Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
Apr 2009 · Ruhlman's Ratios Book 1 · Sold by Simon and Schuster
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About this ebook
Michael Ruhlman’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller gets at the very “truth” of cooking: it is not about recipes but rather about basic ratios and fundamental techniques.
Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Knowing a culinary ratio is not like knowing a single recipe; it’s instantly knowing a thousand.
Why spend time sorting through millions of cookie recipes online or in cookbooks? Isn’t it easier to remember 1:2:3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that consistently make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want—chocolate, orange zest, walnuts, cinnamon, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite variations. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture.
Biscuit dough is 3:1:2—or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. 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 fabulous flavor. Change its ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough; cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes. Once you know the ratio, you no longer need a recipe.
Ratio also helpfully teaches readers how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen—water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs—work together. In a world full of overly complicated recipes, award-winning author Michael Ruhlman delivers an innovative, straightforward book that makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.
Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Knowing a culinary ratio is not like knowing a single recipe; it’s instantly knowing a thousand.
Why spend time sorting through millions of cookie recipes online or in cookbooks? Isn’t it easier to remember 1:2:3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that consistently make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want—chocolate, orange zest, walnuts, cinnamon, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite variations. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture.
Biscuit dough is 3:1:2—or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. 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 fabulous flavor. Change its ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough; cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes. Once you know the ratio, you no longer need a recipe.
Ratio also helpfully teaches readers how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen—water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs—work together. In a world full of overly complicated recipes, award-winning author Michael Ruhlman delivers an innovative, straightforward book that makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.
Michael Ruhlman’s groundbreaking New York Times bestseller gets at the very “truth” of cooking: it is not about recipes but rather about basic ratios and fundamental techniques.
Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Knowing a culinary ratio is not like knowing a single ...
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Ratings and reviews
33 reviews
Jennifer Graziano
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May 21, 2025
A super Easy recipe is always newsworthy; meal preparation time consuming so equipment is more important than the recipe. To be impressed by cookbooks, its easy to cook is what to say. Its great when prep directions are printed on groceries. Kitchen appliance with heat an provide instruction manual. What are cookbooks for why are most alone? They might belong to fruit orchards in national parks. The solar system can eat fruit tree extract juice. Raw fruit & veggies meal side dish worsened to fish a sushi at diners and dives. Plus CBD & marijuana have kitchen space to be mixed in food
Brian
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September 14, 2020
This book has improved my baking skills more than any other book, especially as a single person living alone. I'm able to just grab a single egg, weight it, and find the ratio for any other ingredients I need. The cover alone is worth printing out and putting up in your kitchen, very useful chart.
Rossetti Namulondo Winnie
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July 4, 2019
becoming a great chef and acquiring new crafts in cooking.
2 people found this review helpful
About the author
Michael Ruhlman is the author of award-winning cookbooks and nonfiction narratives. He is the author of chef Thomas Keller’s seminal The French Laundry Cookbook as well as the highly successful series about the training of chefs: The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef, and The Reach of a Chef. He is also the author of The Elements of Cooking and Ratio. Ruhlman has worked at The New York Times and as a food columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has attended the Culinary Institute of America and is the author of eighteen books—about food and cooking, and also such wide ranging subjects as a pediatric heart surgeon and building wooden boats. Michael lives with his wife in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island.
Michael Ruhlman is the author of award-winning cookbooks and nonfiction narratives. He is the author of chef Thomas Keller’s seminal The French Laundry Cookbook as well as the highly successful series about the training of chefs: The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef, and The Reach of a Chef. ...
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