The point is that recipes obscure the fundamental relationships of ingredients. I thought his explanation was clear that the essence of bread is 5:3 flour to water, and that with this simple ratio you can walk into a kitchen and make bread -- and improvise from there -- all without the need for a recipe.

He described in another post noticing new relationships between foods after reducing them to their essentials, that for instance "an angel food cake was simply meringue with flour folded in."

I hope I don't sound like I'm shilling for Ruhlman. I'm an enthusiastic follower of his blog but I have not bought, much less read this book.