A culinary instructor details the six basic techniques needed to successfully cook at home, form learning how to handle a chef's knife to properly cooking leafy greens.

Recalling an earlier era when cooks relied on sight, touch, and taste rather than cookbooks, the author encourages readers to rediscover the lost art of preparing food and use their imagination in the kitchen.

From America’s favorite cooking teacher, multiple award-winner James Peterson, an invaluable reference handbook. Culinary students everywhere rely on the comprehensive and authoritative cookbooks published by chef, instructor, and award-winning author Jim Peterson. And now, for the first time, this guru-to-the-professionals turns his prodigious knowledge into a practical, chockablock, quick-reference, A-to-Z answer book for the rest of us. Look elsewhere for how to bone skate or trim out a saddle of lamb, how to sauté sweetbreads or flambé dessert. Look here instead for how to zest a lemon, make the perfect hamburger, bread a chicken breast, make (truly hot) coffee in a French press, make magic with a Microplane. It’s all here: how to season a castiron pan, bake a perfect pie, keep shells from sticking to hardcooked eggs. How to carve a turkey, roast a chicken, and chop, slice, beat, broil, braise, or boil any ingredient you’re likely to encounter. Information on seasoning, saucing, and determining doneness (by internal temperatures, timings, touch, and sight) guarantee that you’ve eaten your last bland and overcooked meal. Here are 500 invaluable techniques with nearly as many color photographs, bundled into a handy, accessible format.

Winner, James Beard Award for Best Book in Vegetable-Focused Cooking Named a Best Cookbook of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, Food Network Magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, USA Today, Seattle Times, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Library Journal, Eater, and more “Never before have I seen so many fascinating, delicious, easy recipes in one book. . . . [Six Seasons is] about as close to a perfect cookbook as I have seen . . . a book beginner and seasoned cooks alike will reach for repeatedly.” —Lucky Peach Joshua McFadden, chef and owner of renowned trattoria Ava Gene’s in Portland, Oregon, is a vegetable whisperer. After years racking up culinary cred at New York City restaurants like Lupa, Momofuku, and Blue Hill, he managed the trailblazing Four Season Farm in coastal Maine, where he developed an appreciation for every part of the plant and learned to coax the best from vegetables at each stage of their lives. In Six Seasons, his first book, McFadden channels both farmer and chef, highlighting the evolving attributes of vegetables throughout their growing seasons—an arc from spring to early summer to midsummer to the bursting harvest of late summer, then ebbing into autumn and, finally, the earthy, mellow sweetness of winter. Each chapter begins with recipes featuring raw vegetables at the start of their season. As weeks progress, McFadden turns up the heat—grilling and steaming, then moving on to sautés, pan roasts, braises, and stews. His ingenuity is on display in 225 revelatory recipes that celebrate flavor at its peak.

Based on the hugely popular courses at Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery School, this book reveals the lost art of making creamy butter and yoghurt, keeping a few hens in the garden, home-curing and smoking bacon, and even foraging for food in the wild. So many of our happiest childhood memories are connected to food. Rediscover the flavours of all-time favourites such as traditional stuffed roast chicken, figgy toffee pudding, and freshly baked scones with strawberry jam. Darina also offers lots of thrifty tips for using up leftovers in delicious ways. Essential reading for urban and rural dwellers alike, this is the definitive modern guide to traditional cookery skills. 'There's not much this gourmet grande dame doesn't know.' Nigel Slater, Observer Food Monthly 'Our first lady of food.' The Irish Independent 'Ireland's answer to Delia and Nigella.' Sunday Telegraph Stella magazine

The art of Indian cuisine at your fingertips Neeta Saluja simplifies Indian cooking with a unique approach to its preparation. She focuses on the fundamentals—the special ingredients and techniques every cook can use to create fragrant, delicious, and well balanced dishes. Six Spices demystifies the exotic and complex flavors of Indian cuisine by explaining the characteristics of its essential ingredients—hot chili powder,aromatic coriander, sweet cumin, roasted nutty mustard seeds, bold asafetida, and hearty turmeric. But here is the twist: the book also reveals the methods used to incorporate them into exquisite, authentic recipes. Keeping clarity and simplicity in mind, Saluja has created recipes easy enough for beginners, yet inspirational enough to encourage inventiveness in the more seasoned cook. Readers will discover that seasoning with chounk is one of the basic techniques used to enhance the flavor of beans and legumes. A dish of red lentils will become memorable when infused with aromatic seasoning of hot ghee, fresh herbs, and spices; and cooking with masala, or curry paste, can turn a humble dish into the essence of Indian cuisine. Saluja has taken the fear out of approaching unfamiliar culinary fare. Her recipe collection has been tasted and tested throughout her more than twenty years of teaching and cooking Indian food.

