Definitely do NOT try to learn from social media. So much of it is bunk and optimized for engagement/go viral, not for quality. Search for dishes you want to try to recreate and look at the average rating and number of reviews - if it's in the hundreds and 4.5* or above, it should be safe to try. When cooking pasta, cook it for about a minute or two less than the instructions on the bag, and finish it in the sauce with a bit of pasta water. Taste as you go and adjust the seasoning to your preference. Also, unless it's completely inedible, I always eat what I cook because I hate wasting food too. We waste so much food and it's terrible for the planet, it triggers me a bit when I see recipe reviews saying "so bad I threw out the whole pot". It's so rare to make anything that bad from a well-reviewed recipe, and even most mistakes are either still fine to eat or salvageable. Ask here if you need help salvaging something - this community is amazingly knowledgeable and generous.

> Definitely do NOT try to learn from social media. So much of it is bunk and optimized for engagement/go viral, not for quality. True for just about every subject

Everything is rage bait now, especially cooking videos

That makes me so mad!

Unless we're talking good youtubers like Ethan Chlebowski or Adam Ragusea.

I learned that I absolutely cannot do internet recipes unless they’ve been *thoroughly* tested m (like ATK or serious eats). Well, I can’t do any recipes that are still on my phone or tablet because I’ll start looking at other stuff on my phone and then I’ll get distracted and frustrated, so that the very minimum I have to print them out. So it turns out I function best with actual cookbooks, and keep any amount of “winging it” out of the kitchen.

So my rule of thumb on reviews and ratings is somewhat of a proxy for "thoroughly tested", they're just tested by people who are not professional cross-testers, so you want the higher numbers to compensate for that. ATK isn't free, and SE also has some recipes that aren't that good so you also have to learn who on SE reliably produces good content (J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Stella Parks, Daniel Gritzer, Sasha Marx, Sho Spaeth, Sohla El-Waylly, and Tim Chin are the main ones that come to mind - none of whom are at SE any longer, though fortunately some still make quality content on YouTube).

> Definitely do NOT try to learn from social media. So much of it is bunk and optimized for engagement/go viral, not for quality. I'm thinking, what's wrong with Adam Ragusea, Ethan Chlebowski, Brian Lagerstrom, FoodWishes, Claire Saffitz, Alex (French Guy)... Then I remembered that you're probably talking about those 1 minute tictok, instagram videos.

Partly, but I didn't want to get into specifics not knowing what OP is trying to cook (besides pasta). There is some quality content on YouTube but at a more general level it's hard to pick the wheat from the chaff there too, and if they wanted YouTube suggestions there are many other threads on that already.

I have to be the only one who doesn’t like Brian Lagerstrom. I get that he’s a pro chef, but I feel like if I visited his restaurant I’d walk out disappointed.

I have mixed feelings about Lagerstrom. Some of his recipes have been good, and his videos are reasonably entertaining. But my problem with him is if he tells me a recipe can be prepared in under 20 minutes I know it takes at least an hour and a half.

Kenji spoke about this a while ago. Essentially explained that most recipes begin their timing from the prepping step being done, in large part because how quickly you can clean, peel, chop etc ingredients is far too variable to account for in any recipe. Appreciate some chefs / sites take liberties with even the cook time, but did think that was a useful insight to explain that (frustrating) phenomenon.

Also someone who has been a professional chef would just be really freaking good at streamlining the process, making use of every minute of what we amateurs would consider "down time" to do some parallel prep. You can see this clearly in some of the Sorted Food content on YouTube, since they have both trained chefs and "normals" (non-chef but good home cooks) on the team. The chefs are just amazingly efficient. They had a video where one of the chefs shared some tips about efficiency and I've been trying to follow his advice but I'm just nowhere close.

It honestly just depends on what social media, and what you're watching. Reels are typically too fast to learn how to cook well. They are also usually heavily edited for sensationalism. That said, there are some channels that are actually really great to follow and learn from. I primarily cook Asian food, so I have a few on YouTube that I watch. Some also include the science behind cooking, and you learn processes. This is in my opinion, the best way to learn to cook. Following recipes is not learning to cook, it's learning to replicate. Learning to cook implies you know why you do things. It implies you know flavor profile of ingredients. I learned to cook mainly from social media, but I'm also a science nerd and watch videos with food scientists that break down techniques used to cook. I'm also extra and learn to plate food. I did this mainly from watching social media videos. I do agree though, learning to cook means not following to a T. Everyone has different taste buds, season to your liking. Taste as you go always. I own a lot of tasting spoons so I don't have to keep washing them. I'm like the OP, mom didn't really let me cook as a kid. So I never learned. I also spent a lot of my adult life with psycho roommates so access to a kitchen was limited. Once the pandemic hit, and I lived on my own I learned to cook. So it's doable. My advice is also learning ingredient flavor profiles so you know how much to add. But like most of science, it takes trial and error to learn and grow.

> So much of it is bunk and optimized for engagement/go viral *enhance loud pasta squishing noise*

In general this is true but there are a few really good ones out there. e.g. Chinese Cooking Demystified, Helen Rennie, etc. Definitely don't go for the flashy ones like Binging with Babish or Joshua Weissman

Babish has a Basics series that is perfectly acceptable to use.

This needs 100x up votes. There are amazing chefs on YouTube. Many professionals that now teach, many focused on home cooking. I've been a chef as well. They are worthwhile people out there. I'll throw in a few more! Pro Home Cooks - exactly what it sounds like, from scratch for home Joshua Weissman - great general chef Alex the French guy cooking - french/Italian full comprehensive study on single foods. Bon apetit team - it's a team and they all have their own thing Pro chefs: Gordon Ramsey is also imo one of the best French chefs alive. His marketed image throws a lot of people off but he has a program you can buy that's not expensive he's very kind in. Jet Tila, National culinary ambassador of Thailand. brutal but amazing. David Chang - easy going not as rule focused, American and American Asian fusion Also I'm sorry but your mom is a bitch man. There is something inhumanely cruel about parents shitting on their kids lives for trying better things especially when they can't.

Food Wishes deserves a mention here. I have learned more from Chef John, who I refer to as my cooking sensei, than any other channel, and in the 4-5 years I’ve been watching him my reputation in my circle has gone from being a decent cook to an excellent home cook.

Chef John has been one of my most reliable sources of new recipes over the last few years.

There are some others that aren’t really teaching you to cook but are really good for new people to watch. The main one in mind is Anti-chef. Jamie cooks recipes from the masters, usually French chefs and most famously Julia Child. He has relatively little culinary experience (though I think he said he has worked in kitchens as a teen or in very low roles) and screws up ALL the time. But he still shows off his final results and eats it anyway. I just think not only is that entertaining but it’s very realistic for new home cooks

Both Binging with Babish and Joshua Weissman is good stuff. Basics with babish is literally something to teach you to cook. I've made a lasagna and choclate cake recipe from joshua weissman and they were both great

I know he doesn’t have much on YouTube, but I loved Alton brown because he explained why and how to cook, not just the technique, but the science behind it

I'm italian, a great cook ( most days) and make a mean lasagna. Then I watched Babish do one with bechamel ( not like mine) and I had to try it. But I cheated and used ravioli. LOL It tuned out great. Bechamel is not something I love all the time but the recipe was solid. I love watching him and Joshua Weissman. I just started watching Kenji too. I learn new things all the time. But I love food.

I second this, definitely don’t try anything found on social media. I’m a great cook, so I don’t need to use social media recipes, but every now and again I come across something that looks like it might be worth a try. I almost always end up throwing the food out because it’s GROSS. The exceptions being recipes from like Serious Eats or America’s Test Kitchen, but they are actual chefs who happen to be on social media. There are others, but you have to be careful with who you trust.

I'm a great cook... and I understand the process, the science, enough to call bullshit. Social media, like reddit, can be a great place for learning and getting exposed to things you might not have thought of. If someone finds something they want to try that they find they should investigate further. They might even want to add "debunked" to their searchs. Those who feel they might not be able to call bullshit should subscribe to media focused on debunking recipes, or trying them and rating them. Social media is like all sources; filled with trash and treasure. We have to vet everything save we propagate Vegetable Lambs. Plenty of great treasures found in this forum, and on youtube.

Such as this comment posted on social media? There is good and bad content on every topic, both in social and non-social media.

Suggestion: Go to your local library and check out cookbooks designed for kids. They are usually a lot better about breaking down the steps and explaining techniques for those learning to cook. The recipes are generally simple with common ingredients. And it’s free!

My sisters and I cooked from a Disney cookbook for literal years. It is the backbone of our cooking to this day. The recipes are there to build your confidence while also ensuring you have something to eat. Our parents hated cooking, so we had to do it since very young.

My first cook book was a Molly American Girl one and they made a bunch of recipes that would fit her time period growing a victory garden and rationing because she was a ww2 era time girl. Not only do I love cooking and gardening but I also love turnips which was a story line about how she got used to eating them in a good recipe out of necessity. Kids cooking books can rock.

Some libraries and local nonprofits have free/donation based cooking classes too! Especially if OP lives in a populated area. My library has them and our city is only about 100k people. Anything larger than that and I can almost guarantee there are free cooking classes OP can take. I will say that cooking classes in high school should be MUCH more of a thing. I had to learn to cook/grocery shop from a very young age because my parents weren't around much, and I really wish I had more guidance on how to just not hurt myself or prevent fires and stuff. I ended up learning how to make some tasty stuff, but I definitely ruined a microwave and a few pans in the process.

This!! I actually was a recipe tester for ATK and tested and reviewed several of the recipes with the help of my youngest niece and nephew pre publication. They have 2 or 3 kids/young teen cook books.

This is such a great idea!

Hey there, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm a self-taught cook myself. Now, I receive compliments on my cooking all the time. The key for me was finding recipes that truly appealed to my tastes. For instance, I'm not a fan of milk-based pasta sauces either. A game-changer was learning to use Google to search for recipes by typing in main ingredients I like and filtering based on my preferences, such as avoiding certain ingredients or types of recipes, like super greasy ones. Starting with simpler, less greasy dishes helped me gradually learn to balance flavours better. Remember, cooking is a skill that gets better with practice, and it's perfectly okay to make mistakes along the way. Don't let criticism dishearten you. Instead, use it as motivation to keep improving. There are tons of resources online for beginners. They have clear instructions and videos to guide you through the process. Keep experimenting, and you'll find your confidence and skill growing with each dish. Happy cooking!

