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Zabar's has the 70 liter stockpot, with a gorgeous hammered exterior, for around $1,000. It's been there for years, and I suppose they really don't expect anyone to buy it. I watch it get darker and darker for about 6 months, and then someone shines it up and the cycle starts over. If I had a whole ox to cook down for a tablespoon of glace de viand, and a big enough cooktop, I suppose I'd think about it for when I hit the lottery.

So -- where can I get this lemon foil stuff?

Austin - A beautiful blog posting. Many thanks. I've been using the Healthy Boy brand of nam plaa, which is to my taste noticeably better than Squid. Is Healthy Boy genuine nam plaa thae (Grade A)? If not, could you recommend a brand? If they're on your user list, could you also recommend good brands of nuoc cham, shrimp paste and shrimp sauce (which, as I understand it, are in rising order of pungency)? And, for the less adventurous among us, recommended brands of the various types of soy sauce. Thanks.

This looks like the recipe for short ribs with coffee and anchos.

When I was young (college junior) and VERY foolish (college junior), I got a pint of 100 proof Rittenhouse Bonded to find out what movie cowboys drank. I hated it, but couldn't bear to pour it down the drain. Remembering Rock 'n' Rye, I got a box of rock candy and dissolved it in the Rittenhouse, which took the better part of a half hour of shaking, the rye being alcohol and all. It tasted even worse, but I got it down on a Saturday night and fell asleep. I woke at noon on Sunday with a throat full of steel wool, glass splinters in my eyes and fuming nitric acid on the brain. I felt too awful to lie down, but standing was worse. I stumbled out, getting blinded by the sun, and got a big can of V-8 and lots of coffee, which only made me feel worse. I was still hung over on Wednesday, and I couldn't stand the idea of alcohol for a month. Well, at least I didn't get alcohol poisoning and didn't throw up in bed. I can still hardly stand the taste or smell of rye.

A whole ham and a couple of kovbasys from Kurowycky, the best hams and sausages in NYC -- maybe the world. http://sausagenyc.com/ A big smoked fish platter from Russ & Daughters, with the house-made no-gum cream cheese. Bagels from The Bagel Hole in Brooklyn. A half gallon of my Really Zingy Hummus (equal parts tahini, chickpeas and lemon juice, with a couple of heads of garlic), plus fresh pita from Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Lots of fresh organic carrot slices, celery, zucchini, radishes, etc. A 3-layer REALLY BIG sheet cake from the late, lamented Olsen's Bakery. A case of Spanish champagne and apple cider from the greenmarket. The 30 guests ate every morsel. We figured they ate about 3,000 calories per person. We also bought the flowers, wrote the service and played some of the music.

Eagle?!

Beware the Apple Corer/Slicer. Like everyone, I've cut off more or less substantial parts of finger tips over the years. However, I got the worst cut ever, and the only one from which I permanently lost sensation, from an apple-corer/slicer -- a small sharp circle on the inside (which went around the core), with a "starfish" of sharp blades sticking out in a circle and attached to a round metal outer edge. The idea was to put it on top of the apple and push it down, removing the core and slicing the body in a single motion. Unfortunately, the apple was a little bit larger than the outer rim. I gripped the outer edge in my left hand and pounded with heel of my right hand on the other side. You know what happened -- the thing went all the way through, slicing my left middle finger to the bone. This is definitely one gadget NOT to have. ------------------------------------------------- However, I cut bagels with a bread knife and have never hurt myself. I start in the "dangerous" position, holding the bagel across the palm of my left hand, thumb on one side and fingers on the other, and cut downward with a bread knife. I cut gently until I get halfway through, then reverse the knife and bagel and cut up to finish.

I add a few drops of Angostura to many things to perk up the flavor. It particularly helps spaghetti sauce and fond reductions. As DrinkBoy says, keep the amount below the level where you know it's there.

I love the Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage ports, which cost about $20 and are ready for immediate consumption. Of course they're nowhere near the long-aged vintages, but they're a good bit better than the tawneys, rubies, etc. at the equivalent price.

Well, as a slight departure (or back to the original question), vanilla extract (or any extract) tastes awful, but adds a great perfume. I couldn't have eggnog without it. Eau de vie burns your tongue and tears your throat out, but a few drops of framboise over vanilla ice cream works wonders. However, eyeballs of any kind get to me, even when I don't look at them first. Fish eyes. Yuck. And isn't a lobster just a giant aquatic cockroach?

