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The Ridiculous, Scrumptious Desserts of Mardi Gras · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is the production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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  Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's give it up for the man,
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  Speaker 1: the myth legend, our super producer, mister Max Williams. Huzzah
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  Speaker 1: zon indeed, and let's hear it for Marti Gras, which
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  Speaker 1: is one of the biggest celebrations in the United States
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  Speaker 1: every year.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Ben Noel. I have to ask you. Have you
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  Speaker 2: been to Marty Gras?
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  Speaker 3: Huzzah, huzza, No, no, I I've been to like Marty
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  Speaker 3: Grass themed restaurants. I have been to New Orleans, but
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  Speaker 3: not during Marty Gras, but they kind of keep a
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  Speaker 3: Marty Gras vibe there year round. You know, people drinking
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  Speaker 3: hand grenades in the streets and vomiting in alleys.
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  Speaker 2: You know, that's about what Marty Grass about, right, Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans is such a unique town and it definitely
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  Speaker 1: has a unique vibe. It's the kind of place where
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  Speaker 1: you can find music and live performances. It seems in
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  Speaker 1: almost every part of the neighborhood, even.
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  Speaker 3: As alleys or people are vomiting. Sometimes there's brass bands
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  Speaker 3: set up, you know, serenading you.
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  Speaker 1: And my first time going to New Orleans was very
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  Speaker 1: strange because I came in the middle of something that
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  Speaker 1: it was this charity event where people put on red
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  Speaker 1: dresses and they, from what I could tell day, drink
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  Speaker 1: and I noticed it. No one told me what was
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  Speaker 1: going on. I noticed it when my girlfriend and I
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  Speaker 1: were at breakfast and I saw, you know, several tables, women, men,
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  Speaker 1: you name it, and no no children though that's an
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  Speaker 1: interesting outlier. The women, men, you name it except for
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  Speaker 1: children in these red dresses. And I was like, wow,
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  Speaker 1: these people are drinking pretty heavily, even for a brunch.
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  Speaker 1: And then as the day went on, I saw more
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  Speaker 1: and more people in red dresses getting progressively intoxicated until
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  Speaker 1: it was like like three point thirty or something, and
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  Speaker 1: then there was someone throwing up. There was a lady
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  Speaker 1: just screaming Darren in the streets, and I thought, wow,
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  Speaker 1: is this New Orleans all the time.
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  Speaker 3: That's a fat Tuesday tradition, screaming Darren in the streets
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  Speaker 3: and puking in red dresses.
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  Speaker 1: Well, this red dresses, it's the Red Dress Run, which
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  Speaker 1: takes place in August. So it was August eleventh. I
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  Speaker 1: must have been there for my birthday. It's okay, so
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  Speaker 1: it's really hot and they're running and drinking.
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  Speaker 2: At least that's the ones I noticed the most.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Well this was for our Darren in the streets though Noel,
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  Speaker 1: I know that we both are big fans of New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans and we, with some help from our research associate
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  Speaker 1: Max Williams, decided to look into a very specific aspect
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  Speaker 1: of Marti Gras, which is the ridiculous desserts of Fat Tuesday.
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  Speaker 1: What is fat Tuesday?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Fat Tuesday also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is
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  Speaker 3: fun for us because Ben, oftentimes this tradition started by
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  Speaker 3: you when we have ads to do or housekeeping things.
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  Speaker 3: At the end of our recording sessions, Ben and then
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  Speaker 3: the rest of us have followed. Suit often asked are
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  Speaker 3: we shriven? Yes, Shrove? I guess is what tents of
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  Speaker 3: that is of Shriven?
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  Speaker 2: Shrive?
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  Speaker 3: It's too early for me to do, said, it's diagrams,
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  Speaker 3: that's not what this is calls. But yeah, if you're Shriven,
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  Speaker 3: then you've been Shrove. No maybe yeah, yeah, it's Shrove
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  Speaker 3: comes from Shrive. It's the confession of sins as a
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  Speaker 3: preparation for lent, a practice that dates back to Europe
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  Speaker 3: in the Middle Ages. Yeah, and Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday,
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  Speaker 3: Marty Gras, these are all essentially I mean, no, they are.
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  Speaker 3: They're interchangeable, right, I mean, they sort of have different
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  Speaker 3: things associated with them. You know, we think of maybe
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  Speaker 3: Shrove Tuesday as being the more maybe religious minded name
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  Speaker 3: of this season. Fat Tuesday is obviously a day of excess.
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  Speaker 3: It really refers specifically to the Bacchanalian kind of you know,
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  Speaker 3: vibe of the whole thing. And Marty Gras, of course,
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  Speaker 3: is just kind of the holiday. I guess, right, I
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  Speaker 3: mean I don't know, but would you would you assign
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  Speaker 3: different meanings or connections to these different ways of referring
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  Speaker 3: to basically the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
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  Speaker 1: I like your point about the term that people choose,
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  Speaker 1: giving way like giving us insight into their approach to
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  Speaker 1: Marti Gras, you know, whether it is more of a
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  Speaker 1: religious or more of a cultural thing. And I do
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  Speaker 1: want to be corrector the shrove, the shrove shriven kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing does date back to Christianity Middle Ages, but
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  Speaker 1: Marty Graus as a cultural phenomenon days back much further right,
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  Speaker 1: all the way back to pagan fertility rights in spring.
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  Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, like a lot of Christian holidays, you know.
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  Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot of appropriation of pagan traditions
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  Speaker 3: that were then kind of roped into Christian the Christian
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  Speaker 3: kind of holiday pantheon, I guess in a way of
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  Speaker 3: sort of diminishing the godless pagan versions.
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  Speaker 2: Of them to a degree.
