March 27, 2026 • 39 mins
This herb brings pizzaz to all kinds of dishes – and not just as a garnish. Anney and Lauren dig into the science and history of parsley.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annirie and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today we have an episode
for you about Parsley.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, was there any particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Learn, Well, it's been on the list for a really
long time, but bears enough similarity to a bunch of
other stuff that I was trying to kind of space
it out from those. But it's been a minute since
we've talked about a carrot family herb.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And also, I.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Guess it was kind of it kind of caught my
attention as opposed to other herbs and spices that are
still on the list, because Passover is coming up, and
Passover being a Jewish holiday that involves, among other things,
a satyr or like a like a ritual feast night
with a lot of historical storytelling and symbolism, food and drink,
(01:03):
and in substuous traditions, Parsley shows up on the Passover
sat or plate as a as a vegetable meant to
be dipped in salt water or sometimes vinegar, to to
remind us of the sorrow of the tears that got
us all here. There are other interpretations and traditions, but
(01:23):
that's one that that I grew up with and I
think it's lovely. And also parsley is just a nice
springtime kind of herb.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I love parsley. Oh yeah, I love parsley. My mom
has a big pot of parsley that she grows, and
it used to be a really simple fresh meal we
would prepare where we would get fish and just like butter, garlic, salt, pepper,
and then parsley at the end. Oh yeah, so good.
It's so nice. I miss it so much. Done that,
(02:02):
but I want to get some parsley. And I made
this huge, huge dish of spaghetti the other day. Oh yeah,
I want to get some parsley to top it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, totally. Oh man, Yeah, I haven't have I ever
grown parsley. I don't think I have, but but it's delicious.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I sometimes I get little, you know, like bundles of
herbs from the grocery store, and whenever parsley is in there,
I'm always like.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh man, yeah, parsley. Right, why don't I see more
of this? Uh?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You can also see other episodes about like herbs and
spices like caraway, cilantro and coriander and dill. Also vegetables
like carrots, celery, and fennel. Also are episodes on Like
French Cuisine, including a scoffie. If you want to hear
(03:06):
a little bit more about passover, you can listen to
our episode on Matza.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, a lot to choose from, but I suppose this
does bring us to our question, sure parsley, what is it?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well? Parsley is a type of herb used for its delicate,
pretty dark green leaves, and it's like fresh herbaceous, simultaneously
warming and cooling flavors. There are three main categories of parsley.
The mild, curly leafed type with deep frills compacting its
(03:49):
leaves into like sort of rosettes. This type is often
used as a garnish. Then there's the stronger flavored flat
leafd parsley, sometimes called Italian parsley in American English, which
is just really great as a flavoring agent for all
kinds of savory dishes and is used anywhere from like
chopped raw into salads or dressings, to simmered into soups
(04:11):
to providing yeah, like a little bright spot in fritters
or yeah, basically a garnish on roasted vegetables or meat. Finally,
there is root parsley, sometimes called Hamburg parsley, grown for
its creamy white taproot, which is used as a root
vegetable in like roasts and pures, stuff like that. All
of these have like varying amounts and blends of this
(04:37):
just like really pleasant, bittersweet, slightly tart spiced but cooling flavor.
Set with its popularity as a garnish, parsley can sometimes
feel like an afterthought, but it really can just make
all the difference in dishes like soups and salads, in
(04:57):
condiments like herb butter, Parsley parsley is like if spring
dew could hold a form and grow.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's very invigorating. It has the tart bite. It's
kind of the cooling sensation.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, oh it's so nice. Ah okay. Botanical name Petras
salinum crisp. Parsley is in the carrot family, which means
that it is related in fact to all of those
herbs and vegetables I mentioned up top, along with parsnips,
which we have not done an episode on yet yet.
(05:40):
Parsley is a biennial, meaning that it has this two
year life cycle. During its first year of life, it
will grow leaves to collect energy and store that in
a tap root that it forms underground along with its
true roots, and then in its second year it uses
that stored energy in the tap root to produce flowers
and seeds. We've mostly cultivated parsley for those leaves, but
(06:03):
the whole plant is edible. Side note, apparently American swallowtail
butterfly caterpillars love parsley at least as much as Annie
and I do, and we'll like really go to town
on it. So either watch out for that or encourage it.
And just like plants and extra parsley and encourage it.
If you want to see some butterflies.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, yeah, up to you. Yeah, choose your own butterfly adventure.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Parsley plants will grow up to about a foot and
a half tall, that's up to forty five centimeters. During
their first year, there are different varieties developed for things
like extra flavor or like extra curliness in the leaves.
During that second year, parsley will not leaf out as much,
but will put up these tall flower stalks with many
clusters of small flowers that look sort of like little
(06:51):
floral fireworks. Yeah, if pollinated, those flowers will each develop
a small, hard, oval shape ribbed fruit that basically consists
of like two seeds that are snuggled up to each other.
We don't typically use parsley seeds as a spice the
way that we do related seeds, but I guess you could.
(07:13):
You can also press these for their strongly parsley flavored oils,
if that's what you're looking for. Parsley oil is used
both as a flavoring in like the food and beverage industry,
and also as an ingredient in pharma and cosmetics. But
we're ostensibly a food show, and you can find the
herb fresh or dried in stores. It's generally not difficult
(07:36):
to grow yourself, either outdoors if you live in a
temperate climate, or indoors if you do not, though the
seeds I've read are a little bit finicky to start,
so you might want to grab a seedling. I've never
seen the root for sale in the United States, but
I've never really looked for it, so I might have
just glazed right over it. I'm not sure. Right in
(07:57):
The leaves are key in some levn dishes, like tibule.
They're really terrific too, in like fresh sauces like pesto
or chimmy cherry, and just like side note advice tip,
if you're garnishing with parsley leaf and you've got a
container of like stock starter in your freezer, you know,
(08:21):
save the stems. Save the stems because they are super flavorful.
Do the same thing with the leaves from celery and
carrots because they all kind of share that familial flavor family.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, oh, nice tip. I like it. I like it.
A stock starter, love a stockstarter. I do as well. Well,
what about the nutrition by itself?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Parsley is pretty good for you, not that you're usually
eating it by itself, but you know, I don't know
your life. It's got lots and lots of micronutrients packed
in there, so adding it is a great thing to do.
Researchers are looking into parsley extracts for all kinds of things,
and I guess have been for a very long time.
As we'll get into in the history section. One interesting
(09:12):
paper that I did not read, I like read the
abstract from was about potentially reducing the infection rate of
viruses with parsley extract. Viruses like COVID nineteen, so I
don't know they're looking at it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
That's cool. Yeah, more researchers needed, but very cool. Yeah,
we have a number for you. Okay. Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
The Guinness Record for the tallest parsley plant was achieved
in twenty seventeen in Canada. It grew to eight feet
four inches tall. That's two point four to five meters.
Apparently the record winner just like bought the plant at
her local greenhouse and it just took the heck off
(10:08):
and kept growing, and she kept let it growing across
like five years. She does not like eating parsley.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
She also told Global News at the time that she
expected the previous record holder at Iowa State University to
fight back against this record, but she has not been
dethroned yet. I'm not sure what type of parsley she
was growing, but the variety from Iowa State was a
(10:45):
flat leaf that they got the seeds from from Hungary.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I love this. This is a mixture of like. It
could be a curse. She doesn't like parsley an yet
it continues to grow or be a wonderful like miracle
growing growing. Maybe she got magic seeds.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
A little bit of both. Maybe I don't know. Maybe
what a delightful curse.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah, yeah, an eight foot tall curse. Good for you, Parsley, Yeah,
good for you. That would also be pretty funny if
people were like, oh, do you love Parsley? Is that
why you have the record? And you're like, no, not
at all. Maybe that's why I have the record, so
(11:38):
I don't eat any of it. Well, we do have
quite a history to get into for you.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Oh we do, but first we are going to get
into a quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And we're back. Thank you, so fun yes, thank you. Okay.
So parsley originated in the Mediterranean thousands of years ago.
Both the ancient Greeks and Romans used similar, if not
the same, words for celery and parsley, which has caused
a lot of historical confusion though.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah. So the Greek term for celery was selenon, and
they combined that with a term for rocks or stones, petros,
to form their word for parsley petro selenon. And they
did that because parsley is a hearty little thing and
we'll spring up among rocks. And they were like, this
is kind of the same flavor as celery. Sure, totally
(12:41):
and sort of resembles it. Yeah, eventually through the ages
and several languages. That's in fact where our word parsley
comes from petro Selenon.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
But yeah, it can.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Be a little bit sticky historically figuring out which ones
folks were referring to at different times, especially as what
we consider celery developed.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, which is a problem we run into a lot
with these produce episodes or episodes. It can get very confusing, yes,
but trying our best. Yeah, okay. So in three hundred BCE,
Greek writer Theophrostis described what resembles the two types of
(13:27):
modern parsley, curly and flat. Our pal Plenty wrote about
the medicinal and culinary uses of parsley two, describing the
love that ancient Romans had for it, and he also
mentioned that it could perk up sick fish, which I love. Okay, sure, yeah,
I don't know. Maybe it does, like on a plate
(13:48):
or in the water. I okay, I think the water,
but who can tell? And yes, parsley was all also
used medicinally for a wide range of things, just so
many things. The Romans are often credited with spreading parsley
(14:09):
throughout Europe. Potentially through dried powders or dust at first,
so not the fresh plant. According to what I read,
the ancient Greeks bestowed Olympic winners with crowns made at
least in part with parsley, and Homer claimed that they
fed chariot horses parsley for strength, and possibly the Romans
(14:30):
used it as a symbol of mourning, maybe because it
masks the scent scent of death. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, all of.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That being said, there are a lot of myths about parsley.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Yes. The Greeks had an origin
story around it that it came from the blood of
a mythical hero Arc Morris, whose name meant the beginning
of bad luck. They allegedly had a saying quote to
need Parsley, which meant someone was near death. So a
(15:00):
lot of bad luck myths, death, misfortune, bad love, life,
the devil, and some of them you can look into it.
This is just one, but there were a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, And I had a hard time tracking down like
a kind of root of any of these, Like there's
sort of a lot of riffs on them, but in
the way of the Internet, I was like, did one
of you just make this up and the rest of
y'all kind of copy pasted. I you know, it's hard
to say.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, that's the problem with myths like this is they're
so fun, but you can't get to the bottom of
where they came from. And you're like, is it because
it's fun and that's the only reason it's here or somebody, Yeah,
they just made it up. But yeah, look into it, listeners,
or if you if you have resources that we didn't find. Yeah,
(15:51):
let us know. Historians believe that prior to the Middle Ages,
most of Europe treated parsley as more of a medicinal item,
but then it's started ending up in kitchens as a
more seasoning thing after that. During that time, from what
I read, a lot of monasteries and royal gardens started
growing it. John Gerard's fifteen ninety seven work The Herball
(16:15):
described the various medicinal properties of parsley and the culpeper herbal.
I just put a different pronunciations on both of those,
but you know, out of sixteen fifty three discussed those
medicinal properties as well. Relatively newer Hamburg parsley was first
cultivated in Germany by the sixteenth century, yes, the root
(16:37):
is the more sought after part of this plant, and
those roots are used similarly to something like parsnips. It's
never really gained attention outside of Europe from what I saw,
but in some European cuisines it is very very popular.
So write in about that too, listeners.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. I looked just a little bit
into why parsley is included on the passover sat or
plate in some traditions, and y'all, it would take a
whole different episode or episodes or like show really to
get into the various symbolic foods of passover, but basically,
(17:14):
parsley and celery both came up as like the dipped
vegetable in Ashkenazi traditions in Central and Eastern Europe as
a contrast to the root vegetables, specifically horse radish, that
were being used as the bitter herb on the plate
in those places at that point. And this was all
(17:36):
happening sometime around the period that Annie has just been
talking about, like the fourteenth to sixteenth century or so.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes, yes, Europeans brought Italian parsley with them to the
Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thomas Jefferson, Yes,
that guy, wrote about curly and flatlee varieties of parsley
in his seventeen seventy four garden book. The eighteen oh
(18:07):
six The American Gardener's Calendar featured a description of parsley.
In nineteen thirty seven, along the border of Haiti and
the Dominican Republic, Dominican soldiers killed anywhere between nine thousand
to twenty thousand Haitians. This was called the Parsley Massacre,
so named because the soldiers, the Dominican soldiers would carry
(18:29):
a sprig of parsley with them and ask anyone they
suspected to be Haitian to pronounce it in Spanish. Dominicans
and Haitians pronounced the trill over the r differently in
the Spanish word. The Dominican Republic's leader at the time,
dictator at the time, Raphael Leonidas Chohillo, was a big
follower of Hitler's and wanted to quote whiten the Dominican Republic.
(18:56):
And so the pain of this is still around to
this day. And that obviously we are a food podcast.
