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I thought for sure that before now someone would have posted about this book: Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, published February 4, 2014, but since no one else has, I am posting this link to an article. Plus this link to Amazon - (Moderator, please change it to a direct link, which I can't figure out how to do.) I got it for my Kindle but am so impressed that I have now ordered it in physical form. Personally I do not understand the rather snotty complaint by one person who gave it a one-star review. In my opinion it doesn't smack of plagiarism - I have the earlier book to which the reviewer referred - I find the writing in this book is for people who like to read and never "talks down" to the reader, which I find annoying in other books with a similar context. The author uses a chatty discussion technique that, as one reviewer notes, reads like an old friend who has found something interesting and wishes to share it and I find this charming as well as informative. Whether or not you are a fan of President Lincoln, this is a good book for an insight into a part of his life that has not really been explored prior to this book. Certainly the earlier book did not reference most of these factual incidents in Lincoln's life.

I use this one it breaks up the clumps and give a smooth result without introducing air - as happens with a regular wire whisk. I've used it in a pan with a flat bottom (double boiler) a round glass bowl over simmering water in a pot for larger batches and it gets into the "corners" of a regular pan and follows the contours of any bowl. That's the strangest looking whisk I've ever seen ... you do have some interesting things ... Thanks for the suggestion! Here's what Wise Geek has to say about the ball whisks.

I use this one it breaks up the clumps and give a smooth result without introducing air - as happens with a regular wire whisk. I've used it in a pan with a flat bottom (double boiler) a round glass bowl over simmering water in a pot for larger batches and it gets into the "corners" of a regular pan and follows the contours of any bowl.

The Breville is much more expensive and the Presto has a (to me) fatal error - the non-stick coating flaked off the one I had a few years ago. I gave the Presto to a friend, her husband removed all of the non-stick coating and she uses it to melt wax for candles and occasionally for a batch of homemade soap.

I often use my electric pressure cooker in the cooker OPTION - that allows cooking without pressure but you still have that option, which really comes in handy at times. Mine is the Aroma, digital, programmable seen here The 6-quart size is perfect for me. I had a smaller 4-quart that never quite fulfilled my expectations - the capacity was insufficient. I have done braising in it on the "simmer" function, and can be set for 1, 2 or 3 hours - it may go beyond that - it does have a 12-hour "Keep Warm" function (automatic after the pressure cooking and other tasks), but I have personally never set it for beyond 3 hours. It also has a steaming function - with the VENT OPEN so pressure does not build up and I successfully steamed a very large cauliflower head that would not fit into my regular steamer/rice cooker.

I've written quite a bit about various types of peppercorns on my blog. In the photo you can see a grinder labeled Muntok, with the white peppercorns. I have another, non-battery for the Sarawak. I use it quite often - there are certain dishes with delicate flavors that can be overpowered by the strong aromatics in some peppers. And in some white dishes one does not want black flecks - most recently I prepared creamed cipollini onions and used the white Sarawak pepper as it seems just a bit milder than the Muntok. I grind either one quite fine for applying to melons, fruits, etc., except when I want the flavor of a different type of pepper. I add some finely ground white pepper to the sugar/spice mixture for apple pie, gingerbread, other spiced quick breads and also sprinkle just a bit over the slices of pineapple before pouring in the batter for pineapple upside-down cake. I use CRACKED white pepper in homemade pickled peaches and pickled yellow squash - imparts the desired flavor and the appearance is neater - I also use white mustard seed for the same reason. I have yet to order any of the Penja because I still have a supply of the Muntok, Sarawak and some Talamanca del Caribe I got for Christmas. I've never noticed a "horsey" smell with white pepper - or "barnyard" and I was born and raised on a farm with lots of horses and a great deal of "barnyard" and did my fair share of mucking out stables. The rule was, if you had a pony (later horses) you cleaned up after them yourself or you paid the stablehands out of your own allowance.

