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Cooked

a Natural History of Transformation
Feb 08, 2014LibraryUser53 rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
The other Pollan books I've read are considerably more interesting. This one starts off a tad on the boring side, about the various techniques BBQ specialty restaurants use to roast whole pigs. The equipment, the choice of charcoal wood, the temperatures etc. It's all a little tedious. This might be interesting if you own such a restaurant, and have plenty of time on your hands, and plenty of customers to eat the product each day; but roasting whole pigs is not for the average homeowner, and too much time is taken on this subject. On the plus side, there are some interesting parts later in the book about fermentation, how it is used to make cheese, bread, beer, sauerkraut, etc. And how the same microscopic creatures that do the fermentation job also take up residence in our guts, and if the right mixture of them takes hold, forms a symbiotic relationship with the host (us), and can aid greatly to our own health. And there's some subtle cooking techniques exposed, for example the importance of chopped onions in sautés and sauces, and doing the chopping the right way to get the full flavor benefit. This audio book presentation would have been better if the author didn't do the reading himself. An experienced audio book reader would have been preferable. On the whole, only reservedly recommended.