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March 27, 2020 50 mins

This hypothetically drinkable dessert has been the impetus for great inventions and the means of (attempted) assassination. Anney and Lauren dip into the history and science of milkshakes.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to save our production for I Heart Radio.
I'm Any and I'm Lauren Fogelbaum. And today we're talking
about milkshakes. Yes, yes, and this is mostly because we
were discussing what our comfort foods are, and for me,
milkshakes specifically, chocolate milkshakes are like number one. Oh all right, yeah,

(00:29):
And I mean it's probably pretty obvious why we're talking
about comfort foods as we once again come to you
from our home studios a k our Closets Skype. We
got a cat involved today. Gonna be real interesting. We're
gonna look fast and loose. Yeah yeah, great. Cat is

(00:50):
sitting in on the session. He is judging us all actively.
So I love the cat judgment. It just makes my
work all the better because I feel like I've really
gotta gotta bring it home well, good, good, because that's
what we're getting great. So yeah, chocolate milkshakes are one
of my ultimate comfort foods and I rarely, rarely resort

(01:14):
to them. They're sort of my nuclear option if I
had a hierarchy of comfort foods. They're like, oh god,
she's got a chocolate milk shake. Um, and I have
one tiny thing of chocolate ice cream that one of
my friends left at my apartment forever go that I'm
waiting until things get more dire for me, goes on, Okay,
it's there, it's there if you need it, but you

(01:35):
don't want to pull that trigger yet. I see no. Also,
I have no milk, so there's that issue. I'm sure
I would find a way, but it probably the result
would not be good. Um. But one of the reasons
it's one of my favorite comfort foods. I think I
talked about it in our Nostalgic Foods episode, UM, is
that when I was little, if I was sad or sick,

(01:56):
my mom would get just like two or three scoops
of Briars pocolate ice cream and she put him in
a cup. She'd fill it almost at the top with
two percent milk, hand mix it with a spoon, and
that was it. And it wasn't super amazing um as
far as milkshakesca Usually it was a bit chunky, with
like those ice crystals, you know, But it was always
special and it always made me feel better. Relevant to

(02:20):
uh self, quarantining, I think I've said before I've been
quarantined a more than once. I think the technical term
is isolated. I'm not sure anyway. Well, yeah, I can't
tell you about previous iterations, but go ahead. Yeah. Yes,
So I had swine flu when I was in college,

(02:41):
and I was so sick that food was the last
thing on my mind. But when I finally started feeling better,
I remember it was Halloween Day. I emerged from my
teeny tiny room in our six person dorm with my
my medical gloves and mask on, made a box of
Kraft mac and cheese and a chocolate milkshake. Those are

(03:03):
my to go to I. You know, as we were
talking about this, I was trying to come up with
my list of comfort foods and I was like, this
is weird, Like this is like it's it's like grilled
cheese and then like vindaloo. And I'm like I'm not
sure where, where and how this occurred, but ye, milkshakes

(03:23):
are not on there for me. Uh. I did go
through a pretty intense milkshake phase in college. Like part
of my weekly routine involved after going to like an
eighties dance night, uh, coming coming back and getting like
a vanilla milkshake from water Burger and sipping on it

(03:43):
while we played Halo at my friend's house. So that
is college. If I've ever heard a college story, that
is one. Yep, yep. But yeah, now these these days,
I like, I do love a milkshake, but man, they
don't love me. They do not love me. I should

(04:03):
not have that much dairy all. At the same time, honestly,
the idea of drinking one kind of makes me a
little queasy because they're so sweet, and I can't handle
that much sugar really, and I don't know I can
have like a tiny one, but whole whole Yeah, oh yeah,
I mean I certain that that's one of the reasons
they're so rare that I resort to them. But I

(04:26):
have had so many amazing milkshakes in my life. I've
also had my fair share of freak shakes, which we're
going to talk about a little bit later. Freak freak shake,
freak Shake, freak freak shake. Yeah, you're looking for an
Instagram hole. That is my recommendation for today. Flip Burger

(04:46):
from Richard Blaze has some really good creative milkshakes. Um
Crispy cream Nutella has like a toasted marshmallow I believe
on top, and a fuig raw milkshake and they do
theirs I believe with that with liquid nitrogen instead of yeah,
so it's it's an interesting process indeed. Um oh and us.

(05:07):
Speaking of Richard Blaze, Yeah, food Court debuted the new
podcast that I think we mentioned previously. It's it's called
food Court with Richard Blaze, and he is the judge
in such important decisions as uh fries crispy versus saggy,
or pineapple on pizza yes versus no, or blue cheese

(05:29):
versus Ranch. Those are those are the three we have
waited in. We've in on that one absolutely. Yeah, yeah,
you can see our episode on Ranch about that or wings.
I think both. I think we talked about it in both.
We have very strong fit well, I have very strong
opinion and Lauren is kind and lets me voice it. U.

