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Prized Possession · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, archaeologists uncovered something fascinating carbonized flat
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  Speaker 1: grain cakes at an Israeli site. To their delicate layers
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  Speaker 1: preserved in ash dating confirmed that they were baked over
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  Speaker 1: seventy thousand years ago over hot rocks, making them the
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  Speaker 1: world's oldest known proto pancakes. Long before wheats was cultivated
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  Speaker 1: on a massive scale, early humans were experimented with porridges
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  Speaker 1: and batter like mixtures, turning simple grains into a quick,
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  Speaker 1: portable meal. That humble beginning set the stage for a
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  Speaker 1: food that would travel across continents, survive wars, and become
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  Speaker 1: a breakfast ritual for billions. Fast forward a few thousand
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  Speaker 1: years to the sunny streets of ancient Greece, where vendors
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  Speaker 1: flipped Taganiti's thin wheat flour cakes cooked on bronze griddles.
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  Speaker 1: These were not merely sustenance, though they were part of
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  Speaker 1: festivals and communal gatherings, and the Romans continued the tradition
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  Speaker 1: with alita delca, which were sweetened with honey, cheese, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes even fruit, and in both cultures the pancake like
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  Speaker 1: food occupied a dual role, an everyday snack for laborers
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  Speaker 1: and a ceremonial offering for the gods. The basic formula
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  Speaker 1: of it all, a liquid, some flour and some heat,
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  Speaker 1: proved remarkably adaptable, a culinary canvas that could be dressed
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  Speaker 1: up or stripped down depending on the occasion. As Christianity
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  Speaker 1: spread throughout Europe, the pancake acquired new layers of meaning.
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  Speaker 1: No pun intended, I swear. The season of Lent demanded fasting,
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  Speaker 1: but one of the days leading up to it, known
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  Speaker 1: as Shrove Tuesday, offered a brief window to use up
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  Speaker 1: perishable riches, things like eggs, butter, and milk. In England,
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  Speaker 1: families gathered around a hearth, battering together a simple mixture
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  Speaker 1: and racing to flip it before the fire burned it out,
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  Speaker 1: and so naturally the day became known colloquially as pancake Day.
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  Speaker 1: A tradition that still persists in Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia,
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  Speaker 1: and New Zealand. In France and part of the United States,
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  Speaker 1: the same feast is called Mardi Gras or fat Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: underscoring how a practical need to avoid waste evolved into
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  Speaker 1: a festival ritual. Across the Atlantic, settlers brought their own
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  Speaker 1: versions of the flat cake. In the American colonies, the
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  Speaker 1: pancake appeared under many names, hoe cakes, johnny cakes, buckwheat cakes,
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  Speaker 1: griddle cakes, and flapjacks, reflecting the diverse origins of the pioneers.
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  Speaker 1: These were often unleavined, made from corn meal or bucke wheat,
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  Speaker 1: and cooked on a cast iron skillet or even a
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  Speaker 1: farm implement repurposed as a griddle. The first truly American cookbook,
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  Speaker 1: American Cookery, written in seventeen ninety six by Amelia Simmons,
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  Speaker 1: listed two pancake recipes, a hoe cake and an Indian slapjack,
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  Speaker 1: a corn meal based variation. By the early nineteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: the word pancake began to dominate the lexicon, and dairy
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  Speaker 1: entered the batter in earnest as milk and cream replaced
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  Speaker 1: brandy or wine, signaling improved agricultural yields and a shift
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  Speaker 1: toward richer flavors. Industrialization transformed the pancake from a homestead
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  Speaker 1: staple into a mass produced convenience. The advent of powdered
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  Speaker 1: mixes in the nineteen thirties allowed families to whip up
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  Speaker 1: a stack in minutes and was perfect for factory workers.
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  Speaker 1: The cheap, quick breakfast became a symbol of comfort during
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  Speaker 1: the Great Depression and World War II, when rationing made
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  Speaker 1: elaborate meals nearly impossible. And meanwhile, back in France, delicate crapes,
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  Speaker 1: paper thin, rolled with sweet or savory fillings became a
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  Speaker 1: hallmark of culinary elegance. Russia's bleamy, traditionally served with caviar
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  Speaker 1: and sour cream, was eaten on the Orthodox celebration of Maslenitas,
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  Speaker 1: a week long festival bidding farewell to winter. And in
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  Speaker 1: my wife's own Swedish background, we have Swedish pancakes, something
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  Speaker 1: that's a staple of our holiday celebrations every single year.
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  Speaker 1: These global variations prove that the pancake's appeal is not
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  Speaker 1: confined to any single culture. It's a universal language of simple,
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  Speaker 1: adaptable nourishment. In recent decades, the pancake has experienced a
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  Speaker 1: renaissance among food artisans and nostalgic chefs. Heritage grain revivals
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  Speaker 1: have brought buckwheat, sorghum, and millet back to the griddle,
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  Speaker 1: and charitable events like National Pancake Day in the United
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  Speaker 1: States raise millions for children's hospitals, proving that the pancake
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  Speaker 1: can still serve a higher purpose beyond the plate. From
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  Speaker 1: a sevent one year old grain cake baked on a
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  Speaker 1: stone to glossy stacks drizzled with maple syrup on a
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  Speaker 1: Saturday morning, the pancakes journey mirrors humanity's own, its core
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  Speaker 1: components of staid, constant, while the ingredients, technology, and cultural
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  Speaker 1: meaning have shifted with each era and culture. The pancake
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  Speaker 1: has been a survival food for prehistoric hunters, a sacramental
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  Speaker 1: offering for Greeks and Romans, and a frontier staple for Americans.
