How do I become good at cooking?

[Aspiringcook]

I can cook basic stuff but I always find that flavour is a bit meh. Never cook anything mind blowingly tasty. Is there any hope for me or do some people just “have it” and are naturally more skilled?
Any recipe booka to recommend? I particularly like vegetarian recipes although I do occasionally eat meat and fish.
I find that this (as well as living in a small home) sometimes stops me from wanting to host people as I get quite stressed if I have to cook for many.
Would love to improve as I genuinely enjoy food and pottering around the kitchen

I don’t have cook books but if you look online a quick search will give you any recipes you can think of.
I self taught to cook and just look up a recipe and tweak it to ingredients I prefer.

I think for most people practice helps them grow in confidence. Focus on food you like to cook and eat and adapt the recipes to your personal preferences. Stick some tunes on in the kitchen and enjoy.

It’s practice and trial and error. Meat must be properly browned for mince based dishes, stews and casseroles. Wine, herbs, salt and pepper and lemon juice boost flavour. Cook with a lid off for some of your cooking time; this helps sauces reduce and intensify in flavour.

Buy a second hand copy of Delia’s Complete Cookery Course online and read recipes for free on BBC Good Food. Start off with variations on things you can already do and slowly add in new stuff. I believe anyone can be a great cook, it just takes practice.

it's probably not enough salt. i find watching videos helps as you can see how browned things get like onions or meat/. what do you like eating?

I'd also start with one thing and perfect it, like roast chicken...

I think start with Mary Berry recipes. They’re fairly simple and always work. (Other cook books can be hit and miss). Nigella and Delia Smith are other failproof ones. Once you’ve tried a few you’ll get to know more about the basics and grow in confidence.

I miss TV cooking shows. I know we were swamped with them at one point but they did teach me cooking techniques and which flavours go together. I used to read cookery books like they were novels too. I think YouTube cooking channels are food blogs have largely replaced them. After that it was practice, sometimes somethings don't work out but you learn from that and incorporate the new knowledge into your cooking in future.

Maybe choose a cuisine you like and concentrate getting good at that. Cook what you like to eat rather than to impress.

Practice!

And forget a lot of the modern cookbooks which are chock full of recipes but have little instruction in the way of basic techniques and bases.

My bible is the Readers Digest Cookery Year from 1974. It's a phenomenal book which has, as you might expect, a great run of seasonal recipes but in the main is taken up with huge sections on how to do the basics of everything: sauces, jointing and carving meat, how to select fruit and vegetables, breaking down how different meats are used, how to make all kinds of stocks. It even tells you how to skin rabbits!

You can find second hand versions online for not very much. Cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who wants a cookbook that will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know.

Salt and pepper isn’t the only seasoning so add spices and flavour. Meat that is marinated and browned first takes your meal to another level. Dumping cans/jars of sauces in a pot and throwing veg in isn’t cooking imo.
I marinate all fish and meat.
im making a Tofu curry today. I marinated the tofu with all my spices, fresh ginger and yoghurt. When I fry that off first , it takes the tofu to such a flavourful level.
Don’t be afraid to try out spices.
what cuisine do you like?
Im Indian, so cook everything with tons of flavour and seasoning.
it’s also alot of trial and error as well in the beginning

Gousto

no need to actually use them but the recipes are easy to follow and understand so could be a good starting point

Practice makes perfect! I also make sure I'm putting something in anything I cook to make the base richer and tastier- Worcestershire sauce goes in basically anything, or red wine, or stock cubes. And don't be afraid to season!

For straightforward cooking for crowds I like the roasting tin cookbook series- really easy but a good way to cook for a lot of people, and a way to learn about flavours and what works well. Cooking doesn't have to be complicated or fancy to be delicious.

I'm shamelessly posting my Spicery link here as I can't recommend them enough: VICTORIA-262111

Honestly amazing. You can get the subscriptions which give like restaurant quality food (but a lot of effort and I personally find the instructions a bit clunky) or they have Legend books, which are basically pre-mixed spices you add to your fresh ingredients. I prefer these as you normally just need a few staples in like chicken, onions and tomatoes.

You also learn that most curries follow a simple format: make a paste, fry it, dilute it and add your cooked meat into it.

