[0:00] The following program has been brought to you by rolling press, a family-run eco-friendly printing company. For more information, visit rollingpress.com. I'm Damon Bolte, host of the Speakeasy. You're listening to Heritage Radio Network, broadcasting live from Bushwick, Brooklyn. If you like this program, visit heritageradionetwork.org for 1000s more.

[0:25] Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is your guest radio announcer, Phil Bravo here, live from Roberta's Pizzeria, on the Heritage Radio Network, from Bushwick, Brooklyn, calling all your questions to 718-497-2128. And now Dave Arnold. Wow, yeah. Yeah, Phil. that's right Joined not only by the inimitable voice of Phil, his body, who cares? The brain, it doesn't matter. The voice, the voice of... of Phil Bravo. Exactly. What is that? A combination of humpback whale in Godzilla? What is that? It's an arrow. Never heard one of those? Phil's a huge gator fan. he has stock in an air horn company. I absolutely do. exclusively. Is that the brand of Air Horn to beat? No, the Fu Fu Zela. the thing from South Africa from the World Cup. Oh, that irritated the crap out of everyone? That's the one. Yeah, yeah. What kind of noise does that make? It's like more like a... kind of thing. Phil, by the way, teaches recorder to small children, and works at the at the Hall of Carnegie, right? Yeah, well, it's Carnegie though. Carnegie and uh. you know how Booker pronounces it, right? Carnegie. Carnegie. Carnegie, which I think is fitting for what the guy did. You know, he's a Robert Baron. So Carnegie. But then he gave it away. He invented philanthropy. Well, kind of. kind of. It's like, you know, we all like libraries and stuff, but I don't know that it's like, I don't know, it's okay

[1:59] to like kill 10 people to give a third, you know, 11th person a book. Hey, you know, it's, you know, whatever we call that. Yeah, carnage. Uh, but the, uh, look, I love the Robert Baron era. I do. I love it. Also joined in the studio by Nastasia the Hammer Lopez. Can you say the hammer and fill voice? Oh, I can do eight. Nastasio. The Hammer, Lopez. Oh, yeah. Jack in the engineering booth. Jack, you loving this announcement stuff? It is awesome. It's awesome. Phil, Phil. I'm not gonna make any insults about you personally. Your voice though, built for radio. It's true, yeah. I feel like I'm just here to like dance for you, Dave. Well, one last dance before we get into some questions. And obviously, I don't know if you know this, Phil, because Phil being a friend of Nastasia does not listen to this program ever. Sometimes. When we call him out, she fast forwards a part where we're calling him out and then, you know, we've said some choice things about Phil in the past. But as you know, when you're on the show, like you're expected to chime in at various points, you know, no

[3:00] silent, even announcing bystanders. Uh, but before we uh, before we go any further, can I please have sad Tony the

[3:09] Tiger? Oh no, see, this is the thing. You said sad, Tony the type. could do happy tone at the time. No, you'd had the best sad joke. You can do like a like... You could do like... like you did was an awesome one before. David Nastasia. They're great. I mean, you can do that. Do the, do the real jelly tiger. What do you have, like, what do you want? Like, do you enjoy frosted flakes? I do. Frosted flakes? They're great. See what I'm talking about? They're fine. You know what I mean? By the way, for those of you, and I'm not going to make him do this because he only does this, when he's way drunk at the Christmas time. But the voice of Tony the Tiger, the late great

[3:51] Thorough Ravencroft, who was one of the lead kind of like novelty voices for Spike Jones, not the movie maker, the original musician, Spike Jones, right?

[4:00] Who did, yeah. And, uh, also the voice, often miss, misrepresented the the Grinch, the real one, the cartoon one, not that BS Jim Carrey, you know,

[4:10] nonsense. The voice was, of course, Boris Karlov of the Grinch. Everyone thinks Boris sang the song. Nope. That would be incorrect. That would be Thorough Ravencroft. He also had a band, but I forget the name of it. sure it was awesome. Wasn't he also the voice in Monster Mash? That I don't know. I think he was the, it happened in the lab late one night guy. would make some sense. Have you ever done that song in karaoke? I haven't yet, but now I know it's I'll add it to the list. October is not that far away, Phil. The band is the mellow men. mellow, mellow, man. Can you do me a favor, Jack, and check to see whether my man Thorle did the, it was working in the lab late one night when his eyes beheld a scary

[4:48] sight. I will look that up. Yeah, nice. It doesn't seem like it. You don't think so? I'm searching. doesn't seem like it I mean, the thing is, it's not a question of whether or not, because he was a, he was a serious accession guy back then, so his voice was used in a bunch of stuff, like commercials. I mean, a lot of the guys in, you know, in that business back then. They were just like, yo, Thuro, we need someone with a low voice. Why don't you come and record something for me? You know what I mean? And that's, yeah, I'm trying to basically fill that role. So if anyone wants to call it... Phil Bravo, that role. And the other thing, you know, like people like some of the great music from the 70s, and I'm not just talking, or like 80s, I'm not talking like, you know, the different strokes theme, which is fine as far as it

