r/Cooking • u/darxshad • 1d ago
Which cooking book that talks about the whys.
I've seen On Food And Cooking and The Food Lab recommended a lot. Which one would you prefer if you could only have one. When would one be better than the other? Other recommendations are certainly welcome!
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u/throwdemawaaay 1d ago
On Food and Cooking is authoritative, but it's also much more of a dense textbook. The Food Lab is a more mild introduction, but still firmly grounded in food science and tested recipes vs kitchen lore.
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u/blkhatwhtdog 1d ago
I like American Test Kitchen series because they do discuss the why along with the how. They'll look at various traditional recipes
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u/Dijon2017 1d ago
Which book will be better for you could depend on the author and your learning style. If you have questions about the different options, you may want to check with your local library to see if they have a few books available or can do inter-library loan so that you can sample them before you spend money to include them in your collection.
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u/ChemicalSand 1d ago
Go for The Food Lab. Kenji has taught me so much throughout the years. He also has a huge backlog of free recipes on Serious Eats.
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u/oceanteeth 20h ago
Sohla El-Waylly recently put out a cookbook called Start Here: Instructions for becoming a better cook, I think that's just what you want. She has a ton of content on youtube where you can see if the way she explains things generally works for you. I really like how she explains not just what to do but why it works and how you can modify it.
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u/todlee 1d ago
James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. The others may be good too but I learned to cook long before they were around. I stopped using recipes (complicated cakes being the only exception) after I'd worked through that book chapter by chapter. A chapter on roasting, a chapter on baking, a chapter on braising etc. There are some recipes, but they're meant as jumping off points.
It's why I love cooking.