It's been a while since we've heard from the narrator, but now he's back on his feet. He's got a new toy to play with: a giant hammer. The narrator is psyched to be able to use the hammer to chop through the tin foil that's stuck in the lid of a Jarndyce's strawberry pie. The tin foil is so big that it's hard to fit through the holes in the sides of the pie, so the pie ends up with a lot of minced meat inside. The smell of the kitchen is so bad that the narrator can't figure out what's wrong with his oven. He wonders if the oven is made of metal, which would make it easier to fix the problem. He also wonders if there's some kind of prank going on in the kitchen.