[5:28] goes. But I'm talking like Sanford and Son, that's musically great stuff. Fantastic. And, you know, it's just like a bunch of like session dudes just showed up into place when they're like, burn, burn, burn. You know what I mean? And then that's it. That stuff is awesome. Rockford files, intensely good tune. You know I mean? Session guys in the 70s laid down pretty much a ton of good music didn't get paid for. Yeah, we're in this in the 60s, you got your Mission Impossible. That's in five, isn't it? Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Yeah, awesome stuff. Although the new movie, they changed it to four. Yeah, because those D-bag remixing douches couldn't, sorry, family programs. By the way, it's a family program. They're like, no one no one can move the butts in in five. We got to put it in 44. We got to be in 4-4, so the buds can... Mission Impossible. Your butt's not supposed to move. You're supposed to be on the edge of your seat wondering whether these guys are going to get their faces blown off or ripped off as the case might be in Mission Impossible. Anyway, a lot of questions to get to. However, you can call into questions. 718-4972128. 718-497-2128, try to have a little bit of fill, but I can't go a little fill. I'm more like, 718, that's my normal radio voice. That was a good Dave impression. Yes, squeaky, squeaky, squeaky McGiggin. Okay. Got a call in from Philippe. Lately, I've been making fruit juice meringues in the style of L bully, which translates roughly too, the bully. I'm kidding, it doesn't. Uh, elbow is meat meat meringue. That would be kind of awesome. Stas had an, I for once wanted to be vegan face. That's the only time you've ever had to for once I wanted to be vegan face. But you would like a beef broth meringue, right? In a savory press? Like you have a savory presentation and like a little puff like F15. No, no, no. No? I mean, I've had Nori. You like Nori, right? Nori, right? I don't like the I don't like meringues. You don't like sugar meringues? I don't like the texture. I never liked your F50 things. But you don't like also regular egg meringues. No, not really. What about like, uh, meringue a soft meringue on a pie? No, don't like pies. What? You don't like pie? You don't like pie? I don't really like pie, though. You don't like freaking pie? I don't like hot fruit. Uh, lemon egg pie is served Haljack? Not hot. Not hot. Phil, what do they serve that? I'm looking for? I'm going to go for cold. I'm gonna go for cold. I'll say Frio. What about key lime pie? It's not hot fruit. What the hell? hot because when you're being hot. You don't need to heat a pie. You know I don't like puff pastry. is wrong with you? I'll eat it. I just don't like it. Chalk it up on the list of things. Like, the only thing that Nastasia really enjoys, human pain. And pasta. And pasta. Yeah, but how do you not like pie? How do you like pie? I'll eat it But like when you mentioned key lime pie, is it your key lime pie with either a meringue or a whip topping? That's correct. So although I can eat it, I like it straight. Not just I can eat it. I enjoy almost any form of key lime pie. I prefer not to have the fake green coloring in it. Oh, well, by the way, Phil, Florida. We're trying to get him here the day that Lenny was here because she hates all people from Florida, so we thought it might be awesome. Yeah, we wanted we wanted not to tell her you were from Florida to see if she hated you. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to be surprised. We're talking about Lenoqu from Cut for Cup. Oh, you shouldn't, if you're from Florida, she doesn't really hate Florida people. You still buy her products. I'll be actually in Key West in 2 weeks. Yeah? Yeah, living the dissolute lifestyle? Exactly. What's that one song? Largo. No, that's Key Largo. Montego, yeah. No, no. She's thinking of... No, no, she's thinking of we had it all just like Bogey and Bacal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, down where the trade winds blow. Sail away to Keeler, go. Killergo, yeah. Say like, okay, don't get it through my head. my god. Nastasia hung out with the son of that singer apparently does not like references to that song. No, gets angry. By the way, Bakal's still having it all, not dead yet, which is awesome. I saw her on the street, like, maybe she is now, but I saw her on the street, like, 2 years ago. Did say hi to her? Of course not. She saw the look on my face and started shuffling a little faster. Get the hell out of my way. You know what I mean? Lauren, awesome. Okay, wait a minute. We're back to the question here. But again, you know, why don't we get any callers in, say Nastasia, what the hell? How do you not like pie or biscuits or puff pastry? are scared of her. That's why Well, I guess with a nickname like the hammer. Right. You know. how can you not be scared? Um, okay. Um, in the style of the L Bullies beat meringue. I don't think I'd like beat meringues though. I think most beet juice products taste dirty to me. Like, like, jasmin, like dirt. I am using centrifuge strawberry juice. First of all, I would say when you're making a meringue, what you really want is the, see, because I'll finish the question first. I blend it with isomalt and albumen powders. That's egg white powder for all of you people who don't speak albumen and isomalt, which acts like sugar, but is not

[10:28] as sweet. So it's a semi-sweet. But if you eat enough, it sure gives you the runs. Oh, because you can't digest it, but everyone's like, oh, I eat the ice

