DerekW

We're in a semi-rural location, and an old property with plenty of ingress points, so I've had the same sort of opportunity to work through a lot [just about all] of the available trap types. Some we lose bait from, some break, some trigger but don't make a clean catch &c. For us at least, these work, keep on working and don't act as feeders. They never need a litter-box emptied. PB in the bait cup can't easily be removed and the trigger paddle surrounds it. Unequivocally recommended by this satisfied customer - I can't speak for the mice, but there have been no complaints lodged as yet. I've seen copies - I think the Kness Snap-E is the original. It looks as though they are pretty much the 'uncovered' version of the ones CaliPoutine recommended.

Why do people like them? The rectangular shape is space-efficient, and the polycarb ones are close to indestructible. Just to further muddy the water.... There's a version of the hard plastic Cambros which can take oven temperatures - if you see them stacked they are obviously an amber colour, but it's easy to miss if you just pick up a single box. The 'freezer to oven' rated ones are more expensive than the standard clear polycarbonate. The lids for all types range from clear plastic 'serving covers' through polyethylene 'clip-on' type to clear lids with very effective gasket type seals. Guess which ones are the expensive type We use the poly clip on lids for general storage and freezer, and the gasket type for those occasions where spill-resistance is at a premium [e.g. carrying dinner fixings over to friends on a bicycle]

Richters in Toronto now carry what they describe as the real Cuban "Mojito mint" - the plants we got from them are as yet too tiny to provide enough leaves for a test

"Voted #1 Portable Grill (RV and Tailgators Worldwide) " Hmmm. Fictional endorsement?

You could try "South China Seas" in Vancouver. It's not really 'online shopping' but they claim to be able to take orders by email. Retailing on Granville Island [in the main market building], they do carry a lot of the harder to find stuff.

Prompted by seeing Chris's report, I thought to add one of my own: We've lived with a Sakura R 747 now for about a year. It's installed over a BlueStar 30 inch range. So far we've been very happy with it. Separately switched dual speed fans, and a claimed 600 cfm. I'm inclined to believe the claim. When the big burners are running that range kicks out a lot of heat, but as soon as the fans are turned on the feeling of "the cook being broiled" disappears instantly, along with any smoke or vapour. No more opening the kitchen window in the depth of winter Unlike most of the hoods offered here, the Sakura has no filter media as such, instead relying on fan blades which catch and spin the grease out into silicone ducts which lead to removable grease traps. The mesh fan guards have their own spin-off traps, and the guards themselves are easily washable. I think the idea is that the 'mechanical filtration' system offers less resistance to airflow than a partially gummed up conventional filter. Downsides? It isn't particularly quiet. No noisier than the ancient piece of junk it replaced, but by no means whisper-quiet, especially with both fans on high. Oh, and the light is merely adequate, rather than loveable

...no such thing as a free lunch... Or knife set either, I think. At best, what the set is worth at bulk wholesale will be the sum likely to be accrued by your bank in interest on your money for the period covered. The 100 Euros is not an indicator of value, in my opinion. As far as I know or can find out, V&B do not actually make kitchen knives; they attach their name to products made by subcontractors. If you have a link to anywhere actually selling the knives offered then that might provoke further [better informed ] discussion. If nowhere actually sells the knives then it seems likely that they are a product created for just this kind of marketing. Sets of knives are rarely ever a good deal, anyway. I think you would be better served by buying one or two decent knives of known provenance. By all means pay for them by using the interest earned by leaving the money in the bank. You did invite opinions, eh?

Recently, Pacific have had more of what I've been looking for than Russell's. Stocks vary and I think all the supply houses have their strengths. As a generalisation I'd say that buying from a supply house is more likely to get you skookum basic gear than to save you money. If you are setting up a home kitchen I would recommend two things: One. Have a list of the items you need or want [and know the difference ] Two. Take your time and make a weekly habit of checking out your nearest 'Homesense' store - they sell overstock on all sorts of kitchen equipment, and I've picked up some real steals there - $300 pans for $30, that kind of thing...

Shepherd Neame no longer list a US agent on their Importers Page. Perhaps the page is out of date? I'd think that contacting the brewery might be your best bet.

With the usual caveats about anyone claiming to be an expert [i'm not]: As shown in this post up thread, a similar setup has worked fine for us. It's my experience that things work more smoothly if the smoke flow is up-hill, or at least along the horizontal, but that should be easy to arrange. I don't think you will need to make any adjustments to smoke, wood quantity or anything else. You're just economically re-purposing waste smoke here Two other things strike me about the setup you have shown: There appears to be no obvious way to regulate the out flow smoke overall, and at least on our Weber based rig, a vent the size you have on the tote would cause the whole set up to draw much too vigorously for good temperature control. I'd suggest dispensing with the nice cap on the exit pipe and substituting some piece-of-scrap lid to allow you to throttle things back at will. Secondly, be prepared for a substantial volume of condensate either in the cross piping or in the cold box and plan accordingly - you probably don't want that gunge dribbling onto the food product at either end. Regardless of smoke flow, the gunge definitely runs downhill

Isn't it a numbers game? I would not be telling you anything you did not already know if I were to mention that relative both to incomes and to other expenditures food is cheap in North America, and meat even more so. As to lamb, I think there are a few factors you touched on which contribute: Sheep might well transition poorly to agri-business's model of how animals ought to be raised [in wire cages]. They graze rough, tough land fairly well, but that's not what Meat Inc. wants. Sheep are smaller animals, and the per head processing cost is higher than kine, likewise the per pound cost. Lamb, and it's grown up relative mutton*, actually tastes of something, and in the mass-market of North America it seems to me that can be an alien concept. Our nearest speciality farm raises a herd of sheep. If I remember then I'll ask the farmer the next time I'm out there if the sheep are significantly harder to keep on their feet than the deer or boar. *Lamb, at least as I knew it, means meat from an animal slaughtered around 6 months, mutton is from an animal a couple of years old or older. The term 'hogget' covers the ground somewhere in between, but I don't recall ever seeing it used in a butchers descriptions. [sidebar] When I still lived in Scotland and would go mountain biking in the wilderness I saw a coach wend its way across a single track road through the wilds before stopping to disgorge a load of Canadian tourists, so that they could take pictures of the sheep. For us locals the sheep were ubiquitous hill country background: for the tourists even then it seems the sheep were a rarity. It's not even as though it was lambing season! [/sidebar]

