/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>12503752
>but I want to change that so I can make myself and my friends good meals on the fly with whatever ingredients are available
Unfortunately that literally only comes with experience my man. You need to have a robust understanding of how to cook what's on hand in a decent timeframe that all comes together about simultaneously ideally, and that isn't something simply skim read and reproduced

Start with something basic but useful like making a batch of fried eggs every day, and go from there. Start watching Good Eats since Alton Brown is a saint of cooking. You don't even need to recreate every episodes recipes, just steal basic cooking concepts and try to understand why he does what at each stage of cooking. Don't fall for any stupid cookware memes either and drop $100+ on a chef's knife you have no idea how to use, or copper pans you have no idea why they're as special as they're supposed to be

>>12503752
>How do you git gud at _______________
you practice you scrambled egg brain

>>12503752
>chilli covered chicken

>>12503793
Thanks for the advice anon.

Does anyone know some place to watch or download good eats? I'm not a yank so don't have your Netflix titles and I can't seem to find anything but a handful of episodes on dailymotion

>>12503752
you know you can take some classes where they'll teach you basics and show several great recipes.
but if you don't want to do that, it's going to be through experience. you'll look up a recipe you want to do, buy the ingredients and try to create the dish. there are tons of cooking channels on youtube. just take some time to browse and im sure you'll find plenty.
as bill burr said, you have to cook with the mindset that you'll fuck it up. you won't always nail it, but it's part of the learning process.

>>12503752
>I want to change that so I can make myself and my friends good meals on the fly with whatever ingredients are available not having to follow a set of instructions from a cookbook with ingredients I may not have.

That's a very promising spirit!

>>12503793
is right. Experimentation is key. Never get stuck on anything and keep trying new stuff. Take note when someone else cooked and you enjoyed it. If you can afford it, try to eat at restaurants every now and then to experience diverse ways of considering ingredients.
And be intransigent with judging yourself, but enjoy eating your stuff. If you don't, nobody else will.

>>12503752
Practise my man. Cook food. Learn a lot of recipes. Try to replicate good restaurant food you had. Reading books is good as well. Not just the commercial shit tho, read the things used to teach pros. Experiment with each ingredient. Remember to put some effort into plating. Plating is like making a bouquet, use contrasting colors, decorations, asymmetry, odd numbers. Take photos of what you make and do it better every time.

>>12503752
Throw butter and wine on shit, you'll look like a pro.

>>12504218
I don't want to work at anything I just want to acquire talent because I exist.

>>12503752
cook a lot, start from basic stuff like omelette and prepare it over and over until it comes out good, do that with a handful of basic things, find new recipes and cook them, read about the very basics of cooking physics and chemistry (heat transfer, proteins coagulating, Maillard reaction, what not to do with a non-stick pan, why not to heat vegetable oil to 300°C, skim through The Professional Chef (I'm told you can find used old editions for pennies, I found a pdf online)
you may also check some cooking videos, I learned a couple useful things from a yt video series of a cook in a chink restaurant with a go pro strapped on his head for example, stuff like that is easy to watch and doesn't take much time

>>12503752
As long as you're not making desserts or using dough you have quite a lot room to experiment even without recipes, it's pretty hard to fuck up to the point of making disgusting stuff if you follow the cooking to avoid burning shit and only add strong ingredients bit by bit (read as: don't dump in a tablespoon of salt or a glass of vinegar).
And always look up oven temps/modes.

>>12503752
Start with relatively simple, tasty things like soups and stews and experiment with the ingredients/spices. Copy online recipes at first and then slowly adjust them to your tastes over time. Also, learn how to do basic stuff like cook proper eggs if you haven't already.

>>12503752
You'll be surprised how easy it is (desserts and baking excluded). There are only a few techniques that are used the world over: braising, stewing, sauteeing, pan frying, deep frying, roasting, and grilling. Choose a dish from those categories you like from your native culture and find recipes that seem legit and try them. If they were good, then you can move on to other cultures using the same technique or even another dish in your country. If they were bad try another recipe. Soon you'll know a recipe is legit and you'll be able to estimate measurements and add your own twist. It's fun, remember you're growing every tjme you fuck up.