Tips for the student/budget/novice cook

Flay · July 2007

I'm on the hunt for good recipe books for someone who has limited experience with cooking / is cooking a limited budget / regularly needs to prepare meals fit for only one or two diners. The problem is, I really don't have any idea what to look for...

So, I thought I'd start off this thread to share recommendations for good cookbooks you may happen to own or have heard of. While I hope this'll come in handy for several people, I'm particularly keeping an eye out for books with good sections on cooking simple vegetarian meals (particularly those involving beans and lentils), but not purely on that subject.

So, fire away!

GoodOmens · July 2007

I'm a big fan of "How to |Cook Everything" by Bittman. As the name implies, there's a great deal of variety, simple stuff as well as more elaborate meals, along with lots and lots and LOTS of information and advice.

cyphr · July 2007

There's a reason the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook is considered a classic. Do yourself a favor and get one, and, as Amazon says (I am totally going to shill right here):

"Discover why every kitchen worth its salt has a flour-dusted, bouillon-stained, batter-encrusted and whisk-maimed copy."

Delzhand · July 2007

Working as I do at a Borders, I can tell you that there is a whole subsection of the cookbook section devoted to this topic. I honestly can't tell you which ones are good, but there should be more than a few of them.

devoir · July 2007

Leading your friend to a good set of internet recipe websites is probably the cookbook that'll keep on giving.

Zifnab · July 2007

I just picked up The Cook's Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking and Going Solo in the Kitchen, and they're both pretty good. Four Ingredient Cooking is a little less useful, since it has some odd things (four ingredient duck in plum sauce?), but it's a great way to get a good idea of what things are made of and what they taste like at a very basic level. Going Solo tackles planning, buying, cooking, and reproportioning for one or two people. I've found it great because I do a lot of cooking just for me, and every time I look up a recipe online it serves some ungodly number of people, and it's hard to cut down a 7-person recipe to one person, and I don't really want to make 7 people worth of food and eat it for a week sometimes. Personally, I'd suggest that you get him one of those.

KalTorak · July 2007

"I'm Just Here For the Food" by Alton Brown - great recipes, plus food science and theory to let you know why food works the way it works. It's like the Joy of Cooking but easier to read and with cool diagrams.

Plus it comes with refrigerator magnets.

Butterfly4u · July 2007

Pretty much any vintage (1950-1980) Better Homes And Garden cookbook is a good place to start. You can find them for super cheap at Alibris.com, Amazon, ebay, Barnesandnoble.com, and garage sales. They have any catergory of cooking you can imagine. If you want to drop $50 you can get the new Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, but there are also cookbooks at the bookstores that have specificly three or four ingredients in all the recipes. Vegetarian recipes can get very complicated though. Try www.recipegoldmine.com or just search online for veggie recipe sites. Good luck with cooking!

DiscGrace · July 2007

As much as I hate Rachel Ray's TV show (and personality), her "30 Minute Meals" cookbook is actually really easy and generally quite delicious. :^:

MotherFirefly · July 2007

devoir wrote: »

Leading your friend to a good set of internet recipe websites is probably the cookbook that'll keep on giving.

That's what I'd go with, I have a couple of basic cookbooks for some chinese food and such, but really I just keep a collection of printed out recipes that I really like and are easy enough to make. If you're really looking for a cookbook, I'd go with The Starving Student's cookbook--it has nutritious stuff, while keeping it cheap, quick and easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Starving-Students-Cookbook-Dede-Hall/dp/0446679615

KalTorak · July 2007

Oh, a good start for recipe websites is www.cookingforengineers.com

phamtq · July 2007

I don't have a book but I can impart some cooking knowledge that I've accumulated through the years.

Cooking is about following directions, timing. and heat. Read through a recipe first before doing anything. You need to be able to see where you're going and how things end up. It worked for me during O Chem lab and surprisingly works in the kitchen.

Remember to take out all the things you're going to need: the ingredients, tools, bowls, etc... and start chopping and preparing the food. You want to get this all done BEFORE you turn on the stove. That way, when it comes time to cook, all you do is dump the ingredients.

The last thing to remember is that your stove has more than one setting. Rarely do you keep things on HIGH through the whole thing. I usually cook on high for a few second to sear the meat then turn down the temp to medium and let it sit and cook.

