/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.9084683]

How do you teach yourself new recipes, /ck/? I do just about everything through trial and error, sometimes it works, sometimes it's inedible. A lot of the time it's when I haven't gone shopping in a while and I just throw together whatever's in the fridge and hope for the best. But, I'm tired of half-assed food and want to teach myself to cook real meals. I am shit tier with everything but a grill.

[Anonymous No.9084696]

>>9084683
I try and learn as much about the dish as possible. Best-case scenario that's watching videos of an expert cook prepare the dish, like from a cooking program or perhaps people's travel videos on youtube. *Expert* is key. I don't want videos of some college kid. I want to see professional chefs do it, or restaurant/street stall owners who have been making that same dish for decades. If videos aren't available I consult a cookbook. As in a literal, physical, book.

Why a book and not internet? The internet is full of BS recipes because there's no barrier to entry. Any self-professed cook can slap together some recipe and it will soon get copied all over the place. OTOH, a cookbook requires a lot of money to print. Nobody is going to come up with that kind of cash without double-checking everything so it's a nice filter against shit recipes.

Another way to protect yourself against shitty recipes is to pay careful attention to the ingredients they call for. Do you want to learn how to make an Indian or Asian dish? A good recipe should ask for spices you've probably never heard of. If all the ingredients are dumbed down to normal supermarket stuff then that's a great sign that the recipe is shit.

The more experience you have the better you can just "wing it". But if you're a noob that's a bad idea.

[Anonymous No.9084702]

Little by little, I built up my skills, and I was once a bad cook myself. I started with salads, to omlettes and simple baked goods, to quiches, to fancy-looking cakes and pour-over coffees.

The internet is useful for finding simple recipes, and, remember, practice makes perfect!

[Anonymous No.9084718]

>>9084683

Oven-baked tendies are delicious and easy.

There are several recipes online, but it is just a matter of putting marinade and breadcrumbs on a slice of chicken. Then you put them in the oven for 15 minutes or until not raw and serve with mustard.

[Anonymous No.9084727]

>>9084718
>>not frying your tendies

It's like you hate flavor and texture and enjoy wasting your time.

Why would you fuck around with the oven for making tendies? It takes longer and produces an inferior finished product.

This is the exact shit that >>9084696 described about the internet being full of shitty recipes.

[Anonymous No.9084760]

>>9084696
>If all the ingredients are dumbed down to normal supermarket stuff then that's a great sign that the recipe is shit.

Everybody should try my authentic lasagna recipe:

>1 pkg. Barilla lasagna noodles
>16 oz. Kraft mozzarella cheese
>half a cup of Kraft grated parmesan cheese
>1 jar Newman's Own marinara sauce
>15 oz. Sorrento ricotta cheese
>McCormick parsley flakes
>1 egg
>1 pkg. Johnsonville Italian sausage

My Italian mother-in-law with dementia tried it and said it reminded her of the abusive home she grew up in (which basically makes me an honorary Italian)!

[Anonymous No.9085867]

>>9084683
Not by coming to 4chan.

[Anonymous No.9085892]

Keep things simple, instead of trying to combine a little bit of everything you have. That goes particularly when it comes to spices; start off with basic salt and pepper and maybe one or two other things. You're also probably not adding enough spice. Season a little as you cook, continually taste your food, and add more of what you think you need at the end. You can always add more, but you can't usually take away if you overseason. Still, most beginner cooks underestimate how much seasoning their food needs.

If you're throwing together a bunch of shit in a pan and it's just turning into slop, try reheating things separately. Nobody likes slop, aside from self-hating sceak-tier fags.