosemary.

1. Thomas Keller's roast chicken. Roasting pan, roasting rack, salt, pepper, bird, oven at 450. You can tie up the bird, but I never do. You can take some of the extra steps (fooling with the wishbone), but I never do that either. Takes an 45-90 min depending on the size of the bird. Make a salad or some mashed potatoes (flakes don't suck -- throw in a little garlic if you got it) to go with it.
   
   ---this recipe is simply badass in its simplicity and its ease. Literally bird + salt + pepper + heat.
   
   
2. The Toby Ziegler (from the West Wing) method:
   bird, lemon, salt, rosemary, black pepper, a lemon.
   
   ---Zest the lemon if you have a zester. If you find yourself with a spare $10ish lying around, get a microplane. If you don't, don't worry about it. Cut the (maybe naked) lemon in half. Squeeze some of the lemon juice onto the bird. Get the zest onto the bird if you have it. Rub with some salt. Throw some rosemary on there. Get some rosemary and salt inside the bird, and put the lemon halves inside, starting breast side down. Put on roasting rack, 350 for... whatever the package recommends based on weight. I would hit the bird with some black pepper. Maybe throw a little garlic inside the bird. Not critical.
   
   ---I also tend to put in about 2 cups of liquid into the roasting pan -- usually 2 or 3 to one water to white wine, but if you don't have white wine (I buy cheap white and cheap rose for cooking) it's fine. I tend to flip the bird (haaaaaaaaa) after an hour or so. This is a much slower method.
   
   
3. throw together a simple salad to go with it. Some romaine, some tomato, a cucumber, some balsamic. If you have some fresh herbs around (maybe some basil) throw it right in there with the lettuce. A little feta or parm if you have it.
   
   
4. cranberry sauce is not a bad thing. I've got a recipe I like if you want to do that, but I am happy to buy the Ocean Spray stuff in the can because it tastes good. I don't always get it. It's not exactly health food, though.
   
   -----------------------------
   
   Other thoughts:
   
   
   
5. How to be poor and buy spices anyway: in the US (I'm in the Boston area), there are a good number of discount spice brands. I do not just mean the value brand at the grocery store (as often times those are teeeeerrible). If you have Badilla as a brand (check the Latin foods aisle), this is pretty spectacular, and cheap. Option 2 is find yourself an ethnic grocery store and buy Sadaf or one of those brands; e.g, I have a European grocery store near me (who also sell crazy cheap produce -- trying to help you stretch your budget), and got a large jar of taco seasoning for $2.50. This is versatile, and I've got some evil plans for it. But I mean, it's a brand I've never seen before (Castella), and 10 oz of the stuff. One of those places will probably have bullion cubes/powder, vinegars, and oils pretty cheap, too; I get sunflower oil for like $1.80/liter, which is awesome (if you like sunflower oil, but it's pretty versatile). I literally cut my produce bill in half starting to shop at a little Euro grocery, and my friends who live near this big Latin/African grocery have had similar benefits.
   
   --the bigger grocery stores sell like bulk tins of black pepper. These are often only a couple of dollars, and many times are the cheapest way to get it. If it gets a little weak, use a little more.
   
   
6. I really love Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. There is a new and updated edition that (used) runs about $10 shipped, but the classic big yellow book is about $5 shipped from Amazon. Idea fuel really, and it is how to cook frickin' everything.
   
   
7. learn to appreciate dried beans and their many uses. Cook the hell out of them so they get a good texture. I generally stick to chick peas, navy beans, and some other white beans. Buy the cheapest bags of them you can. These should never be an expensive item.
   
   
8. Do you have a slow cooker? Before you worry I'm saying "go throw $25 out the window," this is a solid yardsale/church rummage sale type of find. And people let them go for $5. A lot. See if you can get a 5-6 qt one. These are a common size. Slow cookers are awesome.
   
   
9. make your own salad dressings. This is kind of fun. A 16 oz glass jar is a great size. I splurged on a couple of those salad dressing jars that have recipes and fill lines on the sides, but the writing comes off. They were about $2 each, though, with screw top lids. But improvise. This is where the cheap spices, oils, and vinegars from the ethnic groceries come in :)
   
   
10. once in a while, have dessert in whatever fashion that looks like for you. Go for a walk after if you want, but as I tell my diabetic mother, "a little handful of french fries is not going to kill you, and neither is the occasional piece of cake." Her sugar is very well-controlled, but the point is don't be an asshole to yourself.
    
    -----------------------------
    
    I hope this helps. PM if you like. I know depression and anxiety all too well, and not wanting to cook is common with that -- and just makes you feel worse.

There are lots of qualified people posting, so I'll just chip in my 2c.

When you go grocery shopping, stick to the outside of the store. Butcher, deli, produce, milk, eggs, bakery, etc. The stuff on this inside is all expensive and all much less healthy for you. If you have something specific you want, go and get it, but don't wander the aisles - and certainly don't do so on an empty stomach.

There's 1c, and here's my other: it sounds like what was wrong with your sandwich was a lack of flavour. French bread, deli turkey, provolone cheese, and spinach are all good things, but you didn't have any sort of sauces on there. Toss a little mayo and mustard into a bowl, mince some garlic (get a garlic press, by the way - there's an extra 1c, free of charge!) and throw that in, too, and mix it all up, and spread it on the bread before you grill it.

Oh, what the heck; I guess I'm feeling generous now that you've got me started. This book (or in paperback) has been very, very helpful to me. The subtitle should catch your attention: "simple recipes for great food". That's exactly what it is. Further, he includes details on how to choose good ingredients, different ways of preparing food, and many, many recipes, often with several interesting variations. From one of his recipes for pork chops, I could eat a different meal each night of the week. This book will do a lot to teach you how to cook, if you let it. You should definitely make a trip to Chapters and look for it. I firmly believe that if anybody has room or time for only one cookbook on their shelf, and they're a new cook, this is the book for them.

So I guess you ended up with 4c, after all. What a deal! Best of luck, and I hope you fall in love with cooking. There's no food better than good food you prepare for yourself. =)

edit: Oh yeah; I somehow completely forgot to chip in this last 1c: don't worry about choosing "the right bread", or "the right sandwich meat". Part of being new to all of this is finding that out for yourself. Every time I go grocery shopping, I try to find a new kind of bread to buy. Right now I'm on pumpernickel (a 675 g loaf is less than $3 (Canadian), on par with all the others) and it makes DYNAMITE tuna sandwiches. Just experiment, and learn what you like by experimentation. Don't let other people ever tell you something is "bad" because they didn't enjoy it. (If they have objective reasons, like, "the back and ribs cut of chicken is almost entirely bone, and hard to eat", then you might want to pay attention.) Tastes vary wildly and you owe it to yourself to try everything once. You never know what you might love! =)

Great, I’m excited to begin. Thank you for doing this!

DISCUSSION:

1. What do you like to cook? I enjoy baking particularly. Other than that, I enjoy trying new ethnic foods. I’m up for new experiences!
   
2. Who is your favorite chef? As cheesy as this may sound, it is my mother. She didn’t usually cook fancy or time-consuming dishes, especially being a busy mother of a large family. But, her meals are always the most tasty to me! No one can compare in my mind.
   
3. What is your favorite cookbook and why? My mother always used a Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, and when I got married she gifted me one too. So, it is there for sentimental value as well as making dishes I’ve come to enjoy as a child.*
   
4. What are you looking to learn? I'm interested in learning more about different cuisines other than traditional American and Greek, since I'm more familiar with those (though I'm not opposed to learning more about those either). I’m excited to hone my kitchen skills. I’d like to learn more about using herbs and spices I don’t normally use. Also, I’d like to become adept at knife skills so that chopping vegetables won’t take as long.
   
5. Do you have any recipes that you would like to make but are afraid and why? Not really. I’m always a little nervous when trying something that includes a technique I haven’t done before, but I just research the process and forge ahead!
   
6. What ingredient do you just not like and could you be persuaded to try it if the right recipe came along? There are very few ingredients I have tried that I do not like, and I forced myself to learn to appreciate the ones I didn’t like in the past (mushrooms & coconut). I suppose I usually steer clear of anchovies and things like insect flour (I’ve never tried them b/c they don’t look appealing), but I’m always willing to try something once if given the opportunity. I'd say my main limitations are not an ingredient's taste, but tend to be cost and calorie count.
   
7. What liquids do you use regularly that didn’t make the list? None. Those are the ones I use the most.
   
8. What spices and seasonings do you use regularly that didn’t make the list? smoked paprika, onion powder, dill, cinnamon (does cinnamon count? I use it in cooking meats sometimes)
   
9. What recipes do you cook regularly (or want to make) that showcase a particular ingredient (listed or missing here)? Can’t think of any…
   
   
   RECIPE DISCUSSION
   
   
   I looked through the 1896 cookbook and decided to try to translate a soup recipe into modern format. It was tough because it doesn’t specify temperatures or ingredient quantities, so I took my best guess. However, I’ll probably measure more to taste when I cook it. I’ll update with a pic once it is made. Here’s the recipe I chose and translate:
   
   
   Herb Soup with Parmesan Cheese:
   
   
   TOTAL TIME: 55min.
   
   
   Serves: 4
   
   
   Ingredients:
   
   
   

• 1 head young celery
  
  
  
• 1 bunch sorrel
  
  
  
• 1 bunch chervil (curly parsley?)
  
  
  
• 1 bundle chives
  
  
  
• 1 bunch parsley
  
  
  
• 3 tarragon leaves
  
  
  
• 6 cups chicken broth
  
  
  
• 3 French rolls
  
  
  
• 3T hot butter
  
  
  
• ½ cup parmesan, finely grated
  
  
  Directions:
  
  
  

1. Wash the celery, chervil, chives, parsley, tarragon.
   
2. Drain thoroughly and chop into ½” pieces.
   
3. Gently boil the chopped vegetables/herbs in a saucepan with 6 cups of broth until tender.
   
4. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut slices of French rolls into 1” pieces.
   
5. Dip the bread pieces in hot butter and roll in finely grated parmesan, giving them a good coating.
   
6. On a baking pan layered with parchment paper, bake bread until lightly browned.
   
7. Serve soup topped with baked French bread.
   
   
   EDIT: Have you thought about posting this to /r/cooking, /r/Universityofreddit, /r/food, etc...? I'm sure there are people in other subs that can benefit from this series.
   
   
   QUESTION: Am I right in thinking that chervil is labeled as curly parsley in the store, or is that something different?

Australian PM's have about the same shelf life as UHT milk. Actually, might be a bit shorter. It makes it really hard to remember who the dang PM is and, without looking, I think it's Malcom Turnbull. I'll check and (please hold, caller) ... FFS, I'm apparently out-of-date. "Scott Morrison" has a really un-remarkable name, too, so hopefully he is ousted soon and someone with a better name gets in so I can actually remember it. :P

My wife and I want to pay a proper visit to Australia some day (along with New Zealand), but that will probably have to wait awhile since it's expensive to get there and not exactly cheap while you are there. I've saved your comment, though - I have an Evernote note of "places we should visit" and so your info is preserved for future utilisation. :)

Don't worry about learning German (or Norwegian) because virtually everyone in Norway and Sweden speaks English and most Germans do as well, much to the frustration of people attempting to learn and speak German. :) Iceland is beautiful and is one of the few places where I honestly felt like there was a distinct mix of North American and European. The NA stuff is from the vehicles they drive (lots of pickup trucks), and some food items clearly imported from US/CAN, and European stuff (lots of French cars, and European attitudes/mannerisms) as well. I really liked it.

