Cooks have come up with bunches of ways to remove unwanted fat from their preparations of stock or broths, gravies, stews or braises, and other “wet” dishes. (Defatting solid foods such as grilled steak or roast meats is generally a slice of a knife.)

French cooks confit—cook very, very slowly in a bucket of fat—a lot more than just duck legs, the one food we think of as confit. (It is both a verb and a noun; the second syllable is pronounced “fee”; the word means “conserved.”)

There’s one really good reason to cut up a whole chicken: it’s always a lot cheaper to buy a whole bird than already cut-up pieces like thighs or breasts. You also can do this with duck or goose and, if you’re strong enough, with a whole turkey.

May look like it, but this is not “food waste.”

Chances are that what your pantry’s out of, it’s truly not. Kitchen basics come in many garbs; you merely need to know how to assess the dresses.

Sauce isn’t soup, but it often boils down to that.