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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 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.
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.
338 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
January 4, 2016
That is correct, I have read a 300+ book about milk. I'm now that much more likely to bore my acquaintances with all sorts of fun details about food that I have learned from this book. I AM GREAT AT PARTIES.
August 5, 2009
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 Robert Redford's 1992 adaptation of A River Runs Through It on VHS. Incredibly, I never remember getting tired of this routine. I just wanted not to be hungry; I didn't really care how my dinner tasted. And while my cooking skill and culinary range have greatly expanded since becoming an adult (out of a desire for the basic self-respect that comes with going out to a restaurant with friends without having to coerce the chef into making me a grilled cheese sandwich), food will never be my source of soulful joy in life. And that's fine, because I have books.
I go into all this because one of the only exceptions to my general malaise around food is, and has always been, dairy. I've always loved fresh milk and cheese. Even before I read Anne Mendelson's excellent book on the subject, I was already in the habit of shelling out for organic, non-homogenized milk in amazingly appealing glass bottles, which I have actually taught myself to remember to load into the panniers for return whenever David and I embark on another grocery run. That is how much I love milk. But I don't love it anywhere near as well as Mendelson, and she has the literary chops to do justice to her passion.
Isn't that lovely? Sometimes it truly is the simplest thing that inspires eloquence.
In addition to its high-test writing, Milk is one of the most physically beautiful books I have ever held in my hands. You can see the gorgeous cover art at the beginning of this review, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. The dust jacket has a slightly antique-y, stippled texture that invites touching, and even the pages are more creamy and textured than usual - which is fitting, in a treatise on the delights of textural, unhomogenized dairy products. There are vintage line-drawings throughout the book, and although they come from different sources, they all contribute to a coherent ambiance. Merely leafing through Milk is a pleasure.
As is diving in and reading the thing. Mendelson's text is an interesting amalgam of different literary genres: part food history, part chemistry lesson, part political treatise, and part recipe collection. She begins by tracing the history of dairying in its four major seats: the "Diverse Sources Belt" aka "Yogurtistan" (the modern-day Near and Middle East); the "Bovine and Buffalo Belt" (the Indian subcontinent); the "Northeastern Cow Belt" (modern-day Eastern Europe and Russia), and the "Northwestern Cow Belt" (western Europe, including the British Isles). One of the major takeaways from her text is that the way the majority of westerners now think of milk - best cooked with and consumed in its "fresh" (unsoured) state - is very unusual in the world-wide history of dairying. Fresh milk-drinking was originally pioneered in the Northewestern Cow Belt, the youngest of the four main dairying regions and the one whose inhabitants, unlike most of the word, happen to possess a rare genetic ability to digest lactose into adulthood. It only gained currency world-wide due to the rampant imperialism and cultural arrogance of Western Europe, which applied its own standards of food quality to all the diverse peoples it colonized. Ironically, by the time the British (and French) were acting all snooty about the savages' "ignorant" sour-milk-drinking habits, they had forgotten that the consumption of unsoured milk was a relatively new development even on Albion's bonny shores, and felt secure in their convictions that no child could be strong and healthy without a daily dose of fresh, sweet milk.
Imperialism. Amazing all the places it's insinuated its dirty hooks, isn't it?
Mendelson goes on to lament the homogenization of the dairy-consuming scene in the West. Although she loves fresh milk and cream, she points out how much we've lost by narrowing our conception of "good" milk to an exclusively Western-European model. She then gives the reader a brief tour of the state of modern corporate dairying, which has devolved into a race to produce ever-greater quantities of an ever-more-insipid product, at high cost to the health of the cows involved. (The sections about the bovine health problems caused by breed-and-feed tactics were nauseating, and made me an even stronger convert to buying unhomogenized milk from local, grass-fed cows, despite the expense.) Mendelson ends on a positive note, though: the influx of Turkish, Indian, and Eastern-European immigrants to the Western centers means that a diversity of dairy traditions is beginning to be restored to the American scene, and she strongly encourages readers to seek out these rich and varied dairy options.
