Today we celebrate abundance and balance as we traverse paths paved with prosciutto armed with sabers, lasers and chastity. Between moans and groans, Molly discovers a hard truth about Matthew before deciding that we're gonna need a bigger platter.
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Molly 0:00
Hi I'm Molly. And I'm Matthew and this has spilled milk the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't have any and today we
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:11
are enjoying a charcuterie platter.
Molly 0:13
Yes thank you to listener Susan for suggesting this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:16
I mean thank you to me for procuring ah, the meat.
Molly 0:21
Oh good. I haven't just sat around you know we go through like periods in our household of buying salami and things like that. And I haven't had any really in like a month. Oh, this feels right. Yeah, I think same. Oh, yeah. Okay. So here we are. Let's let's go down memory lane. I think we should first say that. These are also called like Shark who'd replate charcuterie boards is what you'll find if you start Googling.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:46
I served on the Seattle charcuterie board. It's a volunteer position.
Molly 0:50
You're funny. Did you what do you do on the charcuterie board? I'm gonna make you keep going with this joke.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:56
I'm really glad you asked. I mean, mostly like we're, we're there to serve the people. We're there to serve the people cured meats, okay, and sometimes, like accompany men, such as nuts and cheeses and breads. That reminds me I want it I have to assume salted hazelnuts that will be really good with this.
Molly 1:11
Mm hmm. Oh, yeah. chaperones off to a strong start
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:17
good choices here. Right. Let's just let's not even talk at all. There's gonna be a pure like ASMR chewing episode.
Molly 1:22
I need to just eat a little bit. Yeah. Okay, Matthew. So what I recommend is take a little thin slice of baguette spread it with some butter.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:30
I'm afraid of butter, but I'll try. You're afraid of butter. What know this about me.
Molly 1:34
You're afraid of butter. Like as a condiment? Oh, yeah. Oh, shit. I keep forgetting all these things about you. It's almost like I don't even know you. Now put the put this on top. The prosciutto. Yeah, kind of like pave it with prosciutto. Make sure there's prosciutto on the whole thing paved the
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:48
paved paradise put up pursued.
Molly 1:53
Anything else and now eat it but you're probably gonna have to kind of like really hold on to the prosciutto.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:58
Oh, thanks Danny any more instructions before I dive in? No, eat it. Okay, that is good. It was carried carry gold Irish butter.
Molly 2:06
Isn't that good? Like it does a little something extra with like the pork fat flavor,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:11
which on Halloween they rebranded as scary old Irish butter scary old pirates butter. This is a this is an Amster-Burton family running joke that Jeff has been running for a very long time. Which is that for any anything in the world we can say on Halloween such and such turns into like, you know, this but like, you know, instead of toast it's ghost right?
Oh, yeah, your family doesn't have any stupid. You know,
Molly 2:42
my family has a lot of dumb songs. Oh, yeah, we don't have that chunky stuff being one of them. That's a favorite.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:49
What was the one Oh, crispy voice is the one I taught you to go along with chunky stuff? Yeah, crispy
Molly 2:53
boys. I did refer to crispy boys the other day when we were Oh, we were making like oven french fries. And I refer to crispy boys horse. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:04
We got some crumpets from the crumpet shop. God, I
Molly 3:08
love it. When you talk about crumpet and so on. We refer to them as holy
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:11
boys. And I said wait, that sounds like my chastity focused fraternal organization things are going great everyone loves the chastity
Molly 3:26
loves everyone does love chastity. It's Oh, I feel like I could be chaste for the rest of my life if I just can have butter and pursuit Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:41
that's the thing then then they were gonna like pivot into his charcuterie. Chastity is a great
Molly 3:52
we're still recording right
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:57
I know it says a lot but this really is our worst episode.
Molly 4:03
I'm not quite ready yet. Okay, tell me about these. These hazelnuts.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:08
Neither my favorite. Like my favorite snack. They're just premium dry roasted Oregon hazelnuts says lightly salted I think they're heavily salted. I'm here for it. Wow. Nice. And I got some salami for Christmas and like sliced it up and had it with some hazelnut and I'm like, Oh, this is a good combination. Okay, I want like another half slice and the gentleman. molto molto italiano.
