Cooking Thread~ Recipes & Things

[Ilikebob]

The instruction made it seems like it came straight from a Cooking Mama game.

 

[Biigoh]

 

[Biigoh]

 

[Biigoh]

This recipe is... simple.
Ingredient : Onion
Cooking : Roast
Serve : Salt and Butter, maybe some pepper for fancy.

XD

 

[Daonexus]

Does anyone know a good vanilla microwave sponge cake recipes?

 

[MizMahem]

Mexican Risotto
Risotto is one of my favorite dishes, and once you get used to it, is fairly easy to make. The only secrets are A. Use the right kind of rice. and B. Keep stirring. This version I pretty much invented/adapted myself and is a more 'Mexican' take on Risotto. Unfortunately, you don't get as precise measurements then, but you should still be able to follow along. This amount serves two.

Ingredients All measurements in US.
Not that many different ingredients in this one.

Ingredient	Amount	Notes
Poblano Peppers	2	The most important ingredient! We will roast these. There are several ways to do this, but we will cover it in the oven.
Cherry Tomatoes	1/2 cup	This is about 8-10 cherry tomatoes. You can use more.
Shallot	1	Peel and Coarsely Chop You can also use like half a regular (yellow) onion. You can omit it if you don't like onion.
Arborio Rice	1 Cup	Using Arborio Rice really will work best here. But you could maybe substitute some other kind of short-grained rice.
Vegetable Broth	3 Cups	So you have several options here. They sell this just in like a box/can. You could also use like a chicken/beef broth or a vegetable soup or even just water.
Mexican Seasoning	enough	I primarily used Cayenne Pepper here as well as some garlic powder, and pepper. Onion powder would be okay. You could also use some cumin, coriander, and cilantro.
Lemon	1/2	You can also use just like lemon juice.
Shrimp	1/2 lb	You can obviously use more if you want, but this was just about the perfect amount for two portions. Size doesn't really matter if you go by weight.

Spoiler: The Ingredients

Non-shrimp things. You may notice there is only one poblano here. Use two. The shallot is already peeled.

Shrimp.

These were some Argentine shrimp or something which were very tasty.

You will also need:

• An oven
• A sheet that can go in that oven, and maybe some aluminum foil to line it with
• A plastic bag (yes really!) Or some plastic wrap or something to seal a bowl with.
• A stove.
• A pot that can go on that stove. The bigger the better.
• A frying pan of some sort.
• Stirring utensils.
• A knife and something to cut on.
• Measuring utensils.
• Olive Oil - Fancy Olive oil is not necessary for this recipe.
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions
So not a lot of prep work in this recipe. Basically, you will cook the three sets of ingredients, the rice and onions, the shrimp, and the peppers/tomatoes, and then you will combine them. Luckily cooking all these takes about the same amount of time so this whole recipe can be made in about half an hour or so if you manage it right.

1. Roast the Peppers and Tomatoes.
   1. Spoiler: Roasting the Peppers

      The seasoned pepper and tomatoes going into the oven. Again, use two peppers, not one. If you want to use more tomatoes, that is fine too.

      

      

      The Peppers when they come out of the oven. Put 'em in a bag.

      
   2. So to roast the peppers there are several techniques you can use. You can put them directly on the flames of a grill/burner, broil them, or roast them in the oven. Basically what we are doing here is roasting them and then removing the skin of the peppers. Since I only have a gas grill outside and because I am doing tomatoes as well, we will use the oven. You can google the other techniques if you want though.
   3. Line a pan with some aluminum foil, this makes it way quicker to clean up, and heat your oven to 400°F.
   4. Coat the tomatoes and peppers liberally with some olive oil and spray the pan with some cooking spray. Season the tomatoes liberally with some salt and pepper and maybe some other more savory-ish seasonings. Not cayenne pepper, as these will be sweet, but maybe garlic or cumin or something. I wouldn't bother adding extra seasonings to the poblanos as we will remove the skin and most of the seasoning with it.
   5. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes.
   6. When they come out, put the poblano peppers in a plastic bag or a bowl or something that you can seal with plastic wrap. The peppers will steam and we will remove the skin later. The tomatoes you can just set aside for now.
2. Marinate the Shrimp.
   1. Spoiler: Peeled and seasoned shrimp marinating