I don't mean to give the impression that Mendelson's book is a dire political slog. Her writing style is often delightfully pithy, as when she discusses the sweetened commercial soy milks "created from improbable faragoes of ingredients," or when she announces, "I will not attempt to describe the labyrinthine USDA milk price-support system, which baffles my comprehension and probably hasn't been understood by the last five secretaries of agriculture." I found Milk to be a frothy mixture of interesting information delivered in a passionate, personable voice.
Not being the kind of person who devours cookbooks for pleasure, I didn't read the recipe section that follows cover-to-cover. I skipped the meat-based recipes, for one thing, since I don't touch the stuff. But I have to admit that Mendelson's recipe section is not your average cookbook: each division (fresh milk, yogurt, cultured milk and cream, butter and true buttermilk, and fresh cheeses) is accompanied by a short but lovely essay detailing the basic food chemistry involved with each milk product, and a survey of the various takes on the same theme found in different world traditions. And because I'm a milk enthusiast (at least compared with my feelings about other foods), there were a glut of recipes for things I love to eat. Lassis! Clotted cream! Saag Panir! Custard! Fresh, spreadable cheeses! Oh my!
The fact that even I, who can't be bothered with food, so thoroughly enjoyed Milk is truly a testament to its appeal. I can only imagine how much a dedicated food-lover would glean from its pages.
I go into all this because one of the only exceptions to my general malaise around food is, and has always been, dairy. I've always loved fresh milk and cheese. Even before I read Anne Mendelson's excellent book on the subject, I was already in the habit of shelling out for organic, non-homogenized milk in amazingly appealing glass bottles, which I have actually taught myself to remember to load into the panniers for return whenever David and I embark on another grocery run. That is how much I love milk. But I don't love it anywhere near as well as Mendelson, and she has the literary chops to do justice to her passion.
Before going any further, taste the milk. Concentrate you attention on what's in your mouth: something ethereally subtle but concretely there. This milk has a kind of roundness or depth that the homogenized equivalent doesn't. The reason is that the contrast between its leaner and richer components hasn't been ironed out but remains just delicately palpable. Its flavor is not so much flavor as a sensation of freshness on the palate that scarcely translates into words. "Sweetness" is as close as anything, but it's an elusive note on the thin edge of perception rather than sugar-in-your-coffee sweetness.
Isn't that lovely? Sometimes it truly is the simplest thing that inspires eloquence.
In addition to its high-test writing, Milk is one of the most physically beautiful books I have ever held in my hands. You can see the gorgeous cover art at the beginning of this review, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg. The dust jacket has a slightly antique-y, stippled texture that invites touching, and even the pages are more creamy and textured than usual - which is fitting, in a treatise on the delights of textural, unhomogenized dairy products. There are vintage line-drawings throughout the book, and although they come from different sources, they all contribute to a coherent ambiance. Merely leafing through Milk is a pleasure.
As is diving in and reading the thing. Mendelson's text is an interesting amalgam of different literary genres: part food history, part chemistry lesson, part political treatise, and part recipe collection. She begins by tracing the history of dairying in its four major seats: the "Diverse Sources Belt" aka "Yogurtistan" (the modern-day Near and Middle East); the "Bovine and Buffalo Belt" (the Indian subcontinent); the "Northeastern Cow Belt" (modern-day Eastern Europe and Russia), and the "Northwestern Cow Belt" (western Europe, including the British Isles). One of the major takeaways from her text is that the way the majority of westerners now think of milk - best cooked with and consumed in its "fresh" (unsoured) state - is very unusual in the world-wide history of dairying. Fresh milk-drinking was originally pioneered in the Northewestern Cow Belt, the youngest of the four main dairying regions and the one whose inhabitants, unlike most of the word, happen to possess a rare genetic ability to digest lactose into adulthood. It only gained currency world-wide due to the rampant imperialism and cultural arrogance of Western Europe, which applied its own standards of food quality to all the diverse peoples it colonized. Ironically, by the time the British (and French) were acting all snooty about the savages' "ignorant" sour-milk-drinking habits, they had forgotten that the consumption of unsoured milk was a relatively new development even on Albion's bonny shores, and felt secure in their convictions that no child could be strong and healthy without a daily dose of fresh, sweet milk.
Imperialism. Amazing all the places it's insinuated its dirty hooks, isn't it?