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  Speaker 3: Right, So it's like if we take them over and
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  Speaker 3: subsume them into our thing, our goded thing or single
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  Speaker 3: goded thing, then perhaps these heathens you know, will follow
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  Speaker 3: suit and they'll forget, will wipe their version of it
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  Speaker 3: off of the books.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Religious syncretism very popular with the Catholic Church during its
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  Speaker 1: expansionist phase. They would roll into a new community and say, hey,
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  Speaker 1: this thing you're doing, you're actually already into Catholicism. You
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  Speaker 1: just didn't know the right words to use. Your God
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  Speaker 1: is actually a saint, and you should venerate that saint
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  Speaker 1: and realize there's the one true God and that's our
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  Speaker 1: God of Catholicism. This is a common occurrence throughout history.
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  Speaker 2: Also, you're doing it wrong. Also you're doing it right.
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  Speaker 2: To do it a little bit more like this.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody learn Latin right now, now it's easy and do
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  Speaker 1: all this free labor.
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  Speaker 3: So I mean, this is something Marty gross wrow Tuesday,
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  Speaker 3: Fat Tuesday, something that's particularly popular in areas with large
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  Speaker 3: Roman Catholic communities. Right, and this is on the day
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  Speaker 3: before Lent. To your point, Ben, Lent is a season
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  Speaker 3: of abstinence, right, So what better way to precede a
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  Speaker 3: day of abstinence than with utter indulgence.
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  Speaker 2: Make it all balanced out right, kind of like New
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  Speaker 2: Year's Eve vibes, you know what I mean. Hey, we're
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  Speaker 2: gonna do goodt next next time, tomorrow. Yes, today, we're
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  Speaker 2: going all in.
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  Speaker 3: And if we don't die or you know, eat ourselves
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  Speaker 3: to death or drink ourselves to death or you know,
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  Speaker 3: fall off a building or something, then we will set
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  Speaker 3: ourselves right for the coming year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Let me have a large cheeseburger, a pizza, fries, and
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  Speaker 1: milkshake today because I'm going to the gym this afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: you know, on a spiritual level.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're at it.
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  Speaker 3: Why don't you give me a multi colored sweetie roll
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  Speaker 3: stuffed with the baby yes, or or we will accept
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  Speaker 3: a figurine of a child. Indeed, I'm sorry, let's just
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  Speaker 3: you know what that sounds a little more tenable.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, as you can tell, we already quickly recapped an
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  Speaker 1: evolution of Marty grass And while well, while the festival
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  Speaker 1: some version of it exists in Brazil and Venice and
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  Speaker 1: so on, the one in New Orleans is the one
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  Speaker 1: most Americans will be familiar with. Marty Gras has evolved
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  Speaker 1: into a week long festival. Traditionally, it's celebrated on Fat Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: that Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. As
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  Speaker 1: you said, Noel, And now that it's a week long festival,
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  Speaker 1: you know you see the entire city of New Orleans
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  Speaker 1: preparing for it well in advance. And that debauchery includes gluttony.
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  Speaker 3: Gluttony indeed, and just to really quickly just get into
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  Speaker 3: a little bit more about what Ash Wednesday does. Ash
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  Speaker 3: Wednesday is the Wednesday that kicks off Lent, which is
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  Speaker 3: a a period six and a half weeks before Easter,
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  Speaker 3: which recently just passed, which of course is when you
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  Speaker 3: know Jesus Christ was purported to have risen from the
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  Speaker 3: dead after being crucified by the Romans. Essentially, Lent is
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  Speaker 3: a forty day fast, you know, if you do it right,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think I think typically you know, most
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  Speaker 3: fair weather Catholics and Christians, they kind of go to church,
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  Speaker 3: they get the ash on their forehead.
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  Speaker 2: They might you know, fast for a day or.
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  Speaker 3: Something, you know, kind of to feel like they're involved.
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  Speaker 3: But I don't know too many folks that are doing
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  Speaker 3: forty day fasts, do you been?
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  Speaker 1: Not related to Lent honestly, yeah, But we know that
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  Speaker 1: this is an incredibly important thing for a lot of
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  Speaker 1: practicing Christians, a lot of practicing Catholics. But Marti Grass
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  Speaker 1: is not for Catholicism alone. These days, there are a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people who go just for the cultural experience.
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  Speaker 2: We'll call it the tourists.
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  Speaker 1: Well, sure, the period though that you're talking about this fasting,
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  Speaker 1: this preparation, this has been observed before the Festival of
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  Speaker 1: Easter since back in the time of the US was.
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  Speaker 1: It was happening unofficially for quite some time before it
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  Speaker 1: was formalized at the first Council of Nicea in three
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  Speaker 1: twenty five cees. So this this dates back in the
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  Speaker 1: idea of Ash Wednesday, of being marked on the forehead
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  Speaker 1: with ashes that might seem unfamiliar to a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people who are not practicing Catholics or aren't familiar with Catholicism.
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  Speaker 1: But that is a modern day practice and it dates
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  Speaker 1: back so far. And if you are, you know, if
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  Speaker 1: you are an observant Catholic today, you're probably pretty happy
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  Speaker 1: that they relax some of those fasting rules. It used
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  Speaker 1: to be intense. You could only eat one full meal
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  Speaker 1: and two smaller meals if combined. That if you combine
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  Speaker 1: those small meals, they wouldn't equal a singull normal meal.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's a rule where you can't eat meat
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  Speaker 1: on any Friday during lynt. And there's there's question too,
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  Speaker 1: I wonder how much of that was to justify shortages
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  Speaker 1: of food.
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  Speaker 2: It's a really good question, Ben.
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  Speaker 3: We you know, typically we know that the Catholic Church,
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  Speaker 3: you know, holds a lot of sway, historically held a
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  Speaker 3: lot of sway over the populace, like in terms of
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  Speaker 3: you know, being able to kind of maneuver and cause
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  Speaker 3: them to do certain things. And we do sometimes see
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  Speaker 3: political reasons or you know, perhaps logistical reasons for doing
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  Speaker 3: some of this stuff. Remember, like the butter indulgences and
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  Speaker 3: all that stuff. How butter was only for like the
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  Speaker 3: upper upper class, you know. And and and you could
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  Speaker 3: pay a fee in a little special box that was
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  Speaker 3: in the church in order to be able to eat butter.
