If you want to lean into the stronger flavors parsnips or leeks.
I’ve made stew from wild game before. It always comes out really gamey. I eat game, but I usually stick to the grill with it. The entire stew picks up on the game flavor, which I’m not keen on.
This isn’t a wild bird. I raised him from a day old, but the last Muscovy we had tasted a bit gamey. We also butchered it then immediately cooked it. Like the whole process took 3 hours. My stepfather is refrigerating the bird before butchering this time to see if that helps with taste any. I also decided on making duck noodles soup because I’m not in the mood for potatos lol. I got carrots, garlic, mushrooms, vegetable stock extra wide egg noodles, and a seasoning mix called a poultry bouquet. I’m gonna roast the meat with a little olive oil and the poultry bouquet and then put everything in a slow cooker.
Have you tried unplugging it with things powered on to make sure the battery is working? The batteries are supposed to be replaced every couple years, I found out when I started having power outages last winter and my (seasonic) PSU just turned off when the power flickered and PC was running. I bought a replacement battery off Amazon for cheap and it was easy to swap out.
PSU is different than UPS. PSU is the Power Supply Unit and doesn’t have a battery. UPS are Uninterruptable Power Supplies and do have batteries. Seasonic only makes PSU’s.
Iran-Israel (not entirely sure how that’ll work since they’re not directly adjacent)
North Korea-South Korea
I see the world coalescing into two major axes of power: “the West” and Western aligned/allied nations comprising US/UK/EU/Australia/Israel/Japan/S. Korea on one side. Largely Democracies or Parliamentary systems.
On the other: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran. Largely Autocracies, and one Autocracy with Chinese Characteristics™. All four have beef to pick with Western countries. They might press their advantages if they see that Western support for each other wavers (Ukraine and Israel). We’re already seeing them warm in relations with each other (Putin/Kim visit, arms deals between Russia/China and Russia/N. Korea). They might form their own NATO style Bloc which would be stronger than the paper tiger that is the CIS. Combined, they may very well have the ability to split the West’s priorities if internal division is strong.
I think it’s going to get even more tense the further this decade goes on. The dice that is the US Presidential election may decide the next big moves of these nations.
Don’t forget Pakistan and India and their weird alliances. Though I think the possible war part is on hold because of the floods.
As for China they are probably shitting their pants when they saw what corruption did to the Russian military. They have to crack down on corruption, make sure their military is up to actual snuff, which pushes back any invasion hope.
Speed queen washers and dryers. LGs and Samsung’s drop like flies in comparison. They are expensive but they are made in the United States and last donkeys years. I’ve heard of people moving out after 10 years, and taking their speed queen dryer with them.
Also, in general, hand made Japanese knives. Any knife will keep cutting if sharpened but most of “sharpness” is thinness of the blade. That’s why we don’t use meat cleavers for daily prep. Japanese knives are made to be thinned and polished, as the edge will become thicker with repeated sharpenings. Other knives will get thicker and thicker and become complete carrot crunchers. These can be thinned too but it’s much more difficult with only sharpening stones.
Additionally the handles are easily replaceable by anyone, western style handles require destructive disassembly of the existing scales and rivets.
Japanese knives are great if that’s your preference but that excludes a lot of other BIFL knives worth considering.
Wusthof in particular should be on the list as well as Global. In general kitchen knives are more forgiving in the BIFL category because a lot of it is just properly caring for what you have.
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace. You have to drill the rivets, remove the scales, glue new ones, drill new rivet holes, hammer new rivets and then shape them. With Japanese knives you tap the handle off and put in a whole new one.
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large. They weigh the know down and makes it annoying to sharpen. Over time it will develop a recurve and won’t contact the cutting board. Your only option is to grind it down, which is a big endeavor because they’re so damn big nowadays.
They’re still great knives but because of those issues that Japanese knives don’t have, they aren’t the best BIFL option for me.
I get that everybody has their own preference but BIFL is more about quality of materials, durability, reputation of the company etc.
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace.
How so? You just send it to Wusthof and they replace or repair it. Seems pretty BIFL
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large.
My Wusthof Ikons have no more bolster than my brothers Japanese set. I assume you’re talking about the Classic line of Wusthof?
You raise issues based on your preference but that doesn’t impact them being BIFL. They’re well made, hold an edge and Wusthof stands behind them 100%.
I dropped my utility knife once and it bent the tip. I shipped it to Wusthof and they took care of it, only cost me shipping. I also had a knife block that split, for that they wanted a picture, then they shipped me a replacement and asked me to destroy the old one. I used it in a campfire. Seems pretty BIFL to me.
This is the one to pay attention to. Speed Queen is what every laundromat uses, because they’re fucking rock solid and don’t need a lot of maintenance. They don’t have as many bells and whistles as a Samsung, but they’ll outlast two or three Samsungs and still be cleaning just as well as the day you bought it.
They also cost as much as 3 samsungs. I am all for buy-it-for-life, but when I can buy a nice Samsung with bells and whistles, have a better wash, lower energy use, and more flexible options on how the clothing is being washed- then why would I not buy the Samsung? My Samsung washer was 800 and the dryer was 600. A speed queen starts at 2400 each. I could buy 3 washers and then 4 dryers for that. Plus I save money on the energy cost with my Samsung eco settings.
