Just Cheesy: The Podcast! 177 April Cheese

Cheesy and Fondue celebrate all the April Cheese holidays! We talk about weasel, burrito, pimento, fondue, grilled cheese, poutine, cheeseballs, cheddar fries, raw milk, and cherry cheesecake. We talk about a couple of non-cheese favorites and of course, we tell a very cheesy joke! #givingcheese

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

Show Notes 

Celebrate the April Cheese holidays!

April 3 Cheese Weasel Day

April 4 National Burrito Day

April 9 National Pimento Cheese Day

April 11 National Cheese Fondue Day 

April 12 National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

April 11 National Poutine Day

April 17 National Cheeseball Day

April 20 National Cheddar Fries Day

April 20 Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day

April 23 National Cherry Cheesecake Day

April 24 National Pigs in a Blanket Day

April 26 National Pretzel Day

https://techcrunch.com/2013/04/03/happy-cheese-weasel-day-3/

https://nuestrostories.com/2024/03/the-origins-of-burritos/#:~:text=Types%20of%20Burritos,caters%20to%20plant%2Dbased%20eaters.

https://www.seriouseats.com/history-southern-food-pimento-cheese#:~:text=and%20canning%20industry.%22-,The%20South%20may%20not%20have%20invented%20pimento%20cheese%2C%20but%20it,developed%20in%20and%20around%20Griffin.

https://www.alpenwild.com/staticpage/fondue-history-and-tradition/

http://freshmelt.com/the-history-of-grilled-cheese/#:~:text=According%20to%20food%20historians%2C%20mankind,get%20them%20back%20to%20work.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-poutine

https://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-bites/cheese-ball-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_fries#:~:text=The%20origin%20of%20the%20dish,Charles%2C%20Missouri.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Just Cheesy The Podcastpresented by Just Cheesy Productions.
Hi there, I'm your host, Fondue
It's Cheesy.
In this week's episode, we'regoing to be celebrating all of the
April cheese holidays. We'regoing to be talking about Cheese

(00:23):
Weasel Day, National BurritoDay, pimento cheese fondue, grilled
cheese poutine, cheese balls,cheddar fries, raw milk, and cherry
cheesecake. We're even gonnashare a couple of our non cheese
favorites. And of course, noepisode would be complete without
our very cheesy joke. Staytuned for episode 177, April cheese

(00:45):
on Just Cheesy the Podcast.
We've been doing this podcastfor a minute and I don't know why
I didn't really realize itbefore, but April is chock full of
cheese holidays.
Yeah, it is.
And this first one isn't evena food related one, but it is a doozy.
Apparently in the 1990s, aweasel was spotted carrying a Kraft

(01:08):
single. And you're askingyourself, well, what was that weasel
going to do with cheese? Well,apparently he was going to be putting
it under the keyboards of goodtech workers everywhere. Like the
Tooth Fairy, the holiday hasbeen spreading by word of mouth.
It's grown to other sites. Oneof them offers a song, the other
offers a Cheese Weasel Day Ecard. If you're not in tech, but
you do like cheese. Well,April 3rd is also National Burrito

(01:32):
Day. According tonewestrostories.com, the historic
the history of the burritogoes back thousands of years. Around
10,000 BC using corn tortillasto wrap foods was a common practice,
and this began in the regionknown as Mexico today. In 1895, the
burrito appeared in the bookDictionary of Mexican Spanish. And
it was described as a rolledtortilla filled with meat or other

(01:54):
ingredients. And while you canfind lots of different burritos,
one of the top five isobviously a classic bean and cheese
burrito. Maybe you're not intoa cheese burrito and you love something
else. Well, on April 9th youcan celebrate National Pimento Cheese
Day. And apparently this isdubbed as the caviar of the South.
It's a spread made of cheese,mayonnaise and pimentos. And this

(02:17):
cheese has been made popularbecause there's a sandwich at the
Masters tournament and this isconsidered a Southern staple. But
guess what? Apparently theInternet doesn't think it was actually
invented in the South. Infact, the pate of the south was actually
invented in New York.
New York City
And they say that was as aproduct of industrial food manufacturing
and mass marketing. Of course,all the way back in 1870, New York

(02:39):
State farmers started makingsoft, unripened cheese, and they
modeled it after the FrenchNeufchatel. Within 20 years, those
companies made a variant bymixing cream with Neufchatel and
molding it into blocks. Andthis was cream cheese. And just like
the pimento cheese, creamcheese actually wasn't invented in
Philadelphia. It was alsoinvented in New York. Picture it's

(03:00):
the 1800s. We've got creamcheese being made, and this is the
first time that sweet redpeppers are imported from Spain.
In the 1887 edition of MissParloa's Kitchen Companion, she noted
that these peppers, whengreen, are much milder than the common
bell pepper, even though theylook a lot alike. And these were
very popular. And within adecade, they were being sold to large

(03:21):
food manufacturers. By 1899,the editors of Boston Cooking School
magazine included acauliflower and pimento salad on
their dinner menu because theysaid it had a brilliant color. And
by 1908, an article in GoodHousekeeping recommended sandwiches
filled with a blend of softcream cheese, mustard, chives, and
minced pimentos. The nextyear, up to Date Sandwich book presented

(03:45):
a more basic version of thepimento cheese sandwich. It said
to grind two small cans ofpimentos with two cakes of neuchatel
cheese and season with alittle bit of salt. Then, of course,
you spread it on white bread.
Of course.

(04:48):
By 1910, the pimentos werebeing run through a mechanical chopper
and mixed in the neuve Chatelcheese. And thus, commercially made
pimento cheese was born in1911. The Spanish pimentos were very
expensive, but they were indemand. So in Griffin, Georgia, they
began cultivating domesticpimentos. And by the 1920s, there
was a flourishing pimentoindustry around Griffin, Georgia.

