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78th out of 696 books
—
665 voters
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 p...more
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 p...more
Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
April 7th 2009
by Scribner
(first published March 5th 2009)
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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 recipe to accomplish it. Well, this book will break you of that. As it explains, it all comes down to ratios. As long as you can master those, the whole kitchen will open up to you. Before too long yo...more
I loved the cover. Totally loved it. Make it a poster and I will buy it and stick it on my kitchen ( *hinthintnudgenudge*). And it is a great idea for a book, they had me at the blurb. And some of the recipe variation ideas given are good and interesting.
But that is basically all I liked. I have many many opinions about this book, this is going to take me a while, and sadly, I found a lot here to dislike:
- The writing is clumsy. I had to reread paragraphs and sentences to figure out the meaning....more
But that is basically all I liked. I have many many opinions about this book, this is going to take me a while, and sadly, I found a lot here to dislike:
- The writing is clumsy. I had to reread paragraphs and sentences to figure out the meaning....more
4 likes · like · see review
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I just started this and I am torn.
On one hand I like the idea of a set of guidelines I can keep in my head and use to cook nearly anything by starting with a few basic ingredients and then adding a few others. And I also like the math of cooking very much.
But another thing I enjoy about cooking is that it's a kind of communication between the person who wrote the recipe and me. They are telling me how to make something they liked or worked hard at or found interesting and when I make changes t...more
On one hand I like the idea of a set of guidelines I can keep in my head and use to cook nearly anything by starting with a few basic ingredients and then adding a few others. And I also like the math of cooking very much.
But another thing I enjoy about cooking is that it's a kind of communication between the person who wrote the recipe and me. They are telling me how to make something they liked or worked hard at or found interesting and when I make changes t...more
3 likes · like · see review
Being a public librarian with access to an unending supply of books, it takes something really special to make me want to part with $27.00 just so I can call it my own. Ruhlman has found the secret code in Ratio and my copy should be in my mailbox by tomorrow.
It a weird format for a cookbook in that Ruhlman buries his recipes in parts or chapters that explain the basic ratios for, for instance, doughs and batters. By explaining the how and why of the most basic dough, Ruhlman opens up doors for...more
It a weird format for a cookbook in that Ruhlman buries his recipes in parts or chapters that explain the basic ratios for, for instance, doughs and batters. By explaining the how and why of the most basic dough, Ruhlman opens up doors for...more
This elegant book conveys the fundamental principles of cooking: how the proper ratio of basic ingredients (eggs, butter, flour, cream, and sugar, plus the appropriate seasonings) and the techniques to combine them will result in foods as different as cookies, quiche, caramel, creampuffs, and ciabatta.
There are also sections on meat ratios, but these seem less useful. Making stock is simple; I'm not likely to make either sausage or mousseline (no meatloaf, oddly).
What's missing is any mention...more
There are also sections on meat ratios, but these seem less useful. Making stock is simple; I'm not likely to make either sausage or mousseline (no meatloaf, oddly).
What's missing is any mention...more
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 focused extra information. The intention seems to have been to stay nonthreatening by adopting a casual, spontaneous, and personal tone. However, when combined with the more mathematical aspects of the rat...more
7 likes · like · see review
What would be your reaction if I told you that creme anglaise, creme caramel and quiche lorraine are all variations on a single theme? The difference is principally the ratio of eggs to other ingredients.
If you find that interesting, then you'll like this book. The book provides what I like to call meta-recipes--that is, it shows you how a whole collection of recipes are really variations on a single theme.
It's not a big book--just 238 pages--much smaller than the huge cookbooks we see today. Bu...more
If you find that interesting, then you'll like this book. The book provides what I like to call meta-recipes--that is, it shows you how a whole collection of recipes are really variations on a single theme.
