Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm a little concerned with your use of the word cornmeal in the recipe. Where I am in the southeastern US, if I buy something called cornmeal, a finely ground product, and cooked it in this manner, I'd end up with something called corn mush. If I were to buy any of a number of products I find labeled polenta, and cook it the same way, I end up with a dish that's basically indistinguishable from grits.

I've seen "5 minute" polenta in stores, and it is finely ground and cooks very quickly, but for the most part, the uncooked polenta I come across is much closer to grits (real grits, not instant or quick grits.) In other words, if you were to substitute polenta for cornmeal in a cornbread recipe, you'd end up with a crunchy product.

I'm not confused by the recipe. Can't wait to try it in fact. I just mention this because the texture of the product that I know as cornmeal is very different from that that I know as polenta. Am I alone here?

I love marinating meats in miso. But I think in most parts of the US, flank steak hasn't been a cheap cut for years now.

I went with the Sideswipe mixer blade based on Cook's Illustrated's recommendation. It's just as pricey, and I have no idea how it compares, but I know it speeds things up -- I save time by not having to stop and scrape, and ingredients actually mix together faster. The Beater Blade looks like it's probably easier to clean, though.

I wish I was making Girls Gone Grabblin' up, but no. It's a thing.

Oh, and sorry to hear about your ice cream maker, but at least you got to upgrade to the KitchenAid attachment! What kind was it? Mine is a Cuisinart ICE-30BC. A bunch of my friends pooled some cash together for my birthday in December to get it for me, and since then I've done at least one flavor a month. I share, of course.

Oh dang, I believe I am a couple steps ahead. I just made blueberry and blackberry basil sorbet last night.

However, my recipe actually had steps that included the basil called for in the list of ingredients. Whoops!

Out of the five Hefeweizens on this list that I have tried, Weihenstephaner is by far my favorite. In fact, I still think it's the best beer I've ever had. I was excited to see it on the line up and clicked on the link quickly, but to see it next to last is just bewildering.

I was hoping the oldest brewery in the world would fare a bit better.

"Internal temp after 6 hours was 162, and would have liked a little higher for pulled pork."

You're right, it should have been higher, as everyone else has told you. Some barbeque forums out there can back this up, but when smoking butts, they'll hit a plateau for a few hours, at around 160-165 degrees, and then eventually rise again. That sounds like what you ran into.

And yes, you have to keep that temperature low, or the sugar in your rub will start to burn and the bark will turn into char. I finished a couple butts in the oven when I was on vacation a few weeks ago because I was on an unfamiliar and probably too small Weber that I had to MacGyver into a smoker. It actually all ended up really good, but the beach house smelled pretty smoky while the butts were in the oven.

I'm going to take another look at the Smokenator again. I passed on it after much debating last summer, but I imagine there are worse ways to spend my money.

I completely agree with "there's no right way to make a potato salad." That ought to be your opening statement. I've got my own personal favorite dressing and combinations of ingredients, but it's always getting the spuds right that I worry the most about. For that reason I use red potatoes, but I've always thought the end result is just... different, in a 'what would my mother think' sort of way. So not always a home run. This article gives me a some confidence to try russets again. Yukon Golds were mentioned, but did they actually make it into the kitchen for this article? Merely curious.

Plenty of commenters will probably be eager to rattle off their lists of favorite potato salad ingredients (*ahem* bleu cheese and bacon) but I mostly wanted to mention that I'm very fond of grated onion. I use a microplane to work up just a single tablespoon of onion puree, basically, and mix it into the dressing. Actually I'm fond of this for most other mayonnaise featuring dishes, including coleslaw and pimento cheese.

Great Friday morning reading as always.

I use the KitchenAid grinder attachment, too, but why in the world did I never think to stick it in the freezer?

Great, useful article, and it almost seems like it shouldn't need to be mentioned, but kls2003 does have a point. Except for the revelation above, I'm glad to say I already know and practice everything else presented here.

Plymouth is a ridiculously smooth gin, and my favorite for martinis (I prefer to use a cheaper gin with tonic or ginger.) And I really envy you that you can buy it for just $26; I can't purchase it for less than $32 a bottle here in SC. When a bottle of New Amsterdam, which I find acceptable for a mixed drink, can be had for half that, I have to save Plymouth for special occasions and special drinks.

Well, thanks for coming clean. I was expecting to see some heated responses after reading the word tragedy, which is admittedly why I clicked through in the first place. I think the edit is thoughtful, though.

Personally, breadcrumbs almost make it a separate dish to me. Growing up and living in SC, I rarely see it, though I don't know if there's really a regional breakdown. But when judging mac and cheese, I don't think I could use the addition of breadcrumbs as the winning stroke (though it wouldn't hurt a dish's chances either.) The part below the crumbs would have to be able to stand on its own.

I like the look of Beecher's in that photo. I prefer a gooey and more fluid dish, instead of a firmer, casserole-like preparation.