Mendelson goes on to lament the homogenization of the dairy-consuming scene in the West. Although she loves fresh milk and cream, she points out how much we've lost by narrowing our conception of "good" milk to an exclusively Western-European model. She then gives the reader a brief tour of the state of modern corporate dairying, which has devolved into a race to produce ever-greater quantities of an ever-more-insipid product, at high cost to the health of the cows involved. (The sections about the bovine health problems caused by breed-and-feed tactics were nauseating, and made me an even stronger convert to buying unhomogenized milk from local, grass-fed cows, despite the expense.) Mendelson ends on a positive note, though: the influx of Turkish, Indian, and Eastern-European immigrants to the Western centers means that a diversity of dairy traditions is beginning to be restored to the American scene, and she strongly encourages readers to seek out these rich and varied dairy options.
I don't mean to give the impression that Mendelson's book is a dire political slog. Her writing style is often delightfully pithy, as when she discusses the sweetened commercial soy milks "created from improbable faragoes of ingredients," or when she announces, "I will not attempt to describe the labyrinthine USDA milk price-support system, which baffles my comprehension and probably hasn't been understood by the last five secretaries of agriculture." I found Milk to be a frothy mixture of interesting information delivered in a passionate, personable voice.
Not being the kind of person who devours cookbooks for pleasure, I didn't read the recipe section that follows cover-to-cover. I skipped the meat-based recipes, for one thing, since I don't touch the stuff. But I have to admit that Mendelson's recipe section is not your average cookbook: each division (fresh milk, yogurt, cultured milk and cream, butter and true buttermilk, and fresh cheeses) is accompanied by a short but lovely essay detailing the basic food chemistry involved with each milk product, and a survey of the various takes on the same theme found in different world traditions. And because I'm a milk enthusiast (at least compared with my feelings about other foods), there were a glut of recipes for things I love to eat. Lassis! Clotted cream! Saag Panir! Custard! Fresh, spreadable cheeses! Oh my!
The fact that even I, who can't be bothered with food, so thoroughly enjoyed Milk is truly a testament to its appeal. I can only imagine how much a dedicated food-lover would glean from its pages.
January 24, 2016
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 recreate a product that would most likely be unaccessible at your local grocery. If you are interested in food (who isn't?) then give this a try.
March 22, 2009
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 go beyond choosing from 1 percent or skim milk. The author is a very enthusiastic advocate of fresh, raw milk products and forms of dairy products from the Middle East and India. She wants people to branch out beyond cow's milk. Supposedly, milk from water buffalo is very tasty. I know you can get a lot of different food products in New York City, but I have yet to come across that.
The diversity of animal sources was interesting, especially learning how certain sections of the world never turn to cows for milk. Until refrigeration and modern transportation, fresh milk was a rarity all over the world, reserved for those who live close enough to milk a cow. Dairy products like yogurt and sour cream were more common.
The book talked a little about the history of milk in New York and other American cities. People looking to earn a quick buck turned to fraudelent milking practices. Think of them as Bernie Milk Madoffs. They would take cows into the city and put them into a cramped space next to distilleries. They would feed the cows the leftover grains from the distilleries, which led to very unnutritious milk. They would add whiteners to make the milk look like it was supposed to. Many people got sick and died from this "swill milk" until the authorities and politicians listened to the public and cracked down on the practice.
Hope you are enjoying your morning coffee, perhaps with a little cream.
The diversity of animal sources was interesting, especially learning how certain sections of the world never turn to cows for milk. Until refrigeration and modern transportation, fresh milk was a rarity all over the world, reserved for those who live close enough to milk a cow. Dairy products like yogurt and sour cream were more common.
The book talked a little about the history of milk in New York and other American cities. People looking to earn a quick buck turned to fraudelent milking practices. Think of them as Bernie Milk Madoffs. They would take cows into the city and put them into a cramped space next to distilleries. They would feed the cows the leftover grains from the distilleries, which led to very unnutritious milk. They would add whiteners to make the milk look like it was supposed to. Many people got sick and died from this "swill milk" until the authorities and politicians listened to the public and cracked down on the practice.
Hope you are enjoying your morning coffee, perhaps with a little cream.