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  Speaker 1: Whenever we hear the familiar hiss of batter meeting a
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  Speaker 1: hot pan, we're really listening to a sizzle that has
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  Speaker 1: spanned thousands of years of human history. Take a moment
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  Speaker 1: to look around yourself right now, no matter where you
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  Speaker 1: are in your apartment, car, office, or even going for
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  Speaker 1: a walk. Odds are you aren't far from an object
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  Speaker 1: that means something to you. If it's a little knickknack
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  Speaker 1: that reminds you of an important person or time in
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  Speaker 1: your life, or maybe it's something you use every day,
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  Speaker 1: a tool or an article of clothing in the stage
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  Speaker 1: play of your life. These things are important props. They
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  Speaker 1: have some sort of utility or meaning to you. Some
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  Speaker 1: might even last long enough to become a beloved family keepsake,
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  Speaker 1: which is passed on to your children and maybe even
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  Speaker 1: your grandchildren. You may see where I'm going with this.
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  Speaker 1: Once an object is old enough, it feels like it
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  Speaker 1: gains a weight and importance of its own. Maybe you
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  Speaker 1: felt this while going through the possessions of a deceased relative.
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  Speaker 1: But in Japanese folklore, you must be wary of items
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  Speaker 1: that have been around for this long, because that object
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  Speaker 1: might have more than just memories attached to it. In
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  Speaker 1: the Japanese Shinto religion, spirits known as kami influence the
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  Speaker 1: world around us. Some are as great as the sun
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  Speaker 1: god Ama Terasu, and others are household objects that have
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  Speaker 1: been allowed to grow old the exact amount of time
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  Speaker 1: required is vague. Most say one hundred years, some say less.
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  Speaker 1: But once enough time has passed, an item will become
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  Speaker 1: a tsuku mogami, a haunted object. Tsuko mogami are born
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  Speaker 1: out of all kinds of things, too, sandals, furniture, pots,
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  Speaker 1: and dishes. Some of the most popular stories feature haunted umbrellas, saddles, kimonos,
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  Speaker 1: and teapots, a stirrup that a soldier died in, or
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  Speaker 1: a pot that has been chipped and cracked over many,
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  Speaker 1: many years. And although it's said that some tsuko mogami
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  Speaker 1: are benign, most of these stories feature objects that are
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  Speaker 1: not happy with the way they've been treated. The word,
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  Speaker 1: when spelled out in Kanji script, literally means grief inflicting God.
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  Speaker 1: For instance, that stirrup that the soldier died in becomes
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  Speaker 1: a creature that eternally waits for the return of its master.
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  Speaker 1: Broken pots and pans wait to be repaired. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: it's the forgotten and neglected objects that seem to have
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  Speaker 1: the most potency as spirits, like haunted houses on a
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  Speaker 1: much much smaller scale. Eighteenth century art of these sorts
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  Speaker 1: of kami depicts a long abandoned futon dragging itself across
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  Speaker 1: the floor, gathering forgotten pots and pans as it goes.
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  Speaker 1: The assembled creature was called the crockery General. Now the
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  Speaker 1: earliest tsukomogami stories we have are from the year eleven twenty.
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  Speaker 1: They tell of household objects getting possessed by demons and spirits.
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  Speaker 1: One particularly grim story tells of an oil pot that
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  Speaker 1: kills a sick girl. But these stories of possession would
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  Speaker 1: eventually give way to the more classical tsukomogami, where the
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  Speaker 1: object isn't possessed so much as it's gained a life
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  Speaker 1: and perspective of its own. These stories started appearing as
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  Speaker 1: popular entertainment and folklore in the late fifteenth century, and
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  Speaker 1: exploded in popularity throughout the sixteenth and seventeen well into
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  Speaker 1: the Edo period. And what these beings do once they've
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  Speaker 1: come to life varies from story to story. Some merely
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  Speaker 1: flee your house out into the wild, seeking a home
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  Speaker 1: where they won't be mistreated or neglected. In fact, some
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  Speaker 1: creatures in the world wilderness, like foxes or raccoon dogs,
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  Speaker 1: were once ssukomogami, who left their original homes and became
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  Speaker 1: woodland spirits. Other ssukomogami, though refused to leave their homes.
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  Speaker 1: They instead turn on their owners in revenge for their disuse.
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  Speaker 1: This revenge seems to be fairly harmless, though it usually
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  Speaker 1: comes in the form of pranks. But the moral of
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  Speaker 1: the story is pretty clear. Treat your household items with
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  Speaker 1: respect and they will not grow to resent you. There's
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  Speaker 1: more to being a responsible homeowner than keeping your family fit. Apparently,
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  Speaker 1: you must also show care and respect to the home itself. Nowadays,
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  Speaker 1: you'll find plenty of references to Ssukomogami in Japanese entertainment,
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  Speaker 1: from anime to manga and everything in between, but be
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  Speaker 1: careful never to forget the lesson of the original folk tale.
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  Speaker 1: As Madonna once said, we live in a material world.
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  Speaker 1: Our possessions bring joy to us. They make household tasks
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  Speaker 1: easier and fill a home with purpose. But acquiring such
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  Speaker 1: an object also comes with a responsibility either way, though
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  Speaker 1: it certainly gives a whole new meaning to the common
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  Speaker 1: phrase prized possession. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and
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  Speaker 1: written by the Grim and Mild team and produced by
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  Speaker 1: Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people
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  Speaker 1: who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
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  Speaker 1: Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
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  Speaker 1: as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
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  Speaker 1: ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the
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  Speaker 1: same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee.
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  Speaker 1: Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com
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  Speaker 1: slash Grimandmild, and until next time, stay curious.