Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas

Posted on 06 November 2018 by Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky s first global food history since the bestselling Cod andSalt the fascinating cultural, economic, and culinary story of milk and all things dairy with recipes throughout According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk a splatter of the goddess Hera s breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way But while mother s milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals than 10,000 years ago, originally as a source of cheese, yogurt, kefir, and all manner of edible innovations that rendered lactose digestible, and then, when genetic mutation made some of us lactose tolerant, milk itself.Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk But during the nineteenth century mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk borne illnesses a common cause of death Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement, and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization.Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it Tracing the liquid s diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics. Read Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas – kino-fada.fr First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Mark Kurlansky, and Bloomsbury USA Publishing for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.I remember an advertising campaign from my youth that extolled the virtues and health benefits of drinking milk It stuck with me and I have tried to present the same positive outlook to my son When I saw the latest Mark Kurlansky book, all about the history of milk, I could not help but wonde First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Mark Kurlansky, and Bloomsbury USA Publishing for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.I remember an advertising campaign from my youth that extolled the virtues and health benefits of drinking milk It stuck with me and I have tried to present the same positive outlook to my son When I saw the latest Mark Kurlansky book, all about the history of milk, I could not help but wonder if it would be an entertaining read, as I knew he had tackled some other interesting food topics One may presume the topic is quite mundane or simplistic, but the attentive reader will discover that milk and its byproducts are anything but boring, though it is ...By definition, all mammals produce milk for their young Thus it shouldn t be too much of a surprise that in writing a history of milk consumption this book is an account of the history of mammalian life culminating with humans in charge of the world As humans began utilizing milk from other mammals it also becomes the story of human progress and civilization from the perspective of diet And of course a significant part of the story is that of humans learning how to change milk into forms that By definition, all mammals produce milk for their young Thus it shouldn t be too much of a surprise that in writing a history of milk consumption this book is an account of the history of mammalian life culminating with humans in charge of the world As humans began utilizing milk from other mammals it also becomes the story of human progress and civilization from the perspective of diet And of course a significant part of the story is that of humans learning how to change milk into forms that circumvent issues of lactose intolerance and storage e.g cheese, yogurt, dried milk solids Before the era of refrigeration the prevention of spoilage or even poisoning by milk was a serious issue Freshness was of important concern and it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk But during the nin...Choice Cuts is one of my favourite historical food books, so When Heard about this book I had to buy it Everybody has had milk at some time their lives with out milk the human race would not exist End of story This a culinary history of the animal milk not mothers but Also like Choice Cuts got your crazy fun recipes, odd ball milk tools for the kitchen to the farm.Full of illustrations facts to have you laughing, felling sick wowing It is only when think about milk that you resize Choice Cuts is one of my favourite historical food books, so When Heard about this book I had to buy it Everybody has had milk at some time their lives with out milk the human race would not exist End of story This a culinary history of the animal milk not mothers but Also like Choice Cuts got your crazy fun recipes, odd ball milk tools for the kitchen to the farm.Full of illustrations facts to have you laughing, felling sick wowing It is only when think about milk that you resizes what you won t have no pancakes,fish chips, no Yorkshire puddings on Sunday,no cheese oh shit no cheese I live on cheese, the list is endless No ice cream or chocolate bars You can hear the chocolate screams from the.females across globe all way to Mars No Chocolate.This very serious book on the history of milk from how cows could not have been the first milked animal to the arguments of Christian doctoring of blood of Christ been milk.We have a 18th century Cookbook by Gervase Markham to the early pancakes...Kurlansky is justly famous for his earlier works about Salt and Cod, among other things, so when I saw this 2018 Bloomsbury Publishing nonfiction about