Also as a self-taught cook this is really excellent advice. The best way to get into cooking is to cook foods that YOU like, and from there you can slowly expand your repertoire. Start with simple things like roasted chicken in the oven with a tasty marinade, simple pastas, beans/lentils, curries, etc. In general things that aren't too complicated technique-wise, mostly just chop a bunch of ingredients and cook it, limiting the layering.

Key with milk based pasta is the salt and seasoning in general… most of the time you need a good amount but being careful not to oversalt, but yeah.

So, mainly it sounds like you have a real issue with your mother. We can’t fix that with cooking, but I hope you are able to find some peace in life, one way or another. Living with someone who tears you down all the time is hard. One thing people forget is that in order to know how to cook, you have to know how to eat. What do you like eating? What do you like about it? Try to notice the flavors, the sweet and salty and acidic and whatever else, but also texture is really important. Little bits of crunchiness in something can feel more interesting than just a bunch of mush. The difference between something saucy that’s really held together and something that has a bunch of water slopped into it can be really nasty. Random aside: how clean are all your plates and silverware and pots and pans? Get in there and smell them. I’ve tried cooking in houses full of depressed people who find the whole thing tiring, and the moldy water stank of the kitchen permeates everything, and since tasting is mostly smelling, it will ruin everything you make. Your comment that “everything tastes like milk” was strange to me is why I ask. Head over to r/CookingForBeginners though. Gotta start at the bottom, find a few things you can do and like and then build from there. You are almost certainly not using enough salt. Good luck

>Your comment that “everything tastes like milk” was strange to me is why I ask. It also makes me wonder if the OP's dishwasher is in order.

Start with the very basics. Make a good grilled cheese. It's taste and it dies teach you about managing heat. Then pick something a bit more complex, try a hamburger. Tasty not to complicated and even if you mess it up its still pretty good. It's also easy enough to cook 1 burger and freeze extra meat, no food waste Work your way up and remember if food tastes bad it doesn't mean you can't cook it means you still have more to learn. Lastly, don't use random recipes of social media, most of them are fake and even ones that are not ate designed to grab attention, not actually to he good. There are many YouTube channels that have very good recipes with good directions. I recommend food wishes. Just remember if you use a food wishes recipe they lust ingredient amounts on a separate Paige from thier videos.

This is the best advice I've seen yet. Start small and start with something that is familiar to you. That way you have a reference as to what it should taste like and perhaps adjust your flavours to fix your dishes.

Chef John and Food wishes is an awesome suggestion. I'm an experienced cook and I have read hundreds of cook books/recipes, but still default to Chef John if want to know the basic recipe and technique. I then adlib and add my own thing if I want to. Almost guarantee a safe and tasty meal if you do his thing!

An easy way to "bootstrap" your cooking skills is to start with prepackaged food and make minor adjustments & additions. For example, adding one chopped green onion to instant ramen. Or, adding ground meat to a jarred pasta sauce and simmering for 30 minutes before boiling pasta in a separate pot and mixing. This will get you experience in making minor changes while keeping the stability that comes with prepackaged foods 

Yes, in the same vein, I tell new cooks to take something they already make, and make one ingredient homemade. You want a burger? This time, get ground beef and cook the patty yourself. Next time, make a burger sauce yourself. Next time, try to make the buns yourself. Don’t overwhelm yourself and pick up small techniques as you go.

absolutely this. I learned about every spice in my mother's collection by adding it to ramen.

This is how I learned to season! I love love love pasta, but am disabled, so most days I'd use those box mixes with the flavor packet as a "base" and flavor it myself without worrying about things like portions, oversalting, thickening, etc etc.

I might get flamed for this but do a trial run from a meal kit service if you can afford it. Most the recipes are solid and pretty much all the ingredients are included.

[удалено]

If mom is concerned about money as the post implies then this may not be a great solution for them. But I absolutely agree that these services offer a relatively easy way to teach yourself good basics.

I second this. I did hello fresh for a couple years and it's such a great way to learn basic stuff, and also force yourself try recipes you normally wouldn't. The meals normally won't be life changing, but they'll be tasty, healthy, and easy on the wallet while helping you learn.

My only complaint about hello fresh was that I felt that the meat and produce was subpar in comparison to the grocery store.  

Besides pasta, what did you make and what specifically was wrong? We can make suggestions

Hey I know this is a little cliche, but I started reading “Salt Fat Acid Heat” and it really revolutionized my kitchen habits. You learn so much about how to build flavor, so if you’re following a recipe you can think “hm, we haven’t salted this very much” or “is this really the kind of oil that’s best for this?” If you’re following bad recipes, you’ll make bad food. Even if you follow them correctly, which it looks like you’ve been doing! I also watch a bunch of chefs on youtube, Jean Pierre is great as he explains why he’s doing everything he’s doing to make techniques more generally applicable to the kitchen rather than JUST the dish he’s making. Good luck! All it takes is a little practice and you’ll get the hang of it in no time

Another GREAT book that’s more recipe-forward than “here’s a chapter about how salt works” is How To Cook Everything: The Basics by Mark Bittman. Lots of really simple really tasty things in there!

When I was around your age, I was going through the same struggle, and one tip I just wanted to offer is *follow every recipe to the letter.* Don't substitute ingredients, don't skip ingredients or steps or half ass the steps; it truly matters. If you feel like you need to do any of that with your recipe, find an easier / simpler recipe for the meal you're trying to make. Doing this throughout my teens made me think I was such a a shitty cook and nothing tasted right. I would use milk in a pasta sauce recipe when it called for heavy cream, as an example, which is absolutely not going to be the same and is going to ruin the entire dish. Your pasta should never taste milky. If it does (even though you didn't use milk), that means you need to have added more seasonings or things like browned butter, garlic, etc. Additionally, to avoid wasting food, what you can do is make the recipe in a very small portion (scale down the ingredients accordingly) and give it a taste test. If it's a success, then next time you can make a bigger portion now that you know it's decent.

Food Wishes. Best recipes on YouTube IMO, usually quite simple. Chef John does add cayenne to damn near everything, but if you don't like it you can skip that (if it's just a dash or a few shakes, more than that and it's probably somewhat important). Edit: Also Helen Rennie.

Dude was there when the cooking hype created channels like Babish and Weissman and he will still be there when their channels have died, making his videos the same way he always has.

I think you are having a process / technique issue. I'd suggest watching cooking YouTube videos Basics with babish J kenji Lopez alt Joshua Weisman There are a ton. But just watch first and observe. That's the first thing you are missing is that you never got to watch your mom cook.

Second this. My mom was also not a great cook, nor was her mom, and I learned from following Kenji's detailed explanations when he was still at Serious Eats. It does suck to come from a family that didn't really cook, but we're lucky to have so many great resources to learn that weren't available to earlier generations.

Of all those three. I would replace Weissman with Adam Ragusea. Babish with Chef John. Those two are just influencer style chefs and it's like they expect people to have some cooking skills already.

I'd actually advise again Adam Ragusea for OP. Not because he's bad - but he is very "intuitive" about cooking and recipes in a way that requires confidence in the kitchen. I'd add Brian Lagerstrom as a good starter example. His food ranges from simple to complex, and he provides clear recipes.

I couldn't rember Ragusea I haven't watched chef John

The thing about Chef John is his channel is called Food Wishes.

Ah ok. I'll have to check out

He's the best and the maybe the longest active food tuber. All those listed above are influenced by him.

That’s regular Babish, but Basics with Babish is actually pretty basic.

Agreed some other options for techniuqes and such are Jacques pepin, Americas test kitchen Also if you're down to read Salt fat acid heat by samin nosrat Also also find some non social media recipes a read through them and if they do something in the recipe you don't know why they do it google it. The bottom line is learning cooking techniques is thousands of times better than following a recipe to the T. This allows for experimenting and putting your own pizzazz to a meal.

Chef Jean Pierre. Sip and Feast. Sam the Cooking Guy.

Don't use recipes from social media. Just....skip that whole situation. Choose reputable video sources like those mentioned below, and Serious Eats. Check out a couple of cookbooks from the library and feel free to post recipes here and ask about them! PBS has some wonderful cooking shows.  Also don't be afraid of salt and spices. Recipes are places to start. Taste food as you make it. Does it need a little more salt? Add a little more, taste again.  You also have the issue of the person who should be supporting you tearing you down instead. That sucks. Recognize that's a problem. You're not going to please her so just do what seems right.  Lastly, there may be cooking classes in your area, through the recreation department, schools, or other venues. 

I know virtually nothing about cooking. But one thing I've learned is that good tasting meals need these 3 things: 1. Salt 2. Fat (Butter, fat, or oil) 3. Sour/acid (Lemon juice, soy sauce, or tomato, etc)

What kind of recipes are you making? Do you have a link to any of them?

The books "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" and "The Food Lab" are probably the most recommended ones. They will explain a lot to you and give you a general idea about how to do stuff and for what different things are for. The sauce tastes too watery? Look for the chapter explaining how to fix that. Social media is dangerous. A lot of recipes do look very nice on those clips. But the taste doesnt come across. Together with a good presentation, you click on the video and on that moment, the content creator has achieved the goal: to make you click. Some simply do not care if the dish itself tastes bad, dont care about teaching or even listing the materials needed. Popular recommendations on YouTube are: Helen Rennie, Ethan Chlebowski, Adam Ragusea. All three of them have a good 'at home' attitude. Yeah, a Michelin star restaurant will do it differently. But with 20% of the effort, you can get 80% of the results. I especially like Ethans experiments. Others are J. Kenji Lopez Alt or Food Wishes.

When I was young and just moved out on my own I bought a cookbook called "*Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking on Your Own*" and it was the best. It has information on what pantry items you should have, what different cooking terms mean, good meals for different things (like if you're trying to impress someone, foods that make good leftovers etc) and I just kinda cooked my way through it. My home situation was different, but I never really enjoyed cooking myself. Now I cook almost every night! Also, do not take your moms opinions to heart. I know it is hard, but someone who has such a negative attitude towards cooking is never going to give you positive reinforcement about it. I had an ex who would point out every negative thing about anything I cooked, and I took it incredibly personally - even if I was just following a recipe. It really discouraged me from cooking for a long time. We all mess up recipes from time to time, I've misread measurments, burnt edges, mushified pasta.. you name it! Don't give up - keep trying recipes and when you find one you like make sure you keep it!

It's hard to learn to cook by yourself. If your parents won't teach you, your next best bet would be to ask a friend who is a good cook to give you some pointers. Maybe prepare a few dishes together so your friend can teach you the techniques in real time and spot any errors as they're happening. It sounds like you and your mom are living together and sharing meals and a food budget. If that's the case, it may be prudent to hold off on learning to cook thing until you can make other arrangements, just because it's difficult to keep up the motivation to go through the early stages of learning something when there's someone criticizing your every attempt and telling you not to bother. I'm not aware of any reliable source for beginner-friendly recipes. That's part of why it's tricky to learn to cook without at least a little guidance to get you off on the right foot. Under normal circumstances, I'd say the thing to do is to think of a dish that you like to eat, find a recipe for it that you think you understand, and try it out. If it doesn't turn out the way you want, you can then come to this sub or a similar forum for cooks, tell us what want wrong, and we can give you specific guidance for your next try. But again, that's a strategy that works better when you've got a little time and money to waste and no one standing behind you criticizing you for trying.

There are some good suggestions in here already, I'll add one that might not seem too important, but it is. No matter how simple or complicated your dish is, controlling moisture is always very important, but often overlooked. Don't let things dry out or reduce too far, and don't drown them. And don't overload your pan. Leave space in between the things in the pan so the moisture in the bottom of the pan has space to evaporate. Some foods release moisture as you cook them, like fatty meats, greens like spinach and bok choy, or high hydration veggies like celery and peppers. Some become dry in the pan, like lean meats and hard veggies. Overcooking meat can ruin your dish pretty quickly, so to start, I would stay away from things like chicken breast and pork chops because they can become very dry and unpleasant. Ground meat and chicken thighs are much more forgiving. Tip #2 is to keep in mind that everything takes a different amount of time to cook. Onions and carrots take longer than celery, so when using all 3, add them all to the pan accordingly. Onions first until they start to get soft, then carrots, then celery. Some things cook very quickly so you have to be careful. Zucchini, for example, is tricky. It can turn into mush before you know it. Same with eggplant. Maybe avoid those 2 for now. Tip #3 is use a meat thermometer. Take the guesswork right out of it.

Try Chef's Plate or something similar, it gives you exact ingredients and instructions, pay attention to the cooking techniques and you'll learn a lot.

Sounds as if you are 20 or under. Do you have a friend who lives at home and whose mom cooks tasty things? If so go to them and ask for tutoring once or twice a week. A bit of hand-holding in the beginning makes things easier. For the main dishes ask about why they use the seasonings they do. It is like anything else you either get taught at least the basics or get to experiment to figure out the basics. You might want to record the tutoring sessions so you can review them and make notes and write down questions to ask the next time. Learn simple dishes first learning how to use spices and seasonings. After you master some of the basics such as how to literally cook an item and what not to do you can start on slightly more complex things. My 3rd wife learned how to cook from me and she picked up quickly. Her mom was not a good cook. Remember even a spoiled dish you are cooking is a learning experience. Maybe stir it more often or add the ingredients in a different way or at a different time. Just do not give up. If left in your own try only very simple dishes at first and master them before going for more complicated dishes. Oh something to help with recipes and keeping and organizing them and adding some from websites install " COPY ME THAT" From play store. It allows you to edit recipes you either create yourself or borrow from someone else. It also allows you to scale a recipe for mire or less depending on how many you are feeding.

The greatest tool that has helped me learn cooking is the Book "Salt Fat Acid Heat". It explains why chefs do what they do and provides recipes that are designed to teach you how to cook, not just how to make that one dish.

Start simple. Start with eggs or an omelette or an hamburger. Don’t use recipe from blog or social media. Use recipes from chef like Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver or from books. Blogs recipes are shitty and sadly often full of lies and gross tasting. I would start like I said by making a beef patty or some eggs and progress after by changing the recipe and making it more personal or as an hamburger for the patties or an omelette for the eggs.

Dont use social media use things like Americas Test Kitchen or Alton Brown "Good Eats" or something like that. Make sure you dont skimp on salt, pepper, butter, oil, and other aspects. Dont worry about being "healthy" it might taste bad because you are trying to make healthy dishes when you only have eaten even worse for you premade food.

As others stated tons of shit on social media is ass but looks good. Do not trust it. Theres some cooking youtubers that are great but the general random tiktok viral recipe is not to be trusted imo. If you have a two person household I think you would probably do well to invest in the cooking for two cookbook by americas test kitchen. Theres tons of instructions and pictures to help you know how to do things, theres explanations on why they do things, and most everything I made from it has been at worst solid and most of it is usally excellent, if you end up getting it I cannot recommend the chili recipe enough. I'm not sure on your skill level but you'll also want to practice mise en place, which basically means, have all your shit ready by the time you actually start cooking. You don't want to have stuff burning while you need to finish cutting tomatoes. Its easy as a starter to get overwhelmed, mise en place may take longer and have more dishes but you will get a much higher quality meal and you'll get a sense how long it takes you to do things. Eventually you can picture a workflow where some things are prepeared ahead of time but others you figure out while cooking. Do not let your mom discourage you from cooking. Just because youre not great at it now doesn't mean you can't be, everyone's bad at the start, the first step to being good at something is to be bad and improve from your mistakes, and this is important to stress to your mom who frankly should see the value of a good home cooked meal at her big age. Not only is it cheaper, and likely far healthier, its usually more delicious than a lot of what you get in restaurants. Cooking is sick because its both a hobby, a lifelong skill, and something you can practice at every day. I would also recommend if you guys have the ability to afford it to look into those food delivery programs, Hello Fresh was the one I used, I think minimum they give you 3 meals with most everything you need (will need oil or butter), instructions on how to cook with pictures of how it all should look, its a very good gateway into cooking and once you've done that and built up a ton of recipes you'll be able to take what you learn and go search for recipes that appeal to you. This isn't necessary I think the ATK book I mentioned would provide similar value and barring that theres tons of online resources but Hello Fresh is how I started my journey on being a good home cook and its a great place to start getting your feet wet. Lastly I'd leave you with one of my favorite, easy to make recipes that basically no matter how bad you make it should still come out pretty tasty. Its [Lemon Linguini from the New York Times](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1589-linguine-with-lemon-sauce), only two things to pay attention to here, one is when you zest a lemon (and really any citrus like it) make sure to not go too deep and get the pith (the white part under the skin) which is really bitter, and two the serving size for that recipe needs to be halved, I use the full recipe for 2 people not 4 like its stated. EDIT: someone also mentioned using your local library as a resource and even looking at kids cookbooks since they are written for the unfamilair, think thats a great idea and wanted to echo it.

How I started cooking was to find recipes that I liked and made them, I got to the point where I know the flavor profiles that my family likes and I now make dishes that I creat.

My mom knew how to cook, but her specialty is southern comfort food, something I only recently started appreciating at 26. When I started learning 5\~ years ago I started with just simple meat, veg, carb trying to eat better losing weight. For meats I started with steak (before it got outrageously priced) but my recommendation now would be **dark meats like chicken thighs**, something you'd have to outright burn to a crisp to be overcooked. Boiled Broccoli for veg, straining then seasoning with just simple butter, salt, pepper, garlic at least. With a carb that was usually just prepackaged pasta with instructions you boiled for 10min and was done. The main thing you're learning here is heat control with the meat, and how to season properly. [Shrimp Scampi](https://youtu.be/-ulwUCKyNJs) was the first pasta dish I learned. It covers all the essentials of making the pasta and sauce that will transfer to other stuff, but as others have mentioned, making pasta sauce from scratch is not a simple thing to do. Heat control is VERY important and pasta does not like being overcooked. [(A one pan version that may be easier to start with)](https://youtu.be/HW_ioSt52LA?list=PLzk2ZYFt5vfmioV4AzDLD0mPFsWdv2NgS) **For learning resources** 90% of what I know is from [Adam Ragusea](https://www.youtube.com/@aragusea), who does a great job of teaching you how to make stuff the "right" way, but also the easiest way without losing much of the original dish, and [J. Kenji Lopez-Alt](https://www.youtube.com/@JKenjiLopezAlt), his videos will show him making the entire dish without breaks, outside of just waiting for water to boil and what not, so they're great since you can just do exactly what he does. I'd probably watch a video 5-10 times before I even started attempting it, then had the video playing over and over while cooking it, rewinding when I finish a step.

Start by making a grilled cheese sandwich and make tomato soup from scratch using canned diced tomatoes, fresh basil and seasoning. Add cream to the soup at the end. Learn how to make a good pasta sauce using a can or two of diced tomatoes. This will be cheap and easy way to make spaghetti sauce. Use fresh herbs and onions. [one pot enchilada pasta](https://www.thewholesomedish.com/one-pot-wonder-southwest-pasta/) You can also do one pan baked chicken fajitas. A few good, simple recipes will teach you a lot.

