March 17, 2023 • 29 mins
This cool, creamy cake maintains a light & lofty air despite its titular triple dairy content. Anney and Lauren soak in the science and history of pastel de tres leches.
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 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome Savor a prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we have an
episode for you about trist Late Chase. Yes, and we
are coming at you with some technical difficulties, but we're
going to try our best. Yes, christ Led Chase, we
have to talk about it. We won't be stopped. No,
(00:28):
certainly not. It is too delicious. It is too delicious
um and and important. And this is one of the
ones that you do not have a lot of experience with,
is that correct, Annie? Yes, I think I've had the
flavor before, but I can't recall specifically. Oh gosh, um.
This is something that I grew up with as of
(00:50):
like like, okay, so I so so. I lived in
Ohio when I was very young, and then when I
was like eight, I moved to South Florida, and like,
the first birthday party that I went to had Tracey
Lee Chase, and uh, it quickly became one of my
very favorite things. I too to this day, I get
(01:11):
super excited when I see it in a in a
in a in a bakery, or on a menu. It
is one of those things that I'm just like yes,
I want that all the time. That is so ideal. Um,
but yeah, I really so. It's on It's on our list.
It's on our increasingly uncomprehensibly ridiculous list of like dinner
(01:34):
party foods that we need to catch each other up on. Yeah,
it sounds like kind of like Alice in Wonderland but
Savor edition. Yeah, it's getting a very oh oh as
well you should. I mean like it's getting a little
bit eld Rich to be honest. But that's okay, that's okay. Yes,
(01:54):
uh um. Well, you can see our episode on con
densed and evaporated milks for a little bit of background here.
I'm also on whipped cream. Yes, I didn't know whipped
cream was involved. That was exciting. Oh yeah, yes, which
I guess brings us to our question, Yes, what is it? Well?
(02:20):
Tres la chase is a type of dessert made from
a simple airy sponge cake that has been soaked with
creamy sweetened dairy products and then topped with a fluffy,
whipped topping of some kind um. The name literally means
three milks, short tray slate chice, being shortened from up
at still the trelate chaice or treslate chuice cake, and
(02:43):
the soak is where you get your your titular Three
milks um typically sweetened condensed milk, unsweetened evaporated milk, and
either heavy cream or whole milk. The fluffy topping maybe
a meringue or a whipped cream. Different flavorings may be applied,
but it usually doesn't get too complex, Like just a
little bit of vanilla in the cake, maybe some rum
(03:04):
in the soak, maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon or cocoa
on top, a little bit of cut fruit as a garnish.
I don't know. Um, you can get as fancy as
you'd like, I guess um. But yeah, the result is
this dessert that's moist and rich without feeling heavy, like
the structure of the sponge can hold up to the moisture.
It's served chilled and just tastes so creamy and might
(03:27):
usually pretty sweet. It's like, um, it's like pre dunking
a doughnut in a glass of milk. Uh. It's like
if ice cream or a solid at room temperature. It's
like if ice cream cake were like actually cake, or
or if bread pudding were delicate. It's like it's like
(03:49):
if you had a like like a teleporter accident, but
instead of genetically mixing up like two people or maybe
like a person in fly, you know, as you do
if you mixed up instead like a sheet cake and
a milkshake. Oh that sounds lovely. But even though I
(04:11):
do see like a now a parody movie about Tracy
Lachase in the Realm of the Fly, and sure, yeah, yeah, no,
I would watch a Cronenberg film about Tracy Lachase. Sure absolutely, um.
All right, so there are a lot of regional and
personal variations on how exactly tract la Chase should be made.
(04:34):
And these are like slightly contentious variations, but I have
not read any opinions that have like the level of
vigor that we get with these variations sometimes like it
is not a bagel bank. Heck, I didn't have an
energy for bagel level controversy. Today, the important things everyone
(04:57):
seems to agree are getting the textures of everything right,
for whatever value of right you adhere to. Okay, yeah,
so let's break down this kind of like three strata
that we're talking about, the cake, the soak, and the topping.
All right, So sponge cake. Sponge cake is a type
(05:19):
of cake that's leavened or risen by whipping eggs into
a stiff foam and then gently folding in sugar and
flour to preserve that fluff that you've created. You can
also add a little bit of chemical leavener like a
baking powder to get extra rise, but it's typically not necessary.
As the cake bakes, the proteins in the mix will
stiffen up around the tiny little air bubbles that you
(05:41):
have thus worked into the dough, creating a light, but
structural and perhaps slightly dry type of cake at the end.
There's typically no butter or other dairy involved in the batter.
Those things help keep cakes moist but also tend to
make them dense. Yeah, so sponge holds up really well
in fancy layered desserts, like if you've watched a Great
(06:03):
British bake off, you've probably heard a lot about it.
Of flavoring like vanilla or a little bit of lemon
even might be added here. And then after baking your
sponge cake, you involve you get the soak involved, so
you poke the cake full of holes, like straight down
from the top to the bottom of the pan, and
then pour in your milk. Next year, The two critical
(06:27):
milks are again sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. Sweetened
condensed milk is a milk that has been processed in
a vacuum chamber to boil out like sixty percent of
the water content without cooking the milk. Yeah, so you
don't get like cooked milk flavor, but preserve it. You
do add sugar for preservation and for flavor, but but
(06:48):
it acts as a stabilizer. It's it's thick and sticky
and very sweet. Evaporated milk, meanwhile, is an unsweetened version
of this product that has unflavored stabilizers added, like like
potassium phosphates something like that. That's also why evaporated milk
is usually like a pale tan in color instead of
a creamy white. It's just it's just concentrated milk. It's
(07:11):
sort of like a like a less fatty cream. Yeah.
