Introduction
I have always thought that there was something magical about baking. I especially like recipes that make things that rise. I think it is almost magical the ways breads and cakes grow into their final form. Because of my interest in baking, I have decided to learn to bake.
When I want to learn something, I use a "full court press" approach: classroom study, supplementary book reading, and good projects. I have been applying this approach to learning baking.
- I am taking courses from "Cooks of Crocus Hills"
- I have put together a small library of baking references from which I am making recipes
- I am trying all sorts of bread recipes
The Book Review
One important book in my library is the book Ratio by Michael Ruhlman [1]. This book explains why recipes are built the way they are. For a mathematical person, it takes the mystery out of recipe construction. One issue that I have had with baking is that it has always seemed to contain mysterious procedures (recipes) with no rationale behind the procedures. I am always suspicious when I need to follow a procedure and I do not understand the rationale behind each and every item in the procedure. I have been working through the book (I am not quite done) and I have found it to be an excellent introduction to theory of recipe construction.
I first heard about the book when Ruhlman was interviewed on National Public Radio. The genesis of the book involved the author (Ruhlman) meeting a chef (Uwe Hestnar) who believes that that cooks do not need to have shelves full of recipe books — all they need is a list of 26 types of recipes and their ingredient ratios. Chef Hestnar has created 26 categories of fundamental cooking building blocks and the ratios of flour, eggs, sugar, liquids, and fats required to make all of them. Ruhlman has created a book that carefully walks the reader through these ratios and why the ratios are set the way they are.
I have really like having this book. It has taken the mystery out of recipes. I have compared Ruhlman's ratios with the ratios of many popular recipes. His ratios seem to hold with reasonable accuracy across all the recipes I have looked at. I now feel like I can walk into a kitchen without any recipes and produce some very good food with just a basic knowlege of the ratios behind the different food building-blocks. I also feel that I have the theoretical background I need to begin making my own recipes.
A Related Work
I recently heard software engineer Jeff Potter on the radio program Science Friday talk about his book Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food. I have not read this book (I am ordering it now). From the interview, it sounds like this book was written in a similar vein to Ratio. If you are interested in the science of cooking as discussed in Cooking for Geeks, you can read the transcript here.
References
1. M . Ruhlman, Ratio : the Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Scribner, 2009. ISBN-10: 1416566112
2. J. Potter, Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food, O'Reilly, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0596805883