The Basics of Cooking Everyone Should Know

Just thought I'd help you not make the cooking (not cooking) mistakes I made in my twenties (and thirties, let's be honest), by demystifying the whole idea with a stupidly simple way of thinking about it.

ASSISTANT EDITOR Steven Markley

0:00 Intro
0:29 The Art of Gastronomeh
2:15 Beam Dream!
4:02 Culinearly School
10:04 Conclusion!

MY USUAL PLACES

[ratoh]

While I as someone who has been trained in cooking absolutely support this mentality, doing things until its just good enough is the only thing I care about when cooking for myself, if there is one thing I want people to care about it is a sharp knife. Dull knives are dangerous to handle and frustrating to use. Don't care too much however, you want to keep your knife sharp enough but don't obsess over it. You don't need to hone it every use, but if it can't cut a tomato without squishing it then sharpen it. Get a pull through sharpener, they're not great but they're good enough. You can also get someone who sharpens knives to do it for you but that is a pain for most people since they don't know anyone who does. Also don't buy a bunch of knives, just one decent chef's knife for the same price will help you through at least 90% of what you want to do in a kitchen

[kyralarose]

Not to be all dramatic but I feel like this is a masterpiece. A manifesto against the ravages of perfectionism. An FU to the haters in our minds (as personified by internet commentators) who say if it’s not perfect don’t even try.

I feel like i need to watch this every time I’m too afraid to try something because the perfectionist voices are winning.

[macsarcule]

I cooked in restaurants for years, I can do fancy cookin’ and I’ve been periodically leaving this comment in cooking videos: It just needs to taste good. To you. It doesn’t have to be instagrammable or complex or complicated. You just need something to eat. Healthy or not as you like. Don’t let cooking channels tell you everything has to be top of the line, very best ingredients, blah blah blah. You cook for you, something you like, you did it. Be fancy when _you_ want. Most of the time, you prolly will just be happy to have food you made, and liked. ✌️😌✨

[thisiseric]

I like how this is the most unserious video that Craig has put out in years but it also has the BEST production value.

[Octorawk]

Extra tip. Frozen veggies. If you're like me fresh produce stops existing as soon as I put it in the fridge and more often than not it rots. Frozen veggies have been a life changer. It keeps longer and it doesn't require any chopping.
Frozen broccoli is especially easy. Oil, salt, shove it in the airfryer (or pan). Put some shredded cheese on it if you feel like. Super easy when I'm lazy and it's probably healthier than what I was going to order in.

[TitanInvictusTube]

This is legit a whole new series idea right here. I'd suggest a bare basic list of ingredients and how long it takes if you ever did that. Seriously, it would be one of the best easygoing and real instructional cooking video series ever. As is, this video is already wonderful.

[LexOnTheWeb]

As someone with ADHD who has struggled getting themselves to cook, this is *THE BEST* guide I’ve seen on just doing it. Thanks Craig ❤ I hope others will find motivation as well!

[strapkovic]

This man is a genius. I already know how to cook and I don’t drink alcohol or coffee and I’m not addicted to social media but I watch all his episodes cuz he’s hilarious. Counterintuitive haha that was gold

[caitis]

Buy cookbooks for children! They are way more likely to require a realistic skill level, effort level, and number of ingredients for an average person. And the food still comes out tasting yummy. The Usbourne Children's Book of Baking is my favourtite recipe book for desserts.

[boredirishguy]

"Counter intuitive" is the best joke I've heard all day. I'm going to bed now cause it's not going to get better than that, and it can only be downhill from here (plus it's late and I'm tired).

[bananababy]

Craig...Craig...CRAIG!! This was great. I total think this needs to be a series. Chyna wants you to cook more. We want you to cook more. I think if you make more videos of you cooking, you'll cook more. Win, win, WIN!!

[Bargadiel]

This is basically exactly how I cook and it's done me well so far.

Hardest part is just knowing how to tell when something is done. Once you figure it out, then you get to explore the further steps to make it better.

[ericgauthier]

Speed/ease tip: You can microwave those sweet potato chunks for about 5 minutes to get the cook time down to 20 minutes in the oven to match the broccoli.

[DaivG]

Tips: Salt accents existing flavor, pepper adds new flavor. Experimentation is key.

