Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

by Michael Ruhlman

Paperback, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

641.5 R854

Publication

Scribner (2010), Edition: Reprint, 272 pages

Description

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.

Media reviews

Ruhlman guides readers through the ratios for a variety of doughs, batters, stocks, sauces, custards and sausages, explaining their chemical and culinary basis in clear, earnest prose and providing tasteful recipes that lay out the technique for each formula.

User reviews

LibraryThing member VirginiaGill
I am not a cook. In fact, I mostly dread the whole menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking routine. It's just so endless. At least it was until I discovered this book.

Ration: The Simple codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking has been an absolute revelation to me. It's as if everything I hated
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about cooking has been cleared away and now I can be ME in the kitchen. Why? Because I won't be spending untold hours sifting through reecipe web sites or countless cookbooks trying to find a recipe that looks as if it would embody the flavors on the tip of my tongue and running around in my head wishing for me to express them. Thanks to Mr Ruhlman now I KNOW how to translate the flavor/texture wishes into something I can eat.

I've actually paused my reading of this book a little over half way through because I'm so excited to get in the kitchen and COOK! No looking for recipes or buying prepackaged mixes because I can do this. Me! I can walk confidently into my kitchen, pull out the basics I never used and put them to work.

First up was a gnocchi browned in butter and roasted garlic topped with a sauce of roma tomatoes and spinach. YUM!!!

Now I will read the remaining sections as I need them. If you've ever wished you knew how to just walk in the kitchen and make something, no mixes, no recipes, this is the book you need. My copy has a permanent place next to the stove.
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LibraryThing member cissa
I'm very intrigued at the approach this book takes: that understanding the basic ratios in many "core" recipes allows one to improvise freely in the kitchen. This is a bit of a misnomer, though, since in some things the basic techniques are equally important (such as the differences between pound
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and sponge cakes; the ratios are the same, it's the technique that makes them different). I'll admit, though, at this point I have not yet tried cooking using the reatio system- though I'm looking forward to doing so- and may edit my review after I try a few different ratios.
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LibraryThing member gmmoney
I was fascinated with this book. Ruhlman can go on at times, but overall it was a well-written exploration of one of the most fundamental concepts in cooking: ratios. Guided by a simple spreadsheet bestowed on him by one of America's premier chefs, Ruhlman explains how ratios connect our breads and
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donuts, quiches and ice creams. Even sausages and stocks come under close scrutiny. Even if you aren't moved to start making your own slurries, the information in the book will give you a better understanding of the art and science of cooking.
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LibraryThing member Sundownr
The book uses an interesting method of conveying recipes using ingredient weights and ratios to one another. It takes a little getting used to, but makes a lot more sense of some of the really old cookbooks I've tried to decipher. I think the book is worth keeping on my kitchen shelf for future
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reference!
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LibraryThing member thornton37814
Ruhlman has created a book about the basics of cooking that is based on using ratios to quantify the ingredients. There are a few things American cooks would probably prefer be measured in units more commonly used for cooking. For example, he tends to measure flour in ounces rather than by the cup.
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However, the basics in this book make it a great gift for someone just starting out. The book is new enough to include mentions of some more recent things like Nutella. He explains the differences the order of preparation can make using pounds cakes and sponge cakes as examples. While he doesn't offer every conceivable variation of the ratio, he does offer several choices in most cases. One vinaigrette he did not include is the popular balsamic vinaigrette. This book would make a great wedding shower gift accompanied by a few kitchen tools.
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LibraryThing member dajashby
These days there seems to me to be too much art in cookbooks and not enough craft. Is that recipe really going to work? What if I modified it?

Here we have a useful complement to Harold McGee on the science of cooking. This book is a practical guide to the concept of the ratios of basic ingredients
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one to another. Understanding the basic principles will preserve a cook from disaster, whether in critically appraising or varying a recipe.

Recipes are included, but it has to be said that measurements are not consistent. One minute it's American (butter in sticks), another it's metric (not very often), and sometimes it's uncertain (are the ounces American or Imperial?). But really, the point of it is not recipes, it's enlightenment.
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LibraryThing member dogboi
Rather than teaching you recipes, Ratio teaches you the basis of how food is made. It teaches you the proportions of commonly made items like bread and cookies, and from there you can modify the recipes to produce what you want. Probably the most important cook book on my shelf.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2009-04

Physical description

272 p.; 5.5 inches

ISBN

1416571728 / 9781416571728
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