Find the right cookbook

I could honestly spend hours in the cooking section of a bookstore. Learning to cook becomes almost an obsession when you start flipping through pages of countless books; mouth watering and stomach growling.

I've bought dozens of cookbooks, and honestly, I usually end up giving them away to friends and family. There are too many cookbooks catered to people with expensive kitchens and too much time on their hands. There are also too many cookbooks that forget to teach you, and instead just throw lists of ingredients, measurements, and cooking times at you. The beautiful pictures of perfect dishes only make it worse, when you compare the disaster you're attempting to enjoy.

I do have one or two favourite cookbooks, however. Not necessarily because of the recipes within them; many are dishes I would never be interested in cooking or eating. My favourite cookbooks are great because they really helped me learn how to cook, not just how to follow a recipe.

Choosing the best cookbook for beginners

Starting from the beginning, these are the things that make a good cookbook a great learning tool:

1. Lists essential equipment

When you flip through the pages of a cookbook and you see a section, usually near the beginning, that is dedicated to teaching what equipment you should have, how to use it, and how to care for it, you're in a good place. With such an overwhelming variety of tools and gadgets you can get for your kitchen, some direction is very helpful. Usually, these cookbooks will also list the equipment that you would need to go through all of the recipes enclosed. This is good because you can be confident that you're not going to turn the page to something that looks amazing, buy all of the ingredients, and start cooking only to realize you don't have an essential piece half way through.

2. Ingredients

Some cookbooks dedicate small sections in the beginning or throughout their various sections to ingredients and why you should have them. Not just a list of ingredients for a recipe, but tips for stocking your pantry, how to store food in your fridge, how long foods last, and so much more. Did you know that keeping your bananas with your other fruits and vegetables will make those fruits and vegetables ripen faster? This is a gift and a curse, since your produce can spoil faster than you expect it, or ripen sooner if you need it to. Great tip, right? From a great cookbook that taught me many more!

3. Lessons and techniques

What's the difference between dried ingredients and fresh ones? When should you use one over the other, or when can you substitute without sacrificing taste? How do you poach eggs? What do you do with left over ingredients? A cookbook shouldn't be just about the steps it takes to complete a recipe; it should have valuable lessons about the techniques you need to learn in order to cook well. If one cookbook has a great recipe that says "cook at 375 for 25 minutes" and another cookbook has a similar recipe but says "25 minutes at 375 will usually do it. You're looking for the sauce to reduce by about half and get nice and thick;" get the second book!

4. The recipes

This might be a no-brainer, but find a cookbook that is filled with recipes that you would actually love to have, and often. If you love Italian food, buy a cookbook with Italian recipes. If you love barbecuing, and the weather is nice enough year-round, buy a grilling cookbook.

5. Matches your lifestyle

If you don't have to feed a family of 5, don't buy a cookbook that has mostly larger quantity recipes. This might seem like a very minimal concern, but when you're just beginning to learn how to cook, wrapping your head around the different measurements and how the cooking time varies between a huge chunk of meat that would feed 5 versus your snack, it becomes very difficult to manage. Cookbooks that tailor to your lifestyle (including dietary preferences, obviously), will not only make your cooking more enjoyable, but will also help you plan out your grocery run and eventually save you money. Some recipes make for great leftovers, but you can only lasagna so many times in a row. If that lasagna recipe had been planned for one or two, you wouldn't have to throw it out 4 days later.

6. Categories

Categories within a cookbook help you out in many ways. It can be as simple as dividing up the recipes by meal, like breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It can be as helpful as separating everything into occasions, for example "cooking for friends" or "Sunday family roasts." And some even split their recipes by the main ingredient. Love lamb but don't know what to do with it? Check the 15 recipes that feature lamb as the main ingredient! It's a great way to plan not only a meal, but a whole week of grocery shopping.

There are many other features of a great and not so great cookbook. I have to admit that my favourites are written by the obvious celebrity chefs; Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey. There are many reasons why I like these books (they have sooooooo many!), but at the end of the day, these guys (and others like them) are not successful because they write terrible books. These books have made my cooking experience a pleasure and have honestly taught me about cooking, not just following a recipe.

If you're just learning to cook, feel free to subscribe to this blog! I write about my experience as someone who could barely boil water a few years ago, to someone who is comfortable and confident in the kitchen, loves to cook, and can put together a great dinner for date night or for a fun party with friends. It was a slow process, but I'd like to help you learn from my mistakes!