I just said Genoa Salama. Hmm. Okay, okay, let's go down memory lane.
Molly 4:37
So I think that I first encountered the idea of like a shark who'd read platter or like an assortment of charcuterie presented all together when I used to work in catering So sure, so yeah, like in high school, I started working for a caterer in Oklahoma City. Shout out to Linda Tripp, not the same one for the Monica Lewinsky thing different one And I learned a lot about catering work from there. And I cannot remember whether it was there, or during my years of working in catering in Seattle that I learned about how to like present charcuterie.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:16
Okay, I'm glad you mentioned that because like I was a little nervous because like I got just got a couple of things at QFC and I was like, I, I'm gonna like put these things on a cutting board but I don't know if it's gonna look like a charcuterie platter and whether that's important to my co host, Molly,
Molly 5:31
it's not important to your co host, Molly, but basically so here in Seattle, both Brandon and I used to Brandon more so than me, used to work for both street kitchen Sure. Which was like the lunch and catering arm of both Street Cafe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:47
You have a lunch arm and a dinner? I
Molly 5:49
do. Do I keep the other one tied behind my back when I'm not using it. Anyway, so Susan Kaplan,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:56
hence your enter your catchphrase? I can eat you with one hand tied behind my back.
Molly 6:00
Exactly. Susan Kaplan ran the street kitchen. She did the catering side of things, but Renee Erickson who is still a huge part of the Seattle restaurant scene, Rene Erickson's aesthetic also had a big impact on what we were making. Okay, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:17
what what is Renee is platter aesthetic.
Molly 6:19
Okay, well So Renee has very strong opinions about or at least at the time that I was working for her she did strong opinions about how sharp coutries should and shouldn't be displayed like for instance, you know how like, if you get like a cold cut platter from Safeway, the cold cuts are going to come like rolled up like like cigar Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, so there's no you cannot do that at a high end catering function. You
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:44
can't just like grab some some Oscar Meyer.
Molly 6:47
Well, no, you can't take like you just don't present charcuterie ever rolled up? No, I also don't do like dumb little rosettes and things. The idea is to have it look somewhat natural, but also like have this look of abundance and and balance. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:05
for like a salami that formed naturally.
Molly 7:09
For us, it just it just congealed. Yeah, uh huh. Anyway, so for instance, if we were serving prosciutto, let's say, we would take thin slices of prosciutto and you would sort of hold them up and you would kind of lightly twist them Oh, and kind of turn it into this sort of like lightly twisted sort of like little voluminous bundle which you would then arrange on a platter that
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:36
sounds very similar to rolling into a cigar
Molly 7:39
wasn't it doesn't look that way. And then the other thing is, you know, we never did like, I think when a lot of people so if you Google charcuterie board or charcuterie platter right now you will find like every major blog ever including pioneer woman whose brand does not seem to overlap with Shark who agree, even Pioneer Woman has like a tutorial on how to make a charcuterie board. And for the most part, when you see them, they are arranged for like purely food styling purposes. So literally everything is jammed together on a plate. And you've got like these crackers standing on end and you've got this salami that's fanned out and
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:18
he's got everything's been brushed with a glaze. Yes.
Molly 8:21
I don't like my food to be touching too much. Okay. Yeah. And and there is definitely a way to make like a beautiful spread of charcuterie and the other things that often come with it like nuts, olives, cheeses, some like jams or honeys, and put them all out and have it not look like something contrived for like a blog photoshoot.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:44
I mean, I think you just get a bigger platter so you can space things out more.
Molly 8:48
I think that is part of it. Yeah. What What was your introduction to Schoharie?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:52
I really strongly associate this with the egullet era when I was like, you know, moderating this this food discussion site and going out places a lot more than I do now. But you were also writing for Seattle Times I was writing for Seattle times but really like the the charcuterie side of my food education really happened like on online.