[10:36] amount, and I poop my beans out, and you're full of crap. They ate a little bit of isomalt and they think they're going to poop their brains out. It's like the same thing with, I ate 2 alestro potato chips in my body was stripped of vitamin D and I was pooping all day. No, that's not how it works. You know what I mean? anyways. Having done these tests myself. Uh, now, uh, I let that hydrate overnight, which is a good idea. Egg white powder needs to rehydrate for a long time. A lot of times people have trouble. Whipping the egg white powder. They just haven't let it hydrate long enough. And then I whip it. Give you some whip. Whip. Come on, Stas. I know you like the eight. Whip, whip. Whipped it to stiff peaks. I pipe little kisses. Do you hate that even more? Kisses. Little kisses. Stas has her. I hate kisses face on. onto a dehydrate tray, dehydrate. Dehydrate horror tray, and dehydrate. They're crisp within 3 hours. you like the word crisp? Crisp. They're crisp within 3 hours and they're nice and airy. except as soon as I take them out, they go soft quickly. I realized this could be. Oh, family program. Family program. I realize this could be a humidity issue. Whenever anyone says humidity, I think of lethal weapon 3 where the guy goes diplomatic immunity and I say diplomatic humidity. And then like, I imagine myself getting shot. by that glover, right? No, that wasn't a Gibson that shot him? Was it Gibson that shot him? Someone will tell us. Um, I could realize this could be a humidity issue. I keep them in a deli container with a silica pack. What can I do to keep, what else can I do to keep them crisp? Well, you can just leave them in the dehydrator for as long as you want during service. So during service, what I would typically do is leave them in a dehydrator. But you're going to want to turn your dehydrator way down. Way down. So like if you're dehydrating, it lets, how do you say, way down, say, way down for me? way down Yeah, yeah. So, like, if you're normally rocking somewhere between 135 Fahrenheit to 125 Fahrenheit, in that

[12:29] range, up to maybe 140, you're going to really blast them out if you let them go that long. But if you turn it down to like a hundred, 110, assuming your kitchen's not 110, you'll drive

[12:38] off, you'll keep the stuff from sucking up too much extra humidity and you can just keep them for service in the D high. Barring that, what I used to do is get mason jars, and not the ones with the little crappy thin lids, the ones with the actual thick rubber seals, and I would put them in, I would put the products in mason

[12:54] jars, in a vacuum machine, suck a vacuum, and the lid gets sucked down when the air comes back in.

[13:00] Just make sure that the air coming back in doesn't puff the lid off the top, which you'll see what I mean when you do it. And they stay forever in those mation jars and they don't require the silica packs. you just open them as you go if you're going to use a bunch for service, but if you need them to keep going during service, you can use the silica packs or the best way is to just have a dehydrator that you keep out there for service. Yeah? Yeah. Try the F50 instead of that meringue, try the F50. But I wouldn't centrifuge the... See, here's what's happening. You're using the egg white powder to add the protein that you, and the structure that you, you took out all the structure when you clarified the juice. Now it's just sugar with some flavor. And so you're adding the egg white powder, so it has the actual structure that an egg white foam would have because it literally is an egg white foam. And the sugar to add the bodying and the, you know, the kind of textural effects of the meringue. If you just, if you just keep it, uh, if you don't clarify the strawberries, you have all that pectin in there and that pectin can help provide structure for the

[13:55] uh, meringue itself. And then you could just use something like F 50 and you wouldn't have to add any extra sugar if you wanted to keep them uh, like less sweet or do, do whatever you want. I just saying there's alternate ways to do. There's alternate ways to do everything. And then it's vegan, but not natural because metal cell ain't natural, baby. It doesn't come in the real life and the nature. Okay. Got a color. A color. You're on the air. Hi, this is Johnny from Memphis. How you doing? Doing all right. Um, I have a question about uh, circulators. After you cure an item, pork belly or whatever and you wash the salt off. Um, will it damage the circulator to, like, fill it up? um, with the cured item, with like cold water, 70 degrees or so, and put the circulator on like 90 Fahrenheit and let it rise up, uh, to 90 with

[14:54] the, uh, 1st cured item in there. Wait, see, we're going to get this straight before we go on. You want to, you want to keep the item in water, not in a

[15:03] bag and just have the actual thing circulating like kind of commando style in

[15:07] the in the bath? Correct. Like instead of uh, rinsing the item. No, after transition after the cure. Instead of like running water over for a couple of atlas. You know, just bring it up to 90 degrees, change the water out, fill it up with cold water

[15:25] again, maybe 2 or 3 times. Right. What's your what brand of circulator do you have? I, a polish fop? I believe it's a classic, just like the 1st one that came out. Metal? Yeah, no problem. Here's what you do. Uh, you're going to want to wrap the cage in uh, cheesecloth. so that, uh, things like, uh, you know, whatever you have in there, mustard seed or

[15:49] whatever doesn't get sucked into the thing because that can be a pain in the butt. I've done it before. I've circulated woodchips, I've circulated lobster shells and butter. I circulated everything. The only thing you don't want to do is suck particulate matter in through the bottom of the

[16:04] bell because it clogs up quickly. I mean, you'll know when it gets clogged. I've even done it with, you know, the new plastic guys. They're just a little bit harder to, you know, clean out. Um, but yeah, I would I would go ahead. The issue, like I say, is don't let stuff get into that bell because once

[16:19] you once the stuff gets into the bell, then you need to disassemble the bell. If it stops, if you actually put enough particulates into the belt to stop the impeller from running, then you got to open up the belt, not the end of the

[16:29] world, but, you know, you don't necessarily want it to happen. So I would just, you know, make sure that, uh, you know, that you normally, if I'm going to circulate spices in a bath like this, I stick the item in a cloth.

