| View Larger Image | Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages | Hardcoverby Anne Mendelson (Author)
| List Price: | $29.95 | | Price: | $19.77 | | You Save: | $10.18 (34%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Knopf | | Page Count: | 352 Pages | | Publication Date: | October 07, 2008 | | Sales Rank: | 76,704th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9781400044108
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
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 and goats’ milk and soured as a natural consequence of climate. Out of this ancient heritage from lands that include Greece, Bosnia, Turkey, Israel, Persia, Afghanistan, and India, she mines a rich source of culinary traditions.Mendelson then takes us on a journey through the lands that traditionally only consumed milk fresh from the cow—what she calls the Northwestern Cow Belt (northern Europe, Great Britain, North America). She shows us how milk reached such prominence in our diet in the nineteenth century that it led to the current practice of overbreeding cows and overprocessing dairy products. Her lucid explanation of the chemical intricacies of milk and the simple home experiments she encourages us to try are a revelation of how pure milk products should really taste.The delightfully wide-ranging recipes that follow are grouped according to the main dairy ingredient: fresh milk and cream, yogurt, cultured milk and cream, butter and true buttermilk, fresh cheeses. We learn how to make luscious Clotted Cream, magical Lemon Curd, that beautiful quasi-cheese Mascarpone, as well as homemade yogurt, sour cream, true buttermilk, and homemade butter. She gives us comfort foods such as Milk Toast and Cream of Tomato Soup alongside Panir and Chhenna from India. Here, too, are old favorites like Herring with Sour Cream Sauce, Beef Stroganoff, a New Englandish Clam Chowder, and the elegant Russian Easter dessert, Paskha. And there are drinks for every season, from Turkish Ayran and Indian Lassis to Batidos (Latin American milkshakes) and an authentic hot chocolate.This illuminating book will be an essential part of any food lover’s collection and is bound to win converts determined to restore the purity of flavor to our First Food. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 10 reviews)
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Interesting but short because of the recipes by M. Godon  3 Stars
September 23, 2009
This book was a pretty quick read, because half of it is recipes involving milk, cheese, and other milk products. The other part - the part that I actually read - was about the history of milk and about modern milk production, including a discussion of homogenization and pasteurization. It was really interesting, and although I haven't made any of the recipes, some of them do sound pretty tasty. Recommended if you like food history books.
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Wonderful exploration into the natural history of milk consumption! by Todd Ondick  5 Stars
June 29, 2009
I found this book a delightful and inviting journey into the natural history of the human relationship with, and creation of, the domestic milk animal and their amazing gift to us!
Read it if you want to learn something new about milk and the animals with whom we have intertwined our lives. Mendelson has done an outstanding job of telling what could otherwise be a tedious tale with wit, verve, and a healthy dose of remarkable details. Keep reading if you want to play and experiment with some of the myriad foods created using milk as a primary ingredient from around the globe.
This is not an easy read, but a rather enjoyable one! Mendelson's prose is vivid and stimulating, but requires some work on the reader's part. If you have the interest, this book will reward, in kind.
This book could have been used as a soapbox, pushing for a certain agenda- promoting milk that is raw, unpasteurized, organic, grass-fed, unhomogenized, or from a specific animal. On the contrary, Mendelson describes the differences while promoting personal exploration. Seek out the variations and try them for yourself; what a novel idea! She appears rather reluctant to endorse a milk genre, though she does voice her opinions and notes the detriment of certain processes on taste and culinary suitability. For me, this was the critical piece in enjoying this book; Mendelson wants to share a fascination and love for milk, no strings attached! What a wonderful read!
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The title says everything.... by Cec (Livna, Israel) 5 Stars
June 22, 2009
I bought this book for the recipes (which I haven't tried yet) but to my surprise, I am REALLY finding the historical content fascinating. It's well-written and witty; the author has a lovely sense of humor that comes out in her writing. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good read about what life has been like for the past 10,000 years, told from the everyday perspective of our relationship with our herd animals and customs over many years. After reading this book I'll be a lot braver about trying some "odd" yogurts and cheeses! (Water Buffalo cream cheese, anyone?)
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Somewhat sour milk by LBB (Manila, Philippines) 3 Stars
June 12, 2009
I'm a lover of all things dairy and a whole book dedicated to milk made me ecstatic. Unfortunately, this book was something I had to plod through. I forced myself to get through Part 1 which is HEAVY on history and covers:
Milk, Milch, Animals & Cooking
The Story of Modern Milk
Raw vs Pasteurized; Organic vs Conventional.
Part 2 (easier reading but the recipes are somewhat esoteric or fussy) contains:
Fresh Milk & Cream
Yogurt
Cultured Milk & Cream
Butter & True Buttermilk
Fresh Cheeses
Mendelson, accomplished writer though she may be, has an unappealing writing style that borders on pedantic, and her book, that of a treatise. The fact that she grew up on a Pennsylvania farm where fresh dairy was widely available isolates the reader as well. If she had it her way, we'd all be drinking raw milk and cooking with its non-ultrapasteurized, unhomogenized version, the type of milk which she calls for in most of her recipes.
Still, I enjoyed gleaning some interesting dairy facts from the book and was even spurred to make some homemade yogurt (a disaster, however). I would only recommend this book if you're a history buff or would like to know more about the technical/scientific side of dairy.
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Great resource for the home cook. by Kristi M. (Sinking Valley, pa United States) 5 Stars
May 18, 2009
I have been collecting butter recipes from old cookbooks and the internet for years and have found this book to be a wonderful resource. Anne Mendelson presents all the recipes worth having within their historical context. It is a thorough look at everything the home cook can do with milk in their own kitchen, with an emphasis on taste.
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