Ratio, Michael Ruhlman
Ratio, Michael Ruhlman
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Ratio
The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

Author: Michael Ruhlman

Narrator: Michael Ruhlman

Unabridged: 7 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/19/2023

Categories: Nonfiction, Cooking

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Michael Ruhlman’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller takes us to the very “truth” of cooking: it is not about recipes but rather about basic ratios and fundamental techniques that makes all food come together, simply.

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 of cooking: 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.

About Michael Ruhlman

Michael Ruhlman is the author of award-winning cookbooks and nonfiction narratives. He is the author of chef Thomas Keller’s seminal The French Laundry Cookbook as well as the highly successful series about the training of chefs: The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef, and The Reach of a Chef. He is also the author of The Elements of Cooking and Ratio. Ruhlman has worked at The New York Times and as a food columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has attended the Culinary Institute of America and is the author of eighteen books—about food and cooking, and also such wide ranging subjects as a pediatric heart surgeon and building wooden boats. Michael lives with his wife in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Eileen on October 05, 2009

Michael Ruhlman has much valuable information to communicate; the ratio concept is clearly crucial if one wants to fully understand and experiment with baking in particular. However, he is not a very skilled prose stylist. The book is too busy; it continually throws out disorganized and poorly focus......more

Goodreads review by David on December 18, 2024

Learning to Cook Like Our Matriarchs I will never forget the wonders of my Aunt Helen's popovers—and the first time I saw her produce those as a little boy visiting her farmhouse in Howe, Indiana. She cranked her oven up to a high temperature and warned me not to even touch the outer surface of it. T......more

Goodreads review by Grace on February 09, 2012

This book changed the way I approach cooking. And really, that's what it's meant to do. Before this book found its way onto my kitchen counter, I was completely recipe-bound. I could throw a few things together for a decent meal, but nothing too fancy. Most of the time, I would have to search for a......more

Goodreads review by Carol Bakker on November 30, 2021

When first I glanced at this book and saw all the numbers (which is what ratios are, right?), I put it down with, I regret to say, a dismissive attitude. Two months later I picked it up and started reading. Wait, what?!? My excitement erupted like a perfect popover. This is a book that teaches you t......more

Goodreads review by Benj on January 08, 2015

I liked this a lot! I'm only interested in cooking certain types of soups and breads, so half the book wasn't useful to me, but I LOVE this approach to cooking.......more