I recommend Anson Mills for the best quality grits. Store it like rice.

The corded Cuisineart SmartStick got a rave in one of the papers -- I don't remember where. Cook's Illustrated gave the Braun PowerMax MX2050 a top rating. Any experience with the Cuisineart or the particular Braun model?

Deep down in the thread, Sam said that Mauviel pots with a rolled-out rim and a handle of anything other than cast iron are 2 mm. The 2.5 mm. post have a straight rim and a cast iron handle. Therefore, the Williams-Sonoma pot is 2 mm.

Goo-Gone works but smells awful. I mostly use Un-Du, which has no odor and is even better at dissolving old glue than Goo-Gone. However, it doesn't remove the glue, so you need to wipe the area quickly after using it. Their website is offline at the moment, but here's a Google cache list of stores that stock it.

My parents dragged me to dinner at some friends of friends of my aunt. The husband (70 years old) had eaten nothing but meat for the last 50 years, probably from being forced to eat veggies by his mother on threat of having them sent to feed the poor in Israel. His wife, who was a notoriously bad cook, had discovered a cut called "eye of rump," which was apparently cheap enough to feed her husband every day. It was roughly the equivalent of eye of tubeless tire, in both texture and taste. My grandmother, on the other hand, had four recipes: motzah ball soup, pickled brisket, La Choy chow mein and gribenies. The gribenies were great. She had the magic touch to know just when to pull them out of the boiling schmaltz, so that they would finish cooking on paper towels without being either soft or burnt. The chow mein was awful, and the brisket no less. Aah, but the soup. Non-Jewish brides used to make biscuits for the new husband's first dinner. This required long, elbow-bruising mixing to make them light and fluffy, but "bride's biscuits" were famously leaden. The Jewish equivalent is motzah-ball soup. My mother said that she spend hours whipping them to be feather-light. My father hated them and wanted his mother's. They were the size of small grapefruits and had the consistency of golf balls. Also, she served them in soup plates 11" wide and 3" deep. The chicken broth was made with Herb-Ox cubes. You had to chase the motzah ball around the edge of the plate, sloshing soup on the table. Eventually you managed to wedge the ball against the side of the plate with a spoon, plunge a fork into it and carve it like a turkey. Believe me, it wasn't worth the effort.

Carbon-Off is available here. Hydrogen peroxide up to 10% is available from hair salon supply stores.

Imagine a "C" clamp, with a conical "hat" at the end of the screw (open side down to fit over one end of the nut) and a hole in the other end to brace the pointed end of the nut in. Then, imaged the curved part of the clamp wider, to make a cup to catch the shell and nutmeat.

A scoop of carefully made chopped liver on an endive leaf on a toasted crouton, with a drizzle of schmaltz.

Here's a list of French cuts from a NYC butcher: expensive filet de boeuf - tenderloin entrecôte - rib steak faux filet - sirloin tiny, single portion cuts la poire - the pear la fausse-araignée - the spider larger, comparatively tough but well flavored cuts onglet - hanger or butcher's tenderloin - naturally dark in color, so don't worry paleron - part of the shoulder clod - usually braised, but good for grilling or pan frying pavé, a/k/a filet de romsteck - the romsteck is the top butt - the filet is the poor man's filet mignon - thin, chewy, powerfully flavored cut from the leg - excellent for London broil or steak au poivre bavette d'aloyau - a smaller, more tender flank steak The Niman site says their Bavette is from the short loin, which, according to this graphic of American cuts, is either the front of the French faux filet (sirloin) or the rear of the entrecôte. See French cuts.

