August 14, 2020 • 36 mins
When you need just a sprinkle of seasoning, salt and pepper shakers are a practical solution – but the designs people create for these everyday objects can be spectacular. Anney and Lauren explore the opulent history and kitschy culture of condiment casters.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to SABOR production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're
talking about salt and pepper shakers. Yes, which this was
a Laurence suggestion and was there any particular reason? Okay,
(00:28):
So so I think I think at some point in
the recent past you or a listener had suggested some
kind of cooking implement um. And so I sort of
went down this Google search rabbit hole of trying to
find something that would that would make for a full episode,
(00:49):
uh unto itself, so that we didn't have to do
like a compilation of cooking implements. And I landed upon
the surprisingly twisty in turn world of salt and pepper shakers. Yeah. Yes,
I would agree with that assessment. Was not expecting most
(01:11):
of what is what is to come, um, but it's yeah,
very exciting, very exciting. I have to say, I I
can't stop thinking of John mulaney when he does his
impression of Sir Patrick Stewart on s n L, where
he John Laney says one of his favorite moments on
(01:34):
SNL is when Sir Patrick Stewart introduced salt and pepper
and he said it like salt and Peppa, like it
was a surprise that pepper showed up, which I love. Yeah,
that's beautiful goodness. Highly recommend, highly recommend. And my mom
(01:57):
does have She is a person who has um different
decorative salt and pepper shakers for holidays and seasons. Oh
my gosh, that's beautiful. Oh that is that is a
thing of wonder. We do have in this household, precisely
three uh, decorative salt and pepper shakers, none of which
(02:21):
we ever use. Um. Two are matched set, which our
elephants because my roommate UM has an elephant thing. Um
that sounded weird. She just likes elephants. Um, alright, they're
her favorite animal, I do believe. UM. And I've got
(02:41):
just one that's t Rex and it's a little white
t Rex wearing a little gold bow tie. And I
didn't really feel a need to have two of them
because I knew that I wouldn't like use them. I
just sort of wanted. I think I was like having
a bad day at Target, and so I was like,
this little dude is coming home with me. It's just
(03:01):
me and him. We're just we're out there just gonna
make it work, you know, you and the single. I guess,
salt Shaker, I don't know, you can put whatever you
want in there is against the world. Yeah, all right,
this kind of reminds me of I remember one time
in D and D. Your character, I assume was having
(03:25):
a bad day and asked for like a decorative figurine,
and I was like, uh, stop keepers and skin says no.
But now I know, okay, tr x Shaker, maybe there
you go. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. You know, I'm
not sure what kind of dinosaurs existed in whichever realm
(03:51):
we're in. Um, that's right, I'm going to have to
I'm gonna have to sort that out. I I'm ashamed.
I haven't thought about that earlier. What kind of dinosaur?
I'm ashamed of you and for you? Yes, as you
should be, as you should be. All right, Well, I
will think on this. I unfortunately don't have any decorative
(04:11):
unfortunately that would use them either. But maybe i'd use
him as decoration. Um, I'm just I just use it
straight from the canister type of gow. Yeah. Yeah, I've
I've come back over into salt seller kind of territory lately.
I don't even I don't even shake. Oh wow, you
don't even shake. You don't shake, bro wow. Well, okay,
(04:39):
you've given me some stuff to consider about what's going
on with your dinosaur figurine and your salt seller. All right, um,
but in the meantime, we have done episodes on salt
and pepper. Yep, um, that's a salt what's shaking from
April and a prepper on black pepper from March of
(05:00):
Oh nice? Yeah. Um, but all right, let's get to
our question. Salt and pepper shakers. What are they? Well, uh,
they're small receptacles with holes in the top, usually in
the top for for individual diners at the table to
(05:23):
uh to use to sprinkle out individual servings or or
units I guess of salt or of pepper. Um. I
mean honestly, again, you can put pretty much whatever you
want in there. Um. But uh, but yeah, because sometimes
you have dry, powdered or crystallized condiments or seasonings that
it would be nice to sprinkle over your food, and
(05:44):
you also don't want to get that condiment all over
your fingers, or maybe it would be rude for you
to like put your grubby little hands into a shared
dish at that current moment. So yeah, these receptacles let
you season your food all dainty, like I suppose it
is kind of dainty that you mentioned it. And salt
and pepper are the two most common seasonings used with shakers, um,
(06:08):
but any number of other things can can go in
similar receptacles of sugar, hot, red pepper flakes, ground parmesan
in kind of scare quotes because there's usually not a
whole lot of parmesan actually involved in those. Um, cinnamon,
mustard powder, yeah, whatever you want. Um. They are also
called castors um or pots based on older sellers or
(06:31):
or or pots, but the shakers are sometimes called pots too,
sometimes dredgers or muffineers. This is a This is a
historical term, and as far as I can tell, no
one knows why it exists. Um. People have all kinds
of theories about, like the British seasoning their muffins at
the table. I'm not sure. But then I think about
(06:53):
our muffin episode and how confusing that terminology was, and
I don't even want to I didn't have time. I
did not have time today, that's fair. The ones for
the muffineer rabbit hole was not one for another day,
or maybe it conquered. Does you know, maybe that's the
one we'll never know. I I like to think. I
(07:13):
really hope that this isn't like my Moby Dick, like
I don't know muffineer. Now, I can't hope it is.
See Muffinier in our food comic series. The muffineer does
sound like uh, it sounds like a villain, but I
guess it could be either. Yeah, but like like a musketeer.
You know that's true, the three Muffineers. Yeah, all right,
(07:36):
there it is. There's the idea they're the rival band. Though,
of the Muffineers is clearly the Pepperettes, which is another
word for a pepper shaker. Uh so yeah, I like that, Yeah,
in the offshoot where they're both girl bands with like
key tars um. Yes, yeah, it's the Muffineers and the
(07:59):
Pepperettes or sometimes these objects are's just simply called salts
and peppers. M all right, all right, And I need
to go ahead and draw distinction here between shakers and grinders.
I think we need to talk separately about grinders at
another time and date. It's too much, too much, too much,
(08:21):
grinders its own and as we have been discussing UM,
in addition to being practical, shakers can be also varyingly
decorative UM, you know, being constructed of materials ranging from
just like paperboard and plastic to ceramics to wood to
(08:41):
steel too, precious metals, all kinds of shapes and decors
from plane to kitchy too elegant um. I I found
out today that some salt and pepper shakers are also
snow globes UM, and I've seen those that just blew
my little mind. I was like, well, there you go,
(09:02):
there you go. Human ingenuity. I love it, I know,
I know, especially in salt and pepper rows. Other realms
perhaps slacker, but salt and pepper shakers you're right, yeah,
very important. Yeah. UM. They are often sold in matching sets. Yes,
(09:25):
I feel like that would be in a horror movie.