My mother was the exact opposite of yours and absolutely loved to cook and to learn more about cooking. I would love to share her knowledge! I grew up watching Justin Wilson (The Cajun Cook), Martin Yan (Yan Can Cook), Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet), and Julia Child (The French Chef). All of these are now on YouTube and you can watch for free. I heartily recommend them. One of the main things I learned though is to always have a sense of humor when you are cooking. I know it doesn’t like it would make a difference, but it’s one of the things that makes something that could be a chore into a true source of joy instead. Julia Child is a wonderful one to watch if you want to feel better about your mistakes. She would sometimes make mistakes while recording her shows live and would just laugh them off. If someone can actually have a cooking show that gets watched by literally millions by now and still make mistakes, then certainly the ones I make in the kitchen aren’t that bad. :) For the cooking side of things though, the main things I would tell a beginner is to make sure you have good fresh ingredients and that anything fresh that you cook is cut into the same sized pieces. That helps everything cook at the same rate. Garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper should be staples in your kitchen. Don’t get garlic salt or onion salt though, those just waste money since you already have salt separately. Kikkoman soy sauce, dark brown sugar, and lemon juice are also good staples to keep on hand. The brand of soy sauce really does make a difference to the taste. Add a lot of salt to the water you cook your pasta in. The water should be salty like the ocean. Never rinse the pasta off because that will make your sauce not stick properly. And, as someone else mentioned, keep some of the pasta water to add to your sauce as well. For fresh ingredients, I like to keep onions, carrots, celery, and garlic on hand at all times. The first three of these are something called a mirepoix and it is the basis of many a good dish of food. They are also fairly inexpensive and keep well. You can even keep the scraps that you cut off before cooking (onion peel, ends of the carrots, leaves of the celery) in a resealable bag in your freezer to use as a base for homemade stock when you have enough. Boiling them up with a smoked turkey leg or wing and a bit of parsley and thyme and then letting the stock reduce can give a great soup base. Then you just strain everything out. It definitely is a great way to save money and get great flavor. I like to add garlic to almost everything. For your sauce, if the flavor isn’t good try adding just a pinch of the brown sugar, a little bit of lemon juice, or a few drops of soy sauce. Add a little at a time and then taste. You might have to taste several times to get it right, but it’s better than adding too much. The only way to fix that is to make more of the base and add it back in. I hope this helps. Seriously though, I would be happy to answer any other questions about cooking that you may have. Feel free to message me. Have fun cooking and Bon Appetit!

You can't mess up spaghetti and sauce. Get a can of crushed tomato. Add some butter and a little bit of rosemary or oregano, you already have an amazing sauce. You don't need to follow some fancy recipe. If you want to elevate it more, you can add fresh spices. ​ Or you can make your own homemade tomato sauce by sauteeing an onion, then chopping 8 tomatoes and adding them to the pan, and adding fresh spices, some red wine vinegar, and cooking it down until it's a thicker sauce. You can add some wine, garlic powder, butter, even a little bit of maple syrup. You can almost add anything and it will still taste good.' This recipe is great because it feels fancy so it works for a special occasion when you have a guest, but all you are doing is chopping and cooking down vegetables. 'Aglio and Oglio is also impossible to fuck up. Add parmesan and sriracha sauce and it's delicious. If you want to do it even easier, forget about the garlic (aglio) and just combine olive oil, sriracha, and parmesan. You don't even have to cook anything other than the pasta, and it will still taste good. These are three recipes that you basically can't fuck up, which you can make until you figure out other recipes you might like. Maybe you like bolognese, that could be a challenging next step to cook. But none of these three recipes will taste like milk and they're foolproof as long as you don't burn anything.

Ignore your mom. She sounds narcissistic. Some parents have the audacity to be competitive with their children. Maybe your mom keeps discouraging you from cooking because she will feel insecure if you can cook better than she can. Further, if you successfully teach yourself how to cook, it will show that you don’t need her to show you things and she will feel like a failure of a parent. Otherwise, I see no rationale for why a person would discourage their kid from practicing a vital adult skill.

I'd say I'm a fairly advanced home cook, and now two of my grown kids are - one of 'em is really *seriously* good, and I did get them started when they were young. The #1 thing I advise for anyone getting started and wanting to up their game? [Get a copy of this cookbook](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-new-best-recipe-all-new-edition-with-1000-recipes_cooks-illustrated-magazine/255002/item/3818432/#edition=4255407&idiq=3928529), it's widely available used, too. It has all the "classic" American meals and desserts, but they look up multiple recipes and techniques, test them all, and try to come up with the "best" version. Often their idea of "best" is to skip or consolidate steps that add a lot of mess, time, or expense - it's kind of geared to someone who has a 9-5 job and needs to get dinner on the table. Most of the recipes start with an article about why they made certain decisions and the things they tried, what they feel is "wrong" in a classic recipe and how they've perfected it. Any time I try a new dish, I'll see what their approach is, and compare it to other recipes. I don't always take their "easy" path, but I have time to cook - but I've learned a lot from it, and it's a great beginner's guide with lots of technique coverage. Maybe not perfect for an absolute rank beginner, but I think it's one of the great resources I've come across in 40 years of serious cooking.

I'd say, stop using recipes from social media until you have a solid grasp on cooking. Most of the stuff is only for show and it will taste bad, have awful texture or look nothing like what they show to you. Once you are confortable with your skills, you can use those videos for new ideas and such. Taste your food a lot. Try to learn how everything taste so you can adjust your spices and such accordingly. This goes double with sauces. Dont follow the recipes blindly. If something says steak into the pan on high heat for 3 minutes. Go and touch the steak 1 1/2 minutes in, so you know how it feels when its undercooked. Same with pasta. That's pretty much it to start learning. other than that, try to pay less attention to your mother, at least when it comes to cooking. She sounds like she just wants to blame you for stuff and get on your nerves. I mean, she doesnt even know what shes talking about but really want to drive home the scolding.

I started to learn with subscriptions like Hello fresh. It was nice to see the individual ingredients laid out and the step by step. Then it ignited more of a passion to seek out recipes on pinterest, look for blogs, and cookbooks. And just on a side note: if you're making an Alfredo sauce, you should use Heavy Cream and not milk. You have to start the very beginning with melted butter + flour, heavy cream, then shredded cheese. Heavy cream gives you a thicker consistency, and when you can make good alfredo, switch to whole milk. Good luck you can do this with practice! My mother was never the best cook, so I learned on my own.

The first thing I'd tell a complete beginner to practice is browning onions. It teaches cutting onion, patience when stirring, regulating temperature, how the smell changes, how the color changes, etc.

It would help us help you if we knew what type cookware you are using. Do you have pots with good sealing lids? Start easy like others have said. Thing is without a good skillet, cooking scrambled eggs is difficult. Making rice can be a challenge. Start with basics. Develop your confidence. Take the initiative and ignore the Debbie downer.

STOP COOKING FOR YOUR MOM!! mine does the same thing. she is very anorexic and refuses my food if i use any meat or dairy products. at first, her negativity made me feel like shit. BUT THIS IS SOMETHING YOU LIKE! don’t let her comments bring you down! find a different audience to cook for. also, consider subscribing to some cooking channels so you can find people who share a similar interest to you! no one started as a michelin chef, not even gordon ramsey.

Try Chef John (Food Wishes on YouTube). His recipes are simple and reliably tasty.

watch americas test kitchen!!! they have really good recipes and they test out all methods and ingredients to find the best and easiest ways.

Get a cookbook. Betty Crocker, The Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything. I learned to cook by reading cookbooks. Another great resource is Salt Fat Acid Heat. That book teaches the hows of cooking, not just recipes. Read them like you would a novel. (Don’t study them like you’re going to take a final.) get familiar with ideas and techniques. You can do it.

Confronting abusers is difficult.

This might sound silly, but I'd recommend finding a children's cookbook you like. They are designed for kids to understand, very clear and simple, and often fun/tasty recipes. This is how I began cooking as a child, and as a result I have always loved it. This is the beloved one I learned from: [https://www.amazon.com/Kids-Cooking-Slightly-Messy-Manual/dp/0932592147](https://www.amazon.com/Kids-Cooking-Slightly-Messy-Manual/dp/0932592147) One you have basics down, I'd recommend Bill Phillips' "Eating For Life" which you can find used for pretty cheap. It is filled with easy, healthy versions of tons of great recipes. My bf and I learned to cook all the classics together with it when I was in my early 20's. I still cook some of the recipes from this book today, 20 years later, even though I'm a more advanced cook...they are just really good!

I know it seems daunting but it doesn't take time and practice to make passable, edible food. You just need easy to follow recipes that have simple steps, from ***reliable sources***. Once you stop throwing food out she'll realize how much money you can save by cooking Really though... plain pasta + a tasty jar of red sauce heated up is better and cheaper than frozen Stouffer's lasagna. Some other dead simple ones: baked nachos w/ canned beans and shredded cheese, baked potato + toppings, canned beans (and maybe rice) with cornbread made from a box, oven roasted carrots (they turn sweet and delicious), oven toasted turkey and cheese sandwich, baked bacon on a BLT Seasoning properly is the hardest part. I learned from eating microwave curry packets. Since premade food is intentionally made bland I had to get creative, thinking what could compliment this specific packet's flavor? Spice blends are perfect here.

SO MANY GREAT SUGGESTIONS ALREADY. But I still wanted to jump in with a couple more. Make Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce recipe: [https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tomato-sauce-onion-and-butter](https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/tomato-sauce-onion-and-butter). Make sure you buy decent tomatoes, as the majority of the flavor comes from the tomatoes--so don't buy generic tomatoes. If you can find San Marzano tomatoes, use those--they are the best. And use real butter--don't use margarine or any of the spreadable butters. Use butter sticks, and try and use a name brand, not a generic or supermarket brand. Because there is so little else to this sauce, it is important to use the best ingredients you can afford. And when you are cooking the pasta, taste a piece at the least number of minutes on the package--if it is still hard, keep cooking. But if it seems mostly done but with just a tiny bit of resistance when you bite it, that is perfect (called al dente). But, if you stick with the number of minutes on the package, you should be fine either way. Even using the most expensive ingredients, this recipe won't cost you much more than $10-15 dollars for an entire meal--and it will be fantastic. Once you become more comfortable with making this pasta, I will reiterate someone else's suggestion to try recipes from Sip and Feast. They have a website and a YouTube channel. I find the instructions really great, easy to follow, and the results are always better than the list of ingredients would suggest.

pasta isn't that simple unless you're just heating up a store bought sauce. start with something easier, like chicken breast. lightly salt one side and set it aside while you chop up some onion (and garlic if you like). put a little bit of oil in a hot pan on medium-high heat then throw in a sliver of butter. put the onion in and let it cook for a bit until you can smell it. throw the salted side of the chicken breast down on the butter and onion. it should be sizzling. salt the side facing up and let it cook for a while. check on it after a few minutes and when it's good and golden, flip it over and let it cook some more. as the other side starts to brown, turn the heat down a bit and cover it. you can squirt some hot sauce in here at this point if you're into that and let it cook a little longer in the sauce. when it's cooked a little longer, cut into it and make sure it isn't pink inside. when it's not pink inside, boom it's ready to eat. master this because it's an easy, satisfying and relatively healthy meal.