Drink recommendations? Do you like bitter, sweet, sour? Fruit, berries, etc? What hard alcohol/liquor do you have at hand, happen to like, or are willing to get from a bottle shop? Do you prefer small drinks (stuff in cocktail/Martini-style glasses) or medium-sized (Old Fashioned glasses), or long drinks (500 ml/Pint-sized)? If you're really interested in making cocktails at home then I'd recommend The 12 Bottle Bar as a way to get into it but if you give me some details here I'll make some recommendations. :)

EDIT: After a bit of digging, here's a link to an article they should have linked to. Choice pullquotes from Pollan:

> “[The appreciation of cooking was] a bit of wisdom that some American feminists thoughtlessly trampled in their rush to get women out of the kitchen.”

> Yet there he is again, in the New York Times Magazine, dismissing “The Feminine Mystique” as “the book that taught millions of American women to regard housework, cooking included, as drudgery, indeed as a form of oppression.” In the same magazine story, Pollan scolds that “American women now allow corporations to cook for them” and rues the fact that women have lost the “moral obligation to cook” they felt during his 1960s childhood.

I don't know. I know he's getting lots of hate because he dared to speak out against feminism...yet I know people my age where the woman of the household just flat out refuses to do housework. Her turn to cook? It better be in a can, or there better be some cash for going to a restaurant. She not only won't cook, she can't cook, and won't learn anything about it, and God help you if you'd like for her to wash your clothes while she does hers. And sometimes we're talking about married couples.

Yes, I also know guys my age who just flat out demand that she do all the housework...I'm sure that works out great for them.

EDIT: A couple of choice edits from another graf:

> When much-lauded food writer Michael Ruhlman writes, “I know for a fact [emphasis added] that spending at least a few days a week preparing food with other people around, enjoying it together, is one of the best possible things in life to do, period. It’s part of what makes us human [emphasis added]. It makes us happy in ways that are deep and good for us,” he’s writing from the point of view of a food writer, someone who enjoys cooking and has freely chosen it as his vocation. That’s a privileged position, and a frankly absurd one. To borrow Ruhlman’s wording, I know for a fact that plenty of people don’t like to cook and it’s not because they haven’t been properly educated or had the “revelatory” experience of eating an exquisitely ripe peach or a simple-yet-perfect slice of sole meunière. I know for a fact that plenty of people aren’t even that interested in the experience of eating, and I bet you do too: the absentminded friend who has to be reminded to bolt down a granola bar before heading to her after-work Italian class; the picky-eater sibling who, though grown, still happily subsists on spaghetti and bananas and diced red peppers. The term “foodie” was originally invented to describe people who really enjoy eating and cooking, which suggests that others do not. Yet today everyone is meant to have a deep and abiding appreciation for and fascination with pure, wholesome, delicious, seasonal, regional food. The expectation that cooking should be fulfilling for everyone is insidious, especially for women. I happen to adore cooking and eating, and nothing is more fun for me than sharing a home-cooked bowl of pasta puttanesca and a loaf of crusty bread with friends. Yet, I know for a fact that others would much rather go kayaking or read magazines or write poems or play World of Warcraft or teach their dog sign language. And, unlike Ruhlman, I don’t suspect them of being less than human.

Because having the leisure time to go kayaking or teaching your dog sign language (seriously???!?) totally aren't privileged activities. And expecting people to enjoy cooking is insidious? Really? I'm thinking that when he said that, he may have been speaking, or at least thinking, about this book.

EDIT3: Here's a pullquote from an article entitled, "Michael Pollan Says Men Need to Get Back Into the Kitchen, Stat":

> "If we're going to rebuild a culture of cooking," Pollan says, "it can't mean returning women to the kitchen. We all need to go back to the kitchen." He continues:

> "First, we need to bring back home ec, but a gender-neutral home ec. We need public health ad campaigns promoting home cooking as the single best thing you can do for your family's health and well-being."

I'm guessing the feminist blogs just overlooked that one.

I'm familiar with the London bar business but not with the suppliers for home enthusiasts. I'll tell you what I recommend to people here in the states.

First check out wholesale clubs. Here in the States, Costco's liquor division sells some really excellent products at 1/3-1/2 of the brand names. Aldi has some good deals on quality products, especially if you like mixing with bubbly. Also watch for sales, especially in November and December. You can find some really good deals in the bigger liquor stores. Stock up when you can. Unopened (and most opened) liquor is completely shelf stable for quite a while.

As for syrups... make them. There are recipes for all kinds of syrups in modern cocktail books/guides, as well as websites and YouTube channels. If you're looking for a fruit syrup (like raspberry) in January, hit the frozen food section of your supermarket. Bang the bag of frozen raspberries on your kitchen counter to loosen them up. Measure out 10-15% more than the recipe calls for and dump it in the room-temp simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water). Let it sit, covered, at room temp for 12-14 hours. You should have really good syrup in the end.

For home enthusiasts, I usually recommend the Solmonsons' The 12 Bottle Bar: A Dozen Bottles. Hundreds of Cocktails. A New Way to Drink. It has excellent information and advice. They also include many recipes for syrups, infusions, etc.

Good luck!

I love veggies. I eat a lot of em. I recommend getting a cook book if you are a bit new to cooking veggies, or cooking for yourself in general. Which being college age, I assume you haven't done too much cooking beyond basics. This is a great all-purpose cookbook -it's pretty classic and time-tested and theres lots of good recipes in there (I use that book all the time). ATK Cooking for 2 is another favorite of mine. I cook for myself and my fiancee so this is perfect. But i bought this in college because it's perfect for making a meal and having a leftover meal for lunch the next day. So this would be good for you too. Theres lots of good veggie basics in there. This is also a great book. I really like the ATK books because they rarely require unusual ingredients or devices. If youre in college, you probably dont have an immersion blender. Most people dont in general, I think. I hate it when cookbooks require all sorts of unusual ingredients and contraptions because it probably means I cant make it. I never find this to be the case with the ATK books. I know using cookbooks sounds antiquated as hell, but it's honestly easier than using the internet sometimes. If I had a dollar for every time I tried out a random internet recipe and it was CRAP, I'd be able to buy myself a nice lunch. The other thing is, you have to already know what you want to make if youre going to find a recipe online -otherwise youll waste a LOT of time browsing for something that piques your interest. With a cookbook, you can quickly flip through, read the index to see if any recipe names catch your interest, or look at the pictures. Very easy to find something that you want to make, in only a few minutes.

Roasting. Steaming. Sauteeing. Boiling/blanching. Baking. Broiling. There's a lot of different ways to prepare veggies. Having a good selection of spices/seasonings to work with is essential. I mean, you should at LEAST have salt and pepper. Garlic powder-NOT the same as garlic salt btw, something spicy if you like heat like red pepper flakes or cayenne, rosemary, chili powder, thyme, paprika are all good basics that you can do a lot with.

When I was in college I mostly purchased frozen veggies. I see from another comment in here you arent finding much. If you are in the US at least, you just gotta look harder--I have never seen a grocery store where you couldnt get most veggies frozen. Try looking for the store brand. You should be able to find most veggies frozen. I am not in college anymore and prefer to use fresh veggies, but frozen is a great option for college kids--it means you wont be wasting foods (fresh produce goes bad relatively quickly) and its also cheaper.

I found three things that were one my wishlist that I thought you'd probably like.

The first one is the book Howl's Moving Castle - I saw that you had a few Totoro things on your wishlist so I assumed you probably like other Studio Ghibli titles. This is the book that the movie was based off of.

The second item I want to suggest to you is Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking I saw quite a few food and kitchen related items and this is a classic, must have for every kitchen where food is made.

Last, but not least Recipe Cards. If you're anything like me your favorite recipes are recipes passed down from family and friends. The recipes we give away at potlucks and dinner parties. What better way to store and share your recipes than adorable recipe cards?

Thanks for the contest. I hope you find something super fantastic to get yourself with your giftcard.

Welcome and congratulations! Watching Earthlings is what did it for a lot of us.

I recommend getting this book. http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850 I don't have it personally but I looked through it at the bookstore and wished that I had had it when I first became vegan. Lots of very easy simple things to make!

If you're on facebook I also recommend joining the group Veganism as they have a lot of good advice and I feel the more support systems you have the easier time you'll have on this major lifestyle change.

The best of luck to you my friend.. you've made a wonderful decision. The animals and all of us here thank you! :)

This is where you start:

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child

Wait! I don't want to get into the fancy French cooking that is incredibly complex! I'm just a beginner!

Relax.

It's not what you think. French cooking is assembling building blocks of very simple components. You can use them simply in recipes. Later, when you master them, you can assemble your knowledge into the complex.

Start with your Mother Sauces.

The roux, or bechamel, is butter, flour and milk. Without knowing more than that, you could probably make a roux right now. Practice and learn and you will knock it off without even thinking about it.

After that, you can add other ingredients to the roux and make things more interesting.

You also need to know the basics for vegetables and meat. Learn to blanch vegetables. It's not hard and doesn't take very long.

Blanch a nice broccoli. Pour that roux you learned over it. Now you have something wonderful to eat.

Learn how to sautee a chicken breast. Add mushrooms and a spice or two to a roux and put that on the chicken. Wonderful.

Once you get the Mother Sauces down and can prepare meats and vegetables in several different ways, you will be eating very well.

Further, you'll be able to cook from ingredients you have at hand. Say you go over to the apartment of a significant other. You will be able to go into the kitchen and use what's on hand to prepare a good meal.

If you go to a market and find they just got in a fresh shipment of something terrifically fresh that's on special, you can buy it and quickly plan a meal around it.

So get to work on your Mother Sauces. You'll learn them quickly and then you'll keep learning more and making better and better food. Soon enough, you will have a reputation as a great chef and everyone will want to have dinner with you.

I am up to about 20 cook books. At one point, my mom told me to stop buying cook books, and that once I cooked every single recipe in every single cook book THEN I can start buying new cookbooks. That is when I started getting cooking magazine subscriptions, and I have a few years of those magazines built up now. I have one or two on my Nook that were free or cheap, but I don't use them because I don't want my Nook anywhere near the kitchen when I start cooking. I make too many messes.

Anywho, my favorite ones are these two:
The red and white Better Homes and Gardens. My mom had one of these growing up, so part of the reason I like it is nostalgia, but it also has a ton of recipes. It's super well divided (beef, vegetables, pork, cookies, poultry, breads, etc) and organized. I forgot what edition my mom has, but I just found the 15th or 16th edition for $1.00 at a library sale. It was brand new. I was looking through my grandpa's edition from like 1950 something. It had recipes for like organ meats in there...it was an interesting little history lesson.

Also, my Tastes of Home cookbook for pretty similar reasons. It's massive, great organization, etc.

Those 2 are usually the first I'll look at in my collection, but I also have a few "Fix it and Forget It" cookbooks for my crock pot, "Budget Bytes" and "Good and Cheap", several themed cook books (pizza, chocolate, greek yogurt, pasta, etc) a vegetarian cookbook, a "5 ingredient or less" cookbook...and several others that I apparently don't look at often enough to remember.


