WEBVTT - Is the Kraft Single America's Greatest Invention? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.800 Guess what mango? What's that? Well, now you're a Wallace 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.880 and Grammt fan, right, definitely, I love Wallas and Gramut. 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.119 Well I've got a fact. You may not know about them, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.360 but did you know they actually helped save a cheese No, 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:13.880 how's that. It was in the early nineties and these 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.799 cheesemakers behind Wensleydale Cheeses, they were struggling and according to 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.480 the Yorkshire Post, things were so bad at the creamery 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.160 that the company was actually considering closing up shop. And 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.320 then this little phenomenon called Wallace and Grommt came along. 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.280 So for you listeners who don't know, and the animations 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:35.440 the crackpot inventor Wallace loves cheese and especially Wensleydale, and 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.400 the animators chose it because it sounds charming and British 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.560 and yeah, I've kind of made for a good punch line. 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.760 But it was just a coincidence. Actually, they were unaware 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.280 of the hardships the Little Cheese company was going through, 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.440 but the short films actually caused sales to jump by 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.519 twenty three and before long this little forgotten cheese was 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.200 getting imported in big numbers to the US, Canada and 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.240 Mango France and then just one of the stories we're 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.520 gonna tell you today about cheese. So let's dive in 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.840 a their podcast. Listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.840 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.160 friend Man Guess and on the other side of the 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.960 soundproof glass tucking into the most lavish cheese straight imaginable, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.200 that is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, for 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:40.479 today's show, we're giving cheese it's due by checking out 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.840 the science and history behind everyone's favorite golden curds. We're 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.640 gonna explore some fun origins, peek into what makes rotten 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.400 milk so delicious, and along the way, we'll also take 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.120 a look at the state of American cheese today. Yeah, 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:54.840 but before we get started, we wanted to give a 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.440 quick shout out to our researcher Gabe, who was under 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.520 the weather this week, but it did an amazing job 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.559 working through it to get us some facts and stories 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.360 for today's episode. So gave your real hero and a 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:10.240 traditional get well creative Stinky cheeses has headed your way. Man, Okabe, 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.680 you are such a hero. But anyway, all right, well 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:14.679 mego We've got a whole wide world of cheese is 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.239 to dive into. So so where do you want to start? Well, 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.400 I know we were talking before the show about how 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.200 cheese is this universally beloved food, Like kids go crazy 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.760 for mac and cheese. It's uh. I think it's pizza 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.160 rat's favorite type of pizza, and sophisticated adults eat it 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.880 for a course instead of dessert. But actually, speaking of 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:33.320 mac and cheese, you know, one of the things I 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.919 read this week was that Kraft mac and cheese is 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.560 actually more popular in Canada than anywhere else in the world. 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.240 Did you know this? So Food Republic had this article 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.240 about it and they cite that of the seven million 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:49.040 boxes sold around the globe every week, Canadians consume one 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.960 point seven million of those. That's incredible. Yeah, Canada eats 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.320 twice as much mac and cheese as we do here 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.000 in the States, and most people referred to it as 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.639 Kraft Dinners or just k D for short. I'm serious, 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.960 Kevin Durant isn't the default k D and Canada Craft 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.560 Dinners are. That's how big it is. You know, it's 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.520 even referred to as the national dish of Canada and 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.880 I had no idea about this before we were doing 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.519 our research this week. That's pretty funny. So I always 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.080 think of craft is such an American thing, and I 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.040 actually wanted to talk about craft cheese in a bit, 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.959 but before we do, did you realize that cheese is 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.360 actually the most shoplifted item in the entire world? You know, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.400 I feel like it heard about that in Europe, but 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.520 but actually worldwide. I know. So I would have thought 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.600 it was candy or maybe c d s back when 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.920 c ds were a thing. But according to the Center 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.720 for Retailed Research, which is this British organization, cheese is 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.640 the most frequently stolen item in the entire world. And 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:45.280 this is nuts, but they claim that four percent of 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.760 the world's cheese supply winds up being shoplifted. Four percent. Actually, 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.000 I read in five thirty eight that the US produces 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.040 about a billion pounds of cheese every month, So that 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.920 seems like a lot of stolen cheese. So any idea 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.760 why it's such a tempting target. Well, I think it 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.960 mostly comes down to practical reasons, like it's pretty easy 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.800 to pocket some cheese if you need to. I that 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:08.480 might be easy, but I don't know. They want to 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.840 like stick some brie in my pockets or anything like that, 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.840 But you're right, it probably wouldn't look suspicious, I guess, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:16.640 or just like pour some not to cheese down a 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.000 short pocket, you know. But