Learning to cook is easy…if you have the right teacher. Luckily there are many, many cookbooks that are written specifically for beginning cooks. No need to go to a cooking school or take cooking classes if you have one of these great books.
The best beginning cookbooks have:
- Recipes you recognize
- Great illustrations
- Recipes with easy to find ingredients
- Shopping lists
- Step-by-step instructions and a glossary of cooking terms
The thing is, you’ll find literally thousands of cookbooks with these basics. How to narrow the field? One way to start is by looking at what you’ve eaten at restaurants in the past month.
If you’ve been eating at McDonalds where the menu is very limited, start with a good cookbook that includes basics like hamburgers and salads.
If you are looking for healthy recipes and lots of easy to follow pictures, check out How to Boil Water – Life Beyond Takeout. This cookbook is loaded with a ton of recipes and tips from The Food Network Kitchens.
If you invited your new inlaws for dinner and want to impress them, check out Now You’re Cooking for Company: Everything a Beginner Needs to Know to Have People Over. Elaine Corn has written easy to follow instructions for the beginning cook and includes chapters on basic techniques as well as recipes for holiday dinners and menus for less formal occasions.
Five questions to ask about each cookbook:
- Do I recognize any of the recipes in this cookbook?
- Does this cookbook teach me anything new?
- Is there a list of pots, pans and other kitchen essentials?
- Are the recipes easy to read?
- Will the servings be the right size? Does each recipe feed one person, two people, or a crowd at the local potluck?