May 5, 2023 • 36 mins
This mild, melty cheese comes has a spicy history. Anney and Lauren dig into the story of Monterey/Jack/Monterey Jack cheese.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Anni
Regis and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm more on Vogelbaum and today we have an episode
for you about Monterey Jack.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Cheese, Yes, which was a fascinating one. I didn't know
any of this history.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Nope, nope, me neither. I was like, that's a pretty
mild cheese. It's probably very boring. And then I was like, oh,
oh we get we get to talk about cheese. Yeah,
gets spicy, so spicy, not just because of included Hobbenaros.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
No, No, were you just looking for a cheese.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think that's what was going on, and I was
possibly looking for one outside of the Europe region. And
so yeah, land it over here.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Here we are. Well, I do love Monterey Jack. Sure,
Now I don't know. I mean, I still love it.
I just got to reevaluate. I got to rethink some things.
The history is good to.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Know it is it is. It puts everything in perspective.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, if you've if you've never heard any of this,
you are in for a ride.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
My friends. Uh you sent this message via our like
office communication service and I was like, oh, because you
said it's it's an unwieldy or like wild story to
pin down. I was like, moneraye jack, all right, and
(01:45):
then I looked into it. I was like, oh okay, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah. Sometimes when I'm when I when I like, especially
if I know that you're having a having a whole
week already, I'm like, I don't want to give Annie
a homework assignment that's like too intense, So I'm trying
to look out. But yeah, yeah it wound up being fun,
so yes, yes it did.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
You can see are very We have several past cheese episodes.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that you can check out. I
would say yogurt as always, butter maybe milk types.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah yeah, maybe like something like nachos to talk about
cheese meltability.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Oh, cheese meltability. Yeah yeah. Oh man, Well, I guess
that brings us to our question. Monterey Jack what is it?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, Monterey Jack or Monterey or Jack cheese is a
small category of cheeses typically made from cow's milk, pressed
into wheels or blocks, lightly salted and aged only a
short while. It'll be a bright white to pale yellow
in color, semi fur solid, mild sweet, kind of buttery
(03:03):
cheese with a little bit of nutty flavor and yeah,
good meltability, making it popular for shredding or slicing into
hot dishes like a grilled cheese, sandwiches or chili or nachos,
or just for cutting into cubes and snacking. Because it
is so mild, it is often mixed with flavorings like
herbs or hot chilies.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
To give it a little bit of a kick.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It's like a it's like a cheddar with fewer opinions. Yeah,
it's it's sort of easy going. It's like it's like
surf rock. It's like, you know, cheesy, largely inoffensive, but
still can shred.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Lauren are the genius, the wordsmith of our time. I
am constantly amazed.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh oh I love surfrock anyway, Okay, uh yeah, this
is a This is a pretty like basic short aged cheese.
You're looking to preserve milk in a tasty way without
a lot of time effort. This is a pretty good
one to do. It doesn't need to be heated very
(04:11):
very much. You only need to press it for like
half a day or so. It can be ready in
like a month. If you want a soft texture, aging
it longer will make it increasingly firm and crumbly if
that's what you're going for. This is not an episode
with a deep dive into cheese making science. If you're
looking for one of those, Cheddar is definitely a good one.
(04:32):
But anyway, Yeah, because monoe a jack is a simple
sort of cheese, there are a number of variations. It
can be made with or without a rind, though without
is more common by far, and with or without a
wax coating. Varieties include smoked jack, pepper jack, which has
those bits of hot chili peppers mixed in with the curd,
and dry jack, which is aged for at least six
(04:54):
months to become harder and gradable like a parmesan. Yeah.
Is also sometimes mixed with similarly semi ferm cheeses, creating
like prettily marbled blocks like Colby Jack or Cheddar Jack,
both Colby and Cheddar being traditionally yellow orange in contrast
with Jack's white color. And yeah, you can make it
(05:15):
with other milks like goat. You can mix in other
flavorings like rosemary or basil or I don't know, garlic,
maybe pesto, herbs and garlic, what a little bits of tomato,
And there are usda guidelines for Monterey Jack slash jack
slash Monterey cheese. They refer to the making of it
(05:38):
as the Monterey process. Cheese legalese always cracks me up,
not just because of the phrase cheese legalies, which is delightful,
Like it's just it's so precise. So okay, just a
little sampling for a top graded jack cheese. Your cheese
must possess and I quote, a fine and highly please
(06:00):
Monterey slash Monterey Jack cheese flavor. The body may be
very slightly weak, and the texture may be definitely curty.
And I'm like, same.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Girl, Like they like.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's fine, Like everybody is a beach body. Come on,
Oh heck yeah, so right, So it's jack Jack cheeses
are great. It's like a melty topping or in sauces
layered into cast roles. Again just for snacking.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yes, yes, uh. I had a recently a hilarious weekend
with my good friend of mine, Marissa, where we were
trying to get Taylor Swift tickets. It was a fiasco,
but it was a fun fiasco and she really wanted
fahitas too, kind of minimize the damage of what was happening.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Oh okay, sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, Mono a Jack Jeez was involved in. I
was very happy with the whole thing. Did you get
to see Taylor Swift? No? No, okay, yeah, but I
got the most hilarious quotes out of my friend, which
(07:28):
I wrote down. I wish I had like recorded her
because she was descending into madness, if I'm honest, trying
to get these tickets, and her quotes were very funny.
But then we just had a good time. We listened
to Taylor Swift music, we saw Return of the Jedi
in theaters, and then watched Return of the Jedi at
(07:48):
home with Taylor Swift music. Over all, right, eas so
I got to hang out with my good friend and
half this time and it was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
That also sounds right, terrific good yeah, good consolation fajita.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, it really really was well. Speaking of what about
the nutrition, cheese is a nutritionally dense food, lots of
fats and protein in there.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Watch your portion sizes eat of edge hydrate.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, yeah, well, we do have some numbers for you,
just a couple. I didn't.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I honestly didn't dig that hard on this one because
I was trying to iron out some sticky sticky historical details.