Molly 9:13
This This was also early in the salumi era.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:15
Yeah, so there was so like, and then there were the other
Molly 9:19
Hold on wait, we should clarify that salumi is like a shark coterie business. Yeah, in Seattle,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:25
that makes that makes cured meats and also like, like fresh Italian meats and sandwiches and stuff. Very tasty. And so I remember there was a lot of talk about like, you know, the best charcuterie can't even be imported into the US things like Harmonix bedico and mortadella from Bologna and stuff with both which can be imported now, but it was always like, you know, Akula Telo was some people talk a lot Oh culatello. And, and so I remember there was a lot of elitism going on, but also but also I learned, like tried and learn about a lot of new new kinds of salons. Emmys and cured meats I think I'd like pursued Oh San Daniele that for the first time around then and Serrano ham and you know go down to de la Rente and Tristar from there and salumi. There were a couple of other local
Molly 10:13
places we were we were all learning about lardo lardo. Yes, everybody was really into lardo. So you had like taste the
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:19
fat right? There was there was salumeria on Hudson was a place that existed for a while it's now to Dibella closed many years ago, there was a place in Bellevue, I think called poor challah or poor Calla.
Molly 10:32
Does that sounds familiar?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:33
That did really good. Salamis.
Molly 10:36
I remember going and waiting in line at salumi for a sandwich. Sure. And I remember somebody complaining in line in front of me that the sandwich was $8 which today like that seems so sweet and quaint.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:51
Like, like, I can get two meals out of a salami sandwich.
Molly 10:54
They're huge. They are so massive. Do they still make sandwiches?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:58
Oh, yeah, absolutely. My coffee shop moved, but I was there like 2019. Maybe
Molly 11:03
we should meet down there sometimes. Yeah, those are really good sandwiches. They would always kind of like make me feel a little sweaty.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:10
Oh, yeah. And they have like to like, like two different sauces like an herb sauce and a garlic sauce maybe both of which are like olive oil based and they put a lot of both of them on the sandwich and
Molly 11:20
like roasted onions, roasted peppers, and a lot of salami.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:25
I also learned when doing a taste test during this era that you can eat pancetta uncooked.
Molly 11:30
I remember I remember learning this while back when Mario Batali was still a benevolent figure sure on food television. I remember learning it from molto Mario.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:40
Okay, yeah. Have you tried it? I have not. I have I was I was not sold on the experience. Have
Molly 11:45
you had lardo? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I had a pretty tasty Yeah, experience really
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:51
weren't that different? No. So yeah, I should probably try Rob pancetta again.
Molly 11:55
Yeah, yeah, true. So as I was thinking about charcuterie platters, I was thinking about how much well, when these first became something that people were blogging about, how much time was spent on like the right kind of platter or board and like very specific things started being sold. And the board had to be groaning right. The Yeah, it had to be a groaning board. Yes. audibly had to be groaning audibly. But no, there so do you remember when there were like slate boards? Yes, I do. So these were definitely I think primarily for cheese. But where there's cheese, there's charcuterie, that's true. One tends to attract the other. Yes. Anyway, so there were those slate boards that everybody was doing for a while so that you could like write on it with chalk and label what things were. Yeah. Then there were things about us break all the time. Oh, my God. Seriously? Yes. I think that a lot of people maybe who got married in the early days of charcuterie platters in US food trends. got like a special cutting board with like handles and decide to be able to serve their charcuterie platter and cheese platter on this board
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:07
and add a special like, like groaning circuit. Yeah.
Molly 13:10
What about a marble slab?
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:13
I like the idea of a marble slab. It doesn't seem very practical. Yeah, yeah. Again,
Molly 13:17
I mean, what a pain to watch.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:19
I mean, it seems practical if you're if you're starting a creamery,
Molly 13:21
and then of course, you know if you buy one, I mean, I think these days you could probably buy a charcuterie platter at like QFC right and it would probably come on like the shiny black plastic around I
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:35
mean, not just the platter but like but with the meats also. Yah,
Molly 13:38
yah, yah, yah, yah, and it would probably come on the shiny black platter that yeah, okay, so there's that there's that kind of presentation and then so Matthew When you have all the times that you've assembled charcuterie Yeah, this
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:50
was the first time Oh, okay, I
Molly 13:51
was gonna say what what have you really? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:53
don't know. Like I'm sure I'm sure like back in the day like I threw together some some Salamis. Yeah,
Molly 13:59
would you have done it on a cutting board? Would you have done it on like an oval platter really register for stuff
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:05
we did register for stuff I don't remember like what we registered for. I'm sure some of it is still around in our kitchen.