Both are sold in shelf stable cans. Your third milk
product is usually heavy cream, sometimes whole milk, occasionally an
alternate product like like coconut milk. And people are passionate,
(07:31):
I will say about the appropriate ratio of milks, and
sometimes about the brands of canned milks involved. I wouldn't
dare tell you what to do. Whatever you think is correct.
Never no, no flavorings like like vanilla rum, brandy, coffee,
or maybe like a coffee liqueur might be added to
(07:53):
the milk mix and yeah, yeah you you let it
soak into the cake for at least an hour or
overnight in the fridge, and the cake will do an
impressive job of soaking up the liquid. Preferences on the
final moisture level can range from from like self possessed
to soggy bottomed. Oh I like that little shirt that spectrum.
(08:15):
Yeah right, yeah, So when you get close to serving,
you will top the whole thing with your fluff of choice,
usually either a thick layer of whipped cream, sweetened and
flavored to taste, or as Swiss or Italian meringue and meringues.
Meringues are are foams made by whipping together egg whites
(08:36):
and sugar. Swiss meringue is like a little easier to make.
You blend your egg whites with granulated sugar and then
heat the whole mix over a water bath, like whipping
all the while until it reaches about one hundred and
forty degrees fahrenheit that's sixty celsius or above. There's an
excellent Serious Eats recipe, as there usually is, and it
recommends going all the way up to one eighty, So
(08:58):
check that out if you want to. Any way of
Swiss bring is nice and light. Italian meringue is a
little bit more intensive. It involves whipping egg whites and
then drizzling in as you're whipping sugar syrup that you've
heated all the way to like two fifty fahrenheit that's
one hundred and sixteen celsius. It'll be a little bit
(09:18):
heavier and thicker in texture. But yeah, yeah, a personal
preference of what you like making and how you think
it should be done. I've read recipes with like a
cream cheese icing on top. I don't know there are variables,
oh indeed, yeah, and again I cannot and further would
not tell you what is correct to top your cake with.
(09:42):
But once you have, you might dust it with a
powdered sugar, spices like nutmeg or cinnamon, maybe some cocoa powder.
Trace Litches is usually served in squares or rectangles, garnished
with a bit of fresh fruit like strawberry or kiwi,
maybe a canned fruit like a Maraschino cherry or a
peach slice. It's it's not difficult to make with with
(10:04):
modern technology, but it is a little bit finicky with
with all that whipping you know. Um. So it's a
popular celebration food, you know, birthdays, graduations, stuff like that.
Mm hmm, okay, Well what about the nutrition this? This
is a treat. This is calorically dense with some fats
and some sugars. Um. It does have some some protein
(10:25):
and a and a good spread of micronutrients. I mean,
you're dealing with a bunch of milk. That's that's cool.
But yeah it treats are nice. Yeah, treats are nice.
Big fans, big fans, um, and we are not the
only big fans. We do have some numbers for you.
So this dessert did see a lot of growth during
the pandemic, likely because of the canned milk aspect of it.
(10:47):
From twenty nineteen to twenty twenty, searches for race lea
Chase grew by twenty five percent. Uh uh oh, man,
I should have made some. Why didn't I? Heck yeah,
Joe Cood, I certainly could. I certainly could I, well,
my all of my stuff is in storage right now.
But I but I could hypothetically in the future, or
(11:08):
or I could just go buy a hand mixer. I mean,
they're like ten dollars, what could it possibly cost? Um?
Okay and all right? Are numbers for this are difficult
to track down because it's not really like a mass
produced kind of product. But I do have one more
number kind of so I have I have a small
(11:31):
joke that that contains a number within it. Um okay,
all right, cool, So I'm ready trislichus in a stuck Automa. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, sorry,
I'm sorry, Uh yeah, apologize. Uh. That's that's thanks to
(12:00):
to Twitter human Jordan W M who So I was,
I was talking to U Tamiyah of it could happen
here the podcast on we were kind of chatting about
what we were working on yesterday on Twitter and uh
and yeah uh Jordan Wu chimed in with race late
Chase and it's stuck Ladomia and yeah, So I just
(12:22):
thought that y'all would appreciate it. Yes, thank you for
doing the good work and bringing that to our attention line.
We do appreciate it anytime, anytime. Yes, Well, um there.
There are actually some economic components to how to how
(12:43):
this dish has risen to popularity, and we are going
to get into that in the history section. Yes, but
first a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, Yes,
(13:06):
And we are back with another dish with a very
contentious origin story. A lot of countries la claim to
this dish. Nicaragua is a big one, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, others,
and it has proven really difficult for those looking into
it to pin down exactly where it did come from,
(13:28):
because everyone they asked was kind of delightful. Some of
the articles. Everyone they asked was like, no, I had it.
The first time I had it was at this specific
place in Florida in the eighties, and all people like, no, way,
it was from here forties, Like it's very interesting. They're
all over the place with this story. But one theory
that has gained a lot of traction is that Tracey
(13:49):
la Chase descends from the English trifle cakes. Trifle cakes
out of the Middle Ages. At the time, people would
quote rejuvenate, I love a stale cake or something like that.
