Today my partner Ron has one of his occaisional reviews on a book that caught my eye but which I didn’t get around to reading.

Once again this is a book that Alan brought home that I thought was interesting enough to read. And Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages, by Anne Mendelson is interesting. It’s divided into two parts. Part One covers the history of Milk and milch animals, and the current “state” of milk production and processing, and various biochemical and other aspects of milk and milk products. Part Two is mostly recipes divided into sections depending on the kind of milk or milk products the recipes call for.

I found it highly educational. I learned a lot of things about milk I never knew. For instance, the very first animal who’s milk was commonly used was not the cow, but the sheep. Goats are more common milch animals except for Europe, Africa, and North America. And most milk producers “strip” processed milk down to skim and then re-add milk fat and milk solids depending on what kind of milk is to be produced out of a particular batch. It’s fascinating to learn about something as ubiquitous as milk.

I would recommend this book, but with a caveat. She an advocate of “the least processed the better” school of thought. She prefers un-homogenized milk, and suggests that “raw” milk is better than processed for recipes and cheese making. Though the only cheeses she deals with are the “fresh” cheeses. And kind of skirts the issue of bacteria content in “raw” milk. Even suggesting at one point that the supposed infected raw milk illnesses might be a simple lactose intolerance reaction.

If you can get past her biases, and want to learn more about “Natures perfect food”, then this is a fun book to read. Her recipes include some unusual recipes and some would be a lot of work. But they make for fascinating reading even if you never intend to make them.   Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages