Reddit mentions of Good Eats: Volume 1, The Early Years

Rarely see them mentioned but the Alton Brown Good Eats cookbooks are more than just recipes from the show, they're packed with food history, trivia, culture, and science. And it keeps a lot of the humor and silly from the show. You feel like you can actually read it. I had only watched Good Eats occasionally but enjoyed the episodes I had seen, when my sister got me the first book for Christmas. Every recipe is recreated from the show, and he usually spends a paragraph on challenges they had with the episode or other background info, but it really just serves to have an underlying narrative. I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not seeing many episodes.

Edit: the only complaint I have is that the table of contents go by episode/recipe names, which are always puns or riffs on something, so I just use the appendix to find specific things.

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

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

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

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

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

If you like Alton Brown, try checking out his books.

I'm Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0 and I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking

They also recently released a comprehensive book companion to the Good Eats series which is very good. Here

I don't know about an e-book version, but yeah. There are three hardcovers, covering each episode of the show in chronological order.

Here's the first: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Eats-1-Early-Years/dp/1584797959/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480898360&sr=8-2&keywords=good+eats

They're pretty great, and they're certainly easier than trying to find and re-watch specific episodes. Also, I believe he's tweaked a few recipes where he felt he made a slight mistake on the show, so you're getting the most up-to-date version of his recipes that you won't find anywhere else. They're pretty darn great. Well worth the money.

Edit: He also released a book this year called Everday Cook. I haven't read it yet, but if I could only buy one it would probably be this one (and there's a kindle version):

https://www.amazon.com/Alton-Brown-EveryDayCook/dp/1101885718/ref=la_B001JRWOIO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480898478&sr=1-1

Speaking of which... http://www.amazon.com/Good-Eats-The-Early-Years/dp/1584797959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367745237&sr=8-1&keywords=good+eats+cookbook

Seriously? Fuck ramen.

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

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

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

My wife and I are cooking our way through the Good Eats cookbook by Alton Brown. I was surprise to not see this one posted. Everything is fantastic and I've learned so much.. we just started too!

[Alton Brown: The Early Years] (https://www.amazon.com/Good-Eats-1-Early-Years/dp/1584797959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485448303&sr=8-1&keywords=alton+brown+the+early+years)

Hi Alton, home I got this in early enough for you to see it. My wife and I got this wonderful book for our wedding and we were hooked. We've been watching Good Eats whenever we can and have really enjoyed discovering how to cook together. It's been fantastic for our relationship. I don't really have a question I just wanted to say thank you. I guess I'd ask what inspired you to do a TWO PART episode on water for Good eats? I loved it, but it was a risk on your part to devote two episodes of a cooking show to not cooking anything!

Fuck Magazines!

and acquire another promotion

Someone already suggested The Food Lab cookbook so I'll throw another one in the ring; Good Eats: The Early Years.

I've learned a lot through this book.

I also second The Joy of Cooking, and would like to add the following to your list:

• Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
  
  
• Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food
  
  
• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Everyday and The River Cottage Meat Book
  
• Any of Alton Brown's books, some examples here and here
  

The first thing that came to mind was the Good Eats series.

There

are

three

books in the series, and if you haven't seen the TV show, it definitely appeals to the cook, the scientist, and the nerd.

Good for you!

A few cook books I would recommend are compendium types. They are not good for keto, but they have recipes for everything, so if you don't have experience, you can find lots of possibilities.

The Joy of Cooking

How to Cook Everything

The Good Eats Compendiums 1, 2, & 3.

And we use Cooks Illustrated magazine more than anything.