Like bread or something by soaking it in liquid. Proponents
of this theory point out that Nicaragua was colonized in
(14:09):
the fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds by Spain and England,
and the English may have very well brought these trifle
cakes with them. Yeah, and I'll say that for sure,
whipped cream was popular in Europe at that time, so yeah, yes,
And this was obviously a very tumultuous time, a time
(14:32):
of turmoil for the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua, and that
did translate into the cuisine because people were experimenting with
new ingredients that were available. Sugarcane and cattle were readily
adopted in the area, and cattle were of course significant
for the milk industry. There still others say that we
(14:53):
have to go back further than this, and that these
trifle cakes are descended from Persian and Turkish recipes describing
cake bread soaked in syrup. Yeah, and it is a
little hard to parse out the exact evolution, because right,
people from all over have been soaking cakes and cookies
and breads and like creamy and or sweet stuff for
(15:15):
like pretty much ever, yes, yes, and it's definitely one
of those things that could have been simultaneously, have separate
origin stories or at different times, but just all kind
of come together, ye to this. Yeah. In fact, some
believe that the history of trace la Chase in Central
America is religious in nature. I really only found this
(15:36):
in one place. Both thought it was interesting, pointing to
other similar examples of nuns and convents churning out similar desserts,
and that the tripling of the milk in the name
is symbolic of the Holy Trinity. Yeah. Yeah, well, at
any rate, historians seem to think that what we refer
(15:59):
to today as sponge cake had developed in Europe by
like the mid to late seventeen hundreds, and that it
became popular in soaked cakes, or had become popular in
soaked cakes by the mid eighteen hundreds. Meringue is even
trickier to nail down, apparently, And I guess that makes sense,
(16:21):
because if you've ever dealt with it merangue, I wouldn't
try to put a nail through that anyway. Yeah. The
word can refer to the two types we discussed above,
the Swiss or Italian, or a third type called French
berang which is whipped raw with powdered sugar and is
typically baked afterward to add stability, and the word may
have been used on other egg white whips before those
(16:41):
three developed. Nobody knows mysteries histories. It seems likely that
stuff similar to French merangue may have developed in Europe
also along the same timeline as sponge cake, like it
was around by the mid seventeen hundreds, popular in layer
desserts by the mid eighteen hundreds. It's possible that we
(17:04):
didn't get Italian and Swiss merings until like Escoffier in
the early nineteen hundreds. I'm not sure I didn't. That
will have to be researched for a different episode. I
did not read that deeply into it to piece at
all together. That's fair. That's fair. And a lot of
these dates, I think, just because of the nature of
what gets recorded and things like that, were later than
(17:26):
I thought they were. So one of the big ones
is trades. Late Chase saw rapid growth in Central America
in the nineteen forties, which matches up with when canned
milk products became more available in that area, and the
widespread availability of these canned milk products is related to
in nineteen thirty six trade agreement that reduced duties on
(17:50):
dairy products out of Wisconsin for Nicaragua. I think other things.
That's what's important. That is very specific and I love it,
I know. Right. Companies offering these items like Borden and
Nestlie started printing recipes for trace late chase on the
label around this time as well. And we have talked
about this previously, but canned milk was invented in the
(18:12):
eighteen fifties but saw a big boost during the World
Wars and the Great Depression because it's just yeah, staple products,
easy to get. Yeah, recipes for trace late chase didn't
start appearing in Mexico and Nicaragua until in the written
record anyway, as far as we know, until the nineteen seventies. Yeah,
(18:33):
like in cookbooks and stuff like that. There are a
couple of examples of very similar things before then, though,
like Torta de la Cha and Baba o Rum out
of France, and some people suggested that perhaps trace late
chase was reserved for the well off at first, kind
of only served in exclusive clubs and wealthy homes, so
(18:56):
most people didn't know about it or didn't have access
to it. For some time, it was allegedly called Swedish Delights,
though for no known reason. There was some people speculated
like they thought maybe this canned milk comes from sphere,
but there was no real proof of that. It was
just speculation. M The Nicaraguan Revolution and environmental disasters between
(19:21):
nineteen seventy nine to nineteen ninety was the catalyst for
tens of thousands of Nicaraguans to immigrate, specifically to places
like Miami, Florida, and so. As I mentioned at the top,
a lot of people did specifically bring up this one restaurant.
In nineteen eighty one, Lost Run Shows opened and Little
Managua in Miami, and numerous people, Yeah, they bring it
(19:43):
up as their first memory of having Trace Chase, even
people from Nicaragua. It was so popular. Yeah, it was
printed and distributed on flyers, and it was included in
the nineteen ninety seven edition of Joy of Cooking. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly.
By the early two thousands, Chase had become a flavor
(20:04):
for other products like ice creams, and both Hagandahs and
Bluebell had tra la iterations in two thousand and three,
and today you can buy trace lchas flavored like concentrates
and syrups and uh, and liquids to to use in
drinks or baked goods or candies or like even the
scent industry. Yeah, yes, um, and a spate of Tracey
(20:28):
Lach's Focused restaurant started opening around twenty eighteen. Yeah. So
going back to like the flavors people were trying, they
were all kinds of flavors offered at Oh that's so fun.
I can see that being really very delicious, I am.