It's not a big book--just 238 pages--much smaller than the huge cookbooks we see today. Bu...more
I think this has become my favorite non-fiction book, ever. Its genius is that it demystifies recipes, making the complex simple. For instance, I make a decent pie crust (not as good as I'd like, but I don't get as much practice as I'd like, either), but I always have to dig out a recipe when I do. Thanks to this book, it's reduced to a simple ratio: 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part water, by weight. Once you know how much flour you need for a single 9" pie crust, it's brutally simple to s...more
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I was a bit disappointed in this book. I was anticipating a basic how-to of creating your own recipes based on the titular ratios, which was only loosely the focus of the book. While reading it, I felt that there were so many caveats and addendums to each ratio that it would be difficult to memorize and utilize the ratios in a home kitchen. The author was probably going for flexibility, but lost some authority in the process. I didn't get much from this book, either recipes or knowledge, that I...more
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I read about this book in the New York Times and it sounds like a cool idea. Actually, I bought it for someone else, but they still haven't read it and I borrowed it back from them. Granted, I like the chart on graph paper he describes that inspired the book more than carry around another cook book, but I love this idea. And to think I've been making biscuits, cookies and pancakes for years and not really thinking about the basis for all of them and what makes them different. Perhaps I will tran...more
I rushed to purchase Ruhlman's newest book because I so strongly believe in the concept which drives it: that many recipes simply express the ratio of certain ingredients to certain other ingredients, such that, once discovered and mastered, knowledge of the ratios allows the cook to make any quantity of a particular dish without reference to a written recipe. A further elaboration of the premises is that many dishes differ only in the ratio of certain ingredients, such that there is a continuum...more
Jul 29, 2011
Catherine Woodman
added it
I really enjoyed this book, which is a mixture of musings, knowledge, and recipes. Even though I do not see this in any substantive way changing the way I cook, I really enjoyed the information it imparted, and the way it told the story about the chemistry of food. Harold McGee is great if you really want to know the chemistry--this is how to take the knowledge of the simplest form of the recipe and then various directions you might go once you know that. Things like mousseline and sausages--thi...more
Very good book on the basics of cooking, specifically the ratios behind pastry, stock/soup, and sauces. Ruhlman breaks it down to the basics, from the 3-2-1 Pie Crust (flour-fat-water), to the oil/acid balance for a vinaigrette. Along the way he talks about why a given ratio leads to a specific result - what it is that gives you a popover and not a muffin, or a sauce and not a ganache. There are a lot of very basic recipes in here, and many suggestions for variations, but Ruhlman's main point is...more
I cant decide wether to give this book a 3 or a 4 so I will go with a three. The book is very informative but there was really nothing groundbreaking about Michael Ruhlman's Ratios.
The book is part food science/ part cookbook. Some sections were a little wordy and probably a little over the top for the average home cook.
Although I am no where near a professional I am probably more advanced in the kitchen then your average person. I have been know to read CIA textbooks and practice knife skill...more
I'll preface my review by saying that I'm not very skilled in the kitchen. I am, however, working on it. My friend lent me this book. I never would have thought to pick it out for myself, but I really enjoyed it. The premise is that many recipes can be distilled into certain ratios of core ingredients; the rest are flourishes. Having never taken home economics, this was a very enlightening concept for me. It was fascinating to learn the limitations of ratios. For example, a pound cake and a spon...more
this is more a book about cooking than a cookbook. the author's intent is to educate cook wannabes about the simple rules for making everyday things, from bread to pasta to sausage to sauces. then he explores how famous and standard recipes can be derived from the rules. lots of fun for a technically oriented person as the author goes into deep explanations of why ingredients get added in certain orders and why different styles of mixing or kneading yield dramatically different end products.
i a...more
i a...more
Michael Ruhlman illuminates the mysteries behind all of those fancy french words you see on menus of fine dining establishments in this book. Pâte à choux? Hollandaise? Mousseline? Bread? It's really just a matter of understanding simple ratios of ingredients. Ruhlman hammers the ease of which one can master the list of ratios, eliminating the need for complicated recipes.
Well, I'm not entirely convinced about "ease." At the end, Ruhlman relates that while both he and his wife understand the rat...more
Well, I'm not entirely convinced about "ease." At the end, Ruhlman relates that while both he and his wife understand the rat...more
This book is FASCINATING. While you won't learn how to cook everything, the premise--that there are preparations that rely only on knowing the correct ratio, and that anything else in the recipe is just extra--is very thought-provoking. If you have the ratio for muffins, for instance, you can make any number of things: traditional blueberry, orange-cranberry, lemon poppyseed, cherry-chocolate, or even savory options, like cheese or herb. In spite of the somewhat "duh" nature of the topic (if we...more
I don't usually "read" cookbooks. I love to look at the beautiful, unachievable pictures; I often look through the recipes and I sometimes try a few, but reading is not what I would say I was doing.
I read this cookbook. If you are going to use this book, you need to read through the introduction and the theories behind it. This cookbook is explaining why we do what we do when we cook. I hope to become more creative and confident in the kitchen with this book.
My husband as always said that recip...more
I read this cookbook. If you are going to use this book, you need to read through the introduction and the theories behind it. This cookbook is explaining why we do what we do when we cook. I hope to become more creative and confident in the kitchen with this book.
My husband as always said that recip...more
I learned a lot from this book, that's what. Ruhlman breaks down ratios, the classic building blocks of cooking. If you've ever made pie dough or bread or custard you were using a ratio. The same is true of the homemade mayonnaise you slathered on your BLT or the vinaigrette you used on last night's salad. While the book falls a bit shy of it's stated goal of freeing you from recipes, only experience can really do that, it does deliver on helping you understand them more completely. The result l...more
I was given this book as a gift from someone who thinks I like Alton Brown and that analytical, scientific approach to cooking. I don't. It's my opinion that new cooks who eagerly embrace this concept and leap in unprepared are going to find themselves with culinary disasters on their hands and no idea how to fix them.