As Anna says, you should be fine with whipping eggs in a clean plastic bowl - I've done it often enough. The cream of tartar thing is [i think] a separate issue - small amounts of acid will give a more stable whipped egg white. I often throw in a dash of lemon juice. A similar chemical process lies behind the old use of copper bowls, if memory serves. As always, McGee is the go-to source, but my copy is not to hand.

For cleaning around the hood and range, I'm fond of "Goo Gone" [the original stuff in the bottle, not one of their task specific reformulations]. We keep a little pump spray bottle of it for kitchen cleaning. Citrus terpene based, I think. A light spray, a wipe with a paper towel if the build-up was particularly thick and a further wipe with a damp sponge. Done. That said, I'm absolutely loving the spin-trap, non filtration 600cfm hood we finally installed to replace the useless old recirculator. Seeing [and scooping out] the accumulating sludge from the catchers sure beats having the same sludge build up on the kitchen surfaces

Air in the 'fridge' is pretty dry - if you think you'll need to pause the process for a significant length of time then I'd advise minimizing further moisture loss. You want some 'skin' [the pellicule, or surface tackiness] on the meat going into the smoker but probably not air-dried pig-pemmican Cling film or a freezer bag for a day or so, into the freezer if it's going to approach a week before you can fire up the smoker. Just my opinion....

There were hardly any hereabouts: I've been mixing the juice and saving the peel for C. Baker's bitters. The excellent Mr Wondrich's "Imbibe" gives an imprecise date somewhere around 1905-ish. Perhaps, or perhaps just part of the general 'drying trend'? I wasn't very satisfied with my 'sweet vermouth' results. Drier and sharper, with something herbal to tweak things would have worked better, I think. Ah, hindsight. A more 'in your face' Dry than the NP I had to hand, and little Chartreuse, perhaps.Now I wish the oranges hadn't all disappeared

Don't! Just slice the stem end off the head, like a little hat. Drizzle a little oil in, maybe throw in a sprig of herb, pop the hat back on and place the head into a foil packet. Depending on the width of your foil you might get the whole lot into three foil bundles, like garlic bread [without the bread] to look at, if you follow me. Once the garlic is baked the individual cloves will pop out of the papery shell at the merest poke with the handle end of a teaspoon or similar implement.

As I first encountered it [in a book by Mark Kingwell which is more theme and variations, more text with accompanying drink than the usual drink dictionary format] I think the recipe called for 'Gin'. No mention of Old Tom. Our usual is Tanqueray. Preferring many of my drinks on the sour side of perky I don't miss the sweetness. Try 2oz Dry Gin, 1 oz Rosso, 1/2 oz lime juice and 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino. I don't mind 'odd' - I'm odd enough to like it

Can you offer any insight, please, into what makes nattou an attractive prospect, or even a plausible acquired taste? It always seems to be mentioned in the same breath as words like 'stinky' and 'slimy'. As a big cheese-fan I can relate to stinky, I suppose, but slimy isn't my favourite texture...

...and in addition to the list being compiled, the Emerson [which as part of our home list of regulars is heavier on the gin than as it appears on CocktailDB.This rare opportunity for me to add a snippet of information does double duty as a cover for thanking you for the sterling work you are undertaking [don't want to come across as too 'fanboy' ] I'm really enjoying your progress; of course it's work - all that careful measuring and acquisition, those occasional strain to drain results...

Thanks! They'll hang for at least that long. If or when the weather gets too warm then they'll be moved into an old refrigerator with an external temperature controller and a small fan for air circulation. I'm not sure whether or not to lard over the exposed flesh and try for a longer, slower drying time.

One reason I went the 'plywood box' route was the expectation of encountering difficulty in getting the low temperature smoke to carry enough draft to go 'downhill' from the firebox and then back up again. By elevating the lightweight box (not so readily done with the spare fridge currently sitting in the workshop) it was easy enough to keep things flowing the right way...

Thanks Rob! We're eating a hole in the existing freezer contents with a view to doing a similar thing - there's a farmer local to us who raises boar, sheep and deer [amongst other things] and processes them on-site. Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall makes the case for decent meat eating much better than I could hope to; I'd encourage those looking for support in shedding their 'polytray dependencies' to read either his 'Meat'' book [the Amazon 'look inside' extract happens to be relevant] or perhaps some of the similar material in one or two of the essays in 'Hugh Fearlessly Eats-it-all'.

Thanks for all the input, folks. Rodney's generates some mixed responses, eh? Perhaps we'll do this in a couple of months time when there might be less 'ski-season' traffic and pressure on Whistler.

Like this: Surprisingly well, perhaps, but plywood is tough stuff I've poured molten lead into plywood boxes, and had only the face plies char. Here's what the hams looked like after about 16 hours in the smoke: You can see the effect of the molasses based cure Now it's all about time and patience. I still find the amount of Number Two cure specified for this recipe to be a bit startling.

Ah.Should have specified. Please, no (a) frat boy antics or (b) painfully loud music. See Otherwise it was sounding good. Do we just need to pick a day/time when they're all relaxed and quiet? A Tuesday afternoon or some such?