How to Cook: Cooking Fundamentals for Novices

Article by Nikki Thomas

In regards to cooking, you will need to remember that that every person learned somewhere. I do not know a single person who was born with a wooden cooking spoon and ready to go. There is a great deal of researching that must be done in order to become a productive cook and after that there is certainly room for improvement. Not only do you have to begin with the basics when it comes to cooking but you almost need to begin again when learning to cook a new cuisine such as Chinese, Thai, or Indian food.

This means that at any given time in your cooking learning cycles there is quite in all probability someone somewhere that is better and/or worse at cooking than you. Take heart from this due to the fact that even the best have bad days when it comes to cooking. There are lots of people who cook for different reasons. Some cook in order to eat and survive while others cook because they actually benefit from the process of cooking. Some cook during times of emotional upheaval and others cook out of sheer boredom. Whatever your reason for cooking or learning to cook you must always begin with the basics.

The first thing you want to learn is what various terminology you will discover in recipes actually means. There are plenty of new and sometimes unfamiliar sounding terms that you will find in common recipes. These terms signifies the difference in recipe results or disappointment. You ll want to be able to find a good section in any complete cookbook that describes the different definitions for unfamiliar terminology. In case you are not certain what is meant by “folding in the eggs” it is in your best interests to look it up.

Yet another good tip with regards to cooking basics is to try less difficult recipes for a while and then expand your horizons to the more complex recipes that abound. The majority of recipes will have a little note about their level of difficulty and you can read through the recipe to see whether or not it is something you are interested in preparing or confident that you can prepare. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and it will take quite some time to build a trusty ‘repertoire’ of recipes to work into your meal planning rotation.

Fortunately if you really have discovered the basics associated with preparing food it is actually less likely that you are going to in the future have a need to relearn any of them. As a result you are able to continually proliferate as well as enhance your cooking talent. When you gain knowledge of innovative recipes and increase your food preparation skills and talents you can see fixing your own daily meals right from the start is a lot more fulfilling compared to preparing processed meals that are purchased from the shelves of your local supermarkets.

Additionally you will find as your knowledge and self-confidence grows that you will find yourself more and more in many cases improvising as you go and tweaking recipes to meet your personal style. If you prefer more or less of ingredients or want to make a recipe a little more or less spicy in flavor you can make simple adjustments along the way in order to achieve this goal. In other words you will begin in time to create recipes of your very own. And that is something you won’t necessarily learn when it comes to basic cooking skills for beginners but you would never learn if you didn’t master those basic cooking skills.

About the Author

Want to learn how to cook restaurant recipes at home? click here!

Related Cooking Articles

WoW Cooking – Cook with Style!

Article by Sam K. Ward

Cooking as a profession became more popular with the WOTLK and BC expansions. Together with the First Aid and Fishing, Cooking belongs to the secondary professions and because of that it is purely optional, however, to level up Cooking can be really fun and this is the main reason why many WoW players decide to take it.

Why is cooking so interesting?

There is a number of players who want to level up Cooking for fun, to be able to make the best food in game, to do cooking achievements and receive the famous “Chef” title, and of course, because Cooking is a quite profitable profession. As you are able to notice, Cooking will give you many possibilities and fun things to do.

A perfect couple

Many players will tell you that Fishing and Cooking are indeed a perfect couple. These two professions, when paired, will speed up the levelling of Cooking and can bring you loads of profit even though you can level them both separately.

Become a Chef!

Chef is a popular title among the WoW players, however, it isn’t very easy to get it. If you are going for this title keep in mind that you will have to accomplish a list of different cooking achievements. Some of these achievements will require you to learn many recipes in Northrend as well as in Outland and to devote some time into doing the daily quests.

Why are the dailies so important?

In the BC expansion players were introduced to the cooking dailies which gave some gold and nice rewards to anyone who was regularly completing them. With the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, future Chefs were given new daily cooking quests found in Northrend’s capital Dalaran. An npc Katherine Lee found in the Silver Enclave is the one you should seek if you are and Alliance player who is up for doing dailies, while if you are a Hordie try visiting Awilo Lon’gomba in the Sunreaver’s Inn. These two npcs will offer you five different quests on a daily basis: Infused Mushroom Meatloaf, Cheese for Glowergold, Convention at the Legerdemain, Sewer Stew and Mustard Dogs!.

