Today we're talking about The Herb so don't even try to mention thyme. It's all about the sticky leaves of rosemary as we ask what landscapers do and make out of context Spiderman analogies. Mr Etymology pops by as we encounter trailing tendrils, soup tubes and tigers then Lazy Irene gets chopped and invent the drink of the summer.
Matthew's Now but Wow! U:Dessert Story in San Francisco
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:04
I'm Molly, and I'm Matthew, and
Molly 0:05
this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have any. And that's literally true, because we just ate a delicious lunch of the stuff we're going to talk about, which
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:15
is our best friend, Rosemary. That's right, the herb, the
Molly 0:19
herb, that's what everybody calls it. Just when they when they talk about herb, they're talking about rosemary, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:25
like the good herb, yeah, the dank, the sticky, icky, sticky,
Molly 0:31
Rosemary is kind of sticky, is it? I mean, a little. Let's get into it. Okay, let's get into it. Okay. So hey, Matthew, what's on your rosemary? Memory Lane.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:41
Okay, mine is mostly breads, because a favorite bread of us and, like, I feel like there were some, there was some friend that was, like, introduced us who were like, you gotta try this. Bread was the essential Baking Company, rosemary, diamante, probably in the early 2000s
Molly 0:57
around the time I moved to Seattle, this was like the bread to buy,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:03
right? That was before we both got obsessed with the Columbia City Bakery, walnut Levan, that's right. So, yeah, so we love this stuff. Then there were also Grand Central baking Rosemary rolls, which were really good. And I feel like I didn't realize it till prepping for this episode, that I feel like rosemary is maybe kind of a late 90s, early 2000s trend.
Molly 1:23
I think so too. So to me, Rosemary is inextricably linked to roasted potatoes and roasted chicken. So absolutely, when my dad got into roasting chickens, I'm guessing maybe this was like the second half of the 90s, he would always roast chickens with some rosemary, and with he would make Rosemary roasted
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:46
potatoes. Now, why wasn't he roasting chickens before that? Do you think,
Molly 1:49
once again, we're going to mention Barbara Kafka? Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. And I don't remember when that book came out.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:55
No, I think you're right. Like her roasting book, I think was early 90s.
Molly 1:58
Okay, so, so, yeah, I just remember in mid 90s when my dad discovered roasting chicken, because he discovered that too, yes, right, right? Of course, when my dad discovered roasting chickens, that you just when you roasted a chicken, there had to be Rosemary with it, and in the same meal, you would probably be having roasted potatoes, which would also involve some rosemary, sure. Okay. And I think when I first started roasting chickens, I was like, oh yes, obviously you put rosemary with
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:24
this. I'm looking up when this, when this book was 1995 roasting a simple art
Molly 2:30
Okay, yeah, so, yeah, checks out. This had a big impact on my family's culinary landscape. I don't know if we had the book, but certainly I remember a time when my parents suddenly were like, roasting everything.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:44
Yeah, I think of us as culinary landscapers. We are carving, carving the bedrock. That's what landscapers do. They carve.
