March 20, 2024 • 45 mins
This iteration of tasty deep-fried dough bedevils historians as much as it delights fans. Anney and Lauren think the science and history of churros really shaped up in the end.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an episode
for you about shure ups.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, oh, this episode, it's a really good.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
One, Lauren warned me. Sorry, I'm sorry, dude.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yep, it gave me a tension. I will say.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's one of those ones where the history is difficult
to unravel.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
It is, but I do like how many people were
writing about it. If I you know, maybe our Saber
special should just be our anniversary special, should just be
behind the scenes complaining. If I had to like put
into categories, there are certain types of topics that do
(01:07):
give me headaches or pain. Again, never don't want to
use that to not talk about a thing. But one
is I can't find anything on it. Two is, I
can find a lot of stuff on it, but none
of it matches. I can find stuff on it, but
(01:34):
it's so big and so intense in terms of who
people's theories and what they believe. And you know, if
you're talking about a fried dough, you're talking about a
huge history. Those would be my big three categories of stressful. Yes,
(02:00):
but again, never want to use the not to talk
about a thing. And I actually really enjoyed doing this research,
as painful as it was at some points, because it
kind of felt like I at the end, I'd solved
a puzzle piece of mind my head, like not the
(02:22):
whole piece of Churo's in the history of time, but
I had in my head. I was like, Okay, I
get this, I get this.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, right, Well, I'm okay, I'm glad that you
found some Chiro's closure.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I did. It actually reminded me of a very profound
experience I had when I was a kid, where I
had this math problem that I couldn't solve, and I
was determined to solve it, and I was filled with
anger at the tears, I was outraged. But then I
solved it, and I was like, I'm glad I put
(02:59):
the work in to do it. You know, again, I
have not really solved anything with truros, but I feel
like I was able to piece together something. Yeah, but yeah,
was there any particular reason this was on your mind?
Was there?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Oh? I have no idea. Nope, Okay, I perhaps I
was doing the thing where I was like, oh, well,
we haven't talked about something from Central to South America
for a minute, and we haven't talked about like a
(03:38):
bread product for a minute, So what are some things
we could talk about? And I was like, oh, turos
is a mess.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Let go there. Oh yeah, I love a good truro.
Oh yeah, but I it's not. I'm just not a
dessert person regularly, but I do love a good truro.
(04:06):
But I have so many friends where this is their thing.
This is their thing. Friend of the show, friend of
us in real life. Samantha from Stuff I've Never told you,
my co host over there. She and I went on
a journey to Universal, the theme park in Los Angeles. Yeah,
(04:32):
it's in Los Angeles. Disney's in Anaheim, which is why
I got confused. Anyway, she hates haunted houses, which is
why I was there and why she came. But she
was like, I will come if we get churros. And
I know this is a hot button issue.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yes, yes, and we got that was the first thing
we did when we got in there.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I know this is a hot button issue and we
will return to it. I also have a friend who
regularly will just be like, let's go to Taco Bell
and he gets the churros there huh also a hot
button issue. Sure, yeah, but that's his thing, that's his thing.
He loves them. He's always asking where he can get
(05:22):
chios everywhere we go.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Ros, I mean fried dough is great.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yes, easy to move around with as well, that's great. Yeah. Yeah, uh.
You can see our episodes on doughnuts, hot chocolate, chocolate,
any other dough based items. Surprisingly, maybe even Tamalay's sure.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, science wise, like like Jeta Nyochi bagels, French fries.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yeah. Perhaps you're already seeing the issue listeners of why
this was a hard one so good. This brings us
to our question, cheers, what are they? Well, churros can
(06:18):
be a number of slightly different things, but you're basically
looking at a skinnyish stick or loop or bite of
a light, crispy, chewy fried dough, maybe a little thicker
than your thumb, depending on your thumb. You know, often
ridged long ways on the exterior, and those ridges are
(06:39):
because a churro is made by piping a moist dough
through a star shipped tip into hot oil. In many traditions,
the dough is relatively plain and they're sweetened a little
bit with like a dusting of crunchy crystalized sugar or
maybe cool powdered sugar, maybe a little bit of cinnamon
in there, and served still hot as a snack or
breakfasted off and alongside hot coffee or chocolate. But they
(07:03):
can also be filled or dipped in any number of
sweet or even savory sauces and have become a popular
street food. Recipes can vary and people enjoy arguing about them.
But man, they're a heck and donut, y'all. It's a
very airy, warm donut with a very satisfying texture that
(07:26):
that little crunch and then sort of like a melting
kind of chew. It's like a psychological cross between a
waffle and a French fry. A churro is just one
of the simple pleasures of being an earthling, Like sometimes
you get to eat fried dough. That's a good time.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, it doesn't make up for everything, but you know,
it's it's pretty nice.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's a pretty good perk, right all right.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Pastries like chios are kind of like poems because you're
dealing with very few ingredients, so the way that you
handle them really counts okay, because at its most direct
a chiro is just flour and water, maybe a pinch
of salt or sugar in there. The alchemy that turns
that from that into something so delicious is the cooking process,
(08:26):
which is a two step process. First, you bring water
just to a boil, and then you add an equal
amount of flour and stir it in with vigor until
it forms a dough. What this is doing is hydrating
the flour through gelatinization, taking the starches in the flour
from being like stiff and gritty to nice and puffy
(08:50):
and chewy. And this happens to some starch molecules when
you apply heat and water. Okay, so some starch molecules
tend to these tight chains, and when you apply heat,
the bonds between those molecules start to weaken. And if
you've also introduced water molecules into the mix, the starches
(09:12):
will glom on to those water molecules, so that the
whole matrix of starch swells up and then sort of
sets into this new puffy form. In the case of chiros,
it's a loose enough form that you'll be able to
kind of scoop it into either a pastry bag or
a device called a shoretra which is sort of like
(09:32):
a sort of like a large syringe, except instead of
a tube with a needle nose at the end, it
has a pastry nozzle that you push the batter through
with a plunger. If you've never seen a pastry nozzle,
it's just a piece of plastic or metal with a
shape cut into it so that if you push stuff
through it, like frosting or dough, it'll have that shape
(09:53):
like Plato, but more edible. Yeah, for churros, the shape
is traditionally a six point Edi star to give you
those long ridges. So yeah, you can pipe your dough
out onto a flowered surface to weight or directly into
hot oil. And deep frying is a cool process, not literally, sorry,
(10:14):
because you've got this tremendous heat at the surface of
the object that you're frying from more or less direct
contact with the hot oil. But that oil isn't penetrating
very far into the object, especially not when the surface
has these like semi firm links of gelatinized starch, and
also when steam is escaping. As the water inside the
(10:36):
object heats up and evaporates, it creates a sort of
protective barrier around the object. You can also see our
fried chicken episode anyway. So yeah, it's going to create
this like crunchy crust at the surface, which will turn
golden brown and tasty thanks to the mayar reaction. But
then the interior is going to steam cook, puffing up
(10:57):
as the water molecules in the dough evaporate out and
leave tiny pockets of air where they used to be
in that gelatinized matrix. And the shape of churros matters
here beyond just being pretty, because that star shape gives
the dough a lot of surface area to interact with
(11:18):
the fry oil, and thus a lot of places for
the steam to escape. If not enough steam escapes from
a cooking churro, the pressure can build up inside of
it and it can explode, either in the oil or
after you pull it out. There are accounts of this online.
