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I have indeed made vinegar for decades. I've found red wine vinegar to be easy, and white wine or dessert wine to be inexplicably challenging. I've nevertheless found interesting uses for dessert wine vinegar, such as making batches of tamarind paste for Indian cooking. One can't easily place what I did, but it makes a difference. All facts about vinegar-making are in dispute, so read critically and experiment. One wants a good mother, or it's enough to drop in an ember from the KK. One needs to neutralize sulfites in wine by adding 1/2 tsp hydrogen peroxide per bottle (that H2O2 bottle in the cupboard is probably flat), or it doesn't matter. I used to use a beer-making glass carboy, with the opening covered with cheeesecloth. I have since fallen in love with French cooperage barrels targeting vinegar; I have four 3L barrels, two on each coast. One can draw vinegar as needed, rather than making a production of pouring off bottles for use. It is mandatory to get stainless steel spigots; the charm of the wooden spigots is quickly lost when they fail, leaking everywhere. Does enough oxygen get in? Probably, but people who say so may be actively adding leftover wine all the time. It can't hurt to lift the lid whenever you think of it. Allary oak vinegar barrels Vinegar Shed (UK source)

Made beautiful tortillas yesterday with my current Premier mill. It was a bit fiddly to get it running smoothly and I could not help thinking of the upgrade that @Syzygies talked about. I guess I will appreciate it even more if/when I buy it. In the meantime here are some very tasty tortillas, made with fresh masa.

Oldies are the best. Made this again yesterday. Everyone LOVED it. I had some leftover basil pesto from making pizzas the day before and the combination of pork leg al pastor and Italian pesto was a real winner.

Decided to have a little birthday feast today I forgot to take a pic of the marinated 3 bean salad but between the tomato salad au gratin potatoes and 4 and a half pounds of steak there was hardly room for the ice cream cake !!! I've been using the top grate upside down right on the firebox and have been really happy with the searing 👍

it's crab season so we bought some live crab from the pier today.

I don’t believe you could add wood through that door anyway, it’s below the charcoal basket. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Put together some leftover cooks today, took my chances and it all worked out fine. Previously cooked chicken thighs, summer squash, garlic and tomatoe sauce using tomatoes from the garden, pasta shells, ricotta, Monterey Jack, and diced Jalapeño from the garden, a few spices and when done sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and chives. It turned out to be a winner.

Thanks @Syzygies. Lots of new information. I never knew cinders had anything to do with making vinegar. Lots to learn and, maybe, buy.

So my eight year old VacMaster VP115 can still be coaxed to do an excellent job. The "gas shocks" no longer hold up the lid without help, and the ribbon switch gets confused after the jolt of releasing the vacuum, and starts a new cycle. Anyone who can remove and keep track of twenty screws can repair this thing by swapping parts, assuming one can get the parts. That is no longer the case. I'll probably take it apart again and bend the ribbon switch so it's further from critical, but the "gas shocks" are apparently custom. I could live with this, or give it to a friend until I retire and give him its replacement. From the above discussion, I'm most tempted by the JVR: JVR Vac100 – Chamber Vacuum Sealer I figure my amortized cost of the VP115 was $86 per year, which I more than saved because 4 mil chamber vacuum sealer bags cost less than FoodSaver bags or substitutes. There are two credible reasons to prefer an external clamp machine: They take less space, and using a continuous roll one can seal lengthy foods such as fish that don't fit in a chamber. In grad school a friend explained how the second time he ingested psilocybin he had to fight a profound gag reaction. My dog struggled similarly when we took her to the vet. In transition to a chamber machine, I felt a revulsion beyond my conscious control to finding textured FoodSaver bags in the chest freezer. Discard or repack. The difference with a chamber machine isn't intellectual, it's visceral.

ah yes, sg chili crab is usually mud crab, which is also available in the market, but i have never made this dish. we usually can get two or three kinds of mud crabs here. the one packed with orange roe is heaven. i don’t know which crab we ate exactly, its definitely a blue variety. the fishmonger gave us a female, rest were males, but the male crabs taste better. we steamed them.

@MacKenzie throw enough Irish butter in the pan and it’s gotta taste good right?

Turbot on the 32 last night. Took it off when it probed at 63C on both sides. It was perfect.