December 6, 2019 • 32 mins
Why are hard candy sticks that are red-and-white striped, peppermint flavored, and bent at one end a Christmas Thing? Anney and Lauren separate fact from fiction and explore the sugary science behind candy canes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm an I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today
we're talking about candy canes because the holidays are upon
us and candy canes are terrible. Well, it turns out
neither you or I are into them. Really yes, um,
but I I did. I think it was when maybe
(00:28):
almost a year ago, Dylan and I went to that
candy museum slash exhibit right the the do it for
the Instagram, Yes, very much, just Instagram stuff. I mean
it was fun and we had a good time, but
in every room you got he's candy, and um, I
have eaten all the candy except the candy cane, which
(00:52):
has been sitting on my microwave since and a couple
of months ago, I was microwaving something and I was
staring at the candy cane, like, what the heck is
going on here? Because I've never really thought about it,
like the shape and the colors. I just I must
know more about this and wish episode. No, that's that's great.
(01:15):
I you know, I think it's it's important to be curious,
and this is certainly a curious story, or a number
of stories Oh yeah, it's weird. Oh absolutely, But you
know I don't like them. Um. I don't like hard
candy in general because, like and stick candy in particular,
it just gets it gets so stabby and and then
(01:37):
you cut yourself and then it's covered in drool and
and sucking on things just like here taps the inside
of my mouth anyway, and so my entire feeling about it,
it's just like why Yeah, I mean I have my
whole meant thing. I know they come in other flavors now,
but like, I'm just not that into it. Um. We
were talking before this started about how they can be
(01:59):
used as we have been several hormones, several yeah, and
uh television shows. Yeah, I feel like there was a
related It might it might have been a hard candy
that was not a candy canon or in just The
New Black anyway. Um. But but this brings us to
our question candy canes. What are they? Well, a candy
(02:27):
cane is a cane made of candy. There you go, simple,
nothing more to it. We were lying when we said
it's interesting and weird earlier. Yeah, I mean, you know
you've seen them. They're typically like the size and shape
of a long pencil that's hooked over at one end,
colored white with a red stripe winding around. It's sort
of an angle, so it's all pretty ribbon um. It's
(02:49):
a type of hard candy or boiled sweet, so called
because making it involves cooking refined granulated sugar with water
until the sugar dissolves, and then boiling the resulting syrup
until the water has evaporated out, leaving you with hot
sugar goo that is malleable, so that if you form
it into a shape, it'll keep that shape when it
cools and hardens. Uh huh. And there are a few
(03:13):
tricks to doing this, because sugar really wants to be crystals.
It's just the way that sucros molecules interact with each other.
They locked together like like legos or tetris pieces or
gear teeth, and crystals form, and in candy making, you
don't want that. You want the candy to be smooth,
and crystals are gritty, um like legos, as we who
(03:34):
have stepped on them all no um. Physically speaking, sugar
is an amorphous solid like glass, which is uh this
designation that scientists use when something behaves like a solid
like crystals in some situations and like a liquid in others.
It's sort of the scientific equivalent of going like WTF,
we don't know what this is. It's neither solid nor liquid.
(03:55):
It's an amorphous solid. But anyway, so, what you're doing
when you make hard candy is um. You're you're heating
those crystals so that they break apart into free flowing molecules. UM.
And you do that with water so that you don't
just burn it because that wouldn't be good. But then
you boil of the water out. If you left more
(04:17):
water in, you would wind up ultimately with a softer
candy anything from like marshmallows to taffy UM. But for
hard candy. Uh. So yeah, you're you're making this super
saturated syrup of sucrose molecules, and then you stabilize them
by adding something that will interfere with them locking together.
And I guess technically any number of molecules would do,
(04:37):
but since you're making candy and not like poison um,
the two popular ones are glucose and or fruit toase
in the form of corn syrup or honey. Uh. Glucose
is a smaller molecule than sucrose, so it'll it'll slip
in between the sucrose molecules and prevent them from locking up. Perfect.
But wait, yes, the resulting hot sugar goo is sort
(05:00):
of clearish yellow, and candy canes have a base of white.
So are they dyed white? Are they? Nope? What? No? Um?
They appear white because of tiny air bubbles that are
worked into the goo so that they'll scatter the light
that hits them into an even spectrum that our eyes
perceive as white. And I bet you didn't think that
(05:21):
we were going to be talking about the electromagnetic spectrum
in this one, suckers. Oh no, oh, I don't even
mean to do them anymore. Okay, um, okay, so yeah, So,
so how you do that is you take your warm,
malleable sugar goo and you stretch and fold and stretch
it over and over again, working in tiny air bubbles
(05:43):
until it appears white. Uh. Stuff like cream of tartar
can also help because it's molecules can kind of elbow
in and stabilize air bubbles in a mixture. Anyway. Uh.
At the stage, you can also add in any flavorings
you want, and you you wind up with this big
white loaf of warm candy. The red bit is dyed.
(06:05):
You take a little bit of the warm candy before
it's opaque, white and diet and cut it into strips
that you then either fold into the loaf at intervals
or apply to the outside of the loaf. And then
you just work the loaf into the thickness you want
your candy canes to be, and cut lengths of it
off and bend them at one end and let them
cool and harden. You can add other colorings into the
(06:25):
flavoring stage, but yeah, yeah, the result is a hard, brittle, shiny,
sweet stick of candy with tan a little air bubbles
locked in um. If you can see him if you
break one, that's cool. Yeah right, maybe I'll break my candy.
Is my single candy game and that I was. I
(06:46):
didn't think about this, but I found on on mental
Flast they had this survey, how do people prefer to
eat them? Do you suck them or do you crunch them? Yes?
According to them, fifty of children report that they prefer
to suck on the candy, while two percent prefer to
(07:08):
bite into them, and half of that they were boys. Yeah.
I think I've mentioned before on the show. I have
a fake and I'm not entirely sure what it's made
of because the people it's a long story. It's kind
of a rush shop. So I have a real fear
(07:28):
of accidentally biting into hard candy or apples or carrots anything. Yeah,
I've been into my fore class. I was like, oh, yep,
that was the end. Luckily it's okay. But I can't
imagine biting into a candy cane. I guess. I guess
I prefer I prefer to to bite them. Um, but
(07:48):
but I prefer that small ones for that purpose. Like,
if I'm going to be subjected to a candy cane,
I want it to be one of the kind of
tiny ones so that I can't just crunch it right
right right. Yeah, I don't mind candy cane I guess. Yeah.
