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Short Stuff: Pickles · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chuck's here, and Jerry's here, and Dates here. It's here,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: it everybody, and it's time to munch and chow down
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on the short stuff. About pickles, well, the greatest things
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ever invented.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: We've talked about this before. I know it makes me weird.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I don't like pickles.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Does it make you weird? I just feel sad for you.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think most people love pickles. I have
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: found some support in my family, my brother's son, my
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: nephew are Noah nephew. I was about to call my
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: cousin because now he's a grown adult, it feels weird
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: to call my nephew. But yeah, Noah is married now
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to his great wife Ellie, and they are having a baby.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And Ellie hates pickles just like me. Wow, And Ellie.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Like there's a stereotype of pregnant people wanting pickles and
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: ice cream.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: That's true. I actually I should check back with her
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: to see how that's going. And also Ellie is equally
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: annoyed as I am with this other fact, which is
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: pickles are so ubiquitous on like a sandwich platter or
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: a burger platter or whatever that they don't even tell
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: you on the menu that they're gonna throw a big
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: stinky pickle spear on your plate to let that juice
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: infect like six of your French fries that you then
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: can't eat pickles. I tell people at restaurants, it's like
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: they're pickles, yeah, but they're on the side. I was like, please,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: do not even include them on my plate because that
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: juice will infect either part of my hamburger bun or
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: like five or six French fries. And then I was like, cheese, dude,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: get a life.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: And they say, you want me to hold the pickles,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: and you say, I want you to take the pickles
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and hold them between your knees.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Oh great reference.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about pickles, chuck, not just how much
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: you dislike them or how much I love them, but
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: where they came from in the first place.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: That's right. They have been around for a very very
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: long long time. Twenty thirty BCE is when people started
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: transporting cucumbers across Mesopotamia. And that is like, as we've
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: learned over the years, like a lot of foods that
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: we have now are variations on other foods that receive
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: that variation because they were trying to preserve it or
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: transport it somewhere else.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those cucumbers, So it's in dispute. Our friends at
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Mental Floss pointed out that it's possible that what they
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: were talking about were snake melons that later people transcribed
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: or translated into cucumber, but that it wasn't actually cucumber.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: So we're not exactly sure when cucumbers hit the scene,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: but they did come out of the Mesopotamian area the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Middle East. We do know that they probably hit Europe
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in the early medieval era, and we know that pickles
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: came before cucumbers. People were pickling things as far back
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: as nine thousand years ago, according to ancient texts from China.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: They just weren't pickling cucumbers. They're pickling fish, they're pickling
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: pigs heads, they were pickling the heads of their enemy,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: anything you could pickle. They were pickling their livers, yes, definitely,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: but they just weren't pickling cucumbers yet.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's generally what we're talking about here, to
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: be clear, is the we know you can pickle all
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: kinds of things, but you know, the old pickle that's
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: on the plate that ruins the French fries. It either
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: came from the Dutch word peckle p e k e
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: l or the German perkle p o umlaut. I'm sorry,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: that's not an umloud. I wonder if that's a mistake.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Pukel. It's gotta be puckle with an umlaut.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's a it's a little what do you
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: call that accent in French?
