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Basic "101" type cookbook for Home Ec


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I can't believe I am actually posting on the High School side.  Where has the time gone? 

 

Anyway, I was thinking of just buying a good cookbook to kind of work through for Home Ec.  I was hoping to find something that taught a basic technique then had a couple of recipes to practice.  I just ordered Ratio through ILL.   Something under $30 would be great!  I just looked at some culinary school texts and those are out of our price range.

 

Any suggestions?

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Marion Cunninghsm's Cooking with Children

 

Don't let the title fool you, the recipes are all the basics you'd want a home ec student to learn, or a new grad making meals in their first apartment.

 

Chapters are: vegetable soup, salads, hamburger, rice, eggs, pancakes, biscuits, vegetables, pasta, bread and pizza, steak, cookies, fruit crisp or pie, chicken, cupcakes or birthday cake.

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So, I've been giving this some thought too as my kids are going to need explicit teaching and supervision in the kitchen to prepare for adult life. I'm not sure if I'm going to count the hours as coursework for anyone other than my LD/SN kid, but I've been laying out a course outline.  I don't know that just handing over a cookbook is going to work (for us) because being functional in the kitchen is really about having certain skill sets.

 

I'd love to have someone with more culinary experience chime in, but some of the technique areas I've been contemplating are:

1. knife skills

2. fats & their interchangeability

3. basic pan skills--sautee, fry, poach, roast, etc.

4. sauces

5. general bakery

and so on.

 

I know lots of people who can kind of follow a recipe, but that's very different from being able to break down a whole chicken or knowing how to make rice/beans/pasta (the carbs of poor college students everywhere) in a variety of ways.

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There are some free cooking classes on Craftsy including knife skills. http://www.craftsy.com/classes/food-and-cooking/free

I'll second The Food Lab. I bought it for us to work through. I like the geeky food science behind the cooking. After you read about it, there are "labs/experiments" to test out the science. There are also "Knife Skills" sections throughout the book and lots of color photos. It retails for $50 in the box store, but it's $27 on Amazon. After I saw it in person, I had to have it. :)  It's almost 1000 pages. 

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466531963&sr=8-1&keywords=the+food+lab

 

Edited to add the blog to go with the book: http://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab

Edited by Mona
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I was on the CLE website checking self paced options for electives. They have a very nice home ec course that is made of 10 booklets - several of which deal with cooking in a very thorough way. I am considering this to use with my daughter, rather than me putting my own course together.

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I was on the CLE website checking self paced options for electives. They have a very nice home ec course that is made of 10 booklets - several of which deal with cooking in a very thorough way. I am considering this to use with my daughter, rather than me putting my own course together.

 

I already have the 1st set and it looks good.  Only the first 4 books cover cooking and nutrition.  The other six cover sewing and homekeeping.  

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Culinary Institute of America -- you can find their main textbook and workbook online.  They also have a YouTube Channel and free lesson plans (with some recipes) on their webpage.

 

I will have to check this out.   I thought their texbooks were more expensive.  I've seen used ones on Amazon for hundreds of dollars.  I never thought to check out any other sources.  Thanks!

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