These quests will have some gold to offer you as a reward as well as the Small Spice Bag and a Dalaran Cooking Reward. In the bag you will always find a surprise such as an extra Dalaran Cooking Reward, Northern spices and sometimes you will be even lucky enough to receive a recipe. Sometimes you will be able to find some different kinds of spices like Baby Spice. This spice doesn’t have any practical use and is used just for fun since it can resize a targeted player and make him tiny!

All of the Dalaran Cooking Rewards you collect you are able to spend while purchasing new powerful cooking recipes. With a 100 of these you will be able to buy a special item the Chef’s hat and accomplish one of the cooking achievements – Cooking with Style. It might seem a bit expensive, but still, the Chef’s hat will allow a cook to prepare his food much faster. The Dalaran Cooking Rewards could be also used for purchasing more Northern spices which you need for your high level cooking. The food which you can make with the use of Northern spices is the best food in game and therefore it is worth quite a bit if sold on the Auction House.

Tips for fast dailies

Even though cooking dailies are random, it is nice to have some stacks of meat prepared in your bags. For the Mustard Dogs! daily you should have some Rhino Meat stacked and for the rest, plain Chill Meat will do just fine. If you farm these meats in advance you will surely save some time while doing dailies. If you manage to have these meats prepared, cooking dailies will take just a few minutes of your time.

If you want to get the most out of Cooking as a WoW Profession, then check out our WoW Cooking Guide for more on leveling your character and making tons of Gold, plus a video review of Dugi’s Dailies and a link to Penn’s Professions Guide one of the most comprehensive and coolest World of Warcraft Professions Guides available.

About the Author

Sam Ward writes articles and reviews for mywowlevelingguide.com on all aspects of WoW gaming. Sign up to our WoW Guide newsletter and 10 part mini course and receive a FREE 34 page Auction House Mastery eBook!

Related Cooking Articles

When Cooking Cooked Your House

Article by Tricia Oliver

The upcoming holidays also mean one thing – tons of cooking chores. That is why fire safety precaution should be made and in place inside the home. Most of fire breakouts usually start in the kitchen. Recently, a family’s two-storey home just got burned down in Monteagle Street where a mother and daughter got caught and killed in the fire.


Upon investigation, authorities have pointed out that the origin of the fire was in the kitchen, and that unattended cooking has caused the fire to spread. More tragic is that the smoke alarms were not working properly and did not go off in time to warn the family about the fire. Perhaps the biggest fear of most families is to lose one’s home to a fire. Even though homeowners are insured, it would still be wise to prevent such unfortunate accidents. To avoid such a frightening scenario, here are some tips to practice fire safety precautions in your home.


Teach yourself and your family about basic fire safety. The classic rule “stop, drop and roll” is a very good tip to remember, especially for kids. When smokes fills the home, instead of facing it head first, drop and then crawl through the smoky haze. Ensure that your home has a good safety exit plan in case of a fire. And despite the fear of having valuable possessions trapped inside a burning home, it is still wise not to go inside a burning building, lest you will place yourself and your would-be rescuer in danger.


Rooms such as the bedroom, living room and especially the kitchen should have a smoke detector or a smoke alarm installed in the ceiling. They must also be regularly checked, and batteries must be regularly replaced to ensure that it is still in good working condition. Never turn off or unplug a smoke detector – the noise might be an inconvenience but it is small compared to the huge possibility of saving lives.


Be careful when cooking. Cooking stoves must be wiped dry and clean of grease and flammable items. Window curtains or grills should not be near these cooking devices. Never, ever leave a hot stove or a crockpot open and unattended. A dutch oven recipe book or a dutch oven ebook has some slow cooking methods which can be left while you are working, but remember to never leave the top pot open. There should also be system for checking in on your slow-cooking meat broth.

About the Author

For Tricia, the home is the best place to be.