No offense to you, la, but if someone was like
they came up and they were like, I only want
the left like salt, one of this pair, I feel
like the person trying to sell it would be like,
(09:46):
what you can't break we can't break up the set.
We never sell them separately. Do you know what kind
of damage that does to the psyche of a salt
pepper shaker. You monster. Yeah, I don't know. What have
I done? What have you done? Somewhere there's some poor
(10:09):
innocent t Rex with a you know, maybe a silver boat.
I just lost in this world wondering what's happened. I'm sorry,
I did not know. If only you had done this
episode before, then, I think we both have things to
(10:32):
be ashamed Evan to make up for. You know, it's true,
It's true. We will get started on that post taste. Um.
I guess speaking of there are a lot of salt superstitions,
and we talked about that a little bit in our
salt episode. Um, but one of the ones related to
this is after knocking over a salt shaker, throwing salt
over your left shoulder at a friend that was very
(10:54):
adamant about that, you had to otherwise who knows. Uh, Yeah,
that's the thing that I do. But I always forget
which shoulder it is, and I don't have any really
strong feeling about it, so I'm probably again, I'm just
living on the edge with a lot of salt related issues.
(11:15):
You are wild child when it comes to the salt. Well, okay,
what about the nutrition, salted appreciation. Don't eat them, don't
eat those, consume their contents. Yeah, good to know, Good
to know. I could have I could have made such
(11:37):
huge mistakes. A lot of them are decoratively shaped like food.
They are. Yeah, don't don't eat them, don't about it.
Don't be true. We do have a few numbers for you. Um,
these fine antique shakers, um can go for thousands of dollars. Uh.
(11:57):
This is another google a hole that I fell right into.
And I was just like, whoa really and it's true? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and we're gonna be talking about that a bit more.
It reminded me of the kool aid. Yeah, it's just
the whole world I didn't know existed, and people are
serious about it. The some of the collectors who get
really serious about um, not even like the fine like
(12:20):
silver ones, but the kitchen ones have collections that range
in the thousands, like like ten thousand, like fifty thousand,
like people have a lot of these things. Yeah. And
speaking of there is a salt and Pepper Shaker Museum
and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, complete with forty thou pairs of shakers.
(12:42):
But I split recently. I believe between two museums UM,
the second being in guadalest in Spain, and they're both
owned by Andrea or Andrea Ludden and more on that. Yes,
in history, it's great, it's great, it's great, it's great.
It is that they beauty and I look forward to
talking about it um. Which means that we should probably
(13:04):
get into the history. But first we're going to take
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. So just
to reatorate, we do have episodes on salt and pepper,
(13:25):
but the histories of those things go way way back. Yes,
and it's perhaps worth mentioning again in this one. Both
were expensive for a long time, and that's a sign
of status and wealth for a long time, and in
self case, the source of a lot of superstition. Yes,
since spilling it was seen as an ill omen because
(13:47):
it was so expensive. Yeah. Yeah. And for as long
as these things have existed, UM, and and especially as
long as they've been status symbols, there have been decorative
optacles for them. UM. Sculpted gold and silver figurines with
holes for dispensing pepper have been found dating back to
at least the Roman Empire circle like fourth century ce
(14:11):
um and at the time they were called a piperratorium piperratorium.
Prior to the nineteen twenties, salt typically came served on
a small plate or in a bold old out vias
spoon because the salt often attracted moisture and clumped together.
And this was called a salt seller and a bunch
(14:32):
of other things too, but primarily in documents, I sell
salt seller. Uh. These dishes ranged from extremely simple carved
wood to extremely extremely ornate silver or gold or whatever. Yeah,
and some of these are legit pieces of art. Infamous
sculptor ben Venuto Cellini crafted this gold salt and pepper
(14:54):
set in the fifteen forties for the King of France,
Um Francis the Second, I think it was at the time.
And uh, this this card. These card figurines representing the
Goddess of the Earth and the God of the Sea
lounging around nude and there's a small boat for salt
and a temple for peppercorns, and the temple has also
(15:14):
a nude figure of the Goddess of the Earth on
top of it. It's like but smaller than the other one.
It's it's a whole thing. Um. Uh. It includes a
removable golden trident the doubles as a pickle fork. Uh.
It's a lot. That's amazing, I know. And furthermore, Um,
(15:37):
in the early two thousand's, this this piece was in
a museum and a security alarm specialist stole it and
kept it hidden under his bed and then buried in
like a local forest for over two years while attempting
to collect ransom from the museum. Um. Finally he was
(15:58):
caught and returned it. It was valued at the time.
It was valued at the time, it's sixty million dollars.
Whoa wow, I see he's going to be haunted by
the ghost. Whoever that's salt seller? Where is it? Just
(16:20):
keeping it oer his bed and burying it like it's nothing.
Come on, Oh, he was trying to hide it because
you know, he kept he went through like all these
cell phones trying to communicate with the police like, hey,
I have this thing, give me twelve million dollars for it. U.
That's why he was finally caught because they traced they
traced one of his cell phones. Say but yes, all
(16:48):
of this to say, salt sellers and dishes were a
whole thing. Um. But castors for other seasonings were relatively
common from there on. Wealthy folks in Europe or It's
colonies might have had silver or china sets for their tables. Um.
For for all of these then showy expensive colonization driven
(17:08):
products like sugar um and probably later ground or cracked
peppercorns and powdered cayenne pepper and probably later on mustard powder. Um. Yeah,
other other materials would have included like pewter and horn,
and museums and collectors have loads of examples of these
just so finely made shakers from all of these famed
silversmiths and companies like Tiffany's and Paul Revere, who today
(17:32):
I learned Paul Revere was a silversmith by trade. I
never knew that, or if I did, I that had
been lost to my brain a long time ago. Yes, yes,
I did not know that either. There you go, learning
all the time. Um. By the late eighteen hundreds, crystal
or cut or blown glass sets were pretty posh um.
(17:54):
But yeah, salt still all this time came in the cellar.
It was just tricky, But that changed in the nine
thanks to Moreton salt, and yet that one out of Chicago.
To deal with the clumping problem with salt, they added
a magnesium carbonate. This meant that salt could be poured
(18:16):
from containers. By this time, salt and pepper had already
become entwined in the social consciousness, frequently served together, and
pepper already it didn't have the same clumping issues salted,
so it could already be poured. So the shakers were
often paired with the differentiation of the salt shaker having
a single hole all pepper had two or three. I think,
(18:39):
I don't know if that's still true, but that's how
it was at the time. There you go, Gobel or Google.