(05:12):
And that peaked around 1938.With 25,000 acres under cultivation
for pimentos, they wereproducing 10 million cans of pimentos
a year. The popularity seemedto die off after World War II, and
it looks like the home chefsdecided to replace the cream cheese
with hoop cheese that could bemade at home and a jar of pimentos.

(05:32):
And because hoop cheese is alittle drier, you need something
to bind the ingredientstogether, and thus mayonnaise comes
into the picture in today'sworld. The recipe goes as follows.
And this comes fromseriouseats.com sure, you take a
pound of sharp cheddar cheese,grated, one cup of mayonnaise, a
jar of pimentos, a Half ateaspoon of hot sauce and a half
a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.Pimento cheese is not a sponsor,

(05:56):
but if it was, the ad would goright here. You want to celebrate
my namesake?
Yeah.
Well, you can. April 11th isnational cheese Fondue Day.
Happy Fondue Day.
We've covered fondue in a fewepisodes in the past. Fondue is a
French word derived fromfondre, meaning to melt. Its first
foray into popularity came inthe 1930s with a campaign by the

(06:18):
Swiss Cheese Union. And in the1960s, the New York World's Fair
featured fondue at the Swisspavilion. According to alpenwild.com
there are specific cheesesthat are popular. One is an equal
blend of gruyere and vacheron.Some popular pears are gruyere mixed
with appenzeller Gruyere andraclette. And some places, Emmentaler

(06:41):
seems to be the common choice.Don't have a love for fondue? I don't
know why you wouldn't, but ifyou don't, on the 12th, you can celebrate
National Grilled CheeseSandwich Day.
Yummy.
We have an entire episodededicated to the grilled cheese sandwich.
And according tofreshmelt.com, loaves of bread were
inexpensive and so wasprocessed cheese. And this sandwich

(07:02):
became popular in the 1920sbecause of the Great Depression.
The earliest sandwich was openfaced with grated American cheese,
and popular toppings weretomatoes, eggs, pineapple, and bacon.
April 11th is National PoutineDay. According to the Canadian encyclopedia,
ca poutine is a Quebecois dishmade of fresh cut fries topped with

(07:25):
cheese curds and gravy. Itappeared in snack bars in Quebe in
the 1950s, and it waspopularized across Canada and Beyond
in the 1990s. I know it's hardto tell by my French today, but I
was in Quebec in my teens andI don't remember poutine. I remember
some fresh bread, and the citywas awesome. And the only French

(07:47):
word I can remember from the time.
Oh, no.
Was schtroumpf, which was theFrench word for the Smurfs.
Oh, no.
I'm sorry. Julian from France,who actually provides the best pronunciations
on the Internet. I'vebutchered another one.
Sorry.
April 17th is your namesakeday with National Cheeseball day.
According toculturecheesemag.com we have the

(08:10):
first record of a cheese ball.All the way back in the early 1800s,
there was a man inMassachusetts, and he crafted a giant
cheese ball that weighed 1235 pounds.
Holy cow.
This cheese ball took the milkfrom over 900 cows, and it was known
as the mammoth cheese. Hetransported the ball by wagon and

(08:31):
then rolled it across theWhite House lawn to serve it to President
Thomas Jefferson. Theydisplayed that bad boy at the White
House for two solid years. AndI guess it was so big that they had
to toss the remainder of it inthe Potomac River.
Oh, no.
If you love a good cheeseball, check out our website, www.justcheezy.com.
and there's a recipe to ourvery favorite.

(08:53):
Check it out.
April 20th is National CheddarFries Day. We're going to be talking
about taters and fries in anupcoming episode. The 20th also sees
the celebration of raw milkcheese appreciat. They celebrate
cheeses made from raw milk,unpasteurized milk, and highlight
traditional cheesemakingmethods. The 23rd is national cherry

(09:13):
Cheesecake Day. And if yourecall back in our cheesecake episode,
the Greeks are the ones whohad cheesecakes. And these go back
all the way to the ancientages of the first Olympic games.
And According to Cadburydessertscorner.com, it wasn't until
the 1500s that the recipe forcheesecake was documented. It became
obviously popular and eveniconic cheesecake as we know it today

(09:37):
became popular in the late1800s with the advent of Philadelphia
Kraft mass producing cream cheese.
Wow.
And they believe thatblueberries and cherries, which were
being used as sauce of thecheesecakes, became popular around
the time the cheesecake itselfwas being made by everyone in the
1800s. Rounding out theholidays for the month, we have April

(09:58):
24th with National Pigs in ablanket Day. This is an honorary
holiday where sausages arewrapped in dough, they're made as
appetizers, and you can evenadd cheese to the filling or the
dough to create an ooey gooeytreat. Our other honorary holiday
is on April 26, and that isnational Pretzel Day.
Yum.
Pretzels date back all the wayto medieval Europe, and today they're

(10:21):
loved at places like stadiumsand fairs and Oktoberfest and the
mall. And they can even beeaten with cheese toppings.
I'm ready for a joke fondue.
I was gonna say somethingabout April showers bring May flowers.
Oh, yeah.
But that made me think aboutflowers and bloomy rind cheeses.
Oh, yeah.
So here's the joke.
Okay.
How do bloomy rind cheesdescribe themselves on dating apps?

(10:43):
I don't know.
How earthy and extremelycultured. Get it cultured? Earthy?
It was dumb.
It sure was. And a little bitCheesy. Thanks for listening to Just
choose the podcast episode177April cheese.
Thank you.
Did you use the #givingcheesethis week?

(11:04):
Did you?
Well, we sure did in all ofour social media posts.
Oh yeah.
Check out our new Say Cheesesection of our website to learn more
cheese slang words
and stay cheesy, everybody.