Dave and Nastassia are back from Japan and Cooking Issues has returned! Dave's mailbox is full and he attempts to answer as many questions as humanly possible. From coffee brewing to cow muscles to intervase enzymes, Dave continues on his mission to solve any and all Cooking Issues on-air. Learn more about egg free custards, ways to prepare foods for those allergic to eggs and how to effectively roast meat. Ever try making bagels and pretzels at home? Hear some tips about avoiding lye disasters in the process and hear Dave's pretzel rules. This program was sponsored by The International Culinary Center.

"If you add fat to your pretzels, I have a problem with you and your pretzels. It's an abomination, it turns into a cracker - it's terrible. Also, if it's not twisted it's not a pretezel, it's a pretzeloid. The best pretzels I've ever had in my life are from Martins Brothers - you can get them by mail order."

--Dave Arnold on Cooking Issues

On this episode of Hot Grease, Nicole Taylor is talking all about lard. When you were growing up, do you remember your family collecting bacon fat drippings in a jar? Nicole talks with Hank Will of Grit Magazine about the advantages of eating food that is cooked in lard. Also, Alana Chernila of The Homemade Pantry chats with Nicole about making foods at home, including tortillas and yogurt. Hear about the benefits of keeping your freezer organized! This program has been brought to you by Edwards.

"Leaf lard is a very dense, very pure deposit of fat that typically accumulates in the kidney area...when you render it, it comes out very pure and without flavor." --Hank Will on Hot Grease

"In terms of cost, there are a lot of foods that save so much money [when you make them at home] because when we're buying food at the store, we're paying for packaging, we're paying for transport." --Alana Chernila on Hot Grease

This week The Farm Report is pleased to welcome Jesse LaFlamme, head of Pete And Gerry's Organic Eggs, the first Certified Humane egg farm in the country. Pete and Gerry’s is proving commercial farming and organic, humane, sustainable farming are not mutually exclusive. Pete and Gerry’s has realized consistent growth without becoming a factory farm. Jesse recruits small family farms as egg producers, keeping family farmers in business and protecting valuable open space. He combines state-of-the-art husbandry and farming technology with streamlined and efficient processing to make Pete and Gerry’s cost competitive with much larger operations. Those efficiencies also allow him to share those margins with his producers. Jesse is one of the new breed of 21st Century farmers who understands that the world needs commercial farms to feed its inhabitants, but needs to do it without degrading the environment and exploiting livestock. This episode is sponsored The Barterhouse.

"[Farmers] just want to be farmers, it sounds basic, but in today's big agriculture that is hard to do." -Jesse LaFlamme, head of Pete & Gerry's Organic Eggs on The Farm Report