But but yeah, okay, so.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I found one. Uh So a U GOV poll found that,
on average, Americans put Monterey Jack in their top five
favorite cheeses. Okay, sure it's a good one.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah it's again easy going, it's nice. Mm hmm. Uh yeah,
I found one. There are some big manifacturers in the
United States that create like forty pounds of Jack and
Colby Cheese's every day whoa every day.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And apparently these kinds of places see really boosted sales
around the winter holidays, which makes me think like cheese plates,
maybe cast roles. Yeah, and then around the big game.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Mm hmm. You're finally getting on board with not saying
the true title, you know, I am, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I think this past year of like iHeartMedia, press releases
really put the fear of the big.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Game in me, now you understand.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, yeah, or not press releases, but like internal memos anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So there we are, there we are. And I do
think I would love to hear from listeners about recipes
that you have that use money Jack, because I do think, yeah,
a bunch of like those castrole things for sure. M
let us know, but we do have the wild.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
History white White one and yeah, and we are going
to get into that as soon as we get back
from a quick break for a word from our sponsors,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So yes see our previous cheese episodes. Butche's thousands of
years old, probably discovered by accident or just naturally over time,
all over the place at different points in history, especially
depending on the cheese. But yeah, yep. Monterey Jack, though,
(11:00):
is more recent, and it has to do with Catholic missionaries.
So in the seventeen hundreds, the first Catholic mission in
California was founded by Spanish Franciscan father Punipero Serra in
San Diego specifically, and then he founded a second one
in Monterey Bay. And this is one of those things.
(11:22):
When I read it, I was like, oh, money, zech, Okay,
there you go. Yep, the pieces are falling into place.
And as usual, these missionaries brought their foods with them,
things like olives, grapes, and cattle, and the cattle were
useful for meat and dairy products, and the missionaries used
the milk to make a soft cheese they called queso
(11:45):
blanco paste are a white cheese at the country.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, yeah, yea yeah, yeah, white country cheese. Some stories
go that, you know, like the cows were doing so well,
the milk was so plentiful that the monks had to
find something to do with all of it. At any rate, Yes,
this cheese seems to have become a local staple.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yes, and after several decades of rule, Mexico sold California
to the US in eighteen forty eight. That's a different podcast,
but it is relevant here because in the wake of that,
a bunch of Americans flocked to the new state for
all kinds of reasons, the promise of gold being a
big one, but just a lot of hope around new
(12:29):
quote things that they could maybe make a living off of.
In the treaty, the US had promised Mexico to uphold
the Mexican rancho system, which I know we've talked about
before in California, basically saying Mexican farmers could keep their
ranches there. But of course the US government found loopholes
and many Mexicans in the state lost their farms. Yes,
(12:54):
this brings us to a man named David Jack or
Jack's seen both. Jack moved to California with the goal
of selling revolvers to the quote law abiding and lawless alike.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, uh okay, So I think I think he was
born David Jack and at some point changed it to
Jack's or like possibly popular speech kind of slowly renamed
him Jack's, probably just to confuse podcasters.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
He he originally hailed from Scotland, and his is like
a true American dream story, you know, like rags to
riches and a certain got mine attitude about it. All right,
So he was one of the people who like read
about the gold Rush in eighteen forty eight and decided
to go to there not for not for gold, but
to sell supplies to minors for like a healthy markup.
(13:53):
And I think I've mentioned before here that is the
way that like the real money was made during the
gold Rush, right, I.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Mean it's come up in several episodes we've done. Yeah, like, well,
they invented this cocktail because of people around the gold Rush,
the sourdough. Oh yeah. By eighteen fifty seven, Jack had
set up shop in Monterey and he had made friends
with attorney Delos r Ashley, and Ashley had been hired
(14:25):
by the town to make their land claims legitimate to
the United States Land Claims Commission. Flash forward two years
and Ashley won, but the town wouldn't or couldn't, depending
on your source, pay the additional legal fees that he demanded,
which was one thousand dollars. So an agreement was reached
(14:46):
allowing Jack to auction off the land that Ashley had
defended to pay for.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
It to pay for the legal fees.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, exactly, and very very quickly, some I might say
suspiciously quickly. Jack threw together and held an auction in
early eighteen fifty nine. Only two people placed bids on
the thirty thousand acres of land in question, Ashley and Jack.
(15:17):
Almost the entirety of those acres were sold to the
two men for one thousand dollars and two cents. Wow. Yeah,
wow yep. So Monterey tried, as in the town tried
to buy back the land a few times. The case
even reached the Supreme Court in nineteen oh six, but
(15:40):
Jack won. So yeah, yep, here we are, yes, And
he was looking to make a profit with his newly
purchased lands and went about making money in all kinds
of cutthroat ways, including charging outrageous prices to renter, which
(16:00):
often included posting English only notices to screw over Spanish
speaking printers, like he knew that it would be better
to post something in Spanish, I was like not yep.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Or he would post Spanish only notices if the renters
were English speaking, or he'd post the notice like way
out on the edge of the land. He was such
a shmoke. He'd also loan ranchers money to pay overdue
taxes on their parcels of land, and then claim the
land for himself when the owners couldn't pay him back
(16:34):
with interest. At his height, he gathered up one hundred
thousand acres.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Wow, and as part of that, according to him, he
now owned all of the wineries, the cattle ranches, and
fourteen working dairy ranches that operated on all of these
lands that he'd purchased. Not only that, again, according to him,
(17:01):
he owned what they made, including ques Oblanco pets and Yeah.
He pretty quickly decided that he could make some money
off of this cheese, so he started selling it under
the name Jack's Cheese all around the area, and when
people got a taste of it, it spread across the
(17:24):
state and people called it Monterey Jack's Cheese very important
to note, though some records indicate that other people, rightly
or wrongly in terms of stealing resources and or ideas,
may have been selling essentially the same cheese before Jack
got in the game, or even around the same time
(17:46):
he got in the game. One such person is Domingo Petrazzi.
