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.

Every home cook should have this book. If you are interested in cooking or baking this informative and entertaining book is a must.

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.

I’ve been cooking at home for years, but Ratio by Michael Ruhlman completely changed how I approach the kitchen. Instead of treating recipes like rigid formulas, this book teaches you the foundational ratios behind countless dishes—giving you the freedom to improvise and create with confidence. It’s not just a cookbook; it’s a culinary education. What’s Inside: The concept is brilliantly simple: every type of food—from bread to vinaigrette, custards to cookies—follows a basic ratio of ingredients. For example: • Bread = 5 parts flour : 3 parts water • Pasta dough = 3 parts flour : 2 parts egg • Vinaigrette = 3 parts oil : 1 part vinegar Ruhlman lays out these ratios in a clear, structured way and explains the logic behind them. The result is that you no longer need to rely on memorized recipes—you understand the blueprint, and from there you can customize, tweak, and experiment. Writing Style: Ruhlman is a fantastic writer. He doesn’t just list facts—he teaches, with the tone of a skilled mentor. He tells you not only how something works but why it works. Whether he’s describing the importance of gluten structure in bread or the balance of fat and acid in a sauce, his explanations are accessible without being dumbed down. Format & Usability: The book is divided into logical sections by type of food, and it includes both the ratios and a few example recipes for each category. It’s not a glossy, photo-heavy book—it’s more of a practical kitchen manual. I find myself referring to it regularly, especially when I want to adapt something on the fly or scale up/down. Who It’s For: • Beginner cooks who want to understand core techniques. • Experienced home chefs looking to gain creative freedom. • Anyone frustrated by having to Google the same recipes over and over. If you want to level up from just following instructions to actually understanding cooking, this is the book for you. Minor Drawbacks: It’s not a traditional cookbook, so if you’re expecting tons of pictures or step-by-step guides, you may be surprised. Also, since the ratios use weight measurements (which is far more accurate), a kitchen scale is strongly recommended. Also the paperback is very small so even near sighted eyes may struggle. Bottom line: “Ratio” is an essential resource for anyone who wants to cook with creativity and confidence. It’s about breaking free from dependence on recipes and gaining mastery of the fundamentals. Michael Ruhlman doesn’t just give you fish—he teaches you how to fish, bake, whisk, and sauté like a pro. Highly recommended.

For the last couple of days, I've been trying out these cooking ratios. I've got over 200 cookbooks (including Escoffier, Larouse Gastronomique, Irma Rombauer, Mark Bittman, the divine Julia Child, etc.). I've come to the conclusion that this is the best (or maybe just the most valuable) cookbook I've ever owned. It is reminiscent of when I discovered Raymond Sokolov's SAUCIER'S APPRENTICE. Like that book, Ruhlman shows you a system of how it all fits together and gives you the Aha! Experience of viewing the whole playing field from above, not just the recipe in front of you. I started off making pie dough with just the ratio for guidance (3:2:1 flour:fat:liquid), no recipe. Very easy to remember and very easy to do. 12 minutes tops. The next day, looking for something to do with the pie dough, I made a ham and goat cheese quiche the size of a curling stone (RATIO, p. 201). The quiche needed to mature in the fridge for a day, so for something to eat in the meantime I made an Idiot Chocolate Cake, which is really a gateau, from a link on Ruhlman's website. Easy and great. [...] To go with the chocolate cake, I made some Creme Anglaise (4:1:1 milk/cream:egg yolk:sugar), also very tasty and very easy. Then since I didn't want an exclusive cake and quiche diet, I made some bread dough (5:3 flour:liquid) with some sourdough starter I've been nursing back to health. I let it rise overnight in the fridge. The following day, I baked the bread, which turned out great. I'm not buying any more bread as long as I can remember that 5:3 ratio. Homemade sourdough is the best . Then, since the oven was already hot from baking the bread, and since I had some egg whites left over from the Chocolate Cake (which used only yolks), I made some Chocolate Meringue cookies which are like biting into little chocolate-flavored pieces of cloud. (I'm having one or two as I type.) So, to recap, in a period of about 48 hours or so, I made: 4 lb. Quiche 2 lb. Sourdough Bread 1 Chocolate Gateau 2 cups Creme Anglaise 3 doz. Chocolate Meringue cookies And, friends, I'm telling you it was effortless. Today, whole pork loins went on sale at the grocery next door for $1.99 a pound, so over the weekend I'm going to make (cure) 8 1/2 pounds of Canadian Bacon (RATIO, p. 158). That stuff costs $12 a pound retail. I mean $95 of bacon for under $20? Who wouldn't? I got some sausage casings the other day, and if I can just get my hands on some lard, I'll make sausages (4:1 meat:fat) in the next week or so. Even as I write, I am searching for excuses to make creme patisserie (4:1:1 milk/cream:egg yolk:sugar, plus some cornstarch and butter), lemon curd (4:4:3:1 lemon juice:sugar:yolks:butter), or chocolate ganache (1:1 cream:chocolate). And wondering where I can find that lard for the sausages? Can't recommend this book enough. And check out his blog: [...]