(11:39):
A deep frying is terrifying folks. Here we are.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
See our video we boasted on us trying to fry chicken.
Oh no, I think we both screamed at one point.
I think we did. I think we did. Yeah, we're
not really a cooking show. We say, we're not a
cooking shell. This is what we need.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Nope, Oh, heck, okay, any anyway, hurts should be ready
in just a few minutes in the oil. If you
have your oil temperature in your cooking time right, the
dough won't actually soak up that much of the oil
by the time it's cooked through, so they don't tend
to be that greasy. Uh. But yeah, that's just like
(12:27):
the most basic format of a churro. Summer recipes call
for a more complex dough involving oil or melted butter
and or egg and or a chemical leavener like baking powder.
I've seen corn flour in the mix. I've seen like
a decent bit of sugar used in there, or other
flavorings like vanilla, and you know, it all depends on
(12:48):
what you're looking for in your finished churro. Oil or
butter will make the dough a little richer and softer.
Egg or baking powder are leavening agents that help create
like a lighter puff to the doe. So egg and
butter both provide flavor and protein for the Maillard reaction.
Sugar provides flavor and can add some crunch and caramelization
(13:10):
to the outer crust. Typically, what you're looking to do
is keep your proportion of liquids to flour about equal,
so if you add eggs or fats or sugar, you'll
probably want to subtract some water. But the internet has
a lot of recipes and advice, including how to not
make your chiros explode. So yeah, yeah, but yeah. Your
(13:34):
finished chiero can be anywhere from very like direct and
crispy chewy, to a little bit creamy and custardy in
the center to downright bruddy with a crunchy crust. You
can also pipe them full of whatever filling you'd like
while they're still hot and malleable. In different places, you
might find chiros filled with or alongside a dip of
(13:55):
a dulte de leche or chocolate or cream, or kaheta
or fruit jam, but the possibilities are endless.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Macha schiros with prickly pear jelly. They're mass produced versions
that have I don't know, bits of Oreo cookie pieces
and they're filled with Oreo cream. That sounds horrifying. You
can mix your cinnamon sugar with chili powder for a
spicy kick. You can make savory chiros dusted with a
spice blend and served with Queso. I don't know, Okay, yeah,
(14:29):
humans we get up to things. In Spain and Mexico
and other places where they're very popular, you can find
carts or stalls and even permanent cafes called charadillas that
specialize in making them, often serving them with hot chocolate
or coffee, or just in like a paper bag or cone,
as a go to snack at festivals. Also, as with
many popular desserts or desserts that have like grown global popularity,
(14:55):
chiro is a flavor. Now you can buy chero flavored
oils from from foods food service companies that recommend using
things like cherro flavored dry rub or macaroni and cheese.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I want your body, No, there's a food product like
creating a recipe. I like where you were going.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Though, It's like what are we doing here?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I mean, like I said, people get up to things, But.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Why are we trying to make ourselves for edible either?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I mean, there's a there's a proud history of bath
and bodyworks era stuff of like all kinds of dessert flavored.
They don't usually taste good though, which is probably a
good thing.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
A proud history. Indeed, well, I guess speaking.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Of what about the nutrition, I like the number of
times that cannibalism comes up in are what about the
nutrition section? I feel like that really really says something
about us, and y'all you're still listening. It depends on
how you make your cheeros, perhaps obviously, but like donuts
are a treat, treats are nice.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, yes, yes, indeed, uh well, we do have some
numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yes. At one famous chocolatria that is like like a
chocolate cafe in Madrid called Sanganez, they go through some
eighty thousand chiros every twenty four hours.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Wow hoofta, yeah, yep, uh to kind of this all right,
there's a couple numbers in here, but this tickled me
because it kind of demonstrates the way that churos have
become like part of the zeitgeist.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
So like, okay, there's.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
A snack producer for mostly the restaurant industry called Jay
and J Snack Foods. They launched churros dot Com the
website circa twenty nineteen, and at that time they reported
one hundred and twenty five percent increase of the appearance
of churros on dessert menus in the United States over
the past decade, and they furthermore reported that forty four
(17:32):
percent of Americans polled so that they love churos. It
was in all caps. I'm not sure how else to
get that across.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Right on audio. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
One of one of the things in one of their
press releases said, and for health conscious consumers, Jay and
Jay's Tiopepees fifty one percent whole grain chios are perfect
and they're designed to specially meet school lunch requirements.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Great for kids.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The mind of a food podcaster is immediately like, now
I want to talk about these school lunch requirements.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Oh, oh absolutely. I feel like it probably has to
do with like peanuts safe, like like another allergen A
I got you. Yeah, okay, Although I haven't had school
lunches is a broad topic that we've had on our
list for heck, and ever, a lot of lot of
(18:36):
interesting things going on in various places around the world.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
With that, Oh yes, listeners right in school lunches in
other countries.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh yeah, yeah. If you grew up, if you have
a kid whose school age either here or wherever, school
lunches are fascinating to me.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yes, I can certainly say. In my school, tuos were
never an offering. I wish that they had been.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Your your Your parents also weren't giving you cheiros to
take to school.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
No, I would eat like an apple and a piece
of buffalo chicken. I was a strange child. I can't imagine. Yeah,
of course not, of course not. Well, the history of
the true is quite strange itself.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It is it is, uh and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break. For a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay,
So again, fried dough in itself is old. It's old olds.
This episode, I tried my best. The timeline is a
bit twisty journey, but we're gonna We're gonna get through it.
(20:12):
We're gonna get through it.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Absolutely, absolutely you got this.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes, thank you. Yeah. As always, listeners, if you have
any thoughts, resources recipes not really related to history, but
hey could be often are, please let us know. But okay,
as with many of the popular food items that we
talked about on the show, people like to fight or
(20:36):
even just speculate about the origins and the ownership chures.
Not different and it really depends on how you define
a churo. For instance, some like to trace the chiro
back to the Epicuus out of ancient Rome circle first
century CE, which contained a recipe for essentially a water
(20:57):
and flower fritter. Others point to similar recipes from ancient
Greece that were older, while some suggest that they originated
in the Mediterranean Basin, where fritters like this have been
around even earlier than all of that. Others still point
to the Yo Tiao, a fried breakfast patry from China,
(21:20):
which records indicate was invented in the twelfth century, though
it likely evolved from fritters that existed earlyer than that.
That's part of the problem. Yeah, yeah, yes. The theory
goes that Portuguese sailors were introduced to these Chinese doughnuts
in the sixteenth century and brought them back to Europe,
(21:41):
where they evolved into the chiro, although some people say
where they like lied and said we created this and
this is true. Yep. So a part of the reason
people think this is that Spain's pura, which is sort
of a bigger churo.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Kind of bigger puffy here.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, yeah, it's puffier that's a better word. Is very
very similar to the yotio before you yell at me,
though while some do suggest that to revolve from the yoto,
this is just the theory, like some argue that it
might be more of a case that similar fried dough
preparations developed separately in different places. It is one of
(22:25):
those things that just makes sense. So it stands to
reason people all over the world were just like, hey,
let's put this in an oil.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, we have water, we have flour, we have oil.
