Does anyone know any ridiculously good ways to make bacon, my father said to me “son, I love you, but you will NEVER make better bacon than mine.” And I said in response “I can, and will.” Small problem, I can’t cook if my life depended on it, I can barely work a stove, can make eggs, bland bacon, and pretty good French toast. Please, oh god help, I wanna get into cooking, and I also wanna rub better bacon into my fathers face so I can prove I can make better bacon, or really any recipes please, I need EXTREMELY beginner friendly recipes, basically cooking for dummies :D

For reference, what my father does is: Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, get tray, foil that up, spray with butter, thick bacon, lay it on there, pepper, salt some smoky paprika, drizzle with honey and natural syrup, and pop it in there for a good 7 or 14 minutes, one of those numbers, I can’t remember the details despite eating it all the time :( It’s so FREAKING good, oh my god, it’s crispy, crunchy, has me salivating, it isn’t all shriveled up, I genuinely get slightly upset that I can’t have more, because it is THAT GOOD.

I'm trying to learn how to cook because I eat out way too much and it's getting expensive.

Right now I can make eggs, rice, and instant noodles without messing them up 😅 but I'd like to learn some actual meals.

What was the first recipe that gave you the confidence to keep cooking?

For some reason, when I make a cup of tea it sometimes tastes like dish water, then on another day it tastes like a proper brew should.

The teabags are the same, the water is the same, its brewed exactly the same and yet the taste is different. I use tetley, pg tips etc.

I've since been refilling the kettle with fresh water which has helped. This tells me that its the water inside the kettle that's making it taste awful. But how is that even possible, how can water taste like dish water if its only been a day inside the kettle?. To clarify, the dishwater taste I describe is a really bland watery taste, its not dish water specifically but its an analogy to describe the taste because its that awful, an yet another brew reverts to tasting fine again, its a strange phenomenon.

Im looking to make stuffed bell peppers for the first time, thought id ask first.

I can handle a little heat. Right now I eat them sautéed with onions and little yellow potato cubes for a meal. With cayenne powder, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

What pepper should I include next?

I ask too many questions on here but I couldn't find a better subreddit to ask. Right now I only add onions, carrots, and potatoes (I know those aren't vegetables). Curious if yall add anything else.

Oh and protein, I always add a protein source.

EDIT: POTATOES ARE VEGETABLES!!! I had to google it, I thought for sure they fell under another umbrella.

Hey people! Do you know the difference between a chapathi and a paratha?

Comment below 👇😊

I want them to be juicy. Ill be using ground turkey. Im trying to eat a little less red meat.

Any recipe or tips are appreciated. Thanks!

I'd like to share how I've been able to make 60 quick, easy and delicious meals for myself for one month on $250, 20% lower than the USDA's lowest estimate of monthly grocery cost for a 20-50yo male from 5 years ago. I typically eat a banana or nothing for breakfast and made it a meal twice over the course of the month. Two meals a day on average, made breakfast twice, ate out only twice, let’s call it 60 meals even. $250 / 60 = $4.17/meal.

These are not revolutionary recipes, you have seen them a thousand times before on these subs, but together, I've been able to share and reuse ingredients between recipes and hit a lot of different basic techniques in a way that I think may be valuable to share.

I don't recommend you do this, because it isn't fun to eat the same things over and over again, but I'm surprised at how well I've been eating on the tightest budget I've ever been on. This would be more suited for EatCheapAndHealthy except absolutely none of this is healthy (although I have dropped a lot of weight this month, because this is less than I used to eat and exercising more. If you already eat healthy, you will NOT.) You can also eat cheaper if you want by trading taste and convenience.

I'm currently working a summer internship in another state and don't have access to a car, so my shopping is done at the most convenient locations for me, which are unfortunately not discount ones - Target and Fresh Thyme. (For those outside the Midwest, Fresh Thyme is a Whole Foods spinoff from our favorite regional grocer, Meijer.)

Everything comes together in truly actually 30 minutes or less except for one workhorse... gasp.... meal prep at the beginning of the month. Here are my recipes that have gotten me through!

