Timely advice

Toll-free telephone services offer a variety of specialist answers to cooking and food-safety questions during the holidays. Here are some of them:

U.S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry hot line: (800) 535-4555. Food safety specialists answer calls about meat and poultry preparation and cooking questions, year-round Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Christmas. Recorded information is available 24 hours a day at the same number. On the Net: www.fsis.usda.gov.

Butterball Turkey Talk-Line: (800) 288-8372. Home economists and nutritionists answer holiday cooks' questions, in both English and Spanish. Through Dec. 27, weekdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Dec. 21-Dec. 22, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 24-25. Automated assistance is provided after hours. Free brochure offer. On the Net: www.butterball.com.

Perdue consumer help line: (800) 473-7383. Consumer-relations representatives answer cooking, storage and other questions about poultry products weekdays year-round (except Christmas) 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free booklet offered with tips on safe handling of poultry. On the Net: www.perdue.com.

The Associated Press

Required reading

For the dedicated food lover who doesn't need any more kitchen equipment or even another cookbook, here's a book just for reading: It Must've Been Something I Ate (Knopf; $27.50) by Jeffrey Steingarten is a collection of articles that appeared in Vogue, where he's the regular food columnist.

The stories are obsessive, funny and useful (especially to someone equally obsessed). Mr. Steingarten goes deep-sea fishing in order to eat toro, the premium belly meat of tuna, as fresh as possible; he flies to Switzerland to find out if his gourmandism is caused by a brain lesion; and he rants about having to smuggle French raw-milk cheeses into the country, in defiance of an FDA ban.

He takes a close look at some food myths, and in one essay comes to the conclusion that Chinese restaurant syndrome, or MSG sensitivity, is a problem only if you eat lots of won-ton soup on an empty stomach.

His first book was called The Man Who Ate Everything, and he takes that title seriously.

Uncommon knowledge

Krispy Kreme, introducing a new line of coffee to go along with its signature doughnuts, offers a few tips for making a perfect pot.

The first mistake most people make is that they store coffee in the refrigerator or freezer, says D.J. McKie, senior vice president and general manager of Krispy Kreme Coffee and Beverages.

"Coffee is porous," he says. "Therefore, if you store it in the refrigerator, it may start to smell like whatever it is next to."

In the freezer, beans or grounds can become freezer-burned, even if you don't see it.

Mr. McKie suggests storing coffee in an airtight container or bag and keeping it away from light, perhaps in a pantry or cupboard.