I mean, who amongst us has not tried to fry
anything once you get a panel oil hot?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I mean you and I are afraid of it. But
for those less afraid, yes, so to that end, to
that kind of theoretical idea. Some credit shepherds in Spain
with creating churos as an easy, filling, transportable food that
they could take with them, possibly while hurting sura sheep,
(23:10):
hence the name. However, I couldn't find any hard proof
of this, and it seems like I'm not alone in that.
Some have suggested that essentially this is sort of a
nice legend for Spain to tell in order to stake
their claim on venting the turo, which does happen a
lot in these history sections where one country is really
(23:33):
associated with an item. So I don't want to call
Spain out like I feel like every episode we do
have oh.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, well yeah right right, whenever something is
tied directly to a specific place, Yeah, they want an
origin story, and sometimes it's just people like frying things, yep,
but sure.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
The other part of the legend that I heard was
that the kind of the kind of textured curl of
a chotto sort of resembles the sheep's horns.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So yeah, that's why they got the name. I don't know,
which again is a really fun yeah story, probably apocryphal story,
but but it's also like we can't say it's not true.
Yeah exactly, but speaking of many people do dispute the
(24:31):
claim that churos were inspired by or copied the Utao
Utio because historical records and recipes for like churo like
items in Spain and the surrounding area predate the arrival
of the Portuguese to China, so the popularity of fried
(24:51):
dough products in Spain goes back to at least the
twelfth century, when the area was under the rule of
North African Muslims an anonymous thirteenth century recipe for a
flower and water dough that was fried in oil and
finished with a drizzle of honey, which chased back to
this region during their rule, so earlier than when they
(25:12):
went to China, but it's possible this fried dough was
in that area even earlier. Some Arabic sources from the
eighth and ninth century mentioned a fried dough preparation like this,
and this had fled some to suggest that perhaps Arabs
introduced fried dough via trade routes to the region that
would become Spain as early as the eighth century. On
(25:36):
top of that, some go further and theorized that this
fried dough traveled along the Silk Road and perhaps influenced
things like Yo Chiao in China. It's so confusing, and
to confuse matters even more, Lauren. Some argue that the
(25:57):
China Portugal theory does have some merit, but it's only
a piece of a very complicated puzzle. Essentially, like all
of these were steps into making the churro what it
is known as today, so some suggest that basic building
blocks were there like these fried dough. These early fried
dough were there, but the Portuguese were influenced by the
(26:20):
Chinese in terms of frying techniques and dough shapes. It
took that back, and then later the Portuguese it brought
the resulting thing churos to China. The Chinese were in
turn influenced by that, which I mean, it's like it's
(26:41):
one of those things that makes total sense, but it's
very hard to put into work.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yep. Yeah, yeah, time is a flat donut.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And as it famously goes, yes, I like that. Oh well.
During the sixteenth century in Europe, syringe fritters or fritters
where dough was piped through a device, which like churros were,
were all the rage.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, These kind of large syringes began being used in
pastry kitchens around Europe to pipe out things like dough
and marzapan in these pretty shapes around around that time.
This is also when shoe pastry was being developed. That's
a choux, which is the French term for pastry made
by mixing flour into hot water, specifically with butter and
(27:36):
egg added. German and French recipes for syringed fritters from
around the fifteen to sixteen hundreds were using this type
of pastry dough a little bit later, just not really
directly connected, but fun fact about flavorings. A lot of
English recipes for syringed fritters called for ground almonds, lemon peel,
(27:56):
and orange flower water. Just popular stuff, popular stuff to
flavor things with. So right, simultaneous to everything that was
happening with all of this fried dough business down in
like what's now Portugal, Spain, throughout the rest of Europe,
we were also dealing with a number of fried dough
(28:17):
innovations or developments.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Right and a Spain set up colonies all over the globe.
They spread churos with them, and some of these places
really went on to make suros their own, like Mexico.
We're going to talk about that a bit more later.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century beginning of the
twentieth century, street food culture really took off in Spain,
(28:40):
with many vendors specializing in churos, which helped popularize truros
even further. Some of these spots became something akin to
communal hangouts. Because many churo offerings were inexpensive, vendors who
sold them attracted a wide range of customers from all
types of socioeconomic backgrounds. This is also around the time
(29:00):
the word truro first appeared in the written record. Also
gives historians a headache. Yeah, brief aside, because a lot
of people do enjoy churros with hot chocolate. You can
see our episode on hot chocolate for more information. But
the Spanish brought this stirring chocolate back from South America
(29:24):
to Europe, and historians suspect that dipping churos into this
beverage was just a natural thing for many people, especially
because the hot chocolate at this time wasn't that sweet.
It's pretty bitter. So yeah, truro, Yeah all right, So
I couldn't find any hard evidence on this, but I
(29:46):
suspect in the US, the popularity of churros spread with
increasing interest in Mexican food amongst non Mexican Americans during
the nineteen hundreds, especially after the arrival of a large
number of Mexican immigrants the nineteen fifties. Because again, Mexico
really made chiros their own I feel like a lot
(30:06):
of people in the US that's how they experienced churros
was at a Mexican restaurant. It is worth noting though
a lot of the food at these restaurants was often
not something you would see in Mexico, especially in these
early days, but more an Americanized version of Mexican food.
And while many of these restaurants were owned by Mexican Americans,
(30:30):
many were decidedly not same for Mexican products that got
introduced during this time. The history of Mexican American restaurants
is for a different episode, but I do think this
played a role in popularizing the turo in the United States.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Another thing I suspect that I couldn't really find evidence
of here but has been documented and guest in terms
of Spain and festival culture and turos, is that since
cheiros are relatively cheap to make and easy to carry
when walking, venues like amusement parks or festivals started offering
(31:14):
churros in the US, which helped them become more popular
and perhaps even solidified them as a nostalgic, fond food. Yeah,
like a fun time for people. Yeah, yeah, exactly like
you think. Oh, I went to Disney and I had
a churro or something. We're speaking of. Disney started offering
churros in the nineteen eighties, and that has become part
(31:38):
of Disney theme park lore. I read the whole story
about how it happened. It exists like people loved these churros,
though many argue that this is a further americanization of
the cheero. Maybe not even a churro or on that
(31:58):
in a second. And Disney is by no means the
only theme park serving them, I understand not Sperry Farm
has a really good one. It has like boys and
berry filling. Oh okay, yeah, and I recently had some
yes at Universal Okay, taco Bell. My friend I was
(32:20):
telling you about earlier. If he can't get a chur
he'll be like, let's just cut a taco bell, which
I know some of you are yelling at the podcast
right now. But they first started offering churros in twenty thirteen.
