anti-recipetarianism

PieSusan

Tortes Are Us
Super Site Supporter
David Eger, a friend of Michael Ruhlman has coined a new word, "anti-recipetarianism" to describe Michael Ruhlman's latest book, "Ratio". Michael said that it is "a new movement."

Ratios use to be taught by home economists and not just to those in culinary school. They are the tools that can be used to cook and bake without recipes or to create one's own. The trick is to know technique so that you can apply the ratios or formulae that are in the book.

It is the kind of baking that my grandma and great aunts could do. A pinch of this, a glass of that and they knew by feel and sight whether what they were making was right.

It is a great book and may be a fun way to be creative in the kitchen. I have always liked the comfort of a recipe that I know will work well but if you know the ratio, you will be able to test the recipes you have to see if they are true to form.
 

FryBoy

New member
It's always seemed to me that there's a certain elitism in this approach, the idea that "I'm so good I can reinvent the wheel and get it right every time." I see no shame in following the tried and true, in benefiting from the mistakes someone else -- or I -- made in cooking experiments. As they say, those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it, and that goes for recipes, too.
 

PieSusan

Tortes Are Us
Super Site Supporter
Doug, not all recipes come out because lack of the skill of the cook. Sometimes the recipes are wrong. With the ratios, one can do a quick check to see if the recipe is written correctly and save yourself, time, effort and energy and not make a flop.

Whether or not you choose to experiment and create your own recipe is up to you.
 

FryBoy

New member
I agree with you completely, PS. What annoys me are folks who lord it over others by claiming to eschew recipes, asserting they're so great in the kitchen that they don't need them and disparaging others as "recipe followers."

Bull! People who cook without recipes, as we all do from time to time, actually have the recipe, or at least the general outline of it, memorized from experience. That's most helpful when you encounter a poorly written recipe, or one that's simply wrong, or when you want to experiment and modify a recipe.

But anti-recipetarianism? That's just nonsensical snobbery.
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
Susan, I want to thank you for this thread. I didn't read it for a while, because, I did not understand what the title meant. I am glad that I did.

The concept of "ratios" answers a lot of questions for me. Someties on the way home from work, I ask myself what I want for dinner. Sometimes I get an "idea" fo som ingredients, then my mind fill in the gaps. Often times I then stop at the grocery store. The concept may change, or it may not. Fortunately for me it is not too bad. I credit my mother with this. I hac her her saying "If you use good ingredients, you will got good food." As often as I can,if it tastes good, I try topost it. I thank my daughter for that. I hear her saying "dad, if you really like it, enjoy it to the max, you iwll never get it to taste exactly like that again.

Lots of cook with recioes. The best of us here use recipes. Conversely, lots of us change recipes. Lots of us "make up recipes". At NCT I have learned from sone outstanding cooks / cheds. my food is better for all of you. It is also true that one person can make a recipe, love it and give it to someone wo makes it and it is just not to their taste. Taste is subjective.

Doug

Personally I have not run across someone like this here;

FryBoy said:
PS. What annoys me are folks who lord it over others by claiming to eschew recipes, asserting they're so great in the kitchen that they don't need them and disparaging others as "recipe followers."

I do know this. What you said here.

FryBoy said:
But anti-recipetarianism? That's just nonsensical snobbery

Is simply rude. It is possible to disagree without demeaning. Susan did none of the things that you don't like, she just posted regarding a book. If you don't like the book, how about contacting the author?
 

VeraBlue

Head Mistress
Gold Site Supporter
It's got a name?? Cool.

I suppose if I learned some of the ratios mentioned in the book I could do cakes without recipes. Something about doing cakes without recipes freaks me out.
I don't use recipes in other cooking...but cakes...all the time. Now..I may dicker with it a bit, but I most assuredly don't have the ratios commited to memory, yet.
 

JoeV

Dough Boy
Site Supporter
I have gone to great lengths to nail down my bread recipes so that they come out the same each and every time, and I attribute my success in part to learning about bakers percentages and to weighing most of my ingredients. I must add that I did not start baking this way, but rather, I evolved to this point. I don't bake ANY loaf of bread without having my recipe book in front of me, and I could care less what the anti-recipe crowd has to say about it. Since I don't bake every day and don't do it for a living, it's more important for me to turn out a quality product, and to not miss anything, than it is to be able to boast that I have it all committed to memory. I'm 58 years old and have a touch of CRS now and then, so I accept my limitations and do what works for me.

As some of you know, I am a fly fisherman and a fly tier. This hobby is also riddled with snobs who look down their noses at anyone who cannot remember the recipe for each of the myriad flies that we tie. I have a binder of fly recipes that's even bigger than my baking recipe book.The snobs do more of a disservice to the hobby than they can imagine, all in the name of booting their own egos. My guess is that the anti-recipe crowd are also people with self-inflated egos.

People entering cooking, baking, fly fishing or any new endeavor are looking for help to be successful in the small things, and the last thing they need is an egomaniac telling them they should be learning advanced techniques before they have even learned the basics. Personally, I'm thankful for many of you here for helping me learn to crawl into smoking and barbque, and without your patience and encouragement I just may have given up before I even started. Send the anti-recipe snobs over to Happy Valley where they will be welcomed with open arms.:clap::clap:

Nuff said.
 

VeraBlue

Head Mistress
Gold Site Supporter
How big can the non-recipe using crowd be anyway??? While I may not follow other people's recipes, I still buy and read cookbooks that interest me from cover to cover.. If the non recipe using crowd were all that big, why is the cook book business so huge??
I never encountered anyone of a snobbish nature regarding the use or non use of recipes. Either you used them or you didn't. Is is possible that no snobbery was intended? Eh, it's early...not sure what my real point is other than I've never seen this kind of behaviour; at least I haven't expressed that about myself. In my case I used cookbooks and followed recipes all the time. I started back when I was 8...and not many 8 year olds have much of a clue about anything. let alone cooking. But, like anything, the more you do it, the more confident you become.

Okay...gotta go to work. I think I may have more to say on the reason some people don't use recipes..
 
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