Book Review: Milk, A 10,000 Year Food Fracas

Mark Kurlansky is probably one of my favorite authors.  I got Salt several years ago and did not realize how deeply its importance ran through the ancient world.  A book about a mineral would be tough to say it was a cant put down, but it was the truth.  I followed it up with Cod, and again, a topic about a seemingly minor part of the food chain was page turning in its execution.  I recently got Milk for Christmas, and after finishing some other books I dove right in.  Much to my chagrin, this book didn't hit the way the other's had. The book follows milk production across several continents, taking the reader from ancient debates about whether Milk is warm or cold food, to the modern era and the changing of dairy farms and practices.  There are a lot of recipes throughout the book, which at first had been thought to be an extra bonus.  However, their constant presence made reading tiresome instead of spell binding. They would be much more appreciated mostly residing in an appendix, with a few sprinkled in to illustrate a certain point.

Overall this is a 6.5 or 7, because the information was still valuable.  It just was a much more sloggy book, almsot having to just jump pages at a time to get past the recipes.