How to Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food – With 1,000 Photos: A Beginner Cookbook and Essential Guide to Fundamental Cooking Techniques Hardcover – Illustrated, March 5, 2012

John Schroeder United States

It's hard to described how much this has helped my cooking...

I'd shared cooking duties for years with my wife, and my subtle teenager summed it his take on my skills: "Dad, your cooking just has a low upside." Ouch! After one too many comments I decided to really learn to cook. So I thought, like any skill, the first step was to fully master the basics, then branch out. So, you can see how I was attracted a book titled "How to Cook Everything - the Basics." As a non-chef interested in learning fundamental skills, here's why I found this book so valuable: - Each recipe introduces you to new skills, starting easy and progressing to more advanced. Even if you don't cook each recipe, you learn a lot just reading through them. - There are pictures showing you how to prepare the dishes. For example, there was a pumpkin pie recipe that showed exactly when to recognize that it should come out of the oven - with just a bit liquidy in the center. While this could have been described, I found it much easier to understand visually. And there are full-color visuals like that for every recipe. - Each recipe includes variations, so you can start to learn how to improvise - what works with what. That also makes the recipes much more varied. - Really helpful for me, he emphasized "taste and adjust" for all your cooking. I never really did that and am learning that it can make the difference between okay and very tasty. - If you go through all the sections, you'll be inevitably be introduced to things you'd never have considered. We made bulgar with feta and shimp. I honestly had never even heard of bulgar, but it was quite tasty! - In the beginning of the book, there's a few sections about what you should have in your kitchen by way of utensils, spices, etc. That's probably in other books but I found it helpful. - I think it introduces you to a very wide range of food types and cooking skills, so that after you've plowed through it you can feel confident you've at least been exposed to most techniques. For me, the big test was Thanksgiving dinner, which I'd never cooked before. In addition to turkey, we had mashed potatoes, stuffing, glazed carrots, and homemade pie. To say my family was amazed was an understatement, and I felt like the How to Cook Everything made it seem simple, and not very stressful. I would like to point out some downsides: - I also purchased the Kindle version. While it's a fine complement to the book, I wouldn't suggest buying it instead of the book. Why? They changed the order somewhat and I found the tips/pictures for preparation pretty hard to follow. - Remember when your third-grade teacher said, when you open a new textbook, you need to "break the binding?" I didn't do that and after a couple months the pages started falling out. So, do open the book the the middle, stretch the pages flat, and so so for every 50 pages or so. - If you're already an accomplished cook, or just not a clueless as I was, this might be too basic. He has a lot of other books I'm sure would be better for you. BUT, if you never learned the basics, read through the book, try a select set of recipes, and you'll be amazed with your new-found cooking expertise! Bon Appetit!

Quyen V. Nguyen United States

What is salad?

I learned how to make a salad with this book. No, no, don't think "it's so easy, who needs to learn!" No, no. Before this, I make salad this way: go to the grocery, buy pre-boxed chopped vegetable, buy a bottle of dressing like sundried tomato and then a bag of garlic toast croutons. Now, I make a salad this way: buy 4 different kind of fresh vegie, as fresh as I can get. Learned how to clean them, and store them (so important, did you know they last for days?). Make my own croutons, such act that I never knew possible, and easy like making toast (3 mins top, and last for days). Make my own dressing (olive oil, vinegar of some sort, salt and papper). Toss them up and a salad. Flavor is woefully light, vegetable so fresh it's, well, refreshing. Croutons seasoned and not soaked in oil like the ones in the bags. I make my own bread (also in this book, 10 active minute, the rest watching tv and waiting). Everything in this salad is made from the basic ingredients. This is a "made" salad, nothing was processed, nothing pre-packaged. Each component was made from its basic ingredients. So I go around and tell people I learned how to make a salad proudly. They laughed, not understanding the delicate tastes of fresh ingredients and the simplicity of making it. They were a little shocked to taste my salad, so was I. It tastes so different! Well, which restaurant (or person for that matter) ever served us their salad with everything made from scratch (even the bread for the croutons)? None! With this I have learned what kind of lettuce there are, how croutons are made, what dressing consist off (and how light they should be, and how little they should be on the salad). And the time it takes to make a refreshing salad is so little that it shocked me. Like that one time I saw they sell "pre-diced" onions... does it take that long? (I also learned how to dice onion from this book). A true appreciation for food and cooking apparently is not from having tasted the best food, but the joy of how to make a delight meal with the slightest bit of effort, from the fundamentals. I ate my food right in the kitchen, because it felt like a chief seemingly threw something together at the end of his work day, so much different and simpler from what he make all day, and yet manage to blow my mind with it. When he's not trying to impress any guests with fancy techniques and exotic ingredients, his dish is the distillation of his arts. Anyway. I learned how to boil egg yesterday. And I shall be proud to share it to everyone I know. Also, i bought the joy of cooking, found at good will for $5. I learned how to set up a table from that book.