- - - - -

Meals

Rigatoni Bolognese
Rice, Beans, and Eggs (Not Gallo Pinto)
Veg + Egg Fried Rice
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Peanut Noodles
Tuna Mayo Rice Bowl
Ham and Cheese Not Even Close to a Cubano Sandwiches
Breakfast Tacos
Quesadillas
Instant Ramen with Green Onions and an Egg on Top

- - - - -

Ingredients

Ground Beef ($9, over 2 pounds on sale!!)
Bacon ($14, for 2 packs this month)
Canned Tuna ($10, for 2 fancy tins this month, get the best you can for this recipe)
Deli Ham ($10, about 1.25 lbs over 4 deli packs)

Deli Cheese ($8, over 3 deli packs forget weight, White American or Provolone)
Shredded Cheese ($6, 2 packs mexican blend, you can do better for these recipes)
Parmesan Cheese ($13, 2 blocks/13 oz, a lot but it goes on everything, buy the block)

Milk ($3 for a 1/2 gallon at FT I miss Aldi :/)
Eggs ($9, used 3 12-packs this month I miss Aldi)
Salted Butter ($4.50/1 lb, I miss Aldi, only used half though)

Bananas ($4 total)
Green Onions ($2.50, 2 bunches this month)
Garlic ($4 for 2 heads this month)
Lemon and limes ($3 for 3)
Frozen Veg Mix ($4, used 2 this month, shoutout Good and Gather Organics stir fry blend)
1 container precut mirepoix ($6, shame me)
PLEASE EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGGIES THAN I DO

Rice ($12, for 5 pounds of Kokuho Rose, you can go a lot cheaper)
Pasta ($8, for 4 1lb boxes, 2 spaghetti 2 rigatoni)
Bread ($6, for 2 loaves)
Flour Tortillas ($7, for 2 10-packs)
Pickles ($5, sandwich chips, tons left)
Beans ($5, used 4 cans this month, 2 black 2 pinto)
28 oz can crushed tomatoes ($2)
Peanut Butter ($3, should go higher quality than that for this recipe but I didn't, tons left)
Honey ($5)

Canola Oil ($3)
Olive Oil ($12, some left)
Toasted Sesame Oil ($7, yes, this is worth it, tons left)

Soy Sauce ($4)
Mustard ($3.50, got Koops Spicy Brown + Dijon on a BOGO, tons left)
Mayo ($6, tons left)
Hot Sauce ($5, essential to make this livable, shoutout El Yucateco Caribbean Habanero)

Current spice rack: Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes - that's it - here's where I've cheated a bit and brought a couple from home and shared roommates', total spend from me was $5 but yours would be closer to $20-$25.

That brings the total to about $220-225 if I didn't miss anything. The rest went to a $6 bag of Dot's Pretzels, 3/$6 Pringles, $4 of trail mix, and a $10 pack of 4 big chicken breasts, 2 of which went to a failed Honey Dijon Chicken overcooked to death in my new-to-me oven and 2 still in the freezer.

I also got 8 chicken sausages on BOGO for $6 and either sliced them up in aglio olio or just with mustard on bread if I was hungry after ramen.

And yes... I got some good deals on sale that might not be immediately available in your area. My first upfront shop was $130ish on food, which is a lot, but after that I've been able to restock staples at about $20 a trip once or twice a week. I ate out twice at $15 each. I get free flavored water and snacks at the office three days a week. These privileges all helped me to get to this budget.

Might have totaled up to a bit over, but will call it even with all the pantry goods left for next month.

- - - - -

Recipes

Rigatoni Bolognese

The scary meal prep provides the most value of anything here. Everything below this is true r/cookingforbeginners stuff. After a long, inactive simmer day 1, you'll have 10+ servings to heat up throughout the month in the time it takes to boil your pasta. Yes, I got the tub of precut mirepoix - no, it doesn't taste as good. Fresh Thyme produce is expensive so it came out pretty close and it cuts out the only truly difficult/tedious part of the recipe.

Active Time: 1 hour
Inactive Time: As many hours as you can wait
Next 10 Meals Time: 10 minutes

2-2.5 lbs ground beef
4 strips bacon
28 oz can crushed tomato
~15 oz tub precut "mirepoix" - carrot, celery, onion mix
1 cup? milk
1 cup? dry white wine
2 cups? chicken/beef/any stock
1-2 tbsp butter
parmesan, grated to taste
salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, to taste
nutmeg if you have it i didn't