It's been a long time since I took Germany. Everyone
took Germany. I took German. I didn't do anything in Germany,
I swear. The Fine Pottery maker out of Germany was
one of the first to produce these shakers. Its first
(19:01):
three sets came out in n and it's nineteen hum.
Shakers are a highly collectible item these days. Shakers experienced
an increase in popularity during the Great Depression. For a
few reasons, ceramic producers had to shift focus to cheaper items,
and at a couple of cents, they were affordable for
(19:21):
people struggling. These shakers moving out of the twenties and
into the thirties, other ceramic companies worldwide got in on
the shaker game, including several out of Japan. Production ceased
during World War Two, and the shakers produced immediately after
the war were labeled made and occupied Japan or occupied Japan,
and these are very hard to find and also very
(19:44):
desired collectible items. In the early years of the shaker,
they were more practical than showy. Uh for the most part.
It wasn't until the automobile became more widespread in the
fifties that we saw the rise of novelties. Shaker a
collectible item, a souvenir type thing the travelers could purchase. Uh.
(20:05):
They were inexpensive and easy to transport, perfect for collectible items.
The fifties and sixties is also when companies started producing
plastic salt and pepper shakers. But these early plastic models
were easily easily breakable and not many have survived, and
yes also highly sought after a collectible item because of that.
(20:26):
Oh and speaking of in the nineteen eighties, Andrea Letdon,
a trained archaeologist who had pivoted to focus on everyday life,
kind of like items of everyday life that tell the
story of our modern era, purchased a pepper mill at
a garage sale. Unfortunately it didn't work, so she bought
a few more, and she set them along her window sill,
(20:48):
and people saw that and thought she was collecting them,
though according to her, she absolutely wasn't. Wasn't her intention. Um,
And they started giving her more and more until she
had thousand of them. Yes, and she kept them all
over the house, all like in every room you'd find them,
(21:09):
because she had fourteen thousand of them. Yeah, I can't imagine.
According to Andrea, husband gave her an ultimatum, find a
place for these things, or we're getting a divorce. So
what do they do. They decided to open a museum,
of course, Yeah, and oh, you can find all kinds
(21:36):
of shakers in there. You've got things like Santa's boots
poking out from a chimney. You've got pistols, a copy
of Princess Diana, salt and pepper cuff links, beetles of course,
of course, a washer and dryer, a lawn mower, a
TV and a couch that was a pair. All the vegetables.
(21:56):
You can imagine all of them, all of them, all
of them, um frogs, lore, rooster's galore. And they also
own pornographic shakers, but they don't display them at the museum.
They say, I think she said, her daughter said, they
have fourteen pairs. But yeah, sure, some of the some
(22:16):
of the paired shakers that are that are figures that
are meant to go together will have um either little
like interlocking parts or little magnets in them so that
like little like kissing figures can kiss and stuff like that.
So you know, I'm sure that people again human ingenuity. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure. The lawnmower one was one of the
(22:37):
first that they found that had like mechanics where I
think you can pull something in turn it. It's both
the salt and pepper shaker is in that way. Yeah, Yeah,
I'm pretty fascinated. Yeah, by the ones that are a
single figure with different holes, like different sections for the
salt and the pepper, and you have to like tilt
it different ways to get each out. That's pretty cool.
(22:58):
It's pretty cool. But I feel like I would consistently
over salt or over pepper, or get just like two
little or like a little of both but not enough
or oh yeah no no, I disastrous, but yeah definitely,
oh not disastrous, but very interesting. Um, the Novelty Salt
(23:21):
and Pepper Shakers Club, then called the Salt Shakers Collectors Club,
came together. Membership got so high that they split into
two distinct groups in seven, the Novelty Salt and Pepper
Shakers Club and the Antique Glass Salt and Sugar Shaker Club. Yes,
very different. I love it. I do too. I do
(23:42):
to the Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers Club host conventions
that have costume contest. I must no more. I need pictures.
I need pictures. And I was also very delighted I
the tech facts in their history sections. So that kind
(24:03):
of a bullet point history section on their website, and
it includes technical facts like a o L website creation date,
Facebook page creation date. It's so underodle. I love it.
Ah big dates and yeah they're there are members around
(24:29):
the world. Um that that yearly convention UM put off
this year due to COVID, but coming back in Attendees
can purchase their what else a commemorative Shaker set yes
from from the website. The Shaker subject matter is typically
(24:49):
determined by the convention theme. The design is always a
guarded secret until it is unveiled at the convention. A
limited number of sets are produced each year. For exa
ample teens theme was Shaker's Rock. Um. The event was
in Cleveland that year, so yeah, I get it, Clington
Rocks Shakers Rock okay um. And it featured like a
(25:09):
stage and these little figurines holding guitars. Um, this is amazing.
And the logo was kind of done up like it
was Sergeant Pepper, but it was like salt and pepper. Yeah,
it was. It was pretty cute. UM one that I
am very fond of. Uh and included a photo of
in the outline for for your viewing pleasure. Annie um
(25:32):
is from two thousand six. This convention. The theme was Shake,
Shake Shake in the Garden State And if you can
allow me to quote more of the website at you.
The description of this figuring set goes as follows. A
veggie couple sit in a rolling chair in Atlantic City.
It is a wicker type rolling chair made famous in
(25:52):
Atlantic City, carrying a male anthropomorphic eggplant and a female
anthropomorphic corn, the corn and eggplant heads not it's so beautiful.
So yeah, So this is a dude and a lady
and the and the dude's head is an ear of
corn and the lady's head is an eggplant. They're both smiling,
(26:16):
having a nice time in their wicker chair, and the
heads detached, and that's where you get the salt and
the pepper out of But but they also um the
way that they sit in the bodies, in the in
the in the holders, um, they're they're they're allowed to
like rock back and forth a little bit so that
it looks like they're nodding if you kind of jiggle
(26:37):
it a little. Oh wow. And and their shoes or
we got some flip flops, yeah, some sneakers, some pretty
sweet kicks. Yeah. And sometimes I just have a moment
where I'm thinking, we are food show, What's what's happening.
(26:59):
I never thought i'd have to you would have to
describe what pepper shakers are. But it's so great, it's wonderful. Yeah,
I am. I am so delighted by this entire world. Um,
you know, yes, it's definitely a rabbit hole like rabbit
(27:25):
hole to day listeners, This go look up images. Yes,
pepper shakers. I'll try to remember to link this on
social it's also good. Yeah yeah, um, hours of delight
to be whoa. I guess that's what we have to
(27:49):
say for now about salt and pepper shakers. Yep, that's it. Um.
