Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

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

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
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Book Summary Information

Author: Michael Ruhlman
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-07
ISBN: 1416566112
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Scribner
Product features:

Book Reviews of Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

Book Review: An extraordinarily useful book
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a superb work. It is not, strictly speaking, a cookbook in the traditional sense, but a beautifully annotated culinary aide-memoire. The ratios, all by themselves, are not enough (unless you have a good deal of cooking experience behind you). But, if you carefully read the book, you will have, in addition to the ratios -- which are easy to remember -- the techniques and understanding necessary to give them life. I have been using bakers' percentages (formulas for making bread, in which each ingredient is given as a percentage of the weight of the flour) for years, so this appealed to me as a brilliant extension of that concept, and one with which I was immediately comfortable. I can highly recommend this work, and do so without any reservation whatsoever.

I will just say that this is the sort of thing that cries out to be an iPhone app (yes, I own one, so I'm prejudiced ;>) ). Think of it -- the ratios always at your beck-and-call. A nice app would allow you to add your own ratios and annotations. As well, inputting the weight of one ingredient would instantly display the weights of all the others -- instant scaling. The imagination reels at the possibilities...

Summary of Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

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.

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