Michael Ruhlman's Blog, page 8

Friendsgiving? (And a Giveaway)

I have a friend, Cait, who is a Friendsgiving lover, and yearly invites 2 dozen millennials to her home for a Friendsgiving (pay attention for book giveaway at end of this post!). Is that a word? Not according to Miriam-Webster? But, NYTimes food editor, Sam Sifton, used it on the radio so I’m guessing it will be official soon. How did it begin? This McSweeney’s piece seems to call it right. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, our only holiday centered on food, a holiday without religious trappings, and one that brings all people together. Over food. Perhaps the greatest new facet of Thanksgiving is Friendsgiving, the bringing together of people who would normally be with their family in the midwest but are stuck in a city (as I was in 1985, eating a Turkey Dinner Read On »

Introducing The Maestro Scale!

  Ever since I wrote Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, I’ve been a proselytizer for the kitchen scale. It makes measuring easier and cleaner and more accurate, especially when using flour, which can be off by 50% if you measure by volume. So it was a great day when the company that makes these scales asked me to create my perfect scale. That was easy. It would read out in ounces and grams. It could handle at least ten pounds or more for when I make a lot of sausage. It would have a little pop out scale for measuring small amounts or spices and salts to the tenth of a gram. It would have face that you could pull away from the scale when you’ve got a big sheet Read On »

Bourbon Milk Punch(and the Maestro Scale)

When my wife Ann and I were in New Orleans in January, we felt the need, after a great Po Boys and beer at Parasol’s in the Garden District, for one more afternoon libation (as you do in NOLA). We stopped at bar someone recommended down the street. I believe I asked for a boulvardier. Bartender shook his head. I said, negroni. Bartender said, “We serve N drinks here.” “Excuse me?” “N drinks. Vodka ‘n,’ Gin ‘n,’ Scotch ‘n.'” That is, no fancy pants drinks. “We serve hahd likkah heah for men who want to get drunk fast.” #itsawonderfullife And those were the drinks I saw poured in 1960s-70s suburban Cleveland growing up. Gin n Tonic, Scotch n Soda. I knew four cocktails in my youth. The Martini (Dad), The Manhattan (Uncle Jon), The Bloody Mary Read On »

Guacamole

I put a pic on instagram of guacamole two weeks ago and got enough fervent responses about cilantro and garlic salt, lack of chili to realize that people really care about their guacamole. As we here in America, we who make enough of this creamy delicacy to fill a football stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, are engaged in a dish now nearly as national as Turkey on Thanksgiving, I thought I’d fire up the old blog again to pronounce my conviction: Guacamole = avocado + lime + shallot + salt. And that’s it. The lovely Elise Bauer goes even further, a simplifier after my own heart. Guacamole, she says, needn’t be anything more than avocado and salt. And when you know that, you also know how easy it is to make it a little better—a Read On »

Cyber Monday Offer On My Kitchen Tools

[For those who want to skip the post: shop.ruhlman.com promo code JINGLE—I forgot how to hyperlink the image!] Perhaps the worst feeling in the kitchen is approaching a task for which you don’t have the proper tools. Being asked to slice something without a proper knife, or being asked to follow a cake recipe without adequate measuring devices. I was once tasked with making popcorn on the stovetop though none of the lids fit any of the pans appropriate for popcorn. I banged around in the kitchen in frustration, irritating everyone. This is why I love my kitchen tools. They perform. They are elegant. They enhance the experience of cooking. My flat edged wood spoons, for instance, are perfect for stirring anything in a pot. My offset spoons are lovely to behold and a pleasure Read On »

Wherefore Thanksgiving?

If our most famous historical Republican’s claim that a nation divided against itself cannot stand, we should take heed of Thanksgiving more today than ever. Food brings us together, and hallelujah for it. Let us praise and honor the food that brings us together on this day. I have been writing and thinking about the meaning of cooking food and sharing it with people you love for 20 years now. Its fundamental importance to our health and happiness only grows more profound in my mind. The daily ritual of cooking and eating arguably gave our species the advantage it needed to triumph over the other upright and four-legged competitors to become the most successful species on the planet. If we can all, in our valuable differences, come together around food, perhaps we might retain that Read On »

Sweet Potato Confitw/Lime Peanuts Scallions

I need your help. I bought a sweet potato to force myself to cook it in a way that was exciting to me. I’m not a sweet potato fan unless they’re fried. Too mushy, too sweet. And yet, because I’ve come to appreciate how intensely nutritious they are, thanks Dr. Health Is On Your Plate, I wanted to cook it and like it, but …. It sat in the fridge for weeks. Until this morning. I was working on the new book, on Pâtés Confits and Rillettes, on some confit recipes. My partner in Charcuterie, Chef Brian, sent me a recipes for tasty morsels cooked slowly in fat, one of them a butternut squash. Of course! This would work beautifully with that neglected sweet potato I have to keep looking at every time I open the fridge. Read On »

The Turkey Club Sandwich

This proper Turkey Club at Gregg’s in Warwick, RI, counters a disturbing trend.   On a trip to an otherwise fine food town, Minneapolis, MN, the beloved Miss Scarlett and I ate several lunches. At each restaurant Scarlett ordered one of her favorite sandwiches, the Turkey Club. The sandwich generally is one of most commonly prepared dishes in America according to food market researcher, Harry Balzer. And the Turkey Club is in the pantheon of most popular American sandwiches. But we noticed a disturbing trend and I write here to call attention to it: the careless debasing of the Turkey Club. The first version we ordered was simply a turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Another the same, but with bacon and the bread was not toasted. At another restaurant it was simply cut in half, not triangles. Read On »

An Evening withRuth and Dan

I was enormously lucky to lead a discussion with Ruth Reichl, author and editor, and Dan Barber, chef-owner of the Blue Hill restaurants in New York and author, who came to the 92nd Street Y in New York City to talk about our food. The reason for the event was my new book Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food In America. But the discussion ranged from GMOs and organic food, to big A Ha! moments for both Ruth and Dan, Ruth’s in a small plane filled with the smells of strawberries from Chico farm, Dan’s on a Klaas Martens’s field, which grew cover crops, not wheat. I saved my favorite question from the audience to read last: “Is ice cream always bad for you?” Yes, ice cream has sugar in it, and sugar seems to be considerably Read On »

GroceryPre-Order and Events

The new book is one week away from publication so there’s still time to pre-order and get a nifty canvas tote from my publisher (fill out the form here, deal ends 5/15). Pre-orders really help a book’s launch. Very excited about this book. Lots of interest from the media so far, The New York Times, NPR, the WSJ and others. When you’re in the midst of the writing, you feel like you’re a colossal failure just about every other day. But then a book appears (with the help of an editor, a copy editor, a book designer, publicists) and it’s all rather surprising and not quite so dismal as you thought. I do care about this book. My father is threaded throughout. GROCERY: ON BUYING AND SELLING FOOD IN AMERICA describes how these stores, like no Read On »