You can use them in like in like baking or
other dessert making. Is like it's like little kindycane crumbles. Yeah,
they're very um. You can use them in decoration or
(08:10):
I know some people like to put them in like
a holiday coffee or something and use this kind of
like a share is at that melts anyway. I find
that I I get it it's best of as heck
it is. It's true. They are very sticky, they are. Yea,
why coming out pretty already against candy canes. We didn't
(08:33):
mean to you. They got a really cool story. We'll
get to you anyway. What about nutrition, It's sugar. Yeah,
it's just sugar. I think they're like fifty calories for one,
so yeah, it's I mean, you know, it's just it's
it's it's sugar. It's sugar. It's sugar. Well, people do
(08:53):
seem to like them, other than us. We do have
some numbers for you. Yeah, they're surprisingly popular, at least
in my opinion. Um, but anyway, a survey fifty people
conducted by candy store dot Com found that in Delaware, Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington,
and Georgia, where we are located, candy canes came out
as the most popular Christmas candy. Really, yes, but I
(09:17):
was thinking about this and I'm not Christmas candy. They
might be just really that, I can't think of too
many other things when I think Christmas candy other than
candy canes, And like, how is the survey worded? Like
maybe people were like, well, it's really the only Christmas candy.
So therefore, I mean, but you can have like festively
(09:38):
colored gum drops or or I think chocolate is a
pretty universal holiday candy, no matter the holiday, no matter
the holiday, but Christmas as well. Yeah, yeah, and that's
that's honestly the candy that I associate with Christmas, possibly
because um, the aunt who I very frequently spend Christmas
with U like one of her things that she gets
a big box of good but like the big fancy
(10:00):
one with like like all the flavors and yeah, and
I'm like, oh, and so we just sit around and
like watch snappy movies and eat chocolates. That sounds nice.
It's pretty heavy. I think when I was a kid,
I forgot that this used to be a thing. But
my mom would make me give gifts all my teachers
that they didn't deserve it, but she was like, here's
stuff to carry to school and give to your teachers.
(10:22):
And we always gave Andy's mint chocolate minting. Yeah. Yeahvent
is a very Christmas Eve flavor. I guess it is.
It's it's winter themed because it's cooling. Yeah, it has
a cooling effect. Um of the one point seven six
billion candy games produced annually in the US are sold
(10:44):
during Thanksgiving and Christmas during that time period. Makes sense,
It absolutely does make sense. And then it makes you wonder,
what about that other I think that must be like
throughout the year, decoration for Yeah, all of those other flavorings,
flavors and colors for Easter whatever. Yes, there are all
kinds of flavors these days. Bacon, oh gosh, saracha, gravy,
(11:08):
Let that sink in for a second, gravy, candy cane, no, no,
just no, just no. Dill pickle, was sabby cinnabonn not
cinnamon cinnamonun birthday cake. I know I had a sour
green apple one once. It's pretty good. I think I've
(11:29):
had I think I had a blue raspberry one blue raspberry.
That's such a fun amalgamation of things that is still
not entirely sure what the flavor is, honestly. That's so.
We talked about that one in our Flavors episode. Yeah
that was a that was a long time ago, but
but gosh, that was a fun one. And yeah, you
can have a candy cane flavored other stuff like vodka,
(11:50):
because why not. In the world of vodka, it seems
to be the question that doesn't stop any why not
doesn't make it? Okay? Someone will buy it. Nash On
Candy Gaine Day is December twenty six, which I find
really funny. Uh huh yeah, sure, the largest candy gagne
in history, every grade. It was made in twenty twelve
and required nine pounds of sugar and it was fifty
(12:12):
one ft long or fifteen point five ms. I think
they broke it with like a sledgehammer, So people who
take pieces home after they got there. That record shards
danger shards, minty danger shards, another weaponized form of candy cane. Gosh. Well, um,
we have that fun history for you, we do. But
(12:36):
first we've got a quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, yes, thank you. Okay.
The story of the candy cane is one that is
peppered with a lot of super fun and messed up
(12:58):
stuff that isn't true. And you know, when I was
staring at it on our microwave, I thought, I bet,
I just know somewhere in my heart this has a
messed up story associated with it. I could sense it.
And yes, of course we're gonna be talking about these
things because that's the kind of stuff we love to
talk about that just right out of the gate, you've
(13:19):
probably heard a falsehood about how candy canes came to
be yes, or if you're like me, I hadn't heard
any of these really fun stories. Um, but I just
knew one of them definitely existed, and it's this first
one we're going to talk about. One of the most
repeated but unverified stories is that the shape of the
cane is modeled after the letter Jay for Jesus Yes,
(13:43):
who is also represented by the white color, while the
red represents his blood. I knew it. I knew it
was blood. I was looking at like, oh, yeah, I
guess there's the old idea that the that the barber
pole uh originated with bandages. Uh. Oh, I didn't know that,
(14:04):
so yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, this isn't a hair show,
but we can get into that at some point because
you'd get cut because it was also a doctor Okay,
I got you, I got you know. It was like, well,
it sound like the barbaries will be a lot dangerous,
a lot more dangerous now. Yeah, And I guess this
(14:28):
whole thing is no more metal than drinking Jesus blood.
At communion, which as a child I just kind of
I didn't really think about. Then I got older and
I was like, huh, how interesting it is. It's there,
there is, there's a lot that's super metal right about. Yeah,
(14:48):
and there's more. There's more. In the most popular rendition
of this story, this J shaped candy was the brainchild
of an Indiana candy maker. This is kind of how
we know it probably isn't true because no one there's
all these details about him, but no name and no
actual written down date or yeah, he was a candy maker.
(15:09):
Here's everything he meant. But yeah, but in the story,
he wanted to create a candy that incorporated several aspects
of Jesus's life and death. The white was meant to
be symbolic of his virgin birth and his purity. Uh.
The candy maker wanted it to be a hard candy.
I've never even considered making the texture of a candy symbolic,
(15:30):
but share his story he did. He wanted it to
represent the solid rock, the strength of the church, and
God's unwavering firmness and his promises. Um. The shape could
either be a J for Jesus or a shepherd's staff
and the staff, by the way, was shaped that way
to aid lamps and sheep who had fallen into a
ditch or lost their way. Um. But he thought this
(15:54):
whole thing was kind of dull, so he got the
idea for staining it with a red pattern christ blood
and the patterns because I'd never really paid this much
attention to cancanes. But there's the one thick red stripe
and then the three small smaller stripes that go around
that sometimes yeah, yeah sometimes, and that um is different
aspects of Jesus's life. Um. Anyway, these were mentous treats
(16:18):
for children who have behaved to keep them behaving during church,
or maybe as a way to identify fellow Christians during
times of persecution. Also almost definitely not true. Wow, there's
a lot involved in this story, I know, um, And yeah,
as you can guess, it is not true. Um, it's
so fun, but no, uh, it's part of a long
(16:42):
history of trying to associate pretty much any popular thing
around Christmas time with Christianity. Sure, yes, yeah, and I
mean symbols are fun, they are, clearly Yeah, this is great.