Molly 14:13
When I registered for like, so much serving stuff. And this seemed like normal to us at the time I think because maybe because it was the culture but also because we worked in catering. Like it just seemed like you were constantly having to make big things for people and so you needed a lot of like platters and like, low like dishes with like straight sides and stuff. Yeah. Having said
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:38
that, like we do have a couple of oval platters and whenever I serve dinner on one of them, it feels a little bit special compared to like, just like hugging it in a bowl or regular plate
Molly 14:48
in early COVID Or maybe mid COVID locked down ash and I went on Oh, this was September of 2020. For our birthdays we went we rented a friend's house on La Me Island and you can't take a ferry to Lummi in September, because there's literally one ferry that holds like 15 cars that goes back and forth to the island all day. And they service it in September so you can only walk onto a passenger ferry. And but you can take your bikes so we took our bikes and all the groceries we needed in like a like a kid's trailer that sounds borrowed from some friends. It was epic. And we biked onto the the passenger ferry and then biked to our friend's house on Lopes anyway, we got there. Of course, we had some weed chocolate. Yeah. And then we proceeded to make dinner and we could not for some reason decide which of the many different plates that our friend had available to us. Yeah, the paradox of choice. And so ash got out this huge oval platter, and played at our dinner in little piles on this oval platter. Love it. And it was it was just part of that fun, dumb weekend. We
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:05
had our largest plot. Wow, okay. Our largest platter has a pirate ship on it. Really? Yeah. Oh, that's pretty good down.
Molly 16:14
No, it's cool. Okay, I can just imagine it. Yeah. Anyway, okay. So yeah, I mean, I've got platters you've got platters. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:21
but I but I don't I don't arrange charcuterie on them. Ever.
Molly 16:25
If you were to like, do kind of a summary picnic dinner, but just in your house. Say with like, you know, some bread, a groaning board of charcuterie maybe a big salad or something sounds great. What's your family? Like? Get down on that? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I always forget that. I could do stuff lately, too. Yeah, that's a really good idea. Thanks, Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:47
Yeah, thank you, Molly. Okay, and I feel like like, I went to QFC this morning at like, eight o'clock. And I was like, I probably they're not going to be slicing stuff at the deli yet. I'm just gonna, like get stuff that I can get off sliced like by the cheese counter. And I'm very happy with this selection. Yeah, three things. Yeah.
Molly 17:05
No, it's delightful.
How sick Do you want your meats?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:17
pretty thin. No, not love for Shooto like paper thin is great. Salamis. Like, I don't know, like a millimeter.
Molly 17:25
I think this one is a little too thick. Okay, yeah. So this is the Marie's like pre sliced genoa salami, which I think is delicious. I've only had it before, like in sandwiches. And I think it's a little thick for a charcuterie platter.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:38
I would say it's fine with this thickness. This works for me. Okay.
Molly 17:41
I would say that in general. I want meats on a charcuterie platter thinner than I usually would get them for a sandwich.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:48
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Okay, so yeah, let's talk about what we got today. Like the little platter that I put together. First of all, I did it on like, a small wooden cutting board and you asked me like, What kind of platter do I want? I feel like wood, wood and charcuterie really go together for me.
Molly 18:01
Well, let's talk about actually, let's talk about the first salami that you've got over there because you really need a cutting
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:07
of love. Yes, because I got the Kremlin le sopressata uncured Italian salami. It's not really uncured that's a lie. One uncured. So okay, this is this a thing I think we've talked about on the show before that's just like a pet peeve of mine. Like people got the idea that like nitrates and nitrites are bad for you, which is not even really true. But manufacturers responded by replacing pure nitrates and nitrites with celery juice, celery salt, which contains naturally high levels of exactly the same thing. This is like then they can say uncured
Molly 18:43
okay, but the Yeah, this is like avoiding MSG, but really enjoying like pursuit. Oh, parmesan. Yeah, and soy sauce. Right. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:53
It's yeah, it's exactly that. But But anyway, so it's a Cremin le sopressata definitely cured Italian salami, Northern Italian recipe with garlic and wine. It's great.