I can honestly say I didn't know about this, and
I was expecting it when I was researching parsley. But
there is a lot of really great research and discussion
and conversation about it. There was a really good one
(19:16):
I found from NPR if you want to learn more.
But yes, that was a thing that happened. Moving back
to the more food aspect. By the twentieth century, both
curly and flat parsley were known in the United States.
The curly leaf version was more readily embraced, perhaps because
(19:37):
of esthetics. It wasn't until after World War Two that
the flat variety became more utilized in the United States
outside of Italian communities in the country. And I hadn't
really thought about it until doing this research. But the
curly leaf parsley garnish it was ubiquitous in the United
States in the sixties through the eighties. But I saw
(19:58):
it when I was a kid in the nineties, so
I remember this.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, it was especially in the sixties or the eighties,
but that was not the end of its reign.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
It was not at all. But it would be on
your steak, on your burger, on your fish, a topping
for your soup. It decorated buffets and cheese plates. This
trend was in part influenced by French cuisine on American
culture at the time and the weight a lot of
folks gave that French cuisine. However, many American chefs didn't
(20:27):
use it like the French did, not as a true
culinary element, but as primarily a visual one.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, so parsley was an important herb in a cuisine
the French movement that really came up in the early
nineteen hundreds thanks to the chef and restauranteur august Escofier.
Parsley commonly appears in herbal cooking bundles, a bouquet garnee,
and parsley was especially key in Fiend's Herbs, which is
(20:56):
a fine chopped blend of parsley, chives, tarragon, and chrville. Traditionally,
fiends heerbs is used to season and or garnish delicately
flavored dishes, you know, fish, eggs, white sauces, stuff like that.
So it's a little difficult to track, but what I
(21:17):
think happened is that, like somewhere over the course of
the mid eighteen to mid nineteen hundreds, parsley alone first
became a shortcut to like proper Fiends herbs including in
French cuisine, which Escoffier himself kind of complained about, and
then an American cuisine through association with like fancy French cooking,
(21:43):
Parsley alone morphed to become this ubiquitous garnish.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yes, it's a really interesting journey actually that we It
is difficult to track, but just the evolution of how
Americans have used Parsley, it is fascinating to.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I mean you're right, Like the
side on a burger and fry plate is really like
at like your ruby Tuesdays or whatever. That is like
it is absolutely an image that has burned into my
brain and I'm like, why why is that there? Why
was anyone eating it? I don't think they were.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You just picked it up and you moved it up.
It looks pretty fancy.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I mean it could be used as like kind of
a breath freshener at the end of a meal. Was
anyone doing that?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
No, nope, But we did it anyway. We played it anyway. Yep,
certainly did. However, there were people in the United States
who were you know, we can do more than this
with Parsley. In the seventies, there was a shift in
(22:55):
the United States, where big names in the American culinary
scene like James Beard and Craig Claiborne praised the flat
leaf parsley for its flavor, and so people pivoted towards
that as opposed to the curly kind. An article from
the La Times out of nineteen seventy six proclaimed that
parsley was so abundant that restaurants and hotels were overusing
(23:16):
parsley as a garnish, and several articles from around this
time were urging people to think outside of the garnish box.
And they're very dramatic listeners. They're so dramatic. I recommend
if you're looking for just something to distract you go
look up what people were saying about parsley.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, there's a really really good page on it on
the website food timeline dot org, which is always a
treasure trove of wonderful historical references.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yes, but they were being very dramatic about it. It
was fantastic. As Italian parsley became more available in the
United States in the eighties and nineties, more and more
chefs did turn towards it, and not just as a garnish.
This was during a time of shifting taste in the
US too, less significance placed on French cuisine and more
(24:11):
curiosity and what was going on in places like Italy
and Japan.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
And the rest of the Mediterranean, including the Levant.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yes, and that was also a rabbit hole I wanted
to go down, but I couldn't. I would have to
be a whole episode. But kind of the shift from
the French take in America with Parsley and then the
Italian takes that became more like oh Italy though.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Oh oh yeah, yeah yeah, And then I mean, you know,
that's also right around the time when like you know,
hummus got really big, so loikita was everywhere, to bula
salad was available in different places, and yeah, so these
dishes from like more like the like Lebanon, Syria kind
of side of things started coming over as well.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yes, And this is also when, thanks to increased food
television programming in the nineties, the mainstream was being exposed
to a lot of cooking that was new to them.
And I feel like we mentioned that all the time,
but that was a big deal of suddenly you're seeing
things maybe you hadn't seen or hadn't heard of. Yeah
on TV and you were like, you know what, I
(25:21):
want to try that. Yeah, well now so you can
get it at stores where you couldn't have before.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, I am craving a mess plate.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I meet you, so I love to bulet.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I could never eat as much of it as I
want to because it does generally contain onion. And for
some reason, I've never made it myself. Why I never
made it myself? I should probably make it myself.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
But this is your next project after red beans and rice.
Here you go?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
That is that would be a really good like spring
into summer in a project like make your own messe plate,
you lazy weirdo? Like, why have you never made your
own Hammas?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
It's so easy? Yeah, that'd be lovely. I'm assigning this
homework to you.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I'm not sure if I'm done with red beans and
rice yet. That's fair if you want to specialize, I
won't start.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I kind of like it's sort of like when you
get to the end of a good book and you
just immediately start over again because like you kind of
want to like see how the book works. Yeah, Like,
like I I do still have a container of red
beans and rice in my freezer, but I want to
make it again to like yeah, like see in hone
in right exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
No, I'm a big believer if you like something twice
because the second time, now that you know how it ends.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh, you pick up so many things.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, and you've got more understanding. I'm right there with you. Well,
we'll report back whenever you decide.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
To do Yes, I will, I will, And I mean
eventually you know, like I can't. It's not going to
be red beans and rice forever.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
You never know. Well, that's true, you could become the
red beans and lady.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I don't I mean, considering that what I make isn't
really technically red beans and rice, I don't think that
I should have that label applied to me. But certainly,
you know, like I'm willing to try a bunch of
different things.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, I did. I did.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
While I was eating some of it, have the thought
I was like, did I just make the like most
time consuming beans and francs on the planet? Is that
what I have done with a solid sixteen hours.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Of a day. These are the important questions, Lauren. This
is what we must ask ourselves, and this is what
Saber tries to tackle people put different labels on food
and then they argue about it. That happens in like
every episode.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, it's delightful, really, Yes, it's impassioned.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
People care, people care. Well, yes, well, I think that's
what we have to say about Parsley for now.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
It is, but we would love to hear from y'all
about right Root Parsley. Do you have any Parsley's sauce
or dressing or salad dishes? Do you have strong opinions
about Bouquet Garnee or Fiend's herbs?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Uh dude, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Any any thoughts or feelings or arguments we would love
to hear, but yes, uh, that is what we have
to say for now, And we do already have some
listener mail for you, which we are going to get
into as soon as we get back from one more
quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And we're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with a listener spring right, sure, we're officially
in spring. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna try to do
a sound of music thing, but it was a risk,
(29:41):
So that's what you get.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, without like without like spinning and like curtains
made into clothes.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
It's a little difficult to follow. Yeah, but yes, yeah,
and I won't forget the time I did try to
spin and almost took down my whole studio. So I
have learned my lesson.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's a dangerous business spinning.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Indeed, Lauren, indeed our crup. So after hearing the Vietnamese
fish Shaus episode, I had to look into things a
little closer. Talk about a rabbit hole. I use fish
Shaus and a lot of things, but it is Lucky brand,
which is thie. Seeing how different the Vietnamese versus the
(30:27):
Tie versus the Chinese fish shauce are makes me think
some taste testing needs to be done in my recipes.