(05:50):
The first thing I had when I got back from
living in China actually wuhan um I was there for
almost a year. The first thing I went to the
place I went to with steak and shake and I
had a dark chocolate milkshake and those like crispy thin
steak fries. Me. It was like four in the morning
and one of the only things opened. So I don't

(06:11):
really regret it. I'm not ashamed of it? Is it
the best place I could have gone from my first meal?
But I liked it. Oh hey, hey, as long as
long as you're having a nice time. And I mean, furthermore,
I don't think that there's anything truly more American then
very American first at four in the morning and getting

(06:32):
fries in a milkshake. Yeah. Uh, there's a National Milkshake Day.
It is August one, um, but National Chocolate Milkshake Day
is September twelve, and National Vanilla Milkshake Day is June,
and National Coffee Milkshake Day is July. So a lot

(06:54):
of opportunities to celebrate. Yeah. Yeah, And those are only
the four that I found. I you know, I'm not
I'm not others could be out there. I definitely believe
there's at least a strawberry amount of shape day. You know,
I would hope, so I would. I would certainly hope.
So maybe a listener can write in and let us know,
or maybe we can start it, Like I don't know
what the rules are, what are the parameters? Can't we

(07:16):
just say hey, I let go. I think that for
it to be official, we have to like write our
senator or something like that, and I feel like they're
trying to do more important things right now, or should
be trying to do more important things. Anyway, that's a
separate conversation, friends, that is. But speaking of if you're

(07:38):
looking for a separate conversation related to what we're talking
about today, you can see our Sunday episode for our
very silly Law and Order take on who invented the
Sunday And also relevant is our sad episode. All that
stuff comes up in here. Yes, absolutely, And uh, I
guess we should point out that we're not really talking
about ice cream to day, just about milkshakes, because ice cream, hoof,

(08:04):
that's a that's a large separate topic. It is, and
it's a fascinating one, and I can't wait to return
to it. But today, but today this brings us to
our question milkshakes. What are they? Well, Uh, milkshake is
a dessert drink treat. It's a vaguely drinkable ice cream.

(08:30):
It's it's slightly liquefied ice cream or largely frozen milk
plus flavorings that you can sip through a straw. Um,
although exactly how like liquefied and or frozen it's meant
to be upon serving is a matter of some debate,
like should you be able to drink it? Should you
need to use a spoon? Should it be able to

(08:51):
stay in its cup? If you turn the whole cup
upside down? I don't know. I don't have an opinion
about this one. I do, but I I don't really
care too much to voice it. Oh no, no, I'm
curious which which one do you prefer? Oh? I feel
like if if you need a spoon and that's not

(09:12):
a milkshake, that's like kind of a soft serve ice
cream situation to like, I think I could be convinced,
is what I'm saying. Um, but in my mind it's
milkshake is more of a drinking sort of thing. Yeah, yeah,
I would agree with you, but I suppose that even
like I mean, if you need a spoon to start with,

(09:33):
but then you can move to a star. Oh, yeah,
you're right, you know? Yeah, I don't know. At any rate. Um,
blenders are used to achieve this range of textures. You
traditionally start with a ice cream and milk and whatever
other flavorings you want to add in, and use an
electric blender to to break down the structure of the

(09:55):
ice cream and to whip in a bit of extra air. Um.
Some fast food places will conversely start with like a
flavored thickened mix of milk and stuff and and simultaneously
blend and chill it into a similar consistency is reached,
then going the other way. Um. Some recipes for either
we'll add ice for texture in or to like fill

(10:16):
out the shake of it, and those flavorings can be anything, yes,
but no matter what they are made with. Milkshakes are
often topped with whipped cream, sometimes other stuff as well,
frequently like ice cream toppings like syrups, are crushed candy
and the result is a thick, cold, creamy, hypothetically drinkable confection,

(10:40):
and the flavor possibilities are endless. Cook out. The fast
food chain has at least forty flavors on the menu,
and that this is a Southern fast food chain. If
y'all haven't heard of it, like you can see one
from our office. We're we're pretty spoiled on tasty, local
ish fast food of they are famous for their milkshakes

(11:01):
and however, the the Guinness record for the most milkshakes
on a menu is two and seven and what that's
from this restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa, Gibson's Gourmet
Burgers and Ribs. Oh why did I not go there
when I was a gate Maybe they were closed, it

(11:24):
was New Year's Oh that's true. Everything that's unfortunately. Um,
and this brings back the malt versus non malt debate.
Oh right, yeah, I don't, Like I said, I don't
think I've ever had a malted milkshake or a malt
as they're sometimes called. And this is why we need

(11:46):
Kyle with the motorcycle. Where are you? I hope you're
staying in and staying safe, But if you can weigh
in on this debate, you had so much knowledge around it. Uh, yeah,
we we've We've got a little bit more on malted
milk later. But I will say that that malt is
one of my favorite milkshake flavors. I guess it probably
wasn't a plain vanilla. It was probably a malted vanilla

(12:07):
milkshake that I was having at that water Burger weekly experience,
that weekly water Burger experience. So jeez, um. Oh college,
and let's speaking of let's talk about the nutrition. Because
my friend's dad used to always say, back when I
was in high school, he would always say to us,

(12:29):
you have to run ten miles to cans that one
Chick fil a milkshake. You know that that really depends
that That is a that is a subjective statement because
according to Chick fil A's nutrition information there shakes run
between five hundred and seven hundred and fifty calories per shake. Uh,
and the average human person will burn not according to

