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My parents did this frequently. My mother always got several eyes of round, marinated them overnight in oil, lemon zest and Lawrey's and cooked them at 250 until they was lightly crusted and medium. My father then sliced them 1/8" to 3/16" thick with an electric knife. He cut up two or three and then did another when those were close to being eaten up. It fans out beautifully on a platter, there's no gravy to spill, everyone likes it and it makes great leftovers. A whole, bone-in ham is also great. If you're near NYC, get it at Kurowycky's, which is the best ever. At our wedding, we figured 1/2 pound per person, and it disappeared in a blink. Here's an infallible and inexpensive roast ham recipe I've cobbled together from several versions: 12-15 lb. absolute cheapest loss-leader bone-in ham, whole or butt end 1 quart maple syrup, preferably grade B 2 tablespoons dry mustard (preferably Coleman's) 20 or so whole cloves 1. Trim off any skin and all but 1/4" of fat from the outside of the ham. Score the fat down to the meat in a diamond pattern. 2. Stab the ham all over with an ice pick. 3. Massage the dry mustard into the ham and stick it with the cloves. 4. Put the ham in a deep roasting pan, dutch oven or deep baking dish just big enough to fit, with enough room to turn it over. Pour in the maple syrup to come halfway up the ham. 5. Put the pan in a cold oven, set the temperature to 300 and cook for 30 minutes. 6. Turn the ham over, reduce heat to 250 and cook for 3 hours for a 12 pound ham, adding 30 minutes for each additional 2 pounds. 7. Drain the ham on a rack for 20 minutes before slicing. Cool the cooking liquid, strain through a coffee filter and freeze. It can be used 2 more times before it loses flavor and gets too salty.

Looking at the pix ... do you really have Sun Drop? I did at least two bottles a day in high school back in Chattanooga. My mother did her best to shame me off it -- "It tastes just like citrate of magnesia -- how can you stand something that awful" -- but it suited me jes' fine.

I like Maple Garden, which used to be part of the Peking Duck House chain but broke away. They're at 236 East 53rd Street, 212/759-8260. They have the identical presentation of PDH, and you don't have to order ahead. They aren't really authentic, since they don't bring the duck out sizzling hot and serve the skin separately, but I like the skin on the meat anyway, and the flavor is great. They don't automatically serve soup either. You have to ask them to chop the carcass and bring it back out. There's lots of meat on it. The price is of course a few dollars higher than in Chinatown, but the place is never crowded, the tables are large and well-spaced, the noise level is low and everyone is fluent in English. The rest of their menu isn't up to the PD, but the PD itself is spectacular.

Here's a never-fail method I learned from the NY Times many years ago: - Pan fry pork chops 4 minutes on each side. - Turn off the heat, cover the pan tightly and let it sit for 12 minutes. This retains the natural liquid. For me, brining just adds water. Add a little water or wine to the pan, scrape up the fond and reduce with small amounts of sweet spices (allspice, cinnamon, ground cloves).

I recently get a Kyocera ceramic paring knife with the ergonimic handle. It's perfect -- inexpensive, very sharp and great for cutting up fruits and vegetables.

Look for butchers that process what hunters bring in. They usually will freeze what they cut up and may have extra capacity. Call any local hunting club or (gasp) the NRA.

Ah Leung - Helps and a half. Thank you!

Ah Leung - Great advice. I assume the beautiful end-grain chopping block is the ironwood model from The Wok Shop site. They also make one from pine, which they say is easier on the knives. Which do you recommend? I don't see the bone cleaver from your photo on The Wok Shop site. Could you supply a model number, or a name they will recognize if I order one by mail? Many thanks.

The photos on the Bamix site seem to show that the metal blade and its short tube enclosure both whirl. It would be easy to let the tube touch the side of the container and start whirling around, like the motorcyclists running up the side of a giant barrel at the carnival. I'd say that the container you blend in should be dishwasher-safe at a minimum. If I'm wrong, and the outer tube stays stationary, than you should be able to use it in any substantial container.

Heres' a list of styles and comments: Chinese Cleaver Here is Martin Yan's Chinese Chef's Knife. Good luck at matching his double-chop motion. For a dispassionate general evaluation, see Cooking for Engineers. From an evaluation site: -- standard size is 220 x 112 mm. (8-2/3" x 4-7/8") - the Yan knfe is 8" x 3" -- 620 grams is good for chopping but too heavy for most people and clumsy for slicing -- 250 grams is too light -- 430 grams (15.2 ounces) is about right A relatively thin blade (3 mm) is best for knife work (as opposed to chopping). For the best control, put your thumb along the blade on one side and your index finger along the other as discussed here, holding the handle only with your other 3 fingers. One instructor even says put your middle finger on the blade, pointing nearly straight down, and hold the handle with only 2 fingers. With a properly sharp knife, you rest the edge on what is to be cut and push it slightly forward. The knife cuts/drops through by its own weight.

My wife actually found (in NYC) a can labelled "Mushy Pease." They were exactly as advertized -- dreadful hot, cold or 9 days old.

A Kossar's bialy (60 cents, and s@p#f%l&t* to all you non-New Yorkers who can't get them), lightly toasted and spread with the chicken essence (and plenty of the fat) that collects in the bottom of the roasting pan. It's so good that your vision goes dim, because your brain is using all it's energy to take in the flavor.

Morbier from boutique producers has an ash line between the morning and evening milk, but I've been told (by the head of the cheese department at Zabar's) that in the commercial versions it's just for show. She also said that the line in Humboldt Fog is just for show. How about the ash-coated logs of chevre?