We do have some listener mail for you though, Yes,
but for we have a quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(28:13):
thank you, we're back with listen snorm. Oh Patrick Stewart impression.
Could you do those? Oh no, not at all. Mm hmm. Yeah,
I said that's I don't want to try it for
the first time right now on air. Yeah, but I
(28:36):
will give it a go. But that was supposed to
be the John Lady impression of Patrick Stewart. Um, I
never nailed. I was working on William Shatner. I got.
I got a little close, but not known. That's wrong.
That is totally wrong. I got better than what it was,
still not close. I like the but but no, I
(28:58):
like that we're developing a theme of U Star Trek
Captain in person or Star Trek Captain actor impersonations. Either way. Yeah,
I feel like of a lot of them. Oh, I
don't know. I don't know what I would be best at,
off the off the cuff. I don't really do impressions,
(29:19):
so I don't do them well, but I attempt them
all the time. I I can do the Owen Wilson wow,
and it. It actually embarrasses me because I just kind
of do it naturally, and especially one of our coworkers, Chandler.
(29:39):
Every time I do it, he just laughs at me.
And I don't mean to do it. But that's my
one guy going for me, right, Yeah, Oh, I guess
I guess I do. I guess I kind of do
Ralph Wigham like that's my Oh that's the only one. Um. Yeah,
(30:01):
that's very specific. We have a short list of impressions
we can do. I actually compiled a spreadsheet. I never
sent it out, but I was gonna ask everyone in
the office, like, what are some impressions you can do?
Because I was just curious. All right, Yeah, I remember
us talking about that. Oh you should, you should get
that up. Yeah. I would love to know, and then
we could bring in like we ever need a specific impression. Yeah,
(30:23):
this is critical information. It is it is. But anyway,
maybe quarantine projects, yeah, all right, um, Megan wrote, I
was just listening to your pod on kool aid, and
I was reminded of my college marching band days. Every
section of the band had a rookie party, where this
section initiated the freshman rookies with various ridiculous and safe ceremonies.
(30:48):
Once the rookies were initiated, the sections would party. The
trumpets section my freshman year developed a drink called blue Juice,
play on the blue valve oil all brass players use. Uh.
I never thought about how it was made until I
was section leader myself and frantically texted those o G
trumpets on the recipe. Turns out it was blue koolid
(31:11):
and vodka and soda. My fellow section leader and I
ran to the store to grab blue kool aid, and
unbeknownst to us, we grabbed the sugar free kind. We
made the whole drink and tried it, and well, it
was awful, But the rookies were almost there and we
were in panic mode. Cue all of the upper glassmen
in off campus apartments running to their places to grab sugar.
(31:34):
We made the drink drinkable, and we learned an important lesson.
You need to add sugar to the packets of coolid lesson. Yeah. So,
as Lauren knows, I could go on and on and
on about my marching band complaints. I kind of want
to start a side show that's just Annie complains about
(31:56):
marching band like it. Yeah, but this brought back several
memories for me. Um. Also, the worst hangover I ever had,
um was something a similar drink blue vomit May five, Um,
(32:18):
my brother's birthday. I had to go. It was binny
Onna And if you've ever been hungover at ABATCHI grill,
it's not good. Oh my goodness, I believe you. I
don't think I've had the pleasure of that. No, no, no, no, no,
no no, it's I was very afraid I was going
to vomit all over that girl top. Uh. Drink responsibly, Yeah,
(32:43):
drink responsibly, that is Yes, add sugar to the packets
of kool Aid and drink responsibly. These are the lessons, Yes,
valuable lessons all. Caitlyn wrote. I wanted to email about
comfort foods. There are a few foods I can only
get when I visit ended family, so they have been
the foods I want when I miss them. Living a
(33:03):
few states away the top three. Um and forgive me, Caitlin,
my togolog is terrible. Um. So the top three are Olympia, adobo,
and pork synagogue. For me, Olympia is the ultimate snack.
Can be stuff with a variety of foods, eating hot
or cold, with or without dipping sauce, even with a
variety of sauces. Plus, they're small and you can just
(33:25):
keep eating them until you pass out from joyful stuffedness.
The crispy egg roll like food will always be my
first love. Pork synagogue is one of my favorite things.
My Lola or Grandma would make if you had a cold.
According to her, the sour soup would drain the sick
right out of you. With a tamarain based broth. Oh um,
it was so sour. It will really make your nose
(33:45):
run because the broth is so sour. Cheap fatty cuts
of pork is the family's favorite meat to put in
it since it mellows out the tamarind. Add some hardy
root vegetables and greens, and his chok full of vitamins
as well, served with rice, and everything would magically balance.
Adobo is the waiter one because growing up my Lolo
would mostly make a dry adobo that she grew up making,
(34:06):
cooking normally pork, but could be any meat in a
vinegar herbed liquid until it all dried up and the
house smelled of it for nearly a week. Apparently that
was how she learned how to cook extra meat that
she wouldn't be able to get to before it would
go bad since she didn't have any refrigeration growing up.
You can leave it out on the counter for days
and just eat it with rice and whatever vegg you want.
The rice is very necessary with all that vinegar. I,
(34:29):
on the other hand, got a recipe from my oldest
aunt that uses equal parts soy sauce, vinegar, and water
and can cook all day in a slow cooker without
going dry. My favorite is a fatty chicken thigh because
I can pull it out, bake until the skin is crispy,
and he was some coconut rice. This is my ultimate
guilty comfort food, more so since going pastytarian. The fatty,
(34:49):
salty sour broth poured over the sweet soft rice and
eaten with a crispy, melty chicken thigh that falls off
the bone. It has all the flavors and they place
so well together. I'm so hungry. I want that so family.
Oh it is my favorite thing when I have a
(35:09):
craving for something I've never tasted before, but that sounds amazing,
it does um. And I have to say, Caitlin, a
lot of people have written and said, especially Lumpia, are
comfort foods. These are comfort foods that get mentioned a
lot among our listeners. So you're clearly onto something. And
(35:30):
I can like just these descriptions. I can see why. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Oh my goodness. Um oh there's a place in town
that makes, um a version of Lympia that UM have
like a fresh dough rapper, um, not deep fried. And
oh they're so good. Heck, oh my gosh, they're so
(35:51):
far away from me right now? Why are you so
far away? All right? All right, Well, on that note,
leaving everybody with craving. Thanks to both of those listeners
for writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can. Our email is hello at savor pod dot com.
(36:14):
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 of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts, from 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
superproducers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
(36:35):
your way.
Hello, and welcome to SABOR production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're
talking about salt and pepper shakers. Yes, which this was
a Laurence suggestion and was there any particular reason? Okay,
(00:28):
So so I think I think at some point in
the recent past you or a listener had suggested some
kind of cooking implement um. And so I sort of
went down this Google search rabbit hole of trying to
find something that would that would make for a full episode,
(00:49):
uh unto itself, so that we didn't have to do
like a compilation of cooking implements. And I landed upon
the surprisingly twisty in turn world of salt and pepper shakers. Yeah. Yes,
I would agree with that assessment. Was not expecting most
(01:11):
of what is what is to come, um, but it's yeah,
very exciting, very exciting. I have to say, I I
can't stop thinking of John mulaney when he does his
impression of Sir Patrick Stewart on s n L, where
he John Laney says one of his favorite moments on
(01:34):
SNL is when Sir Patrick Stewart introduced salt and pepper
and he said it like salt and Peppa, like it
was a surprise that pepper showed up, which I love. Yeah,
that's beautiful goodness. Highly recommend, highly recommend. And my mom
(01:57):
does have She is a person who has um different
decorative salt and pepper shakers for holidays and seasons. Oh
my gosh, that's beautiful. Oh that is that is a
thing of wonder. We do have in this household, precisely
three uh, decorative salt and pepper shakers, none of which
(02:21):
we ever use. Um. Two are matched set, which our
elephants because my roommate UM has an elephant thing. Um
that sounded weird. She just likes elephants. Um, alright, they're
her favorite animal, I do believe. UM. And I've got
(02:41):
just one that's t Rex and it's a little white
t Rex wearing a little gold bow tie. And I
didn't really feel a need to have two of them
because I knew that I wouldn't like use them. I
just sort of wanted. I think I was like having
a bad day at Target, and so I was like,
this little dude is coming home with me. It's just
(03:01):
me and him. We're just we're out there just gonna
make it work, you know, you and the single. I guess,
salt Shaker, I don't know, you can put whatever you
want in there is against the world. Yeah, all right,
this kind of reminds me of I remember one time
in D and D. Your character, I assume was having
(03:25):
a bad day and asked for like a decorative figurine,
and I was like, uh, stop keepers and skin says no.
But now I know, okay, tr x Shaker, maybe there
you go. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. You know, I'm
not sure what kind of dinosaurs existed in whichever realm
(03:51):
we're in. Um, that's right, I'm going to have to
I'm gonna have to sort that out. I I'm ashamed.
I haven't thought about that earlier. What kind of dinosaur?
I'm ashamed of you and for you? Yes, as you
should be, as you should be. All right, Well, I
will think on this. I unfortunately don't have any decorative
(04:11):
unfortunately that would use them either. But maybe i'd use
him as decoration. Um, I'm just I just use it
straight from the canister type of gow. Yeah. Yeah, I've
I've come back over into salt seller kind of territory lately.
I don't even I don't even shake. Oh wow, you
don't even shake. You don't shake, bro wow. Well, okay,
(04:39):
you've given me some stuff to consider about what's going
on with your dinosaur figurine and your salt seller. All right, um,
but in the meantime, we have done episodes on salt
and pepper. Yep, um, that's a salt what's shaking from
April and a prepper on black pepper from March of
(05:00):
Oh nice? Yeah. Um, but all right, let's get to
our question. Salt and pepper shakers. What are they? Well, uh,
they're small receptacles with holes in the top, usually in
the top for for individual diners at the table to
(05:23):
uh to use to sprinkle out individual servings or or
units I guess of salt or of pepper. Um. I
mean honestly, again, you can put pretty much whatever you
want in there. Um. But uh, but yeah, because sometimes
you have dry, powdered or crystallized condiments or seasonings that
it would be nice to sprinkle over your food, and
(05:44):
you also don't want to get that condiment all over
your fingers, or maybe it would be rude for you
to like put your grubby little hands into a shared
dish at that current moment. So yeah, these receptacles let
you season your food all dainty, like I suppose it
is kind of dainty that you mentioned it. And salt
and pepper are the two most common seasonings used with shakers, um,
(06:08):
but any number of other things can can go in
similar receptacles of sugar, hot, red pepper flakes, ground parmesan
in kind of scare quotes because there's usually not a
whole lot of parmesan actually involved in those. Um, cinnamon,
mustard powder, yeah, whatever you want. Um. They are also
called castors um or pots based on older sellers or
(06:31):
or or pots, but the shakers are sometimes called pots too,
sometimes dredgers or muffineers. This is a This is a
historical term, and as far as I can tell, no
one knows why it exists. Um. People have all kinds
of theories about, like the British seasoning their muffins at
the table. I'm not sure. But then I think about
(06:53):
our muffin episode and how confusing that terminology was, and
I don't even want to I didn't have time. I
did not have time today, that's fair. The ones for
the muffineer rabbit hole was not one for another day,
or maybe it conquered. Does you know, maybe that's the
one we'll never know. I I like to think. I
(07:13):
really hope that this isn't like my Moby Dick, like
I don't know muffineer. Now, I can't hope it is.
See Muffinier in our food comic series. The muffineer does
sound like uh, it sounds like a villain, but I
guess it could be either. Yeah, but like like a musketeer.
You know that's true, the three Muffineers. Yeah, all right,
(07:36):
there it is. There's the idea they're the rival band. Though,
of the Muffineers is clearly the Pepperettes, which is another
word for a pepper shaker. Uh so yeah, I like that, Yeah,
in the offshoot where they're both girl bands with like
key tars um. Yes, yeah, it's the Muffineers and the
(07:59):
Pepperettes or sometimes these objects are's just simply called salts
and peppers. M all right, all right, And I need
to go ahead and draw distinction here between shakers and grinders.
I think we need to talk separately about grinders at
another time and date. It's too much, too much, too much,
(08:21):
grinders its own and as we have been discussing UM,
in addition to being practical, shakers can be also varyingly
decorative UM, you know, being constructed of materials ranging from
just like paperboard and plastic to ceramics to wood to
(08:41):
steel too, precious metals, all kinds of shapes and decors
from plane to kitchy too elegant um. I I found
out today that some salt and pepper shakers are also
snow globes UM, and I've seen those that just blew
my little mind. I was like, well, there you go,
(09:02):
there you go. Human ingenuity. I love it, I know,
I know, especially in salt and pepper rows. Other realms
perhaps slacker, but salt and pepper shakers you're right, yeah,
very important. Yeah. UM. They are often sold in matching sets. Yes,
(09:25):
I feel like that would be in a horror movie.
