DMS

Alice Water recommends salting meat as soon as you bring it home from the store, wrap it back up and stick it in the fridge. I haven't tried it yet to see if it makes a difference. I usually salt when I pull meat out to come to temp before cooking/roasting/grilling.

Sigh. I am not painting you with any broad brushes and I would expect the same. I am talking about invasive species and the argument you are making is not parallel with that. I am against invasive species running wild and screwing up my state. If that is the heavy hand of government or whatever you want to call it, fine, but it doesn't speak to my politics. Annabelle, I do not know for certain as the state only reports "feral swine." Here is the report that they recently issued (PDF) - Michigan Feral Swine Reports. My guess from reading the accounts in the papers and local news on the run up to this is that our population here is from escaped swine/boars from game ranches and not heritage pigs. That is why I said it was probably screwed up on implementation. I think there is a difference between neutered heritage pigs kept for small family production and boars kept on wild game ranches, but then again maybe the differences are not that far apart genus-species wise. Here is the PDF ruling that lists exactly what they are banning.

Cooking oil doesn't start breeding once released and making 4-6x its volume. There is a difference between a pollutant and an invasive species. Boars are an invasive species. Cooking oil is not. And I think you would trust there is already regulatory systems in place for many pollutants here with all this fresh water we have in the state.

The government wasn't going off half cocked. The DNR has been trying to get game ranches and use of wild boars stopped from the moment it started. Here is the webpage they set up on the topic: http://www.michigan.gov/feralswine One species of swine is banned - Sus scrofa. Domestic pigs are Sus domestica and not banned. There is a lot of politics and heat around this issue, but I think they made the correct decision. It is fine to disagree with me.

Has anyone tried making their own dishwashing detergent? This is a sample recipe. I make my own laundry detergent which works fantastic, but I still have quite a stock of detergent to use before I would try making my own. That would get your CPL down quite low.

Re the plastic dishwasher packets. I use those. I used Cascade for the longest time, then when they removed the phosphate from it, it suddenly worked awfully. All the dishwashing liquids or powders sold here have to have the phosphate removed. I use the Quantum Powerball tabs because they actually work. I tried many other products before settling on those. I buy them when on sale and have a coupon for it so we stock up in streaks.

I live in Michigan. What they are doing is fine by me and overdue. Feral pigs cause destruction on a massive level to crops and farms. Michigan cropped up a number of these "game ranches" and owners stocked boars on them where you could pay to hunt them. The problem is that many of these boars escaped, and some ranches just released all the boars when they went out of business. Those boars are now running hog wild over our state and breeding. Agriculture accounts for a huge percent of Michigan's economic output and closing down this is good step in my opinion. Wild pigs are already becoming a problem here and it definitely does not need to get any worse. Michigan is very sensitive to these kind of issues. Look at the Asian carp problem. That started eerily similar to the feral pig in that the fish "cafo" farms swore the Asian carp they brought in to help clean their ponds would never escape. Whoops. You can also add all the invasive species that are dropped by cargo ballast water to this. That is how the zebra mussel got in the Great Lakes which is now a massive eco-system problem. I do think the state screwed up the definition of a feral pig and included some heritage breeds that should not have been included. But when you are looking at an epidemic of wild boar destruction, I will take heavy handedness at the start and then look for exemptions later. We need to get this under control, now.

A bit early here in Michigan. I've already ordered all my seeds though. Garlic and shallots were planted in the fall. Our last frost date is probably Memorial Day, so I usually time back from that. I am not growing any peppers this year which I would have started first, but a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes some of which I save year to year here. Other than that, bush beans, nasturtiums, a mini-broccoli, leaf lettuce, spinach, Charentais melons, some pickling cucumbers and my herbs. Most of this is in a 4x8 ft raised bed and a few pots - I use the Square Foot Gardening method. I need to sit down and figure out what I need to start indoors and what can go outside. Fun!

No. There is no adjustment. They slide up into the leg and rest at the lip of the plug. I don't think I can put anything up the leg. Maybe I could file down the bottom. that is about all I can think of doing.

Yes - the above link is the plugs. They are glued in to a hole and that rests on the cooktop.

My KA 4 burner cooktop grates are unlevel. The cooktop itself is perfectly level front to back and side to side. Any suggestions what I could use to level the legs on the grates? They have a plug that is set into a leg hole. When previous plugs have fallen out, I've tried varying glues but they never seem to hold. It drives me nuts that everything flows to one edge of my pans. Help! Thanks!

How To Cook Everything is a solid recommendation. Pepin's new book Essential Pepin is excellent as well plus it has a DVD demonstrating kitchen techniques.

I have a Rosle press. It is solidly built, easy to clean and will last the rest of my life I predict. It is not perfect though - some garlic presses up the sides of the chamber. But it is quick and easy and cleans well. I will keep using it. I replaced a Zyliss press that the coating started flaking with my current one.

A librarian at the NYPL has a blog on the rare cookbooks and menus. Very interesting.

