At last, we've put together this basic video demonstration of Ratio: The Smart Phone Application (built by Will Turnage, designed by Leah McCombe) so that people can see what it does and how it works. I love the application because it's truly useful. If I'm making hamburgers or meatloaf, it will give me the amount of seasoning I need depending on how much meat I have. If I only want a few cookies, not two dozen, it will create the recipe for me. If I find I only have one egg, but still want to make a blueberry muffin, it calculates the amount based on one egg. If I want to whip up a last minute caramel sauce it tells me how. If I want to know even the basic proportions of a stock, it's there for me. It's also a great ounces-to-grams converter.
This application will be of special value to anyone who works in a kitchen and to any and all culinary students. And you chefs, authors, and bloggers who develop your own recipes, this application provides the trunk from which a thousand variations branch off. I hope you'll have a look!
This is version 1.0.1, with all bugs taken care of. Will and Leah are working on the Droid version now!
Here are some comments and reviews about the application:
Russ Parsons, in the LATimes Blog: "Michael Ruhlman wrote a really good book earlier this year called Ratio. Now he's gone out and turned it into an even better iPhone application. ... And though [his] approach may seem a little mechanistic in a cookbook (what if you happen to want a cookie with a different texture than the one chosen?), it's sheer genius in an app, where the expectations are different. Think of 'Ratio, the App' as a combination culinary pocket calculator and aide-memoir."
Chicagoist: "This application is so good it almost makes us regret buying the book first. ... At $4.99, it's a steal."
From the Village Voice Blog: "While Ruhlman's app enters an already crowded market for cooking-related iPhone applications, with its gee-whiz calculations, it has the potential to be one of the most useful. The home cooking world may finally have its own version of Turing Bombe, complete with pretty colors and custard icons."
Click here to see go to its iTunes page. All comments and criticisms welcome.
Would be rediculously excited if there was a version for my windows mobile device... almost tempted to buy an iTouch so I could get this... but I suppose that's a little over the top.
Buy the iTouch. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
I've been wondering why I can't just buy a Ratio poster to hang in my kitchen.
you can! 11x14, $20. Send me an email if you'd like!
I'll buy the Android version when it comes out just to support the blog. Thanks, Michael.
If I do that, can you give me back full articles in the RSS feed? 🙁
This is great, though of course the video will not actually play on an iPhone since it is Flash...
Actually, it will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKlFEB2z1Lk&feature=youtube_gdata
I have a review of the Ratio app coming up in the next week or so. I want MORE! More international foods; more ratios, sourdough, for instance; more customization; just MORE! I do love this app and it's one of the few I use in the kitchen, leading me to wonder if it's time I sous vide my iPhone.
HOORAY! The RSS feed is almost working the way it once did! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Please make this for WebOS palm also......
I second the vote for a WebOS version.
Make ratio for Android also!
Bought it virtually within seconds of seeing this blog post. Can't wait to take it out for a test drive! Thank you!
android please 🙂
michael, of course i got the app first day - but i just want you to know how fantastic i think it is. you, along with pollan and salatin (and others) are leading a noble movement. you are making a difference.
hats off to you.
adding my voice to the android clamor.
Looks great - will there be a WebOS version?
Would love to see this for the iTouch or Blackberry. I would buy it if it worked on one of my devices.
Add another vote for android!
PLEASE!
Yet another Android vote.
I've had an iPhone for almost 2 years and have never paid for an app...until now. Great video and I can't wait to use the app!
Excellent! And yes, please let us know when the Android version is available!
Android!!
Wooo!!!
I'm still a Luddite when it comes to mobile devices, but this is definitely a cool app. I love the book because it makes scaling down for 1-2 people very easy. My high-tech purchase was a digital kitchen scale so I could use the ratios (and also to try out some of the recipes in Under Pressure).
A note about the reviews: it seems that Russ Parsons didn't actually read Ratios, or he would have realized that there were several cookie ratios depending on the texture/style you're going for.
This is such an awesome idea, I hope a version for the Blackberry comes out.
Michael,
Great - please, please, please create an app for the blackberry. I have the book already and love it.
Jeff
I'm adding a vote for Android too!
Brilliant! One of the better iPhone food apps. User-friendly interface and nice customization features...plus the ability to post to social media sites makes this a winner.
I'm another who doesn't usually pay for apps but I'll definitely buy the android version when it comes out. I love ratios, my wife wanted chocolate souffle the other night and thanks to Ratio I knew exactly what to do with the leftover egg yolks, we had a nice vanilla custard sauce to pour over the souffles
Looks great and I'm going to buy it.
