Ratio - Michael Ruhlman

Ratio

ByMichael Ruhlman

  • Release Date: 2009-04-07
  • Genre: Cooking Methods
Score: 4
4
From 42 Ratings

Description

Michael Ruhlman’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller gets at the very “truth” of cooking: it is not about recipes but rather about basic ratios and fundamental techniques.

Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Knowing a culinary ratio is not like knowing a single recipe; it’s instantly knowing a thousand.

Why spend time sorting through millions of cookie recipes online or in cookbooks? Isn’t it easier to remember 1:2:3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that consistently make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want—chocolate, orange zest, walnuts, cinnamon, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite variations. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture.

Biscuit dough is 3:1:2—or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. Vinaigrette is 3:1, or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces fabulous flavor. Change its ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough; cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes. Once you know the ratio, you no longer need a recipe.

Ratio also helpfully teaches readers how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen—water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs—work together. In a world full of overly complicated recipes, award-winning author Michael Ruhlman delivers an innovative, straightforward book that makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.

Reviews

  • Good Book, Bad E-Book

    3
    By therealrlh
    My wife checked this out from the library and loves it. So before buying the e-book version I downloaded the sample. In that small number of pages there is a missing figure and another figure mislabeled (the caption appears to be from the missing photo). That discouraged me from buying.

    Publishers need to get serious about the quality of their electronic versions. (And iBooks Author should be the standard for cookbooks in general).
  • Not your everyday cookbook

    5
    By the pink sox
    If you are a cookbook collector, the type that buys big, glossy collections of recipes featuring dozens of full page pictures of food, then this book may not necessarily be for you. If, however, you want to really learn how to cook, cook properly, and understand what you're doing, then you shouldn't hesitate to buy this book.

    Ratio reads much more like Alton Brown's Good Eats than Rachel Ray, in that instead of getting direct instructions from point A to point B, you're given a map so that you can properly place yourself and better understand the interconnected nature of cooking.

    I've given this book to five or six people that I know enjoy cooking, and all of them have read it cover to cover and found that it really improved their understanding of what they cook.

About "Ratio"

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