Start with stews and braises - they are impossible to overcook, and whatever meat your using turns out delicious every time. Try chicken and dumplings, pulled pork, and beef stew.

Buy your meat like you would your veggies. Talk to the farmers at your local farmers market, or find a good butcher/fishmonger. When you buy meat or fish it should smell fresh, and it should look like something you want to handle. Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" is a great resource, it shows everything from breaking down whole chickens to multiple variations on a single way to cook a salmon filet.

This post couldn't come at a better time. I've been veggie for about two and a half years and this week I bought a pack of organic turkey bacon out of the blue. I haven't eaten any yet, because I'm nervous about cooking meat, although I don't think even I could screw up turkey bacon. I'd be interested in tips on how to cook fish without cutting into it to check if it's done.

I totally agree about starting with Stews & Braises- coq au vin, beef bourginon, etc. I also reccommend Barefoot Contessa- simple, easy recipes, very thoughtful instructions and details. Never made a recipe from her I didn't love. She also values high quality, locally sourced ingredients. For Fish, I would find a local fish monger store and ask them too - they are great resource for what's best at the time and how to best cook it.

I'm still a vegetarian, but once in a blue moon, I eat seafood and I sometimes cook meat for my husband and our friends. My favorite things to cook (since I have a hard time screwing them up) are pork tenderloin and shrimp.

Shrimp is super easy to tell if it's done--if it's pink through and through it's ready to go, and really, it shouldn't be cooked more than 6 or 7 minutes. Fast, easy.

Mere-made, tilapia (not my fav fish, but one of the more sustainable ones) is easy to cook too. I like to add a sliver of butter, 1 tsp. of ginger, 1 tsp. garlic, a smattering of shredded lemongrass, and a dash of soy. Put it under the broiler for 6-7 minutes (no need to cut into it), and it will be done.

My other favorite tool is an instant read digital thermometer. It's hard to screw up a pork tenderloin, for example, if you just make sure it reaches the right temp and then let it "rest" for 10 minutes before cutting.

Another thing to keep in mind is safe handling of meat, which is on a whole different level than for veg cooking. There have been some good posts here recently about diff. ways of defrosting frozen meat, and you should also do a little research on how long raw meat can stay in the fridge before cooking, etc. And then there's the issue of careful handling of the raw meat (esp. poultry!) so as not to contaminate other things--for instance, keeping separate cutting boards, wiping any juice with disinfectant (not just the wet sponge you'll later use elsewhere), washing hands after handling, etc.

Learn how to roast a chicken. Before I went veg I would stretch a little roaster into a week of meals regularly. I think this will appeal to your respectful attitude towards food animals.

I think A New Way To Cook has a good basic roast chicken recipe. And other basic technique based meat preparations.

The Food Matters Cookbook is also likely of interest to a 'reformed vegetarian'... it uses vegetables as the focus and meat as an accent.

Buy a good basic cookbook like Cooks Illustrated's New Best Recipe. They give very precise instructions. And since you don't know instinctively when meat is done, buy a meat thermometer.

I second Cooks Illustrated, but I would just subscribe to their website (and/or their associated website, americastestkitchen.com). It's chock-full of info, including techniques and reviews of products, in addition to recipes, much more than you get in a single book. Also, I have two thermometers--one instant-read and one probe thermometer that goes into the meat when it goes into the oven, and can be set to the temperature you want the meat to finish at.

I double the america's test kitchen. You can find it on local access channel/PBS/Create. Their website is great too.

I was never a vegetarian but I eat very little meat. I too am skeptical and nervous about cooking with meat. I am afraid to undercook so I overcook everything.

I invested in an electric thermometer. The one I have you set the meat type and the doneness preference and it will beep when ready. I still desperately want to cook it past that beep...

I second the suggestion about cutting boards. I have a bright red one that nothing but raw fish or pork touches. A bright green one for raw chicken.

My sister uses food-prep gloves when working with raw meats. I just keep the water running (so I do not touch the faucets) to wash my hands every 30 seconds!

