This book is full of scrumptious recipes sure to please your entire family. Step-by-step instructions and helpful preparation tips from the classroom of the CIA, along with 100 full-color photographs.
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155 of 167 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good selection of recipes, but not authoritative on technique
October 7, 2005
Amazon Verified Purchase
`Breakfasts & Brunches' is another book of cooking recipes and advice for the amateur / home cook prepared by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). Like those before it on `Cooking at Home', `Book of Soups', and `Gourmet Meals in Minutes', but unlike their more professional volumes such as `Baking and Pastry', this volume is very good for the home cook, but it has a few lapses here and there which make it less than perfect as a manual for teaching the very best cooking technique.
The first thing which surprises me about the book is the subtitle which proclaims that the volume contains `Over 175 New Recipes...'. If I am to buy just one book on cooking breakfast dishes, I don't want novelty; I want the very best standard recipes and techniques. On looking at the specific recipes, I find that there is novelty, but the book does cover the expected bases of breakfast cookery. I can only find one breakfast dish missing, and this is scrapple, which is pretty specialized to the Pennsylvania Dutch / Southeastern Pennsylvania / Greater Philadelphia area.
The primary chapters are:
Breakfast & Brunch Mise en Place - I find this chapter just a bit unnecessary or incomplete. It is unnecessary in that much of its contents are repeated in more detail in later chapters on various dishes. It is incomplete in that it gives pantry shelf-lives of a large variety of foodstuffs, but in a narrative form. It would have been much better to focus this chapter on neat, tabular information, and leave all the narrative to the detailed recipes. I also think the term `mise en place' is misused here. `Pantry Stocking' would have been a better name.
Breakfast & Brunch Drinks - Very nice collection of recipes and advice on making coffee, tea, chai, eggnog, cocktails and smoothies.
Muffins, Quick Breads & Coffee Cakes - Six muffin recipes, eight breakfast cake recipes, eight quickbreads (biscuits, scones, soda bread), plus funnel cake, lemon curd, and cornbread.
Sweet and Savory Breads & Pastries - The sticky stuff and recipes with yeast. A very nice variety of recipes which tend to be more complicated than the quickbreads, and the authors tell you when the recipe may be difficult.
Pancakes, Waffles, & Crepes. Of course, you expect this chapter. It includes several different flavors of pancakes; including blinis and many different fruit fillings for crepes. I am surprised that there is but one recipe for French toast, as this is a dish with many variations. I'm also surprised there is not more exposition on tips for making waffles.
Eggs. Another obvious category with all the usual suspects, such as fried eggs, scrambled eggs, egg and sausage sandwiches, omelets, frittatas, poached eggs, quiches, egg salads, and soft boiled eggs.
Grains & Legumes. Grits, polenta, and cold cereals, oh my! The usual characters include oatmeal, cream of wheat, kasha, rice, couscous, muesli, granola, bean salads and spreads.
Meats, Fish & Potatoes. This may seem like an odd combination with potatoes in the same chapter as meats, but both types of dishes often play second banana to the eggs, pancakes, and cereals. Ham, sausage, and breakfast steaks are here, with several chicken dishes, hash browns, O'Brien Potatoes, Potato pancakes, Lyonnaise Potatoes, Rosti potatoes, and corned beef hash.
Soups, Salads, & Small Bites. These items are more appropriate for brunch than for breakfast, especially as they are mostly cold soups and salads, plus `tea sandwiches' great for brunch buffets.
The appeal of this book depends a lot on how big your cookbook library is now. If you are just starting out, filling your shelves exclusively with CIA books would not be a bad idea, just as you could accomplish the same result by concentrating exclusively on `Martha Stewart Living', `Cooks Illustrated', or `Better Homes and Gardens' books. And, a CIA collection is likely to be more focused than what you get from magazine collections.
On the other hand, if you already have one or more `comprehensive' cookbooks such as the `Joy of Cooking' or `James Beard's American Cookery', and you are not into collecting cookbooks, this volume may be less useful. This is certainly less valuable if you have a breakfast cookbook such as Marian Cunningham's `The Breakfast Book' or `Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Café' or even a good bread or biscuit book such as James Villas' `Biscuit Bliss'.
