Everything about milk the long history of it and how it became so popular here in the U.S. also has recipes and the good and some evils of milk. Overall I found this to be very informative.

The premise of the book is great and the author really delivers. Great read. Highly recommended. .

Mark Kurlansky has a unique talent: he can take what is seemingly the most mundane of topics and turn it into a fascinating read. I had never read any of his books until one day in the library I came across Paper: Paging Through History. It turned out to be one of the most fascinating non-fiction books I have ever read. "Milk" is similar. Who knew there was so much to know about what I drink most every day? I highly recommend this book and his other works. Try it and see if you like his style.

I've been a milk drinker since I was tiny, and milk is still my beverage du jour. (Don't like tea, can't drink coffee, despise carbonation so no soda for me.) Nothing hits the spot like cold, fresh milk! So I was delighted to read this book about my favorite beverage and its byproducts, cheese and butter. I think the most surprising discovery was that the drinking of cows' milk by children was a very late adoption by humans; even through the 18th century donkey's milk was considered the most nutritious.

Kurlansky skips no thread in the history of milk and its more exotic products (well, to those of us in the United States, anyway), such as, among others, keffir and ghee. We travel to the Middle East, to China to address the statement that the Chinese are lactose intolerant, India where the cow is venerated, all the way to the family and then factory farms of the USA to discuss pasteurization "taking the good out of the milk" (my mother drank unpasteurized milk as a child and refused to drink the kind that came in bottles), homogenization, the golden days of "the cream rising to the top," and the rise and fall of the milkman in the wake of convenience stores.

Vintage recipes from all ethnicities are presented, including the dairy-based milk punches favored by colonial Americans so you too can try your hand at syllabub. Or perhaps you'd like a milk stout? (Yes, milk mixed with ale.) Like all of Kurlansky's books, an enjoyable read.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Milk! is full of fascinating facts conveyed in an easy to read story-like way. I never knew donkey's milk is closest to human milk - but donkey's don't like being milked! The history of milk and milk products, like yogurt and cheese, is covered from multinational points of view. Many recipes are included. I especially got a kick out of the older recipes - and am grateful for our modern day grocery stores and cheese makers.

Milk! is very thorough, covering everything from breast feeding and surrounding controversies to the history of dairy farming and associated problems. I really enjoyed reading about this staple in my diet.

Got milk? Get Milk! by Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky is one of the best writers of social/anthropological history, and Milk! continues his success. The history of milk is fascinating and Kurlansky makes it accessible to the public without it being too dry, from the modern dairy industry to different uses of milk around the world. There are some interesting recipes too!

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA for an advanced copy of this book.

As someone who lives in dairy country in Vermont I was curious how Mark Kurlansky would handle the industry in his book. It was a great history lesson and quite interesting.

There is a lot more to milk than we usually attribute to it! This book tells the interesting backstory of milk's history and science. Milk from other mammals is more different than one might think, and milk has been a part of history for a long time (especially those with the mutation to digest it). Now I want to go make some kefir....

Mark Kurlansky's books are hard to define - they're historical, socialogical, and books about food. There's so much fascinating detail and scholarship in his books. When you read a book of his, you find yourself describing whole passages to your friends. Milk is no exception and is a worthy successor to Cod and Salt.

While I am not a milk drinker, I am a consumer of cheese and this book will tell you everything you didn't know you needed about the history of dairy. Kurlansky weaves the history of milk, yogurt, ice cream and of course cheese in with ancient and modern recipes!

_Milk_ looked to have a very interesting concept, but it grew sluggish and muddled in the delivery. One might even say it curdled.

The history of the human use and consumption of milk and our ingenious ways of preserving that fresh product is quite well done. Where the book falters is in presenting all the recipes for various milk and cheese preparations within the text itself. Mention of differing and innovative techniques is surely necessary, but we don't need thorough, complete recipes. They quickly become boulders in the path of the narrative. A better plan would be to include the full recipes in an appendix so that the cooks among us can peruse them at leisure. But this non-chef, not needing the details of some 16th century pudding, quickly began jumping past the cookbook sections to resume the history. And that grew tiresome and somewhat frustrating, as in the e-book, the formatting of the recipe sections was no different from the rest of the text, so that it took multiple skips and samplings to determine when the intruding cooking-lesson stuff was done and we could get back to the adulteration scandals or whatever.

Culinary story of milk and all dairy products by the author of Salt and Cod. From families keeping their own cows to pasteurization and politics. Fascinating book.

I never realized there was so much to know about milk and other dairy products. Mark Kurlanksy not only discusses the history of dairy in its various forms but also manages to make this trip into culinary history very interesting. I voluntarily reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me with a Kindle edition galley of this book.

I have read Kurlansky's Salt and actually enjoyed this one much more. Not surprisingly, he uses a similar writing style. Much more of this book, however, focuses on post-1800 history, and on the US. Few cultures really drank milk before the 19th century, and most milk went to cheese and yogurt on a small-scale local basis.

I have also read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, but had no idea there was a similar scandal involving milk in the 19th century US. Breweries often had attached dairies, and the cows were fed the grain byproducts of brewing. But this milk was cheap for a reason—the bluish cast and nickname of "swill milk" showed that the public knew it was not the best. They did not, however, know how sick the cows often were and how bad the milk therefor was for them (and especially their children). I was also somewhat familiar with other milk scandals in this book: the Nestle formula scandal in the 1970s, and the adulterated milk scandal in China c2000.

So this book was fascinating and easy to read. Perhaps because I read a galley, there were also some errors that jumped out at me--interestingly, they were also all near the end of the book.
• at 92% "Alfalfa ...is a leading high-protein grain for milk-producing cows." Alfalfa is not a grain, it is a legume.
• at 88% "The most traditional dairy states, New England and New York..." New England is not a state!