Molly 2:55
I was thinking you were gonna say that you're like, you know, pruning and shaping
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:59
the we're pruning and shaping the culinary hedges, that's right, you
Molly 3:03
know. But this is all around the same time, roughly as the rosemary diamante, like all of this, this was also balsamic vinegar time. Oh, yeah, because I remember my parents roasting bell peppers and zucchinis and stuff, yep, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar on them, sure. And this was all, you know, roasted chicken, rosemary, roasted potato
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:25
time. Yeah, you're on your way to some sort of ratatouille there. I think, I think I am. That's by which I mean, there's, there's a rat under your hat, like, telling you what to
Molly 3:33
cook. By the time I was living alone, I think that I had, like, kind of overdosed on rosemary.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:41
Yeah, it like it definitely is a thing you can overdo. Yeah,
Molly 3:44
it can for sure, be overdone. In fact, I almost never use it anymore. And in fact, the only, the only application I can think of using it in in the last 15 years is simple syrup, okay, like a rosemary infused simple syrup, which so at our wedding, my wedding to Brandon, we had rosemary lemonade. I love Rosemary lemon that was basically made, you know, the rosemary gets in there from Rosemary simple syrup.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:12
Okay? My friend Chris always serves rosemary lemonade. She used to always have a Fremont Solstice party. And would and rosemary lemonade was always served, it would have, like, branches of rosemary in the pitcher. Ah,
Molly 4:24
okay. This is someplace where I unabashedly love rosemary. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:28
you know. Okay, I just came up with a with an analogy that I think may be brilliant. Are you ready for this? I think Rosemary is the cumin of fresh herbs, because it's, it's so wonderfully fragrant. You want to, like, put a lot of it in, but if you put in too much, it takes over and you and you start to hate
Molly 4:48
it. I don't know if I've ever had that experience with cumin, and I feel like cumin is so much more widely used than rosemary. Yeah, I feel like there are a lot of places where Rosemary doesn't belong. But this is still a brilliant analogy, right? I'm ignoring that. And human goes into all sorts of things where, at first glance, you might not expect it to be there. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:09
what about this? As Spider Man is to the DC Universe, Rosemary is to the fresh herb universe. I don't have a reason for this, okay, okay, except that we were talking about Spider Man, I think before we started recording.
Molly 5:26
Okay, well, so rosemary, I'm glad we're talking about this, because it truly is an herb that I have studiously avoided cooking with for a long time.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:35
Okay, I gave you for was this for your 40th birthday, that I gave you this cookbook that was a long time ago, sorry, long time ago that a cookbook of my favorite recipes not created by me, but just like other people's recipes that I've made for you and you wanted me to share. And one of them was a beef and Barolo, which was, like inspired by cooks, illustrated, and it uses a lot
Molly 5:58
of rosemary. Matthew, I've only made it once, and I think I left out the rosemary. Okay, now I see that that was a mistake, because, as we're going to discuss in a second, you just fed me a meal that involved rosemary and two of the components, yeah, and it was delicious. It was like, delicious. Okay, so Okay, let's get down to it. So you started this sort of episode agenda with the question, are rosemary and lavender closely related? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:26
because, like, whenever, when I'm like out Gandy ing about, is that a word? When I'm out gallivanting on the boulevards and I see like a plant by the side of the road, I often can't immediately tell whether it's rosemary or lavender, because they look similar.
Molly 6:41
So lavender and rosemary are related in that they are both in the sage family. Okay, all right. And I do get what you're saying about Molly, yep, okay, but back to Rosemary. Okay, yeah. So it's a shrub, it's evergreen, and it has these needle like leaves that are really pretty. They're green on top and they're white on the bottom. All right, they're kind of flat as these, like needles go, like flat from top to bottom. And if you touch them, you won't immediately know what's causing this, but they do feel a little sticky, and it's because they're tiny hairs. Oh, okay, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:21
anywhere a word for tiny hairs in botany? I don't it might be cilia. Is it cilia? That's what I
