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Shortbread, photo by Donna
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Welcome to Ruhlman.com where I write about food, cooking, recipes and technique, because the world is better when we cook for ourselves. Thanks for visiting—hope you’ll join the conversation.
Scottish Shortbread
Posted in Desserts, Ratios, Recipes 39 Comments
Why I Cook, Part II
The Cooking Imperative
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 ...
Posted in Rant, Video 95 Comments
Gremolata
(with Wine-Braised Beef Short Rib)
Gremolata topping wine-braised beef short rib, photo by Donna
Posted in Beef, Recipes 41 Comments
Cultured Butter at Home
Cultured Butter, photo by Donna
Ratio Smart Phone App: Video Demo
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.