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  Speaker 3: But of course only the super rich could afford to
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  Speaker 3: do that.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And as we know, food is a big deal. Ridiculous historians,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we love any chance to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: history of food. So we're all in on this. And
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  Speaker 1: just to add, those Sundays were excluded. Sundays were excluded
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  Speaker 1: from the fasting.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, and I guess that is probably I mean, I'm
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  Speaker 3: certain it's where the term breakfast comes from, the idea
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  Speaker 3: of breaking ones fast.
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  Speaker 1: Breaking a fast yep. So I think that gives us
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  Speaker 1: a good understanding of what lent is, what ash Wednesday is,
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  Speaker 1: And we've painted a picture of why Fat Tuesday is
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  Speaker 1: so important to a lot of people, because it's your
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  Speaker 1: last hurrah, right, your last huzzah, you could say, before
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  Speaker 1: you got to straighten up. And while people are indulging
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  Speaker 1: traditionally in I don't know if it's quite debauchery, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know it's supposed to be. While they're living the
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  Speaker 1: high life, they have come to enjoy certain food stuffs
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  Speaker 1: as a way of celebrating fat Tuesday. And this is
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  Speaker 1: where maybe we introduce our first example, perhaps one of
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  Speaker 1: the most famous, which is the King Cake, which I
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  Speaker 1: think is a misleading name because if we're being honest,
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  Speaker 1: they would call it.
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  Speaker 2: Baby doll cake or baby figure cake exactly.
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  Speaker 3: We allude to that earlier picture sort of an oversized
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  Speaker 3: cinnamon roll, but instead of the folds being stuffed with
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  Speaker 3: you know, kind of a cream cheese frosting and cinnamon swirls,
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  Speaker 3: we're talking a sugar that's multicolored. Like I said, it's
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  Speaker 3: kind of a psychedelic you know, purple and pink, and
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  Speaker 3: you know, depending on who does it, it can all
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  Speaker 3: kind of blend together and just sort of look brown.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, if it's done right, it's got a
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  Speaker 3: certain sparkle to it. Right, it catches the eye. And
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  Speaker 3: then really heavy layers of like pure cream cheese, sweetened
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  Speaker 3: cream cheese, which is a little bit a little thicker
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  Speaker 3: and more decadent than the kind of frosting you'd find
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  Speaker 3: in a cinnamon role, but they are cinnamon roll adjacent.
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  Speaker 3: And then somewhere in those velvety folds is a little
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  Speaker 3: figurine of a baby careful now, don't go, you know,
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  Speaker 3: housing that thing too quick, or you might choke on
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  Speaker 3: the baby. And you don't want that because you want
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  Speaker 3: to preserve the baby if you were lucky enough to
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  Speaker 3: find it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and luck is a big factor here because, as
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  Speaker 1: we'll see, there are consequences, rights, and responsibilities that come
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  Speaker 1: with being the person who finds that baby.
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  Speaker 2: Figure.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about this. I really like
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  Speaker 1: your description comparing it to a cinnamon role. We should
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  Speaker 1: also note that the kingcake history actually starts with Three
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  Speaker 1: Kings Day. That's a holiday that happens twelve days after Christmas,
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  Speaker 1: and the first king cakes were made in Europe to
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  Speaker 1: celebrate the Catholic Epiphany, which is on January, the celebration
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  Speaker 1: of the day when the three Wise Men were purported
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  Speaker 1: to have visited the baby Jesus Christ and giving him
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  Speaker 1: the classic combo gold frankincense and murr, right, which I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure is it was just like the Ticklebeelmo of that time.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody needed the gold frank and murr. It was a
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  Speaker 1: classic gift, and so people are celebrating this for centuries
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  Speaker 1: and centuries. French Catholics brought the cake with them to
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana in the eighteen seventies, and now it is synonymous
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  Speaker 1: with the French quarter Marti grass Fat Tuesday or shrove
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday or pancake Tuesday, whatever you want to call it.
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  Speaker 1: It's very New Orleans and you can buy one in
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  Speaker 1: the I think it starts selling in like early January. Honestly,
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  Speaker 1: you could probably buy some version of it year round nowadays, right, the.
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  Speaker 3: Kingcake has become so mainstream that, like, you know, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, we have to have publics everywhere, but
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  Speaker 3: here they have publics and Kroger, and you know, you're
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  Speaker 3: gonna find your grocery store varieties that are just kind
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  Speaker 3: of made in bulk in their bakeries.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: But then if you have a nice, you know, local bakery,
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  Speaker 3: they're gonna have more kind of bespoke versions of it.
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  Speaker 3: But they all kind of follow the same rules. And
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  Speaker 3: I believe they are even like really kind of well
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  Speaker 3: regarded ones in New Orleans that do mail order.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, fancy, right, it's fancy to get a proper
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  Speaker 1: king cake mail to you, and people do it every year.
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to add I was kind of conflating two
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  Speaker 3: religiously based kind of traditional desserts. There's something in Ireland
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  Speaker 3: called the bambrack cake or the rag cake that I
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  Speaker 3: actually learned about in the show Boardwalk Empire, and it's
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  Speaker 3: actually eaten on Halloween and it's a fruit bread where
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  Speaker 3: each member of the family gets a slice and there
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  Speaker 3: are hidden items in there. One of them is a
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  Speaker 3: piece of rag. It's sometimes referred to as a rag cake.
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  Speaker 3: Another is a coin, and another is a ring. If
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  Speaker 3: you get the rag, then your financial future is questionable.