An illustrated, practical guide to everything you need to know about using knives in the kitchen. As the number of gourmet home kitchens burgeons, so does the number of home cooks who want to become proficient users of the professional-caliber equipment they own. And of all kitchen skills, perhaps the most critical are those involving the proper use of knives. Norman Weinstein has been teaching his knife skills workshop at New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education for more than a decade—and his classes always sell out. That’s because Weinstein focuses so squarely on the needs of the nonprofessional cook, providing basic instruction in knife techniques that maximize efficiency while placing the least possible stress on the user’s arm. Now, Mastering Knife Skills brings Weinstein’s well-honed knowledge to home cooks everywhere. Whether you want to dice an onion with the speed and dexterity of a TV chef, carve a roast like an expert, bone a chicken quickly and neatly, or just learn how to hold a knife in the right way, Mastering Knife Skills will be your go-to manual. Each cutting, slicing, and chopping method is thoroughly explained—and illustrated with clear, step-by-step photographs. Extras include information on knife construction, knife makers and types, knife maintenance and safety, and cutting boards. “In the old days, when kitchens weren’t equipped with a lot of fancy gadgets, a skilled chef needed only one tool to ply his trade: a sharp knife. This book will introduce novice cooks to and reacquaint experienced chefs with everything they need to know about a good knife and the art of using it.” —Cecilia Chiang, James Beard Award–winning restaurateur and author of The Seventh Daughter “This beautifully illustrated book, written with passion and precision, minces no words in guiding the reader to choose, maintain, and use a knife. Indispensable for anyone who prepares food, it has taught me how to cut produce much more efficiently.” —David Karp, Fruit Detective

Make Standout, Effortless and Appetizing Meals Using Your Most Versatile Kitchen Tool! Get ready to fall in love all over again with your Dutch oven. Through 60 mouthwatering recipes, Emily and Matt Clifton, authors of Cork and Knife, show you just how practical and exciting this essential kitchen appliance can be. Be it sweet or savory, long-simmered or last-minute, there is little you can’t do in your Dutch oven—your dinners will never feel dull or complicated again. These are just some of the extraordinary dishes you’ll be making time and again for your loved ones: - Slow-Braised Lamb Shoulder and Potatoes with Yogurt-Mint Sauce - Olive and Roasted Garlic Pull-Apart Focaccia - Plum, Raspberry and Almond Crumble - Hard Cider–Braised Turkey Thighs with Apples and Onions - Pommes Frites with Three Dipping Sauces - Beer-Steamed Mussels with Chorizo and Fennel - Wonton Soup with Homemade Dumplings and Bok Choy Whether you are gathering your family for a memorable feast, or settling in for a more intimate tête-à-tête between friends, The Ultimate Dutch Oven Cookbook promises a no-fuss (and delectable!) answer to all your mealtime conundrums.

The next best thing to having Mark Bittman in the kitchen with you Mark Bittman's highly acclaimed, bestselling book How to Cook Everything is an indispensable guide for any modern cook. With How to Cook Everything The Basics he reveals how truly easy it is to learn fundamental techniques and recipes. From dicing vegetables and roasting meat, to cooking building-block meals that include salads, soups, poultry, meats, fish, sides, and desserts, Bittman explains what every home cook, particularly novices, should know. 1,000 beautiful and instructive photographs throughout the book reveal key preparation details that make every dish inviting and accessible. With clear and straightforward directions, Bittman's practical tips and variation ideas, and visual cues that accompany each of the 185 recipes, cooking with How to Cook Everything The Basics is like having Bittman in the kitchen with you. This is the essential teaching cookbook, with 1,000 photos illustrating every technique and recipe; the result is a comprehensive reference that’s both visually stunning and utterly practical. Special Basics features scattered throughout simplify broad subjects with sections like “Think of Vegetables in Groups,” “How to Cook Any Grain,” and “5 Rules for Buying and Storing Seafood.” 600 demonstration photos each build on a step from the recipe to teach a core lesson, like “Cracking an Egg,” “Using Pasta Water,” “Recognizing Doneness,” and “Crimping the Pie Shut.” Detailed notes appear in blue type near selected images. Here Mark highlights what to look for during a particular step and offers handy advice and other helpful asides. Tips and variations let cooks hone their skills and be creative.

Great cooks never stop learning. Go to cooking school in your own kitchen with over 80 themed courses to learn more than 200 skills and cook 400 recipes This all-new exploration of the fundamentals of cooking is perfect for anyone (from brand-new to experienced cooks) who wants to learn not just the “hows” but also the “whys” of cooking. Why does pizza bake better on a stone? Why do mushrooms benefit from water when sautéing? Why should you salt food at multiple stages during the cooking process? More than 80 focused courses let you dive into your favorite topics, whether it's Pizza, Fried Rice, Fish on the Grill, or Birthday Cake, and take a mini-bootcamp on the subject, each introduced by an ATK test cook. The courses are presented in easily digestible sections so you don't have to read a lot before you pick up your knife and start cooking. Cooking principles, technique, key takeaways, food science, and more are woven into each course so you learn as you cook. Jump into a class on Fresh Italian Pasta to learn how to: • make fresh pasta from scratch without a machine • cut fettucine and make Fettucine Alfredo • make a classic marinara sauce and basil pesto Infographic pages take you farther behind recipes and ingredients: See how olive oil is really produced, or how temperature affects the state of butter (and why firm, soft, and melted butter behave differently in cooking). Every chapter progresses from the basics of the best way to poach a perfect egg and make chicken broth to upping your game with huevos rancheros and mastering the elusive roast chicken. If you want to feel accomplished and really know how to cook, come learn with America's Test Kitchen.