Luckily, there are plenty of recipe apps for iOS to get you started. New York Times food guy Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything ($4.99 iPhone, $9.99 iPad) can teach you -- well, how to cook everything. Instructions are clear, and the recipes are simple enough for beginners, and delicious enough that you’ll keep coming back to them as your skills grow. Ratio ($4.99, iPhone) is based on Michael Ruhlman’s book of the same name, but it focuses on the building blocks of cooking. Instead of recipes, Ratio teaches you basic ratios for making everything from biscuit dough to sausage, which you can then expand upon in your own culinary masterpieces.

How to Cook Everything is a great resource.

As your collection of recipes grows, you can use your Mac to keep track of your favorites. Evernote (free) is a great, free way to corral recipes you find online, and it syncs to the free, universal Evernote iOS app. For more flexibility, try dedicated Mac recipe apps like MacGourmet ($29, macgourmet.com, or $24.99 in the Mac App Store) or YummySoup ($30, hungryseacow.com, or $19.99 on special in the Mac App Store at press time) to organize your favorites, generate shopping lists, and more.

Experiment smartly with Ratio.

 If juggling pots on the stove and an iPad with recipes is too much to handle, we’d also recommend a FridgePad (£41.99, woodforddesign.com), a magnetic mount that will let you slap your iPad onto your refrigerator.

FridgePad can keep your iPad securely attached to your refrigerator for easy recipe reading.