"I tried to read it [On Food and Cooking] straight through, and stopped dejectedly in the middle of a history of dairy—I think around where McGee describes the

"I tried to read it [On Food and Cooking] straight through, and stopped dejectedly in the middle of a history of dairy—I think around where McGee describes the first time humans turned water-buffalo milk into mozzarella." It's holding my teenage son's interest. McGee wrote a good textbook, not a novel. You have to want to understand the topic and be willing to put in some work, to stick with it.