How can you learn the theory behind cooking without enrolling in culinary school?

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Enresshou

Enresshou

So I taught myself to cook several years ago (and have a few tasty dishes to my name), but I've noticed recently that I have very little knowledge of the theory behind what makes these dishes tasty beyond snippets such as, "Lemon + garlic + sage = AWESOME." Additionally, I've noticed I'm fairly limited in my techniques (marinades, dry rubs, very little vegetable dishes).

Writing this has made me realize that I don't even have enough of a handle on it to ask what I want to do, so now I'm curious: how could I go about expanding my cookin' skills and/or flavor palate? I don't have time to go to culinary school (which I realize would be the best/most in-depth way of doing this), but any tips/tricks/books anybody can recommend will be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

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There's a great book I used my first year of culinary school called "oncooking." Lots of practical pointers.
 
Gared

Gared

On the book front, I've really enjoyed the information from Wayne Gisslen's 'Professional Cooking', 'Advanced Professional Cooking', and 'Professional Baking'. These are all cooking text books for culinary school students, and have a lot of good information on how and why cooking works, not just a bunch of recipes. Be prepared to really put down some cash for them though, they're all in the $100 range.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

With AB's blessing, all of Good Eats has been posted to YouTube.

One of my favorite episodes is Three Chips for Sister Marsha. You have three variations of the same basic recipe, and you learn what the effect of each change will be.

(I make The Chewy. Family favorite.)
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

America's Test Kitchen is from the folks at COOK'S Magazine. Sort of a Consumer's Reports for the culinary set. Highly recommended.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

The common theme of all the books and shows recommended here are that they don't just give you recipes and assume you know what everything means. They all actually tell you the hows and whys of what you're doing and defining stuff that the average shmoe may not know.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Cook's Illustrated Magazine (that DA mentioned above) is really great. Not just recipes, but also a lot of cooking/technique tips and things to learn. It's like $25 for a year, a great deal.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

SpecialKO said:
Cook's Illustrated Magazine (that DA mentioned above) is really great. Not just recipes, but also a lot of cooking/technique tips and things to learn. It's like $25 for a year, a great deal.
Click to expand...

I read that as Cocks Illustrated, and for a moment I thought I was in the wrong thread.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

For the most part, COOKS magazine is a nigh-bottomless wealth of knowledge.
Mr. Kimball can be a bit overbearing at times, however. For instance, their forum was shut down because of ... reasons, and almost all of the people loaded up the truck and relocated to cookaholics.org in a situation very much reminiscent of our own origin.
Enresshou said:
This man intrigues me. I wish to know more.
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I have described him to people as doing for food and cooking education what Bill Nye did for science education. The shows are entertaining and educational in equal measure.

--Patrick
 
Covar

Covar

One thing I really love about Good Eats is that Alton Brown won't name brands, but doesn't deny that they exist. For example the chocolate chip cookie episode that was mentioned above where every recipe he makes is based on the original recipe that you can find on the back of certain yellow bags of chips.
 
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