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

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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Posted in Appetizers, Article, baking, Books, Bread App, Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Technique, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Potassium Effect: Important Ratio

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 28, 2011

 

Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Yesterday the NYTimes covered an important health ratio: the amount of potassium relative to the amount salt you consume. While the article by long time health reporter, Jane Brody, leads with the obvious (excessive salt has proven to be a health risk, according to yet another major study), and the headline writer reinforce the obvious ("Sodium-Saturated Diet is a Threat for All"), the article recognizes that everything is about balance and notes the important role potassium-rich foods play in countering salt's negative effects. "The researchers found that while a diet hight in sodium—salt is the main source—increases your risk," Brody writes, "even more important is the ratio of sodium (harmful) to potassium (protective) in one's diet." This was pointed out to me this summer by Mark Bitterman, author of a great book called Click to Continue Reading

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Posted in aromatics, Food Politics, Food Safety, food science, Seasonings and Spices | Tagged , | 23 Comments

Christmas Wishes

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 24, 2011

It's been a long day of wrapping and cooking in preparation for Christmas, amazingly stress free because of my amazing wife and colleague Donna. Her photo above is something of a self-portrait of us on the Christmas tree. Mom and James made cookies and I made our annual Addison's Brioche.  Mom wants to use it to make sticky buns so we'll fill some muffin pans with brown sugar, butter and pecans, top each with the brioche and refrigerate till tomorrow morning. It's become a tradition. As has the reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas before bed. Traditions are powerful indeed. The day has also been occasion to think about how lucky I am, for Donna, for Donna's work, for the health of my children, on this bountiful holiday. I miss my dad who was the very embodiment of The ...

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Posted in Food Writing, Holiday, Memories | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Britta’s Glogg

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 23, 2011

Glogg was a staple of my childhood Christmases. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I'd been looking for a long ago recipe card used by my parents titled "Britta's Glogg" to do a post about it (and because I hadn't made it in years). Then all of a sudden I start seeing recipes for mulled wine all over the place. I don't remember seeing any in years and then, two different ones from just in the NYTimes alone, one in the Sunday Magazine, another by writer Melissa Clark. It was not the drinking of the glogg that stays in the memory—it wasn't till later that I would actually have been drinking it—it was the aroma of it. I've recently become aware of how powerful the smells of food cooking in house are. They are a natural stress reliever. ...

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Posted in aromatics, Cocktails, Ethnic Cuisine, Holiday, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Christmas Dinner: The Grill/Roast Technique

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 21, 2011

Roast beef mise en place. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

On Thanksgiving, I offered a roast/braise combination cooking technique for turkey. Interesting that I use a dual cooking technique for our traditional holiday Christmas meal as well. The Grill/Roast method, which I write about in Ruhlman's Twenty. I don’t think there’s a better way to cook a rack of beef (or a whole beef tenderloin) than this combination grill-roast method. It gives the meat great grilled flavor and allows you perfect control of temperatures and timing. I use the method in during holidays, to serve beef tenderloin sandwiches on a buffet or a rack of beef for a large group of people because I can grill the beef a day ahead if I want and then just finish it in the oven. Flavor the meat on ...

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Posted in appearance, aromatics, baking, Beef, Butchery, grilling, Holiday, outdoor cooking, Recipes, Technique | Tagged , , , , | 21 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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Posted in baking, Beef, Books, Bread, Food Writing, From Scratch, Guest Post, Holiday, Memories, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Do-over: Charleston, Eve, & Grits

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 13, 2011

Shrimp and grits. photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

One of hard things about writing books is that they are in constant flux and then they are permanent. Thanks to the organic nature of blogs, I can make amends. When I was at the Culinary Institute of America, one of my best and favorite teachers was Eve Felder, who taught Garde Manger. She was the Cheshire Cat of chefs, perched high on stacked stools, who taught us that "Cooking is alchemy, cooking is magic!" And she was right. Righter than I knew, in fact. I'm heading to her native city, Charleston, South Carolina, and so she's been on my mind. When I wanted to do a butter-poached shrimp for Ruhlman's Twenty, I naturally wanted to pair it with grits. Who did I call for grits finesse ...

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Posted in american regional cuisine, Appetizers, aromatics, chefs, Food Writing, From Scratch, Recipes, Seafood, Seasonings and Spices, sidedishes, Technique | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Guest Post: Carri’s Bacon Truffles

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: December 9, 2011

 

 

Bacon truffle presented two ways. Photo by Carri Thurman
Carri Thurman has been a friend since she traveled from her home in Homer, Alaska, to visit her fellow Homerian, Daniel Coyle, author and journalist who'd moved to Cleveland with his Cleveland-born wife—bless you, Dan! (His last book was The Talent Code, fascinating look into how talent is developed.) Carri runs Two Sisters Bakery in Homer, and she offers here some fabulous confections for the holidays, right up our alley, proving once again that chocolate, like life, is better with bacon. James and I will be making these as soon as school lets out. Thanks for sharing, Carri, and for all the helpful step-by-step pix! —MR by Carri Thurman Bacon and chocolate may be a passing fad ...

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Posted in Desserts, Guest Post, Pastry, Pork!, Recipes, Technique | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 24 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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Posted in baking, Books, Elements of Cooking, Food Writing, From Scratch, ruhlman products, Technique, Tips | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

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