you know, cheeses are generally 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.799 packaged in tiny serving so it's not like the majority 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.160 of shoplifters are trying to steal these giant wheels of 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.320 cheese or anything. But I think the real appeal is 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.839 the cheese itself. So for anyone who's hungry or desperate, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.040 cheese is rich in vitamins and protein, and plus it 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.320 can keep for months at a time, and of course 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.800 it tastes delicious, right, But that isn't actually the only 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.200 type of cheese theft I read about. So I was 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.160 reading about this cheese crime earlier this summer at a 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.640 food competition in England, and there were these two enormous 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.080 blocks of cheddar that one first and second place at 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.919 the Yovil Show, which I guess is a big festival 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.000 in Summerset. But then after the judging, some cat burglars 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.520 snuck into the tent and made off with the big cheese. 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.919 And I mean that literally, so like according to an 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.600 article in the Daily Mail. Each cheese was about the 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.200 weight of a bag of cement and the size of 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.240 a traditional bulky TV sets. Oh my god, that is 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.840 some big cheese. Yeah, and apparently the crime was premeditated because, 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.880 like the authorities agreed, quote, the blocks are not the 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.800 sort of thing you can put in a handbag or 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:27.520 hide up your jumper. But but if the thieves can 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:29.920 get these stolen goods to like the U s or France, 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.119 they should actually be able to make a few thousand 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.560 dollars for their efforts on the black market or um, 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.280 you know, like just end up with a year's worth 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.760 of the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever. That sounds pretty 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.160 good to me. Yeah, so keep your eyes peeled for 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.840 its especially big cheddar blocks on even I guess well, 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.040 I definitely will. But let's talk a little bit more 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.520 broadly about cheese and how it's actually made. I don't 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.039 know if you saw this number, but did you realize 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.360 there over fourteen hundred different types of cheese out there? 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.680 So that allows for a variety and flavors and textures 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.839 and of course aromas that's really unparalleled by any other food. Yeah, 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.840 there's actually this overview of cheeses from the nineteen sixties 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.400 called the Cheese Book, and uh, it refers to cheese 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.200 as the wine of foods. And that's partially because the 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.279 fermentation makes it possible to have this like tremendous amount 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.200 of variants, even though cheeses are generally made from the 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.159 same ingredients. And I know you looked into some of 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.360 the early history of cheese. I definitely want to hear 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:27.720 about that. But before we get into that, can I 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.320 redo this one quote game found because it just made 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.760 me really happy? Sure, So what is it? So it's 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.400 by this American writer Clifton Fatiman, who used to write 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.880 for The New Yorker, and he wrote a cheese may disappoint, 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.120 it may be dull, it may be naive, it may 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:50.000 be oversophisticated, yet it remains cheese. Milks leap towards immortality. 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.520 Oh man, I've got goose bumps from that. Man said, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.440 milks leap towards immortality. That's a big quote. I like that. Yeah, 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.680 I love it too. But let's talk about cheese's humble beginnings. 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.760 So when you find out in your research, al right, 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:03.640 so there are a lot of happy accidents in the 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.839 history of the world so of course the discovery of 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.919 penicillin falls into that category. So does the discovery of 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.840 corn flakes and the invention of the slinky, and then 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.200 of course there's cheese. I like the idea that, like 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.080 penicilla and corn flakes, the slinky and cheese can all 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.120 sort of hang out and have this one thing in common. 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.200 So I've read basically the same story in a few places, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.400 but this is how Wired told it. The whole thing 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.640 began when a herdsman carrying a ruminate stomach brimming with 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.400 milk found that by journeys in he had a bag 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.360 full of curds and way. Now some stories claim this 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.200 guy was an Arabian merchant, but whatever the case, for 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.640 some reason he looked into this bag and it was 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.400 using it to transport this milk, and he wasn't put 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.280 off by the smell. And then he decided to stuff 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.160 that cheese in his mouth. I mean, I don't know 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.440 why he would do this, but it was either good 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.680 enough or interesting enough that he decided to do it again. 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.600 And you know, that's the most common theory. But in 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.000 terms of things we can point to the first real 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.160 evidence of cheesemaking that we have is from like seventy 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.480 years ago, and it was from an old pot in Poland, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.000 and the researchers at the University of Bristol found a 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.720 vessel that looks like it was used to make cheeses. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.760 Apparently the inners of the thing look very much like 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.240 a modern cheese trainer, and after analyzing the nooks and 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.120 the crevices of the thing that the scientists realized they 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.440 were right. They found fatty acids still stuck in the container, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.880 which proved it had been used to separate the way 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.040 from the Kurds in order to make cheese. So I'm 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.239 always amazed by this sort of like historical detective work. 