Molly 7:26
was thinking of. Rosemary produces flowers. Sometimes they're white, pink, blue, purple. They range in color. It's native to the Mediterranean region that checks out, and also to Portugal and Spain, although I'm sorry, isn't this dumb? But aren't Portugal and Spain on the Mediterranean or No, Spain is on the Mediterranean, right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:46
So what, but is, is Portugal in the Mediterranean region? I don't know. Well, Spain is
Molly 7:52
initially, I left out the Spain and Portugal part because I was like, Well, this is covered by the Mediterranean region. But then I saw it mentioned two different times in the reference
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:02
time is a different herb. Oh, wow, Matthew,
Molly 8:05
that was such a dad joke. Yeah. Rosemary has a number of different cultivars. Some are upright and some are trailing, or sort of almost can be used as like a ground cover, or you'll see them sort of cascading over a wall. Is
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:18
that what trailing means? I've heard this term, and I'm realizing now, like, I think I know what it means, that it's like vines that sort of just kind of crawl over the landscape. Well, so what is trailing? I
Molly 8:28
think there's a difference between so upright versus trailing. I think trailing encompasses both varieties that cover ground, okay, horizontally and also send out long tendrils, tendrils that that will spill over things like trailing over a wall, okay, but I do think yes, in both cases, there is an aspect in which it It spreads, all right. As opposed to going upright, it goes spread, right, all right, okay, wow, okay, that's the term. That's the term Rosemary plants can live up to 35 years. They seem Hardy. Yeah, no, they seem really hardy. And similar to lavender, they have woody stems. I don't know if you've ever seen a lab, so when I there used to be this big lavender plant in the front yard of my house, and the previous owner had put it there, and I totally ignored it for like, the first five years we lived in the house, and that was your big, your biggest mistake ever. It was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I know, but what happens is, like, I think I was supposed to prune it or something, because basically all the kind of central stems became really woody, and only the like, outer parts were green and nice and flowering,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:42
so there was like a tangled woody mass in the middle. That's right, wow. That's what did you do? Did you end up plowing it?
Molly 9:48
We wound up digging it out. And it was such a beast. Oh yeah, this crazy beast of a
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:57
plant. I'm sure, I'm sure, I've told this story on this. It's not a story. There was a mint plant like that in our backyard when I was growing up that eventually, I don't even know what my parents did exactly to get rid of it, but it was, it was a, yeah, this huge beast that one day was just gone.
Molly 10:11
Yeah. Okay, well, so let's talk a little bit with Mr. Etymology. I wonder. Hold on. Wait. You.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:24
I come in. I'm here. I'm here, come in. I think it's, I think it's I'm here, come in.
Molly 10:34
Okay, all right, Mr. Etymology, hey, will you talk to us about rosemary? Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:38
so as we've mentioned, Rosemary is a member of the sage family, lamiace, and is also known as salvia Rosmarinus. Its genus name was applied by Linnaeus himself, who named a lot of stuff. To be fair, the 19th century, British horticultural writer Elizabeth Kent noted in her Flora domestica 1823 that quote the botanical name of this plant is compounded of two Latin words, Rose marinas, signifying sea do. And indeed, Rosemary thrives best by the sea. Oh, isn't a sea do? Like, some sort of, like, like, jet ski, maybe sea do. I think that's what she was referring to. I think
Molly 11:15
it's like, if you see something, say something,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:19
do something. Yeah. Okay, yeah, intervene yourself. Yes,
Molly 11:24
Rosemary is old stuff. I mean, okay, and it's certainly in a part of
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:29
the world, didn't we just say it was from the late 80s.
Molly 11:33
It is old, okay, okay. It was first mentioned on cuneiform stone tablets as early as 5000
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:41
BC. Mr. Etymology, does not know cuneiform. He doesn't No, sorry, we
Molly 11:47
need a different Mr. Etymology, Oh, Mr. Etymology, his
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:51
feelings are hurt. I thought he had left. Oh, goodbye. I'm no longer here.