I had to call my friend after he got home from LAX today (shipping a young goat to the Bay area). The KoMo mill he bought and returned was the "Medium" mill. He likes the flaker and says that if the Duett mill and flaker combo had been available at the time would have purchased that. Instead he got the Nutrimill to replace the KoMo (after trying mine while I was trying his KoMo, which has worked well for him - they bake 6 to 10 loaves of bread every other day, flake their home grown oats, wheat and barley and grind several pounds of flour fresh for every batch of bread. They have 11 children, 5 of their own and 6 adopted so they go through a lot of bread and cereals.

I had a Whisper Mill before I got the Nutrimill - more than 10 years ago and it did not work for me. The new version "WonderMill" is supposed to be much better but in my opinion it is still underpowered and people complain that it heats up with prolonged use and there is often a problem connecting the output tube to the catch container. I have also owned several stone mills, hand cranked (messy, threw flour everywhere and redressing the stones was a bitch). When I was doing a lot of baking - in the late '80s and early '90s, I would rent time on a commercial impact mill at a local health food store to grind grains that were not then commercially available to consumers as flour (or grits). Then I got one of the Lehman's hand cranked stone mills - very messy, gave it away - then got the Whisper Mill and used it for a couple of years or so, never satisfied, gave it away - then got the Nutrimill, which has fulfilled my needs perfectly. If you saw my post about Cornbread, it shows how the Nutrimill handles dent corn - which the KoMo I tried did not do well or grind evenly. I am extremely fussy about my cornmeal and will not settle for anything less than perfect.

Sorry, but I still like the Nutrimill best. It has a 1 3/4 HP motor. I've had mine for ten years and used it a lot with no problems. And it is much more versatile for my needs. Not to mention it handles a larger capacity. I also do not like the occasional "burnt" flavor that happens with power stone mills and I have tried the KoMo mill ( purchased by a friend who also bought a KoMo flaker at the same time - has since returned the mill because it took too long to mill sufficient amounts for his purposes). As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Nutrimill is an IMPACT MILL and does not heat up as much as mills with stones. The price is also more reasonable. Frankly, I prefer practicality to pretty.

24cm - when I measured with a tape it showed just a scosh less than 9.5 inches, i.e., 24cm I'm so sorry. I managed to read "oven" in your first post as "oval" - silly me. I found this one on ebay.

It's 24cm ... Didn't see anything when I last checked Etsy. Thanks for looking! What is the width measurement of the pot - inside measurement at the rim where the rim on the lid must fit inside.

If you are able to document this adventure with photos, if possible, I would be very happy. Kerry Beal and I tried to make injera with 100% teff but were not successful. We had been shown the process by an Ethiopian restaurant owner but it is not as simple as it might sound to grow the starter, create and rest the batter and finally cook the bread. I know, my previous attempts were not anywhere near expectations. My friend says that many restaurants use wheat flour so it will hold together better but she wants a gluten-free bread so uses only the teff but it is a combination of the white and the red/brown varieties. She says that so much of the finer white teff is now being exported that many people "back home" are using this combination product or even adding millet flour to it, which is much cheaper but does produce an acceptable end product and it remains very low in gluten. She explained that many Ethiopians who have been here for decades are subject to diabetes because they can't handle the sugars in western type breads. She is an advocate for her people sticking to the types of foods they traditionally consumed. She is not a chef - she is involved in the Ethiopian Orthodox church in L.A. and organizes charitable events and trips to Ethiopia for donors who wish to see where their money is going. She does have a large extended family and (with help) does a lot of the traditional cooking - although she says her grandsons usually opt for "American" food (which includes Mexican and Chinese) except on special occasions. She also directed me to this site, which she says does it right - so I will understand the process - because many other sites get it totally wrong.

Can you post the dimensions of the lid? I have a few "orphan" lids - for Descoware, Dru, Copco, Prizer, Chasseur - not sure if there is a LC in there, I know there is a Staub - but I know it wouldn't fit because the ends of the old ones are much rounder than the LC. Also check on ETSY because I recently saw a lid for the LC terrine mold - which was gone within a couple of days. Etsy is hot right now and things move rapidly and there are quite a few THRIFT stores that sell via that service and the "odd" items are usually priced reasonably.

