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First, find a trusted source for recipes. I suggest going to the library and checking out a cookbook or two from America's Test Kitchen and/or Cook's Country. Their recipes aren't adventurous, but they are basically bulletproof. Find things in them that you want to try cooking. Read the science/testing methods discussed before the recipe (just a couple of paragraphs, typically), as that will give you a greater understanding of why you're doing what you're doing when you make the recipe. If any recipe references a technique that you are unfamiliar with, watch a couple of youtube videos on how to accomplish the technique.
My advice is to buy a good basic cookbook. Choose one that has basic recipes and a recipe writing style you are comfortable with. Refer to that for recipes. Get some experience, and then search online for more.
I am told by family members that Food Network recipes work well for their family. They access them online.
Whatever method(s) you decide to use, I strongly, strongly recommend you print a copy of the recipe you use. Why? Because you won't always be able to find it again online, you won't always have a good (or any) internet connection exactly when you need it, and you can't save your notes on that online recipe.
I still have a small bookshelf for my recipe books, and printed/handwritten recipes in recipe boxes or binders. No matter what's going on, I can still easily get to my favorite recipes, find new ones to play with, and be able to make notes for future reference. They are still the most used things in my kitchen, and I've been cooking for over 60 years.
In fact, the best thing you can do is to buy some good recipe books. Here's a partial list to start with:
There are a lot of BAD recipes on the Internet. Just because some random person starts a food blog doesn’t mean they know what they are doing. I’m an experienced cook, but I’ve made some clunkers off the Internet.
I agree with others that you should get a few basic, tried and true cookbooks. My recommendations are Fannie Farmer, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes & Gardens, and Betty Crocker.
One online cook who never lets me down is Ina Garten, “the Barefoot Contessa.”
There are a lot of BAD recipes on the Internet. Just because some random person starts a food blog doesn’t mean they know what they are doing. I’m an experienced cook, but I’ve made some clunkers off the Internet.
Some comments:
1) Unlike the women's magazines of prior generations which had ALL recipes tested by professionals, few sources test recipes. You are the beta group.
2) You cannot rely a lot on the comments on the recipes. 80-90% of the comments indicate that they have made major adjustments to recipe that would seriously impact the quality of the recipe. For example, substituting 93/7 ground beef for 80/20 ground beef will seriously impact many recipes.
3) Many of the recipes come from people in major cities. I cannot go through a monthly issue of Food TV magazine without finding that 60-70% of the recipes have ingredients that are hard to get or outrageously expensive. Holy basil and galangal are not ingredients that you will find away from markets that have major Asian markets like H-Mart or Mitsuwa or 99 Ranch.
4) Some of the authors of the recipes are wishy-washy with their ingredients. "Or you can do this or you can do that" just does not cut it. I want a product that I can replicate time after time. You tell me what the base product is supposed to be and I can play with modifications the 2nd or 3rd time The Pioneer Woman is one of the worst for this. I pass on her recipes.
5) One of my pet peeves are celebrity chefs on certain networks. Non-cooks and novices listen to what these folks say and believe it to be dogma. "Don't break your spaghetti" or "you shouldn't use raw onions in any dish." Sorry folks, but there are times when the recipe calls for breaking the spaghetti and using raw onions in a final dish.
I downloaded a recipe off of Allrecipes a couple of months ago. It was a vegetable dish and called for 2 TBSP of dry chile pepper flakes for three servings. I used 1 tsp and that was on the border of being too hot. I did not want to try the recipe as listed and end up throwing it away.
One more comment. If you are going to modify a recipe, that is fine. It is your food and you can play with it as you want. However, don't rate my recipe based upon the modifications that you made as that is NOT the recipe that I published.
A second comment. Don't ask me for a recipe and then publish it as your own wither in a church cookbook or online. That is cheating.
1) Unlike the women's magazines of prior generations which had ALL recipes tested by professionals, few sources test recipes. You are the beta group.
2) You cannot rely a lot on the comments on the recipes. 80-90% of the comments indicate that they have made major adjustments to recipe that would seriously impact the quality of the recipe. For example, substituting 93/7 ground beef for 80/20 ground beef will seriously impact many recipes.
3) Many of the recipes come from people in major cities. I cannot go through a monthly issue of Food TV magazine without finding that 60-70% of the recipes have ingredients that are hard to get or outrageously expensive. Holy basil and galangal are not ingredients that you will find away from markets that have major Asian markets like H-Mart or Mitsuwa or 99 Ranch.
4) Some of the authors of the recipes are wishy-washy with their ingredients. "Or you can do this or you can do that" just does not cut it. I want a product that I can replicate time after time. You tell me what the base product is supposed to be and I can play with modifications the 2nd or 3rd time The Pioneer Woman is one of the worst for this. I pass on her recipes.
5) One of my pet peeves are celebrity chefs on certain networks. Non-cooks and novices listen to what these folks say and believe it to be dogma. "Don't break your spaghetti" or "you shouldn't use raw onions in any dish." Sorry folks, but there are times when the recipe calls for breaking the spaghetti and using raw onions in a final dish.
I downloaded a recipe off of Allrecipes a couple of months ago. It was a vegetable dish and called for 2 TBSP of dry chile pepper flakes for three servings. I used 1 tsp and that was on the border of being too hot. I did not want to try the recipe as listed and end up throwing it away.
One more comment. If you are going to modify a recipe, that is fine. It is your food and you can play with it as you want. However, don't rate my recipe based upon the modifications that you made as that is NOT the recipe that I published.
A second comment. Don't ask me for a recipe and then publish it as your own wither in a church cookbook or online. That is cheating.
My pet peeve are those reviewers who don’t make a recipe as written. I never change a new recipe the first time I make it.
Some of the ones I have seen often don't specify exact amounts, such as "add salt and pepper". They also tended to use a lot of fat - eg lard, etc. (which is now back in style).
When my mother was a young bride in the 1940s, she moved half way across the country away from family. She had never done much cooking, so she wrote to her grandmother to send some recipes. Great, except there were virtually no measurements, and it inevitably ended with “cook until done.”
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