Molly 12:00
Anyway. So rosemary, which again started in the Mediterranean region, was naturalized in China as early as like the two hundreds Common Era. Okay, and it's not known when it came to England, but it's likely that the Romans brought it when they invaded the British Isles in 43 Wow. CE, there are no records of it being naturalized in England. What does that mean, I guess, like when it began growing, what or spreading on its own accord, without being cultivated? Yeah, right. But in 1338, Countess Joan of hanault, Henault, so she was the wife of, like, the son, or something, of King Charles in France. Now, King Charles is the current one, right? We're talking about a much older King Charles. Oh, okay, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:50
that sounds pretty old. He is pretty old,
Molly 12:53
actually. So this Countess in France sent the cuttings to the UK to her daughter, who was the Queen of England.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:05
Is this something that still happens, like somebody from one country, like, you know, as like a gesture of friendship, like sense, some plant or animal to another country? Maybe, I don't know. I guess, I guess, like the cherry trees in in the in the quad at U DUB, like, came from Japan in like, the 70s, or something
Molly 13:26
they did, right? I think so. But were they like a gesture of friendship, kind of coming soon? I'm sure
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:32
that there have been, I mean, I don't think that. I don't think it was a gesture of enmity. I'm
Molly 13:36
sure that there have been, like, kings or other rulers who sent, like tigers, like a gift to their worst, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:47
send us Your tigers. Like, if you Yeah, don't ever like, leave the show a bad review on iTunes. Send us a tiger. We'll get the message, trust me. So put it in like a really big bag so it jumps out. Okay?
Molly 14:01
Basically, this cutting came from France to the Queen of England in the 1300s and it was then planted in the garden of the old palace of Westminster, okay, and this, I guess, was, I don't know why this is important. I wrote it down. No, no.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:16
It seems really important. I agree.
Molly 14:20
As for, as for the Americas, Rosemary was brought here by early European settlers, slash colonizers, sure, in the beginning of the 1600s and it spread, you know, all throughout the Americas. And Rosemary is one of those things that you can literally find all around the world. I mean, I'm not going to vouch for like Antarctica or Siberia. You should vouch but it does really well globally, because it's reasonably Hardy in cold climates, and it can also withstand droughts, and it is sort of naturally pest resistant, okay, this makes it like sometimes considered invasive. It spreads, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:56
believe, through its roots, or does it have rhizomes? I
Molly 14:59
don't think. Gets a rhizomas. I'm sure I would have noted if it was, yeah, I'm sure you would have so I used to, I think, when I first moved to Seattle, and it was still, like, the essential Baking Company, rosemary, diamante, oh yeah, when I would make things that involved rosemary, I, like, didn't have a plant or anything, but, but there are some, like, giant Rosemary plants in, oh yeah, city, right? And so I definitely remember having a neighbor near my first apartment, you know, within a couple blocks radius of the apartment. I remember there being a giant Rosemary bush, and I remember going for a walk with a pair of scissors, oh, and stealing
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:37
rosemary, yeah, no, that's the thing. Like, whenever I buy rose rosemary, I feel like a chump, because I know I could walk down the street and find some and like, no, like, like, they would think I was doing them a favor for by pruning their out of control Rosemary bush. Yes, yes, well, but I did buy some this morning.
Molly 15:55
I now have a trailing Rosemary plant. I believe it's of the variety Irene, which is described as low and lacks, what is that supposed
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:06
to mean? Like, late, lazy, I
Molly 16:09
guess, God, harsh, and it has intense blue flowers.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:13
Do you? Do you ever go out at night and sing good night Irene? To it? I don't, don't
Molly 16:18
rosemary. You know, of course, having been around for so long, and having spread to so many places, it is considered sacred, or was considered sacred by many civilizations. The ancient Egypt's, the ancient Egypt, the ancient Egypt's, yeah, all of them. The ancient Greece's, the ancient
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:37
I got some ancient Greece is in a can behind, like next to the
Molly 16:40
stove in the ancient Romes. Yeah. And it was, of course, written about by our friend Pliny the Elder. What did he say? He wrote about
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:47
it. Yes, it's around. He just walked down the road with some scissors. You'll find it.
Molly 16:53
And of course, it's in the song Scarborough Fair. Oh, yeah. Would you like to sing Matthew
Unknown Speaker 16:57
parsley, stage, rosemary and time?