April 4, 2016
I am a mostly-vegan so I didn't try any of the recipes, but I really loved the first sections about the History of milk. I went into the book expecting to have to wade through a lot of pro-dairy industry / anti-vegan stuff to get to the history, but I was pleasantly surprised! Mendelson, a passionate dairy lover, did a fantastic job of presenting the facts about human consumption of non-human milk through the ages, including the dark side. I am currently on a history-of-various-food-staples reading spree, and I'm glad I picked this one up!
April 13, 2009
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.
September 13, 2009
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.
May 3, 2010
This book is a good read, but I rated it 4 stars instead of 5 because I was hoping it would cover the topic in more depth. The recipes take up a majority of this book, the history part does not which when you consider the subtitle, "The surprising story of milk through the ages," I think you would be surprised too. However, even though the majority of the history/background lesson ends on page 72, she talks more in depth about the various dairy products individually like milk, buttermilk, butter, yogurt, etc in the recipe section. The recipe section is really awesome and I want to own this book now just for that (I borrowed it from the library). Even though she didn't get into the history of milk as much as I wanted her to, I feel that I still learned quite a bit more than I have already researching the topic on the Internet.
Some of the things I learned:
-What she deems the Northwestern Cow Belt (Northern Germany, the Low Countries, northern France, British Isles, southern Scandinavia), is home to the only people that retain the ability to digest lactose into adulthood. However, this small region of fresh milk usage exported their ideas about drinking fresh rather than sour milk all over the world. Later on science figured out that wasn't such a great idea and that most other people in the world can't digest fresh milk.
-We've bred our cows to be able to produce more milk, but it is lower quality as far as cream and nutrients are concerned. In 1865 a top cow produced 7 gallons of milk a day. In 1975 the record was set at 19 gallons a day. In 1997 that record was broken at 23 gallons a day.
-"The designation "whole," though legally sanctioned, is misleading inasmuch as the milk has been separated by centrifuge and recombined to an arbitrary standard. In most states it means a mixture of nonfat milk and cream homogenized to a 3.25 percent milkfat content." (p. 79)
-"Zero was easily attainable through centrifuging, but centrifuged skim milk lacked the flavor-saving smidging of cream that remained in the milk after hand skimming... For a long time the hardest sell remained skim milk, and for good reason: The usual commercial versions are a singularly thin, vapid travesty of decent hand-skimmed milk. But eventually processors hit on the strategem of using dried skim milk solids to add body and selling the result under names like "Skim Milk Plus." (Despite any promotional malarkey on the label, the real differenece between this and plain skim milk is not extra "creaminess" or "richness" but more lactose and casein.)" (p.47)
-"The ogranic dairying business is tremendously concentrated, with the great preponderance of milk coming from three or four very large producers owned by vast agribusiness conglomerates. The biggest facilities are in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast states, and milk regularly travels thousands of miles from there to reach retail shelves throughout the country. As with conventional milk, gigantic farm operations with several thousand cows now dominate the business. The largest farms depend on the same breeding-and-feeding methods as their conventional counterparts, including high-energy rations to increase volume; thrice-daily milking; and as much confinement with as much restriction of access to grazing as the managers can get away with. (The NOSB regulations mention "access to pasture" and to the outdoors generally, without spelling out how much or little.) Milk entering the pool at large organic dairies is separated and homogenized by the same arbitrary numbers games as conventional milk. The milk is also usually ultrapasteurized, the better to transport it across vast distances and permit weeks rather than days between time of milking and time of use. So far, the major organic-dairy producers have managed to cash in on the widespread popular view of pure, simple, pastoral, animal-friendly organic food without acknowledging how little their wares justify the image. In fact, milk is one of the fastest-growing segements of the organic market... But this is one gift horse that really should be looked in the mouth. Why should we support new-style versions of factory farming clad in the airs of moral superiority to factory farming?" (p.59)
-"If you could see and taste the milk of one cow's, doe's, ewe's, or woman's milking cycle, from the time she stops producing colostrum to the time when the young animal says farewell to nursing, it would be shot through with huge variations. Milk shifts in makeup not only throughout one lactation, but from the beginning to the end of one day. Indeed, the first and last mouthfuls than an infant swallows at a single nursing ordinarily differ in composition (the final dribs and drabs being the highest in fat). And this is to ignore the question of how one individual cow's, doe's, ewe's, or woman's milk differs from that of others in her species, herd or bridge club." (p. 62)
-Skim milk has the most lactose while cream and butter have the most casein. I found this extremely interesting! My husband has always said that he thinks he is slightly lactose intolerant, but when one considers that he usually has trouble with cream and butter rather than lower fat percentage milks/creams/yogurts it seems to point to a problem with casein and not lactose. And so I think I may now know where our daughter got her casein allergy issues.