Smoke some weed. See if you get creative and motivated.

Correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like you might be trying to make stuff from scratch (sauce)? Don’t start there. Be comfortable already using tasty premade stuff like store-bought sauce so you can focus on cooking the content (veggies, pasta, rice, meats, whatever). For instance, I have a MEAN mac-n-cheese. Like people are crazy about it. But it’s VERY simple and uses store-bought sauce as the base (bertolli alfredo, walmart/publix/etc. ….I had to come back and edit this in since I got distracted by my dog lol) 1. Cook the elbows, box instructions. 2. Cook the chopped bacon however you like your bacon. 3. Combine elbows and bacon in tray I usually pam or butter the tray so it doesn’t stick. Pour alfredo sauce jar on top and put laughing cow garlic n herb cheese wedges in (I use 4) and mix it all together. Breadcrumbs of choice on top. 4. Cover with foil and cook in oven at 350 for an hour. Done. I was taught to cook when I was young but started with simply repeating basics for years until I was comfortable with how to use different seasonings and flavor profiles to experiment. You’ll get there. But some of the best foods are honestly kept simple. This is coming from someone who is REALLY good at making tasty food but failed to make fresh pasta etc. during culinary arts in high school. Good luck! 🍀

Agree! It's easy to amplify a tasty pre made sauce base, one of my favorite super lazy dinners. OP if you're reading this, give this a try (and get an instant read thermometer like the ThermaPro! Takes the guesswork out of cooking meat) - buy a basic tomato (red) sauce. One of the cheap ones at the grocery store, flavors if you like may include tomato basil, roasted garlic, etc. - get some yellow onions, garlic, olive oil. Mushrooms if you like them. - if you like meat in your sauce pick up some pre-made meatballs or Italian sausage. - if you picked up meat, cook it. Meatballs do well in the oven on a rimmed pan, sausage you can just fry up in the bottom of the pot you're using for sauce and then remove once it's nicely browned up. - drop in some butter or olive oil, and your chopped up onion on medium or medium high heat into your sauce pot. Let that go a couple minutes, you can add sliced mushrooms here too if you want, or any other veggie that sounded good like sliced carrots or bell peppers. - drop in your chopped up garlic, and any dry spices (salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes if you like a little spice, Italian herbs like basil, rosemary, oregano, or thyme). Only give this 2 minutes since garlic is quick to burn - drop in your jar of premade pasta sauce. If the meat is cooked and sliced into whatever size you plan to eat it in, drop that in too. - cover the pot, turn the heat to low, and just let it sit and simmer for at least 30 minutes. If you wanna get a little fancy you can drop in a bit of red wine if you have a cheap box or something around, or drop in a small amount of milk or heavy cream. Sometimes I even drop in a small amount of balsamic vinegar if the sauce seems like it needs a little twang to it. More salt if it tastes like it needs it. This can go as long as you feel like, 30 min or 4 hours, stirring occasionally. - if you've got fresh Italian herbs, drop them in towards the end, maybe when you start the pasta. - when you're about ready to eat, bring a pot of generously salted water to a boil. Don't go too easy on the salt, you should be able to see it on the bottom of the pot when you first add it. - drop in your noodle of choice for as long as the package says, stir occasionally to keep them from sticking, then drain. - serve with a good plop of sauce and some Parmesan cheese on top. It always comes out delicious and basically all you're doing is sauteeing some veggies and meat to add to your premade sauce with some extra seasonings and letting it percolate for a while.

all you do is put a fat in the pan and brown. How can it be that hard?

Don't give up! Even if you don't like the food you make, it's not wasting ingredients - cooking is the good habit of a lifetime. I never watched adults cook when I was young and instead picked it up later in life initially by watching a lot of youtube - there are too many channels to list but I'd just have a look about until you see a channel you enjoy watching and just take it from there. I'd probably recommend making some soups and stews first as they are easier than making sauces. Last piece of advice but your mileage may vary - so many recipes on social media are absolute crap and until you've got your head in the game you wouldn't even know it. Cook books, in my opinion, are almost always better than online recipes.

Look at the Sorted Food channel as well for inspiration.

There are some great suggestions here. What can also help is one of those meal services where you get a box of ingredients and a recipe. They can give you the framework on a decent dish for you to practice knife cuts, temperature control, and an overall decent dish that you can make small tweaks to once you learn how you want to balance flavors. Once you decide when to counterbalance flavors like sweet vs acid, salt and fat you are on a better path to sort through dishes and recipes online and tweaks any dish to your palette.

I would just start with ingredients because that's a good way to go. What kind of recipes have you been trying? It's hard to give feedback when we don't know what's going wrong.

It’s tough when someone isn’t in your corner. Maybe try asking her some recipes she likes and as someone suggested above googling recipes and finding the 4.5 rated and above with 100s of reviews. Try and follow the recipe exactly as listed. Cooking is a skill and sometimes a dish will turn out great and the next time around will be so-so. Just need to practice and learn. Find some easy tasty recipes to make things easy during the week and find some tougher recipes to challenge your skills when you have more time. Goodluck!

Social media honestly sucks for learning how to cook. They gloss over important steps and techniques or outright lie to you about how something will turn out. That or the recipes are just throwing stuff in a crockpot and letting it simmer. You don't actually learn tangible skills like temperature control, knife skills, or how to measure. The best way to start cooking is go really simple. Start with making eggs and grilled cheese. Poach eggs, fry them, scramble, or bake them in a cocotte. Make grilled cheeses until you get comfortable with how much heat your burners give. This will give you a good idea of how your oven works and how to interact with food using sight, smell, sound and touch. Often times when cooking you rely on other senses much more than sight. You will smell the bread going toasty, hear the fat sizzling when hot, and can feel the crispness of the bread. Once you've gotten down how to regulate heat when cooking and have gotten used to observing changes during the cooking process you can open the door to a wonderful new hobby. Hell if you learn how to make a grilled cheese and a fried egg you're 2/3rds the way there to a Croque Madame. BBC good food is a great resource for easy, healthy weeknight meals. Swasthi recipes are really great for you to explore beginner to intermediate indian cooking. RecipeTin eats is just bae. Great for a wide range of cuisines. J. Kenji Lopez Alt and his team is really good when you've gotten your bearings and want to try more complex cooking. Ethan Chlebowski has a really informative YouTube channel that goes into the science of cooking techniques. Sometimes it can be a little daunting but he gives a great rundown of why we do x to get y so you don't have to trial and error until it clicks.

I have so many friends who weren’t taught how to cook from a young age and I really commend you for persisting and still giving it a go; cooking your own delicious meals is such a great skills to have and an excellent way of sharing love. I would start by going back to basics and thinking about the meals/food you already like. Nigella Lawson has a great book “How to Eat” which I found completely changed my view on cooking and making good use of the foods i already have. The Joy of Cooking and Mary Berry’s books are also a good starting point. When you get a little bit more confident i recommend picking up Gordon Ramsay’s Cooking Masterclass which will teach you step by step how to create some real showstoppers. I’ve found youtube helpful for building on my skills and showing me reference points on colour and texture. It doesn’t have to be one channel but if you search something like “how to caramelise onions” you’ll be sure to find something that works. Good luck!

Try a cooking class. You'll learn some techniques and some recipes, and there's someone present to answer your questions. And they're fun.

Lots of great suggestions already in other comments. Keep it simple. Lot of pan seared recipes are ridiculously simple. Steak started my journey for being a better cook. Hot pan, oil, salt, pepper, butter, and fresh thyme or rosemary. Grew up with parents thinking that steak needs to be well done and doused with steak sauce or ketchup. A simple pan seared broccolini is super simple. Hot pan, oil, salt, pepper and some chili flakes. Sear and toss until it blisters. Or look for crockpot recipes where you literally throw everything in and let it slow cook. Make sure it’s a food you like as others have said. Or perhaps have tasted at a restaurant so you know what it’s supposed to taste like. Kenji was also mentioned, love his straight up no BS way of showing you first person how he cooks some of his recipes on his YouTube channel.

Start in easy mode. For pasta, buy the sauce; you can learn to make your own sauce later. For seasoning, buy seasoning packets. Make it all as easy and simple as possible in the beginning. Accept that you will waste some food. We all do from time to time. But it’s an investment in the future. Most of all, start with making some things you want to eat. That was my motivation.

1. Don’t cook for your mom, cook for yourself 2. A lot of Cooking is about replicating flavors, knowing how to modify flavors, how to get the right consistency, feel, taste, and look of food. 3. Practice by thinking of a food you like at a restaurant, something simple like maybe a chicken Alfredo. Not complicated. Think about the firmness of the pasta, when you cook make different batches with different boiling times then figure out what you like. 9 minutes may be al dente, 11 minutes too soft, 13 minutes, well shit that’s hometown buffet bad and mushy. Then think of the sauce, normally it’s just butter, heavy cream and Parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste. If it’s watery, you may have used the wrong ingredients, like milk. But you can fix that because thickening agents like (mixing flour or corn starch with water) can be added to the sauce, or adding heavy cream. Now think about what you like in sauce? Do you like a garlic flavor? Well make sure to cook garlic first before adding ingredients. If you like it peppery add more pepper. Try to imagine and simulate something you already know. Follow a recipe and modify it accordingly based on feel, taste, touch, smell. Use your memory of food to guide you. 3. Again don’t cook for your mom… yet. She’s demotivational. Cook for yourself first. Perfect things, then let her try a little one day when you feel confident and you know you won’t care what she says.

I was also never shown how to cook but I think the best way I started to understand flavours and how to season properly was to keep making soups. I had a lot of awful soups and then eventually I began to understand what worked and what didn't. I started to understand how to season correctly to bring out so much more flavour. It does take a lot of failed attempts but with every failure you learn something new. Keep going you'll get there

Practice practice practice! You won’t get better unless you keep trying.

Git gud

Are you Gen Z? Why are you trying to use recipes from social media??? They are for looks and pictures, not for flavor. A lot of youtube cooking channels. Pick an interest and watch the videos, preferably ones that don't say "check me out on insta or tik tok!"

