About r/cookingforbeginners
In its own words:
Just moved into your first apartment and don't know a thing about cooking or have lived on your own for years and have existed on take out and fast food? Then this is the sub for you! Learn how to cook simple recipes for yourself and find it isn't as hard as you think it is. Post your questions about cooking and links to easy recipes and basic techniques. Come to learn or to teach. Join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/FfKqrtZ Related subs: /r/Cooking /r/AskCulinary
Community guide
r/cookingforbeginners (#514, about 2.2 million) — Just moved into your first apartment and don't know a thing about cooking or have lived on your own for years and have existed on take out and fast food? Then this is the sub for you! Learn how to cook simple recipes for yourself and find it isn't as hard as you think it is. Collected rules highlight Be civil to each other; No self promotion, outside links, videos, or images except in the megathread; Include details in your post! Either a recipe or a topic for discussion., among 8 listed. Activity mix in sample: text:92, link:14. Mo.
What belongs here
This room is built for questions and answers, aligned with: Just moved into your first apartment and don't know a thing about cooking or have lived on your own for years and have existed on take out and fast food? Then this is the sub for you! Learn how to cook simple recipes for. Rule themes on file include: Be civil to each other; No self promotion, outside links, videos, or images except in the megathread; Include details in your post! Either a recipe or a topic for discussion.; No gatekeeping.. Prefer clear titles and enough context for strangers to answer; jokes-first top replies usually miss the point when rules emphasize genuine help.
Before you post
Common flairs in the sample: Question, Request, Recipe. Recent sample composition: text:92, link:14. Mo. Format-sensitive rules to read first: No self promotion, outside links, videos, or images except in the megathread. Treat subscriber and posts-per-day figures as directory snapshots, not live Reddit counters.
How it differs
Neighbor communities called out in the public description include r/Cooking, r/AskCulinary. Use those when your post is a better fit elsewhere; this page only paraphrases publicly listed distinctions.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jul 31, 2014, which makes it 12 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 1,238 subscribers (+0.06%). Among the 20 communities on our cooking list it is number 5 by size. It sits just behind r/terriblefacebookmemes (#513) and ahead of r/Rainbow6 (#515) in our ranking.
What sets r/cookingforbeginners apart
r/cookingforbeginners is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 87% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 35% across the Top 100. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (18:00 UTC) sees about 12.0× as many posts as the quietest (06:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/cookingforbeginners went up from 2,153,634 to 2,162,487 subscribers (+8.9K, +0.41%). That is about 201 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/cookingforbeginners talks about
Looking at the titles of 106 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “cook”, “recipe”, “chicken”, “rice” and “salsa”. Other frequent themes are recipes, pasta, soup, mild, cooking and frozen. Recurring phrases include “mild salsa”, “salsa recipe” and “whole chicken”. By format, 87% are text posts and 13% are links.
Popular post flairs: Question (84), Request (14), Recipe (8).
Activity and best time to post
r/cookingforbeginners gets about 15 new posts a day. The public archive holds 71,468 posts and 1,044,804 comments in total, about 14.6 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Monday (22 posts) and the quietest was Thursday (8). Posting peaks around 18:00 UTC and is lowest around 06:00 UTC.
Rules of r/cookingforbeginners
The moderators of r/cookingforbeginners list 8 rules. In short:
- Be civil to each other
- No self promotion, outside links, videos, or images except in the megathread
- Include details in your post! Either a recipe or a topic for discussion.
- No gatekeeping.
- Please be constructive.
- "If in doubt, throw it out"
- No AMAs without permission.
- No AI
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/cookingforbeginners and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many members does r/cookingforbeginners have?
r/cookingforbeginners has 2,162,487 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #514 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 8,853 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
When was r/cookingforbeginners created?
r/cookingforbeginners was created on Jul 31, 2014, so it has been around for 12 years.
Is r/cookingforbeginners still active?
Yes. r/cookingforbeginners gets about 15 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 71,468 posts and 1,044,804 comments. In a sample of 106 recent posts we counted 101 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/cookingforbeginners?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Monday and the quietest Thursday, and most posts arrive around 18:00 UTC, with the fewest around 06:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/cookingforbeginners?
The community describes itself as: “Just moved into your first apartment and don't know a thing about cooking or have lived on your own for years and have existed on take out and fast food? Then this is the sub for you! Learn how to cook simple recipes fo…” Recent post titles often mention cook, recipe, chicken, rice and salsa. Most posts are text posts (87%).
Is r/cookingforbeginners SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/cookingforbeginners as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/cookingforbeginners?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/cookingforbeginners accepts text posts only, with galleries enabled. It has 8 posted rules, starting with: “Be civil to each other”; “No self promotion, outside links, videos, or images except in the megathread”; “Include details in your post! Either a recipe or a topic for discussion.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/cookingforbeginners?
Communities with similar topics include r/Cooking (6.3M), r/slowcooking (4.8M), r/recipes (3.6M), r/grilling (2.6M) and r/beginnerfitness (3M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/cookingforbeginners.