(12:50):
Chick fil A, this is according to other humans. Um uh.
I mean they might have said it to I don't know. Anyway,
they'll they'll burn between eighty and a hundred and forty
cow leries per mile run. So if you get Chick
fil A's most cloric shake and are on the low
end of that burn rate, like you are looking at
like a nine point four mile run in order to

(13:14):
work off shake. But you know results may vary, yes, yes, yes, yeah,
because because milkshakes. Milkshakes are not a health food. Um.
You know, the dairy components tend to be high and fat.
All dairy contains natural sugars, and then on top of
that there's usually a lot of added sugars. You're gonna

(13:34):
get a little bit of protein, a punch of micronutrients.
But you know, like a milkshake will indeed help fill
you up, but it won't really keep you going. It's
a it's a treat, a surprise, surprise. Yeah, I know, right.
But because of milkshake's reputation as a treat, well, a
shake style beverages are like a whole dieting thing in

(13:58):
the world of dieting, but but be Milkshakes of varying
kinds have been used in like a lot of physiological
and psychological research. For example, in researchers looking at like
the immediate dietary effects on blood cells and blood vessels,
had a small sample of men drink a high fat milkshake,

(14:22):
think like thousand calories eighty grams of fat. That's over
your recommended daily intake of fat for a person in
a day. So they had him drink this shake and
then observed that four hours later their their blood vessels
were less able to dilate and some of their red
blood cells became like sort of spiky instead of smooth,
both of which can can raise your blood pressure. Um

(14:44):
although don't don't worry, don't worry too much. It don't
put down the milkshake. It's as long as you don't
do this like for every meal, your body evens itself
out over time. I mean like, yes, there can be
cumulative effects, but don't don't panic a few yeah. Uh.
And and then in two thousand eight, UM other researchers

(15:05):
in Oregon used chocolate milkshakes to help test dopamine response
to food intake, partially because milkshakes are like easy to
sip when your patient is or when your subject is
lying in an in an m r I machine. Yeah.
But but but they found essentially that UM that some
people who over eat may do so because their brain

(15:25):
chemistry doesn't reward food intake with very much dopamine release,
like meaning that those folks have to eat more to
get the same positive feeling from food as other folks.
And then in um a study, he played with the
viscosity of milkshakes as it relates to safety and and

(15:46):
digestive time. So like, they made thick and thin versions
of both one calorie and five hundred calorie shakes, and
the thick shakes made the subjects feel more full no
matter how many calories the shakes actually contained. Interesting. Yeah,
I know, right. The recommendation that came out of that

(16:07):
one was basically like, if you're doing a meal replacement
shake or a smoothie or something, you can add thickening
agents to to make you feel full for longer, like
a banana or oats or avocado. Stuff like that. UM,
and there's more more more In group of researchers out

(16:28):
of Yale did this small experiment where they gave milkshakes
to two groups of volunteers and for for one group,
they described this shake as an indulgent six D twenty
calorie shake, and to the other group, they described it
as a sensible hundred and forty calorie shake. All the
shakes were the same calories, but they tested that the

(16:48):
subjects levels of this gut hormone called grell in before
and after drinking the shake, and and grellin levels in
our systems spike when we're hungry and h and slower
metabolism down like just in case we don't find food,
and and then Grellen levels drop when we're sated, allowing
our metabolism to kick in and help us digest. So

(17:12):
after drinking these totally the same shakes, UM, the subjects
who thought they had gotten an indulgent one had lower
levels of grellin than the subjects who thought that they
had gotten a sensible one. So in other words, when
people thought they had eaten more calories, they were more sated,
which is just really interesting because it means like psychology

(17:35):
has something to do with our actual physiological response to eating.
That is fascinating. Milkshakes science, um so much of it. Yeah,
I know right, they're even milks. Milkshakes are even used
as rewards in some mouse studies. For example, I found
this so darling. Okay, So for the past few years,
researchers have been uh super into using touch screens as

(17:59):
part of mouse studies because if because you can totally
teach a mouse to to poke a particular area or
it's like like a button on a touch screen with
their little mouse nose, uh, in order to get a reward.
And that's a much more directly applicable thing to to
human use and studies than than buttons and levers and

(18:21):
stuff like that. So so yeah, just little strawberry mouse
milkshake rewards in research and touch screens. And I don't know,
I liked, I like, I liked I liked that, I
liked reading that story anyway. That's lovely. Um, well, there's
a lot of studies, clearly, but we also do have
some numbers for you. We we do, um and okay, okay,

(18:45):
So I've come to understand that milkshakes are a very
American thing. Um, but you can find them all over
the world and people seem to like them. Oh yeah,
milkshakes are so popular, like part of why McDonald's is
a thing level of popular and more on that later.

(19:06):
We've also done in a a McDonald's episode. You can check
that out. We talked about it in that one. Multiple
chains have said milkshakes are one of their most profitable items,
if not the most profitable items. According to Christopher Muller,
director of the Center for Multi Unit Restaurant Management at
Orlando's University of Central Florida, UM, milkshakes are about se

(19:27):
profit sonic the drive in restaurant. Um. They say that
the marketing manager there's once said shakes are their quote
highest volume revenue producing areas. And yes, freak shakes. Okay, okay, alright,
So so this isn't like a Halloween thing? What what is?

