Entries tagged with 'Michael Ruhlman'
Page 1 of 3
"I know there are all kinds of theories out there about how often you should weigh yourself when you're trying to lose weight." [Photograph: Ed Levine] I returned from three days of cold and rain on Cape Cod to my beloved Thinner, though truth be told he did not welcome me with open arms. In fact he greeted me with a weight of 220 pounds. That freaked me out. So as the week progressed, I looked for signs of life. I got down to 218 pounds by Thursday, so I had a chance of at least minimizing the damage caused by not having Thinner with me. In fact, I really didn't go crazy on the Vineyard without Thinner. I managed...
Continue reading »
One Hungry Chef's DIY BLT flowchart. Earlier this summer, food writer Michael Ruhlman challenged his readers to make BLTs from scratch and to go as "from scratch" as possible. This morning, Ruhlman announced the winners on his site. Among various categories--Best BLT Photo, Best BLT Interpretation, Most Inspirational BLT--was the Best Over All BLT, made by Jared Dunnohew of One Hungry Chef. As his cool flow chart shows, Dunnohew did almost everything short of raising the pig and growing the wheat. He foraged in parks for herbs for the bread, the homemade mustard, and the pork cure. He harvested his own sea salt (25 liters of ocean water yields 1 kilogram of salt, he reports). He grew his own...
Continue reading »
Photograph from Foodistablog on Flickr Food writer Michael Ruhlman has thrown down the gauntlet on his blog, where he's challenging readers to make a BLT from scratch. Don't worry, you don't have to raise the pig: From scratch means you grow your tomato, you grow your lettuce, you cure your own bacon or pancetta, you bake your own bread (wild yeast preferred and gets higher marks but is not required), you make your own mayo. All other embellishments, creative interpretations of the BLT welcome. This sounds like a great idea. I think we're going to have to buy one of those upside-down tomato buckets and try growing some plants in the SE office window....
Continue reading »
Food writer Michael Ruhlman and his wife, Donna, put together a chart illustrating common dough and batter ratios to give a quick overview of how much flour, liquid, egg, fat or butter, and sugar goes into pasta, biscuits, pancakes, and more. Go to his blog to buy an 11-by-14-inch print of the chart for $20. He'll put up a PDF version later for those who want to print it at home. Related: Michael Ruhlman's New Book: 'Ratio'...
Continue reading »
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...
Continue reading »
In his latest blog post writer Michael Ruhlman gives advice for those pursuing a career in food writing. His final message: "Read continually, look outward rather than inward, and do all you can to convey your own passions directly and honestly and completely to strangers."...
Continue reading »
Michael Ruhlman procured a humanely raised, humanely slaughtered Berkshire pig from a nearby farm and spent the weekend breaking it down and making sausage. It's enough to share among three families, affordable ($1.65/pound), and a lot of work. But the actual work of breaking it all down, storing it properly, labeling it, using everything—roasting the bones for stock, curing the bellies and one of the two hams, all the shoulder and trim for sausage and pate, let me tell you, it’s exhausting work and no good on the back. My young cousin Ryan, 6’5” and an athletic 225 pounds easy, put his back out and was forced to suffer through another Browns loss horizontally and sans sausage the day...
Continue reading »
Over the weekend, my good-humored boyfriend, Al, and I tackled two recipes from
Thomas Keller's latest cookbook,
Under Pressure, an ode to sous vide cooking. Here's how the book held up.
Continue reading »
From left: Moderator Michael Ruhlman with panelists Marco Pierre White and Anthony Bourdain in New York on Sunday, September 14. At a roundtable discussion at the Star Chefs International Chefs Congress yesterday, Anthony Bourdain and Marco Pierre White bashed elaborate tasting menus. (Moderator Michael Ruhlman mostly stayed out of the debate, but seemed to be a quiet cheerleader). "I want two courses, not 18," White asserted, recounting a horrible experience when the chef kept sending out plates. Three and a half hours later, he had no idea what he was eating—and he wanted it to stop. "I was a fool to go with the tasting menu. All I wanted was my bill, and they said no. 'You haven't had...
Continue reading »
Michael Ruhlman spotlights four food lit keepers on shelves right now. Here are our notes on his notes. The Pedant in the Kitchen (Julian Barnes): Sometimes whiney kitchen passages, but Barnes is on fire when writing about other writers writing about food. Service Included (Phoebe Damrosch): A Per Se waitress who's not as snarky as you'd think, especially for someone who didn't tell the staff she was scribing notes behind their backs. Too much of the story, though, revolves around her saucy relationship with Andre, a Per Se sommelier. The two eventually move in together. (Sau-cy!) An Edge in the Kitchen: How to Buy Them, Keep Them Razor Sharp and Use Them Like a Pro (Chad Ward): It's an...
Continue reading »
