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Comment by apsurd | Hacker News Reader

The book SALT FAT ACID HEAT changed my life. I’ve gifted that book to 3 people in my life so far

Actually, you can be four! Send me your address and i’ll send it to you, email the gmail domain with the handle plusjade

it’s really that good ^_^

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Thanks but I’m gainfully employed. I’ll pick it up. Drop one off in your local Little Library instead :)

There is a Netflix series of the same name by the author that's worth a look - she's an engaging host.

The Netflix series is mostly food porn and a fun travelog. It actually teaches you maybe 10% of what you'd learn from the book.

This is actually a problem with most current "food TV". None of them seem to actually want to teach people how to cook. They'll spend 90 seconds showing the host throw together a dish while glossing over most of the details and techniques, when they should be spending the full 30 minutes.

Just want to give a shout out to Alex French Guy Cooking, who does exactly what you're wanting. Particularly videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94d7ZXySplo

Yup, all the good cooking shows are on YouTube now.

What makes it so good? I want to learn to cook, and your enthuasism is quite inspiring

I've read part of it, and really enjoyed it, and I would say: It breaks cooking down into four simple, basic principles (the salt, acid, fat, and heat of the title), then deep dives into each one and explains exactly how those things contribute to the taste of different dishes. This allows you to learn to cook without just following a recipe and knowing that if you apply those principles correctly to whatever food you have in your kitchen, you can make something reasonably tasty.

Of course, learning to cook also involves many other techniques and combining flavors in more complex ways, but if you're starting out and can't boil an egg, it's a great introduction to the basics of what makes food taste good.

It’s a pretty deep read I’d say. It’s improved a lot of my instincts in the kitchen (what’s a dish or pot missing) . Recipes are also nice but can be a cost trap until you generate a sense of what sorts of things you want to have stocked. For that I’d say stick to one grouping of recipes (like say, Italian) to get a basic idea of what “most” recipes use in that grouping. That will save you money as you won’t have to be going out for different new spices, canned goods and oils every time you cook.

Sounds a lot like how I've learned cooking during my student time. It's fun experimenting with techniques until you understand how to extract a decent flavor out of each ingredient. I think this is why master chefs never stop learning, it's a really deep rabbit hole until you've perfected just one dish, repeatably.

I haven’t read through it, but the essence I believe is an emphasis on fitting components and techniques together rather than slavishly following recipes.

Similarly good (and maybe a good companion) is J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s YouTube channel. He basically wears a GoPro and cooks full meals with a very minimum number of cuts. You can see him make mistakes and adapt recipes to what he has on hand in real time. Watching a pro do that really made a lot of things click for me. His book (The Food Lab) and his articles on Serious Eats are also good, but his videos have really been extraordinary.

Fully agreed. I wanted to add that sometimes he also goes into a scientific detour about why something is done the way it is, and I learned a lot theoigh that.

+1 to all the sibling replies. I’ll add the inspiration element from my experience:

Samin Nosrat is a fantastic teacher. She shares cooking through the lens of “why”. It’s the opposite of say, rote learning which, as a beginner, i’d always assumed “follow this recipe” was and so suffered indifference toward the world of cooking. I’ve never been good at following directions.

She’s the teacher that guides you to what you could not see because of false assumptions.

Cooking is now an endless exploration. There are foundational answers to “why” and though I’d call it an anti-recipe book, the second half is all recipes heh, but they are like seed ideas. You can practice one seed and explore yourself how to build upon it.

I made an herb salsa: citrus juice, herbs (i use cilantro), onion, salt, and oil. This is the ACID. You can then incorporate the other 3 however you wish. It makes me feel like a chef! I put it in eggs. and chicken. i’m still exploring. It takes time and care, but not “to get the right answer”, rather to develop your point of view. I look forward to it now. each meal is an opportunity to practice and explore. its my own creativity and art. i love it.

> I want to learn to cook

Invest in good cookware.

Three high quality pots and two high quality pans will improve your cooking experience, learning, and results exponentially.

And at least one proper knife.

What makes the book so good? Why do you recommend it?

man, I'd love a copy if OP doesn't need one

email me your address!

oh wow! thanks so much! emailing you now :)

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