Please note that we don't know what we don't know as we discuss nation state creation and travel through the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia and Babylonia to learn more about this delicious thing with a pocket. No re-gumming allowed! After waxing nostalgic about our missed panini experiences, Matthew assigns himself some homework and Molly misses tornados?
Episode 605: Falafel with Yumna Jawad
Melissa Clark’s za’atar chicken
Ali Slagle’s chicken-zucchini meatballs with feta
Speaker 1 0:00
Hi I'm Matthew
Molly 0:05
and I'm Molly and
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:06
this is Spilled Milk The show where we cook something delicious eat it all and you can't have any today
Molly 0:10
we are talking about Pita
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:12
yep Are you Are you like me like a little nervous about this episode and like all of the things we could possibly get wrong that have like geopolitical ramifications Absolutely
Molly 0:21
yeah absolutely I should say We're also recording this you know like in late May who knows what other horrible atrocities will have happened in the Middle East between now
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:33
and that that are not like directly flatbread? Really? No, not
Molly 0:37
flatbread related, but I am aware that this is one of those episodes when when there's a lot that we don't know and that we don't know, we don't know.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:45
Exactly. And also says this was suggested by question mark.
Molly 0:49
I can't really remember where did it come from?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:52
Where do pizzas come from?
Molly 0:55
Matthew, let's go down memory lane.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:57
Okay. I remember first of all, Peter being like, I think that would appear like in a plastic bag as like sort of a bread option like at a like, you know, make your own sandwich bar at in someone's backyard or at a house party. And when I say a house party, I don't mean like a cool kid and play house party. I mean, like, someone's parents are throwing a party and you get dragged along. Okay, but then I remember like the first time like really like digging PETA was when Watson took me to garbanzos in Portland for falafel sandwiches, like in like, you know, served in a pita pocket. And I remember like, back then, like in the 80s in Portland. I mean, I didn't meet Watson in the 80s. Well, I sort of did. Back then, like in the 80s. And Portland pitas were mostly known as pocket bread.
Molly 1:42
Interesting. Yeah. Is this like a Portland wide thing?
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:46
I think it was like, I don't think it was just a Northwest thing. I think probably this was true, like in other parts of North America also is my guess. But But I Watson said she was perplexed the first time she met a peta peta that didn't have a pocket. Yeah,
Molly 2:00
yeah, I was too. I was like, this is not PETA, right? But we're gonna get there. Okay, we're gonna get there. I remember. Well, so I think I first encountered PETA. As like the bread that like a quote unquote, like health food store sandwich would come in Sure. There were always alfalfa sprouts somewhere nearby PETA, and this would have been, I guess, the 80s. It wasn't until maybe the 90s that I thought about just how delicious pizza is as a sandwich bread. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite places to go during off campus days in high school, like when we could go anywhere and get our lunch is I would go to this place called the brown bag deli, which I could swear at the time was in Nichols Hills Plaza. But now when I look it up, apparently, it was not a Nichols Hills Plaza. I don't know. But are you sure it didn't move? It could have moved but when I saw pictures of the interior it looked like it had been in that interior for decades. Now
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:06
when I when I used to listen to BBD back in the early 90s That seemed
Molly 3:11
that it did yeah. Anyway, brown bag deli was this family owned place that was a sandwich place obviously by the name and it was known primarily for its curry chicken salad and also it's smoked meats. Okay, so I would go there and I would get a smoked chicken sandwich in pita and I remember putting a lot of dijon mustard on it. I can't remember what else was in there. Okay, chicken was so good. And the pizza was like just perfect with it with this like really good smoky meat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:46
Remember the time that I said I thought Dijon mustard was a grainy mustard. Yeah, this is one of those things that like you know, I'll like wake up at the middle of night remember like you know when you think about something embarrassing you did like that's one of them and like that, like went out to like over 10,000 people it did.
