Twenty

What Hacker News says

1. jfindleyJul 2022
   There's actually a huge amount to learn about cooking with eggs. I don't think this app is going to teach anyone much that's meaningful in its current state, but if you change your mind and want to really learn about the glorious complexity of cooking with eggs I'd recommend the book Ruhlman's Twenty as a great starting point.

   That book does what this app says it does (but doesn't), and teaches you why things are done the way they are. It also occasionally has a recipe.

   To the authors of the app, some suggestions. Firstly get rid of the quizzes. You don't need them. Get users to actually cook something, and then follow up with "this is what you should have got", and "if you ended up with X this is what you did wrong". Secondly this app is trying to teach all the wrong things (and getting many of them wrong too!). You should be doing things like teaching people what oil to use for what task, depending on smoke point, taste, nutrition etc rather than having opinions about how many people own a wok. Read the book I mention above - it'll give you a much better template for doing this well.

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2. DicIfTExJul 2021
   I was in the exact same position, and I can't recommend Ruhlman's Twenty enough. It goes through 20 techniques/ingredients, from ‘Water’ and ‘Onions’ to ‘Roast’ and ‘Boil’, giving you all the information you might possibly need, and then provides a handful of recipes to explore all the avenues of each. The only downside is that a lot of the recipes include meat and the book never really touches on how to make sensible substitutes, which depending on your dietary preferences might be more or less of an oversight, but I didn't find it too difficult to sub things out.

   I've not read Salt, Acid, Fire, Heat so I can't comment, but I assume it takes a similar approach.

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3. notJimJul 2021
   Seconding Ruhlman's Twenty, it's the book that really taught me how to cook. By focusing on techniques, it allows you to understand that when a recipe says "saute onions on medium-high heat", it really means to sweat them, and what that looks like. So rather than mechanically doing what the recipe says, you understand how the ingredients respond to different treatments, and how to get the results you want based on your equipment. And when watching a cooking show, you can see what the ingredients are doing and understand why, so that you can fill in the inevitable gaps.
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4. randywaterhouseJun 2021
   Wholeheartedly agree about process vs. color-by-number recipes... For those who do like to read offline, I do recommend Ruhlman's "Twenty" [0]. It is well written and illustrated and provides a lens into process via carefully selected recipes.

   [0] Full title being ``Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook's Manifesto (The Science of Cooking, Culinary Books, Chef Cookbooks, Cooking Techniques Book)``

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5. tptacekNov 2018
   I've read the book and watched the series. Both are fine.

   The series is in a weird place in between Mind of a Chef (which, in most of its seasons, is a significantly better show) and a more conventional FoodTV cooking show. I think they're trying to do too much in each episode, and also that the travel-show part of each episode works better than the cooking demos do.

   The book is better than the show. I have friends that swear by it. I like it fine! It sort of joins a pantheon of "if you're only going to own one cooking book make it this one" books, which would include Bittman's "How To Cook Anything", Ruhlman's "Twenty", the Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, and, I don't know, maybe "Joy of Cooking"?

   Of those books, I think Ruhlman's "Twenty" is by far the best. It's similar to "Salt, Fat" in the sense that it breaks cooking down by technique and concept, instead of courses or dishes. But I think it has a more coherent structure, covers more ground, and, while wasting less time on narrative, still manages to establish a conversational tone.

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6. TomteApr 2018
   I was underwhelmed by "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat". Good information, great presentation, but not up there with the very best books, IMO.

   I like Ruhlman's "Twenty", maybe followed by "Ratio".

   "How to Cook without a Book" by Anderson is great, although you probably needwhole rooms in your house for food storage if you took her "what you should have in your pantry" serious.

   My most used cookbook is the one my mother gave me and all my relatives when we were living alone for the first time. It's the book she uses at school. It's for special-needs children, so extremely basic and easy, with many, many quirky illustrations.

   But it has everything important. Bechamel? Sure. Choux pastry? Yes. But also how to cook potatoes or eggs.

   The only infuriating thing in this book is that the index is worse than useless. I know the important recipes' page numbers by heart.

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