I love the wonderful world of food culture. We need
more kindness and sharing and caring these days. I would
not call Lipton te basic. Okay, In doing some more
thinking about basic, I personally have moved to baseline. Basic
(30:52):
well not a bad thing, tends to still have a
somewhat negative connotation. I personally think baseline works better. This
is the start point that you need to get to.
Lipton really makes me think of sun tea on a
hot summer day. As for the cold brew bags, I
think they work pretty well. I tend to use them
in the summer, throw a bag or two in a
(31:14):
pitcher and throw that in the fridge before heading out.
I'm not sure what the exact TA difference is, but
the cold brew seems a little smoother. That's probably the
best way to describe it in my mind. Always nice
to have a cold glass of tea available.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh absolutely, yes, that is that is a truth.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah. Can you imagine if we started saying like, it's baseline,
this baseline. Yeah, but not in a negative way.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Just like no, no, no, no, no, no, it's baseline, baseline,
that's where you need to go.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
What it is, that's just jumping off point. Absolutely absolutely.
I well, thank you for sharing your thoughts on Lipten,
because we did ask if people had the nostalgic thoughts
or how they used it. And they have so many products, so.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yes, yeah, no, good to know
about the cold bree bags. Yeah. Oh sun tea, sun
tea for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
M And yes, let us know how your taste test
goes with these different fish sauces. Yeah, if you get together. Absolutely,
Oh my gosh, I got right after that episode, I
got one of the brands. We mentioned Vietnamese fish sauce,
but I saw that a popular tie fish sauce was
(32:41):
there too, and I was like, hmm, I could also
do a taste test and.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
See yes, yes, oh oh. All y'all report back. This
is important information.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Giving all of ourselves homework.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yes, yes, Ralph wrote, I'm writing about your podcast episode
on spruce beer. I know I'm a bit late to
the conversation. I've been working my way through a backlog
of episodes. Some places still make this kind of beer.
I realized that my favorite winter beer is a spruce beer.
I only discovered it this year when I read the.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Back of the can.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
It's made by Einstock, an Iceland it company, and it's
called winter Ale, or if you're asking at the store,
the one with the red can. Anyway, I just wanted
to say that I really enjoy the discussion.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
PS.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Here is the cat tax enclosed are three of my cats. Okay,
we've got Oreo white with black spots. He was a
result of the cat distribution system. He was a stray
kitten that befriended my five year old son at a
local state park on a cold President's Day in twenty
twenty two. We were about to leave when this kitten
came out of the woods and bonded with my son
(33:56):
to the point that he jumped into our car. We
took him home, had a vetch him out, and scanned
him for a chip Nune. Then there's Cookie, a black
cat with a white nose, our COVID cat. We adopted
her after our cat of ten years passed away. She
hates all other cats, so she has to be kept
separate from the rest. And then Frisky the orange. He
(34:21):
came home after my wife told me about a local
farm that had a basket of kittens and so yes
photos are attached. Their Oreo.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Oreo is posed in a car.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
I don't know if it was that cold President's Day
of twenty twenty two, but yes.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Very adorable little tuxedo.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Buddy with a very pink nose and appears to be
actively mind melding with someone in order to tell them
you bring me home and.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
You give me cables.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I don't know if that's Oreo's voice, but in the pit, sure,
I don't know that's what I was getting.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
And then Cookie, Yes, uh is napping blissfully free of
other cats. Uh? Uh with yeah, yeah, with just cute
little white socks and a cute little white white muzzle.
(35:28):
And uh, you know, I get that I need my
space too. Sometimes sometimes I'm like, I don't want any
other cats around me today. I'm gonna go nap all
on my own.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
I mean, cookie got their own space out of it.
You know, they got like this little pillow next to
the window and a little cat house.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah hey, And then yes, a tiny orange kitten frisky. Uh,
I believe also has little white socks and a little
bit of white concentrated on the muscle on the muzzle.
And uh oh, I love oranges. Oh gosh, they're just
(36:12):
they're so ridiculous looking all the time, even when they're
kind of being serious, they're just I'm just like, you're
you're a goofball. You can you can tell. Also, oh gosh,
the phrase basket of kittens, I yeah, I would be like, yeah,
that's I guess we're getting at least one kitten. I
mean they're in a basket. Like, what else are you
(36:32):
going to do? We're legally obligated. I think.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
These are also excellent names. Oh yes, yes, two food
names in there. And I think you could make an
argument that frisky could you know frisky whiskey. Yeah, but yes,
thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Oh yes, yeah for for these and for the spruce
beer thoughts.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yes, yes, your your pet tax has been paid in full.
It is tax season, it is. Yeah, so listeners, keep
that coming. Uh if we, if Savor had the power,
would send you some kind of refund, but we don't
have that. Yeah, just know we appreciate it and we're
(37:28):
sending yeah good thoughts your way.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah, and if you oh gosh, absolutely, and if you
find me on social media. I also have pictures of
my cats up, so you know, sort of like a
tax refund.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, Laurence cats. I love hearing about Laurence cats. So
you should go check that out.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I believe I am vocal Bomb v O G E
L Bomb on Blue Sky and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yes, well, listeners, go check that out. I also have
an apartment building Kat who's adorable, but I have not
taken any pictures of him yet.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
But okay, the sweetest all buddy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
H I love him. Well, listeners. Okay, thank you so
much to both of these listeners for writing in. If
you would like to write to us, you can our emails.
Hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Instagram and blue Sky at savor 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.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
You listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots of more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annirie and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today we have an episode
for you about Parsley.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, was there any particular reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Learn, Well, it's been on the list for a really
long time, but bears enough similarity to a bunch of
other stuff that I was trying to kind of space
it out from those. But it's been a minute since
we've talked about a carrot family herb.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And also, I.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Guess it was kind of it kind of caught my
attention as opposed to other herbs and spices that are
still on the list, because Passover is coming up, and
Passover being a Jewish holiday that involves, among other things,
a satyr or like a like a ritual feast night
with a lot of historical storytelling and symbolism, food and drink,
(01:03):
and in substuous traditions, Parsley shows up on the Passover
sat or plate as a as a vegetable meant to
be dipped in salt water or sometimes vinegar, to to
remind us of the sorrow of the tears that got
us all here. There are other interpretations and traditions, but
(01:23):
that's one that that I grew up with and I
think it's lovely. And also parsley is just a nice
springtime kind of herb.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I love parsley. Oh yeah, I love parsley. My mom
has a big pot of parsley that she grows, and
it used to be a really simple fresh meal we
would prepare where we would get fish and just like butter, garlic, salt, pepper,
and then parsley at the end. Oh yeah, so good.
It's so nice. I miss it so much. Done that,
(02:02):
but I want to get some parsley. And I made
this huge, huge dish of spaghetti the other day. Oh yeah,
I want to get some parsley to top it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, totally. Oh man, Yeah, I haven't have I ever
grown parsley. I don't think I have, but but it's delicious.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I sometimes I get little, you know, like bundles of
herbs from the grocery store, and whenever parsley is in there,
I'm always like.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh man, yeah, parsley. Right, why don't I see more
of this? Uh?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You can also see other episodes about like herbs and
spices like caraway, cilantro and coriander and dill. Also vegetables
like carrots, celery, and fennel. Also are episodes on Like
French Cuisine, including a scoffie. If you want to hear
(03:06):
a little bit more about passover, you can listen to
our episode on Matza.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, a lot to choose from, but I suppose this
does bring us to our question, sure parsley, what is it?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well? Parsley is a type of herb used for its delicate,
pretty dark green leaves, and it's like fresh herbaceous, simultaneously
warming and cooling flavors. There are three main categories of parsley.
The mild, curly leafed type with deep frills compacting its
(03:49):
leaves into like sort of rosettes. This type is often
used as a garnish. Then there's the stronger flavored flat
leafd parsley, sometimes called Italian parsley in American English, which
is just really great as a flavoring agent for all
kinds of savory dishes and is used anywhere from like
chopped raw into salads or dressings, to simmered into soups
(04:11):
to providing yeah, like a little bright spot in fritters
or yeah, basically a garnish on roasted vegetables or meat. Finally,
there is root parsley, sometimes called Hamburg parsley, grown for
its creamy white taproot, which is used as a root
vegetable in like roasts and pures, stuff like that. All
of these have like varying amounts and blends of this
(04:37):
just like really pleasant, bittersweet, slightly tart spiced but cooling flavor.
Set with its popularity as a garnish, parsley can sometimes
feel like an afterthought, but it really can just make
all the difference in dishes like soups and salads, in
(04:57):
condiments like herb butter, Parsley parsley is like if spring
dew could hold a form and grow.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's very invigorating. It has the tart bite. It's
kind of the cooling sensation.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, oh it's so nice. Ah okay. Botanical name Petras
salinum crisp. Parsley is in the carrot family, which means
that it is related in fact to all of those
herbs and vegetables I mentioned up top, along with parsnips,
which we have not done an episode on yet yet.
(05:40):
Parsley is a biennial, meaning that it has this two
year life cycle. During its first year of life, it
will grow leaves to collect energy and store that in
a tap root that it forms underground along with its
true roots, and then in its second year it uses
that stored energy in the tap root to produce flowers
and seeds. We've mostly cultivated parsley for those leaves, but
(06:03):
the whole plant is edible. Side note, apparently American swallowtail
butterfly caterpillars love parsley at least as much as Annie
and I do, and we'll like really go to town
on it. So either watch out for that or encourage it.
And just like plants and extra parsley and encourage it.
If you want to see some butterflies.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, yeah, up to you. Yeah, choose your own butterfly adventure.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Parsley plants will grow up to about a foot and
a half tall, that's up to forty five centimeters. During
their first year, there are different varieties developed for things
like extra flavor or like extra curliness in the leaves.
During that second year, parsley will not leaf out as much,
but will put up these tall flower stalks with many
clusters of small flowers that look sort of like little
(06:51):
floral fireworks. Yeah, if pollinated, those flowers will each develop
a small, hard, oval shape ribbed fruit that basically consists
of like two seeds that are snuggled up to each other.
We don't typically use parsley seeds as a spice the
way that we do related seeds, but I guess you could.
(07:13):
You can also press these for their strongly parsley flavored oils,
if that's what you're looking for. Parsley oil is used
both as a flavoring in like the food and beverage industry,
and also as an ingredient in pharma and cosmetics. But
we're ostensibly a food show, and you can find the
herb fresh or dried in stores. It's generally not difficult
(07:36):
to grow yourself, either outdoors if you live in a
temperate climate, or indoors if you do not, though the
seeds I've read are a little bit finicky to start,
so you might want to grab a seedling. I've never
seen the root for sale in the United States, but
I've never really looked for it, so I might have
just glazed right over it. I'm not sure. Right in
(07:57):
The leaves are key in some levn dishes, like tibule.
They're really terrific too, in like fresh sauces like pesto
or chimmy cherry, and just like side note advice tip,
if you're garnishing with parsley leaf and you've got a
container of like stock starter in your freezer, you know,
(08:21):
save the stems. Save the stems because they are super flavorful.
Do the same thing with the leaves from celery and
carrots because they all kind of share that familial flavor family.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, oh, nice tip. I like it. I like it.
A stock starter, love a stockstarter. I do as well. Well,
what about the nutrition by itself?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Parsley is pretty good for you, not that you're usually
eating it by itself, but you know, I don't know
your life. It's got lots and lots of micronutrients packed
in there, so adding it is a great thing to do.
Researchers are looking into parsley extracts for all kinds of things,
and I guess have been for a very long time.
As we'll get into in the history section. One interesting
(09:12):
paper that I did not read, I like read the
abstract from was about potentially reducing the infection rate of
viruses with parsley extract. Viruses like COVID nineteen, so I
don't know they're looking at it.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
That's cool. Yeah, more researchers needed, but very cool. Yeah,
we have a number for you. Okay. Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
The Guinness Record for the tallest parsley plant was achieved
in twenty seventeen in Canada. It grew to eight feet
four inches tall. That's two point four to five meters.
Apparently the record winner just like bought the plant at
her local greenhouse and it just took the heck off
(10:08):
and kept growing, and she kept let it growing across
like five years. She does not like eating parsley.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
She also told Global News at the time that she
expected the previous record holder at Iowa State University to
fight back against this record, but she has not been
dethroned yet. I'm not sure what type of parsley she
was growing, but the variety from Iowa State was a
(10:45):
flat leaf that they got the seeds from from Hungary.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I love this. This is a mixture of like. It
could be a curse. She doesn't like parsley an yet
it continues to grow or be a wonderful like miracle
growing growing. Maybe she got magic seeds.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
A little bit of both. Maybe I don't know. Maybe
what a delightful curse.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah, yeah, an eight foot tall curse. Good for you, Parsley, Yeah,
good for you. That would also be pretty funny if
people were like, oh, do you love Parsley? Is that
why you have the record? And you're like, no, not
at all. Maybe that's why I have the record, so
(11:38):
I don't eat any of it. Well, we do have
quite a history to get into for you.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Oh we do, but first we are going to get
into a quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And we're back. Thank you, so fun yes, thank you. Okay.
So parsley originated in the Mediterranean thousands of years ago.
Both the ancient Greeks and Romans used similar, if not
the same, words for celery and parsley, which has caused
a lot of historical confusion though.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah. So the Greek term for celery was selenon, and
they combined that with a term for rocks or stones, petros,
to form their word for parsley petro selenon. And they
did that because parsley is a hearty little thing and
we'll spring up among rocks. And they were like, this
is kind of the same flavor as celery. Sure, totally
(12:41):
and sort of resembles it. Yeah, eventually through the ages
and several languages. That's in fact where our word parsley
comes from petro Selenon.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
But yeah, it can.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Be a little bit sticky historically figuring out which ones
folks were referring to at different times, especially as what
we consider celery developed.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, which is a problem we run into a lot
with these produce episodes or episodes. It can get very confusing, yes,
but trying our best. Yeah, okay. So in three hundred BCE,
Greek writer Theophrostis described what resembles the two types of
(13:27):
modern parsley, curly and flat. Our pal Plenty wrote about
the medicinal and culinary uses of parsley two, describing the
love that ancient Romans had for it, and he also
mentioned that it could perk up sick fish, which I love. Okay, sure, yeah,
I don't know. Maybe it does, like on a plate
(13:48):
or in the water. I okay, I think the water,
but who can tell? And yes, parsley was all also
used medicinally for a wide range of things, just so
many things. The Romans are often credited with spreading parsley
(14:09):
throughout Europe. Potentially through dried powders or dust at first,
so not the fresh plant. According to what I read,
the ancient Greeks bestowed Olympic winners with crowns made at
least in part with parsley, and Homer claimed that they
fed chariot horses parsley for strength, and possibly the Romans
(14:30):
used it as a symbol of mourning, maybe because it
masks the scent scent of death. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, all of.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That being said, there are a lot of myths about parsley.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Yes. The Greeks had an origin
story around it that it came from the blood of
a mythical hero Arc Morris, whose name meant the beginning
of bad luck. They allegedly had a saying quote to
need Parsley, which meant someone was near death. So a
(15:00):
lot of bad luck myths, death, misfortune, bad love, life,
the devil, and some of them you can look into it.
This is just one, but there were a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, And I had a hard time tracking down like
a kind of root of any of these, Like there's
sort of a lot of riffs on them, but in
the way of the Internet, I was like, did one
of you just make this up and the rest of
y'all kind of copy pasted. I you know, it's hard
to say.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, that's the problem with myths like this is they're
so fun, but you can't get to the bottom of
where they came from. And you're like, is it because
it's fun and that's the only reason it's here or somebody, Yeah,
they just made it up. But yeah, look into it, listeners,
or if you if you have resources that we didn't find. Yeah,
(15:51):
let us know. Historians believe that prior to the Middle Ages,
most of Europe treated parsley as more of a medicinal item,
but then it's started ending up in kitchens as a
more seasoning thing after that. During that time, from what
I read, a lot of monasteries and royal gardens started
growing it. John Gerard's fifteen ninety seven work The Herball
(16:15):
described the various medicinal properties of parsley and the culpeper herbal.
I just put a different pronunciations on both of those,
but you know, out of sixteen fifty three discussed those
medicinal properties as well. Relatively newer Hamburg parsley was first
cultivated in Germany by the sixteenth century, yes, the root
(16:37):
is the more sought after part of this plant, and
those roots are used similarly to something like parsnips. It's
never really gained attention outside of Europe from what I saw,
but in some European cuisines it is very very popular.
So write in about that too, listeners.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. I looked just a little bit
into why parsley is included on the passover sat or
plate in some traditions, and y'all, it would take a
whole different episode or episodes or like show really to
get into the various symbolic foods of passover, but basically,
(17:14):
parsley and celery both came up as like the dipped
vegetable in Ashkenazi traditions in Central and Eastern Europe as
a contrast to the root vegetables, specifically horse radish, that
were being used as the bitter herb on the plate
in those places at that point. And this was all
(17:36):
happening sometime around the period that Annie has just been
talking about, like the fourteenth to sixteenth century or so.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes, yes, Europeans brought Italian parsley with them to the
Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thomas Jefferson, Yes,
that guy, wrote about curly and flatlee varieties of parsley
in his seventeen seventy four garden book. The eighteen oh
(18:07):
six The American Gardener's Calendar featured a description of parsley.
In nineteen thirty seven, along the border of Haiti and
the Dominican Republic, Dominican soldiers killed anywhere between nine thousand
to twenty thousand Haitians. This was called the Parsley Massacre,
so named because the soldiers, the Dominican soldiers would carry
(18:29):
a sprig of parsley with them and ask anyone they
suspected to be Haitian to pronounce it in Spanish. Dominicans
and Haitians pronounced the trill over the r differently in
the Spanish word. The Dominican Republic's leader at the time,
dictator at the time, Raphael Leonidas Chohillo, was a big
follower of Hitler's and wanted to quote whiten the Dominican Republic.
(18:56):
And so the pain of this is still around to
this day. And that obviously we are a food podcast.
I can honestly say I didn't know about this, and
I was expecting it when I was researching parsley. But
there is a lot of really great research and discussion
and conversation about it. There was a really good one
(19:16):
I found from NPR if you want to learn more.
But yes, that was a thing that happened. Moving back
to the more food aspect. By the twentieth century, both
curly and flat parsley were known in the United States.
The curly leaf version was more readily embraced, perhaps because
(19:37):
of esthetics. It wasn't until after World War Two that
the flat variety became more utilized in the United States
outside of Italian communities in the country. And I hadn't
really thought about it until doing this research. But the
curly leaf parsley garnish it was ubiquitous in the United
States in the sixties through the eighties. But I saw
(19:58):
it when I was a kid in the nineties, so
I remember this.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, it was especially in the sixties or the eighties,
but that was not the end of its reign.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
It was not at all. But it would be on
your steak, on your burger, on your fish, a topping
for your soup. It decorated buffets and cheese plates. This
trend was in part influenced by French cuisine on American
culture at the time and the weight a lot of
folks gave that French cuisine. However, many American chefs didn't
(20:27):
use it like the French did, not as a true
culinary element, but as primarily a visual one.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, so parsley was an important herb in a cuisine
the French movement that really came up in the early
nineteen hundreds thanks to the chef and restauranteur august Escofier.
Parsley commonly appears in herbal cooking bundles, a bouquet garnee,
and parsley was especially key in Fiend's Herbs, which is
(20:56):
a fine chopped blend of parsley, chives, tarragon, and chrville. Traditionally,
fiends heerbs is used to season and or garnish delicately
flavored dishes, you know, fish, eggs, white sauces, stuff like that.
So it's a little difficult to track, but what I
(21:17):
think happened is that, like somewhere over the course of
the mid eighteen to mid nineteen hundreds, parsley alone first
became a shortcut to like proper Fiends herbs including in
French cuisine, which Escoffier himself kind of complained about, and
then an American cuisine through association with like fancy French cooking,
(21:43):
Parsley alone morphed to become this ubiquitous garnish.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yes, it's a really interesting journey actually that we It
is difficult to track, but just the evolution of how
Americans have used Parsley, it is fascinating to.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Oh yeah, yeah, no, I mean you're right, Like the
side on a burger and fry plate is really like
at like your ruby Tuesdays or whatever. That is like
it is absolutely an image that has burned into my
brain and I'm like, why why is that there? Why
was anyone eating it? I don't think they were.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You just picked it up and you moved it up.
It looks pretty fancy.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I mean it could be used as like kind of
a breath freshener at the end of a meal. Was
anyone doing that?
Speaker 1 (22:34):
No, nope, But we did it anyway. We played it anyway. Yep,
certainly did. However, there were people in the United States
who were you know, we can do more than this
with Parsley. In the seventies, there was a shift in
(22:55):
the United States, where big names in the American culinary
scene like James Beard and Craig Claiborne praised the flat
leaf parsley for its flavor, and so people pivoted towards
that as opposed to the curly kind. An article from
the La Times out of nineteen seventy six proclaimed that
parsley was so abundant that restaurants and hotels were overusing
(23:16):
parsley as a garnish, and several articles from around this
time were urging people to think outside of the garnish box.
And they're very dramatic listeners. They're so dramatic. I recommend
if you're looking for just something to distract you go
look up what people were saying about parsley.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, there's a really really good page on it on
the website food timeline dot org, which is always a
treasure trove of wonderful historical references.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yes, but they were being very dramatic about it. It
was fantastic. As Italian parsley became more available in the
United States in the eighties and nineties, more and more
chefs did turn towards it, and not just as a garnish.
This was during a time of shifting taste in the
US too, less significance placed on French cuisine and more
(24:11):
curiosity and what was going on in places like Italy
and Japan.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
And the rest of the Mediterranean, including the Levant.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Yes, and that was also a rabbit hole I wanted
to go down, but I couldn't. I would have to
be a whole episode. But kind of the shift from
the French take in America with Parsley and then the
Italian takes that became more like oh Italy though.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Oh oh yeah, yeah yeah, And then I mean, you know,
that's also right around the time when like you know,
hummus got really big, so loikita was everywhere, to bula
salad was available in different places, and yeah, so these
dishes from like more like the like Lebanon, Syria kind
of side of things started coming over as well.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yes, And this is also when, thanks to increased food
television programming in the nineties, the mainstream was being exposed
to a lot of cooking that was new to them.
And I feel like we mentioned that all the time,
but that was a big deal of suddenly you're seeing
things maybe you hadn't seen or hadn't heard of. Yeah
on TV and you were like, you know what, I
(25:21):
want to try that. Yeah, well now so you can
get it at stores where you couldn't have before.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, I am craving a mess plate.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I meet you, so I love to bulet.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I could never eat as much of it as I
want to because it does generally contain onion. And for
some reason, I've never made it myself. Why I never
made it myself? I should probably make it myself.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
But this is your next project after red beans and rice.
Here you go?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
That is that would be a really good like spring
into summer in a project like make your own messe plate,
you lazy weirdo? Like, why have you never made your
own Hammas?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
It's so easy? Yeah, that'd be lovely. I'm assigning this
homework to you.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I'm not sure if I'm done with red beans and
rice yet. That's fair if you want to specialize, I
won't start.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I kind of like it's sort of like when you
get to the end of a good book and you
just immediately start over again because like you kind of
want to like see how the book works. Yeah, Like,
like I I do still have a container of red
beans and rice in my freezer, but I want to
make it again to like yeah, like see in hone
in right exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
No, I'm a big believer if you like something twice
because the second time, now that you know how it ends.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh, you pick up so many things.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, and you've got more understanding. I'm right there with you. Well,
we'll report back whenever you decide.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
To do Yes, I will, I will, And I mean
eventually you know, like I can't. It's not going to
be red beans and rice forever.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
You never know. Well, that's true, you could become the
red beans and lady.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I don't I mean, considering that what I make isn't
really technically red beans and rice, I don't think that
I should have that label applied to me. But certainly,
you know, like I'm willing to try a bunch of
different things.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, I did. I did.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
While I was eating some of it, have the thought
I was like, did I just make the like most
time consuming beans and francs on the planet? Is that
what I have done with a solid sixteen hours.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Of a day. These are the important questions, Lauren. This
is what we must ask ourselves, and this is what
Saber tries to tackle people put different labels on food
and then they argue about it. That happens in like
every episode.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, it's delightful, really, Yes, it's impassioned.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
People care, people care. Well, yes, well, I think that's
what we have to say about Parsley for now.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
It is, but we would love to hear from y'all
about right Root Parsley. Do you have any Parsley's sauce
or dressing or salad dishes? Do you have strong opinions
about Bouquet Garnee or Fiend's herbs?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Uh dude, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Any any thoughts or feelings or arguments we would love
to hear, but yes, uh, that is what we have
to say for now, And we do already have some
listener mail for you, which we are going to get
into as soon as we get back from one more
quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And we're back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, And
we're back with a listener spring right, sure, we're officially
in spring. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna try to do
a sound of music thing, but it was a risk,
(29:41):
So that's what you get.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, without like without like spinning and like curtains
made into clothes.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
It's a little difficult to follow. Yeah, but yes, yeah,
and I won't forget the time I did try to
spin and almost took down my whole studio. So I
have learned my lesson.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's a dangerous business spinning.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Indeed, Lauren, indeed our crup. So after hearing the Vietnamese
fish Shaus episode, I had to look into things a
little closer. Talk about a rabbit hole. I use fish
Shaus and a lot of things, but it is Lucky brand,
which is thie. Seeing how different the Vietnamese versus the
(30:27):
Tie versus the Chinese fish shauce are makes me think
some taste testing needs to be done in my recipes.
