• Breadcrumbs on May 24, 2012

  Note: Errata as noted on M, Ruhlman's website: Ruhlman’s Twenty, Errata: Page 22: the first paragraph states that 40 grams of salt in a liter of water will result in a 1% salt solution. The correct amount should be 10 grams per liter. Page 161: the correct amount of granulated sugar is 1/2 cup, not 1-1/2 cups

• Lindsay on May 24, 2012

  Please see our blog about the correction in the Snickerdoodle recipe. In the first printing (subsequently corrected) there's 2x as much sugar as there should be.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Pan-roasted pork tenderloin with garlic, coriander, and thyme

  • Cheri on November 24, 2021

    This was simple and good. Used cumin instead of coriander, no herbs (didn’t have them). Roasted 22 min at 350, basted twice. Perfectly done. Nothing fancy, but nice weeknight preparation. Served with Allison Roman’s Frizzled green beans and mushrooms

  • SpatulaCity on December 20, 2023

    Very nice visual with the deep sear on the tenderloin and all the herby and crushed coriander bits that get dark and crispy. I didn’t take the tenderloin out an hour in advance as directed and that was a mistake - think it cooks better when the meat is a bit warmer and the salt has some time to penetrate. Loved the flavor of the coriander seeds and next time I’d like more. Good.

• Perfect roasted chicken

  • Fiona on May 04, 2013

    I've cooked a few chickens Ruhlman's way and they have turned out perfect with crisp skin and moist breast. I used to cook them at a much lower temp for much longer - never again. Because they cook so much quicker this way, I'm cooking whole chickens more often.

  • SpatulaCity on December 05, 2023

    Made for a delicious chicken! Moist turkey through and through, with thin and crispy skin. Had a 5lb bird so cooked for an additional 20 min or so. Next time I’d try to fry brine the bird a day ahead so the salt could have time to penetrate the meat. But otherwise this was a winning method!

• Scottish shortbread

  • Kfaber on January 09, 2014

    Probably the best shortbread recipe I've ever made. Used a very high quality butter which I think made a difference.

• Braised pork belly with caramel-miso glaze

  • mwasilewski on June 26, 2022

    Good without the sauce. Put the remaining lemons flattened on top which created a wonderful sauce

  • jahqdruh on May 28, 2017

    Very salty for my taste. When I dialed back on the salty ingredients by about a third, this was a winner.

  • Apepin on February 01, 2021

    Delicious. I made the glaze and liked it, but the pork would be great in many applications without that added step.

• Sautéed duck breasts with orange-cranberry gastrique

  • jayg312 on November 02, 2013

    Great sauce to go with this. The fresh cranberries break down when cooking. Need to try with the suggestions for sides. Might throw some shallots in the gastrique next time.

• Charlotte's apple jack

  • dvajefink on January 27, 2012

    Reminds me of a recipe from childhood, callled apple betty. Very good loved the nutmeg.

• Butter-poached shrimp with grits

  • bching on January 24, 2020

    Delicious. Start the grits the night before and slow cook them as suggested. I would scale down to 1 cup of grits. About 5 shrimp per serving. I used 1 cup of shrimp shell stock in the grits in place of some of the milk

  • SpatulaCity on March 23, 2023

    Delicious! Love the pure simplicity of the butter poach method! Just lavish and divine shrimp. I cooked the grits low and slow for two hours and they were great. Poured the shrimp butter into them as Ruhlman recommended. Yummmm. Even better the next day!

• Basic white wine marinade for chicken and fish

  • SenseiHeidi on May 16, 2022

    Don't bother. Not very flavorful.

• Spicy beef with bell peppers

  • Frogcake on May 01, 2016

    This will be in my dinner rotation by popular demand! Very tasty stir fry indeed, which my kids happily eat for lunch cold (as suggested by the author). The combination of flavours is complex. Five red peppers roasted was sufficiently hot for my family. Next time will try with chicken.

  • jahqdruh on May 28, 2017

    Surprisingly good. I smelled the sauce for the stir fry and just knew it was going to be horrible. I figured anything that smelled like my brother's dirty socks couldn't possibly be good. I was wrong.

• Banana-blueberry bread

  • SpatulaCity on September 21, 2023

    Sadly this didn’t work for us. There isn’t enough banana flavor - it’s barely discernible. Also the sugar was reduced to compensate for the banana, but I think it was taken down too much. It did achieve a blueberry muffin texture though!

• Brussels sprouts sautéed in spicy bacon fat

  • SpatulaCity on March 23, 2023

    Fine, but I prefer roasted Brussels sprouts for simplicity.