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  Speaker 3: If you get the coin, then you can look forward
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  Speaker 3: to prospering in the coming year. And if you get
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  Speaker 3: the ring, then the romance is in your future. So
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  Speaker 3: I love this idea of this kind of parallel you know,
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  Speaker 3: hidden secret you know, choking hazard items, you know found
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  Speaker 3: inside desserts.
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  Speaker 2: This all feels very unhygienic to me, unsanitary.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the rag, I mean surely you know in modern versions,
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  Speaker 3: it's not like an actual like you know, used piece,
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  Speaker 3: throw it in while we're cooking.
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  Speaker 2: Cost it in there, see what? Yeah, yeah, use the
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  Speaker 2: one from the floor. It's fine, I'm up earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we should also not the king cake colors are representative.
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  Speaker 2: There are symbolic the green and this I didn't know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well I didn't know about the rag cake, so
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  Speaker 1: now I'm gonna be extra cautious if I'm eating cake
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  Speaker 1: in Ireland. So the green on the King Cake symbolizes faith,
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  Speaker 1: the purple stands for power, and the yello represents justice.
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  Speaker 1: But let's get to the weirdest part. This is the
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  Speaker 1: weirdest part for someone who's never heard of King Cake.
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  Speaker 1: It's that baby man, the plastic baby. Apparently everybody's itching
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  Speaker 1: to get the slice of King Cake that has the
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  Speaker 1: baby action figure, and people have different stories.
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  Speaker 2: Action is a bit generous.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, it's easily our richt just weird little fricking fetus
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  Speaker 3: looking thing.
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  Speaker 1: So okay, here's what I heard. And again, not an
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  Speaker 1: expert on New Orleans nor King Cake. I heard something
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  Speaker 1: a little bit different from what some of our sources
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  Speaker 1: are saying. So traditionally the baby figure is meant to
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  Speaker 1: represent the baby Jesus Christ, but others will say this
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  Speaker 1: is just a symbol of luck or prosperity, and if
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  Speaker 1: you get the slice with the baby inside, you are
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  Speaker 1: king or queen for a day and you're going to
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  Speaker 1: have a great year. So kind of like getting the
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  Speaker 1: coin in that rag cake. But the idea I heard
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  Speaker 1: that if you got the figure, then you were on
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  Speaker 1: the hook to hold the get together the next year.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, that's an actual functional, uh kind of use for
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  Speaker 3: the thing to kind of dictate, you know, who has
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  Speaker 3: to foot the bill for the get together.
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  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: You know, I got a sad The baby Jesus thing
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: rings true for me because the king cake we're talking about,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: you know, Christ, we're talking about the three Kings, the
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: three you know, the three wise Men are often referred
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: to as the three Kings, so that that tends.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: To feel right to me.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: But also if you think about, like in Chinese culture,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: a pig, a little tiny pig is often a symbol
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: of luck, right.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Uh huh.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: And what looks what looks a lot like a little
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: tiny pig, little tiny baby?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean you think just think of the scale, right,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: so exactly, and the pinkness. Mainly so your entry into
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the king cake competition, should you eat and celebrate with
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: your friends is not rad in dollars spent, unless you're
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: on the hook to throw the party. Instead, it's let's
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: rate it in calories, because a single slice of.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: King all of our of our desserts today.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which maybe, dear listeners, maybe this will clue
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: you in on why these are not year round goodies
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: for a lot of people. A single slice, well, a
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: single slice of King Cake, it's two hundred calories and
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: that's not the most calorically dense treat we'll talk about,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: as Max pointed out.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: No, and we're talking for a single slice.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: According to my fitness Pal, which is an app that
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: you can get. We're not sponsored by them, but I
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: have used it in the past. It's like a fitness
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: tracker and you know, food diary kind of thing that
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: has like, you know, all this data around various food
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: items and it has kin cake. Good job on you,
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: my fitness Pal. We're talking a fifty five gram slice,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: so one slice that would be the serving size officially,
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: unofficially according to my fitness Pal.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: But if you.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Wanted to go full on fat Tuesday, you know, be
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: the fattest of Fat Tuesday ors, you could eat the
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: entire King Cake, which is around twenty slices, which will
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: net you thirty eight hundred calories, five hundred and sixty
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: grams of carbs, and one hundred grams of fat.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Tuesday fats ah, yes fat Tuesday fat and still again nutritionally,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: this is not the worst thing for you on the list.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Let's move to punch.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Ky yeah, which if you read it on paper, you're
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: never gonna say it like that. It looks like past
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: key and full disclosure. I sometimes listen to these outlines.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: These the research briefs are incredible research associates put together
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: for us on a text to speech app. And boy,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: that text to speech app was having a hard time
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: with these pronunciations because Max so helpfully put in phonetic pronunciations.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: So I would hear, you know, the robot voice say
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: passcheck pon cheek.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Because it is appaently uh, poncheck po poonchky poncheck, which
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: does sound like a doctor Seu's name.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Right, poncheck would be singular. Pounsky is plural, and this
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: is gotta be polish, right, Yeah, it's gotta be because
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: it's spelled pacz. They love the cz cake also check.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Also, since we learn witness protection in the US will
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: let you choose your own name, somebody somebody go with
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: pond check punchki no, somebody to.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Say no, yeah, you do the singular plural check pun
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: That's a fabulous name.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, no one will ever suspect it. Now who
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: you say you are?
