Worked next to a guy at a shop who swore his knife was fine and never touched a steel. His trim pile was double mine and he blamed the meat. Turns out his edge was folding over after ten minutes and he was basically tearing through the seams instead of cutting them. Once he started honing every half hour and swapped to a stiffer blade his loss went from around 13 percent down to 9 on loins. Same hands, same hogs, just a sharp edge and a plan. You can't eyeball a number you never wrote down, that's the part most guys miss.

Took me three years, but my neighbors finally wave back now.

Have you actually tasted that liquid straight from the can? It's like salty, metallic swamp water that coats your tongue in a weird film. Rinsing gets rid of that tinny taste and cuts the sodium by a huge chunk, which matters when you're watching your blood pressure. Plus, if I want a thick soup, I'll just simmer it longer or mash some beans into it, not pour in murky junk that can overpower everything else. You do you, but I'll keep my sink drains clear and my meals tasting like the actual ingredients, not the can they came in.