Milk, I was interested I was particularly interested to see what he would say about humans consuming milk after infancy, when approximately sixty percent of the world s human population appear to lose their tolerance for and ability to digest lactose Europeans, Middle Easterners, North Africans and some of the Indian subcontinent appear to lack Kurlansky is justly famous for his earlier works about Salt and Cod, among other things, so when I saw this 2018 Bloomsbury Publishing nonfiction about Milk, I was interested I was particularly interested to see what he would say about humans consuming milk after infancy, when approximately sixty percent of the world s human population appear to lose their tolerance for and ability to digest lactose Europeans, Middle Easterners, North Africans and some of the Indian subcontinent appear to lack a gene which shuts off production of lact...I m a huge fan of Kurlansky He s probably the most famous writer of microhistories currently, a genre I adore Microhistories he s written include Salt and Paper , books on oysters and cod, a history of just the year 1968 or the song Dancing in the Street You get the idea.In this book, he takes on milk Or, well, not only milk Kurlansky also covers butter, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and all the other things that can be made out of milk It s not just cows milk either He includes recipe I m a huge fan of Kurlansky He s probably the most famous writer of microhistories currently, a genre I adore Microhistories he s written include Salt and Paper , books on oysters and cod, a history of just the year 1968 or the song Dancing in the Street You get the idea.In this book, he takes on milk Or, well, not only milk Kurlansky also covers butter, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and all the other things that can be made out of milk It s not just cows milk either He includes recipes that use the milk of sheeps, goats, horses, donkeys, camels, and yaks There s even a lot of discussion of human milk is it better to breastfeed or to use formula And what is the history of that debate How does one choose a wet nurse What about grass fed cows vs cows given fodder Pasteurized milk vs raw Is milk a health food Kurlansky doesn t take a ...To paraphrase an old joke, Now I know what milk looks like Milk contains many interesting factoids and is well researched with lots of references on important topics, e.g the milk question Inexplicably however, a huge chunk of the book is taken up by historical recipes, and the text ju...Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this ARC We luxuriate in the richness of yummy butter, or at least I do There is nothingdelicious to me than a simple croissant, flaky dough that has been laboriously layered with butter, and a cup of coffee But apparently in certain cultures, I would be called a butter stinker It s these little tid bits that I enjoyed in Milk Milk is a social history that ignites a thoughtful conversation for such a simple product It follows the Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this ARC We luxuriate in the richness of yummy butter, or at least I do There is nothingdelicious to me than a simple croissant, flaky dough that has been laboriously layered with butter, and a cup of coffee But apparently in certain cultures, I would be called a butter stinker It s these little tid bits that I enjoyed in Milk Milk is a social history that ignites a thoughtful conversation for such a simple product It follows the human ingenuity of sustenance and cultural arguments of use or disdain in all things related to milk Every aspect of milk is discussed Uses, symbolism, cultural preferences and norms There are 126 recip...Disclaimer ARC via Netgalley I have to have milk with breakfast unless I am getting breakfast at work But at home, a glass milk, cold milk, and then coffee I need that nice cool glass of milk But I didn t know much about milk until I read this book Kurlansky s book is a tour of milk in history, but also a tour of yogurt, cheese, and ice cream And it has recipes Kurlansky starts with ancient history, exploring when milkin...I m the kind of person who likes to make everything in my life about reading including food When I come across an unfamiliar food mentioned in a book, or online, I m likely to Google it, learn the etymology, find out where it s from and when it was most popular in history, and, most importantly, make it for myself Things like Welsh ra...This was an ok read The first half or so was difficult to slog through because of formatting Kurlansky includes a ridiculous number of recipes in the early chapters, and while recipes are certainly important to food history, they were poorly integrated The text was choppy and topics jumped wildly between some paragraphs The later half of the book was much better but there were no recipes there Interesting topic, but not as well put together as his other work Also not entirely sure what was This was an ok read The first half or so was difficult to slog through because of formatting Kurlansky includes a ridiculous number of recipes in the early chapters, and while recipes are certainly important to food history, they were poorly integrated The text was choppy and topics jumped wildly between some paragraphs The later half of the book was much better ...

English
06 November 2018

Mark Kurlansky