Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking (Ruhlman's Ratios)

I'm going to start this review by stating what this book is not. This book is not a cookbook, nor is it a techniques book. Some reviewers have found this to be the problem. However, even the author points several times throughout the book that this book is not intended to be a cookbook nor is it intended to be a cooking technique book. If you are looking for either, I suggest you not buying this cookbook. James Peterson writes some great ones on techniques and cooking. Here are three: Cooking , Baking , What's a Cook to Do?: An Illustrated Guide to 484 Essential Tips, Techniques, and Tricks Now that is out of the way, let's discuss what this book is about. Like the title states the book is about ratios. For example, how much water to add to 3 cups of flour to make bread dough. This book will not tell you how to make the best bread in the world. But it will tell you the simple ratio to make a bread. It gives you the tools to experiment in the kitchen. The idea is if you know the ratios to breads, cakes, sauces, meat, etc and comfortable with them it will set you free of the shackles of following a recipe. You make your own recipe and the results are excellent. It does have some recipes on how you can improve on the basic product (called variations) and the recipes are good. But, the whole point is that you have the basic ratio and you build on it. It makes you a better cook. After-all, if all I want is recipes, wI could simply go on the internet and do a quick search. He goes on to state that the techniques you use will in fact have a huge affect on the finished product. The more you practice the better you will get. He doesn't attempt to tell you nor teach you the techniques, but states to practice and have patience. After all, the author, Mark Ruhlman, is not a professional chef. He states he has cooked since the fourth grade. Therefore, he grew up learning it himself. He asked the permission of the Culinary Institute of America to enter the classroom in order to write this book. I think he did a superb job. The book is great tool to have in your kitchen library, so much so that I will say it is a must for anyone that wants to learn how to cook without recipes. It includes basic ratios of many common foods. Including bread dough (such as cookies, breads, pastas, and even pates), batter for cakes and crepes. However, it is not all about baking. It also includes ratios for sauces, stocks, sausages, and custards. In the end I found this book to be extraordinary and to the point There are some pictures to use as a guide that are helpful but not necessary. I read it on my kindle and I found it to be great. I also read it on my computer and android phone using the kindle app. I used these to take my notes. If you are serious about cooking, you will be taking notes. So if you dont like taking notes on the kindle or any of its apps, then I suggest you get the actual book. However, if you dont mind taking notes on the kindle or its apps (like me) then get the kindle version. It does the job.

Reading about cooking is only second on my list to actually cooking something. I tend toward a scientific approach to my kitchen wherein math and chemistry are as important as technique and skill. My collection of culinary reading is a personal library of 100's of cookbooks and books about cooking. Some are true antiques, some are heirlooms tossed away by relatives who will surely regret the decision, some are ethnic/regional, some are the professional staples, and many aren't even in English. Ruhlman's treatise, I read it in a single sitting front-to-back, is now in a place of easy access for reference next to my hand-me-down copy of Fanny Farmer. What we have here is exactly what the title claims and very little else - it's ratios for cooking. 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water = pie crust; exactly what I wanted to learn. With a reasonably complete commentary on how to bake a pie, what to put in it, the best containers for pies, or even a lot of pie recipes -- mostly a discussion of the ratio (by weight) which makes it very clear, very quickly how pie dough differs from a muffin. He discusses the impact of butter vs lard vs shortening. And I found most of the ratios discussed we similarly treated. I have plenty of texts that discuss in great detail the mechanical aspects (technical skill) that differentiate the muffin method, biscuit method, creaming, etc... I have plenty that offer recipes with ingredient lists. This isn't those. This is the very foundation that all of those should have been based upon, with personal variations, and provides the ratios not only to create a new recipe from knowledge but to debug or tweak an existing recipe based on common ratios. Among my cooking hobbies is recipe writing and bread baking. I bake bread at least weekly, often more. I have often collected a recipe from the internet that just didn't seem write but I could exactly narrow down the problem. With these ratios, it's now easier to quickly check a recipe for reasonable variations before baking it. With these ratios, it's now easier for me to design a recipe based on the science without having to run through numerous batches of trial-and-error. Sure, there's some other material that could be in here to make it even more helpful. But, there are other references out there that provide that information too. I might have even preferred, unlike many of the negative commenters, that Ruhlman had left out much of the commentary and recipes and provided an even shorter tome concentrated more purely on the math and chemistry. Bottom Line: if you need a recipe book then this ain't what you want. There are plenty of those out there and if you tell all of your friends and family that you want some, you'll have a collection of 100's before you know it. Plus, internet. If you need a cooking school manual then this ain't that either. The best of those are a bit costly but there's always, internet. If what you want to do is take recipe analysis down to the bare foundation so you can create a new sort of muffin or cookie without baking twenty batches to get it close - this is near perfection. Photo is my first run of my new pizza muffin recipe. Based on the ratios in this book. Second run will reduce the liquid just a touch but these came out marvelously.