So let's start with the first thing. Candacans did not
originate in Indiana. Sorry, Nope, sorry, Indiana many other excellent qualities.
Inventor of candy canes not one of them. Nope. Their precursor,
(17:05):
hard candy sticks were around long before Indiana was even
a state, at least going back to the seventeenth century
in Europe, by which time most of Europe was Christian
and also around the time the Christmas tree tradition was
widely adopted. And this was the era during which refined
sugar was becoming a little more available and less expensive
because of the slavery driven sugar plantations being set up
(17:27):
by the European powers around the world. Um. Up to
the nineteen hundreds, sugar was still kind of a special
treat though for most people in the world, and and
working with it to make candy was difficult and dangerous. Um.
You know, hot liquid sugar is edible napalm. It's very
hot and it will stick to you. Um. I mean
you're talking temperatures up around on fifty celsius or or
(17:48):
three hundred fahrenheit in order to make this candy, and
then the manual labor of all that stretching and folding. Um.
But yes, enterprising humans were set on making hard candies
and make them they did. Indeed, sugary stripe candy six
were around by eighteen forty four, at least um the
first English language use of candy canes that took place
in eighteen sixty six, and their first recorded association with
(18:10):
Christmas popped up in eighteen seventy four. They were popular
Christmas time sweet, but not because they were Christian, just
they were tasty and they were available. Yeah, candy at
Christmas makes sense to me. Another unverified and most likely
untrue story goes that the shape was courtesy of a
choremaster at Germany's colonial cathedral was trying to find a
(18:32):
way to keep children in the choir entertained during services.
He thought to himself, candy. So he went to a
candy maker and got an idea. What if the solid
white candy sticks were bent, then it becomes a teaching
tool to remind children of the shepherds in the Nativity
story and the white a reminder of Jesus's purity. That way,
(18:56):
both children and their parents be a piece because at
least they learning something from this. It's not just candy,
it's educational candy. Candy. Why didn't we try, I didn't
try that excuse when I was a child. I need
to see what's in the center of this reason's cup. Mom,
it might not be peanut butter at this time, I
don't know. Um. Yeah. And and and this story wasn't recorded
(19:21):
until the twentieth century. Uh. It is repeated in a lot,
a lot a lot of places, but probably not true again,
probably right, yeah, um. And because candy canes are hard candies,
they might have been used as pacifiers and or to
keep children busy and quiet. That is something you see
a lot about them reported as well. Yeah. In the
(19:42):
eight four book The Complete Confectioner, Pastry, Cook and Baker
included a recipe uh in it for striped pepper bit
candy sticks. Okay, so pepper mints working its way in there,
that's right. According to The Daily Meal, another proto candy
cane was invented in Sweden in eighteen fifty nine, called polkaris.
They were straight peppermint candy sticks striped with red and white.
(20:04):
That sounds pretty close. Yeah, and um. Commercial mint production
was happening around the world starting in the mid seventeen hundreds,
so by this time in the mid eighteen hundreds in Europe,
and America, mint oil was fairly common as a flavoring um,
a flavoring with a slightly medicinal bent to it. Um.
Hard candies themselves were often used to deliver doses of
medicine at the time, so both dived. The entire thing
(20:26):
is very healthy. Clearly, clearly, so when did candy guns
make it to America? Most people credit that to a
German immigrant named August M. Guard out of Ohio in
eighteen forty seven, who also gets the credit for introducing
Americans to the Christmas tree. Yes, according to the National
Confectioners Association, the two events are actually related. They wrote
(20:50):
in Guard decorated a small blue spruce with paper ornaments
and candy kings. Yes, I think it was kind of
a right up in the paper. Look at this cool,
pretty thing. Yeah, but nothing is that simple when it
comes to the candy cane. A ninety article honoring him
Guard positive it wasn't candy canes on the tree, but
cookies and gilded nuts with messages inside. Huh. Yeah. This
(21:15):
was a pretty popular practice too, by the way, at
the time of decorating Christmas trees with food. Sure, right, Yeah,
I've always been kind of curious about the popcorn ball. Yeah,
we we used to. We used to have strings of
popcorn um on one side of my family when I
was a kid for Christmas trees. And we definitely have
um fake cranberries, fake strands of cranberries. Really, Yeah, that's cool.
(21:37):
I heard of that before. Yeah. I was always chills
the popcorn ball for probably obvious reasons. And you can
still have your popcorn that's true. Why am I limiting myself? Right?
And all right? Thank you. The candy canes, now iconic
red and white stripes, didn't hit the scene in America
until the end of the eighteen hundreds. And we know
this because they started to appear on Christmas cards in
(21:58):
the early nineteen hundreds, whereas before that we would just
see plain white candies on these Christmas cards. Okay. This
is also around the time candy makers added the peppermint
flavoring again in the US, although yeah, versions had existed
previously in other places, the j shape didn't occur until
the early twentieth century, or records of it didn't. Um.
The crook is one of the reasons candy games became
(22:20):
so strongly associated with Christmas, because it was great for
hanging on a tree. Yeah, that's also probably why the
stripe was added to make the candy slash potential decoration
more colorful. Right. And I made a ton of candy
cane based ornaments in elementary school and we still have
a lot of them. Oh my gosh. Yes. I when
(22:41):
I was going through my family's Christmas stuff a few
years ago, I found, yeah, like a like a reindeer
that I had made out of a candy cane, and
I was like, ah, I'd like threw it away. We
have a we have a time honor tradition that all
of the precious ornaments that we made don't get thrown away,
but they get put on the back of the tree.
(23:02):
So I don't know if there's a point in keeping
them because it's against the law. But if you turned it,
it's all these old ornaments that are barely held together.
Sweet in a very strange way. Anyway, Yes, anyway, Um,
And we did talk about in our Mint episode that
perceived health benefits of mint and from soothing and upset
(23:24):
stomach to fresh and breath. They people really believed it
could do all kinds of things. Um. And it might
have been chosen as a flavor for this reason and
or people really just dug it and or that cooling effect. Yeah,
kind of reminds you of Christmas time. Sure. Published in two,
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, set
in the woods of Wisconsin in the eighteen sixties, mentions
(23:46):
peppermint candy sticks. Um, and I want to include the
publication date, because otherwise I was confused at least Um.
Laura finds in hers talking quote a long flat stick
of red and white striped peppermint candy, all beautifully notched
along each side. Laura Ingles Wilder's uh, stories about hard
candy or like like little little bits of things about
(24:08):
hard candy in these books were formative. I still have
nostalgia for this stuff that I don't like because of Laura.