Molly 17:14
So Matthew, how do you use this stuff?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:16
This episode like sent me into a bit of a quandary, spot, like a spiral, a maelstrom in which I still find myself, Oh, wow. I was trying to think, Okay, what do I use rosemary in? And I was like, okay, definitely I will, like, throw it into baked pasta of the style that we talked about on the crusty corners episode. I use it in the beef and Barolo, which is like an Italian pot roast. And there's one other recipe that I use it in where I know, which I know, calls for one whole tablespoon of minced fresh rosemary, which seems like quite a bit, because it's strong stuff. And I'm always like, should I use this much? And then I put it in, and I'm like, oh, no, that was right. This is really good. I can't fucking remember what it is, you
Molly 17:55
know, I'm thinking about, actually, I'm so glad you mentioned this, because there's a soup I've been making a lot lately. It's from New York Times cooking. It uses all these like Greek flavors. Is it a soup that makes you forget things? It's a soup that makes you forget things. The water of the river, river Leafy, but, you know? But you know, Matthew Rosemary is the herb that symbolizes remembrance. So you would think she wouldn't be having this problem, yeah. But anyway, there's this soup I've been making that is a chicken broth base. It uses ground chicken, spinach, potatoes, a lot of fresh dill, and then you serve it with feta on top. Oh, and it's got a bunch of lemon juice in it, okay? And it calls for a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary. And of course, you know me, I've left it out, or I've replaced it with, like, fresh parsley. I didn't know this about you until today. I'm actually gonna make that soup tonight. And I have, I'm growing parsley at home, and I'm growing dill, and I have my rosemary bush. Maybe I should put the rosemary in it. Like, my whole family loves the soup without the rosemary,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:58
but like, Don't go, like, straight to the whole tablespoon. But like, you know, chop off a little bit of Irene, okay, and and mince her up.
Molly 19:05
I'll say, Come on, Irene,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:07
exactly.
Molly 19:09
There you go. By the way, I know it's Eileen, yes, yeah, don't, don't ask. Don't at me anyway. No, but I now I'm really, I'm second guessing myself, because maybe I would like it with the rosemary in there,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:23
yep. So if anybody, if any listeners, know what the recipe I make that has a tablespoon of rosemary, and if maybe I've talked about it on the show before, contact@spilledbuckpodcast.com if you know where I left my keys, contact@spillbugpodcast.com you can be my air tag. Is there, like a mental air tag.
Molly 19:41
Oh, there's gotta be, okay, a mnemonic device. Yeah, a listener could be your mnemonic device. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:46
didn't know I needed a mnemonic device to remember this rosemary scented recipe until now, it's
Molly 19:52
too late, okay, but what about like? Do you ever keep dried rosemary around?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:57
We don't. I don't use a lot of dried herbs in. General, the main one that I do is Mexican oregano. Yeah, do you
Molly 20:05
I think I have a couple old recipes of my mom's that call for, like, dried rosemary. Like, I think my mother's stuffing calls for some dried rosemary, and I think we've either left it out or we've used fresh okay, but yeah. I mean, like dried rosemary. Why would you I mean, it's a relic of a past age, I think,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:26
yeah. So should we talk about what we ate today? Did we get there? Oh yeah, let's talk about it. All right, so I got the essential baking rosemary, Diamante. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and pick on a local business and say this, this loaf is not as good as it used to be. But maybe, maybe they were just having an off day, but the the crumb was kind of too dense and and it was weirdly shaped,
Molly 20:50
yeah, it used to be sort of more of like a really pretty tall bool, yeah, and now it just kind of looks squashed. And it had what appeared to be, like three tablespoons of sugar, I mean, salt on top of it,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:05
yeah. However, they do also have now, like a line of taken bake breads, like in a in a sort of shelf stable, sealed, sealed thing that was, like, next to the fresh one. And I'm like, Oh well, the freshly baked ones must be better than this. I kind of wish I had tried the the like mass, I think it's marketed regionally or nationwide. Now I would give that a try,
Molly 21:24
yeah, yeah. I mean the flavor was, the flavor is really good, yeah, yeah. And then Matthew, you, you happened to have some asparagus, yeah? And you, like, winged it and made this delicious dish that I would have never
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:36
thought to make. Okay, here's what I did. I melted some butter and olive oil in a cast iron skillet, I trimmed some asparagus spears, I put them in the olive oil with some rosemary, garlic and salt, and then hit it with a little more fresh rosemary when it was, when it was about ready to come out. And I thought it was really good. I thought the it didn't taste like, you know, this is a rosemary dish, but I used quite a bit. And, like, you know, you got a flavor. There was a flavor in there that, even if you didn't immediately place it as rosemary, I thought it really added
Molly 22:08
a lot. Okay, so, like, how much Rosemary Do you
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:11
think? I think I used about one and a half teaspoons
Molly 22:16
overall, finely chopped. Yeah, okay, which is probably just a few, you know, maybe a half dozen little leaves.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:24
It was maybe, it was maybe, like a dozen little leaves.
