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Category Archives: Tips
So You Want To Write a Cookbook
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 ...
Also posted in Books, Business, Food Writing, Guest Post, Writing Tagged Dianne Jacobs, Will Write for Food, writing a cookbook Comments closed
Ruhlman’s Twenty: Food Tools
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 ...
Also posted in baking, Books, Elements of Cooking, Food Writing, From Scratch, ruhlman products, Technique Tagged Food Tools, Functionality of Ingredients, keep things simple, Marlene Newell, technique, twenty Comments closed
Turkey Stock For Gravy: Start Soon
In preparation for Thanksgiving, America's biggest home-cooking day, I'll be addressing a few of the most common issues and frequently asked questions about the basics: roasting turkey and making gravy. Friday, I'll be introducing an innovate and in my opinion the best possible way to roast a whole turkey (it involves a dual method and resulted last year in Donna's saying, "This is the best roasted turkey we've ever had.")
But first things first: make turkey stock now so that you have it on hand to make gravy. I don't know where we got the idea that a roasting turkey results enough juices to make gravy. It doesn't. And you certainly want to have way too much gravy on Thanksgiving so that you have leftovers. ...
How To Roast a Suckling Pig
Chefs Christine Cikowski and Joshua Kulp, among the growing legions who are making our food better and helping us to appreciate it more, call their moveable feast Sunday Dinner Club because it evoked a time when their families shared a long meal together. Sharing meals with the people you love is far more important than I'd ever realized, a fact that deepens the more I cook, read, and listen to other cooks, both home cooks and professionals. I love that spirit.
Sunday Dinner Club is an unusual Chicago-based business created in 2004. What the chefs do is host dinner parties in their home and invite people on their mailing list to attend. The mailing list has been cultivated over ...
Also posted in aromatics, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, grilling, Guest Post, outdoor cooking, Pork!, Recipes, Salumi, Technique Tagged Chicago, Christine Cikowski, Green City Market, Illinois, Joshua Kulp, outdoor cooking, pig roast, roasted sucking pig, Sunday Dinner Club Comments closed
