No offense to you, la, but if someone was like
they came up and they were like, I only want
the left like salt, one of this pair, I feel
like the person trying to sell it would be like,
(09:46):
what you can't break we can't break up the set.
We never sell them separately. Do you know what kind
of damage that does to the psyche of a salt
pepper shaker. You monster. Yeah, I don't know. What have
I done? What have you done? Somewhere there's some poor
(10:09):
innocent t Rex with a you know, maybe a silver boat.
I just lost in this world wondering what's happened. I'm sorry,
I did not know. If only you had done this
episode before, then, I think we both have things to
(10:32):
be ashamed Evan to make up for. You know, it's true,
It's true. We will get started on that post taste. Um.
I guess speaking of there are a lot of salt superstitions,
and we talked about that a little bit in our
salt episode. Um, but one of the ones related to
this is after knocking over a salt shaker, throwing salt
over your left shoulder at a friend that was very
(10:54):
adamant about that, you had to otherwise who knows. Uh, Yeah,
that's the thing that I do. But I always forget
which shoulder it is, and I don't have any really
strong feeling about it, so I'm probably again, I'm just
living on the edge with a lot of salt related issues.
(11:15):
You are wild child when it comes to the salt. Well, okay,
what about the nutrition, salted appreciation. Don't eat them, don't
eat those, consume their contents. Yeah, good to know, Good
to know. I could have I could have made such
(11:37):
huge mistakes. A lot of them are decoratively shaped like food.
They are. Yeah, don't don't eat them, don't about it.
Don't be true. We do have a few numbers for you. Um,
these fine antique shakers, um can go for thousands of dollars. Uh.
(11:57):
This is another google a hole that I fell right into.
And I was just like, whoa really and it's true? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and we're gonna be talking about that a bit more.
It reminded me of the kool aid. Yeah, it's just
the whole world I didn't know existed, and people are
serious about it. The some of the collectors who get
really serious about um, not even like the fine like
(12:20):
silver ones, but the kitchen ones have collections that range
in the thousands, like like ten thousand, like fifty thousand,
like people have a lot of these things. Yeah. And
speaking of there is a salt and Pepper Shaker Museum
and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, complete with forty thou pairs of shakers.
(12:42):
But I split recently. I believe between two museums UM,
the second being in guadalest in Spain, and they're both
owned by Andrea or Andrea Ludden and more on that. Yes,
in history, it's great, it's great, it's great, it's great.
It is that they beauty and I look forward to
talking about it um. Which means that we should probably
(13:04):
get into the history. But first we're going to take
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. So just
to reatorate, we do have episodes on salt and pepper,
(13:25):
but the histories of those things go way way back. Yes,
and it's perhaps worth mentioning again in this one. Both
were expensive for a long time, and that's a sign
of status and wealth for a long time, and in
self case, the source of a lot of superstition. Yes,
since spilling it was seen as an ill omen because
(13:47):
it was so expensive. Yeah. Yeah. And for as long
as these things have existed, UM, and and especially as
long as they've been status symbols, there have been decorative
optacles for them. UM. Sculpted gold and silver figurines with
holes for dispensing pepper have been found dating back to
at least the Roman Empire circle like fourth century ce
(14:11):
um and at the time they were called a piperratorium piperratorium.
Prior to the nineteen twenties, salt typically came served on
a small plate or in a bold old out vias
spoon because the salt often attracted moisture and clumped together.
And this was called a salt seller and a bunch
(14:32):
of other things too, but primarily in documents, I sell
salt seller. Uh. These dishes ranged from extremely simple carved
wood to extremely extremely ornate silver or gold or whatever. Yeah,
and some of these are legit pieces of art. Infamous
sculptor ben Venuto Cellini crafted this gold salt and pepper
(14:54):
set in the fifteen forties for the King of France,
Um Francis the Second, I think it was at the time.
And uh, this this card. These card figurines representing the
Goddess of the Earth and the God of the Sea
lounging around nude and there's a small boat for salt
and a temple for peppercorns, and the temple has also
(15:14):
a nude figure of the Goddess of the Earth on
top of it. It's like but smaller than the other one.
It's it's a whole thing. Um. Uh. It includes a
removable golden trident the doubles as a pickle fork. Uh.
It's a lot. That's amazing, I know. And furthermore, Um,
(15:37):
in the early two thousand's, this this piece was in
a museum and a security alarm specialist stole it and
kept it hidden under his bed and then buried in
like a local forest for over two years while attempting
to collect ransom from the museum. Um. Finally he was
(15:58):
caught and returned it. It was valued at the time.
It was valued at the time, it's sixty million dollars.
Whoa wow, I see he's going to be haunted by
the ghost. Whoever that's salt seller? Where is it? Just
(16:20):
keeping it oer his bed and burying it like it's nothing.
Come on, Oh, he was trying to hide it because
you know, he kept he went through like all these
cell phones trying to communicate with the police like, hey,
I have this thing, give me twelve million dollars for it. U.
That's why he was finally caught because they traced they
traced one of his cell phones. Say but yes, all
(16:48):
of this to say, salt sellers and dishes were a
whole thing. Um. But castors for other seasonings were relatively
common from there on. Wealthy folks in Europe or It's
colonies might have had silver or china sets for their tables. Um.
For for all of these then showy expensive colonization driven
(17:08):
products like sugar um and probably later ground or cracked
peppercorns and powdered cayenne pepper and probably later on mustard powder. Um. Yeah,
other other materials would have included like pewter and horn,
and museums and collectors have loads of examples of these
just so finely made shakers from all of these famed
silversmiths and companies like Tiffany's and Paul Revere, who today
(17:32):
I learned Paul Revere was a silversmith by trade. I
never knew that, or if I did, I that had
been lost to my brain a long time ago. Yes, yes,
I did not know that either. There you go, learning
all the time. Um. By the late eighteen hundreds, crystal
or cut or blown glass sets were pretty posh um.
(17:54):
But yeah, salt still all this time came in the cellar.
It was just tricky, But that changed in the nine
thanks to Moreton salt, and yet that one out of Chicago.
To deal with the clumping problem with salt, they added
a magnesium carbonate. This meant that salt could be poured
(18:16):
from containers. By this time, salt and pepper had already
become entwined in the social consciousness, frequently served together, and
pepper already it didn't have the same clumping issues salted,
so it could already be poured. So the shakers were
often paired with the differentiation of the salt shaker having
a single hole all pepper had two or three. I think,
(18:39):
I don't know if that's still true, but that's how
it was at the time. There you go, Gobel or Google.
