February 11, 2021 • 37 mins
In the New Orleans tradition, these melt-in-your-mouth pecan confections welcome tourists to the French Quarter – and related treats delight in other corners of the world. Anney and Lauren stir up the history and culture of pralines.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we're
talking about prawleings. How you say it? I say, I
say both, But I think it's like one of those
contextual situations, am I in. I think I say pray
(00:28):
Lians more than pralins. Though, Okay, um, I've always I mean,
like my my, my northern is showing. But yeah, I've
definitely always said it pray liens um. And I don't
think I had even encountered the alternate pronunciation until maybe,
like we went to New Orleans also can be pronounced
(00:51):
multiple ways. Oh uh yeah um and yeah, well we'll
get into all of that. Um. But we wanted to
do this one because Marty Grass is a pot us
it is as we record this, which is February nine,
(01:12):
feels like an accomplishment to know the date, even though
probably shouldn't be. Uh So, Marty Gross is coming Tuesday, um,
and we wanted to yet wish you happy safe Marty Gross.
Should you so celebrate I'm making gumbo. That's the way
I'm celebrated. Yeah, yeah, I have no plans as of yet,
but I am sure to make some soon. Probably, sure
(01:37):
to make some soon. Probably, So the confidence is overwhelming.
I you know, honestly, my confidence levels are our tip
top today. So that's why we threw you into an
episode where the pronunciation is very, very up for debate.
(01:58):
Love it so good? Hey, Yeah, And we did want
to do a New Orleans food to celebrate Marty Gras,
but we have done a lot of Marty Graw food specifically,
and you can see our New Orleans episodes are many
series we did when we went to New Orleans for those, yeah, yeah,
because we interviewed a whole bunch of amazing people. Um
(02:20):
and uh yeah, so so we we get to talk
about um, oh gosh, what even do we talk about jambalaya?
And we talked about gumbo and muffled letta and Poe
boys and a series of desserts like bananas foster and
bignets and cocktails and cocktails. Yeah, so many I oh
boudin yeah alligator, Oh right, okay, cool, Yeah, Wow, I'm
(02:48):
getting really excited. I feel like I met like a
trivia and I'm like shouting out the answers from our
own show, like episodes we've done and in theory to
just remember, hey, hey, we've been on for a couple
of years now, we have we've done over a hundred
episodes over one Yeah, which is a bunch of episodes.
(03:10):
I can argue with that. I dare anyone to argue
with that. Unless you're an immortal like vampire character, than yeah,
I got you, oh share older one, not one of
the younger vampires. I don't want to hear it. Yeah. No,
if you're if you're like an older immortal person who's
also a podcaster and has been podcasting for thousands of years,
(03:30):
then you can be like a hundred episodes, that's nothing,
and I will take it from you, but only in
that very specific case. Otherwise I don't want to hear
it exactly. And of those one hundred, possibly way more episodes,
we've also done one on put cons are Begins. You
(03:51):
can check that out as well, which is a big
part of prelims in the southern sense, which is what
we're going to be talking about mostly. Uh. And I
did want to share this story because I do have
fond memories of prailings. Um My parents and I used
to have this tradition of going to Savannah Georgia in
November every November. Um, and we would walk through those.
(04:11):
They have a lot of candy shops. They're like very
touristy things. Um. But you've got to see people make
the prailings, and the smells so nice, especially so cold outside.
And then you've got a sample, which was the best
because to be honest, they're very very sweet, so like
a sample is probably all I need. But it was lovely. Um.
And in the place I grew up to, Lanaga, Georgia,
(04:33):
there was somewhere that made essentially prailings. They're not quite
the same, but close called turtles um. And my dad
would get each of me and my siblings a box
of those for Christmas. Um. White chocolate for my little brother,
Milt chocolate for my older brother, and Dart chocolate for me.
All had her own taste. Um. And yes I did
say they aren't Praylians, but close. Don't. Don't yell at me, um,
(04:54):
but we love these so much. He would hide the
boxes he would go, and we'd be like, where are they.
So one year, I think I was in high school
or college, I was older. Um, I was watching Return
of the Jedi and I was super into it, even
though I've seen that movie probably six hundred times. And
I said off handedly to my brother that I wish
we had our turtles to snack on. For the big finale.
(05:17):
Our parents went home to like beg and conjole to
try to convince. So he stood up and he started
sniffing and wandered away, and minutes later, mere minutes, he
returned with the boxes. He sniffed them out. It's like
he had the force, but for candy. It was one
(05:37):
of the most impressive feats I've ever seen in my life. Amazing.
You know, that was like an off brand superpower, but
a good one. Oh my gosh, it was the best.
My dad was very very annoyed but also kind of impressed.
But I mean he just silently like sniffed the air
then wandered off minutes later boxes. Amazing. It was amazing,
(06:01):
And we gotta watch your turn the Jedi with our turtles.
I don't I don't have any probably experience from from
growing up. Really I did grow up with turtles, but
I think that they had like a cheerier caramel inside
of them rather than like a melty, crawling kind of situation. Um,
(06:22):
I don't think I had straight prowling until after I
moved to Georgia, and probably not like soon after I
moved to Georgia. Yeah, yeah, there. I don't know. Uh,
you know, plenty plenty of like nut brittles and toffees
and stuff like that from up north, but no, probably
no probing. I'll tell you this episode what you know,
(06:46):
You're confusing yourself even more. Don't add more choices without
I think this is a word where when you say it,
I could I literally have no idea what it is
like even knowing what it is, I'm kind of like
that can mean anything. And for this episode, I've had
Joline by Dolly Parton suck in my head days. Yeah,
(07:08):
you have to fill in the rest. I've had Jesus
Christ Superstar in my head all day. That's totally unrelated.
There's no pun involved with with this candy, so well,
it could be, I'm sure. But before we go down
that possibly dark path, let's get to walk question. Let
us pralins are pralins or prawlines or lines? This is
(07:35):
the first in our question. What are they? Oh? Heck uh? Well,
as it turns out, the word prowline can refer to
a number of types of candies. Um. What the word
means in the American South is a soft, fudgy type
(07:56):
of caramel lumped with pieces of pecan, like a Milton
your mouth, super sweet, rich buttery, creamy confection with with
the contrasting crunch and complimentary sweet buttery flavor cons so good,
oh my, heck um uh. It's typically made by cooking
sugar with some butter, milk or cream or condensed milk,
(08:18):
maybe a little bit of vanilla, and then chopped or
halved pecans, and you stir this constantly until it is
a thick syrup softball stage for y'all candy makers. And
then you you pour the mass out onto a tray
or a slabbed cool either in a single sheet to
be broken into pieces later or in individual mounds. Sort
of the size and shape of of cookies. When they're done,
(08:41):
they're they're dry to the touch, not sticky until they
start to melt, which they can around like skin temperature.
Mm hmmm, mm hmmm. You can get variations in there
that include like rum for flavoring, chocolate cralins, peanut butter pralins,
chewier caramel pralins, pralins encased in hard chocolates, sometimes called
turtles et cetera. Um, you can make them with other
(09:03):
nuts too, I guess, yeah, that is something I've never seen.
