vice

Staphylococcus aureus toxin formation is prevented at a pH of 5.3 or less. So you shouldn't have a problem with Staph If your process reliably achieves this pH (and without using a starter culture, that's a non-negligible if). Bottom line: I wouldn't be comfortable with this process unless I was monitoring pH during the fermentation step.

Making ice is one of the rhythms of daily life I most enjoy. Of all the plastic twist trays I've tried, I've found these to be the best option: they release easily and cleanly and I like the size and shape of the cubes -- as close to a true cube as I've seen, apart from the silicone trays. They stack very securely up to 4 high; above 6 and the going gets squirrely. They're dirt cheap, but hold up well (I think the only reason I've bought new ones over the years is because they were left behind in moves).

Note the product I linked to in my first post: $25 plus $40 for shipping. No thanks.

Living in Southern California, it was all you could do not to trip over 40 lb bags of lump charcoal (like this here). Every store carried them, from the national chain supermarkets to the tiny bodegas. Back in Rhode Island, all I can find are measly 8 lb bags. That's about two chimney loads full for me, which ain't gonna cut it with grilling season approaching. Any leads?

Canning meat will require a pressure canner (link).

If winters are consistently below freezing in your neck of the woods, why not just unplug the sucker?

Seems similar in concept to frequent flipping on the grill.

Cocktail Kingdom has it in stock, just placed my order.

When I couldn't get local Ridgebacks, I'd often pick up wild Mexican shrimp from the fish market in Santa Barbara. They usually had some serious chow "in progress", and I got in the habit of shelling and deveining those varieties even though I prefer to cook shrimp shell on.

I have the wrong pigs or I'm doing this wrong, but I can never get any meat off trotters. I keep them for stock. What recipes do you use? Doubt it's just you (or your pigs). Meat yield will depend entirely on where the trotters are lopped off.

I know Kent asked this a while ago, but since there were no responses, I'll bite. The guys at K&L have been bringing in a bunch of interesting agave spirits lately, some of which get a mention on their Spirits Journal blog. One such product is Los Osuna, hailing from Sinaloa north of Jalisco. Coincidentally, they use the same champagne/sparkling wine analogy to explain the relevant terminology.

I'm using spreadsheets a lot in the kitchen, with weights of all ingredients scaled by the amount of a main ingredient (say, pork shoulder for a sausage). Does anyone have experience using spreadsheets with a non-iPad tablet? Both app and device recommendations are welcome.

I have some from Libbey, the line escapes me but they're nearly identical to the Boston Shaker rocks glasses that cadmixes linked to above. The Crescent juice glasses from Crate & Barrel also have a nice feel to them.

Hank Shaw has a useful post on foraging books here. For that matter, his website has a lot of great information, albeit not in book form. The content there may have been condensed down somewhat into his recent book, Hunt Gather Cook. I haven't laid my hands on a copy, but I gather it's not meant to be a thorough foraging manual as much as to provide inspiration and some gentle encouragement to get out and explore the natural bounty.

The salt equivalent of simple syrup. I first saw it so named in Rogue Cocktails, or on the Beta Cocktails website (can't remember which).