Also, don't put food in the oven before it's up to temp. When an over is heating up, it's throwing everything it has to heat up so you'll expose your food to a huge temperature range. Wait for it to come up to temp so it's exposed to the same temp the whole time and is more predictable to figure out when it's done.

[calebee]

A meat thermometer and a meat Temperature chart has been life changing for me. I don’t really need to question how long to cook things anymore I just make sure it gets up to temp.

[aliceandLauren]

I just introduced my 10-year-old to your videos and now she says she likes them a lot and I'm extremely excited and I thought that you should know that. Thank you very much Craig

[thetheatricallinguist]

You can eat all of the stem if it's washed, but personally I think it's gross so instead I tend to put veggie scraps like that in a bag in the freezer and when I have a bag full, put them in boiling water, simmer for however long you can be bothered and you have veggie stock! Add bones for meaty stock.

[rdreher]

I think this video is super important. I have encountered way too many young people who need to understand this, although a lot of them were in Japan so sadly they may never encounter it. That culture has an even bigger issue with young men not being taught to cook than we do. As for myself, this idea just really came naturally to me. It's literally so easy that cave men could do it, we've been simply heating food for hundreds of thousands of years.

When I moved out and lived on my own for the first time, I started by cooking the simple things I already knew - grilled cheeses, pancakes, soup, fried eggs, egg sandwiches, nothing fancy. I was living in Japan, and so I picked up on making fried rice and rice curry from stuff you can just buy in the store. All I had to do is cut up the chicken and vegetables basically. Well, I had to learn how to wash rice and use the rice cooker from my neighbors, but that's not hard. Anyway, the idea of the importance of oil in cooking was so obvious to me, that once I was staying at a friends, and when I asked him where his oil was so I could make eggs, and he was like "it's a non-stick pan, you don't need oil, " I was like "does not compute."

What really started to get me to develop my interest in cooking was spices. The only spice my Russian mother ever uses is dill, so when I was cooking for myself, exploring the grocery store, I became really interested in the whole world of herbs and spices. With this, I had a simple way to experiment and explore with even the very simple recipes I would make. I think that's a really good next step after you just get the oil - salt -heat step done. You can start with what I did － my older brother worked a pizzeria when I was young, so he taught me how to use oregano, basil, garlic and parmigiano on everything. Later, my Mexican-Canadian friend taught me how to make taco seasoning - which you can't just find on the shelf in Japan. That's another great way to flavor your dishes. Chili powder, cumin, and paprika are the keys to that.

Much later I started learning to cook things I specifically missed while I was in Japan. I learned to bake bread because I hate Japanese bread. I learned to make my own pizza because Japanese pizza is too expensive and ain't got nothing on New York (though they do Italian style real well). Once I started watching Townsends, I really got into cooking. It was just so much more intrinsically interesting to explore history, not simply make some fancy-schmancy thing. Pies are not actually that hard to make and are great survival food. I would work late at my last job, no time to make dinner afterwards, but I had Mondays off, so that was bake a big ol' pie day, that would then last me the week.

I also fell in love with vegetables while I was in Japan. That's an issue America has - our vegetables kind of suck. You got to grow your own or go to a farmers market to really experience good vegetables. When I was in Japan though, I would go to the green grocer and oh the cornucopia of earths splendor would just inspire me. Again, I didn't need recipes, I just wanted to try these veggies in whatever simple dish I could make, usually fried rice or rice curry, then later pies.

My go to stuff to always have on hand though - onions and mushrooms. If I have onions and mushrooms, and some kind of protein, I can make a food. Simple as that. That's my last piece of advice for people who don't know how to start cooking, onions and mushrooms. You may already have your version of "onions and mushrooms, " but if you don't, just try onions and mushrooms.

[Artofcarissa]

Another easy tip to get your veggies in is buy premade sauces from the grocery store and mix your veggies with them. I just roasted some green beans in the oven and toss them with some subway baja chipotle sauce I bought and it was AMAZING.

You can make your own sauce or find one you like that’s premade, either way it’s hella easy

[TanifsThoughts]

Very proud of you. This how my mom taught me to cook 30 years ago. Cooking at home doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.