Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking (Ruhlman's Ratios)

I'm going to start this review by stating what this book is not. This book is not a cookbook, nor is it a techniques book. Some reviewers have found this to be the problem. However, even the author points several times throughout the book that this book is not intended to be a cookbook nor is it intended to be a cooking technique book. If you are looking for either, I suggest you not buying this cookbook. James Peterson writes some great ones on techniques and cooking. Here are three: Cooking , Baking , What's a Cook to Do?: An Illustrated Guide to 484 Essential Tips, Techniques, and Tricks Now that is out of the way, let's discuss what this book is about. Like the title states the book is about ratios. For example, how much water to add to 3 cups of flour to make bread dough. This book will not tell you how to make the best bread in the world. But it will tell you the simple ratio to make a bread. It gives you the tools to experiment in the kitchen. The idea is if you know the ratios to breads, cakes, sauces, meat, etc and comfortable with them it will set you free of the shackles of following a recipe. You make your own recipe and the results are excellent. It does have some recipes on how you can improve on the basic product (called variations) and the recipes are good. But, the whole point is that you have the basic ratio and you build on it. It makes you a better cook. After-all, if all I want is recipes, wI could simply go on the internet and do a quick search. He goes on to state that the techniques you use will in fact have a huge affect on the finished product. The more you practice the better you will get. He doesn't attempt to tell you nor teach you the techniques, but states to practice and have patience. After all, the author, Mark Ruhlman, is not a professional chef. He states he has cooked since the fourth grade. Therefore, he grew up learning it himself. He asked the permission of the Culinary Institute of America to enter the classroom in order to write this book. I think he did a superb job. The book is great tool to have in your kitchen library, so much so that I will say it is a must for anyone that wants to learn how to cook without recipes. It includes basic ratios of many common foods. Including bread dough (such as cookies, breads, pastas, and even pates), batter for cakes and crepes. However, it is not all about baking. It also includes ratios for sauces, stocks, sausages, and custards. In the end I found this book to be extraordinary and to the point There are some pictures to use as a guide that are helpful but not necessary. I read it on my kindle and I found it to be great. I also read it on my computer and android phone using the kindle app. I used these to take my notes. If you are serious about cooking, you will be taking notes. So if you dont like taking notes on the kindle or any of its apps, then I suggest you get the actual book. However, if you dont mind taking notes on the kindle or its apps (like me) then get the kindle version. It does the job.

Reading about cooking is only second on my list to actually cooking something. I tend toward a scientific approach to my kitchen wherein math and chemistry are as important as technique and skill. My collection of culinary reading is a personal library of 100's of cookbooks and books about cooking. Some are true antiques, some are heirlooms tossed away by relatives who will surely regret the decision, some are ethnic/regional, some are the professional staples, and many aren't even in English. Ruhlman's treatise, I read it in a single sitting front-to-back, is now in a place of easy access for reference next to my hand-me-down copy of Fanny Farmer. What we have here is exactly what the title claims and very little else - it's ratios for cooking. 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water = pie crust; exactly what I wanted to learn. With a reasonably complete commentary on how to bake a pie, what to put in it, the best containers for pies, or even a lot of pie recipes -- mostly a discussion of the ratio (by weight) which makes it very clear, very quickly how pie dough differs from a muffin. He discusses the impact of butter vs lard vs shortening. And I found most of the ratios discussed we similarly treated. I have plenty of texts that discuss in great detail the mechanical aspects (technical skill) that differentiate the muffin method, biscuit method, creaming, etc... I have plenty that offer recipes with ingredient lists. This isn't those. This is the very foundation that all of those should have been based upon, with personal variations, and provides the ratios not only to create a new recipe from knowledge but to debug or tweak an existing recipe based on common ratios. Among my cooking hobbies is recipe writing and bread baking. I bake bread at least weekly, often more. I have often collected a recipe from the internet that just didn't seem write but I could exactly narrow down the problem. With these ratios, it's now easier to quickly check a recipe for reasonable variations before baking it. With these ratios, it's now easier for me to design a recipe based on the science without having to run through numerous batches of trial-and-error. Sure, there's some other material that could be in here to make it even more helpful. But, there are other references out there that provide that information too. I might have even preferred, unlike many of the negative commenters, that Ruhlman had left out much of the commentary and recipes and provided an even shorter tome concentrated more purely on the math and chemistry. Bottom Line: if you need a recipe book then this ain't what you want. There are plenty of those out there and if you tell all of your friends and family that you want some, you'll have a collection of 100's before you know it. Plus, internet. If you need a cooking school manual then this ain't that either. The best of those are a bit costly but there's always, internet. If what you want to do is take recipe analysis down to the bare foundation so you can create a new sort of muffin or cookie without baking twenty batches to get it close - this is near perfection. Photo is my first run of my new pizza muffin recipe. Based on the ratios in this book. Second run will reduce the liquid just a touch but these came out marvelously.

