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(More customer reviews)`The Culinary Institute of America BOOK OF SOUPS' by, you guessed it, the staff of the Culinary Institute of America is the one book you SHOULD own on making soups. And, if there are other books on soups which you like, you should own this book as well, since it's instruction on general techniques for soup making surpass the material in the nine other recent soup books I have read. This is not to say this book can replace all other soup books. This book is strong on basic techniques and excellent recipes for classic soups such as Vichyssoise, Clam Chowder, Chicken Noodle soup, Cream of Tomato soup, Borscht, Egg Drop Soup, French Onion Soup, Stracciatella / Egg Drop Soup, Black Bean soup, and on and on and on, with the cover advertising 100 different recipes.
This doesn't mean that if I want a special chowder, I won't go to Jasper White's book '50 Chowders', since all the recipes I have made from White's book have been simply out of this world good. It also doesn't mean I won't go to my little book of vegetarian soups by Paulette Mitchell or to other little books of soups by Michael Congdon and by the New York staff of `Daily Soup' or even the `Twelve Months of Monastery Soups', since I may be especially interested in a vegetarian soup, a thick full meal soup, or an especially light soup for July, since all of these are good soup books. I will also still go to Daniel Boulud or Tyler Florence for their chestnut soup recipes, even though the CIA includes a recipe for chestnut soup. But, I will pay very close attention to the CIA's chapter on creamed soups before I make chestnut soup again.
The only real competition for literary soup supremacy is James Peterson's `Splendid Soups'. Peterson has several more recipes than the CIA and has a different organization based on ingredients rather than technique. And, Peterson deals in much more depth with the selection of good ingredients and their preparation than does the CIA. If you love soup, you really need both books, but if you can only afford or have the space for one, the CIA book is preferable, as it's list price is lower and its discussion of techniques is more portable to recipes in other books.
The CIA has done several books on various subjects in addition to their main textbook, which is now in edition eight or nine. And, I generally find the titles oriented to amateur cooks such as their `Cooking at Home' and `Gourmet Food in Minutes' titles to be less friendly to amateur cooks than books from people who specialize in this subject such as Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, and Martha Stewart's staff. It seems they never quite forget to take off their toques and really see things from the home cook's point of view. None of that is true with this book. This may be due to the highly specialized subject, plus the effective scaling down of techniques the CIA authors has done. A common problem with recipes from restaurant cooks is that they are scaled to make eight to twelve servings. This book does not have this problem. No recipes except the stock recipes make more than eight servings. And, a special strength of this book is that it gives clear general suggestions on which soups and which soup ingredients will freeze well and which soups will survive long freezing or refrigeration. This explodes my mother's caution that you shouldn't freeze soups with tomato. On the other hand, potatoes and other starchy vegetables do not take well to freezing.
The heart of this book, and the primary reason to buy it, no matter how many other soup books you may have is the very detailed, step by step description of the techniques for making six basic types of soups. These are broths; hearty soups; cream soups; pureed soups; bisques & chowders; and cold soups. The chapter on broths includes the recipes for the four most important stocks, chicken, beef, fish, and vegetable. The procedures are similar to, but just a bit less fussy than those in their textbook. I confess these recipes have been my standard against which I evaluate all other stock recipes, so I am committed to recommending them. Their primary virtues are that they are not on the burner for more than a few hours, the meat used in the chicken stock comes out as perfectly good poached chicken, useable in other recipes, and the vegetables are put in when there is but an hour to go, lowering the chance that the veggies will cloud up the broth. There are several very respectable authorities on stock making, including one of my heroes, Alton Brown, who cooks stocks for up to eight hours. I believe this is a great idea for commercial kitchens and an easier method for creating especially rich stocks than the `double stock' method, but I still think, with the authority of the CIA behind me, that the shorter recipe is better for the average home cook.
The last chapter of the CIA's book contains recipes for `accompaniments'. These recipes for croutons, rusks, focaccia, buttermilk biscuits, crackers, gougeres, dumplings, granite, harissa, pistou, fried shallots, and vegetable chips are great to have especially the garnishes. This chapter may have been slightly closer to message if it would have limited itself to recipes for crackers and garnishes.
This book joins the CIA volumes on Garde Manger and baking on my `best books for the kitchen' list. That doesn't mean it is not also a pleasure to read with really useful pictures for both soups and methods. I noticed the CIA changed publisher from textbook giant Wiley to Lebhar-Friedman Books, who seem to have provided a lighter touch in their editorial guidance.
Buy this book if you like to make soups!
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From the Culinary Institute of America comes the definitive soup cookbook, now available in paperback. Whether a beginner or an accomplished cook, Book of Soups can help you create any type of soup.
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