It's been a long time since I took Germany. Everyone
took Germany. I took German. I didn't do anything in Germany,
I swear. The Fine Pottery maker out of Germany was
one of the first to produce these shakers. Its first
(19:01):
three sets came out in n and it's nineteen hum.
Shakers are a highly collectible item these days. Shakers experienced
an increase in popularity during the Great Depression. For a
few reasons, ceramic producers had to shift focus to cheaper items,
and at a couple of cents, they were affordable for
(19:21):
people struggling. These shakers moving out of the twenties and
into the thirties, other ceramic companies worldwide got in on
the shaker game, including several out of Japan. Production ceased
during World War Two, and the shakers produced immediately after
the war were labeled made and occupied Japan or occupied Japan,
and these are very hard to find and also very
(19:44):
desired collectible items. In the early years of the shaker,
they were more practical than showy. Uh for the most part.
It wasn't until the automobile became more widespread in the
fifties that we saw the rise of novelties. Shaker a
collectible item, a souvenir type thing the travelers could purchase. Uh.
(20:05):
They were inexpensive and easy to transport, perfect for collectible items.
The fifties and sixties is also when companies started producing
plastic salt and pepper shakers. But these early plastic models
were easily easily breakable and not many have survived, and
yes also highly sought after a collectible item because of that.
(20:26):
Oh and speaking of in the nineteen eighties, Andrea Letdon,
a trained archaeologist who had pivoted to focus on everyday life,
kind of like items of everyday life that tell the
story of our modern era, purchased a pepper mill at
a garage sale. Unfortunately it didn't work, so she bought
a few more, and she set them along her window sill,
(20:48):
and people saw that and thought she was collecting them,
though according to her, she absolutely wasn't. Wasn't her intention. Um,
And they started giving her more and more until she
had thousand of them. Yes, and she kept them all
over the house, all like in every room you'd find them,
(21:09):
because she had fourteen thousand of them. Yeah, I can't imagine.
According to Andrea, husband gave her an ultimatum, find a
place for these things, or we're getting a divorce. So
what do they do. They decided to open a museum,
of course, Yeah, and oh, you can find all kinds
(21:36):
of shakers in there. You've got things like Santa's boots
poking out from a chimney. You've got pistols, a copy
of Princess Diana, salt and pepper cuff links, beetles of course,
of course, a washer and dryer, a lawn mower, a
TV and a couch that was a pair. All the vegetables.
(21:56):
You can imagine all of them, all of them, all
of them, um frogs, lore, rooster's galore. And they also
own pornographic shakers, but they don't display them at the museum.
They say, I think she said, her daughter said, they
have fourteen pairs. But yeah, sure, some of the some
(22:16):
of the paired shakers that are that are figures that
are meant to go together will have um either little
like interlocking parts or little magnets in them so that
like little like kissing figures can kiss and stuff like that.
So you know, I'm sure that people again human ingenuity. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure. The lawnmower one was one of the
(22:37):
first that they found that had like mechanics where I
think you can pull something in turn it. It's both
the salt and pepper shaker is in that way. Yeah, Yeah,
I'm pretty fascinated. Yeah, by the ones that are a
single figure with different holes, like different sections for the
salt and the pepper, and you have to like tilt
it different ways to get each out. That's pretty cool.
(22:58):
It's pretty cool. But I feel like I would consistently
over salt or over pepper, or get just like two
little or like a little of both but not enough
or oh yeah no no, I disastrous, but yeah definitely,
oh not disastrous, but very interesting. Um, the Novelty Salt
(23:21):
and Pepper Shakers Club, then called the Salt Shakers Collectors Club,
came together. Membership got so high that they split into
two distinct groups in seven, the Novelty Salt and Pepper
Shakers Club and the Antique Glass Salt and Sugar Shaker Club. Yes,
very different. I love it. I do too. I do
(23:42):
to the Novelty Salt and Pepper Shakers Club host conventions
that have costume contest. I must no more. I need pictures.
I need pictures. And I was also very delighted I
the tech facts in their history sections. So that kind
(24:03):
of a bullet point history section on their website, and
it includes technical facts like a o L website creation date,
Facebook page creation date. It's so underodle. I love it.
Ah big dates and yeah they're there are members around
(24:29):
the world. Um that that yearly convention UM put off
this year due to COVID, but coming back in Attendees
can purchase their what else a commemorative Shaker set yes
from from the website. The Shaker subject matter is typically
(24:49):
determined by the convention theme. The design is always a
guarded secret until it is unveiled at the convention. A
limited number of sets are produced each year. For exa
ample teens theme was Shaker's Rock. Um. The event was
in Cleveland that year, so yeah, I get it, Clington
Rocks Shakers Rock okay um. And it featured like a
(25:09):
stage and these little figurines holding guitars. Um, this is amazing.
And the logo was kind of done up like it
was Sergeant Pepper, but it was like salt and pepper. Yeah,
it was. It was pretty cute. UM one that I
am very fond of. Uh and included a photo of
in the outline for for your viewing pleasure. Annie um
(25:32):
is from two thousand six. This convention. The theme was Shake,
Shake Shake in the Garden State And if you can
allow me to quote more of the website at you.
The description of this figuring set goes as follows. A
veggie couple sit in a rolling chair in Atlantic City.
It is a wicker type rolling chair made famous in
(25:52):
Atlantic City, carrying a male anthropomorphic eggplant and a female
anthropomorphic corn, the corn and eggplant heads not it's so beautiful.
So yeah, So this is a dude and a lady
and the and the dude's head is an ear of
corn and the lady's head is an eggplant. They're both smiling,
(26:16):
having a nice time in their wicker chair, and the
heads detached, and that's where you get the salt and
the pepper out of But but they also um the
way that they sit in the bodies, in the in
the in the holders, um, they're they're they're allowed to
like rock back and forth a little bit so that
it looks like they're nodding if you kind of jiggle
(26:37):
it a little. Oh wow. And and their shoes or
we got some flip flops, yeah, some sneakers, some pretty
sweet kicks. Yeah. And sometimes I just have a moment
where I'm thinking, we are food show, What's what's happening.
(26:59):
I never thought i'd have to you would have to
describe what pepper shakers are. But it's so great, it's wonderful. Yeah,
I am. I am so delighted by this entire world. Um,
you know, yes, it's definitely a rabbit hole like rabbit
(27:25):
hole to day listeners, This go look up images. Yes,
pepper shakers. I'll try to remember to link this on
social it's also good. Yeah yeah, um, hours of delight
to be whoa. I guess that's what we have to
(27:49):
say for now about salt and pepper shakers. Yep, that's it. Um.