      
   2. So when we made this dish the primary source of seasonings was in this shrimp, which worked out well for us. One of the fun things about Risotto is how it can be a fun way to meld different flavors together, but you could make do it other ways.
   3. If you need to defrost the shrimp, it really is best to just let them soak in some water for twenty minutes or so. If you microwave them or something to make it go faster, you can damage and cook the shrimp a bit, so avoid doing this. You'll have time. While letting them marinate is best, so long as they get a couple of minutes in the mixture, it should work fine.
   4. Peel the shrimp and season them liberally with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and possibly other seasonings (I hit them with my ever favorite season, Greek Seasoning). I don't really have measurements here, but as this is the primary way we are introducing seasoning, don't be shy. At least a half teaspoon each I would say, but you could do more. The only seasoning to be cautious of is the cayenne. You definitely want some, but don't make it more spicey than you can eat.
   5. Juice like half a lemon, and leave the shrimp to soak in the juice.
3. Make the Risotto.
   1. So to start we are going to cook up some onions in like the biggest pot you have. This is not because risotto will take up a lot of space in the pot, it won't. But because the bigger the pot, the faster the risotto will cook. However, you can totally do this with a more medium-sized pan, just be sure to keep stirring it. I used a medium-sized pot this time. It's kind of a tradeoff between how long it takes and how much you have to monitor it. A big pot will require a lot of monitoring but will cook faster. A medium pot requires less, but still a lot of monitoring.
   2. Anyways, yeah, dice up your shallot/onion into small pieces and dump it into the pot with a good amount of olive oil. A couple of tablespoons at least. You could add some garlic powder I guess if you want, but I wouldn't. For a more Mexican flavor you don't want the garlic to be overpowering.
      Spoiler: Diced Onions

      
   3. Cook the onions over medium heat until they are nice and golden. This will take 5 minutes or so. Cooking the onions (they are well done here).
   4. Dump in the rice and stir it around. We want to do two things here. #1. Toast it up a bit. #2. Get it nicely coated in the oil. This one is hard to tell when it is done, but the rice should get a deeper white color I guess. Shouldn't take long, only a couple of minutes. Roasting the Rice. Here is it when it is done.
   5. You can add some seasoning at this point, though as I said most of the seasoning in this dish comes from the shrimp. So I only added a little pepper. A small amount of savoring seasonings, garlic, et al wouldn't be bad, but is unnecessary. You shouldn't need to add any salt as the vegetable broth you are adding should have plenty. If you aren't using a vegetable broth or a smaller amount of it, then maybe season it more heavily. If not using vegetable stock, some sort of bullion or flavor concentrate would be great here, mirepoix or something like that idealy, but whatever.
   6. Traditionally at this point in a risotto, you would add some like white wine here and boil that off. We won't be doing that, but you still could do it. Hell you could use tequila if you wanted!
   7. Okay finally add like 1 cup of the vegetable stock. This is where the 'art' of making risotto comes in. It really isn't that complicated. For this first portion, you want to add enough to completely cover the rice. I find 1 cup to be about perfect for me. Then stir it around until it is all either boiled or absorbed. Keep stirring it, not like vigorously, but constantly. Adding the broth!
   8. When all the stock is boiled away or absorbed, add some more, only like 1/2 cup this time. Keep adding and stirring.
   9. Rinse and repeat. (don't actually rinse, just do the previous step again). This will take a while, like twenty to twenty-five minutes, depending on how you manage your heat and your pot. Idealy you want your pot hot enough that the stock starts to boil away very soon after adding but no hotter. If you are using water, what I would do is set another pot to boil to scoop water out of. But since stock isn't cheap as water, I don't want to waste it so I don't do it with that. Keep going.
   10. The risotto is done when it no longer really absorbers any stock and is nice and creamy to taste. It shouldn't really have any bite to it at all. When I did this it used spot on three cups of stock. If you aren't sure if it is done, taste it. If it looks done but still has a bit of bite to the taste, go ahead and add some more stock. The last half-cup can be a bit deceptive. The finished Risotto.
   11. You may be tempted to just ignore these instructions and just dump all the stock in at once. Don't do that.
   12. When done, set it aside. The timing is a bit tricky here, you don't want this to wait forever, so if you can start on some other steps in the meantime. This works better if you have an assistant to help you. If you don't, do the risotto last. If it waits a little while (5-10 minutes or so) it's fine though.
4. Finish the other ingredients.
   1. Remove your peppers from the bag, and peel off the skins. This is a little tricky, but not too bad. For the most part, you should be peeling off like a semi-clear outer skin, which is pretty thin. You don't want to be getting too much of the fleshy 'skin.' If you get a little it is okay though. We are going to dice these anyways.
      Spoiler: The Cooked and Peeled Poblanos