And I'm like, well, congratulations, Like weird hard candy propaganda
just really rooted itself. Wow. Fictional foods episode, perhaps they're
fictional non they're real fictions of non fictional foods. Yeah,
(24:35):
they like slaughtered a pig, I think, and they like
blew up the bladder and like we're playing with it
like a balloon. All kinds of stuff in there. Anyway, Okay,
I don't know why I remember those books so well.
We don't question those things you can't control. The brain
holds onto all the time. Alright. So a fellow by
the name of Bob McCormick started producing candy canes for
(24:57):
local distribution in Albany, Georgia in ninete teen, and his company,
which went through several name changes, finally became Bob's Candy
and it went on to become one of the top
candy cane producers. But he had an obstacle ah that
j shape. It had to be created manually while still
hot and pliable, which was a real time suck not
to mention about ended up in the trash. And it
(25:22):
was a Catholic priest by the name of Gregory harden Keller,
McCormick's brother in law, who found the solution by inventing
a machine that automated the shaping process in the nineteen fifties.
So in that way, they're Christian. That's what most of
the stories ended with. If you're looking for a real
solid connection to Christianity, here it is Catholic priest automated
(25:44):
crook shaping exactly. And maybe I don't not him, but
Bob and these candies in particular, they might have popularized
the striped as well. Maybe cool um. Yeah, and at
one point Bob's Candies was selling half a million candy canes.
A wow wow. Yeah. M well, that's a lot of
(26:06):
fun history, that is the candy cane. I love ones
like this that are just like no one knows, here's
a lot of weird stuff exactly. I love it too. Fun.
It was a fun one, for sure. I'm glad. I'm
glad I didn't throw away that candy cane and then
plant the seed like I I was so confident to
(26:29):
look at that probably represents blood somewhere, somebody, somebody thinks
that that's blood. I love it and didn't let me down,
let me down, Thanks humanity. But that's about all we
have to say today about the candy cane. Yes, but
we do have a little bit more for you. But
(26:49):
first we've got one more quick break for a weird
termer sponsor and we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you,
we're back with listen supposed to be the jingles, the
(27:09):
jingles that I listened to. It's hard, it's hard to
jingle with your voice. Thank you, Thank you. Keiana wrote,
I had to include this one. It's about Halloween. Halloween
is my favorite day of the year. Not only do
I get to dress up and act like a child,
but I love carving pumpkins and baking fun Halloween things.
So since you had a call out for pumpkin carvings,
(27:31):
I thought I would send in a few I've done
over the years, as well as some of the cakes
I've made for my parties. And also my cats. Yea, yes,
they aren't named after food, but they do love eating it.
They've stolen cupcakes off my counter and eating blocks of
butter on a few occasions. Oh goodness. Wow. For the record,
any pictures of animals are welcome, Like, they really don't
(27:52):
have to just be named after food. I mean, that's cute,
but yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, this year's cake was a
melting spy the cake there was chocolate dome over the
cake to make the body shape of the spider, so
when I poured hot raspberry strawberry sauce on top, the
chocolate melted to reveal little spider eggs a mini marshmallows.
(28:14):
I was in Italy last year for Halloween. The Late
Night Catacomb Tour was amazing, the best Halloween ever. Yeah,
but before that, I had an ice cream test tube cake.
It was preceded by a chocolate bacon ghost cake and
a Haunted House pumpkin cake. I made the cheshire Cat
pumpkin this year, and also attached a few from other years,
including a Harry Potter pumpkin. His glasses were annoying, but
(28:35):
worth the effort. The pictures were delightd yes the ideas
most appreciated. Gosh right, yes, oh yeah, and he likes
a stunt cake, so I feel like this is going
to happen. So many marshmallows, the eggs. It's such a
good touch. It's so gross and wonderful. Um Liz wrote,
(28:57):
I forgot which episode it was mentioned, but you talked
about possiblely doing a Pokemon food episode as part of
your fictional food series. So I decided to give you
some help, as there is a lot of meat on
these bones and it would be appropriate with a new
game on the horizon. There's so many different kinds of
food in the games. Obviously, there's the basic berries, which
resemble several real world fruits. Uh, there's poke puffs, which
(29:17):
are a delicate, sweet treat covered in beautiful decorations. There's poffins,
another form of pastry which looks somewhat like bread in
my opinion. There's poke blocks, which are candy. These all
help raise stats of your Pokemon. There's lava cookies, rage candy,
rage candy that she included a few things I'm not
going to try to pronounce because I've never seen this series,
(29:38):
and Big mallis satas as well as specialty items specific
to a certain region. With the addition of sword and Shield,
there's now a curry deck which includes one different kinds
of curry, including one with Pokemon sausage. What's in Pokemon sausage,
No one knows. The developers won't say. Woof all right,
that's fine. In the anime, they've shown rice balls um
(29:59):
in it's infamously called jelly donuts in the American dub
and chocolate enjoyed by Pokemon and humans alike. There are
products derived from Pokemon, like honey from the combes and
movem a milk from Milk Tank. It's also implied people
and Pokemon also eat Pokemon, like slow poketails and far
fetched soup. There's also poke Chow, which appears to be
(30:21):
a kibble for Pokemon to eat. You can also find
fans who have made interpretations of these poke foods, and
there's a cookbook, though it's more about making foods that
look like Pokemon instead of foods from Pokemon. This is
a wealth of information that I appreciate so much. Heck,
I don't know much about Pokemon, but I'm in love
(30:42):
with all of this. I like the thought put into
what things could possibly be. Yeah. Yeah, the the entire
like poke cannibalism issue is one is one that my
friends have discussed, uh, pretty extensively, so you're a little
prepared on that front. I'm vaguely I've I've heard of
it at any rate and exposed. Yes, yeah, Pokemon Go
(31:06):
is my only exposure to to the series. Uh, and
I find it super delightful. Even though I'm like a
heck and old lady, I'm like, that's fine, Um, but
this is this is also good. I we we need
to we need to find someone who is a bigger
fan of the series and come to an episode about
okay food with us. Absolutely, I think we're in the
(31:28):
right place our office. Somebody is bound to have that knowledge. Yes,
given the number of times that we have sung the
Pokemon theme song at karaoke. I'm going to go ahead
and say yeah, which I think we also posted on
a one of our very few stories ever was us
singing that, um uh we have a good time. We
(31:48):
absolutely do, and we absolutely will be doing an episode
on this. Yes, thank you, oh my gosh, thank you,
um thanks yeah for writing us to both of them,
and if you would like to write to us, you
can our email as hello at savorpod dot com or
find us on the aforementioned social media. We're on Facebook
(32:09):
and Instagram and Twitter at savor pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is production of I
Heart Radio and Stuff Media. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thank you, as always to our super producers Andrew Howard
and Dylan Vegan. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm an I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today
we're talking about candy canes because the holidays are upon
us and candy canes are terrible. Well, it turns out
neither you or I are into them. Really yes, um,
but I I did. I think it was when maybe
(00:28):
almost a year ago, Dylan and I went to that
candy museum slash exhibit right the the do it for
the Instagram, Yes, very much, just Instagram stuff. I mean
it was fun and we had a good time, but
in every room you got he's candy, and um, I
have eaten all the candy except the candy cane, which
(00:52):
has been sitting on my microwave since and a couple
of months ago, I was microwaving something and I was
staring at the candy cane, like, what the heck is
going on here? Because I've never really thought about it,
like the shape and the colors. I just I must
know more about this and wish episode. No, that's that's great.