Excellent resource for bakers. Ratios can be applied to any recipe. My engineer husband is the pastry, cookie, cake baker and loves this book. I checked it out of the library so that he could see the value. Once he started reading, he wanted a copy.

I’ve been cooking at home for years, but Ratio by Michael Ruhlman completely changed how I approach the kitchen. Instead of treating recipes like rigid formulas, this book teaches you the foundational ratios behind countless dishes—giving you the freedom to improvise and create with confidence. It’s not just a cookbook; it’s a culinary education. What’s Inside: The concept is brilliantly simple: every type of food—from bread to vinaigrette, custards to cookies—follows a basic ratio of ingredients. For example: • Bread = 5 parts flour : 3 parts water • Pasta dough = 3 parts flour : 2 parts egg • Vinaigrette = 3 parts oil : 1 part vinegar Ruhlman lays out these ratios in a clear, structured way and explains the logic behind them. The result is that you no longer need to rely on memorized recipes—you understand the blueprint, and from there you can customize, tweak, and experiment. Writing Style: Ruhlman is a fantastic writer. He doesn’t just list facts—he teaches, with the tone of a skilled mentor. He tells you not only how something works but why it works. Whether he’s describing the importance of gluten structure in bread or the balance of fat and acid in a sauce, his explanations are accessible without being dumbed down. Format & Usability: The book is divided into logical sections by type of food, and it includes both the ratios and a few example recipes for each category. It’s not a glossy, photo-heavy book—it’s more of a practical kitchen manual. I find myself referring to it regularly, especially when I want to adapt something on the fly or scale up/down. Who It’s For: • Beginner cooks who want to understand core techniques. • Experienced home chefs looking to gain creative freedom. • Anyone frustrated by having to Google the same recipes over and over. If you want to level up from just following instructions to actually understanding cooking, this is the book for you. Minor Drawbacks: It’s not a traditional cookbook, so if you’re expecting tons of pictures or step-by-step guides, you may be surprised. Also, since the ratios use weight measurements (which is far more accurate), a kitchen scale is strongly recommended. Also the paperback is very small so even near sighted eyes may struggle. Bottom line: “Ratio” is an essential resource for anyone who wants to cook with creativity and confidence. It’s about breaking free from dependence on recipes and gaining mastery of the fundamentals. Michael Ruhlman doesn’t just give you fish—he teaches you how to fish, bake, whisk, and sauté like a pro. Highly recommended.

