Category Archives: Uncategorized

Literary Interlude: Ann Patchett’s Getaway Car
A Review

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 6, 2012

My desk this morning, photo by iPhone

Looking to check out a new media format, the Kindle Single, I came across Ann Patchett's long essay The Getaway Car. I bought it for $3 and was reading away on my sleak Kindle Fire moments later. (Impulse purchasing = Danger!) In this case, the purchase was well worth it. The highly regarded novelist tells her story—every writer has a different one. Patchett, in easy, conversational prose (it kind of reads like a long email to an acquaintance), traces her course from a girl who knew she wanted to be a writer pretty much since she became conscious of being conscious, through college, the Iowa writing program, skipping over a brief marriage, work as a waitress at TGIFridays where she made up stories in her head, to teaching ...

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Also posted in Writing | 31 Comments

Chicken-Fried-Pork-Belly Caesar Salad

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: January 5, 2012

: Chicken-Fried Pork Belly Ceasar/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

[A fellow Twitter hound tweeted this post from last May and I thought, it's always a good time for more pork belly! Back to regular posting next week—M.R.] It is time again to bring out The Chicken-Fried Pork Belly Salad, which I created in August 2007 in the midst of my fury at the chief icon of American restaurant food: The Chicken Caesar. Today's post was sparked by Sam Sifton's NYTimes magazine column on the Caesar salad, which addresses the fact that few dishes are truly authentic, and he uses the Caesar salad as an example. For me putting a chicken breast on a perfectly good Caesar is an emblem of American mediocrity, a lack of imagination, and our fear of food (The Shame of the Chicken Caesar Salad). ...

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Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Green!

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: October 24, 2011

I ran this photo by Donna a while ago, but came across it this weekend and love it so much I decided to put it back up. Just because. Want to see something even more beautiful? Watch this video, from Grant Achatz and the team at Alinea and Next, the restaurant that is now devoted to childhood. Anyone else tear up? It was the beaters that got me. (My colleague Emilia Juocys found it and put it in the Sidenotes here but it deserves to be featured.)

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Ruhlman’s Twenty: The Winners

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: October 14, 2011

Whisk/photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman (the book's opening image)

Winners were chosen at random, but the ah-ha moments were so interesting and so vast, they deserve their own post, or maybe even a book! Many thanks to all who offered their personal "Ah-Ha." And thank you Rob Levitt, of Chicago's Butcher & Larder for suggesting this idea in the first place! Here are the winners of a signed copy of Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques; 100 Recipes; A Cook's Manifesto and their "Ah-Ha" moment: Ryan: My Ah-Ha moment came the first time I used a knife that wasn't from a garage sale or Walmart. Before that moment cutting food (much less cooking it) was always a chore; something done because it had to be, not because I wanted to. But from the first moment I used a real ...

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Ruhlman’s Twenty Giveaway:
Win a Signed Copy (Ah-Ha!)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: October 10, 2011

As I begin to travel this week to promote my new book, I want to give away five personalized signed copies. But I want something from you. An "ah-ha" moment. Earlier in the month, promoting my appearance at Butcher & Larder in Chicago, owner Rob Levitt asked people for just such a moment, a revelation, a moment when you tasted something, combined two uncommon ingredients, used a tool in a new way, that changed the way you saw food, the kitchen, cooking. I've had many, and they're always a thrill. I write about one in the new book, the time my chef instructor at the CIA, Michael Pardus, tasted my cream of broccoli soup and said, "This is good. But I want you to take this back to your station and taste it again. Then I want you to ...

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Stock Clarifications

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: August 24, 2011

All photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman, click them to go to her site.

Last April, I wrote a post about leaving stock out on the stove top claiming that it would be safe to eat provided that you brought it to a simmer before eating. Indeed I've been doing this for a decade with no ill effects. On twitter and on the post itself, I received voluminous responses. One response, from a large-animal veterinarian, noted that it was entirely possible for heat-stable toxins, not bacteria, to persist, making the stock unsafe. I revised the post with the vet's valid warnings with links to the CDC's warnings on the particular bacteria. But the response was so strong, I suggested in an email to NYTimes food section editor Pete ...

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Also posted in Food Safety, food science, Recipes, stock, Technique | Tagged harold mcgee, recipe, stock | Comments closed

Pig Skin/Chicharrones

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: June 20, 2011

I was cleaning out my iMovies and came across this quick clip my son James filmed a while ago. I'd just been to Bar Symon to break down a hog American style. Matt Harlan was the chef there (he's now back at Lolita, front of the house) and the kitchen was huge; he had a hog ready and a big table to break it down on. I'd done it and written about it but needed to be able to teach someone else to do it. And I needed to be sure my verbal descriptions were accurate. After we'd finished both sides, and Donna and I were packing to go, Matt, aka Chatty Matty, gave me a piece of their prepared pork skins. His boss, Michael Symon, had picked up the technique from Paul Kahan, who serves them at Publican in Chicago. Often, cracklins, ...

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Also posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Video | Tagged chicharrones, Michae, Paul Kahan, Pork Skin, The Publican, video | Comments closed

The Forgiveness of Cured Meat: Bacon

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: February 25, 2011

This week's bacon, waiting to be smoked, photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I've been slammed this week, and now have to travel, if I can get out in this blizzard. But last week I put a whole pork belly on the cure. I'd given it a sweet cure, brown sugar, maple syrup and black pepper, because I wanted to smoke it rather than make pancetta. It was done yesterday but I had no time to smoke it. Our lives get busy, we don't have time to finish something, sometimes we're too tired or the kids have a snow day. What's so great about charcuterie, as with this bacon, is its preserved. There's no hurry. I'll smoke it next week, and until then, it's going to sit out, ...

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Also posted in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Pork!, Recipes | Tagged bacon, basic dry cure mix, Charcutepalooza, charcuterie, pink salt, recipe for basic cure | Comments closed

Five Cooking Goals

By emilia | Published: January 3, 2011

Helen York shares her five culinary goals for 2011. What are yours? via The Atlantic.

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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all!

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 24, 2010

Photo by Donna, kitchen Santa hanging on Donna's antique cabbage slicer, a family heirloom

To those who celebrate Christmas, merry Christmas! To all, my best wishes and hopes for great celebrations, being together with friends and family, and a festive and bountiful holiday. Thanks for reading this blog and to those who take the time and care to comment, thanks for the great conversation all year long!

Also posted in Holiday | Comments closed

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