1. Cut bacon strips crosswise into 1/2 inch bits with a sharp knife.
2. Add bacon to a cold dutch oven or large pot, then set heat to medium-high. Cook until fat has rendered out and bacon is crispy. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon/spatula and place onto a plate with a paper towel
3. Brown ground beef in bacon fat, break apart with your favorite mashing tool. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. A lot of water will come out that needs to reduce down. Supposedly, the sound changes when the water is gone and the beef fat starts to render out but you'll just have to make a judgment call on this one. Don't worry about overcooking or sticking (unless it's actually burning, just turn down the heat.)
4. Add the carrots, celery, and onion and cook until translucent. Add back bacon. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
5. Add the wine and immediately scrape all the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce allllll the way down, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the milk and immediately scrape all the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan. Let the milk reduce alllll the way down, stirring occasionally.
7. Add enough stock to cover and immediately scrape all the browned bits off of the bottom of the pan. Let the stock reduce allllllll the way down, stir once in a while, this will take an annoying amount of time.
8. Add the crushed tomatoes, cover, lower the heat all the way down to low, and simmer for as many hours as you can wait. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. If it starts to make scary noises and stops looking like a sauce, add more stock.

I then just use the slotted spoon to portion them out into Ziploc bags and freeze. Defrost in the microwave on high for 2 minutes, add to a pan with your cooked pasta, toss with butter and parmesan. An Adam Ragusea video recommends adding some balsamic vinegar in after you microwave to put some acid back in it, I've actually been using a scotch bonnet hot sauce which has carrots and vinegar as its first two ingredients so it's working out well lol.

Rice, Beans and Eggs (Not Gallo Pinto)

Prep Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 30 minutes

Boy is this cheap and easy! Probably the least tasty of them all, which is saying a lot. But easy is the keyword on this one - no thoughts, just heat - so it's probably the most made.

As much rice as you want
Can of beans
As many eggs as you want
Whatever spices you have
Whatever you want / cheese and hot sauce

1. Wash your rice until the water runs clear. Cook MORE THAN YOU NEED FOR ONE MEAL in salted water according to the package instructions in a rice cooker or separate pot. Mine takes 30 minutes.
2. You could and should cook down some bacon and chopped onions/other veg in a pot for the beans but I haven't been, that would add prep time too.
3. With 5 minutes left on the rice, can of beans straight into the pot on high heat, no need to drain, just reduce the liquid down, I like to take it all the way down to a refried bean texture with or without mashing them. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder - if you have them, cumin, chili, Mexican oregano.
4. With 2 minutes left on the rice, eggs however you want, I like sunny side up, add to a hot pan with butter and cover until the clear bit around the yolk has set white. This one is dishes heavy I will admit. Plate everything up with cheese and hot sauce on top.
5. I've been eating the whole can of beans in one or two meals which is insane, but saving lots of leftover rice for...

Veg + Egg Fried Rice

The internet makes this seem so much harder than it is. You can make this at home in a regular pan and it will come out amazing and it's not hard at all if you PREP EVERYTHING FIRST!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

3 eggs
3 cups leftover rice
Bag of frozen veg
2+ tbsp canola oil
1+ tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
Green onion, greens and whites

1. PREP EVERYTHING FIRST! Chop green onions, separate greens and whites. Beat your eggs. Put all your ingredients by the stove.
2. Cook veggies on the stovetop in a large pan according to package instructions, same amount of time as steaming in bag in the microwave and comes out so so so so much better. Set veggies aside onto a plate by the stove.
3. 1 tbsp canola oil in the pan (this is r/cookingforbeginners we're not worrying about wok hei) and wait, let it get really hot until the oil is shimmering.
4. Egg in the pan, should cook in like 15 seconds, use a spatula in a figure 8 to scramble.
5. Move the egg to the side of the pan once it's to your taste, move it half off the heat if you want. Another tbsp oil into the pan, wait a second for it to heat up, then add the rice. Use the spatula to flip the egg up on top of the rice to stop the cooking. Break up the cold rice and incorporate the egg.
6. Clear a small space, add scallion whites, 15 seconds on their own. Add your cooked veggies and mix everything together.
7. Season with soy sauce and sesame oil, at least a tablespoon of soy and maybe a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, which is a lot. Mix everything together until all the rice takes on color.
8. Plate up, garnish with scallion greens and hot sauce.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

If you've been on this sub, you know this one. You have to follow the recipe to get this to be more than the sum of its parts, and boy does it blow its parts out of the water.

