Foolproof Meat Cookery book for Vegetarian

[Mutabilis]

Could anyone recommend a cookery book or recipe website that covers everything about cooking meat? I've been vegetarian since I was a child so need even the really simple obvious things explained, and the safety as it worries me that it might be raw or off and I don't know how to tell. I also can't taste it so need recipes with timings rather than 'to taste'. Since having school dinners my usually really fussy eater kids now love proper cooked meat stews, shepherds pie, roasts etc but I don't know where to start and ready meals are getting expensive.

I don’t eat meat either but I once had a job where I needed to - I pulled out my old Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course. It’s great. It covers all the basics, the recipes are easy to follow and they work.

It’s got lots of recipes that aren’t meat, too, so it’s useful for all the family cooking.

Thanks that's great. I was actually given that book years ago by a relative and gave it away thinking I'll never need to cook dinners like that...until I had kids who prefer school dinners to my attempts. I've just found a copy 2nd hand so I'll give it a try.

Can't you use Quorn etc? Then you can all eat the same thing

Buy a probe thermometer - they are £7.50 at Ikea. Google the safe internal temp for whatever meat you're cooking and how rare/well done you want it, set it, stop cooking when it beeps. So simple. Don't understand why everyone doesn't have one.

Great idea about the thermometer, I didn't realise meat was supposed to be a certain temperature, I will get one, hopefully Delia will tell me the right temp. Unfortunately my kids won't eat the things I make with quorn, except quorn nuggets which we all love. I've never eaten the meat version of the things I make with quorn, so it tastes nothing like the dinners they enjoy at school-perhaps once I've got a good recipe book for meat I can sub in quorn and see if they like the taste.