      
   2. Dice and seed the peppers. Sadly this is a bit of a pain to do with the roasted peppers, but you can still manage. If you don't get all the seeds it is okay, just get most of them. Dice them into small-ish chunks, and dump in with the risotto. Go ahead and drain any pepper juices from your board down on them too.
   3. Remove your shrimp from the marinade and pat them dry.
   4. Prep a skillet with a good amount of olive oil, a couple of tablespoons at least. Get it nice and hot.
   5. Throw the shrimp in and cook them. Shouldn't take long, although the exact time is going to depend on what kind of shrimp you got. 1-2 minutes per side though probably. If you want to throw some more seasoning on them here, maybe some pepper flakes or something, you can, but if you did a good marinade it isn't necessary.
   6. Now, when we did this my assistant made the mistake of pouring in the marinade with the shrimp when we cooked it. This also turned out good, though the shrimp were a bit more poached then grilled, and it took a little longer. But it was still fine. Frying/Poaching the shrimp.
      Spoiler: Almost Finished Shrimp

      
5. Mix it all together!
   1. Throw in the shrimp, the peppers, and the tomatoes in with the risotto and give it a good mix so that it is all mixed up. If you poached-grilled the shrimp like we did, go ahead and pour in the marinade too, why not!
      Spoiler: The risotto minus the tomatoes, we used those as a garnish

      
   2. Traditionally in a risotto, we would add some butter or some cheese here to mix in, or maybe some oil. I didn't find it was necessary for this dish.
   3. Top with some cilantro if you like I guess, and serve! Enjoy!

The finished result!

 

[MizMahem]

Pineapple Lime Teriyaki Tofu Poke Bowl
It isn't all Mexican/Italian/French fusion stuff over here, this time let's head west for some Hawaiian/Asain action! This dish packs a nice combination of different flavors, sharp citrus from the lime, sweetness from the pineapple and teriyaki, and some spicy punch from red pepper flakes. And while traditionally poke is made with some sort of seafood, in this dish we will be using fried tofu instead-

"But Miz!" I already hear you cry, "I am a meat-atarian, who eats meat with meat on meat with meat! TOFU BAD. GRR. ARRGH! More angry words at vegetarianism! GIVE ME MY MEATS."

Chill. I'm not here to take your meats away from you. Tofu isn't in this dish because you should or shouldn't eat meat. Tofu is in this dish because it makes a good combination with these other ingredients. Yes, it does not have a strong flavor, but so do many things. I don't hear many people complaining about how they don't eat other mild-flavored foods like rice or bread because of their lack of 'taste.' Sometimes a lack of strong flavor is what you want in an ingredient because it can then soak up the flavors from other ingredients. Like bread or rice, tofu is good at this, while bringing a different flavor and some protein richness to the dish, making it perfect for this occasion.

Anyways, on with the dish. This one is pretty simple to make and doesn't take many ingredients. This time I'll include a rough price of what I paid when shopping for it.

Ingredients! Measures are in US. Serves 4.

Spoiler: The Ingredients!