(19:48):
But it can be The world is your oyster when
it comes to freak shakes. So these are milkshakes but
extreme like garnished with the slice of pie and maybe
on top of that is a slice of cake, like
dough nuts, pretzels. Um. Yeah, that everything you can imagine
has been added to it. They are the ultimate Instagram

(20:09):
herble food. I think when the first time I saw one,
that was a moment of clarity or it's like, oh
my god, Instagram is really shaping a lot of what
we're eating these days. But I had to have one
that totally was in um They are attributed largely attributed
to Anna Patritis at her Patties Cafes in Canberra, Australia.

(20:30):
Um So, I actually was going to go there. I
was going to go to New Zealand and go out
of my way to make a stop in Canberra to
go to one of these cafes, but it got canceled
unfortunately not COVID related. This was years ago. Um So
I didn't get to have the quote original freak shake,
but I did have one at Black Tap in New

(20:51):
York City and it was topped with multiple chocolate chip
cookies and like an ice cream sandwich and um with
cream all that stuff. I'll try to dig up the picture.
I definitely took a puture, um and I shared it
with somebody, so it was doable. But if I could
not have finished that thing by myself, so man, I

(21:12):
don't know. For some reason, I like, I'm anti this
entire idea, partially because a lot of the photographs of
these things are very messy, like they involve like syrup
and stuff and and drips of ice cream being like
down the sides of the glass, and for some reason,
that grosses me the heck out. I'm like, no, no,

(21:33):
that's wrong, and I don't like it, and I don't
want it, and I don't want other people to like it,
so they're Um, I don't know why I have such
a firm emotion about drips down the sides of glasses
not being attractive. That's that's legitimate. You know what. Your
fingers get sticky, that's the thing, and they would get
so sticky. Gosh. I don't recall that happening in mind,

(21:56):
the one I had, but maybe I'll look back. Yeah,
I mean because on the flips, these are also reminding
me of of our Bloody Mary episode and all of
the like extreme Bloody Mary's that um that people make
and consume and I'm fine with that. Mm hmm. It's
the dairy aspect. I feel like you've got a thing

(22:17):
with dairy. Yeah, maybe that's it. I'm just like, oh,
so much, so much ice cream, A little bit, little
tiny bits. It's great anyway. Anyway, Um, speaking of little
tiny bits of ice cream, the Guinness record for the
largest milkshake is from the year two thousand. It was
a six thousand gallon milkshake. Uh, what's called a black

(22:39):
and white, which is vanilla with chocolate syrup, and that
is over liters. It's it's the equivalent of about fifty
normal milkshakes. And it was put together by a devilish
collaboration between the comfort Diners, Um Parmelant Milk, the American

(23:00):
Dairy Association, and the Dairy Council and assembled in a
milk tanker that was decorated to look like a milkshake,
and it was driven, uh and distributed through Manhattan. Wow. Huh.
Now that's a lot of milkshake. That that is quite
it's not a small amount of milkshake and quite a bit. Um.

(23:24):
There's also a record for the most expensive milkshake, but
it was only worth a hundred bucks. I feel like
they're not even trying. Oh yeah, we could. I mean,
we could beat that record. If we're looking for a
record to beat, that's easy. Oh that's I mean, come
on right right, Like i'd bean like to invest, just
put like more gold leaf in there. I mean, like,
what are you doing on? Milkshakes are incredibly popular in

(23:49):
our media, especially here in the United States. I found
a whole essay about how milkshakes are a shorthand for sweetness,
like human sweet sweetness, UM, and innocence and virgin and often.
But then there's also Master Shake from Aquitine Hunger Force. Uh.
Then of course there's the I Drink your All milkshake

(24:09):
scene from There Will Be Blood, which didn't involve a milkshake,
by the way, Um I was I was reading and um,
and some of this has gone international. There is a
dance and music festival in Amsterdam called the Milkshake Festival,
and it it I'm not I couldn't really track down
like like the origin of the name immediately, but um,

(24:31):
but it celebrates like the queer community and tolerance and
like being yourself in whatever glorious form you choose. So
I really liked that I thought that was a good
like like milkshake being a good metaphor for those things. Yeah,
that's great. Um. And then of course they're like on
the opposite end of the innocent, virginal spectrum. There's also

(24:54):
the you want some fries to go with that shake,
and milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, So
you know, the milk shakes out representing that's what we're saying.
It is, it is, it's it's doing it's it's doing
double duty. Yeah, and uh, it has been for a
while actually, yeah, and we will get into the history
of that right after we get back from a quick

(25:16):
break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you. And as we said
at the top, this is not the ice cream episode
that will happen one day, but it is not today.
Uh no, no, because that's that is a lot very

(25:39):
very briefly, Um, Rich folks have been eating flavored ices
for at least a couple of thousand years, and the
like dairy based creamed ices or ice creams that we
know today started developing around the sixteenth century. Yeah, and
around that time we were seeing milk based concoctions like pasta.