By researching this episode, I have learned that is definitely
a thing. Yeah, yeah, Okay, So in Europe we run
into some kind of serious linguistic confusion because in France,
from what I understand, the word probabne means whole almonds
(09:28):
or other nuts that are cooked in boiling sugar than
cooled so that it creates like a granulated coating that
keeps the almond inside fresh. And I think it can
also mean um that confection crushed into a powder for
use in like other candy making or baking or what
have you. Here in the States, we do call nuts
(09:52):
that have been encased in a crunchy dairy sugarcoating pray
line nuts and praylene pecans are a holiday dela to
see in the South. Yes. Meanwhile, back in France, there's
a related term prolin um, which means ground nuts or
(10:12):
possibly pre leaned nuts, cooked into a soft paste with
sugar and chocolate and then coated in a hard chocolate shell,
like like a bond bon. Yeah. Meanwhile, in Belgium, the
word probaben means any confection consisting of a hard chocolate
shell in casing a softer filling, one of the traditional fillings,
(10:35):
or perhaps the traditional filling being prolin. That is confusing, y'all.
It took me like a really silly amount of time
to suss all of this out. I it was like
cross referencing. I there was a lot of translating pages
from French with Google Translate. Like I got very confused
(10:58):
for a very hot minute. Yeah. That's one of the
funny things about when you do grow up in an
area and you don't realize something is regional venture outside
of it, and you're like, wait, you call probins what
and where? Yes? Yes, because you just kind of assume
(11:22):
the word means this turn no not necessarily yeah. Yes.
So so that's fun when you're googling it is it is.
It adds an extra layer of challenge, of fun, difficulty,
a wrinkle, an air of mystery, perhaps a mystery. What
(11:46):
probably are prayle and breakdown are we talking about? Well, Lauren,
what about the nutrition? Well, um, they're they're a treat.
It's you know, it's sugar and nuts and fat. Uh
you know, treats are nice, treats are great, not so nutritious. Yeah, yeah,
(12:07):
I would imagine. I did find Um, I guess this
is a good transition into our numbers portioned, because there
are too many numbers on Prailians. But I did find
one that really cracked me up. And it was hyper
specific to how many Germans were eating Prailians and how
many we're having more than one a day, And I
(12:28):
just loved that this exists. And it's obviously not the
well maybe not obviously, but not the Prailians were talking about.
So I didn't include it, but it was just very
funny to me that like only twenty percent of Germans
I Probabians more than once a day. Really, it seems
like a lot to me. Still, I'm I'm just bear phrases.
Don't don't quote me on that, but it was okay,
(12:50):
gave me a chuckle that study did. Yeah, that Yeah,
I right right sussing out the numbers for for what
we are folk sing on in this episode, which is
the American South's version of that multi kind of fudge
like pecan pray line situation. Um suessing that out from
(13:12):
everything else was was was tough numbers wise. Um, but
I will say um that at shops in New Orleans
that still make pralins by hand, I'm just I'm not
going to say it consistently. I'm so sorry for anyone
who is already being driven completely up the wall by this. Um. Yeah,
shops in New Orleans still make them by hand, like,
(13:32):
for example, LEAs pralins, a batch of two hundred takes
about forty minutes to make start to finish, and a
dedicated three person team can turn out a thousand a day.
Who right, hoof Uh? At the New Orleans School of Cooking,
which does cooking demos and classes, um, they make thousands
(13:53):
a day in overlapping batches. And one cook who who
mostly does candy making for them, by the name of
Arthur Ruffin, told the l A Times if I had
to keep account on how many I make, I think
I'd probably quit. Yeah, fair, There are certain things you
just really don't want to know the answer to, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,
(14:15):
speaking of which, UM, I looked up how many episodes
we have, and uh, it's a little tricky because like
once you get like classics in there and stuff like that.
But I think we're coming up on four hundred. Dude, whoa,
so are one hundred? Estimate? It was? It was low,
It was low, and I feel a little bit better
(14:36):
about having spotty memory. Well, we should do a big celebration.
We never celebrated before. We didn't do like we did.
We did for one, we did for one, but not
the rest. So long ago it was yeah, yeah, let's
let's I'll do account. We'll figure out when number four
(14:59):
hundred just coming out, We'll do something special special. Oh no, okay,
I mean it will be great. Don't worry about it. Lauren. Thanks,
I'm very reassured now, as I knew you would be.
(15:20):
That was my intent. Well, now that we have that
on the horizon, I guess we should look backwards into
the history of the praising. We should, but first we
should take a quick break for a word from our sponsor.
(15:46):
And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you? Okay. So,
honeyed seeds and nuts are one of the oldest types
of candy in the world. In Europe. Sugared almonds in
particular were popular in ancient Rome and were included in
royal feasts starting in the Middle Ages. Um with the
(16:06):
intercontinental sugar trade began kicking off. It's um, it's tricky
to to tie down a solid history on caramel. Legend
has it that Arabic chefs developed the technique of cooking
sugar into variously hard, you know, toasty, roasty flavored candies,
and that Europeans picked it up from them, perhaps around
(16:27):
the twelve hundreds, initially as a pleasant like post feast
digestive aid kind of thing. Mm hmmmm hmmm. Well, when
telling the history of the Prelim people usually begin in
the early seventeenth century with the French confection linked to
French diplomat Caesar duc de Choisel, or the Comte to
(16:49):
place Pro, who many claim is the namesake. Okay. Some
versions of the story go that you have to cook
perhaps his personal chef claimant is on with creating an
almond candy that he would then use to seduce potential lovers.
Apparently it was quite the ladies man, okay. Or that
(17:12):
it was created as a cure for his indigestion different vein,
or that children kind of sort of created it and
a cook was like, ah, I shall take this, Or
that it was created purely by accident when a cook
accidentally knocked a big thing of almonds into caramel, whatever
the case. Lots of lots of stories. My my favorite
(17:34):
is the one involving the kids, because that one, like
the popular retelling, goes that like a bunch of like
like kind of like urchins like snuck into the kitchen
and uh, and we're coating almonds with this with this
bold sugar and um bald listen to me, goodness, my
gracious and uh. And the cook caught them, but then
(17:55):
he tasted them and he was like, oh man, these
are great. Okay, I won't tell anyone that y'all did this.
If you tell me how you did it. I love
that too. It sounds very fairy tale ish, right. I
don't think that's actually how it did, but you know, yeah, yeah,
as as in so many of these episodes, whatever the case,
(18:17):
maybe it makes sense to me someone or someone's would
have thought of this. As you said, Lauren, people were
really into this for a long time, this type of
candy um, and so it was there and that it
quickly became popular in the country. However it happened, and
yes it did, people really really loved it. Lasagna went
(18:40):
on to open his own shop Maison de Plon, where
he sold them apparently still open. I think different evolutions
occurred throughout Europe, which accounts for some of the confusion
we talked about at the top, but a common theme
was finally ground that's mixed into smooth cocoa that was
then used as a bond, bond filling right rights. So
(19:02):
when the French arrived in New Orleans, they brought all
their culinary influences and taste, and these elements combined with
so many different cultures and cuisines in that area. Again
see our New Orleans episodes. It's fascinating, it really really is.