It was served with a chocolate dipping sauce. They recently
introduced a frozen drink called a churo Chiller. So it's
(32:42):
like a frappuccino, but with true flavoring. Okay, sure that
sounds like a thing. Certainly does listeners not of no,
if you've had.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
It, No, no, no nodice on taco Bell or fast
food in general. That noise is delicious.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah. I used to love their sinna. I read a
whole history of it. I've went on a deep dive
about like Taco Bell products to get to the truth
of the churro. I used to love their sin a twist.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, crunch trap, supreme man, I don't know, yeah,
something about it. Not a sponsor, no, no, at any rate.
My main addition to the timeline. Oh heck, all right,
so follow with me, y'all. In twenty sixteen, scientists discovered
(33:41):
a type of marine flatworm like animal deep in the
Gulf of California. It's this simple animal that kind of
resembles like a limp sock or kind of like a churo.
It's about four inches ten centimeters long. And yeah, just
(34:03):
I don't know. They named it Zeno turbella cherro. That is,
that is the species name.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
The creatures. I love your random, seemingly to me random
scientific notes in the history portion. That's great. Yeah, yeah,
there you go. Oh well, according to Google Trends, there
(34:37):
was a huge spike of interest in churos during the pandemic.
I think this was very specific to the US, but
a part of it may have been fueled by Disney
because in April twenty twenty, so, right after everything shut
down due to the pandemic, they published their t a
(35:00):
recipe and people were posting their attempts at making it
on social media, and it just became a whole thing
and it was one of the highest searched recipes soon after. However,
as I mentioned, as with the most things we end
(35:20):
up talking about with Disney recipes on this show, many
argue their recipe is not a chiro, largely because it
calls for butter and eggs. Some people even argue about
the texture of it, that it's more like cake like
and it doesn't have the crunch on the outside. I
think that might be down to user error, but I
(35:42):
don't know. I don't want to call anyone out. Others
argue that while it is not the traditional preparation of cheeros,
it's still a chiro.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Like like a chero and spirit.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah. Yeah, it was less egregious to me, And again,
please don't yell at me than like when we talked
about gumbo. Yeah, yeah, the Disney recipe of gumbo.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I should clear right, right right? Oh, I don't remember
how they mucked it up, but they really mucked that.
It was like kale yah there that are not gumbo specifically, right,
I mean yeah, uh.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
You know, like.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I I don't I don't have a donut in this game.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Uh. But but like again.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Shoe pastry was being developed and used for many similar
purposes in in areas surrounding Churo Central at the same
time that the Churo was being developed. Depending on you know,
like like half the recipes I see on the internet
are for something with a shoe type pastry. Others are like,
(37:01):
that's kind of not a chero. It should just be
flour and water and salt. But you know, y'all tell y'all,
tell us. And and if it comes down to a
personal preference of your chero texture, then I want you
to have the chero that makes you happy.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yes, absolutely absolutely people did. As always, Researchers had.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Many opinions, strong but strong opinions.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Some of them were like, you know what, that's not
my chero, but I appreciated your true Yeah damn. Yeah,
but definitely would love to hear from listeners. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh and I really I have not been to Spain.
I really want to go to this Cecolata in Madrid,
and like a number of other ones, like I need
to get a solid churo sampling.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Oh, there's so much we could get in Spain. Oh,
I think we could get funded somehow.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Definitely, right, and if you can tell us about that, heck,
I think that is what we have to say about
Huros for now. We do have some listener mail already
for you, though, and we are going to get into
that as soon as we get back from one more
quick break forward from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with oh listener man all over the place,
which is what the Truro was for me.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
There's a lot of gesticulation involved in that one, y'all.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Sometimes we do a topic where I'm like, this is
going to take me fifteen years to talk about, and
then we do it and doesn't take that long. But
my brain, yeah, feels.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
It took fifteen years of processing to write the three sentences.
That's how I feel about the science sections a lot.
I'm like, Oh, it's just this, that's all. It is great.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It only took me this many hours to get to
the bottom of it. Ah, Oh, this is so exciting.
We have two goat messages yeah yeah from you listeners,
and please if you have a goat message, just say
oh my heck, yes, please send it in. Firstly, Kelsey
(39:41):
wrote fun goat anecdote. Growing up rural, I had a
lot of contact with goats. One day, out for a
walk with my mother, we'd crossed paths with one of
our neighbor's two goats. It had escaped their enclosure and
gone a Roman. Now fun fact oats, the domestic ones
at least, will often seek out the nearest leader shaped
(40:05):
creature they find after escaping. For this goat, that was
my mother, and she was terrified, like ran away, put me,
fourteen year old, between herself and this monster and left
me for dead. I, confused, approached the goat and walked
(40:27):
it back down its driveway until the goat sighted home
and its companion, the other goat, whereupon it trotted off
with nary a bleat of think. Needless to say, my
mother ever lived this down. She also never explained her actions,
except to insist that goats are intrinsically evil. I assume
(40:53):
her strict Catholic upbringing came into it somehow, and no
goats aren't evil like us contain multitudes, but I have
yet to meet a goat I didn't like, Oh dear wow.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah you know, well, sometimes you're having kind of an
anxious like a like like like a like a baseline
anxious day, and you're just unprepared for goat.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
It can be hard to be prepared for goat if
you're not used to goat, especially if you have a
Catholic upbringing or have seen the Bitch or any other
yeah yeah or something like that. If I saw a
goat coming at me, I think I would like suss
out situation, but I would the goat vibe. Yeah yeah,
(41:46):
I would be like, I'm ready to run if I
need to.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah yeah, sure sure, cautious optimism upon facing a goat.
Sure yeah, no, I mean I get it, you know,
like I put my TV in my closet for like
two weeks after I watched the Ring for the first
so h so it's real, it's real.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
But also, oh what buddies like see right?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Like I need to hang out with some goats apparently, Yeah,
I think you should.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
I think this will improve your your vampire image, but
also be good, just be good in general. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Cool, cool, goals great, uh, Sarah wrote, longtime listener, but
I'm shy. Of course, it's goats that gets me to
write in. My family have raised goats for a long
time now. Grandparents raised milch goats. We must have used
the milk in our cereals, but I have no concrete
memory of it. My uncle raises bores to supply the
(42:45):
halal festivals local to him, and my parents had a
small flock of pygmy goats. Historically, for me, goats are pets,
not food, Like you come home from work and it's
the best thing that's happened to them all day. They're
yelling vegetarian dogs. But I have eaten goat once and
I'm sad to say that it's delicious. It's been fifteen years,
(43:07):
so I cannot swear I have the restaurant correct. But
two friends and I had goat broken Josh at what
is probably Tabla in Buckhead. And if I don't have
it correct, Google mats shows me that I now want
it to be the right restaurant.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
I wanted to be the restaurant too. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
I'm sad and or glad that your goat eating experience
was nice. Yeah, but they also write, see this is
really enforcing that, like goats are buddies and yeah, this
is great.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah that sounds so nice to come home when have
goats just be like.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Just be like heck yeah friend, so excited see you
yeah oh oh yeah, and hey, thank thanks for thanks
for finally writing in. There's no no time stamp on
it man like, yeah, yeah, anytime whenever those goat spirit
moves you or otherwise.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Also, yeah, I see you're in Atlanta area, so hey yeah. Well,
thanks to both of these listeners for writing in. If
you'd like to write to as you can, our email
is hello at savorpod dot com, but.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saber pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
(44:54):
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an episode
for you about shure ups.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, oh, this episode, it's a really good.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
One, Lauren warned me. Sorry, I'm sorry, dude.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yep, it gave me a tension. I will say.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's one of those ones where the history is difficult
to unravel.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
It is, but I do like how many people were
writing about it. If I you know, maybe our Saber
special should just be our anniversary special, should just be
behind the scenes complaining. If I had to like put
into categories, there are certain types of topics that do
(01:07):
give me headaches or pain. Again, never don't want to
use that to not talk about a thing. But one
is I can't find anything on it. Two is, I
can find a lot of stuff on it, but none
of it matches. I can find stuff on it, but
(01:34):
it's so big and so intense in terms of who
people's theories and what they believe. And you know, if
you're talking about a fried dough, you're talking about a
huge history. Those would be my big three categories of stressful. Yes,
(02:00):
but again, never want to use the not to talk
about a thing. And I actually really enjoyed doing this research,
as painful as it was at some points, because it
kind of felt like I at the end, I'd solved
a puzzle piece of mind my head, like not the
(02:22):
whole piece of Churo's in the history of time, but
I had in my head. I was like, Okay, I
get this, I get this.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, right, Well, I'm okay, I'm glad that you
found some Chiro's closure.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I did. It actually reminded me of a very profound
experience I had when I was a kid, where I
had this math problem that I couldn't solve, and I
was determined to solve it, and I was filled with
anger at the tears, I was outraged. But then I
solved it, and I was like, I'm glad I put
(02:59):
the work in to do it. You know, again, I
have not really solved anything with truros, but I feel
like I was able to piece together something. Yeah, but yeah,
was there any particular reason this was on your mind?
Was there?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Oh? I have no idea. Nope, Okay, I perhaps I
was doing the thing where I was like, oh, well,
we haven't talked about something from Central to South America
for a minute, and we haven't talked about like a
(03:38):
bread product for a minute, So what are some things
we could talk about? And I was like, oh, turos
is a mess.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Let go there. Oh yeah, I love a good truro.
Oh yeah, but I it's not. I'm just not a
dessert person regularly, but I do love a good truro.
(04:06):
But I have so many friends where this is their thing.
This is their thing. Friend of the show, friend of
us in real life. Samantha from Stuff I've Never told you,
my co host over there. She and I went on
a journey to Universal, the theme park in Los Angeles. Yeah,
(04:32):
it's in Los Angeles. Disney's in Anaheim, which is why
I got confused. Anyway, she hates haunted houses, which is
why I was there and why she came. But she
was like, I will come if we get churros. And
I know this is a hot button issue.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yes, yes, and we got that was the first thing
we did when we got in there.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I know this is a hot button issue and we
will return to it. I also have a friend who
regularly will just be like, let's go to Taco Bell
and he gets the churros there huh also a hot
button issue. Sure, yeah, but that's his thing, that's his thing.
He loves them. He's always asking where he can get
(05:22):
chios everywhere we go.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Ros, I mean fried dough is great.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yes, easy to move around with as well, that's great. Yeah. Yeah, uh.
You can see our episodes on doughnuts, hot chocolate, chocolate,
any other dough based items. Surprisingly, maybe even Tamalay's sure.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, science wise, like like Jeta Nyochi bagels, French fries.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yeah. Perhaps you're already seeing the issue listeners of why
this was a hard one so good. This brings us
to our question, cheers, what are they? Well, churros can
(06:18):
be a number of slightly different things, but you're basically
looking at a skinnyish stick or loop or bite of
a light, crispy, chewy fried dough, maybe a little thicker
than your thumb, depending on your thumb. You know, often
ridged long ways on the exterior, and those ridges are
(06:39):
because a churro is made by piping a moist dough
through a star shipped tip into hot oil. In many traditions,
the dough is relatively plain and they're sweetened a little
bit with like a dusting of crunchy crystalized sugar or
maybe cool powdered sugar, maybe a little bit of cinnamon
in there, and served still hot as a snack or
breakfasted off and alongside hot coffee or chocolate. But they
(07:03):
can also be filled or dipped in any number of
sweet or even savory sauces and have become a popular
street food. Recipes can vary and people enjoy arguing about them.
But man, they're a heck and donut, y'all. It's a
very airy, warm donut with a very satisfying texture that
(07:26):
that little crunch and then sort of like a melting
kind of chew. It's like a psychological cross between a
waffle and a French fry. A churro is just one
of the simple pleasures of being an earthling, Like sometimes
you get to eat fried dough. That's a good time.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, it doesn't make up for everything, but you know,
it's it's pretty nice.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's a pretty good perk, right all right.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Pastries like chios are kind of like poems because you're
dealing with very few ingredients, so the way that you
handle them really counts okay, because at its most direct
a chiro is just flour and water, maybe a pinch
of salt or sugar in there. The alchemy that turns
that from that into something so delicious is the cooking process,
(08:26):
which is a two step process. First, you bring water
just to a boil, and then you add an equal
amount of flour and stir it in with vigor until
it forms a dough. What this is doing is hydrating
the flour through gelatinization, taking the starches in the flour
from being like stiff and gritty to nice and puffy
(08:50):
and chewy. And this happens to some starch molecules when
you apply heat and water. Okay, so some starch molecules
tend to these tight chains, and when you apply heat,
the bonds between those molecules start to weaken. And if
you've also introduced water molecules into the mix, the starches
(09:12):
will glom on to those water molecules, so that the
whole matrix of starch swells up and then sort of
sets into this new puffy form. In the case of chiros,
it's a loose enough form that you'll be able to
kind of scoop it into either a pastry bag or
a device called a shoretra which is sort of like
(09:32):
a sort of like a large syringe, except instead of
a tube with a needle nose at the end, it
has a pastry nozzle that you push the batter through
with a plunger. If you've never seen a pastry nozzle,
it's just a piece of plastic or metal with a
shape cut into it so that if you push stuff
through it, like frosting or dough, it'll have that shape
(09:53):
like Plato, but more edible. Yeah, for churros, the shape
is traditionally a six point Edi star to give you
those long ridges. So yeah, you can pipe your dough
out onto a flowered surface to weight or directly into
hot oil. And deep frying is a cool process, not literally, sorry,
(10:14):
because you've got this tremendous heat at the surface of
the object that you're frying from more or less direct
contact with the hot oil. But that oil isn't penetrating
very far into the object, especially not when the surface
has these like semi firm links of gelatinized starch, and
also when steam is escaping. As the water inside the
(10:36):
object heats up and evaporates, it creates a sort of
protective barrier around the object. You can also see our
fried chicken episode anyway. So yeah, it's going to create
this like crunchy crust at the surface, which will turn
golden brown and tasty thanks to the mayar reaction. But
then the interior is going to steam cook, puffing up
(10:57):
as the water molecules in the dough evaporate out and
leave tiny pockets of air where they used to be
in that gelatinized matrix. And the shape of churros matters
here beyond just being pretty, because that star shape gives
the dough a lot of surface area to interact with
(11:18):
the fry oil, and thus a lot of places for
the steam to escape. If not enough steam escapes from
a cooking churro, the pressure can build up inside of
it and it can explode, either in the oil or
after you pull it out. There are accounts of this online.