(26:00):
It's an eggnog and you could see our episodes on
eggnog and butter beer for more on that. Uh yeah,
ice cream wasn't widely available until ice and refrigeration technology
developed in the mid eighteen hundreds, so so before then,
any kind of creamy treats would have been less frozen. Yeah,

(26:21):
often hot, because milk was a dangerous this is dicey
game back then. Absolutely yes. The when the term milkshakes
first came out of the scene in five uh, these
milkshakes were for adults only, and that's because they were
usually applied with at least one shot of whiskey, but
not just whiskey. It was a mixture of eggs, maybe malt,

(26:43):
maybe sugar, milk, crushed ice, maybe some flavorings. Ice cream
almost definitely not involved. Um. These early milkshakes had a
similar thickness to eggnog and were served both as a
treat and a tonic. And we have this early description
of um sturdy, healthful eggnog type drink with eggs, whiskey,
et cetera served as a tonic as well as a treat.

(27:08):
The popular story goes that the drink got its name
from the practice of tipping and shaking the hand of
the person who made the drink. Probably apocryphal, I don't know,
but a lot of people say that. In six in
Atlanta Constitution, article called Milkshake had this quote, The newest
Atlanta drink is milkshake. You get it at the soda fountains.

(27:31):
The mixer of cooling beverages pours out a glass of
sweet milk, puts in a big spoonful of crushed ice,
puts in a mixture of unknown ingredients, draws a bit
of any desired syrup, shakes the milk in a tin
can like a bar keeper, mixes lemonade, sprinkles a little
nutmeg on the foaming milk until it looks something like
a Tom and Jerry sits it out for you, and
you pay five cents. Milkshake isn't Atlanta drink. Atlanta is

(27:56):
nothing if not original. I guess I can't argue with
that sentiment. True. Yeah, I was nodding my head in
agreements that article. If you're curious, I didn't know this,
but Tom and Jerry is a Christmas cocktail similar to
egg knock. I did not know that, and now I

(28:16):
have more research to do about Tom and Jerry. That's great, exactly,
I want to know that aime, where does it come from?
But for today, milkshakes didn't stay relegated to an adult
beverage for long. By the nineteen hundreds, the whiskey and
eggs were out and these drinks became an all ages treat. Chocolate, strawberry,
vanilla syrup was usually added in the mix, and these

(28:38):
shakes were frequently served in a tall glass. But what
about the ice cream? What about the ice cream? Well,
let me tell you Walgreens. Walgreens takes credit for inventing
the milk shake when it comes to that edition of
ice cream. Uh, specifically Walgreens employee i've are Pop Coulson
out of Chicago from their website quote. Until then, malted

(29:01):
milk drinks were made by mixing milk, chocolate syrup, and
a spoonful of malt powder and a metal container, then
pouring the mixture into a glass. On one especially hot
summer day in nineteen two, Pop Coulson set off his revolution.
To the basic mixture, he added a generous scoop of
vanilla ice cream, then another You gotta have two scoops?

(29:21):
You do you do. It's so one scoop does not
a milkshake make exactly exactly. UM. Also found another article
from the Atlantic Constitution, first published in eighteen eighty five,
that was an interview with a local soda jerk about
soda fountains. UM, and it kind of touches on this,
but it's surprisingly gendered and sexist. And will you allow

(29:42):
me to to quote it? I yeah, sure, it is
surprisingly the right word from eight five. I mean, well,
it's like it wasn't even brought up. He just said
this of his own relicip. The interviewer was like, so
what do you what do you sell a lot of?
And he's like, well, let me tell you about the
ladies and way please please regale us all right? Ice

(30:05):
cream soda is a favorite with the ladies and the
little ones. It is really one of the most pleasant
mixtures we serve, though rarely asked for by men. The
ladies like it for two reasons, first because it is good,
and second because it can be eaten with a spoon.
A glass of soda with colored foam on top does
not commend itself, especially to a woman when she is
with a gentleman for whom she has some liking, is

(30:27):
awkward to get away with it without carrying upon her
lip a mustache. By the way, you ever noticed ladies
drinking soda water, They invariably hold the glass in one
hand and their handkerchief in the other. Between every sip
they wipe off their lip. A man never begins using
his handkerchief until after he settles his score just halfway

(30:47):
out of the place. Not so with the ladies. Therefore,
anything that requires a spoon is more popular with them
than beverages that require to be drunk. Consequently, we sell
a great deal of ice cream soda. Okay, dude, like
all right, sure, he also had this delightful nugget which
isn't really related, but I'm sorry we have to include it. Yeah, yeah, okay. Well,

(31:11):
in the first place, the most curious one to me,
he was talking about flavors, according to my way of thinking,
and one that is most frequently called for is pineapple
soda with cream, pineapple milkshakes, and lemon and nectar. If
there is anything on earth that is calculated to make
man's stomach rebel, it is pineapple ice cream. There ought
to be a law against this manufacturer. Indeed, anything has

(31:33):
milk or cream, and it should not, under any circumstances
be flavored with pineapple. The country man in the city,
taking in the town and patronizing for the first time
the soda water fountain will invariably choose pineapple and something else.
To him, pineapple is the embodiment of all that is
desirable and pleasant. And when he gets home and get sick,
as he invariably does after indulging in his pineapple and

