Michael Ruhlman's Blog, page 47

Christmastime Wishes: One Word

It’s arguable that cooking made us human. Cooked food gave us a huge amount of calories, which made us healthy and we spread our genes and our brains grew and grew. But most important, cooking our own food forced us to work together, to cooperate. Because we learned to cooperate, we grew in groups, and these groups [...]

How to Cook Your Goose!

Out of nowhere My Girl Friday shouted, “You should do a post on goose!” with her customary joie de vivre. So when I was ordering a couple of chickens from Cara at Tea Hill Farms, I asked if she had a goose. No, but her neighbor did. A few days later my dear pal Lester shouted, [...]

How To Cook Your Goose!

Out of now My Girl Friday shouted, “You should do a post on goose!” with her customary joie de vivre. So when I was ordering a couple chickens from Cara at Tea Hill Farms, I asked if she had a goose. No, but her neighbor did. A few days later my dear pal Lester shouted, “We [...]

The Grill-Roast Technique: Prime Rib

Every Christmas Day our family cooks a prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and a beef jus (made from a beef-veal stock), and there’s no better way to cook a rack of beef or a whole beef tenderloin than this combination grill-roast method, which I’ve written about here before and in Ruhlman’s Twenty: A Cook’s Manifesto. [...]

Cookies for the Holidays!

I’m a cook, not a baker. There are few professional chefs who are both. Cory Barrett, formerly of Cleveland’s Lola, was its pastry chef and then its chef de cuisine, very rare. Michel Richard is an anomaly in being both a world-class pastry chef and a dazzlingly ingenious savory cook, as his book Happy in the Kitchen [...]

Friday Cocktail Hour: Eggnog

  I’m so pleased with results of the cooked eggnog I wrote about long ago, I wanted to repost an official tested recipe. I’m a fan of raw-egg eggnog, as well as aged-for-two-years raw eggnog. I don’t believe anyone should be afraid of eating raw eggs (especially if you buy organic or well-raised eggs). Raw yolk on [...]

Schmaltz! My New Cookbook for iPads

A year ago, my neighbor, Lois Baron, said she had to leave a party early to make schmaltz, as the High Holy days of the Jewish year approached and she was the cook in the family. Long having wanted to explore this oft-maligned fat, I asked for Lois’s help in understanding its history and use. [...]

Guest Post:Cinnamon Bread from The Culinary Life

  I’m giving my site over today to my friend Stephanie Stiavetti, who writes The Culinary Life blog, and whose first book, Melt, will be published next year by Little, Brown. Here she focuses on cinnamon at a time of the year when the smell of cinnamon announces the celebratory nature of the month and [...]

Friday Cocktail Hour: Scamper Juice

Holiday punch was out of fashion even in Charles Dickens’ day, but he loved the old recipes for it. And as described in this NPR story with David Wondrich on his book Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl, punch was created by 17th-century British-empire-building sailors whose beer spoiled in tropical heat. They would [...]

Winner Winner! Twenty, SousVide Supreme, and Cocktail Name

  Cocktail Name Winner “Major Award,” from Stefan Was, of Cleveland, OH This was chosen from many, many wonderful names, by Paulius and Claudia, and I whole-heartedly embrace this great and elegant name, in its saying Cleveland without using Cleveland, its nuanced suggestion of Christmas and fun without saying either. Poetry! “Major Award” is a [...]