What Cooking From Scratch Actually Means (And Where To Start)
Cooking From Scratch For Beginners
If you’re just getting into cooking, it can be intimidating. Knowing where to start, what to cook, how to cook are all skills that you haven’t yet developed. Don’t worry – your palette and your curiosity will be your teacher. And you now have endless resources at your disposal.
I was in college in the early 2000’s, which is right when the Food Network was taking off and food personalities like Tyler Florence, Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, and Guy Fieri became my generation’s inspiration and coach in the kitchen. Coupled with these chefs, the internet, which was relatively new at the time, provided endless opportunities for new recipes and ideas. For better or worse, resources were much narrower and limited than they are today. Like I was, you may be in your early 20’s and developing an interest in cooking. Maybe you enjoy eating good food, maybe you take pleasure in hosting friends at your place, maybe you recognize the invaluable life skill of being able to cook for yourself and want to develop and build that skill to serve your home well in the years to come. Whatever the motivation, enjoy the journey.
Cooking from scratch means learning how to create meals or dishes out of whole ingredients. Whole ingredients are unadulterated, unprocessed, made by God and grown by mother nature. Think tomatoes, a cut of beef, a whole chicken, a sprig of thyme, honey, butter, a lemon. All of these, while on occasion may be cut, harvested, or churned, have not had anything added to them. They all existed naturally. If you can eat these things, as opposed to the things that never existed naturally, you’ll find that your body responds as though you’re running it on the fuel it was designed to burn.
Benefits:
- Healthy (in fact, food can be medicine)
- Less expensive (cheap food + supplements is more expensive than healthy, nutritious food)
- Connection (food shared with friends and family is what life is made of)
- Allows you to take advantage of food that’s in season and enjoy flavors at their peak
Myths:
- You have to cook everything yourself
- If you’re not grinding flour, or making sourdough bread, you’re not cooking from scratch
- It’s expensive
- It’s too much work and takes too long
How to Start
- Start by cooking one meal per week from scratch
- Focus on simple and inexpensive ingredients first
- Pick a technique to learn that you enjoy eating:
- Roasting (Whole Roasted Chicken)
- Braising (Pot Roast)
- Grilling (Kebabs, Chicken Teriyaki, or a Salad with Grilled Ingredients)
- Replace prepared foods gradually:
- Boxed Sides > Whole Sides (potatoes, rice, etc.)
- Store-bought Dressings & Condiments > Homemade Vinaigrettes & Mayonnaise
- Keep the meals you learn & enjoy in your rotation
Ingredients to Start With
- Oils & Fats
- Olive Oil (use to roast vegetables, brown meat, etc.)
- Avocado Oil (use in dressings, vinaigrettes, and in may for its neutral flavor)
- Butter / Ghee (use to add flavor when cooking sauces, scrambled eggs, etc.)
- Tallow (good for frying or making tortillas)
- Starches / Vegetables
- Potatoes
- Squash (Delicata, Acorn, Carnival are all delicious when roasted)
- Rice (Jasmine is a great all-around option)
- Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts (all are delicious when roasted)
- Meats
- Whole Chickens
- Chuck Roast
- Ground Beef
- Chicken Thighs (Boneless, Skinless)
- Aromatics
- Sweet, Yellow, and Red Onions
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Shallots
- Fresh Ginger
- Herbs & Spices
- Fresh & Dried Thyme (buy fresh & dry – the quality is much better)
- Fresh & Dried Oregano
- Dried Bay Leaves
- Fresh & Dried Rosemary
- Quality Salt (sea salt or kosher salt)
- Black Peppercorns (require a pepper grinder)
- Citrus
- Lemons (most versatile)
- Limes
- Oranges
Kitchen Tools You’ll Find Useful
Need Immediately:
- Chef’s Knife
- Cutting Board (wood is preferred to plastic)
- Half Sheet Pan
- 10-12″ Skillet (Aluminum/Stainless Steel or Cast Iron)
- 8-quart Pot
- Dutch Oven
Nice To Have Next:
- Pepper Mill or Pepper Grinder
- Mortar & Pestle
- Thermapen Thermometer
- Garlic Press
- Immersion Blender or Food Processor
FAQ’s
Is cooking from scratch healthier?
Scratch made food using whole ingredients is significantly healthier than eating pre-packaged or processed foods. Even the same foods packaged will often contain additives or preservatives to keep the food looking and tasting fresh on the shelves. These are typically things you don’t want in your regular diet. If you’re not sure, try it for a week and see how your body feels compared to eating fast food or prepared and packaged food. I think you’ll see the difference immediately.
Will cooking from scratch save you money?
It certainly can. And it can also be expensive if you fall into the trap of fancy, complex meals with expensive ingredients like high-end cuts of meat, fancy cheeses, or specialty ingredients like Calabrian chiles or niche Asian sauces. Some of the best tasting meals are the least complex, where you let the most simple and humble of ingredients shine. For example, a whole roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables. Or let’s say you want to make pad Thai with chicken at home. You can easily make 4 servings of pad Thai at home for $20. A typical order of pad Thai at a local restaurant would cost you $15-20 and serve 1-2. This example has some unique ingredients (like Tamarind paste), and yet it will cost you 50% to make at home what it’d cost to buy out. And you know and can control the exact ingredients going into the meal.
Can beginners cook from scratch?
Absolutely! I’d recommend that you start with either something simple or something that you really like. Something simple will get you involved in the cooking process quickly. And something that you really like, you’ll be motivated and knowledgeable about how to make it better.
What foods should I start with?
I’d recommend either something simple, like a grilled burger or grilled kebabs or even a basic soup recipe like chili. Or start with something you really like. For example, if you love enchiladas, find a recipe that has the things you love in enchiladas and try it! Once you have a baseline, you’ll know how to adjust it based on your preferences for enchiladas.
All of this seems overwhelming, what’s one action step I can take to get started?
Start by finding a blog or a Pinterest account or celebrity chef who’s recipes and style of cooking resonate with and inspire you. Pick one of their recipes to make and go for it! Learning happens best by doing. And sometimes the fastest learning happens by failing. So don’t be afraid to do and even to fail. Your success will come faster with experience.
Final Encouragement – Go For It!
You can do this! Trust me, you’ve already accomplished things that are much more difficult than cooking from scratch. If the resources I’ve shared and what you’re able to find online just aren’t enough, ask your mom or someone in your family or circle of people who likes to cook and who you think cooks good food, to let you watch them cook a dish or a meal. Lend them a hand – prep the ingredients, wash the dishes – you’ll be on the fast track to learning as they share what probably took them many failures to figure out. And for many of us, learning comes more quickly by doing than by researching and reading.