April 18, 2023 • 50 mins
From the epic parade to the krewes and flambeaux, Mardi Gras is a celebration chock-full of tradition -- and these traditions include some pretty amazing desserts. In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the most ridiculous Mardi Gras desserts (spoiler: it goes way past king cake).
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is the production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's give it up for the man,
the myth legend, our super producer, mister Max Williams. Huzzah
zon indeed, and let's hear it for Marti Gras, which
is one of the biggest celebrations in the United States
(00:49):
every year.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm Ben Noel. I have to ask you. Have you
been to Marty Gras?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Huzzah, huzza, No, no, I I've been to like Marty
Grass themed restaurants. I have been to New Orleans, but
not during Marty Gras, but they kind of keep a
Marty Gras vibe there year round. You know, people drinking
hand grenades in the streets and vomiting in alleys.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, that's about what Marty Grass about, right, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
New Orleans is such a unique town and it definitely
has a unique vibe. It's the kind of place where
you can find music and live performances. It seems in
almost every part of the neighborhood, even.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
As alleys or people are vomiting. Sometimes there's brass bands
set up, you know, serenading you.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And my first time going to New Orleans was very
strange because I came in the middle of something that
it was this charity event where people put on red
dresses and they, from what I could tell day, drink
and I noticed it. No one told me what was
going on. I noticed it when my girlfriend and I
(01:56):
were at breakfast and I saw, you know, several tables, women, men,
you name it, and no no children though that's an
interesting outlier. The women, men, you name it except for
children in these red dresses. And I was like, wow,
these people are drinking pretty heavily, even for a brunch.
And then as the day went on, I saw more
(02:19):
and more people in red dresses getting progressively intoxicated until
it was like like three point thirty or something, and
then there was someone throwing up. There was a lady
just screaming Darren in the streets, and I thought, wow,
is this New Orleans all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That's a fat Tuesday tradition, screaming Darren in the streets
and puking in red dresses.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, this red dresses, it's the Red Dress Run, which
takes place in August. So it was August eleventh. I
must have been there for my birthday. It's okay, so
it's really hot and they're running and drinking.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
At least that's the ones I noticed the most.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well this was for our Darren in the streets though Noel,
I know that we both are big fans of New
Orleans and we, with some help from our research associate
Max Williams, decided to look into a very specific aspect
of Marti Gras, which is the ridiculous desserts of Fat Tuesday.
(03:27):
What is fat Tuesday?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, Fat Tuesday also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is
fun for us because Ben, oftentimes this tradition started by
you when we have ads to do or housekeeping things.
At the end of our recording sessions, Ben and then
the rest of us have followed. Suit often asked are
we shriven? Yes, Shrove? I guess is what tents of
(03:51):
that is of Shriven?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Shrive?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's too early for me to do, said, it's diagrams,
that's not what this is calls. But yeah, if you're Shriven,
then you've been Shrove. No maybe yeah, yeah, it's Shrove
comes from Shrive. It's the confession of sins as a
preparation for lent, a practice that dates back to Europe
in the Middle Ages. Yeah, and Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday,
(04:17):
Marty Gras, these are all essentially I mean, no, they are.
They're interchangeable, right, I mean, they sort of have different
things associated with them. You know, we think of maybe
Shrove Tuesday as being the more maybe religious minded name
of this season. Fat Tuesday is obviously a day of excess.
It really refers specifically to the Bacchanalian kind of you know,
(04:41):
vibe of the whole thing. And Marty Gras, of course,
is just kind of the holiday. I guess, right, I
mean I don't know, but would you would you assign
different meanings or connections to these different ways of referring
to basically the same thing.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I like your point about the term that people choose,
giving way like giving us insight into their approach to
Marti Gras, you know, whether it is more of a
religious or more of a cultural thing. And I do
want to be corrector the shrove, the shrove shriven kind
of thing does date back to Christianity Middle Ages, but
(05:18):
Marty Graus as a cultural phenomenon days back much further right,
all the way back to pagan fertility rights in spring.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well. Yeah, like a lot of Christian holidays, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I mean there's a lot of appropriation of pagan traditions
that were then kind of roped into Christian the Christian
kind of holiday pantheon, I guess in a way of
sort of diminishing the godless pagan versions.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Of them to a degree.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Right, So it's like if we take them over and
subsume them into our thing, our goded thing or single
goded thing, then perhaps these heathens you know, will follow
suit and they'll forget, will wipe their version of it
off of the books.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Religious syncretism very popular with the Catholic Church during its
expansionist phase. They would roll into a new community and say, hey,
this thing you're doing, you're actually already into Catholicism. You
just didn't know the right words to use. Your God
is actually a saint, and you should venerate that saint
(06:23):
and realize there's the one true God and that's our
God of Catholicism. This is a common occurrence throughout history.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Also, you're doing it wrong. Also you're doing it right.
To do it a little bit more like this.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Everybody learn Latin right now, now it's easy and do
all this free labor.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So I mean, this is something Marty gross wrow Tuesday,
Fat Tuesday, something that's particularly popular in areas with large
Roman Catholic communities. Right, and this is on the day
before Lent. To your point, Ben, Lent is a season
of abstinence, right, So what better way to precede a
(07:04):
day of abstinence than with utter indulgence.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Make it all balanced out right, kind of like New
Year's Eve vibes, you know what I mean. Hey, we're
gonna do goodt next next time, tomorrow. Yes, today, we're
going all in.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And if we don't die or you know, eat ourselves
to death or drink ourselves to death or you know,
fall off a building or something, then we will set
ourselves right for the coming year.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Let me have a large cheeseburger, a pizza, fries, and
milkshake today because I'm going to the gym this afternoon,
you know, on a spiritual level.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, we're at it.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Why don't you give me a multi colored sweetie roll
stuffed with the baby yes, or or we will accept
a figurine of a child. Indeed, I'm sorry, let's just
you know what that sounds a little more tenable.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
So, as you can tell, we already quickly recapped an
evolution of Marty grass And while well, while the festival
some version of it exists in Brazil and Venice and
so on, the one in New Orleans is the one
most Americans will be familiar with. Marty Gras has evolved
into a week long festival. Traditionally, it's celebrated on Fat Tuesday,
(08:16):
that Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. As
you said, Noel, And now that it's a week long festival,
you know you see the entire city of New Orleans
preparing for it well in advance. And that debauchery includes gluttony.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Gluttony indeed, and just to really quickly just get into
a little bit more about what Ash Wednesday does. Ash
Wednesday is the Wednesday that kicks off Lent, which is
a a period six and a half weeks before Easter,
which recently just passed, which of course is when you
know Jesus Christ was purported to have risen from the
(08:54):
dead after being crucified by the Romans. Essentially, Lent is
a forty day fast, you know, if you do it right,
you know, I think I think typically you know, most
fair weather Catholics and Christians, they kind of go to church,
they get the ash on their forehead.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
They might you know, fast for a day or.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Something, you know, kind of to feel like they're involved.
But I don't know too many folks that are doing
forty day fasts, do you been?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Not related to Lent honestly, yeah, But we know that
this is an incredibly important thing for a lot of
practicing Christians, a lot of practicing Catholics. But Marti Grass
is not for Catholicism alone. These days, there are a
lot of people who go just for the cultural experience.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
We'll call it the tourists.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, sure, the period though that you're talking about this fasting,
this preparation, this has been observed before the Festival of
Easter since back in the time of the US was.
It was happening unofficially for quite some time before it
was formalized at the first Council of Nicea in three
(10:09):
twenty five cees. So this this dates back in the
idea of Ash Wednesday, of being marked on the forehead
with ashes that might seem unfamiliar to a lot of
people who are not practicing Catholics or aren't familiar with Catholicism.
But that is a modern day practice and it dates
(10:31):
back so far. And if you are, you know, if
you are an observant Catholic today, you're probably pretty happy
that they relax some of those fasting rules. It used
to be intense. You could only eat one full meal
and two smaller meals if combined. That if you combine
those small meals, they wouldn't equal a singull normal meal.
(10:53):
And then there's a rule where you can't eat meat
on any Friday during lynt. And there's there's question too,
I wonder how much of that was to justify shortages
of food.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's a really good question, Ben.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
We you know, typically we know that the Catholic Church,
you know, holds a lot of sway, historically held a
lot of sway over the populace, like in terms of
you know, being able to kind of maneuver and cause
them to do certain things. And we do sometimes see
political reasons or you know, perhaps logistical reasons for doing
(11:32):
some of this stuff. Remember, like the butter indulgences and
all that stuff. How butter was only for like the
upper upper class, you know. And and and you could
pay a fee in a little special box that was
in the church in order to be able to eat butter.
But of course only the super rich could afford to
(11:53):
do that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
And as we know, food is a big deal. Ridiculous historians,
you know, we love any chance to talk about the
history of food. So we're all in on this. And
just to add, those Sundays were excluded. Sundays were excluded
from the fasting.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yes, and I guess that is probably I mean, I'm
certain it's where the term breakfast comes from, the idea
of breaking ones fast.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Breaking a fast yep. So I think that gives us
a good understanding of what lent is, what ash Wednesday is,
And we've painted a picture of why Fat Tuesday is
so important to a lot of people, because it's your
last hurrah, right, your last huzzah, you could say, before
(12:37):
you got to straighten up. And while people are indulging
traditionally in I don't know if it's quite debauchery, I
don't know it's supposed to be. While they're living the
high life, they have come to enjoy certain food stuffs
as a way of celebrating fat Tuesday. And this is
where maybe we introduce our first example, perhaps one of
(12:59):
the most famous, which is the King Cake, which I
think is a misleading name because if we're being honest,
they would call it.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Baby doll cake or baby figure cake exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
We allude to that earlier picture sort of an oversized
cinnamon roll, but instead of the folds being stuffed with
you know, kind of a cream cheese frosting and cinnamon swirls,
we're talking a sugar that's multicolored. Like I said, it's
kind of a psychedelic you know, purple and pink, and
(13:41):
you know, depending on who does it, it can all
kind of blend together and just sort of look brown.