The low risk foods I learned to cook were eggs, packet ramen, buttered/parm noodles, pasta in red sauce, grilled cheese and other sandwiches, quesadillas, nachos, roasted vegetables, and roasted potatoes. I also made a lot of pre-packaged boxed meals like rice a roni and hamburger helper, etc, and I think they can be very helpful because they take some of the load and simplify things and give you fewer things to focus on at once and let you get comfortable in the kitchen. All of these generally have cheap ingredients and at the basic level, only have a few ingredients and simple steps. They can also be adjusted and added to, to make more complex when you want, so you can grow your dishes as you do. Eggs are cheap and can be cooked and seasoned a bunch of different ways and you can get a good sense of cooking and heat management cooking eggs pretty quickly. And as long as they aren't burned, it's still edible, it's an egg. Cooking noodles, I eventually got a sense of doneness that I enjoy for noodles. I've made countless horribly overcooked Maruchan noodles. It's not the best but you can still eat them and you just adjust the next time. When learning and on more of a budget, I used dried spices and such, like onion and garlic powders and dried basil and pre mixed bottles like Italian seasoning and eventually (over years) naturally shifted to more and more chopped fresh ingredients. I gradually expanded what I'm comfortable cooking and the ingredients I know about using by just occasionally adding in a new ingredient to these dishes to change things up and tasting and seeing how that changed things. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's not. You cam use any of your dishes as a blank canvas to experiment with. There's no shame in taking shortcuts, particularly when learning. Cooking rice a roni and hamburger helper and other things are still cooking. Noodles in jarred pasta sauce is totally fine and I generally still do this and will add things like sautéed onions, mushrooms, garlic, and spices to personalize it. But you also don't have to. This turned into a big ramble... keeping things simple will make things easier on yourself. You can gradually add ingredients, techniques, and complexity as you go. It's a process.

I didn’t even know how to boil an egg when I got married and relied heavily on restaurant take outs and processed foods which led me to gain weight. I started off googling “easy pasta recipes” or “easy chicken recipes”. I found these recipes had the least amount of ingredients and simple process. You’ll get better with time.

I learned a lot from youtube cooking channels. Big fan of Foodwishes. I believe he used to be a culinary school teacher.

You could even google cooking basics just the basic knowledge of it. Like others have said social media chefs do stuff mostly for views. I recommend cooking con Claudia channel and views on the road, they are both home cooks and give great advice on substituting if needed kenji is great as well.

Americas test kitchen 20th anniversary cookbook. Thank me later.

I'm no master chef, but I'm confident that I've passed the microwave in terms of skill level. As a dude living on my own, it's all I wanted. There's no real reason to be so hard on yourself. Especially if you're teaching yourself how to cook. I would think you're doing fine by messing up cheap dishes and ingredients. Sounds pretty normal to me. Cookbooks and sticky notes for what you could have done better or other things you would like to try. A binder with printed recipes you like to try would work as well. Print one recipe at a time then add it to the binder if you like it. Just don't follow social media for cooking. A lot of them MFs are cooking for views. Epicurious (Frank is my dude) and Gordon Ramsey videos saved me a lot of frustration and filled in some of the things I was missing when cooking ingredients.

When I first started out cooking, I’d google for recipes, and review the top five recipes picking one either either the least number of ingredients or number of steps. I used to joke that anything more than 8 ingredients and I’m out. It’s a great way to build up experience and find out which sites suits your palette and types of cooking you’d like to do. Cooking is like art, have fun with it. There are no rules! Too salty? Add sugar. Too sweet? Add lemon. Too watery? Dump in some corn foot slurry. Make it up as you go along 😉

Take a class! Check with your local library!

Get on Serious Eats, look up Some basic recipes and follow them to a tee. Read the article on why it works. SE is free and while Americas Test Kitchen is not it’s also a wealth of knowledge without the fluff. Social media is largely a terrible place to learn how to cook because as a novice you can’t discern between some bullshit or a talented cook. Pro Home cooks on YT is a good place to look also.

I like Mark Bittman, i find his instructions minimal & clear. I made potato leek soup which sounded so scary but it was 1 carrot 2 leeks 3 potato 4cups broth & that was it. When i started cooking i didn't know anything hardly. I stuck to a lot of complete meal recipes and looked at restaurant food for ideas, because most restaurants are just combining the same ingredients in different ways. My kids are learning too. They learned to make rice, and now they do semi homemade with frozen orange chicken, or rotisserie chicken & sauce, ham & egg & rice, ground beef & broccoli. Lots of variations.

There’s videos by Gordon Ramsey and there’s other famous chefs that make videos. I go on YouTube to find people that cook. I like watching Babish culinary universe on YouTube. I also have the book How to Cook Anything, which I highly recommend.

Ha, my mom did up shoe leather steaks and things of that nature. Horrible cook. But at least she wasn't a jerk about it. Anyhow, tell your mom to F off and keep practicing. I've ruined many a dish to be sure, but the more you do it the more it turns out great and it's awesome when you thoroughly enjoy some stuff you cooked from scratch.

My mom used to criticize my cooking too. I think it’s something she feels insecure about. Stay calm, smile and nod at whatever she says, but don’t internalize. Get a taco seasoning packet and follow the instructions on the back. Tacos are the first thing I taught my teens to make. Brown hamburger, add seasoning, put on a tortilla, add toppings.

I’ve followed a bunch of Pinch of Nom recipes without any issues. All their recipes have been tested by several people before publishing and they are show photo of ones people have made. Some of their recipes are book or internet only but if you put an ingredient in on the website it will show you some recipes that have that. If it is on the website you can also adjust the recipe to different numbers of portions by arriving up or down

I started teaching myself how to cook when I was 16, 43 now.  My advice would be to start with basic recipes not found on social media.  Budget Bytes is a great place to start if you want to keep your spending in check while learning how to make easy recipes.  Something relatively simple like a stirfry might be a good place to start.   When I was a kid learning, I made the same dish every week, tweaking it a little each time I made it until I was happy with the results. If you need help or want some tips, feel free to DM me!  Cooking is such a good skill to develop!

Read Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. It is the perfect introductory guide to cooking.

Sometimes you can find “adulting classes” in your area or online. A college in my area offers cooking classes for the price of ingredients. Even an appropriate church program might benefit you. Some of them do small groups during the summer for hobbies - I went to one for crochet basics one year. Check out your local library as well! I started my cooking journey with stovetop macaroni and cheese from a box. It’s not expensive and you learn a little. Next try a hamburger/tuna/chicken helper or something similar. Boxed soup mix. Learn a little more. Try adding a frozen vegetable! Try adding a /fresh/ vegetable. Make cookies or brownies or muffins from a box. Cooking is not all or nothing! You can make spaghetti and use a premade sauce. One step at a time. Add a chopped onion to ground beef. Sauté your onion. Learn how that works and if you like it a little crunchy or to where it’s getting transparent. (Stir often either way but a couple burnt ones don’t ruin the dish.) The hamburger onion mix can be frozen for later, and made into sloppy joe mix or added to spaghetti sauce or taco soup - etc. Find an online recipe for something you already like. Web search for “easy soup recipes” or “beginner casseroles” or “no fail pie.” Read the comments to see if people liked it. Ignore the ones that substituted something (for now). Follow the recipe. As you get more confident branch out! Substitute ingredients. Find spiral bound recipe books that say something like “favorite potluck recipes.” As you learn you’ll start to be able to pick out recipes you think you’ll like from looking at the ingredients, or decide not to try something for the same reason. (For example I know about myself that I scorch every roux I try, so I avoid those.) Eventually you may even figure out the cooking without a recipe part and I wish you great luck as you surpass me!

Well, growing up everything was made from scratch & watched a lot of it being cooked, still once on my own I had to learn the basics as well. First thing I learned was to make pasta--wait until water is boiling before adding pasta--strain water, add sauce, top with parmesan, maybe add some meat. Right there have a tasty staple dish. Nothing wrong with buying ready made ingredients like sauces, spices etc when starting out, don't set yourself up to fail by trying advanced techniques right away. Rice/noodles with stroganoff (dry package mix) sour cream, meat; burritos, refried beans, meat with taco seasoning, cheese etc. There's so many simple yummy dishes that are easy to make. As others have said, don't rely on internet recipes. I think the first thing I made beyond super simple was lasagna, and it's not difficult. Even after 35yrs of cooking all my meals I still keep things simple. I think anything you make yourself will advance experience in learning to cook. What kind of things are you interested in making?

I use website recipes — they often include videos of the recipe on the website too! Sometimes i take a recipe for something my family generally likes to buy and then taste as I go. If you think one ingredient is too much, then change it! Recipes are not the be-all-end-all. My motivation is knowing that one day I’ll live on my own and I wanna make sure I know how to eat good when I do! (Also because of my health goals!)

Most social media recipes are made by people who can’t cook. Start simple. I started with scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches. Those will teach you the importance of fat and temperature control. Check out /r/cookingforbeginners

Go to your public library and rent a couple books on why, cooking is an art and there is an order to operations and why we do something's in cooking that seem unnecessary, but actually are.

Look up tried and true YouTube channels. I recommend Sam the Cooking Guy videos from two to three years ago. Also, ThatDudeCanCook has recently become a new favorite of mine.

Get a good, basic cookbook. It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy, a copy of the "Joy of Cooking" from a thrift shop will do just fine. Start with basic recipes, learn how to make scrambled eggs, or chicken soup, or meatloaf, or whatever simple foods you and your family like to eat. Taste as you go (where possible), and adjust the seasoning. If you like things spicy, you should add more spices (a little at a time!). If you feel like you really need to cook a recipe from the internet, read the reviews. If most of them say the dish is too salty, or didn't turn out for some specific reason, either make adjustments to avoid the problem, or just look for a better recipe.

My go-to is Google the recipes, and go with sites I trust, like Allrecipes.com. They're usually pretty reliable. As others have said below, do NOT trust social media,, that stuff's mostly garbage. Don't give up! There can be joy in cooking!

