<p>I have dozens and dozens of cookbooks and like all of the suggestions above. I have 3 editions of Joy of Cooking including the one my mother had when she was married in 1947 (I don’t use it anymore, I just look at it).</p>
<p>My first choice for any new cook would be Joy of Cooking. For a second cookbook, I would go to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vols. I and II. </p>
<p>These two resources are so full of basics and technique that I think it’s valuable to have them right there open on the kitchen counter. After that, anything goes. And with online options now, you could stop at those two, imho. For recipes and recipe ideas, lots of cookbooks are fun as are online searches.</p>
<p>I have many of the cookbooks mentioned above. I also really like the Barefoot Contessa series (I have all of them). Great, foolproof, real life recipes.</p>
<p>The Sunset cookbooks are great… I like Easy Basics of International Cooking. I picked up a lot of basic cooking from my parents, but only for a few ethnic foods. (I am 25, so I’m not an “expert” at dishing up meals like many on this board probably are.) Most of them (I think) are out of print, but you can get used ones on Amazon for very little $$. </p>
<p>I get a lot of my recipes from the internet, I have to say. I like epicurious.com, because people have commented on each recipe, and a lot of them are competent cooks who will give good advice like “this is a great recipe IF you add a bay leaf and more salt.” </p>
<p>I thought this thread was going to be about books that tell you about all the interesting things you can do with Ramen noodles!</p>
<p>We bought a Rachael Ray 30-minute meals cookbook about two months ago, and it’s already permanently in the kitchen and spattered with various food items.</p>
<p>It’s good for us because we’re still learning how to improvise, and she’ll offer a few versions of a recipe so the reader can get a feel for what substitutions could be made. It’s also good for us because grad students don’t have that much time to cook dinner! ;)</p>
<p>I am glad that the thread title mentions “others.” I have a hard time believing that college students could possibly make any of the recipes included in the books cited above. S has a suite with a full kitchen. He and suitemates bought a 75-piece kitchen set and a blender. So far as I can tell, they’ve made milkshakes and opened a few cans of soup or ramen noodles. Epicurious.com? Nah! </p>
<p>Mollieb: I recall a graduate student (now a well-known physicist) who asked us how to boil an egg. Then there was the B-school student who asked how would one known when water was boiling…</p>
<p>Marite–yes, I can relate to that situation with your son…except that I am totally impressed that they actually bought a kitchen set. </p>
<p>The blender is indispensable these days. A hot pot (we have the T-fal Vitesse) is the other “so glad I have one of these” items. Boils water in 90 seconds for hot chocolate, soup, tea, etc. We have one at home and son has one at the dorm–I don’t use a teapot anymore, this is so much easier. Plus it has the auto turnoff, so no boiled-dry kettles.</p>
<p>My son would only use a cookbook to raise the level of a bookcase or something. But his roommate LOVES to cook. Some friends are in an on campus apartment with a full kitchen, and it sounds like they are making use of it. Even last year, in the dorm kitchen, roomie prepared elaborate fish or chicken dishes, and homemade ice cream. DS really did luck out in the roommate department!</p>
<p>Don’t generalize from his interests to all students. Some students, even undergrads, like to cook. Not routinely, but as a weekend event thing. My D finds it a good way to get friends together, and since she cooks, she gets to choose the menu. And some of the stuff she’s made is not simple, like cheesecake. (not the pour and chill kind…)</p>
<p>Yes, but S shares with 3 others. I was the one who suggested the 75-piece cooking set ($40 at Target). The blender was their idea; and it is the one utensil that seems to have gotten the most use.</p>
<p>newmassdad: I don’t think Marite was generalizing at all. That was a bit harsh. She was just observing that her particular group of students isn’t into cooking–yet. Maybe in grad school! I know that’s when I got interested in it, as it was indeed one of the ways we really enjoyed getting together. </p>
