
Ask HN: How do I cook at home? - ntumlin
As a tech yuppie, spoiled by takeout and company food, I&#x27;m looking at eating a lot of fast food in the next 3+ weeks, but I&#x27;m starting to think that&#x27;s not great and that being locked at home would be a good time to learn how to cook.<p>I&#x27;ve tried before, but my main hangup is knowing what to make and what to buy. Part of the hurdle is that I have no ingredients. If a recipe calls for a quarter of an onion and a dash of garlic powder, I end up with 3&#x2F;4 of an onion and an almost full bottle of garlic powder. If anyone knows some recipes where I&#x27;ll buy a reasonable amount of things and use all of it, I&#x27;d be all ears.
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forkexec
Practice makes perfect.

No one can learn to cook well instantly. I've been cooking for 30 years and
coding for 25. There are no shortcuts. Maybe watch Alex of French Guy Cooking,
get a book on the science of cooking, and then a translated series of books on
classical French techniques that start from the beginning. Don't expect to
make a soufflé or merengue before boiling an egg. Start at the beginning.

And for god's sake, don't use powdered garlic. Start with reasonable quality,
fresh ingredients or cooking will be utterly pointless and frustrating. I
wouldn't waste money on very high quality ingredients for practice, but gets
some basic staples like good onions, peppers, carrots, celery and make some
soups, chili or stews in a crockpot. Those are hard to ruin. One of my
grandmothers just took some random leftover vegetables from her fridge to make
chicken noodle soup.

I have boxes and boxes of heirloom recipes that my grandmothers made and
collected over the years... they're handwritten and I can't decipher some of
them. For most people, it's easiest to just go on allrecipes or similar sites,
pick a dish and sort by highest user review because there are hundreds of
thousands of recipes online now and statistically thousands of good recipes.

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dastx
I got into cooking because I was on a lower salary. I calculated my
expenditure and realised I was spending between 150 to 300 per month on just
lunch at the time.

One of the easiest ways I found is to simply follow a very basic recipe. To
this day I read the recipe several times before I do the shopping and always
always put all the ingredients in it's own bowl (or you can put multiple in a
single bowl if the recipe asks for them to be into the pan together).

By the time I started reading the methods to do the actual cooking, I have all
the ingredients chopped, separated and within reach. That way, as the recipe
methods call for certain things, all you have to do is reach for it.

Lastly some general tips.

As you can imagine, putting all the ingredients in their bowls gives you more
dirty dishes than you would have otherwise. So clean as you go. If your recipe
asks for something to be in the oven, you're likely going to have 30 mins to
clean. Think about the tools that can be reused and don't wash them yet.

YouTube, as always, is full of amazing YouTubers who teach you how to cook,
and use your utensils properly. Joshua Weissman is one of my favourites and
has some insane tips.

Learn to wield a knife. And learn to sharpen a knife. Seriously. This is one
of the most dangerous things in the kitchen, and an dull knife is even more
dangerous. Joshua Weissman has a video on both topics.

When you're starting out, it's okay to choose the easy path. Picking frozen
veggies over fresh veggies and having to cut them yourself is not an issue.
It'll set you back slightly more, but it's okay for the convenience. Once
you're more comfortable with a knife, start cutting these things yourself.

At the end of it, I promise, you will feel a lot better. Every time I get out
of habit and start eating out more than in, I feel terrible. Both physically
and mentally. Once I go back to eating in, I just feel better.

Good luck.

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overthemoon
I learned how to cook making chili. It was the first dish I feel like I made
well and was proud of, it really kicked off my love of cooking. It's hard to
mess up, it's cheap, you get a lot, and it lasts a while, and you can freeze
it.

This is the recipe I've been building on lately:
[https://www.budgetbytes.com/basic-chili/](https://www.budgetbytes.com/basic-
chili/)

Here are some notes: \- I leave out jalapenos and brown sugar--my wife doesn't
like spiciness. I generally try not to add sugar to stuff, but it does add a
bit of depth that is nice

\- using beef broth instead of water will result in a better taste. You can
also use beer!

\- Don't skimp on the tomato paste! It adds a depth and richness you won't get
otherwise

\- There's no shame in buying a jar of minced garlic. It's easy and it lasts a
long time. Fresh garlic will taste better, but if it's your first go at it,
why not make things easier on yourself? Just remember for the future to try
out mincing it yourself

\- Check out this video for how to chop an onion:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCGS067s0zo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCGS067s0zo)
don't worry about getting it perfect though, just as long as they're smallish
pieces

\- This recipe doesn't mention draining the ground beef, but I would. You
might think that the added beef fat would add to the taste, but in my
experience it just makes it greasy, especially once you've chilled it and end
up with a layer of hardened grease

\- Don't skimp on simmering! Turn the heat all the way down low, put the lid
on it, and let it do its thing for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure
nothing is sticking to the bottom

\- Ignore everything I said if you want, try stuff and see for yourself.

If you want more vegetables, carrots, celery, kale, bell peppers, all good
choices for a stew-ish dish like this. It's not "traditional" chili at that
point, so it's more of a stew I guess, but who cares.

------
borkt
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MealPrepSunday/)

Look through here for week meal plans. They often utilize all of the
ingredients fully over the course of a week, and a lot of the recipes are
simple (you can cook them all in one day). Feel free to take your time, and
watch youtube videos to learn techniques

