Food

Cooking 101

By Linda Larsen, About.com Guide

Cooking and baking, like any other discipline, have their own language and specific rules. You need to know how to read a recipe, how to measure, doneness tests, and steps to take when cooking chicken under the broiler and baking chocolate cakes.

Learn to Cook
Learn to Bake
Step by Step Tutorials
How To ...
Food Safety

Email Classes
Appliances and Information
Videos
Nutrition

Learn to Cook

Cooking is making things like casseroles, sandwiches, soups, salads, and scrambled eggs. In other words, it's combining a variable amount of food, then reheating, or chilling, or serving right away. Cooking recipes are more tolerant than baking recipes; that is, you can substitute ingredients and change proportions and the finished product will still work.

Learn to Bake

When you bake you are creating a scientific formula with certain parameters that must be met. That isn't as hard as it sounds! Just learn how to measure, how to check for doneness, and a bit about the science behind baking and you'll be a pro. Learn how to read a baking recipe, how to measure, how to make breads, cakes, cookies, pie crusts, and check doneness tests.

Step by Step Tutorials

No matter how detailed a recipe is, there's nothing like actually seeing food prepared to help you learn how to make it. These photo tutorials will take you through recipes, step by step, to the perfect finish. The tutorials are always linked to the printable recipe in the first step. If you have ideas for more tutorials, let me know!

How To ...

Learn how to do everything from make a white sauce to stir up and bake a traditional cake. If you don't have pictures, this is the next best thing! Follow the easy steps and you'll have success. Learn how to do everything from make a white sauce to use filo (phyllo, fillo) dough, how to frost a cake, and my secret recipe for a foolproof hot water pastry.

Food Safety

No matter how quickly you can cook, or the recipes you choose, if you don't know how to safely prepare food and prevent contamination, all your work will be lost. Literally. The basic rule is 'when in doubt, throw it out' but there's a lot more to food safety than that pithy statement. Learn the basics of food safety, and general kitchen safety, then test your knowledge with some fun quizzes.

Email Classes

Sign up for these free email classes and not only will you get a recipe every day in your inbox, but seasonal weekly menus, and cooking lessons. Learn how to bake, how to make side dishes, how to prepare for Thanksgiving, and more. Be sure to sign up for each newsletter at the start of that month or season, because the newsletters begin immediately. Each month or season there will be a link at the last newsletter telling you how to subscribe to the next one.

Appliances and Information

There are lots of appliances you can use in the kitchen, but which ones are the best? Which will save you the most time? And what brands and types are the best buys? Should you buy an indoor grill, or a food processor? Do you need a full-sized food processor? And what kind of crockpot is best for your family? Find out, plus how to use them, along with some quick and easy recipes.

Videos

The best way to learn how to cook is to watch someone else in the kitchen. Children used to spend a lot of time helping and watching grandparents and parents in those big sprawling kitchens of yesteryear, before Wii and XBox lured them away. But don't fret - you can watch these videos! And they're not your grandmother's recipes, but they are just as good.

Nutrition

Even when cooking and baking in a hurry, you have to consider nutrition. Here are some quick and easy healthy recipes, suggestions about getting your kids to eat food foods, and some surprising facts about chocolate.

Busy Cooks

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