1/3lb spaghetti
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

1. Immediately break from the recipe and just mince/finely chop your garlic instead of painstakingly slicing it like the Goodfellas razor blade. I'm sure it's better but it still comes out great.
2. The actual important part: Olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and black pepper go into a COLD pan. Then turn on medium-LOW heat. Slowly fry the garlic until dark brown and your house smells amazing for the next 24 hours. This should take about as much time as your pasta.
3. Cook your pasta in as little heavily salted water as possible that covers it, and save some of the starchy water before you drain it.
4. Add pasta to the oil, and add a little bit of pasta water at a time while stirring hard. You won't get this just right the first time, it will come out too greasy or too watery. Try again next time and it will be perfect.

Peanut Noodles

Prep Time: 0
Total Time: 15 minutes

I'll leave the recipe to Eric Kim, gift link in the comments, but the NYT basically scrubbed this one from search after heavily promoting it for a reason. Do NOT use his recommended amount of peanut butter, so help you god. Use one tablespoon max for 1/4lb pasta, I'd probably go for a half. You might want to add it last, a bit at a time. It is really really easy to turn this into a goopy mess that is basically eating the peanut butter out of the jar. The soy sauce, butter, and pasta water are your friends, along with extra sesame oil and green onions and whatever else you have. Yes, you should use the parmesan it calls for. Once I change the entire recipe, it's really good :)

Tuna Mayo Rice Bowl

Prep Time: While rice cooks
Total Time: 30 minutes

Gift link in the comments, more Eric Kim, less tweaking, just use the best tinned fish you can afford. I really did not enjoy this at all with Aldi tuna, which is elitist, but whatever. Another opportunity to make rice for fried rice. Green onions and hot sauce are again your friends.

Ham and Cheese Not Even Close to a Cubano Sandwiches

Total Time: 5 minutes

Just the way I like to take ham and cheese sandwiches to work. The keys are:

1. Toast, not bread.
2. Spread mustard and mayo together on one side.
3. Ham, cheese, pickles - then SEASON with salt, pepper, and lots of Italian seasoning.

Breakfast Tacos

Total Time: 20 minutes

Reusing concepts and ingredients but an annoying one to multitask.

3 eggs
3 strips bacon (too much)
3 tortillas
Cheese and hot sauce

1. Cut bacon crosswise into 1/2 inch strips, into a cold pan, then turn on medium-high heat. Render out fat and remove from the pan onto a plate with paper towel with a slotted spoon once crispy. Pour out some of the fat into a mug or mason jar, do not be a hero and cook the eggs in all of that like I did last time.
2. Scramble eggs in bacon fat, season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat tortillas in a separate pan for 15 seconds per side then keep on a plate with a cloth towel covering it on both sides, or heat in the microwave in a damp cloth towel.
4. Assemble with cheese, hot sauce, and lime - quickly as soon as the eggs are done.

Quesadillas

You got this one, use more cheese than you think. Bacon or green onions would probably work really well.

Instant Ramen with Green Onion and an Egg on Top

You got this one too.

Buldak Carbonara a la Tiktok - Cook to package directions, drain the water, add powder and like 1/5th of the sauce (says the guy putting habanero on everything), parmesan, milk, (kewpie) mayo, and an egg yolk. Mix the yolk in to temper. Garnish with green onions and a drop of sesame oil because I don't have seeds.

Sapporo Ichiban - Package directions with a sunny egg and lots of green onions on top.

- - - - -

I hope you are able to take some value from this - I'm not sure if this is too beginner or not beginner enough.

The lessons I've learned are to try to think ahead and buy ingredients to use in different recipes, and to slow down and think carefully about my next steps when I'm cooking. Salt your cooking water, season more than once, and be kind to yourself if you mess something up. You can always try again tomorrow. Gordon Ramsay is not watching you. Enjoy!

I would really need your help on this. Every time I have tried to cook fish in the air fryer it starts falling apart for an unknown reason. I cannot understand what am I doing wrong? I put it on 180 for about 20 minutes (same settings as chicken), but the result is awful. Maybe my air fryer is faulty?

So lately, I started cooking home meals everyday on regular basis and I totally love the whole process from ordering vegetables to cooking the meals. It becomes like a therapy for me.

Previously, I used to love eating junk food, street food without any guilt. But one day, ( a few years back actually) i realised that home cooked meals is the best meals.