But you know, if it's done right, it's got a
certain sparkle to it. Right, it catches the eye. And
then really heavy layers of like pure cream cheese, sweetened
cream cheese, which is a little bit a little thicker
and more decadent than the kind of frosting you'd find
in a cinnamon role, but they are cinnamon roll adjacent.
(14:04):
And then somewhere in those velvety folds is a little
figurine of a baby careful now, don't go, you know,
housing that thing too quick, or you might choke on
the baby. And you don't want that because you want
to preserve the baby if you were lucky enough to
find it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, and luck is a big factor here because, as
we'll see, there are consequences, rights, and responsibilities that come
with being the person who finds that baby.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Figure.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Let's talk a little bit about this. I really like
your description comparing it to a cinnamon role. We should
also note that the kingcake history actually starts with Three
Kings Day. That's a holiday that happens twelve days after Christmas,
and the first king cakes were made in Europe to
celebrate the Catholic Epiphany, which is on January, the celebration
(15:01):
of the day when the three Wise Men were purported
to have visited the baby Jesus Christ and giving him
the classic combo gold frankincense and murr, right, which I'm
sure is it was just like the Ticklebeelmo of that time.
Everybody needed the gold frank and murr. It was a
classic gift, and so people are celebrating this for centuries
(15:25):
and centuries. French Catholics brought the cake with them to
Louisiana in the eighteen seventies, and now it is synonymous
with the French quarter Marti grass Fat Tuesday or shrove
Tuesday or pancake Tuesday, whatever you want to call it.
It's very New Orleans and you can buy one in
the I think it starts selling in like early January. Honestly,
(15:47):
you could probably buy some version of it year round nowadays, right, the.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Kingcake has become so mainstream that, like, you know, I mean,
I don't know, we have to have publics everywhere, but
here they have publics and Kroger, and you know, you're
gonna find your grocery store varieties that are just kind
of made in bulk in their bakeries.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
But then if you have a nice, you know, local bakery,
they're gonna have more kind of bespoke versions of it.
But they all kind of follow the same rules. And
I believe they are even like really kind of well
regarded ones in New Orleans that do mail order.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, yeah, fancy, right, it's fancy to get a proper
king cake mail to you, and people do it every year.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I wanted to add I was kind of conflating two
religiously based kind of traditional desserts. There's something in Ireland
called the bambrack cake or the rag cake that I
actually learned about in the show Boardwalk Empire, and it's
actually eaten on Halloween and it's a fruit bread where
each member of the family gets a slice and there
(16:51):
are hidden items in there. One of them is a
piece of rag. It's sometimes referred to as a rag cake.
Another is a coin, and another is a ring. If
you get the rag, then your financial future is questionable.
If you get the coin, then you can look forward
to prospering in the coming year. And if you get
the ring, then the romance is in your future. So
(17:12):
I love this idea of this kind of parallel you know,
hidden secret you know, choking hazard items, you know found
inside desserts.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
This all feels very unhygienic to me, unsanitary.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah, the rag, I mean surely you know in modern versions,
it's not like an actual like you know, used piece,
throw it in while we're cooking.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Cost it in there, see what? Yeah, yeah, use the
one from the floor. It's fine, I'm up earlier.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, we should also not the king cake colors are representative.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
There are symbolic the green and this I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, well I didn't know about the rag cake, so
now I'm gonna be extra cautious if I'm eating cake
in Ireland. So the green on the King Cake symbolizes faith,
the purple stands for power, and the yello represents justice.
But let's get to the weirdest part. This is the
weirdest part for someone who's never heard of King Cake.
It's that baby man, the plastic baby. Apparently everybody's itching
(18:11):
to get the slice of King Cake that has the
baby action figure, and people have different stories.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Action is a bit generous.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yes, it's easily our richt just weird little fricking fetus
looking thing.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So okay, here's what I heard. And again, not an
expert on New Orleans nor King Cake. I heard something
a little bit different from what some of our sources
are saying. So traditionally the baby figure is meant to
represent the baby Jesus Christ, but others will say this
(18:46):
is just a symbol of luck or prosperity, and if
you get the slice with the baby inside, you are
king or queen for a day and you're going to
have a great year. So kind of like getting the
coin in that rag cake. But the idea I heard
that if you got the figure, then you were on
the hook to hold the get together the next year.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Okay, that's an actual functional, uh kind of use for
the thing to kind of dictate, you know, who has
to foot the bill for the get together.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You know, I got a sad The baby Jesus thing
rings true for me because the king cake we're talking about,
you know, Christ, we're talking about the three Kings, the
three you know, the three wise Men are often referred
to as the three Kings, so that that tends.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
To feel right to me.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
But also if you think about, like in Chinese culture,
a pig, a little tiny pig is often a symbol
of luck, right.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And what looks what looks a lot like a little
tiny pig, little tiny baby?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well yeah, I mean you think just think of the scale, right,
so exactly, and the pinkness. Mainly so your entry into
the king cake competition, should you eat and celebrate with
your friends is not rad in dollars spent, unless you're
on the hook to throw the party. Instead, it's let's
rate it in calories, because a single slice of.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
King all of our of our desserts today.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, yeah, which maybe, dear listeners, maybe this will clue
you in on why these are not year round goodies
for a lot of people. A single slice, well, a
single slice of King Cake, it's two hundred calories and
that's not the most calorically dense treat we'll talk about,
as Max pointed out.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
No, and we're talking for a single slice.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
According to my fitness Pal, which is an app that
you can get. We're not sponsored by them, but I
have used it in the past. It's like a fitness
tracker and you know, food diary kind of thing that
has like, you know, all this data around various food
items and it has kin cake. Good job on you,
my fitness Pal. We're talking a fifty five gram slice,
so one slice that would be the serving size officially,
(20:52):
unofficially according to my fitness Pal.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
But if you.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Wanted to go full on fat Tuesday, you know, be
the fattest of Fat Tuesday ors, you could eat the
entire King Cake, which is around twenty slices, which will
net you thirty eight hundred calories, five hundred and sixty
grams of carbs, and one hundred grams of fat.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Tuesday fats ah, yes fat Tuesday fat and still again nutritionally,
this is not the worst thing for you on the list.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Let's move to punch.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Ky yeah, which if you read it on paper, you're
never gonna say it like that. It looks like past
key and full disclosure. I sometimes listen to these outlines.
These the research briefs are incredible research associates put together
for us on a text to speech app. And boy,
that text to speech app was having a hard time
(21:47):
with these pronunciations because Max so helpfully put in phonetic pronunciations.
So I would hear, you know, the robot voice say
passcheck pon cheek.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Because it is appaently uh, poncheck po poonchky poncheck, which
does sound like a doctor Seu's name.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Right, poncheck would be singular. Pounsky is plural, and this
is gotta be polish, right, Yeah, it's gotta be because
it's spelled pacz. They love the cz cake also check.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Also, since we learn witness protection in the US will
let you choose your own name, somebody somebody go with
pond check punchki no, somebody to.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Say no, yeah, you do the singular plural check pun
That's a fabulous name.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I mean, no one will ever suspect it. Now who
you say you are?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Your parents uh loved this dessert indeed, and uh you
know who else seems to love this dessert at least
from historical context. It's Teresa now a Kowski, also a
lovely Polish name from Smithsonian mag who says, quote, leading
up to Fat Tuesday, many Chicago bakries. Chicago's got a
big Poles population. Chicago bakeries are hard at work, taking orders,
(23:03):
organizing ingredients, and prepping dough for the impending rush. All
this festive fuss isn't for Marti Grock classics like kincake,
though they'll make that too, but for poncheck. Poncheck is
a traditional Polish dessert for Fat Tuesday, which is caught
on in the Windy City and other cities with Polish
heritage like Detroit and Buffalo, to the point that some
(23:25):
simply call the holiday poncheck Day.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's weird because if you look at it and you're
not familiar with this, you might think, oh, I've seen
donuts before, and I love that you're pointing out this
Smithsonian article because we're getting a lot of the insider
scoop from this one in that you'll see folks like
Dobra Bilinsky, who owns a Chicago bakery called Delightful Pastries,
(23:51):
and she describes the punchki as not just a doughnut
by another name. She says, the dough is richer, It's
denser in the dough you would see in your typical donut,
and she says this gives the pastry a certain quote plushness.
She says, the best way you think of it is
that a pun check is like a doughnut crossed with brioche,
(24:13):
and it's got a sweet fruit preserved filling. It's got
a thin glaze on top and a hint of orange peel,
which does sound pretty good. It also does sound like
a traditional kind of European dessert, doesn't it, with fruit
and orange peel in.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There, that's right.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
But the kind of kind of classic versions of the
dessert that you might find in Polish bakeries around Chicago
or in other parts of the country. You're gonna need eggs, milk, butter, sugar, vanilla,
and a lot of this stuff actually stems. These ingredient
choices stem from religious origins themselves. That's because before the
(24:54):
beginning of the Lent season, Polish Catholics also celebrated Fat Tuesday,
had their own kind of spin on it, and this
was a time where they wanted to indulge as well,
and these were sort of the ingredients that they had
on hand since the Middle Ages. The ponchet kind of
fit the bill for the Polish you know, indulgence on
(25:15):
the day before ash Wednesday. They actually make them a
little bit further in advance, and that they make them
the Thursday before ash Wednesday, so the previous week. And Ben,
did you mention that, as you mentioned, you did mention
that the festival is so kind of centered around this
dessert that it sometimes gets another name, you know, pop
Ponchki Day. Yeah, so we've got we got another one
(25:37):
to add to the list of kind of stylings on
Marty Gras Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Now we've got Ponchki Day.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And it makes a lot of sense. Historically, those ingredients
that we listed out the traditional ingredients, those are luxurious things.
So if you are celebrating Fat Thursday back in the day,
you want to use up all your luxury urious ingredients
because you can't eat the lard and sugar during the
(26:05):
fasting period of lint.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
It didn't occur to me. I mean, you know, because
things like butter and they will you know that that
stuff will spoil, so best to just get it all out.
