can you teach me how to cook :(

[forkeeps]

i made spagetti meat sauce and surprisingly it tasted bad . another 3 dollars wasted. can that betty crocker teach everythin a newbie at cookin needs to know

[KYHeirloomer]

In this case, "bad" is a meaningless term.

Try and analyze exactly what about it you didn't like. Then we can try and correct your procedure or improve it.

I'm assuming you mean a tomato-based meat sauce? Let me walk you through the proceedure.

1. Sear the meat. Chopped beef should be fresh, with good color and aroma. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet (or work right in the pot you'll be using for the sauce) until it's very hot. Add the meat, breaking it apart as it cooks, until it turns gray and starts to brown. Drain it in a collander or strainer to get rid of the excess oil.

2. In a large pot, heat a tbls or two of olive oil. Add chopped onions and saute' (saute means to fry over high heat in very little oil) until onions turn transluscent. Add one or two garlic cloves, smashed. Lower heat and cook 30-60 seconds. Add chopped bell pepper. Cook until pepper is tender.

3. Return meat to pot and mix with veggies.

4. Add seasonings. Salt & pepper are basic. What else do you want? Italian sauce usually has oregano (but go easy on it, as it has a lot of reach). Red pepper if you want some heat.

5. Add the liquids. I would start with a large can of diced tomatoes, a couple of small cans of tomato sauce, maybe some red wine, and half a can of tomato paste. Stir this all together. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for about half an hour until the tomatoes have melted into the sauce. Continue cooking, uncovered, until sauce reaches your desired degree of thickness.

Once you have this basic sauce down to your satisfaction, you can then start experimenting with other ingredients, and in other directions.

[deltadoc]

Assuming that this is a serious post, Joy of cooking should be sufficient to teach you everything you need to know about cooking in general. Older editions are considered better resources than the latest edition.

Watch food network or PBS on weekends. There's lots of cooking shows, like America's Test Kitchen, that show simple cooking techniques and recipes for simple dishes. You can look up websites too, including this one which has a lot of recipes. There are others, that have cooking lessons en masse, like egullet.org

Necessity is the mother of invention. You have to eat. You have bascially two choices. Buy your food in a restaurant or make it yourself. Or a third possibility is to find a good friend that knows how to cook, compliment them like crazy, and maybe they'll invite you over everynight.



doc

[kuan]

First, spread the ground beef on the cutting board so it's about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Lightly salt and pepper. Then brown it in a skillet. Remove it when it's browned.

What are your other ingredients?

[KYHeirloomer]

The one thing to keep in mind with seasonings, particularly if you're unfamiliar with them, is to go easy. You can always add more, but removing too much is impossible.

Taste as you go along, adding more seasoning if you think it needs it.

Over time you'll develop a feel for how much of what to use.

[Osirus]

Ok the first thing that you need to do is get a cooking for dummies book, it will have most if not all of the basic terminology your going to need for starting your soon to be excruciating culinary life. Then you will be able to take any recipe step by step. That is exactly what I would recommend, find a recipe get all the ingredients measured and available for use when making your dish of choice, and take the recipe step by step. If you cannot follow ( understand ) the directions for a recipe I would either find a reputable translator or get some English lessons. If you are serious about cooking you also might want to get some items that will help, like a measuring cup and spoons, also a timer is good. Good luck and take your time, soon enough you will be creating your own dishes and you will be able to taste your victory.

[forkeeps]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

In this case, "bad" is a meaningless term.

Try and analyze exactly what about it you didn't like. Then we can try and correct your procedure or improve it.

I'm assuming you mean a tomato-based meat sauce? Let me walk you through the proceedure.

1. Sear the meat. Chopped beef should be fresh, with good color and aroma. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet (or work right in the pot you'll be using for the sauce) until it's very hot. Add the meat, breaking it apart as it cooks, until it turns gray and starts to brown. Drain it in a collander or strainer to get rid of the excess oil.

2. In a large pot, heat a tbls or two of olive oil. Add chopped onions and saute' (saute means to fry over high heat in very little oil) until onions turn transluscent. Add one or two garlic cloves, smashed. Lower heat and cook 30-60 seconds. Add chopped bell pepper. Cook until pepper is tender.

3. Return meat to pot and mix with veggies.

4. Add seasonings. Salt & pepper are basic. What else do you want? Italian sauce usually has oregano (but go easy on it, as it has a lot of reach). Red pepper if you want some heat.

5. Add the liquids. I would start with a large can of diced tomatoes, a couple of small cans of tomato sauce, maybe some red wine, and half a can of tomato paste. Stir this all together. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for about half an hour until the tomatoes have melted into the sauce. Continue cooking, uncovered, until sauce reaches your desired degree of thickness.