I wrote a review on Amazon and was almost immediately crucified for my opinion. According to one anonymous person, I am bitter, not too bright, and unpleasant. Well, hey, fuck you...more
I wrote a review on Amazon and was almost immediately crucified for my opinion. According to one anonymous person, I am bitter, not too bright, and unpleasant. Well, hey, fuck you...more
1 like · like · see review
This book evolved from a one-page sheet of ratios of ingredients in common cooking tasks: sauces, pastries, etc. That this is a 272-page book is a function of what's necessary to sell on shelves in stores, rather than what's necessary to make a good book. That said, I did find the ratio view to be very useful: I have always had trouble figuring out what the heart of a recipe is, vs the optional extras. This view of a dish, as a core around which everything else is built, is fantastic--it's like...more
The positive: Lots of handy information that I would like to have (this is a library book) at hand for some things. I found the savory food ratios most useful as they're the area with which I'm least familiar (a regular baker will know many of these ratios without realizing it; you learn the way a muffin batter looks vs. a cookie batter, and you learn to add more or less of this or that to make the batter right, so you learn the ratios without realizing it).
The negative: Often clumsy and unfocu...more
The negative: Often clumsy and unfocu...more
i enjoyed this book - NOT because it has a geeky math term in the title, but because of the book's premise that once you understand the basic proportions for types of foods, you don't need to be chained to recipes to cook/bake. this is powerful stuff! then you don't need to "know" one recipe for each dish, you can know one ratio which will allow you to make many different variations. i haven't yet tried any of the recipes, so i can't vouch for how accurate they are though... the only thing holdi...more
It had never occurred to me that the ingredients and proportions for a pound cake and a sponge are the same, it's only the method that differs. Nor had I thought of the custard I make for quiches as it related to the custard I make into ice cream.
Ratio has made me both a more thoughtful cook and a quicker one. I've always needed to check recipes for anything pastry-ish or sweet, now I feel confident to start with a ratio and make the changes that will create the dish I want. I've also been mull...more
Ratio has made me both a more thoughtful cook and a quicker one. I've always needed to check recipes for anything pastry-ish or sweet, now I feel confident to start with a ratio and make the changes that will create the dish I want. I've also been mull...more
Brilliant book. Brilliant theories. I sat at a coffee shop reading this for 2 hours, and I kept catching myself shaking my head at the pure logic that I had never before seen. It's so clear.
If someone gives you a random pattern of 32 black and white squares, and tells you to take 10 seconds and memorize it, you will never do it. It's impossible. But everyone knows what a chessboard looks like, and that's twice as many squares. But they're in a logical pattern. This book gives you the foundation...more
If someone gives you a random pattern of 32 black and white squares, and tells you to take 10 seconds and memorize it, you will never do it. It's impossible. But everyone knows what a chessboard looks like, and that's twice as many squares. But they're in a logical pattern. This book gives you the foundation...more
Excellent concept that probably would have worked better as a poster or something. The ratios and their variants are solid, but I'm not sure if it was necessary to make a whole book about them. If there were "index cards" or a poster that could have been detached from the book and kept around as reference, it would have been worth an extra star on the review. I'll probably wind up making the cards myself for future reference. I liked that you could scale the ratios up or down. I was making A COO...more
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 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 forwa...more
Where was this book all my life? OK I admit that I'm an unashamed fan of Michael Ruhlman and am working my way backward book-by-book, buying the previous one before finishing chapter one of whichever is currently in my hands.
But this book may be the most enabling cookbook I've seen to date, and may finally nudge me from my state of amateurism. Only the best cooks I know, usually any grandparents I have access to, approach cooking in this way with consistently great results. Buy this book before...more
But this book may be the most enabling cookbook I've seen to date, and may finally nudge me from my state of amateurism. Only the best cooks I know, usually any grandparents I have access to, approach cooking in this way with consistently great results. Buy this book before...more
Given to me by my chef cousin. He breaks down a handful of common foods (biscuits, cookies, custards, etc) into ratios, the idea being once you know the basic ratio you can tweak and add and subtract as you desire. Totally convinced I need a kitchen scale now (he does ratios by weight). Oddly, though, he kind of undermines himself from the beginning, showing how all these ratios are malleable and negotiable. Still, really great for someone at my level of cooking who is so tired of looking up end...more
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Michael Ruhlman (born 1963 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American writer. He is the author of 11 books, and is best known for his work about and in collaboration with American chefs, as well as other works of non-fiction.
Ruhlman grew up in Cleveland and was educated at University School (a private boys' day school in Cleveland) and at Duke University, graduating from the latter in 1985. He worked a se...more
More about Michael Ruhlman...
Ruhlman grew up in Cleveland and was educated at University School (a private boys' day school in Cleveland) and at Duke University, graduating from the latter in 1985. He worked a se...more
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