Molly 4:02
I loved it. Now I've said so many embarrassing things. Like I've admitted so many embarrassing things. Yeah. Okay, other Oklahoma City pedo related memories Mediterranean import. Yes, I did. This is where my dad so glad we went to Oklahoma. It was so great. I would gladly go back there. Yeah, my dad would go get pita and hummus at Mediterranean imports and even though I'm sure we could get pizza at the grocery store, even back then when my dad was still alive. It was just better
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:36
when God pita and hummus at the at the local import store today. Nice. I feel like I'm following in his footsteps you
Molly 4:43
you might be and then I have to say the greatest use of pizza that I think I've ever encountered in my in my limited life experience is the falafel at last do falafel. Because that is will so You know this is not our falafel episode we already did that but the falafel it last year falafel was so like the PETA is so integral to keeping everything in place and also makes it like a perfect street food you can actually eat while walking down the street and you you need the pizza with a pocket for a Falafel sandwich in my humble opinion ya know there are certainly lots of places that serve it in a pocket less PETA
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:31
Yeah and like so I think like most like most of the pizza I've had in my life has either been like in a you know, in pocket form with falafel inside or one other thing which I was just reminded of, or as a like wrapped around Jiro meat as a year as I was just reminiscing with Watson about this place that I think may no longer be there called Amir's falafel in on the Upper West Side are like like Morningside Heights ish, like, right, right, right outside Columbia, basically, in Manhattan. Their falafel was pretty good. But they had this shish kebab sandwich which was like, like grilled steak like marinated grilled steak served in their in their, like, warm pita pocket. That was wildly good. It was like I remember the first time I was like, Oh, this is one of those things is like so much better than I expected it to be like it was a magnificent sandwich. Well,
Molly 6:25
and what could be I'm thinking of like, like a kebab sandwich served in PETA. And I mean, what could be a better way of getting off of a kebab than using a flatbread? Right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:37
And and then like having having the juices soak into it, yes.
Molly 6:41
Okay, well, so let's talk about what this stuff is. Because as we've already identified, there are pocketed versions and on pocketed version, right. Okay. So PETA, which in the US we tend to spell P ITA, but in British English is often pi T TA, is the name for a whole family of round yeast, leavened flat breads that are baked from wheat flour. Okay. And these breads are common across the Mediterranean in the Levant and neighboring areas. I mean, you will find them in every Middle Eastern culture and beyond. Yeah. So this you know, the family of PETA includes the pocket version, which is known by many as Arabic bread. I believe in Arabic. It is hula hoops. A Rabi. I'm not sure if I'm, I know I'm pronouncing this word, okay. Hubs being the word for bread. And then the Greek version has no pocket and is denser. So the Western name pita, as we're using it today, is sometimes used to refer to like a whole ton of different flatbreads, in addition, that have different names in their local language shares. So a lot of stuff falls under the banner of PETA. The history of it is one of those things where we're never going to be able to pin it down to one culture or one group of people. Because in many ways, I mean, like the nation state didn't exist, right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:05
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And this, this has got to be a really old food. Well,
Molly 8:11
maybe the nation state exists. I don't remember when the nation state was created.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:14
I mean, like, I know, it was like before it was before the 70s. That's as far back as I remember. Well, anyway,
Molly 8:23
PETA and other flatbreads probably date back over 10,000 years, possibly up to 15,000 years ago, with roots in the Fertile Crescent, which is the part of the Middle East where the earliest agricultural settlements where I think I've
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:38
heard the term the Fertile Crescent a lot and like I know of it as like, sort of like the cradle of civilization, but I don't think I've ever really stopped to think about exactly what it is. Yeah,
Molly 8:46
no, I looked it up. I looked up a map. And I specifically wanted a map that sort of laid the crescent on top of today's like, geopolitical map. Okay, right. Yeah. So the phone really is that crescent shaped? Yeah, it's basically this like upside down crescent.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:06
It looks like the way it's mapped. It's like laid onto the map here. It looks like kind of a hairdo of some kind. It does. It does. Like if my hair looked like this, like this is like a cool like 70s Guy hair hairdo absolute, like my life would be so different. So
Molly 9:21
it looks like you know, at the the western side of it, it I believe, even though this map doesn't show it it. It begins in Egypt, sort of with the Nile. As you can imagine the Nile River Valley, then goes over toward Israel and Palestine, modern day Lebanon, Syria, northern Iraq, and Southern Iran, also southern Turkey. So this whole area, you know, there were a lot of like rivers there and you're between two seas. It was a hugely important agricultural area.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:56
