Apologies if this has already been asked - weren't sure what to search for and didn't fancy trawling through hundreds of threads.
I've got 50-100 cookbooks of varying degrees, from Perfect 68 to Larousse Gastronomique. But what I'm really looking isn't a recipe book, but something that will teach me the fundamentals and techniques I'll need to go get started on seriously cooking. Along with that, I want to understand food and what it's doing when it's cooking and why what I'm doing tastes good and not bad. I don't want 'sauté the onions for 10 minutes, then do this and that...'; I want 'sauté the onions till soft - we want these to blend in to the background and gentle cooking will mellow the flavour; if we don't cook them long enough or cook them too fast then this will leave them either sharp or bitter - overpowering the other delicate flavours' etc.
A good example of what I'm looking for is a book called 'How To Cook Without Recipes'. It seemed like just the book I wanted, however the writer is so far up on his own pretension that he completely loses the reader and in turn, you entirely miss the valuable lessons he's trying to teach. I couldn't even finish the book, and learnt very little from it. BUT if I could find a similar book that's far better written, then that would be perfect!
Thanks for your help!
I've got 50-100 cookbooks of varying degrees, from Perfect 68 to Larousse Gastronomique. But what I'm really looking isn't a recipe book, but something that will teach me the fundamentals and techniques I'll need to go get started on seriously cooking. Along with that, I want to understand food and what it's doing when it's cooking and why what I'm doing tastes good and not bad. I don't want 'sauté the onions for 10 minutes, then do this and that...'; I want 'sauté the onions till soft - we want these to blend in to the background and gentle cooking will mellow the flavour; if we don't cook them long enough or cook them too fast then this will leave them either sharp or bitter - overpowering the other delicate flavours' etc.
A good example of what I'm looking for is a book called 'How To Cook Without Recipes'. It seemed like just the book I wanted, however the writer is so far up on his own pretension that he completely loses the reader and in turn, you entirely miss the valuable lessons he's trying to teach. I couldn't even finish the book, and learnt very little from it. BUT if I could find a similar book that's far better written, then that would be perfect!
Thanks for your help!