Ingredient	Amount	Notes	Price
Long Grained Rice	1 1/2 cup	We used Jasmine rice, which is supposed to have a more fragrant taste.	~$1.00
Tofu - Extra Firm	Two Packages ~14oz	The packages we got were 14oz. You could use slightly more or less. Dice into 1" cubes.	~$5.00
Green Onions	~4	Slice thinly. Separate white parts from green. We are eating these raw this time, so substituting them is not a great idea. You can omit if you don't like onions though.	~$0.50
Limes	1 or 2	I used the second lime as a garnish, you can omit.	~$0.50
Pineapple Slices	1 Can	You need 2 or so slices per serving. So 8 total. Can use more or less.	~$1.50
Coleslaw	1/2 bag 7-8 oz		~$1.00
Cornstarch	~1/4 cup	Enough to coat the tofu.	>$0.10
Mayo	~1/4 cup		~$0.20
Teriyaki Sauce	~1/2 cup	Use a flavor you like, a nice thick one works best	~$0.50
Red Pepper Flakes	~1/2 tsp	You can use more! But don't make it hotter than you can eat.	>$0.10
Olive Oil	~5 tbsp	just included this here for the price, since you use a fair amount you could use a cheaper oil for the frying	~$0.50

All told this runs about ~$2.60 a serving making this a pretty cheap dish.

In addition, you also need:

• Salt and Pepper
• A stove to cook things on.
• A frying pan of some sort
• A pot to cook rice in
• mixing bowls
• cutting tool and thing to cut on
• Measuring utensils.

Instructions!
This dish is pretty simple. We will basically be making the four different components (rice, coleslaw, pineapple, and tofu) separately, then combining them together. So these steps could be done in any order and split between different people (many hands make light work!). I'll list them in what seems the most logical order to me.

1. Cook the Rice
   1. Pretty standard. 1-1/2 cups rice + 3 cups water, and a healthy pinch of salt. (Twice the dry volume of rice in water is the general way to cook rice). Bring it to boil in a pot on high heat. Don't stir it, let it sit. Once it boils reduce to a simmer until all the water is gone then remove from the heat. Takes about 20 minutes.
   2. If you have a different way you like to cook it, in the microwave or a rice cooker or whatever, that is fine.
   3. You could use chicken or vegetable stock instead of the water for a richer taste, though if you are using jasmine rice it has a nice flavor all its own.
   4. Once done, give it a good fluff with a fork.
2. Make the Coleslaw
   1. Thinly slice the green onions. Keep all of the "white parts" aside. For me, this is basically all the way up until the onion turns 'hollow' inside. We will use the green parts for a garnish.
      Spoiler: Like so

      
   2. Juice one whole lime.
      Spoiler: 1/2 lime juiced

      
   3. Combine the coleslaw (half a package), with the mayonnaise (I go light on this, I don't care for mayo), lime juice, and green onions.
   4. Add a splash or two of olive oil. A couple of tsp. If you want to use a fancy oil with this dish, this is the place to use it. None of the fancy flavors I had would have gone well so I just used the regular stuff. You might even try sesame oil instead if you were feeling adventurous.
   5. Season with salt and pepper to taste, usually a pinch or so of each.
      Spoiler: Slaw stuff together

      
   6. Mix well and set aside.
      Spoiler: Slaw Mixed

      
3. Sear the Pineapple
   1. This part is so easy but looks so fancy it is almost cheating.
   2. Pat dry the pineapple rings well with a paper towel. You could season them now with some salt/pepper maybe, or even the red pepper, but I didn't. Part of the fun of this dish is the distinct flavors of the different ingredients.
   3. Just drop the pineapple rings in a hot pan with a splash (~1tsp) of olive oil, and just let them sit for ~3 minutes per side. The sugar with caramelize and you'll get a nice char and an even sweeter flavor plus a little smoke.
      Spoiler: Cooking the Pineapple Rings

      Video at the Start

      

      Video at the End
   4. Decide how you want to serve the pineapple. I recommend leaving one ring as a pretty garnish and dicing up the other ring. If you are really fancy you can even leave both rings as is and score them so they can come apart easy at the table. I'm not this talent though.
   5. Set aside. If you haven't cooked to tofu yet, you can use the same pan without cleaning.
      Spoiler: Seared Rings

      
4. Cook the tofu.
   1. Open the tofu package and drain out all the water. Then pat it down again with a paper towel and give it a good firm press to get more water out.
   2. Give it a few minutes to drain. Getting it super dry isn't essential, but will make frying it easier and gives it a firmer texture.
   3. Dice the tofu into 1" cubes. Try to keep them as evenly sized as possible, it will make frying easier.
      Spoiler: Dicing the tofu

      
   4. In a mixing bowl combine the tofu with the cornstarch and mix them together so that the tofu is well coated. Season well with salt and pepper, another pinch each.
      Spoiler: Coated Tofu