Molly 22:27
Okay, you know, as you're saying this, I'm remembering that in Gabrielle Hamilton's book blood, bones and butter, she has a chapter where she describes this lamb roast that her family used to put on every summer. It's a beautiful piece of writing. The Lamb roast is kind of emblematic of, like the best of her childhood family, and then the family sort of dissolves,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:50
dissolves like a like one of those roast lamb roasted for seven hours,
Molly 22:54
exactly, right? Yeah. Spoon, tender, whatever. But she describes her father as basting the lamb with olive oil using, like, a bundle of rosemary branches as the brush, yeah, like that. And doesn't that just, it's so evocative. It's EVOC. It's,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:15
yeah, I was thinking about maybe, like cooking a lamb chop for us for lunch, because lamb and rosemary really is, like, just as good as everyone says it is. But I didn't,
Molly 23:25
how do you feel about I mean, people also, back in the olden days, used to serve mint jelly with lamb. I don't know. I mean that mint and lamb are still a thing,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:37
as you know, I'm obsessed with Koto jelly coffee, and so I do like jellied things, I guess so. I mean, I don't think I've ever tried lamb with mint jelly. I would certainly try it. I struggle with savory jellies. Yeah, I do too. There's, isn't there? Like a pepper jelly stand at Pike Place Market that gives free samples. I do. I don't mind a free sample of pepper jelly, yeah.
Molly 24:00
But pepper jelly is, like, sweet adjacent it is, I'm thinking, like I had a couple jelly deals. I had a couple of asparagus dishes this spring that happened to involve a little bit of, like, jelly. And I, I struggled
Unknown Speaker 24:16
a little bit of jelly. Yeah.
Molly 24:18
Okay. Matthew, what? How else do people use
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:21
rosemary? I don't know you did the research as as a fragrance,
Molly 24:27
as a fragrance, what do I win? Oh, you win? Nothing. No. If you are somebody who keeps essential oils around, you, know that there is rosemary essential oil out there that you can use in your diffuser. It's also use it or diffuse it. Rosemary, essential oil is used in a lot of soaps and cleaning products. And then, I didn't know this, but apparently, one of the first alcohol based perfumes that was ever made in
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:55
Europe, what is, what is the significance of an alcohol based perfume?
Molly 25:00
Well, so, I mean, I think it's as opposed to, like an, like a fragrant oil
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:04
you would smear on yourself. So, like something, something you would like atomize, or like, or,
Molly 25:09
I mean, well, pretty much all perfumes now are alcohol based in that, like, you spray it on and the wetness evaporates. Yeah, right, got it. But anyway, this stuff was called Hungary water, or the queen of Hungary's water.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:24
Can you read the name in French? Because I think it's really funny. Oh,
Molly 25:27
de la Ren de only Wow. Anyway, it was made from distilled rosemary, distilled rosemary.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:35
It must be like a froze, froze. Mary, okay, the it's not too late to for us to invent the drink of the summer. It's gonna be called the rosemary. What Molly? You tell them, what's in it? Oh, I'll tell
Molly 25:49
you what it is. It is, it's frozen raspberry lemonade. Yes, it's like, froze a, it's a froze a, that's raspberry lemonade. It's non alcoholic. Does it have rosemary? Well, yeah, it's flavored with, like, rosemary, simple syrup. Okay, oh, it comes out of a froze a machine. But this is a great idea. It's Rosemary lemon. Okay, probably someone has already done a drink called rosemary, but if not, we're coming for you. Yeah, wait, if you haven't done it, we're gonna see
Unknown Speaker 26:19
okay, okay,
Molly 26:21
distilled rosemary, distilled. So what is that? So I've never understood distillation.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:28
So distillation is when you are taking something, something that boils at a lower temperature, and capturing that as it boils off and and, like, dripping it off into a separate thing. So you're so you're separating it. So, like, you're separating the vapor. You're separating the vapor. So, like, if you have al a mixture of water and alcohol, you can distill out the alcohol because it boils at a lower temperature and make a more concentrated alcoholic drink.