I would recommend this book even if you already owned all these titles IF this book were more highly focused on breakfast dishes, with more variety within egg and cereal dishes and less attention to soups, sandwiches, and drinks. I also found some odd lapses in this book. The most unusual is their treatment of scrambled eggs and omelets. To a person, every authority I read on the subject says these are two different dishes, yet this book from an authoritative source simply says that an omelet is scrambled eggs left to solidify in a circle rather than smushed up into mounds of eggy goodness. I also find sections on several other central recipes such as granola and French toast to be much too simple. Nothing is said about the details of how long one should soak the bread in the batter for French toast. Nothing is also said about baking your granola mix. On the other hand, the biscuit recipe is half again more complicated than you need for simple buttermilk biscuits. My favorite Nick Malgieri biscuit can be done in half the time.
This is a good book which has lots of useful recipes, but you may not need it unless you happen to do a lot of breakfast and brunch entertaining, and don't have a good source for basic recipes. Contrary to the CIA source, it is NOT an authoritative text on how to do important breakfast dishes.
The first thing which surprises me about the book is the subtitle which proclaims that the volume contains `Over 175 New Recipes...'. If I am to buy just one book on cooking breakfast dishes, I don't want novelty; I want the very best standard recipes and techniques. On looking at the specific recipes, I find that there is novelty, but the book does cover the expected bases of breakfast cookery. I can only find one breakfast dish missing, and this is scrapple, which is pretty specialized to the Pennsylvania Dutch / Southeastern Pennsylvania / Greater Philadelphia area.
The primary chapters are:
Breakfast & Brunch Mise en Place - I find this chapter just a bit unnecessary or incomplete. It is unnecessary in that much of its contents are repeated in more detail in later chapters on various dishes. It is incomplete in that it gives pantry shelf-lives of a large variety of foodstuffs, but in a narrative form. It would have been much better to focus this chapter on neat, tabular information, and leave all the narrative to the detailed recipes. I also think the term `mise en place' is misused here. `Pantry Stocking' would have been a better name.
Breakfast & Brunch Drinks - Very nice collection of recipes and advice on making coffee, tea, chai, eggnog, cocktails and smoothies.
Muffins, Quick Breads & Coffee Cakes - Six muffin recipes, eight breakfast cake recipes, eight quickbreads (biscuits, scones, soda bread), plus funnel cake, lemon curd, and cornbread.
Sweet and Savory Breads & Pastries - The sticky stuff and recipes with yeast. A very nice variety of recipes which tend to be more complicated than the quickbreads, and the authors tell you when the recipe may be difficult.
Pancakes, Waffles, & Crepes. Of course, you expect this chapter. It includes several different flavors of pancakes; including blinis and many different fruit fillings for crepes. I am surprised that there is but one recipe for French toast, as this is a dish with many variations. I'm also surprised there is not more exposition on tips for making waffles.
Eggs. Another obvious category with all the usual suspects, such as fried eggs, scrambled eggs, egg and sausage sandwiches, omelets, frittatas, poached eggs, quiches, egg salads, and soft boiled eggs.
Grains & Legumes. Grits, polenta, and cold cereals, oh my! The usual characters include oatmeal, cream of wheat, kasha, rice, couscous, muesli, granola, bean salads and spreads.
Meats, Fish & Potatoes. This may seem like an odd combination with potatoes in the same chapter as meats, but both types of dishes often play second banana to the eggs, pancakes, and cereals. Ham, sausage, and breakfast steaks are here, with several chicken dishes, hash browns, O'Brien Potatoes, Potato pancakes, Lyonnaise Potatoes, Rosti potatoes, and corned beef hash.
Soups, Salads, & Small Bites. These items are more appropriate for brunch than for breakfast, especially as they are mostly cold soups and salads, plus `tea sandwiches' great for brunch buffets.
The appeal of this book depends a lot on how big your cookbook library is now. If you are just starting out, filling your shelves exclusively with CIA books would not be a bad idea, just as you could accomplish the same result by concentrating exclusively on `Martha Stewart Living', `Cooks Illustrated', or `Better Homes and Gardens' books. And, a CIA collection is likely to be more focused than what you get from magazine collections.
