I had a hard time posting this giveaway; I wanted to keep it for myself so bad.
A few weeks ago, Ann shared some of her tips for learning to cook better. She mentioned a book she received for Christmas that was helping her to do just that: Ruhlman’s Twenty, by renowned chef and best-selling author Michael Ruhlman. (For those of you who read food-related books, Ruhlman’s best known work is The Soul of a Chef.)
Ruhlman’s Twenty is a cookbook organized around 20 essential techniques and tools every home cook should know. The chapters are short and easy to read, very informative and helpful — and the photos add to the usefulness and beauty of the book.
If I won this cookbook, I’d use it as a mini–home cooking course for myself, since I’m so inconsistent in the kitchen. Flipping through it, I found many chapters that piqued my interest: “Salt,” “Water,” “Braise,” “Poach” — and, of course, “Butter.” Even if you don’t use it as a how-to guide, the recipes alone look delicious and fun to try.
Many thanks to Adam Schwartz at Chronicle Books for sending us a copy of Ruhlman’s Twenty for this SlowMama giveaway! To enter, please leave a comment answering the following question: What one skill would make you a better cook? One entry per person, please. I’ll choose a winner on Monday. This giveaway is open to all readers in North America. Good luck!
Image: Chronicle Books
Hello, I'm Zoe Saint-Paul. I'm a writer, life coach, and new mama to twins who's trying to live "slower" in a speed-obsessed world. Here we chat about life and love, food and design, and everything in between -- all at the right pace. So grab some tea, pull up a chair, and join the conversation. Feel free to 
Understanding how ingredients (and spices, but those are ingredients, right?) work together would give me some seriously needed tools in the kitchen! I think cooking is a combo of science and art. I lack both, but the desire is there!
I wish I was a better baker!
I think just knowing how to do basic skills without asking someone or looking it up would help me tremendously! I love to cook but sometimes get frustrated by always needing a recipe.
I wish I naturally knew how to plan ahead (without missing so many of the details!).
I need help with everything, I’m a terrible cook. So I’m hoping this book would enable me to do more “cooking from scratch” instead of relying so much on convenience foods.
I wish I could substitute different ingredients/spices in, without having to look up what would be good or fitting for the recipe.
I wish I wasn’t so overwhelmed by whole raw chickens and ducks. Oh, the meals I could make if I could just get over that mental hurdle.
I am not even sure if I chop things correctly. Ha! So I am sure I could benefit from ALL 20 techniques.
I don’t know if it qualifies as a “skill” but TIME is the one thing I really need. I love to cook, but with a 40+-hour-a-week job and two high-energy kids, I just don’t have the time to create and experiment like I used to. I miss it! But really, just getting in there and doing it – and making mistakes! – is the best way learn.
P.S. I love food-related memoirs and The Soul of a Chef was a great one!
I’d be very happy to learn how to bake bread properly – as soon as a recipe calls for yeast, I’m doomed! Thanks for the contest
Cooking red meat intimidates me, so I just avoid it all together. I would like to be confident enough to occasionally make a great steak.
Ditto Ellen. If I could just have some time I could actually dedicate to cooking again – which I really haven’t had since before I was married – it would be fabulous! Now I rarely do anything more than 30 minute meals…
What a great way to put together a cook book!
I’ve never made my own pie crust, because for some reason, I have this idea that it’s not going to work.
So I can’t even say that I’ve tried and failed. How embarrassing!! I’ve tried plenty of crazy things in my kitchen, but just can’t bring myself to even try that one.
I’m such a bad cook that I don’t even know the answer to that question! HA! I think that having more time to focus (which is a time management skill?) or having the courage to try new things (which is an over all essential life skill)… I really only know how to turn the stove on (and I’ve been told that you don’t always cook on high… but yeah, I’m not sure when that would be). I think this cookbook would make my world so much brighter and my husband would be EXTREMELY grateful too!
Mastering the use of the oven for cooking smallish pieces of meat would greatly improve my kitchen consistency. I can BBQ; I can roast large things like prime rib and chickens and turkeys; I can do pretty much any method of stovetop cooking competently, but ask me to cook a pork chop in the oven and watch out. Ditto cut-up chicken, steaks, etc.
Time management is another of my issues; I’m a horrible multitasker in general, and in the kitchen this means that I have little hope of getting all my dishes to be ready at the same time (or ready and at the proper temperature at the same time).
Cooking meat! I’m always thinking “just five more minutes” and overcooking, or thinking “yikes, it’s gonna be dry” and undercooking. Sheesh.
Thanks for another fun giveaway!