But by the time the sugarcane industry had taken off
in the late seventeen hundreds, French Pralians were certainly a
thing there. One story sites ursuline nuns arriving to New
(19:26):
Orleans and seven in particular with bringing the prelian um.
They were put in charge of the casket girls, so
called because of their casket shaped boxes that contained all
of their belongings as they made this journey from Europe
to New Orleans. And they were these young women who
were arriving for France at Bien Bell's requests in order
(19:46):
to mary columnists in New Orleans, which is something we
also talked about in our New Orleans episodes. The nuns
taught these girls how to be upstanding women, uh and
good wives, and pray line making was part of that.
And as they settled throughout Louisiana, the fresh prayline took
hold in that area. But in Louisiana, it's not all
(20:10):
months you'll find growing but the cons right, so soon
a Louisiana version of pralines emerged. The cons with a
sugar coating um. The milk and or cream came into
the equation, and butter around this time too. There's a
really specific date, but nope, yeah they got They got
added in there as a bonding ingredient that produced a rich, soft,
(20:33):
fudgy confection. And according to Shonda M. Newness, who wrote
a whole paper on the subject, pralins are the quote
culinary genius of African American women and they are to think,
for quote, the New Orleans praline as we know it.
And food journalists Tony Tipton Martin wrote in her book
Jubilee that pralines quote vividly illustrate the way that black
(20:53):
cooks transitioned unwanted leftovers in type financial advantage. This innovation
was one of America's first street foods. Pralius were one
of America's first street foods, and it allowed for newly
emancipated Black women to make money in a country where
they were still so many obstacles in the way of that.
(21:14):
And even before that, um, New Orleans had a law
that allowed for enslaved people to set up and sell
items at their own market places on their quote days off,
usually Sundays. By the nineteen hundreds, these pralians were a
hugely popular street food and candy in New Orleans. The
(21:34):
first known actual written mention of pralius in New Orleans
dates back to eighteen sixty two, when a candy shop
and a local newspaper advertised their quote chocolate prelings. Around
this time is probably when street vendors began selling pralins
in the city too, and among them black women. At
this time, black women commonly sold their products on the
(21:54):
street of the French Quarter um items ranging from coffee
pie to waffles, and too many black families had a
praislane recipe that they just knew, so it's less of
a recipe and more of a story passed down almost
as New Orleans entered a time of boom and prosperity
in the eighties. The storians believe the praylan had by
then cemented itself as a staple. The World's Fair was
(22:18):
underway at that time, and New Orleans was well and
its way to becoming a dining destination that people sought out.
More and more tourists arrived via train, and that train
led out right near the French Market, where tours were
immediately greeted with stands and menders selling all sorts of food,
including prailings. People who sold pralings walked up and down
the streets, carrying their goods in baskets and singing catchy songs.
(22:43):
Successful street vendors had nicknames, they had reputations, they had
certain areas that they frequented. Many of them were just
as much street performers as they were preliners. And for
black women who knew their customers, knew their customer base,
that entailed playing into racist stereotypes that romanticized slavery and reconstruction.
(23:04):
Um Specifically, they were playing into the mammy stereotype. And
you've you've seen this right up to the ant Jemima
branding that persisted until the summer of that's just fine. Um,
it's it's it's this image of jovial, older, heavy set
black woman in an antebellum dress with an apron and
(23:25):
a kerchief who is just so dang maternal that she
is pleased to give up her whole life to the
white family who she works for. And this is a
this is a problematic stereotype in about a dozen ways simultaneously.
It's a it's it's flattening the lives and experiences and
(23:47):
motherhood and sexuality and human rights and capabilities and dreams
of black women into this simple, safe caricature, no shade
to the black women use it as a marketing ploy.
At the time, this was the Jim Crow South Like.
White people ate it up. Um Yeah, yeah they did, um.
(24:09):
And from to the nineteen seventies, white owned candy shops
also capitalize on this racist stereotype. Yep, yep um. Also
over on Stuff I've Never told You, the other podcast
I Do, we did a whole episode on Betty Crocker
Antemima and this is Butterworth. If you'd like to hear
more about that, oh little Dad now, because it was,
(24:32):
like I think, so still interesting interesting history. Yeah, maybe
maybe time for an update. I got into some reading
about how how Quaker is working with this brand to
to rebrand it, and um, it's it's interesting stuff. It's
a there's a lot of a lot of real historical
(24:53):
ugliness involved in it. But um, I'm glad that finally
someone's doing something about it. Uh at any rate. At
any rate, um. Pralines are pretty much ubiquitous in New
Orleans by the eighteen nineties, appearing in numerous articles in
the Daily picka Une, including the Tables. So these articles
would mention them being on the tables of the wealthy
(25:13):
and elite. So yeah, ubiquitous. Like everybody seemed to love them,
and they spread throughout the South, Texas, Alabama, Georgia. I
have seen articles from I think every one of these
states laying claim to inventing but no, nothing to really
back it up. Okay, yeah, pretty much if they were
pecans and sugars were there. Yeah. Um. The rest of
(25:37):
the United States picked up on the concept as well.
A nineteen o eight issue of the Boston Cooking School
magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics lists a recipe
for a peanut or mixed nut pray line made with
just brown sugar and nuts. So okay um. The founding
member of the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panthers,
(25:59):
Robert King Wilkerson, used a direct commentary on on that
racist stereotype that had been so long used to sell
pray leadings and was on pralium packaging in the past
to sell free lines. Um to bring awareness to the
rest of himself and two other black men for reporting
abuses at Louisiana's Angle of State Prison in the nineteen seventies.
Wilkerson made them himself while he was in jail, and
(26:21):
he had to improvise a stove of aluminum cans and
burning toilet paper would do. So m um and skipping
skipping ahead. Lauretta Harrison became the first African American woman
to own a preling shop in New Orleans over thirty
seven years ago. I couldn't find an exact date, but
nineteen seventy nine or early eighties somewhere in there. Uh.
(26:42):
Side note. We tried to get an interview with her
when we were in New Orleans, but I feel she
was too busy, had stuff to do. Fair totally. In
twenty sixteen, her Bailian Vignier's when New Orleans first vigner Fest. Yeah,
and she told Eater, quote, a lot of food our
(27:03):
ancestors used to do is becoming a dying art, and
the younger generation won't fool with it. My son's better,
not just because it's good money, but the history. We
have to keep the history of our food, our culture,
our city alive. Yeah. And that's the thing we heard
a lot when we interviewed people in New Orleans. Absolutely, yeah,
and I I love I love that. I love that. Um,
(27:25):
just an entire concept of of of food um being
not just not just something nourishing, but something that's that's
historically culturally important. Um that Uh. Yeah, you can use
to to connect with with with your family and the
place where you are in the places where members of
your family have been absolutely uh. And it's certainly something
(27:50):
you can just enjoy with somebody and the next time
you have a pray line and maybe you can stir
up a conversation like now, I don't know, it's it's
really pretty. It's because it's it is easy to just
eat things and forget like all it took to get
there and all the history behind it. And yeah yeah, Also,
(28:10):
I if if y'all have never experienced the smell of
Praline's cooking there, there's something so overwhelmingly pleasant um about that,
that caramelizing sugar and the and the kind of toasting
nuts and oh yes, yes, I love it. See we're transported.