So you grow you grow your wheat, you grow your wheat, what did you say? On last week's show, like give me a wheat for saying that a lot they were. Oh, I should also say I also looked up what Mesopotamia is whether it's the same as the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia was just a part of the fertile crest. Okay, so yeah, I feel like oh, these things come up on Jeopardy like ancient civilizations, and I'll like say, oh, Mesopotamia or Samaria and like sometimes I'm right Babylonia. Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes I'm wrong, but I couldn't tell you what the difference between those are. Well, let
Molly 10:29
me read this thing I learned from Wikipedia and an article on tasting table in the Fertile Crescent. They cultivated ancient strains of wheat and barley. These are some of the earliest domesticated crops. And you know, as recently as 4000 years ago, or I guess as long ago as 4000 years ago, bread was already of central importance in in the cuisines they're, like the Babylonian culture of Mesopotamia, where there are written records of breadmaking and recipes for bread, the earliest written records of breadmaking date from the Mesopotamian culture okay, I'm excuse me, the Babylonian culture of Mesopotamia All right, I'm getting myself all turned around.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:12
You know what I remember that Babylonian culture, I think, I think this is what I learned in my math. In many cultures class, the Babylonian culture had a had a sexagesimal counting system, which is base base 60. Well, we saw a very sexy system, but also this base 60 And like that, this we still have like a vestige of this because we use a sexagesimal system for counting time. That's so interesting. This could this could be all like totally debunked by now or I could be misremembering it but it sounds good, right? That dates back to Babylonia.
Molly 11:45
That's That's what I heard staying and then of course you've got the abacus with versus the abacus. Yeah. Which also was was one of the earliest domesticated crops in the Fertile Crescent. Did
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:56
you have an abacus when you were a kid? Because I did. I'm pretty sure I did. I remember I think I remember like what it felt like what it sounded like when you check it was plastic.
Molly 12:05
Okay, a basic element of the diet in the Fertile Crescent was a pita like flatbread that was cooked in a tandoor type oven. But that said, there's no record of what we think of as like, pocket bread. Like steamed puffed two layer pita. There's no record of it in any ancient texts or medieval Arab cookbook.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:26
Is there any record of the stay? Puft Marshmallow Man,
Molly 12:28
what are you referring to?
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:30
It's, there's there's this movie Ghostbusters. Oh, what does that have to do with? You said steam puffed. And it made me think Steve.
Molly 12:40
Anyway, what we think of as, or what I have always thought of as PETA, that thing with a pocket, also known as blue jeans. Now, it was likely a later development. So of course, because the Fertile Crescent was such an awesome place to grow things and such a great place to live. A lot of people came to it and they tried to conquer it and stuff. And they likely encountered these flatbreads and their baking methods and took them home with them. And this is probably how PETA as a flatbread that shows up in many different cuisines spread throughout the Mediterranean in the Middle East.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:22
Okay, so I'm, I think, I think I'm probably jumping ahead but I'm curious like what what defines PETA as as opposed to like other similar flatbreads? Well, so
Molly 13:31
here's where it gets really tricky. And I think we need to bring in Mr. Etymology, because PETA in different local languages PETA, as we think of it is called by different names. Yeah. And the word PETA sometimes refers to things that are not what I personally think of as PETA. Okay, so as Mr. entomology here
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:00
Oh, yes, yes. Hello.
Molly 14:02
Hello. Mr. Etymology, could you talk about the word PETA?
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:06
I would love to So in English, the word PETA for showed up in the OED in 1936. And the English word is borrowed from modern Greek. Let's let's see if we can like spell it in modern Greek. So it's pi, Iota Tau Alpha. Is that right? Maybe Okay, which is in turn from the Byzantine Greek and possibly from ancient Greek which may have passed to Latin and then eventually become pizza. It seems like it would be really weird if those words weren't related right both types of flatbread right in Levantine Arabic and involved into Fatah a that since the old Arabic P evolved into F which, which is a very common linguistic shift in both directions. So interesting, because it's, you do almost the same thing with your lips. Okay. The word PETA has been borrowed by the Turkish language has p day, and I've had some really good flatbreads at Turkish for us. drums I
Molly 15:00
would love to go to Turkey and just eat and
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:04
yeah at sim it's like my regrettable delicious thing ever since ever since my mom like a few years ago my mom asked me if I would make some it's for her birthday and I did so now I do that every year and it's a good tradition. The the Arabic name for the staff translates to English as pita bread was also just the word for bread ditto for Egypt. The Arabic word for bread is herbs and the Arabic name for pitas herbs ought to be Arabic bread. And in Greek pita means pastry and the word is used to refer to all kinds of pastries as a suffix like spanakopita or to Topeka. But the word pita by itself refers to the flat Oh, and like when we were talking about this, I said like this there is something analogous in Japanese, which is the word soba. So like if you have like, you know, yaki soba or mozzie soba, like these are a refers to just like noodles or like a noodle dish, but the word soba by itself can only refer to a very specific type of buckwheat noodles.