[16:39] And you can actually do that in this case. You can just take the cured thing, wrap it in cheesecloth, tie it, and you'll still get good circulation

[16:45] through, and you'll rinse you won't rinse off solids, but you'll rinse out soluble items. You know what I mean? Um, but the other alternatives to wrap the actual circulator itself so that nothing gets

[16:55] stuck. Now, you don't want to wrap it such that you don't get good flow anymore. That's the that's the flip side of it. Right. All right. Thank you. No, also, remember, if you want everything to rinse evenly, make sure to keep all of the pieces of meat slightly separate so that water can get in between

[17:11] them. As long as water can get even a little bit in between all of your stuff, everything's going to even out pretty well, but as soon as 2 blocks meet gets stuck next to each other, the parts that are stuck together might as well be the thickness of

[17:22] both things put together. There's no there's no action happening on them. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. All right, very good. Good luck. Let us let us know how it works out. I appreciate it. Cool, thanks. All right. Um, basically, stars, what's this question here? What am I supposed to say? Don't worry about number one. So why'd you put it on the thing? Why'd you put what? I was gonna tell you. Okay. All right. but you didn't. All right. That's all right. We got this is from Brian Garrick. Do you remember where Brian lives? No. No, good job. All right. Do you know where I could find a 3 to 7? Sorry, it's not from Bryant. This is from our boy, B. Muncasey. But where does he live? They don't say. They used to, and then we Some do, some don't. Anyway, long time. When they put it on there I put it on there. Yeah, anyway, whatever. Do you know where we could find a 3 to 7 day vacation cooking school to learn modernist

[18:13] techniques? Well, I mean, I used to teach those kind of classes. The FCI or the ICC now, the International Culinary Center. I still teach those classes. Do they still teach those? Does anyone know whether they still teach those classes? I don't know, Jack. Do you know? Because Dorothy was on. Yeah, I don't. I've kind of fallen out of that kind of, you know, the cooking school world, but I'm sure

[18:32] chef steps probably does something. I don't know whether they do live classes, do we know? They probably do some sort of live classes or if they don't, they probably would set them up. But the ICC, I'm sure, still runs the low temperature cooking class that, you know, we used to teach. They may run still the hydrocollage class that we used to teach. I know they don't do the Harold McGee class that we used to teach because then he would call me and say that he was doing that class. And but the other the other alternative is, of course, see what they got on the chef steps, right? Yeah, yeah. Uh, okay, and three, what would be appropriate streamlined scientific approach to figure out the best includes sous vide technique for bull

[19:12] peanuts? Coming from Florida. Do you like bull peanuts? I love a boiled peanut. Yeah, I'm telling you. it's more Georgia. Yeah, but like, yeah, if you ever go to northern Florida, that's Georgia. Yeah, no, absolutely. Gainesville. Yeah, give me, give me some, give me some southern, give me bull peanut. No, like bull, bull, peanut. But yeah, it's not boiled peanuts. Bald. Bald peanut. I'm like, what the hell is, aren't all peanuts balled? I mean, they're kind of shaped up. balls sound boiled peanut, ball peanut. And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? The 1st time, by the way, that you've had a boiled peanut, if you're from the

[19:42] north, like I am, you're like, this is gross. And then, you know what I mean? Do you like boiled pants? I've had one. Magic. Yeah. So, but, like, the 1st time you have it, you think it's gross, and it's part of the classic American, uh, it's not really

[19:58] American. It's kind of worldwide problem of people have expectations and if something doesn't exactly meet their expectations. It's like, no, it's growth. You know what I mean? Because we're like, peanuts are supposed to be crunchy. You know what I mean? No, boiled peanut is not supposed to be crunchy. We forget that the peanut legume, peanut legume, and can be cooked as such. Boiled peanut tastes not like a peanut. So don't walk in. If they just called them boiled sack of goodness. You'd be like, oh, those are really good. Still sold by a guy out of a pickup truck on the side of the road, though. I think still has the same issue. Well, I mean, in other words, like your 2 choices down there are those sausages that are soaked in that red goop where the red goop's going

[20:39] on, like half the way through it and the boiled peanut. I say the bull peanut's the safer route. Gonna go with you. Yeah, at least it's boiling. It's not in some that with like a bunch of weird floaties that who the hell knows what it is. like, I think that float is an onion piece. I'm not sure. And he's like, drag it out. I threw some bowled eggs in with the sausage fat. You're like, nah, nah, nah. What that called? God knows. God knows. Like, you know what I'm talking about, though, Phil. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. Anyhoo, the best scientific approach for a sous vide boiled peanut. Well, the 1st thing you got to do is you have to decide exactly what constitutes a good boiled peanut for you. First thing I would do is get a bunch of different kind of peanuts to do it on. And you're going to want to get like a good raw peanut variety. I mean, obviously I'm partial. Although who knows? Like, who knows whether Virginia's are the best for boiled peanuts? I don't know. I've done the extensive study because you don't need them to be crunchy because they're not going to be crunchy. But the Virginia peanuts are huge, and so they'll probably be good football peanuts, right? So their 1st thing is they're going to be going to get a good set of a good, a good supply of the peanuts. That's going to be your 1st thing. I mean, I'm sure like when you go to our Chinatown and you get the raw peanuts. They're still in shell, but they've been sitting there for like 8000000000 Jillian 1000000 years. Like, just like, you know, growing that sweet, sweet afletoxin. I'm sure that that's not going to make the best well of peanut, right? So then you figure out like, okay, okay, I got a good source of peanuts. well, what do I want? I have a blow of peanut. What is it about a regular boiled peanut? boiled. What is it about it that you didn't like? You know what I mean? And my guess. And, you know, I've done this a long time. I guess not boiled peanuts, but, I mean, cooking, low temp, is that the temperature control on the peanuts is not going to be that important.