I mean the classic is is nice because it is
so like kind of kind of straightforward. Um. But hm,
(20:54):
the possibilities, yeah, the possibilities endless. Well, listeners, we would
love to know about the possibilities you have had our mate, Yes,
oh so much, because that is about what we have
to say about it. But we do have some listener
(21:14):
mail for you. We do, and we will get into
that after one more quick break for a word from
our sponsor. And we're back Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
And we're back with beautiful And we had technical difficulties
(21:44):
and you did it. You nailed it. I guess I
think so because I can't see it or really here
that well. I will tell folks like a triple squirrel. Yes, yes, yes,
all right. Well, Eric or Uric wrote, they're they're bening it,
(22:09):
so I don't think they've gotten to where we are
where we've said the name already, but correct us if
we're wrong. They wrote, still loving it, love the science,
the side notes, the puns, the D and D, the
general fun of it. I'm with Lauren on sours. I
love sour beers and will go to them first if
you ever head up north. In Cincinnati, Urban Artifact makes
(22:29):
wonderful sours, and in Pittsburgh you will want to hit
Strange Roots and Hitchhiker frequently releases sours. On mayo, I
have a love hate with it. When used properly and
with a good one, I enjoy it. Way too often
it is poor quality and overdone, making it will messy
and unappetizing. I think someone has mentioned before, but if
you can ever get a hold of some imported Cupie
mayo from Japan, it is great. You need the Japanese
(22:52):
one since the one produced in the US does not
have gasp MSG. Oh yeah, I've been told I would
probably like Keepie mayo. It's delicious. I'm still nervous, but
I think I think I would. I think you're right
a little more. I have some reservations. Yeah, no, I
can see that. I'm still convinced that the thing that
you dislike is miracle whip and not Mayo. Yeah, but
(23:16):
it's quite possible. Yeah but either way, I mean, but
oh yeah, yeah, keepy delicious. I write, I really need
to get up north, like the beer scene. Like we're
so um kind of a sequestered in the South. We
we only get the regional beers down here and so,
which are great. However, there's a whole world out there.
(23:40):
It's true, and we want to explore it. Yes, yes,
Cecilia wrote, Yeah, I know, I just wrote yesterday. I'm
making up for lost time. My husband and I took
a tour of Sicily in February. It was quite wonderful.
Before leaving, I downloaded all of your podcasts relating to
Italian foods. I listened to several on the flight over.
(24:01):
We did two food tours, one in Octania and one
on the Amalfi coast of Italy. One of the things
I wanted to be sure to get while there was
some gelato, but we don't usually eat desserts after a
big meal and it was chili, so we were not
in the mood for a gelato in the afternoons. So
after several days we'd still not had a gelato. One evening,
(24:22):
would had a big lunch and wanted something light for supper,
and I suggested we'd just get gelato for supper. My
husband isn't usually interested in deviating from the norm that much,
but he agreed and we went to a gelato place
near our lodging for a supper of gelato. It was delicious.
Another night, we were looking for a place for dinner
and we were on the main street in Old Palermo.
(24:43):
It was a chili drizzly evening and the street was
less busy than usual. The restaurants had their people out
trying to draw customers in. One fellow trying to get
us into his restaurant, asked us what we wanted to eat. Normally,
I need to look at a menu and we'll choose
something from the menu. But this evening I had decided
that I wanted jolki because I was tired of eating
long pasta. Oh, by the way, the Italians don't use
(25:05):
a spoon to eat pasta. They just eat it twirled
around a fork, and like I said, it can be
tiring if you aren't used to eating pasta frequently. My
husband wanted lasagna. He had asked for it at one
restaurant and was told they didn't have it, so he
was going to try again. So when this guy asked
us what we wanted, Jim said lasagna and the guy
said they don't have lasagna. Then I said joki and
(25:25):
he said, what's that. My accent isn't perfect, but it's
not that bad. I repeated it, and he still didn't
know it. We were baffled. We ate there anyway and
had delicious meals, but not lasagna or yoki. Our most
memorable food experience was on the Amalfi Coast where we
had a lemon cello tour. Did you do an episode
of lemon Cello? If you did, it was not. When
(25:46):
I downloaded, we have gone, She continues. We had a
car with a private driver for this tour. We stopped
at a restaurant that specializes in lemon dishes and lemoncello. First,
the chef got in the car with us and directed
us to his home about a half mile from the restaurant,
overlooking the Terinean Sea. There He talked to us about
(26:07):
growing lemons under a canopy of lemon trees full of lemons.
Did you know it takes more than a year for
lemons to mature. He then told us to pick some lemons.
He needed a kilo, which was about five. Then we
went back to the restaurant where he directed us to
help him make lemoncello. We peeled the lemons we had
picked and put them into a picture of ninety eight
(26:27):
proof alcohol. He said they needed six months to steep
and pulled out a picture that was six months old
and continued with that one. At that point he added
sugar and water for an uppertif. He added prosecco and
tonic water to a small amount of lemoncello. He then
prepared a four course meal for us. The restaurant was
closed for winter seasons, so we were the only customers.
(26:47):
Each course had a lemon sauce. It was quite a
special experience. The meal ended with a tiny glass of
ice called lemonicllo. He stores it in the freezer. It
was all delicious. A note on Dutch pronunciation. Dutch is
a phonetic language. The long o sound is spelled with
two os oo um. It makes sense now, So koo
(27:10):
l in Dutch is pronounced like cole in English. The
oo sound as in soup is spelled oe in Dutch.
The Dutch word for a flower is b l o
e m, which is pronounced like bloom. It all makes
sense if you ignore the English pronunciation. Cabbage salad in
(27:33):
Dutch is cole slaw. The funny thing is, I never
realized how this sounds almost exactly like kole slav. Have
you listened to the podcast to the History of English.
It's very good. I think you'd especially enjoy the episodes
on medieval foods. That's specifically episodes one thirty two and
one thirty three from December nineteenth of twenty nineteen and
January twenty first of twenty twenty. Oooh okay yeah that
(27:59):
does oh yeah, yeah, um oh, Rad, I'll have to
check that podcast out. Thank you for the Dutch explainer.