(11:39):
A deep frying is terrifying folks. Here we are.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
See our video we boasted on us trying to fry chicken.
Oh no, I think we both screamed at one point.
I think we did. I think we did. Yeah, we're
not really a cooking show. We say, we're not a
cooking shell. This is what we need.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Nope, Oh, heck, okay, any anyway, hurts should be ready
in just a few minutes in the oil. If you
have your oil temperature in your cooking time right, the
dough won't actually soak up that much of the oil
by the time it's cooked through, so they don't tend
to be that greasy. Uh. But yeah, that's just like
(12:27):
the most basic format of a churro. Summer recipes call
for a more complex dough involving oil or melted butter
and or egg and or a chemical leavener like baking powder.
I've seen corn flour in the mix. I've seen like
a decent bit of sugar used in there, or other
flavorings like vanilla, and you know, it all depends on
(12:48):
what you're looking for in your finished churro. Oil or
butter will make the dough a little richer and softer.
Egg or baking powder are leavening agents that help create
like a lighter puff to the doe. So egg and
butter both provide flavor and protein for the Maillard reaction.
Sugar provides flavor and can add some crunch and caramelization
(13:10):
to the outer crust. Typically, what you're looking to do
is keep your proportion of liquids to flour about equal,
so if you add eggs or fats or sugar, you'll
probably want to subtract some water. But the internet has
a lot of recipes and advice, including how to not
make your chiros explode. So yeah, yeah, but yeah. Your
(13:34):
finished chiero can be anywhere from very like direct and
crispy chewy, to a little bit creamy and custardy in
the center to downright bruddy with a crunchy crust. You
can also pipe them full of whatever filling you'd like
while they're still hot and malleable. In different places, you
might find chiros filled with or alongside a dip of
(13:55):
a dulte de leche or chocolate or cream, or kaheta
or fruit jam, but the possibilities are endless.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Macha schiros with prickly pear jelly. They're mass produced versions
that have I don't know, bits of Oreo cookie pieces
and they're filled with Oreo cream. That sounds horrifying. You
can mix your cinnamon sugar with chili powder for a
spicy kick. You can make savory chiros dusted with a
spice blend and served with Queso. I don't know, Okay, yeah,
(14:29):
humans we get up to things. In Spain and Mexico
and other places where they're very popular, you can find
carts or stalls and even permanent cafes called charadillas that
specialize in making them, often serving them with hot chocolate
or coffee, or just in like a paper bag or cone,
as a go to snack at festivals. Also, as with
many popular desserts or desserts that have like grown global popularity,
(14:55):
chiro is a flavor. Now you can buy chero flavored
oils from from foods food service companies that recommend using
things like cherro flavored dry rub or macaroni and cheese.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I want your body, No, there's a food product like
creating a recipe. I like where you were going.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Though, It's like what are we doing here?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
I mean, like I said, people get up to things, But.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Why are we trying to make ourselves for edible either?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I mean, there's a there's a proud history of bath
and bodyworks era stuff of like all kinds of dessert flavored.
They don't usually taste good though, which is probably a
good thing.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
A proud history. Indeed, well, I guess speaking.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Of what about the nutrition, I like the number of
times that cannibalism comes up in are what about the
nutrition section? I feel like that really really says something
about us, and y'all you're still listening. It depends on
how you make your cheeros, perhaps obviously, but like donuts
are a treat, treats are nice.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, yes, yes, indeed, uh well, we do have some
numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yes. At one famous chocolatria that is like like a
chocolate cafe in Madrid called Sanganez, they go through some
eighty thousand chiros every twenty four hours.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Wow hoofta, yeah, yep, uh to kind of this all right,
there's a couple numbers in here, but this tickled me
because it kind of demonstrates the way that churos have
become like part of the zeitgeist.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
So like, okay, there's.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
A snack producer for mostly the restaurant industry called Jay
and J Snack Foods. They launched churros dot Com the
website circa twenty nineteen, and at that time they reported
one hundred and twenty five percent increase of the appearance
of churros on dessert menus in the United States over
the past decade, and they furthermore reported that forty four
(17:32):
percent of Americans polled so that they love churos. It
was in all caps. I'm not sure how else to
get that across.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Right on audio. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
One of one of the things in one of their
press releases said, and for health conscious consumers, Jay and
Jay's Tiopepees fifty one percent whole grain chios are perfect
and they're designed to specially meet school lunch requirements.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Great for kids.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The mind of a food podcaster is immediately like, now
I want to talk about these school lunch requirements.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Oh, oh absolutely. I feel like it probably has to
do with like peanuts safe, like like another allergen A
I got you. Yeah, okay, Although I haven't had school
lunches is a broad topic that we've had on our
list for heck, and ever, a lot of lot of
(18:36):
interesting things going on in various places around the world.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
With that, Oh yes, listeners right in school lunches in
other countries.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh yeah, yeah. If you grew up, if you have
a kid whose school age either here or wherever, school
lunches are fascinating to me.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yes, I can certainly say. In my school, tuos were
never an offering. I wish that they had been.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Your your Your parents also weren't giving you cheiros to
take to school.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
No, I would eat like an apple and a piece
of buffalo chicken. I was a strange child. I can't imagine. Yeah,
of course not, of course not. Well, the history of
the true is quite strange itself.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It is it is, uh and we are going to
get into that as soon as we get back from
a quick break. For a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay,
So again, fried dough in itself is old. It's old olds.
This episode, I tried my best. The timeline is a
bit twisty journey, but we're gonna We're gonna get through it.
(20:12):
We're gonna get through it.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Absolutely, absolutely you got this.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yes, thank you. Yeah. As always, listeners, if you have
any thoughts, resources recipes not really related to history, but
hey could be often are, please let us know. But okay,
as with many of the popular food items that we
talked about on the show, people like to fight or
(20:36):
even just speculate about the origins and the ownership chures.
Not different and it really depends on how you define
a churo. For instance, some like to trace the chiro
back to the Epicuus out of ancient Rome circle first
century CE, which contained a recipe for essentially a water
(20:57):
and flower fritter. Others point to similar recipes from ancient
Greece that were older, while some suggest that they originated
in the Mediterranean Basin, where fritters like this have been
around even earlier than all of that. Others still point
to the Yo Tiao, a fried breakfast patry from China,
(21:20):
which records indicate was invented in the twelfth century, though
it likely evolved from fritters that existed earlyer than that.
That's part of the problem. Yeah, yeah, yes. The theory
goes that Portuguese sailors were introduced to these Chinese doughnuts
in the sixteenth century and brought them back to Europe,
(21:41):
where they evolved into the chiro, although some people say
where they like lied and said we created this and
this is true. Yep. So a part of the reason
people think this is that Spain's pura, which is sort
of a bigger churo.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Kind of bigger puffy here.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, yeah, it's puffier that's a better word. Is very
very similar to the yotio before you yell at me,
though while some do suggest that to revolve from the yoto,
this is just the theory, like some argue that it
might be more of a case that similar fried dough
preparations developed separately in different places. It is one of
(22:25):
those things that just makes sense. So it stands to
reason people all over the world were just like, hey,
let's put this in an oil.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, we have water, we have flour, we have oil.
I mean, who amongst us has not tried to fry
anything once you get a panel oil hot?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I mean you and I are afraid of it. But
for those less afraid, yes, so to that end, to
that kind of theoretical idea. Some credit shepherds in Spain
with creating churos as an easy, filling, transportable food that
they could take with them, possibly while hurting sura sheep,
(23:10):
hence the name. However, I couldn't find any hard proof
of this, and it seems like I'm not alone in that.
Some have suggested that essentially this is sort of a
nice legend for Spain to tell in order to stake
their claim on venting the turo, which does happen a
lot in these history sections where one country is really
(23:33):
associated with an item. So I don't want to call
Spain out like I feel like every episode we do
have oh.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, well yeah right right, whenever something is
tied directly to a specific place, Yeah, they want an
origin story, and sometimes it's just people like frying things, yep,
but sure.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
The other part of the legend that I heard was
that the kind of the kind of textured curl of
a chotto sort of resembles the sheep's horns.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So yeah, that's why they got the name. I don't know,
which again is a really fun yeah story, probably apocryphal story,
but but it's also like we can't say it's not true.
Yeah exactly, but speaking of many people do dispute the
(24:31):
claim that churos were inspired by or copied the Utao
Utio because historical records and recipes for like churo like
items in Spain and the surrounding area predate the arrival
of the Portuguese to China, so the popularity of fried
(24:51):
dough products in Spain goes back to at least the
twelfth century, when the area was under the rule of
North African Muslims an anonymous thirteenth century recipe for a
flower and water dough that was fried in oil and
finished with a drizzle of honey, which chased back to
this region during their rule, so earlier than when they
(25:12):
went to China, but it's possible this fried dough was
in that area even earlier. Some Arabic sources from the
eighth and ninth century mentioned a fried dough preparation like this,
and this had fled some to suggest that perhaps Arabs
introduced fried dough via trade routes to the region that
would become Spain as early as the eighth century. On
(25:36):
top of that, some go further and theorized that this
fried dough traveled along the Silk Road and perhaps influenced
things like Yo Chiao in China. It's so confusing, and
to confuse matters even more, Lauren. Some argue that the
(25:57):
China Portugal theory does have some merit, but it's only
a piece of a very complicated puzzle. Essentially, like all
of these were steps into making the churro what it
is known as today, so some suggest that basic building
blocks were there like these fried dough. These early fried
dough were there, but the Portuguese were influenced by the
(26:20):
Chinese in terms of frying techniques and dough shapes. It
took that back, and then later the Portuguese it brought
the resulting thing churos to China. The Chinese were in
turn influenced by that, which I mean, it's like it's
(26:41):
one of those things that makes total sense, but it's
very hard to put into work.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yep. Yeah, yeah, time is a flat donut.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And as it famously goes, yes, I like that. Oh well.
During the sixteenth century in Europe, syringe fritters or fritters
where dough was piped through a device, which like churros were,
were all the rage.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, These kind of large syringes began being used in
pastry kitchens around Europe to pipe out things like dough
and marzapan in these pretty shapes around around that time.
This is also when shoe pastry was being developed. That's
a choux, which is the French term for pastry made
by mixing flour into hot water, specifically with butter and
(27:36):
egg added. German and French recipes for syringed fritters from
around the fifteen to sixteen hundreds were using this type
of pastry dough a little bit later, just not really
directly connected, but fun fact about flavorings. A lot of
English recipes for syringed fritters called for ground almonds, lemon peel,
(27:56):
and orange flower water. Just popular stuff, popular stuff to
flavor things with. So right, simultaneous to everything that was
happening with all of this fried dough business down in
like what's now Portugal, Spain, throughout the rest of Europe,
we were also dealing with a number of fried dough
(28:17):
innovations or developments.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Right and a Spain set up colonies all over the globe.
They spread churos with them, and some of these places
really went on to make suros their own, like Mexico.
We're going to talk about that a bit more later.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century beginning of the
twentieth century, street food culture really took off in Spain,
(28:40):
with many vendors specializing in churos, which helped popularize truros
even further. Some of these spots became something akin to
communal hangouts. Because many churo offerings were inexpensive, vendors who
sold them attracted a wide range of customers from all
types of socioeconomic backgrounds. This is also around the time
(29:00):
the word truro first appeared in the written record. Also
gives historians a headache. Yeah, brief aside, because a lot
of people do enjoy churros with hot chocolate. You can
see our episode on hot chocolate for more information. But
the Spanish brought this stirring chocolate back from South America
(29:24):
to Europe, and historians suspect that dipping churos into this
beverage was just a natural thing for many people, especially
because the hot chocolate at this time wasn't that sweet.
It's pretty bitter. So yeah, truro, Yeah all right, So
I couldn't find any hard evidence on this, but I
(29:46):
suspect in the US, the popularity of churros spread with
increasing interest in Mexican food amongst non Mexican Americans during
the nineteen hundreds, especially after the arrival of a large
number of Mexican immigrants the nineteen fifties. Because again, Mexico
really made chiros their own I feel like a lot
(30:06):
of people in the US that's how they experienced churros
was at a Mexican restaurant. It is worth noting though
a lot of the food at these restaurants was often
not something you would see in Mexico, especially in these
early days, but more an Americanized version of Mexican food.
And while many of these restaurants were owned by Mexican Americans,
(30:30):
many were decidedly not same for Mexican products that got
introduced during this time. The history of Mexican American restaurants
is for a different episode, but I do think this
played a role in popularizing the turo in the United States.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Another thing I suspect that I couldn't really find evidence
of here but has been documented and guest in terms
of Spain and festival culture and turos, is that since
cheiros are relatively cheap to make and easy to carry
when walking, venues like amusement parks or festivals started offering
(31:14):
churros in the US, which helped them become more popular
and perhaps even solidified them as a nostalgic, fond food. Yeah,
like a fun time for people. Yeah, yeah, exactly like
you think. Oh, I went to Disney and I had
a churro or something. We're speaking of. Disney started offering
churros in the nineteen eighties, and that has become part
(31:38):
of Disney theme park lore. I read the whole story
about how it happened. It exists like people loved these churros,
though many argue that this is a further americanization of
the cheero. Maybe not even a churro or on that
(31:58):
in a second. And Disney is by no means the
only theme park serving them, I understand not Sperry Farm
has a really good one. It has like boys and
berry filling. Oh okay, yeah, and I recently had some
yes at Universal Okay, taco Bell. My friend I was
(32:20):
telling you about earlier. If he can't get a chur
he'll be like, let's just cut a taco bell, which
I know some of you are yelling at the podcast
right now. But they first started offering churros in twenty thirteen.
It was served with a chocolate dipping sauce. They recently
introduced a frozen drink called a churo Chiller. So it's
(32:42):
like a frappuccino, but with true flavoring. Okay, sure that
sounds like a thing. Certainly does listeners not of no,
if you've had.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
It, No, no, no nodice on taco Bell or fast
food in general. That noise is delicious.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah. I used to love their sinna. I read a
whole history of it. I've went on a deep dive
about like Taco Bell products to get to the truth
of the churro. I used to love their sin a twist.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Oh yeah, yeah, crunch trap, supreme man, I don't know, yeah,
something about it. Not a sponsor, no, no, at any rate.
