Corned Beef: How To Cure Your Own

By ruhlman | Published: March 15, 2010

Brine for Corned Beef, Photo by Donna

With the approach of St. Patty's day I got a brisket into the brine Friday, in time to make my half-Irish wife the corned beef she loves. And I realized I've never blogged about it.  Everyone who cooks should corn their own beef.  It's easy as brining a chicken. And when you make your own pickling spice (brine photo above, recipe below), you can really pump up the flavor. Any cut of beef can be "corned" (a term apparently that once referred to the corn-kernel shaped salt once used).  But the best cuts are the tougher, less-expensive cuts such brisket. The only uncommon ingredient is the sodium nitrite, pink salt, available by mail here.  If you have any shops that make their own bacon, hams, or smoked sausage, they may have ...

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Posted in Beef, Charcuterie, Recipes | 4 Comments

Ratio Smart Phone App: Video Demo

By ruhlman | Published: March 10, 2010

At last, we’ve put together this basic video demonstration of Ratio: The Smart Phone Application (built by Will Turnage, designed by Leah McCombe) so that people can see what it does and how it works. I love the application because it’s truly useful. If I’m making hamburgers or meatloaf, it will give me the amount of seasoning I need depending on how much meat I have. If I only want a few cookies, not two dozen, it will create the recipe for me. If I find I only have one egg, but still want to make a blueberry muffin, it calculates the amount based on one egg. If I want to whip up a last minute caramel sauce it tells me how. If I want to know even the basic proportions of a stock, it’s there for me. It’s also a great ounces-to-grams converter.

This application will be of special value to anyone who works in a kitchen and to any and all culinary students. And you chefs, authors, and bloggers who develop your own recipes, this application provides the trunk from which a thousand variations branch off. I hope you’ll have a look!

This is version 1.0.1, with all bugs taken care of. Will and Leah are working on the Droid version now!

Here are some comments and reviews about the application:

Russ Parsons, in the LATimes Blog: “Michael Ruhlman wrote a really good book earlier this year called Ratio. Now he’s gone out and turned it into an even better iPhone application. … And though [his] approach may seem a little mechanistic in a cookbook (what if you happen to want a cookie with a different texture than the one chosen?), it’s sheer genius in an app, where the expectations are different. Think of ‘Ratio, the App’ as a combination culinary pocket calculator and aide-memoir.”

Chicagoist: “This application is so good it almost makes us regretting buying the book first. … At $4.99, it’s a steal.”

From the Village Voice Blog: “While Ruhlman’s app enters an already crowded market for cooking-related iPhone applications, with its gee-whiz calculations, it has the potential to be one of the most useful. The home cooking world may finally have its own version of Turing Bombe, complete with pretty colors and custard icons.”

Click here to see go to its iTunes page. All comments and criticisms welcome.

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Posted in New Media, Ratios | 56 Comments

Scottish Shortbread

By ruhlman | Published: March 9, 2010

Shortbread, photo by Donna

Seventeen years ago, my friend Stephanie began a Burns' night celebration, in honor of her Scottish heritage, and we carry it on still, an occasion to gather a group, once all in Cleveland but now half dispersed.  We tour the highlands, as it were, and I address the haggis— "Fair fa your honest soncie face/Great chieftan o' the puddin race" —thrusting the knife in at the appropriate "warm-reeking" moment.  But Stephanie had arrived as well with her grandmother's shortbread, and the book from which it comes.  Having coincidentally been making various versions of shortbread for a current project, I was particularly interested in hers. Shortbread is the simplest of preparations, flour, butter and sugar and in that simplicity is its deliciousness.  Also, it couldn't be easier or faster.  Boxed pancake mix ...

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Posted in Desserts, Ratios, Recipes | 42 Comments

Why I Cook, Part II
The Cooking Imperative

By ruhlman | Published: March 4, 2010

I was honored to be asked to speak at our local TEDxCLE last Friday where I was allowed to try to explain why I think cooking is important.  There's a great book out now that argues that our ancestors became human only after we began cooking for ourselves and our families. I believe it's still important, but for different reasons.  Not just sort of important.  Really important.  I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said before, but I know it can't be said enough. Consider that cooking food might be far more vital than you ever imagined.  I don't believe that everyone ought to cook.  But I think at least one person in every group ought to cook.  We fail to cook for ourselves at our ...

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Posted in Rant, Video | 95 Comments

Gremolata
(with Wine-Braised Beef Short Rib)

By ruhlman | Published: March 3, 2010

Gremolata topping wine-braised beef short rib, photo by Donna

I've had braised beef short ribs on my mind for the past couple weeks, working on a preparation for the current book, another for an OpenSky promotion, and also because we've got ten people coming for dinner on Saturday, and short ribs are the wintertime choice for entertaining! It's bleak and cold and wintery here, perfect weather for these rich short ribs.  They're also relatively inexpensive—important during the frugal post-holiday months.  And they can be prepared up to a week in advance, so I don't have to be rushing around at the last minute. What I want to talk about here, though, is the gremolata, which sometimes gets lost in the shuffle at the end, but is absolutely essential to the finished dish. Most are ...

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Posted in Beef, Recipes | 41 Comments