Molly 19:02
Would you slice a little bit work? Absolutely. But anyway, so this came as maybe like an eight inch long salami, maybe an inch and a half in diameter. I mean, the nice thing about a cutting board is that it's functional. Right? But you do I do think if I were gonna think about a cutting board is that you can cut things on it. I do think though, that if I were serving this, I would make sure to cut a lot of it and not put a knife and the salami out on the board. That's kind of a pet peeve of mine. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because like, nobody takes like you're in the middle of chatting with someone you don't want to stop and focus on like paper thin slicing. It's what's happening right now and you have to put like two hands on it. One on the salami one on the knife in one hand tied behind your back. So anyway,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:49
I have a challenge accepted. I'm going to try and slice this with one hand.
Molly 19:55
Okay, so Matthew, what else do we have?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:57
Okay, so got the Marie's genoa salami. he sliced which is very good, I'm fine with the thickness. And that got some luck where Chia prosciutto pecan Tay, rubbed with fennel and red chili, which is very tasty but like the slices all stuck together in the package. It's really, really, really should be like sliced to order. Yeah.
Molly 20:18
Agreed. And then Matthew, You kindly set out some salted butter for me, which is something that I think I got the idea from from those boat street days because we would often make like little we called the Melba toasts, but it was basically thinly sliced by get that we brushed with olive oil and baked so it got me to speed that and we would take those mailboxes, spread them with butter those maleness spread them like you know fairly quickly with butter, right, so you could see the butter on there, and the butter was cold, so that it didn't melt into the Melba. And then we would put a little bit of prosciutto on top. And that was so delicious. And I really love the flavor of good butter, particularly with a more mild salumi type thing like prosciutto.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:05
Yeah, so we had that with untoasted Melba meaning baguette slices very good. And I'm kind of afraid of unmelted butter, and I enjoyed it. Good
Molly 21:13
job, Matthew. We also had to Raleigh, which is this little, like O shaped? Pool? Pool pool. Yeas, a Wait, what are we saying? English pool in a pool in a pool in nailed a cracker. With all of oil in the dough. This one has fennel. Oh my god, if you've never had to rally, go get some they're so good. They're so it's a really short dough. When you say I mean it's really Yeah. Crunchy. Yeah. Yeah, they're really good. And like you can tell it's like nice and fatty. Mm hmm. Yeah. In our household when I buy them, which is rarely although they're not terribly expensive. I think this bag is like 399 I think it was like 599 Oh, really? I met some a dealer NT that had a sticker on it. That's a 399
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:56
Well, either that sticker was a lie, or they charge less for something at dealer. That seems impossible.
Molly 22:02
Anyway, but we call these fancy Italian crackers. That's exactly what they are. Yeah, that's just that's their name. Now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:09
I think we've talked about the Trader Joe's Rosemary crackers, which I'm sure cost less than 399 though. Yeah, great. On a not a charcuterie platter.
Molly 22:17
How do you feel about things like honey or jellies or jams?
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:22
I don't mind having them there. I think it has a festive feel to it. But it's I don't I'm not going to use them myself.
Molly 22:29
I think those go with cheeses anyway. Not so much with charcuterie. Yeah, although
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:33
I do. This is definitely the same thing. I love drizzling maple syrup on my breakfast sausage.
Molly 22:40
Oh yeah, yeah. Okay. What about like do you want do you want crackers? Or do you want bread or do you even want anything with charcuterie?
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:48
No, that's a good question. I think bread would be my first choice. I really like sticking a couple of salami slices on a hunk of bread. And like it can be sliced bread or I can just tear off a hunk I don't mind being like wild carnal yeah my being carnal Cool. Yeah people when people see me tear tear a chunk off of bread very
Molly 23:10
carnal.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:12
Like carnal guy.
