630 pages — the contents alone run to 19.
Grandma Ying · Volume I
Cook LikeGrandma Ying
The Chinese home-cooking book for American kitchens — 150 recipes and 200 numbered fixes for the dishes you already order.
Written by Grandma Ying,who has cooked Chinese home food for her family for sixty years.
I grew up in a small town in Guangdong, standing on a stool next to my mother's wok. When I came to America, the takeout tasted nothing like home. So I cooked the old way with American supermarket ingredients, and my children grew up on it. Make the Chinese dishes you order every week at home — better, and for a fraction of the price. No Chinese market needed. Listen to Grandma.
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- Does your fried rice come out mushy?
- Does your sweet & sour sauce taste like ketchup?
- Does your stir-fry chicken turn out dry and tough?
I hear this every week from my viewers. And every time, I say the same thing: it is not you. You are not a bad cook.
It is a handful of small decisions nobody ever explained. How hot the wok is before the oil goes in. Rice that is cold and a day old, not fresh and steaming. Ten minutes of velveting so the chicken stays soft. Which sauce goes in first, and which goes in last. Small things. But they decide everything.
In Cook Like Grandma Ying, Grandma Ying writes those decisions down. All 200 of them, numbered, in plain words: what went wrong, why, and what to do. So you can stop guessing and start cooking the way her family has eaten for generations.
How it works
Three steps. No waiting for the mail.
You pay
Secure checkout by Gumroad, used by thousands of creators. Pay by card or PayPal. Grandma never sees your card number.
The book opens
Right after paying you can download it and read it on your phone, tablet or computer. Print it if you like paper.
It stays in your email
Gumroad emails you a receipt with your download link, so you can open the book again any time. Forever.
Nothing ships, and there is no account to make.
The honest math
One takeout night for the family
Ordering Chinese takeout
| General Tso's chicken | about $16 |
| Beef & broccoli | about $17 |
| Lo mein | about $14 |
| Egg fried rice, one quart | about $13 |
| Delivery fees and driver tip | $14–$27 |
| Per night Once a week, per month | $74–$87 $320–$380 |
Cooking it Grandma Ying's way
| General Tso's chicken, 4 servings (Recipe 21) | about $9 |
| Beef & broccoli, 3–4 servings (Recipe 49) | about $12 |
| Lo mein, 4 servings (Recipe 71) | about $9 |
| Egg fried rice, the whole pan (Recipe 8) | about $2 |
| Delivery fees and tip | $0 |
| Per night Once a week, per month | about $32 far less |
Two skipped takeout nights pay for the book.
Takeout prices and home costs are the estimates printed on each recipe in the book, based on typical 2026 US supermarket prices. Your numbers will differ.
What is inside
The dishes you order, and why they go wrong
Every recipe tells you what to do. This book also tells you what usually goes wrong, and how to see it coming. Think of it as Grandma standing next to you at the stove.
Before you start
The pantry, the pan, knife cuts, building heat on an American stove, and the 5 master sauces. Learn those five and you can cook half the book.
150 home-style recipes
From egg fried rice and General Tso's to potstickers, congee and mango pudding. Each one shows time, difficulty 1 to 3, and cost per serving next to the takeout price.
The recipes from my videos
Velveted chicken, sweet & sour sauce, 10-minute noodles, tomato and egg, salt & pepper shrimp and the mango. Written down, so you can cook without pausing the video.
200 numbered fixes
Each one is short: what went wrong, why, what to do. When a recipe says "see Fix 37," that is where the real lesson is.
The rescue index
Sorted by what you see in the pan, not by dish name. Find the word, follow it to the right fix.
- soggy fried rice
- gummy rice
- sauce too thin
- tough, chewy meat
- rubbery shrimp
- vegetables went watery
Waste less, clean, cook safely
Six second lives for leftover rice, seasoning and rescuing a wok, keeping ants out, and the USDA food safety numbers in one chapter.
- Restaurant-soft chicken every time, and the cornstarch-and-egg-white trick takeout kitchens never mention · Recipe 1, p. 42
- Fried rice with separate, chewy grains, and the quick-dry method for when you have no day-old rice · Fix 125–126, p. 568
- Sweet & sour sauce that tastes of fruit and vinegar, not ketchup, and the balance that fixes it · Fix 95, p. 560
- Broccoli that stays crisp and bright green, and the blanching step most recipes skip · Fix 101–103, p. 561
- Noodles that never clump in the pan, and what to do the moment they leave the water · Fix 136, p. 571
- Egg drop soup with silky ribbons instead of scrambled lumps, and how to pour the egg · Fix 177, p. 583
- A crispy coating that stays crispy under the sauce, and the exact moment the two should meet · Fix 25, p. 540
- Sauce that shines and clings instead of turning gluey, and the slurry ratio to remember · Fix 75–77, p. 554
- Garlic that tastes sweet, not burnt, and why it always burns before everything else is cooked · Fix 13, p. 536
- A stir-fry that sizzles instead of steaming on an ordinary American stove · Fix 2, p. 532
- Leftover takeout that tastes better the next day than the night it came · Fix 196, p. 588
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The cookbook
Cook Like Grandma Ying
The Chinese Home Cooking Book for American Kitchens
Volume I · First Edition 2026 · Digital PDF
- 150 home-style recipes, each with time, difficulty and cost per serving
- 200 numbered fixes for the mistakes that ruin takeout dishes
- The rescue index: find the fix by what you see in the pan
- 10 pantry essentials with supermarket swaps, and the 5 master sauces
- Instant 630-page PDF for phone, tablet, computer or print
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What viewers say
From the comments under my videos
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A lifetime of small kitchen corrections, written down once.
