Food Fascism

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 18, 2012

 

A sensible dinner, by Michael Ruhlman/Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

I got an email last week that made my blood boil. Yes, seemingly to boil. Not simmer. A blanching-green-veg boil, a pressure cooker boil. The kind of boil my blood gets when I’m at a restaurant and I hear a woman, grilling the server suspiciously, saying, "I'm allergic to lactose” and then later says, “Oooh, could you wheel that cheese cart over here? Gawd, I love Epoisse." I’m just minding my own business, a happy Bertie Wooster moment at my desk before work, dreaming of confiting turkey legs, and an email pops into my box and it’s like someone smacked me on the skull with a cricket bat. It was from Heather Clayton, an expat living in southern Germany, trying to plan a meal here in the once sensible USA (West ...

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Posted in Food Culture, Food Politics, Rant | Tagged | 464 Comments

Homemade Mayonnaise

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 16, 2012

 

Homemade mayonnaise is faster to make then you think. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

I have so much crap on my desk! Being gone for three weeks it piles up. Books I have to at least familiarize myself with, dried soy beans and a tofu press, the manuscript I've got to fix, knives and rolling pins and some weird Fagor three-way cooker to figure out, emails to respond to, the ineluctable ... not modality of being ... but the ineluctable compulsion to check twitter feed. OY! But I never get tired of mayonnaise you make yourself.  I don't care if it's with a hand blender or whisk. Helmann's is fine—I use that too, but it's not anywhere near homemade mayo. Two totally different products, and that's and why I love it.  Its goodness is something you can't buy. You ...

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Posted in Books, Eggs, Elements of Cooking, Recipes, Technique | Tagged , , , | 93 Comments

Friday Cocktail Hour: The Berkshire Martinez

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 13, 2012

The Berkshire Martinez/photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Last week's post on the perfect martini evoked a heated, then spirited, back and forth on twitter, sparked by bartender Gerry Jobe. It ultimately resulted in his suggesting I give a martinez a go. I had a look at a tweeted link and then at my new favorite drink book, Bitters, by Brad Thomas Parsons; he dates the cocktail to 1887: two parts sweet vermouth, 1 part gin, maraschino liqueur, Boker's bitters and a twist. Sounded intriguing, sort of like a martini and a negroni doing a tango. But I prefer a more muscular cocktail—more gin, less sweetness—and offer here a variation on what was a week ago an unknown cocktail. I'm calling it The Berkshire Martinez, because that's where it was first made, Berkshire Road, ...

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Posted in Cocktails, Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | 80 Comments

Salumi

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 11, 2012

Still slammed after weeks away. Part of todays work is going over 2nd pass proofs of Salumi, now scheduled for August 27th publication. First pass illustrations all out of place. Also need to check all salt concentrations. Very important! The above was taken sampling American and smuggled Italian salumi after a trip there. —MR Originally posted June 24, 2010 On our trip to Italy, Brian Polcyn and I saw a lot of new cuts we weren't familiar with, so as soon as we returned, we made plans to break down a couple of pigs Italian style, bringing in chef Jay Denham, who was recently back from five months staging in Italy.  We wanted to see how he broke a half animal into primals and we also wanted to learn the culatello cut.  Jay had spent many weeks ...

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Posted in Books, Business, Charcuterie, chefs, Food Writing, Salumi, Writing | Tagged , , , | 132 Comments

Cultured Butter

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: April 9, 2012

 

Cultured Butter, photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Back at my desk after three weeks on the road (daughter college trip/week in West Palm to visit Mom with Donna and the kids/NYC biz). NYC biz fun!!! Stayed with dear friend Annie LaG, with whom I'm working on a TV project (don't hold your breath), following fab lunch at the always excellent Bar Boulud (thanks chefs Damian and Daniel! Your pâtés rock!); my book Twenty won an IACP award (yay!); had dinner with the mercurial Amanda Hesser after getting lost in Williamsburg thanks to dead iPhone 3G (ate at Isa, where two tables down was the excellent Eric Asimov, who was so kind to me at the NYTimes when he was a rising copy editor and I was a lowly copy boy in ...

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Posted in From Scratch, Technique | Tagged , , | 58 Comments

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