How To Start Cooking As A Beginner - Basic Skills, Tips And Techniques - Cooking Jewish Food

How To Start Cooking As A Beginner - Basic Skills, Tips And Techniques - Cooking Jewish Food

When it comes to cooking, it is important to keep in mind that everyone started somewhere. I do not know of a single person who was born with a wooden cooking spoon and ready to go. There is a lot of learning that must be done in order to become a prolific cook and then there is always room for improvement. Not only do you need to begin with the basics when it comes to cooking but you almost need to begin again when learning to cook a new cuisine such as Jewish, Chinese, Thai, or Indian food. 

This means that at any given time in your cooking learning cycles there is quite probably someone somewhere that is better and/or worse at cooking than you. Take heart from this because even the best have bad days when it comes to cooking. There are many people who cook for different reasons. Some cook in order to eat and survive while others cook because they actually enjoy the process of cooking. Some cook during times of emotional upheaval and others cook out of sheer boredom. Whatever your reason for cooking or learning to cook you should always begin with the basics. 

The first thing that you need to learn is what the different terminology you will find in recipes actually means. There are many new and sometimes foreign sounding terms that you will find in common recipes. These terms can mean the difference in recipe success or failure. You should be able to find a good section in any inclusive cookbook that explains the different definitions for unfamiliar terminology. If you aren't absolutely certain what is meant by "folding in the eggs" it is in your best interests to look it up.

Another great bit of advice when it comes to cooking basics is to try simpler recipes for a while and then expand your horizons to the more complex recipes that abound. Most recipes will have a little note about their degree of difficulty and you can read through the recipe to see whether or not it is something you are interested in preparing or confident that you can prepare. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day and it will take quite some time to build a reliable 'repertoire' of recipes to work into your meal planning rotation.

The good news is that once you've learned the basics of cooking it is unlikely that you will ever need to relearn them. This means that you can constantly build up and expand your cooking skills. As you learn new recipes and improve your culinary skills and talents you will discover that preparing your own meals from scratch is much more rewarding than preparing prepackaged meals that are purchased from the shelves of your local supermarkets. 

You will also discover as your experience and confidence grows that you will find yourself more and more often improvising as you go and adjusting recipes to meet your personal preferences. If you prefer more or less of ingredients or want to make a recipe a little more or less spicy in flavor you can make simple adjustments along the way in order to achieve this goal. In other words you will begin in time to create recipes of your very own. And that is something you won't necessarily learn when it comes to basic cooking skills for beginners but you would never learn if you didn't master those basic cooking skills. 

Beef Steak Pudding - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Beef Steak Pudding - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Beef Steak Pudding


Time—3½ hours

Ingredients

1 lb. beef, 4 oz. suet, ¾ lb. flour, 1½ gill water, 1 teaspoonful baking-powder; salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions

Put on a large saucepan of water to boil. Mix on a plate 1 dessertspoonful of flour, some pepper and salt. Beat the steak well, cut it into slices, dip each piece in the mixture, and roll it up. 

Put the flour, baking-powder, salt, and suet chopped fine, into a basin, and mix to a stiff paste with cold water. Cut off one-third for the top. 

Grease a basin well, line it with the paste, put in the meat with a little water or gravy, wet the edges, press the top on. 

Tie a pudding cloth, dipped in boiling water and dredged with flour, over the basin, place it in the saucepan of boiling water, and boil 2½ hours.

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen

Salmon And Brown Bread Sandwiches - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Salmon And Brown Bread Sandwiches - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Salmon And Brown Bread Sandwiches 

Flake one cup salmon and rub it to a paste. Add mustard, salt, and cayenne. 

Spread on the bread, cover with a layer of thin slices of cucumber, then another piece of bread, press lightly and arrange with sprigs of parsley on the platter.

Bread should be twenty-four hours old and cut in thin, even slices. If fancy forms are desired, shape before spreading with butter. Cream butter and spread evenly.

Excerpt From The International Jewish Cook Book By Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

Egg Sandwiches - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Egg Sandwiches - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Egg Sandwiches

Hard boil the eggs, place them immediately into cold water. When cold; remove the shells carefully, cut the eggs in half lengthwise and butter slightly. 

Lay one or two sardellen or appetite silds on one half of the egg and press the one half gently on the other half which has the sardellen. 

The egg must appear whole. Now tie lengthwise and across with the narrowest, various colored ribbons you can find.

Bread should be twenty-four hours old and cut in thin, even slices. If fancy forms are desired, shape before spreading with butter. Cream butter and spread evenly.

Excerpt From The International Jewish Cook Book By Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

Plain Puff Paste - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Plain Puff Paste - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Plain Puff Paste

Mix a pound of flour into a stiff paste with a little water, first having rubbed into it about two ounces of butter, then roll it out; 

Add by degrees the remainder of the butter (there should be altogether half a pound of butter), fold the paste and roll about two or three times.

