Have you ever read a recipe and had absolutely no idea what it was saying? You try to dissect it and attempt to figure out what it means by looking up certain words, or reading user reviews online, but nothing helps. That's because you can't cook the dish until you see how it is done.

A couple of years ago, I attempted to make Eggs Benedict at home. I have eaten Eggs Benedict multiple times, but up until that point I always had this breakfast indulgence at restaurants. If I had only researched how to make Hollandaise sauce and watched a video of the process, I might have been able to save my sorry attempt at Eggs Benedict.

If you find yourself stumped by the description of a recipe, then search for a video that will visualize the difficult tasks. Check out one of these five resources offering videos for a multitude of recipes that will certainly save the day.

Fine Cooking The magazine and website for Fine Cooking both provide excellent tips and recipes for simple dishes and basic skills. When navigating through the videos portion of the website, you can search by category, such as "Kitchen Basics," which offers videos like how to boil an egg, brine a turkey or blind bake a pie crust. Other videos are broken down into categories based on the ingredients, such as "Fruits & Vegetables," with videos demonstrating how to trim Brussels sprouts and how to seed a pomegranate. Some of the videos are short, while others are a bit longer. However, the time length is appropriate to the dish. For instance, the video showing you how to make a chocolate souffle lasts ten minutes and goes into detail for each step, while the video explaining how to blanch and parboil vegetables lasts nearly two and a half minutes.

Taste of Home One of the best elements of the Taste of Home videos is the clear and easy-to-understand instructions. An instructor explain the ingredients and utensils needed, and the video displays captions to keep you on track through every step. Difficult recipes like making a Hollandaise sauce or cooking a whole turkey for Thanksgiving are simplified.

All Recipes

All Recipes is an excellent resource for making just about any dish. If you're looking for a simple recipe, then you'll find it on allrecipes.com. Navigate through recipe videos based on the ingredients, meals, holidays, etc. Just as the website provides you with a variety of recipes from different sources, the videos do as well. You can click on one of the video provider's links to see their particular web show, or just search through all of them for a particular recipe. No matter which web show you use, each video provides excellent depictions of the steps with narration. You can also click on the recipe to follow along with the video. Learn how to make pie dough or how to make a classic quiche Lorraine each in approximately five minutes. This story continues on the next page.