(28:34):
This is the power, the power of the power of
the prayline. I feel like we just found our episode title.
Sometimes they happen within the episode orchanically. Um. That's about
what we have to say on the Praline for now.
It is. We do have some listener mail for you, though,
(28:57):
and we will get into that as soon as we
get back from a quick break for a word from
our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
And we're back with listen. No, ma, I was gonna
(29:21):
try to do Joelene listener Mayo, but again, you can't
do the song. I need to get that note pad
in here. Other guys, it's never gonna work, Lauren, I
don't want to be held back. I'm picturing like a
like a white board, or maybe maybe like a like
(29:41):
a projector like like like in the Buffy episode, hushed
like when yeah, maybe a lot of other people don't,
but I got alright, alright, I'll work on that, Kate
rope I and catching up on podcast episodes and listen
(30:01):
to your pringles episode the other day. First of all,
let me say that I don't like pringles and I
have never liked prinkles. I find they taste chemically and
a bit sweet. If they are the only snack option,
I would choose no snack over pringles. I lived in
Tanzania for three years two thousand and three to two
tho six as a volunteer, and when I was there,
(30:23):
pringles were the only option for chips slash Chris other
than the packets of Walker Chris that my neighbor's mother
used instead of bubble rep as packing and parcels sent
from England. Wow, I have questions about that. That's amazing.
Why have I never thought to package things and chips? Well,
now you know the world? Okay, okay, please continue, Yes,
(30:50):
um and pringles were widely available across the country. I
suspect that the can design makes them more durable and
keeps them fresh longer in a hot and often humid
country without the same infrastructure that we have in Canada.
This meant that I went for three years with no
but when volunteers from different parts of the country got together,
we would end up using a can of Pringles as
(31:12):
the benchmark to compare local food costs. In one region,
a can of pringles might cost two thousand, five hundred
tanzania and shillings approximately two dollars and fifty cents USD.
In another region, at the same cam might cost three thousand,
five hundred Tanzanian shillings. Elsewhere it might be even five thousand.
And the higher the cost of a can of Pringles
in your region, the more expensive your weekly food costs. Overall,
(31:35):
I still don't like pringles, but hearing you talk about that,
I brought back all sorts of memories my time in
Tanzania and time spent with friends. Uh oh, that's fascinating.
That is that is very specific and I really enjoy it.
I like this Pringles index se creator. Yeah, h m hmmm.
(31:57):
A lot of people wrote in about Pringles as I
know you have or and I've been joined every minute
of it. Stronger pains always, we always love it. One
of my one of my friends, Alana just posted today
on social media a free confetti recipe which has just
(32:18):
dropped a can of pringles on the floor. Freak comfetti easy.
It is easy clean up either case. You're in trouble
there right, Actually probably, I don't think it's skin. Yeah. Uh,
Lucas wrote today, I was listening to your Paea episode
(32:40):
when one of the listeners wrote in about your Scrapple episode.
I had heard of scrapple and had a vague notion
that it was similar to the to me more familiar
liver mush. I'm doing a lot of driving today, so
I went straight to your Scrapple episode to see if
I was right. Y'all. I literally cheered when you mentioned
liver mush. It's a food near and dear to my heart,
(33:00):
and not just because of the high cholesterol, and I
needed to tell you all about my experience with it.
My grandparents on my mom's side were descended from German
settlers in Pennsylvania, including the ancestors of President Eisenhower. It's
a long story who upon reaching the Appalachian Mountains in
the seventeen hundreds, the German settlers, not President Eisenhower, went
(33:21):
south all the way to North Carolina and settled in
the Piedmont. I haven't done any research, but something tells
me the link between scrapple and livermush comes from that
demographic movement. Anyway, when I was a child, we lived
in Virginia and would drive down to Hickory, North Carolina
to visit my grandparents, and I have very fond memories
of the wonderful breakfasts that my grandmother would make of eggs, biscuits,
(33:43):
and livermish. It was this last thing that was so
wonderful to me because something about the delightfully crispy fried
outside and mushy, rich texture of the inside of each
thin slice was simply non existent outside of my grandparents home.
It's become something of a sentimental food for me because
since both of my grandparents have passed, it always reminds
(34:03):
me of when we would go visit and all the
memories from that time. For some reason, livermush seems to
be a very, very regional thing to that part of
western North Carolina. I went to college west of Asheville,
but there was a very limited selection of liver mush
at grocery stores there, and a friend of mine lived
in Greensboro and he couldn't find it there either. Literally,
we could not find livermush anywhere in Virginia, and it
(34:25):
wasn't until we moved to that particular part of North
Carolina after my dad retired from the Navy that livermush
became a regular feature of my weekend breakfasts. I've gotten
unreasonably excited when I've been in some city for a
work conference and heard about a restaurant that serves it.
I think the regions specific availability, combined with the no
really it's good quality of something called livermush, is the
(34:48):
reason people from outside that region turn up their noses
at it, which sounded similar to how people feel about scrapple.
My dad, who grew up in southern Alabama, has bacon instead.
When my mom has offered to make livermush when I'm home,
my wife, who grew up in central Illinois has sided
with my dad on that, but me, my mom, and
my siblings all love it. It's been several years since
(35:10):
I've been in Hickory, so I haven't gotten any livermush
except to the odd restaurant on a work trip. Since
it makes me wish Livermush could get on the same
popularity train as Scrapple has recently, because then maybe I
could get it more often. In either case, I will
be keeping an eye out for Scrapple and see how
it compares. Oh. Yes, when we've had neither of these things,
(35:33):
I'm very interested. Right. Oh we need both, we need
both right now? Yes, yes, Oh, I hope, I hope
Livermush gets on the Scrapple train. They need to. Yeah, yeah,
easier to get these things, all of these regional, regional delicacies.
We are we are living in the twenty one century,
(35:53):
and you're telling me I can't get livermush. There's no reason,
no reason for it. Again, And I love, I love,
love loves so much how super regional these things are.
And yet so many of you have written in about them.