I'm extremely confused by the Dutch language as I am
with the English language and basically every other language. Um
but good good notes. Also, we have not done an
episode on them in Cello, but I love that stuff,
(28:21):
and all of that sounds just incredible. It does. It
sounds like you had a lovely trip with amazing foods
and quote jealous in a good way, right right, it's
happy for you. And also, oh, if you could have
just teleported me all of that food, I would that
would have been great. Yeah, yes, agreed. Well, thanks to
(28:45):
both of those listeners for writing in. If you would
like to write to us that you can our emails
hello at savorpod dot com. Oh, we're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(29:06):
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 Savor a prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we have an
episode for you about trist Late Chase. Yes, and we
are coming at you with some technical difficulties, but we're
going to try our best. Yes, christ Led Chase, we
have to talk about it. We won't be stopped. No,
(00:28):
certainly not. It is too delicious. It is too delicious
um and and important. And this is one of the
ones that you do not have a lot of experience with,
is that correct, Annie? Yes, I think I've had the
flavor before, but I can't recall specifically. Oh gosh, um.
This is something that I grew up with as of
(00:50):
like like, okay, so I so so. I lived in
Ohio when I was very young, and then when I
was like eight, I moved to South Florida, and like,
the first birthday party that I went to had Tracey
Lee Chase, and uh, it quickly became one of my
very favorite things. I too to this day, I get
(01:11):
super excited when I see it in a in a
in a in a bakery, or on a menu. It
is one of those things that I'm just like yes,
I want that all the time. That is so ideal. Um,
but yeah, I really so. It's on It's on our list.
It's on our increasingly uncomprehensibly ridiculous list of like dinner
(01:34):
party foods that we need to catch each other up on. Yeah,
it sounds like kind of like Alice in Wonderland but
Savor edition. Yeah, it's getting a very oh oh as
well you should. I mean like it's getting a little
bit eld Rich to be honest. But that's okay, that's okay. Yes,
(01:54):
uh um. Well, you can see our episode on con
densed and evaporated milks for a little bit of background here.
I'm also on whipped cream. Yes, I didn't know whipped
cream was involved. That was exciting. Oh yeah, yes, which
I guess brings us to our question, Yes, what is it? Well?
(02:20):
Tres la chase is a type of dessert made from
a simple airy sponge cake that has been soaked with
creamy sweetened dairy products and then topped with a fluffy,
whipped topping of some kind um. The name literally means
three milks, short tray slate chice, being shortened from up
at still the trelate chaice or treslate chuice cake, and
(02:43):
the soak is where you get your your titular Three
milks um typically sweetened condensed milk, unsweetened evaporated milk, and
either heavy cream or whole milk. The fluffy topping maybe
a meringue or a whipped cream. Different flavorings may be applied,
but it usually doesn't get too complex, Like just a
little bit of vanilla in the cake, maybe some rum
(03:04):
in the soak, maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon or cocoa
on top, a little bit of cut fruit as a garnish.
I don't know. Um, you can get as fancy as
you'd like, I guess um. But yeah, the result is
this dessert that's moist and rich without feeling heavy, like
the structure of the sponge can hold up to the moisture.
It's served chilled and just tastes so creamy and might
(03:27):
usually pretty sweet. It's like, um, it's like pre dunking
a doughnut in a glass of milk. Uh. It's like
if ice cream or a solid at room temperature. It's
like if ice cream cake were like actually cake, or
or if bread pudding were delicate. It's like it's like
(03:49):
if you had a like like a teleporter accident, but
instead of genetically mixing up like two people or maybe
like a person in fly, you know, as you do
if you mixed up instead like a sheet cake and
a milkshake. Oh that sounds lovely. But even though I
(04:11):
do see like a now a parody movie about Tracy
Lachase in the Realm of the Fly, and sure, yeah, yeah, no,
I would watch a Cronenberg film about Tracy Lachase. Sure absolutely, um.
All right, so there are a lot of regional and
personal variations on how exactly tract la Chase should be made.
(04:34):
And these are like slightly contentious variations, but I have
not read any opinions that have like the level of
vigor that we get with these variations sometimes like it
is not a bagel bank. Heck, I didn't have an
energy for bagel level controversy. Today, the important things everyone
(04:57):
seems to agree are getting the textures of everything right,
for whatever value of right you adhere to. Okay, yeah,
so let's break down this kind of like three strata
that we're talking about, the cake, the soak, and the topping.
All right, So sponge cake. Sponge cake is a type
(05:19):
of cake that's leavened or risen by whipping eggs into
a stiff foam and then gently folding in sugar and
flour to preserve that fluff that you've created. You can
also add a little bit of chemical leavener like a
baking powder to get extra rise, but it's typically not necessary.
As the cake bakes, the proteins in the mix will
stiffen up around the tiny little air bubbles that you
(05:41):
have thus worked into the dough, creating a light, but
structural and perhaps slightly dry type of cake at the end.
There's typically no butter or other dairy involved in the batter.
Those things help keep cakes moist but also tend to
make them dense. Yeah, so sponge holds up really well
in fancy layered desserts, like if you've watched a Great
(06:03):
British bake off, you've probably heard a lot about it.
Of flavoring like vanilla or a little bit of lemon
even might be added here. And then after baking your
sponge cake, you involve you get the soak involved, so
you poke the cake full of holes, like straight down
from the top to the bottom of the pan, and
then pour in your milk. Next year, The two critical
(06:27):
milks are again sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. Sweetened
condensed milk is a milk that has been processed in
a vacuum chamber to boil out like sixty percent of
the water content without cooking the milk. Yeah, so you
don't get like cooked milk flavor, but preserve it. You
do add sugar for preservation and for flavor, but but
(06:48):
it acts as a stabilizer. It's it's thick and sticky
and very sweet. Evaporated milk, meanwhile, is an unsweetened version
of this product that has unflavored stabilizers added, like like
potassium phosphates something like that. That's also why evaporated milk
is usually like a pale tan in color instead of
a creamy white. It's just it's just concentrated milk. It's
(07:11):
sort of like a like a less fatty cream. Yeah.
