…where jack sometimes does stuff, but mostly not

Why can’t a fella buy some non-stupidified kitchen tools, huh?

I’m trying to make some quark and I need a nice sterile place to put 5 quarts of fermenting milk. I have a few 5-quart bowls, actually, but I’m going to use 5 quarts of liquid and it needs some sloshing room, so I really need a 6 or 7-quart vessel.

I can’t use my 6-quart pot because it is still recovering from something incredibly dangerous and very stupid that I did to it the other day (that would be another story).

This would be a good time to get an actual stockpot, thinks me. Easy peasy.

You’d think!

Sears had bupkis (lovely sale on flat, cast-iron prybars, though).
Kohls had any number of N-piece kits (8 < N < 15) for between $99 and $300, plus a standalone Paula Deen-branded stockpot for something like $175.
Gordman’s had a $13 stockpot that wasn’t worth $0.13; the inner surface was flaking off and seemed to involve paint, or some other coating so cheap and nasty as to seem paint-like.
Wal-mart had a perfectly serviceable set of options. So I ended up spending my money at the Wal-mart.

This is all to my chagrin since I am, theoretically, opposed to Wal-mart. I mean, yeah, shady employment practices, union-busting, destroying local businesses, homogenization of local culture, etc., but I really just can’t stand how slowly their checkout lines move.

Anyway, my milk products are happily fermenting now. But I am still wishing for the opportunity to buy kitchen junkses without grinding my teeth to nubs in the process. Alton Brown keeps telling me to shop at restaurant supply stores, but I can’t find any such thing around here. I guess that’s why they invented the webternets.

Also: where the hell do I buy cheesecloth?