How to start cooking [in college]

Contents

1. Why cook
2. Which tools?
3. Where ingredients?
4. What ingredients?
5. How to cook

Why cook

1. It is cheaper than the school meal plan.

The meal plan at Brown costs between $3,815 to $4,052 per semester. For my freshman and sophomore years, I was on the Flex 460 plan, which breaks down to roughly (4052 - 250)/230 = $16.53 per meal. Even the highest value meal plan at Brown, the 20 Weekly, breaks down to roughly (4052 - 100) / (20 * 15) = $13.17 per meal.

Most students don't use all of their meal swipes or flex points either. I had almost 80 swipes left over at the end of Sophomore year.

In contrast, my summer spending on food was almost 1/3 of that cost, and included eating out at a few restaurants throughout the month.

2. You can make what you want to eat.

Since going to college, the thing I miss most about my home state is the food. We have an abundance of Cantonese cuisine, from braised pork belly and scallion pancakes to smoked duck and white-cut chicken. It hits especially hard when I'm studying at night and haven't had dinner yet. Unfortunately, the only thing our dining halls serve past 9am is a late-night burger and fries.

Now I am not dependent on dining hall menus. White rice with bok choy? Baked salmon? Garlic noodles? Just listen to the stomach.

3. It can be more convenient than eating out.

I'm currently living in Rhode Island, so we get our fair share of flash floods and snowstorms. On weekend mornings, I feel particularly lazy about getting out of bed and trekking to the dining halls. It's nice to be able to get plain food without moving more than 20 feet.

Which tools?

To cook, you need a few basic tools. I would start with a pan, pot, knife, and spatula. If you eat rice, get a rice cooker too. Everything else can be added as needed.

1. Rice cooker. Essential for cooking rice, which is a quick, easy source of carbs.

2. Non-stick frying pan. Essential for frying food. I wouldn't worry too much about which frying pan you get at the beginning; my pan is slightly uneven at the bottom, but I find it nice to cook foods together at different rates and heats. Almost all of my recipes involve the frying pan (see: fried eggs, omelets, egg fried rice, garlic noodles).

3. Stock pot. Essential for boiling food. I mainly use mine to cook boiled bok choy and garlic noodles. My roommate also knows how to make stocks and stew with it.

4. Knife. Essential. How else will you mince garlic and square onions? Get a nice, sharp knife. It makes cutting food easier, less dangerous, and more enjoyable.

5. Spatula. Essential for frying food. I use mine to flip eggs and stir-fry onions. A wooden spatula is better than a metal or plastic one. Metal conducts heat and plastic is hard to clean.

6. Tongs. Almost essential. I use mine to take out boiled bok choy and flip chicken liver.

7. Large mixing bowl. Almost essential. I use mine to hold vegetables. It's also necessary for mixing ingredients for protein bars and baking. This should probably be stainless steel, so it isn't too heavy to carry around.

8. Sheet pan. Nice to have. I use mine to bake salmon in the oven.

9. Measuring spoons and cups. Nice to have. I use mine to measure out ingredients for protein bars, but I don't find it necessary for daily cooking.

Where ingredients?

After you get a few basic tools, you need to buy groceries. You have options ranging from convenience stores, supermarket chains, online grocery delivery services.

First, scout out your neighborhood. I live on College Hill, Providence with three other roommates. We don't have a car, but we live 0.7 miles away from Trader Joe's and 1 mile away from Whole Foods.

Second, figure out the amount of time you have to go shopping. Since it is the summer, I have the time to make weekly Trader Joe's runs on the weekend. We generally buy a suitcase worth of food at a time, which costs between $20-$40 per person and lasts us half the week.

Third, make a plan when life gets busy. Weee! is a good option if you don't have the time to go grocery shopping during the weekday. Food from Weee! is cheaper than Trader Joe's, and they deliver withen 2 business days. We generally buy Asian food like rice, bok choy, and soy sauce. Each 'run' costs between $10-$30 per person and lasts us half the week.

What ingredients?

The ingredients you get will depend a lot on what you are comfortable cooking. Rather than prescribing a grocery list, I will recommend categories of food that I always keep in my kitchen.

For frying, you'll want to make sure that you have some sort of fat on hand. I normally use olive oil and butter. Both olive oil and butter have a low smoke point, so I also keep a bit of canola oil on hand.

To enhance flavor, you'll want to have garlic and spices like salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. If you're not sure where to start with spices, you should get comfortable with salt first, and gradually introduce other spices.

Finally, you'll want to figure out what kind of staple foods you need. For example, my most basic meal involves rice, bok choy, and some kind of meat.

Here is an example of what is in my kitchen:

1. Olive oil, butter, and canola oil
2. Garlic
3. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
4. Soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil
5. Rice
6. Eggs (fried eggs, omelets, eggs-fried rice)
7. Bok choy (boiled bok choy)
8. Yellow onions (sautéed onions)
9. Chicken liver (sautéed chicken livers)
10. Ground pork or ground beef

You should adjust your list based on what you feel comfortable cooking. I’d avoid buying more than one or two unfamiliar ingredients at a time, since they can easily spoil before you get around to using them.

Remember that you can always keep meat in the freezer until you want to use it. It's very hard for it to go bad.

How to cook

If you are new to cooking, start with something quick and easy with very few ingredients. A few methods of cooking you can start with are:

1. Frying in a pan (fried eggs, sautéed onions)
2. Baking in the oven (baked salmon)
3. Boiling on the stove (bok choy).

If you're comfortable with basic cooking techniques and are looking to elevate the flavor of your cooking, I highly recommend reading Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat. It tells you exactly what makes food taste good. I have kept ongoing book notes here.