We do have some listener mail for you though, Yes,
but for we have a quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(28:13):
thank you, we're back with listen snorm. Oh Patrick Stewart impression.
Could you do those? Oh no, not at all. Mm hmm. Yeah,
I said that's I don't want to try it for
the first time right now on air. Yeah, but I
(28:36):
will give it a go. But that was supposed to
be the John Lady impression of Patrick Stewart. Um, I
never nailed. I was working on William Shatner. I got.
I got a little close, but not known. That's wrong.
That is totally wrong. I got better than what it was,
still not close. I like the but but no, I
(28:58):
like that we're developing a theme of U Star Trek
Captain in person or Star Trek Captain actor impersonations. Either way. Yeah,
I feel like of a lot of them. Oh, I
don't know. I don't know what I would be best at,
off the off the cuff. I don't really do impressions,
(29:19):
so I don't do them well, but I attempt them
all the time. I I can do the Owen Wilson wow,
and it. It actually embarrasses me because I just kind
of do it naturally, and especially one of our coworkers, Chandler.
(29:39):
Every time I do it, he just laughs at me.
And I don't mean to do it. But that's my
one guy going for me, right, Yeah, Oh, I guess
I guess I do. I guess I kind of do
Ralph Wigham like that's my Oh that's the only one. Um. Yeah,
(30:01):
that's very specific. We have a short list of impressions
we can do. I actually compiled a spreadsheet. I never
sent it out, but I was gonna ask everyone in
the office, like, what are some impressions you can do?
Because I was just curious. All right, Yeah, I remember
us talking about that. Oh you should, you should get
that up. Yeah. I would love to know, and then
we could bring in like we ever need a specific impression. Yeah,
(30:23):
this is critical information. It is it is. But anyway,
maybe quarantine projects, yeah, all right, um, Megan wrote, I
was just listening to your pod on kool aid, and
I was reminded of my college marching band days. Every
section of the band had a rookie party, where this
section initiated the freshman rookies with various ridiculous and safe ceremonies.
(30:48):
Once the rookies were initiated, the sections would party. The
trumpets section my freshman year developed a drink called blue Juice,
play on the blue valve oil all brass players use. Uh.
I never thought about how it was made until I
was section leader myself and frantically texted those o G
trumpets on the recipe. Turns out it was blue koolid
(31:11):
and vodka and soda. My fellow section leader and I
ran to the store to grab blue kool aid, and
unbeknownst to us, we grabbed the sugar free kind. We
made the whole drink and tried it, and well, it
was awful, But the rookies were almost there and we
were in panic mode. Cue all of the upper glassmen
in off campus apartments running to their places to grab sugar.
(31:34):
We made the drink drinkable, and we learned an important lesson.
You need to add sugar to the packets of coolid lesson. Yeah. So,
as Lauren knows, I could go on and on and
on about my marching band complaints. I kind of want
to start a side show that's just Annie complains about
(31:56):
marching band like it. Yeah, but this brought back several
memories for me. Um. Also, the worst hangover I ever had,
um was something a similar drink blue vomit May five, Um,
(32:18):
my brother's birthday. I had to go. It was binny
Onna And if you've ever been hungover at ABATCHI grill,
it's not good. Oh my goodness, I believe you. I
don't think I've had the pleasure of that. No, no, no, no, no,
no no, it's I was very afraid I was going
to vomit all over that girl top. Uh. Drink responsibly, Yeah,
(32:43):
drink responsibly, that is Yes, add sugar to the packets
of kool Aid and drink responsibly. These are the lessons, Yes,
valuable lessons all. Caitlyn wrote. I wanted to email about
comfort foods. There are a few foods I can only
get when I visit ended family, so they have been
the foods I want when I miss them. Living a
(33:03):
few states away the top three. Um and forgive me, Caitlin,
my togolog is terrible. Um. So the top three are Olympia, adobo,
and pork synagogue. For me, Olympia is the ultimate snack.
Can be stuff with a variety of foods, eating hot
or cold, with or without dipping sauce, even with a
variety of sauces. Plus, they're small and you can just
(33:25):
keep eating them until you pass out from joyful stuffedness.
The crispy egg roll like food will always be my
first love. Pork synagogue is one of my favorite things.
My Lola or Grandma would make if you had a cold.
According to her, the sour soup would drain the sick
right out of you. With a tamarain based broth. Oh um,
it was so sour. It will really make your nose
(33:45):
run because the broth is so sour. Cheap fatty cuts
of pork is the family's favorite meat to put in
it since it mellows out the tamarind. Add some hardy
root vegetables and greens, and his chok full of vitamins
as well, served with rice, and everything would magically balance.
Adobo is the waiter one because growing up my Lolo
would mostly make a dry adobo that she grew up making,
(34:06):
cooking normally pork, but could be any meat in a
vinegar herbed liquid until it all dried up and the
house smelled of it for nearly a week. Apparently that
was how she learned how to cook extra meat that
she wouldn't be able to get to before it would
go bad since she didn't have any refrigeration growing up.
You can leave it out on the counter for days
and just eat it with rice and whatever vegg you want.
The rice is very necessary with all that vinegar. I,
(34:29):
on the other hand, got a recipe from my oldest
aunt that uses equal parts soy sauce, vinegar, and water
and can cook all day in a slow cooker without
going dry. My favorite is a fatty chicken thigh because
I can pull it out, bake until the skin is crispy,
and he was some coconut rice. This is my ultimate
guilty comfort food, more so since going pastytarian. The fatty,
(34:49):
salty sour broth poured over the sweet soft rice and
eaten with a crispy, melty chicken thigh that falls off
the bone. It has all the flavors and they place
so well together. I'm so hungry. I want that so family.
Oh it is my favorite thing when I have a
(35:09):
craving for something I've never tasted before, but that sounds amazing,
it does um. And I have to say, Caitlin, a
lot of people have written and said, especially Lumpia, are
comfort foods. These are comfort foods that get mentioned a
lot among our listeners. So you're clearly onto something. And
(35:30):
I can like just these descriptions. I can see why. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Oh my goodness. Um oh there's a place in town
that makes, um a version of Lympia that UM have
like a fresh dough rapper, um, not deep fried. And
oh they're so good. Heck, oh my gosh, they're so
(35:51):
far away from me right now? Why are you so
far away? All right? All right, Well, on that note,
leaving everybody with craving. Thanks to both of those listeners
for writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can. Our email is hello at savor pod dot com.
(36:14):
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 of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts, from 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
superproducers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
(36:35):
your way.
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