I have a house filled with buy it for life where I can and where it makes sense. And when I bought the washer and dryers I looked into speedqueen. It didn’t make sense. And before people start saying things like “good luck replacing them in 3 years” they are already 5 years old. My 1400$ is 5 years in and doing just fine.they could break today and need to both be replaced, and I am still ahead. I think speed queen is one of the few BIFL brands that I disagree with.
Already mentioned in thread, Anker cables. It has very good threaded covers that are strong and hard to damage. Internal copper cables and the USB ends are also very well made so there is no chance for it to fray or crack.
Bought a pair pack over 6 years ago. Still haven’t used the second cable because the first one is as good as new.
This is what everyone told me, so I bought a two pack of Anker branded cables. Both of them broke and wouldn’t charge without being held at a weird angle within a month. I bought an Amazon basics cable after that and it has worked for years just fine.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I will never buy Anker again after this awful experience.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve bought their cables at least 3 times at 3 different points in my life. All of their cables have failed within about a year. That being said I use them extremely heavily because I’m an Android app developer. I have many test devices and I’m constantly plugging in new devices and sometimes have up to 3 devices connected at the same time. I’m also not just charging the devices as I’m transferring data between the computer and device.
Anker has been hit-or-miss for me. It either craps out early, or lasts much longer than it has any right to. They’re still my go-to for cables, because I usually lose or give many of them away before they have a chance to show their worth
The main thing that kills cables is sitting a phone in portrait on one’s chest and having it plugged in for charging. That creates a nice 90-degree or nearly 90-degree bend that just destroys the cable over time.
The Anker Powerline 3 Usb C cables are amazing. 100W rated, nearly impossible to tangle and I’ve had no issue with them being used continuously for either my phone or laptops, including surviving a lot of falls, being pinched, run over by a desk chair, etc. I have two and would buy more but I’m waiting for USB C to up the max wattage before I do. The colors are also a nice touch.
It’s American Eagle for me. Their pants have lasted me for longer than any other brand that I’ve worn regularly. Also, I don’t have to adjust them because they just fit.
American eagle jeans are under rated. Their stretch jeans have last me for years with the only issues being some wallet / cellphone lines, and an occasional hole in the pocket that needs patching.
Timberland boots also last. Docs have gone down in quality
I doubt it matters much, but I’ve had the same cloak from Cloak and Dagger for close to a decade now. The only issue was that the clasp detached, but it was an easy fix.
They are great, so long as you know how to season them and clean them properly. My wife always has problems cooking on them because she doesn’t let the skillet fully heat up well, but I never have had issues with them 😁
I knew if I scrolled far enough I’d see this one. Go look on YouTube for cast iron restoration videos. These damn things would survive anything I believe.
A bit off the rails, since it’s not a particular brand. But anything leather (wallets, belts, pouches, etc). I’ve had my leather wallet for nearly 7 years, maybe more. I haven’t really taken care of it (though I should). It’s been through a lot, and it has held up so well. Leather also ages very well. Whether it’s scuffed or dented, it’ll still look good with added character. As long as you don’t lose it or cut it (and craftsmanship is good), you’ll probably have it for a very long time.
While this is definitely true, it’s important to get quality leather goods in order to have them last. For instance, “genuine leather” is actually the worst grade of leather, and can flake and fall apart in a few years.
I just bought a Schott NYC bison hide jacket that I’m hoping lasts me for the rest of my life, and I bought a saddleback leather wallet (which comes with a 100 year warranty on it) around three years ago and it still looks great: saddlebackleather.com
Quality leather jackets are a bit hard to find. Lambskin leather is light and easier to wear (and is what most people purchase), but (especially if it’s a highly-processed lambskin) may only last a few years before starting to fall apart.
EDIT: For purses, there is a guy who was making the rounds in the national media due to going viral for cutting up luxury purses to see what the quality is of them (he goes by “Tanner Leatherstein”) and he evaluates the quality of purses. I bought my wife a Dooney & Bourke purse at www.dooney.com that has lasted longer than a lot of the cheaper crap she’s used and it still looks very good at 5 years old. “Tanner Leatherstein” says that Coach bags are generally pretty decent quality, and also runs his own shop here which I cannot personally attest to but may buy a gift from for my wife: www.pegai.com
“genuine leather” is actually the worst grade of leather,
I really wish those shenanigans were illegal, where they use words that are normally positive adjectives to mean low tier garbage.
Or even just adjectives at all; like the USDA has multiple grades for beef, two of which are Choice and Select. Those are fucking synonyms you dusty dry twats!
The USPS is similarly convoluted. “First-Class mail.” That’s for the normal “it goes in the normal bag with the rest of the letters” service, but the phrase “First Class” usually means top tier service.
Outdoor Research for hiking/outdoors wear. Great quality and they stand behind their lifetime warranty. My father in law had his winter gloves split open after owning them for 30 years and they replaced them.
I want to agree, and still do for some of their items, but personally have found a lot of their products have gone downhill in the last few years. Quality control is all over on the gloves nowadays, sent two pairs back with weird stitching and a single pencil point tapered finger on liners. I originally liked the vigor midlayer fleece stuff as a budget R1 but it’s pilled and worn super fast and just isn’t that warm anymore.
Their alpine merino base layer stuff is pretty awesome though, and found the ascent shell touring jacket nice and breathable for backcountry stuff. For the most part I’ll just spend a bit extra and go for Patagonia moving forward, which of also consider a BIFL brand.
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