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: Your parents uh loved this dessert indeed, and uh you
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: know who else seems to love this dessert at least
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: from historical context. It's Teresa now a Kowski, also a
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: lovely Polish name from Smithsonian mag who says, quote, leading
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: up to Fat Tuesday, many Chicago bakries. Chicago's got a
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: big Poles population. Chicago bakeries are hard at work, taking orders,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: organizing ingredients, and prepping dough for the impending rush. All
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: this festive fuss isn't for Marti Grock classics like kincake,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: though they'll make that too, but for poncheck. Poncheck is
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: a traditional Polish dessert for Fat Tuesday, which is caught
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: on in the Windy City and other cities with Polish
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: heritage like Detroit and Buffalo, to the point that some
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: simply call the holiday poncheck Day.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: It's weird because if you look at it and you're
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: not familiar with this, you might think, oh, I've seen
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: donuts before, and I love that you're pointing out this
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Smithsonian article because we're getting a lot of the insider
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: scoop from this one in that you'll see folks like
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Dobra Bilinsky, who owns a Chicago bakery called Delightful Pastries,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: and she describes the punchki as not just a doughnut
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: by another name. She says, the dough is richer, It's
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: denser in the dough you would see in your typical donut,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and she says this gives the pastry a certain quote plushness.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: She says, the best way you think of it is
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: that a pun check is like a doughnut crossed with brioche,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and it's got a sweet fruit preserved filling. It's got
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: a thin glaze on top and a hint of orange peel,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: which does sound pretty good. It also does sound like
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: a traditional kind of European dessert, doesn't it, with fruit
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and orange peel in.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: There, that's right.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: But the kind of kind of classic versions of the
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: dessert that you might find in Polish bakeries around Chicago
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: or in other parts of the country. You're gonna need eggs, milk, butter, sugar, vanilla,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: and a lot of this stuff actually stems. These ingredient
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: choices stem from religious origins themselves. That's because before the
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: beginning of the Lent season, Polish Catholics also celebrated Fat Tuesday,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: had their own kind of spin on it, and this
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: was a time where they wanted to indulge as well,
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: and these were sort of the ingredients that they had
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: on hand since the Middle Ages. The ponchet kind of
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: fit the bill for the Polish you know, indulgence on
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: the day before ash Wednesday. They actually make them a
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: little bit further in advance, and that they make them
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: the Thursday before ash Wednesday, so the previous week. And Ben,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: did you mention that, as you mentioned, you did mention
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: that the festival is so kind of centered around this
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: dessert that it sometimes gets another name, you know, pop
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Ponchki Day. Yeah, so we've got we got another one
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: to add to the list of kind of stylings on
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: Marty Gras Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Now we've got Ponchki Day.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And it makes a lot of sense. Historically, those ingredients
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: that we listed out the traditional ingredients, those are luxurious things.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: So if you are celebrating Fat Thursday back in the day,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: you want to use up all your luxury urious ingredients
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: because you can't eat the lard and sugar during the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: fasting period of lint.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: It didn't occur to me. I mean, you know, because
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: things like butter and they will you know that that
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: stuff will spoil, so best to just get it all out.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Also probably maybe to cut down on temptation. Yeah, you
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: know what, that's a really good dough too. And look,
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: this stuff doesn't the dough doesn't collapse when you bite
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: into it. It is deep fried, it's flat. It has
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: that fruit or cream filling.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: They the fruit filling is traditionally supposed to be prune,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: but you can also get versions with apricot, lemon, raspberry, blueberry, custard,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: you name it. And we got to see where punchki
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: waiys in on the caloric scale.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's gonna be about three hundred to four hundred
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: calories a pop per Yeah.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Slice, well, no, it's not a slice, it's a it's
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: a it's a handheld.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a single serve, single doughnut. It it's very
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: similar to a donut.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Very similar to adona. But no, we're gonna get to
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: the potato e one next. That one's interesting.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: That's right. It is very very yeasty.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: By the way, so that's that adds to some of
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: the carbiness of it all. We're looking at around forty
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: upwards of forty grams of carbs per and between twelve
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: and twenty five grams of fat. Which does this outrank
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: the Kingcake slice on every front?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Per slice?
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, on the first slice. And this is the one
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: that actually I built this article out of. So the
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: idea I got was on a Super Bowl party last
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: month or not last month, back in February. So one
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: of my friends who showed up, he's from New Orleans.
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: He bron kin cake. I gotta be fun to write about.
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: But being from Detroit, my whole family's from Detroit. We
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: grew up being Pooonsky's. So this is like, yeah, this
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: is the fast thing that we have because it's a
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: big Midwestern thing. There's a very large Polish population in
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Chicago and Detroit and stuff. So I was like Poonsky's.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: And I was actually telling my mom yesterday, I'm like, Hey,
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: we're gonna recording an episode about poosch Key's. So she's
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: super We're excited to hear about this.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Hello missus Williams, Hello, and we hope we do you
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: probably and really quickly I am very excited to announce
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: I guess that I am going to Detroit for the
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: very first time later this year. I'm gonna go see
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite bands, Mister Bungle has reformed, and
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: they're playing one of my favorite albums of there is
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: disco Volante, at a place called the Fillmore. I guess
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: this is in downtown Detroit, and I'm going there with
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: some friends and we're staying for a few days and
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: I have to pick your brain, Max on some stuff
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: to do. But it seems like a really interesting city,
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: and it's one that I've never been to.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Travel under the name Ponchek Punchki.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: I will it's at the very least, we'll check into
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: the hotel out of that name. I've always wanted to
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: check into a hotel under an assumed name. It seems
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: like the easiest thing in the world to.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Do it is they just they'll use your actual name,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: like they'll want your ID and verification for your card,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: so they will know your real name, but they'll give
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: out they'll give out a face name if you ask.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you've got to kind of give them
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: a little wink wink, nudge nudge.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Don't say, here's my fake name.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Right like most people. If you're nice too, though, they'll
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: want to help you out. And as long as the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: name is not, you know, an aggressive combination of.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Curse words, they'll usually I'm not gonna speak those out loud.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry exactly. Yeah, I don't care what kind of
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: tip you give me.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Well, this is interesting because I'm not aware of this
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: treat and now I've got to try one.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: It sounds delightful, and you know, while you're there, maybe
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: you can bribe the hotel folks with a paun check.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Or if that doesn't work, maybe you could try to
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: slide a foshnt their way. I'm sorry, a foster snot.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, that's not a fastest.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna put on my my my young
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: German bully hell real quick. And it's actually fast nach
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: Nacht because knacht.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Means night, and I think we'll get it to the overall.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: The word itself is German and it means fast night literally,
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: so FoST Knocht is the evening of the fast and
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: let's see. They're often by by Mikhaela Miller for Lancaster
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Online describes them, or at least describes the way people
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: often describe them, which I think is always an interesting
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: thing to claim as little puffs of pillowy goodness.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, which sounds good, uh because it's literally goodness.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: So, according to the article what are fast Knocks The
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: story behind this treat on visitpa dot com, they made
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: their way across the Atlantic when German immigrants first started
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: coming to America on mass and they're synonymous with Pennsylvania
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Dutch culture, kind kind of like those decorated barns that
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: you can see out in different areas of Pennsylvania.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: And those delicious little ham rolls they make.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: You ever had those? You ever been to a Dutch bakery?
