What's the best cookbook for beginners?

Question

I'm not a Pro a la Chef but I can boil water! I'm ready to tackle a variety of things. Thanks!

Wow! all great suggestions here!

Answer 1

The Joy of Cooking is a great basic cookbook. Despite that, I rarely use it for much. The recipes just aren't that tasty. However, I am a huge fan of Julia Child's recipes. You can't go wrong with her recipes. I made a cake out of the The Way to Bake for NYE and it was a huge hit - and it was easy! The Way to Cook Everything and her famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking are great books. If you sit down and read them, you will note that all the terms are spelled out for you. How do you saute? What is it? What in the world is a shallot? How do you poach an egg if you don't own an egg poacher? How do you Julienne something? If you need to know these things but don't need tons of glossy full color pictures, Julia Child is the woman for you. There is a reason she is legend. She lived to a ripe old age of 91 and never stopped cooking. If she can do it we can too.

Answer 2

Hi there!

I have a cookbook, and i received it for my wedding during a wedding shower. It's called "The Four Ingredient Cookbook" and is just that, only for ingredients in each recipe! I thought it would be a little weird, but there are tons of good, easy recipes in it. I would suggest that to start out, and once you get comfortable with cooking, move on to any of Rachael Ray's cookbooks. She's the host of 30 minute meals on the Food Network. Her recipes are so great, easily understandable, and can all be done in 30 minutes or less! Hope this helps and happy cooking :)

Answer 3

Check out Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen on PBS, they're like a university of "pro"fessors/scientists/cooks. They test and retest every possible technique, ingredients, and give you the results, good, bad and ugly. I own CIA school book, Thomas Keller The French Laundry, Le Cordon Bleu, I have over 30 cookbooks, but I mostly turn to them for advice.

They cross reference EVERYTHING, cookbooks, restaurants, chefs, old recipes, EVERYTHING. Something that just one person to do would be vey hard, thats why they have a whole team/university.

The "Consumer Report" of cooking, they do not accept any advertising.

I still cross reference them with all my other cookbooks, but its just a lot easier with their help.

As a beginner this is the best source, and Alton Brown is good too.

Answer 4

You absolutely should try The Best Recipe Cookbook. It's published by Cook's Illustrated Magazine. They test standard popular recipes (lasagna, meatloaf, chocolate cake etc.) then they explain which process is best/fastest and why. Most recipes also contain a section on why certain techniques go wrong.

You'll love the finished dishes and get lots of compliments.

Answer 5

Three must-haves:
Joy of Cooking
How to Cook Everything
The Gourmet Cookbook

Answer 6

Try a Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. They have all-inclusive books which have all types of foods for all occasions, including different meals and holidays. The recipes range from easy to difficult, and I've seen nothing but good results.

Answer 7

This is a real easy but versatile website with loads of different recipes in different categories, i.e. healthy cooking, cooking with kids, etc. Also you can sign up for a free quarterly magazine that has great pictures to go with the recipes, and they'll also send occasional bonus things like calenders for free. Of course the recipes all use Kraft brands, but I use them anyway, and I use the website often.

Answer 8

Check out your local library. If you don't like the book, you haven't lost any money. Once you find the one, or two, or three... well anyway, you can buy the ones you like from the bookstore or amazon, etc.

Oh yeah... the internet is my biggest cookbook. I have so many recipes I've downloaded I'll never be able to cook them all!

Answer 9

I think searching the web is the best place to find recipes. You can try a variety of things and decide what you like to do best. Then if you start finding resipes from a common thread go buy a book of recipes on that subject.

Answer 10

Betty Crocker's Cookbook... been around for at least 50 years, updated all the time, excellent book to start with, has a little bit of everything and all good stuff.. :)