• Spicy roasted green beans with cumin

  • SpatulaCity on March 23, 2023

    Good, but the cumin seeds fall off too easily. Might work better with the seeds ground up a bit?

• Weekday coq au vin

  • SpatulaCity on March 08, 2023

    First time making coq au vin and I thought it was lovely. Very easy to assemble and cook through the steps and yielded a deeply flavorful sauce and perfectly cooked chicken. Served over egg noodles. Now I have to go make a classic version to see how it compares!

  • angrygreycat on September 27, 2022

    Made this for dinner tonight. It was fine but I have made much better coq au vin. It was also not particularly quick for something named a weekday meal. cooking time alone was an hour.

• Mac and cheese with Soubise

  • SpatulaCity on March 05, 2023

    Absolutely delicious. Gotta love a recipe that calls for more cheese than noodles! Used gruyere and sharp cheddar for the cheese mix. The sherry and white wine vinegar make for a nice and subtly sweet contrast to the onion. I needed more milk to make the sauce, and added more nutmeg and fish sauce to match my taste preference. The sauce pretty much baked into the noodles in the oven so it’s not like your traditional, creamy, saucy Mac. For broiling I put the pan far from the broiler, and even with that distance it only needed 10 min to get deeply brown and crunchy. My husband who is so annoyed with my love for mac and cheese made it clear he wouldn’t be having any… but took a taste…. Proceeded to eat half the pan!

• Sage-garlic-brined pork chops

  • SpatulaCity on March 09, 2023

    Pan fried and served with the lemon caper sauce as suggested. Husband loved it! I overcooked it but it had enough rich yummy flavor to make it tasty

• Deviled eggs with blue cheese and bacon

  • SpatulaCity on November 24, 2023

    A big hit as a party app! I added the entire amount of crumbled bacon and chive to the filling, and garnished with a small slice of a cherry tomato and long snippets of chives. Turned it into a play on Wedge salad. This will be a go-to from now on! Delicious!

• Marlene's Yorkshire pudding

  • angrygreycat on January 25, 2019

    I made this tonight to go with some bangers, mash and brussels. Excellent yorkies that rise quite high and have the lovely crispy texture outside and pudding-y inside.

• Deviled eggs

  • katryna on January 31, 2024

    The recommended egg boiling method of putting the eggs in the water at the beginning and then removing the pot from the heat once it boils and letting it sit for 15 minutes worked. I didn’t have the patience to try to pipe the filling in to make more attractive eggs since we were just eating these at home. The shallots gave the deviled eggs a little bit of crunch which I liked. Went with paprika for the garnish.

• Raw zucchini salad

  • jimandtammyfaye on April 02, 2022

    A frequent repeat. Fresh, lemony, easy and a great side for most anything. Don't be afraid to use salt as stated. It works magic!

• Panfried pork chops with lemon-caper sauce

  • nutrica6 on October 02, 2023

    This is one of my favorite pork chops recipes. Note that you only need 1/2 cup of flour for dredging. 1 cup is wasteful, and you end up throwing a lot of it away. I only needed about 1 cup of Panko as well. Keep the burner on medium at the highest so as not to burn the breading while waiting for the interior to cook.

• Kate Cooks the Books

  If you are willing to accept his premise and fly without the net of a recipe for a while, you will get a lot out of this book. ...a good cookbook for a beginning cook...

  Full review

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  No one could accuse Ruhlman of being an ascetic. Neither is he an innovator...But that’s exactly its charm. If "Ratio’" appealed to the food geek, "Twenty’" appeals to the perfectionist.

  Full review

• Oregonian

  Ruhlman's an excellent teacher, and his explanations of each concept are easy for nonprofessionals to understand; step-by-step photos show how to master techniques like chopping onions...

  Full review

• Lisa Is Cooking

  ...it's written in such a straightforward, accessible style, it's a pleasure to read. This is no dry, kitchen science textbook.

  Full review

• Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

  ...if what you're holding out for is a greater understanding of how cooking works - and why some techniques are superior - one title stands out on those crowded shelves.

  Full review

• Chicago Tribune

  ...a thick but accessible tome aimed at taking your cooking game to the next level - no matter where you start.

  Full review

• Los Angeles Times

  ..I can see culinary acolytes, those hardy souls dreaming of one day cooking their way through "The Complete Robuchon," taking this to bed at night to read and reread, each time getting a little more.

  Full review

• Globe & Mail (Toronto)

  It's hard not to love Twenty, and even harder not to love Mr. Ruhlman's refreshing perspective on what a cookbook can be.

  Full review