On the other hand, if you already have one or more `comprehensive' cookbooks such as the `Joy of Cooking' or `James Beard's American Cookery', and you are not into collecting cookbooks, this volume may be less useful. This is certainly less valuable if you have a breakfast cookbook such as Marian Cunningham's `The Breakfast Book' or `Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Café' or even a good bread or biscuit book such as James Villas' `Biscuit Bliss'.
I would recommend this book even if you already owned all these titles IF this book were more highly focused on breakfast dishes, with more variety within egg and cereal dishes and less attention to soups, sandwiches, and drinks. I also found some odd lapses in this book. The most unusual is their treatment of scrambled eggs and omelets. To a person, every authority I read on the subject says these are two different dishes, yet this book from an authoritative source simply says that an omelet is scrambled eggs left to solidify in a circle rather than smushed up into mounds of eggy goodness. I also find sections on several other central recipes such as granola and French toast to be much too simple. Nothing is said about the details of how long one should soak the bread in the batter for French toast. Nothing is also said about baking your granola mix. On the other hand, the biscuit recipe is half again more complicated than you need for simple buttermilk biscuits. My favorite Nick Malgieri biscuit can be done in half the time.
This is a good book which has lots of useful recipes, but you may not need it unless you happen to do a lot of breakfast and brunch entertaining, and don't have a good source for basic recipes. Contrary to the CIA source, it is NOT an authoritative text on how to do important breakfast dishes.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By Pat Rathbun
I have plenty of cookbooks, but this was my main standby in the first year of our bed and breakfast. The sausage gravy, waffles and granola never fail to please our guests. And none of the recipes are too complicated to make in a hurry in the morning. I wish the book were totally focused on breakfast, because we don't serve brunch. But if we did, this book would be perfect and cover all the angles.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The beautiful pictures in the book sometimes do not coincide with the recipes. The sticky buns have pecans on top, but in the recipe the pecans are only in the center. Make sure you use at least a 12" skillet for the 16 egg frittata, the book only says large and the picture is deceiving. Have extra grated cheese (actually grate don't use a microplane) on hand for the gougeres and the paillettes. The book is really wonderful as a gift for a friend or for yourself.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you CIA
This book, as the many CIA books I have come to love and cherish, make me feel as though I was back again in school. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Avid Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars
Different Cover, Same Book?
I opened the package and wondered if I have gotten the right book, or even wondering if I had ordered this book at all... Read more
Published on January 30, 2011 by Martina
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent breakfast recipes
This is a great book for making wonderful, and delicious breakfast. This book includes all types of breakfast recipes. Read more
Published on June 26, 2010 by Ieasha Akins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Cookbook
I bought this for my sister for her birthday. I also own this, just a version that was published a different year. Read more
Published on June 14, 2010 by leneemsw
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gift for My Son
My son was looking to purchase a restaurant and wanted some cookbooks. We started him off with breakfast cookbooks and he loves it. Read more
Published on April 29, 2010 by Sonrda DiBruno
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scones To Die For...
I bought this book because the chef at Brewery Gulch Inn/ Mendocino had made the Ham & cheddar cheese scones for breakfast during our stay. Read more
Published on March 16, 2010 by C. Hill-Calvert
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
Delicious, reliable recipes. You can pretty much trust CIA to put out a great cookbook. The recipes are easy-hard, depending on your food knowledge.
Published on August 15, 2008 by V. Evans
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very nice book
I saw this book for sale at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. My sister really wanted to buy it, but I told her I could find it cheaper on Amazon. Read more
Published on May 11, 2008 by Sue H. Kalis
5.0 out of 5 stars
TRIED AND TRUE
Great book for breakfast and brunch dishes with great recipes (try the dutch pancake with spiced peaches).
Published on January 6, 2008 by tradess2006
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it!
At this point I've just looked through the book, enjoyed the beautiful pictures and read the recipes. Read more
Published on April 11, 2007 by Chris Parker
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