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.
Essential Baking and Cooking Equipment
A few quality basics like sharp knives and proper chopping boards will serve you better in the kitchen than a drawer full of gadgets you'll never use.
Multi-tasking Kitchen Equipment
Skip the fancy gadgets and invest in multi-tasking kitchen equipment that actually earns its place in your drawers.
Handy Extras for a Cook's Kitchen
Some kitchen gadgets are genuinely worth the space they take up, and we've picked the ones that actually save you time.
Five Things You Didn't Know You Could Make in a Slow Cooker
Your slow cooker can do way more than soups and stews—try making 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How one woman ditched her outdated kitchen habits and rediscovered her love of cooking with modern techniques and tools.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?
Your body needs different vitamins for different jobs—here's what each one actually does.
Homemade Food with No Special Equipment
Make great bread by hand without special equipment, using simple techniques and pantry staples.
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
Preserve seasonal produce year-round by drying mushrooms, chillies and herbs for deeper flavors and winter cooking.
Preserving and Bottling Your Produce
Turn your garden bounty into homemade jams and preserves with simple sterilizing 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.