How do I start properly cooking?

How do I start properly cooking?
I know your immediate answer is "cook more". I already do cook, but I'm just shit at it.
Nothing I make has any complexity to it, it's nothing but simple 4-5 ingredient recipes, mostly just pasta based.
I want to figure out how to make fucking great sandwiches or soups or traditional meat+sides dinners. I just don't know where to start, there's such an overwhelming number of recipes to choose from and I lack the knowledge to tell if it's actually a good recipe or if its Aunt Jamima's Super Secret Home Cookin that'll taste like shit.

stop using recipes dumbass. if you want to get better, learn how food works and stop using the lego instruction book that comes in the box. having a general knowledge of what ingredients work well together and how to prepare basic elements like sauces/different types of cuts/different cooking methods/etc equips you to deal with even ingredients you've never used before.

Just cook more.
More things.
Im sure you can google "complex recipes" or something similar. Aside from working in the industry there really isnt anything you can do. Maybe find cooking enthusiast groups? That may be hard even in a big city though.

Yes, okay, but *how do I do that*
Are you suggesting I just randomly try ingredients together? That seems like it would take me just shy of a millennium to get anywhere.

Okay, here are some cooking essentials. Learn these things, and you'll be a much better cook.
>searing meat
>sweating/sauteing vegetables (and knowing when to do which)
>deglazing
>making a roux
>braising
>blanching
>reducing sauces
>building flavor by tackling each ingredient one step at a time rather than throwing them all together at once
>balancing flavors
The last one is the hardest, as it requires the most experience, but it should come as you master the others.

inb4 everyone says eggs

YouTube

Basics with babish
Hellthy junk food
The wolf pit
Brothers green eats
Cooking with Boris
Food wishes
That should be enough for now

>Binging with babish
Disregard this post.

Sounds like you're stuck in a rut. Try recipes from different cultures even if they dont sound appealing.

He said basics with babish.

Disregard this post too.

just to add, it could help open you up to more flavor profiles and cooking methods.

And this one for good measure.

I need to practice searing, and I actually can make rouxs and bechamel sauces (pretty much the only real cooking technique I have under my belt), but I'll definitely practice those other ones. They seem pretty essential.

A bit yeah, I do plan on making sunbudu jjigae when I get a chance to visit the korean market, it's a really simple recipe and Future Neighbor has a video on it, looks really simple and that shit is DELICIOUS.

What do have against it?

Babish is a mediocre cook at best. Great presenter, but a genuinely mediocre cook. I would not rely on him for learning anything.

stick to simple recipes.
Go get a package of veal scallopini, white wine (vermouth), lemons, capers

Dredge in flour and make it one at a time for everyone in your family, apartment building..whatevers.
that should be enough training for a week, practice it.
Flatten some pork tenderloin and practice the same technique.

just b urself!

nah but seriously, work on technique, then work on flavor, then work on ingredients, then bring it all together. time and attention to detail is your friend.

try Mexicans dishes, there is more than tacos and burritos. Most of them are stews and soups and not hard to do

Learn techniques not recipes. If yoy want i can post stuff from this in a bit, anyone but a master chef, or someone who went to culinary school and learned from it anyhow can lesrn something new from it

Taste your food as you cook it

how do you taste a steak as you cook it?

Why are you starting out with steak?

Start out with soups and pasta dishes

ok, but how do you taste a steak as you cook it?

You don't you dumbass, you salt it properly and use the correct techniques unless you're making a pan sauce (you can taste that one as you go)

You can touch with your finger and lick it

You should touch it to feel when its done to your liking anyways

taste as you cook
don't taste as you cook

got it! thanks Veeky Forums!

Obviously baked goods and large pieces of meat are the exception, jackass. It's part of why they're harder to perfect than soups or vegetable dishes.

lick the surface every 30 secs

Fuck off redditfaggot

Salt.

Okay, thread's over, he's beyond retarded.

taste some foods; don't taste other foods.
Cook soups and stews in the summer.
Thanks Veeky Forums!

Faggot, the only thing you give a shit about after you've seasoned it and start cooking is the internal temp. You're dealing with a hunk of meat, you don't taste it until it's done.

>summer
Ahh, so you're Australian. It all makes sense now. Shouldn't you be at work?

He’s not a five star chef, but his basics series is good for learning how to cook steaks, chicken breasts, and sauces Like you would get at a nice restaurant.


Could you provide an example of what you would do better?

FUCK OFF BABISH

Well, for me, I picked up some advice from a friend (1990 or so, before internet really). He taught me how to recreate a recipe that I verbal explained to him. Breaded chicken cutlets with a basil-pesto reduced cream, roasted walnuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. I know it sounds pretty simple, but I was coming from my mom teaching me how to microwave pre-formed beef patties so I didn't starve while they were on vacation.
He also talked me through (I would go to his house and get instructions, then take it home and make it) potato gnocchi, lemon thyme chicken, paté, and a few other random foods.
Then I got a gift cookbook that was really broad and fairly medium difficulty. I made quite a few of the recipes repeatedly and kinda got it down. All I really remember was a flank steak recipe that was really good and this layered meringue and berry cake which was a PITA. Also croissants. I was kind of out of control about stuff I was just winging. My spaghetti sauce, in retrospect, was pretty cringe -just pull out all your Italian herbs and spices and dump them in mass amounts... kinda like that guy who does those reddit meme verticals and think he's being all pro because he doesn't use pre-made spice mixes, yet uses all canned ingredients.
Years passed.
Then I started working in this kinda nicer restaurant as a prep/dish. That lead to line cook. And that's when I really started learning. I was put in charge of soups and was given
>pic related
as a guide. I took it home and eventually read it front to back in my off time. It really taught me a lot of what I know now. That is to say, it taught me to research and read about food. And it taught me about balancing flavors. It's a really good book (or at least it was for me at the time in ~'97).
Lots and lots of reading.

Still in the industry. Still learning. Don't ever stop learning.
What's the adage? “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.”

My advice is to start with one dish that you really like. For me it was burgers. Find a good recipe and make it every week. A good resource is serious eats, particularly the food lab as they go in depth I to the construction of the recipe. Keep making your chosen dish and try to improve on it every time. Take notice of how every flavour impacts the dish as a whole. Experiment with altering the seasoning, or use a different recipe. Keep the elements you like and discard to one's you don't. After a while you will start to understand how all the elements work together, and how to adjust the seasoning to get it just right. Once you have perfected it, pick another dish. Keep doing this until you can confidently adjust the flavour of anything you make by taste.

healthy junk food is pants on head retarded

I don't trust a man who can't make a hamburger to teach me basics on anything

Also, of you want to make good meat get a good leave in or instant read digital thermometer, or if you really want to get crazy buy a sous vide

disregard anyone who talks about recipes.
Learn techniques and ratios.
stock/soup making/thickeners
saute/searing
braising/stewing
roasting/rotisserie
then learn the standard ratios to:
doughs/batters
stocks
fat sauces (mayo, vinaigrette, hollandaise)
and custards

Define "properly cooking"

Some of the best dishes use 4 to 5 ingredients.

>He’s not a five star chef
Well, he's not a chef at all.
>but his basics series is good for learning...
Okay, I can see that.
>Like you would get at a nice restaurant.
Friend... no.

>Could you provide an example...?
I know what you are tying to say. There are thousands of better YT cooks (even chefs!) out there. I'm sure you've heard of a lot of them, but check out this guy:
Cooking In Russia
It's not as glossy and produced, but it teaches a lot of technique and anecdotes that you're not going to get from an amateur cook.