My friend is bringing me some "lit" a few days before so I can develop it for the starter and mix the batter the day prior. She is also bringing a high temp round electric griddle type thing in case my big cast iron griddle doesn't get hot enough on the high-output burner.

That's a clever idea! I've been using mortar and pestle, which is a snap for small amts. BTW, I enjoyed your blog. I love vintage kitchenalia as well -- though I don't have space to collect much. Do you ever go to auctions? They are a super source for inexpensive treasures. I used to attend estate auctions but am now pruning my collections, selling off various appliances and items since I am 74 and too old to go jaunting around to hunt for new things - and I need the room. And speaking of new ingredients, I have been experimenting with teff flour, combined with millet flour for flatbreads, pancakes and waffles. So far I am very pleased with the results. I want to try making Ingera, but am waiting for a friend to stop by and give me some instructions because it can be a bit tricky.

Most of my ladles are spout free but somewhere I have one that has a sort of triangular shape - advertised as handy to get the very last bits from the bottom of a pan - which pours from either side or even off the front. I took a cursory look at the ladles that are hanging and don't see it so it may be put away as from time to time I swap out various pieces and store the overflow. I've found that they all drip, some more than others, so I generally have a paper towel pad handy. For ladling into mugs, deep bowls or other vessels for direct servings, I use a canning funnel because it looks neater. I taught this technique to a friend who owns a bakery/cafe and serves a lot of soups in the large "latte" mugs or cups and he says it is so much easier and takes less time than having to wipe the rims of the cups - and he has extended it for dishing up stews and chilies in the wider, shallower soup bowls. No drips!

I love long pepper. I have written about it here - and given my hint on how to use it in a pepper mill. I use a doggy toenail clipper (for kitchen use only) to nip it into small pieces that will fit nicely into the mill. There are some other items that the clipper handles better than scissors or knives. (Such as the tiny, skinny dried chiles that tend to fly all over the place but clipping them with the toenail clipper over a cup, keeps them under control.

It will make a lovely decorative piece. If you want to brighten it up, using the "old time" method, just use half a lemon, dipped in salt and rub it on the outside. I had the advantage of being able to see the place where copper was being formed into the fat, globe-shaped pot stills when I was about ten, so I recall it fairly well. The wood forms for various pots and pans were hung on a wall or stacked on the floor but there were none of those being made at the time I was there, just two big pot stills for a licensed bourbon distiller, and I was fascinated by the way they were putting it together. My grandpa had gone there to buy some barrels - but coopering was not as interesting as the copper work. I wish I had paid more attention, or asked some questions but in those days children were expected to "be seen and not heard."

It's an old sauce pan which, like many from that era - around the turn of the last century to the 1940s, were made for use on a wood or coal range and the circumference of the bottom would allow it to be set into the opening when one of the range top lids was removed. Just using the pan for beating the contents with a wooden spoon would be enough to round out the bottom of the pan. I have a couple that look like that and I saw them in use when I was a child. Pans like that were made by independent artisans, formed from sheet copper over wooden forms and the top rims turned over the "wire" handle by hand. The tin lining is easy because tin melts at a fairly low temp and one used to be able to buy re-tinning kits for copper cookware. I was born and raised in western Kentucky and in the 1940s there was a copper smith who made pot stills (for the legal whiskey makers) and also made cookware somewhat similar to this as a sideline. He was in business with his brother who made barrels for the whiskey makers. My grandmother had one of the large copper "boilers" used for certain types of laundry that was designed for use on a wood/coal kitchen range. Incidentally, the county in which I was born and grew up was a "dry" county - no liquor, but Cooper Tillson (as he was known) was never short of business.

Frankly, if it comes right down to it, I am a heck of a lot more concerned with SICK employees coming to work and handling and serving food because they are in jobs where the employers ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO ALLOW SICK DAYS OFF WITH PAY and they can't afford to miss work and lose pay. A friend whose son works at a big chain, mid-range, restaurant, said that she had to take his keys away from him when he was so ill with the flu he could barely stand - because his manager phoned and told him if he didn't get his ass in to work he wouldn't have a job. He was off work a week and several other employees were also off sick, none got paid but they also did not lose their jobs. Possibly because an L.A. County Health dept. rep. went in (following an anonymous tip) and spoke to the manager and warned him they would lose their "A" rating if patrons became ill because they allowed sick workers in the place.

