While I enjoyed this book, I found several aspects mildly frustrating. Booth clearly has a wide range of knowledge on the subject. She gives an excellent collection of recipes, divided by main ingredient, and proceeded by a short general essay on the subject. She also have chapters on food acquisition, cooking tools and techniques and dining habits. My qualm is how jumbled the organization is. Things appear in one chapter that belong in another. She jumps topics often, leaving the reader wondering more about the current subject even as they are tossed into another. I wished for more depth and detail. Also, the illustrations, while numerous, often have nothing to do with the text places next to them. It's rather odd. In all, I would recommend this book as a supplement, but not a main text. I'm certain something better has been written in the 40+ years since this was published. ( )