Really handy, for getting the right amount of ingredients together. Easy to follow.

Ich möchte diese Rezension mit einer wichtigen Klarstellung beginnen: Dieses Buch ist nicht als Kochbuch oder als Technikleitfaden konzipiert. Manche Leser haben dies als Nachteil empfunden, doch der Autor macht über die gesamte Lektüre hinweg deutlich, dass es nicht als Kochanleitung gedacht ist. Wenn Sie ein solches Werk suchen, sollten Sie dieses Buch besser nicht kaufen. James Peterson verfasst hervorragende Bücher über Kochtechniken, darunter Titel wie „Cooking“, „Baking“ und „What's a Cook to Do?: An Illustrated Guide to 484 Essential Tips, Techniques, and Tricks“. Nachdem das geklärt ist, wollen wir uns dem eigentlichen Inhalt des Buches zuwenden. Wie der Titel schon verrät, dreht sich alles um Verhältnisse. Es wird erklärt, wie viel Wasser zu drei Tassen Mehl hinzugefügt werden muss, um einen Brotteig herzustellen. Es wird Ihnen nicht das Geheimnis des besten Brotes verraten, sondern Ihnen die grundlegenden Verhältnisse an die Hand geben, die Sie benötigen, um selbständig zu backen. Das Buch bietet Ihnen die nötigen Werkzeuge, um in der Küche kreativ zu werden. Die Kernidee ist, dass Sie, wenn Sie die Verhältnisse für verschiedene Brote, Kuchen, Saucen und Fleischgerichte kennen und damit vertraut sind, von den strengen Vorgaben eines Rezepts unabhängig werden. Sie werden in der Lage sein, Ihre eigenen Kreationen zu entwickeln, und die Ergebnisse werden durchweg positiv sein. Es gibt einige Rezepte, die Variationen des Grundrezepts verbessern, aber der Fokus liegt auf dem Verständnis der Verhältnisse, auf denen Sie aufbauen können. Das macht Sie zu einem besseren Koch. Letztendlich, wenn ich nur Rezepte haben möchte, könnte ich einfach online danach suchen. Der Autor betont, dass die angewandten Techniken einen erheblichen Einfluss auf das Endergebnis haben. Je mehr Sie üben, desto besser werden Ihre Ergebnisse. Er versucht nicht, Ihnen spezifische Techniken beizubringen, sondern ermutigt Sie, Geduld und Übung zu zeigen. Mark Ruhlman, der Autor, ist kein ausgebildeter Koch, sondern hat sich das Kochen selbst beigebracht und praktiziert dies seit seiner Kindheit. Er hat das Culinary Institute of America um Erlaubnis gebeten, um das Klassenzimmer für dieses Buch zu betreten, und ich finde, dass er dabei hervorragende Arbeit geleistet hat. Das Buch ist ein äußerst nützliches Werkzeug für jede Küchensammlung und ich halte es für unerlässlich für alle, die das Kochen ohne strikte Rezepte erlernen möchten. Es bietet grundlegende Verhältnisse für viele gängige Zutaten, einschließlich Brotteig (wie Kekse, Brote, Teigwaren und Pasteten), Kuchenteig und Crêpes. Aber es beschränkt sich nicht nur auf das Backen; es umfasst auch Verhältnisse für Saucen, Brühen, Würste und cremige Desserts. Insgesamt finde ich dieses Buch außergewöhnlich und auf den Punkt gebracht. Es enthält einige Bilder, die als hilfreiche Orientierung dienen, jedoch nicht unbedingt erforderlich sind. Ich habe es auf meinem Kindle gelesen und fand es großartig. Darüber hinaus habe ich es auch auf meinem Computer und Android-Handy mit der Kindle-App verwendet, um Notizen zu machen. Wenn Sie ernsthaft kochen möchten, werden Sie Notizen anfertigen. Wenn Sie jedoch nicht gerne auf dem Kindle oder in einer seiner Apps notieren, empfehle ich Ihnen, das gedruckte Buch zu erwerben. Sollten Sie hingegen nichts gegen digitale Notizen haben, so wie ich, dann ist die Kindle-Version eine exzellente Wahl und erfüllt ihren Zweck.

Un libro essenziale per che vuole fare sul serio in cucina

Another great cookbook

This is a brilliant cook book. A book for chefs.