I wish I had better knife skills!
I would love to be able to learn how to roast a chicken properly, and how to make delicious and healthy (mostly delicious
) stocks and broths.
I’m reading “Ratios” right now. This is awesome!
I definitely need better knife skills. I’m SO Slow. . .
Oh my lands — knife skills. I want to get better at lots of things and am doing my own sort of cooking-school-via-a-good-cookbook (“The Art of Simple Food” by Alice Waters!), but if I could just prep ingredients faster, I would be a much more efficient — and happy — cook!
I would definitely need to learn the “science” behind the ingredients. and knife skills..and spices….and everything, really!
I can’t answer this question, really, because I need SO much help in the kitchen! Thankfully I married a man who cooks, and cooks well. So I’d say the one thing I need is… this book!
Have you read “Yes, Chef” by Marcus Samuellson? I loved it.
This is an easy answer for me – knife skills would definitely make me a better cook!
Learning how to multitask… dh knows when he comes home not to speak to me until dinner’s actually on the table, because I can’t talk and cook ONE dish at a time!
Time management would be the skill, since I wish I could get things together at the right times, rather than having cold meat, an over cooked veggie, and me yelling “just give me a minute — I need to make a salad!”
i would love to learn how to braise, that is my fave way to have meat when i go out to eat
Making sauces. I’m afraid to make them. And gravies. My gravy is awful.
I wish I knew how to properly prepare the various cuts of meat WELL instead of always guessing (wrongly).
Tasting my food as I go!
Maybe that is not really a ‘skill’ but it is something I never do and really ought to start doing. I think it would help me to learn to be more intuitive in the kitchen.
Honestly, finding ways to let my 4 yr old and 19 month old help without burning themselves or destroying the kitchen would greatly improve my cooking.
I wish I were a better baker! And pie crusts and anything requiring homemade-dough intimidates me!
Sauces and marinades! Also any method for cooking chicken other than baking it in the oven! and searing. There’s a lot I don’t know! On the plus side, I’m a great baker!
I wish I knew how to prepare different cuts of meat properly.
Will you count acquiring patience a skill?
I rush by using too much heat when I cook- and all the steps in good cooking tire and overwhelm me. Possibly bc I have other distracting factors when I cook- like hungry children-
Learning how to cook fish properly! That I would love to know. Maybe then I would eat it more then once a week!
I’m pretty good in the kitchen; I just wish that I could absolutely consistently always make good rice (sounds kind of sad doesn’t it – it is).
I have always been so envious of people who whip up fresh loaves of bread daily (or even weekly)! Lord knows we go through enough of it in our house, but I am so. darned. intimidated by making bread! REAL, yeast, needing-to-rise bread. This is the one skill that would make me a better cook.
Thanks for this opportunity! The book looks amazing.
I feel like I’m CONSTANTLY looking up techniques, etc. Seems like this book would have a lot of info in one place and great ways to practice!
Creativity. Not that a book can teach it. But I get stuck in ruts and am not good at dreaming up new ideas or playing with ingredients.
I would really like to know spice pairing better.
Hmmm. My meat skills could use a bit of work — I tend to overcook meat, not to the point of inedibility or anything, but just to the point of being drier than necessary. Also, time/money/courage to experiment more in the kitchen, make mistakes and learn from them.
I’m great at following recipes, but I’m terrible at improvising. If I don’t have every ingredient I don’t know what to do. Nor do I know how to throw something together with what I’ve got in the house.
I wish I could stop improvising so much and learn to follow recipes- I’ll start off making fajitas and end up with beef stroganoff.
Being able to make all the food come together at the same time would make my dinners so much less soggy and/or cold! (I don’t know how mum managed to always have all those side dishes on Thanksgiving turn out warm and perfectly cooked when they hit our plates!!)
My desire is to improve my skill in the kitchen, mouth watering, beautifully presented, and healthy meals are my goal. I suspect there is so much for me to learn and this book would be a great start.
I could use some help in choosing and cooking meat, beef mostly. I go the the store and look at the meat in the meat counter and think, if only I knew what to choose and how to cook it.
Learning what things can be substituted for things you don’t have and still have the recipe come out well would be a big help for me.
I would love to learn how to properly poach an egg. I have tried a couple times with dismal failures as the result.
I can’t make a gravy to save anyone’s life, let alone my own, but I think it’s probably due to my lack of time management skills when it comes to kitchen events. I’m always rushing!
I need to become more proficient in my handling of meat in general. Thanks for tge opportunity. I’ve really come to rely on this blog for a staple of lovely, down to earth perspective on mothering.