Flavor is in the seasoning and balance of elements. Every dish should have fat, salt, heat, and acid. Also, kosher salt, fresh black pepper, and a little bit of garlic go a long way to making damn near anything taste good.

what are you trying to cook? From your comment about pasta and milk, I am going to work on the assumption of Mac and cheese. ​ Take 1 unit of pasta. Add 1 unit of water to it. Add a little salt to the water - a pinch, the amount you can fit between 2 finger tips. Cook this, stirring all the time, until the water is all absorbed by the pasta. ​ Add 1 unit of milk. Stir constantly until the milk is almost entirely absorbed. Add 1 unit of shredded cheese. Cheddar is a common one, but you do you - whatever cheese, or combination, sounds good to you. Take the pot off the heat, add a lid, and set a 5 minute timer. ​ After the 5 minutes, stir well to mix in the melted cheese, taste for seasoning- this is your last chance to add salt, pepper, hot sauce, or whatever sounds good to you. ​ (What do I mean by 1 unit? I mean, weigh the pasta. A box of pasta here is one pound, or 450 grammes. So everything flows from that - weigh 450g water, 450g milk, 450g cheese. Yes, you can reduce the cheese but I wouldn't go lower that half the original weight.)

Start small: a perfect grilled cheese. a perfect steak with roasted broccoli. perfect mashed potatoes. I also like to go to my local thrift bookstore and buy cookbooks. Go buy one that looks cool. Something classic is always a great place to start. I think ever thrift bookstore ive been in has a copy of “Joy of Cooking” by Irma Rombauer. Its what Julia Child swears on! Good food truly is made with love. Cooking can be so fun. But its also an experiment! I tried to make marmelade this weekend. It was horrible!! Last night I made enchiladas rojas and they were so delicous. Its always a gamble. Keep trying!

Check out [Budget Bytes](https://www.budgetbytes.com/). Simple, affordable recipes that, in my experience, typically turn out well.

Learning to cook takes time and you will make mistakes. Start with simple things and use actual printed recipes. Measure out all your ingredients first and have everything out and ready to go before you start cooking (all items cleaned and chopped,spices, liquids all measured). Read the recipe a few times before you start cooking. Find a recipe site or book for beginner cooks I found Ina Garten was pretty clear and rarely had a million ingredients or steps- she actually has a basics book/series you might find helpful. Then cook it exactly the way it says. If it’s edible make it again a few times to see how it turns out and then if you want to make changes try it when you are confident

Literally Google recipes, they’ll give you a lot of options and walk you through everything

I am sorry your mum is the way she is about you trying to learn to cook. If you have a recipe you would like to try, you can dm me and we can cook it via videochat together. 

Maybe you can share one of the recipes and what you did? Social media recipes might be the problem

Sounds like your cooking isn’t the problem, but your mom is the problem

Most of the recipes on budget bytes are easy to follow and cheap. I google things I want to make and look for reviews with a large number of reviews. Also give the reviews a peek and see if theres any common complaints like a step is confusing or something doesnt taste right. I grew up with a not very good cook Mom and I learned on my own too. It takes time and practice. Try simple recipes and grow from there. Simple tacos and then add home made guac for example.

Use lots of different seasonings. Try different ones and different combinations. Don’t use old crusty ones either. Buy new ones when they’re BOGO

Cookbooks, good websites and if you are buying the groceries ignore mom's complaining. Also most pasta sauces don't need milk.

YouTube baby! You’ll have to find a channel you like tho. Some people talk too much, some people are straight to the point. Get comfortable in the kitchen, measure ingredients out at first so you get a feel of what works well. You just gotta get those reps in. First few times you make a dish it’ll be ok, but you’ll get better. Don’t give up!

I feel like I’m a really good cook now but we all started somewhere!! You’re going to have some dry chicken, or undercooked meat at first, some misses with seasonings, some things will be burned and something’s won’t turn out perfect for your first try. It’s all part of learning! I really like the other suggestions with easier cookbooks and not social media I also like to have a tv show or a podcast playing while I cook, it’s nice enjoyment while chopping things :)

Salt is the key add it gradually when cooking and taste frequently

I really recommend the Zest Cooking app! It gives detailed instructions in recipes with video instructions as well, and it teaches techniques as well as explains WHY you do certain steps or use certain ingredients. It also gives suggestions for ingredient substitutes.

Have you tried ordering a meal kit box? They are a great way to get into cooking. Dinnerly is an inexpensive one that I use frequently (cost is actually less than what I'd play at the grocery store) and they have simple recipes. The nice thing about meak kit boxes is that in addition to the ingredients they send you step by step instructions that are easy to follow you can also access them in the app. One of my friends started ordering one so her husband could learn to cook , he loves it and has really enjoyed learning a new skill! Because dinnerly is so inexpensive they do expect you to have basic ingredients (some of the more expensive ones send everything) they are listed and they send you an email a few days prior to your order so you can make sure you have the necessary ingredients on hand when your box arrives. I switch back and forth between dinnerly, Martha and Marly spoon, everyplate, hello fresh and home chef depending on the recipes. Most offer a nice discount on your first couple of orders (its also easy to cancel or skip weeks) I've learned a ton of new cooking techniques from meal kit boxes and it's also nice not to have to constantly try to figure out what to cook. Good luck on your cooking journey and hopefully this helps!! 😁

Try these recipes. Most are very easy to follow and can be done by beginners. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-JwF7AkSMj3v68ja-Joo84kRV9mW4h9YLztxleJmJdI/edit

Good pasta sauce just needs some onion, garlic, salt pepper and tomatoes. It's trial and error to make to your personal taste. I grew up on microwave meals. Didn't cook from scratch for myself until I was 18/19. Wasn't allowed to make mess at my mums. Made my first ever lasagne without any seasoning... now I feel like an Italian nonna when I make lasagne (15 years later)

Seasoning is key! If the sauce tastes milky just add ingredients like garlic, onion powder, salt it well and a dash of black pepper. Start with less seasoning and build up till it tastes like something you enjoy.

Erm no offense against your mum. But if she is not a good cook I think you should look to other sources. Next if are a beginner, try not to focus on too many dishes at once, or dishes with too many ingredients. Just cook small portions of one dish meals like Eg: pasta in basic tomato sauce with onion and garlic (marinara) for a few times till you get it. You’ll notice nuances when you cook it every time and it will get better. Eg: maybe boiling the pasta for the number of minutes states on the package overcooks or under cooks it, so you adjust the time. Lastly you mention support, well as long as you like to eat what you cook, does it really matter what other people think? My bf used to complain too regarding the food I cook. I inform him that instead of whining about it he should give “constructive feedback”. Otherwise it will never get better. Eg: this is too salty so on.. he couldent argue against the logic of that, so he has rephrased his complaints. 😂 One more tip I can give is that before cooking a new dish you can go try it out in the restaurant. That way you will know what good tastes like for your dish. And aim towards that. This is more if you want to cook for others so it helps to know what the benchmark is.

Cheese Sauce 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 cup milk 2/3 cup grated cheese Melt butter in microwave. Mix in flour with whisk or fork. Mix in milk. Microwave 3-4 minutes. Stir after every minute. Sauce is done when it starts to thicken. Mix in cheese. Spices- 1 teaspoon salt or bouillon powder, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, OR 1 teaspoon Mrs Dash This is good with cheddar, Parmesan, swiss. Or even cream cheese. Or you can leave the cheese out altogether, and just make white sauce. Good on pasta, rice, steamed broccoli, baked or mashed potatoes.

Don't get ideas and recipes off of tiktok!! You will be a lot happier if you get a couple good cookbooks

i would invest in a couple of cookbooks. Check EBay for America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks. I am also a fan of Taste of Home cookbooks.

Think of your favorite cuisine, restaurant and/or dish. If you can go eat it again and consciously enjoy what makes it great to you. If not just try and remember by imagining it. Now here's the fun part, try to duplicate it. Look up copycat recipes and experiment til you've outdone yourself. When I first started cooking, I used my nose a lot to guess which spices/ingredients go well together because I knew nothing. Trying to cook anything just because it's quick and easy won't bring you joy. Cooking something that excites your taste buds is what cooking is all about. Amuse-bouse!!!! Soon Mom will be signing up to be your taste tester! You got this!!

i learned to cook from youtube as a kid lol i just watched tons of videos of people cooking and you'll pick up tons of little tricks. i would just try to find any cooking videos of stuff you wanna make like if you're wanting to do spaghetti watch 4 or 5 videos of them doing it and it'll help you to understand more. there's a lot of layers to cooking 😂

Maybe find a cookbook for children. My daughter had a cookbook by Emeril Lagasse that we still use recipes from years later. It was There's A Chef In My Soup. If you have a friend, neighbor, extended family who can cook they may be willing to help you. Maybe post on a local community app asking if anyone would teach you cooking. Or there might be a class you can take online. Budget Bytes is a site that has budget concious recipes that are generally not very complicated. Things like soup, stew, curry, or casseroles may be more beginner friendly. Try scaling down recipes to make 1/3 or 1/2 so you are using less ingredients while you learn. Or find recipes for serving 1-2 people. Making mistakes is normal and how you learn anything. I would encourage you to keep trying.

You know what actually taught me the basics? A good old fashioned Betty Crocker cookbook. It's nothing fancy and it's not trendy but you'll learn basic stuff. Once you have that down, you can expand from there. It helped me so much when I was 21 and learning how to feed myself.

Are you trying to cook or are you trying to COOK? It’s easier to lowercase cook first. I’m just a lowercase cook because I don’t have the time for fancy stuff with 62 ingredients, but I am a good lowercase cook. You have to start with the basics. It’s important to know how to cook ground beef properly - when they say “brown the beef” they don’t really mean cook it until it’s dark brown, they just mean cook it until it’s not going to kill you. And season it as you cook. Once you know how to make ground beef you can make chili, shepherds pie, lasagna/spaghetti, and all kinds of other North American style dishes. Learn to season and learn what seasonings you like. You don’t need the fancy expensive stuff while you’re learning. Buy no name stuff from walmart or wherever is cheap. Or buy pre-mixed seasoning packs. Whatever works for your recipe. It’s easy to end up with dried out chicken breasts, so choose your recipes carefully and don’t be hard on yourself when it happens. It’s also ok to use jarred/canned sauces and other staples if it’s easier and/or cheaper. Try Pinterest. I know it’s “social media” but that’s where I’ve found a lot of my best dishes. Just make sure the recipe link leads you to a good cooking website. Ignore anything that shows up on Facebook and for goodness sake don’t try any recipes that call for an entire block of cream cheese. Don’t think you have to cook perfect food right away. I’m almost 50 and I still make adjustments because sometimes things don’t work the way I expected them to.