(31:56):
milk potations, it never once occurs to him. The pineapple
is the calls by itself, it is an excellent and
pleasant drink and as far as I know, harmless. But
the moment it becomes associated with milk in an unlimited partnership,
that moment it becomes an enemy of the state. So okay, yeah,

(32:19):
nobody tell this dude. Nobody go back in time and
tell this dude about the dole whip. I think he'll
like fall right skin. Yeah, that is a strong opinion
about pineapple milkshakes. All right, fair enough, fair enough, But
pivoting away from that, malted milk powder. Malted milk powder

(32:39):
was invented in the seventies. Ish. There's a bunch of
dates that float around um as a nutritional supplement for infants. Okay,
so malt grain we talked about it briefly before. But
it's something that's dried quickly after it's sprouts, resulting in
a sweet mash. And you grind that up and add
that to wheat flour and powdered milk and possibly other
things like sugar, and you have malted milk powder. And again,

(33:01):
remember this is a time when milk borne illnesses were
fairly common, so people were interested in coming up with
this thing. So for a short history, London pharmacist James
Horlicks began working on a supplement for babies and sick
people in eighteen sixty nine. Problem though, he couldn't secure
any funding, so he packed up shop and moved to Wisconsin,

(33:22):
where his brother was located. The two came together to
form J. And W. Horlicks outside of Chicago and started
producing the formula. They received a patent for dias story,
which was quote a granulated food for infants in eight three.
A couple of years later they changed the name to
malted milk, which real shame if you asked me, but

(33:43):
they got a lot of flak for calling it diass
storid UM. A lot of the marketing around it promoted
it as a health food, all kinds of things, from
a sleep aid to digestive aid to flu recovery. It
was a popular option among explorers too. I imagine it
was comple to our modern protein drinks or energy bars,
or at least that's how people thought about them. Because

(34:05):
of this. Admiral Richard E. Bird named a mountain range
after William Horlick in the Antarctic Mountains. Yeah, okay. Horlick's
later engaged in several legal battles to retain ownership of
the phrase malted milk, but ultimately they lost. From what
I understand again, Kyle with the motorcycle right in when

(34:27):
it came to malted shakes or malt, the malt powder
made them fattier, more of a meal, and gave them
a more robust, rounded flavor. Yeah, yeah, I would say
that in these are modern times, if you're adding malt
to something like that, yeah, it just gives it a
little bit of a of a depth of flavor, just
something kind of not quite savory, but it kind of

(34:49):
roasty toasty. Yeah, roasty toasty. Love it. These early milkshakes
UM were typically mixed by hand because there were no
electric blenders yet, but that change in nineteen eleven when
Hamilton Beach introduced the first electric mixer. Soda fountains adopted
them pretty quickly, and then in the invention of the

(35:11):
electric blender catapulted the availability and thus the popularity of
the milkshake, and also helping out the milkshake the non
alcoholic variety was prohibition during the United States. Um, I
I have you know a confession. One of the reasons
I wanted to live alone is because I have extreme
guilt about using my blender, and I I was super

(35:32):
into smoothies, So I was like, I, why do you
Why do you have guilt about using a blender? I
am They're allowed, and I didn't want to awake anybody
or bother anybody, so I would like go out until
I would do all kinds of things to try to
use it and not bothered people. UM So now I
live alone and I make smoothies anymore. So I don't

(35:56):
know anyway. Another innovation important to the milkshakes evolution was
the invention of the free on refrigerator in the nineteen thirties.
In Earl Prince debut the multi mixer, allowing for the
automated mixing and dispensing of five milkshakes at a time.
And then we get it. We see a rise in

(36:18):
milkshakes during the fifties, starting with Dairy Queen when they
added milkshakes to their menu in ninety nine, and then
yeah that you could see them at diners, burger joints,
soda fountains all over. People even started calling soda fountains
malt shops, that's how popular they were. But they were
called all kinds of different things, frats, velvets, cabinets, frostage shakes,

(36:39):
and this was typically used for non malted milkshakes, and concretes,
which were a specific type that you could flip over
and it wouldn't PLoP out or drip from the glass.
Um floats described scoops of ice cream, suspended and milk,
and a lot of these terms are still used, especially
when you get you zero in regionally. Yeah, yeah, definitely,
And I do alike in my head they are a

(37:00):
very nineteen fifties thing, people going on dates and sharing
a milkshake, and and I was thinking a lot of
our burger joints in the US are like there's steak
in shake, but there's also steak shop shake shack. Five
guys has a lot of our burger places have milkshakes
as a popular option. And speaking of the whole date thing, um,

(37:21):
Joseph Friedman patented the straw in ninety seven, specifically after
watching his daughter struggling with a milkshake. Uh yes, okay,
well thanks shakes future episode the straw because I almost
absolutely massive rabbit hole this thing. No no, non't know um.