A note from Grandma Ying
Come, I will show you.
I grew up in Guangdong, in a kitchen the size of a closet. One wok, one cleaver, my mother and her mother at the stove. When I came to America, the takeout box surprised me. Too sweet, too much sauce, more batter than chicken. So I cooked the old way with what the American supermarket sells. My children grew up on it. Now my grandchildren say it is better than takeout. They are polite children, but I think they mean it.
This book is sixty years of small corrections. Every fix in the back is a mistake I made first. Keep it on your phone and open it while you cook. I will not sell you fancy gadgets. I will teach you how my family cooks. That is the whole trade.
— Ying
First edition · 2026
Cook Like Grandma Ying
150 home-style recipes, 200 numbered fixes, and a rescue index for when dinner goes sideways.
Get the cookbook $27- Instant download
- Phone, tablet or print
- 7-day money-back guarantee
Questions, answered honestly
Ask Grandma
Is it printed or mailed?
No. It is a digital book, a PDF of 630 pages. You buy it, and a minute later you are reading it. Nothing comes in the mail, so nothing gets lost in the mail. If you like paper, print the chapters you cook from most. I do not mind a little oil on the page.
I'm a beginner. Is it too hard?
Every recipe is marked 1, 2 or 3. A 1 is weeknight easy: if you can boil water and crack an egg, you can do it. Every recipe follows the same pattern, ingredients, short numbered steps, then Grandma's Secret. Start with Egg Fried Rice, Recipe 8. Everybody starts with the fried rice.
Do I need a wok or special ingredients?
You need one good pan. Best is a 14-inch flat-bottom carbon steel wok, but a 12-inch cast iron or stainless skillet works fine. No steamer? A pot, a plate and three balls of foil (Fix 17). No gadgets.
The book starts with 10 pantry essentials, and most are in the international aisle at Walmart, Kroger, Safeway or Target. Every Asian-market ingredient has a supermarket swap right next to it. No Shaoxing wine? Use dry sherry, not "cooking sherry," which is salted. I did that for years.
What language is it in?
American English, with cups, tablespoons, ounces and °F. The metric amounts are in brackets, if you need them. Dish names also have the Chinese name, so you can order it at a restaurant and show off.
I'm not good with computers.
That is okay. After you pay, you click one button and the book opens. The same link also goes to your email. On a phone you tap it, on a computer you click it. If you get stuck, write to me with the form below and we will help you, step by step.
Is it a subscription?
No. You pay $27 one time. That is all. No monthly fee, no surprise charge next month.
What if I lose the file?
Look in your email for the receipt from Gumroad. Your download link is in it, and it keeps working. If you cannot find it, send us a message with the email you used, and we will send it again.
What if I don't like it?
Then you get your money back. 7-day money-back guarantee. Write to us, and that is it. No arguing. I would rather you be happy than keep your $27.
Where the safe temperatures come from
From the USDA, not from Grandma's opinion
"I am a grandmother, not a scientist, so I don't make up safety numbers." Every number in the book comes from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, FoodSafety.gov, the FDA and the CDC, with sources listed in Part 15 (p. 603). Use an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part.
| Chicken and all poultry, including ground | 165°F |
| Ground pork and ground beef | 160°F |
| Pork chops, beef steaks, roasts (then rest 3 minutes) | 145°F |
| Fish and shellfish | 145°F |
| Egg dishes | 160°F |
| Leftovers and reheated fried rice | 165°F |
| Rice on "keep warm" in a rice cooker | 140°F or above |
Rice: put cooked rice in the refrigerator within 2 hours (within 1 hour if the room is above 90°F). Spread it in a shallow container so it cools fast. Use it within 3 to 4 days.
Rice goes in the fridge before you sit down to eat. Not after.
Source: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and FoodSafety.gov, "Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures" and "Leftovers and Food Safety." Always check the current guidance at foodsafety.gov.
Contact
A question before you buy?
Write it here. A real person answers, usually within a day or two.
Ready when you are, come cook with me.
Hot wok, cold oil. The rest is in the book.
Get the cookbook $27Instant PDF · one payment · 7-day money-back guarantee