ABOUT RATIOS

Having spent the better part of two decades converting recipes created in imperial measurement back to metric, I can tell you with great conviction that the classic recipes in this world were most likely originally developed using the metric system. Through seeing these recipes written as how I believe they were intended (using metric measurements), the logical relationship of the ingredients is unequivocal. It just makes sense to understand these elemental ratios when cooking.

 

A few years ago, I met Michael Ruhlman, the author of many smart (thoughtful and well-thought-out) books. In Ratio, Michael talks about the fact that basic doughs and sauces can be broken down into an easy-to-comprehend set of ratios. That Michael was astute enough to write a book about this subject reveals his ability to perceive universal truths in cooking (and serve them up to the public in a simple and clear fashion).

 

Over the years, I moved away from converting other people’s recipes and began writing more of my own—mainly for the staff at my English immersion school, where we serve lunch six days a week, but also for the occasional cooking students and my college-aged son. I found myself creating recipes that made sense logically in their proportions, especially vis-à-vis ratios. I wanted the recipes to be easy to multiply and easy to reproduce for a busy staff member, mother, or student, Recipes in which the ingredients have a logical relationship make the person cooking feel comfortable. Arbitrary, odd, or random ingredients undermine the integrity of recipes.

 

As I set to paper our Japanese farm food family recipes or developed my own new ones, it became clear that creating recipes taking ratios into account was eminently applicable to Japanese cooking. I found that often a recipe was better explained in ratios (e.g., 1 cup vegetables to 1½ teaspoons oil to 1½ teaspoons soy sauce)—thus allowing people to make the amount that worked for them. And wherever possible, I have included those ratios.

 

When you pick vegetables or buy at a farmers’ market, you choose what looks good. And CSA boxes are like Christmas packages—always a delightful surprise. Some days you end up with an abundance of one kind of vegetable and small amounts of other kinds. It is this element of serendipity that makes cooking from the farm so creatively stimulating. Understanding the ratio of ingredients allows you to adapt to the amount of vegetables you have without fussing about recalculating the recipe.