As a former scientist, I used to feel safe nestled in the comforts of a meticulously crafted protocol. 0.5 grams of agarose? On it. I’d measure down to the tenth of a gram, trusting that my precision would be rewarded with a perfectly set gel for electrophoresis. However, throughout my recent years as a chef, I have found recipes, in their traditional protocol format, can send me reaching for a takeout menu, as I often don’t have the ingredients to make what I’m craving.
An empowering perspective shift followed my reading of ‘Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking’ by Michael Ruhlman. Ruhlman invites us to understand the relationship of ingredients to each other via the concept of ratio. In a ratio, the amount of one thing is only dependent on the amount of the others - three parts fat to one part acid, makes a salad dressing for example. In a ratio-based cooking approach, we are invited to substitute ingredients, trusting that the relationship between them will land our dinner plane with finesse. We can tap into the creativity of cooking, the necessity of using what we have, and can unlock an understanding of different ingredients that play the same role.
To appreciate the concept of cooking with ratios, I invite you to imagine a pesto. You likely think of a traditional pesto, green from blanched and blended basil, slightly textured from parmesan cheese and blitzed pine nuts, and a pool of salty olive oil mixed in right before spooning the spread on crusty, torn bread. Now, imagine you want to make a pesto, but you don’t have pine nuts. Damn- the jig is up, I guess a trip to the store, or maybe an Instacart order. $7 delivery fee for orders under $25… should I just get Chinese? No! Abandon the recipe, and find solace in the ratio. You don’t have pine nuts… do you have any nuts? How about a seed? The pine nut adds texture, nutiness, and creaminess to a pesto. You can substitute it for any nut or seed that you DO have… pistachio, walnut, almond, sunflower seed, pepita seed, hemp seed, sesame seed… And maybe you’re out of basil, well, do you have kale? Spinach? Carrot tops? Radish tops? If you have anything remotely green and leafy… that’ll work. No parmesan? Reach for the pecorino. As long as you stick to the ratio of each ingredient to each other, you can plug-and-play all day. Cooking in this way is empowering and exciting, the possibilities open up, and suddenly the ingredients you have become more important than the ones you don’t. I invite you to tap into this mindset when you can- you’ll be more adept in the kitchen because of it.
