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[Tally]

"How do I cook" is like "how do I do martial arts?"

I think LordBucket is right. You can learn from this parallel discipline. What you need is a training montage!

[Neonivek]

Now, if you want specific advice on how to make, for example, milk-based pasta sauce...that's more like "how do I punch" and people could probably give you more specific advice

A recipe is really just a punching bag (or bad... as I keep typing it). You will eventually learn how to punch, but having the formula put out in front of you is better.

While martial arts never really evolves into technique until you have the basics down, a proper teacher will break down the basics and offer feedback (A lot of martial arts dojos are not proper mind you, but still).

Though the more I think about it the more I realize that there is a huge gap between Cooking basics and cooking technique if you go by the "Recipe osmosis" method.

"How do I cook" is like "how do I do martial arts?"

I think LordBucket is right. You can learn from this parallel discipline. What you need is a training montage!

Apparently... but there is a problem.. Is there ANY cool cooking montage music?

[DJ]

Cooking is basically like mad science, just laugh maniacally while you toss random stuff into a pot. Sometimes you'll get delicious food, but mostly you'll just ruin perfectly good ingredients.

[nenjin]

I'll try to give you a practical example.

Trying to get a really good sear on round steak cut up into chunks.

Things:

Cubed round steak.

Cast Iron Skillet.

Olive Oil.

I've tried this numerous times and it took me a long time to get it right. The meat eventually goes into a Stroganoff (get stewed then turned into a gravy.) But you want a nice sear on the meat, that nice browning on it, that caramelized beef.

Turns out it's harder to do right than you might think. Do you put some oil in the pan, then heat it up to medium before throwing the meat on? No, because it's not hot enough to really sear the meat quickly. Why do you need to sear the meat quickly? Because as it heats up the fat comes out of the meat, and instead of the meat sitting on a hot iron skillet, it's floating in fat and juices. That's why you also can't use too much oil, otherwise you end up frying the meat instead of searing it.

So, you heat the pan with a little bit of oil and get it nice and hot. Toss the meat in. Then you stir it generously, right? To get the meat coated in the oil and prevent it from sticking, right? Wrong! If the meat is just briefly touching the hot skillet, it's not getting that blast of heat that quickly caramelizes it. And then the fat runs out and again, you're not searing.

Then you just put the meat in it and let it sit for a while? Not quite. Then the meat gets really stuck to the pan, and scrapping it off loses you that layer of browned meat that's now stuck to the pan.

So, you toss it in, let it sit for 10 seconds, stir it once, let it sit for 10 seconds, ect...until the fats and juices start coming out. And you end up with nice seared corners and faces of meat.

---

All of that is a product of study. Knowing your tools, knowing your product, knowing the process, knowing what you want out of it. It's comes from practice, observation, guesswork and failure. Go google a youtube clip from Casino where they're talking about how much of a pro Robert De Niro's character is. How much he pays attention to, how much he makes it his business to know. That level of detail and understanding all the factors at work is what cooking is about.

[DJ]

I advise tasting food throughout the process, whenever possible. Ingredients change flavour as they cook, and you need to figure out how long to cook which ingredient to get it to the point where you like it tastes the best. Ie, you need to develop a sense for when to add what. For example, I like to add garlic ~20 minutes before the end if I'm using medium heat, IMO it tastes too sharp if it cooks shorter, and I can taste it at all if it cooks longer.

[Muz]

I seriously recommend the book 4 Hour Chef. It's not perfect, but a great beginner's introduction to everything. You can find books that teach you to chop better, taste better, do every single type of cooking better... but 4 Hour Chef teaches you to do everything the easiest way. Learn the easiest way first, then it's a lot easier to understand the harder ways.

Don't learn from recipes. I know lots of people who have been cooking every day for their whole lives and still can't develop a new dish.

I'd also recommend the book Taste What You're Missing, from Barb Stuckey, if you want to know how flavors work. But it doesn't help with cooking. It instead gives you weird tips like why grapefruit tastes good with salt, and why breast milk is high in umami.

[Helgoland]

How about this: Take one recipe you're pretty decent with (and that's not too simple), e.g. Spaghetti sauce with kidney beans (delicious).

Do this recipe, let's say, twenty times, and every time you vary it a bit. Add a new spice, a new vegetable, change times, change methods of heating (open pot vs closed pot, for example), that kind of thing.

Don't be disappointed by your failures, be happy about the times you get it right.

Take notes: What worked, what didn't? What changes had what effect?

Repeat this process with a couple of recipes.

Finally, buy a random combination of ingredients and make something delicious. If you don't succeed, repeat this procedure until you do.



(Or you could visit your grandma for a couple of days, that might help, too )

[acetech09]

I marked my ascension to said 'next level' when I realized that I never needed to really look at a recipe, and only occasionally felt the need to refer to one.

That point came somewhat natural to me through just cooking often. If that isn't coming to you, start hiding recipes from yourself on purpose. If you can't remember what was in it, improvise and do your best. You'll start figuring out what works and what doesn't.

And yes, the hardcore way is repeated random-ingredient mystery basket challenges. Steep learning curve, though.

[Neonivek]

And yes, the hardcore way is repeated random-ingredient mystery basket challenges. Steep learning curve, though

Well there are tricks for that. If you watch cooking shows and how they will implement a ingredient they don't know, it tends to be thrown into flavoring somehow. Which is a safe way to include an ingredient without really risking doing anything with it.

I seriously recommend the book 4 Hour Chef. It's not perfect, but a great beginner's introduction to everything. You can find books that teach you to chop better, taste better, do every single type of cooking better... but 4 Hour Chef teaches you to do everything the easiest way. Learn the easiest way first, then it's a lot easier to understand the harder ways.

Don't learn from recipes. I know lots of people who have been cooking every day for their whole lives and still can't develop a new dish.

I'd also recommend the book Taste What You're Missing, from Barb Stuckey, if you want to know how flavors work. But it doesn't help with cooking. It instead gives you weird tips like why grapefruit tastes good with salt, and why breast milk is high in umami.

Well I do have a gift card for Chapters (though I bet those books are more expensive than that.

Though thanks!

Also Thank you Helgoland that is also a very interesting way to do it as well.

I am glad this thread didn't stay "Just cook".

[Obsi]

I have a ton of big expensive recipe books but I really prefer http://www.yummly.com/ and occasionally google for visual inspiration and a recipe list that includes whatever ingredient I happen to have with me or want to add. 

Its nice knowing how long it would take to cook an ingredient so you know when you need to add it for it to be done.  Its also helpful knowing what each ingredient tastes like on its own.

If I'm going to add a herb mixture or a sauce that I randomly found I make sure to taste it before I put it in so I know it is a flavor that would help the dish.  Also, taste all of your final products.  I once served something that was too salty.  Being too salty is really easy to fix but I had no idea it needed to be fixed because I hadn't tried it myself.

[nenjin]

It's also worth mentioning...try everything.

Greens, meats, seasonings, sauces....the wider your palette is, the more ideas and options you have when you want to experiment. Like, fennel. There's no way in hell you'd know how to cook something with fennel without first putting it in your mouth and seeing what it tastes like.

Also study the cooking techniques of the world. Seasoning? Indian. Savory, buns and pork? Chinese. Classical sauces, saute and oven dishes? French.

[Tellemurius]

From the way i cook i usually mimic a recipe first just to get the technique down, after that its a freeforall on what i can throw in together that can make a mouth explode. Once i learn a recipe its then i start with the enhancements like adding honey instead of corn syrup for sauces for a more earthy taste, leave the meat marinating for 6 hours instead of 30 minutes to soak in the chili oils for a more tender bite. There's nothing wrong with reading off of recipes cause we all had to learn it somewhere at some point but let no one argue what you can put in that recipe to make it better yourself.



 I guess its also because i watched my father and mother cook alot and it just rubbed in for the cooking fanatic, theres usually one in each of our families that does the amazing cooking. I specialize in fine dining though as im the only family member to use european dishes.

[Scriabin]

I think that you should avoid recipes as far as possible to develop an intuitive feel for which ingredients goes well together. Use all your senses to interpret the dish you're cooking. For example there is a certain sound when something is about to get too well done and stick to the saucepan or the smell of meat when you know it's ready.

Analyze everything you're doing and try to gauge its impact on the dish, afterwards evaluate your food and try to think of ways to improve it.

Don't be afraid to experiment with your food and try new things. Every failure is in itself a small victory.

[Shakerag]

Yeah, I'll echo the "just do it a lot and get a feel for what to do". 

However, I do recommend reading On Food and Cooking.  Fascinating book.

[Eagleon]

There are noareare culinary schools if you're enthusiastic about this enough to spend significant amounts of time on it. Otherwise, take some culinary courses at your local community college! You will find them enriching, they will encourage you to experiment more using the experiences they give you, and you'll earn street cred with chefs. Dudes know how to party.