Category Archives: Kitchen Tips

The Egg and the Pressure Cooker

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 14, 2012

Pressure cooked eggs. Photo by Laura Pazzaglia

This guest post is thanks to twitter, when someone asked me about pressure cooking eggs. I had never done them, but Laura Pazzaglia had. Laura is a pressure-cooker maniac living in Italy and blogging at hippressurecooking.com. My friend Annie LaG took her up on how to cook easy-peel hard-cooked eggs and pronounced them amazing. I have long been a fan of the egg and recently a fan of the pressure cooker (here's the one I use, via Opensky.com). I love it especially when I want to have a quick stew ready for a weeknight dinner. A 2 to 4 hour stew can be completed start to finish in under and hour. But the egg and the pressure cooker came together on twitter. I invited Laura ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in Appetizers, Eggs, Guest Post, Kitchen Technology, pressure cooker, Recipes | Tagged boiled, cocotte, Eggs, hip pressure cooking, Laura Pazzaglia, pressure cooker, recipe | 36 Comments

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 ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in Books, Chicken, From Scratch, Giveaway | Tagged giveaway, staple meals | 607 Comments

Culinary Terminology

By emilia | Published: December 12, 2011

Here is a list of 50 words that anyone who is into food should know, via Huffington Post.

Also posted in Article, Food Culture, terminology | Tagged culinary terms, foodie, the huffington post, vocabulary | Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Turkey: Roast/Braise Method

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: November 19, 2011

Turkey: The Roast/Braise Method. All photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

The two great turkey conundrums: 1) how to have juicy breast meat and tender dark meat and 2) how to serve it all hot to a lot of people. Answer: the roast/braise method. Last year, chatting with my neighbor, the excellent chef Doug Katz (Fire Food and Drink), described how he cooks the turkey in stock up to the drumstick so that the legs braise while the breast and skin cook in dry heat. Last year I tried it and it works brilliantly. Thank you, Doug. Doug posted his version on the restaurant's blog. I've simplified and added a couple steps to make it easier for perfect doneness. (Step-by-step pix below.) The basic idea is this: cook the turkey half submerged in flavorful liquid and lots ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in aromatics, baking, Braise, From Scratch, Holiday, Recipes, Technique | Tagged braise, holiday, roast, stock, thanksgiving, turkey | Comments closed

French Onion Soup

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: October 6, 2011

Onion soup, with croutons and melted cheese/Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Funny. The recipes people are pulled toward, desire, crave, are the most basic. Like Onion soup. Part of why I love people’s hunger for basic food is because there’s so much to learn from the simplest dishes. This recipe is from the new book, Ruhlman’s Twenty. The new book attempts to distill cooking down to 20 fundamental techniques. Two of the techniques are not verbs but rather nouns: water and onion—two of the most powerful ingredients in your kitchen, rarely given the reverence they deserve.

The soup deserves this high praise not only because it’s delicious and satisfying, but because it was borne out of economy. This is a peasant soup, made from onions, a scrap ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in aromatics, Books, Recipes, Soups | Tagged french onion soup, onions, twenty techniques, water base | Comments closed

Herb Garden & Drying Herbs

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: July 26, 2011

Tarragon, sage, marjoram, oregano, basil, thyme chives/photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

The herb garden has gone wild from the heat and rain showers. It's bursting with more herbs than I can handle or possibly use. It's like an herb party with too many rowdy guest showing up. So now is exactly the time to start cutting them back and letting them dry for winter cooking. This will both begin the supply of dried herbs and also encourage more growth during the next weeks of summer. Herbs are roughly divided into two categories, "hard" and "soft." The soft herbs are herbs with soft stems, such as parsley and tarragon. The soft herbs are best used fresh; they're fine dried, but they lose their magic, all the beguiling qualities that make them so powerful a la minute. The hard ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in aromatics, Seasonings and Spices, Technique | Tagged drying herbs, fresh herbs, gardening, herb garden, storing | Comments closed

World Class Expertise

By emilia | Published: May 2, 2011

Thomas Keller shares his kitchen hints on salt, brines and a few recipes in the LA Times new monthly column called Master Class, via LA Times.

Also posted in Article, chefs | Tagged kitchen hints from chefs, LA Times, Master Class, thomas keller | Comments closed

Veal Stock Contest Winners

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 29, 2011

New cocktail using veal stock/veal salt: The Bloody Kantor/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

First, I love love love all these suggestions from the Veal Stock Contest post. There were great drinks, including jello shots. I love the Bloody Mary with diced demi cubes (see below). The above is the cocktail is a meal; veal stock gives it body and umami and nutrition: 1 ounce tomato juice 1 ounce veal stock, 2 ounces of gin (or OYO vodka), 1/2 teaspoon horseradish, shot of Worchestershire Sauce, lemon juice garnished with scallion, and garnished with the overall winner: Veal Salt! Veal Salt is my personal pick of favorite veal stock innovations, offered by Josh Kantor, a 21-year-old senior economics at Occidental College in Los Angeles and part-time garde manger at ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in aromatics, Giveaway, Recipes | Tagged bloody mary bubble tea, Molasses Whiskey Bull Smash, potato vinaigrette, recipe, sformato, utilization, veal jam, veal rillettes, veal salt, veal stock, veal stock contest, Veal stock ice cream croquettes, winners | Comments closed

How To Cook Dried Beans

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: March 11, 2011

Christmas Lima Beans before and after overnight soak, photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Dried beans and salt. Dried beans and soaking. Ask some chefs and they'll tell you add salt in the beginning and the beans will never get soft. Some chefs have suggested that salt slows the rehydration of beans. Others say, the slower the rehydration, the better the finished bean (fewer broken ones), so it's important to soak them overnight. Others say it doesn’t really matter, or it depends. One thing that is demonstrably true is that you don't have to soak your beans overnight; if you want beans for dinner, put them in water and cook them till they're tender or at least edible, no soaking, no blanching, just put them in a pot and cook ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in Elements of Cooking, Recipes, Technique, Tips, Vegetables | Tagged beans, christmas lima beans, heirloom beans, how to pick a peach, how to read a french fry, ranch gordo, ruhlman's beans and bacon recipe, Russ Parsons, Steve Sando, to soak or not to soak beans, use distilled water to cook beans | Comments closed

How To Brine Chicken (Quick Brine Recipe)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: October 7, 2010

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

How to brine chicken, quick chicken brine recipe—why do we need quick? Because usually when I realize I need to brine something it's too late to make and cool the brine, and then go through the hours of brining. I always brine chickens that I intend to fry. Always. Well, almost always, sometimes, the urge comes too fast and powerfully even to do this, but normally I have at least four hours before I need to get the chicken floured and plunked into the fat. Here's what I do when I need to brine fast . As I write in Ratio: The Simple Codes etc., my ideal brine is 5%. That means 50 grams of salt in a liter of water, 1 ounce of salt for every ...

Click to Continue Reading

Also posted in Brines, Chicken, Ratios, Recipes | Tagged Brine, brining technique, chicken recipe, quick brine | Comments closed

Welcome to Ruhlman.com where I blog about food, cooking, recipes and technique, because the world is better when we cook for ourselves. Thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll join the conversation.
ruhlmanphotography.com

Info on Donna's Ratio Chart and Photography
Kitchen Tools

Click here to see my favorite kitchen tools.
Go to my Open Sky store.
Recipes
Category Archive