The Basic Basics How to Cook from A–Z

Book excerpt: Get cooking with this beginner’s reference that covers essential equipment, kitchen staples, illustrated techniques, and easy recipes. This is a handbook for the starter cook. Ingredients and techniques are listed alphabetically for quick and easy reference, and it provides the basic methods and techniques for dealing with vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, poultry, grains, legumes, breads, and pasta, with advice on how to clean, store, prepare, and cook each entry. Line drawings illustrate techniques such as dicing, slicing, coring fruit, and rubbing in fat, and where appropriate a very simple recipe—such as a basic broth or pie—is included, which allows the reader to develop the skills demonstrated. Entries also cover simple but easily forgotten information such as how to poach an egg and at what temperature to roast a chicken.