Also probably maybe to cut down on temptation. Yeah, you
know what, that's a really good dough too. And look,
this stuff doesn't the dough doesn't collapse when you bite
into it. It is deep fried, it's flat. It has
(26:27):
that fruit or cream filling.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
They the fruit filling is traditionally supposed to be prune,
but you can also get versions with apricot, lemon, raspberry, blueberry, custard,
you name it. And we got to see where punchki
waiys in on the caloric scale.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Uh, it's gonna be about three hundred to four hundred
calories a pop per Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Slice, well, no, it's not a slice, it's a it's
a it's a handheld.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, it's a single serve, single doughnut. It it's very
similar to a donut.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Very similar to adona. But no, we're gonna get to
the potato e one next. That one's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That's right. It is very very yeasty.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
By the way, so that's that adds to some of
the carbiness of it all. We're looking at around forty
upwards of forty grams of carbs per and between twelve
and twenty five grams of fat. Which does this outrank
the Kingcake slice on every front?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Per slice?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, on the first slice. And this is the one
that actually I built this article out of. So the
idea I got was on a Super Bowl party last
month or not last month, back in February. So one
of my friends who showed up, he's from New Orleans.
He bron kin cake. I gotta be fun to write about.
But being from Detroit, my whole family's from Detroit. We
grew up being Pooonsky's. So this is like, yeah, this
(27:46):
is the fast thing that we have because it's a
big Midwestern thing. There's a very large Polish population in
Chicago and Detroit and stuff. So I was like Poonsky's.
And I was actually telling my mom yesterday, I'm like, Hey,
we're gonna recording an episode about poosch Key's. So she's
super We're excited to hear about this.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Hello missus Williams, Hello, and we hope we do you
probably and really quickly I am very excited to announce
I guess that I am going to Detroit for the
very first time later this year. I'm gonna go see
one of my favorite bands, Mister Bungle has reformed, and
they're playing one of my favorite albums of there is
disco Volante, at a place called the Fillmore. I guess
(28:23):
this is in downtown Detroit, and I'm going there with
some friends and we're staying for a few days and
I have to pick your brain, Max on some stuff
to do. But it seems like a really interesting city,
and it's one that I've never been to.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Travel under the name Ponchek Punchki.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I will it's at the very least, we'll check into
the hotel out of that name. I've always wanted to
check into a hotel under an assumed name. It seems
like the easiest thing in the world to.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Do it is they just they'll use your actual name,
like they'll want your ID and verification for your card,
so they will know your real name, but they'll give
out they'll give out a face name if you ask.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, I think you've got to kind of give them
a little wink wink, nudge nudge.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Don't say, here's my fake name.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Right like most people. If you're nice too, though, they'll
want to help you out. And as long as the
name is not, you know, an aggressive combination of.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Curse words, they'll usually I'm not gonna speak those out loud.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I'm sorry exactly. Yeah, I don't care what kind of
tip you give me.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Well, this is interesting because I'm not aware of this
treat and now I've got to try one.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
It sounds delightful, and you know, while you're there, maybe
you can bribe the hotel folks with a paun check.
Or if that doesn't work, maybe you could try to
slide a foshnt their way. I'm sorry, a foster snot.
(29:48):
Oh okay, okay, that's not a fastest.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I'm gonna I'm gonna put on my my my young
German bully hell real quick. And it's actually fast nach
Nacht because knacht.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Means night, and I think we'll get it to the overall.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
The word itself is German and it means fast night literally,
so FoST Knocht is the evening of the fast and
let's see. They're often by by Mikhaela Miller for Lancaster
Online describes them, or at least describes the way people
often describe them, which I think is always an interesting
thing to claim as little puffs of pillowy goodness.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah yeah, which sounds good, uh because it's literally goodness.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
So, according to the article what are fast Knocks The
story behind this treat on visitpa dot com, they made
their way across the Atlantic when German immigrants first started
coming to America on mass and they're synonymous with Pennsylvania
Dutch culture, kind kind of like those decorated barns that
(30:57):
you can see out in different areas of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
And those delicious little ham rolls they make.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
You ever had those? You ever been to a Dutch bakery?
Literally there used to be when in Augusta where in
my hometown called the Little Dutch Bakery, and it was
run by Mennonites, which is a particular, you know sect
of Dutch, you know, religious culture where they have like
they wear head coverings and such. But they have this
wonderful little bakery and they made these incredible ham rolls.
(31:23):
And I bet you they made FoST knocks as well.
So this is another treat associated with lint and Shrove
Tuesday This particular one, however, might appear to the untrained
eye to be very similar to a donut.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, but it.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Couldn't be farther from the truth, right, looks could be deceiving.
Centuries and centuries ago, apparently someone deep in German culture said,
you know what, picture this a donut that is also
a potato and everyone went, you should be in charge
of more things a potato nut, yes, or a foss knut.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So it's interesting because it's it's only in certain cultures, like,
for example, in the Jewish faith and culture, you have
you know, lot keys, which I typically think of potato
e things as being savory, and you know, a lot
key on its own certainly is savory. But then there's
some versions of it that involve putting some sort of
like apple compote kind of on top, and then it
(32:28):
sort of becomes this like vessel for sweetness. And that's
what we're seeing kind of here. Only typically, you know,
whereas a doughnut would be made of a wheat flower
bas you know, or a flowery base for the carb,
this uses potatoes that are kind of whipped into a
consistency that is more like kind of like a pillowy
(32:49):
little dome retreat as opposed to like, you know, mashed potatoes.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, and look, they're not a round. Traditionally they're square
or try angular, and now I think more and more
in recent times round ones are normalized. But they still
will never have a hole in the middle. So if
you were ever in a weird situation, you know, someone
has a gun to your head and they say, you know,
(33:16):
it's the end for you. If you can't just tell
the difference between these various things that look like doughnuts,
well we'll give you a leg up. The one without
a hole in the middle. That's that's your bet for
FoST knock. Never a hole shall be found in a
in a fast knocked.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Uh. They are sometimes triangular as well. You usually believe
they're square. And by the way, we wanted to mention too,
if if you're trying to picture what does potato dough
feel like, think of like a nookie. If if you
ever had that that that kind of potato based pasta,
you know, it doesn't taste potato. We exactly, it doesn't
come come the mouthfeel of it doesn't feel that consistency
(33:57):
of like a mashed potato. It really does feel like
a dough so you're essentially using potato to create something
that very much is a recognizably doughy consistency.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And in this weird donut hostage situation, if you are
allowed to touch the baked goods, you'll notice that our pal,
the fostnits, is also a little bit heavier and denser
than a doughnut. And if you're allowed to bite one, again,
this is a very weird situation you're in hypothetically, but.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
If they're like, no, take a bite.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Take a bite before you say anything, you'll notice the
fast nut is not as sweet as the typical US doughnut.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
It really does feel.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
A lot like a lot key to me, only it's just,
you know, a lot key literally is like mashed potato
that you fry up, you know, and make into us
like a flat little disc and fry up in a pan.
This is going to have more height than a lot key,
but a lot caa. But I believe there's gonna be
some similarities because it is deep golden brown with a soft,
(34:56):
kind of tender interior. But again, because they're making it
into a dough I feel like the bite of it
is going to be a little more like a yokie,
whereas yeah, chew here, whereas the mashed potato the potato
lotkey is going to feel more like a nice crispy
exterior with mashed potato in the middle, or like a parochi.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
And before we get to the caloric intake, which we're
doing for each of these, we will note that there
is a beef about spelling. If you go to Pennsylvania,
you'll see that Lancaster County has held for a long
time that fast knocked without a middle tea is the
(35:35):
correct spelling and comes straight from good old Pennsylvanian Dutch.
And that's according to doctor Mark Lauden, an expert on
Pennsylvania Dutch language. However, people will tell you that you're
not wrong for inserting the middle tea because it refers
to the period of lent when fasting is the order
of day. Fast and traditional German means the same thing
(35:58):
as it does in English. So whether you see it
spelled fas in acht or fast in acht, you are correct.
I fell into trivia voice, I fell into bar trivia
voice like and the answer is either one. So congratulations
to you for surviving this weird doughnut situation. One slice
(36:21):
of this stuff, or you know, just one serving of it,
two hundred and seventeen calories, twenty four grams of carbs,
twelve grams of fat. And that's the basic version. That's
like the factory version. Of course, you can get some
with a lot more added on and a lot more
calories involved. I've got one, Noel. I've not learned about
(36:43):
this one. I've heard some version of most of these
on this list, but I am unfamiliar with semlar am
I even saying that correctly, semlar I.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Think you are.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
It is Swedish, so it does sound like a piece
of ikea furniture, perhaps a footstool of some variety, given
the shape of this thing.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It is.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Essentially it's something you may have seen on a Great
British Baking Show, if you're a fan of that delightful program.
It's basically like a Claire kind of but it's a
Swedish a Claire. It's essentially two doughnuts as the bread,
and in the middle you've got some variety of delightful
cream pilly. But it's like it's not it's not stuffed
(37:25):
inside of a closed circuit donut. Yeah, it's like it's visible,
so it actually makes for a pretty nice presentation too, actually,
you know, and Paul Hollywood would give you his cold
blue stare of death if you dared to make the
cream look not neat or not.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Who's Paul Hollywood. He's the host of the judgment.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
He gives you the handshake if you do a good job,
and it makes people weep because he's so hardcore and
his eyes are icy blue.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I thought you just knew some guy going by Paul Hollywood. Yeah, oh,
Paul Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
You don't want to meet that guy in the dark alley,
especially on fat Tuesday, because he might puke on you.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
And uh, if you're very lucky, he might be puking sembla.
