How I Became a Good Cook

When graduated high school I was not known for my domestic skills.  I had taken Home Economics classes and passed them, although a great deal of my grades were dependent simply on effort and not the actual outcome.  My cooking abilities at home were kind of a family joke.  Occasionally I would end up fixing dinner for the family when my parent's were able to due to their jobs, but if it didn't come out of a box I did not make it (and even then there was a chance it would be over or undercooked).  Baking was about the only area I felt semi-confident in, but even there I was sloppy and while my treats came out tasty they did not often come out pretty.  This was okay though, I was planning on going to college, getting a degree landing a great job in some metropolitan area and living a grand single life of eating out.

I has been thirteen years, four kitchens, one eating disorder, three children, one marriage and countless cookbooks since then... and I am still shocked when my husband compliments my cooking to a new acquaintance.  It is even more shocking when I get rave reviews on something I have brought to a potluck (compliments from people who are not linked to me by vows under God, you know...).  Becoming a good cook was never something had actively thought about working on.  I never showed any natural talent for it, but overtime I just began to pick up on things and fell slowly in love with my kitchen and the process of preparing food for my family. 

This is how adorable I envision myself in the kitchen :)

   by  esotericsean 

Although I did not know it, this process probably really began when I got my first apartment in college.  I can recall going shopping with my roommate and nearly swatting her hand from reaching for a jar of Ragu.  I am fussy about my spaghetti sauce, my mother made the sauce that went on our table and I have never developed a taste for bottles of premade sauce.  So I directed her to cans of tomato sauce, paste and a good collection of spices.  Later that week I made my first pot of spaghetti by myself.  For a long time my cooking came in small spatters.  I would get excited about a recipe, get the ingredients, try it and gauge the results (sometimes great, sometimes awful).  Between those moments of inspiration we ate out or I went back to the old habit of cooking from a box or a can. 

When I decided to be a stay at home mom though things really began to shift.  Suddenly I was home during the day and had more time to plan, shop, prep and actually cook meals.  Making food for my little baby boy became important to me.  Now that I have yet another child and I am living out in a rural area of North Dakota cooking has gained even more importance, knowing how to make a meal from scratch is going to help us survive our first winter up here.  It also might help me keep my sanity as I have come to really truly love cooking. 

How did I get to this point, though?  As I have stated it was not a planned endeavor, just something I have fallen into, but here are some tips that might help if you are being more thoughtful about your desires to be a better cook.

 

Watch People Cook

I do not just mean cooking shows, although they certainly can be a way to learn great things.  However I find cooking shows to be too 'perfect' for my tastes often.  Their kitchens are perfectly laid out, the ingredients for the meals are all prepared ahead of time in cute little ramekins, the mistakes and the clean up are all edited out.  Cooking shows are about getting inspiration, not about real cooking. 

No I mean watch real people cook.  Sit in the kitchen on Thanksgiving, help a friend make dinner at their house (or yours), volunteer at a soup kitchen... anything you can do to watch someone else cook a meal.  You start learning techniques, and that is what this is all about.  Seeing how your aunt peels potatoes, or how your best friend boils eggs.  These are things you need to pay attention to.

I definitely need to cook with this lady!

   by  Hooray I'm Helping 

 

And this lady... just maybe not both of them at the same time...

   by  cszar 

Cookbooks, Lots of Cookbooks

First I recommend that every single house needs a good basic cookbook.  Mine is the Fannie Farmer cookbook that used to belong to my grandmother (it still has bookmarks in it made from 1960's newspaper clippings and coupon books).  This is a great no frills cookbook.  It tells me how to make waffle mix, how to boil corn, and make muffins.  You will not find recipes like 'Stuffed Cinnamon and Vanilla French Toast', 'Pastry Wrapped Salmon Tarts', or 'Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Brownies'.  No this book just gives you the basics, but that that is what you really need to learn how to cook, the rest is all added fluff you can add on once you get those basics figured out.

Secondly I recommend devouring cook books.  I have a small collection that I have bought or been given as gifts, and then I dive into the shelves at the library and supplement with those as well.  However, lately I have discovered that cookbooks are not for collecting recipes.  Shocker!  I can do that anywhere, the internet is my favorite place to look up new delectable recipes.  What I use cook books for is their wealth of information.  Skim over the recipes, if one really catches your fancy make it, but read the introduction.  Getting cook books on a specific topic (I picked up one today on garlic) is best.  Learn all about that topic, learn about baking bread, learn about roasting, learn about cheese and wine and seafood.  The knowledge contained before and between the recipes in a cookbook can be difficult to find elsewhere and it's pure gold. 

Be Fearless

I grew up in a home where beef was served well done.  Whereas my husband grew up in a home where beef was served rare, on Christmas Eve each year his mother makes Prime Rib that is served to the table with a bloody circle pooling at the bottom of the dish (this took some time for me to get used to, and I still get the edge piece although I am finding beef is better pink than black). 

My husband loves his meat this way.  I was intimidated.  Fearful that any attempt to properly roast beef would end up in a charcoal-like mess (an expensive mess with the cost of beef currently), so I steered away from it.  Then one year my husband bought a quarter of a cow to stow in our freezer.  I was still scared and ended up putting most of the roasts in the crock pot and cooking them into tender stews.  This was good, but my husband complained that it was still probably a waste of a good cut of meat.  He was right, so when we went in on half a cow the next year I was determined to give up my fear of roasts and learn how to properly cook beef.  I went to the library and picked up 'All About Roasting' (I would check this book out three times and it is currently sitting on my Christmas list because I probably just need a copy on hand), and began my journey.  The first attempt was actually good.  Not great, but edible and my husband praised it.  As I made my way through the little white packages in the freezer I started getting more comfortable with my talents as a roaster.  I have yet to do a Prime Rib, but that has mostly been due to budget instead of fear.  One day I will splurge and throw one in the oven. 

This is how you make progress with your cooking skills, dive in.  Make mistakes and keep on trying.  I now make sourdough bread regularly, I roast, I bake, I make sauces, and even lasagna. 


This is not the end, I still have some things to figure out.  While I can make a mean sourdough from scratch I seem to be currently unable to make cut biscuits that rise, and I have yet to really master any kind of baked dish with a red sauce (they almost always end up too dry).  I am working on learning how to do more things from scratch and how to properly store my food so it is easier to use when it comes time to do actual cooking.  But I finally have a good set of skills under my belt and with some reading and experimenting I know I will figure it out someday.