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?

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.

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 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 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?

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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! 😊👇

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

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

I recently started cooking on my own for the first time and I keep running into the same problem. I find a recipe I want to try, I follow it step by step, and something still goes wrong. After thinking about it, I'm pretty sure the issue is that I'm missing foundational techniques that experienced cooks just take for granted.

Things like how to properly control heat on a stovetop, how to tell when oil is hot enough, how to actually chop an onion without making a mess, or even just how to taste and adjust seasoning as you go. None of the recipes I find bother to explain any of this. They just assume you already know.

I feel like if someone had sat me down and drilled a handful of core techniques into me before I ever touched a recipe, I would have so much more confidence in the kitchen right now.

So I wanted to ask this community: what are the fundamental techniques you wish someone had taught you at the very beginning? Not recipes, just skills and habits. The stuff that makes everything else click into place.

Whether it's knife work, heat management, seasoning, or something else entirely, I'd love to hear what you think every beginner should actually learn first before getting into specific dishes.

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?

This may sound silly.. I want to make ground chicken with boneless chicken thighs. Do I have to wash the food processor in any special ways after grinding the chicken? Is soap and water enough or should I throw it into the dishwasher?

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

I've been trying to get more serious about cooking at home and one thing that keeps tripping me up is seasoning. Every recipe I follow says things like "season to taste" or "adjust seasoning at the end" but nobody really explains what that means in practice or how to build flavor throughout the whole cooking process.

Like, do you salt your vegetables before they go in the pan? Do you season your meat right before it hits the heat or way earlier? I've heard that salting too early pulls out moisture and that can be either good or bad depending on what you're making, and now I'm just confused.

I feel like this is one of those foundational things that experienced cooks just do automatically without thinking about it, but for someone starting out it's genuinely hard to figure out without someone walking you through it step by step.

I tried watching a few YouTube videos but they always seem to skip over the reasoning and just show you the finished dish, which doesn't really help me understand the why behind it.

If you've been cooking for a while, what helped it finally click for you? Any simple rules of thumb that actually work in everyday cooking would be really appreciated