# Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/ratio/

2 people recommended Ratio by Michael Ruhlman in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 2 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

1 of the 2 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “You Need a Kitchen Slide Rule”.

**Verdict:** Recommended for teaching the underlying mechanics of cooking as simple ratios rather than individual recipes.

Summary written by Claude from 2 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Memorize ratios instead of recipes (1 comment in the sample): "I like the concept of memorizing ratios rather than recipes (thanks to the popular eponymous book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46627645))

## Other cookbooks people recommend

- [The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/food-lab/): 7 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold](https://hackerapproved.com/p/modernist-cuisine/): 3 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee](https://hackerapproved.com/p/on-food-and-cooking/): 3 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [The Sourdough Framework by Hendricius Ruppel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sourdough-framework/): 3 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ratio by Michael Ruhlman", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ratio/ (2 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.