[22:20] So the advantages you're going to get out of going sous vide aren't going to be from a temperature standpoint. They're going to be from a flavor concentration standpoint because you're going to be cooking them in substantially less water. Uh, I don't think you're ever going to want to do an out of the shell boiled peanut because God didn't want boiled

[22:37] peanuts to be eaten that way. God wanted you to shell the weird kind of papery, wet shell and then put them in that little bowl or throw them out the window of your car. Or just eat them. You eat the shell? eat the shell. Wow. Real southern. love that. where the salt is. Wow. All right. So anyways, my point being, figure out what it is you like about a boiled peanut, and then I wouldn't worry about temperature control. What I would do is figure on water level first. I would choose. I would choose without any spices at all, 3 different water to peanut ratios in a bag. I would do it at 3 different vacuum levels, one in a

[23:15] ziploc bag, and then, oh, actually, you know what? No, don't do plain water. Do salt so you can figure out salt penetration on this. Get 2 tests out at once. Choose the same salt level on, uh, for your brine, do 3 different brine ratios on the peanut, and then 3 different vacuum levels on each brine ratio, start with

[23:30] Ziploc bags, then a, you know, relatively full vacuum, like 99%, let's call it like 15 millibar, and then one where you suck the living crap out of

[23:39] it and then inject as much in, almost like you were doing vacuum infusion. Cook those, um, those 9 bags in simmering water at the same time for the same amount of time. Pull them out in testament. See whether you can see any difference between them in terms of salt penetration in terms of peanut flavor. And from there on out, you're going to start honing in on which of the columns and rows, you know, vacuum level and brine level that you like the

[24:03] most, and you can start honing in on kind of where you want it to be. Once you've done that, then if you want to add spices, you can add them at that point to see how much kind of penetration you get through the shell. Then? Yeah, fair. Take a break. Uh, I can't, I can't say if a guest announcer has to take us to break. And now we'll be taking a break. You're supposed to say rip out of cooking issues. Oh, sorry. We'll be right back with cooking issues.

[24:49] Hi, everybody, I'm Phil Kalikio, the host of the business of the business here on the Heritage Radio Network, and this summer, we are turning five. The Heritage radio network is 5 years old. Since our launch in 2009, we've continued to bring you food and culture content like nobody else in this business, and we need, and when I say need, I

[25:09] may need your help. HeritageRadioNetwork.org is a passionate grassroots action oriented nonprofit organization. And that means we depend upon the support of listeners like you to keep us alive. If you love what you hear on this radio station, the Heritage Radio Network, please visit our website and become a member today. Thanks for listening. Thanks for your support. You gotta be economically sustainable. Help us out. Thanks. Bye.

[25:45] Today's program was brought to you by Rolling Press. Rolling Press is a family-run digital and offset print house that brings together eco-friendly methods, ethical

[25:54] practices, and personalized service. Using environmentally responsible papers, non-toxic inks, and wind power. Rolling Press represents the harmony of traditional craftsmanship and mindful sustainability.

[26:05] Rolling press offers advice on reducing paper waste and energy consumption, helping you save money and minimize your carbon footprint. For more information visit rollingpress.com. Hi, I'm Reggie Watts, and you're listening to Heritage RadioNetwork.org. Welcome back to cooking issues with Dave Arnold and Nastasia the Hammer Lopez. Hey, Reggie Watts got nothing on you. I love him. I mean, he knows how to, I can't, you know, my favorite song I can't do on the air because this is a family program, but it's a sugar honey iced tea and then other kind of

[26:36] stack. This has not been a family program thus far. It is a family pro. So Phil had Phil, of course, saves his best story for during the break. give a little 32nd shout out to your to your bull peanut friend. Oh, no. I just have a very good friend who had a, this is in

[26:52] northern South Florida, kind of West Palm area, but would always drive home every day and there was both the boiled peanut person who was also doubled as the shrimp guy. And so he would have like shrimp just in the back of his pickup truck. And so it was always the internal debate of, is it okay? and bald peanuts. Yeah, but the shrimp also. The shrimp were on. I know, the shrimp were on ice. They were just raw shrimp that you were buying to like bring home. Like he was just like your shrimp monger. So, like, is it okay to buy shrimp from the back of a truck on a random road outside

[27:18] of like Okechobee? I don't know But turns out. Oh it was great. Yeah. like after it was a long Facebook debate. And everyone, everyone was on both sides of the fence. So the New York version of that is we used to have a mini meat packing district up at like by 125th Street near where the fairway is now on the west side. And so when you used to come off the West Side Highway there, there would be dudes in white, they're talking like 70s, 80s, I think maybe as late as the 90s, but I don't remember it when I was actually up there in the 90s for grad school.

[27:46] So it's like 70s, 80s kind of thing. Dudes would literally just be on the street. You'd pull off the Westside highway. And 125th Street. This we're talking about by the 24 hour McDonald's for any of you guys who know the neighborhood over there. And just standing out there with meat in their hands, like meat, like a steak, like a raw steak, like on 125th

[28:05] Street, and you're like, I ain't gonna buy a steak. This is what Madonna was talking about when she said New York in the 80s. you know, had more danger. And, you know, it was the meat gong, meat guys at 125th. Well, the awesome thing is, is like, that's like the safest thing you could be doing is buying street stakes.