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Literally there used to be when in Augusta where in
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: my hometown called the Little Dutch Bakery, and it was
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: run by Mennonites, which is a particular, you know sect
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: of Dutch, you know, religious culture where they have like
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: they wear head coverings and such. But they have this
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: wonderful little bakery and they made these incredible ham rolls.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: And I bet you they made FoST knocks as well.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: So this is another treat associated with lint and Shrove
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Tuesday This particular one, however, might appear to the untrained
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: eye to be very similar to a donut.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Couldn't be farther from the truth, right, looks could be deceiving.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Centuries and centuries ago, apparently someone deep in German culture said,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: you know what, picture this a donut that is also
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: a potato and everyone went, you should be in charge
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: of more things a potato nut, yes, or a foss knut.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: So it's interesting because it's it's only in certain cultures, like,
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: for example, in the Jewish faith and culture, you have
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: you know, lot keys, which I typically think of potato
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: e things as being savory, and you know, a lot
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: key on its own certainly is savory. But then there's
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: some versions of it that involve putting some sort of
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: like apple compote kind of on top, and then it
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: sort of becomes this like vessel for sweetness. And that's
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: what we're seeing kind of here. Only typically, you know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: whereas a doughnut would be made of a wheat flower
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: bas you know, or a flowery base for the carb,
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: this uses potatoes that are kind of whipped into a
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: consistency that is more like kind of like a pillowy
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: little dome retreat as opposed to like, you know, mashed potatoes.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, they're not a round. Traditionally they're square
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: or try angular, and now I think more and more
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: in recent times round ones are normalized. But they still
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: will never have a hole in the middle. So if
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: you were ever in a weird situation, you know, someone
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: has a gun to your head and they say, you know,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: it's the end for you. If you can't just tell
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the difference between these various things that look like doughnuts,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: well we'll give you a leg up. The one without
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: a hole in the middle. That's that's your bet for
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: FoST knock. Never a hole shall be found in a
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: in a fast knocked.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: Uh. They are sometimes triangular as well. You usually believe
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: they're square. And by the way, we wanted to mention too,
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: if if you're trying to picture what does potato dough
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: feel like, think of like a nookie. If if you
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: ever had that that that kind of potato based pasta,
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: you know, it doesn't taste potato. We exactly, it doesn't
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: come come the mouthfeel of it doesn't feel that consistency
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: of like a mashed potato. It really does feel like
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: a dough so you're essentially using potato to create something
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: that very much is a recognizably doughy consistency.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: And in this weird donut hostage situation, if you are
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: allowed to touch the baked goods, you'll notice that our pal,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: the fostnits, is also a little bit heavier and denser
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: than a doughnut. And if you're allowed to bite one, again,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: this is a very weird situation you're in hypothetically, but.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: If they're like, no, take a bite.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Take a bite before you say anything, you'll notice the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: fast nut is not as sweet as the typical US doughnut.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: It really does feel.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: A lot like a lot key to me, only it's just,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: you know, a lot key literally is like mashed potato
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: that you fry up, you know, and make into us
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: like a flat little disc and fry up in a pan.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: This is going to have more height than a lot key,
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: but a lot caa. But I believe there's gonna be
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: some similarities because it is deep golden brown with a soft,
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: kind of tender interior. But again, because they're making it
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: into a dough I feel like the bite of it
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: is going to be a little more like a yokie,
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: whereas yeah, chew here, whereas the mashed potato the potato
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: lotkey is going to feel more like a nice crispy
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: exterior with mashed potato in the middle, or like a parochi.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: And before we get to the caloric intake, which we're
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: doing for each of these, we will note that there
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: is a beef about spelling. If you go to Pennsylvania,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: you'll see that Lancaster County has held for a long
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: time that fast knocked without a middle tea is the
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: correct spelling and comes straight from good old Pennsylvanian Dutch.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And that's according to doctor Mark Lauden, an expert on
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Dutch language. However, people will tell you that you're
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: not wrong for inserting the middle tea because it refers
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: to the period of lent when fasting is the order
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: of day. Fast and traditional German means the same thing
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: as it does in English. So whether you see it
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: spelled fas in acht or fast in acht, you are correct.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I fell into trivia voice, I fell into bar trivia
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: voice like and the answer is either one. So congratulations
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: to you for surviving this weird doughnut situation. One slice
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: of this stuff, or you know, just one serving of it,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: two hundred and seventeen calories, twenty four grams of carbs,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: twelve grams of fat. And that's the basic version. That's
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: like the factory version. Of course, you can get some
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: with a lot more added on and a lot more
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: calories involved. I've got one, Noel. I've not learned about
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: this one. I've heard some version of most of these
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: on this list, but I am unfamiliar with semlar am
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I even saying that correctly, semlar I.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Think you are.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: It is Swedish, so it does sound like a piece
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: of ikea furniture, perhaps a footstool of some variety, given
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: the shape of this thing.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Essentially it's something you may have seen on a Great
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: British Baking Show, if you're a fan of that delightful program.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: It's basically like a Claire kind of but it's a
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: Swedish a Claire. It's essentially two doughnuts as the bread,
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: and in the middle you've got some variety of delightful
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: cream pilly. But it's like it's not it's not stuffed
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: inside of a closed circuit donut. Yeah, it's like it's visible,
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: so it actually makes for a pretty nice presentation too, actually,
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: you know, and Paul Hollywood would give you his cold
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: blue stare of death if you dared to make the
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: cream look not neat or not.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: Who's Paul Hollywood. He's the host of the judgment.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: He gives you the handshake if you do a good job,
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: and it makes people weep because he's so hardcore and
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: his eyes are icy blue.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I thought you just knew some guy going by Paul Hollywood. Yeah, oh,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Paul Hollywood.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: You don't want to meet that guy in the dark alley,
