Michael Ruhlman's New Book: 'Ratio'
Food writer Michael Ruhlman's new book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking looks intriguing—and immensely useful. Instead of rote recipes, he teaches the reader to use ratios in cooking. From his blog post talking about the book:
When you are dependent on recipes, you are a factory worker on the assembly line; when you possess ratios and basic technique, you own the company.
With ratios (1:2:3 makes a basic cookie dough using 1 part sugar, 2 fat, 3 flour), you need only remember the proportion of ingredients, and from there you can improvise. You're freed from books, recipe cards, or print-outs.
Or, as Ruhlman says about the 5:3 bread dough ratio (flour-to-water), "With this bread dough ratio, you don’t have a single recipe, you have a thousand. Ratios are the launching point for infinite variations."
Ruhlman's wife, Donna Turner Ruhlman, shot the photos, and word is that she is working on a poster that illustrates the baking and pastry ratios—where proportion is especially important.
Related: A nice review by Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
11 Comments:
Curse you, Serious Eats. Why must you dangle books like this in front of me?
For some of the doughs, I know what it's supposed to feel like, so bread and pasta are easy enough. But it would be interesting to just be able to wing it with things like cakes and quickbreads.
I guess I need to go add this one to the "must buy soon" list.
dbcurrie at 2:54AM on 04/07/09
I'm really excited about this book - possibly more than is healthy. From what I've heard, it fits in well with my cooking methods. Can it live up to my expectations? I really hope so.
kitchenhacker at 4:17AM on 04/07/09
Oooo, there's Spam in this thread already. Does Ruhlman mention Spam in the book? The ratio of Spam to bread in a decent fried Spam Sammich. That'll work ...
LunaPierCook at 5:29AM on 04/07/09
60% for bread dough seems a little low. I usually shoot for closer to 70, but then I like a big, open crumb.
Tombolo at 8:30AM on 04/07/09
I am very intrigued by this. That description of a factory worker perfectly describes the way I feel when I cook and bake sometimes. I would love to 'know' how to create meals, instead of just follow a recipe.
mollykate678 at 9:17AM on 04/07/09
Where's the Spam??? Yea, Ruhlman's a smart fellow. Got a good blog too. I just put this on my Amazon Wish List.
arm1970 at 9:58AM on 04/07/09
Very interesting. Possibly equally interesting is how to make a whole book out of this. Seems like you've already given away 2 of the key ratios already (cookies & bread), how many more could there be? 10, max? What is that, like 20 pages per ratio???
mh330 at 10:00AM on 04/07/09
i like ruhlman a lot. i'm reserving this at the library, pronto.
gastronomeg at 10:32AM on 04/07/09
@mh330: It also teaches technique. If you click through to Michael's blog post about it, he talks about this there—"Of course, you need more than just those two numbers, you need a little technique as well. Which is why Ratio is a book, not a poster..."
Adam Kuban at 11:30AM on 04/07/09
I just ordered a copy. Can't wait to explore
Boscompb at 12:17PM on 04/07/09
I love Michael Ruhlman! As a former teacher, cooking is one of the best reasons to pay attention to middle school math.
ElissaLovesToEat at 1:36PM on 04/07/09