I love the wonderful world of food culture. We need
more kindness and sharing and caring these days. I would
not call Lipton te basic. Okay, In doing some more
thinking about basic, I personally have moved to baseline. Basic
(30:52):
well not a bad thing, tends to still have a
somewhat negative connotation. I personally think baseline works better. This
is the start point that you need to get to.
Lipton really makes me think of sun tea on a
hot summer day. As for the cold brew bags, I
think they work pretty well. I tend to use them
in the summer, throw a bag or two in a
(31:14):
pitcher and throw that in the fridge before heading out.
I'm not sure what the exact TA difference is, but
the cold brew seems a little smoother. That's probably the
best way to describe it in my mind. Always nice
to have a cold glass of tea available.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Oh absolutely, yes, that is that is a truth.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah. Can you imagine if we started saying like, it's baseline,
this baseline. Yeah, but not in a negative way.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Just like no, no, no, no, no, no, it's baseline, baseline,
that's where you need to go.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
What it is, that's just jumping off point. Absolutely absolutely.
I well, thank you for sharing your thoughts on Lipten,
because we did ask if people had the nostalgic thoughts
or how they used it. And they have so many products, so.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yes, yeah, no, good to know
about the cold bree bags. Yeah. Oh sun tea, sun
tea for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
M And yes, let us know how your taste test
goes with these different fish sauces. Yeah, if you get together. Absolutely,
Oh my gosh, I got right after that episode, I
got one of the brands. We mentioned Vietnamese fish sauce,
but I saw that a popular tie fish sauce was
(32:41):
there too, and I was like, hmm, I could also
do a taste test and.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
See yes, yes, oh oh. All y'all report back. This
is important information.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Giving all of ourselves homework.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Yes, yes, Ralph wrote, I'm writing about your podcast episode
on spruce beer. I know I'm a bit late to
the conversation. I've been working my way through a backlog
of episodes. Some places still make this kind of beer.
I realized that my favorite winter beer is a spruce beer.
I only discovered it this year when I read the.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Back of the can.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
It's made by Einstock, an Iceland it company, and it's
called winter Ale, or if you're asking at the store,
the one with the red can. Anyway, I just wanted
to say that I really enjoy the discussion.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
PS.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Here is the cat tax enclosed are three of my cats. Okay,
we've got Oreo white with black spots. He was a
result of the cat distribution system. He was a stray
kitten that befriended my five year old son at a
local state park on a cold President's Day in twenty
twenty two. We were about to leave when this kitten
came out of the woods and bonded with my son
(33:56):
to the point that he jumped into our car. We
took him home, had a vetch him out, and scanned
him for a chip Nune. Then there's Cookie, a black
cat with a white nose, our COVID cat. We adopted
her after our cat of ten years passed away. She
hates all other cats, so she has to be kept
separate from the rest. And then Frisky the orange. He
(34:21):
came home after my wife told me about a local
farm that had a basket of kittens and so yes
photos are attached. Their Oreo.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Oreo is posed in a car.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
I don't know if it was that cold President's Day
of twenty twenty two, but yes.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Very adorable little tuxedo.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Buddy with a very pink nose and appears to be
actively mind melding with someone in order to tell them
you bring me home and.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
You give me cables.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
I don't know if that's Oreo's voice, but in the pit, sure,
I don't know that's what I was getting.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
And then Cookie, Yes, uh is napping blissfully free of
other cats. Uh? Uh with yeah, yeah, with just cute
little white socks and a cute little white white muzzle.
(35:28):
And uh, you know, I get that I need my
space too. Sometimes sometimes I'm like, I don't want any
other cats around me today. I'm gonna go nap all
on my own.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
I mean, cookie got their own space out of it.
You know, they got like this little pillow next to
the window and a little cat house.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah hey, And then yes, a tiny orange kitten frisky. Uh,
I believe also has little white socks and a little
bit of white concentrated on the muscle on the muzzle.
And uh oh, I love oranges. Oh gosh, they're just
(36:12):
they're so ridiculous looking all the time, even when they're
kind of being serious, they're just I'm just like, you're
you're a goofball. You can you can tell. Also, oh gosh,
the phrase basket of kittens, I yeah, I would be like, yeah,
that's I guess we're getting at least one kitten. I
mean they're in a basket. Like, what else are you
(36:32):
going to do? We're legally obligated. I think.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
These are also excellent names. Oh yes, yes, two food
names in there. And I think you could make an
argument that frisky could you know frisky whiskey. Yeah, but yes,
thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Oh yes, yeah for for these and for the spruce
beer thoughts.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yes, yes, your your pet tax has been paid in full.
It is tax season, it is. Yeah, so listeners, keep
that coming. Uh if we, if Savor had the power,
would send you some kind of refund, but we don't
have that. Yeah, just know we appreciate it and we're
(37:28):
sending yeah good thoughts your way.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah, and if you oh gosh, absolutely, and if you
find me on social media. I also have pictures of
my cats up, so you know, sort of like a
tax refund.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, Laurence cats. I love hearing about Laurence cats. So
you should go check that out.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
I believe I am vocal Bomb v O G E
L Bomb on Blue Sky and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yes, well, listeners, go check that out. I also have
an apartment building Kat who's adorable, but I have not
taken any pictures of him yet.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
But okay, the sweetest all buddy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
H I love him. Well, listeners. Okay, thank you so
much to both of these listeners for writing in. If
you would like to write to us, you can our emails.
Hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Instagram and blue Sky at savor 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.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
You listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
that lots of more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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