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Ingredient-centric cook book.
Muriden
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been trying to cook more for myself and eat out less. I've thumbed through a few books that have simple recipies but I'm thinking that I'm taking the wrong approach. Instead of looking at a recipie and purchasing ingredients around that, is there a beginner's cookbook that starts with a list of ingredients and has several recipies that revolve around this list?
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The whole book is my bible. I'm completely serious. Lots of great recipes, and it does have a version of what you're looking for. Whether it's exactly what you're looking for will require you going to a book store and taking a peek at it. It should be in most new book stores.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Also, once you have been cooking for a while you get the feel of what things you should be stocking in your pantry and such. Flour, sugar, stock, spices, etc. And for cooking, to cut down my shopping bill I've been shopping once a week. I make a one week meal plan, make my list from that, and then shop. It's helped pare things down a lot. I've also been using the crock pot a ton like that, and knowing you have a hot meal waiting at home already made sure does cut way down on spontaneous fast food.
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Honestly, I would suggest checking out what's available at your local library. Usually there's a plethora of cookbooks, and I've found that I often glean the information I want from a cookbook rather quickly, and then have a giant book that I never use anymore because either I a) love the recipe and do it from scratch with my own modifications or b) don't like the recipe and never open the book again. For those in between, I tend to just remember "oh yeah, chicken with garlic, I'll google that" and end up with new and interesting ideas.
Your situation is very common among people who start to cook. As you cook more, you'll notice that a lot of those extra ingredients have found a way into your kitchen, like corn starch or herbs, and you'll crack those early cookbooks less often.
That being said, standards like the Joy of Cooking are typically worthwhile to pick up because they are based on rather broad categories of ingredients and often cover technique as well as tastes. So you can learn how to carve a turkey (and then reference it the following year since how many turkeys do you typically cook, right?), or understand the different methods of creating pie filling based loosely on acidity of ingredients. The one book I frequently reference is not actually a cookbook at all, but a vegetable book. It just has most every kind of vegetable, the different varieties thereof, things to look for and basic cooking instructions.
But for recipes and tips to get started, check the library. Not only can you easily scan them to see if they have anything worthwhile, but you're not out any money if they end up not very good or sitting unused after a month.
First is Rachael Ray magazine. Every issue they have a menu in it where its ets out a shopping list and meals for each night and ideas for leftovers for the day. Pick up an issue and check it out, see if you like it. You can get cheap subscriptions online. Like two bucks for a year if you wait for slickdeals or tanga.
Second is there are websites that specialize is this type of thing. I can't recall off the top of my head, but google something like weekly menus and youll find a bunch of sites that include shopping lists and menus to go with it.
I think the Betty Crocker Cookbook also has a list of pantry items to get you started. If you're just starting cooking for yourself you should really get the Betty Crocker Cookbook anyway, it's an excellent cookbook for beginners. Lots of "this is how you chop an onion" type stuff.