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I think somebody fat fingered that one.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I think so, because I've never seen that in German.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna say it's supposed to be an umlaut
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: p o k e l, which means salt or brine.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And they use to be in the Victorian In Victorian England,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you know, pickles was something that you ate if you
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: had a lot of money, and they also served them.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: They would pickle them in the house and then serve
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: them or store them rather and what's called the pickle
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: cast or c a sto r, which is they would
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: just kind of keep it as a centerpiece on the table.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: And if you look up like an antique pickle cast or,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: they're they're cool, they're beautiful. I don't know if you
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: saw any pictures I did. They look like sort of.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Like a.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Like a like a an oil lamp, almost like a
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: really ornate oil lamp.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what. I likened it too. It occurred
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: to me remember those old straw holders, glass cylinder straw holders.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: You'd pull the top and all the straws came up
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: with it and you just pull one out. Yeah, that cylinder.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: It reminded me of that. But you would have pickles
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: instead of straws.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And with and with like a handle, like an oil
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: lamp handle.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: All the ones I saw had handles at least, right.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And you said that the pickle caster was associated with wealth,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and definitely was. But I saw on a site called
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Back to the Past Collectibles they posted about pickle casters
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and the way they said it. Pickles themselves were typically
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: associated with rural areas. So if you were an urban,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: wealthy person and you had a pickle caster, you're saying,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I love pickles. Obviously I'm not making them myself, but
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I have staff and servants that are making it for me.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Check out all of my pickles. That's how rich I am.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: So it's weird that it was a country thing but
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: in the city it was a wealth kind of thing.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that fancy cast or display had
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: a lot to do with that, definitely. But yeah, for
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: sure rule because you know people that farmed their own
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: stuff and canned and preserve their own things and still
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: do that kind of stuff. And you know, I've told
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: stories about my mom dragging me to the cannery when
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I was a kid. Of course, that's the people that
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: are doing it themselves exactly.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You know who loved to pickle back then, the word.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: R as far as commercial pickles that you can buy,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: like when they became a little more ubiquitous and affordable HJ.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Hines What I was about to say, canned up, but
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: they were probably jarred originally. In eighteen sixty is the
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: first sort of widely available commercial pickled product. Yeah, And
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: in eighteen ninety three there was this giveaway of a
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: little pickle pendant at the World's Fair that year that
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: was apparently so popular it has gone down in history
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: as like one of the most popular marketing plays ever.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I read about it in Atlas Obscura and they
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: said that the Hines booth was hidden on like the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: second floor somewhere, and so Hines started giving out flyers
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: saying come get your your free memento. And it was
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: just such a hit. Everybody wanted a free pickle for
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: some reason, not even a real pickle, a little plastic pickle,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: said Hines, a hunt that they were wor that the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: floor was going to give because so many people just
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: swamped that place for so long. So yeah, it was
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a really big deal. It put Hines on the map
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: like it as a household word.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we said plastic at that thing had to be metal, right.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: No, it was a I can't remember what they called it,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: but it was like a proto plastic. Oh wow, crumbly,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: weird looking. It looked like it was whittled from wood.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Not a pretty pickle at all. But Rubell had to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: have it and they'd attach it to like their watch
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: chain or something like that and be like, oh, this
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: this is my Hindz pickle chotchkey that I got at
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the eighteen ninety three World's Fair.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I think it's a great time for a break. Okay, right,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: we'll be right back with a chotchkey joke. All right,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: as promise we're back, and I promise you a chochke joke.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: And when I was in Mexico City. We went to
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: the Leon Trotzky's house as part of the fried Calo
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Casa Azul tour.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I have a feeling I know where this is going.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: You know right where it's going, because my friend Tommy
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: and the gifts in the gift shop said look at
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: all these Trotzky chochkeys, and that became a fun thing
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: that we said all weekend. Oh, I bet We said
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: that a lot, and we said one more margarita a lot.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet so.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Pickles. H. J. Hines in eighteen sixty did his thing.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: Klausen came around ten years later in eighteen seventy, Mount
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Olive in nineteen twenty six, and the old stork with
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: the lastic pickle is the relative newcomer on the block
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: didn't start until nineteen forty two.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the stork who spoke like Graucho Marx. For some
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: weird reason, it's.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Because Groucho Marx was the hottest thing going back then.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I guess. So if you do, if you want to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: make pickles, I've made pickles before, and I love making pickles.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: It's like one of the like most verger things you
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: can do in your kitchen. No matter where you are,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and it's very very easy, depending on what kind of
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: pickle you want to make.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: What are you doing.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I'm making salt brine pickles, which is called lacto fermenting,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: because what you're doing is creating a brine that actually
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: encourages the growth of beneficial probiotic bacteria and they go
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: to town eating the sugars in the cucumbers and thus
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: preserving it, but at the same time putting out lactic acid,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: which prevents like dangerous bacteria from growing in your pickle brine.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: As long as your pickles are under the surface of
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the brine, and they make little glass discs to weigh
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: them down, it's really neat. Then you can it's basically
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: put the thing in the fridge and leave it for
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I think a few weeks, thirty days I think was
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the was the minimum, and pull them out and you
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: have these strange tasting pickles. They don't taste like the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: pickles you're normally used to because it's it's a different
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: way to make them than the stuff you buy off
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the shelf at the grocery store.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: All right, So that's the salt.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Brine, Yes, salt brine or lactose fermented.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: All right, You've also got your classic dill. You're gonna
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: use white vinegar for those. And then all of these,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: generally except for your salt brining method, have some kind
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: of vinegar, usually white vinegar. And then the spices are
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: where that particular variety of pickle get gets its flavor.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: So in the case of a dill, you're gonna have
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: mustard seed, You're gonna have a dill obviously, hopefully some
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: fresh and some dried dill, that white vinegar, some white sugar,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: salt obviously, and I think that's it, right, Yeah.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can get really creative with pickles. You
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: can make them hot, you can make them garlic, you
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: can add whatever you want. But the basically the split
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: between different types of pickles whether you use a vinegar
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: brian or a salt brine, and the vinegar brine doesn't
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: allow for beneficial bacteria to grow, so it's not a
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: probiotic like lacto fermented pickles or kimchi or sauer kraut,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: those are all salt brine. But the vinegar brian pickles
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: still have health benefits. They found that it actually reduces
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: or steadies your blood sugar and it can last for
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a while. It's not just like you're eating the pickle
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and your blood sugar's okay, and then you finish the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: pickle and it goes crazy. It has like a lasting
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: effect from vinegar. So no matter what kind of pickles
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: you're eating, you're getting some kind of benefit from it.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, you also get your bread and butter pickle.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: That's the one out of any pickle that sounds the
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: most appetizing to me, even though I think the name
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: of this episode will be pickles. Colon how to ruin
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: a good cucumber?