      
   5. Fry the tofu in a generous quantity of olive oil (or another oil I suppose) in your frying pan. About 5 tbsp or more. We aren't exactly deep frying the tofu, but we are frying it in the oil, so you need quite a lot.
      Spoiler: Frying the Tofu

      Video

      
   6. Periodically flip and stir the tofu with a spatula or something so you get it cooked well on all sides. Tricky to do, I know! Idealy you want to get it to a nice golden brown. But you can go less long if you don't like the coating so crisp. Takes about 8 minutes.
      Spoiler: Finished Tofu

      
5. Combine the Dish!
   1. The fun part. Divide the rice into four portions then top with the coleslaw, red-pepper flakes, teriyaki sauce, tofu, and pineapple in that order, and serve! Don't forget the red-pepper flakes, they are an important part. In fact, you may want to serve with the red-pepper flakes, teriyaki sauce, and limes at the table in case people want more.
   2. Alternatively, you could mix some or all of these ingredients before serving I suppose. The above is just the traditional way of serving it, and looks nice. But it's going to be a tasty dish no matter how you serve it.
   3. Enjoy!

If you have any leftover pineapple you can throw it in some tea for a nice drink or make a nice rum cocktail or even both like we did!

Spoiler: Pineapple Rum Tea Cocktail

The finished result!

 

[Snake/Eater]

I am starting to save up to build a collection of cookbooks.

does anyone have a favorite recommendation for me to check out?

 

[Raven1138]

I am starting to save up to build a collection of cookbooks.

does anyone have a favorite recommendation for me to check out?

Click to shrink...

If you like gaming and cooking, Victoria Rosenthall's series of official cookbooks for Fallout, Destiny, Street Fighter and the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV cookbooks are pretty good. They are a wide variety of recipes from staples to electic fair (like Bhan'mi burgers and duck poutine from the Destiny Cookbook to a fusion take on carbonara in the Street Fighter cookbook) and the first chapter explains some of the more unfamiliar ingredients and where to find them. Several of those recipes like the Braised Deathclaw (pork belly) and a Festival of the Lost themed Chilies en Nogalas have become personal favorites of mine.

 

[ExquisiteTopHat]

I am starting to save up to build a collection of cookbooks.

does anyone have a favorite recommendation for me to check out?

Click to shrink...

"The Flavor Bible" by Karen Page and Andrew Dorenburg is an absolute necessity, as is "The Food Lab" by J. Kenji Lopez Alt. As far as cookbooks themselves... John Besh's "My New Orleans Cookbook", "The Fanny Farmer Cookbook", and Michel Roux's book on sauces, titled "Sauces". If you want a bit of history with your food, good things to eat as suggested by rufus is incredible, though you have to pick through it for stuff more suited to the modern palate. That one's free on project gutenberg. Lemme toss you a link. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18435/18435-h/18435-h.htm

 

[Stephen the barbarian]

I am starting to save up to build a collection of cookbooks.

does anyone have a favorite recommendation for me to check out?

Click to shrink...

i'd start with something like the betty crocker, better homes and gardens, or America's test kitchen cook books.
they're big, with plenty of easy recipes and how to guides, but not very adventurous.
it's good way to cover your bases, and then you can branch out into more exotic/advanced cook books.

 

[MizMahem]

I am starting to save up to build a collection of cookbooks.

does anyone have a favorite recommendation for me to check out?

Click to shrink...

My two recommendations for getting started would be The Joy of Cooking and the Betty Crocker Cookbook. The former is pretty comprehensive of most things you could want to cook in most "American" cuisine. The latter is also a good sample, probably more contemporary, and is more beginner-friendly. Those two remain my "go-to" for general cooking today.

Beyond that, well there is a wide world of foods, so it more depends on what exactly you are looking at cooking.

 

[Aleh]

I am starting to save up to build a collection of cookbooks.

does anyone have a favorite recommendation for me to check out?

Click to shrink...

I don't know all of the books on ExquisiteTopHat's list, but I have a personal trinity of books that I think cover almost all the bases. One of them's even a very strong recommendation overlap.

Please note that these three will teach you damn near everything you need to know... although there are also things like the basics of food safety or how to properly operate a stove, so maybe not quite so much.

