Episode 73: Potatoes

On this week's episode, Lee is joining Winter to talk all about potatoes and its long and storied history as it traveled from Peru to Europe and back to the Americas again. We also delve into the difference between starchy and waxy potatoes and how to cook them. We then help our Food Fight listener who thinks everyone is invited, but isn't!

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Lee used the Instant Pot to help make his chicken noodle soup with our favorite country-style wide noodles. Winter went to Millcreek Cafe with her friends, Carrie and Melanie, and had some yummy Eggs Benedict, but were a bit surprised and disappointed to find bits of a spatula in their food.
• We decided to talk about the topic of potatoes because of this children's book, The Potato King. People still put potatoes on Frederick the Great's grave to this day!

• Alfred Crosby uses the term Columbian Exchange to describe how the potato traveled the world.
• Potatoes were the root of guano fever! It's not Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, but rather the 99% Invisible Podcast that talked about guano.
• Modern day pesticides, starting with arsenic, were born from the infestation of the Colorado potato beetle. 
• Lee breaks down different potatoes--Russett (starchy), Yukon Gold (mid starch and waxiness), and Red Bliss (waxy).

• My favorite roasted potatoes are these Cook's Country recipe using baking soda in the water. 
• Idaho is ideal for growing potatoes, from the volcanic, draining soil to the daily changes in temperature.
• We also help a Food Fight listener who assumes that others have been invited to a party, but they aren't. Very awkward!

Run Time: 48 minutes

Help us! Let's All Give! We are happy to donate to Lifting Hands International during this holiday season and we want to invite our listeners to give what you can! They are providing aid to refugees around the world. You can find about them more here.

Please donate here at this link to help our friend, Troy!

Here's more about this organization and the founder, Hayley Smith.

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Episode 68: Onions

On this week's episode, we talk all about the humble onion, where it came from, that there's an association in the US to represent them, and how to avoid crying when you cut onions. Plus, we help our Food Fight listener deal with her significant other's need for gourmet food.

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon and Ike made a brisket this week on the Big Green Egg, and Ike came up with a spice rub on his own. They finally got "stadium seating" for their spices with one of those Container Store spice tiered racks. Yay!
• Winter has been eating a lot of chocolate, and someone gifted her a delicious dark chocolate bar purchased at Tony Caputo's Market and Deli. It was a Sourdough and Sea Salt dark chocolate bar made by Pump Street Chocolate and Bakery in Suffolk, England. It's my new favorite now!
• We got listener mail from our friend, Jessie the Therapist. She wrote about how podcasts make your brain happy and we were featured. We are so honored! By the way, go check out their informative and fun podcast called Get Yourself Together, where Jessie and her cohost Jackson discuss all things mental health. It is so interesting!
• We're talking all about onions, because of this very post about a red onion. (By the way, The Onion news for those of you who have never heard of it before.)

• Different onion types: Vidahlia (sweeter), Red, White, Yellow, Green Onions.
• National Onion Association of the United States had to bust a myth, where a widely circulated claim from someone's blog post that cut onions are poisonous. Also you can check out all of their recipe resources. Sheet pan jambalaya?
• How to prevent crying while cutting onions: Chemist Erik Block wrote this book and discusses the different sulfurs and enzymes.
• This is the paper that pinpoints the lachrymatory-factor synthase enzyme.
• How to dice an onion by Gordon Ramsay.

• If all else fails, you can buy this eyewear to protect you from crying while cutting onions.
• Our Food Fight question this week asks for help about how to deal with her significant other's need for fancy, expensive food.

Run Time: 48 minutes

Sponsors: We have no sponsors for this episode. If you're interested in working with us, please contact us. We'd love to partner with you.

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Episode 66: Paleo Basics

On this week's episode, Winter and Lee have special guests, Leslie and Aaron Galvan of the So This is Love Podcast, to chat with us this week about the basics of eating paleo. They consider themselves "paleo curious" or "paleo-ish", so they go over what you can eat while on paleo, how they adapt recipes to fit their take on paleo, and give their wise advice on paleo and different types of diets. We don't have a Food Fight question, but we do talk about the economics of dining out as a couple.

Grass-fed meats are allowed on the paleo diet

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• We had scheduling conflicts with Sharon, so Lee joined Winter in interviewing our friends, Leslie and Aaron Galvan of the So This is Love Podcast and the blog, My Kitchen is Open, about the basics of paleo. Winter met them at BlogherFood last year, talking all about podcasting.

Leslie and Aaron Galvan of the So This is Love Podcast

• What we ate this week: Leslie tried the Blueberry Lavender Jam from the restaurant Pig and a Jelly Jar, Aaron loved the 24-month parmesan cheese (DOP) and 20-year Traditional Balsamic Vinegar we brought home from Italy when we went to Ti Amo Pizzeria, Lee loved the Osso Buco (as described in this episode) that we ate at Hotel La Suisse on Lake Como, and Winter sort of like the gorgonzola gelato she at the gelato shop Iano in Bra, Italy.

• Paleo is often associated with Crossfit, but originated from Dr. Walter Voegtlin who wrote the book The Stone Age Diet in 1975. And Robb Wolf has been the person who has revolutionized it in the modern age with his book, The Paleo Solution. 
• Leslie joined a 21-day challenge lead by Emily Shromm (yes, from the Real World fame).
• Grass-fed meats, fish and seafood, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, less-processed oils, seeds, and nuts are allowed on paleo, though there are many variations on how the diet is interpreted. The ribs we smoked on the Big Green Egg were mostly paleo!
• Leslie will take a recipe and make it her own and paleo-ish, using Pinterest and typical recipes she likes. 
• The not-macaroni and cheese recipe didn't sound that great.

Fruits and veggies!

• The paleo tart (almond meal, honey, 90% dark chocolate) is so good, but is not fully satisfying. Melissa Hartwig of the Whole30 calls it this.
• Leslie and Aaron's advice ultimately though is to do what works for you so you can be healthy. Paleo doesn't work for everyone. In fact, Robb Wolf also recently wrote the book Wired to Eat, which has a philosophy of eat what works for you.
• During our Food Fight section, we didn't have a question so we talked about the economics of eating out as a couple based on this interesting op ed piece. How do you eat as a couple? Email us at hungrysquared@gmail.com.

Run Time: 51 minutes

Sponsors: We have no sponsors for this episode. If you're interested in working with us, please contact us. We'd love to partner with you.

Leave a Comment food science, paleo

Episode 46: Butter

On this week's episode, we reminisce on how we didn't really eat butter growing up (we were raised on margarine), but also the history of butter, the science of butter, and the different types of butter there are out there. There's a lot of butter for everyone! We also help out our Food Fight listener as he enters the dating scene again.

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Despite Sharon's spring/summer cold, she was able to enjoy a New York strip steak (listen to this episode for cuts of steak) on the grill (mmmm...Maillard reaction) before she lost her taste buds. This week, Winter had Lee's favorite Watermelon Salad with Goat Cheese, Arugula, and Prosciutto. They used the Vermont Creamery goat cheese (it's not too goat-y) and Creminelli Sopressata Salami (not the prosciutto this time). 
• Butter: A Rich History shares all about how butter was first made. Butter likely got its start as as milk being kept in an animal skin bag on the back of a pack animal that got jostled.
• You should check out the podcast, Sawbones, because they talk about medical history, including Pliny the Elder who thought butter was curative.
• Folks in Ireland would put cheese in wooden casks and bury them in the cool bogs. It was thought they were buried for food storage or as an offering to the pagan gods.
• The Butter Rebellion of 1776 at Harvard University was started by Asa Dunbar, the grandfather of Henry David Thoreau.

• How is butter made? It all starts with cream. It's a triglyceride (3 fatty acids + glycerol). This triglyceride doesn't like water (hydrophobic) and is protected by phospholipids. The phospholipids have a head section that is water-loving (hydrophilic) faces outside to the water, and the tails are water-hating (hydrophobic). The create a globule, a safe haven for the triglyceride! You start whisking, the triglycerides start to glom together, since their safe haven has been disturbed. The air, a neutral party, starts to protect the triglycerides. If you continue to whisk longer, you deflate the air, the the triglycerides have really found each other and are butter!
• By the way, this is a great little video on shear forces when it comes to the best motion to whisk your cream.
• What are the different types of butter: Sweet cream butter, unsalted butter, European butter, cultured butter, whipped butter, and compound butters.
• Unsalted butter has two ingredients: Cream and "natural flavors". What are those "natural flavors"? Who knows?!? Just be careful.
• Cultured butter is allowed to fermented or soured by lactococcus bacteria, which will produce lactic acid. The process is a little like Cristiana Crimenelli's episode on Salami Fermentation.
• European butter is higher in fat and lower in water content. Winter mentions Romina Rasmussen who owns the bakery Les Madeleines, taught that she purchases a different type of butter for her pastries, such as her famous kouing aman (featured on the Food Network).
• Whipped butter has nitrogen gas injected in to make it light.
• Compound butters: Have you tried Chef Shamy flavored butters? Winter really loves the garlic butter.

