The author covers a brief history of ice cream and covers each of the main ingredients as well as why they're needed.
Negatives:
All of the recipes make about a gallon so you'll have to size them down if your machine can't handle a full gallon. Luckily Ice Cream recipes can be successfully sized down.
Many of the recipies do require cooking of some sort.
Also some recipes use "rennet tablets" something that I'm not familiar with.
----------- Overall this is a good basic book with some unique ice creams at a fantastic price.