I dont really know how to cook.
Many people think learning how to cook is too hard, but its really not.
Heres how I got comfortable cooking, completely by accident.
Growing up, I never really learned to cook.
Heres what I learned, and all the ways I screwed up along the way.
This wasnt much, but it gave me a starting point.
I knew I wasnt going to immediately learn how to make chicken tikka masala, whatever that is.
But maybe I could figure out how to make a different kind of pasta.
My wheelhouse wasnt very big, but I knew what was in it.
The next step was to build on that.
Building on recipes I knew how to make wouldve been a smart thing to do.
Instead, I did the stupid thing.
An oven-baked flatbread Id eaten at Indian restaurants that I happened to love.
I am an idiot.
Unsurprisingly, it was a disaster.
However, the failure taught me an important lesson.Start with what you know.
This helped me grasp what cooking really was, more thanblindly following recipes.
Having most of the hard work already done allowed me to play around with the taste by itself.
Measuring cups, a set of pots and pans, and a few dishes.
I didnt even haveall the tools a well-stocked kitchen should have(and I still dont).
This was overwhelming at first.
Every recipe I found had a laundry list of things that they assume most kitchens just have.
Kitchen pros may have all that stuff sitting around, but I didnt.
Just acquiring all of these spices would cost more than the meal itself.
Thats a tough ask if yourenot in a good financial positionto buy a ton of supplies at once.
Fortunately, you dont have to buy everything all at once.
In the early days, I started buyingpre-mixed spices.
Think of it like easy mode for seasoning a dish.
Eventually, I adopted a long-term strategy that helped me stock my pantry without overwhelming my budget.
After that, each time I go grocery shopping, I could buy one bottle of spices.
Id either pick up a pre-mixed bottle, or one of the spices from my list.
Its worth pointing out, you could also buy spice racks that come pre-filled witha couple dozen basic spices.
This method also works if you could afford a bigger up front expense.
Especially if youre only planning to use a few of them in the near future.
Every time I bought a new ingredient or tool, it was on purpose.
I had a specific need that built on my existing knowledge.
Even if it was more expensive, it was worth buying my kitchen supplies piece by piece.
Mmm, delicious steak.
That would be good.
Now, there areall kindsof ways that cooking a steak can go wrong.
you’re free to get the wrong cut of meat.
You could fail to tenderize it, or tenderize it at all.
You could use the wrong marinade, or heaven forbid, marinate it.
You could use the wrong seasonings, or cook it the wrong way.
This process naturally requires some trial and error.
Error being the operative word.
Those first few steaks I made werent exactly great.
I bought some off-the-shelf seasoning, which was pretty good.
I quickly learned that failing a recipe wasnt as easy as Id thought.
Even if my first few steaks were objectively terrible.
This entire process was uncomfortable for me because Im used to having a right way to do something.
When I build a computer, for example, things are either connected correctly or they arent.
Theres no eyeballing it until it feels right.
Every step of cooking a steakand cooking in general, reallyruns counter to this punch in of thought.
All you have to do is make tasty, preferably healthy food.
Enter the slow cooker.
Eventually, I worked my way up to buying a slow cooker.
Read Lifehacker long enough, and youll start to think thatslow cookersaregods gift to cooking.
Thats because they are.
For one of my first recipes, I made a pot roast.
Much like that spaghetti Id learned to make so long ago, it was made from mostly pre-made ingredients.
I barely even thought about it.
When I come back in 6-8 hours, Ill have a delicious home-cooked meal.
It feels like cheating.
Slow cookers can make you feel really lazy, even though you just made a meal for four.
Thats not necessarily a problem, though.
How far back in the process do you really need to go before you feel like youve accomplished cooking?
Does it not count as cooking unless I mixed the spices themselves?
Do I have tomake my own broth?
How does one go about inventing a universe, anyway?
No matter how many times I cooked, I still felt like I didnt really know how to cook.
If you dontthinkyou can cook, youll be hesitant to try new and riskier things.
I might give off the impression that I experimented often.
Well, last week I bought a pressure cooker.
Clearly someone who cant cook has no business with such a unit, but I did it anyway.
So far, weve used it three times in my home with no major disasters.
The food was tasty, too.
Prior to this point, Id been making the same recipe on the stove.
The pressure cooker was just an easier, and theres nothing wrong with that.
And Im certainly not the best person to be giving advice.
Nothing here should be construed as thecorrectway to cook something, because what do I know?
Im handy enough in the kitchen, but theres still a lot I dont understand.
Thats the point, though.
If youre afraid of cooking, dont worry.
The worst that can happen is you make a meal that isntthatgreat.
Or youll end up crying over a pool of watery dough and then write about it on the internet.
Either way, cooking is an extremely accessible skill that benefits everyone.
Weve writtenroughlyabajillionarticlesto helpyoulearnhowto cookif youre new to it.
you might even check outour sub-blog Skilletfor nothing but cooking tips, all day every day.
My journey through learning how to cook will obviously differ from yours.
Most of the problems I had were purely psychological, and everyone learns differently.
Even if you screw up making a meal, its still better than eating fast food.
Photos byRobert Couse-Baker,Andrea Parrish - Geyer,Natalie Maynor, andNicole Abalde.