<p>Adding to the Sunset kudos (if this particular one has been mentioned, apologies as I haven’t read the entire thread): the Sunset Light and Healthy cookbook is one of my favorites and the recipes are indeed light and healthy, if your younguns are into that.</p>
<p>Marite—when I was in college, I did all my own cooking, using an electric frying pan and a toaster oven. I even made homemade bread, from scratch, in the toaster oven. (You can make pretty good flat bread in an electric frying pan, too.) I think those who want to cook find a way.</p>
<p>My daughter uses epicurious a lot, although she often finds a recipe on it, emails me the link, and then we discuss where the recipe can be simplified, made tastier, etc. Her apartment has a full kitchen and she likes to plan meals with her friends. </p>
<p>My son has three roommates this year and an apartment with a real kitchen; he’s moved out of the dorm. He approaches cooking like a chemistry experiment: if you follow the recipe, it will work. Which is why the quality of the cookbook is so important.</p>
<p>I bought them each a copy of “Help My Apartment Has a Kitchen” about two years ago and they’ve outgrown it and given it away, but I agree it’s a good starter book.</p>
<p>I think I’ll talk to them before moving on to Julia Child, who seems to be the next logical step.</p>
<p>Obviously, students differ hugely. S and his chums live within walking distance of a Trader’s Joe and have apparently bought lots of junk food. S claimed that the refigerator was too full to accommodate a bottle of milk (which we said we would bring so that he would have something before lunch at 1pm).<br>
Maybe it’s a matter of age. S1 is beginning to be interested in how to cook things, not just what’s in the plate in front of him. Perhaps I’ve got two slowtops? Or perhaps it’s genes: I did not learn how to cook until I got married–but I got married fairly early.</p>
<p>Well, I was married a month before I turned 22, but probably didn’t really learn to cook for the first five years! H likes to tease me about Hamburger Helper, but I really was TOTALLY clueless in the kitchen. I don’t know what I would have done without my Betty Crocker cookbook. It has great recipes for even simple things like meat loaf or how to roast a turkey. H did say recently (after 25+ years of marriage) that I’ve become quite a good cook. But it’s taken a very long time!</p>
<p>you mean "I have a hard time believing that college students could possibly make any of the recipes included in the books cited above. " is not a generalization?</p>
<p>OH. </p>
<p>I guess we took different interpretative reading classes.</p>
<p>Notice that the sentence which you so kindly quote begins with I. It means I, me, myself, ego and no one else. Generalization? hmmm… But thank you for enlightening me about students others than those I know personally.</p>
<p>So if one says “I believe” then whatever follows is not a generalization? How interesting. </p>
<p>And the statement “college students” does not really mean what it says, that it only really means “some college students”? Or maybe “the college students that I believe in?”</p>
<p>Oh. Guess I’m still learning.</p>
<p>Perhaps, then, someone could give me an example of what a generalization is, since I don’t seem to see the fine distinction, and a lot of the flame wars seem to erupt here on CC because of the issue of generalizations.</p>
<p>All right, I have been enlightened (me, myself, and no one else) about the culinary practices of college students. All those gourmets with space for masses of ingredients, not to mention cookbooks…</p>
<p>dmd: I highly recommend the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I gave a copy to my daughter, who is living in her first apartment this year. She and her roomates are cooking fairly regularly. It does a great job of teaching the basic techniques and skills to the beginner who really wants to learn to do it right. Lots of great recipes, for beginners and seasoned cooks alike. Comes in a cool, Betty Crocker-esque binder. My Costco has them right now for a great price, too.</p>
<p>I started learning how to cook when I failed at making grilled cheese sandwiches for my HS sweetheart freshman year of college. He broke up with me the next day. I never found out if it was the burnt grilled cheese that was the final straw, but I figured I’d better shape up. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know now if it’s my fiance or me who’s the better cook – we make dinner together all the time, and it’s been a while since just one of us made dinner alone. We make a good team, though!</p>