Maybe Mom was right.

The hardest part is wanting to change, so you're already partway there.

• Cooking: Grab yourself a big cookbook (I use this one) and read from the beginning. You don't have to get all of the supplies and tools, but it will teach you some basic things. I love grilling meat and vegetables and that's really easy to do, so figure out what kinds of food you enjoy and learn how to make them. I used to go to Red Lobster (despite not liking fish) for their cheddar biscuits. I learned how to make the biscuits on my own. That's just an example you can extrapolate to your own needs.
  
• You're probably "skinnyfat" where your weight is good for your height and you don't appear overweight. I would suggest you start picking things up and putting them down (lifting weights). I incorporate aspects of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength into my workout and it's awesome. Don't be put off by getting bulky, that simply won't happen unless you train very specifically to achieve it. Check out Staci. Riding your bike is also a great way to exercise, so try turning those 4-5 mile rides into 10, 15, or 20 miles.

I love cooking when I’m happy. And basically I’m not working right now so I’m happy lol. And it’s showing, I’m gaining a little extra weight 😕.

I go in spurts and trends. I’ll make something all the time and it’s my new obsession, then I’ll move on to something else because I’m suddenly tired of it.

Creamy tomato soup is one of my favorite easy meals in winter. It’s just one of my favorite meals of all time anyway. Mmm.

Right now I got myself a pressure cooker and I’m kind of obsessed with it. I bought this cookbook and I’m working my way through it. So far every recipe has been amazing. She has a similar philosophy I do. I don’t like things to be overly complicated.

We just had pumpkin alfredo as our traditional Halloween meal, haha. I also always make the rolls for family holidays. I’m trying to create some food traditions, I think those are fun and my family was never very into traditions.

I think my project today is to make apple butter! I love seasonal cooking, so that’s part of why what I cook changes so much all year.

An excellent book for you at this point would be Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques. From the description:

"Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques features everything the home cook needs to perfect: poach an egg, whisk a perfect hollandaise, knead a crispy baguette, or bake an exquisite meringue with the perfection and efficiency of a professional chef. Featured throughout the book, Pepin's classic recipes offer budding masters the opportunity to put lessons into practice with extraordinary results."

It also covers things like knife technique and other fundamentals, which you mentioned.

As far as French cooking goes, although they've been around awhile, two books that are still definitive on the subject are Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Volume One and Volume Two. All three of these books (Pepin plus these two) are foundational to learning about cooking. There are others, but these will give you a very good start, and will increase your cooking skills and knowledge exponentially.

If those aren't enough, you can also check out The Professional Chef, which is a fantastic book of recipes and techniques put out by the Culinary Institute of America. It's a bit spendy, but worth it if you want to learn. The Amazon links are provided for reference; if money is an issue you can quite easily find all these books used.

Interested in mastering french cooking? Get yourself the bible.

I personally use cookbooks that were passed down from family members and I assume long out of print, but as far as contemporary books go, I like Ina Garten. She cooks like a mix of rustic French and Italian and her recipes are simple and elegant.

Lastly, while I am a huge advocate for cookbooks, the internet is also a great resource for answering all your technical questions (how-to vids have personally saved my life on how to properly carve, fillet, braise, etc).

Hope this helps!

Does it need to be TNG specific? If anything Trek is fair game this pizza cutter is pretty clever.

I always think custom ice cubes are pretty fun also.

Again, this is more Voyager than Next Generation, but a cooking book with Neelix on the cover would make me laugh too.

Hope these help. There are tons of stuff. I'm sure you'll do great!

My mother got me the Can't Cook Book a few years ago. Admittedly, I haven't used it much because, well, it felt like an insult gift (as I was already pretty competent in the kitchen) and the recipes are really basic- but if you are starting from square one it seems a good resource. Like I said, it does have some (very easy) recipes but most of the book is chapters about kitchen tools, meal preparation, basic techniques and definitions of kitchen terms. All stuff you'll want to know.

As far as a next step after that (because, of course, practice makes perfect) I can more enthusiastically recommend Cooking Comically which is full of easy recipes, with step by step picture instructions in a comic book format, with a decent number of explanations of how to do new techniques and why you'll want to do things a certain way. Many of those recipes and some others can be found online here to give you an idea whether or not you should purchase that book.

Video series or anything? I really learned a ton reading The Professional Chef, which is a textbook in a lot of culinary schools I hear. I have the eTextbook version that has a lot of video links and interactivity.

If you're into the science behind cooking I'd also really recommend The Food Lab, I have the hard back version and it's also just a beautiful book.

I also have Cooking and Sauces by Peterson, also textbook quality books.

And of course, the ever popular Better Homes & Gardens Ring-Bound Cookbook, How to Cook Everything, and The Joy of Cooking are staples on my bookshelf as well. Great for reference or a quick look to find a particular recipe just to see how others do it.

I also browse a lot of websites and watch a lot on YouTube. I'll save recipes I find online using the Evernote Web Clipper and tag them so I can find them easily in the future. This works great because I can pull them up on my iPad while I'm cooking.

When a recipe calls for a method, tool, or ingredient I'm not very familiar with I'll usually just search it on YouTube and get some ideas about how to use it. That's worked really well for me so far.

I'm not sure I would call it advanced, but I found Brewing Better Beer as an awesome companion to How to Brew.

While How to Brew focuses on science and techniques, Brewing Better Beer is almost a philosophy book - a zen approach to brewing. I enjoyed it very much, and got a lot out of it.

If I only had 3 books, it would be How to Brew, Brewing Better Beer, and Brewing Classic Styles.. You simply can't beat the recipes in BCS - they are perfect starting point for entry into any style.

Jacques Pépin New Complete Techniques

The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Great Cook

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

From here you can move on to:

Institut Paul Bocuse Gastronomique: The definitive step-by-step guide to culinary excellence

&

Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia, Completely Revised and Updated

These are all great resources. Also look for culinary school text books and always youtube.

The resources are out there and with everyone having a different way to learn and adopt information the variety in options is tremendous. Good luck and keep cooking. If you have any questions please reach out and if I can help I will.

First of all, I'm so sorry for your loss. I had no idea you'd lost someone so tragically. That's got to be hard. But it seems like your family member was a really amazing person, just like you. <3

I'd say my lists are pretty well prioritized. I'm sure I could waste days changing my mind and moving things around, but oh well. Since I have so many different things on there, I'm gonna link a couple different items that would enhance my life it very different ways.

This yoga mat would greatly improve my yoga sessions. Currently, I practice on hardwood floors with no mat, and my knees feel it quite a bit. Some padding would be so nice.

This book would be a major help when it comes to meals. I'm not a gifted cook by any stretch. I mean, I follow a recipe well, but I'm terrible at coming up with things on my own.

This gorgeous ocarina would be such a great addition to my life. Honestly any of them would probably make me happy enough to cry. This one is just so pretty. And it comes with a song book, so I could learn something new as well. ^Don't ^buy ^this ^ocarina ^it's ^way ^too ^expensive...

Thank you so much for such an interesting contest! And because I couldn't think of a clever way to squeeze this in, sort my priorities. Heh.

Using this RANDOM teapot from my kitchen/baking/food list would make me most seem like an old posh Englishman. Pip pip!

RANDOM "oh god, I would never be seen with this in public" item from the kitchen/baking food list... because I would ALWAYS be at home baking with it!

This is a very "phallic" towel. Yeah. From the RANDOM things list.

This Star Trek cookbook from the Books list is the geekiest RANDOM thing =D

These would certainly help me in my quest to learn how to crochet! From the crafting list. Uhm... RANDOM!

This would be the best thing to bring to a RANDOM deserted island. From the RANDOM things list.

<3<3 COOL contest! I tried to use the word "random" more than you lol. Clearly.

The only physical cookbook I've picked up so far is the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre. I've only made a couple of the recipes so far, including this Butter Chicken, which I think is the same one from the book, but they were both great. The Butter Chicken was super easy also and even the kids loved it. Plus at like $8, it's not an expensive book.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything the Basics is really good for beginner stuff. Thug Kitchen's new book is also a great starting place for learning how to cook cheap and healthy.

My all time favorite cookbook is Mastering the Art of French Cooking which is a great intro to French techniques. The recipes themselves are not always cheap and healthy, but the skills you learn are super super useful for any type of cooking. It is by far the cookbook I have learned the most from.

Gastronomique is an incredible resource for all pretty much anything edible.

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is also a great resource but is more like a text book than a cook book.

The Ideas in Food books are pretty good too.

I guess I've been leaning more towards "educational" type reading lately (opposed to recipe tomes). Ratio is also very good. Does reddit like Ruhlman?

For what it's worth, if you want to make sauces, I would ditch Good Eats and spend some time watching Jacques Pépin or Julia Child. Lots available on YouTube and kqed.org. Fewer puppets, more cooking :) A great many episodes of their shows will cover making various sauces.

For example, here's an episode of Julia's The French Chef which addresses hollandaise in exceptional detail. It'll tell you almost everything you need to know about it, and honestly it's just fun to watch Julia Child cook. I say "almost" because I like to cheat by making hollandaise with a blender, and I don't think she covers it in that show. (She does cover it in her book, though!)

Anyway, to answer what seems to be your main question:

> Is water always needed to emulsify oil?

By definition, yes, since an emulsion is fat and water mixed together thoroughly enough that they won't separate (at least for a while). You don't need to always use pure water, but there has to be water from some source (wine or stock, for example) to bring the sauce together. The oil separates into tiny droplets and becomes dispersed throughout the water, and that's the basis for your sauce.

> I have heard TV chefs mention "sauces breaking" or "breaking down" - is there a trick to preventing this? Did I possibly have too much / too little of something?

A given amount of water can only hold so much oil in suspension before the emulsion fails and the sauce breaks. The simplest solution is often to reduce the amount of oil. In the case of your pan drippings, for instance, what you'd do is pour off most of the chicken fat into a separate container. Then you'd take your roasting pan, put it over a low burner (if it's stovetop safe), and pour in some water, wine, or chicken stock. This allows you to dissolve all the tasty brown bits in the pan (fond or sucs) into your sauce. Because you've poured out a good bit of the fat, this sauce will be much more stable than the one you made. You can thicken it with a cornstarch slurry and finish with cream or butter if you'd like.

Another solution is to use an emulsifier, which is an ingredient that helps to keep the emulsion stable. Classic emulsifiers include egg yolk and mustard, but these of course will add flavors or textures that you may not want in the dish. Usually, though, just minding your fat-to-water ratio should be enough.

EDIT: See here for Jacques making a sauce with pan drippings. It's a rib roast, but the same idea applies. He makes the sauce at 13:15.

This is a fascinating question that's beyond the expertise of, well, me, but I shan't let that stop me.

There are nutritional benefits to cooking. See e.g. How Cooking Made Us Human which argues compellingly that cooking was necessary for human development. Cooking neutralizes phytic acid and oxalic acid, both of which bind to iron/calcium in many vegetables and make them nutritionally unavailable. Ditto raw eggs--avidin in the egg binds to biotin (a b vitamin) and makes it unavailable; cooking makes it available.

Compare to vitamin c, and a number of other good things, that are unavailable after cooking but are before.

