It's All About the Food

Milk for your cookies

Milk, by Anne Mendelson

Milk has something for every kind of foodie. Recipes you won't find anywhere else? Check. Popular and under-the-radar food cultures? Check. History and culture? Check. Food chemistry, with your own experiments? Check.

(Before I go further, I need to say that not only did I read pre-publication chapters and test recipes, but Anne Mendelson is my husband's aunt. She is a good friend, with a wit so dry it's almost British.)

Milk's first section is a history of dairying in human society. How and where it (probably) first came to be and the first products (yogurt and fresh cheese), later specialization, industrialization, health regulations, and how sweet, drinking milk came to dominance as a healthy food, although most people over the age of five cannot digest milk sugars. Her take on the raw vs. pasteurized milk issue is sure to disappoint proponents in both camps: pasteurization as practiced today does alter flavor and is a panacea for poor farming and handling practices that encourage bacterial growth; raw milk sold safely through retail sources is possible, but only with stringent monitoring.

This is followed by a section of 120 recipes from the world over. There are traditional favorites like a Panna Cotta variation (Russian Cream), dulce de leche and the world's best ice cream recipe. Mendelson also included recipes from eastern Europe (Kofte in yogurt sauce -- fantastic), central Europe (liptaur cheese) and India. She included some recipes of her own provenance, such as apple cream soup, which will be the first course at my Thanksgiving dinner, and the hoppelpoppel will be featured at Christmas. Each recipe has an extensive introduction on the food's place in its home culture, and why you will like it.

Most fun — I haven't tried it yet — are nine "experiments" for making your own yogurt and fresh cheese. It starts with separating cream from non-homogenized (not raw) milk. How excited a book makes me to start cooking is my ultimate test, and this section has me most excited of all!

Available from Amazon and Powell's.