Learning how to cook late in life - tips?

[Anonymous]

Melissa Clark has very good recipes - it my main reason to subscribe to the NYT online

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want to start cooking for my family. My current skills don’t go much further than pasta, rice, and steamed broccoli. It’s sad. Can anyone recommend a book / website / other source that could serve as both motivation and education?

Forget recipes.
Find a dish you like at a restaurant, from childhood, etc. and look at the ingredients and go with it.

You don't learn to cook by following recipes.[/quote]

+1. When I look at the cooking competition shows, those people are not following recipes! They know "food" and spices and how to take random ingredients and make them into a delicious meal (usually). The children especially impress me. They obviously had parents that let them go wild in the kitchen...kudos to them!!

[Anonymous]

Rachel Ray’s old 30- minute meals show was really helpful when I was getting started.

[Anonymous]

Another Mark Bittman devotee here! Read the intro chapters to learn a few stills. And if there's something in his recipes that you don't understand, just google it. You can learn a lot on youtube. (My kid texted me from the beach this summer to ask how to cut a pineapple. I sent him youtube video because it was easier than writing out the directions!)

As for equipment, I agree that you need good knives. I'd say that you need a larger chef's knife and a smaller trimmer or paring knife. I'm partial to the trimmer as I think it can do more.

Add in a good meat thermometer and you are in business. I recommend the thermapen one, but I'm sure there are others out there.

If you are a NYT subscriber, look at their recipes. Definitely search for easy ones, as those can get complicated. Chicken thighs are another easy meat to cook. NYT cooking also has a lot of sheet pan dinners that are good for beginners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Melissa Clark has very good recipes - it my main reason to subscribe to the NYT online

DH and I learned how to cook primarily through her recipes during the pandemic. They are delicious and mostly not too complicated. Her Dinner cookbook is fantastic. So many are in our regular rotation.