A man, recently married, watches his wife prepare a roast for dinner. To his amazement, just before placing the roast into the pan, she slices off about two inches of meat on either end and throws them away. When he expresses surprise at her actions, she replies, "It makes the roast taste better. Besides, my mother always did it that way." Curious, he calls his wife's mother and asks her if she also cuts the ends off of her roasts, and why. "Because it makes the roast taste better. Besides, my mother always did it that way." Determined to find out where this custom comes from, he calls his wife's grandmother, and when she agrees that she, too, cuts off the ends of her roasts when she prepares them, he asks why. Promptly, she replies, "Because my pan is too small to hold it all."