Molly 23:14
So what are your favorite shockcord replat him
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:16
oh god my favorite plateaus which is which is Latin for a single item you put on a bladder any kind of dry cured ham it can be appreciated apartment for sudo sanded to San Daniele Serrano ham a Barraco ham that French one
Molly 23:33
French one what is that French one jump on the buy oh
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:36
yes there we go. Hmm. Any kind of salami really? But especially like a chunky like soap RUSADA or other spicy chunky salami.
Molly 23:47
Okay, I always if spec which is like oh yeah like smoked pursuit if that ever shows up that's always kind of exciting. That
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:56
is good stuff.
Molly 23:57
I forget it exists but it's exciting. I of course I have to mention the Kula tallow from Yeah, from salumi which I've never had anywhere else but God you know like 20 years ago when
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:08
is it cool Italo? Is that like like what what is it's
Molly 24:11
a different as I recall, it's so whereas per Shooto is like the like the kind of big hole leg Yeah, this is like a smaller hammer. It's like yeah, the cam or something or the anyway, I think that it was also maybe cured like I felt like were they ground nuts or something in there like always had an almond de kind of vibe to it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:34
It was so delicate and cool. A towel is like is Italian for like little but right that seems right. Yeah. Anyway,
Molly 24:40
I'm sure that we have listeners who will let us know how wrong we've gotten this. But Kula Teller was always really special, but I don't think I think it's so special that nobody puts that on a charcuterie platter.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:50
No, they just get themselves in the kitchen and then claim they never existed. Yeah,
Molly 24:55
exactly. I've never encountered Serrana No or harmoni Barraco on like an assorted platter of charcuterie. It's always like a special thing that you pay like $18 per ounce for.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:11
Yeah, well, I don't think Serrano is necessarily more expensive or fancy than like a pursuit or Deparment. I think of those as being like on the same.
Molly 25:20
I agree. I agree. Except I guess I'm thinking of when there used to be so Rene when Renee Erickson used to own a bar called barnacle in Ballard, they had a special like Hameln rack core you know, that you fit it into and then you like hand slice it with a knife, Saber saber. I'm pretty sure it was Serrano, but it was like, so delicious and so special and very expensive. Possibly just because it was expensive bar.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:50
Can you slice meats with a laser?
Molly 25:53
Probably okay. Oh, my God, Matthew, do you know what I just remembered? Yeah, yeah. Wow. So 13 years ago this summer? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:02
22,009. Yeah, I went
Molly 26:05
on this press trip with Francis Lam, Italy and I was very jealous. Oh my God, it was insane. I went on this press trip. Francis hooked me up with Yeah, I do. Remember, I always feel like cringy about like big like Chamber of Commerce dinners and things. Of course, back in the early days of food writing when we used to get invited to those things. The Naples Chamber of Commerce put on like a big dinner type thing. And had this guy that was there. slicing it must have been pursued Whoa. But in my memory, it's harmoni Barraca although we were in southern Italy, okay. But anyway, this guy had a long ponytail. And the rack with this leg of pork was kind of in the middle of the room. And he cut it so theatrically. I mean, like, like he was a matador. Yeah. And the pork rack was the bowl. He was dancing around that thing with his saber and it was so like, it's so embarrassing to be the ones who were being performed for and you're so delicious. Yeah, could die. I want that guy to come help me assemble charcuterie platters.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:23
I mean, I think at the right price, you can get that guy. I wish I remembered his name when I saw this. I think his name was like, he'll push you to door. When I saw like the theatrical ham slicing it was at the worlds of flavor conference at the Culinary Institute of America and Napa and it was a Spanish food conference. And this was just before importing a barrack of ham became legal so they did not have it. So it was Serrano, but it was a good quality Serrano ham. That was cess sliced theatrically from from a ham.