Both are sold in shelf stable cans. Your third milk
product is usually heavy cream, sometimes whole milk, occasionally an
alternate product like like coconut milk. And people are passionate,
(07:31):
I will say about the appropriate ratio of milks, and
sometimes about the brands of canned milks involved. I wouldn't
dare tell you what to do. Whatever you think is correct.
Never no, no flavorings like like vanilla rum, brandy, coffee,
or maybe like a coffee liqueur might be added to
(07:53):
the milk mix and yeah, yeah you you let it
soak into the cake for at least an hour or
overnight in the fridge, and the cake will do an
impressive job of soaking up the liquid. Preferences on the
final moisture level can range from from like self possessed
to soggy bottomed. Oh I like that little shirt that spectrum.
(08:15):
Yeah right, yeah, So when you get close to serving,
you will top the whole thing with your fluff of choice,
usually either a thick layer of whipped cream, sweetened and
flavored to taste, or as Swiss or Italian meringue and meringues.
Meringues are are foams made by whipping together egg whites
(08:36):
and sugar. Swiss meringue is like a little easier to make.
You blend your egg whites with granulated sugar and then
heat the whole mix over a water bath, like whipping
all the while until it reaches about one hundred and
forty degrees fahrenheit that's sixty celsius or above. There's an
excellent Serious Eats recipe, as there usually is, and it
recommends going all the way up to one eighty, So
(08:58):
check that out if you want to. Any way of
Swiss bring is nice and light. Italian meringue is a
little bit more intensive. It involves whipping egg whites and
then drizzling in as you're whipping sugar syrup that you've
heated all the way to like two fifty fahrenheit that's
one hundred and sixteen celsius. It'll be a little bit
(09:18):
heavier and thicker in texture. But yeah, yeah, a personal
preference of what you like making and how you think
it should be done. I've read recipes with like a
cream cheese icing on top. I don't know there are variables,
oh indeed, yeah, and again I cannot and further would
not tell you what is correct to top your cake with.
(09:42):
But once you have, you might dust it with a
powdered sugar, spices like nutmeg or cinnamon, maybe some cocoa powder.
Trace Litches is usually served in squares or rectangles, garnished
with a bit of fresh fruit like strawberry or kiwi,
maybe a canned fruit like a Maraschino cherry or a
peach slice. It's it's not difficult to make with with
(10:04):
modern technology, but it is a little bit finicky with
with all that whipping you know. Um. So it's a
popular celebration food, you know, birthdays, graduations, stuff like that.
Mm hmm, okay, Well what about the nutrition this? This
is a treat. This is calorically dense with some fats
and some sugars. Um. It does have some some protein
(10:25):
and a and a good spread of micronutrients. I mean,
you're dealing with a bunch of milk. That's that's cool.
But yeah it treats are nice. Yeah, treats are nice.
Big fans, big fans, um, and we are not the
only big fans. We do have some numbers for you.
So this dessert did see a lot of growth during
the pandemic, likely because of the canned milk aspect of it.
(10:47):
From twenty nineteen to twenty twenty, searches for race lea
Chase grew by twenty five percent. Uh uh oh, man,
I should have made some. Why didn't I? Heck yeah,
Joe Cood, I certainly could. I certainly could I, well,
my all of my stuff is in storage right now.
But I but I could hypothetically in the future, or
(11:08):
or I could just go buy a hand mixer. I mean,
they're like ten dollars, what could it possibly cost? Um?
Okay and all right? Are numbers for this are difficult
to track down because it's not really like a mass
produced kind of product. But I do have one more
number kind of so I have I have a small
(11:31):
joke that that contains a number within it. Um okay,
all right, cool, So I'm ready trislichus in a stuck Automa. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, sorry,
I'm sorry, Uh yeah, apologize. Uh. That's that's thanks to
(12:00):
to Twitter human Jordan W M who So I was,
I was talking to U Tamiyah of it could happen
here the podcast on we were kind of chatting about
what we were working on yesterday on Twitter and uh
and yeah uh Jordan Wu chimed in with race late
Chase and it's stuck Ladomia and yeah, So I just
(12:22):
thought that y'all would appreciate it. Yes, thank you for
doing the good work and bringing that to our attention line.
We do appreciate it anytime, anytime. Yes, Well, um there.
There are actually some economic components to how to how
(12:43):
this dish has risen to popularity, and we are going
to get into that in the history section. Yes, but
first a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, Yes,
(13:06):
And we are back with another dish with a very
contentious origin story. A lot of countries la claim to
this dish. Nicaragua is a big one, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, others,
and it has proven really difficult for those looking into
it to pin down exactly where it did come from,
(13:28):
because everyone they asked was kind of delightful. Some of
the articles. Everyone they asked was like, no, I had it.
The first time I had it was at this specific
place in Florida in the eighties, and all people like, no, way,
it was from here forties, Like it's very interesting. They're
all over the place with this story. But one theory
that has gained a lot of traction is that Tracey
(13:49):
la Chase descends from the English trifle cakes. Trifle cakes
out of the Middle Ages. At the time, people would
quote rejuvenate, I love a stale cake or something like that.
Like bread or something by soaking it in liquid. Proponents
of this theory point out that Nicaragua was colonized in
(14:09):
the fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds by Spain and England,
and the English may have very well brought these trifle
cakes with them. Yeah, and I'll say that for sure,
whipped cream was popular in Europe at that time, so yeah, yes,
And this was obviously a very tumultuous time, a time
(14:32):
of turmoil for the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua, and that
did translate into the cuisine because people were experimenting with
new ingredients that were available. Sugarcane and cattle were readily
adopted in the area, and cattle were of course significant
for the milk industry. There still others say that we
(14:53):
have to go back further than this, and that these
trifle cakes are descended from Persian and Turkish recipes describing
cake bread soaked in syrup. Yeah, and it is a
little hard to parse out the exact evolution, because right,
people from all over have been soaking cakes and cookies
and breads and like creamy and or sweet stuff for
(15:15):
like pretty much ever, yes, yes, and it's definitely one
of those things that could have been simultaneously, have separate
origin stories or at different times, but just all kind
of come together, ye to this. Yeah. In fact, some
believe that the history of trace la Chase in Central
America is religious in nature. I really only found this
(15:36):
in one place. Both thought it was interesting, pointing to
other similar examples of nuns and convents churning out similar desserts,
and that the tripling of the milk in the name
is symbolic of the Holy Trinity. Yeah. Yeah, well, at
any rate, historians seem to think that what we refer
(15:59):
to today as sponge cake had developed in Europe by
like the mid to late seventeen hundreds, and that it
became popular in soaked cakes, or had become popular in
soaked cakes by the mid eighteen hundreds. Meringue is even
trickier to nail down, apparently, And I guess that makes sense,
(16:21):
because if you've ever dealt with it merangue, I wouldn't
try to put a nail through that anyway. Yeah. The
word can refer to the two types we discussed above,
the Swiss or Italian, or a third type called French
berang which is whipped raw with powdered sugar and is
typically baked afterward to add stability, and the word may
have been used on other egg white whips before those
(16:41):
three developed. Nobody knows mysteries histories. It seems likely that
stuff similar to French merangue may have developed in Europe
also along the same timeline as sponge cake, like it
was around by the mid seventeen hundreds, popular in layer
desserts by the mid eighteen hundreds. It's possible that we
(17:04):
didn't get Italian and Swiss merings until like Escoffier in
the early nineteen hundreds. I'm not sure I didn't. That
will have to be researched for a different episode. I
did not read that deeply into it to piece at
all together. That's fair. That's fair. And a lot of
these dates, I think, just because of the nature of
what gets recorded and things like that, were later than
(17:26):
I thought they were. So one of the big ones
is trades. Late Chase saw rapid growth in Central America
in the nineteen forties, which matches up with when canned
milk products became more available in that area, and the
widespread availability of these canned milk products is related to
in nineteen thirty six trade agreement that reduced duties on
(17:50):
dairy products out of Wisconsin for Nicaragua. I think other things.
That's what's important. That is very specific and I love it,
I know. Right. Companies offering these items like Borden and
Nestlie started printing recipes for trace late chase on the
label around this time as well. And we have talked
about this previously, but canned milk was invented in the
(18:12):
eighteen fifties but saw a big boost during the World
Wars and the Great Depression because it's just yeah, staple products,
easy to get. Yeah, recipes for trace late chase didn't
start appearing in Mexico and Nicaragua until in the written
record anyway, as far as we know, until the nineteen seventies. Yeah,
(18:33):
like in cookbooks and stuff like that. There are a
couple of examples of very similar things before then, though,
like Torta de la Cha and Baba o Rum out
of France, and some people suggested that perhaps trace late
chase was reserved for the well off at first, kind
of only served in exclusive clubs and wealthy homes, so
(18:56):
most people didn't know about it or didn't have access
to it. For some time, it was allegedly called Swedish Delights,
though for no known reason. There was some people speculated
like they thought maybe this canned milk comes from sphere,
but there was no real proof of that. It was
just speculation. M The Nicaraguan Revolution and environmental disasters between
(19:21):
nineteen seventy nine to nineteen ninety was the catalyst for
tens of thousands of Nicaraguans to immigrate, specifically to places
like Miami, Florida, and so. As I mentioned at the top,
a lot of people did specifically bring up this one restaurant.
In nineteen eighty one, Lost Run Shows opened and Little
Managua in Miami, and numerous people, Yeah, they bring it
(19:43):
up as their first memory of having Trace Chase, even
people from Nicaragua. It was so popular. Yeah, it was
printed and distributed on flyers, and it was included in
the nineteen ninety seven edition of Joy of Cooking. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly.
By the early two thousands, Chase had become a flavor
(20:04):
for other products like ice creams, and both Hagandahs and
Bluebell had tra la iterations in two thousand and three,
and today you can buy trace lchas flavored like concentrates
and syrups and uh, and liquids to to use in
drinks or baked goods or candies or like even the
scent industry. Yeah, yes, um, and a spate of Tracey
(20:28):
Lach's Focused restaurant started opening around twenty eighteen. Yeah. So
going back to like the flavors people were trying, they
were all kinds of flavors offered at Oh that's so fun.
I can see that being really very delicious, I am.
I mean the classic is is nice because it is
so like kind of kind of straightforward. Um. But hm,
(20:54):
the possibilities, yeah, the possibilities endless. Well, listeners, we would
love to know about the possibilities you have had our mate, Yes,
oh so much, because that is about what we have
to say about it. But we do have some listener
(21:14):
mail for you. We do, and we will get into
that after one more quick break for a word from
our sponsor. And we're back Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you,
And we're back with beautiful And we had technical difficulties
(21:44):
and you did it. You nailed it. I guess I
think so because I can't see it or really here
that well. I will tell folks like a triple squirrel. Yes, yes, yes,
all right. Well, Eric or Uric wrote, they're they're bening it,
(22:09):
so I don't think they've gotten to where we are
where we've said the name already, but correct us if
we're wrong. They wrote, still loving it, love the science,
the side notes, the puns, the D and D, the
general fun of it. I'm with Lauren on sours. I
love sour beers and will go to them first if
you ever head up north. In Cincinnati, Urban Artifact makes
(22:29):
wonderful sours, and in Pittsburgh you will want to hit
Strange Roots and Hitchhiker frequently releases sours. On mayo, I
have a love hate with it. When used properly and
with a good one, I enjoy it. Way too often
it is poor quality and overdone, making it will messy
and unappetizing. I think someone has mentioned before, but if
you can ever get a hold of some imported Cupie
mayo from Japan, it is great. You need the Japanese
(22:52):
one since the one produced in the US does not
have gasp MSG. Oh yeah, I've been told I would
probably like Keepie mayo. It's delicious. I'm still nervous, but
I think I think I would. I think you're right
a little more. I have some reservations. Yeah, no, I
can see that. I'm still convinced that the thing that
you dislike is miracle whip and not Mayo. Yeah, but
(23:16):
it's quite possible. Yeah but either way, I mean, but
oh yeah, yeah, keepy delicious. I write, I really need
to get up north, like the beer scene. Like we're
so um kind of a sequestered in the South. We
we only get the regional beers down here and so,
which are great. However, there's a whole world out there.
(23:40):
It's true, and we want to explore it. Yes, yes,
Cecilia wrote, Yeah, I know, I just wrote yesterday. I'm
making up for lost time. My husband and I took
a tour of Sicily in February. It was quite wonderful.
Before leaving, I downloaded all of your podcasts relating to
Italian foods. I listened to several on the flight over.
(24:01):
We did two food tours, one in Octania and one
on the Amalfi coast of Italy. One of the things
I wanted to be sure to get while there was
some gelato, but we don't usually eat desserts after a
big meal and it was chili, so we were not
in the mood for a gelato in the afternoons. So
after several days we'd still not had a gelato. One evening,
(24:22):
would had a big lunch and wanted something light for supper,
and I suggested we'd just get gelato for supper. My
husband isn't usually interested in deviating from the norm that much,
but he agreed and we went to a gelato place
near our lodging for a supper of gelato. It was delicious.
Another night, we were looking for a place for dinner
and we were on the main street in Old Palermo.
(24:43):
It was a chili drizzly evening and the street was
less busy than usual. The restaurants had their people out
trying to draw customers in. One fellow trying to get
us into his restaurant, asked us what we wanted to eat. Normally,
I need to look at a menu and we'll choose
something from the menu. But this evening I had decided
that I wanted jolki because I was tired of eating
long pasta. Oh, by the way, the Italians don't use
(25:05):
a spoon to eat pasta. They just eat it twirled
around a fork, and like I said, it can be
tiring if you aren't used to eating pasta frequently. My
husband wanted lasagna. He had asked for it at one
restaurant and was told they didn't have it, so he
was going to try again. So when this guy asked
us what we wanted, Jim said lasagna and the guy
said they don't have lasagna. Then I said joki and
(25:25):
he said, what's that. My accent isn't perfect, but it's
not that bad. I repeated it, and he still didn't
know it. We were baffled. We ate there anyway and
had delicious meals, but not lasagna or yoki. Our most
memorable food experience was on the Amalfi Coast where we
had a lemon cello tour. Did you do an episode
of lemon Cello? If you did, it was not. When
(25:46):
I downloaded, we have gone, She continues. We had a
car with a private driver for this tour. We stopped
at a restaurant that specializes in lemon dishes and lemoncello. First,
the chef got in the car with us and directed
us to his home about a half mile from the restaurant,
overlooking the Terinean Sea. There He talked to us about
(26:07):
growing lemons under a canopy of lemon trees full of lemons.
Did you know it takes more than a year for
lemons to mature. He then told us to pick some lemons.
He needed a kilo, which was about five. Then we
went back to the restaurant where he directed us to
help him make lemoncello. We peeled the lemons we had
picked and put them into a picture of ninety eight
(26:27):
proof alcohol. He said they needed six months to steep
and pulled out a picture that was six months old
and continued with that one. At that point he added
sugar and water for an uppertif. He added prosecco and
tonic water to a small amount of lemoncello. He then
prepared a four course meal for us. The restaurant was
closed for winter seasons, so we were the only customers.
(26:47):
Each course had a lemon sauce. It was quite a
special experience. The meal ended with a tiny glass of
ice called lemonicllo. He stores it in the freezer. It
was all delicious. A note on Dutch pronunciation. Dutch is
a phonetic language. The long o sound is spelled with
two os oo um. It makes sense now, So koo
(27:10):
l in Dutch is pronounced like cole in English. The
oo sound as in soup is spelled oe in Dutch.
The Dutch word for a flower is b l o
e m, which is pronounced like bloom. It all makes
sense if you ignore the English pronunciation. Cabbage salad in
(27:33):
Dutch is cole slaw. The funny thing is, I never
realized how this sounds almost exactly like kole slav. Have
you listened to the podcast to the History of English.
It's very good. I think you'd especially enjoy the episodes
on medieval foods. That's specifically episodes one thirty two and
one thirty three from December nineteenth of twenty nineteen and
January twenty first of twenty twenty. Oooh okay yeah that
(27:59):
does oh yeah, yeah, um oh, Rad, I'll have to
check that podcast out. Thank you for the Dutch explainer.
I'm extremely confused by the Dutch language as I am
with the English language and basically every other language. Um
but good good notes. Also, we have not done an
episode on them in Cello, but I love that stuff,
(28:21):
and all of that sounds just incredible. It does. It
sounds like you had a lovely trip with amazing foods
and quote jealous in a good way, right right, it's
happy for you. And also, oh, if you could have
just teleported me all of that food, I would that
would have been great. Yeah, yes, agreed. Well, thanks to
(28:45):
both of those listeners for writing in. If you would
like to write to us that you can our emails
hello at savorpod dot com. Oh, we're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(29:06):
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
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
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.