So will you lose vitamin content by cooking? Absolutely. Will you lose vitamin content by not cooking? Bet your bottom dollar you will. What to do? As the roughest of rough guidelines, my thinking is this: fruits are literally designed to be eaten, so eat them raw if you're after nutritional value. Some vegetables are not keen (in the evolutionary sense) on being eaten and have evolved to encourage people not to eat them, so cook them some and eat them raw some.

There is an excellent essay from J. Steingarten in The Man who Ate Everything on this topic if you'd like further reading.

Generally, cooked vegetables will be better for you, nutritionally, than no vegetables at all, so go to town.

You have made the most important step, which is doing research by asking here (or any similar place). The best way to learn to cook as an adult with minimal prior skills is to match up a good general cookbook with a plan to practice cooking skills and a web/YouTube addiction. My current recommendation is Bittman's How to Cook Everything. He has been splitting off iterations for marketing, but the big red brick is my favorite to share.

I think that anyone looking to delve into the "why" of Bittman will benefit from bookmarking Serious Eats to read through from time to time and to search as a reference, The basic YouTube balance is Chef John's Food Wishes; he covers an amazing range of dishes, with varying results and good insight as to where things went wonky. Because he is also process driven - and fun - I learn a lot from him when I am thinking about a new dish.

If chicken is a problem, temporarily switch to thighs. They are more flavorful, but really hard to dry out. Refine your first attempts there.

In my experience, encyclopaedic cookbooks like The Joy of Cooking and How to Cook Everything are generally quite mediocre - "jack of all trades, master of none." Frankly, Joy is hopelessly outdated in the age of the internet.


Of the ones on your list, I think The French Laundry and Ad Hoc books aren't very practical, as /u/cheery_cherry says.


Julia Child's book is probably your best bet. It was written with the American home cook circa 1961 in mind - not too many obscure ingredients or equipment, well-explained techniques, straightforward. It also helps that many of her recipes really stand the test of time (boef bourguignon in particular!)


One other suggestion is The Professional Chef, which serves as the Culinary Institute of America's textbook. It provides reliable recipes with detailed instructions and plenty of photos. Unlike Joy, it strives to teach you the fundamentals, in order to become a better chef over-all.


Edit: Forgot to add that any cookbook by America's Test Kitchen will be excellent, reliable, and well-written!

Here is PETA's Vegan College Cookbook. It's an alright cookbook but I personally think Vegan on the Cheap is way better. I'm sure there are plenty of other good cookbooks too. I also recommend the Vegan Stoner blog, like rockmeahmadinejad said. It's a great site even if you don't smoke!

I finished with a bachelor's degree in food science at Oregon State University in the U.S. It was fantastic. There are so many directions you can go with food science. OSU's program focuses on the food chemistry side as opposed to the nutrition side of things. There are students specializing in beer, wine, cheese, meat and food in general. Each specialty means different classes. If you're into wine, you study varying degrees of viticulture. If you're studying meat, you get into farming. Students and professors have a vast array of cross-disciplinary experiences. Another great thing about food science is industry involvement. Before you even leave college you can meet industry members through your local IFT chapter. That really provides another dimension to your education if you can take advantage of. I love asking people about their jobs and what they're doing. The thing that pulled me in initially was the high rate of employment after school. I've been out two years and am working as a research technician at a manufacturing plant. I love it.
Edit: Oof, guess I went off on a tangent there. The thing I find most motivating are books like this The kitchen as a laboratory and this Molecular Gastronomy

My best investments probably won't get a lot of attention:

• Building relationships with my supports -friends, parents, boyfriend. Clearly explaining when/what I needed and being patient with and appreciative of their attempts regardless of the outcome.
  
  
• Buying good food. Fresh fruits/veggies. Whole grains. No added sugars/sweeteners. Limited/no chemicals/preservatives -I try for organic.
  
  
• Cookbooks. The "low calorie"/"diet" ones are usually worthless I try to pick recipes off of what I know about health and cooking. I use Bon Appetit Magazine (This usually has odd ingredients but I'm a foodie at heart) Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food (odd stuff again but I like the idea of low-cal comfort food) Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book -14th Edition and Everyday Slow Cooking I make sure to choose carefully and avoid unhealthy things.
  
  Hope this helps someone! Good luck on your lifelong journey of health.
  
  edits: grammar/punctuation and adding an edit line.

Fantasy: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. The first book is good, but the second and third are fantastic.


Non-fiction: Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human by Richard Wrangham. Flat-out the most fascinating book I've ever read. About evolution and shit.

Literary Fiction: Orsinian Tales by Ursula K. Le Guin. The writing is so beautiful, moving, exquisite, all that good stuff. Le Guin's best work, imo.

Science Fiction: The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Sooooo awesome. Has some elements of fantasy in it (the medieval part anyway.) Basically, knights vs. aliens.

Assyrian Cookbook
Great recipes for feeding a family. Easy to follow with simple ingredients and I love that the cookbook looks like a chopping board :-) Has by far the best minced lamb kebab recipe.

Larousse Gastronomique
I have this . . . . just because it makes me feel like a real cook! This is a serious reference book (and heavy).

If you're a member of the AHA, you have access to a ton of recipes that have medaled in the National Homebrew Competition. I think that if you're not a member, you can still see some recipes, but not the winners. Here is a link.

Brewing Classic Styles is always highly recommended, especially if you're an extract brewer.

I've also been paging through Modern Homebrew Recipes and enjoying that. It's mostly just a recipe book, but he gives his reasoning behind each recipe and gives suggestions on how you might want to modify it to fit your taste and equipment. I've found it to be very informative and the one beer I've made from a recipe in the book turned out great.

Also, I know you are looking for something outside of Homebrewtalk, but just in case you haven't seen it yet, this is a helpful spreadsheet of the top 100 recipes there with tabs to sort by either style or rank.

I have a number of cookbooks (99% of which were hand-me-downs from random family members) that I don't really use because I prefer the internet, but the two physical books I've gotten the most use out of are these:

How to Cook Everything
-Especially if you're just starting out this book is excellent. It doesn't list tons of complicated recipes sprinkled with cooking jargon. It holds your hand through the simplest versions of many, many recipes and then tells you why you're doing what youer' doing.

The Flavor Bible
-Because while it's better to have experience to be able to just know which flavors work well together, this is just easier. The book has some explanatory stuff in the front, but most of the book is basically a huge index of different ingredients and all of the other things that go well with them. Especially if you're a broke student, spices are going to be the big thing that keeps you from eating bland-ass ramen all of the time (though this book doesn't just cover spices).

I don't really have any specific rules, per say, other than drink what you like. If you read enough around here, you'll notice that vodka doesn't exactly get put up on a pedestal by many. I personally find I use gin in almost any situation that calls for vodka so I don't really sweat which brand I have in the house (currently Tito's).

As for tequila, it's not so much about avoiding gold tequila (my house tequila is the lunazul reposado which is a gold tequila), it's making sure that you're using a quality 100% de agave tequila. Most brands that produce tequila this way will let you know somewhere on the label, but brands like espolon, lunazul, milagro are all safe bets. Otherwise, they're making the tequila from some percentage neutral grain spirit (typically distilled beet sugar) and adding tequila flavoring.

Read around here and on specific spirit subreddits to get further recommendations. I also recommend picking up a beginners cocktail book to give you an idea of which elements of your bar to stock first and prioritize what to buy later. 12 Bottle Bar focuses on what bottles to buy to make an array of classics. Bar Book is more focused on helping shape your technique and palate.

http://12bottlebar.com/

Go to that site, which is sadly no longer active, but the back log is great. Find recipes that basically use the stuff you have, and start working your way through it. Read the articles.

Or, they have a book, which is worth buying.

You will likely not be needing that blender, at least not very often. I find most blended drinks are more work than what they're worth on a small scale.

Otherwise, you just need a shaker and a pint glass for stirred drinks. You also might want to purchase a Hawthorne Strainer, a jigger, and possibly a mesh strainer.

I could list out 50 drinks that basically just use the spirits you have plus some juices/sugar, but I'd just be listing the stuff that's on 12 Bottle Bars site.

I won't do a ton, but here's an example of one rabbit hole: First, make a Gimlet, if you like it, then try a Fitzgerald, if you like it, then make a Bee's Knees. If you like that, then make a Gold Rush...

You get the idea.

• House of Leaves. It won't really teach you anything, but you'll get a sense of accomplishment from finishing it.
  
• A Confederacy of Dunces. If you feel like you have no direction in life, this might make you feel better about yourself. If nothing else, its a good laugh.
  
• Catch-22. Mentioned here already, but really, it might be the best book of the 20th century.
  
  
• EDIT The French Laundry Cookbook. It's a must for foodies, it's a phenomenal coffee table book, and it's inspiring to read the perspective of someone with so much passion for their craft.

This isn't focused purely on baking, but I'm fond of the Better Homes & Garden Cookbook. Each section has relevant guides/tips - how to do certain cuts, canning, etc.

Blogwise - I love the Pioneer Woman. She lists her recipes with several photos and detailed guides. A quick search turned up these Chocolate Chip Cookie Sweet Rolls that combines some of your fav's. Happy baking!

Here are some great cookbooks to get you started:

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-College-Cookbook-Hassle-Free-Students/dp/B003156G0Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265384294&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-College-Cookbook-Alexandra-Nimetz/dp/1603420304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265384294&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265384294&sr=8-15

I don't know your level of food tolerance (e.g. vegan, pescetarian, etc) so I threw in that last one just in case. And, on that, here are a few pointers:

1. Try to quickly learn how long it takes you to cook things, regardless of what the recipe says. There's nothing like being late for class because you've got something on the stove.
   
   
2. Find out what skill level you're at and master it before moving up. Even being king of microwave cooking is a step up from being so-so at everything.
   
   
3. If you don't already, learn to love leftovers.
   
   
4. Cook like it's an investment. Don't blow all of your money on one meal (however decadent that meal may be) only to allow yourself to go hungry for a week. If you're having a bunch of friends over and you've said you'd cook for them, ask that each one bring a different ingredient for the meal.
   
   
   Hope this helps.

Well, for me at least, the internet has largely made print cookbooks obsolete, but if you're unable to use the internet or just simply want to have a print cookbook then you can't go wrong with the Better Homes and Garden "New" Cook Book.

I have it and it covers a great deal of information. Great for beginners. It's apparently pretty cheap too. I got mine for my wedding.

Get the quintessential Better Homes cookbook. It has great tips/recipes and the cookies ARE perfect. Oh! They also tell you the accurate baking time so you don't have to pull you cookies out early for soft centers and crisp outside!

Link to the hard copy:
https://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Book/dp/0470560770

P.S. they also have an app! I have yet to check out though I'm sure its pretty good.

For ease-of-access:

-Amazon

-Indiebound

-Books-a-Million

-Barnes and Noble

-Powells

-The website where it all started!


Tyler Capps is a great cook, and his website is my personal favorite for great new recipes. I've made most of his recipes and they have all been huge successes!

I recommend The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller:

https://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Library/dp/1579651267

His book covers foundational French cooking technique with fine dining application. He has such a beautiful talent for teaching and communication.

I was particularly drawn to the methodical, scientific approach he takes to cooking. But there's no mistaking his emotional investment and passion at the same time.

Truly one of the greatest chefs and culinary teachers the world has ever known.