(01:15):
I you know, I think it's it's important to be curious,
and this is certainly a curious story, or a number
of stories Oh yeah, it's weird. Oh absolutely, But you
know I don't like them. Um. I don't like hard
candy in general because, like and stick candy in particular,
it just gets it gets so stabby and and then
(01:37):
you cut yourself and then it's covered in drool and
and sucking on things just like here taps the inside
of my mouth anyway, and so my entire feeling about it,
it's just like why Yeah, I mean I have my
whole meant thing. I know they come in other flavors now,
but like, I'm just not that into it. Um. We
were talking before this started about how they can be
(01:59):
used as we have been several hormones, several yeah, and
uh television shows. Yeah, I feel like there was a
related It might it might have been a hard candy
that was not a candy canon or in just The
New Black anyway. Um. But but this brings us to
our question candy canes. What are they? Well, a candy
(02:27):
cane is a cane made of candy. There you go, simple,
nothing more to it. We were lying when we said
it's interesting and weird earlier. Yeah, I mean, you know
you've seen them. They're typically like the size and shape
of a long pencil that's hooked over at one end,
colored white with a red stripe winding around. It's sort
of an angle, so it's all pretty ribbon um. It's
(02:49):
a type of hard candy or boiled sweet, so called
because making it involves cooking refined granulated sugar with water
until the sugar dissolves, and then boiling the resulting syrup
until the water has evaporated out, leaving you with hot
sugar goo that is malleable, so that if you form
it into a shape, it'll keep that shape when it
cools and hardens. Uh huh. And there are a few
(03:13):
tricks to doing this, because sugar really wants to be crystals.
It's just the way that sucros molecules interact with each other.
They locked together like like legos or tetris pieces or
gear teeth, and crystals form, and in candy making, you
don't want that. You want the candy to be smooth,
and crystals are gritty, um like legos, as we who
(03:34):
have stepped on them all no um. Physically speaking, sugar
is an amorphous solid like glass, which is uh this
designation that scientists use when something behaves like a solid
like crystals in some situations and like a liquid in others.
It's sort of the scientific equivalent of going like WTF,
we don't know what this is. It's neither solid nor liquid.
(03:55):
It's an amorphous solid. But anyway, so, what you're doing
when you make hard candy is um. You're you're heating
those crystals so that they break apart into free flowing molecules. UM.
And you do that with water so that you don't
just burn it because that wouldn't be good. But then
you boil of the water out. If you left more
(04:17):
water in, you would wind up ultimately with a softer
candy anything from like marshmallows to taffy UM. But for
hard candy. Uh. So yeah, you're you're making this super
saturated syrup of sucrose molecules, and then you stabilize them
by adding something that will interfere with them locking together.
And I guess technically any number of molecules would do,
(04:37):
but since you're making candy and not like poison um,
the two popular ones are glucose and or fruit toase
in the form of corn syrup or honey. Uh. Glucose
is a smaller molecule than sucrose, so it'll it'll slip
in between the sucrose molecules and prevent them from locking up. Perfect.
But wait, yes, the resulting hot sugar goo is sort
(05:00):
of clearish yellow, and candy canes have a base of white.
So are they dyed white? Are they? Nope? What? No? Um?
They appear white because of tiny air bubbles that are
worked into the goo so that they'll scatter the light
that hits them into an even spectrum that our eyes
perceive as white. And I bet you didn't think that
(05:21):
we were going to be talking about the electromagnetic spectrum
in this one, suckers. Oh no, oh, I don't even
mean to do them anymore. Okay, um, okay, so yeah, So,
so how you do that is you take your warm,
malleable sugar goo and you stretch and fold and stretch
it over and over again, working in tiny air bubbles
(05:43):
until it appears white. Uh. Stuff like cream of tartar
can also help because it's molecules can kind of elbow
in and stabilize air bubbles in a mixture. Anyway. Uh.
At the stage, you can also add in any flavorings
you want, and you you wind up with this big
white loaf of warm candy. The red bit is dyed.
(06:05):
You take a little bit of the warm candy before
it's opaque, white and diet and cut it into strips
that you then either fold into the loaf at intervals
or apply to the outside of the loaf. And then
you just work the loaf into the thickness you want
your candy canes to be, and cut lengths of it
off and bend them at one end and let them
cool and harden. You can add other colorings into the
(06:25):
flavoring stage, but yeah, yeah, the result is a hard, brittle, shiny,
sweet stick of candy with tan a little air bubbles
locked in um. If you can see him if you
break one, that's cool. Yeah right, maybe I'll break my candy.
Is my single candy game and that I was. I
(06:46):
didn't think about this, but I found on on mental
Flast they had this survey, how do people prefer to
eat them? Do you suck them or do you crunch them? Yes?
According to them, fifty of children report that they prefer
to suck on the candy, while two percent prefer to
(07:08):
bite into them, and half of that they were boys. Yeah.
I think I've mentioned before on the show. I have
a fake and I'm not entirely sure what it's made
of because the people it's a long story. It's kind
of a rush shop. So I have a real fear
(07:28):
of accidentally biting into hard candy or apples or carrots anything. Yeah,
I've been into my fore class. I was like, oh, yep,
that was the end. Luckily it's okay. But I can't
imagine biting into a candy cane. I guess. I guess
I prefer I prefer to to bite them. Um, but
(07:48):
but I prefer that small ones for that purpose. Like,
if I'm going to be subjected to a candy cane,
I want it to be one of the kind of
tiny ones so that I can't just crunch it right
right right. Yeah, I don't mind candy cane I guess. Yeah.
