From Scratch: 10 Meals, 175 Recipes, and Dozens of Techniques You Will Use Over and Over

by Michael Ruhlman

Overview

An indispensable cookbook from James Beard Award–winning food writer Michael Ruhlman.

From Scratch looks at 10 favorite meals, including roast chicken, the perfect omelet, and paella—and then, through 175 recipes, explores myriad alternate pathways that the kitchen invites. A delicious lasagna can be ready in about an hour, or you could turn it into a project: Try making and adding some homemade sausage. Explore the limits of from-scratch cooking: Make your own pasta, grow your own tomatoes, and make your own homemade mozzarella and ricotta. Ruhlman tells you how.

There are easy and more complex versions for most dishes, vegetarian options, side dishes, sub-dishes, and strategies for leftovers. Ruhlman reflects on the ways that cooking from scratch brings people together, how it can calm the nerves and focus the mind, and how it nourishes us, body and soul.

Featured recipes include:

• New England Clam Chowder
• Classic Mushroom Ristotto
• Cassoulet from Scratch
• Steak au Poivre
• Slow-roasted Pork Shoulder
• Tarte Tatin
• Homemade Churros

“I love this book! Michael Ruhlman is a genius cook and teacher. I love his voice, his recipes, his tips, and the way he makes great cooking totally accessible. Through the recipes for 10 classic meals, he covers how to cook almost anything. From Scratch inspires me to be a better cook and I know you’ll feel the same way I do!” —Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa cookbooks & television

Includes color photographs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419732775
Publisher:	Abrams
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	652,905
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Michael Ruhlman is the author of critically acclaimed books including Grocery, The Soul of a Chef, The Elements of Cooking, Ratio, and Ruhlman’s Twenty. He has collaborated on several bestselling cookbooks, including The French Laundry Cookbook, Bouchon, and Alinea. He divides his time between Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City.

Editorial Reviews

I love this book!! Michael Ruhlman is a genius cook and teacher. I love his voice, his recipes, his tips, and the way he makes great cooking totally accessible. Through the recipes for 10 classic meals, he covers how to cook almost anything. From Scratch inspires me to be a better cook and I know you’ll feel the same way I do!

Barefoot Contessa cookbooks & television - Ina Garten

One of the greatest pleasures of cooking with Michael Ruhlman’s new book, From Scratch, is the ease with which it fits into your life. Ruhlman covers only ten meals, but he explores each one from several angles, starting with the simplest methods possible all the way to the most complex, showing readers that there are no straight lines (or absolutes) when it comes to cooking, only finding the way that is most enjoyable to you. Call it an anti–instruction manual if you will; his purpose is not to tell you how a certain dish must be created—whether it’s lasagna or bread pudding—but rather to give you the tools and options to do it however you want. There is no benchmark to meet and no intimidation (but there is a meditation on potatoes); he’s like a good friend joining you in the kitchen, and this book will certainly become the home cook’s trusted companion.

Chef/Proprietor, The French Laundry - Thomas Keller

Like a master chef clarifying a murky stock into a crystal-clear consommé, Ruhlman detangles the complex web of technique, myth, and folklore that is cooking. With From Scratch, he embeds lessons in the context of things you really want to eat, and he shows how understanding one recipe really well can open the door to dozens of others. The lessons are set up in such a way that you can decide exactly how deep a dive you want to take, though with a guide like Ruhlman at your side, that’s most likely a mouth-first leap straight into the deep end.

author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science - J. Kenji López-Alt

I love this book!! Michael Ruhlman is a genius cook and teacher. I love his voice, his recipes, his tips, and the way he makes great cooking totally accessible. Through the recipes for 10 classic meals, he covers how to cook almost anything. From Scratch inspires me to be a better cook and I know you’ll feel the same way I do!”—Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa cookbooks & television

“Like a master chef clarifying a murky stock into a crystal-clear consommé, Ruhlman detangles the complex web of technique, myth, and folklore that is cooking. With From Scratch, he embeds lessons in the context of things you really want to eat, and he shows how understanding one recipe really well can open the door to dozens of others. The lessons are set up in such a way that you can decide exactly how deep a dive you want to take, though with a guide like Ruhlman at your side, that’s most likely a mouth-first leap straight into the deep end.”—J. Kenji López-Alt, author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

“One of the greatest pleasures of cooking with Michael Ruhlman’s new book, From Scratch, is the ease with which it fits into your life. Ruhlman covers only ten meals, but he explores each one from several angles, starting with the simplest methods possible all the way to the most complex, showing readers that there are no straight lines (or absolutes) when it comes to cooking, only finding the way that is most enjoyable to you. Call it an anti–instruction manual if you will; his purpose is not to tell you how a certain dish must be created—whether it’s lasagna or bread pudding—but rather to give you the tools and options to do it however you want. There is no benchmark to meet and no intimidation (but there is a meditation on potatoes); he’s like a good friend joining you in the kitchen, and this book will certainly become the home cook’s trusted companion.” —Thomas Keller, Chef/Proprietor, The French Laundry

From the Publisher

Like a master chef clarifying a murky stock into a crystal-clear consommé, Ruhlman detangles the complex web of technique, myth, and folklore that is cooking. With From Scratch, he embeds lessons in the context of things you really want to eat, and he shows how understanding one recipe really well can open the door to dozens of others. The lessons are set up in such a way that you can decide exactly how deep a dive you want to take, though with a guide like Ruhlman at your side, that’s most likely a mouth-first leap straight into the deep end.

author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science - J. Kenji López-Alt

Author and narrator Michael Ruhlman gives both new and seasoned cooks an in-depth look at 10 classic dishes and how to achieve them "from scratch." This audiobook is filled with stories from Ruhlman's life as it relates to these meals, all of which he recounts with appropriate emotions. He delivers the instructions to his dishes and how to alter them clearly, and the included PDF of all the recipes makes them easy to use when needed. As narrator, Ruhlman sounds professional yet relatable. At first his pacing sounds choppy; then it slowly evens out, becoming conversational. The quirks that may or may not become distracting are his audible swallows and occasional dry mouth. An interview between the producer, Ruhlman, and his wife at the end is a nice surprise. S.K.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile

Author and narrator Michael Ruhlman gives both new and seasoned cooks an in-depth look at 10 classic dishes and how to achieve them "from scratch." This audiobook is filled with stories from Ruhlman's life as it relates to these meals, all of which he recounts with appropriate emotions. He delivers the instructions to his dishes and how to alter them clearly, and the included PDF of all the recipes makes them easy to use when needed. As narrator, Ruhlman sounds professional yet relatable. At first his pacing sounds choppy; then it slowly evens out, becoming conversational. The quirks that may or may not become distracting are his audible swallows and occasional dry mouth. An interview between the producer, Ruhlman, and his wife at the end is a nice surprise. S.K.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile