229 Easter Basket

Cheesy and Fondue learn all about Easter favorites. We discuss Easter Cheese and Basket Cheese. We talk baskets, bunnies, eggs and Peeps. And of course, we tell a very cheesy joke!

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Why is cheddar the most dangerous of all the cheeses? Because it is very sharp!

Show Notes

Easter cheese

https://cupcakesandkalechips.com/hrudka-ukrainian-egg-cheese

https://tallutos.com/index.php/blog/80-what-is-basket-cheese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket_cheese

https://www.cheese.com/basket-cheese/substitutes/

https://www.tiktok.com/@leahscucina/video/7621502153051344159?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Bunny and Eggs

https://www.history.com/articles/easter-symbols

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare

Peeps

https://www.justborn.com/who-we-are/our-history/

https://youtu.be/s0sNM5dTuzw?si=Iy0N1WWHw0qBZClv

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps

https://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/erarchive/1999/March/ermarch.29/3_29_99peeps.html

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Just Cheesy the podcast,presented by Just Cheesy Productions.
Hi, there. I'm your host, Fondue.
I'm Cheesy.
In this week's episode, we'retalking all about your Easter favorites.
We're gonna talk about Eastercheese and basket cheese. We're gonna
be talking about bunnies,eggs, baskets, and even peeps. And

(00:25):
of course, no episode would becomplete without our very cheesy
joke, joke, joke. Stay tunedfor episode EAS Basket on Just Cheesy
the podcast. You know, cheesy.A lot of people think about candy
at Easter.
Yeah, duh.
But you know what? There'sactually an Easter cheese. That's
right. There is an EasternEuropean holiday tradition that's

(00:48):
been going on for generations,and it has a name that I can't pronounce.
Of course.
In fact, depending on whereyou are, it has several names that
I can't pronounce.
Oh, no.
Krudka, Sirak. Sirak. And manyothers. And I am sorry to all of
the Eastern Europeans.According to Spruce Eats and cupcakes
and kalechips.com this is anegg cheese. And a few years ago,

(01:13):
I tried to make this myself. Iwould say it tastes a little bit
more like it's a little eggierthan it is cheesy. And they say here
it's basically a ball of eggsand milk. It gets cooked until the
proteins separate into curds,and then the liquid separates into
whey. And it's made similarlyto farmer's cheese. However, it takes
a ton of eggs. Yeah, it does.One of the recipes, and they're all

(01:34):
pretty simple. One calls for afull dozen eggs. That's right. It
calls for a full dozen eggs.Whole milk, sugar, and salt. Maybe
you don't want to make yourown cheese for Easter.
You don't.
And if you're like me, youwere thinking of Easter baskets and
came across something calledbasket cheese. And if you've never
heard of it, it's a fresh,mild cheese with Mediterranean origins.

(01:55):
And this one's kind ofliteral. It gets its name from the
traditional method of shapingand draining the curds in guess what?
Woven baskets. You know what'scool about that is it leaves its
impri on the surface of thecheese. Tolutos.com has a picture
of this cheese. They describeit as delicate and slightly salty.
They say it's easy to slice orcrumble, and it's often enjoyed with

(02:18):
fresh bread or fruit. And theysay it complements both sweet and
savory dishes. There's aTurkish version of this same cheese
called I'm going to butcher it.
Please don't.
Sepit Paniri. According toWikipedia, this is traditionally
made from goat milk, thoughsheep and cow can also be used. And
of course they have basketsand they were traditionally woven
from reeds. But to me, themost exciting part of this is something

(02:41):
called pizza rustica, alsocalled Easter Ham pie. And this bad
boy does not disappoint. It'sa savory pie, traditionally made
and served at Easter, packedwith basket cheese, cured meats and
eggs. It's an Italian Americancommunity specialty. And apparently
this is as big a tradition asthe Easter bunny. We've got a link

(03:02):
to a TikTok video by Lia'sCucina. And this is the depiction
of this awesome looking pizzarustica. You've got to check. It
looks delicious.
Delicious.

(04:04):
Geluto's basket cheese is nota sponsor, but if it was, the ad
would go right here. Now let'stalk about how Easter became what
it is today. The Easterbasket, the bunny, and yes, of course,
some peeps. Let's start withthe bunny, because the real story
is not what people expect.
It's not.
There's a lot of differentEaster bunny origin stories.
There are.
One of them originated amongthe German Lutherans. And the original

(04:28):
Easter hare was notnecessarily a cheerful gift giver.
He wasn't.
He was kind of. He evaluatedwhether children had been good or
bad at the start of the Easterseason. Kind of the same role as
Santa Claus. And only the goodones got the eggs.
Does he see you when you're sleeping?
I don't actually know. Thebunny was actually mentioned in a

(04:48):
German text as far back as1572. Wikipedia says that German
immigrants brought it toAmerica, specifically to Pennsylvania
Dutch communities in the 18thcentury. And according to scholar
Richard Sermon, hares were acommon sight in gardens during the
spring and may have provided aexplanation for the colored eggs
that were hidden there for children.

(05:09):
What's the difference betweena hare and a rabbit?
That's a good question,because I didn't know that either.
Apparently, hares are largerthan rabbits. They have longer ears
and they have black markingson their fur. It says here that hares
usually live above ground, andthey live and give birth in shallow
depressions or flattened areasof grass. And because they're born
out in the open, they'retypically born with all of their

(05:31):
fur and their eyes wide open.Rabbits, by contrast, are actually
born blind. And ha. Rabbitsgive birth and live underground in
burrows. And many burrowstogether in an area forms a warren.
This helps keep them safe fromPredators. And you know what else
keeps them safe?
What?
The hare. And you've alwaysheard the story of the tortoise and

(05:52):
the hare. They're prettyquick. They can run up to 50 miles
an hour over short distances.
Holy cow.
Long distance, they can run 35miles an hour. Now, going back to
the Easter bunny or the Easterhare, we still don't know why we
were talking about eggs. Well,apparently that same scholar sermon,
he noted that a long standingEuropean belief was held that hares

(06:15):
laid eggs.
Bunnies lay eggs?
They don't lay eggs. However,it seems that it's possible that
the confusion came when theresting place of a hare and the nest
of a lapwing, the bird lookeda lot alike. Both were found in grasslands
and appeared in the spring.And of course, the growing influence
of Easter themed cards, toysand books helped to popularize the

(06:37):
Easter hare or rabbit acrossEurope. And somewhere along the line,
the judgmental hare became thebasket toting bunny. We know today
there's another running theorythat Easter eggs have been associated
with Easter specificallybecause eating them was prohibited
during Lent. People gave upeggs for 40 days. And when Easter
arrived, they finally got toenjoy them again, like a cheat day.

(06:58):
History.com notes that Easteregg hunts and Easter egg rolling
are two popular egg relatedtraditions. Did you know that the
very first official WhiteHouse egg roll occurred in 1878?
Holy cow.
This was when office. Did youalso know Easter is the second best
selling candy holiday inAmerica only after Halloween. Chocolate

(07:22):
eggs date back to the early19th century. In Europe they do.
The jelly bean goes back to 1930.
It does.
And believe it or not, morethan 16 billion with a B billion
jelly beans are made in theUnited States each year for Easter.
Holy cow.
But let's talk about one ofthe other quintessential Easter candies.
Peeps. That's right. No Easterepisode is complete without these

(07:46):
little guys were originallymade by a company called Rota Candy
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.Each marshmallow chick was originally
formed by hand. The workershad to squeeze marshmallow paste
through pastry tubes one at atime. And it took a whopping 27 hours
to make a single batch of pea.
27 hours?
Yeah, that's right. 27 hoursper batch. In 1953, a company called

(08:12):
Just Born acquired Rota andBob Bourne, the founder's son, built
a machine called the depositor.
The depositor.
And this thing mechanized theentire process. What used to take
27 hours now takes six minutes.
Wow.
Did you also know that theoriginal peeps had wings? That's
Right. They clipped thesewings in 1955 for a sleeker, more

(08:34):
modern look. And it actuallyhelped in their production, of course.
And according to the Justpeeps factory tour, which we've got
a link to in our show notes,the company says that but they make
enough peeps every year tocircle the earth two and a half times.
Circle the earth?
Let that sink in.
Yeah.
They make 5.5 million peepsper day.

(08:55):
Per day.
2 billion per year.
That's a lot of peeps.
It sure is. And apparentlythey're described sometimes jokingly,
as indestructible. In 1999,scientists at Emory University jokingly
performed experiments onbatches of peeps to see how easily
they could be dissolved,burned, or otherwise disintegrated.
According to Wikipedia, theyused cigarette smoke, boiling water,

(09:18):
and liquid nitrogen. Accordingto Emory Edu, researchers could not
dissolve peeps in acetone,water, diluted sulfuric acid, and
sodium hydroxide. Once phenolwas introduced, the only thing left
at the end were the peep'seyes. You know what, researchers?
You know one way to get rid ofa peep? You just eat it.

(09:39):
I'm ready for a joke fondue.
Okay. What do you call acheese that gets super excited about
Easter?
Oh, I don't know.
A basket case.
Oh, another dorky one.
I like that one because it wasa little bit cheesy. Thanks for listening
to Just Cheesy, the podcastepisode Easter Basket.

(09:59):
Thank you.
We're pretty excited about aholiday coming up in April called
cheeseball day. Check out ourvideo where we made make a sunflower
cheese ball. We hope you makeone at home, yourself
and stay cheesy everybody.