[28:20] Uh, you know, at that at that time. I miss the street steak. You know, it's like, I don't, like, what I never knew was I never knew whether the guy was like, hey, yo, Eddie, go out and sell some of these steaks. They didn't pick up the order. They're going to go bad or whether it was, I'm stealing these steaks. I'm going to sell them because the boss is so drunk. He's not going to know this. fell off the back of the truck. Yeah, right. I used to have a guy that that kind of happened like with parts for sculptures that I was building. So I would go to this place and I won't I won't call out who it is. I'll go to this place and he used to basically, I'd be like, I need like, um, I need like some bearings and some

[28:59] sprock, and I would get all this stuff and you'd be like, yeah, yeah, come back in like, uh, half hour, meet me outside,

[29:05] but, you know, um, wing cash. And then, like, you were giving these great discounts on, like, bearings and stuff. That's that's the way New York used to run. We were so much more like, you know, not like now. Like a, you need bearings? I got a bearing guy. Yeah, I got a bearing guy. I got a guy that can fix that. But you know what? You're gonna want to bring some cash. You know what I mean? And we're not going to mention this. Anyways, so let's get some of the questions I missed from last week, yeah? I'm gonna rip them out. Pierre writes in, hey, Dave, Nastasia, and Crew, and if you knew you were going to be here, Philip, Pierre would have called you out as well. Thanks, PR. Thanks for all the great shows so far. I'm just about ready to take the plunge and buy an immersion circulator from my home kitchen. I don't even need to. to explain that anymore for our audience, right? You know, they cook things at a very accurate temperature, you know, most important, like, culinary advance in the past, you know, couple 100 years, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, one thing I haven't decided on yet is the packaging method.

[30:00] After reading your sous vide primer, it seems the simplest way to get started would be with a Ziploc freezer bags. You are correct, sir. However, I am not sure how I feel about going through that much plastic in the long

[30:12] run. Are there any decent reusable options out there? I've heard of people using mason jars for smaller items, but that hardly sounds practical for things like

[30:21] steak unless you want them to be jar steaks. You know what I mean? I'd notice I didn't say Stas has the don't say tube steak look on her face. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you did have the look. I don't know whether that's what you were thinking. But that hardly sounds practical or desirable, not just practical, not desirable for things like steak. The only other option I've come across so far is the, and how do you pronounce that like you thing? the lick you, whatever. Silicon bag? Reviewers weren't too thrilled about the seal and the size, though. Any thoughts? Thanks, Pierre. Yeah, there are no good answers to your question yet. I mean, if you're gonna, there's no good answers to your question yet. I mean I think people are working on it. I know people are working on it, but no one's come up with it yet. I don't like the the re-sealable silicone. It's just gross. That's it's just gross. Like, having reused, like, uh, zippies before, which is what we call the ziplocs in the trapy column,

[31:13] zippy, skill, get me zippy. Remember when you're buying the Ziploc bags. Do not buy, buy the freezer bags. The storage bags are weak in the technical sense of the term. They're weak. And not just in the, they are puny and don't do a good enough job. I mean, they are physically weaker than the freezer bags. Do not buy the ones that have the double layer of film, they suck. Also, do not buy the ones with the little uh, zippy doodle thing across the top, that little zippy doodle that that slot racing zippy doodle across the top. That's for people that, what, can't seal a bag like a human being and they don't hold a seal as well. So stay away from all of those things. Uh, and, you know, you could try those those resalable silicone jars, but they're also thicker. So it's going to take a little bit longer to get your heat transferred through them. Yada, yada. The people are working. Let me say people are working on it. Like in the next 6 years there will be, here's my prediction. My prediction is this. and maybe I can get filled to say it. In the next 6 years, there'll be a biodegradable suit. In the next 6 years, there will be a biodegradable sous vide bag. There you go. And so while we're waiting, if I were you, I would just stick with the

[32:20] with the polyethylene, zippies, and don't worry, we will get around to saving the world in the next 6 years, right?

[32:27] Yeah, all right. Uh, okay, let's get some more of these questions that I missed from before. We get some short ones, so I'll make it good. You know what sucks is when I missed the short ones because like I sit around yapping for everyone and then, you know, whatever. Hello, everyone. This is from Mildred Katie in Albany, New York. I like when people tell me where they're from, in a thing. You know, don't you like that, Phil? I know where people are from. I like that. If only Nastasio would put that in there for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unless it's, unless it's Lena who doesn't want to know that you're from Florida. Although she loves people who like gluten-free products from Florida. Those are the those are the good kind of Floridians. They're the good ones. I've been enjoying the show. Mildred, actually. She didn't enjoy the show. She had a different question. Um, I think, right now I'm getting all confusicated. Okay, I'm a new listener, but I've been avidly progressing through the back catalog of my daily commute. I already love the show. I've been spreading the good word to other, so thank you for doing what you do. I love eggs. I didn't answer this question all right. day? Okay. I love eggs and eat them near every morning. Good call. The Incredible. Edible. There you go. I have a Volrath, steel coat, X3, 7 inch nonstick pan. They're starting to get a build-up of materials that don't seem to come off with dish soap. And, oh, this is not, this is not Mildred's question. Shock. This is Michael's question. I get all confused. You know why people, because I'm stupid. Susan Michael's question. With soap and hot water, do you know what I could use to get it nice and clean again and still retain its