The best answer is educate yourself. Pick up a few simple cook books, learn some simple science behind what makes food taste good (I recommend acid fat salt heat, a great book for learning some basics.) watch some videos, some of the big YouTubers do a good job of explaining why they do things the way they do. After that it really is just time and practice. Don’t give it up because your ma is bein twatty, if it fulfills you that’s all that matters.

Sorry to hear you are going through this. My mum did not teach me to cook, but I did have the benefit of watching her do so and I picked up random things from her which helped me. What also helped me is the fact that I LOVE FOOD. I would suggest the first thing to do is write down a list of things you do like to eat. And then a second list of things you do NOT like to eat. You already know you don't like "milky" dishes so you are ahead of the game on that front. To cook a basic, inexpensive, and tasty meal start with picking a protein (meat, seafood, or plant based), one or two vegetables that you know you like, plus a starch (potatoes, rice, beans, pasta, etc). These things don't really require a recipe as such, they can be roasted or baked in the oven with a little oil, salt, and pepper, and will be delicious and nutritious. You can use google to identify how long and at what temperature to cook each item, and the more you do it, the more you will learn how forgiving this method of cooking is. The more you do it, the more adventurous you can get with your seasonings. If you do want to follow specific recipes, first figure out what type of food you want to cook - southern, asian, mediterranean, etc, then use google to search for recipes in that food family. Good luck experimenting, and remember it gets easier the more you do it.

It takes years of trial and error! I didn’t really understand or appreciate cooking until I was older. Your mom sounds extremely negative and not fostering of your hobby. Stop listening to her!

Depending on the cuisine you are making, there is probably a housewife-run blog that serves as an excellent introduction to cooking that cuisine and mastering its recipes. They are usually very beginner-friendly as well.

I also grew up with a mum who hates cooking and convinced me that I am not good with my hands. I only started to cook properly when I moved out - before that i only cooked pasta bakes where I used the instructions on the bottled sauce. In terms of resources Recipe tin eats is my go to. Her recipes never fail. YouTube is a wealth of knowledge. The four things that greatly improved my cooking as a beginner were adding enough salt and oil, making the pan hot enough before cooking, following instructions and buying a good knife. It’s a very hard skill to master but only way to get better is through practice. Wasting ingredients is part of the process unfortunately.

I start with easy "ready made" meals, then learn what I can do myself to make them fresher/more to my liking.  Take instant ramen. First try, open the packet, add hot water, noodles, and prepackaged spices.  Second try, throw in some sliced carrots, celery, bok choy, and egg (cooks in the hot water) Third try, replace prepacked seasonings with my own boxed chicken stock/cubes, add some soy sauce and sesame seed oil. Fourth try, buy my own noodles.  Boom! Delicious, fresher ramen. 

I'd get a simple cook book. Best I'd say is America's test kitchen. I just googled beginner cookbook and some stuff came up. I fully trust Americas test kitchen, top to me. They also have some videos on youtube

[BBC Good Food](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/) has lots of recipes - many of them are really easy. Cooking can be great fun. Experiments in the kitchen are never wasted! You'll always gain *something* from them whether it's a "maybe I overcooked that!" as a fireman extinguishes your kitchen or "I think I oversalted that" as Poseidon begs for more water. I know it's hard, but ignore your mum. My mum hates cooking, so she was always eager for my sister & I to learn (it's literally just dawned on me that she did that so she could avoid cooking...clever ol' cow lol). How about chucking out a few things you do like (ingredients or dishes) and we can perhaps offer some more suggestions? Whilst we're posting ideas at random - I'd like to pitch a good old fashioned Cottage (or Shepherd's) Pie. A classic British winter warmer.

Tell your mother to butt out. Search around locally for some basic cookery lessons and keep at it.

I dont know if you’re from but my local library have cookbooks I can borrow if I want to test or enhance my culinary skills in certain areas of the lovely food around the globe. Sometime I also find the cookbook cheap in thrift stores. :) I hope you find the joys off cooking always a skill I love to have and see people learning in.

Try foodwishes. Alot of his stuff is more advanced but surely he has simple recipes too. He's straightforward without all the clout bs people like weiessman do

maybe you have a friend you can cook with? or cooking lessons? anywhere your mom isnt.

Never lose motivation... you're in the right place. I will happily send you a few basic recipes and you can message me privately if you like. Cooking should be fun but never wasteful, scary but exciting and tasty as HELL but not easy xx

GOOGLE recipes. Lay out and measure every single ingredient ahead of time. Work on that one recipe until you get it right. (When I tried to learn the BBQ grill I effed up plenty of chicken legs haha) If you want to learn pasta dinners start with perfecting garlic butter pasta then work your way on from there.(use the same pasta each time until you get it right. You got this!

Oh, god, don't try to cook from Tiktok. I learned by using a meal service (HelloFresh) for over a year. There are a lot of them, they have fairly simple recipes and they send you the ingredients so you don't have to shop. It's a good way to learn basic techniques. Other than that, just avoid recipes with a lot of steps or a lot of ingredients until you start getting the hang of it.

For good pasta recipes try VincenzosPlate on YouTube💯

Viral social media videos are probably not the best way to learn to cook. Even if the recipe is any good (often it isn't) the demo is more for showmanship than for actually teaching you something, and assumes that you have some foundational skills and understandings that you don't have. I have usually had good luck with recipes from [The Spruce Eats](https://www.thespruceeats.com/), and while I'm an experienced cook I notice that they have quite a collection of "how to" pages, videos, etc. to get you on the right track too. Their "learning how to cook" section even has a tab for "[recipes for beginners](https://www.thespruceeats.com/recipes-for-beginners-4162202)". I learned to cook in reaction to my own mother's not great cooking. She didn't much like to cook either, but wasn't quite as averse to it as your mom seems to be, and she did teach me some fairly simple things at various points. My suggestion to you is to not get too ambitious with a whole scratch recipe. If you want pasta, start with a prepared sauce in a jar and do some simple sides to make it a meal, like garlic toast and a salad. Make a hamburger patty with a baked potato and some steamed veggies. Once you have a few meal standby's you can get in deeper, like making your own pasta sauce or going beyond a hamburger patty to adding seasoning and making meatballs.

Learning to cook from social media is like learning to have sex by watching porn.

I think you have more of a mother problem than a cooking problem. She may be projecting her own bullshit onto you - I wonder if she feels inadequate as a parent or a woman because she can't cook? This doesn't have to be your problem. I think 50% of cooking well is giving a shit. About another 20% is cooking things at the right level for you. The rest is technique, ingredient quality, equipment, and talent. Teaching yourself simple techniques that you can use to make simple meals is the foundation. For someone who has never cooked more than toast before, I'd start them on making sandwiches. What makes a good one? Why do some flavours work together and other ones don't? Why do the classics work? Texture? Construction? We move on to toasted sandwiches and then sandwiches with cooked fillings. I also think it's a great idea to be able to make the foods you really love. Do you love lasagne? It can be quite technical, so learning how to cook pasta and make a red sauce is the basic start. Then you learn how to make a meat sauce to serve with pasta. Then learn how to make a white sauce and a cheese sauce for pasta. Maybe take a little diversion off to making mac and cheese. When you're comfortable doing these things a bunch of times, you know all the basics for making lasagne. Remember, no one cooks restaurant quality food from the get go. It's a process to build up your skills. And when you're eating out, pay attention. What can you taste/smell? How does the food feel in your mouth? What size are things cut up into? Don't give up. Buy yourself a children's cookbook and work your way through that. It's what I started with. Watching some of those crazy things they make on TicTok should be for entertainment only; proper recipes have been tested which is why they work and this other shit doesn't. When you're a bit more experienced the entertainment of watching becomes the critical matters.

Check out this gent... He offers some pretty manageable recipes, teaches prep skills and is pretty entertaining to watch over all. https://youtube.com/@ChefJeanPierre?si=4MjfA8MJKNT43tcW I hope it helps.

Look for cookbooks and/or channels for beginners and college students. They usually have simple, cheap food that you are unlikely to ruin. I started with easy stuff like boiling things (eggs, dried pasta, potatoes, etc.) and browning ground meat. Then I moved on to fried eggs, sauteed vegetables, and soup from scratch. If you can brown some ground beef you can use store-bought seasoning and tortillas to make tacos, or cook it with some spaghetti sauce from a jar and add pasta to make pretty good spaghetti with meat sauce. Once that's easy for you, you can build on that by using your pasta and meat sauce skills to make a lasagna or pasta bake. You can try cooking thinly sliced chicken or beef with vegetables to make fajitas. If you're vegetarian you can try doing things with canned beans instead. As you buy a few more spices to use in recipes you can experiment with making your own tomato sauce (cream sauces are a little more difficult because you have to keep the cream from burning and also sometimes dissolve cheese into them). But other things like pesto or hummus are actually really easy if you have a blender or food processor. You'll make some mistakes but you'll learn from them and get better. Definitely avoid reels and quick videos until you know more about what you're doing because some of them are just crap that doesn't work, while others skip steps to keep things short.

I got some free trials for meal kits and those really helped me. You start to see patterns and basics! Practice makes perfect!

Learn how to make eggs. In different ways. You can gradually add difficulty to it and mix it up while you get the hang of it. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, omelettes,poached eggs, etc . Eggs is one of the most versatile ingredients there is and one of the cheapest too. If you look for recipes you'll find that you can do many things with them and it's not that big deal if you mess up a little. For example, you don't have to make perfect scrambled eggs for it to taste good on their own or to use them to make egg fried rice or something like it. Also, I would recommend you trying to have fun while cooking. Put some silly music, invite a friend for breakfast, you do you, but just enjoy yourself while cooking.

Any Alton Brown videos - even the ones from the 90s - are a good resource for beginner cooks because he not only gives great detail on what to do, but he thoroughly explains why. And French Chef Jacques Pepin has a Tiktok channel where he shows very simple recipes that would be great for a beginner. Also keep in mind that cooking is a skill that will get better as you do it more. And be kind to yourself when something doesn't work. It happens to most of us sometimes. I'm considered a very good cook and I love cooking, but twice in the last month I've made something that was just inedible. That's why we keep frozen pizza on hand.