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is a classic, a practical (and literal in many cooking schools) textbook on damn near every cooking technique and practice there is. It covers not only what to do, but the "hows" and "whys" of each technique as applied to, again, damn near everything. It even includes sections on various ingredients, how to pick them out, what to do with them, etc. It is, however, dense as ever-loving fuck, as you might expect out of an 883-page textbook that covers, or attempts to cover, everything. It contains few illustrations, and the text is pretty small.

It's an amazing reference, though.

The second book I'll rec is Wiley Publishing, Inc's The Visual Food Encyclopedia. This is, simply put, an ingredient book -- and a very good one at that. The organization is a bit iffy, more optimized for browsing than for looking things up, meaning that I usually need the index to help me find things, but the entries provide extensive information on what to do with various ingredients -- how to pick good ones at the market, a few suggestions on how to use them in cooking, how to properly store things, basic nutrition information -- along with illustrations that really can help with questions like, "When is this ripe?"

(Although, unfortunately, not all of the illustrations are perfect that way.)

Obviously it's not comprehensive -- it's only 685 pages and mostly covers ingredients that are commonly used in at least one major national cuisine somewhere in the world -- but it's still a very, very useful reference for those times when you're working with an ingredient that you don't normally use much. It's also good for ideas and for showing people who don't know what you used in that recipe just what you did.

The third book I'll mention is Page and Dorneburg's The Flavor Bible. ExquisiteTopHat mentioned that, and I'll strongly second the recommendation. On Food and Cooking is about techniques, The Visual Food Encyclopedia is about ingredients... The Flavor Bible is about ingredient combinations. Sure, the first 36 pages of the book (which is 380 pages long) are about what goes into the experience of a dish and the things you should take into account when developing a new recipe. Almost all of the rest -- 338 pages of the book -- is dedicated to a lengthy listing of ingredients, quick tips regarding them, techniques to use with them (for instance, tomatoes: Bake, broil, confit, fry, grill, raw, roast, saute, stew), chef's commentaries on using them, and -- for most of the volume -- the other flavors and ingredients that combine well with them.

There's an incredible amount of information packed into each entry. The ingredients most commonly used with whatever you're looking up -- as determined by a survey of restaurants and their recipes -- are bolded. There's even a "flavor affinities" section for common three-or-more ingredient combinations.

When I want to come up with a new recipe, The Flavor Bible is often the first thing I consult. When I want to figure out what to do with some item, it's usually The Visual Food Encyclopedia. When I want to know how to do something, or to understand some recipe, it's On Food and Cooking.

Basically? They're all very strong recs, regardless of what sort of cooking library you're putting together.

 

[Aleh]

So, since I already started on some of the books in my collection, I figured I might as well do a few more.

First: Cook's Illustrated's The Science of Good Cooking, subtitled "Master 50 simple concepts to enjoy a lifetime of success in the kitchen."

The title is accurate. This is a much-expanded take on material that often gets a sentence or two in On Food and Cooking. It's written to a much lower level, with many clearer explanations. It's also far less exhaustive, basically teaching a mere 50 tricks/concepts/techniques... but they were selected to be useful ones.

And yeah, those slashes were necessary. There's not much pragmatic coherence in what counts as a "concept" in that list -- they're generally simple sentences, with detailed explanations which can range from tricks (e.g. #20, "Starch keeps eggs from curdling" in dishes like quiches, soups, and pastry creams) to widely ranging sets of techniques (e.g. #26, "Potato starches can be controlled," which details a number of techniques for getting potatoes to do what you want).

What the book does do, though, is show you a lot of simple things to keep in mind when cooking... and does so in a reasonably instructional manner. On Food and Cooking is a textbook and reference, best used either as something to consult or in conjunction with actual instruction. The Science of Good Cooking is the sort of book you can teach yourself with.

It also includes a number of recipes -- 400, according to the cover -- to illustrate the concepts and show how they play out.

Another book I could mention is Jeff Potter's Cooking for Geeks. The book's highly instructional, but kinda all over the place. Sometimes it reads like a science text, sometimes it reads like a cooking instructional, and sometimes it reads like somebody invited Bill Nye, in his full TV persona, into a kitchen. And while it's not disorganized, its organization is very idiosyncratic and has little to do with anything you'd find elsewhere.