(37:42):
And going back to that multi mixer okay. Also in
the fifties, multi mixer salesman Ray Kroc. He was the
sole legal distributor of this thing, and it was this
super fast like new fangled milkshake dispenser machine. And to
sell these, he came up with the idea of fran
chizing a little chain called McDonald's. And I will say

(38:04):
he was successful. I'd fair fairly so yeah, yep, largely
attributed to our love of milkshakes. Huh, milkshake adjacent. When
the first Wendy's opened in nine nine, it had five
items on the menu, including the frosty, which a lot
of people argue about whether that's a milkshake. But I

(38:25):
thought we'd tossed that in there and now attempted murder. Okay,
that was a hard turn. That was a hard turn
from Frosty's to attempted murder. But go ahead, come with me, okay.
So apparently Fidel Castro loved milkshakes and the CIA would

(38:47):
have loved to kill him. So the story goes that
the CIA poisoned his favorite chocolate milkshake at his favorite restaurant.
The CIA bribed to the mafia to do this. He
bribed a waiter at the restaurant want to do this,
so he put a poisoned pill. The plan was he
was going to put a poison pill in cash It's milkshake,
but he put it in the freezer and alas or

(39:09):
not alass. When he went to get it out and
put it in Cashrow's milkshake, it had frozen to the
bottom of the freezer and when he tried to kind
of maneuver it off, it ripped open the pill. Yeah,
oh yeah, so plot foiled. Uh, they and they did
not try death by milkshake again. Well, I's calling you

(39:29):
to get me. I'll be open with you. Please, please,
please please know when poison Annie. Yeah, please don't do it.
But you know, I'll be frank that for me. Yeah, no,
it would yep, yep, that would work on That's not
the only political thing milkshakes have been involved either. In

(39:52):
nineteen throwing milkshakes at politicians are milk shaking became a
popular form of protesting, particularly in the United King him
to the point that the UK police officially requested that
McDonald stopped selling milkshakes in That's wild to be so
Burger King responded with a tweet, We're selling milkshakes all weekend.

(40:15):
Have fun, but the tweet was later banned by the
Advertising Standards Authority in the UK. So much. Oh my god,
that's spectacular. I hadn't heard about this. Yeah, milkshaking. That's
going to be in my rabbit hole the of the afternoon.
I'm excited. Um. Meanwhile, Um, the aforementioned song Milkshake about

(40:42):
bringing all the boys to your yard came out in
two thousand three, and apparently the the artist Kelly's. Kelly's
later studied at La Cordon Blue and put out a
cookbook called Plate Yeah. But also apparently she had never
made a milk ache until which she did like a

(41:03):
sponsorship thing with Bailey's involving their their Irish cream liqueur
um chocolate ice cream, ginger beer, candy, ginger, and cayenne pepper.
It sounds good, It does sound good, and that milkshakes
are having kind of a renaissance when it comes to
fancier type milkshakes and things like adding alcohol back in there.

(41:25):
So yeah, loozy milkshakes making a comeback false circle exactly exactly.
It's a whole whole wide world of milkshake experimentation and
it's very exciting. It is. You know, I'm I'm always
glad when people get to experiment. So yes, yes, So

(41:45):
that's about what we have to say for milkshakes. I
gotta admit I thought this one was going to be
short and sweet. But then whenever we're talking about like
I temp didn't murder and protesting, Oh my gosh. Yeah yeah, no,
this the this was this was a fun one. I
didn't think that I would have this much fun and
I didn't think that I would have a craving. But
I totally had a craving. So there you go. I

(42:08):
did to you. But no milk, no milk, no, oh
but you have but you have that dairy and ice
cream if you did have milk, you can make a durry.
You're right, You're right. Maybe I'll next time I venture
out to the grocery store, if there is milk, maybe
I'll get some. But in the meantime, that has about

(42:32):
us to the end of what we have to say
for now about Yes, we we do. We do have
a little bit more for you. Um, but first we've
got one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And

(42:53):
we're back with listener. This is gonna be a whole
We're gonna have to learn. We were barely doing it before.
We're in the studio together, but now it's Skype. We're
gonna have to be like on top. Yeah with this,
with this delay, I'm gonna say, it's like an extra

(43:15):
challenge level. Uh so, sorry about it, and or you're welcome.
I don't know, I don't know what you like. We're
at the beginning of like leveling up. So right now
it's hard, but we'll eventually we'll learn more skills and
we'll pick pick up more listener mail cues. It'll be good.
Victoria wrote in Machias main or perhaps Machias is a

(43:38):
restaurant called Helen's Back. They suffered from a fire. The
building destroyed despite firefighter's efforts. Afterwards, while officials were looking
through photos taken the night of restaurants burning, they noticed
one photo showed the silhouette of a figure standing in
a window. The owner said it was the window next
to where all the pies were stored. Investigating the area,

(43:59):
let and nobody but a pie did make it out unburned.
A blueberry pie with a single slice missing. Did the
ghost chili aura protect that which it ate from? This
was in response to our call for paranormal supernatural food stories.
So thank you so much. Victoria's Oh that's amazing. Oh

(44:22):
my gosh, wow A good things ghost. Yeah? No, blueberry
pie is great, especially I look a good like fresh
blueberry pie. Man. Yes. Deelia Jane wrote, I thought you
might want to hear about my sour dough culture and
how I became colloquially known on my college campus as