Molly 27:00
Like, if I had, like, a mash, like a corn, if you had a mash, okay, that was that it, like, fermented and stuff, and had alcohol.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:08
Okay, you're about to, like, go beyond my, my understanding distillation. I like, if you were, if you were asking me, like, if you should do the mash,
Molly 27:16
I would know the locomotion. Okay. Anyway, I don't think we've gotten any further with this. I'm still unclear on how distilled Rosemary would be different from rosemary essential oil. I mean, distilled Rosemary would that be some sort of rosemary alcohol.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:33
So I'm imagining that like you're boiling it, and I don't know.
Molly 27:38
Okay, cool, all right. Well, anyway, this has been our rosemary episode. All right, nailed it. Really, conclusive. Note,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:47
okay, yeah, if you know how to distill rosemary, contact@spillbopodcast.com
Molly 27:52
Yeah, yeah, do that. But also, I just want to say Matthew that doing this episode has made me really reconsider my relationship to Rose. It sounds like it, yeah, and, and I'm excited to try putting some in that soup. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:06
it's not often that our episode has like, a real, like, like, emotional and narrative arc, actually. No, it usually does. Usually you cry at some point during the episode, and then, and then things come back around. Uh huh. So I sorry, retract that
Molly 28:20
statement, okay, okay, well, Matthew, do we have any segments?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:24
We sure do we have a spilled mail?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:32
It's from listener Megan, who writes, listening to this episode. I don't remember which one it was. And like Matthew, I think it was pasta links. It was pasta likes listening to this episode, and like Matthew, I have never mixed pasta shapes. That's crazy to me. If I didn't have enough, I would simply buy more. Dried pasta is so cheap. As far as the bits and bobs, I would just save for single servings as well, or most of the time, just add to a new box or bag. Also, dried pasta lasts for years,
Molly 28:56
but there's so many, there's so much like indignation,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:59
yes, that's why I wanted to read it. Because basically, listener, Vegas is rounded. Vegas is ready to say, Matthew's right, and Molly's weird. Okay, okay, go on. I am not a wing. It kind of cook. So all meals are planned. So I guess this might explain why, to me, this would never come up as an issue. Love the show Megan,
Molly 29:13
okay, but hold up. I am not a wing. It kind of cook like, yeah, which is part of why I'm quite impressed with how well balanced, this rosemary scented asparagus was, Oh, thanks. And yet it seems so natural to me. I don't want to buy more of something just to use up what I have. So I'm going to use all of my various pasta links and just set the timer like accordingly,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:38
I'm more of a winger kind of cook like hair metal band Winger. Yeah, when I was when I was in college, we thought that the guy from winger is named Kip Winger. We thought this was the funniest name of all time. I think we pretty much managed to work Kip winger into conversation at least a few times a week.
