Michael Ruhlman's Blog, page 77

Immersion Circulator Winner (plus comments)

Congrats to Aaron Haley, a former line-cook and current project manager for a non-profit in Austin, Texas, who won the new immersion circulator from Polyscience.  Aaron writes, "I write about food for several local blogs and I cook quite often for pleasure now, just got done canning a bunch of pickled items last night. I'm [...]

Books for the Holidays

I was speaking with my dear friend Lee Jacobs over a pint of Great Lakes Dortmunder at our local pool hall yesterday and she told me after much deliberation, she'd decided on asking for Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Greenspan, of course, is prolific cookbook [...]

GIVEAWAY! Sous Vide Immersion Circulator

YES! It's true!  The mad genius at Polyscience, Philip Preston—creator of the anti-griddle, the smoke gun (looks like paraphernalia I used to oogle at High Times on Coventry in the 70s), and other magico creations to make cooking more fun—has sent me the latest version of the Polyscience professional immersion circulator for sous vide cooking [...]

New York City Restaurants: The Craft of Service

Donna talked me into a little pre-holiday NYC splurge with Claudia and Michael (Chef Pardus if you've read Making of a Chef) this past weekend and we truly indulged, did nothing but eat and drink and nap for 24 hours, and oh man did I learn something from three of the city's best restaurateurs. Our [...]

Homemade English Muffins

I asked two friends, Emilia and Marlene, for help in developing an English Muffin Recipe for the first in a few more #fromscratch challenges.  This single challenge was more daunting than expected. There's not much out there in the way of English muffin recipes, and the ones we found were lacking and even our original [...]

Kitchen Tools I Love—Inexpensive Gift Ideas

My number one pick for a great inexpensive gift to give a cook is a Japenese mandolin, aka a Benriner (the brandname). This is a tool virtually all cooks own, used for all manner of slicing, julienning and brunoising. Gnarly sweet potatoes become gorgeous chips. Under 20 bucks—can't beat it. My most used small appliance [...]

Make Brioche

December is the month for making brioche at home. It's the great holiday bread.  Though calling it bread doesn't do it justice.  Good brioche is like a cross between bread and cake.  Hell, it's really cake sneaking in as bread. Nothing better on Christmas morning. It's a celebratory bread—rich with butter and eggs.  Toast it [...]

Turkey Stock: Oven Method

I had mine in the oven Thanksgiving night, but for those of you who still have some bones, cover them with water and put them in a low oven for eight hours or over night. Later, add some onions and carrot, bay leaf and tomato paste. Reposting this repost from last year. Works great with [...]

Cook! Celebrate! Happy Thanksgiving!

We live in a time of unprecedented interest in, and care for, food and all the issues that surround its growing, harvesting, purveyance, and its cooking.  This interest happened because we were on the brink of losing good food altogether, with farmers disappearing and the masses abandoning the kitchen, handing over our farming to Monsanto [...]

Holiday Shopping: The Big Ticket Items

Michael Ruhlman's recommendations for the best kitchen appliances to buy for gifts.