Books I Like: Breakfast

Breakfast: The Most Important Book About the Best Meal of the Day

My takeaway from this book...

Do you ever wonder why we eat eggs for breakfast?.......The question is best tackled in two parts, and the first is easy........As the editors of Lucky Peach put it in All About Eggs, “eggs are what humans have in common.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, there is no nutritional difference between white and brown eggs.

Brown eggs are a little more expensive because the breed of hens that lays brown eggs tends to be bigger and are therefore more expensive to care for.

When the oven is hot, slide in the bacon and let it cook: 15 minutes for cooked and golden but not particularly crisp, 20 to 25 minutes for extra crispy.

French toast is such a treat that they put the word French in the name, so you know it’s fancy. The French call it pain perdu (“lost bread”), a nod to using stale bread that would otherwise be thrown away.

A waffle is the ideal butter and syrup delivery system. It’s like a big yellow school bus that takes butter and syrup to school (your mouth) in the morning.

Breakfast foods, for their cost, deliver what your taste buds crave: sweet and savory, crunchy and creamy, carbs and protein.

COFFEE FACTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW

THE RIGHT SIZE IS SMALL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has rules for how big a serving of coffee should be. It’s eight ounces (four ounces less than a tall at Starbucks).

DECAF ISN’T 100% CAFFEINE-FREE

Decaf coffee isn’t free of caffeine, though a serving usually contains less than 10 milligrams of caffeine.

IT’S NOT THE BEST PART OF WAKING UP

The best time to have a cup is the late morning, ideally between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., to take advantage of your body’s natural hormone-production cycles.

the National Coffee Association USA in 2017 revealed the “golden ratio” for making a damn fine cup of coffee. According to them, the ideal pot of coffee uses one or two tablespoons of freshly ground coffee per six ounces of water.

The amount of time your coffee brews is crucial. They recommend a contact time of five minutes for drip coffee and two to four for a French press.

Brunch cocktails tend to fill a very particular purpose: Make everything hurt a little less, without being at all challenging.

For purposes of the Brunch Drink Order of Operations (BDOO BY MARGARET EBY) there are five main categories of beverages: alcoholic, caffeinated, sugary, hydrating, and nutritious. Yes, some things can be both caffeinated and alcoholic (rest in pain, Four Loko) or sugary and hydrating (I see you Gatorade).

To neutralize the hangover brutes, make sure to have a beverage from at least three of those categories. Hydrating first, then two other candidates, depending on your need. Seltzer, coffee, and a bloody mary is my personal trinity, though you could also have an iced tea, a Perrier, and a mimosa, or a Gatorade, Red Bull, and coconut water. A kombucha, a Mountain Dew, and a shot of Jager also qualifies. (And if that is your choice, where are you going and can I come?) If you opt for a frozen Irish coffee and a side glass of water, that’s all your categories right there.

Australian researchers found consuming pear juice before alcohol will lessen hangover symptoms the next day.

The quickest way to belong to a place is to eat there.

What’s the difference between a muffin and a cupcake? I’ll give you the same answer I always give: frosting.