I think you're simultaneously missing and proving Ruhlman's point. Take anything you know how to make; say, bread. Start subtracting out ingredients: the carmelized medium onion, the herbs, the olive oil. Get to salt, water, flour, and a little yeast; take any of these out, and it's not bread anymore.

Now take your bread "kernel" and look at the ratio between the ingredients. Go read a bunch of (reputable) bread recipes. You'll find that most reputable bread recipes will be some variation on that core ratio, just like both Linux and FreeBSD have a VFS layer and a system call table.

I'm halfway through the book (I'm a fan of Ruhlman's; "Charcuterie" sort of changed my life) and while the ability to generate recipes on the fly is a win, I agree with you that it's not revolutionary. But being able to eyeball any other recipe and see what kernel it's built on (or, if it's a crap recipe, if it's built on any sane ratio at all) is a huge win.

I bow to your judgement since you have actually read the book. I was more reacting to the "Eureka!" tone of the OP (you know, ten long years I have been toiling on this insight etc).

I am certainly intrigued to know how a book about smoking meat changed your life though!

Smoking isn't the half of it. Where before I ate duck, I now eat duck cured for 2 days with cloves, cooked sous-vide in its own rendered fat for 7 hours at 73C, and then stored for 3 weeks. Learning how sausage works, how curing works, and how preserving works is every bit as big of a deal as learning how to make a pan sauce from a fond. Can't recommend that book enough. I'm trying to source a half pig from a local farm; when I do, I'm going to work my way through the book start to finish, blogging it like the Alinea Cookbook blogger did.

Sous-vide, something else you don't want to get me started on; amazed that nobody here has picked that topic up. It's fucking amazing. I can't see how there isn't 11 billion dollars to be made with it somehow.

Ruhlman writes in today's post, "Cooks and bakers are distinctly different creatures. Cooks are the jazz musicians, bakers and pastry chefs are the classical pianists."

But certainly the importance of getting the proper ratio isn't limited to baking. Off the top of my head, mayonnaise, hollandaise, etc. are obvious examples. The "mother sauces", roux, custards, even certain stocks also come to mind. The 2:1:1 ratio for mirepoix isn't finicky but if it's mirepoix you want, you need to be in the ballpark.

I take the idea as, yes, of course there are a great many things you can cook by improvising and feeling your way. But armed with some basic, classic ratios, you can extend the same improvisational approach to riskier territory where you might otherwise want the guidance of a recipe. Whether it's successful at that I couldn't say.

People make their own mayo? I am such an underachiever...

(I can definitely make roux without measuring anything)

You should try it. :-) Homemade mayonnaise is wonderful! You'll never get that flavor from a jar.

1:1 ratios are easy like that.