The culinary world is full of ratios. Some are guidelines, some are pretty strict rules that if you don't follow them things aren't going to turn out. The latter is the case with baking.
What is a ratio? The definition is: "the quantitative relation between two amounts showing the number of times one value contains or is contained within the other." Everybody got that? What does that mean in layman's terms? Its how much of one thing in relation to another. In our case we're talking ingredients.
Cooking has a lot of ratios that have been decided by far more intelligent and talented people than me. As I mentioned some of them are pretty loose guidelines you can play with. One of my favorite cooking magic ratios is 3:1. This ratio is used in 3 of my favorite techniques: risotto, pilaf and vinaigrette. Risotto, at its most basic, is a dish made from arborio rice and stock. Its often finished with cream, crème fraîche (fancy French sour cream), mascarpone and/or other cheese folded in. Basically you use the 3:1 ratio of 3 parts stock to 1 part rice. The stock needs to be hot, just not boiling. Its gradually added a little bit at a time to the rice until its absorbed and the rice is tender and creamy. It's generally 3:1. However sometimes your stock isn't quite hot enough, you didn't add it gradually enough, the rice isn't hot enough, Mercury is in retrograde or some other unknown reason and you have to add more stock or it takes less stock. But generally if you stick to that ratio and do the technique correctly, you'll have something pretty amazing. Many chefs are judged by or known for their risotto. Ask Gordon Ramsay! Once you have the ratio and technique down then you can start adding the other flavoring ingredients. Here's one of Chef Ramsay's videos about making risotto.
Incidentally, rice pilaf also uses a 3:1 ratio. Though it is a different technique.
The other of my favorite 3:1 recipes is the vinaigrette. A vinaigrette is a light dressing made from oil and vinegar. While you can use a different acid instead, vinegar is the tradition. Hence the name. The ratio here is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, mixed together. But I hear you yelling at me that you can't mix oil and vinegar together. That's against science! Well, with vinaigrette there are two distinct types: temporarily emulsified and permanently emulsified. If you are just using oil, vinegar and herbs and spices, that a temporarily emulsified vinegar. A permanently emulsified vinaigrette, or just "emulsified vinaigrette", uses an egg yolk or a mustard, traditionally Dijon mustard, to hold the ingredients together. Here's another case where sometimes they just don't come together right, no matter what you do. In those cases, toss the vinaigrette and use ranch dressing! The basic way to make a vinaigrette is to pour your vinegar into a bowl, whisk in your chosen flavorings: herbs, spices, salt and pepper and then gradually drizzle in the oil, whisking constantly. And you're good to go. Toss your salad in it or marinade some meat or vegetables in it and go to town. I did mention you can use vinaigrette as a marinade right? Well, you can! It will eventually separate back into oil and vinegar. If you keep it in a dressing bottle you can just shake it up again and be good to go. But if you want to keep it emulsified, you can do that with the edition with an egg yolk or a tablespoon of mustard if you're concerned about a raw egg yolk in your dressing. The best way to get it well mixed together is using a yolk or mustard and instead of whisking use a food processor or blender to make the dressing. All you have to do is put in the vinegar, herbs, spices, aromatics and the emulsified in the blender, turn it on full blast and drizzle the oil in as its spinning.
As I mentioned there are also ratios in baking. However I wouldn't mess around too much with those or you're likely to end up with bricks instead of soft baked goods! But one example is pound cake: one pound butter, one pound sugar, one pound flour, one pound eggs. But if you know me, you know how much I love to bake (heavy sarcasm implied), so I won't be giving you a pound cake recipe.
I also won't be giving you a vinaigrette recipe. I want you to come up with one of your own. What I will be giving you is what I put in my Antipasto Pasta salad. You can do it! Think about what flavors you like and experiment.
Just remember your ratios, you never know what Gordon is watching!
