What's the best way to start cooking? I'm 19 soon and

>>36239
Fry an egg.

>>36239
Cooking is just like any other skill- you need to do it a lot to get better. If you make mistakes and the food doesn't taste like what you want it to suck it up, eat it, and then try again tomorrow.

>>36239
Chef John on youtube is a good startijg point. He has simple recipes and shows each step in depth. He is highly endorsed by /ck/.
Also I would reccommend buying a beginners cook book and working your way through it. You'll learn a lot of techniques that way.

just cook

Just try cooking various things, you'll get the hang of it eventually. Once you get the basics down like caramelizing onions and browning meat you can branch into other things.
As you go along experiment with different vegetables and spices, and try your hand at some more advanced recipes once in a while.

http://ck.booru.org/

>>36239
>Make your raw apple pie again
>Bake it

There ya go

Just get used to following recipes.

Don't improvise, time things with your phone for exacts.

Until you have learned what tastes good combined you're better off following directions

>>36239
Get a sense of some basics like knife work and sauteeing vegetables. A simple dish to make would be like spaghetti and tomato sauce. Recipes are easy to follow usually and as long as you use your common sense and follow it close enough, you should be fine. If you make mistakes, learn from them.

its hard to fuck up rice

Go get the book "joy of cooking" book it gives you all the basics plus a lot of other great information

>>36239
You don't generally learn how to cook by following recipies. Cooking is working food and knowing how different ingredients go together. This is partly experience, but largely by working with another experienced cook. Many accomplished cooks learn from their mother or father. Too late for you on this, would have already happened. Ask around at whatever community gathering place you have (church, whatever) and ingratiate yourself with people. Ask them if you bring the ingredients, can you prepare a meal together.

Also, like some of the other people have suggested, experimentation is good, but the road will be much slower at the start.

>>36239
cook a bunch of recipes using cheap ingredients to start with, you can live off the flavor high of jumping from not cooking to cooking for quite a while.

use allrecipes.com to look up recipes that use things like flour, milk, eggs, ground beef/pork, beans, etc. Just use fresh vegetables and spices and learn to not overcook shit and you'll be 80% to fine dining desu.

>>38885
fuck forgot the other thing, just use allrecipes to explore what sorts of recipes exist. the actual recipes on allrecipes are bullshit from f**over grandmas.

If you've got the money, recipe delivery services like BluApron are pretty ace

>>38644
You don't need a mentor to learn to make a half decent dinner, especially in the age of youtube

>>38644
There's nothing really wrong with learning to cook from recipes so long as you make the same dishes with different recipes and think about why and how they're different.

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Go watch Food Wishes on youtube, find a recipe you like and give it a try

>>36239
There are cookbooks out there focused on first time/college-age cooks that have pretty easy stuff in it. 'Clueless in the Kitchen' by Evelyn Raab was my starting point followed by the 'Better Homes and Gardens' cookbook which has been out and refined for decades (tried and true recipes).

Mark Bittman has 'How to Cook Everything: The Basics', which I heard good things about too. Check out your local bookstores where you can actually scan the book recipes, unlike Amazon. Look for books that give you suggestions for pantry stockers and important utensils.

I wouldn't recommend internet recipes to start, some have terrible instructions that might leave you confused, and some are just...well, bad.

If you aren't home much but still want good food, try investing in a slow cooker from your local Salvation Army/other donations shop. There's simple cookbooks for them too.