If you're anywhere near NYC, go to Kurowycky Meat Products, 124 First Ave. between 7th St. and St. Marks Pl., 212-477-0344, http://www.kurowycky.com, where they make the best ham anywhere. The hams are lightly glazed, and they're too good to put anything else on. If you can't get to Kurowycky, here's my favorite. It works even with the cheapest ham and gets devoured to the last morsel. Roast Supermarket Ham in Maple Sauce 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 (Colemans) whole cloves 1. Trim any skin off the ham, but leave some (< ¼"). Score the fat down to the meat in a diamond or tic-tac-toe pattern your choice. 2. Stab the ham all over with an ice pick. 3. Massage the dry mustard into the ham and stick it with whole cloves. 4. Put the ham in a deep roasting pan, dutch oven or deep baking dish just big enough for the ham to fit into with enough room to turn it over. Pour in the maple syrup until it comes up at least halfway up on the ham. 5. Put the pan in a cold oven, turn the temp control to 300 degrees 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. Here's a good bourbon glaze: 3/8 cup bourbon whiskey 1 cup packed light brown sugar scant 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 3/4 teaspoon dijon mustard 1-1/2 teaspoons orange marmalade Simmer the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly; about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let sauce cool for 5–10 minutes. Brush on the ham, before roasting, keeping it off the bottom of the roasting pan, where it will burn on and be hell to get off. The cook should sample the bourbon before, during and after each step, to make sure it hasnt' spoiled.

Steingarten raved about Occelli, but later took it all back, saying that every package he had tried for several months had been rancid. I got it once in NYC at Zabar's, and it was superb, though priced VERY high. I've never seen it since then.

From Michael Roberts, "secret ingredients" (flavor enhancers, themselves undetectable when used in small amounts): - lobster + vanilla - pork + honey, coriander, clove, orange - pork + madeira or balsamic vinegar - pork + mustard and capers - pork + peanut butter - onions, or anything that goes with them (e.g., stews) + balsamic vinegar - popcorn + fresh cumin seeds, toasted and ground - corn + chile also - pork + ground cumin, ground cardamom, ground clove, powdered ginger - Angostura bitters on most meats and vegetables - nuoc mam or nam pla on meats (adds umami) - Grated ginger on almost anything. Fresh ginger freezes well. Cut into pieces the size of the last joint of your thumb and grate it frozen. Ginger Juice from The Ginger People is also excellent.

I usually shred it and serve it over egg noodles. Next time, I'll add in stuffed olives in memory of the martini.

To remove burnt-on crud, put it on the stove, half-filled with water and bring it to a simmer, pour out the water while whisking it with a straw wok cleaning brush. Remove rust from old cast iron by baking in a self-cleaning oven or scrubbing with steel wool. Barkeep's Friend also works. Scouring powder with a halved raw potato works for stubborn spots, or use a slurry of vinegar and salt. For otherwise unremoveable heavy rust, CLR works very well, but smells awful. Others recommend Carbon-Off, http://www.discoveryproducts.com/index_carbon_off.html For pitted cast iron, have everything ground and polished out at a metalworking or cast iron shop A detailed recipe: 1. Wear rubber gloves and eye protection while cleaning cast iron since the methods require using caustic chemicals. 2. Begin by spraying the pan with oven cleaner and putting it in a plastic bag. 3. After a day or two, take it out of the bag and scrub it down with a brass brush. 4. If all the grease doesn't loosen up right away, repeat the process concentrating cleaner on stubborn spots. 5. If you have several dirty items, soak them in a solution of one and a half gallons of water to one can of lye mixed in a plastic container. 6. Allow them to soak for about five days, then remove the pieces and use the same brass brush method to scrub them clean. 7. Removing mild rust should be done with a fine wire wheel on an electric drill. 8. Crusted rust can be dissolved by soaking the piece in a 50 percent solution of white vinegar and water for a few hours. 9. Once the pan's clean, begin the seasoning process by warming it in the oven for a few minutes then applying a little shortening, vegetable cooking spray, lard or bacon fat. 10. Put the skillet back into a 225 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove and wipe it almost dry to eliminate any pooled grease. 11. Place the pan in the oven for another half hour or so, completing the initial seasoning. 12. The seasoning process will continue with use, especially if you use it to cook fatty foods (bacon, sausage, fried foods, etc.) the first few times it hits the stove. 13. To clean after cooking, boil hot water in the pan. Let it soak for several minutes and then wipe dry with a paper towel. 14. Reheat the pan and apply just enough grease to wet the surface before storing. Tips: Use the methods above only for cleaning iron. Don't soak pans in a vinegar solution more than overnight without checking them because the solution will eventually eat the iron. After cooking, do not use detergent or scouring pads to clean a cast iron pan since this will destroy the seasoning. What You Need: Rubber gloves Eye protection Spray oven cleaner Large plastic zip bag Brass brush