WHEN YOU KNOW A CULINARY RATIO, IT'S NOT LIKE KNOWING A
SINGLE RECIPE, IT'S INSTANTLY KNOWING A THOUSAND.
Why
spend time sorting through the millions of cookie recipes
available in books, magazines, and on the Internet? Isn't it
easier just to remember 1-2-3? That's the ratio of
ingredients that always make a basic, delicious cookie
dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From
there, add anything you want -- chocolate, lemon and orange
zest, nuts, poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, almond
extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite additions.
Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie.
Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier
texture.
RATIOS ARE THE STARTING POINT FROM
WHICH A THOUSAND VARIATIONS BEGIN.
Ratios are the
simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit
dough is 3 : 1 : 2 -- or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2
parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many
variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory
flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream
and strawberries or sausage gravy. Vinaigrette is 3 : 1, or
3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful
sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and
fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces intense flavor.
Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and
set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for
enticing variations, Ratio is the truth ofcooking:
basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental
ingredients of the kitchen -- water, flour, butter and oils,
milk and cream, and eggs -- work. Change the ratio and bread
dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become
popovers become crepes.
As the culinary world fills up
with overly complicated recipes and never-ending ingredient
lists, Michael Ruhlman blasts through the surplus of
information and delivers this innovative, straightforward
book that cuts to the core of cooking. Ratio provides
one of the greatest kitchen lessons there is -- and it makes
the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.
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