cooking @ home

I’ll no doubt add to this later — that is, I can easily see having a bunch of little articles on the topic of “cooking math” — but for now, there’s some simple little rules you should know about certain things. We’re talking quantities and proportions, or to put it another way: just how much of what goes with (or into) what.

Funny thing is, a lot of this stuff I’ve stumbled on over time … You can watch these cooking shows on TV and almost never be told the proportions. And hey, let’s face it. As much as one might want to, we just don’t always run back here on the web to find out the recipe of the show that was just on. That means you need a fall-back, a guideline, a rule of thumb.

Among those things that took me a long time to find out was making emulsions and vinaigrette dressings. You see this all the time on TV with the herbs and stuff put in the blender and the olive oil on top. They’ll often tell you everything else in exact amounts, but when it comes to pouring that oil it always seems they eye-ball it, turn off the blender and go “there, ain’t that good”. That was no help.

Anyways, the golden rule is roughly three parts oil to “the acid”. Ok, wait. Aren’t we talking about vinaigrettes? Yes. Then why did you just say “acid”. Don’t I mean “vinegar”? Well, it often is vinegar … but it could be one of three things, namely vinegar, citrus (lemon juice, lime juice, orange juice) or alcohol. Just remember the oil is the 3 parts, the vinegar or other is the 1 part.

Coincidentally just to prove that nothing in cooking — except for baking — is ever exact, and there’s always somebody who does something different … I saw a big-time cooking guy on televsion yesterday who said it was 1 part vinegar to 3 parts “of all of the rest of the ingredients” — not just the oil. Since he was putting mustard and honey in plus a lot of fresh herbs, that meant the oil part was indeed somewhere between 2 and 2.5 parts.

I’m adding this to my article here a few weeks after initial publication: Last night I saw an old episode of Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class with the episode featuring salads. At the end of the program he talks about the perfect vinaigrette (which contains mustard and honey) and he says 4-to-1-to-1 as in 4 parts oil to the one part vinegar and the one part mustard (though you’ll notice he left out the honey part). So that still ends up being very close to what the other guy had said, that’s still around 3 parts oil to “everything else” if you do the math. Yes, it’s presented differently; it seems to be a departure at first, but mathmatically comes out to about the same place as the rest.

So, making sauces, vinaigrettes, etc. Remember 3 (oil) to 1 is the ratio. Unless you want it otherwise. Adjust as you see fit.