Molly 27:56
It tastes better that way. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the dance makes it makes it taste better. Yes, the anticipation anyway. So yeah, if I were like wildly, wildly wealthy, I would put harmoni Barraco on every charcuterie. I think I've bought it once. I have bought it once as well. And it didn't compare. Like I just Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:17
when I was very good, but I haven't I haven't bought it again. Because I think it was like $160 a pound something like that. Yeah, I didn't get a pound. I bought
Molly 28:25
like an ounce and a half or something. And I remember I was feeling I was in a very, like, treat yourself kind of kind of mood that day. But I think that it's one of those things that I want to eat in a place that I don't know, like, Isn't my own kitchen. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:43
know what you mean. Like it's too good for my kid. It's
Molly 28:45
too good for my kitchen. It's too good for me. And I need to be somewhere else where I can pretend I'm not me. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:52
know what you mean. Yeah. You also mentioned that you like olives on a platter. I'm not I'm not an olive person. But I want you to have them.
Molly 28:58
Thank you, specifically a green type of Olive whether like castelvetrano P Shaleen. Luke, any of those maybe we
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:05
should get like certainly, like trained and certified as ham slicers. Like, how long do you think the apprenticeship process is? Or can you just take a like, Zoom class?
Molly 29:18
Let's find out. Okay. Hey, let's find out and we'll we'll let you know sometime everybody.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:24
Yeah, cuz that sounds tax deductible to me. Totally does. Yeah. Okay. And we would have to get an entire Serrano ham and one of those racks at a saber or scimitar or maybe?
Molly 29:38
Sure, yeah, okay. Or laser pointer or
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:41
laser pointer. Yeah. And a wand of Yeah, magic wand. Magic. Okay.
Molly 29:47
Okay, that's all we've got today, folks.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:50
I put a heading that says history. No history. We don't have a history of charcuterie plates now.
Molly 29:56
But I have a nap. Wow
so my now but wow, this week is a book that came out Hold on
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:11
a book that is sitting on my shelf that I haven't read yet. Oh, really? Yeah.
Molly 30:15
Okay, so this now but wow is a book I'm so sorry to our listeners who are overwhelmed by the sheer number of books I keep throwing at you.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:23
This book should stop throwing books at our listeners. It's like they're getting hurt.
Molly 30:27
This book came out about two months ago. So if you're lucky, it means that you won't have to wait too long at your local library in order to get it or might be on peak picks, or it might be on peak picks. It is called Essential labor, mothering as social change by Angela Garbus. Fellow Seattleites. Angela garba has had a wonderful book called like a mother that came out I believe in 2019 and is a much needed feminist take on pregnancy and childbirth. Fantastic book and essential labor Angela wrote during the pandemic. And it is exactly the book that I think many of us parents have been dying for. And that I think everybody needs to read because it really looks hard at the way that we undervalue parenting in this country, and sort of the radical possibilities of parenting. Excellent. Yeah. So that's essential labor by Angela Garbus.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:30
Our producer is Abby circuit tele and you can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. How much of the of the like eight minutes of chewing Do you think Abby is going to leave in at the beginning of this episode? Can't
Molly 31:40
wait to find it. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:41
like we all that's all we can think about these days. You can catch up with other people who listen to the show on Reddit at reddit.com/are/everything spilled milk. It's a it's a group of nice people. Yeah, I just want to I just want to eat more Salamis.
Molly 31:57
Me too. Well, thanks for listening to spilled milk the show that's groaning to see you.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:06
Matthew Amster-Burton
Molly 32:08
Weissenberg
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:09
cuz that's like not even upon Oh, yeah, this is this is nice. Let's let's take a picture and send it to Abby. Okay, so she can know what she didn't have. Yeah, she's not eating anything good in Portugal. Yeah. All right. Oh, my God. Yeah, very tasty. I'm busy. And I'm Matthew.
Molly 32:37
I'm eating stuff. Mm hmm.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:47
Haven't tried this big boy yet?
Molly 32:49
Mm. Hmm. I need a little bit more time, but then I'll be ready. Sorry, Abby. Huh? Oh. It feels like I'm out of control here. I'm so pleased. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Okay, I can I can hold off now for a little while. Wow, that was just an orgy of shark Coudray eating.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:30
I'm almost done chewing. Okay. Take your time. We've only been chewing for eight minutes.