The story goes that Petrazzi created a cheese that required pressure,
and that pressure was obtained through a house Jack, and
the name therefore Jack Cheese comes from that. The resulting
product was later marketed as del Monte cheese. And there's
(18:09):
a Donna. Juana Coota de Boronda very often comes up
in the conversation. She made Queso del Pace and sold
it door to door after her husband was involved in
a debilitating accident, leaving her to provide for him and
their fifteen kids.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Oh, that story also says that this cheese might have
been named Jack for the type of vice that was
used to press it, but also that she might have
sold her cheese to Jack for distribution.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Right and then Stefano Maury also comes up. He was
an Italian immigrant, and some argue that his recipe for
quote Italian cheese ended up in Jack's hands. One way
or another. Maury's recipe was mentioned in a nineteen thirty
eight cookbook, and it was called Monterey Cheese.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah. Maury had settled in Pacifica, which is a town
a little bit further north near Rockaway Beach, in eighteen
eighty eight, and a member of the Pacifica Historical Society
later found these old recipes and like reconstructed a story
about one of Maury's employees, a supposed family friend, having
a falling out with the family and leaving for Monterey,
(19:26):
taking the recipe for this cheese with him. But it
seems to me like the like the timeline, you know,
like like Jack was already marketing his cheese by the
time the Maurys arrived in the States, So I don't
know anyway. However, I will say that within the past decade,
the Pacifica Historical Society has hosted like annual cheese contests
(19:50):
and parties in general, and they encourage entrants to create
edible art using Jack Cheese or Pacifica Jack as they
ca One entry from years past was called bringing Sexy.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Jack's Delightful I Love It, which is a pun worthy
of an Annie Reese title. Selection. Yes, jealous, I didn't
already think of it. Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Also I will say that Jack's landlord, Shenanigans had him
vastly disliked in this area. After he did a number
of those kind of like shady evictions, a group formed
who were calling themselves the Squatters League of Monterey County,
which was very very snide, and apparently they sent him
(20:46):
a very direct notice, way more direct than the notices
he was sending them in eighteen seventy two, threatening his life.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
It was real colorful.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Do you want to hear it?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, okay, yeah you do. You have been the cause
of unnecessary annoyance and expense to the settlers. Now, if
you don't make that account of damages to each and
every one of us within ten days, you son of
a we will suspend your animation between daylight and hell.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That is indeed very colorful.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Suspend your animation between daylight and hell.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That sounds like a D and D spell. That's like goodness,
you're in between realms.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Snack in supernatural line.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
What's happening?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Okay? Anyway? Also, none less than Robert Lewis Stevenson once
visited the area and wrote that the whole of Monterey
was owned by a man and I quote hated with
a great hatred. And he further reported that Dennis Kearney,
who who if you're unfamiliar, was like a labor organizer,
(22:03):
but also a huge racist and very unpleasant person himself.
He once advised the aforementioned squatter's lead to hang Jack.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Oh my, yeah, wow, what a character.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Jack also invested heavily in local railroads, which was a
good business decision but also like tremendously helpful to the community.
He was a devout Presbyterian and supported a lot of
local churches and like taught Sunday school for fifty years.
When he died in nineteen oh nine, he was the
richest landowner in Monterey County. His kids got to go
to great schools, and they tended to donate deeply to education.
(22:41):
When his youngest daughter passed in nineteen sixty two, she
left the family holdings that were not already like in
a state to other descendants to Stanford, which was apparently
like the largest donation that had since their founding.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So wow, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Anyway, yeah, I don't yeah, yeah. A lot of the
things that I read were like, well, everything he did
was legal mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah. I came across that a lot as well. I mean,
no one liked him, but it was legal, and.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
He did some nice stuff for people that weren't beholden
to him as landowners. M hmmm uh yeah landlords.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, anyway, speaking of cheese, ostensibly what this episode is about. Uh.
Producers may have upped production on dry Jack during the
World Wars in order to replace grating cheeses like romano
and parmesan while trade with Italy was suspended, and apparently
(23:55):
around the same time, as refrigerators were still slowly being
into graded into American homes like mid dry jacks were
popular choices because they'd stand up a little bit better
in hot weather.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Hmmm. Well. Uh. A craft food booklet compared Monterey Jack
to cheddar in nineteen fifty four, and somewhere around nineteen
fifty five, the FDA officially gave the cheese the name Monterey.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Jack yep, and started laying out all of those delightful
cheese legalese bits. Then, this doesn't pertain very strictly to
monoey Jack, but I wanted to include it because it's
so fun and I can't believe I haven't run across
it before. In twenty ten, Wisconsin became the first state
to have an official state microbe. It's Lactococcus lactus, which
(24:49):
is a bacterium that is used in making many cheeses,
I mean in America and elsewhere. But they specifically cited
Jack Colby and Cheddar.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Wow, you know we need an official podcast micro Oh heck,
do you have one?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I mean it's probably just Sakramic Sarah Vizier, but which
is the beer and bread Beast? But but you know,
like that's just off the top of my head.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, I have to tell you listeners. I sense that
we have kind of a group chats with the producers
and Lauren and I and I sent a note about
I'm the one that's always like, have you seen this
strange product this company's offering and cheese It, the company
(25:45):
behind cheese It is offering a shoe like a sneaker
that had a high plastic outer podare Yeah, and you
put cheese it and you can reach in and get
your stored cheese. It's out of this yeah, plastic pocket.
It's like it's like having a little ziplock that that's
(26:06):
a shoe.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's like having It's like your shoe is made of
zip lolocks and you can reach it and grab your cheese.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Its. Yes, And I loved it, Lauren because we were
all kind of like, oh, this is silly. Oh I
would have worn it, and you were like, well, scientifically,
this is very interesting because of the odors of cheese
and feet. I loved it. So yeah, very I'm very
(26:38):
excited to potentially pick a Savor podcast micro so.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I just I love them all. I mean, yeah, that's fair.