You can use them in like in like baking or
other dessert making. Is like it's like little kindycane crumbles. Yeah,
they're very um. You can use them in decoration or
(08:10):
I know some people like to put them in like
a holiday coffee or something and use this kind of
like a share is at that melts anyway. I find
that I I get it it's best of as heck
it is. It's true. They are very sticky, they are. Yea,
why coming out pretty already against candy canes. We didn't
(08:33):
mean to you. They got a really cool story. We'll
get to you anyway. What about nutrition, It's sugar. Yeah,
it's just sugar. I think they're like fifty calories for one,
so yeah, it's I mean, you know, it's just it's
it's it's sugar. It's sugar. It's sugar. Well, people do
(08:53):
seem to like them, other than us. We do have
some numbers for you. Yeah, they're surprisingly popular, at least
in my opinion. Um, but anyway, a survey fifty people
conducted by candy store dot Com found that in Delaware, Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington,
and Georgia, where we are located, candy canes came out
as the most popular Christmas candy. Really, yes, but I
(09:17):
was thinking about this and I'm not Christmas candy. They
might be just really that, I can't think of too
many other things when I think Christmas candy other than
candy canes, And like, how is the survey worded? Like
maybe people were like, well, it's really the only Christmas candy.
So therefore, I mean, but you can have like festively
(09:38):
colored gum drops or or I think chocolate is a
pretty universal holiday candy, no matter the holiday, no matter
the holiday, but Christmas as well. Yeah, yeah, and that's
that's honestly the candy that I associate with Christmas, possibly
because um, the aunt who I very frequently spend Christmas
with U like one of her things that she gets
a big box of good but like the big fancy
(10:00):
one with like like all the flavors and yeah, and
I'm like, oh, and so we just sit around and
like watch snappy movies and eat chocolates. That sounds nice.
It's pretty heavy. I think when I was a kid,
I forgot that this used to be a thing. But
my mom would make me give gifts all my teachers
that they didn't deserve it, but she was like, here's
stuff to carry to school and give to your teachers.
(10:22):
And we always gave Andy's mint chocolate minting. Yeah. Yeahvent
is a very Christmas Eve flavor. I guess it is.
It's it's winter themed because it's cooling. Yeah, it has
a cooling effect. Um of the one point seven six
billion candy games produced annually in the US are sold
(10:44):
during Thanksgiving and Christmas during that time period. Makes sense,
It absolutely does make sense. And then it makes you wonder,
what about that other I think that must be like
throughout the year, decoration for Yeah, all of those other flavorings,
flavors and colors for Easter whatever. Yes, there are all
kinds of flavors these days. Bacon, oh gosh, saracha, gravy,
(11:08):
Let that sink in for a second, gravy, candy cane, no, no,
just no, just no. Dill pickle, was sabby cinnabonn not
cinnamon cinnamonun birthday cake. I know I had a sour
green apple one once. It's pretty good. I think I've
(11:29):
had I think I had a blue raspberry one blue raspberry.
That's such a fun amalgamation of things that is still
not entirely sure what the flavor is, honestly. That's so.
We talked about that one in our Flavors episode. Yeah
that was a that was a long time ago, but
but gosh, that was a fun one. And yeah, you
can have a candy cane flavored other stuff like vodka,
(11:50):
because why not. In the world of vodka, it seems
to be the question that doesn't stop any why not
doesn't make it? Okay? Someone will buy it. Nash On
Candy Gaine Day is December twenty six, which I find
really funny. Uh huh yeah, sure, the largest candy gagne
in history, every grade. It was made in twenty twelve
and required nine pounds of sugar and it was fifty
(12:12):
one ft long or fifteen point five ms. I think
they broke it with like a sledgehammer, So people who
take pieces home after they got there. That record shards
danger shards, minty danger shards, another weaponized form of candy cane. Gosh. Well, um,
we have that fun history for you, we do. But
(12:36):
first we've got a quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, yes, thank you. Okay.
The story of the candy cane is one that is
peppered with a lot of super fun and messed up
(12:58):
stuff that isn't true. And you know, when I was
staring at it on our microwave, I thought, I bet,
I just know somewhere in my heart this has a
messed up story associated with it. I could sense it.
And yes, of course we're gonna be talking about these
things because that's the kind of stuff we love to
talk about that just right out of the gate, you've
(13:19):
probably heard a falsehood about how candy canes came to
be yes, or if you're like me, I hadn't heard
any of these really fun stories. Um, but I just
knew one of them definitely existed, and it's this first
one we're going to talk about. One of the most
repeated but unverified stories is that the shape of the
cane is modeled after the letter Jay for Jesus Yes,
(13:43):
who is also represented by the white color, while the
red represents his blood. I knew it. I knew it
was blood. I was looking at like, oh, yeah, I
guess there's the old idea that the that the barber
pole uh originated with bandages. Uh. Oh, I didn't know that,
(14:04):
so yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, this isn't a hair show,
but we can get into that at some point because
you'd get cut because it was also a doctor Okay,
I got you, I got you know. It was like, well,
it sound like the barbaries will be a lot dangerous,
a lot more dangerous now. Yeah, And I guess this
(14:28):
whole thing is no more metal than drinking Jesus blood.
At communion, which as a child I just kind of
I didn't really think about. Then I got older and
I was like, huh, how interesting it is. It's there,
there is, there's a lot that's super metal right about. Yeah,
(14:48):
and there's more. There's more. In the most popular rendition
of this story, this J shaped candy was the brainchild
of an Indiana candy maker. This is kind of how
we know it probably isn't true because no one there's
all these details about him, but no name and no
actual written down date or yeah, he was a candy maker.
(15:09):
Here's everything he meant. But yeah, but in the story,
he wanted to create a candy that incorporated several aspects
of Jesus's life and death. The white was meant to
be symbolic of his virgin birth and his purity. Uh.
The candy maker wanted it to be a hard candy.
I've never even considered making the texture of a candy symbolic,
(15:30):
but share his story he did. He wanted it to
represent the solid rock, the strength of the church, and
God's unwavering firmness and his promises. Um. The shape could
either be a J for Jesus or a shepherd's staff
and the staff, by the way, was shaped that way
to aid lamps and sheep who had fallen into a
ditch or lost their way. Um. But he thought this
(15:54):
whole thing was kind of dull, so he got the
idea for staining it with a red pattern christ blood
and the patterns because I'd never really paid this much
attention to cancanes. But there's the one thick red stripe
and then the three small smaller stripes that go around
that sometimes yeah, yeah sometimes, and that um is different
aspects of Jesus's life. Um. Anyway, these were mentous treats
(16:18):
for children who have behaved to keep them behaving during church,
or maybe as a way to identify fellow Christians during
times of persecution. Also almost definitely not true. Wow, there's
a lot involved in this story, I know, um, And yeah,
as you can guess, it is not true. Um, it's
so fun, but no, uh, it's part of a long
(16:42):
history of trying to associate pretty much any popular thing
around Christmas time with Christianity. Sure, yes, yeah, and I
mean symbols are fun, they are, clearly Yeah, this is great.