Small update: The Hazan and Colicchio books are both very good. I like the style of the Colicchio book but he features large sections of his book around things that can be hard to get a hold of or things not in my normal repertoire or budget - specialty mushrooms, ramps, lobster. I checked out from the library Cooking By Hand by Paul Bertoli and Eduard de Pomaine's French Cooking in 10 Minutes. The EdP book was really delightful, but not what I am looking for. If I find a used copy of this book out and about, I will pick it up. The Bertoli book is also excellent and one of the better cookbooks I've seen in a stretch. Alas, it had to go back to the library but Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is coming in its place.

The Classic Italian Cook Book by Hazan arrived the other day (1973 version). All the classic recipes are there and not many ingredients. She certainly writes with authority. Definitely a keeper, uncertain if I want to cook through it. I need to spend some more armchair time with it. Back to perusing the suggestions and will update later - additional suggestions always welcome!

Still waiting on Colicchio to show up, but I also ordered the Marcella Hazan book from Abebooks. I'll check these 2 out and go from there.

To me it is. I have a limited amount of shelf space. I just counted - 38 cookbooks. To be honest, there are not that many that are awful books, just some I don't use much. I suppose what I meant is that am trying to keep the wheat and move out the chafe. There was an interesting article in a not too long ago issue of Art of Eating where Mr. Behr pared his cookbook collection down to 7 books that were most meaningful to him and wrote why. I don't think I could do the same thing right now. Since I have a good number of books, ones that I add in the future I want them to be good or meaningful to me. I mentioned this as membership in something like the Good Cook bookclub is all new releases. I don't like buying new release books site unseen unless I trust the author. Now, if they carried all cookbooks like a normal bookseller, I would be in a lot of trouble... The destination in this case is a book to cook through as I laid out above. I have a number of baking books - Baking by James Peterson, Bakewise by Shirley Corriher, Alton Brown's Baking book, and Peter Reinhart Bread Bakers Apprentice along with a pastry text by Bo Friberg. I am a scientist by training, but as my wife tells me, "You're a great cook, but you can't bake for crap." It is true, and I don't really know why. Baking seems totally logical to me - it is percentages and ratios and all the things I do at work. But it doesn't turn out. I can bake bread quite well (the Reinhart book is excellent!), but beyond that I have not had much luck nor have I tried to work at it extensively either. I just wanted to give a brief bio of my experience and base for anyone thinking of a book to suggest. Excellent - thanks for those suggestions!

Thanks for the discussion! I ordered Colicchio's book last week but it hasn't arrived yet. There are some wonderful suggestions above and I plan on checking out all of them. The reviews of the Edouard de Pomiane book are really delightful! I haven't seen Ad Hoc, or any of Keller's books actually, and I don't own any Marcella Hazan either. I will definitely go the Abebooks route on her older book. The reason I have so many books is I am an off and on again member of The Good Cook cookbook club (4 for $1 kind of deal). It is difficult to buy books from them though as they only carry new releases, and often I won't buy a book unseen until there is substantial experience with it in the ether. I am looking to fill certain niches now and need to pare down my collection. Many books will go as some new ones come in and the quality and meaning of my cookbooks increases.

There are some wonderful suggestions here! Many of these books are out OOP so they will have to be tracked down used or at a library which is fine. I have some digging to do and look forward to any more suggestions! Dennis

I have many cookbooks - probably around 35 or so. Some books I use more than others, some I have just to read, and some for reference. I haven't cooked my way through an entire cookbook though which is something I would like to do. The books I have, for one reason or another, don't seem to be great candidates for cooking completely. Many are large recipe collections (like Bittman, Joy of Cooking, Martha Stewart). I want the book to teach me a way or style of cooking and give an education or flavor of the writer. The best candidate I own currently is James Peterson's Cooking. I reference this book often as I like Peterson as a writer, but it hasn't really bitten me to want to cook through it. Sally Schneider's New Way to Cook might also be, but I was pretty disappointed in that book and didn't really like the methods. I tend to cook mostly American with some French, Italian and Mexican. I haven't cooked much Indian or Eastern food. Candidates from initial looking around might be Alice Waters Art of Simple Food or Jamie Oliver Cook with Jamie which seemed interesting. I don't want a massive tome that would take forever. I am a decent cook and a pretty lousy baker. If I could get suggestions for excellent, accessible cookbooks that would be a great candidate to cook through, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks - Dennis

Bumping this thread... Wondering if anyone can compare the 3rd edition to the 2nd edition. I am wondering if it is worth me picking up if I have the 2nd (which I love). Thanks!

I have three of Peterson's cookbooks: Sauces, Essentials of Cooking (gift) and Cooking. Much of Essentials is replicated in Cooking. I think those two books are what you are looking for. Peterson is probably my favorite cookbook author. Dennis

I have the meat grinder and sausage stuffer. I echo the comments above. To me KA stand mixers and 99% about the mixer and 1% about the attachments. As a side note, has anyone tried this? http://www.sideswipeblade.com/index.html Dennis

I just had a thread on sourcing veal bones here on eGullet. There was a local-ish grocery store that had veal bones for me at 79 cents/lb. I already made my veal stock - it is in the freezer and I need to get an afternoon to make demi from a good chunk of it now. If you are having trouble, try calling or emailing your state Beef Council or Veal Council (Michigan has both). They got back to me within a day or two with several sources for buying veal bones. Dennis