Molly 16:06
So okay, so the same way that pita can be spanakopita right when it's used only as a freestanding word PETA it refers to flatbread,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:16
right, and the Greek pita which we we ate some earlier today is thicker and denser than than Arabic style pizza and has no pocket. Whereas the thinner pocket pizza is referred to in Greek as Arabic pastry great.
Molly 16:40
The pocket kind?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:41
Yeah, I'm curious how that pocket gets into there. I didn't I think I may have made this before. But I don't remember how and I didn't look into it so well.
Molly 16:49
And the truth is, I did not find really satisfying explanations for how it came to, for how it gets that way.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:57
Do we need to we need to consult a physicist?
Molly 16:59
I mean, like, why is it for instance, that the dough has a tendency to separate like that, as opposed to like a pancake, which does not form a pocket or like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:09
like a bool, which, which like puffs up but doesn't form a hole in the middle unless you do it wrong. So
Molly 17:14
I think the truth is, I should have looked at recipes. And instead, I was just looking at, like articles about pizza. So this is going to be kind of incomplete. Okay, but one thing that that is across the board necessary is a really high baking temperature. So if you're baking in a home oven, it's probably going to be 450 to 475. If you're baking in a commercial oven, it's going to be even hotter. It's gonna be like 800 to 900 degrees. Okay. Most pita breads are baked at pretty high temperatures, which turns the water in the dough into steam, and causes the pizza to puff up and form a pocket. When it's removed from the oven. Crucially, the layers of baked dough remain separated, which is kind of a cool like magic trick. It's like it yeah, like they bake into place. So they don't like regum themselves together. No, they don't. regum now it's proofed for a very short time only, like 15 minutes. Hmm. Which I guess is quite different from the pool I was talking about. Absolutely. And then of course, a lot of the pizza that we encounter Yeah, is baked in a commercial setting like an automated production line with the super hot ovens. And it's baked obviously for a much shorter amount of time. And then often pitas are either shipped immediately or they're frozen so a lot of the time when you buy pizza comes frozen
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:39
yeah and I gotta say like, like you know as far as you know, we love a lot of supermarket products on the show I think like like supermarket pizza and a bag is usually not very good.
Molly 18:49
I would agree. I have been really happy lately with so a met market opened not far from our house and in general I gotta say I find that market ridiculously expensive. Oh
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:00
sure. I have the cookie.
Molly 19:01
They do have the cookie but oh my god like you try to buy a pint of blueberries there and it's like 999 at Where's you can get like organic blueberries at Trader Joe's for 499
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:12
Okay, Trader Joe's advertised on
Molly 19:16
our show Yeah, do it. Anyway met market has met market branded Greek pita which we add some today. They also sell it in a whole wheat version 100% Whole wheat version which is pretty darn tasty. I've tried it I prefer the white one. But it's delicious. Really, really good product that said I don't think they sell a pocket Pina that is like med market branded. If you were going to buy pocket pita where would you buy it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:46
I genuinely don't know I wonder if they carry it like at the souk at at Pike Place Market but they're like I don't you know I don't shop for like Middle Eastern ingredients that often just because I don't cook that cuisine very often. And So like, I think if I got into cooking that more like, you know, basically I'm saying I don't know.
Molly 20:04
I mean, I think a lot of us kind of only have access to like your basic supermarket pita
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:09
Yeah, but it's, it's, it's not hard to make, like and I think any homemade version you make is going to be better than a supermarket. What
Molly 20:18
I remember making it once in my early 20s And I think that's the best time to make it is it is you've got a lot of time on your hands often in your early 20s. I think that some of mine didn't. Didn't rough. Yeah, well sure that there's some technique involved.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:34
Did you did you like fill it with pop rocks like you're supposed to?
