Page 85 - Summer 2017 Journal

Mastering Stocks and Broths:
A Comprehensive Culinary Approach Using Traditional Techniques and No-Waste Methods
By Rachael S. Mamane
Chelsea Green Publishing
Reviewing books about food and cooking is an interesting endeavor. Sometimes you are excited about a book initially, but the more you read, the more your energy wanes. Other times, a book may surprise you. Each page only serves to increase your appetite for what the author has in store (and what you might go make for dinner)!
So it was with Mastering Stocks and Broths. Although the book addresses a topic with which I am already quite familiar, it became the most interesting and enjoyable read of 2017 thus far. Four hundred pages long, at first I thought, “How could someone write so much about broths and stock?” I was pleasantly surprised, and for good reason; the word “mastering” in the title is entirely apt.
Mamane moves deftly back and forth
between history, science and culinary craft. The book is roughly divided into two parts. The first, shorter part explores what stock is, in all its historical and culinary diversity and glory. The second part, which represents about three-quarters of the contents, is dedicated to the application of culinary skills, covering not just the making of a multitude of broths and stocks, but also presenting a wide variety of recipes for all occasions. Almost no animal or vegetable seems to go unnoticed in the recipe section. I was delighted to see often overlooked things like rabbit or rarer vegetables like leeks and ramps make the menu. The recipe section also includes (and speaks in positive terms) of raw milk and real dairy products!
Although the application part includes reci- pes and techniques by the dozens and scores, marking Mastering as a cookbook as much as anything else, the book goes even further. In keeping with its “no-waste” subtitle, the book devotes an entire section to bone meal, dog food and charcoal. As a homesteader and farmer, I can’t help but appreciate this incredibly impor- tant and often overlooked subject. Even when
All Thumbs Book Reviews
BOOK REVIEWS IN Wise Traditions
The Weston A. Price Foundation receives two or three books per week, all of course seeking a Thumbs Up review.
What are the criteria we use for choosing a book to review, and for giving a Thumbs Up?
• First and foremost, we are looking for books that add to the WAPF message. Dietary advice should incorporate the WAPF guidelines while adding new insights, new discoveries and/or new therapies.
• We are especially interested in books on the fat-soluble vitamins, traditional food preparation methods and healing protocols based on the WAPF dietary principles.
• We look for consistency. If you talk about toxins in vaccines in one part of your book, but say you are not against vaccines in another part of your book, or praise fat in your text but include recipes featuring lean meat, we are unlikely to review it.
• We do not like to give Thumbs Down reviews. If we do not agree with the major tenets expounded in a book sent to us, we will just not review it. However, we feel that we have an obligation to point out the problems in influential or bestselling books that peddle misinformation, and for these we will give a negative review. We also will give a negative review to any book that misrepresents the findings of Weston A. Price.
• If you want us to review your book, please do not send it as an email attachment. Have the courtesy to send us a hard copy book or a printout of your ebook or manuscript in a coil binding.
SUMMER 2017
Wise Traditions 85