Pointless nutrition rant

If there is anything that we know for sure it is that the science of food and health is changing rapidly and that what we know and knew are probably wrong. Look at what happened with coconut oil in Aug 2018. Yet Storey editors have not dissuaded Andrea Chesman, who has no health credentials whatsoever, from larding her book with polemics on fats in the diet. She cites no peer reviewed research, trots out the common conspiracy theories, does not accept that science is iterative, knows little about alternative cultural preferences (especially for "rancid" fats) and spouts her own personal truths at length. Allowing Ms Chesman this exposure to future embarrassment is unconscionable behavior on the part of editors, especially as the rant is pointless. No one who avoids animal fat will ever open the book. The photos would make vegetarians swoon.

The discussion of caul fat is just wrong. Ms Chesman (or perhaps her editor) does not seem to know what a ruminant is and how ruminant digestion works. Several times pigs are included in sentences about ruminants.

The text (of the ARC anyway) is a choppy in places and could use some rearrangement of paragraphs. As usual with Storey, the ARC is prepared with horrible fonts that may or may not be changed in the final version. (Story releases their books for review as long as 9 months before the publication date and does not send reviewers notifications of changes to the text or layout.)

The cookery part is stunningly good in a Mrs. Beetonly sort of way, but taken as a whole experience, the book falls short.

I received a review copy of "The Fat Kitchen: How to Render, Cure and Cook with Lard, Tallow and Poultry Fat" by Andrea Chesman (Storey) through NetGalley.com. ( )