Some of the things I learned:
-What she deems the Northwestern Cow Belt (Northern Germany, the Low Countries, northern France, British Isles, southern Scandinavia), is home to the only people that retain the ability to digest lactose into adulthood. However, this small region of fresh milk usage exported their ideas about drinking fresh rather than sour milk all over the world. Later on science figured out that wasn't such a great idea and that most other people in the world can't digest fresh milk.
-We've bred our cows to be able to produce more milk, but it is lower quality as far as cream and nutrients are concerned. In 1865 a top cow produced 7 gallons of milk a day. In 1975 the record was set at 19 gallons a day. In 1997 that record was broken at 23 gallons a day.
-"The designation "whole," though legally sanctioned, is misleading inasmuch as the milk has been separated by centrifuge and recombined to an arbitrary standard. In most states it means a mixture of nonfat milk and cream homogenized to a 3.25 percent milkfat content." (p. 79)
-"Zero was easily attainable through centrifuging, but centrifuged skim milk lacked the flavor-saving smidging of cream that remained in the milk after hand skimming... For a long time the hardest sell remained skim milk, and for good reason: The usual commercial versions are a singularly thin, vapid travesty of decent hand-skimmed milk. But eventually processors hit on the strategem of using dried skim milk solids to add body and selling the result under names like "Skim Milk Plus." (Despite any promotional malarkey on the label, the real differenece between this and plain skim milk is not extra "creaminess" or "richness" but more lactose and casein.)" (p.47)
-"The ogranic dairying business is tremendously concentrated, with the great preponderance of milk coming from three or four very large producers owned by vast agribusiness conglomerates. The biggest facilities are in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast states, and milk regularly travels thousands of miles from there to reach retail shelves throughout the country. As with conventional milk, gigantic farm operations with several thousand cows now dominate the business. The largest farms depend on the same breeding-and-feeding methods as their conventional counterparts, including high-energy rations to increase volume; thrice-daily milking; and as much confinement with as much restriction of access to grazing as the managers can get away with. (The NOSB regulations mention "access to pasture" and to the outdoors generally, without spelling out how much or little.) Milk entering the pool at large organic dairies is separated and homogenized by the same arbitrary numbers games as conventional milk. The milk is also usually ultrapasteurized, the better to transport it across vast distances and permit weeks rather than days between time of milking and time of use. So far, the major organic-dairy producers have managed to cash in on the widespread popular view of pure, simple, pastoral, animal-friendly organic food without acknowledging how little their wares justify the image. In fact, milk is one of the fastest-growing segements of the organic market... But this is one gift horse that really should be looked in the mouth. Why should we support new-style versions of factory farming clad in the airs of moral superiority to factory farming?" (p.59)
-"If you could see and taste the milk of one cow's, doe's, ewe's, or woman's milking cycle, from the time she stops producing colostrum to the time when the young animal says farewell to nursing, it would be shot through with huge variations. Milk shifts in makeup not only throughout one lactation, but from the beginning to the end of one day. Indeed, the first and last mouthfuls than an infant swallows at a single nursing ordinarily differ in composition (the final dribs and drabs being the highest in fat). And this is to ignore the question of how one individual cow's, doe's, ewe's, or woman's milk differs from that of others in her species, herd or bridge club." (p. 62)
-Skim milk has the most lactose while cream and butter have the most casein. I found this extremely interesting! My husband has always said that he thinks he is slightly lactose intolerant, but when one considers that he usually has trouble with cream and butter rather than lower fat percentage milks/creams/yogurts it seems to point to a problem with casein and not lactose. And so I think I may now know where our daughter got her casein allergy issues.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2014
I really miss being able to consume dairy products, so I thought it might be fun to read Milk. However, reading it just left a bad taste in my mouth. This has nothing to do with the recipes, which seem well researched and tested with relatively easy-to-follow instructions. The author's food snobbery really got to me after a while, though; surely it would have been sufficient for her to state once, clearly, before every recipe section that she thinks it would be better to use milk that is unhomogenized and, if possible, pasteurized slowly at a lower temperature, rather than saying it in every recipe.