I've been cooking without recipes for 20 years now, pretty much since I could reach the counter, and I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the fundamentals of home cooking. Still, there are certain things that remained mystical. For some reason, we think of dough as something only a baker can make. It's not. It's 5 parts flour and 3 parts water. Home-made pies are too much trouble, right? Wrong. I can make a pie dough in less time than a typical TV commercial break (and now I know where the term 'easy as pie' came from). Homemade mayo is great, everyone knows that, but emulsions are hard to make and easy to break, right? Wrong. Just make sure you have the proper ratio of water to oil and you'll be fine (and you can easily re-emulsify if it does break). If you're a novice in the kitchen, this book is going to really do a lot for you. You'll walk past the cake mixes and straight to the bags of flour. You'll find yourself never throwing leftovers away because leftovers+stock=fantastic soup. You'll transcend simple bread baking (which is still quite enjoyable) and discover the splendor of choux paste. More importantly however, if you're very comfortable in the kitchen as I was, but still see a division between home cooking and fine cuisine, this is even more so the book for you. It will help bring things to your plate that you thought were reserved for the outer world. The best bread is the bread you bake. The best sauce is the sauce you dream up. The best soup is the one you made from scraps. Of special note is the very important fact that everything in this book is not just possible, but it's easy as well. I am a big Alton Brown fan, and his endorsement of this book played a big part in my purchasing it, but ironically it was Alton himself that gave rise to much of my fear of trying to make certain types of food. As much as I love him, sometimes Alton makes things sound more complicated and delicate than they are. Ruhlman does the exact opposite and makes you realize just how simple most things are (or the foundations of those things at least). I've made some pretty bad stuff in my experiments so far, but the important thing is I know what made them bad and how to correct next time. I also understand how to manipulate ingredients to vary the results of the finished food (even when baking), which is priceless. The bottom line is this: whether you're an experienced home cook or a slave to box mixes, you will learn a lot from Ratio and will be rewarded constantly. There hasn't been a Sunday morning since this book hit my door that hasn't been spent enjoying fresh, hot biscuits (3 parts flour, 1 part fat, 2 parts liquid; 5 minutes from brain to oven). Enjoy.

i sent this to my sister for Christmas. She is trying to be gluten free and so this gave her some guidance to adjust recipes, and it also was good for her daughter who is a Home Ec. major. I have not used the book, but foudn the ratios fascinating.

I got this at the library. I had to have a copy for myself. I should have gotten the hardcover, though, because the type on the paperback is a little smaller than I would like in what is, essentially, a cookbook. But, this is so well-written that it is an easy read cover-to-cover. It covers bakery products and liquids, primarily. But, I don't know what else there would be a ratio of. Anyway... Five stars!

I remember when Ratio first came out, I wasn't interested at all. First, all the ratios seemed "mathy" to me and I am pretty much math phobic. Also, why bother with making my own recipes or knowing the formulas, when hundreds of people a year are doing it for me in cookbooks? No pictures? Math? seriously uninterested. Fast forward to watching Anna and Kristina cook from it on the "grocery bags." Frankly, I feel if they can have success with a book I can too. It got me interested enough to check Ratio from the library. After reading it a bit I realized the ratios are really laid out and explained well and I could actually follow the explanations! Me- math backward woman! The first thing to call out to me was the banana split, I made the ice cream, the butterscotch sauce and the chocolate ganache. I also made the caramel sauce by accident, I started following the wrong recipe, which is a major gripe of mine, why can't cookbook publishers put the recipe on the same page, or at least facing pages? I hate having to go back and forth flipping pages while covered in ingredients with messy fingers! ugh! *pets peeve* Anyway... The ice cream was amazing. My entire family gulped it down, declaring it the best ice cream I ever made. The butterscotch, it took me back to my youth when my grandma made butterscotch. When Ruhlman says you can't get butterscotch like this without making it, he is right. It was lush and silky and beautiful and I would wanted to dive in it headfirst. The ganache was good though pretty much how I always made it, the accidental caramel sauce was wonderful. I bought the book for the butterscotch recipe alone. Now, I call myself the aioli breaker. I cannot make homemade mayo to save my life. Blender, mixer, food processor, by hand, it breaks. recipes from Julia Child to Bourdain to David Liebowitz, it breaks. I have a freezer full of egg whites and a kitchen full of broken mayo. So I tried ratio's recipe. First I made a big beautiful angel food cake with all the egg whites. It turned out gorgeous! then I tried his immersion blender technique for mayo. I knew it would fail, I could make an angel food cake from my failures, do you know how many egg whites that is from broken yolks and broken mayo? But I tried, and darned if I do not have a bowl of perfect mayo, white, creamy, not an egg yolk floating in curdled oil but real mayo. I know this is a long review but honestly, this book deserves it and more. It's absolutely amazing- don't let the word ratio keep you from this book the way I did for to long. It deserves to be a cherished part of any cooks collection.