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: especially on fat Tuesday, because he might puke on you.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: And uh, if you're very lucky, he might be puking sembla.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: We're kidding.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: The way to the man and I love that the
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: way the way to eat.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Cebyla is from a reputable baker. Uh, you should be
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the first person to eat it.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: Ideally, now, ben you you may recall, uh this this
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: delectable treat from a previous conversation about like royalty that
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: died weirdly remember the guy, but then there was this
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: guy we'll get to. King Adolph Frederick Max referred to
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: these these treats very delightfully, to the point where I
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: almost believe that it was a thing people said as
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: king killers. Sembla's are still quite below despite their reputation,
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: which we'll get to in a minute, but ridiculous historians
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: may already know where we're heading. Simla is a wheat
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: flour bun again doughnut, uh and it flavored with cardamom,
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: which is neat because that is not that I think
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: of that typically as a as an East Indian spice.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: And oh it's so wonderful. I mean like some of
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: the earliest We did an episode on ice cream recently,
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: and some of those early you know, cool fee, I
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: believe is what it was called, those Indian desserts, the
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: frozen kind of pops. They were flavored with cardamom, and
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: obviously cardamom is a very popular now. You get those
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: cardamom pods, those green green guys, and smash them up
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: in your order and pestle and make yourself a nice
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: garam masala or whatever spice plan you're into.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Coffee Lamburiani, this hat Carnival, dude, you know what I've
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: got coming in the mail?
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: What's a tajin? Yeah, it's incredible. There's this fabulous restaurant
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: in New York called Cafe Mogador, and they do these
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: tajen lamb things and it's basically slow, slow, slow cooked lamb.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: In this clay oven and cardamom would be a fabulous
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: seasoning for that.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: We're not talking about that. We're talking about flavoring donut
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: creamy donuty things with cardiom So flavor with cartera Mom.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Almond paste is one of my favorite flavors. I love
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: mar Zapan. I'm a big fan of almond the paste
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: anything and whipped cream. So it's an almond paste kind
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: of combined with the whip cream. So it's gonna have
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: a really rich, you probably flavor with some vanilla, I
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: imagine it would have to be. It's gonna have a
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: really rich, earthy kind of taste.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Is how what I describe as all, oh, wait, what
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: you might be saying, you know what this is missing
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: a bowl of hot milk.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is how that guy died. Hot milk.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: He got a bunch of he got a bunch of
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: semlas and just kept dunking them dunk of milk and
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: eating them. You know, he was actually, you know, the
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: tragic inventor of the Dunkaroo now that I think about it.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and friend of the friend of the show in
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: the podcast network, John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the
• 40:54
  Speaker 3: Angry Inch, fame a very very fun trivia effect about him.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: Was the original voice of the dunk Guru Kangaroo in
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: those ad campaigns from the nineties that we all remember.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: See Nothing happens in a vacuum, that's what we're saying.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: So now, at some point we know that people in
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Sweden got a little tired of strictly observing lent. So
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: that's why they added cream and almond paste to this mix,
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: this semla stuff, and they started eating it every Tuesday
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Because the church doesn't enforce
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: these fasting practices the way that it did in times
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: of old, you'll usually see semla appearing in bakery windows
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: as near after Christmas as deemed decent. It's kind of
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: like sometimes even before Christmas. It's kind of like how
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: in the US the sale season for things keeps creeping
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: bought larger and larger, right, Like you'll see stuff for
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Christmas right after or Halloween.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Right, that's right. This is kind of what's happening with somewhat.
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: The idea of, like what is the appropriate time to
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: like trot out the Valentine's Day you know, ghak or whatever.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: It's usually literally the day after the previous season or
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: holiday has expired. By the way, you mentioned dunking, right, Yes,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: not only dunking. Actually the traditional way of doing it
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: is to pour the stuff on top of it. And
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: Paul Hollywood, as I mentioned, he's got a recipe that
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: I believe is pretty traditional. He infuses the warm milk
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: with cinnamon stick.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: I'm not a cinnamon fan. No, you ever know the
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: cinnamon challenge.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I tolerate it. I recognize it's right to exist.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's fair. I appreciate that.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, cinnamon challenge was one of those Internet the things
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: where people were just like trying to swallow cinnamon and
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: because of the particular particles of it are so fine,
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: you can't do it.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: It just causes you to immediately choke and gasp.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Also, in the Anarchist Cookbook, which had a bunch of
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: at least the versions I saw, had a bunch of
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: things that might be considered trolling or pranks on the reader,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: like ideas of alternative ways for people to become intoxicated.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: You know, the nutmeg, the Sailor's high, that's one of
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: the sailors high. It is lousy with nutmeg on ships
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: because there that's how nutmeg is getting around.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: I get okay, Oh of course the spice, the spice trainers.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: That makes sense.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we should maybe we should maybe talk about
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: those weird uses of things as.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: Drugs in a future episode episode. Yeah, the Sailor's high.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Well you can why get high on drugs, folks, when
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: you can get high on semla and hot milk. This
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: burger shaped candy like it's structured the way a hamburger
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: would be structured, except there's creamy almond filling instead of
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: a patty, and it's all tops of whipped cream. Now, Noel,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: this takes the cake. This takes the king cake out.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Traditional semla just one five hundred calories.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, worth every penny, worth every every much lower unit
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: of currency.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a big fan of this kind of treat.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: Like I would, I would kind of liken it only
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: in its creamy fillingness to like a canoli. The canoli's
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: obviously a more brittle, you know, cookie type in casing.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: I guess this is really more like maybe a napoleon,
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: but that's more of a custard filling, So it really
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: kind of is its own thing. The fact that it's
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: a specifically whipped filling, and I'm sure you know there
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: are stylings on it, like you could probably flavor it
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: with with fruit as well. You could make like a
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: maybe a strawberry type filling, but the traditional one really
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: is just that almond kind of paste, uh and whipped cream,
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: So whipped cream doesn't go on top. The topping is
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: like a powdered sugar kind of confection or sugar deal.