In part, this law was in response to the filthy, lazy habits of SOME food workers who were OBSERVED by undercover investigators and independent news reporters performing tasks in a most unsanitary way. If the industry will not or can not police itself, then it leaves it up to government to pass laws to make it mandatory. If the people objecting (those who use exemplary hygiene methods) were to see what goes on in some places, they too would be disgusted. Frankly, I don't know why they are complaining. I've been using gloves for many years - I did so when I was doing some part-time catering and I've always worn gloves in my own kitchen when handling messy stuff because it is a hell of a lot easier to rip off a glove to answer the phone than try to clean up the phone later. I wear gloves handling raw meat and poultry because a friend - who owns a small bakery/cafe - got a serious infection in one hand last year from a pathogen that the doctor opined got into his hand via a hangnail lesion. The infection was so bad he had to have IV antibiotics and it was touch and go if he would lose the finger. He always used gloves to handle cooked things, ready to serve and when plating but this was just from taking a pork roast from a package, rubbing it with spices and tying it up and putting it into a roasting pan. After which he washed and dried his hands. He woke up the next morning with swelling and pain in the finger. As soon as he saw the doctor, he went to the shop, retrieved the package that held the pork and the pathogen - usually quite innocuous, was identified so they could get him on the correct antibiotic. In this case, gloves would have protected the chef because proper cooking totally eliminates the pathogen so it would not affect customers. I wear gloves when mixing meatloaf by hand and I have always worn them when working with bread or pastry dough - because there seems to be a RULE that as soon as I get into a really sticky or buttery dough, the phone will ring and pulling off a glove to answer the phone is much quicker than trying to clean dough off a hand and certainly much easier than chiseling dried dough off a handset. I buy the Nitrile gloves from Smart & Final, when I am down that way or from Amazon and they are tough, strong and fit perfectly on my rather large hands. A local independent Mexican restaurant has all its people behind the counter wearing gloves and they change them often. The place is always packed at the customers are of all ethnic groups. The owner says he thinks customers appreciate cleanliness and he makes it a rule that employees have to adhere to his rules - and he has been doing this since the place opened six or seven years ago.

I have several thermometers and all are from Thermoworks. The Super-Fast one - in the link from DiggingDogFarm is excellent. It is certainly fast and it is WATERPROOF, which is not true of other inexpensive units. It can be thoroughly washed and rinsed in hot water, if one has happened to drop it into a pan of milk just getting to the desired temp of 180° F. Which (from personal experience) will "kill" most of the dial-type thermometers instantly. Right now it is $19.00 and that is a great price. And that little ring on top - - means you can suspend the thermometer from a string and leave it in the liquid, if you want to leave it in something that is temp critical while you watch it at brief intervals.

NICE! Like the center-cut ham (no shank) I bought a couple of weeks ago. The label had it priced at .29 cents a pound. was supposed to be 1.29 was 2.50 -something for 8 pounds.

Doh. The blogger fails to mention how much Calcium Chloride to add as a factor of the milk. Do you know? Sorry - I buy the liquid from New England Cheesemaking and I use 1/4 teaspoon per gallon as suggested but am not rigorous about it - sometimes a few drops more get into it. They also suggest not using it for mozzarella, but I have and it certainly works better with it than without. Soft cheeses are okay without it but as I said, I like to use the whey to make ricotta and that ONLY works with the use of the calcium.

Did you add any calcium chloride to the milk? If you are using regular supermarket milk, ultra pasteurized, you have to add calcium chloride to get a curd that is strong enough. Here's a link to a page that explains it. I also add a cup of heavy cream to each liter of "regular" milk to get a better end product and I save the whey to make ricotta - adding a bit of whole milk or half and half to the whey to increase the yield.