Once you have this basic sauce down to your satisfaction, you can then start experimenting with other ingredients, and in other directions.

i used this recipe for the spagetti

Spaghetti Italian - Allrecipes

i used ground beef instead of sausage and the can sizes are slightly off.

does it really make a difference if i cook it for one whole day? thats a lotta electricy. first time i did this recipe i cooked it for about 4-5 hours. 2nd time 1hr30min. tasted the same to me.

wat if i chopped the tomatoes myself? just seems kinda nasty to buy canned tomatoes. i cant use wine cuz im not old enough to buy it. when i brown the meat i take off big chunks and shape it into a ball then put it in the pan and break it apart.

wat are good ingredients to use for spagetti meat sauce? is the recipe i have good enough?

also, this is just ONE recipe. im hopin to have at least 5 in my arsenal very soon . ima buy the betty crocer and cookin for dummies books.

[bluezebra]

Ok well that sounds like a pretty basic recipe to me. What went wrong in your estimation and as KYH asked, what exactly didn't you like about it?

[KYHeirloomer]

I didn't see anything about the original recipe or your subs that would make it bad. Personally, in that particular sauce, I'd have left out the bay leaf.

Couple of things:

Where did that cook-all-day thing come from? Top of the recipe very specifically says cooking time is 1 hour. Not that longer cooking hurts that kind of sauce, but it isn't necessary.

Why are you shaping the chopped meat into balls, only to break them apart. Just break off hunks and drop them in the pot, and then break them apart. Again, what you're doing isn't wrong; just an unnecessary extra step.

There most certainly is nothing wrong with using fresh tomatoes you chop yourself. Just be aware that they will take longer to cook down than the ones in a can.

Based on personal preference (which you'll develop with some time in grade) you can either just chop the whole tomatoes, or you can peel, core, and deseed them. Tomato seeds often turn bitter, which is why most people remove them. If your sauce does turn bitter, a tablespoon or so of brown sugar will solve that problem.

Once more, though, you need to tell us exactly what you didn't like about the sauce you made. That's the only way we can help you fix it.

[cwshields]

I'll echo KYHeirloomer...what exactlly was wrong? Was it too sweet, sour, burnt, bland, salty, etc. Need to know this if you want to fix. This is an great example of learning how to cook, taste at various stages then figure out if there's something missing or too much of something. There are fixes for most and sometimes you just have to start over. Keep trying and cooking/seasoning will eventually make sense. Heck I've been cooking for over 40 years and am still learning. The best of luck and keep trying 'cause eventually the art of seasoning and timing will come to you.

[ChefRAZ]

lets start with pasta:

first buy the things you will need for it. witch could be (you can go the fresh route using real tomatos ,But I never have that kind of time anymore.)
tomato paste ,tomato sauce , extra virgin olive oil, fresh garlic, oregano fresh or dried. and the pasta, and salt and pepper. this will make a basic marinara sauce you can also use the net : I bought my computer and it cost a lot so I use it to find everything(getting my money's worth). when making recipes from someone else make sure you change up some things to make it yours.

How to Make Marinara Sauce - wikiHow

when you set the sauce off to the side get a skillet ready and put in 1/2 cup olive oil heat that up and then add three cloves of garlic turn the fire down to low and when the garlic turns light brown take it out,
salt and pepper the sauce that is on the side then toss it ( or some of it) into the olive oil stir to combine pour over pasta and toss it. that will make it tast-a-fratific-olisous. I want some now !!!!

cooking should be fun, its not like baking.

[forkeeps]

hmm, im not entirely sure wat was wrong. it was bland, didnt taste that great. i dunno wat to look for in the taste so i cant really tell you. but thx for all the help so far. and i think it was another recipe that said it was reccomended to cook longer for an hour, my bad

[Osirus]

Try this soup recipe pretty easy to do:
ingredients

1lb spicy sausage ( any )
6 strips bacon
11/2 lb gold potatoes/yukon
1/2 onion
2 tbl butter
2 cloves garlic
1 cup Kale, ( it by the greens )
1 pint heavy cream
2 cans beef broth
1 can water
salt n pepper to taste

do all of these things at the same time
1. cook spicy sausage ( frying pan ) drain a couple time to get red color out chops small pices
2. add butter chopped garlic and onion saute til tender 2-4 min
3. boil water beef broth then add potatoes cook til done
4. cook bacon, chop small pices
when all done
add bacon and spicy sausage potatoes together (big pot ) bring to boil add kale cook til tender lower heat to medium add heavy cream and let lower temp to emulsify togther couple mintues, salt n pepper to taste. cool and enjoy 4-6 servings

this is the sausage potato soups served at olive garden

[bluedogz]

i used ground beef instead of sausage and the can sizes are slightly off.

I suspect that might be the culprit of your bland taste- italian sausage is heavily seasoned, and ground beef... isn't. The can sizes shouldn't make too much of a difference if it's an ounce or two, I don't think.

My suggestion: before you try to alter recipes based on needs or desires, make them EXACTLY just once. Then you'll know what it's supposed to taste like, before you start messing around with it.

And I second the Betty Crocker book- still got mine on the shelf, all battered and stained.

[KYHeirloomer]

I suspect Bluedogz is right. If you make that recipe again, increase the salt and pepper. And try increasing the oregano by 50%. See it that doesn't perk it up a bit.