We're kidding.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
The way to the man and I love that the
way the way to eat.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Cebyla is from a reputable baker. Uh, you should be
the first person to eat it.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Ideally, now, ben you you may recall, uh this this
delectable treat from a previous conversation about like royalty that
died weirdly remember the guy, but then there was this
guy we'll get to. King Adolph Frederick Max referred to
(38:41):
these these treats very delightfully, to the point where I
almost believe that it was a thing people said as
king killers. Sembla's are still quite below despite their reputation,
which we'll get to in a minute, but ridiculous historians
may already know where we're heading. Simla is a wheat
flour bun again doughnut, uh and it flavored with cardamom,
(39:01):
which is neat because that is not that I think
of that typically as a as an East Indian spice.
And oh it's so wonderful. I mean like some of
the earliest We did an episode on ice cream recently,
and some of those early you know, cool fee, I
believe is what it was called, those Indian desserts, the
frozen kind of pops. They were flavored with cardamom, and
(39:23):
obviously cardamom is a very popular now. You get those
cardamom pods, those green green guys, and smash them up
in your order and pestle and make yourself a nice
garam masala or whatever spice plan you're into.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Coffee Lamburiani, this hat Carnival, dude, you know what I've
got coming in the mail?
Speaker 3 (39:40):
What's a tajin? Yeah, it's incredible. There's this fabulous restaurant
in New York called Cafe Mogador, and they do these
tajen lamb things and it's basically slow, slow, slow cooked lamb.
In this clay oven and cardamom would be a fabulous
seasoning for that.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
We're not talking about that. We're talking about flavoring donut
creamy donuty things with cardiom So flavor with cartera Mom.
Almond paste is one of my favorite flavors. I love
mar Zapan. I'm a big fan of almond the paste
anything and whipped cream. So it's an almond paste kind
of combined with the whip cream. So it's gonna have
a really rich, you probably flavor with some vanilla, I
(40:21):
imagine it would have to be. It's gonna have a
really rich, earthy kind of taste.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Is how what I describe as all, oh, wait, what
you might be saying, you know what this is missing
a bowl of hot milk.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, this is how that guy died. Hot milk.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
He got a bunch of he got a bunch of
semlas and just kept dunking them dunk of milk and
eating them. You know, he was actually, you know, the
tragic inventor of the Dunkaroo now that I think about it.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Yeah, and friend of the friend of the show in
the podcast network, John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the
Angry Inch, fame a very very fun trivia effect about him.
Was the original voice of the dunk Guru Kangaroo in
those ad campaigns from the nineties that we all remember.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
See Nothing happens in a vacuum, that's what we're saying.
So now, at some point we know that people in
Sweden got a little tired of strictly observing lent. So
that's why they added cream and almond paste to this mix,
this semla stuff, and they started eating it every Tuesday
(41:24):
between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Because the church doesn't enforce
these fasting practices the way that it did in times
of old, you'll usually see semla appearing in bakery windows
as near after Christmas as deemed decent. It's kind of
like sometimes even before Christmas. It's kind of like how
(41:47):
in the US the sale season for things keeps creeping
bought larger and larger, right, Like you'll see stuff for
Christmas right after or Halloween.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Right, that's right. This is kind of what's happening with somewhat.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
The idea of, like what is the appropriate time to
like trot out the Valentine's Day you know, ghak or whatever.
It's usually literally the day after the previous season or
holiday has expired. By the way, you mentioned dunking, right, Yes,
not only dunking. Actually the traditional way of doing it
is to pour the stuff on top of it. And
(42:28):
Paul Hollywood, as I mentioned, he's got a recipe that
I believe is pretty traditional. He infuses the warm milk
with cinnamon stick.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I'm not a cinnamon fan. No, you ever know the
cinnamon challenge.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
I tolerate it. I recognize it's right to exist.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Okay, that's fair. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, cinnamon challenge was one of those Internet the things
where people were just like trying to swallow cinnamon and
because of the particular particles of it are so fine,
you can't do it.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
It just causes you to immediately choke and gasp.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Also, in the Anarchist Cookbook, which had a bunch of
at least the versions I saw, had a bunch of
things that might be considered trolling or pranks on the reader,
like ideas of alternative ways for people to become intoxicated.
You know, the nutmeg, the Sailor's high, that's one of
the sailors high. It is lousy with nutmeg on ships
(43:23):
because there that's how nutmeg is getting around.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
I get okay, Oh of course the spice, the spice trainers.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, yeah, we should maybe we should maybe talk about
those weird uses of things as.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Drugs in a future episode episode. Yeah, the Sailor's high.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well you can why get high on drugs, folks, when
you can get high on semla and hot milk. This
burger shaped candy like it's structured the way a hamburger
would be structured, except there's creamy almond filling instead of
a patty, and it's all tops of whipped cream. Now, Noel,
this takes the cake. This takes the king cake out.
(44:03):
Traditional semla just one five hundred calories.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, worth every penny, worth every every much lower unit
of currency.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, I'm a big fan of this kind of treat.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
Like I would, I would kind of liken it only
in its creamy fillingness to like a canoli. The canoli's
obviously a more brittle, you know, cookie type in casing.
I guess this is really more like maybe a napoleon,
but that's more of a custard filling, So it really
kind of is its own thing. The fact that it's
a specifically whipped filling, and I'm sure you know there
(44:39):
are stylings on it, like you could probably flavor it
with with fruit as well. You could make like a
maybe a strawberry type filling, but the traditional one really
is just that almond kind of paste, uh and whipped cream,
So whipped cream doesn't go on top. The topping is
like a powdered sugar kind of confection or sugar deal.
And I believe, as far as I'm telling on a
(44:59):
lot of these images and recipes that were seeing, the
filling is whipped cream sweetened with almond paste, you know,
so it's going to have that combined kind of consistency.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And like any of these traditional sweets, a lot of
them might be made at home, so you're going to
see nutritional facts differ widely between recipes, and if your
family has a particularly cool when you're very lucky, and
we'd love to hear about it. But semla just on
its own is innocuous as it may seem does help
(45:33):
explain why Frederick died after eating Oh gosh, remembering the
bold strokes of the episode, let's see, he had lobster
sausages with sauer Kraut caviare, and then he housed fourteen
semlas with milk.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I think we liken this or I liken this to
the bit on Monty Python's Meaning of Life with mister Kreoso,
the enormous man, you know, with the I think it's
I forget what actor was, I think it's h Eric
Idol may be dressed in like a giant fat suit,
you know. He gorges himself and then he's like at
the end, he's like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
Have one more thing. And then the guy's buddy, it's
a wifire thin.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
He gives him like a little little tiny crisp and
he puts it on his tongue with a tong and
then jumps behind a barricade and then the guy explodes,
and uh.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Terry Jones, Terry Jones, there you go.
Speaker 3 (46:22):
And Max, I believe you had not seen that before,
and you made the mistake of googling it and you
said it was a disturbing nightmare.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Fuel.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
Yeah, to make it even worse. This past weekend, UH,
a couple of friends ticking me out to and all
you can eat cream barbecue restaurant from.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
My brodd and which one.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
Uh, I don't even know the name of. It's the
first time i'd been there. But we went there and
the entire time I talked about mister Kre sketch, and
the waiter kept coming up right when I was doing it,
and I pause, and why do you keep stopping this?
Like the story is incredibly disgusting, guys, And then I
sent them that thing and they were not very appreciative.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
But the best part is when John Cleese, who plays
the waiter, he goes, I have judge it and miss
Sill's bucket.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Not for nothing is Monday Python one of the best
sketch shows made in the English language. And not for
nothing is Marti Gras hosts to some of the best
desserts out there. Right now, we are on the cusp
of just talking about what we're going to get for lunch.
You know, as soon as you mentioned Korean barbecue, Maas,
(47:27):
I was thinking we got to get out of here.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
It's time.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I propose that we we call it here, We'll leave
you with a king who died pursuing excess, and we hope.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
We know this is not in time.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
For Marti Gras necessarily, but we hope that you have
enjoyed this episode and I can't wait to hear more
Marti Graus traditions and war stories on Ridiculous Historians on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Jeez, Louise, the time just flew by. Ben. It's funny.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Before we started the episode today, you said how you
kind of like talking about desserts sometimes more than you
like eating them. We just talked about desserts for fifty minutes.
That's pretty cool. I did not feel like that. I
thought we were like, well, ya really stopping? It seems
like we're under time. Surely there's more deserts to discuss.
But yeah, religious desserts.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Who knew? I think most people knew to some degree. Yeah,
a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Probably we might be the ones who are learning the
most on this one. But uh but yeah, let us know.
We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please tune in later
this week when we're going to explore this strange story
of monster trucks.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
No more spoilers than that.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Moday Tuesday, Tuesday, Thursday, whichever day it comes out. I
am super excited about that one. Yeah, oh my gosh,
I think we're gonna, you know, peak behind the curtain.
I think we're actually about to do it in just
a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
You won't hear anybody about it. Thursday, Thursday, Thursday about our.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Time travel and I can't remember truck a saur or
truck Asaurus was.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
It was?
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Well, big big thanks to mister Max Williams. Big big
thanks in advance to the creative minds behind Monster Trucks.
Big thanks to all those Marty Gros dessert experts. We
see you, We admire your work, and who else you
know what.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I love you, all of you. Yeah, yeah, you're all right.