(44:42):
the bread Girl. This past summer, I was going through
a pretty tough time and began looking for some new
hobbies and interests. I found a show, and do you
never fail to cheer me up? Needing a project, I
settled on baking homemade bread from scratch. Originally, I thought
this would be something I do every now and again,
but it's become part of my nearly day dietary, recreational,
and mental health routine. I've not purchased a single loaf

(45:05):
of bread in almost eight months. Naturally, when I moved
back to campus this fall, the hobby carried over, much
to the delight of my roommates, friends D and D slash,
settlers of Catan Group, and upstairs neighbors who once knocked
asking why it smells like a bakery all the time,
only to be gifted with warm, fresh slices of rye
bread in response. Once my roommate jokingly wrote you like

(45:27):
homemade bread, you want some? All loaves less than ten
dollars followed by a number on a white board in
a study lounge. Well, people actually began texting me, and
I actually began selling a large amount of bread to
fellow broke college kids and turned a profit. On campus,
you can see people happily walk around with their loaves
wrapped in tinfoil and one of the personalized sticky notes

(45:48):
I like to attach, eagerly telling their friends. Pretty much
everyone I knew began telling their friends and classmates, even
mentioning it to professors. My best friend tells me, I
give flower purpose. I have a running list on my
phone with bread puns I want to one day turn
into bakery names. Some of my favorites include live and
let rye in bread, we crust to rye for and

(46:12):
yeast meets West potential bakery slogan we give all purposes
to flour whole. Yeah. The thing is, I'm an incredibly
shy and introverted person. I tend to be very reserved
around new people, but now have this lovely bread reputation
preceding me. When my roommates through a party, I'll always

(46:33):
pull out a loaf or make one before we go
out to a bar. I'll walk into parties and instead
of blending into the background like I used to, a
roar of cheers and praise will erupt for the bread girl,
followed by complimentary drinks. I'm twenty one, I promise I
make all types of bread, and I'm working my way
through American test kitchens. Cookbook Bread Illustrated, which is enshrined

(46:54):
on the window sill of my apartment for all to
see and to mark the Home of the bread Girl.
I'm a biology major and a'm taking an elective this
semester called Yeast Genetics and Genomics, and have learned so
much about fermentation, beer, and bread. When studying, I often
think of my favorite yeast poop or bacteria poop sound bites.

(47:16):
Our first homework assignment was to bring in a craft
beer from which we isolated and grew up yeast cells.
Our final project was going to be brewing beer with
wild e samples we collected from trees, and the professor
was even going to see if I could make a
loaf of bread with it. Sadly, my classes are canceled
the rest of the semester due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Being home for a while, I decided to set up
a sour dough starter completely from scratch, using only flower

(47:38):
in water. Until now, I've been using a cheater sour
dough recipe that utilizes Greek yogurt and a single use
overnight sponge. Still delicious. My dad actually makes homebrewed beer,
and being home as well, started his latest batch. At
the same time. We're both excited to see how our
respective yeast collections will influence the other. But my guess
is he'll end up making a sour beer. And may

(48:01):
I say, the smell of a sour dough culture and
its first few days of existence is indescribable. I have
never experienced such a confusing olfactory combination of comforting, hominess
and downright dirty Jim sock. My culture isn't mature enough
to bake a loaf of naturally leavened sour dough with yet,
but I've been saving the discard every day and used

(48:22):
it today in a cinnamon raisin sour dough. I know
that was a lot, but I love talking about bread
and yeast in baking, and I figured this was a
good audience for it. Yes, Oh, absolutely, so delightful. You
roll up into the bar and you've got bread and
bread with like, hey, here's here, I am, here's the bread.

(48:48):
So cool? I mean, anybody that shows up at any
party I throw with a loaf of homemade bread is
yeah there, Oh my gosh. Yes. Um. A dear friend
of mine, lady who happens to be the executive chef
at a restaurant in Atlanta called Full commission Um, which
is mostly shut down due to COVID but is running
some takeaway specials, and I think just to keep herself saying,

(49:12):
she's also been making a lot of bread. And I
got a big old loaf of fresh sour dough, like
fresh out of the oven, like still warm, like still
too hot to slice sour dough. And it was it
was really it was really important to my life at
that moment. Oh yeah, and I know probably a lot

(49:34):
of places are doing this, but in Atlanta, UM, I
think it was curious some bakeries are doing like weekly
delivery things. Yeah, so definitely check that out. And I
know multiple of you have written in and told us
about your sour dough starters and what you're naming them
as you're at home and looking for these activities to do,

(49:56):
so keep that up, like I aspired to, like try it,
I know, right, I just want to see what I get, right,
I know there's some exciting, fun science project vibe around it,
So keep those emails coming. Thanks to both of them
for emailing us already. If you would like to email us,
you can. Our email is Hello at savor pod dot com.

(50:19):
You can also get in touch with us via social media.
We are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at savor pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts to my
heart Radio, you can visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
That's also where you can find that new show of
Food Court with Richard Blaze. Fun times yes uh. Thanks

(50:41):
as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way

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