Should you be tempted to undertake preparing some of the recipes in this book, you should be aware that they are most emphatically not for the budget-conscious cook. You'll need to buy, beg, borrow, or steal a double boiler, stockpots of varying sizes, rennet tablets, the aforementioned artisanal milk in udder-busting quantities, the "correct" kind of cheesecloth (not the kind you can get in the grocery store--the author says this repeatedly as well--and something called a Flame Tamer to keep your dairy delights at the proper temperature. It all sounds lovely, but so expensive!
That being said, the book is an interesting read, and I do recommend it to anyone who's curious about the cultural history of milk and can afford to try the recipes.
Should you be tempted to undertake preparing some of the recipes in this book, you should be aware that they are most emphatically not for the budget-conscious cook. You'll need to buy, beg, borrow, or steal a double boiler, stockpots of varying sizes, rennet tablets, the aforementioned artisanal milk in udder-busting quantities, the "correct" kind of cheesecloth (not the kind you can get in the grocery store--the author says this repeatedly as well--and something called a Flame Tamer to keep your dairy delights at the proper temperature. It all sounds lovely, but so expensive!
That being said, the book is an interesting read, and I do recommend it to anyone who's curious about the cultural history of milk and can afford to try the recipes.
April 23, 2017
Part history and part cookbook, Mendelson's work grew out of a lifelong love for milk and fresh dairy products. She would probably enjoy comparing tasting notes with Lucy Knisley (see previous post, French Milk.) I'm a fan of dairy too, even though I never drink milk straight. Instead, give me kefir, yogurt, butter and every kind of cheese... One of the best foods I tasted in New Zealand was thick fresh cream that tasted of barnyard - in the best possible way. The butter there is so yellow that it is obvious that the cows are eating grass and not grain.
Learn all kinds of interesting stuff and then turn to the recipes to get creative in the kitchen. I can recommend the directions for making paneer, an Indian cheese. I was so happy with the results that I've done it twice. It's so easy! The hardest part is obtaining non-homogenized milk. Mendelson is hopeful that consumer demand will make quality dairy products readily available in the near future. I hope so too.
Learn all kinds of interesting stuff and then turn to the recipes to get creative in the kitchen. I can recommend the directions for making paneer, an Indian cheese. I was so happy with the results that I've done it twice. It's so easy! The hardest part is obtaining non-homogenized milk. Mendelson is hopeful that consumer demand will make quality dairy products readily available in the near future. I hope so too.
September 11, 2016
I struggled through this book in strange ways. I thought it was all very interesting, but up until maybe midway through the first part of the book (it's divided into a historical narrative section and then recipes), I just could not make myself pick it up (or stay awake while reading it). And then suddenly I was able to get more into it, finished out the first section strongly, and yet petered out again when I got to the recipes section. Since I pretty much never cook, the recipes were going to be mostly lost on me anyway, so this one gets filed under "didn't finish". However, I did find the exercises really intriguing that are described at the end of the first section, which involved hand-skimming milk, making butter, etc., so I bookmarked those to try out later, just as soon as I can find some unhomogenized milk somewhere :)
July 21, 2012
I love to read both food books and nonfiction, I LOVE dairy, I like to cook and I am a biologist. Basically this book should have combined all my favorite things and yet I can't decide if I really like this book or I really don't...
Hmmm...the book is a little dry at the beginning but then it picks up, the tone shifts, she has an agenda (she doesn't like the way we process milk which is why I picked this book up so that is fine with me but others may not like it) but then she seems pretty grumpy about the history of milk which doesn't make the reading fun. Yet there were things I really liked and I feel like it got better as it went a long. I ended up with 3 stars.
PS - this is really more of a recipe book with history mixed in
Hmmm...the book is a little dry at the beginning but then it picks up, the tone shifts, she has an agenda (she doesn't like the way we process milk which is why I picked this book up so that is fine with me but others may not like it) but then she seems pretty grumpy about the history of milk which doesn't make the reading fun. Yet there were things I really liked and I feel like it got better as it went a long. I ended up with 3 stars.