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Because I love a cukee oh, I feel the exact opposite.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I'm like, get that disgusting thing out of my face
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and listen.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: What you don't like cucumbers? No, man, I love a cuke.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: No. It's like, how can something be tasteless and taste
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: disgusting at the same time. It's a mystery. Wow, I
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: can't stand cucumbers. Maybe a cucumber of water if it's
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: got lemon or basil or something in it, but they
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: better not be actual cucumbers floating around in it.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Wow. Okay, yeah, all right, you ever try it with
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: just a little pinch of sea salt.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, they're gross.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You don't like them in a salad.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I don't like cucumbers at all.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: That is remarkable, unless.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Again, if they're pickled, I love them.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: You hate cucumbers and love pickles. I love cucumbers and
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: hate pickles.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: We are yining yang for nothing, chuck, Well, maybe.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: That's why we work. So the bread and buck bucker.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: The bread and butter is the white vinegar, salt, white sugar.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I think more white sugar than the dill. And then
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: you've got some celery seed, some turmeric, some garlic, some onion,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: and some red chili flakes.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's loads of sugar and bread and butter. Because
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the two flavor profiles are sweet and tangy. It's a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: strange combination. But if you're in the mood for it,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: a good bread and butter pickle is pretty good.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And apparently the tradition ruining your sandwich platter or even
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: worse when they if they wrap up a pickle and
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: a sandwich wrapper to go like beside the sandwich, unforgivable.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about, you know, if
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: you like, just like I know what you're saying. I
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: don't understand how it's unforgivable. It makes no sense because
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: pickles are so great.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: That started in New York delis, specifically Jewish delis. Jewish
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: immigrants started in the nineteen thirties offering dill pickles as
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: a palate cleanser. Yeah, because that acid helps contrast with that.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe that fatty meat sandwich you're eating and
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: it's got a nice little crunch to it. I do
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: like a crunch. But that's why I look cucumbers. They crunch.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I didn't think pickles. I thought they were less crunchy
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: because they're soaked in garbage.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: No, that's the wrong count. You're so if you have
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: non crunchy pickles and you're buying them off the shelf,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: they were baked or they were cooked essentially boiled in
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a water bath. That doesn't actually boil, but it kills
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: off any beneficial bacteria that might have been in it
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: because it kills it with temperature, and it also makes
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the pickles themselves flimsy. If you have lacto fermented salt
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Brian pickles, there's your crunchy pickle. And those can be
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: done with little enough salt that you get what's called
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a half sour, and it tastes much more like a
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: cucumber than a normal pickle does. So I think you
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: should try a half sour.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, still pickle, you know what, I'm gonna try one
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: because do those have vinegar at all?
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: No? They're salt brine as far as I know.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: All right, maybe I should try that because the vinegar.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm on record is the vinegar is part
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: of the problem. I don't like a lot of like
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: white vinegars. Yeah, and like apple cider vinegar is pretty rough.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I do like balsamic vinegars and things like that. It's
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: very specific. I'm You're very complex and I'm picky.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Is that it?
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: And that's it? And I just want to good Lord,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: get real at the end.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Is that how we're going to end the episode?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Chuck is needy and picky.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, then short stuff is out.
• 15:10
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