And this one, while not an error, could only have been written by someone who has never breastfed:
• at 86% "Breast pumping...[frees] mothers from the burden of breast-feeding." OMG! Pumping is sooo much more of a "burden". The cleaning your pump parts, the remembering all the parts, the bottles, the ice packs (and keeping them frozen!), the finding a place and the time to pump, to carrying it all around, to having extra batteries if you can't use a plug, to repackaging the milk at home (and having all the supplies), to dating, and freezing, and cycling the frozen milk. It is a PAIN IN THE ASS and takes a lot of mental energy. A lot more mental energy than breastfeeding does.

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. I've read Kurlansky before, and he always does a great job with research and making it enjoyable. However, the first half-ish of this book was nigh on impossible to stick with, The badly integrated recipes made for a difficult slog. Once he stopped inserting recipes, it read as wonderfully as his earlier work. The recipes are important to food history, but they needed to be integrated more smoothly. I'll definitely still read his work, but I liked this one less than his others.

I love most things dairy – however they do not love me. After a childhood of drinking my Milk – It Does A Body Good – as an adult I have become lactose intolerant. I was so happy to read this book and find out that I am not the minority – but the majority, our bodies were not made to drink milk from other animals. 60% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant.
This book was incredibly researched and easy to read. It was filled with interesting facts and my poor husband heard a lot of them over the past weekend. Like did you know Almond Milk is not something new! It has been around forever. Also, some countries mix milk with beer? The author includes many recipes that were just as interesting to read as the narration – My favorite was a cheese one that started with – Fresh milk from 12 cows! I now thoroughly understand pasteurization as well as the movement for raw milk. And, I will never look at butter the same way again.
This author has other books like Salt and also Cod – which are now on my reading wish list.

It's Kurlansky! His micro-histories are consistently engaging, and "Milk!" is no exception. I loved it, and I'm lactose-intolerant.

It was informative but I did not enjoy it as much as his previous works

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 one area where history has only added to the controversies, rather than neutralise them. In a book that is as eye opening as it is refreshing, Kurlansky offers the reader much insight into this product that has been a central part of history as long as female mammals have roamed the earth.

Milk has long been a controversial staple through the centuries, from the debate between breastfeeding and delivering the essential nutrients to babies, to the best ‘type’ of milk for humans to consume, and even whether to treat milk to make it safer for consumption. Kurlansky details these and other debates throughout the pages of his book, presenting arguments and views as they were documented throughout history. There remains a strong debate over pasteurisation versus raw milk, which has led to various parts of the world to adopt varying rules and regulations. While many Western countries turn to cow’s milk, there are numerous other animals whose milk is widely used, utilising the higher concentration of such mammals on differing terrains.

Liquid milk is only scratching the (fatty) surface of the discussion, as Kurlansky talked extensively about the various byproducts. Often discovered by accident, byproducts include cheeses, butters, and creams, though their variety can easily be forked into hundreds of different outcomes. The history of cheese is both long and full of political intervention, as Kurlansky discusses at length. Creation of cheese can be a laborious process and is tightly regulated, creating different colours, flavours, and consistencies. Kurlansky explores not only how different milk determines key cheese creations, but also the food intake of the cow that can vastly alter the end result. Turning to creams, history has seen the evolution of different products, based not only on filtering techniques but also the ability to refrigerate or cool for lengthy periods of time. Different people claim fame for various inventions that many take for granted now, though there was surely a fierce debate at the time to launch the best clotted creams, ice creams, and desserts that stemmed from there. Kurlansky also explores how different parts of the world tapped into shaping these byproducts with the local ingredients, creating even more differentiation across the globe.

The political and social aspects of milk are firmly rooted, particularly when government health and legislative bodies learned that they could levy fees and fierce regulations. Milk can be a highly profitable industry, though strict adherence can also lead to marginalizing those who have spent their life trying to make a living off dairy production. Kurlansky turns the focus away from North America and delves deeply into the European and Asian markets, which may shock some readers in the West. There is surely a hierarchy when it comes to milk consumption, as well as a fierce debate about how to treat the animals and the food they consumed. There is no correct answer, nor does Kurlansky try to steer the reader in any single direction, but offers a wonderful cross-section of information for a better understanding. Readers and milk enthusiasts alike can enter the debate better armed for the battle.

Kurlansky’s delivery of the topic at hand is so seamless as to create a story that flows with ease from beginning to end. While there is so much to cover, Kurlansky offers detailed discussions throughout without bogging the reader down with minutiae. Not only does he provide a rich history of milk and its evolution, but Kurlansky offers hundreds of recipes embedded in the narrative, permitting the reader to explore the more amusing side of milk’s maturation. Offering education and entertainment in equal doses, Kurlansky provides the reader with a fulfilling historical tome that will fuel interesting discussions for all. Any reader with a love of history and curiosity about food will surely find something they can enjoy in this book. “Milk. It does a body good!”... and so much more!

Kudos, Mr. Kurlansky, for such a wonderfully diverse piece. I have learned so much and dazzled others with random facts that will stick with me for years to come. Now I am convinced that I will have to find some of your other food histories and see how they compare.

The subject matter is one where you do not realize the impact an everyday product has on world history. The authors treatment gives an historian and trivia lover hours of good reading material. The author prides himself with the inclusion of many milk based recipes. They were in fact hard to follow and I ended up skipping the recipes. The odd weights, quantities, and naming conventions made them hard to follow. There also were drawings included that looked like they were done by a child.