First-time Cooking Starter Pack

It’s not unreasonable to find cooking for the First-Time daunting. There are plenty of folks that don’t know how to cook that are in their 20’s, 30’s, and even in their 40’s and beyond. For some of you, it’s because you never had to previously. For others, you have wanted to but don’t know where to start. For all of you, I wrote this starter pack guide of simple ingredients and recipes that will help you build a strong foundation for cooking just about anything.

Cooking is not a science and it doesn’t require you to follow strict guidelines all of the time. Yes, there are techniques and such to create very specific things which can be kind of cool but the essence of cooking is really more of an art-form. One where you’ll have your own style of cooking and the only important thing at the end of the day is whether or not someone will enjoy eating your food.

One thing to keep in mind is that this starter pack guide is not going to be a list of random recipes. It’s an ordered list of dishes and ingredients that utilizes the most common cooking methods that you’ll eventually use in more complex dishes. If you’re able to make several versions of these following items, then you’ll be 10x better of a cook than you were when you first started.

Alright, let’s get down to business.

1. Grilled Cheese

   You’ll learn the basics of searing in a pan when making a grilled cheese. You’ll also learn how to flip in a pan and how to visually and audibly tell what a good sear looks and sounds like.

2. Noodle Soup

   You’ll learn the difference between boiling and simmering when making noodle soup. It’s a simple dish to make with endless complexity due to what you can combine into your soup base.

3. Pasta

   Easy to start with, but hard to master. Similar to noodle soups, making pasta will teach you how to boil and simmer, but it’ll also teach you how to sauté.

4. Steak

   Searing a steak is the next level of searing and temperature control. Unlike toasting bread in a pan, cooking a piece of steak is more nuanced and will require you to watch the time more attentively. If you can sear a steak properly, you can sear anything.

5. Eggs

   The ingredient with the widest range of applications and possibly the most needy when it comes to timing and temperature control. It can be incredibly easy to make eggs as their most popular versions, but also incredibly hard to make when trying to obtain a certain texture.