Molly 20:40
Okay, so Matthew, what do you do with with pita,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:44
so mostly, I will like toasted in a pan and then use it for like a wrap or dip it and like one thing I've been doing lately, which, which I really like. Again, I'm gonna mention the Trader Joe's product. Trader Joe's has like frozen frozen kebab meat. Or like I like a costa kebab like frozen in sticks. Can you just pop it in the oven? And like you wrap that in a pizza or a piece of Trader Joe's non both very good, great lunch with some like shredded lettuce, hot sauce like a pickled jalapeno and their
Molly 21:20
question Yeah, how what made you think to toast pita in a skillet? I think I have always thought to like wrap it in foil and warm it in the oven but your way seems more authentic to probably you know, the idea of it being cooked in like a clay oven. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:36
so let me let me grab the bag of pizza that I bought today. Okay, okay, so I went to I went to the shop agora on 15th Avenue East and I got a big lathe the only the only size of pack they sell a 10 pack of seven inch Cronos pita so Kronos we talked about a bunch on the Euro episode is like the big Greek and Mediterranean ingredient producer out of Chicago says For best results grill. And so I interpreted flat top grill to mean cast iron skillet, and just put it on medium high and like popped it like each minute on each side. Just because like, you know, I think about like when you when I went up like corn tortillas that way, like just getting like a little bit of char and direct. You know, direct what do we call it skin contact for hot pan contact? Like it's just good for a bread. It's good for bread, especially these that start that start out quite pale. Yeah. And I like how it says on the package pre oiled yum.
Molly 22:32
It's interesting because I actually felt like they tasted a little bit less or I could taste a little bit less fat in them than the Met market ones. So I've been lately making this MELISSA CLARK recipe frequently. I believe it's called grilled Zatara chicken with garlic, yogurt and cilantro. Okay. You basically marinate chicken thighs and a bunch of tasty stuff. You grill it, you can also just boil it. It scales up really well. So really good for serving a crowd. Then once it's cooked, you thinly slice it serving pizza with a garlicky cilantro, a yogurt sauce. So good. That sounds great. And Greek pita I think is perfect for that because I want I want something that the sauce isn't going to drip through. Or isn't going to like deteriorate. I also really like just eating pizza
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:22
sometimes. Oh, before you came over I wanted to like test my toasting method. Yeah, like I toasted one and ate half of it before you got here. Yeah,
Molly 23:29
no. And sometimes even the little like mini grocery store brand pizzas that aren't even that good. I just really enjoy eating them especially when they're pretty darn fresh. Right? Like so tasty. Also, oh my god. Just a couple nights ago, I made this recipe that I had bookmarked an eternity ago. It's from New York Times cooking same as the MELISSA CLARK one I mentioned. This is an ally Slagle recipe for chicken and zucchini meatballs. So you grate some zucchini into the chicken meatball mixture, which also has fresh herbs, cumin, red pepper flakes. panco. You make these meatballs. I used dark meat ground chicken. And then you make like a slurry of lemon juice and olive oil and crumbled feta with some pickled shallots in there. Oh, and you also roast some zucchini and then you kind of eat all of this and we ate when we had this we kind of served in the shallow bowls and use the pita for kind of scooping up the Fetta sauce. Wow, it was so good. Good. So flavorful. So I just want to say I think a lot of us probably think of PETA as being the thing we buy when we buy hummus or make hummus. Sure. Because PETA is great. That's how we ate it today. Yeah, I'm also of course great for wrapping kabobs or euros or falafel. souvlaki, yeah, souvlaki, so, Greek style pita again the like denser, no pocket stuff. You will see that all over Greece as the you know the the wrap for souvlaki
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:06
and what what is souvlaki? I know like we got into this on the Euro episode, but I don't remember the answer.
