The Beginner's Cookbook: Learn to Cook From Scratch

Chapter 1: Before You Cook: The Only Gear and Skills You Need

Let’s get one thing straight right now: you do not need a drawer full of specialized gadgets, a knife set the size of a carpenter’s toolbox, or a stand mixer the weight of a small car to cook dinner from scratch. You need four things. That’s it. If you own a good skillet, a saucepan, a sheet pan, and a chef’s knife, you can make every single recipe in this book. Everything else is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have.

Why these four? Because they cover the four ways you’ll cook almost everything in this book. The skillet handles sautéing, searing, and pan sauces. The saucepan handles simmering, boiling, and making soups. The sheet pan handles roasting. And the chef’s knife handles the prep work—the chopping, slicing, and dicing that happens before anything touches heat. If you’re starting from zero, buy these four items first. You can add a baking dish or a Dutch oven later, once you’ve made a few meals and know you’ll stick with it. But for now, this is your kit.

Choosing Your Four Pieces

The Skillet (10- to 12-inch)
This is your workhorse. Look for one with sloped sides (called a fry pan or skillet, not a sauté pan, which has straight sides) and a heavy bottom. The weight matters: a heavy pan holds heat evenly and doesn’t develop hot spots that burn your food in one corner while leaving the other undercooked. Your