So let's start with the first thing. Candacans did not
originate in Indiana. Sorry, Nope, sorry, Indiana many other excellent qualities.
Inventor of candy canes not one of them. Nope. Their precursor,
(17:05):
hard candy sticks were around long before Indiana was even
a state, at least going back to the seventeenth century
in Europe, by which time most of Europe was Christian
and also around the time the Christmas tree tradition was
widely adopted. And this was the era during which refined
sugar was becoming a little more available and less expensive
because of the slavery driven sugar plantations being set up
(17:27):
by the European powers around the world. Um. Up to
the nineteen hundreds, sugar was still kind of a special
treat though for most people in the world, and and
working with it to make candy was difficult and dangerous. Um.
You know, hot liquid sugar is edible napalm. It's very
hot and it will stick to you. Um. I mean
you're talking temperatures up around on fifty celsius or or
(17:48):
three hundred fahrenheit in order to make this candy, and
then the manual labor of all that stretching and folding. Um.
But yes, enterprising humans were set on making hard candies
and make them they did. Indeed, sugary stripe candy six
were around by eighteen forty four, at least um the
first English language use of candy canes that took place
in eighteen sixty six, and their first recorded association with
(18:10):
Christmas popped up in eighteen seventy four. They were popular
Christmas time sweet, but not because they were Christian, just
they were tasty and they were available. Yeah, candy at
Christmas makes sense to me. Another unverified and most likely
untrue story goes that the shape was courtesy of a
choremaster at Germany's colonial cathedral was trying to find a
(18:32):
way to keep children in the choir entertained during services.
He thought to himself, candy. So he went to a
candy maker and got an idea. What if the solid
white candy sticks were bent, then it becomes a teaching
tool to remind children of the shepherds in the Nativity
story and the white a reminder of Jesus's purity. That way,
(18:56):
both children and their parents be a piece because at
least they learning something from this. It's not just candy,
it's educational candy. Candy. Why didn't we try, I didn't
try that excuse when I was a child. I need
to see what's in the center of this reason's cup. Mom,
it might not be peanut butter at this time, I
don't know. Um. Yeah. And and and this story wasn't recorded
(19:21):
until the twentieth century. Uh. It is repeated in a lot,
a lot a lot of places, but probably not true again,
probably right, yeah, um. And because candy canes are hard candies,
they might have been used as pacifiers and or to
keep children busy and quiet. That is something you see
a lot about them reported as well. Yeah. In the
(19:42):
eight four book The Complete Confectioner, Pastry, Cook and Baker
included a recipe uh in it for striped pepper bit
candy sticks. Okay, so pepper mints working its way in there,
that's right. According to The Daily Meal, another proto candy
cane was invented in Sweden in eighteen fifty nine, called polkaris.
They were straight peppermint candy sticks striped with red and white.
(20:04):
That sounds pretty close. Yeah, and um. Commercial mint production
was happening around the world starting in the mid seventeen hundreds,
so by this time in the mid eighteen hundreds in Europe,
and America, mint oil was fairly common as a flavoring um,
a flavoring with a slightly medicinal bent to it. Um.
Hard candies themselves were often used to deliver doses of
medicine at the time, so both dived. The entire thing
(20:26):
is very healthy. Clearly, clearly, so when did candy guns
make it to America? Most people credit that to a
German immigrant named August M. Guard out of Ohio in
eighteen forty seven, who also gets the credit for introducing
Americans to the Christmas tree. Yes, according to the National
Confectioners Association, the two events are actually related. They wrote
(20:50):
in Guard decorated a small blue spruce with paper ornaments
and candy kings. Yes, I think it was kind of
a right up in the paper. Look at this cool,
pretty thing. Yeah, but nothing is that simple when it
comes to the candy cane. A ninety article honoring him
Guard positive it wasn't candy canes on the tree, but
cookies and gilded nuts with messages inside. Huh. Yeah. This
(21:15):
was a pretty popular practice too, by the way, at
the time of decorating Christmas trees with food. Sure, right, Yeah,
I've always been kind of curious about the popcorn ball. Yeah,
we we used to. We used to have strings of
popcorn um on one side of my family when I
was a kid for Christmas trees. And we definitely have
um fake cranberries, fake strands of cranberries. Really, Yeah, that's cool.
(21:37):
I heard of that before. Yeah. I was always chills
the popcorn ball for probably obvious reasons. And you can
still have your popcorn that's true. Why am I limiting myself? Right?
And all right? Thank you. The candy canes, now iconic
red and white stripes, didn't hit the scene in America
until the end of the eighteen hundreds. And we know
this because they started to appear on Christmas cards in
(21:58):
the early nineteen hundreds, whereas before that we would just
see plain white candies on these Christmas cards. Okay. This
is also around the time candy makers added the peppermint
flavoring again in the US, although yeah, versions had existed
previously in other places, the j shape didn't occur until
the early twentieth century, or records of it didn't. Um.
The crook is one of the reasons candy games became
(22:20):
so strongly associated with Christmas, because it was great for
hanging on a tree. Yeah, that's also probably why the
stripe was added to make the candy slash potential decoration
more colorful. Right. And I made a ton of candy
cane based ornaments in elementary school and we still have
a lot of them. Oh my gosh. Yes. I when
(22:41):
I was going through my family's Christmas stuff a few
years ago, I found, yeah, like a like a reindeer
that I had made out of a candy cane, and
I was like, ah, I'd like threw it away. We
have a we have a time honor tradition that all
of the precious ornaments that we made don't get thrown away,
but they get put on the back of the tree.
(23:02):
So I don't know if there's a point in keeping
them because it's against the law. But if you turned it,
it's all these old ornaments that are barely held together.
Sweet in a very strange way. Anyway, Yes, anyway, Um,
And we did talk about in our Mint episode that
perceived health benefits of mint and from soothing and upset
(23:24):
stomach to fresh and breath. They people really believed it
could do all kinds of things. Um. And it might
have been chosen as a flavor for this reason and
or people really just dug it and or that cooling effect. Yeah,
kind of reminds you of Christmas time. Sure. Published in two,
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, set
in the woods of Wisconsin in the eighteen sixties, mentions
(23:46):
peppermint candy sticks. Um, and I want to include the
publication date, because otherwise I was confused at least Um.
Laura finds in hers talking quote a long flat stick
of red and white striped peppermint candy, all beautifully notched
along each side. Laura Ingles Wilder's uh, stories about hard
candy or like like little little bits of things about
(24:08):
hard candy in these books were formative. I still have
nostalgia for this stuff that I don't like because of Laura.