In the Braising Q&A (2/18/05), Paula Wolfert wrote: When I was working in Southwest France back in the late 70's and early 80's, I studied briefly with a chef named André Guillot, now gone about 10 years. He used to give cooking courses for chefs and enthusiatic cooks in Santons in Provence. Among his most famous fans were Marc Meneau, Gerard Vie, Jean Marie Amat, Emil Jung and Richard Olney. In fact, we formed an Association of the Friends of Andre Guillot to keep his name alive, but alas he is almost forgotten today. One of his most memorable tips for salting meat included the following:" lightly salt the meat the minute you bring it home. If you do this, you will hardly need to salt later, and in the end you’ll use half as much salt as you would normally. Lightly salted meat will tenderize and mature in flavor when stored overnight in the refrigerator. " He also taught me that though some blood will run out, he considered it insignificant. In fact, he suggested that meat be coated lightly with grape-seed oil right after the salting to keep it from drying out; he prefered grape-seed oil, because it smoked at a much higher temperature than other oils.

Brainfart. I mean Parker. Sorry about that.

For an anniversary-ending-in-zero a few years back, we splurged on a 1982 Leoville Las Cases, which was rated 100 by WS and Johnson. I opened it and took a small taste immediately and after 10 minutes and found it tightly closed and tannic. I decanted it into two giant Riedel Vinum Bordeaux glasses (each holding half a bottle) and tasted every 30 minutes for 3 hours, finding that it had opened up each time. We had it with a Lobel steak after 3-1/2 hours, when it was excellent but still not quite ready. We saved some to try at midnight (8 hours), when it had finally relaxed and showed its depth. This wine, at least, needed substantial breathing, and benefitted from it.

Vinnie retired to Florida, but the Mexican waitress and chef bought the name and reopened on west side of 1st Avenue one door above 13th St. It's exactly the same food The lima bean soup was still rich, with a splash of good quality olive oil. The beef pizaioula sandwich still floated an inch above the plate on garlic fumes. Pasta with garlic and erl was as great as ever. They've also added a Hispanic menu and a full bar.

For the title as well as the subject matter, Behold My Butt! has to be the champion.

Believe it or not, even the best places add bouillon cubes. If you use salt-free broth, the salt level should be OK.

My baseline is a no-name place in Chattanooga, TN, on Dodson Avenue next to the bowling alley. It's been run by a black grandfather, father and son since the 1950s. Their ribs have a great crust and burnt ends that raise the flavor level, which Front Street didn't have. By comparison, Front Street had little pork flavor. FS's sausages were, for me, too upper class, with too many spice notes. I prefer juicier ones with maybe one spice and the Southern amount of fat. FS's cole slaw was very good, but again, an upper class version that called attention to too many flavors. It should be an accompaniment, not a co-star. The FS baked beans were blah. The sugar was under control, but I want more bean flavor, with some fatback rather than lean pork. BBQ should be a sin, not a gourmet dish. I want to pull off the meat and gnaw the marrow out of the soft ends of the bones. Finally, I want the experience to be about the BBQ, not the music.

I checked with the maker, who replied: Unfortunately we don’t have distribution to United States or to Canada. However, there is one web-shop in Austria, which sells our liqueurs. They have both, Arctic Bramble and Cloudberry liqueurs in their selection. Their internet-address is: www.finnshop.at. I’m quite sure that they can assistant you with this question. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to take a contact. Best regards, Lignell & Piispanen Harri Nylund Export Manager

I was underwhelmed. I got the 2-part combo with baby backs and sausages, which was genuine BBQ, but the flavor was nothing special. The host was great -- warm and friendly. At least on Saturday night, the 2-guitar combo was deafening, blotting out all conversation. It took me 45 minutes of wandering to get back on the Interstate, so leave a trail of breadcrumbs on the way in. Not worth the special trip, I'm afraid.

My wife and I love the Hudson House Inn in Cold Spring Harbor. The easiest and prettiest way to get there is to go out over the GWB, set your cruise control on 55 and go up the Palisaides Parkway to the end, cross the Bear Mountain Bridge and go north for about 15 miles on 9. It's right on the water, with a great view. There's a charming bandstand, where on warm weekends, there's often an oom-pah band that comes over from the army band at West Point. The accommodations are old-fashioned lovely and the restaurant is excellent. Finally, there are about 50 antique shops to look into.

Not only Norwegians eat lutefisk. Swedish-Americans, especially in the Yupper Midwest, consume copious amounts of it. It was associated with church dinners in the fall and Christmas eve dinner in Minnesota where I grew up. I personally like it a lot when it's cooked right. But there is absolutely nothing in this world worse than badly cooked lutefisk. Norwegian style is usually boiled and served with lots of drawn butter and rolled up in lefse -- wrap ala Viking. Swedish style is served with white sauce instead of drawn butter and minus lefsa. Because my family contained "mixed" marriages, we grew up eating it both ways. Never, ever, ever heard of lutefisk pie and can't find any mention of it in a couple of sources I consulted. However, I agree with the writers who say give these guys the best of your own regional cuisine. You get to show off your cooking. Best, Mary Vinquist From Mary's husband: Hickory dicory disk I et some lutefisk It first went down And then came up. Hickory dicory disk. Mary's brother can't bear it, although he's Swedish on all sides. His motto is "I shall not let a lutefisk pass my lips, and lips that touch lutefisk shall never touch mine."

It shouldn't be difficult to get some pork fat from the butcher, at least if you don't shop at a supermarket where everything is prepackaged at a central location. If you're not into barding, you could simply drape a layer of fat over the loin as it cooks, or butterfly the loin and roll it up with the fat. For chops and other thin cuts, I use an infallible method given in the NY Times many years ago: Pan fry the chops 4 minutes on each side, turn off the heat, cover tightly and let it sit for 12 minutes. (An instant read thermometer should show 150.) The residual heat finishes the meat perfectly, and there's plenty of moisture.