It's only me United States

I use it so often, it's falling apart!

A year and a half after getting this cookbook, it's starting to fall apart, as you can see from my photo. Even though the binding isn't meant to last forever, I'm giving it five stars because it has really helped me learn to cook. I bought How to Cook Everything - The Basics after I started living alone for the first time and realized that my cooking skills were pretty much limited to pasta with store-bought sauce and salads with store-bought dressings. I'm not a super-skilled chef yet, but this book has helped me pick up some basic cooking techniques, and get more comfortable in the kitchen. The recipes are great - There are a lot of the fairly simple yet delicious recipes that I think are necessary to learn before you move on to fancier stuff. Be sure to read the side notes on the right side of the page, even if a particular recipe doesn't appeal to you. The author gives lots of ideas for switching up the recipe to make it totally different. (For example, if you don't like carrots, you can still make maple-glazed carrots...The side notes give you ideas on how to switch out carrots for other veggies.) Here are a few of my personal favorites, to give you an idea of the types of recipes you'll get: Poached Eggs: So simple, yet I never had any idea how to make them. I never even liked eggs before. Now I make egg and cheese sandwiches regularly. Oatmeal from Scratch: Takes longer than the instant stuff I'm used to, but so much yummier! Egg Drop Soup: Who knew that it's pretty much as easy as boiling water and mixing in some eggs, soy sauce and sesame oil? Pasta with Garlic and Oil: Not quite as fast as just tossing garlic into pasta water, but much better tasting. Boiled Greens - Put spinach in boiling water, add some butter and salt, and you've got a great side dish. Quick Skillet Beans with Tomatoes- Tomatoes cooked with frozen edamame is so good! Rice Pudding in the Oven - Takes a while to make, but worth it, especially when you need some winter comfort food. Chili from Scratch, Stir-fried Chicken with Broccoli, Cold Noodles with Peanut Sauce - Yum! Anyway, there's a lot more, and a lot of things that I haven't made yet, but those are the recipes that I find myself making repeatedly. Hope that helps!

Heather HW. United States

A Really Great Comprehensive Cook Book For All Levels

First and foremost this is an absolutely fantastic book and worth every penny. Here's why: The book is beautifully hard bound and more than 480 pages of cooking information that is very well done. The book does in fact have 1,000+ pictures to show you what you should be doing along the way instead of just the final product. The sections are as follows: Why cook? Getting started Breakfast Appetizers and snacks Salads Soups and Stews Pasta and Grains Vegetables and Beans Meat Poultry Seafood Breads Desserts Making Menus List of Lessons Index Converting Measurements The information really does cover all of the basics. There is information on basic techniques such as how to properly hold your knife, what different methods of cooking (boil, broil, saute, etc.) are and how to do them. Information on picking your ingredients to ensure they're fresh and/or ripe is also included along with proper storage of the ingredients and proper cooking temperatures. The recipes vary in difficulty from how to make a very basic guacamole to a more complex braised beef with wine. The skill levels do start as basic as how to properly remove rosemary from the stem and progress as the book progresses. Overall this is an incredibly valuable resource for the beginner cook or even those that want to know how to cook like a chef does with proper knife techniques, etc. As someone that can cook I'd still add this to my cookbook collection for the recipes it includes even if I don't need the beginner skills. We purchased this for a young family member wanting to learn to cook for their self and intend to purchase this in the future for anyone and everyone wanting to learn to cook and it would even make a nice wedding gift along with some bakeware, cooking utensils, etc. A fantastic purchase!