You're all right.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Had huge thanks to Zach Williams too, to Jeff Bartletts
of of the of the of the Ridiculous Research Associates,
Extraordinary collective. Max, thanks again to you for this really,
really fun and educational doc Jonathan stricklm Ever made you rain.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
We've okay, we've been teasing this one too long.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
We did hang out with him in Austin as part
of our other show stuff that will want you to know,
but we still haven't gotten him, we haven't lured his
maniacal spirit back to our podcast realm, so we got
to make that happen.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
What have we made him mad? Have we upset him?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
No? No, he's just got a lot going on and
the only accept payment in kincake.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
Okay, we can that. We can probably order some kin
cake up from.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Let's get him at Kingcake.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
But instead of a baby in there, it's like a
little Jonathan strictly.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Oh that'd be cool.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
I was thinking, okay, you were, You were going much
more charitable than I was. But yes, we're gonna do
that and with that we will see you next time, folks.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is the production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's give it up for the man,
the myth legend, our super producer, mister Max Williams. Huzzah
zon indeed, and let's hear it for Marti Gras, which
is one of the biggest celebrations in the United States
(00:49):
every year.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm Ben Noel. I have to ask you. Have you
been to Marty Gras?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Huzzah, huzza, No, no, I I've been to like Marty
Grass themed restaurants. I have been to New Orleans, but
not during Marty Gras, but they kind of keep a
Marty Gras vibe there year round. You know, people drinking
hand grenades in the streets and vomiting in alleys.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know, that's about what Marty Grass about, right, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
New Orleans is such a unique town and it definitely
has a unique vibe. It's the kind of place where
you can find music and live performances. It seems in
almost every part of the neighborhood, even.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
As alleys or people are vomiting. Sometimes there's brass bands
set up, you know, serenading you.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
And my first time going to New Orleans was very
strange because I came in the middle of something that
it was this charity event where people put on red
dresses and they, from what I could tell day, drink
and I noticed it. No one told me what was
going on. I noticed it when my girlfriend and I
(01:56):
were at breakfast and I saw, you know, several tables, women, men,
you name it, and no no children though that's an
interesting outlier. The women, men, you name it except for
children in these red dresses. And I was like, wow,
these people are drinking pretty heavily, even for a brunch.
And then as the day went on, I saw more
(02:19):
and more people in red dresses getting progressively intoxicated until
it was like like three point thirty or something, and
then there was someone throwing up. There was a lady
just screaming Darren in the streets, and I thought, wow,
is this New Orleans all the time.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That's a fat Tuesday tradition, screaming Darren in the streets
and puking in red dresses.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, this red dresses, it's the Red Dress Run, which
takes place in August. So it was August eleventh. I
must have been there for my birthday. It's okay, so
it's really hot and they're running and drinking.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
At least that's the ones I noticed the most.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well this was for our Darren in the streets though Noel,
I know that we both are big fans of New
Orleans and we, with some help from our research associate
Max Williams, decided to look into a very specific aspect
of Marti Gras, which is the ridiculous desserts of Fat Tuesday.
(03:27):
What is fat Tuesday?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, Fat Tuesday also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is
fun for us because Ben, oftentimes this tradition started by
you when we have ads to do or housekeeping things.
At the end of our recording sessions, Ben and then
the rest of us have followed. Suit often asked are
we shriven? Yes, Shrove? I guess is what tents of
(03:51):
that is of Shriven?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Shrive?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's too early for me to do, said, it's diagrams,
that's not what this is calls. But yeah, if you're Shriven,
then you've been Shrove. No maybe yeah, yeah, it's Shrove
comes from Shrive. It's the confession of sins as a
preparation for lent, a practice that dates back to Europe
in the Middle Ages. Yeah, and Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday,
(04:17):
Marty Gras, these are all essentially I mean, no, they are.
They're interchangeable, right, I mean, they sort of have different
things associated with them. You know, we think of maybe
Shrove Tuesday as being the more maybe religious minded name
of this season. Fat Tuesday is obviously a day of excess.
It really refers specifically to the Bacchanalian kind of you know,
(04:41):
vibe of the whole thing. And Marty Gras, of course,
is just kind of the holiday. I guess, right, I
mean I don't know, but would you would you assign
different meanings or connections to these different ways of referring
to basically the same thing.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I like your point about the term that people choose,
giving way like giving us insight into their approach to
Marti Gras, you know, whether it is more of a
religious or more of a cultural thing. And I do
want to be corrector the shrove, the shrove shriven kind
of thing does date back to Christianity Middle Ages, but
(05:18):
Marty Graus as a cultural phenomenon days back much further right,
all the way back to pagan fertility rights in spring.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well. Yeah, like a lot of Christian holidays, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I mean there's a lot of appropriation of pagan traditions
that were then kind of roped into Christian the Christian
kind of holiday pantheon, I guess in a way of
sort of diminishing the godless pagan versions.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Of them to a degree.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Right, So it's like if we take them over and
subsume them into our thing, our goded thing or single
goded thing, then perhaps these heathens you know, will follow
suit and they'll forget, will wipe their version of it
off of the books.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Religious syncretism very popular with the Catholic Church during its
expansionist phase. They would roll into a new community and say, hey,
this thing you're doing, you're actually already into Catholicism. You
just didn't know the right words to use. Your God
is actually a saint, and you should venerate that saint
(06:23):
and realize there's the one true God and that's our
God of Catholicism. This is a common occurrence throughout history.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Also, you're doing it wrong. Also you're doing it right.
To do it a little bit more like this.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Everybody learn Latin right now, now it's easy and do
all this free labor.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So I mean, this is something Marty gross wrow Tuesday,
Fat Tuesday, something that's particularly popular in areas with large
Roman Catholic communities. Right, and this is on the day
before Lent. To your point, Ben, Lent is a season
of abstinence, right, So what better way to precede a
(07:04):
day of abstinence than with utter indulgence.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Make it all balanced out right, kind of like New
Year's Eve vibes, you know what I mean. Hey, we're
gonna do goodt next next time, tomorrow. Yes, today, we're
going all in.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And if we don't die or you know, eat ourselves
to death or drink ourselves to death or you know,
fall off a building or something, then we will set
ourselves right for the coming year.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Let me have a large cheeseburger, a pizza, fries, and
milkshake today because I'm going to the gym this afternoon,
you know, on a spiritual level.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, we're at it.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Why don't you give me a multi colored sweetie roll
stuffed with the baby yes, or or we will accept
a figurine of a child. Indeed, I'm sorry, let's just
you know what that sounds a little more tenable.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
So, as you can tell, we already quickly recapped an
evolution of Marty grass And while well, while the festival
some version of it exists in Brazil and Venice and
so on, the one in New Orleans is the one
most Americans will be familiar with. Marty Gras has evolved
into a week long festival. Traditionally, it's celebrated on Fat Tuesday,
(08:16):
that Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. As
you said, Noel, And now that it's a week long festival,
you know you see the entire city of New Orleans
preparing for it well in advance. And that debauchery includes gluttony.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Gluttony indeed, and just to really quickly just get into
a little bit more about what Ash Wednesday does. Ash
Wednesday is the Wednesday that kicks off Lent, which is
a a period six and a half weeks before Easter,
which recently just passed, which of course is when you
know Jesus Christ was purported to have risen from the
(08:54):
dead after being crucified by the Romans. Essentially, Lent is
a forty day fast, you know, if you do it right,
you know, I think I think typically you know, most
fair weather Catholics and Christians, they kind of go to church,
they get the ash on their forehead.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
They might you know, fast for a day or.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Something, you know, kind of to feel like they're involved.
But I don't know too many folks that are doing
forty day fasts, do you been?
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Not related to Lent honestly, yeah, But we know that
this is an incredibly important thing for a lot of
practicing Christians, a lot of practicing Catholics. But Marti Grass
is not for Catholicism alone. These days, there are a
lot of people who go just for the cultural experience.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
We'll call it the tourists.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, sure, the period though that you're talking about this fasting,
this preparation, this has been observed before the Festival of
Easter since back in the time of the US was.
It was happening unofficially for quite some time before it
was formalized at the first Council of Nicea in three
(10:09):
twenty five cees. So this this dates back in the
idea of Ash Wednesday, of being marked on the forehead
with ashes that might seem unfamiliar to a lot of
people who are not practicing Catholics or aren't familiar with Catholicism.
But that is a modern day practice and it dates
(10:31):
back so far. And if you are, you know, if
you are an observant Catholic today, you're probably pretty happy
that they relax some of those fasting rules. It used
to be intense. You could only eat one full meal
and two smaller meals if combined. That if you combine
those small meals, they wouldn't equal a singull normal meal.
(10:53):
And then there's a rule where you can't eat meat
on any Friday during lynt. And there's there's question too,
I wonder how much of that was to justify shortages
of food.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's a really good question, Ben.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
We you know, typically we know that the Catholic Church,
you know, holds a lot of sway, historically held a
lot of sway over the populace, like in terms of
you know, being able to kind of maneuver and cause
them to do certain things. And we do sometimes see
political reasons or you know, perhaps logistical reasons for doing
(11:32):
some of this stuff. Remember, like the butter indulgences and
all that stuff. How butter was only for like the
upper upper class, you know. And and and you could
pay a fee in a little special box that was
in the church in order to be able to eat butter.
But of course only the super rich could afford to
(11:53):
do that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
And as we know, food is a big deal. Ridiculous historians,
you know, we love any chance to talk about the
history of food. So we're all in on this. And
just to add, those Sundays were excluded. Sundays were excluded
from the fasting.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yes, and I guess that is probably I mean, I'm
certain it's where the term breakfast comes from, the idea
of breaking ones fast.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Breaking a fast yep. So I think that gives us
a good understanding of what lent is, what ash Wednesday is,
And we've painted a picture of why Fat Tuesday is
so important to a lot of people, because it's your
last hurrah, right, your last huzzah, you could say, before
(12:37):
you got to straighten up. And while people are indulging
traditionally in I don't know if it's quite debauchery, I
don't know it's supposed to be. While they're living the
high life, they have come to enjoy certain food stuffs
as a way of celebrating fat Tuesday. And this is
where maybe we introduce our first example, perhaps one of
(12:59):
the most famous, which is the King Cake, which I
think is a misleading name because if we're being honest,
they would call it.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Baby doll cake or baby figure cake exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
We allude to that earlier picture sort of an oversized
cinnamon roll, but instead of the folds being stuffed with
you know, kind of a cream cheese frosting and cinnamon swirls,
we're talking a sugar that's multicolored. Like I said, it's
kind of a psychedelic you know, purple and pink, and
(13:41):
you know, depending on who does it, it can all
kind of blend together and just sort of look brown.