This isn't a bad thing, per se. If you're the sort of person who likes to watch Mythbusters for fun, or if you're working with a kid who enjoys science class, it's a fun way to teach or learn a lot of good material. It also covers a lot of basics that most books won't bother with (e.g. it has a page on knife maintenance and sharpening, and another on the various types of pots and pans). Some people I know swear by the book. I... think it's more a book for beginners (or geeks) to learn from and develop skills with than anything I can use personally.

Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat can fill a similar role, full more of storytelling and practical advice than the science and experimentation than Potter's work. It attempts to reduce the "essence" of cooking to the mastery of four elements (the title tells you what they are), but more as a mnemonic than as a form of reductionism. Its real value is in its attempt to capture -- and teach -- the feel of cooking, and the intuitive understanding and control that real cooks develop over time.

Does it manage to? Dunno. I had that long before I ever touched the thing. It's a good pragmatic book, though, especially for beginners, and it covers a lot of techniques in detail while remaining relatively easy-to-understand and not becoming at all dry.

Then there's Dorenburg and Page's other well-known book on cooking. Unlike the others in the list, Becoming a Chef (I have the Revised Edition, copyright 2003) isn't really about how to work a kitchen (although it does have recipes). Instead, it's about the experience of... well, becoming a professional chef. It's about the paths people take to get there, reflections on the challenges they face (in and out of the kitchen), how they learn the craft, how they think about their customers... and even has an insert on how they deal with cranky asshole customers.

There is a lot of history in that book. Pages 24-27 feature a timeline of various ethnic cuisines... oh, Hell. I'll just quote the introduction:

The following list indicates the decade each type of cuisine first received its own heading in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, along with characteristic (not comprehensive!) ingredients and/or flavor combinations represented in the recipes included. All names of the types of cuisine are indicated as originally published, however politically incorrect or inaccurate they may be now--further underscoring the fact that times change!

Click to shrink...

There's similar discussion of the development of cooking schools as institutions... etc., etc.

I still think it's an awesome book on cooking. It's just... umm... probably not what you're looking for if you want a home cooking library.

I have more books, of course... but there's only one other one I considered putting here, and Cooking Basics for Dummies is... kinda basic. Not a bad introductory book, though... and I think I'm done typing for now. Hopefully this helps, Snake/Eater... or anyone else who's interested in learning?

 

[Rakdos92]

As an aside, what is it with people who claim they "can't cook"? I'm just standing here, thinking: "Just... just follow the instructions! It's not that hard!" I started cooking for my family when I was thirteen!

 

[Aleh]

As an aside, what is it with people who claim they "can't cook"? I'm just standing here, thinking: "Just... just follow the instructions! It's not that hard!" I started cooking for my family when I was thirteen!

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Most people who say that don't mean it in the same sense that I'm used to dealing with it, either.

I mean, I've taught basic cooking to people who never learned (cf. asshole controlling parents) and people with severe disabilities who literally needed adapted instructions or equipment to be able to cook at all. The only people I've recognized as being legitimately unable to cook were either preschoolers or had what I'll politely describe as very, very severe disabilities.

Cooking's a skill like any other. You get out of it what you put in.

 

[Stephen the barbarian]

As an aside, what is it with people who claim they "can't cook"? I'm just standing here, thinking: "Just... just follow the instructions! It's not that hard!" I started cooking for my family when I was thirteen!

Click to shrink...

it's a mental block.
there are people out there who've never learned/ been taught how to cook and have internalized the idea that cooking is hard.
some of this is political, some of it's economic, and some of it is a dependence on pre-prepared meals

 

[MizMahem]

So since we are talking about cookbooks, here is most of my collection, that I either acquired, inherited, or was gifted. If you look close, you can even see the different phases of cooking I've gone through. Or well, at least I can see it. I suppose the books are pretty scattered .

But of all these books, my favorite is probably these (at the moment):

Two of them I mentioned before. The Joy fo Cooking is basically the cooking bible, and contains everything you could want to know about cooking American-ish quisene. And the Betty Crocker book you can see is well worn and well loved. I inherited from my folks, and it's packed full of additions and other recepies.