The more you make certain things the more you learn, like curries normally use equal amounts of sugar and salt to balance eachother or if a recipe wants tomatoes and water, you can just use [tinned] chopped tomatoes.

Alternatively, pick a cuisine, like curry and make a few different ones on repeat and then try a new one. Or buy a good cookbook and read it. A lot of them have tips about what stuff actually does and offer up substitutions.

I tend to add more of various spices than recipes call for, I also overmeasure garlic, and tend to use stock where recipes say water, and will add in other things if I think the basic recipe seems a bit meh. But I make these tweaks from a starting place of experience and knowing what will work. Ultimately it's just practice and trial and error. Meera Sodha's East is a great book if you like Asian food and lots of strong flavours.

I think it depends on what you’re comparing the taste of your food to. I read once a chef said “we cook for you like we hate you”, meaning they will use plenty of fat/butter/salt/sugar to the extent you’d never get say Jamie Oliver publishing in his books. So don’t compare to restaurant food.

Things that work for me are cooking chilli/bolognese/casseroles in advance, always taste better a day or so later and I always start with a sofrito, cooking it for around 40 mins. I add a squeeze of honey to many dishes. I prefer to eat a v healthy lunch then for dinner I’ll fry meat in olive oil and butter (not a bad thing though) and load up with roasted veg, again in lots of olive oil and herbs or spices.

Don't be afraid of herbs and spices. With practice you'll learn that each cuisine has its own core set of seasonings and how to use them.

For vegetarian cook books, I love Meera Sodha. I have East and Dinner, both are excellent and very flavourful. I also find bbc good food has plenty of good recipes.

What are you cooking that has a ‘meh’ flavour? I think you can just try experimenting with different things, e.g. if you’re doing a pasta sauce with tinned tomatoes, try the posh ones as I think it makes a big difference. If you usually use one garlic clove, try using 2 or 3. If you’re cooking with spices like cumin seeds, toast them beforehand. But it’s likely different for different dishes/ingredients. I think experimenting and keeping a log of what you tried and how it came out is a good idea.

If you listen to cooks, they always say it is down to ingredients.

I have a theory that you either have to have

1. excellent ingredients, cooked minimally. or
2. not-so-good ingredients, cooked forever so that flavours develop.

An example of the first is tenderloin, cooked rare. An example of the second is bolognaise sauce or pulled pork.

Also, grow some fresh herbs. They are a million times better than dried ones.

Taste throughout cooking, so you get a better idea of what each ingredient does. I read that something acidic brings out the flavours, so I now often add white wine vinegar and can notice the difference. Ready made stock pots help too, particularly when I'm too frazzled to concentrate on the cooking.

Trial and error

The website that will change your life is -Recipe Tin Eats - there are videos and great descriptions you won’t look back :)

Thanks all.
The meh flavour is usually curries (indian is my fav food but I am not very good at it. I do just follow simple bbc recipes for it so maybe no point in comparing it with restaurant and take aways flavours).
I am generally good at pasta dishes, including lasagna etc.
I don’t cook big chunks of meat or fish. I love vegetarian food, indian and middle eastern flavours but will eat anything really!

Tasting during cooking is important I think. Also just don't be frightened of messing it up, everyone makes cooking mistakes from time to time.

Download the curry secret- game changer

I came on to say Meera Sodha too, or a Mildred’s book. Your local library will have a range of cook books so you don’t have to buy them until you know you like their recipes! To begin with, follow it to the letter and then as you get more confident you can tweak. I’m a really confident cook but hate following an internet recipe - DH would never voluntarily use a recipe book though, so it’s personal taste.

Allow twice as long as a recipe says when you first start, because things always take longer and if you rush to finish then you’ll lose some of the flavour.

Buy a cookery course in book or video form, or look at one of the free ones on youtube. Try things out and see what helps?

Can someone tell me more about curry secret mentioned above

My best tip is to learn how to judge "ready" without the cookbooks.

Recipes are good for flavour combinations and a general gist of the order of things, but really good cooks know when to deviate, when to add a bit more pepper, and when the cake needs to come out NOW even though the recipe says five more minutes.

My husband slavishly follows the recipe and ends up in a flap because our equipment needs a couple of minutes more or less/he misjudges what "high temp" means etc.