Ruhlman's How to Braise: Foolproof Techniques and Recipes for the Home Cook (Ruhlman's How to..., 2)

I had wanted his Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie book for a long time, then finally got it. Several recipes are now go-tos. I got this book, How to Braise, and it sat for a long time for whatever reason. We had friends over for dinner last night and "only" had grass-fed roasts available to cook. We know a rancher and get all our beef from him. His meats are grass fed from start to finish. Sometimes the bigger cuts can be a tad dry. I looked at his Brisket Carbonara recipe and decided to try it. His recipes have detailed instructions, and are written with the soul of someone who understands the importance of food. The brisket was wonderful! The meat was fork tender and the sauce sweet and slightly bitter from the porter braise. The book is set up in such a way that it's easy to go back to while you're cooking to see the next step. These aren't trendy recipes; they're good classic recipes that teach the techniques needed to pull them off to perfection. There's a TON of recipes in that book I want to try RIGHT NOW, except we still have leftover Carbonara!

When I first heard on an Alton Brown podcast that Michael Ruhlman was working on four books, each dedicated to an individual cooking concept, I was very excited. I enjoyed "Egg" quite a bit as a dedicated topic cookbook and was curious to see how Ruhlman would handle his "How to..." series. I'm very happy with "Braise", though not quite 5-star happy. I'll go into more detail on that below...First the good:Like "Egg" and "Roast", this is a beautiful book physically. From the cover to the binding to the thick pages, this is a well constructed book. Also like those two books (and "Ruhlman's Twenty" before them), the photography by Donna Turner Ruhlman is nothing short of gorgeous. From the mouth-watering full page pictures of the finished dishes to the step-by-step instructional pictures that accompany many of the recipes, you will likely find your stomach growling as you turn the pages.Similar to the way "Ruhlman's Twenty" started each chapter with an intro, this book starts with a great primer to the concept of braising, including seasoning, searing and secrets. When the first few pages of a book have me saying "wow, that's good to know!", I take that as a very positive sign. From there Ruhlman dives into the recipes. There are 20 recipes in this book, plus a couple of sides. That may have some people questioning the value of this book -- 20 recipes for $20. That said, I could see myself trying every single one of them. Ruhlman clearly went for quality over quantity.I also love the layout of the recipes. The ingredients are laid out in the order in which you will use them. The instructions are broken into individual bulletized steps, and the action words for each step are listed in bold. All of these things may sound like common sense, but I'm continually amazed by how many cookbooks don't take into consideration that when your hands are full of ingredients and/or utensils, a recipe should be easy to follow at a glance. I consider "Modernist Cuisine at Home" the best at recipe layout I've seen, but "How to Roast" is still darn good.So what keeps me from giving "How to Braise" 5 stars? First, there is a TON of white space in this book. Margins (top, side and bottom) on every page are 1.5 inches. It kind of feels like an attempt to make the book fill up more pages (and it's still pretty thin). There's part of me that would rather see the eventual 4 "How to..." volumes put into a single $50 cookbook. I'll admit, this is a little nit-picky, given that the quality of the content more than justifies the price of this book.One thing that would DEFINITELY push me to give this 5 stars would be more pictures by Donna Ruhlman. Though many of the recipes have her step-by-step pictures, a number do not. I think it is a testament to the quality of her work that I got bummed out whenever I went a couple of pages without her pictures.Overall, "How to Braise" is a great book and one that will have you very anxious for the weekend to roll around so that you can start trying out the recipes. It also has me wondering what the next two books in the series will be. I suspect "How to Fry" will be one...

I have several of his other books, including "Ruhlman's Twenty". That book devoted about 3 pages to braising in terms of discussing the process, this book has about 12 pages. So this goes into more depth and gives some tips not found in the previous book. The remainder of the book is devoted to a variety of recipes, beautifully photographed. The recipes are a good starting point, but in this book (and his others) Ruhlman talks about how he really wants people to understand cooking and come up with their own ideas or variations, rather than slavishly following a recipe.I'm afraid that Ruhlman is sneakily duplicating something along the old Time-Life Way to Cook series and that we'll end up with a shelf-full of these single technique books! Not that it would be a bad thing, because there is something to learn from the two that he has released so far. I just hope there is a set discount!

Although Saute was my favorite, and first acquisition in the series, I enjoyed all three books. I have attempted at least half, probably more, of the recipes in all three of the volumes. They are a fun lighthearted read. I read them from cover to cover like one would read a novel. I have seen a number of Ruhlman's other works but this series is truly my favorite. I will admit it changed my approach to cooking. I should mention that I own upwards of 100 cookbooks, yes I have read them, but these three fall into my top 10 favorites. They will be on my go-to shelf from here on out.

I am a huge fan of Ruhlman, and have never had one of his recipes or procedures fail. I do a lot of cooking, and this is high praise!All of the recipes in this book look enticing, but I am especially entranced by the various vegetable braises. Cabbage, fennel, radishes, onions- they all look amazing!While the basic theory behind braising is constant, this book shows many variations of both flavoring and technique, and I am eager to try a lot of them... especially the vegetables, and the various deep-winter braises during this really long and snowed-in winter.Very recommended if you are interested in technique, or just want a lot of very solid braising recips!

Some good recipes

This book is mostly about meat, while the Stevens book is indeed "all about braising". That is the book to start with. Some of the best techniques for braising are vegetarian and vegan. This book is a good follow-up to the Stevens book because it is about getting the most out of food, and using braising as one way of doing it.The author is very good, and I recommend the book Grocery, also by Michael Ruhlman. It's a good read. Not a cookbook, but a very well done book on important changes in the grocery industry, both historic and current. It helped me to better understand how to get the most out of my local supermarkets.

haven't tried yet but looks good

Well-written descriptions of proper braising techniques and a few really great recipes and pictures as well.

Love MR's books and writing style