The other two are good vegetarian cookbooks (or, well, vegetarian-ish) which I am trying to incorporate into my diet more these days. And lastly, the Microwave Cookbook was just a funny one I got with my first microwave a million years ago. Honestly not any great recepies in it I think but fun to have.

 

[Biigoh]

 

[QQmember2021]

 

[Rakdos92]

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... there are people who don't know what a bell pepper is?!

 

[Raven1138]

... there are people who don't know what a bell pepper is?!

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Much less that romesco sauce isn't some grand mystery?

 

[Biigoh]

Skip to 18:35 to go past the history of the sausage and Soviet.

 

[Biigoh]

 

[Biigoh]

https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-PN970_H69_T9_1801_003505211-1591/mode/2up

The difference between eating bread new and stale is one loaf in five.
If you turn your meat into broth, it will go much further than if you roast or bake it.
If you have a garden, make the most of it. A bit of leek or an onion makes all dishes savory at little expense.
If the money spent on fresh butter were spent on meat, poor families would be much better fed than they are.
If the money spent on tea were spent on homebrewed beer, the wife would be better fed, the husband better pleased, and both would be healthier.
Keep a little scotch barley, rice, dry peas and oatmeal in the house. They are all cheap and don't spoil. Keep also pepper and ginger.
Pay your debts, serve god, love your neighbour.

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[Scribe32]

Does anyone here have any recipes for a good hot chip dip? And I don't mean spicy, I mean fresh out of the oven. I find that while I am okay with some cold dips, the last one that I really liked was hot and I missed the chance to grab the recipe from them.

 

[vyor]

Right, got a good recipe for a bread bowl.

Requirements:
1 Large loaf of bread, a semi-spherical one if possible
Cubed steak
12 oz Sliced Mushrooms
1/2 Small Onion, Diced
1 Cream of Mushroom Soup can
1 tbl spoon Corn Starch(optional)
1/2 cup Beef Broth
2 Cloves of Minced Garlic
1/2 cup of white wine
Dash of Parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
Steak Seasoning to taste
Garlic Powder
Olive Oil
1 tbl spoon Butter


Preheat oven to 180c(350f)

Sautee onions in butter until soft, usually takes around 3 minutes.
Add mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Cook the mix until the mushrooms have released their juices then add 2 cloves of minced garlic and cook for about 1 minute.
At the same time, start cooking the steak until pink or brown while adding one clove of minced garlic to the pan along with seasoning to taste.
Add wine to the mushroom mix to simmer, cook it down until you feel comfortable with it.
Add the beef broth and the mushroom soup, simmer until the thickness seems right. If necessary, add cornstarch until you feel it's right.
Combine steak and mushroom mix in a bowl, including the drippings from the beef, mix.

With your bread, slice into the top to remove a small plug and use a spoon or icecream scoop to hollow out the loaf until it's about an inch thick on the sides and bottom(precision isn't necessary, just don't puncture it).
Once done, place tinfoil on a baking pan and butter it up, place bread(including what you took out of the newly formed bowl) onto the pan.
Add a light covering of olive oil to the bread then a large amount of garlic powder to the outside of the bowl.
Fill bowl with the mushroom and steak mix.
Place plug into the filled bowl, add garlic to it as well.
Bake in preheated oven until bread is toasted, around 5 minutes.


Cut with a serrated knife and enjoy your messy but delicious meal.

Spoiler: what it should look like when finished

 

[Biigoh]

 

[MadGreenSon]

I've tried this and a few others from this guy's channel. Good stuff all 'round.

 

[Imabot]

Does anyone here have any recipes for a good hot chip dip? And I don't mean spicy, I mean fresh out of the oven. I find that while I am okay with some cold dips, the last one that I really liked was hot and I missed the chance to grab the recipe from them.

Click to shrink...

Only fresh out of oven dip I used was just baking Camembert , brie or other similar cheese. Just take off the top layer sprinkle with some herbs like tyme, chili flakes, or anything else you like, alternatives can also be a spoon of white wine, whiskey, vermont or other aromatic alcohol and put in the oven. 200°C for 15-20 min.

You get very nice hot, gooey and flavorful dip. Goes excellent with french fries, garlic bread and chips.