Molly 29:58
Hold on. I. I want to hear from a listener who has, who has done what I've done, which is use all your various bits and bobs of dried pasta lengths in the same dish. Like, just, you know, like, you take the one that has to cook the longest, you put that one in first, and then, like, that's, let's say, needs to cook for 11 minutes. You've got one that needs to cook for seven minutes. Well, you put it in after four minutes. Okay, then you keep going so on and so
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:28
forth. I want to hear that. I want to hear if some listener has done this contact at spilled milk podcast.com, so far, not so far, but you're
Molly 30:35
looking at me like I'm crazy. This is not weird. It's so weird. Why is it so weird? It's all pasta
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:42
it, yeah, but like, that's like saying, like, it doesn't matter, like, which pasta shape you use ever, because it's all pasta, all right? Well, the listeners will have to
Molly 30:54
achieve, wow. Okay. I do think that when it comes to like, certain a certain category of pasta lengths, I can sort of interchange them like a like a ditalini and like now
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:09
he's like a really short little, little soup soup soup tube.
Molly 31:13
I could use, like a soup tube. And what else would I use with a soup tube. You know, I wouldn't mind.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:23
I'm imagining, if I'm ever in the hospital, and like, I have an IV, I'm gonna call it the soup tube. And like, like, there's just, like, can you? Can you, like, fill my soup tube? Yeah, all right. Do I have a now? But, wow, yes, I do. You
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:46
I'm choosing a restaurant for my now, but wow, and that's because I'm an influencer now. Oh, so I'm gonna influence you listeners to go to this very hip restaurant. And that part sounded sarcastic, but it actually is a very hip restaurant. Recently, earlier this year, Watson and I went to San Francisco. We, like, climbed a steep hill, which is a popular thing to do in San Francisco. And we were like, we need some ice cream. And we were near the Castro. We're like, there must be an ice cream place near here. And the first thing that came up on Google Maps was a place called you colon dessert story, which is not an ice cream place. It serves, it's a Korean dessert place that serves cakes, but really specializes in bingsu, which is Korean shave ice okay? It is, like a super Instagrammable place. And like, when they served our thing, they're like, you wanna take a video of this, right? I'm like, okay, so I think I do actually have a video. I think you sent it to me. And I was like, what is that? So we ordered the volcano bingsu, which says Korean snow, ice with brownie bits, cocoa crispies, banana slices, corn flakes, crushed Oreos, almonds and condensed milk. It was so good, and they put a little dish with water and dry ice on top for absolutely no reason, other than to be a volcano that does not contribute to the eating in any way. But, like, the ice is super fluffy. It was, it was enormous, and we finished it handily. And as Watson will say afterwards, I'm not really sure how much food we just ate, because, like, there's a lot of fluffy ice, yes, but, but it was really tasty. It was fun drizzling on the condensed milk. Like, everything worked really well together. And, like, there's a bingsu place near us that we had never tried, and are very excited now to
Molly 33:27
try. Oh, that's exciting. That's very cool. So, okay, this is called you dessert story,
Speaker 1 33:31
you desert story, Castro in, the Castro in, and I think they have one in Berkeley also, maybe Excellent. Okay, well, our producer is Abby circuitella, and you can rate and review us. Wherever you get your podcasts. You can
Molly 33:43
chat with other spilled milk listeners at reddit.com/our/everything,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:48
spilled milk and wow, did we give you a lot to discuss this week. Where did, where did I put my keys? What was that recipe? Do you ever do, like obscene things with pasta, just all the things, yeah, and until next time. Thank you for listening to spilled
Molly 34:04
milk, the show that's got tiny hairs on its needles. That's right. I'm Matthew Amster Burton. I'm Molly Weisenberg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:11
I was gonna say the show that's partly sage Rosemary and time, but I was making myself laugh. But it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't.
Speaker 2 34:22
I never listen to our shows anymore, so I don't
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:32
know what the outtakes are. I have an inkling about this one.
Molly 34:39
Oh, wow, did your Go? Go gadget, Spidey Sense? Tell you
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:43
Yes, exactly, yeah. Inspector Gadget, widely known for Spidey sense because he was, he was bit by a radioactive gadget. I.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai