Cooks Essentials
Your Essential Guide to Being a Great Cook...

Your Essential Guide to Being a Great Cook brings together everything you need to transform your kitchen skills and confidence. We've carefully curated expert advice on nutrition, essential techniques, entertaining tips, and must-have equipment so you can focus on creating delicious meals. Cooks Essentials is here to help.

Try our 5 free tools including the Recipe Unit Converter, Ingredient Substituter, Cooking Time Calculator, Kitchen Equipment Guide and Meal Planner to get instant personalised help.

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Drying Seasonal Ingredients
Dry mushrooms, chillies and herbs at home to enjoy seasonal ingredients year-round.
Foods With a Low Gi
Low GI foods digest slowly to keep you fuller longer and stabilise blood sugar and energy levels throughout the day.
A Fuss-Free Christmas Dinner
Skip the stress and cook a simple Christmas dinner that tastes special without the chaos.
Handy Time-Saving Cooking Tips
Get meals on the table faster with simple prep tricks like meal planning, steamer baskets, and keeping an organised shopping list.
Browse Topics
Free Cooking Tools Basic Skills Case Studies Essential Steps to Good Nutrition Essential Entertaining Slow Cookers Building Block Recipes Essential Equipment Housekeeping Essentials
Latest Articles and Tools
Recipe Unit Converter
Convert between metric and imperial measurements, cups and grams, or oven temperatures. Takes 10 seconds.
Ingredient Substituter
Find out what to use when you are missing an ingredient. Get practical alternatives in seconds.
Five Things You Didn't Know You Could Make in a Slow Cooker
Your slow cooker can make way more than stews, try mango chutney, lemon curd, and other surprising dishes.
Slow Cooker Puddings
Make Christmas pudding, sticky toffee pudding and even cheesecake in your slow cooker with these simple recipes.
The Perfect Slow Cooker Stew
Slow cooker stews taste better when you vary your herbs, spices, meat and veg instead of making the same recipe over and over.
I Brought My Cooking Into the 21st Century: A Case Study
How one woman ditched her outdated kitchen habits and rediscovered her love of cooking with modern techniques and tools.
Which Vitamins Do What for Your Body?
A quick guide to what different vitamins do in your body and where to find them in food.
Homemade Food With No Special Equipment
Make fresh bread by hand using just basic ingredients and simple techniques, no fancy equipment needed.
How I Set Up a Newly Weds' Kitchen: A Case Study
A midwife shares how she tackled setting up her first proper kitchen after marriage, starting from scratch with no cooking experience.
Drying Seasonal Ingredients
Dry mushrooms, chillies and herbs at home to enjoy seasonal ingredients year-round.
Preserving and Bottling Your Produce
Turn your garden harvest into homemade jams and preserves with simple sterilising and sealing techniques.
Creating a Window Sill Garden
Grow fresh herbs year-round on your window sill with easy-to-care-for plants that add flavor and fragrance to your kitchen.
Popular
1 Homemade Food With No Special Equipment 2 How to Make Good Stock 3 Multi-tasking Kitchen Equipment 4 Sticking to a Budget 5 Understanding the Different Food Groups 6 Effective Meal Planning when You Live Alone
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Your Essential Guide to Being a Great Cook...