Molly 25:12
I don't either. But isn't it like just grilled meat? Yeah, could we look it up? Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:17
I know. I mean, I know it's the classic shoegaze album by Slowdive. souvlaki Greek fast food. A great fast food consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer it is usually eaten straight off the skewer while it's still hot or it can be served in a way they're inside a rolled pita typically with lemon sausage, vegetables and fried potatoes as a side Yes, yes there we go. This looks real good. Oh yeah. I just see also see blocky album. Okay,
Molly 25:44
just a couple other uses of PETA. Let's talk quickly about a couple of uses in Turkey because this stuff sounds so good. So in Turkey, they have this dish similar ish to Pizza called each li P day where basically you take your your phone is on its way to Turkey. Where basically you take you take the dough for your pizza, you put a filling on it so like me ground me cheese, cured meats, veggies, etc. And then you put the those fillings on the dough before you bake it and the photo I saw of this had the the sides kind of folded up like a galette like a rustic Gala. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:29
I've had this at a place in Brooklyn, and it was really tasty. It sounds
Molly 26:33
delicious. So in Israel, something called Druze pita is very popular. It's D R Us E. It's basically peed up filled with Lebanon. So like thickened yogurt, I love that stuff. And topped with olive oil and Zaatar. And then I was interested in how prevalent these flat breads are in the Balkan countries. Okay, so the local style pizza there is known by various local names depending on the country, and is the most common bread that they serve with barbecued meat or sausages. But the word pita, like if the English word PETA is usually used to refer to what we might call like
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:12
a pie. Okay, like I just like, pie or no
Molly 27:15
like a film like Borak Yeah, yeah, but isn't that Turkish?
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:19
I think it's not just Turkish though, but like a cheese filled
Molly 27:23
Yeah, history type thing. Yep. Anyway, so yeah, it didn't surprise me to discover that like every, every group in this whole region had its own name for these things, but also that there's just a tremendous overlap in how it gets used, and how prevalent it is. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:47
so you remember the book flatbreads and flavors by the late Jeffrey Alfred. Alfred and Naomi do good.
Molly 27:55
No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:55
I think not that I think it was their first book. No, their first book was seductions of rice. Anyway, like, I don't even think I own this book anymore. But like I've maybe I should because like, I feel like whenever we get into flat breads like that, that book, like you know, has helped me understand many of flatbread. Yeah,
Molly 28:13
yeah. And then of course, there's pita chips, but we're gonna do a separate episode. Let's
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:18
do a separate episode on pita chips. Those are those are highly snackable.
Molly 28:21
They are. Matthew, I think we have a spilled mail
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:31
this is from listener Talia. And I love this question. So hi, Matthew and Molly. Spilled Milk is my official dinner cooking podcast. It's what I put on to listen to while I cook each evening. Nothing else feels right. I've been listening since about 2022. And I'm now working my way backwards through earlier episodes. Yikes. My question for you is about small apply.
Molly 28:49
I should say Matthew added that not listener talk. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:53
My question for you is about small appliances. What small appliances do you own that are absolutely essential to your kitchen operations. You use them every week and would replace them immediately if they broke. What small appliances can you never Imagine owning? In our household I do most of the cooking but my husband and I each have strong and differing opinions on small appliances. For example, I own both an immersion blender and a food processor which are used weekly but for some reason can't justify buying a blender. My husband does 99% of his cooking in the airfryer or instant pot while I never think to reach for these thanks for all the effort you put into the show. It makes my kitchen time that much easier. Talia Molly, what are your essential small appliances that you would replace or repair immediately if they broke? And what are the ones that you would never own in a million years?
Molly 29:39
You know, as I was thinking about this, I was surprised by how many small appliances I consider essential Yeah. So stand mixer. I really don't want to go back to not having a standard mixer. I use it all the time. Microwave. I use it constantly. toaster oven. I have a toaster oven and a slot toaster because my spouse had a slot toaster when we met. Yeah, I could live without the slot toaster couldn't live without the toaster oven. I like an immersion blender. And I think if I had to I could make smoothies with an immersion blender. I'm torn about my food processor and my blender. I like having an immersion blender and a regular blender. But I pretty much could do everything with the immersion blender that I do with the blender. But I wouldn't want to do with the blender. Everything that I do with the immersion blends.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:28
What's something you do with the immersion blender that you wouldn't want to do with the big bliss? So I
Molly 30:32
have never mastered the art of blending blending hot soups.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:36
Oh, that's so scary. I
Molly 30:38
find it terrifying. So scary. And like no matter how little hot soup you put in there and whether you put like a paper towel, I mean, like a dish towel over the top and leave a little air whatever. It still gets everywhere. Yeah. So I would never want to not have an immersion blender because I like pureed soup.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:57
Yeah, no, I think like blender hot soup is one of the things you can do in the kitchen that is most likely to make you end up looking like a scene from a sitcom where someone is trying to cook for the first time.