It's fantastic, so good. Ah. And also I love reading
(36:14):
when people share stories of their grandparents making funds, having
those memories, specific memories, right yeah, because they are so
like nostalgic and clear and uh and and and comforting
and wonderful and yeah yeah yeah, Well, one of these days, Lauren,
we'll do the liver Mush scrappool comparison. We will, it
(36:37):
will be excellent. We will. We will. In the meantime,
things to both of those listeners for writing in If
you would like to write to us, we would love
to hear from you our emails Hello at savor pod
dot com. We're also on social media. You can find
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod, and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is production
(36:57):
of my Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
you can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we're
talking about prawleings. How you say it? I say, I
say both, But I think it's like one of those
contextual situations, am I in. I think I say pray
(00:28):
Lians more than pralins. Though, Okay, um, I've always I mean,
like my my, my northern is showing. But yeah, I've
definitely always said it pray liens um. And I don't
think I had even encountered the alternate pronunciation until maybe,
like we went to New Orleans also can be pronounced
(00:51):
multiple ways. Oh uh yeah um and yeah, well we'll
get into all of that. Um. But we wanted to
do this one because Marty Grass is a pot us
it is as we record this, which is February nine,
(01:12):
feels like an accomplishment to know the date, even though
probably shouldn't be. Uh So, Marty Gross is coming Tuesday, um,
and we wanted to yet wish you happy safe Marty Gross.
Should you so celebrate I'm making gumbo. That's the way
I'm celebrated. Yeah, yeah, I have no plans as of yet,
but I am sure to make some soon. Probably, sure
(01:37):
to make some soon. Probably, So the confidence is overwhelming.
I you know, honestly, my confidence levels are our tip
top today. So that's why we threw you into an
episode where the pronunciation is very, very up for debate.
(01:58):
Love it so good? Hey, Yeah, And we did want
to do a New Orleans food to celebrate Marty Gras,
but we have done a lot of Marty Graw food specifically,
and you can see our New Orleans episodes are many
series we did when we went to New Orleans for those, yeah, yeah,
because we interviewed a whole bunch of amazing people. Um
(02:20):
and uh yeah, so so we we get to talk
about um, oh gosh, what even do we talk about jambalaya?
And we talked about gumbo and muffled letta and Poe
boys and a series of desserts like bananas foster and
bignets and cocktails and cocktails. Yeah, so many I oh
boudin yeah alligator, Oh right, okay, cool, Yeah, Wow, I'm
(02:48):
getting really excited. I feel like I met like a
trivia and I'm like shouting out the answers from our
own show, like episodes we've done and in theory to
just remember, hey, hey, we've been on for a couple
of years now, we have we've done over a hundred
episodes over one Yeah, which is a bunch of episodes.
(03:10):
I can argue with that. I dare anyone to argue
with that. Unless you're an immortal like vampire character, than yeah,
I got you, oh share older one, not one of
the younger vampires. I don't want to hear it. Yeah. No,
if you're if you're like an older immortal person who's
also a podcaster and has been podcasting for thousands of years,
(03:30):
then you can be like a hundred episodes, that's nothing,
and I will take it from you, but only in
that very specific case. Otherwise I don't want to hear
it exactly. And of those one hundred, possibly way more episodes,
we've also done one on put cons are Begins. You
(03:51):
can check that out as well, which is a big
part of prelims in the southern sense, which is what
we're going to be talking about mostly. Uh. And I
did want to share this story because I do have
fond memories of prailings. Um My parents and I used
to have this tradition of going to Savannah Georgia in
November every November. Um, and we would walk through those.
(04:11):
They have a lot of candy shops. They're like very
touristy things. Um. But you've got to see people make
the prailings, and the smells so nice, especially so cold outside.
And then you've got a sample, which was the best
because to be honest, they're very very sweet, so like
a sample is probably all I need. But it was lovely. Um.
And in the place I grew up to, Lanaga, Georgia,
(04:33):
there was somewhere that made essentially prailings. They're not quite
the same, but close called turtles um. And my dad
would get each of me and my siblings a box
of those for Christmas. Um. White chocolate for my little brother,
Milt chocolate for my older brother, and Dart chocolate for me.
All had her own taste. Um. And yes I did
say they aren't Praylians, but close. Don't. Don't yell at me, um,
(04:54):
but we love these so much. He would hide the
boxes he would go, and we'd be like, where are they.
So one year, I think I was in high school
or college, I was older. Um, I was watching Return
of the Jedi and I was super into it, even
though I've seen that movie probably six hundred times. And
I said off handedly to my brother that I wish
we had our turtles to snack on. For the big finale.
(05:17):
Our parents went home to like beg and conjole to
try to convince. So he stood up and he started
sniffing and wandered away, and minutes later, mere minutes, he
returned with the boxes. He sniffed them out. It's like
he had the force, but for candy. It was one
(05:37):
of the most impressive feats I've ever seen in my life. Amazing.
You know, that was like an off brand superpower, but
a good one. Oh my gosh, it was the best.
My dad was very very annoyed but also kind of impressed.
But I mean he just silently like sniffed the air
then wandered off minutes later boxes. Amazing. It was amazing,
(06:01):
And we gotta watch your turn the Jedi with our turtles.
I don't I don't have any probably experience from from
growing up. Really I did grow up with turtles, but
I think that they had like a cheerier caramel inside
of them rather than like a melty, crawling kind of situation. Um,
(06:22):
I don't think I had straight prowling until after I
moved to Georgia, and probably not like soon after I
moved to Georgia. Yeah, yeah, there. I don't know. Uh,
you know, plenty plenty of like nut brittles and toffees
and stuff like that from up north, but no, probably
no probing. I'll tell you this episode what you know,
(06:46):
You're confusing yourself even more. Don't add more choices without
I think this is a word where when you say it,
I could I literally have no idea what it is
like even knowing what it is, I'm kind of like
that can mean anything. And for this episode, I've had
Joline by Dolly Parton suck in my head days. Yeah,
(07:08):
you have to fill in the rest. I've had Jesus
Christ Superstar in my head all day. That's totally unrelated.
There's no pun involved with with this candy, so well,
it could be, I'm sure. But before we go down
that possibly dark path, let's get to walk question. Let
us pralins are pralins or prawlines or lines? This is
(07:35):
the first in our question. What are they? Oh? Heck uh? Well,
as it turns out, the word prowline can refer to
a number of types of candies. Um. What the word
means in the American South is a soft, fudgy type
(07:56):
of caramel lumped with pieces of pecan, like a Milton
your mouth, super sweet, rich buttery, creamy confection with with
the contrasting crunch and complimentary sweet buttery flavor cons so good,
oh my, heck um uh. It's typically made by cooking
sugar with some butter, milk or cream or condensed milk,
(08:18):
maybe a little bit of vanilla, and then chopped or
halved pecans, and you stir this constantly until it is
a thick syrup softball stage for y'all candy makers. And
then you you pour the mass out onto a tray
or a slabbed cool either in a single sheet to
be broken into pieces later or in individual mounds. Sort
of the size and shape of of cookies. When they're done,
(08:41):
they're they're dry to the touch, not sticky until they
start to melt, which they can around like skin temperature.
Mm hmmm, mm hmmm. You can get variations in there
that include like rum for flavoring, chocolate cralins, peanut butter pralins,
chewier caramel pralins, pralins encased in hard chocolates, sometimes called
turtles et cetera. Um, you can make them with other
(09:03):
nuts too, I guess, yeah, that is something I've never seen.
By researching this episode, I have learned that is definitely
a thing. Yeah, yeah, Okay, So in Europe we run
into some kind of serious linguistic confusion because in France,
from what I understand, the word probabne means whole almonds
(09:28):
or other nuts that are cooked in boiling sugar than
cooled so that it creates like a granulated coating that
keeps the almond inside fresh. And I think it can
also mean um that confection crushed into a powder for
use in like other candy making or baking or what
have you. Here in the States, we do call nuts
(09:52):
that have been encased in a crunchy dairy sugarcoating pray
line nuts and praylene pecans are a holiday dela to
see in the South. Yes. Meanwhile, back in France, there's
a related term prolin um, which means ground nuts or
(10:12):
possibly pre leaned nuts, cooked into a soft paste with
sugar and chocolate and then coated in a hard chocolate shell,
like like a bond bon. Yeah. Meanwhile, in Belgium, the
word probaben means any confection consisting of a hard chocolate
shell in casing a softer filling, one of the traditional fillings,
(10:35):
or perhaps the traditional filling being prolin. That is confusing, y'all.
It took me like a really silly amount of time
to suss all of this out. I it was like
cross referencing. I there was a lot of translating pages
from French with Google Translate. Like I got very confused
(10:58):
for a very hot minute. Yeah. That's one of the
funny things about when you do grow up in an
area and you don't realize something is regional venture outside
of it, and you're like, wait, you call probins what
and where? Yes? Yes, because you just kind of assume
(11:22):
the word means this turn no not necessarily yeah. Yes.
So so that's fun when you're googling it is it is.
It adds an extra layer of challenge, of fun, difficulty,
a wrinkle, an air of mystery, perhaps a mystery. What
(11:46):
probably are prayle and breakdown are we talking about? Well, Lauren,
what about the nutrition? Well, um, they're they're a treat.
It's you know, it's sugar and nuts and fat. Uh
you know, treats are nice, treats are great, not so nutritious. Yeah, yeah,
(12:07):
I would imagine. I did find Um, I guess this
is a good transition into our numbers portioned, because there
are too many numbers on Prailians. But I did find
one that really cracked me up. And it was hyper
specific to how many Germans were eating Prailians and how
many we're having more than one a day, And I
(12:28):
just loved that this exists. And it's obviously not the
well maybe not obviously, but not the Prailians were talking about.
So I didn't include it, but it was just very
funny to me that like only twenty percent of Germans
I Probabians more than once a day. Really, it seems
like a lot to me. Still, I'm I'm just bear phrases.
Don't don't quote me on that, but it was okay,
(12:50):
gave me a chuckle that study did. Yeah, that Yeah,
I right right sussing out the numbers for for what
we are folk sing on in this episode, which is
the American South's version of that multi kind of fudge
like pecan pray line situation. Um suessing that out from
(13:12):
everything else was was was tough numbers wise. Um, but
I will say um that at shops in New Orleans
that still make pralins by hand, I'm just I'm not
going to say it consistently. I'm so sorry for anyone
who is already being driven completely up the wall by this. Um. Yeah,
shops in New Orleans still make them by hand, like,
(13:32):
for example, LEAs pralins, a batch of two hundred takes
about forty minutes to make start to finish, and a
dedicated three person team can turn out a thousand a day.
Who right, hoof Uh? At the New Orleans School of Cooking,
which does cooking demos and classes, um, they make thousands
(13:53):
a day in overlapping batches. And one cook who who
mostly does candy making for them, by the name of
Arthur Ruffin, told the l A Times if I had
to keep account on how many I make, I think
I'd probably quit. Yeah, fair, There are certain things you
just really don't want to know the answer to, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,
(14:15):
speaking of which, UM, I looked up how many episodes
we have, and uh, it's a little tricky because like
once you get like classics in there and stuff like that.
But I think we're coming up on four hundred. Dude, whoa,
so are one hundred? Estimate? It was? It was low,
It was low, and I feel a little bit better
(14:36):
about having spotty memory. Well, we should do a big celebration.
We never celebrated before. We didn't do like we did.
We did for one, we did for one, but not
the rest. So long ago it was yeah, yeah, let's
let's I'll do account. We'll figure out when number four
(14:59):
hundred just coming out, We'll do something special special. Oh no, okay,
I mean it will be great. Don't worry about it. Lauren. Thanks,
I'm very reassured now, as I knew you would be.
(15:20):
That was my intent. Well, now that we have that
on the horizon, I guess we should look backwards into
the history of the praising. We should, but first we
should take a quick break for a word from our sponsor.
(15:46):
And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you? Okay. So,
honeyed seeds and nuts are one of the oldest types
of candy in the world. In Europe. Sugared almonds in
particular were popular in ancient Rome and were included in
royal feasts starting in the Middle Ages. Um with the
(16:06):
intercontinental sugar trade began kicking off. It's um, it's tricky
to to tie down a solid history on caramel. Legend
has it that Arabic chefs developed the technique of cooking
sugar into variously hard, you know, toasty, roasty flavored candies,
and that Europeans picked it up from them, perhaps around
(16:27):
the twelve hundreds, initially as a pleasant like post feast
digestive aid kind of thing. Mm hmmmm hmmm. Well, when
telling the history of the Prelim people usually begin in
the early seventeenth century with the French confection linked to
French diplomat Caesar duc de Choisel, or the Comte to
(16:49):
place Pro, who many claim is the namesake. Okay. Some
versions of the story go that you have to cook
perhaps his personal chef claimant is on with creating an
almond candy that he would then use to seduce potential lovers.
Apparently it was quite the ladies man, okay. Or that
(17:12):
it was created as a cure for his indigestion different vein,
or that children kind of sort of created it and
a cook was like, ah, I shall take this, Or
that it was created purely by accident when a cook
accidentally knocked a big thing of almonds into caramel, whatever
the case. Lots of lots of stories. My my favorite
(17:34):
is the one involving the kids, because that one, like
the popular retelling, goes that like a bunch of like
like kind of like urchins like snuck into the kitchen
and uh, and we're coating almonds with this with this
bold sugar and um bald listen to me, goodness, my
gracious and uh. And the cook caught them, but then
(17:55):
he tasted them and he was like, oh man, these
are great. Okay, I won't tell anyone that y'all did this.
If you tell me how you did it. I love
that too. It sounds very fairy tale ish, right. I
don't think that's actually how it did, but you know, yeah, yeah,
as as in so many of these episodes, whatever the case,
(18:17):
maybe it makes sense to me someone or someone's would
have thought of this. As you said, Lauren, people were
really into this for a long time, this type of
candy um, and so it was there and that it
quickly became popular in the country. However it happened, and
yes it did, people really really loved it. Lasagna went
(18:40):
on to open his own shop Maison de Plon, where
he sold them apparently still open. I think different evolutions
occurred throughout Europe, which accounts for some of the confusion
we talked about at the top, but a common theme
was finally ground that's mixed into smooth cocoa that was
then used as a bond, bond filling right rights. So
(19:02):
when the French arrived in New Orleans, they brought all
their culinary influences and taste, and these elements combined with
so many different cultures and cuisines in that area. Again
see our New Orleans episodes. It's fascinating, it really really is.