I remember when Ratio first came out, I wasn't interested at all. First, all the ratios seemed "mathy" to me and I am pretty much math phobic. Also, why bother with making my own recipes or knowing the formulas, when hundreds of people a year are doing it for me in cookbooks? No pictures? Math? seriously uninterested. Fast forward to watching Anna and Kristina cook from it on the "grocery bags." Frankly, I feel if they can have success with a book I can too. It got me interested enough to check Ratio from the library. After reading it a bit I realized the ratios are really laid out and explained well and I could actually follow the explanations! Me- math backward woman! The first thing to call out to me was the banana split, I made the ice cream, the butterscotch sauce and the chocolate ganache. I also made the caramel sauce by accident, I started following the wrong recipe, which is a major gripe of mine, why can't cookbook publishers put the recipe on the same page, or at least facing pages? I hate having to go back and forth flipping pages while covered in ingredients with messy fingers! ugh! *pets peeve* Anyway... The ice cream was amazing. My entire family gulped it down, declaring it the best ice cream I ever made. The butterscotch, it took me back to my youth when my grandma made butterscotch. When Ruhlman says you can't get butterscotch like this without making it, he is right. It was lush and silky and beautiful and I would wanted to dive in it headfirst. The ganache was good though pretty much how I always made it, the accidental caramel sauce was wonderful. I bought the book for the butterscotch recipe alone. Now, I call myself the aioli breaker. I cannot make homemade mayo to save my life. Blender, mixer, food processor, by hand, it breaks. recipes from Julia Child to Bourdain to David Liebowitz, it breaks. I have a freezer full of egg whites and a kitchen full of broken mayo. So I tried ratio's recipe. First I made a big beautiful angel food cake with all the egg whites. It turned out gorgeous! then I tried his immersion blender technique for mayo. I knew it would fail, I could make an angel food cake from my failures, do you know how many egg whites that is from broken yolks and broken mayo? But I tried, and darned if I do not have a bowl of perfect mayo, white, creamy, not an egg yolk floating in curdled oil but real mayo. I know this is a long review but honestly, this book deserves it and more. It's absolutely amazing- don't let the word ratio keep you from this book the way I did for to long. It deserves to be a cherished part of any cooks collection.

I've been cooking without recipes for 20 years now, pretty much since I could reach the counter, and I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the fundamentals of home cooking. Still, there are certain things that remained mystical. For some reason, we think of dough as something only a baker can make. It's not. It's 5 parts flour and 3 parts water. Home-made pies are too much trouble, right? Wrong. I can make a pie dough in less time than a typical TV commercial break (and now I know where the term 'easy as pie' came from). Homemade mayo is great, everyone knows that, but emulsions are hard to make and easy to break, right? Wrong. Just make sure you have the proper ratio of water to oil and you'll be fine (and you can easily re-emulsify if it does break). If you're a novice in the kitchen, this book is going to really do a lot for you. You'll walk past the cake mixes and straight to the bags of flour. You'll find yourself never throwing leftovers away because leftovers+stock=fantastic soup. You'll transcend simple bread baking (which is still quite enjoyable) and discover the splendor of choux paste. More importantly however, if you're very comfortable in the kitchen as I was, but still see a division between home cooking and fine cuisine, this is even more so the book for you. It will help bring things to your plate that you thought were reserved for the outer world. The best bread is the bread you bake. The best sauce is the sauce you dream up. The best soup is the one you made from scraps. Of special note is the very important fact that everything in this book is not just possible, but it's easy as well. I am a big Alton Brown fan, and his endorsement of this book played a big part in my purchasing it, but ironically it was Alton himself that gave rise to much of my fear of trying to make certain types of food. As much as I love him, sometimes Alton makes things sound more complicated and delicate than they are. Ruhlman does the exact opposite and makes you realize just how simple most things are (or the foundations of those things at least). I've made some pretty bad stuff in my experiments so far, but the important thing is I know what made them bad and how to correct next time. I also understand how to manipulate ingredients to vary the results of the finished food (even when baking), which is priceless. The bottom line is this: whether you're an experienced home cook or a slave to box mixes, you will learn a lot from Ratio and will be rewarded constantly. There hasn't been a Sunday morning since this book hit my door that hasn't been spent enjoying fresh, hot biscuits (3 parts flour, 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid; 5 minutes from brain to oven). Enjoy.

My daughter found this very helpful while taking culinary arts in her vocation training and still refers to it when stumped on substitutions.

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 rivoluzionario per chiunque voglia capire davvero la cucina. Ruhlman spiega come i grandi piatti si basino su proporzioni semplici e ripetibili, liberando il cuoco dalla dipendenza dalle ricette. Un approccio mentale che trasforma il modo di cucinare. Lettura obbligatoria per appassionati di cucina e chef.

It's been 4 months and although I've read it through, I'm sort of still on the first chapter! This book sent me down a baking rabbit hole and I'm still enjoying it. Breaking things down to their simplest building blocks then adding/elaborating from there is great

Another great cookbook