And I'm like, well, congratulations, Like weird hard candy propaganda
just really rooted itself. Wow. Fictional foods episode, perhaps they're
fictional non they're real fictions of non fictional foods. Yeah,
(24:35):
they like slaughtered a pig, I think, and they like
blew up the bladder and like we're playing with it
like a balloon. All kinds of stuff in there. Anyway, Okay,
I don't know why I remember those books so well.
We don't question those things you can't control. The brain
holds onto all the time. Alright. So a fellow by
the name of Bob McCormick started producing candy canes for
(24:57):
local distribution in Albany, Georgia in ninete teen, and his company,
which went through several name changes, finally became Bob's Candy
and it went on to become one of the top
candy cane producers. But he had an obstacle ah that
j shape. It had to be created manually while still
hot and pliable, which was a real time suck not
to mention about ended up in the trash. And it
(25:22):
was a Catholic priest by the name of Gregory harden Keller,
McCormick's brother in law, who found the solution by inventing
a machine that automated the shaping process in the nineteen fifties.
So in that way, they're Christian. That's what most of
the stories ended with. If you're looking for a real
solid connection to Christianity, here it is Catholic priest automated
(25:44):
crook shaping exactly. And maybe I don't not him, but
Bob and these candies in particular, they might have popularized
the striped as well. Maybe cool um. Yeah, and at
one point Bob's Candies was selling half a million candy canes.
A wow wow. Yeah. M well, that's a lot of
(26:06):
fun history, that is the candy cane. I love ones
like this that are just like no one knows, here's
a lot of weird stuff exactly. I love it too. Fun.
It was a fun one, for sure. I'm glad. I'm
glad I didn't throw away that candy cane and then
plant the seed like I I was so confident to
(26:29):
look at that probably represents blood somewhere, somebody, somebody thinks
that that's blood. I love it and didn't let me down,
let me down, Thanks humanity. But that's about all we
have to say today about the candy cane. Yes, but
we do have a little bit more for you. But
(26:49):
first we've got one more quick break for a weird
termer sponsor and we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you,
we're back with listen supposed to be the jingles, the
(27:09):
jingles that I listened to. It's hard, it's hard to
jingle with your voice. Thank you, Thank you. Keiana wrote,
I had to include this one. It's about Halloween. Halloween
is my favorite day of the year. Not only do
I get to dress up and act like a child,
but I love carving pumpkins and baking fun Halloween things.
So since you had a call out for pumpkin carvings,
(27:31):
I thought I would send in a few I've done
over the years, as well as some of the cakes
I've made for my parties. And also my cats. Yea, yes,
they aren't named after food, but they do love eating it.
They've stolen cupcakes off my counter and eating blocks of
butter on a few occasions. Oh goodness. Wow. For the record,
any pictures of animals are welcome, Like, they really don't
(27:52):
have to just be named after food. I mean, that's cute,
but yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, this year's cake was a
melting spy the cake there was chocolate dome over the
cake to make the body shape of the spider, so
when I poured hot raspberry strawberry sauce on top, the
chocolate melted to reveal little spider eggs a mini marshmallows.
(28:14):
I was in Italy last year for Halloween. The Late
Night Catacomb Tour was amazing, the best Halloween ever. Yeah,
but before that, I had an ice cream test tube cake.
It was preceded by a chocolate bacon ghost cake and
a Haunted House pumpkin cake. I made the cheshire Cat
pumpkin this year, and also attached a few from other years,
including a Harry Potter pumpkin. His glasses were annoying, but
(28:35):
worth the effort. The pictures were delightd yes the ideas
most appreciated. Gosh right, yes, oh yeah, and he likes
a stunt cake, so I feel like this is going
to happen. So many marshmallows, the eggs. It's such a
good touch. It's so gross and wonderful. Um Liz wrote,
(28:57):
I forgot which episode it was mentioned, but you talked
about possiblely doing a Pokemon food episode as part of
your fictional food series. So I decided to give you
some help, as there is a lot of meat on
these bones and it would be appropriate with a new
game on the horizon. There's so many different kinds of
food in the games. Obviously, there's the basic berries, which
resemble several real world fruits. Uh, there's poke puffs, which
(29:17):
are a delicate, sweet treat covered in beautiful decorations. There's poffins,
another form of pastry which looks somewhat like bread in
my opinion. There's poke blocks, which are candy. These all
help raise stats of your Pokemon. There's lava cookies, rage candy,
rage candy that she included a few things I'm not
going to try to pronounce because I've never seen this series,
(29:38):
and Big mallis satas as well as specialty items specific
to a certain region. With the addition of sword and Shield,
there's now a curry deck which includes one different kinds
of curry, including one with Pokemon sausage. What's in Pokemon sausage,
No one knows. The developers won't say. Woof all right,
that's fine. In the anime, they've shown rice balls um
(29:59):
in it's infamously called jelly donuts in the American dub
and chocolate enjoyed by Pokemon and humans alike. There are
products derived from Pokemon, like honey from the combes and
movem a milk from Milk Tank. It's also implied people
and Pokemon also eat Pokemon, like slow poketails and far
fetched soup. There's also poke Chow, which appears to be
(30:21):
a kibble for Pokemon to eat. You can also find
fans who have made interpretations of these poke foods, and
there's a cookbook, though it's more about making foods that
look like Pokemon instead of foods from Pokemon. This is
a wealth of information that I appreciate so much. Heck,
I don't know much about Pokemon, but I'm in love
(30:42):
with all of this. I like the thought put into
what things could possibly be. Yeah. Yeah, the the entire
like poke cannibalism issue is one is one that my
friends have discussed, uh, pretty extensively, so you're a little
prepared on that front. I'm vaguely I've I've heard of
it at any rate and exposed. Yes, yeah, Pokemon Go
(31:06):
is my only exposure to to the series. Uh, and
I find it super delightful. Even though I'm like a
heck and old lady, I'm like, that's fine, Um, but
this is this is also good. I we we need
to we need to find someone who is a bigger
fan of the series and come to an episode about
okay food with us. Absolutely, I think we're in the
(31:28):
right place our office. Somebody is bound to have that knowledge. Yes,
given the number of times that we have sung the
Pokemon theme song at karaoke. I'm going to go ahead
and say yeah, which I think we also posted on
a one of our very few stories ever was us
singing that, um uh we have a good time. We
(31:48):
absolutely do, and we absolutely will be doing an episode
on this. Yes, thank you, oh my gosh, thank you,
um thanks yeah for writing us to both of them,
and if you would like to write to us, you
can our email as hello at savorpod dot com or
find us on the aforementioned social media. We're on Facebook
(32:09):
and Instagram and Twitter at savor pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is production of I
Heart Radio and Stuff Media. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thank you, as always to our super producers Andrew Howard
and Dylan Vegan. Thanks to you for listening, and we
hope that lots more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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