Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday CookingRatio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
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- ISBN13: 9781416566113
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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.
- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; 2009-04-07
- Label: Scribner
- Studio: Scribner
- ISBN: 1416566112
- Average Customer Review: based on 82 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #5576
While the text is delicious, the content is food for the creative soul. The ratios are presented in a way that is inspiring for a non-cooking school baker and cook. I have had hours of enjoyment from this book and ingredients from my pantry.
It's a good book and it's cheap. Get it and you'll be glad you did.
For example, the paragraph on pages 10 & 11 which discusses the shape/baking temp of your/our first loaf is completely confusing - different shapes, rising time and baking times are discussed in the same paragraph. The one paragraph should have been re-ordered and made into 3 paragraphs (at least).
The book also has NO directions for any sweet breads. That seems like a HUGE oversight. The closest it comes it to take the basic bread recipe (flour, water, salt and yeast) and suggests the addition of chocolate and dried cherries. Ugg. I thought at least there would be a blog where more recipes/suggestions could be found. Alas, no luck.
Although not represented in the marketing/advertising, or the cover art, much of the book is oddly dedicated to meats, sauces, stocks, etc.
However, Mr Ruhlman isn't completely to blame, the publisher should be admonished, since the layout of the book contributes to it's failure. Had the book been READ by a non-baker, some of these issues would have been resolved - like the one on pages 10/11.
Finally, who's handling the marketing for this book? Does Mr. Ruhlman and his marketing team really think it's impressive that he attended the CIA with the sole intent finding inspiration for a new book, someone hands him a sheet of paper, and voila he has a book? Come on! That little bit of self-appreciating information (kinda makes him look like an idiot and) should have been completely eliminated.
Perhaps person who gave him the ratios should have been consulted for more (directly related) content.
Why is it so hard (so easy) to bake your cake from scratch? Why is it so easy (so hard) to make your own mayonnaise or vinaigrette, hollandaise or custard. And what do they have in common? Why does a bad brine make my dinner roasted like Carthage and a good one make yours like a Roman banquette?
Give me six ratios and I become Archimedes with a place to stand to move any palate. You can leverage your pantry, larder, cantina and refrigerator like never before. My little kitchen is my only place in this crazy world where I am in control; and I can conjure a little creativity.
For those of you who do not know Michael Ruhlman, he is the pre-eminent journalist/chef/food writer in the world. There are many who rise above him as chefs, or authors but he rises high enough in all categories to give him a special place in my library and make him deserving of your consideration. He is a standout among a crowd of hacks, marketeers and narcissists. He has been working hard for years. He writes carefully for both those who are his subjects and for his readers. I first ran across him when he was covering the marathon final exam for the Master Chef class at the C.I.A. He has subsequently done a book with one of those candidates. This is a serious, respectful and enduring writer. His style is honed for maximum clarity of information. But he also works in broader landscapes when not directly concerned in showing you exactly what to expect and how to do it all.
You cycle from fun through enlightenment to confident accomplishment over and over in a spiral of commanding execution as he works you through each topic. The ratios you master are for doughs, then batters, on to stocks and sauces, into Farcir and straight on to the emulsified sauces, ending, over the rainbow in custardland! You remember custard? Now it is only simulated with gum agar and hydro-goo.
I wish I had had all this forty years ago in one place. But I use it now. You will get the clarity and grounding to do it all, and with the least fuss and fuzziness. And if you have been baking without a scale, add one now. And a good oven thermometer.
Pretty good info, especially for the novice and experimental cook. My teenage son likes to cook and create "new" flavors. He took it and didn't put it down for a day. As a result his "creations" are coming out much better now. I also got a few good tidbits from the book and have let several friends read it. Everyone seems to benefit .......