Cooking, in effect, took part of the work of chewing and digestion and performed it for us outside of the body, using outside sources of energy. … Freed from the necessity of spending our days gathering large quantities of raw food and then chewing (and chewing) it, humans could now devote their time, and their metabolic resources, to other purposes, like creating a culture. {… until} cooking took its fatefully wrong turn: when civilization began processing food in such a way as to make it less nutritious rather than more.

This was so good, as has been every book I’ve read by Pollan. They take time and they pay off in terrific diversions into science, culture and history. Here, Pollan explores the four classic (and nearly magical) methods that humans have long used to make food more delicious and digestible: fire (grilling), water (braising), air (baking), and earth (fermentation). He locates niche uber-experts and resides with them to learn about such things as barbecue, aromatic mirepoix, bread-baking and cheese-making.

Even today, as much as a third of the food in the world’s diet is produced in a process involving fermentation. Many of these foods and drinks happen to be among the most cherished, {…} coffee, chocolate, vanilla, bread, cheese, wine and beer, yogurt, ketchup and most other condiments, vinegar, soy sauce, miso, certain teas, corned beef and pastrami, prosciutto and salami-- {…} Basically, it’s all the really good stuff. {…}

“The big problem with the Western diet, … is that it doesn’t feed the gut, only the upper GI. All the food has been processed to be readily absorbed, leaving nothing for {the microbial residents of} the lower GI.” {…} We have changed the human diet in such a way that it no longer feeds the whole superorganism. … We’re eating for one, when we need to be eating for, oh, a few trillion. ( )

A 4 read. Not 5, because to my liking the author sometimes provides way too much information on his personal exploits in various domains of cooking. Yet I couldn't get enough of his generalizations, historical perspectives and some obscure trivia he showered on his readers. ( )

This book is certainly an interesting take on the expression of food preparation as a function of the four “elements of life”:

• Fire. Food prepared via primarily fire: masculine, power, dangerous. It was kind of informative, if not particularly attractive to me. I definitely like the food, but am not all that interested in going to the lengths described here to prepare it.

• Water. Boiling, steaming , simmering: feminine, gentle. Also kind of informative, and slightly more attractive to me—inasmuch as it’s more accessible, if not as exciting or tasty as Fire.

• Air. The production of aerated foods, generally through baking in the oven. Informative and a bit more attractive.

• Earth. Fermentation. This is definitely the most interesting way of preparing food because the results are still alive when you consume them.

What makes this more than just a book about food (definitely NOT a cook book) is the transcendental/spiritual aspects of the preparation of food over the course of human evolution. Pollan explores—but of course can’t answer—the questions of who/why/when homo-sapiens first stopped eating raw meat and vegetables and started to “prepare” food: burn/boil/bake/ferment. Just think about how you, personally, would go about preparing: a dead animal, a tuber just dug up from under the earth, some rotting fruit spoiling on the ground, if you didn’t have someone else teaching you.

It's also very informative to think about how so many of the physical ailments we suffer today did not exist until we developed “fast food processing”. As far as I’m concerned you could live without reading this book…but it would be well worth the effort to read the section on Earth food production and fermentation and bacteria. This book only underscores some other books I’ve read in suggesting that we may likely discover that the cure for most modern ailments lies in merely eating healthy, rather than “purified” foods. Rather than looking for a “silver bullet” to cure our illnesses we should return to living with a little more “dirt”. ( )

Michael can write about food! Each section of this book encouraged me to bake bread, braise some meat, and now make some sauerkraut. I enjoyed this book, partly due to a couple of BBQ restaurants i I enjoy visiting regularly in NC were discussed. If you have seen Cooked on Netflix, it's pretty much the book on TV. ( )

This is the fourth book of Pollan's that I have read and I must say that he goes from strength to strength. From his simple mantra for eating (Eat food, not too much, mostly plants) in the Omnivore's Dilemma to his exploration of how food scientists over-emphasize micro elements in food in In Defense of Food, I have been given much (dare I say it) food for thought. This book was no exception.

The subtitle of this book is A Natural History of Transformation and Pollan examines four types of transformation that our food can go through. Each of these transformations is tied to an elemental force: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. For each section Pollan apprenticed himself to a master of that particular transformation. In Fire, he went to the American south and learned about barbecue. I'm not talking about throwing a piece of meat on the grill for a short length of time; I'm talking about slow cooking a whole pig in a pit for a day. If this section doesn't make you salivate you must be a really dedicated vegan. In Water he also explores slow cooking but it's the type of cooking done in a pot with liquid and some vegetables and some type of meat, probably a cut that would be tough unless cooked this way. Air is all about bread baking and how the air is essential to make a good tasting loaf of bread. He includes a recipe at the back for a sourdough type of bread which made me wonder if all those people who started baking sourdough in the beginning of the pandemic had read this book. As persuasive as he is with his passion for sourdough bread I think I'll probably stick to using yeast. Which gives me a nice segue into the final chapter which is all about treating food with microorganisms to ferment them. Fermentation also takes quite a long time but very little is required from the cook; instead those little bacteria do all the work. I think it might be time to make another batch of sauerkraut but unlike Pollan I'm not going to get a 7.5 liter crock. I'll stick with a quart preserving jar. In addition to vegetable fermentation, Pollan looked at cheese making and beer and wine brewing. Who needs barbecued or braised meat when you could have cheese and wine accompanied by some pickled and/or fermented vegetables? Remember Pollan's mantra and eat mostly plants.

I see Pollan has branched off into the effects of plants on our minds in his latest books. I will have to see what fascinating insights he has discovered there. ( )