But you know, if it's done right, it's got a
certain sparkle to it. Right, it catches the eye. And
then really heavy layers of like pure cream cheese, sweetened
cream cheese, which is a little bit a little thicker
and more decadent than the kind of frosting you'd find
in a cinnamon role, but they are cinnamon roll adjacent.
(14:04):
And then somewhere in those velvety folds is a little
figurine of a baby careful now, don't go, you know,
housing that thing too quick, or you might choke on
the baby. And you don't want that because you want
to preserve the baby if you were lucky enough to
find it.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, and luck is a big factor here because, as
we'll see, there are consequences, rights, and responsibilities that come
with being the person who finds that baby.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Figure.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Let's talk a little bit about this. I really like
your description comparing it to a cinnamon role. We should
also note that the kingcake history actually starts with Three
Kings Day. That's a holiday that happens twelve days after Christmas,
and the first king cakes were made in Europe to
celebrate the Catholic Epiphany, which is on January, the celebration
(15:01):
of the day when the three Wise Men were purported
to have visited the baby Jesus Christ and giving him
the classic combo gold frankincense and murr, right, which I'm
sure is it was just like the Ticklebeelmo of that time.
Everybody needed the gold frank and murr. It was a
classic gift, and so people are celebrating this for centuries
(15:25):
and centuries. French Catholics brought the cake with them to
Louisiana in the eighteen seventies, and now it is synonymous
with the French quarter Marti grass Fat Tuesday or shrove
Tuesday or pancake Tuesday, whatever you want to call it.
It's very New Orleans and you can buy one in
the I think it starts selling in like early January. Honestly,
(15:47):
you could probably buy some version of it year round nowadays, right, the.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Kingcake has become so mainstream that, like, you know, I mean,
I don't know, we have to have publics everywhere, but
here they have publics and Kroger, and you know, you're
gonna find your grocery store varieties that are just kind
of made in bulk in their bakeries.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
But then if you have a nice, you know, local bakery,
they're gonna have more kind of bespoke versions of it.
But they all kind of follow the same rules. And
I believe they are even like really kind of well
regarded ones in New Orleans that do mail order.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, yeah, fancy, right, it's fancy to get a proper
king cake mail to you, and people do it every year.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
I wanted to add I was kind of conflating two
religiously based kind of traditional desserts. There's something in Ireland
called the bambrack cake or the rag cake that I
actually learned about in the show Boardwalk Empire, and it's
actually eaten on Halloween and it's a fruit bread where
each member of the family gets a slice and there
(16:51):
are hidden items in there. One of them is a
piece of rag. It's sometimes referred to as a rag cake.
Another is a coin, and another is a ring. If
you get the rag, then your financial future is questionable.
If you get the coin, then you can look forward
to prospering in the coming year. And if you get
the ring, then the romance is in your future. So
(17:12):
I love this idea of this kind of parallel you know,
hidden secret you know, choking hazard items, you know found
inside desserts.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
This all feels very unhygienic to me, unsanitary.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah, the rag, I mean surely you know in modern versions,
it's not like an actual like you know, used piece,
throw it in while we're cooking.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Cost it in there, see what? Yeah, yeah, use the
one from the floor. It's fine, I'm up earlier.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, we should also not the king cake colors are representative.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
There are symbolic the green and this I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yeah, well I didn't know about the rag cake, so
now I'm gonna be extra cautious if I'm eating cake
in Ireland. So the green on the King Cake symbolizes faith,
the purple stands for power, and the yello represents justice.
But let's get to the weirdest part. This is the
weirdest part for someone who's never heard of King Cake.
It's that baby man, the plastic baby. Apparently everybody's itching
(18:11):
to get the slice of King Cake that has the
baby action figure, and people have different stories.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Action is a bit generous.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yes, it's easily our richt just weird little fricking fetus
looking thing.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So okay, here's what I heard. And again, not an
expert on New Orleans nor King Cake. I heard something
a little bit different from what some of our sources
are saying. So traditionally the baby figure is meant to
represent the baby Jesus Christ, but others will say this
(18:46):
is just a symbol of luck or prosperity, and if
you get the slice with the baby inside, you are
king or queen for a day and you're going to
have a great year. So kind of like getting the
coin in that rag cake. But the idea I heard
that if you got the figure, then you were on
the hook to hold the get together the next year.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Okay, that's an actual functional, uh kind of use for
the thing to kind of dictate, you know, who has
to foot the bill for the get together.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
You know, I got a sad The baby Jesus thing
rings true for me because the king cake we're talking about,
you know, Christ, we're talking about the three Kings, the
three you know, the three wise Men are often referred
to as the three Kings, so that that tends.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
To feel right to me.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
But also if you think about, like in Chinese culture,
a pig, a little tiny pig is often a symbol
of luck, right.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And what looks what looks a lot like a little
tiny pig, little tiny baby?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well yeah, I mean you think just think of the scale, right,
so exactly, and the pinkness. Mainly so your entry into
the king cake competition, should you eat and celebrate with
your friends is not rad in dollars spent, unless you're
on the hook to throw the party. Instead, it's let's
rate it in calories, because a single slice of.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
King all of our of our desserts today.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Yeah, yeah, which maybe, dear listeners, maybe this will clue
you in on why these are not year round goodies
for a lot of people. A single slice, well, a
single slice of King Cake, it's two hundred calories and
that's not the most calorically dense treat we'll talk about,
as Max pointed out.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
No, and we're talking for a single slice.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
According to my fitness Pal, which is an app that
you can get. We're not sponsored by them, but I
have used it in the past. It's like a fitness
tracker and you know, food diary kind of thing that
has like, you know, all this data around various food
items and it has kin cake. Good job on you,
my fitness Pal. We're talking a fifty five gram slice,
so one slice that would be the serving size officially,
(20:52):
unofficially according to my fitness Pal.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
But if you.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Wanted to go full on fat Tuesday, you know, be
the fattest of Fat Tuesday ors, you could eat the
entire King Cake, which is around twenty slices, which will
net you thirty eight hundred calories, five hundred and sixty
grams of carbs, and one hundred grams of fat.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Tuesday fats ah, yes fat Tuesday fat and still again nutritionally,
this is not the worst thing for you on the list.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Let's move to punch.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Ky yeah, which if you read it on paper, you're
never gonna say it like that. It looks like past
key and full disclosure. I sometimes listen to these outlines.
These the research briefs are incredible research associates put together
for us on a text to speech app. And boy,
that text to speech app was having a hard time
(21:47):
with these pronunciations because Max so helpfully put in phonetic pronunciations.
So I would hear, you know, the robot voice say
passcheck pon cheek.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Because it is appaently uh, poncheck po poonchky poncheck, which
does sound like a doctor Seu's name.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Right, poncheck would be singular. Pounsky is plural, and this
is gotta be polish, right, Yeah, it's gotta be because
it's spelled pacz. They love the cz cake also check.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Also, since we learn witness protection in the US will
let you choose your own name, somebody somebody go with
pond check punchki no, somebody to.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Say no, yeah, you do the singular plural check pun
That's a fabulous name.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I mean, no one will ever suspect it. Now who
you say you are?
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Your parents uh loved this dessert indeed, and uh you
know who else seems to love this dessert at least
from historical context. It's Teresa now a Kowski, also a
lovely Polish name from Smithsonian mag who says, quote, leading
up to Fat Tuesday, many Chicago bakries. Chicago's got a
big Poles population. Chicago bakeries are hard at work, taking orders,
(23:03):
organizing ingredients, and prepping dough for the impending rush. All
this festive fuss isn't for Marti Grock classics like kincake,
though they'll make that too, but for poncheck. Poncheck is
a traditional Polish dessert for Fat Tuesday, which is caught
on in the Windy City and other cities with Polish
heritage like Detroit and Buffalo, to the point that some
(23:25):
simply call the holiday poncheck Day.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's weird because if you look at it and you're
not familiar with this, you might think, oh, I've seen
donuts before, and I love that you're pointing out this
Smithsonian article because we're getting a lot of the insider
scoop from this one in that you'll see folks like
Dobra Bilinsky, who owns a Chicago bakery called Delightful Pastries,
(23:51):
and she describes the punchki as not just a doughnut
by another name. She says, the dough is richer, It's
denser in the dough you would see in your typical donut,
and she says this gives the pastry a certain quote plushness.
She says, the best way you think of it is
that a pun check is like a doughnut crossed with brioche,
(24:13):
and it's got a sweet fruit preserved filling. It's got
a thin glaze on top and a hint of orange peel,
which does sound pretty good. It also does sound like
a traditional kind of European dessert, doesn't it, with fruit
and orange peel in.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There, that's right.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
But the kind of kind of classic versions of the
dessert that you might find in Polish bakeries around Chicago
or in other parts of the country. You're gonna need eggs, milk, butter, sugar, vanilla,
and a lot of this stuff actually stems. These ingredient
choices stem from religious origins themselves. That's because before the
(24:54):
beginning of the Lent season, Polish Catholics also celebrated Fat Tuesday,
had their own kind of spin on it, and this
was a time where they wanted to indulge as well,
and these were sort of the ingredients that they had
on hand since the Middle Ages. The ponchet kind of
fit the bill for the Polish you know, indulgence on
(25:15):
the day before ash Wednesday. They actually make them a
little bit further in advance, and that they make them
the Thursday before ash Wednesday, so the previous week. And Ben,
did you mention that, as you mentioned, you did mention
that the festival is so kind of centered around this
dessert that it sometimes gets another name, you know, pop
Ponchki Day. Yeah, so we've got we got another one
(25:37):
to add to the list of kind of stylings on
Marty Gras Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Now we've got Ponchki Day.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
And it makes a lot of sense. Historically, those ingredients
that we listed out the traditional ingredients, those are luxurious things.
So if you are celebrating Fat Thursday back in the day,
you want to use up all your luxury urious ingredients
because you can't eat the lard and sugar during the
(26:05):
fasting period of lint.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
It didn't occur to me. I mean, you know, because
things like butter and they will you know that that
stuff will spoil, so best to just get it all out.
