Chef Vivian Howard returns home to rural North Carolina to cook her roots. Plus a computer designs the ultimate chocolate chip cookie; our tip for transforming stale bread; Pork and Kimchi Stew; and what's on Adam Gopnik's weekly menu.

Questions in this Episode

“Going through some old papers of my mother’s, I came across a description for a steamed cornmeal pudding. I’ve been looking for a recipe but can’t find it anywhere. Any ideas?”

“I have a question about coffee. My mom makes me ground coffee with a burr grinder every morning and she insists that there’s a noticeable difference between coffee ground from a burr grinder and the electric grinder that we never use. My question is—to the average person, is there a noticeable difference between burr and blade ground coffee?”

“I grew up hunting or raising all of our protein, one of which was the ever-popular venison. Every year, I see the ‘gut pile’ in the woods and cringe at the amount of possibility left for the animals to scavenge. So, this year, I took the liver from one of the young deer and froze it. Now, the only liver I've dealt with is beef and it doesn't appeal to me, but I'm determined to find a way to cook the venison liver in a way that would be tasty. I was thinking smoking or dehydrating. What are your thoughts?”

“Hello there, I found some different looking limes in my local co-op here in Olympia, Washington. They are very bumpy, dark green, and the fragrance is incredible! Internet sleuthing identifies them as makrut limes. Any suggestions on how to use them?”

This episode is brought to you by Ferguson.