Books. Has he/she mentioned a cookbook or food reference book lately that he/she wants? Good cookbooks are awesome as gifts, since most cooks don't often have time to make it into a bookstore. Just as long as you get a good one (no Rachael Ray or Sandra Lee bullshit).

If your chef friend doesn't already have one of these books, any of these are a good gift:

Food Lover's Companion

On Food and Cooking

River Cottage Cookbook

French Laundry Cookbook

Also awesome, a subscription to Lucky Peach magazine.

What kind of restaurant/cuisine does your friend cook for? I have suggestions for more cookbooks if you want, but a little bit more information would be helpful.

Edit: Forgot to mention Art Culinaire, a hardback quarterly for chefs and cooks.

If you are totally brand new, I have a few suggestions.

https://www.amazon.com/12-Bottle-Bar-Bottles-Cocktails/dp/076117494X

Pick up this book, and learn from it. Also pick up this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Bar-Book-Elements-Cocktail-Technique/dp/145211384X/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AWBB1DE7J6W0H2V65PNJ

Both excellent primers to recipes, technique, and ways to think about cocktails in general. The first is more of a home guide so you can more cost effectively stock a home bar and practice at home. The second is about perfecting technique and the recipes inside are amazing.

As far as most popular drinks...

Martini, Old Fashioned, Cosmos, Long Island Iced Tea, Margarita, Negroni, Mojito, Mai Tai, White Russian, Moscow Mule.

Just off the top of my head.

I'm friends with the creator of this comic and he is a great guy. Check out his webpage or the book he published for more recipes. Lots of delicious ideas to try out and they're all super easy to make.

Will you be living in an apartment or a dorm? I ask because most dorms don't have any cooking access besides a microwave. If that's the case, there's PETA's book about cheap college vegan recipes (HERE) It's not necessarily the best food, but it is really cheap and microwavable. A lot of them are absurdly simple like "Take bread and put vegan cheese in it and cook it," so it gets ridiculous. It's also not really the healthiest, but I think overall it is worth a look to get ideas.

There's also another book called Vegetarian 5 ingredient gourmet. I don't have it, but I saw it at the bookstore yesterday. It might be worth it, too. Here

One standby that my ex always ate, and I do now, is to use a rice cooker to make rice and beans. It's super simple. Just use whatever amount of rice the cooking times tell you, add your favorite salsa and your favorite beans and the amount of water it says to use, and cook it. It's simple and cheap, but has plenty of nutrients.

1. yeah, no pass for you.
   
   
2. No, despite years of hunting and camping/hiking. What's your point?
   
   
3. Are you threatening me?
   
   
4. So again. Super special mystery monkey never, in the 38,000 years in which the tar pits trapped every other predator, not a single sasquatch was tempted. Okay, that seems likely.
   
   Let's see, to be smart, like us, a big brain is required. A big brain needs more energy than raw food can deliver so your super smart, super special mystery monkey has apparently learned how to cook it's food (https://www.amazon.ca/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410).
   
   Awesome, you don't have to search for tree structures anymore, just claim that firepits are proof of sasquatch BBQ's.

'The Professional Chef' is a great textbook for not only plating, but all basics of cooking. I would highly recommend for any novice like myself.

New hardcovers are a little pricey, but you can get a great deal on used copies.

I think for me (i'm not a bartender - just a lowly at-home hobbiest), the most transformation book i've read was the Seven Bottle Bar. It seems like your books are leagues above that.

I started by wanting to make specific drinks that i'd had in the past, but Seven Bottle gives you a primer and base that lets your understand drinking construction before you move on to bigger and better things. Also, being able to whip up real and delicious drinks from minimal ingredients, or substitute ingredients has been a skill i rather enjoy having.

edit: it's twelve bottle bar.

Could not agree with you more!!

If you are just starting out I personally recommend purchasing the textbook used by many culinary institutes.

When I first became interested in preparing my own food, a friend lent me his copy. It contained a large amount of unnecessary information that was geared more towards running a professional kitchen (who would have guessed from its title?) but it also contained a vast amount of information regarding food preparation and most importantly, technique.

Damn, I feel like I just spammed your comment with an advertisement...Oh well, happy cooking!

Every aspect of cooking could be called molecular gastronomy. When you put a steak on the grill, something is happening at a molecular level to the protein. When you cream butter and sugar to make cookies, the sugar is incorporating into the fat at a molecular level.

check this book out

Just know that molecular gastronomy is cool and all, but it is also a fad. Make sure you're using these chemicals and techniques to contribute to the overall success of your menu and not just because they look neat.

As for designing your own recipe - pick a style you like, then do some research on it by reading it's respective chapters in Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels and Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer (other sources are great as well, those are the two I most often go to).

When I was your age I started out with a great first time cookbook and they still sell it: Better Homes and Gardens: New Cook Book, 16th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544307070/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_eJ3MxbJBM6GAT

It covered basics but without trying to be too fancy, some of the recipes from cooking shows are a lot of work.

Also, I like Rachel Ray recipes because they tend to be fairly easy for me to do.

Also, it really does help to taste as you cook. Don't make any big adjustments but start building that tool box.

Good food is mostly a function of good ingredients and as little prep as necessary.

Slow cookers and toaster ovens are your friend.

Beans are easy and cheap.

Rice is easier in a rice cooker.

Ground meat can be purchased in bulk, frozen in 1/3 or 1/2 lb increments and used as needed. I lived off of ground turkey bought in 10lb job lots clear through my junior year.

Spinach is cheap and good for you. Buy a bag of it and eat it raw and it will last forever. Buy a bag and wilt it on the stove and it will last one meal (but it'll be worth it).

Whole chickens are massively cheaper than chicken pieces, particularly boneless ones. A chicken can be baked in about an hour. Eat enough of it to be full, then pick the bones clean. Put them in a pot with a carrot (ideally one of the carrots you forgot about that is now all wilty) and maybe an onion and add water to the top. Simmer on low overnight to turn into broth. Freeze or not. Use to make rice, soup, whatever.

It might be a good idea to go to Ikea and buy their super-shite kitchen set of knives and pots'n'shit. They will suck but as you learn what you like, you can treat yourself by replacing things that you hate. A decent set of knives is empowering, as is a decent set of pots.

Most cookbooks are pure vanity and food porn. A decent cookbook hasn't been written in a long time. That said, the BHG is probably my favorite amongst the staples (and I collect cookbooks - I've got a 1st edition "Gentle Art of Cookery" from 1910 and the full-bore 1951 3 volume Gourmet). The one you really want if you're feeling overwhelmed, however, is Eduard de Pomaine's slim 1930 volume French Cooking in Ten Minutes. It, more than any other book, will teach you that a "recipe" is nothing more than a loose set of instructions on combining things that you should probably already have.

Food that has been warmed to room temperature sticks less in the pan.

Olive oil smokes when heated too high.

Save your bacon grease because you can cook anything in it.

Farmer's markets are often cheaper than grocery stores, have better produce, and are a cute place to bring girls.

Clip coupons.

One of my uncle's friends survived his undergrad by visiting the feed store and sampling from every bin. He found Reindeer chow (mostly honey-rolled oats) for $0.05 a pound and lived off of it for four years.

Ramen is really fucking bad for you.

Frozen pizzas are really fucking bad for you.

Pizza rolls are a bad bargain for the amount of food you get.

If you can find frozen burritos 10/$3, buy them. Otherwise, don't.

Eggs keep for damn near forever. Just remember to refrigerate them.

"Well-done" is anything but.

Kitchen experiments are only a failure if you render them inedible. Experiment when cooking for yourself so that when you're cooking for others it's a known quantity.

Amazing amounts of vodka can be hidden in vanilla milkshakes. Not that I'm suggesting that they be given to freshman girls. At the very least, not without telling them that there's "a little" vodka in them.

Don't buy a bunch of fancy dishes just because that girl is coming over to have dinner and study. She won't care and then you'll be stuck with a bunch of tacky Target stemware that will haunt you for years.

Yes, it will fuck with your brownies when your roommate passive-aggressively cooks a frozen pizza in the same oven you're using.

If your roommates are eating your food, make it abundantly clear that they're buying ingredients.

/r/frugal.

/r/cooking.

allrecipes dusts the fuck out of epicurious.

• • *
    
    Now go get in trouble.

I definitely recommend a crock pot if you don't have one. Recipes can range from very healthy to very decadent, it all depends on what you toss in the pot! It's great because you can throw it all in before leaving for work and then BAM dinner is ready when you get home. I have this cookbook: Fix-It and Forget-It.

Also, I want to recommend this cookbook to you if you want to truly start learning how to cook. There are great, basic recipes and some a little more advanced, but all thoroughly explained and easily translatable to a novice cook. And there is a wealth of information when it comes to proper knives, cooking tools, pots and pans, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Simple-Recipes/dp/0471789186/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410449408&sr=1-3&keywords=how+to+cook+everything

It's not just to make sure the food is safe to eat, it also allows us to get more energy from the food. Cooked food gives much more energy than raw food, and so early humanoids that ate cooked foods wouldn't have to spend as much time eating. There's a hypothesis that cooking food is what caused our jaws and digestive systems to shrink, since we didn't have to expend as much energy digesting raw food, allowing us to devote more energy to a energy-devouring brain.

book on the subject

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/eating-cooked-food-made-us-human-study-finds

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121026-human-cooking-evolution-raw-food-health-science/

http://www.pnas.org/gca?allch=&submit=Go&gca=pnas%3B109%2F45%2F18571

I'm not sure if anyone's linked to it yet, but there are some fascinating answers to your question in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374682314&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=how+cooking+allowed+us. Maybe not written on a five-year-old level, but if you want a college-level understanding, you might find it interesting :)

If you can find a copy of "The Professional Chef", snatch it up! It's the textbook used by the Culinary Institute of America. It has a ton of recipes, but also explains the different methods of cooking in detail. It's broken down into chapters like dairy, seafood, meat, grains and legumes, etc. I found an older edition at a garage sale for $1. It's a great resource to have. The only thing is that recipes are sometimes made for large-scale batches, so you'd have to do a little math to break it down into a reasonable amount. Nobody needs 40 poached eggs in their home at a time.

I have this one and this one. I like the first better, it's the one I used in my culinary school. The second is the one I got at the garage sale.

I always suggest the good ol’ Better Homes & Gardens plaid covered cookbook. It’s a great textbook for starting cooks, and the recipes are all solid.
Better Homes and Gardens: New Cook Book, 16th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544307070/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_H700BbZN6Q7ED

Personal bias, but I would pick a good cooking technique or cookbook. For example Complete Techniques is a very good technique book if you don't have it. Otherwise Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything are both good cookbooks to have.

This book looks amazing--I'm about to purchase it myself!

I'd also recommend the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My mom gave me her old copy when I moved into my own apartment and it's saved me from disaster on more than one occasion. It covers just about every basic dish you could dream of and makes sure to outline every step. There are lots of nifty charts and resources (to name just a few: the back cover has a list of emergency substitutions, there's a section on selecting fresh fruits and vegetables, and the back of the meat chapter has an extensive list of cooking times!).