Yeah we can.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
We can. We can talk about it. We can, Yeah,
we can. We can work this. Yeah, we can table
it for now. Yeah, we'll discuss. Yes, well that brings
us to the end of this Monterey Jack episode, but
it does.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
We We would love to hear from you about any
any of this. If you have a favorite microbe, let
us know. But in the meanwhile, we do have some
listener mail for you.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
We do. But first we have one more quick break
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank
you soon, Yes, thank you, and we're back with listeners. Man,
(27:48):
I always feel that way about a good when Monterey
Jack has like the like bits of peppers in it
it's like mild, and then it's like that's like a fire.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, so buttery and creamy, and then all of a
sudden woof.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Well so today we have kind of a longer email
from Christine, So we're just gonna split that up.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem longer emails. By the way,
that's nat. Yeah, this is great.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We love longer emails. Do not let this discourage you
because it's great. Okay, so Christine wrote. After stew from
New Zealand threw down the challenge about cookbooks, I had
to write in. As it turns out, Australia has not
one book, two iconic cookbooks that are knowed and loved
(28:41):
and have influenced generations of Australians. For the first book,
we have to go back to nineteen ten. The Cookery
Teachers Association of New South Wales realized their jobs would
be much easier if they had a standard, practical book
that could be used across the state. Most published cookbooks
at the time came from Britain and tended to be
(29:04):
aimed at society hostesses rather than home family cooks. So
for the next three years the association discussed, tested, wrote,
and rewrote recipes until they produced the Common Sense Cookery Book.
It was published in nineteen fourteen to instant widespread acclaim,
(29:25):
and it did become the standard textbook for cooking classes
across the state of New South Wales and quickly the
rest of Australia. And then it moved outside the classroom
and became a standard gift for many brides. I remember
using a dog eared, spattered school copy of this book
in the classroom, and so do many of my friends
(29:45):
across Australia. Other friends received it as a wedding present
or when they left home. My mother kept her copy
from school in the nineteen fifties, but unfortunately it was
destroyed in two thousand and seven when her house flooded.
Hasha Bulka Storm iconic picture attached. Look it up for
completely crazy weather. It went through several major revisions over
(30:08):
the years, and in twenty fourteen a centenary edition was released.
It's formatted the way a cookbook should be, solid binding,
large print, and plenty of white space to write notes. However,
if you check out online reviews of this edition, you
will find many poor reviews because particular recipes have been
dropped to the dismay of the reviewer. Because it's intended
(30:32):
as an instruction manual. The language is always no nonsense
and economical. At the same time, the instructions are clear
and complete, and there are plenty of diagrams showing everything
from how to joint a chicken to how to line
a cakepan. Long may this wonderful book be treasured in
Australian kitchens.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Okay, continuing, but what of the second book? This is
a book that has shaped the hopes dreams of just
about every Australian born in the last fifty years. Do
you think I'm exaggerating, then clearly you have never seen
the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. Wow that's
a title.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
This was first published as a series of liftouts in
the Australian Women's Weekly magazine in the late nineteen seventies,
with a printed book published in nineteen eighty one. It
was an instant hit, and from then on one of
the most important decisions any child could make was which
cake do I want? This year? Children would take this
book to bed for weeks before their birthday, weighing up
(31:37):
the pool cake versus Hello Dolly, the chew Choo train
versus Robbie the Robot. Children born towards the end of
the year despaired because their friends had already had the
pick of the cakes. You did not have the same
cake as someone else that year. Anyone who was a
child has fond memories of favorite cakes. For me, it
(31:57):
was the cake Teddy, while mothers have stories cake disasters.
My mother remembers the Merry quite contrary cake where she
forgot to add the eggs so the cake was flat.
There is a recipe for a basic butter cake in
the book, but all the cakes can be made up
with packet cake. The authors recognized that for children, the
cake is merely a vehicle for decoration, and the book
(32:20):
has over one hundred designs for different cakes created from icing, frosting,
piped chocolate, sweet biscuits, and lollies. The book went out
of print in the nineteen nineties, stupid decision on the
publisher's part. An anniversary edition was published in twenty eleven
to instant success. This edition does have some changes due
to some cakes being deemed racist now good or licensing
(32:42):
fees being too high. Sad, over a million copies have
been sold and it looks as though this classic will
remain a classic for decades to come.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I love this. I love this so much that people
like kids would.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Take it would be like and yeah, no, this is
a very critical decision for my for my time here I.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Go, yes, like I can't have the same cake as
someone else? What is the cake I want for my birthday?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
For weeks pondering this decision. This is that's amazing. I'm
so glad you shared that because I have not heard
of a thing like this before.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
No, no, not something this wide spread. Like I mean,
like I like I was a kitchen nerd as a kid,
so like I would be pouring over my grandmother's cookbooks
and being like, can we make those cookies? But that
was like specialized, like that was that was niche.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Exactly like I mean, I would say, like I would
prefer this thing, but it was like me personally preferring
this thing as opposed to like kids going to bed
with the book and be like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Do I want the cake? Teddy, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And the names that you shared are very intrigued. I
have to say, yeah, like Poolcake, Hello, Dolly too to
train Robbie the Rabbit, Like, oh, I said Robi the Rabbit,
because I play Robbie the Robot. I'm just so intrigued.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah yeah, and I okay, so I was reading this
one cold, so right, I'm butchered. The pronunciation or like
the annunciation I guess of that book title it should
properly be I guess the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday
Cake Book. There's like a like a breath in between
there somewhere.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, there you go. It is quite the name. It
is that. I was like, the words keep going. I
just my brain panicked a little.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I was like, oh heck, I'm still talking why.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I love it. Those long titles trip us up every time,
but they're kind of endearing.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
They are Oh, thank you so much. Both of these
are fascinating. And I write like I I love this
kind of localized yes, but extremely strong nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I do too. I love that it's like in Australia,
it's this. Yeah, that's what it is. So good. Thank
you so much for writing in to any other listeners.
If you would like to write to us, you can.
Our email is Hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saber pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can go to the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Oh, I do this like at.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Least twice a week anyway, Thanks as always to our
superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Anni
Regis and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm more on Vogelbaum and today we have an episode
for you about Monterey Jack.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Cheese, Yes, which was a fascinating one. I didn't know
any of this history.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Nope, nope, me neither. I was like, that's a pretty
mild cheese. It's probably very boring. And then I was like, oh,
oh we get we get to talk about cheese. Yeah,
gets spicy, so spicy, not just because of included Hobbenaros.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
No, No, were you just looking for a cheese.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I think that's what was going on, and I was
possibly looking for one outside of the Europe region. And
so yeah, land it over here.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Here we are. Well, I do love Monterey Jack. Sure,
Now I don't know. I mean, I still love it.
I just got to reevaluate. I got to rethink some things.
The history is good to.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Know it is it is. It puts everything in perspective.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yes, if you've if you've never heard any of this,
you are in for a ride.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
My friends. Uh you sent this message via our like
office communication service and I was like, oh, because you
said it's it's an unwieldy or like wild story to
pin down. I was like, moneraye jack, all right, and
(01:45):
then I looked into it. I was like, oh okay, yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah. Sometimes when I'm when I when I like, especially
if I know that you're having a having a whole
week already, I'm like, I don't want to give Annie
a homework assignment that's like too intense, So I'm trying
to look out. But yeah, yeah it wound up being fun,
so yes, yes it did.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
You can see are very We have several past cheese episodes.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that you can check out. I
would say yogurt as always, butter maybe milk types.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah yeah, maybe like something like nachos to talk about
cheese meltability.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Oh, cheese meltability. Yeah yeah. Oh man, Well, I guess
that brings us to our question. Monterey Jack what is it?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, Monterey Jack or Monterey or Jack cheese is a
small category of cheeses typically made from cow's milk, pressed
into wheels or blocks, lightly salted and aged only a
short while. It'll be a bright white to pale yellow
in color, semi fur solid, mild sweet, kind of buttery
(03:03):
cheese with a little bit of nutty flavor and yeah,
good meltability, making it popular for shredding or slicing into
hot dishes like a grilled cheese, sandwiches or chili or nachos,
or just for cutting into cubes and snacking. Because it
is so mild, it is often mixed with flavorings like
herbs or hot chilies.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
To give it a little bit of a kick.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It's like a it's like a cheddar with fewer opinions. Yeah,
it's it's sort of easy going. It's like it's like
surf rock. It's like, you know, cheesy, largely inoffensive, but
still can shred.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Lauren are the genius, the wordsmith of our time. I
am constantly amazed.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh oh I love surfrock anyway, Okay, uh yeah, this
is a This is a pretty like basic short aged cheese.
You're looking to preserve milk in a tasty way without
a lot of time effort. This is a pretty good
one to do. It doesn't need to be heated very
(04:11):
very much. You only need to press it for like
half a day or so. It can be ready in
like a month. If you want a soft texture, aging
it longer will make it increasingly firm and crumbly if
that's what you're going for. This is not an episode
with a deep dive into cheese making science. If you're
looking for one of those, Cheddar is definitely a good one.
(04:32):
But anyway, Yeah, because monoe a jack is a simple
sort of cheese, there are a number of variations. It
can be made with or without a rind, though without
is more common by far, and with or without a
wax coating. Varieties include smoked jack, pepper jack, which has
those bits of hot chili peppers mixed in with the curd,
and dry jack, which is aged for at least six
(04:54):
months to become harder and gradable like a parmesan. Yeah.
Is also sometimes mixed with similarly semi ferm cheeses, creating
like prettily marbled blocks like Colby Jack or Cheddar Jack,
both Colby and Cheddar being traditionally yellow orange in contrast
with Jack's white color. And yeah, you can make it
(05:15):
with other milks like goat. You can mix in other
flavorings like rosemary or basil or I don't know, garlic,
maybe pesto, herbs and garlic, what a little bits of tomato,
And there are usda guidelines for Monterey Jack slash jack
slash Monterey cheese. They refer to the making of it
(05:38):
as the Monterey process. Cheese legalese always cracks me up,
not just because of the phrase cheese legalies, which is delightful,
Like it's just it's so precise. So okay, just a
little sampling for a top graded jack cheese. Your cheese
must possess and I quote, a fine and highly please
(06:00):
Monterey slash Monterey Jack cheese flavor. The body may be
very slightly weak, and the texture may be definitely curty.
And I'm like, same.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Girl, Like they like.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's fine, Like everybody is a beach body. Come on,
Oh heck yeah, so right, So it's jack Jack cheeses
are great. It's like a melty topping or in sauces
layered into cast roles. Again just for snacking.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yes, yes, uh. I had a recently a hilarious weekend
with my good friend of mine, Marissa, where we were
trying to get Taylor Swift tickets. It was a fiasco,
but it was a fun fiasco and she really wanted
fahitas too, kind of minimize the damage of what was happening.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Oh okay, sure, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, Mono a Jack Jeez was involved in. I
was very happy with the whole thing. Did you get
to see Taylor Swift? No? No, okay, yeah, but I
got the most hilarious quotes out of my friend, which
(07:28):
I wrote down. I wish I had like recorded her
because she was descending into madness, if I'm honest, trying
to get these tickets, and her quotes were very funny.
But then we just had a good time. We listened
to Taylor Swift music, we saw Return of the Jedi
in theaters, and then watched Return of the Jedi at
(07:48):
home with Taylor Swift music. Over all, right, eas so
I got to hang out with my good friend and
half this time and it was pretty good.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
That also sounds right, terrific good yeah, good consolation fajita.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, it really really was well. Speaking of what about
the nutrition, cheese is a nutritionally dense food, lots of
fats and protein in there.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Watch your portion sizes eat of edge hydrate.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, yeah, well, we do have some numbers for you,
just a couple. I didn't.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
I honestly didn't dig that hard on this one because
I was trying to iron out some sticky sticky historical details.
But but yeah, okay, so.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I found one. Uh So a U GOV poll found that,
on average, Americans put Monterey Jack in their top five
favorite cheeses. Okay, sure it's a good one.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah it's again easy going, it's nice. Mm hmm. Uh yeah,
I found one. There are some big manifacturers in the
United States that create like forty pounds of Jack and
Colby Cheese's every day whoa every day.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And apparently these kinds of places see really boosted sales
around the winter holidays, which makes me think like cheese plates,
maybe cast roles. Yeah, and then around the big game.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Mm hmm. You're finally getting on board with not saying
the true title, you know, I am, you know, I think.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I think this past year of like iHeartMedia, press releases
really put the fear of the big.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Game in me, now you understand.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, yeah, or not press releases, but like internal memos anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So there we are, there we are. And I do
think I would love to hear from listeners about recipes
that you have that use money Jack, because I do think, yeah,
a bunch of like those castrole things for sure. M
let us know, but we do have the wild.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
History white White one and yeah, and we are going
to get into that as soon as we get back
from a quick break for a word from our sponsors,
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So yes see our previous cheese episodes. Butche's thousands of
years old, probably discovered by accident or just naturally over time,
all over the place at different points in history, especially
depending on the cheese. But yeah, yep. Monterey Jack, though,
(11:00):
is more recent, and it has to do with Catholic missionaries.
So in the seventeen hundreds, the first Catholic mission in
California was founded by Spanish Franciscan father Punipero Serra in
San Diego specifically, and then he founded a second one
in Monterey Bay. And this is one of those things.
(11:22):
When I read it, I was like, oh, money, zech, Okay,
there you go. Yep, the pieces are falling into place.
And as usual, these missionaries brought their foods with them,
things like olives, grapes, and cattle, and the cattle were
useful for meat and dairy products, and the missionaries used
the milk to make a soft cheese they called queso
(11:45):
blanco paste are a white cheese at the country.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, yeah, yea yeah, yeah, white country cheese. Some stories
go that, you know, like the cows were doing so well,
the milk was so plentiful that the monks had to
find something to do with all of it. At any rate, Yes,
this cheese seems to have become a local staple.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yes, and after several decades of rule, Mexico sold California
to the US in eighteen forty eight. That's a different podcast,
but it is relevant here because in the wake of that,
a bunch of Americans flocked to the new state for
all kinds of reasons, the promise of gold being a
big one, but just a lot of hope around new
(12:29):
quote things that they could maybe make a living off of.
In the treaty, the US had promised Mexico to uphold
the Mexican rancho system, which I know we've talked about
before in California, basically saying Mexican farmers could keep their
ranches there. But of course the US government found loopholes
and many Mexicans in the state lost their farms. Yes,
(12:54):
this brings us to a man named David Jack or
Jack's seen both. Jack moved to California with the goal
of selling revolvers to the quote law abiding and lawless alike.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah, uh okay, So I think I think he was
born David Jack and at some point changed it to
Jack's or like possibly popular speech kind of slowly renamed
him Jack's, probably just to confuse podcasters.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
He he originally hailed from Scotland, and his is like
a true American dream story, you know, like rags to
riches and a certain got mine attitude about it. All right,
So he was one of the people who like read
about the gold Rush in eighteen forty eight and decided
to go to there not for not for gold, but
to sell supplies to minors for like a healthy markup.
(13:53):
And I think I've mentioned before here that is the
way that like the real money was made during the
gold Rush, right, I.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Mean it's come up in several episodes we've done. Yeah, like, well,
they invented this cocktail because of people around the gold Rush,
the sourdough. Oh yeah. By eighteen fifty seven, Jack had
set up shop in Monterey and he had made friends
with attorney Delos r Ashley, and Ashley had been hired
(14:25):
by the town to make their land claims legitimate to
the United States Land Claims Commission. Flash forward two years
and Ashley won, but the town wouldn't or couldn't, depending
on your source, pay the additional legal fees that he demanded,
which was one thousand dollars. So an agreement was reached
(14:46):
allowing Jack to auction off the land that Ashley had
defended to pay for.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
It to pay for the legal fees.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, exactly, and very very quickly, some I might say
suspiciously quickly. Jack threw together and held an auction in
early eighteen fifty nine. Only two people placed bids on
the thirty thousand acres of land in question, Ashley and Jack.
(15:17):
Almost the entirety of those acres were sold to the
two men for one thousand dollars and two cents. Wow. Yeah,
wow yep. So Monterey tried, as in the town tried
to buy back the land a few times. The case
even reached the Supreme Court in nineteen oh six, but
(15:40):
Jack won. So yeah, yep, here we are, yes, And
he was looking to make a profit with his newly
purchased lands and went about making money in all kinds
of cutthroat ways, including charging outrageous prices to renter, which
(16:00):
often included posting English only notices to screw over Spanish
speaking printers, like he knew that it would be better
to post something in Spanish, I was like not yep.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Or he would post Spanish only notices if the renters
were English speaking, or he'd post the notice like way
out on the edge of the land. He was such
a shmoke. He'd also loan ranchers money to pay overdue
taxes on their parcels of land, and then claim the
land for himself when the owners couldn't pay him back
(16:34):
with interest. At his height, he gathered up one hundred
thousand acres.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Wow, and as part of that, according to him, he
now owned all of the wineries, the cattle ranches, and
fourteen working dairy ranches that operated on all of these
lands that he'd purchased. Not only that, again, according to him,
(17:01):
he owned what they made, including ques Oblanco pets and Yeah.
He pretty quickly decided that he could make some money
off of this cheese, so he started selling it under
the name Jack's Cheese all around the area, and when
people got a taste of it, it spread across the
(17:24):
state and people called it Monterey Jack's Cheese very important
to note, though some records indicate that other people, rightly
or wrongly in terms of stealing resources and or ideas,
may have been selling essentially the same cheese before Jack
got in the game, or even around the same time
(17:46):
he got in the game. One such person is Domingo Petrazzi.
The story goes that Petrazzi created a cheese that required pressure,
and that pressure was obtained through a house Jack, and
the name therefore Jack Cheese comes from that. The resulting
product was later marketed as del Monte cheese. And there's
(18:09):
a Donna. Juana Coota de Boronda very often comes up
in the conversation. She made Queso del Pace and sold
it door to door after her husband was involved in
a debilitating accident, leaving her to provide for him and
their fifteen kids.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Oh, that story also says that this cheese might have
been named Jack for the type of vice that was
used to press it, but also that she might have
sold her cheese to Jack for distribution.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Right and then Stefano Maury also comes up. He was
an Italian immigrant, and some argue that his recipe for
quote Italian cheese ended up in Jack's hands. One way
or another. Maury's recipe was mentioned in a nineteen thirty
eight cookbook, and it was called Monterey Cheese.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah. Maury had settled in Pacifica, which is a town
a little bit further north near Rockaway Beach, in eighteen
eighty eight, and a member of the Pacifica Historical Society
later found these old recipes and like reconstructed a story
about one of Maury's employees, a supposed family friend, having
a falling out with the family and leaving for Monterey,
(19:26):
taking the recipe for this cheese with him. But it
seems to me like the like the timeline, you know,
like like Jack was already marketing his cheese by the
time the Maurys arrived in the States, So I don't
know anyway. However, I will say that within the past decade,
the Pacifica Historical Society has hosted like annual cheese contests
(19:50):
and parties in general, and they encourage entrants to create
edible art using Jack Cheese or Pacifica Jack as they
ca One entry from years past was called bringing Sexy.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Jack's Delightful I Love It, which is a pun worthy
of an Annie Reese title. Selection. Yes, jealous, I didn't
already think of it. Yes.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Also I will say that Jack's landlord, Shenanigans had him
vastly disliked in this area. After he did a number
of those kind of like shady evictions, a group formed
who were calling themselves the Squatters League of Monterey County,
which was very very snide, and apparently they sent him
(20:46):
a very direct notice, way more direct than the notices
he was sending them in eighteen seventy two, threatening his life.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
It was real colorful.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Do you want to hear it?
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, okay, yeah you do. You have been the cause
of unnecessary annoyance and expense to the settlers. Now, if
you don't make that account of damages to each and
every one of us within ten days, you son of
a we will suspend your animation between daylight and hell.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That is indeed very colorful.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Suspend your animation between daylight and hell.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That sounds like a D and D spell. That's like goodness,
you're in between realms.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Snack in supernatural line.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
What's happening?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Okay? Anyway? Also, none less than Robert Lewis Stevenson once
visited the area and wrote that the whole of Monterey
was owned by a man and I quote hated with
a great hatred. And he further reported that Dennis Kearney,
who who if you're unfamiliar, was like a labor organizer,
(22:03):
but also a huge racist and very unpleasant person himself.
He once advised the aforementioned squatter's lead to hang Jack.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Oh my, yeah, wow, what a character.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Jack also invested heavily in local railroads, which was a
good business decision but also like tremendously helpful to the community.
He was a devout Presbyterian and supported a lot of
local churches and like taught Sunday school for fifty years.
When he died in nineteen oh nine, he was the
richest landowner in Monterey County. His kids got to go
to great schools, and they tended to donate deeply to education.
(22:41):
When his youngest daughter passed in nineteen sixty two, she
left the family holdings that were not already like in
a state to other descendants to Stanford, which was apparently
like the largest donation that had since their founding.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So wow, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Anyway, yeah, I don't yeah, yeah. A lot of the
things that I read were like, well, everything he did
was legal mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah. I came across that a lot as well. I mean,
no one liked him, but it was legal, and.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
He did some nice stuff for people that weren't beholden
to him as landowners. M hmmm uh yeah landlords.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Well, anyway, speaking of cheese, ostensibly what this episode is about. Uh.
Producers may have upped production on dry Jack during the
World Wars in order to replace grating cheeses like romano
and parmesan while trade with Italy was suspended, and apparently
(23:55):
around the same time, as refrigerators were still slowly being
into graded into American homes like mid dry jacks were
popular choices because they'd stand up a little bit better
in hot weather.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Hmmm. Well. Uh. A craft food booklet compared Monterey Jack
to cheddar in nineteen fifty four, and somewhere around nineteen
fifty five, the FDA officially gave the cheese the name Monterey.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Jack yep, and started laying out all of those delightful
cheese legalese bits. Then, this doesn't pertain very strictly to
monoey Jack, but I wanted to include it because it's
so fun and I can't believe I haven't run across
it before. In twenty ten, Wisconsin became the first state
to have an official state microbe. It's Lactococcus lactus, which
(24:49):
is a bacterium that is used in making many cheeses,
I mean in America and elsewhere. But they specifically cited
Jack Colby and Cheddar.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Wow, you know we need an official podcast micro Oh heck,
do you have one?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I mean it's probably just Sakramic Sarah Vizier, but which
is the beer and bread Beast? But but you know,
like that's just off the top of my head.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, I have to tell you listeners. I sense that
we have kind of a group chats with the producers
and Lauren and I and I sent a note about
I'm the one that's always like, have you seen this
strange product this company's offering and cheese It, the company
(25:45):
behind cheese It is offering a shoe like a sneaker
that had a high plastic outer podare Yeah, and you
put cheese it and you can reach in and get
your stored cheese. It's out of this yeah, plastic pocket.
It's like it's like having a little ziplock that that's
(26:06):
a shoe.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's like having It's like your shoe is made of
zip lolocks and you can reach it and grab your cheese.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Its. Yes, And I loved it, Lauren because we were
all kind of like, oh, this is silly. Oh I
would have worn it, and you were like, well, scientifically,
this is very interesting because of the odors of cheese
and feet. I loved it. So yeah, very I'm very
(26:38):
excited to potentially pick a Savor podcast micro so.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I just I love them all. I mean, yeah, that's fair.
