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29th out of 348 books
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333 voters
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Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages
Part cookbook—with more than 120 enticing recipes—part culinary history, part inquiry into the evolution of an industry, Milk is a one-of-a-kind book that will forever change the way we think about dairy products.
Anne Mendelson, author of Stand Facing the Stove, first explores the earliest Old World homes of yogurt and kindred fermented products made primarily from sheep’s...more
Anne Mendelson, author of Stand Facing the Stove, first explores the earliest Old World homes of yogurt and kindred fermented products made primarily from sheep’s...more
Hardcover, 338 pages
Published
October 7th 2008
by Knopf
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I am no foodie. While other kids were dreaming about jet packs and flying cars, my favorite childhood sci-fi fantasy was the invention of a pill that would obviate the need for three meals a day, freeing up my time for less burdensome pursuits. There was a solid year and a half during middle school when I ate the same Stouffer's microwave dinner literally every single night. In fact, I amassed enough proofs of purchase to send away for various prizes through the mail, including a copy of Robe...more
You will never look at the dairy section of the supermarket the same again, but in a good way. I can't help but pick up a container of milk and think of the sheeps and goats grazing near the Tigres-Euphrates River in ancient times that gave us our first dairy products. The first half of the book traces the history of human use of animal milk from the earliest domestication of animals to modern dairy farms. The second half of the book contains recipes that encourage cooks to make choices that g...more
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The five stars are for the cover; I'm not going to actually read it. I reserved this after Tamara put it on the front page and I fell in love with the cover. I wanted to see if the lettering was hand-done, a la The Principles of Uncertainty, or if it was a font. It seems to be a font adjusted to different sizes and not lined up on parallel lines -- very interesting. The book didn't say what the font was, so I consulted the internets, and look!! A blog post written by the cover designer! http://www.faceoutbooks.com/16219/Milk...more
Leland
is currently reading it
Thus far I am loving this book. Mendelson looks at the history of milk using taste as her rule. She does look critically at the modern dairy industry, but rather than bemoan the decrease in the health benefits of milk, the poor treatment of dairy cattle, or the corporate nature of the dairy industry, she talks more about the loss of richness & flavor in our modern versions of an ancient food source. The recipes are an added benefit as you learn about a dairy product and can then go and try to re...more
Quirky and opinionated overview of the history of milk in Europe, western Asian and North America & a love song to proper yogurt. It's misleadingly packaged, as it looks like a food history and is really a cookbook with a long introduction. She's quite funny, you can't miss her opinion of modern Western Milk and the recipe section is fascinating and brilliant. If you're interesting in food at all, I think its well worth it, though the overview may be basic for those who are already aware of s...more
Largely a recipe book, Ms. Mendelson offers a slightly dry take on the history of milk and how we've consumed it as a people, broken out by geographical region. This treatment will be interesting to dairy lovers, probably, but isn't exactly riveting prose aimed at the general consumer.
I can't speak to the recipes, as I haven't tried them yet.
One high point of the book for me was her totally rational, utterly reasonable take on the raw vs. pasteurized milk debate--a deba...more
I can't speak to the recipes, as I haven't tried them yet.
One high point of the book for me was her totally rational, utterly reasonable take on the raw vs. pasteurized milk debate--a deba...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
She's no Simon Winchester (the god of microhistory) but this is a solid book with valuable information. The recipe part could have been a lot smaller (and the descriptions sometimes get a little creepy when she waxes ecstatic over some mouth feel of a questionable product) but I still learned a lot.
Kate
marked it as to-read
I am interested to read what this author has to say about dairy production, seeing as how she is a culinary writer, not a dairy scientist. I have a feeling it will be pushing an agenda, much like Bon Appetit has been lately, forcing me to cancel my subscription.
An enjoyable history of dairy products from the beginnings of human civilization to now. Meldelson has a three-pronged approach: she examines what humans do with milk, how that's changed over time (and it has changed *drastically*), and the science behind it all. Fascinating, thought it made me more than a little leery of consuming dairy.
fascinating! half history/cultural anthropology about humans' relationships with milk animals around the world and over thousands of years. second half is recipes. inspired me to finally make my first batch of yogurt.
The first half of the book comprises a kind of biography of milk, examining its use and variety around the globe and across time. The idea of this is interesting to me, but I found myself slipping away from the text. Finally, I gave up and skipped to the second half, which breaks down into chapters on yogurt, cheese, buttermilk, etc. Each section allows a brief background followed by a bunch of recipes. I've only tried a few of the recipes so far, but I like what I've done. The mango lassi, espe...more
2 stars for content which misses on the scientific angle as well as the nutritional one. might work from a strictly "history of food" angle. But the recipes are killer. so many ways to cook with milk!! :-) I would buy it for the recipes alone.
Didn't actually read from cover to cover but gleaned some very interesting info on what might seem (but isn't at all) a bland topic.
Great information about the culinary history of milk. Lots of recipes that I want to try, plus Mendelson is really opinionated and funny.
The prose was a bit dry, but I found the subject very interesting. Half o the book is devoted to recipes, e.g. how to make your own yogurt, butter.
Her style of writing is quite fussy, but it was an interesting book.
Great brief history of this first food, yummy sounding recipes.
I find it hard to believe that a book about one thing (milk) could lack focus, but this did. It was hard to dredge through. I think I was expecting more of a look at how we have gotten to the industrialized white water we now all drink, instead I got a few pages of that, and hundreds of pages focusing on how cool milk is. I agree, milk is cool, isn't that why I picked up the book in the first place?
Anne Mendelson explores the history of milk starting with the prehistoric origins of goat and sheep domestication and ending with modern large scale dairies. I found her writing entertaining and wished the history section was longer. I was glad that she didn't just gloss over the science, but really delved into the particulars. The book also contains a number of recipes for milk products and dishes from around the world.
Lorraine Jean
added it
So good, delicious, and interesting that I traded in my library book for a permanent copy.
I thought this book was going to be really interesting, but I didn't get too far into when i realized it's more information than I ever cared to know about milk related things. For example, I'm not interested in knowing what the latin names are for the different types of animals that we get milk from. The cover of the book looks cool.
For a book about a liquid, it's incredibly dry. Fell asleep three times within the first 15 pages!
Highly recommended.
i never actually finished the book but it was VERY interesting, although written in a little more scientific prose that most people may find palatable.
Informative book, although it read like a textbook. I didn't finish it, but I tried. I checked it out 3 times, it was a bit too boring to finish.
Read it for the author's insight into our (most questionable) dairy practices, keep it for the amazing recipes!!
Jamilarsen
added it
Not as pleasurable to read as I was expecting, but very informative. I will only buy whole milk from now on.
I haven't tried the experiments in the back yet, but the information in the first half is really interesting.
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