Customer Reviews

The Breakfast Book

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This durable classic was written by one of the better known names among American cookbook authors, who apprenticed with James Beard and supervised the rewrite of the Fannie Farmer cookbook. The book endures by providing a super coverage of a neglected culinary subject. While there are dozens of books with chapters on breakfast dishes, there are only a small handful of books devoted exclusively to breakfast written in the last 20 years. This book, neatly typeset, edited, and designed by the Alfred A. Knopf crew, should grace your shelf for a long time, even if your space is limited.

This book among my favorite types of cookbooks to own, as it gives you easy access to a great number of recipes on a single subject. This is even better than books on fish or red meat or potatoes or chicken, as it covers a wide range of recipes for all flavors available to a single meal. And, Ms. Cunningham does touch all the bases. Her chapter titles are:

Yeast breads such as American White Bread.
Toasts, French Toast, and Breakfast Sandwiches.
Quick Breads such as biscuits, cornbread, scones, muffins, and fruit breads.
Cereals, hot such as oatmeal and corn, such as granola
Doughnuts and Fritters
Griddling, as in pancakes and waffles
Eggs, as in boiled, omelets, frittatas, souffles, baked, scrambled, poached, fried, and so on
Fruit Fixing, as in applesauce, poached apples, stuffed pears, fresh juices, rhubarb, pineapple, mango, etc.
Potatoes, as in oven fries, hash browns, potato pancakes, potato bacon pie, and potato custard
Meat and Fish as in steak, chipped beef, corned beef hash, bacon, ham, fresh fish, fish hash, and salt cod
Custards and Puddings, an extension of eggs or cereals, depending on how you look at them
Cookies, Pies, and Cakes as in yum, yum, cookies for breakfast
Condiments, as in jellies, jams, caramel, syrups, and salsas
Breakfast Beverages as in tea, coffee, hot chocolate ya da ya da ya da
Breakfast Menus

Some reviewers have stated that her recipes are easy. While this may be true of most topics above, it is not true of yeast breads. Even the simplest recipes, and Cunningham's are relatively simple, require a modest amount of skill and a fair amount of time, so I must say that Cunningham is more concerned with good recipes and completeness than she is with speed.

While Miss Marion covers all the bases, some are covered a lot better than others. The yeast bread chapter has only a few samples and an exceptionally picky person may feel that the book suffers by not having a brioche recipe, as this is a perfect ingredient for French Toast. I will only point this out and generally suggest that if you are serious about making bread, check out either `Baking with Julia' as an excellent general introduction to baking or Rose Levy Beranbaum's `The Bread Bible' for the straight skinny on everything bread. For the very best Southern biscuits, check out Nick Malgieri's `How to Bake'.

The coverage of eggs and toast and condiments and cakes and custards and puddings and pancakes is terrific. This represents the strongest reason to own a copy of this book, if you are especially fond of leisurely weekend breakfasts or brunches. There are dozens of recipes for things I knew people did actually eat for breakfast, but never came close to having them myself or even seeing them on restaurant menus.

As with the bread and biscuit recipes, do not believe Ms. Cunningham has absolutely covered all bases in chapters such as Meats and Beverages. She does not always cover the most common recipe for a dish. A perfect example is her creamed chipped beef recipe that includes mushrooms. A classic recipe would not include mushrooms and would include Worcestershire sauce and a little cayenne.

This aside, this book packs an enormous punch with 288 recipes for a list price of $20 and an Amazon discounted price of $14.

Very highly recommended, especially for a modest budget and a big appetite for big breakfasts.

Marion Cunningham taps into everyone's nostalgia for breakfast foods beyond cereal or scrambled eggs. The recipes are straightforward and feature a wide variety of tastes and types. Ms. Cunnigham's book reads as if she was a favorite aunt sharing her recipes.

Cunnigham also edited the new edition of Fannie Farmer's time-honored cookbook; she is a thoughtful writer and has a keen sense of how food fits into our modern lives. Her recipes are varied and you're sure to find something that you've never tried before but might want to.

A real pleasure and the 1 book you might want to have in your cookbook collection for breakfast.

PS - The recipe for Cream Biscuits (attributed to James Beard is a real winner and unbelievably simple to make.

Enjoy!

This cookbook is fabulous. I have given as gifts numerous times, and have been told by each recipient that it is the favorite cookbook! I have even bought this cookbook used to give as a gift when it was out of print for awhile! The pancakes and waffles are terrific, and the other recipes are great, lots of new and old things to try. I am a collector and I have one thing to say: Buy it! This is a must have cookbook!

This book is my new bible for everything from the best biscuits my husband has had since his mother's to baking mini bundt cakes for gifts that are moist, delicious and use ingredients I already have in my kitchen cupboards! I have yet to make a bad receipe from this book. Some of the main dishes can subsitute for a light supper! Hats Off To A Job Well Done!

I just loved the fantastic recipes. Easy as pie to follow, yet the dishes turn out restaurant quality. My husband says this is the best eating since our bed and breakfast tour of Sonoma/Napa.

This book is cetainly a must to have if you enjoy breakfast. I guarantee you that you will never buy waffle/pancake mix again once you have the experience of making your own from the Breakfast Book - simple as making your own version of maple syrup to the details of leaving eggs at room temperature when making waffle mix. You will love this book and impress your guests for sure.

I collect breakfast cookbooks (yep, there are TONS out there!) but Marion's book has become one of my absolute faves: stained, dog-eared and notated. The Dried Fruit Cream Scones are excellent as are the Shirred Eggs, but her recipe for Pulled Bread (the easiest recipe in the world!) made me a fan for life. Many recipes have variations, and chapters consist of everything from breads to meat, as well as accompaniments including spreads and beverages and pies! Many of the recipes are ways to use up leftovers and hail from times past; don't look for new-fangled fusion cooking here, as Marion has strong opinions about not "startling" anyone that early in the morning. This is comfort food, folks, tried and true.

The real value in Miss Cunningham's books is her wholesome attitude to what cooking really means to all of us. As a young mother I repeatedly checked out The Breakfast Book at our local library, searching and reading it each time. Without preaching or or belaboring the point I learned of the gentle art of serving your family and creating a family table that bound us together. My copy of this cookbook has notes, and drips, and is yellowed and stained. It falls open on the gingersnap recipe because the spine is broken in that spot. This simple cookie recipe has become full of memories for my husband, children and their friends as well. Other recipes in this little book look just as bad. It's been borrowed, copied, coloured in by a naughtly two year old [who is now a handsome young man] and is so dear to my heart that I could not bear to part with it in favor of a newer copy. It has, like the Velveteen Rabbit, become real. I would like to paint her rules of deportment on my breakfast room wall.

What a great book! I wasn't so sure when I first took a look at it--I mean, how could anyone write a cookbook just about breakfast. How many waffle recipes can one have? Well. This book is a real treat. Well worth the money if you're looking for a good solid cookbook for breakfast-type dishes.

I picked the book up at the library just because it was by Marion Cunningham even though I didn't think the book would be as good as it turned out to be. Now I'm buying a copy.

This book is cetainly a must to have if you enjoy breakfast. I guarantee you that you will never buy waffle/pancake mix again once you have the experience of making your own from the Breakfast Book - simple as making your own version of maple syrup to the details of leaving eggs at room temperature when making waffle mix. You will love this book and impress your guests for sure.