Category Archives: Books

Books that are presented here have been read by me/staff, posted by a guest chef/food expert/blogger, being written by me, and are great books to have in your kitchen library.

So You Want To Write a Cookbook

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 21, 2012

A collection of cookbooks. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

So so so many people tell me they have a cookbook to write, asking for advice, and I almost always do my best to discourage them, with Asian delicacy and Germanic firmness, I hope. Because I believe that there are too many cookbooks out there already and the ones so often published add nothing new. So when writer and educator Dianne Jacob asked me what does define a successful cookbook, it got me thinking. She’s written an excellent post collating many, many responses from people in the industry. The responses are surprising in their diversity. The first and obvious answer is, a book is successful if it makes money for the publisher and author.  And there are many ways this can happen, meaning that a book that sells ...

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Also posted in Business, Food Writing, Guest Post, Tips, Writing | Tagged , , | 31 Comments

Eastern North Carolina BBQ

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 2, 2012

Pulled pork sandwich, from Ruhlman's Twenty. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

With these last few posts on cooking for groups, it occurred to me that I should post one of my go-to, fabulously easy, always-gets-raves main course that serves a lot of people.  East Carolina barbecue, called pulled pork here up north. When I arrived at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, from Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1980s I knew the word barbecue to be a verb. You did it on a grill. As a noun, it meant a gathering to eat food cooked on a grill—it was something you had, something you invited neighbors to. But on the drive back from a place called Jugtown (to get there we’d gone through a town called Whynot, with a church named after the town; loved that), we stopped at what looked ...

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Also posted in american regional cuisine, Main Courses, Recipes, Sandwiches, sauce | Tagged , , , | 55 Comments

French Chef

By emilia | Published: January 16, 2012

Video: The amazing Julia Child bringing cooking home to all and Julia Powell sharing what she learned, via Good Morning America.

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Also posted in Article, chefs, New Media, Recipes, Video, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ruhlman’s Twenty Giveaway!
What’s Your Best Staple Meal?

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 11, 2012

A roast chicken that has been brined, notice shiny skin. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

[Update 1/16: Winners have been chosen; their dishes are at the bottom of this post.] Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post on staple meals because I’m fascinated by what people eat at home when they don’t want to think about what to make, what their go-to, middle-of-the-week meal is, because they are invariably quick, efficient, economical, and well, good enough to eat once a week forever. (I think they also tell us a lot about who we are). The woman who has been cutting my hair for 12 years, three kids 16 and younger, husband not always at home, an “I don’t have a lot of time” mom. She makes chicken legs on a small rotisserie, and will do ...

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Also posted in Chicken, From Scratch, Giveaway, Kitchen Tips | Tagged , | 607 Comments

Dry-Cured Ham at Home

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 9, 2012

Ham, dry-cured for eight months, removed from bladder (this photo by iPhone, the ones below are by Donna)

On a recent trip to Charleston, SC, to promote Twenty, my first stop, thanks to a tweet from Ideas In Food was to the kitchen of Cypress, where chef Craig Deihl gave me a truly impressive tasting of his dry cured meats and sausages. Damn they were good—highly recommend you wonderful folks in Charleston stop in for a taste. One of the items he sliced for us he called "knuckle." Now one of the hardest parts of understanding salumi is getting a handle on terminology. When I inquired further he used the Italian term, fiocco, which is a name for a boned portion of the ham (the other larger boned cut is called culatello). The above cut ...

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Also posted in Appetizers, Butchery, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Salumi | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments

Top Posts of 2011

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 31, 2011

Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

The economy struggled but cooking and writing about food sure didn't! My colleague Emilia and I decided to have a look at the most popular—or most viewed is perhaps the better phrase—posts from this site this year. By far the most exciting blog event of the year was Cathy Barrow's and Kim Foster's Charcutepalooza. What an amazing thing happened, and all because of that catchy hashtag on Twitter. This would not have happened without Twitter. Congrats to all who participated and who pushed themselves to cook in unfamiliar and often difficult ways! Special congrats to Cecilia, who blogs at One Vanilla Bean, and Peter, who blogs at Cookblog, as the two year's end finalists. Good luck to you both! Top ruhlman.com posts from ...

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Also posted in Appetizers, Article, baking, Bread App, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Technique, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Christmas Yorkshire Pudding

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 19, 2011

Freshly made popovers. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Marlene Newell, who runs an excellent cooking forum called CooksKorner tested all the recipes for Ratio and Twenty. She's a friend and excellent cook. One of her passions is Yorkshire pudding, in effect, a savory popover, which is how she bakes them (as above). I, too, make roast beef for Christmans dinner and Yorkshire pudding. I believe it's critical to cook it in beef fat, for flavor, so I buy and render suet for this purpose. I've also poured the batter straight into the roasting pan which works great so long as there are no burnt bits (the pudding ripples and puffs like crazy; I then cut it to serve). I imagine the roasting pan method was how it would have originated, the batter cooking in ...

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Also posted in baking, Beef, Bread, Food Writing, From Scratch, Guest Post, Holiday, Memories, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Ruhlman’s Twenty: Food Tools

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 7, 2011

I did two promotional videos for my new book, one a general description of the book (love that that one has a shot of Donna photographing, and one about an idea I thought people might call me out on. Even my recipe tester/organizer/overseer, Marlene Newell, had issues with this. Can food be a technique? I say it can. A technique is an action that has multiple applications. So while yes, an egg is an egg, it’s also an emulsifier, a leavener, a binder, and enricher. Therefore using an egg can be considered a core cooking technique. Knowing how to use salt, is one of the chef’s greatest assets. Learning how to think about these foods as tools makes you a better cook. Disagree? I’ve heard ...

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Also posted in baking, Elements of Cooking, Food Writing, From Scratch, ruhlman products, Technique, Tips | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

High End at Home

By emilia | Published: December 5, 2011

How high end professional chefs have translated their craft to the home cook and how to make home cooked food well, via NYT.

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Farm Life Drawings

By emilia | Published: December 5, 2011

Julia Rothman's book Farm Anatomy illustrates the images you see around the farm and how things work, via The Atlantic

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Also posted in Article, Farming, Food Adventure, Food Culture | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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