PS - this is really more of a recipe book with history mixed in
March 12, 2009
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, especially, will stay with me. Overall, a book I'm sure to return to. And maybe one that will rise in my estimation over time. But the lackluster first half keeps it at three stars.
November 2, 2009
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 debate, as far as I can tell, largely overtaken by those who would rather rally than reason. This chapter alone made me want to invite the author over for dinner. (I'd serve something involving paneer, naturally.)
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 debate, as far as I can tell, largely overtaken by those who would rather rally than reason. This chapter alone made me want to invite the author over for dinner. (I'd serve something involving paneer, naturally.)
June 14, 2010
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 some of the issues and science of dairying.
December 31, 2015
Really interesting, especially the parts about milk animals, non-homogenized milk, and the first three chapters of recipes (fresh milk, yogurt, and cultured milk). Hearing Anne Mendelson speak was what originally convinced my partner to buy local non-homogenized milk and not worry whether it was organic (as she points out, a lot of organic milk is pasteurized at high temperatures and shipped for long times/distances to get to you). Her writing could be more concise and her horror at processed and nonfat monstrosities is hilariously obvious and sometimes a bit much.
September 20, 2011
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?
August 19, 2014
An excellent read. I had to put it down several times because I had to get other things read ahead of it and it was easy to pick up each time. This may be that each chapter covers slightly different aspects of milk like sweet milk, then sour milk or buttermilk and of course creams. Not to mention yogurts, cheeses and in-betweens like curds, cottage cheese and whey like creations. Truly a fascinating, informative journey and then the recipes are awesome too!
February 1, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. I took it out of the library several times over the last year and recently I finally decided to buy it. I honestly don't understand why people dislike the book or think the author is a food snob. I found the history interesting and the recipes all sound appealing. My husband has a hard time with milk, so we regularly make kefir, yogurt and feta cheese instead. I can't give up milk in my coffee, but we've begun to see what other forms we can try.
September 19, 2015
Sweet milk doesn't do a body good!!!! The rise of super dairies, lactose intolerance and the Milk industry pushing Bovine milk on us like it's the secret to health. Many things are good in moderation. My own daughter cannot drink sweet milk. A good history of dairy farming and milk especially with the advance of modern refrigeration. Obviously our pre-industrial age ancestors enjoyed milk in other ways (i.e. yogurts). A very interesting book.
March 13, 2009
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.
April 27, 2009
I am continually shocked at how simple products get complicated as they are processed into the industrial food appearing in the grocery store. This book did a really nice job of explaining the history of milk consumption and some of the geographical and cultural differences. I also learned exactly why my attempts at yogurt failed in the past.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 29, 2014
Very interesting! I enjoyed reading about milk around the world and its history as human food. Although the author is quite elitist in her views of what kinds of milk are worth drinking, I still learned a lot from the book. There are plenty of great fundamental recipes to try too, many of international origin, such as various cheeses, yogurts, butter, etc.
December 12, 2011
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.
February 18, 2014
I think the target audience for this book is probably someone who is a better cook than I am.
this work is a bit about 1/4 social history, 1/2 recipe book, and 1/4 trying to convince you that old fashioned soured milk is better.
since I was hoping for more of a straightforward social history, like similar works on salt, cod, and rum, it was less to my taste.
this work is a bit about 1/4 social history, 1/2 recipe book, and 1/4 trying to convince you that old fashioned soured milk is better.
since I was hoping for more of a straightforward social history, like similar works on salt, cod, and rum, it was less to my taste.
Want to read
February 1, 2009I 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.
April 19, 2009
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.
October 6, 2011
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.
September 1, 2014
Good. Very opinionated author. She makes me want to track down un-homogenized milk. But her detailed recipes are not for my current phase of life. I would read more by this author though as she is a very thorough researcher. Print.
July 22, 2018
Dee-lightful. An informative and inviting look at Milk! Yup! Who knew I'd dig this stuff? There's a little bit of history that I found fascinating and lots of insights and commentary about today's production of milk. Recipes at the end include everything from mains to desserts to cheeses.
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