Gastropod

Are you part of Generation Peak Booze? In this episode, we dive into the factors behind the ups and downs in alcohol consumption in the U.K. and the U.S. over the course of the twentieth century, we explore the long-term health effects of peak booze, and we get a sneak peek at the synthetic alcohol of the future. Cheers!

 

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It’s nearly the Day of the Dead in Mexico, which gives us the perfect excuse to get familiar with the country’s national spirit: tequila. Or wait, should that be mezcal? And what’s the difference, anyway? In this episode of Gastropod, Cynthia and Nicky travel to Mexico to explore the history and science of distilled agave, and get tangled up in a complex story of controversies, clones, and culture.

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On the surface, it’s just a leafy green herb. Its feathery fronds add a decorative note and a distinctive flavor to dishes across Latin America and Asia, from guacamole to phở. And yet cilantro is the most divisive herb in the kitchen, inspiring both deep dislike and equally deep devotion. What’s the history and science behind these strong reactions—and can cilantro disgust ever be overcome?

 

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It’s one of the five basic tastes, along with salty, sweet, sour, and umami. It’s also the least popular and the most mysterious. “That tastes bitter” is not usually a compliment, and yet scientists are increasingly concerned that by banishing bitter from our diets, we’re affecting our health in ways we don’t fully understand. In this episode, we get to know bitter a little better, finding good reasons and new ways to appreciate its complex charms.

 

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He has boiled hundreds of eggs in the quest for breakfast perfection. He has expended thousands of words on the divisive subject of mashed potatoes. And he is the only one who cares enough to test absolutely every possible shape of pan you could ever cook with. In this episode of Gastropod, we interview the ultimate food nerd: J. Kenji López-Alt.

López-Alt trained as a scientist before working as a chef, and he has dedicated the past six years to “unraveling the mysteries of home cooking through science” in The Food Lab, his wildly popular column at Serious Eats, which is now an encyclopedic book of the same name. The book contains hundreds of recipes, from the perfect tomato sauce to salmon with basil caper relish, along with instructions for amassing the ultimate set of kitchen tools, and scientific tips for everything from making homemade ricotta to simmering the tastiest French onion soup.

For this episode, we talk to him about the rigorous double-blind experiment he set up to discover whether New York City’s water is truly the secret ingredient in its superlative pizza crust. We persuade him to share his secret triple-umami-bomb blend that has everyone who tastes his chili begging him to reveal where he found the beefiest beef possible (Marmite lovers, rejoice!). And finally, López-Alt breaks it to us that we have been doing everything from slicing our onions to seasoning our burger patties all wrong, in ways we’d never even thought to worry about. Listen and learn: this is the kind of science that is guaranteed to double the deliciousness of your next kitchen adventure.Episode Notes

Kenji López-Alt is managing culinary director of Serious Eats. His column, The Food Lab, was launched in 2009: its new online video series is well worth checking out. The Food Lab book can be purchased in your local bookstore or online from September 21, but is available for pre-order here: it’s awe-inspiringly thorough and filled with revelatory tips, tricks, and recipes.

 

The post Inside the Food Lab with Kenji López-Alt appeared first on Gastropod.

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Wander into any town in the U.S., no matter how small and remote, and you’re likely to find at least one Chinese restaurant. In fact, there are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, KFC, and Burger King combined. And the food they serve is completely unlike anything you’ll find in China. In this episode of Gastropod, we ask one crucial question: why?

From the Gold Rush to MSG, via the scandalous story of gender-bending Chinese restaurants in 1920s New York City, this episode of Gastropod serves up a tasty buffet of American Chinese food. Grab your chopsticks and dive in!

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Bacon, bratwurst, bangers, barbecue: these are just a few of the many ways people around the world enjoy feasting on pigs. Of all the domesticated animals humans consume, Sus scrofa domesticus is the most fascinating, the most divisive, and, arguably, the most delicious.

In this in-depth conversation with author and historian Mark Essig, author of the book Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig, Gastropod discovers the evolutionary source of the pigs’ intelligence (scientists have judged them the cognitive equal of a human three-year-old), and why the animals’ physiology so closely resembles our own. We also uncover the real reason Jews originally eschewed pork, and how pigs were the essential but forgotten weapon, alongside guns and germs, that allowed the Spanish and English to conquer and colonize the Americas. Plus, we read and review Barry Estabrook’s book, Pig Tales: An Omnivore’s Quest for Sustainable Meat, which picks up the porcine tale in the present, where Mark Essig leaves off. From helicopter hunting to manure spraying and more, join us and pig out!

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It’s one of the most complex food products you’ll ever consume: a thermodynamic miracle that contains all three states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—at the same time. And yet no birthday party, beach trip, or Fourth of July celebration is complete without a scoop or two.

That’s right—in this episode of Gastropod, we serve up a big bowl of delicious ice cream, topped with the hot fudge sauce of history and a sprinkling of science. Grab your spoons and join us as we bust ice-cream origin myths, dig into the science behind brain freeze, and track down a chunk of pricey whale poo in order to recreate the earliest published ice cream recipe.

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“Sound is the forgotten flavor sense,” says experimental psychologist Charles Spence. In this episode, we discover how manipulating sound can transform our experience of food and drink, making stale potato chips taste fresh, adding the sensation of cream to black coffee, or boosting the savory, peaty notes in whiskey.

Composers have written music to go with feasts and banquets since antiquity—indeed, in at a particularly spectacular dinner hosted by Duke Philip of Burgundy in 1454, twenty-eight musicians were hidden inside an immense pie, beginning to play as the crust was opened. Today, however, most chefs and restaurants fail to consider the sonic aspects of eating and drinking. That’s a mistake, because, as we reveal in this episode, sound can affect how fast we eat, how much we’re prepared to pay for our meal, and even what it tastes like.

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Plants that can hear themselves being eaten. Microphone-equipped drones that eavesdrop on sick chickens. Lasers that detect an insect’s wing-beats from dozens of feet away.

In this James Bond-inspired episode of Gastropod, we listen to the soundtrack of farming, decode the meaning hidden in each squawk, moo, and buzz, and learn how we can use that information to improve our food in the future. Tune in now for this special broadcast of the barnyard orchestra!

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