Also, if your future husband has the time and doesn't know how to cook much either, mayb try cooking some meals together! It could be a fun at-home date night and you'll both learn some things. :)

You want Star Trek recipes? There's a Star Trek cook book that not only tells you how to make your favorite Trek foods, but it also tells you how they made the prop food for the show. It has a drinks section, and even includes a handful of recipes that the actors themselves like, from their personal lives. Best "frivolous" purchase I've made in ages. Also, it's even more epic if you have kids that are into Star Trek.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0671000225/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1464561251&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=cooking+with+neelix&dpPl=1&dpID=51w%2BuQNwqoL&ref=plSrch

If you wanna stick with baking, I highly recommend a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook! My family has one that's at least 30 years old and it has some great baking recipes in it. I've been making the banana cream pie recipe in it for years and it's one of my family's favorite desserts, and the white cake recipe comes out perfect every time!

It has a ton of other recipes too, but the dessert ones I know for sure are top notch.

I'm a big fan of Fix-It and Forget-It, but it has no pictures. Most of the recipes are easy enough you wouldn't need them how. I tend to just find recipes online, honestly. Let us know what you end up going with! =)

Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is easily the best book to learn French cooking. It has very thorough instructions for techniques, authentic recipes, adapted for the American kitchen.

I also recommend Larousse Gastronomique,
Escoffier and
Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques.

You mentioned that you prefer recipes that are simple and not too time consuming. The problem with that is, most authentic French cooking is time-consuming and laborious. This is why it is so delicious and intricate. However, I do have one cookbook that I don't use too much anymore, but it features great recipes that are fairly quick and accessible.

are you good with recipes? maybe a beginer level cookbook would be your jam.

peta's always good for cookbooks.
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850

and veganomicon is quite popular as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Isa-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416511134&sr=1-1&keywords=veganomicon

both are good starter level cookbooks.

i'd reccomend cooking in big batches and freezing stuff.

if this doesn't work, try your local asian or indian grocery store. they have a ton of instant meals for dirt ass cheap (like a buck or 2 each) many of which are vegan..


congrats on going vegan too, btw!

How to cook Everything by Mark Bittman is the very best cookbook I've come across so far. It actually explains what is going on and gives a ton of recipes that are really useful. I even make my own crackers now thanks to this book!

If you're a microwave chef like myself PETA's Vegan College Cookbook is great because it is EASY PEASY! I'm a vegetarian not a vegan so occasionally I add cheese, use real milk and so on.

This is my favorite hypothesis.

Basically, cooking food enabled us to use the energy derived from our diets for larger brains. Most animals spend a significant portion of the energy they get from food on digesting that food. Cooking means that we don't have to do so and can use that energy elsewhere.

Hummingbirds are another example of a low digestive energy species. Instead of using that energy for their brains, they use it for flight - that's how they can hover and fly backwards.

I use Wyeast 3068 for hefeweizens a lot (my wife's favorite beer), which I've heard is close to an identical strain to WLP300. I follow the advice I read in Brewing Classic Styles, which is to ferment low, even slightly lower than recommended, at 62F for the best flavor (for 3068, the recommended fermentation temperature by the lab is 64F to 75F). I've followed that and I love the results.

Yes and I sneak in some cooked ham bits into it sometimes. Wild mushrooms not always but I make steamed asparagus with balsamic vinegar to compliment. My cooking is limited but this I have perfected to an art. I just never have anyone to share my food stuff with. This book has helped me improve my food game.

I really enjoyed it - we did it old-school with a whisk, bowl, pot of simmering water. Took time but wasn't actually that difficult. Really liked that I got it lemony as I like and very smooth.

In all honesty you have to take recipe websites with a grain of salt, most of the time they are just posted and the person who wrote them probably never cooked them.I tend to find this to be true when you are cooking something from the recipe and the proportions are all fucked up. I really am a fan in buying actual cook books I have had great luck with them. Start with this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Right on, that sounds totally cool! One of the cool things about the recipes is that they are intended to made in batches of various sizes (making it great for parties with large punch bowls). The original WCB was served in a fishbowl, and definitely meant for two or more people. It wasn't until later that Quark's started offering "single" sized drinks. Oh and the WCB tastes a lot like Hawaiian Punch, and the dry ice is worth the effort to get if you're doing a large group presentation.

Also, for your party: my geek, let me show you it. I haven't purchased that cookbook yet, but there's a space reserved for it on my cookbook shelf.

There's some great recommendations, to be sure, in this thread.

However, one must remember that most modern cooking is still based on French technique, so a couple of books on basic French technique would serve you well.

Jacques Pepin has published many fine books, including La Technique and La Methode, which were combined together into a single volume, Complete Techniques. This book is probably my #1 recommendation for the enthusiastic kitchen n00b.

And, of course, there's always the old standby, Julia Child and her two famous volumes, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 2.

This is the book that I'd recommend to anyone looking to learn how to cook. I was pretty decent at cooking before I got this book and it took me from average to way above average. Like assistant manager of a restaurant at 20 good.

I make a baked pasta dish that is appealing to just about everyone, even (especially?) omnivores.

I use 50% whole wheat pasta, cooked, and pour on some marinara sauce. In a baking dish or lasagna pan, I pour half of the saucy pasta. On top of that, I add a layer of vegan ricotta cheese, which is just mashed tofu with lemon, a little nutritional yeast, salt, and oregano. Sometimes I mix some sliced fresh basil in with the ricotta, or a package of cooked frozen spinach. On top of the cheese goes the rest of the pasta. I usually top the whole thing with Daiya mozzarella, some red pepper flakes, dried oregano and basil. Cover with foil, bake at around 400 degrees until it starts to bubble, then uncover and let the Daiya melt. Serve with a salad and vegan garlic bread. Everyone loves it! It's based on a recipe from Vegan on the Cheap.

The recipe originally came from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Which is a fairly decent book for basic recipes. It's not quite the same anymore, but not too different either.

The recipe is not that difficult. It takes about 1/2 hour to get the cake in the oven, and dirties 3 bowls. It's a lot easier if you have a stand mixer (which I don't)

And like I said before, I spent a number of years perfecting the base recipe (I took a cheesecake to the neighbor's every week for a year), which I wouldn't have done if I thought it sucked. This cheesecake comes out as the best I've had. It's probably not the best out there though.

Not so much a tip or easy recipe, but I cannot stress how useful a book like Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook is. Contains everything you need to know if you're moving out on your own. How to use and maintain your kitchen equipment, boiling/freezing points of everything you might need to know, basic and advanced cooking techniques, etc. Also comes with a section on mealplanning and the like.

I use Larousse Gastronomique as my standard reference book. It is more of an encyclopaedia and reference book than a cookbook. However, it absolutely excels in what it does.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307464911/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687682&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0609609718&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1F0AATX2VCM7YG8VPV79

I would also add Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques. He is after all, the master of techniques and crucially, in explaining the fundamentals of his techniques really really well.

http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pin-New-Complete-Techniques/dp/1579129110/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449167360&sr=1-1&keywords=jacques+pepin+techniques

There's also a DVD on his techniques which is far easier to understand than the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Pepin-Techniques-Recipes/dp/B000LXHJZA/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1449167416&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=jacques+pepin+techniques+dvd

Well, you could get this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cheap-Robin-Robertson/dp/0470472243/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404636748&sr=8-1&keywords=inexpensive+vegan

I've only browsed it at my girlfriend's place, but it looks pretty good. But I'm the same as you. I cook a lot, but I almost always just wing it. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Congrats on your sobriety!
this is a toy for my baby thing
or a silly startrek cookbook
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HDATZ

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. This is the book I used to learn how to cook things more complicated than pancakes. Also, old episodes of Good Eats are good for learning how and why things work the way they do. Alton Brown is an excellent teacher.

These are the things I can't live without. I cook every night, and usually cook for my lunches as well and have a food blog:


1 really good chefs knife (look around the 100-150 range)

an immersion blender

set of mixing bowls

set of measuring cups / spoons

a great basic cookbook: Better Homes and Garden

It's my favorite kitchen appliance, bar none! When you do get one (and after-Christmas sales are right around the corner), chow.com and (believe it or not) the food network website have some amazing slow cooker recipes. My go-to cookbooks are

Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes!

and

Slow Cooker Revolution for when I'm feeling fancier (some of the recipes require more prep and ingredients but are usually worth the effort)

Not a cookbook, but definitely something she might enjoy if she's studying gastronomy:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e71f/?srp=2

Also good:
http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Gastronomy-Exploring-Traditions-Perspectives/dp/0231133138/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331915990&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Meal-Gastronomy-Constructivism-Perspectives/dp/0231144660/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1331916059&sr=8-4

A little technical perhaps, and not for someone without a background in chemistry, but Molecular Gastronomy by Herve This is pretty interesting.

The best I could do is $13.11 thanks for the contest!!

Don't sue people panda

I'm surprised so far no one has mentioned Larousse which is generally my go-to along with The New Best Recipe for more generalized fare.

I generally don't cook from cookbooks, but I do use them for inspiration or fundamentals.

There's a great book called Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham that's primarily about the hypothesis that it was our ability to cook food that drove our evolutionary development as early humans, not our hunting ability to eat additional meat. In addition to providing a compelling case for this, he also brings together a bunch of disparate studies to almost accidentally prove a side case: that calories in, calories out is only part of the equation. An important one, but not the only one.

One examples I remember clearly from the book were a standard experimental/control set of rats. They were given food which had the same calorie count, but one of them was hard pellets, and the other one was a "puffed" version of the food; think cold rice versus unsugared rice krispies. Both sets of rats finished all of the food, but the puffed food rats gained weight while the unpuffed did not.

Similarly, a dietary experiment that wanted to look at the effects of eating a raw food diet vs. a regular diet was attempted. The experimental and control groups were served the same food, including olive oil, spices, etc. but the control group's food was cooked, while the experimental group's food was unprepared. It was meant to take place over the course of a few months if memory serves (I haven't read the book in years), but had to be cut short after a matter of a few weeks as the raw food group lost more weight than was considered safe.

Our way of measuring the number of calories in food is grossly inadequate. And from the studies that have been performed, which unfortunately are few and far between as most food research is done by the companies that make the food, even when we measure the calories int he food, we're often not actually measuring how easily our body processes and stores those calories.

Calories in, calories out is a good place to start. But saying that's all there is to it is like answering the question "how do birds fly," with "by flapping their wings." It's accurate, but also insufficient, as it ignores their lighter bone structure, aerodynamic qualities, etc. And expecting someone to lose weight just by watching calories without also changing the types of food they eat is often about as useful as expecting someone to fly by strapping on ersatz wings and flapping their arms.

OK, so sidestepping the mountain of relationship stuff going on here, I'll get right to the point for "learning to cook":

Get the Better Homes & Garden cookbook. It's under $20 (which is less than you'll spend when the two of you go to the movies).

Open up, pick a recipe that sounds good, get the stuff at the market, cook it together. Eat. Decide what went right, what went wrong. Rinse, repeat.

I recommend the BH&G cookbook because the recipes are pretty straightforward, not intimidating, well-written, clear, and time-tested. Everything from waffles to chili. I've had my copy for 20+ years and still use it for the basics.

Omg yes get her a cookbook - I got this one last year https://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Book/dp/0544307070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466650374&sr=8-1&keywords=better+homes+and+gardens+cookbook (my mom has it too) and its literally perfect for people starting their lives. Everything you really need (including how long to cook certain meats and at what temperature)

Buy his cookbook. I love it
Cooking Comically: Recipes So Easy You'll Actually Make Them https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399164049/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_-.6evb0TXKJ60

http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311538779&sr=1-1

It's vegan. But. There's hella good food in it. I'm a vegetarian and I love it.

Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques and Larousse Gastronomique are both great resources for classical dishes and techniques. Much of classical French cooking is based around stocks and sauces (the 5 mother sauces, and their extensions) and finesse in cooking, i.e. precise cuts, elaborate platings, etc. Something like cooking a french omelet, a piece of fish a la meuniere (get real french and do it with skate wing or dover sole), or if you're into pastry, a simple pâte à choux or genoise, are good starting recipes. With those two books and a few recipes to practice should get you started.

Mixed Indian / American family here. I make an instant pot biryani that both my picky kids like to eat, and it’s an easy recipe. It’s from the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754542/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0sjYBbP061MRF

I bought this:

https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional/dp/1939754542

(Sorry on mobile and I can’t do a normal link.)

I really love the recipes. I use the box Six Spices, and started really getting into the easier approach to Indian Cooking.

My copy is at least 10 years old, but the information is still solid today. The Professional Chef.

I would also contend Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is an excellent source for understanding basic flavors, mother sauces, etc.

People are recommending Veganomicon, which is a great book and you should pick it up (along with everything else by Isa Chandra Moskowitz), but since you mentioned finances, allow me to recommend Vegan on the Cheap. Every recipe is ≤ $2 per serving.

Buy this book: Herbs & Spices, The Cooks Reference.

It has huge pictures of all the herbs and spices you're likely to find in the spice section, a description of their flavors, and foods they can be paired with.

(While you're at it, pick up a used copy of The Professional Chef.
(and a calculator, because all of those recipes will be like "serves 20"))

Read through those, then go to a Penzey's store (if there's one nearby) and snort all their samples. Go hungry. Buy something that your nose says "this would taste good with [whatever]", and then pick up some [whatever] on your way home.

And don't forget that often, salt and/or sugar enhance spice flavors.

I was going to try to link you to Cooking Comically's 2AM Chili recipe but the image link was broken for me. So, it may still be there and just not working for me. However, it is a webcomic of "recipes so easy you'll actually make them'. He printed a cookbook and Amazon carries it. I've bought two copies, one for myself one for a friend, and would definitely recommend all of the recipes in it.

Herve This, Molecular Gastronomy might be what you’re after. Wonderful book and hugely influential.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Molecular-Gastronomy-Exploring-Science-Traditions/dp/0231133138

Peta wrote a cookbook of only recipes which can be made in the microwave: <http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266097407&sr=8-1>

Also, if you have access to a fridge, keep fake lunchmeat and bread around; pretty easy to make a sandwich.

Rice cookers are the greatest invention ever; rice is retardedly cheap and a rice cooker means you need no skill whatsoever to cook it; many come with a steamer on top so you can steam vegetables at the same time as cooking the rice. At my university you're allowed to keep them in the dorm.

Hi, I went vegan straight from eating meat, dairy etc, I had like 2 weeks as a transition phase as that all I felt I needed.
Some of my reasons were health, some were ethical. I'm going to try to keep this fairly short.
The ONLY "ethical" eggs you will find are ones that come from a neighbour's/friend's/relative's backyard, even commercially available "free-range" "organic" eggs aren't that fair to the chickens.
There is NO ethical dairy. No matter what a female cow is kept pregnant on a very regular basis, her calf is taken away from her, they are often tortured and turned into veal. The mother and infant both become incredible distressed by this, they understand that their infant is being torn from their side. She is then milked, given high doses of antibiotics to keep the pus from her mastitis at a low level, but this doesn't really work so it still ends up in our milk. then the cycle repeats for a few year and then she is killed. In the wild cows will live around 20 years, a LOT longer than they do in any farm.
So that is a HUGE reason I went vegan, I used to consume a SHIT LOAD of dairy and then I came to understand that and I (just me personally here) became really, really saddened and disgusted in myself for supporting this. After I went vegan I read a quote somewhere that as some dude went vegan he just "saw a slice of veal in every glass of milk". So there really isn't any such thing as ethical dairy.
Egg replacer products are easy to find and you can get used to non-dairy milk, I got used to it by drinking the chocolate kind with a snack, it helped. Here are some (hopefully) useful links for you, if you don't get to cook on campus then you may have to wait to go home to use them:
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-advice/student-needs-easy-healthy-diet.php
http://www.skinnybitch.net/
http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=vegan%2Bstudent&x=0&y=0

Good luck! (:

Yes! So many people get this confused. Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire. I had to read it for an evolutionary biology class and it was wonderful, if I remember correctly.

Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

It has more than just recipes, it will tell you which part of the cow your steak is from, how to cook different cuts of meat, and has some pretty good recipes. I really like the meatloaf recipe they have in there.

My apologies if I came off as a dick-- I didn't realize you were honestly asking the question. I thought it was rhetorical (but I answered anyway, heh).

As for the protein powder, GNC probably sells way more whey protein than soy. If you're really interested in protein powder, though, here's 2lbs of soy protein powder that's way cheaper than either of the GNC links: http://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formulas-Iso-Rich-Soy-32/dp/B0013OQG64/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371059605&sr=8-1&keywords=soy+protein+powder

A few other things:

1. Low-income America is rife with processed foods. Our food system and government subsidies make it so that foods like Froot Loops and Cheetos are artificially cheap and thus makes "real food" like bananas and lettuce appear more expensive. Nevertheless, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are still affordable even on a super low budget. Vegan on a budget is not especially difficult or unheard of, for example: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470472243 or http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Vegan-4-00-Day-Conscious/dp/1570672571
   
   
2. There is no need to combine foods at the same meal to get all the essential amino acids in one go. This is an old myth that started in the 1980s but is not backed up by science.
   
   
3. There is way more than 2.1g of protein in a serving of beans. Heck, even English green peas have more protein than that per serving. If you look on any can of beans (e.g., garbanzos, black beans, pintos, etc.) one serving usually has between 7-10g protein. Each can is usually ~3.5 servings (so at least 24.5g protein per can), and you can buy a 15.5oz can of cooked beans all day long for 70-80 cents.
   
   Further, one pound of dry beans is about 12 servings. So one pound of beans has 12 servings x 8g protein = 96g protein for one pound of beans. Finally, the price you quoted is far more expensive than most canned beans, which are more expensive than bagged (dry) beans (see http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=0d2d3ebc-1ee5-4734-a34a-53ad26b5e3e7).
   
   See this info sheet for nutrition facts on pinto beans: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/facts/hhpfacts/New_HHPFacts/Beans/HHFS_BEANS_PINTO_DRY_A914_Final.pdf
   

If you like French food, recommend trying cookbooks written by French chefs (ie chefs actually from France).

This is like the Bible of French cuisine and is translated in english:
https://www.amazon.com/Larousse-Gastronomique-Greatest-Encyclopedia-Completely/dp/0307464911

This book helped a friend of mine get into cooking for himself. Nothing overly complex, and its fun to read while cooking.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399164049/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A very sketchy source. After all, our chimp cousins eat meat as well, and we have incisors, so it's reasonable to assume our common ancestors did.

Pre agriculture humans were scavengers that ate anything they could find. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've read studies that show that learning how to cook meat was critical in our development, because it allowed us to digest energy faster, so our brains could grow larger and we spent less time foraging, and could develop communities.

Edit: One source for what I mean: http://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350932227&sr=1-1&keywords=catching+fire+richard+wrangham

I'm a fan of SkinnyTaste, but I generally have to quadruple or more her spices/salt. I make her IP Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Bowl recipe regularly.

I've also started dabbling in recipes from Two Sleevers (as in she and her husband both have had vertical sleeve gastrectomies). She's also the writer of Indian Instant Pot Cookbook, which is actually authorized by Instant Pot. I haven't gotten the book yet, but it's on the top of my wish list.

Here are a few things I've been making regularly in my Instant Pot:

• Hard-boiled eggs: Easy as pie, and they peel perfectly.
  
• Rice: Bar none, the absolute best rice I've ever made. https://thetakeout.com/recipe-how-to-make-rice-in-instant-pot-1831442802
  
• Thai sticky rice. While we're on the subject, it takes 20 minutes instead of two days of hassle. We eat this stuff with peanut sauce, curry, and mangoes with coconut sauce: https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-sticky-rice/
  
• Indian food - turns out home cooks have been making Indian food in a pressure cooker for decades. Butter chicken, Biryani, Chana dal, etc. Here's a good cookbook: https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot%C2%AE-Cookbook-Traditional/dp/1939754542
  
• Polenta - piece of cake: cooks in 16 minutes
  
• Chickpeas, beans, lentils - any dried bean. You're cutting a 3 hr process to 45 minutes; lentils take a few minutes

Thomas Keller's French Laundry it's quite a complex cookbook that would be perfect for someone studying culinary because it teaches you to look at food in a different way and is brings forth culinary creativity.

I make a vegetarian slow cooker chili (I'll update this comment with the recipe in a bit), but this cookbook is a godsend for veg-heads in college.

Have the book in my hands now, (the one suggested earlier)! It's called Peta's Vegan College Cookbook, conveniently broken down into sections. Haven't tried too many of the recipes but they're all very simple to make and there's room to tailor the recipes for your specific palette, switching out topics or seasonings here and there. Of course nuked spuds aren't as great ones slowly roasted but the recipes still seem nice. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850. Enjoy!

As far as food pairings look into a copy of the Flavor Bible. There’s also a similar book by them called What To Drink With What You Eat if you want to get into pairing basics as well.
As for plating, just look at nice cookbooks from restaurants and chefs, like The French Laundry,
Sean Brock,
Bluestem,
or basically any other example of food you want to produce. Follow the restaurants, go eat there if you can.

Also examine your platings from the perspective of the diner. Where is your eye drawn first? Is it the focal point or is your plating distracting from that?

Yes get a rice cooker! If you have a blender you can make smoothies with both fruit and vegetables (well, green, leafy ones at least). The other vegetables you could totally be able to put in the microwave, which you should have!

You can get your hands on a few cookbooks like PeTA's:

http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850

There are other college cookbooks that also come up on the search.

And here are some relatively easy recipes:

http://theveganstoner.blogspot.com/ (this is more for the munchies)

http://www.collegiatevegan.com/recipes

http://www.foodandloathing.com/2012/10/the-easiest-beginners-vegan-recipes.html

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianfamilies/qt/collegeveg.htm

http://theveganzombie.com/webisodes/

http://ohsheglows.com/categories/recipes-2/food-quick-n-easy/

Since you're broke here are some ideas on eating on the cheaper side of things:

http://plantbasedonabudget.com/

http://www.peta.org/living/food/making-transition-vegetarian/ideas-vegetarian-living/vegetarian-eating-budget/

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/6-tips-to-eat-vegan-on-a-budget.html

http://www.cok.net/blog/2013/08/eating-vegan-on-a-budget/

http://www.foodispower.org/eating-on-a-budget/

http://veganbodybuilding.com/?page=article_mindy_003

And don't forget proper nutrition:

http://veganhealth.org/

http://www.theveganrd.com/food-guide-for-vegans

http://www.vrg.org/

http://vegankit.com/eat

http://jacknorrisrd.com/

http://nutritionfacts.org/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Sometimes birthdays suck, but never on RAOA =)

Julia Child's cookbook! I've wanted it ever since the movie came out. I can't eat half of whats in it due to my diet, but it would be one hell of a read =) Plus I can cook for family members and special birthday people =)

My grandmother, my mom, and I all have used (various editions) of this one: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Book/dp/0470560770

It's pretty much every basic (and many not-so-basic) recipe you could possibly hope for.