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: And I believe, as far as I'm telling on a
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: lot of these images and recipes that were seeing, the
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: filling is whipped cream sweetened with almond paste, you know,
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: so it's going to have that combined kind of consistency.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: And like any of these traditional sweets, a lot of
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: them might be made at home, so you're going to
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: see nutritional facts differ widely between recipes, and if your
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: family has a particularly cool when you're very lucky, and
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: we'd love to hear about it. But semla just on
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: its own is innocuous as it may seem does help
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: explain why Frederick died after eating Oh gosh, remembering the
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: bold strokes of the episode, let's see, he had lobster
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: sausages with sauer Kraut caviare, and then he housed fourteen
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: semlas with milk.
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: I think we liken this or I liken this to
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: the bit on Monty Python's Meaning of Life with mister Kreoso,
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: the enormous man, you know, with the I think it's
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: I forget what actor was, I think it's h Eric
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: Idol may be dressed in like a giant fat suit,
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: you know. He gorges himself and then he's like at
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: the end, he's like, I don't.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Have one more thing. And then the guy's buddy, it's
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: a wifire thin.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: He gives him like a little little tiny crisp and
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: he puts it on his tongue with a tong and
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: then jumps behind a barricade and then the guy explodes,
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: and uh.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Terry Jones, Terry Jones, there you go.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: And Max, I believe you had not seen that before,
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: and you made the mistake of googling it and you
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: said it was a disturbing nightmare.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: Fuel.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, to make it even worse. This past weekend, UH,
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: a couple of friends ticking me out to and all
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: you can eat cream barbecue restaurant from.
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: My brodd and which one.
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: Uh, I don't even know the name of. It's the
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: first time i'd been there. But we went there and
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: the entire time I talked about mister Kre sketch, and
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: the waiter kept coming up right when I was doing it,
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: and I pause, and why do you keep stopping this?
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: Like the story is incredibly disgusting, guys, And then I
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: sent them that thing and they were not very appreciative.
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: But the best part is when John Cleese, who plays
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: the waiter, he goes, I have judge it and miss
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Sill's bucket.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Not for nothing is Monday Python one of the best
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: sketch shows made in the English language. And not for
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: nothing is Marti Gras hosts to some of the best
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: desserts out there. Right now, we are on the cusp
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: of just talking about what we're going to get for lunch.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: You know, as soon as you mentioned Korean barbecue, Maas,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: I was thinking we got to get out of here.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: It's time.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: I propose that we we call it here, We'll leave
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: you with a king who died pursuing excess, and we hope.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: We know this is not in time.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: For Marti Gras necessarily, but we hope that you have
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode and I can't wait to hear more
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Marti Graus traditions and war stories on Ridiculous Historians on Facebook.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: Jeez, Louise, the time just flew by. Ben. It's funny.
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: Before we started the episode today, you said how you
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: kind of like talking about desserts sometimes more than you
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: like eating them. We just talked about desserts for fifty minutes.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: That's pretty cool. I did not feel like that. I
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: thought we were like, well, ya really stopping? It seems
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: like we're under time. Surely there's more deserts to discuss.
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: But yeah, religious desserts.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Who knew? I think most people knew to some degree. Yeah,
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of people.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Probably we might be the ones who are learning the
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: most on this one. But uh but yeah, let us know.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please tune in later
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: this week when we're going to explore this strange story
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: of monster trucks.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: No more spoilers than that.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: Moday Tuesday, Tuesday, Thursday, whichever day it comes out. I
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: am super excited about that one. Yeah, oh my gosh,
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: I think we're gonna, you know, peak behind the curtain.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: I think we're actually about to do it in just
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: a few minutes.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: You won't hear anybody about it. Thursday, Thursday, Thursday about our.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: Time travel and I can't remember truck a saur or
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: truck Asaurus was.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: It was?
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Well, big big thanks to mister Max Williams. Big big
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: thanks in advance to the creative minds behind Monster Trucks.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Big thanks to all those Marty Gros dessert experts. We
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: see you, We admire your work, and who else you
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: know what.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: I love you, all of you. Yeah, yeah, you're all right.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: You're all right.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: Had huge thanks to Zach Williams too, to Jeff Bartletts
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: of of the of the of the Ridiculous Research Associates,
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: Extraordinary collective. Max, thanks again to you for this really,
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: really fun and educational doc Jonathan stricklm Ever made you rain.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: We've okay, we've been teasing this one too long.
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: We did hang out with him in Austin as part
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: of our other show stuff that will want you to know,
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: but we still haven't gotten him, we haven't lured his
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: maniacal spirit back to our podcast realm, so we got
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: to make that happen.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: What have we made him mad? Have we upset him?
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: No? No, he's just got a lot going on and
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: the only accept payment in kincake.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: Okay, we can that. We can probably order some kin
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: cake up from.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: Let's get him at Kingcake.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: But instead of a baby in there, it's like a
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: little Jonathan strictly.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: Oh that'd be cool.
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: I was thinking, okay, you were, You were going much
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: more charitable than I was. But yes, we're gonna do
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: that and with that we will see you next time, folks.
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.