Joy of Cooking

[sfer]

Read Simple French Food by Richard Olney instead.

[eric5148]

This is what you need.

[7ontheline]

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a better general cookbook than JoC IMO. Both useful though.

[ethan]

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This is what you need.

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The Professional Chef is probably not a great starter cookbook. I'll second the recommendation for Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything for that purpose. I've also had good luck with Bittman's Fish. Most anything by James Peterson is going to be good, the first book of his I'd get would be Sauces : Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making.

[edfurlong]

Egullet is a good start. Check out the eGCI forum. I'm not associated with this site etc.

Pro chef is more useful for a profesional kitchen. Joy of cooking is pretty much a must have though. I'm unsure of what book I would choose to "learn to cook" if I had to pick one.

[Shajen]

Watch Good Eats. Alton explains the process of cooking, not just throw X in with Y and sautee for 5 minutes. He explains why you should.

His show is a great starting point for culinary skills.

[Rhone]

This thread is turning into a "this is my favorite cookbook" thread. But that's not really the point. There are a million cookbooks out there, and most of them are just fine. You don't "need" any one of them in particular. Pick one or two that appeal to you, or use a website like epicurious, and begin by following the recipes to the letter. Think about what the authors are telling you to do and why they're telling you to do it. Once you begin to understand their reasoning, and can confidently deviate from their instructions to better suite your own taste, you'll be well on your way to being a better cook.

[on_thg]

Here's another vote for Bittman. I think he even has a version called something like "How to Cook Everything: The Basics" which may be just what you need.

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
This thread is turning into a "this is my favorite cookbook" thread. But that's not really the point. There are a million cookbooks out there, and most of them are just fine. You don't "need" any one of them in particular. Pick one or two that appeal to you, or use a website like epicurious, and begin by following the recipes to the letter. Think about what the authors are telling you to do and why they're telling you to do it. Once you begin to understand their reasoning, and can confidently deviate from their instructions to better suite your own taste, you'll be well on your way to being a better cook.

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This is precisely why I think Olney's book is the best place to start.

[BruinEric]

The current "New" Joy of Cooking is a good book and a must-have for any basic kitchen. Aside from just recipes, you will find several helpful instructions as to method and also on meat/produce/etc selection.

I think this book is a good starting place. But don't "read it," pick out a section and try a simple recipe.

If your food is bland, don't be afraid to season your food. Salt is not evil.

If your meat is dry, you're probably overcooking it. Even cooking meat in water can render it dry. Get yourself an instant-read meat thermometer to help with this.

Good luck.