ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP: Reader Jim Farley writes:

My wife requests that I thank you for the Lamb & Guinness stew recipe. We just had it for dinner tonight and it was fabulous. She would like to note that, instead of putting flour into the stew she rolled the meat in the flour, then seared it before adding.

When I was younger, I didn’t much care for lamb. In my better years I have come to love it. From aversion to affinity.

Nice touch, though personally I like the thickness flour adds to a stew. Otherwise it seems more like soup. And lamb is awesome. I had mutton as a kid in Germany, and though some complained that the flavor was too strong, I liked it pretty well. But lamb is lamb.

UPDATE: Various readers inform me that the flour used for searing thickens things nicely. Cool! I’ve never tried that.