New Feature Request: Boy would I love a simple guide to the recommended internal temperatures of meat, fish, poultry. Would be a great little "cheat sheet" addition to the app. Not sure it fits within the "Ratio" app, but a little "cheat sheet" section would be wonderful.
am sold! but android version please! michael - not all recipes take well to being down-sized, can you advise on which ones do and which ones would likely not be the same when down-sized?
Michael,
Excellent demo. I work in the software industry (in marketing) and we do demos all the time. A good one is clear, succinct and leads to a compelling event. So I'm sure your sales will increase as a result. I have purchased Ratio and must say it is one of the best apps on my iPhone. What a great tool. Thanks!
I think I need an i-phone just for this ap, it sounds great and I love the book!
RIM are you reading this? Tell me apple did not buy the sole rights to this app...This video has been the best two or three minutes I had on the internet this week.
Please Blackberry don't sit on your ass and let this go by
is a Droid Version for blackbery? i don't know what a 'droid version' means?
This is the only app that has ever seriously tempted me to buy an iTouch. I'm trying to reason with myself but I think I'm losing the battle.
The app doesn't work on the iTouch (at least not when I tried to install it a couple months ago). You'll get a message saying it only runs on the iPhone software.
Michael - GREAT demo video. Simple, clear, to the point! You sell the benefits via your person use of the app rather than just the features. Successful direct response selling 101. Happiness, efficiency, family and all in your kitchen. Wonderful. Best of luck with many more app sales. All you need now is the "envy" related to not having the app. Cheers - Bill
Michael would it be too much to ask for you to port that cellphone application to a simple Excel worksheet...??? Not that this crowd..is into Excel... but I don't have a high power cell phone right now...
I ask because maybe... you can push a switch or something and make it happen...and hey if I am interested in that... maybe others are..Too!
And I am being lazy in here.. just too many things going on..anymore... but I could do it myself if I had the time bro..... I mean I already do the math to use ratio methods any way.. Goodspeed
You could even get it into highschools if it was on e x c e l.... and while you are at it you weigh in on it.... about o b e s o g e n s...and the organic life style.. like Stone Farms and the like.... just a thought...
I bought the app a couple of months back, and I love it maybe more than the book... because it is always with me. My friends and family are always shocked when I know how to do something fancy when I am at their houses (they just think I'm playing with the phone, Bwah-hah-ha), and for that reason alone it was worth it.
Regards,
Kevin
Very, very cool app and very, very useful. Loved the video and the "there's a ratio for that" - priceless!!!
Bought it...love it. Your good demo convinced me.
In the Stocks and Thickeners section of the app, Beurre Manie is misspelled (Buerre). Great app though!
Ruhls,
This is absolutely astounding.
I do not have an iphone and if I did, I would not have time to answer it.
However,
I am reading "The Reach of a Chef" right now (in fact, devouring it) and what you have done here has exceeded everything I think the Food Network and Vegas set out to do.
I think the Food Network, unless re-thought, will be regarded in history the same way CNBC is for Stock advice. That, would be bad.
Vegas - it is what it is.
This, my friend, is one for the history books.
You actually have come up with something useful that ALL cooks can use. and with great results.
Congratulations!!!!!!
I am so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm adding my plea for a version for Windows Mobile phones.
Hello Michael
I haven't wanted and searched for something like this for a long time. Was eager to get started with it and just finished the download to my ipod touch. I think I will buy the book as well. It will be so helpful in the development of recipes. It will be especially helpful when trying to recreate my mother's recipes, especially when she says add as much flour as you think the amount of eggs you use will take. I have hopes to get all her recipes in recipe form so that we can create a family cookbook for all to share.
Thank you!!
oops, looks like I am having a problem spelling today or I was just so excited about the app, meant to say " I have wanted and have searched ".
Casting another vote for Android please!
This video is excellent--so helpful. You did a wonderful job.
I love this thing.. don't have an I phone... Woul love to buy the program if it runs on a pc. It would be fun to play with it. Maybe others might too... In fact Michael you could do the cd with the new book thing. You know, include a cd of this application with your new edition of tha book "RATIO".
That would give me an excuse to give my book away and buy the new book/CD combo.
Another vote for WebOS! This would be great!
I would prefer the app made for blackberry, but I'm willing to get a 'Droid, just for this app, and I'm also in the 'haven't paid for an app' group.