Cooking Without Recipes: Michael Ruhlman on Ratios

Last week, Michael Ruhlman stopped by KCRW’s Good Food with Evan Kleiman to talk about his new book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

In short, the book is a guide to cooking without recipes and with, as Kleiman noted, “a truly easy confidence.” Ruhlman says ratios are the backbone of all cooking and by understanding them we can create endless recipes.

The ratio concept came to Ruhlman as he was working on cake batters. There is a continuum, he explained, that begins with a very stiff bread dough that is 5 parts flour to 3 parts water, and as you add more liquid, it moves into pie and cookie dough and then into batters for cakes and crepes.

But it’s all just one thing; one idea. “If you understand the ratios, you understand the interrelatedness of all these things that we tend to think of separately,” he said.

The American practice of measuring ingredients in cups and spoonfuls instead of weights makes cooking with ratios more difficult. For instance, Rhulman said, a cup of flour can weigh anywhere between 4.25 ounces to 6 ounces. And by using such an imprecise measuring system, he added, “no wonder baking is so difficult and why we think it’s so difficult.”

We've certainly been frustrated by baking before, and we're now in the market for a good scale. Stay tuned today for thoughts on some electronic models.

(Image: Flickr user Lisa Brewster, licensed under Creative Commons)

I have an electric scale by Salter, I think. It's great, but I remember it being a bit pricey. On the other hand, it's served me well for, oh geeze, three years and counting now on the same battery.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on April 22nd 2009 at 12:11pm
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In Europe we use scales for everything, and I have always found it really liberating to use cups. Ok, it can get a bit fidgety to find out just how much a cup of sliced potatoes is, but nine out of ten recipes don't explode when you add just a bit more of something.

posted by Anachronist on April 22nd 2009 at 12:56pm
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I have a fairly easy time cooking without a recipe, but baking is a different issue! Thanks for the great reference points on ratios!

posted by eatsuep on April 22nd 2009 at 2:45pm
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In basic cooking, I so rarely go by recipes that I hardly ever dirty a measuring cup. My eyes and hands can approximate things pretty well by now!

In baking, I can use cups for some things (like sugar). But I absolutely have to measure some things out by weight (such as flour, powdered sugar, etc.), to the point where I'll actually look up the volume-weight conversion for recipes that only give a volume measurement. I know, I know, it's a little obsessive; but in baking, the proper ratio of ingredients is very important in how the finished product will come out. I would be a lost without my little kitchen scale!

In breadmaking, there's something called the "baker's percentage", where the total weight of flour is equal to 100%. All other ingredients are scaled accordingly, which helps with multiplying or dividing recipes. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_percentage)

http://www.abreadaday.com

posted by eprewitt on April 22nd 2009 at 2:54pm
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