Excerpt From – The Jewish Manual Practical Information In Jewish And Modern Cookery With A Collection Of Valuable Recipes And Hints Relating To The Toilette By Judith Cohen Montefiore

Beef Steak - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Beef Steak - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Beef Steak

Time—20 minutes

Heat the gridiron, put in the steak, turn the gridiron four times at intervals of 2 minutes, then eight times at intervals of 1 minute. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and serve on a hot plate.

Chops are done in the same way, turning the gridiron twice at intervals of 2 minutes, and six times at intervals of 1 minute.

To make steak tender: beat it well, and rub into it a small pinch of carbonate of soda.

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen

Eggless Gingerbread With Cheese - Muffins And Biscuits - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Eggless Gingerbread With Cheese - Muffins And Biscuits - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Eggless Gingerbread With Cheese

Sift two cups of flour, one teaspoon of soda, one-half teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of ginger. Melt three-fourths cup of grated cheese in one-half cup of hot water, add one-half cup of molasses and blend perfectly. 

Add the flour and seasonings very gradually and beat thoroughly. Bake in muffin rings for fifteen minutes and serve while warm.

Excerpt From The International Jewish Cook Book By Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

Stewed Knuckle Of Veal - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Stewed Knuckle Of Veal - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Stewed Knuckle Of Veal

Time—2¼ hours

Ingredients

4 lbs. knuckle of veal, 
¼ lb. rice, 
1 onion, 
1 teaspoonful salt, 
¼ teaspoonful pepper, 
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley, 
3 pints water, 
1 oz. flour, 

Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

Simmer the veal for 2 hours in the salt and water.

After it has simmered 1 hour add the onion, peeled and cut up, and the rice well washed. 

Simmer again for 1 hour, add the flour mixed to a cream with the lemon-juice, then add the chopped parsley, cook for 10 minutes, and serve the meat in the middle of the rice and gravy.

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen

Breast Of Veal Or Mutton Stuffed - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Breast Of Veal Or Mutton Stuffed - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Breast of Veal Or Mutton Stuffed

Time—2 hours

Cut breast in half and stuff; or bone, stuff and roll round.

 
Bake for 1½ hour, basting well.



Forcemeat

• 2 oz. smoked beef, 
• ¼ lb. suet, 
• rind of ½ lemon, 
• 1 teaspoonful chopped herbs, 
• parsley, 
• salt, 
• cayenne and pounded mace to taste, 
• 4 oz. bread-crumbs,
• 1 egg

Shred the smoked beef, chop the suet, lemon-rind, and herbs, mincing all very finely. 

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen

Boiled Sheep's Head - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Boiled Sheep's Head - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Boiled Sheep’s Head 

Time—5 hours

Ingredients

1 sheep’s head, 3 onions, 3 turnips, a small bunch parsley, 1 tablespoonful pearl barley, 2 teaspoonfuls salt, ½ teaspoonful pepper, sufficient cold water to cover the head, ½ oz. flour, 1 oz. dripping.

Instructions

Soak the head for one hour in lukewarm water. Then remove the tongue, brains, and all the thin soft bones from the inside of the head. Tie it together put it in a saucepan, cover with water, adding the salt, and bring it slowly to the boil; take off the scum. 


Prepare the vegetables, wash the barley, and add all to the head. Let the whole simmer gently for 3 hours. About ½ hour before it is done, tie the brains in a little piece of muslin, and throw them into the saucepan. Boil the tongue separately. 

When done, place the head on a hot dish. Mash the turnips with a little dripping, pepper and salt, form into little balls, and place round the dish alternately with the carrots. Halve the tongue, and lay it across the head.

Pour over all a sauce made of the flour browned in the dripping, half a pint of the stock in which the head has been boiled, the brains, slightly chopped, and a little finely-chopped parsley. 

The broth may be used as it is, or made into a soup of any kind.

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen

Caper Sauce For Boiled Mutton - Sauces And Syrups - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Caper Sauce For Boiled Mutton - Sauces And Syrups - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Caper Sauce (For Boiled Mutton) 

Time—½ hour

Ingredients

½ pint liquor, 1 tablespoonful flour, pepper, salt, 3 teaspoonfuls chopped capers.

Instructions

Boil ½ pint of the liquor in which the meat has been cooked, then stir the flour in carefully. 

Add the seasoning and capers. 

If required for fish, this sauce must be made with fish-liquor or milk, instead of the liquor from the meat.

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen

Brain Fritters - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Brain Fritters - Meat - Homemade Kosher Recipes, Diets And Cuisines - Cooking Jewish Food

Brain Fritters 

Time—½ hour

1 set brains, 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls bread-crumbs; pepper and salt.

Wash the brains in vinegar and water, then put them into boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. 

Drain them, chop them, and put them into a basin with 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley, pepper, salt and 1 egg. 

Add sufficient bread-crumbs to make them into a stiff paste (not exceeding two tablespoonfuls). 

Form into flat, round cakes, dip into egg and bread-crumbs and fry.

Excerpt From The Economical Jewish Cook A Modern Orthodox Recipe Book For Young Housekeepers By May Henry And Edith B. Cohen