But by the time the sugarcane industry had taken off
in the late seventeen hundreds, French Pralians were certainly a
thing there. One story sites ursuline nuns arriving to New
(19:26):
Orleans and seven in particular with bringing the prelian um.
They were put in charge of the casket girls, so
called because of their casket shaped boxes that contained all
of their belongings as they made this journey from Europe
to New Orleans. And they were these young women who
were arriving for France at Bien Bell's requests in order
(19:46):
to mary columnists in New Orleans, which is something we
also talked about in our New Orleans episodes. The nuns
taught these girls how to be upstanding women, uh and
good wives, and pray line making was part of that.
And as they settled throughout Louisiana, the fresh prayline took
hold in that area. But in Louisiana, it's not all
(20:10):
months you'll find growing but the cons right, so soon
a Louisiana version of pralines emerged. The cons with a
sugar coating um. The milk and or cream came into
the equation, and butter around this time too. There's a
really specific date, but nope, yeah they got They got
added in there as a bonding ingredient that produced a rich, soft,
(20:33):
fudgy confection. And according to Shonda M. Newness, who wrote
a whole paper on the subject, pralins are the quote
culinary genius of African American women and they are to think,
for quote, the New Orleans praline as we know it.
And food journalists Tony Tipton Martin wrote in her book
Jubilee that pralines quote vividly illustrate the way that black
(20:53):
cooks transitioned unwanted leftovers in type financial advantage. This innovation
was one of America's first street foods. Pralius were one
of America's first street foods, and it allowed for newly
emancipated Black women to make money in a country where
they were still so many obstacles in the way of that.
(21:14):
And even before that, um, New Orleans had a law
that allowed for enslaved people to set up and sell
items at their own market places on their quote days off,
usually Sundays. By the nineteen hundreds, these pralians were a
hugely popular street food and candy in New Orleans. The
(21:34):
first known actual written mention of pralius in New Orleans
dates back to eighteen sixty two, when a candy shop
and a local newspaper advertised their quote chocolate prelings. Around
this time is probably when street vendors began selling pralins
in the city too, and among them black women. At
this time, black women commonly sold their products on the
(21:54):
street of the French Quarter um items ranging from coffee
pie to waffles, and too many black families had a
praislane recipe that they just knew, so it's less of
a recipe and more of a story passed down almost
as New Orleans entered a time of boom and prosperity
in the eighties. The storians believe the praylan had by
then cemented itself as a staple. The World's Fair was
(22:18):
underway at that time, and New Orleans was well and
its way to becoming a dining destination that people sought out.
More and more tourists arrived via train, and that train
led out right near the French Market, where tours were
immediately greeted with stands and menders selling all sorts of food,
including prailings. People who sold pralings walked up and down
the streets, carrying their goods in baskets and singing catchy songs.
(22:43):
Successful street vendors had nicknames, they had reputations, they had
certain areas that they frequented. Many of them were just
as much street performers as they were preliners. And for
black women who knew their customers, knew their customer base,
that entailed playing into racist stereotypes that romanticized slavery and reconstruction.
(23:04):
Um Specifically, they were playing into the mammy stereotype. And
you've you've seen this right up to the ant Jemima
branding that persisted until the summer of that's just fine. Um,
it's it's it's this image of jovial, older, heavy set
black woman in an antebellum dress with an apron and
(23:25):
a kerchief who is just so dang maternal that she
is pleased to give up her whole life to the
white family who she works for. And this is a
this is a problematic stereotype in about a dozen ways simultaneously.
It's a it's it's flattening the lives and experiences and
(23:47):
motherhood and sexuality and human rights and capabilities and dreams
of black women into this simple, safe caricature, no shade
to the black women use it as a marketing ploy.
At the time, this was the Jim Crow South Like.
White people ate it up. Um Yeah, yeah they did, um.
(24:09):
And from to the nineteen seventies, white owned candy shops
also capitalize on this racist stereotype. Yep, yep um. Also
over on Stuff I've Never told You, the other podcast
I Do, we did a whole episode on Betty Crocker
Antemima and this is Butterworth. If you'd like to hear
more about that, oh little Dad now, because it was,
(24:32):
like I think, so still interesting interesting history. Yeah, maybe
maybe time for an update. I got into some reading
about how how Quaker is working with this brand to
to rebrand it, and um, it's it's interesting stuff. It's
a there's a lot of a lot of real historical
(24:53):
ugliness involved in it. But um, I'm glad that finally
someone's doing something about it. Uh at any rate. At
any rate, um. Pralines are pretty much ubiquitous in New
Orleans by the eighteen nineties, appearing in numerous articles in
the Daily picka Une, including the Tables. So these articles
would mention them being on the tables of the wealthy
(25:13):
and elite. So yeah, ubiquitous. Like everybody seemed to love them,
and they spread throughout the South, Texas, Alabama, Georgia. I
have seen articles from I think every one of these
states laying claim to inventing but no, nothing to really
back it up. Okay, yeah, pretty much if they were
pecans and sugars were there. Yeah. Um. The rest of
(25:37):
the United States picked up on the concept as well.
A nineteen o eight issue of the Boston Cooking School
magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics lists a recipe
for a peanut or mixed nut pray line made with
just brown sugar and nuts. So okay um. The founding
member of the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panthers,
(25:59):
Robert King Wilkerson, used a direct commentary on on that
racist stereotype that had been so long used to sell
pray leadings and was on pralium packaging in the past
to sell free lines. Um to bring awareness to the
rest of himself and two other black men for reporting
abuses at Louisiana's Angle of State Prison in the nineteen seventies.
Wilkerson made them himself while he was in jail, and
(26:21):
he had to improvise a stove of aluminum cans and
burning toilet paper would do. So m um and skipping
skipping ahead. Lauretta Harrison became the first African American woman
to own a preling shop in New Orleans over thirty
seven years ago. I couldn't find an exact date, but
nineteen seventy nine or early eighties somewhere in there. Uh.
(26:42):
Side note. We tried to get an interview with her
when we were in New Orleans, but I feel she
was too busy, had stuff to do. Fair totally. In
twenty sixteen, her Bailian Vignier's when New Orleans first vigner Fest. Yeah,
and she told Eater, quote, a lot of food our
(27:03):
ancestors used to do is becoming a dying art, and
the younger generation won't fool with it. My son's better,
not just because it's good money, but the history. We
have to keep the history of our food, our culture,
our city alive. Yeah. And that's the thing we heard
a lot when we interviewed people in New Orleans. Absolutely, yeah,
and I I love I love that. I love that. Um,
(27:25):
just an entire concept of of of food um being
not just not just something nourishing, but something that's that's
historically culturally important. Um that Uh. Yeah, you can use
to to connect with with with your family and the
place where you are in the places where members of
your family have been absolutely uh. And it's certainly something
(27:50):
you can just enjoy with somebody and the next time
you have a pray line and maybe you can stir
up a conversation like now, I don't know, it's it's
really pretty. It's because it's it is easy to just
eat things and forget like all it took to get
there and all the history behind it. And yeah yeah, Also,
(28:10):
I if if y'all have never experienced the smell of
Praline's cooking there, there's something so overwhelmingly pleasant um about that,
that caramelizing sugar and the and the kind of toasting
nuts and oh yes, yes, I love it. See we're transported.
