How to Cook: Building Blocks and 100 Simple Recipes for a Lifetime of Meals: A Cookbook

We are using this book to step through cooking techniques with our kids and it is great! It includes lots of tips and recipes that we can share with them as they prepare for life and cooking outside of our home.

This cookbook wasn’t really a how too and I don’t really love the recipes.

Great book for beginners & good for those who already know how to cook.

Great ideas

I received this as a gift. Following recipes has been my covid hobby, and the more complicated the better. Braising. Curries. Tikka masala. Shepherds pie completely from scratch. Bring it.So now I can follow a more complicated recipe and I have a few techniques. This book fills in the biggest gap I’ve had in “learning to cook,” the building blocks of the basics. The first section briefly touches on basics to always keep on hand and knife skills. In my favorite section, Hugh Acheson lists 25 building blocks for how to cook. Simple techniques on how to cook rice, make a simple tomato sauce, a vinaigrette, and how to pan roast salmon. He takes the time to explain why these essentials are important and includes reminders of how often you will use these basics over and over again.The rest of the recipes are great and are basically practice on the building blocks and how to experiment with them. They are reminders of why those building blocks are important. A Thai catfish dish will use three I just mentioned - you can pan roast the catfish just like the salmon, and use the tomato sauce and rice.I feel the net result of making the recipes in this book won’t be knowing I can follow recipes. Instead it will be knowing why those recipes work and how I can use them elsewhere. I’ve already started marking mine up with ideas. Highly recommended.

I purchased this book for my grandchildren. They are learning to cook. They are also homeschooling for the first time. I thought this book could be incorporated into their schooling. Good directions and explanations. I’ve even learned a thing or two!