My main addition to the timeline. Oh heck, all right,
so follow with me, y'all. In twenty sixteen, scientists discovered
(33:41):
a type of marine flatworm like animal deep in the
Gulf of California. It's this simple animal that kind of
resembles like a limp sock or kind of like a churo.
It's about four inches ten centimeters long. And yeah, just
(34:03):
I don't know. They named it Zeno turbella cherro. That is,
that is the species name.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
The creatures. I love your random, seemingly to me random
scientific notes in the history portion. That's great. Yeah, yeah,
there you go. Oh well, according to Google Trends, there
(34:37):
was a huge spike of interest in churos during the pandemic.
I think this was very specific to the US, but
a part of it may have been fueled by Disney
because in April twenty twenty, so, right after everything shut
down due to the pandemic, they published their t a
(35:00):
recipe and people were posting their attempts at making it
on social media, and it just became a whole thing
and it was one of the highest searched recipes soon after. However,
as I mentioned, as with the most things we end
(35:20):
up talking about with Disney recipes on this show, many
argue their recipe is not a chiro, largely because it
calls for butter and eggs. Some people even argue about
the texture of it, that it's more like cake like
and it doesn't have the crunch on the outside. I
think that might be down to user error, but I
(35:42):
don't know. I don't want to call anyone out. Others
argue that while it is not the traditional preparation of cheeros,
it's still a chiro.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Like like a chero and spirit.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah. Yeah, it was less egregious to me, And again,
please don't yell at me than like when we talked
about gumbo. Yeah, yeah, the Disney recipe of gumbo.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I should clear right, right right? Oh, I don't remember
how they mucked it up, but they really mucked that.
It was like kale yah there that are not gumbo specifically, right,
I mean yeah, uh.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
You know, like.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I I don't I don't have a donut in this game.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Uh. But but like again.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Shoe pastry was being developed and used for many similar
purposes in in areas surrounding Churo Central at the same
time that the Churo was being developed. Depending on you know,
like like half the recipes I see on the internet
are for something with a shoe type pastry. Others are like,
(37:01):
that's kind of not a chero. It should just be
flour and water and salt. But you know, y'all tell y'all,
tell us. And and if it comes down to a
personal preference of your chero texture, then I want you
to have the chero that makes you happy.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yes, absolutely absolutely people did. As always, Researchers had.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Many opinions, strong but strong opinions.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Some of them were like, you know what, that's not
my chero, but I appreciated your true Yeah damn. Yeah,
but definitely would love to hear from listeners. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh and I really I have not been to Spain.
I really want to go to this Cecolata in Madrid,
and like a number of other ones, like I need
to get a solid churo sampling.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Oh, there's so much we could get in Spain. Oh,
I think we could get funded somehow.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Definitely, right, and if you can tell us about that, heck,
I think that is what we have to say about
Huros for now. We do have some listener mail already
for you, though, and we are going to get into
that as soon as we get back from one more
quick break forward from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with oh listener man all over the place,
which is what the Truro was for me.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
There's a lot of gesticulation involved in that one, y'all.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Sometimes we do a topic where I'm like, this is
going to take me fifteen years to talk about, and
then we do it and doesn't take that long. But
my brain, yeah, feels.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
It took fifteen years of processing to write the three sentences.
That's how I feel about the science sections a lot.
I'm like, Oh, it's just this, that's all. It is great.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It only took me this many hours to get to
the bottom of it. Ah, Oh, this is so exciting.
We have two goat messages yeah yeah from you listeners,
and please if you have a goat message, just say
oh my heck, yes, please send it in. Firstly, Kelsey
(39:41):
wrote fun goat anecdote. Growing up rural, I had a
lot of contact with goats. One day, out for a
walk with my mother, we'd crossed paths with one of
our neighbor's two goats. It had escaped their enclosure and
gone a Roman. Now fun fact oats, the domestic ones
at least, will often seek out the nearest leader shaped
(40:05):
creature they find after escaping. For this goat, that was
my mother, and she was terrified, like ran away, put me,
fourteen year old, between herself and this monster and left
me for dead. I, confused, approached the goat and walked
(40:27):
it back down its driveway until the goat sighted home
and its companion, the other goat, whereupon it trotted off
with nary a bleat of think. Needless to say, my
mother ever lived this down. She also never explained her actions,
except to insist that goats are intrinsically evil. I assume
(40:53):
her strict Catholic upbringing came into it somehow, and no
goats aren't evil like us contain multitudes, but I have
yet to meet a goat I didn't like, Oh dear wow.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yeah you know, well, sometimes you're having kind of an
anxious like a like like like a like a baseline
anxious day, and you're just unprepared for goat.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
It can be hard to be prepared for goat if
you're not used to goat, especially if you have a
Catholic upbringing or have seen the Bitch or any other
yeah yeah or something like that. If I saw a
goat coming at me, I think I would like suss
out situation, but I would the goat vibe. Yeah yeah,
(41:46):
I would be like, I'm ready to run if I
need to.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah yeah, sure sure, cautious optimism upon facing a goat.
Sure yeah, no, I mean I get it, you know,
like I put my TV in my closet for like
two weeks after I watched the Ring for the first
so h so it's real, it's real.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
But also, oh what buddies like see right?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Like I need to hang out with some goats apparently, Yeah,
I think you should.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
I think this will improve your your vampire image, but
also be good, just be good in general. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Cool, cool, goals great, uh, Sarah wrote, longtime listener, but
I'm shy. Of course, it's goats that gets me to
write in. My family have raised goats for a long
time now. Grandparents raised milch goats. We must have used
the milk in our cereals, but I have no concrete
memory of it. My uncle raises bores to supply the
(42:45):
halal festivals local to him, and my parents had a
small flock of pygmy goats. Historically, for me, goats are pets,
not food, Like you come home from work and it's
the best thing that's happened to them all day. They're
yelling vegetarian dogs. But I have eaten goat once and
I'm sad to say that it's delicious. It's been fifteen years,
(43:07):
so I cannot swear I have the restaurant correct. But
two friends and I had goat broken Josh at what
is probably Tabla in Buckhead. And if I don't have
it correct, Google mats shows me that I now want
it to be the right restaurant.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
I wanted to be the restaurant too. Well.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
I'm sad and or glad that your goat eating experience
was nice. Yeah, but they also write, see this is
really enforcing that, like goats are buddies and yeah, this
is great.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah that sounds so nice to come home when have
goats just be like.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Just be like heck yeah friend, so excited see you
yeah oh oh yeah, and hey, thank thanks for thanks
for finally writing in. There's no no time stamp on
it man like, yeah, yeah, anytime whenever those goat spirit
moves you or otherwise.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Also, yeah, I see you're in Atlanta area, so hey yeah. Well,
thanks to both of these listeners for writing in. If
you'd like to write to as you can, our email
is hello at savorpod dot com, but.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saber pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
(44:54):
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Dylan Fagan
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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