Molly 31:08
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it never seems to get better for me. So I've just stopped doing it. And then as far as like the food processor, I would really miss it during the months of the year when I make pesto. But otherwise I could do without it. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:24
All right. So for me, like the thing I realized as I was making this list is that some things are so essential. I didn't even think of them like I think they just seemed obvious and like I'm noticing now I didn't even put microwave on my list but like obviously it's right up there. So rice cooker, I think is number one for me. Okay, like I use it several times a week. Stand Mixer. Yep. Especially for making dos. Yes. I feel like I could probably live without either the food processor or the immersion blender but not both. Like I think I can be fine with one of those. The slot toaster pretty important. I do use the Instant Pot fairly often but it doesn't feel essential to me yet. It
Molly 32:07
feels like a convenience to me like I can do the same thing elsewhere. But the Instant Pot is good to have. Yep,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:14
and then I don't own an air fryer either. I think we'll probably do it for the show at some point but but like I don't think I would buy one otherwise. I used to own a deep fryer called the Cool Daddy but got rid of it because I was never using it. Same we used to have a panini grill. Oh man, we're like we're gonna be Panini people forever. Throwing it back Guess what? Like yeah, we're not we're no longer pinion II people. Yeah. We have a waffle iron that gets used like twice a year and like Will it when we want waffles like there's no other you can't make waffles with like a hole punch. You have to use a waffle iron.
Molly 32:49
That's right. an appliance that I actually don't use much as a rice cooker. Yeah, and I've had like a regular like dedicated rice cooker and then I've made rice in the Instant Pot. I don't think my rice cooker was especially great. It worked okay, I've never had one as nice as yours for instance, I don't think the Instant Pot is great for making rice. So I make rice on the stovetop and I think I'm really good at it so I don't feel like I need anything else. I also don't think I'm ever gonna have a slow cooker. Yeah, and maybe if I had
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:21
Have you had one in the past and then and then you put it out for free. No,
Molly 33:25
but I can see the appeal if I worked outside of my house. Like I can see the appeal of setting it and letting it do its thing all day. But because I do have the luxury of being able to come upstairs from my office and start dinner in between doing other things I don't see myself needing I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:47
looking over on the small appliance shelf of our of our IKEA IVR organizer. And we have a we have a ice cream maker that I think was a freebie that got used a number of times like in the first year that it lived in his house and I don't think has been used since since like COVID started which which seems like weird because he was like that would be like like a perfect time to be making a bunch of homemade ice cream but I don't think we did
Molly 34:14
I am surprised that it's survived so many callings I mean you tend to be quite a minimalist
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:20
so so this is like this is like sort of the the overgrown vegetation state of this of this organizer. Like I have it on my list for this summer to do what needs to be done. It's not going to be pretty. Oh man. It's gonna be pretty when it's done.
Molly 34:34
Yeah, yeah. Well, our producer is Abby circuit tele.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:38
You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. And you can
Molly 34:43
also chat with other spilled milk listeners that everything spilled milk.reddit.com
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:48
And until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk.
Molly 34:52
The podcast that was formed when a ball of dough was put into a really hot oven and it separated into two Two halves and one was you and one was me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:02
Oh, that's so cute. Like does it just separate if you have like two separate flatbreads? That's like a different kind of thing that can go wrong except
Unknown Speaker 35:14
it can't.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:16
But I do but I but metaphorically No, you're so right you
Molly 35:20
know what we are? What are we? Well no, I was gonna say like, the twins are the Pete of version of humans pink pins are the tweet
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:34
by Matthew Amster-Burton Hi, Molly
Molly 35:36
Weissenberg
don't miss those tornadoes. This is definitely peak. tornado season. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:49
If you if you said you you said you did miss the tornadoes. I would have a lot of questions. I mean, I guess probably I mean, I think some people really love them. Well, like like, like storm chaser chasers? Yeah. Paxton Yeah, Bill packs. Helen Hunt was Was she the other? Maybe? I think that's right. Maybe
Molly 36:11
there is an incredible short story by KAREN RUSSELL from the collection orange world. Okay, and called tornado auction. And it is fascinating and bizarre and an astounding piece
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:26
and then it was adapted into the movie Twister now okay. Okay.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai