Title:	Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish: A Whole Brunch of Recipes to Make at Home
	Author:	Cathy Barrow
	Published:	March 15, 2022, Chronicle Books
	No. of Pages:	208
	Cover Price:	$24.95 Hardcover, $8.63 Kindle

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Love bagels, but can’t find good ones in your area? You’ll want to make your own, and the best cookbook out there for that is Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish: A Whole Brunch of Recipes to Make at Home by Cathy Barrow.
Since Homemade is usually better for everything, and bagels are no exception. This excellent cookbook has a well-written introduction that will entice anyone to make good bagels at home, as well as sections on essential ingredients, equipment, a succinct history of bagels, step-by-step techniques to authentic perfect bagels, bagel styles and adaptations from different places, and plenty of recipes for different flavors of bagels. There are also recipes for quasi bagels such as Turkish Simits, flagels and others.

Also included are recipes for dozens of schmears, fillings, sandwiches and salads; everything you need to make bagels a daily snack or meal. There are also recipes for condiments and add-ons for perfect bagel snacks and meals.

The colored photographs are stunning, and there are photos of almost every recipe. The book is well-organized and well-written. The recipes are written in the traditional manner and are easy-to-follow so that anyone – from beginning cooks to experienced chefs will be able to turn out perfect bagels every time. Barrow does emphasize that practice makes for more beautiful bagels, but that even the ugly ones will taste good.

All told, this is the best bagel cookbook I have ever run across. I used my auto bread machine to mix the dough, but removed it and followed Barrow’s instructions from then on and my bagels were delicious. Highly recommended.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.