Check out Brewing Classic Styles. It gives a pretty good run down of each recipe and whats going on in it.

• Start with the guy who wrote a book on techniques. Jacques Pépin.
  
• Expand into an American Master showcasing family americana style food but with high technique Thomas Keller Ad Hoc
  
• Check out the deep science behind food to understand why people do what they do Modernist Cusine at Home
  
• Or if you want someone to explore the science and break it down for you in Alton Brown
  
• Youtube. Check out Gordon Ramsay, American Test Kitchen, Heston blumenthal or Blumenthal again, Thomas Keller, Pepin Videos, There's so many food videos from chefs my reply would be huge if I linked it all

For some base recipes and staples, you can rent this from the library (if available): https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cheap-Robin-Robertson/dp/0470472243

It's pretty helpful.

Some cookbooks that I use or are on my wishlist:

• The Fat Duck
  
  
• The French Laundry
  
  
• Alinea
  
  
• Eleven Madison Park
  
  
• Quay: food inspired by nature
  
  
• Room for Dessert
  
  
• Murgaritz: A Natural Science of Cooking
  
  
• Saison
  
  
• Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen
  
  
• Le Cinq
  
  
• Coi: Stories and Recipes
  
  
• Massimo Bottura: Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
  
  
• Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste
  
  
• El Celler De Can Roca
  
  Great British Chefs also has some recipes from Michelin starred restaurants.

[this] (http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Comically-Recipes-Youll-Actually/dp/0399164049/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427427247&sr=1-1&keywords=cooking+comically) brilliant book. :D

I have been on my own for a while now and I still have no confidence to cook...it's kind of terrible...but I found this recently.

I occasionally make my own vegan substitutes and generally use recipes from vegweb.com that have good reviews.

Vegan on the Cheap is another good source for these things. It even tells you how much each recipe costs to make.

Lasagna was one of my first dishes, straight from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook a fine basic recipe book for a supermarket-driven kitchen. (I found the Lasagna recipe itself online here.)

It doesn't take much more work than pasta and sauce, nothing hard here, just some steps that take time. I've never had this turn out watery. It's a bit on the bland side as is, but that's easy enough to fix. (Hint: "italian seasonings" leaves a lot of room for expansion/experimentation.)

You're still misunderstanding evolution. Biologists don't consider animals in terms of "inferior" or "superior".

As for the laws of physics, organ systems require energy, and an organism has a total energy budget to run its systems based on the total energy it can consume. Brains are metabolically expensive, so evolving a large brain requires lots of energy. This energy cannot just come from eating more, however, because there is a practical threshold to how much energy an animal can actually extract from the environment: the more food an animal eats, the more energy it has to spend digesting that food; at a certain level it hits a plateau, and this plateau is below the level of energy it takes to run a human brain. Humans got around this by externalizing part of our digestive process, by cooking and processing food: instead of using our own energy to digest our food, we use external energy sources to digest part of it for us. This allowed us to reduce the energy budget of our digestive systems and divert that energy into running a brain larger than physically sustainable under natural conditions. Brain size in human ancestors was only moderately larger than chimpanzees before Homo erectus, but by the time controlled use of fire was habitual human brain size had doubled. Controlled use of fire is not an accepted or commonly reported bigfoot behaviour, and it is not consistent with them being so elusive since smoke would make them easier to find; without some mechanism to break this energy plateau it is not possible for bigfoots to feed an exceptionally expensive brain like humans have.

A seminal paper on the bioenergetics of brain evolution was Aiello and Wheeler's (1995)Expensive Tissue Hypothesis, which described the unique relationship between human brain and gut size, and Richard Wrangham has bud part of his career on the relationship between controlled use of fire and human brain evolution, including his 2010 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human

The citric acid trick was from a culinary enthusiast friend, Dave Solmonson, who co-wrote, 12 Bottle Bar. Unfortunately Lillet Blanc fall outside of his 12 bottle philosophy, so it's not in the book, but it was a good trick.

I recommend Peta's Vegan College Cookbook for recipes. I don't know if you mind the vegan diet, but it has about 300 recipes that can all be cooked in a microwave and are made with easy to obtain, cheap ingredients http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850

You can buy the Kindle version from Amazon for about $15. If you've got time to wait for a physical book to arrive, don't order this version: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Set/dp/0307593525/ref=la_B000AQ0XXS_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417219641&sr=1-1

because the book and the print are small and it is impossible to keep the book open.

I suggest this version:http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Anniversary/dp/0375413405/ref=la_B000AQ0XXS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417219641&sr=1-2

which is much larger and easier to read. In fact, the 'look inside this book' feature at Amazon lets you see most of the cassoulet recipe.
Just click 'look inside' then search for cassoulet.

I can recommend two cook books.

1. mastering the art of French cooking by Julia Childs
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Volume/dp/0394721780
   
   
2. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. A personal favorite.
   
   http://www.amazon.com/The-Smitten-Kitchen-Cookbook-Perelman/dp/030759565X
   
   

So, for the Indian recipes I got my recipes from Urvashi Pitre's Indian Instant Pot Cookbook. She does beef dishes too (I come from Kerala, we do eat beef, so it's often a rarity to find beef-specific Indian dishes in an Indian cookbook without people getting offended, which is why I like this one so much)

Otherwise, if there's a specific recipe I want to learn how to make with an instant pot, usually just googling "<Recipe/Dish name> Instant Pot" usually ends up giving me something workable, which I can tweak to my tastes.

I guess to some this and this might be embarassing. I personally just think they're awesome. :P

I purchased this book right after I first got married in 1999. I still use it. Often. This is a staple and I would recommend as a wedding gift for those out on their own for the first time. https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Simple-Recipes/dp/0471789186?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

I recommend this book

Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754542/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZaIYCbCBB8CRA

https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Gastronomy-Exploring-Traditions-Perspectives/dp/0231133138
This is a great book!

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cheap-Recipes-Simple-Strategies/dp/0470472243
best book i've found

My first thought was Jacques Pepin's [Techniques] (http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659) book. It's more than a recipe book - and I love his writing...

If you’re interested in Indian food and instant pot, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754542/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_wOQMDb08ETPNN

Tangentially related, but check out this cookbook and blog: Indian Instant Pot Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939754542/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_xFFLBbTAZQMMZ

The author has a food blog and does keto, and has a ton of hacks and suggestions for low-carb Indian cuisine!

When I get stuck in a rut, I usually check what's in season and then see if there's an interesting way to cook it. I still lean very heavily on Julia Child for recipe inspiration. I also hit the internet and search for 1-2 recipe ingredients and a cooking method.

The 12 Bottle Bar is a great read for someone putting together their own home bar.

I'd start by tweaking a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles or Clone Beers. Then read Designing Great Beers somewhere down the road.

http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Gastronomy-Exploring-Traditions-Perspectives/dp/0231133138/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335042671&sr=8-1

its an amazing book!

this is the current version of the one given to me as a new bride 18 yrs ago:

http://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Plaid/dp/0470560770
(make sure you get the spiral bound!)

all the basics, a few nice date-night special recipes, and very straightforward instructions. I don't refer to it much anymore, but I still use the pizza crust recipe!

Let's face it, there is no ramen "like a boss". Pick up Mastering the Art of French Cooking and/or The Joy of Cooking.

Leave the ramen for the peons.

I highly recommend this book. It is simplistic and explains it without assuming you already know certain things. I cook quite frequently and this is one of my go to books for recipes and techniques

have you read Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human?

I'm about halfway through right now. It's pretty interesting.

I (male college student here) recently got my own crock pot and posted a similar thread, which you can view here and I also got this amazing book for Christmas.

If you like Indian, her cookbook is totally worth the buy.

When I was a kid this was a staple in our home. While it may be quite simple and from the 70s-80s the sauces, techniques and basic recipes are a fantastic starting point.

You're very welcome!

Jacques Pepin has a whole series of videos on how to do various things. And he wrote a book a long, long time ago called Complete Techniques. It shows you how to do everything from de-bone a squab to make a rose out of a pat of butter. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Jacques-P%C3%A9pins-Complete-Techniques-P%C3%A9pin/dp/1579121659

/r/slowcooking?

here are some of the top voted recipes

Keep in mind that reddit works pretty much the same way as pinterest, and a poor recipe that either looks good in pictures or is presented well will receive more votes than a quality recipe with crappy pics and write up.

Or buy this book! Remember cookbooks?

Buy this book it has all the basics, including how to stock your kitchen, as well as teaching you how to cook, as opposed to just giving you recipes, which it also has a ton of.

And if you have prime, the kindle version of How to Cook Everything (Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition) is $3 right now

I have been using this book, my goal is to try brewing most of the styles once.

Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002C1AJX8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_p6KKAb52544YZ

If you are interested in this kind of thing, check out Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. It traces the evolution of gender roles, from early man until today. Very interesting stuff.

The Larousse Gastronmique is a whole lot of fun to poke through. Tons of information on ingredients, restaurants, and chefs, although it does sway heavily toward French cuisine. The newest edition is pretty expensive, but the Older editions can be had for not too much cash.

This one will get you pretty far

Check out Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and you'll find several uses for it, especially in cooking chicken.

Hill's book and Child's book are two of the most influential cookbooks on my approach.

If they have this book at the library, check it out and copy down some of the recipes. It's got a lot of really good advice in there, and if you are doing veggie burgers, there are plenty of recipes out there to make your own that are substantially cheaper than the frozen ones. Basically just black beans, bread crumbs, and spices, with a little hummus to get them to stick together.

There's actually a recipe for Sisko's jambalaya in the Star Trek Cookbook.

It's quite good.

> Isn't it strange that we are the ones who are lucky enough to be in the world of technology?

Technology is 2 million years old: https://www.amazon.com/Catching-Fire-Cooking-Made-Human/dp/0465020410/

Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques might be of interest to you.

I most certainly did!

Peta has a book called Vegan College Cookbook, all cheap and easy to make recipes. You can get it here http://www.amazon.com/PETAs-Vegan-College-Cookbook-Delicious/dp/1402218850

As a chef, The Flavor Bible is a great reference for and understanding flavor combinations as opposed to just following a recipe.

For technique, Jacques Pepin's Complete Technique is basically what I learned in culinary school with step by step pictures.

Specifically you should learn to make your own stock, the mother sauces, and break down (butcher) poultry, seafood, and meats.

The first thing I learned was knife skills: grab a bag of potatoes and carrots and learn how to make all the cuts. Use them later for stock or stew.

Because it's an entertaining video that came to the same conclusion as other well-respected food writers including J. Kenji López-Alt, Nathan Myhrvold, and Thomas Keller.

This cookbook exists. My wife gave it to me as a gift. It's nice, but I haven't yet been able to persuade her to actually make me any of the recipes yet. (What, do it myself? Nah...)

This blog also exists.

This is one of my favorites:

https://amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Vol/dp/0375413405/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1517955765&sr=8-2&keywords=julia+child+mastering+the+art+of+french+cooking

Also nice to have: Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book - the classic one with the plaid cover. It has so much of the basics it's invaluable. I use it all the time.