Starting with meaty-type fish before going to "meat" might be a good idea too. You get used to the consistancy that way. Prepping that kind of fish is very similar to pork and from there red meat of higher quality. Then get into the fatty meat cuts. Prepping my chicken still makes me squeemish. I am grossed out by meat on the bone.

I'd love to see TheKitchn cover this topic fully. I was a vegetarian in college, so when I was learning to cook for myself meat wasn't on the menu. Now I eat a little meat but would like to be able to make more dishes for my meat-and-potatoes-Italian husband and for when we have friends and family over.

Buy and cooking meat are different things. I'd suggest exploring what meat labels mean and don't mean. If you stopped eating meat for ethical reasons, understand what organic feed, cage free, free range, and pastured mean for chickens, what organic feed, grass fed and/or finished mean for beef and lamb, and what crate free, docking, forage/roaming mean for pigs. Also learn what "enhanced" means.

If you buy more processed products like ground meat or cut up chickens, buy only versions that were prepared in the store itself. Much less contamination risk. And understand the role of nitrates and "like nitrates buy not" in the cured meats.

We eat meat and are happy to do so but I won't accept cruelty. We try to buy ethically raised meat

You can start out pretty easily if you're a beginner at cooking meat. Honestly, get a George Foreman grill. It's not a bad way to cook chicken or burgers. It's great for making grilled chicken for salads or sandwiches.

After that you might move on to something where you could bake or broil the chicken recipes. Things like chicken enchiladas, chicken salad, etc. Once you feel comfortable with the process of cooking the meat, you can move on to more challenging methods.

I still find it much harder to cook with red meats than poultry. It can be difficult to know the difference between just right and overdone. Just remember, fish cooks much more quickly than poultry! My best advice would be to get a good cookbook, honestly.

I was never a vegetarian, but when I taught myself to cook, meat was a challenge, since I was terrified of contaminating everything and killing my family (no, seriously). I haven't mastered everything, but I'm pretty good. Here's what I learned:
Food Safety:
This obsessive wash everthing 800 times while wearing gloves is unnecessary. Use plastic cutting boards for meat, and wash them with hot, soapy water. Do not cut other foods on the board until you have washed it well (or use two boards when making a meal). Sometimes, I will wash the board & dirty raw-meat covered dishes with soap & water and then pour boiling-hot water on them from the teakettle. An extra step for peace of mind.
-I don't use a sponge to wash dishes. A plastic brush or plastic mesh scrubber works beautifully, lasts longer, and is much less likely to grow a whole world of ick inside of it.
-Wash your hands between touching meat and touching anything else.
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Cooking:
-A meat thermometer is a good idea.
-As a former veg, you don't have a sense of what tastes "normal" when it comes to meat. As your palate develops, I think you'll gain more confidence. So to make meat...I guess you must eat meat. Hm.
-In the meantime, chicken thighs and drumsticks are very forgiving of overcooking, much more than breast meat, and they taste juicier and can be seasoned and marinated in just about anything you can think of, and prepared any way. Also, they're usually cheaper. Yay.
-When looking at a recipe, consider the source. Begin with meat recipes only from trusted sources, to help ensure that there's no guesswork required of you before you've developed the experience to guess.
-Sometimes, you'll see cuts of meat labeled with a suggested use, "for braising" "for stewing" etc. It's usually a good idea to follow those suggestions and make a mental note of which cut of meat is best for which cooking method.
I hope this helps! Good luck to you :)

I love, love, love David Lebovitz' recipe for carnitas. You basically buy a pork shoulder, cut it into chunks and cook in a few tablespoons oil. You're just trying to get a good crust on it, not cook it through. Take out of pan, pour in some water to take off those bits at the bottom of the pan and return to pan. Add some spices and water until they're about halfway submerged then put in the oven for about 2-3 hours. How much water you let evaporate is up to you. I don't like mine too dry, but there's definitely no worry about them being underdone or overdone. I make mine in a pan usually associated with roasting turkeys. Enjoy with a big stack of tortillas and cilantro. This will feed you for a week or better yet, have some friends over.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/09/carnitas/