Yeah we can.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
We can. We can talk about it. We can, Yeah,
we can. We can work this. Yeah, we can table
it for now. Yeah, we'll discuss. Yes, well that brings
us to the end of this Monterey Jack episode, but
it does.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
We We would love to hear from you about any
any of this. If you have a favorite microbe, let
us know. But in the meanwhile, we do have some
listener mail for you.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
We do. But first we have one more quick break
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank
you soon, Yes, thank you, and we're back with listeners. Man,
(27:48):
I always feel that way about a good when Monterey
Jack has like the like bits of peppers in it
it's like mild, and then it's like that's like a fire.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, so buttery and creamy, and then all of a
sudden woof.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Well so today we have kind of a longer email
from Christine, So we're just gonna split that up.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem longer emails. By the way,
that's nat. Yeah, this is great.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We love longer emails. Do not let this discourage you
because it's great. Okay, so Christine wrote. After stew from
New Zealand threw down the challenge about cookbooks, I had
to write in. As it turns out, Australia has not
one book, two iconic cookbooks that are knowed and loved
(28:41):
and have influenced generations of Australians. For the first book,
we have to go back to nineteen ten. The Cookery
Teachers Association of New South Wales realized their jobs would
be much easier if they had a standard, practical book
that could be used across the state. Most published cookbooks
at the time came from Britain and tended to be
(29:04):
aimed at society hostesses rather than home family cooks. So
for the next three years the association discussed, tested, wrote,
and rewrote recipes until they produced the Common Sense Cookery Book.
It was published in nineteen fourteen to instant widespread acclaim,
(29:25):
and it did become the standard textbook for cooking classes
across the state of New South Wales and quickly the
rest of Australia. And then it moved outside the classroom
and became a standard gift for many brides. I remember
using a dog eared, spattered school copy of this book
in the classroom, and so do many of my friends
(29:45):
across Australia. Other friends received it as a wedding present
or when they left home. My mother kept her copy
from school in the nineteen fifties, but unfortunately it was
destroyed in two thousand and seven when her house flooded.
Hasha Bulka Storm iconic picture attached. Look it up for
completely crazy weather. It went through several major revisions over
(30:08):
the years, and in twenty fourteen a centenary edition was released.
It's formatted the way a cookbook should be, solid binding,
large print, and plenty of white space to write notes. However,
if you check out online reviews of this edition, you
will find many poor reviews because particular recipes have been
dropped to the dismay of the reviewer. Because it's intended
(30:32):
as an instruction manual. The language is always no nonsense
and economical. At the same time, the instructions are clear
and complete, and there are plenty of diagrams showing everything
from how to joint a chicken to how to line
a cakepan. Long may this wonderful book be treasured in
Australian kitchens.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Okay, continuing, but what of the second book? This is
a book that has shaped the hopes dreams of just
about every Australian born in the last fifty years. Do
you think I'm exaggerating, then clearly you have never seen
the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. Wow that's
a title.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
This was first published as a series of liftouts in
the Australian Women's Weekly magazine in the late nineteen seventies,
with a printed book published in nineteen eighty one. It
was an instant hit, and from then on one of
the most important decisions any child could make was which
cake do I want? This year? Children would take this
book to bed for weeks before their birthday, weighing up
(31:37):
the pool cake versus Hello Dolly, the chew Choo train
versus Robbie the Robot. Children born towards the end of
the year despaired because their friends had already had the
pick of the cakes. You did not have the same
cake as someone else that year. Anyone who was a
child has fond memories of favorite cakes. For me, it
(31:57):
was the cake Teddy, while mothers have stories cake disasters.
My mother remembers the Merry quite contrary cake where she
forgot to add the eggs so the cake was flat.
There is a recipe for a basic butter cake in
the book, but all the cakes can be made up
with packet cake. The authors recognized that for children, the
cake is merely a vehicle for decoration, and the book
(32:20):
has over one hundred designs for different cakes created from icing, frosting,
piped chocolate, sweet biscuits, and lollies. The book went out
of print in the nineteen nineties, stupid decision on the
publisher's part. An anniversary edition was published in twenty eleven
to instant success. This edition does have some changes due
to some cakes being deemed racist now good or licensing
(32:42):
fees being too high. Sad, over a million copies have
been sold and it looks as though this classic will
remain a classic for decades to come.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I love this. I love this so much that people
like kids would.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Take it would be like and yeah, no, this is
a very critical decision for my for my time here I.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Go, yes, like I can't have the same cake as
someone else? What is the cake I want for my birthday?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
For weeks pondering this decision. This is that's amazing. I'm
so glad you shared that because I have not heard
of a thing like this before.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
No, no, not something this wide spread. Like I mean,
like I like I was a kitchen nerd as a kid,
so like I would be pouring over my grandmother's cookbooks
and being like, can we make those cookies? But that
was like specialized, like that was that was niche.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Exactly like I mean, I would say, like I would
prefer this thing, but it was like me personally preferring
this thing as opposed to like kids going to bed
with the book and be like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Do I want the cake? Teddy, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And the names that you shared are very intrigued. I
have to say, yeah, like Poolcake, Hello, Dolly too to
train Robbie the Rabbit, Like, oh, I said Robi the Rabbit,
because I play Robbie the Robot. I'm just so intrigued.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah yeah, and I okay, so I was reading this
one cold, so right, I'm butchered. The pronunciation or like
the annunciation I guess of that book title it should
properly be I guess the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday
Cake Book. There's like a like a breath in between
there somewhere.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, there you go. It is quite the name. It
is that. I was like, the words keep going. I
just my brain panicked a little.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I was like, oh heck, I'm still talking why.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I love it. Those long titles trip us up every time,
but they're kind of endearing.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
They are Oh, thank you so much. Both of these
are fascinating. And I write like I I love this
kind of localized yes, but extremely strong nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I do too. I love that it's like in Australia,
it's this. Yeah, that's what it is. So good. Thank
you so much for writing in to any other listeners.
If you would like to write to us, you can.
Our email is Hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saber pod and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can go to the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Oh, I do this like at.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Least twice a week anyway, Thanks as always to our
superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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