(28:34):
This is the power, the power of the power of
the prayline. I feel like we just found our episode title.
Sometimes they happen within the episode orchanically. Um. That's about
what we have to say on the Praline for now.
It is. We do have some listener mail for you, though,
(28:57):
and we will get into that as soon as we
get back from a quick break for a word from
our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
And we're back with listen. No, ma, I was gonna
(29:21):
try to do Joelene listener Mayo, but again, you can't
do the song. I need to get that note pad
in here. Other guys, it's never gonna work, Lauren, I
don't want to be held back. I'm picturing like a
like a white board, or maybe maybe like a like
(29:41):
a projector like like like in the Buffy episode, hushed
like when yeah, maybe a lot of other people don't,
but I got alright, alright, I'll work on that, Kate
rope I and catching up on podcast episodes and listen
(30:01):
to your pringles episode the other day. First of all,
let me say that I don't like pringles and I
have never liked prinkles. I find they taste chemically and
a bit sweet. If they are the only snack option,
I would choose no snack over pringles. I lived in
Tanzania for three years two thousand and three to two
tho six as a volunteer, and when I was there,
(30:23):
pringles were the only option for chips slash Chris other
than the packets of Walker Chris that my neighbor's mother
used instead of bubble rep as packing and parcels sent
from England. Wow, I have questions about that. That's amazing.
Why have I never thought to package things and chips? Well,
now you know the world? Okay, okay, please continue, Yes,
(30:50):
um and pringles were widely available across the country. I
suspect that the can design makes them more durable and
keeps them fresh longer in a hot and often humid
country without the same infrastructure that we have in Canada.
This meant that I went for three years with no
but when volunteers from different parts of the country got together,
we would end up using a can of Pringles as
(31:12):
the benchmark to compare local food costs. In one region,
a can of pringles might cost two thousand, five hundred
tanzania and shillings approximately two dollars and fifty cents USD.
In another region, at the same cam might cost three thousand,
five hundred Tanzanian shillings. Elsewhere it might be even five thousand.
And the higher the cost of a can of Pringles
in your region, the more expensive your weekly food costs. Overall,
(31:35):
I still don't like pringles, but hearing you talk about that,
I brought back all sorts of memories my time in
Tanzania and time spent with friends. Uh oh, that's fascinating.
That is that is very specific and I really enjoy it.
I like this Pringles index se creator. Yeah, h m hmmm.
(31:57):
A lot of people wrote in about Pringles as I
know you have or and I've been joined every minute
of it. Stronger pains always, we always love it. One
of my one of my friends, Alana just posted today
on social media a free confetti recipe which has just
(32:18):
dropped a can of pringles on the floor. Freak comfetti easy.
It is easy clean up either case. You're in trouble
there right, Actually probably, I don't think it's skin. Yeah. Uh,
Lucas wrote today, I was listening to your Paea episode
(32:40):
when one of the listeners wrote in about your Scrapple episode.
I had heard of scrapple and had a vague notion
that it was similar to the to me more familiar
liver mush. I'm doing a lot of driving today, so
I went straight to your Scrapple episode to see if
I was right. Y'all. I literally cheered when you mentioned
liver mush. It's a food near and dear to my heart,
(33:00):
and not just because of the high cholesterol, and I
needed to tell you all about my experience with it.
My grandparents on my mom's side were descended from German
settlers in Pennsylvania, including the ancestors of President Eisenhower. It's
a long story who upon reaching the Appalachian Mountains in
the seventeen hundreds, the German settlers, not President Eisenhower, went
(33:21):
south all the way to North Carolina and settled in
the Piedmont. I haven't done any research, but something tells
me the link between scrapple and livermush comes from that
demographic movement. Anyway, when I was a child, we lived
in Virginia and would drive down to Hickory, North Carolina
to visit my grandparents, and I have very fond memories
of the wonderful breakfasts that my grandmother would make of eggs, biscuits,
(33:43):
and livermish. It was this last thing that was so
wonderful to me because something about the delightfully crispy fried
outside and mushy, rich texture of the inside of each
thin slice was simply non existent outside of my grandparents home.
It's become something of a sentimental food for me because
since both of my grandparents have passed, it always reminds
(34:03):
me of when we would go visit and all the
memories from that time. For some reason, livermush seems to
be a very, very regional thing to that part of
western North Carolina. I went to college west of Asheville,
but there was a very limited selection of liver mush
at grocery stores there, and a friend of mine lived
in Greensboro and he couldn't find it there either. Literally,
we could not find livermush anywhere in Virginia, and it
(34:25):
wasn't until we moved to that particular part of North
Carolina after my dad retired from the Navy that livermush
became a regular feature of my weekend breakfasts. I've gotten
unreasonably excited when I've been in some city for a
work conference and heard about a restaurant that serves it.
I think the regions specific availability, combined with the no
really it's good quality of something called livermush, is the
(34:48):
reason people from outside that region turn up their noses
at it, which sounded similar to how people feel about scrapple.
My dad, who grew up in southern Alabama, has bacon instead.
When my mom has offered to make livermush when I'm home,
my wife, who grew up in central Illinois has sided
with my dad on that, but me, my mom, and
my siblings all love it. It's been several years since
(35:10):
I've been in Hickory, so I haven't gotten any livermush
except to the odd restaurant on a work trip. Since
it makes me wish Livermush could get on the same
popularity train as Scrapple has recently, because then maybe I
could get it more often. In either case, I will
be keeping an eye out for Scrapple and see how
it compares. Oh. Yes, when we've had neither of these things,
(35:33):
I'm very interested. Right. Oh we need both, we need
both right now? Yes, yes, Oh, I hope, I hope
Livermush gets on the Scrapple train. They need to. Yeah, yeah,
easier to get these things, all of these regional, regional delicacies.
We are we are living in the twenty one century,
(35:53):
and you're telling me I can't get livermush. There's no reason,
no reason for it. Again, And I love, I love,
love loves so much how super regional these things are.
And yet so many of you have written in about them.
It's fantastic, so good. Ah. And also I love reading
(36:14):
when people share stories of their grandparents making funds, having
those memories, specific memories, right yeah, because they are so
like nostalgic and clear and uh and and and comforting
and wonderful and yeah yeah yeah, Well, one of these days, Lauren,
we'll do the liver Mush scrappool comparison. We will, it
(36:37):
will be excellent. We will. We will. In the meantime,
things to both of those listeners for writing in If
you would like to write to us, we would love
to hear from you our emails Hello at savor pod
dot com. We're also on social media. You can find
us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at savor pod, and
we do hope to hear from you. Savor is production
(36:57):
of my Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
you can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Fagin 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
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com