Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
February 7th, 2010 | 
Author: 
- ISBN13: 9781416566113
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
WHEN YOU KNOW A CULINARY RATIO, IT’S NOT LIKE KNOWING A SINGLE RECIPE, IT’S INSTANTLY KNOWING A THOUSAND.
Why spend time sorting through the millions of cookie recipes available in books, magazines, and on the Internet? Isn’t it easier just to remember 1-2-3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that always make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want — chocolate, lemon and orange zest, nuts, poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite additions. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture.
RATIOS ARE THE STARTING POINT FROM WHICH A THOUSAND VARIATIONS BEGIN.
Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit dough is 3 : 1 : 2 — or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and strawberries or sausage gravy. 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 intense flavor.
Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for enticing variations, Ratio is the truth ofcooking: basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen — water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs — work. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes.
As the culinary world fills up with overly complicated recipes and never-ending ingredient lists, Michael Ruhlman blasts through the surplus of information and delivers this innovative, straightforward book that cuts to the core of cooking. Ratio provides one of the greatest kitchen lessons there is — and it makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
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5 Responses to “Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking”
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I received this as a unsolicited gift from someone who thinks I like Alton Brown and that sort of analytical approach to cooking. While it is good and useful to have basic knowledge of the whys and hows of the chemical/ molecular changes that take place during the cooking process, it is not necessary nor wise to base everything that goes on in the kitchen on a number ratio. There are simply too many variables in cooking to adhere to fixed formulas; a newbie cook who thinks simply following this premise will make them into an accomplished chef is going to find themselves up the proverbial creek, with no idea what went wrong and what to do about it. I’ve seen many glowing and adoring reviews for this book’s concept along the lines of “the only cookbook you will ever need.” I cannot understand what the reviewers are seeing in this book.
The basic scientific approach – “science tells us that if we mix X with Y and apply heat, Z will occur” – is not an adequate substitute for hard-won experience. Clearly I am in the minority, given all the adulation heaped on here, but this book will be going directly into the “donate” pile.
Rating: 1 / 5
I found this book interesting but not great. Some of the general information was good, but the recipes left a lot to be desired. I think there was too much salt in most of them…some people need to limit their sodium intake, and there were no suggestions about minimum amounts that would work. Some of the ingredient amounts in the recipes were rather vague. A lot of the instructions were clearly cut and pasted. I would rather have seen “see instructions for (whatever)”. This is not a book for the new cook. As a result, I have a hard time deciding whether to file it with “cookbooks” or “general information”.
I have read a number of cookbooks and books about food written by men, and I have come to the conclusion that none of them have a clue about how the normal household works, or how those of us who can’t go running across town to the specialty shops operate, or how those of us who don’t live in large, cosmopolitan urban environments have to shop. For one thing, there is no possibility of getting fresh herbs where I live unless I grow them myself (and I am handicapped enough that I can’t, unfortunately, garden). There were other ingredients that Ruhlman seems to think are available in any kitchen which I have not ever seen within 500 miles of where I live.
In short, I think most of the recipes are impractical. I wish Mr. Ruhlman would come and live in my kitchen (which is a nice one) for six months or so and cook for me and then write another book.
Rating: 3 / 5
the speedy delivery we have come to expect from Amazon.com which is what keeps me coming back to amazon.
Rating: 4 / 5
A little less than I imagined the book contains very few ideas just written to sell his code method.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is intended primarily for bakers. Recommend you review the table of contents before purchase.
Rating: 2 / 5