If you're cooking something like spaghetti, do the noodle first. Water takes awhile to boil and then it takes time to cook the noodles. During that time you could be prepping the meat and vegetables.

Shazkar Shadowstorm · July 2007

Also, I saw this on Time's top websites: www.chow.com

UncleChet · August 2007

I'm a big fan of recipesource.com It's searchable and has Tons of stuff. It may not be the most basic source, but it's a good one.

Barrakketh · August 2007

KalTorak wrote: »

"I'm Just Here For the Food" by Alton Brown - great recipes, plus food science and theory to let you know why food works the way it works. It's like the Joy of Cooking but easier to read and with cool diagrams.

Plus it comes with refrigerator magnets.

I didn't get any magnets

I'll second the recommendation, as the book is quite good. It's not a cookbook, but a book about cooking.

Nealocus · August 2007

I just saw http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Do-Ramen-Noodles/dp/1586857355
this book on Amazon. Can't wait to try it when I get to college! Hope this kinda helps.

DoctorArch · August 2007

My first cookbook was the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It teaches the basics, like pancakes, banana bread, burgers, etc.

My second primary cookbook was Joy of Cooking. Excellent, with a good mix of fancy dishes with very easy reasonable ones (the fettuccine alfredo recipe is what sold me on the book due to its ease and low ingredient count).

I would also recommend Cooking Network's "How to Boil Water" as a good primer into cooking.

If you decide to get into baking, get Baking Illustrated.

Flay · August 2007

Oh yeah, the reason I'm looking for books that are particularly good for instructing one how to cook lentils/beans is because the person I'm buying the book for (it's not for me, but looking at these suggestions there's a couple of books I wouldn't mind picking up) is looking for meals that are high in protein, though don't necessarily contain meat.

Oh, and d'you think I should change the title of the tread to something broader, like 'tips for the student/budget/novice cook'?

EDIT: Yeah, I think I'll do just that.

Shazkar Shadowstorm · August 2007

Also, note, there's a new updated anniversary version of joy of cooking. sweet.

Flay · August 2007

Well, I had planned on picking up a copy of 'how to cook everything', but it seems only the hardcover version was available, and the $42+ (AUS dollars, remember) price-tag was a bit high for my budget. So I ended up picking up something with 'four ingredients' in the title (I can't actually remember what it was called) because of its simplicity, and a random $5 vegetarian cookbook because it had a section on protein. Oh, and a bit of fudge as well. :P

Continue to post any handy tips or links you might have though. I'm trying to get in to cooking a bit more, but I really don't have much experience in the kitchen.

LadyM · August 2007

"How to Boil an Egg" is a good cookbook for the inexperienced because it explains everything in detail and has recipes for one or two people. It covers a lot of basic, simple meals and a couple fancier ones.

METAzraeL · August 2007

Better Homes and Gardens and Joy of Cooking are classics, maybe you can grab one for them later.

For simple vegetarian stuff, check out http://govegan.net/ (I have La Dolce Vegan!, it's pretty good). I'm trying to find a "college" veg cookbook that I have, but to no avail. If your friend wants protein, perhaps a book specializing in tofu would be useful. Also, nutritional yeast is something they should totally pick up from the store.

edit: I know you said vegetarian, not vegan, but I don't really differentiate between the two when it comes to recipes. Those vegan cookbooks will usually say something like "egg substitute equalling two eggs," so it's not hard to do either way.

PirateJon · August 2007

Barrakketh wrote: »

KalTorak wrote: »

"I'm Just Here For the Food" by Alton Brown - great recipes, plus food science and theory to let you know why food works the way it works. It's like the Joy of Cooking but easier to read and with cool diagrams.

Plus it comes with refrigerator magnets.

I didn't get any magnets

I'll second the recommendation, as the book is quite good. It's not a cookbook, but a book about cooking.

For a book about cooking, this and the follow up about baking (i'm just here for more food) are godly. Everything from how to use a knife to what pans you need.

For a cook book - ie a book of recipes - Get cooks illustrated's "New Best Recipe". That mag is aslo wonderful if you're an aspiring foodie. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/bookstore_detail.asp?PID=265

Penny Arcade

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