[33:54] non-stick properties? Or could you recommend a better nonstick pan? For eggs? So the question is like, I get 4 eggs. Do you even like nonstick pans? Michael. PS, I saw the patty melt video that I did recently and in all of the home kitchen. I don't have that kitchen anymore. Styles like my new kitchen better. And your 0 compromise approach. Styles definitely hates my 0 compromise approach. Okay, so the deal with nonstick pans is, um, they have a coating on

[34:20] them, and what you don't want to do is scratch the coating, because that's kind of what you don't want to do. So, uh, I mean, quick and simple, like, just go buy scotch bright pads. Let the pan soak for a little. If you have deposits on it. Like certain things are going to stick to a nonstick pan. So, for instance, like, the one thing that I have that is completely nonstick, I don't, I have one regular nonstick pen. One. It was a scan pan. I've beaten the crap out of it and it's useless now. I use it only to cook things that I don't care about. Like, this is gonna sound bad, like bacon. I don't really care how bacon cooked because... I don't cook cook tilapia at all. I cook that using my garbage can. Like, that's the best way to cook tilapias with the garbage can. But the, you know, speaking of tilapia, I am going to be at Toronto tomorrow, doing the Toronto International Food and Film Festival or something like this, Tiff, not Tiff,

[35:13] the graphics format, but Tiff, the Toronto International Food and Film. And so like, is this hilarious? So the person who set it up, they're like, they're going to ask you why you chose the movie. I didn't chose. chose the movie for me. Don't you remember? But no, anytime you do something, you have to pretend that you chose the movie. So the movie I'm doing is Soylent Green. And so what I was going to say is that tilapia is like, right. It's one of the soyans. You know how there's multiple soilins, there's like silent, red, soil and, you know, soil and, whatever, and silent green. So green, by the way. I don't want to spoil the movie for you. It's made of. It's the only one that's made of people, apparently. Well, who knows? You don't ever figure out what the other Soylans were made of. Tuesdays is Soil of Green Day, by the way, in the movie. Like you get the different soylence on different days. Anyways. It's like a 6 minute warning. Oh Jesus. So anyways, tilapia right up there. Right up there. Okay. So, uh, but the one thing that you do need to have non-steak is your waffle iron. So, like, I have a boatload of cast iron sizzles that I use, sizzles, like, you know, little sizzle pans that I've used for, you know, well over a decade, and right now, like, I use them exclusively for eggs.

[36:19] But they've been, you know, I season them well the 1st time around and I use them constantly and I keep them in good shape.

[36:25] And so, you know, they're amazing for eggs. Uh, But, you know, your waffle iron, uh, the amount of time it takes to get it properly seasoned so that a waffle actually releases from them is longer than I have

[36:39] patients to do. And so I've tried using cast iron waffle irons and they suck. By the way, do you know that's why waffles have such a high fat content in the old recipes is they were built for old school cast iron waffle

[36:51] irons, and so they need an abundance of oil to release

[36:55] properly. A modern waffle recipe doesn't need nearly as much oil in it just for

[37:00] organolectic properties to get it to work. And so you can, you know, that's one little known fact about waffle recipes. I don't cut the fat down because I don't care. But anyway, so like, but those, like, if you make the mistake of putting blueberries in,

[37:13] I mean, not taste mistake, they're delicious, although taste kind of like waffles, right? Whoa. Put blueberries in your waffles, they will burn onto the nonstick, because the sugar will stick and burn onto the nonstick, and that is a business to get off of that thing. So I feel where you're coming from. So what you want to do is like soak it in water a little bit by the specific scotch bright pads that are made to be non-stick. I mean, sorry, to be non-scuffing, they make specific non-scratch scotch bright pads that are made for non-stick pans. Don't believe anything anyone says about, it's okay to use metal utensils. The particular one you have has steel particles mixed in with the

[37:51] non stick coating and the idea of being that when you're scraping a spatula across it, it won't get damaged as much because the steel on steel will

[37:58] resist. And so that's why they do that. They also have one that's one level above yours, where instead of steel particles that use slightly more expensive ceramic particles, and everyone now is moving away from Teflon. So that, uh, because, because apparently, it can release PFOA or

[38:13] parafluoctanoic acid, and people are worried it's going to cause cancer. People are moving away voluntarily from using Teflon in their pants. Hook me up by 2015. They're supposed to have, people are supposed to voluntarily have taken it away. But anyway, uh, there you have it. Is that a good answer? Semi, good answer? Okay. Now on to Mildred's actual question. I have to do it quickly. I been enjoying the show, I'm working through the back episodes, because I've been enjoying it so much. I'm writing because I have a dilemma. I'm currently living with my 2 best friends, conveniently they're married to each other. He's half Korean and cooks like it, and she's allergic to soy sauce and other forms of soy. Uh, so. By the way, soy lent, supposed to be a mixture. I heard of soy and lentils. Soy lent. Uh, not soy that you eat in lententant. He has a Korean BBQ sauce marinade. That's 3 quarters soy sauce that we all miss him being able to make. So I'm looking for a soy sauce substitute that can be made in bulk. She doesn't like fish sauce, which is one of the more common Asian umami sources, sources after soy sauce. She barely tolerates Worcestershire sauce because she can tell it has anchovies in it. Yes, you can. One thing you could do is get Worcestershire sauce. Spin it in a centrifuge, and the anchovy drops to the bottom, but you need a centrifuge for that. Uh, we tried vegemite slash marmite, since it's another fermented grain condiment, but it's so thick, we've had problems thinning it enough for

[39:27] the sauce because, uh, we lose the umami tone. Do you have any suggestions or did I already kill the other options? Thanks for your time and keep it awesome. Mildred Katie from Albany, New York. Okay, here's some quick things because Jack's gonna rip us off the air in a couple minutes. If you have money to spend. Coconut Aminos, which you can get in the Whole Foods are pretty good and they're like some sort of like fermented coconut product and they don't contain soy.