Also probably maybe to cut down on temptation. Yeah, you
know what, that's a really good dough too. And look,
this stuff doesn't the dough doesn't collapse when you bite
into it. It is deep fried, it's flat. It has
(26:27):
that fruit or cream filling.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
They the fruit filling is traditionally supposed to be prune,
but you can also get versions with apricot, lemon, raspberry, blueberry, custard,
you name it. And we got to see where punchki
waiys in on the caloric scale.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Uh, it's gonna be about three hundred to four hundred
calories a pop per Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Slice, well, no, it's not a slice, it's a it's
a it's a handheld.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, it's a single serve, single doughnut. It it's very
similar to a donut.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Very similar to adona. But no, we're gonna get to
the potato e one next. That one's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
That's right. It is very very yeasty.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
By the way, so that's that adds to some of
the carbiness of it all. We're looking at around forty
upwards of forty grams of carbs per and between twelve
and twenty five grams of fat. Which does this outrank
the Kingcake slice on every front?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Per slice?
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, on the first slice. And this is the one
that actually I built this article out of. So the
idea I got was on a Super Bowl party last
month or not last month, back in February. So one
of my friends who showed up, he's from New Orleans.
He bron kin cake. I gotta be fun to write about.
But being from Detroit, my whole family's from Detroit. We
grew up being Pooonsky's. So this is like, yeah, this
(27:46):
is the fast thing that we have because it's a
big Midwestern thing. There's a very large Polish population in
Chicago and Detroit and stuff. So I was like Poonsky's.
And I was actually telling my mom yesterday, I'm like, Hey,
we're gonna recording an episode about poosch Key's. So she's
super We're excited to hear about this.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Hello missus Williams, Hello, and we hope we do you
probably and really quickly I am very excited to announce
I guess that I am going to Detroit for the
very first time later this year. I'm gonna go see
one of my favorite bands, Mister Bungle has reformed, and
they're playing one of my favorite albums of there is
disco Volante, at a place called the Fillmore. I guess
(28:23):
this is in downtown Detroit, and I'm going there with
some friends and we're staying for a few days and
I have to pick your brain, Max on some stuff
to do. But it seems like a really interesting city,
and it's one that I've never been to.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Travel under the name Ponchek Punchki.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I will it's at the very least, we'll check into
the hotel out of that name. I've always wanted to
check into a hotel under an assumed name. It seems
like the easiest thing in the world to.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Do it is they just they'll use your actual name,
like they'll want your ID and verification for your card,
so they will know your real name, but they'll give
out they'll give out a face name if you ask.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, I think you've got to kind of give them
a little wink wink, nudge nudge.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Don't say, here's my fake name.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Right like most people. If you're nice too, though, they'll
want to help you out. And as long as the
name is not, you know, an aggressive combination of.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Curse words, they'll usually I'm not gonna speak those out loud.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I'm sorry exactly. Yeah, I don't care what kind of
tip you give me.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Well, this is interesting because I'm not aware of this
treat and now I've got to try one.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
It sounds delightful, and you know, while you're there, maybe
you can bribe the hotel folks with a paun check.
Or if that doesn't work, maybe you could try to
slide a foshnt their way. I'm sorry, a foster snot.
(29:48):
Oh okay, okay, that's not a fastest.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I'm gonna I'm gonna put on my my my young
German bully hell real quick. And it's actually fast nach
Nacht because knacht.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Means night, and I think we'll get it to the overall.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
The word itself is German and it means fast night literally,
so FoST Knocht is the evening of the fast and
let's see. They're often by by Mikhaela Miller for Lancaster
Online describes them, or at least describes the way people
often describe them, which I think is always an interesting
thing to claim as little puffs of pillowy goodness.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah yeah, which sounds good, uh because it's literally goodness.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
So, according to the article what are fast Knocks The
story behind this treat on visitpa dot com, they made
their way across the Atlantic when German immigrants first started
coming to America on mass and they're synonymous with Pennsylvania
Dutch culture, kind kind of like those decorated barns that
(30:57):
you can see out in different areas of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
And those delicious little ham rolls they make.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
You ever had those? You ever been to a Dutch bakery?
Literally there used to be when in Augusta where in
my hometown called the Little Dutch Bakery, and it was
run by Mennonites, which is a particular, you know sect
of Dutch, you know, religious culture where they have like
they wear head coverings and such. But they have this
wonderful little bakery and they made these incredible ham rolls.
(31:23):
And I bet you they made FoST knocks as well.
So this is another treat associated with lint and Shrove
Tuesday This particular one, however, might appear to the untrained
eye to be very similar to a donut.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, but it.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Couldn't be farther from the truth, right, looks could be deceiving.
Centuries and centuries ago, apparently someone deep in German culture said,
you know what, picture this a donut that is also
a potato and everyone went, you should be in charge
of more things a potato nut, yes, or a foss knut.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So it's interesting because it's it's only in certain cultures, like,
for example, in the Jewish faith and culture, you have
you know, lot keys, which I typically think of potato
e things as being savory, and you know, a lot
key on its own certainly is savory. But then there's
some versions of it that involve putting some sort of
like apple compote kind of on top, and then it
(32:28):
sort of becomes this like vessel for sweetness. And that's
what we're seeing kind of here. Only typically, you know,
whereas a doughnut would be made of a wheat flower
bas you know, or a flowery base for the carb,
this uses potatoes that are kind of whipped into a
consistency that is more like kind of like a pillowy
(32:49):
little dome retreat as opposed to like, you know, mashed potatoes.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, and look, they're not a round. Traditionally they're square
or try angular, and now I think more and more
in recent times round ones are normalized. But they still
will never have a hole in the middle. So if
you were ever in a weird situation, you know, someone
has a gun to your head and they say, you know,
(33:16):
it's the end for you. If you can't just tell
the difference between these various things that look like doughnuts,
well we'll give you a leg up. The one without
a hole in the middle. That's that's your bet for
FoST knock. Never a hole shall be found in a
in a fast knocked.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Uh. They are sometimes triangular as well. You usually believe
they're square. And by the way, we wanted to mention too,
if if you're trying to picture what does potato dough
feel like, think of like a nookie. If if you
ever had that that that kind of potato based pasta,
you know, it doesn't taste potato. We exactly, it doesn't
come come the mouthfeel of it doesn't feel that consistency
(33:57):
of like a mashed potato. It really does feel like
a dough so you're essentially using potato to create something
that very much is a recognizably doughy consistency.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
And in this weird donut hostage situation, if you are
allowed to touch the baked goods, you'll notice that our pal,
the fostnits, is also a little bit heavier and denser
than a doughnut. And if you're allowed to bite one, again,
this is a very weird situation you're in hypothetically, but.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
If they're like, no, take a bite.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Take a bite before you say anything, you'll notice the
fast nut is not as sweet as the typical US doughnut.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
It really does feel.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
A lot like a lot key to me, only it's just,
you know, a lot key literally is like mashed potato
that you fry up, you know, and make into us
like a flat little disc and fry up in a pan.
This is going to have more height than a lot key,
but a lot caa. But I believe there's gonna be
some similarities because it is deep golden brown with a soft,
(34:56):
kind of tender interior. But again, because they're making it
into a dough I feel like the bite of it
is going to be a little more like a yokie,
whereas yeah, chew here, whereas the mashed potato the potato
lotkey is going to feel more like a nice crispy
exterior with mashed potato in the middle, or like a parochi.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
And before we get to the caloric intake, which we're
doing for each of these, we will note that there
is a beef about spelling. If you go to Pennsylvania,
you'll see that Lancaster County has held for a long
time that fast knocked without a middle tea is the
(35:35):
correct spelling and comes straight from good old Pennsylvanian Dutch.
And that's according to doctor Mark Lauden, an expert on
Pennsylvania Dutch language. However, people will tell you that you're
not wrong for inserting the middle tea because it refers
to the period of lent when fasting is the order
of day. Fast and traditional German means the same thing
(35:58):
as it does in English. So whether you see it
spelled fas in acht or fast in acht, you are correct.
I fell into trivia voice, I fell into bar trivia
voice like and the answer is either one. So congratulations
to you for surviving this weird doughnut situation. One slice
(36:21):
of this stuff, or you know, just one serving of it,
two hundred and seventeen calories, twenty four grams of carbs,
twelve grams of fat. And that's the basic version. That's
like the factory version. Of course, you can get some
with a lot more added on and a lot more
calories involved. I've got one, Noel. I've not learned about
(36:43):
this one. I've heard some version of most of these
on this list, but I am unfamiliar with semlar am
I even saying that correctly, semlar I.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Think you are.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
It is Swedish, so it does sound like a piece
of ikea furniture, perhaps a footstool of some variety, given
the shape of this thing.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It is.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Essentially it's something you may have seen on a Great
British Baking Show, if you're a fan of that delightful program.
It's basically like a Claire kind of but it's a
Swedish a Claire. It's essentially two doughnuts as the bread,
and in the middle you've got some variety of delightful
cream pilly. But it's like it's not it's not stuffed
(37:25):
inside of a closed circuit donut. Yeah, it's like it's visible,
so it actually makes for a pretty nice presentation too, actually,
you know, and Paul Hollywood would give you his cold
blue stare of death if you dared to make the
cream look not neat or not.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Who's Paul Hollywood. He's the host of the judgment.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
He gives you the handshake if you do a good job,
and it makes people weep because he's so hardcore and
his eyes are icy blue.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I thought you just knew some guy going by Paul Hollywood. Yeah, oh,
Paul Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
You don't want to meet that guy in the dark alley,
especially on fat Tuesday, because he might puke on you.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
And uh, if you're very lucky, he might be puking sembla.
We're kidding.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
The way to the man and I love that the
way the way to eat.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Cebyla is from a reputable baker. Uh, you should be
the first person to eat it.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Ideally, now, ben you you may recall, uh this this
delectable treat from a previous conversation about like royalty that
died weirdly remember the guy, but then there was this
guy we'll get to. King Adolph Frederick Max referred to
(38:41):
these these treats very delightfully, to the point where I
almost believe that it was a thing people said as
king killers. Sembla's are still quite below despite their reputation,
which we'll get to in a minute, but ridiculous historians
may already know where we're heading. Simla is a wheat
flour bun again doughnut, uh and it flavored with cardamom,
(39:01):
which is neat because that is not that I think
of that typically as a as an East Indian spice.
And oh it's so wonderful. I mean like some of
the earliest We did an episode on ice cream recently,
and some of those early you know, cool fee, I
believe is what it was called, those Indian desserts, the
frozen kind of pops. They were flavored with cardamom, and
(39:23):
obviously cardamom is a very popular now. You get those
cardamom pods, those green green guys, and smash them up
in your order and pestle and make yourself a nice
garam masala or whatever spice plan you're into.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Coffee Lamburiani, this hat Carnival, dude, you know what I've
got coming in the mail?
Speaker 3 (39:40):
What's a tajin? Yeah, it's incredible. There's this fabulous restaurant
in New York called Cafe Mogador, and they do these
tajen lamb things and it's basically slow, slow, slow cooked lamb.
In this clay oven and cardamom would be a fabulous
seasoning for that.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
We're not talking about that. We're talking about flavoring donut
creamy donuty things with cardiom So flavor with cartera Mom.
Almond paste is one of my favorite flavors. I love
mar Zapan. I'm a big fan of almond the paste
anything and whipped cream. So it's an almond paste kind
of combined with the whip cream. So it's gonna have
a really rich, you probably flavor with some vanilla, I
(40:21):
imagine it would have to be. It's gonna have a
really rich, earthy kind of taste.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Is how what I describe as all, oh, wait, what
you might be saying, you know what this is missing
a bowl of hot milk.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, this is how that guy died. Hot milk.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
He got a bunch of he got a bunch of
semlas and just kept dunking them dunk of milk and
eating them. You know, he was actually, you know, the
tragic inventor of the Dunkaroo now that I think about it.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Yeah, and friend of the friend of the show in
the podcast network, John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the
Angry Inch, fame a very very fun trivia effect about him.
Was the original voice of the dunk Guru Kangaroo in
those ad campaigns from the nineties that we all remember.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
See Nothing happens in a vacuum, that's what we're saying.
So now, at some point we know that people in
Sweden got a little tired of strictly observing lent. So
that's why they added cream and almond paste to this mix,
this semla stuff, and they started eating it every Tuesday
(41:24):
between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Because the church doesn't enforce
these fasting practices the way that it did in times
of old, you'll usually see semla appearing in bakery windows
as near after Christmas as deemed decent. It's kind of
like sometimes even before Christmas. It's kind of like how
(41:47):
in the US the sale season for things keeps creeping
bought larger and larger, right, Like you'll see stuff for
Christmas right after or Halloween.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Right, that's right. This is kind of what's happening with somewhat.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
The idea of, like what is the appropriate time to
like trot out the Valentine's Day you know, ghak or whatever.
It's usually literally the day after the previous season or
holiday has expired. By the way, you mentioned dunking, right, Yes,
not only dunking. Actually the traditional way of doing it
is to pour the stuff on top of it. And
(42:28):
Paul Hollywood, as I mentioned, he's got a recipe that
I believe is pretty traditional. He infuses the warm milk
with cinnamon stick.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I'm not a cinnamon fan. No, you ever know the
cinnamon challenge.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
I tolerate it. I recognize it's right to exist.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Okay, that's fair. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, cinnamon challenge was one of those Internet the things
where people were just like trying to swallow cinnamon and
because of the particular particles of it are so fine,
you can't do it.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
It just causes you to immediately choke and gasp.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Also, in the Anarchist Cookbook, which had a bunch of
at least the versions I saw, had a bunch of
things that might be considered trolling or pranks on the reader,
like ideas of alternative ways for people to become intoxicated.
You know, the nutmeg, the Sailor's high, that's one of
the sailors high. It is lousy with nutmeg on ships
(43:23):
because there that's how nutmeg is getting around.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
I get okay, Oh of course the spice, the spice trainers.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Yeah, yeah, we should maybe we should maybe talk about
those weird uses of things as.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Drugs in a future episode episode. Yeah, the Sailor's high.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Well you can why get high on drugs, folks, when
you can get high on semla and hot milk. This
burger shaped candy like it's structured the way a hamburger
would be structured, except there's creamy almond filling instead of
a patty, and it's all tops of whipped cream. Now, Noel,
this takes the cake. This takes the king cake out.
(44:03):
Traditional semla just one five hundred calories.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, worth every penny, worth every every much lower unit
of currency.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah, I'm a big fan of this kind of treat.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
Like I would, I would kind of liken it only
in its creamy fillingness to like a canoli. The canoli's
obviously a more brittle, you know, cookie type in casing.
I guess this is really more like maybe a napoleon,
but that's more of a custard filling, So it really
kind of is its own thing. The fact that it's
a specifically whipped filling, and I'm sure you know there
(44:39):
are stylings on it, like you could probably flavor it
with with fruit as well. You could make like a
maybe a strawberry type filling, but the traditional one really
is just that almond kind of paste, uh and whipped cream,
So whipped cream doesn't go on top. The topping is
like a powdered sugar kind of confection or sugar deal.
And I believe, as far as I'm telling on a
(44:59):
lot of these images and recipes that were seeing, the
filling is whipped cream sweetened with almond paste, you know,
so it's going to have that combined kind of consistency.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And like any of these traditional sweets, a lot of
them might be made at home, so you're going to
see nutritional facts differ widely between recipes, and if your
family has a particularly cool when you're very lucky, and
we'd love to hear about it. But semla just on
its own is innocuous as it may seem does help
(45:33):
explain why Frederick died after eating Oh gosh, remembering the
bold strokes of the episode, let's see, he had lobster
sausages with sauer Kraut caviare, and then he housed fourteen
semlas with milk.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I think we liken this or I liken this to
the bit on Monty Python's Meaning of Life with mister Kreoso,
the enormous man, you know, with the I think it's
I forget what actor was, I think it's h Eric
Idol may be dressed in like a giant fat suit,
you know. He gorges himself and then he's like at
the end, he's like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
Have one more thing. And then the guy's buddy, it's
a wifire thin.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
He gives him like a little little tiny crisp and
he puts it on his tongue with a tong and
then jumps behind a barricade and then the guy explodes,
and uh.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
Terry Jones, Terry Jones, there you go.
Speaker 3 (46:22):
And Max, I believe you had not seen that before,
and you made the mistake of googling it and you
said it was a disturbing nightmare.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Fuel.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
Yeah, to make it even worse. This past weekend, UH,
a couple of friends ticking me out to and all
you can eat cream barbecue restaurant from.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
My brodd and which one.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
Uh, I don't even know the name of. It's the
first time i'd been there. But we went there and
the entire time I talked about mister Kre sketch, and
the waiter kept coming up right when I was doing it,
and I pause, and why do you keep stopping this?
Like the story is incredibly disgusting, guys, And then I
sent them that thing and they were not very appreciative.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
But the best part is when John Cleese, who plays
the waiter, he goes, I have judge it and miss
Sill's bucket.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
It's good.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Not for nothing is Monday Python one of the best
sketch shows made in the English language. And not for
nothing is Marti Gras hosts to some of the best
desserts out there. Right now, we are on the cusp
of just talking about what we're going to get for lunch.
You know, as soon as you mentioned Korean barbecue, Maas,
(47:27):
I was thinking we got to get out of here.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
It's time.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I propose that we we call it here, We'll leave
you with a king who died pursuing excess, and we hope.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
We know this is not in time.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
For Marti Gras necessarily, but we hope that you have
enjoyed this episode and I can't wait to hear more
Marti Graus traditions and war stories on Ridiculous Historians on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Jeez, Louise, the time just flew by. Ben. It's funny.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Before we started the episode today, you said how you
kind of like talking about desserts sometimes more than you
like eating them. We just talked about desserts for fifty minutes.
That's pretty cool. I did not feel like that. I
thought we were like, well, ya really stopping? It seems
like we're under time. Surely there's more deserts to discuss.
But yeah, religious desserts.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Who knew? I think most people knew to some degree. Yeah,
a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Probably we might be the ones who are learning the
most on this one. But uh but yeah, let us know.
We hope you enjoyed this episode. Please tune in later
this week when we're going to explore this strange story
of monster trucks.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
No more spoilers than that.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Moday Tuesday, Tuesday, Thursday, whichever day it comes out. I
am super excited about that one. Yeah, oh my gosh,
I think we're gonna, you know, peak behind the curtain.
I think we're actually about to do it in just
a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
You won't hear anybody about it. Thursday, Thursday, Thursday about our.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Time travel and I can't remember truck a saur or
truck Asaurus was.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
It was?
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Well, big big thanks to mister Max Williams. Big big
thanks in advance to the creative minds behind Monster Trucks.
Big thanks to all those Marty Gros dessert experts. We
see you, We admire your work, and who else you
know what.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I love you, all of you. Yeah, yeah, you're all right.
You're all right.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Had huge thanks to Zach Williams too, to Jeff Bartletts
of of the of the of the Ridiculous Research Associates,
Extraordinary collective. Max, thanks again to you for this really,
really fun and educational doc Jonathan stricklm Ever made you rain.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
We've okay, we've been teasing this one too long.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
We did hang out with him in Austin as part
of our other show stuff that will want you to know,
but we still haven't gotten him, we haven't lured his
maniacal spirit back to our podcast realm, so we got
to make that happen.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
What have we made him mad? Have we upset him?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
No? No, he's just got a lot going on and
the only accept payment in kincake.
Speaker 3 (49:59):
Okay, we can that. We can probably order some kin
cake up from.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Let's get him at Kingcake.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
But instead of a baby in there, it's like a
little Jonathan strictly.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Oh that'd be cool.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
I was thinking, okay, you were, You were going much
more charitable than I was. But yes, we're gonna do
that and with that we will see you next time, folks.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!