Vol. XXIII · The Everyday Cook Plate 10 of 12cooking without a recipe, ratios, templates, bread ratio, pasta ratio, pie dough, pound cake, custard, vinaigrette, pancake, improvising, RuhlmanTF

Cooking Without a Recipe.

Two eggs in the fridge and no recipe book: 150 g of flour and two eggs is fresh pasta for two, by a ratio cooks have used for centuries.

Recipes are instances; ratios are the rules they follow. A bread dough is about 5 parts flour to 3 of water by weight (with about 2 % salt and 1 % yeast of the flour, XXIV.2); fresh egg pasta 3 of flour to 2 of egg; shortcrust pastry 3 of flour, 2 of fat, 1 of water (XXV.5); pound cake equal weights of flour, butter, sugar and egg; a baked custard 2 of liquid to 1 of egg (XVII.5); a vinaigrette 3 of oil to 1 of acid (X.3); pancake batter about 2 of milk, 2 of flour, 1 of egg and half of butter. Each ratio holds because of the chemistry inside it — enough water for gluten, enough egg protein to set the liquid, enough fat to shorten the flour.

Templates do the same for dishes: a stir-fry is aromatics, protein, vegetables, sauce, slurry (XV.4); a braise is brown, deglaze, liquid, low heat, time (XVI.4); a soup is sweat aromatics, add stock and main ingredient, simmer, blend or not, season (XXII.4). Knowing the template and the ratio, a cook can start from whatever is in the kitchen, scale to any amount, and taste and adjust along the way (I.7). The workshop rebuilds a recipe from a ratio.

Below: the full quantities of a classic preparation built from its ratio and the amount you have of its first ingredient (ratios by weight, as in M. Ruhlman's Ratio and standard practice).

What you will learn

Know the key kitchen ratios.
Rebuild a recipe from a ratio and one quantity.
Use templates for dishes.
Improvise and adjust by taste.

Workshop

Ratios by weight, from standard culinary practice (M. Ruhlman, Ratio, 2009, and professional texts): bread 5 : 3 (plus 2 % salt, 1 % instant yeast of the flour); pasta 3 : 2; shortcrust 3 : 2 : 1; pound cake 1 : 1 : 1 : 1; custard 2 : 1; vinaigrette 3 : 1; pancakes 2 : 2 : 1 : 0.5.

Remember the ratio, rebuild the recipe

Fresh pasta from 300 g of flour needs 200 g of egg — four eggs; bread from 500 g of flour needs 300 g of water, 10 g of salt and 5 g of instant yeast. With a scale, any of these is a recipe in a minute from whatever amount you have. The ratios are starting points: humid flour, small eggs or a different flour shift them a little, and the cook adjusts by feel — pasta dough should be firm and not sticky, bread dough tacky but holding its shape.

Templates to carry: stir-fry (aromatics → protein → vegetables → sauce → slurry, XV.4); braise (brown → deglaze → liquid halfway → covered, low, until tender, XVI.4); soup (sweat → stock → main ingredient → simmer → blend or not → season, XXII.4); pan sauce (fond → deglaze → reduce → butter, XXII.7); grain bowl (grain + protein + two vegetables + sauce + crunch). Taste at every step (I.7), write down what you did when it works, and the next time it is your recipe.

At the stove

Make fresh pasta from 3 parts flour to 2 parts egg by weight, without a recipe, starting from however many eggs you have.

Michael Ruhlman's Ratio (2009) set out the kitchen's ratios for home cooks; professional bakers have long worked in baker's percentages (XXIV.2), and Chinese dumpling makers by feel and 比例 — a 斤 of flour to a set amount of water for each dough (XXVI.1).

Terms

Ratio: The proportions by weight behind a preparation.
Template: The sequence of steps behind a kind of dish.
Baker's percentage: Each ingredient as a share of the flour (XXIV.2).
By feel: Adjusting a ratio by how the dough or batter behaves.

Most recipes follow a few ratios by weight — bread 5 : 3, pasta 3 : 2, pastry 3 : 2 : 1, pound cake 1 : 1 : 1 : 1, custard 2 : 1, vinaigrette 3 : 1 — and dishes follow templates. Learn them, scale from what you have, and taste.

Sources

A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.