Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages

Anne Mendelson's Milk is not quite a history and not quite a cookbook. Perhaps appropriately enough her book is itself much like she describes the eponymous substance. It is full of many distinct parts that are delightful both independently and combined together. The first third (actually a bit less) of the book is a short cultural history of milk. Mendelson discusses the various types of milch animals and how their milk was used by various peoples in a variety of distinct geographical regions. This section is organized very well and laid out in such a way that even though she is covering a large swath of history rather quickly, things still make sense. Mendelson does not go very deep into tracing milk's origins or uses in the first part of the book. I initially found her initial history very sweeping, but I soon noticed that the many recipes that make up the last two thirds of the book have much accompanying background/historical information attached.

The bulk of the book then is in the recipe section. Much like Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible, Mendelson lays a nice historical groundwork for an individual discussion of the recipes she includes later. Mendelson's history is deeper than Beranbaum's, but the combination book/cookbook concept is very much the same. And it works. I will confess that I did not read the entire second part of the book all the way through because, well, it's mostly recipes. This is the kind of book that one borrows to peruse and get a sense of its content and then ultimately purchases so that it can sit on the kitchen counter, exposed to splatters and spills without excessive concern, while culinary experiments are carried out. Needless to say, this book went right onto my "to-buy" list as soon as I had finished the non-recipe content.

The recipes themselves look great (very diverse) and after having my "milk-mind" expanded I am eager to try some of them out when I get some free time. The book is worthwhile even for people who probably will never try out the recipes though because it awakens the reader to a dairy world that is likely very unfamiliar. For my part, I previously thought myself rather discerning in my dairy tastes, buying mostly organic milk and the like. However, Mendelson's reasonable discussion of organic milk had me thinking twice about just how different it really is as a substance and a product of an organic industry. This is why I Milk is so worthwhile. It contains well-written, mini-discussions on a lot of dairy topics without getting dullingly deep into the history or science end of things (unless you like that sort of thing, I would have minded much myself). Mendelson's discussion of lactose intolerance genetics and susceptibility was totally new to me and very interesting in its own right and, on a different topic, I now really want to find a way to try some water buffalo milk if I ever the chance. Yak's milk too.

Milk is something we definitely take for granted and getting a new perspective on such a common food is what makes this book so interesting. The recipes are an added bonus, but I'd recommend the book to anyone on the strength and topical brevity of the first part alone. It's interesting and creamy and it goes down smooth. Give it shot sometime.