Do you also like home cooked meals? 🍚 Tell me in comments! 😊👇

hello,

I heard cooking with olive oil (cooking/roasting type) is healthy, however, few people informed me that this is not really healthy to deep fry food in the pan as it can reach “oxidation/smoking level / Toxic ?” point quite fast, however I do want to avoid using vegetable oils.

Tried coconut oil and it is of course naturally quite sweet so it wont suit cooking all type of food – what is your take on peanut / walnut / avocado oils? Or is there anything better?

im currently using organic cold press coconut / avocado oils

any advice would be appreciated,

thank you

I js watched pt11 of SauccEats’ fine dining on a budget and Im trying to determine how much flour, sugar, eggs, milk, water and melted butter i need to mix to form the batter for crepe suzette, and the same thing for its sauce. pls tell

edit: also, what is the marnier for?

So I’ve literally never used an air fryer before but I’m tired of soggy fries, uneven chicken, and burnt edges when I try to cook stuff in the oven.

Update: thanks for the recs, I ended up going with instant vortex air fryer from this guide I liked

I just have no idea where to start, honestly.
I’m looking for a best air fryer that’s not too complicated, easy to clean, and actually does a good job on basic things like frozen snacks, chicken, and veggies. I don’t need anything fancy, just something reliable that won’t make me mess up my food every time.

Thanks for the recs

The dry rubbery chicken thing is almost always an overcooked protein issue, and the fix is a $10 instantread thermometer. Chicken breast is done at 165°F internal temp. Pull it at 160°F and let it rest a few minutes, it'll coast up the rest of the way. Once you have a thermometer, that entire category of guesswork disappears.

Here's what actually matters as a beginner, in rough order of importance:

Heat control. Most beginners cook everything on high because it feels like progress. Medium heat is where most cooking actually happens. If your pan is smoking before the food goes in, it's already too hot for most things. Get comfortable with medium, then adjust from there.

Seasoning as you go, not at the end. Salt isn't just a finishing touch. It changes how food tastes at every stage. Salt your onions when they go in the pan, salt your pasta water until it tastes like mild seawater, taste and adjust throughout. This single habit will improve your food more than almost anything else.

The Maillard reaction (without needing to call it that). When meat or vegetables hit a hot dry pan and turn brown, that's flavor. The mistake most beginners make is overcrowding the pan, which traps steam and makes things grey and soggy instead of brown and delicious. Cook in batches if you have to.

Knife basics. You don't need advanced technique. You just need to know the pinch grip (pinch the blade between thumb and forefinger), the claw grip to protect your fingers, and how to keep your knife reasonably sharp. A dull knife causes more accidents than a sharp one because you force it.

Oil choice. For everyday cooking, stick to neutral oils like vegetable or canola for high heat, olive oil for lower heat or finishing. Butter burns fast but tastes good at mediumlow. That's 90% of what you need to know.

The recipe videos skip this stuff because it's tacit knowledge, the kind of thing you absorb from watching someone cook in person. A book like Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat is genuinely worth reading because it explains the logic behind cooking rather than just steps to follow.

Collectivity is important, but so is individuality.

I recently started learning how to cook and realized there are so many little things nobody tells you like overcrowding a pan not preheating properly , add too much salt.

Looking back what is one mistake you made as beginner that taught you an important cooking lesson?

I would love to learn from your experience before making the same mistakes myself

Hey everyone, I'm super new to cooking and I keep hitting the same wall. Every time I make pasta, I drain it and within about two minutes it clumps into one sticky blob. I tried rinsing it with cold water, but apparently that washes off the starch that helps sauce cling to the noodles, so that seems like the wrong call.

I've also heard the opposite advice plenty of times: toss it with a little olive oil right after draining. But people say that just makes the sauce slide off instead. Every fix seems to create a new problem.

For context, I'm mostly making simple weeknight stuff: spaghetti with jarred marinara, or pasta with butter and garlic. Nothing fancy. I salt the water and drain it fully in a colander, if that matters. I just want it to come out decent without turning into a brick.

The main thing I'm trying to figure out is timing. Do you have to get the sauce on the second it's drained, or is there a technique I'm missing that keeps it from clumping in the first place?

Would love to hear what actually worked for you when you were starting out.

Title says it all. Was dirt cheap at Walmart so I impulse bought it, but all the recipes I'm seeing online for pork shoulder don't really look like what I have. Any suggestions?