[39:51] I believe Bragg's liquid aminos do contain soy, so you have to stay away from those. Another thing is make some of the old school fermented mushroom sauces. So if you go look up any of the old, like, like, ketchup, like, recipes, like from, uh, from, like, George Washington times, uh, you, they

[40:12] have, like, mushroom ketchup recipes that, uh, you can look up and those, um, can be fermented and you can, and you can get them to, because mushrooms already have a lot of umami.

[40:21] So then when they when they're cooked and then allowed to steep and do their own business, you know,

[40:25] you can get that much out of it. Because you could also use them as a fermentation source to make your own Worcestershire sauce as opposed to an anchovy. fish, look, Worcestershire sauce is the modern equivalent of a fish sauce for British taste. They also have a really another one called the gentleman's relish, pipperums, whatever. It's like, it's like anchovies and butter and pepper mixed up in a little tin. Say gentleman's relish for me, please. It's a gentleman's relish. Oh, yeah. But I let my wife have it anyway. stuff's good. So try one of those things. And, you know, anything that has some form of substrate with proteins that breaks down over long fermentation period, you're going to be able to get those nice umami things, but think mushrooms,

[41:05] think coconut aminos, uh, and, uh, you know, work with it, and those things are

[41:09] good. Although, you know what? You got to get, is it, I forget, is it, is it the, it's the wife that doesn't like the, the,

[41:15] the can't have the soy and doesn't like the fish, right? I think so yeah. I would just do like a little bit of fish sauce every day. and just work her up to that sucker because fish sauce is yo delicious. And you can also look for this Japanese fish sauce called Ishiri, the ones made

[41:28] not don't tell her, made exclusively of squid guts. That stuff tastes like liquid meat. Oh, another thing people, sorry, not to blast your ears out. Another thing people do is they make soy substitutes by using concentrated

[41:42] broth, like bouillon cube. It doesn't taste the same. But, you know, what they're really doing there is jacking the MSG. So it's like another thing you could do, just saying, is add something

[41:52] like that has a little bit of that protein, amino action, and then a little bit of the MSG. But Nastasia is one of the people that thinks she's allergic to MSG. By the way, you know, I have the capsule. Remember when we Yeah, we got the cap, we got, let's write in if you give a crap about this, but they

[42:07] have, we bought a gelatin capsule packer or vegetarian. You'll have to be gelton. Uh, for the event we did in uh, at UCLA. And we were thinking of actually doing a double blind radio, like male, uh, double blind

[42:22] placebo, controlled uh, MSG study with our own pack gel caps, where like I would pack them with numbers on the packets. Stas would mail them out to people, and then we'd get reports back on the radio. And I know it's not scientific because I can't control whether you guys are liars or not, but I feel that our radio listeners are good people and they won't cheat,

[42:39] right? And then we could have like, now, it's not legal also because I'm not allowed to do research, but if we're just having fun, then we're just having

[42:46] fun. Do we have the insurance for this, Jack? Yeah, sure. Yeah, all right. So what I'm saying is, is like, if there's if there's interest in this, we could run a controlled thingamajing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't I have 3 minutes? No. I don't have 3 minutes. All right, so let me just go over the list of questions that I didn't answer and we'll have to answer next time. Oh, geebus. No, Jesus. This is already going to end the shows from now on. Simon, Simon, I swear on several stacks of Bibles. Your question on your question on carbonation will be the very Simon from the UK. I might be there in November for the book. I don't know. will be the very 1st question that I'm going to answer next time. Nastasia, hopefully will remember to tell me that. And we had 2 a couple questions we didn't get to today, one on Shadbury's. They had a question on mulberries. Listen, the trick with mulberries is, I'll say it really quickly. I'll do it more in depth next time. I'm going to get to the ice cream question that's also here that I didn't get to. But on mulberries. When you're looking for mulberries, The problem with mulberries is the black mulberry and the white mulberry hybridize very readily between each other. So a lot of the mulberries you see on the street here are combinations of the 2 different mulberry

[43:55] varieties because they so readily hybridize, and the taste is radically different from tree to tree. Sometimes even within a tree itself, you'll get tasteless mulberries and mulberries that have a good acid balance. So what you need to do is wander around the city and Stas and I did this one year. We wander around the city, whenever you see a mulberry tree, taste one. If you like that mulberry tree, go back there next year, get everything you

[44:14] can, and then go back next year, but you cannot judge a mulberry tree by the 1st even 5 trees that you taste.

[44:20] And that is, Phil. Cooking issues with Dave Arnold. Thanks for listening to this program on heritageradionetwork.org. You can find all of our archive programs on our website, or as podcasts in the iTunes store by searching Heritage Radio Network. You can like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at Heritage underscore radio. You can email us questions anytime at info at heritageradionetwork.org. Heritage Radio Network is a 501 C3 nonprofit. To donate and become a member, visit our website today. Thanks for listening.