• Dear readers, how do you keep butter? Do you use one of these butter keepers? How does it work for you?
• Clarified butter < ghee < browned butter on how long and high you heat them.
• Browned butter is good in these recipes: Winter's banana bread recipe and Joy the Baker's Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
• We help out Food Fight listener who is back on the dating scene, figure out how to replace cinnamon.
• We have a listener survey! Fill it out by June 10, 2017 to be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card.
• Watch out for our Hungry Squared T-shirts that will go on sale June 1, 2017!

Run Time: 45 minutes

Sponsors: Our podcast is brought to you by our awesome food-loving sponsor, Zip Schedules. It's an online employee scheduling software and app, that make scheduling a cinch and communicating with your staff a cinch. It takes just minutes to do and it's perfect for you small business owners out there!

Got to zipschedules.com and get 30 days free when you sign up. PLUS, our Hungry Squared listeners can enter the code HUNGRY to receive 20% off your monthly subscription for a whole year. Wonderful!

Thank you, Zip Schedules!

Leave a Comment butter, food history, food science

Episode 31: Fondue

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon had a dinner success with this Cashew Chicken recipe by the Pioneer Woman. Thankfully, it had a nice "gravy"-like sauce.
• Winter got a lovely gift from Sharon, but isn't sold on it: The Fondoodler, the hot-glue gun for cheese.  It's weird.
• Shout-out to Catherine from New Zealand who wrote in about fruitcake and gave us our topic suggestion. Hey!
• Winter owns a fondue pot and loves it. And she still loves her hotpot for her Fondue Chinois!
• The cheeses pushed by the Swish Cheese Union (aka cartel): Gruyere, Emmental, and Sbrinz.
• Kirsch is a common alcohol that can be splashed into your fondue. Cherry!
• Leftovers once again haunt us and our Food Fight listener, who no longer has tupperware. Repurpose your leftovers if you can.
• Remember to subscribe to our podcast and share it with your friends if you haven't done it yet!

Run Time: 42 minutes

Sponsors: Our affiliate partner for this week's episode is Once a Month Meals. They have designed their freezer meal planning, so that you can get in and out of the kitchen faster. Does it seem intimidating? Try a mini-meal plan to give it a try!

Go here (https://secure.onceamonthmeals.com/affiliate/hungrysquared) and type in HUNGRY15 and our listeners will get 15% off at checkout. Hurry, because offer expires February 15, 2017!

Thank you, OAMM!

Leave a Comment fondue, food history, food science

Episode 30: Chocolate

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Did you know that German Chocolate Cake is not from Germany?
• This is how you pronounce "xocolatl", since Winter didn't do so great at it.
• Maybe you're a super taster, and that's why you can't handle dark chocolate and prefer white chocolate--are you?
• This is Winter and Lee (Winter's husband) making creamy fondant centers and chocolate dipping on FacebookLive.
• The Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe for $250? It's a myth according to Snopes. But they do have a sense of humor and came up with a recipe based on the myth.
• Here are all the chocolate chip cookie recipes we referenced: Toll House, Betty Crocker, Albertson's, and Pinch of Yum.
• Some good and tasty grocery store chocolate brands we like: Toblerone, Riter Sport (all the flavors), and Ghiradelli. We'll talk artisan chocolates later.
• Have you subscribed to our podcast yet? It's easy! Here's how!

Run Time: 55 minutes

Sponsors: Our affiliate partner for this week's episode is Once a Month Meals, where they are helping you get dinner on the table faster with their freezer meal planning. Does it seem intimidating? Try a mini-meal plan to give it a try!

Go here (https://secure.onceamonthmeals.com/affiliate/hungrysquared) and type in HUNGRY15 and our listeners will get 15% off at checkout. Offer expires February 15, 2017.

Yay for Once a Month Meals!

Leave a Comment chocolate, food history, food science

Episode 29: Chinese Food and Stir Fry

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Yeah, it's not Emerald Something Dim Sum, it's the Empress Pavillion in Los Angeles, California that we like so much. Check them out!
• Since Winter needs to get rid of her wok (yeah, the non-stick, electric one) and get a new one, she's looking at this one or this one. She may also check out some from this location, since it comes highly recommended by Chris Kimball. Plus, get a ring.
• Our Food Fight question comes from someone who has great taste in movies. That was awesome--thanks for making our week with this reference.
• Remember, the leaves have roots, says Cristiano!
• Will you please subscribe to our podcast? We'd love it!

Run Time: 51 minutes

Sponsors: Our affiliate partner for this week's episode is Once a Month Meals, where they help you get dinner on the table faster with their freezer meal planning. Plus, they have many dietary options, including dairy-free, vegetarian, diet, Whole30-approved and many more plans.

Go here (https://secure.onceamonthmeals.com/affiliate/hungrysquared) and type in HUNGRY15 and our listeners will get 15% off at checkout. Offer expires February 15, 2017.

Thanks, Once a Month Meals!

Leave a Comment chinese food, food history, food science, stir fry

Episode 28: Yeast (Biological Leaveners Part 2)

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon rocked a weeknight dinner with this yummy Thai Chicken Saute recipe (kinda like Winter's Lemon Caper Chicken). Winter's Instant-Pot-Recipe-of-the-Week was this Teriyaki Chicken recipe (check out their Instagram too--beautiful!) that really reminded her of a childhood favorite, Shoyu Chicken (soy sauce chicken).
• Alton Brown's Yeast Puppets on Good Eats and on his last stage show (by the way, he's got another show, Eat Your Science, going on!)
• This yeasty conversation reminds us a lot of this episode with Cristiano Creminelli. By the way, our references for this discussion included this book by Harold McGee, Peter Reinhart, and a culinary textbook, On Baking.
• Domestic yeasts include moist cakes of yeast (shudder!), active dry, and instant dry.
• Winter took this class through Lifelong Learning to learn about sourdough and learned how to make a whole wheat mother starter, though she had purchased one from King Arthur Flour a couple years before.
• This bakery in France and this bakery in San Francisco have been using the same starters for a very, very, very long time!
  
  

Run Time: 49 minutes

Sponsors: We are excited to be an affiliate partner with Once a Month Meals, where you can plan your month's freezer meals efficiently. Let's save some time and get food on the table faster!

Go here (https://secure.onceamonthmeals.com/affiliate/hungrysquared) and type in HUNGRY15 and our listeners will get 15% off at checkout. Offer expires February 15, 2017.

Yay, Once a Month Meals!

Leave a Comment Alton Brown, fermentation, food history, food science, yeast

Episode 26: Salami Fermentation with Special Guest, Cristiano Creminelli of Creminelli Fine Meats

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon was noshing on Beehive Gin salami and Midnight Moon Cheese. 
• Special guest Cristiano Creminelli of Creminelli Fine Meats tells his food business startup story on another Utah podcast, The Utah Foodie. Have a listen to his episode here.
• Salami, just like in our canning episode, all goes back to war and feeding the troops.
• Cristiano mentions saltpeter, which is also known as potassium nitrate.
• Because he mentioned SO many places in Italy, here's a map for reference.

• We're all about Apartment Therapy's January Cure, tidying up, and sparking joy during our Food Fight question.

Run Time: 59 minutes

Sponsors: We have no sponsors for this episode. If you're interested in working with us, please contact us. We'd love to partner with you.

Leave a Comment Cristiano Creminelli, fermentation, food history, food science, salami

Episode 23: Christmas Food Traditions

Disclosure: Some of the links within these show notes are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission, which helps support our show. This commission comes at no additional cost to you, our wonderful listener!

Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon has success with a one-pot pasta with this Damn Delicious recipe, and Winter had one fail (with pork chops) and one success with beef stroganoff using this Pressure Cooking Today recipe using her new Instant Pot. It compares to the one we have had at the Dodo Restaurant in Utah.
• Fun Christmas facts brought to you by this fun and random book.
• Fruitcakes--there are so many! We couldn't find a Youtube clip of Jay Leno eating this 125-year old fruitcake, sadly! And Winter thinks that the Chinese version of a fruitcake is this cake.
• Winter loves watching gingerbread house challenges. Anybody else? Apparently, these people love a good challenge too!
• These folks love to explain gingerbread houses using science and architecture. We love this type and brand of flour to create good structure in your gingerbread. This article talks about how you can calculate the max height you can build a gingerbread house.

Run Time: 57 minutes

Sponsors: We have no sponsors for this episode. If you're interested in working with us, please contact us. We'd love to partner with you!

2 comments food design, food history, food science, instant pot