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:33.640 So I don't even understand, like, how do you know 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.160 to look for fatty acids because something kind of looks 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.840 like a cheese trainer. It's amazing. So do you know 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.040 anything about why are Polish forefathers, I mean your Polish 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.679 forefathers and my Polish forefathers father to make cheese? Like 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.520 it feels like such a laborious effort when you've already 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:52.960 got meat and milk at the ready. Well, if you 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.679 think about it, a lot of it comes down to convenience. 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.760 So then transporting you know, cheese is a lot easier 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.400 and its stores pretty well, and eating it meant you 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.120 could settle down and sustain yourself without having to kill 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.400 livestock for food. And the truth is the process hasn't 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.760 changed all that much in years. I mean, the basic 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.920 elements are still pretty much all the same. You let 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.840 fresh milk ferment with bacteria that can be wild or cultured, 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.200 and when there's enough facidity in your spoiled milk, you 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.240 had these enzymes to make it coagulate. So in that 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.920 Origin of Cheese story I was telling, these enzymes would 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.040 have come from the lining of the stomach bag that 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.200 was being used to transport this milk. And it's called rennet, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.240 but it can be made in a lab now. And 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.840 then you cut, stir and heat the product to remove 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.199 the fluid or the way. And finally you take the curds, 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.760 you put them in the mold with salt and press 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.120 them to get out all that extra liquid, and then 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.800 you let it mature until it blooms into a delicious 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.160 cheese that everybody wants to shoplift, I guess. But yeah, 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.959 here's what's interesting. You remember those four hundred types of 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.320 cheese I mentioned earlier well. According to food scientists Paul 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.040 Kinstead at the University of Vermont, the reason there's so 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.400 many distinct types of cheese is because there are so 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.400 many pre industrial communities that all needed a way to 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.079 preserve milk, so they all figured out their own cheese recipes. 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.679 You know, these different solutions for making cheese given their 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.160 regions distinct climate or milk types or all sorts of 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.480 other conditions there. That's really fascinating. And you know, you 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.319 always hear that term tarawa associated with wine, like all 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.400 the elements of a region's terrain and these unquantifiable conditions 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.400 that give a wine it's unique flavor, and you can 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.640 see why that word gets applied to cheese as well. 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.000 Speaking of tarawa, I was reading this BBC article on 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:38.599 this cheese called baster Boten Soast. I'm obviously reading that 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.000 off my notes because there's no way I could remember that. 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.720 But this cheese is super famous in Sweden. It's like 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.920 this hard yellow cheese with tiny holes, and according to 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.000 the BBC article, it's served everywhere. It's sort of like 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:55.480 royal weddings, that the Nobel Prize dinner the at that 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.880 restaurant Noma it's like the most famous rest armor whatever, 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.880 and there's even been poetry written about it. I mean, 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.160 I feel like that's the ultimate compliment for cheese, is 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.080 when a poem gets written about it and the Prince 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.920 of Jordan claims it's what he loves about Sweden most. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.600 But the craziest thing about this cheese isn't that it's 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.640 in such high demand, but that no one can replicate 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.320 the cheese and other regions, and not even the dairy 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.040 that produces it itself. So apparently some years ago they 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.840 tried to expand their operation to a nearby city, but 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.920 none of the cheese they made there came out the same. 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.040 Like they commissioned this elaborate research to figure out why 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.000 they did all these like big chemical analyzes on the cheese, 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.960 but their scientists just couldn't figure it out. And they're 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.040 all these theories, right, Like some people think there's this 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.960 distinct micro flora in the building and and boor cross 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.240 where the building where the cheese is aged and that 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.000 supposedly gives it a distinct layer of flavor. Or there 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.360 are these old spruce shelves and people think like that 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.760 the cheese is aged on that is contributing to the 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.880 flavor or um. Some people think the cows in the 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.680 usun get more sunlight and that affects their milk. Like 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.680 they're all these theories in fact, like like one of 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.559 the more far out ones is that, like there was 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.800 a meteorite that hit the lake in town, and people 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.360 think that affected the region's soil, So the soil is 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.719 what's contributing. Anyway, There are a lot of ideas, but 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.959 for whatever reason, no one's been able to replicate the 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.600 cheese's distinct flavor anywhere else. That really is fascinating. All right, well, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.360 why don't we pick this up with the origin of 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.800 a cheese that's very replicable and that's American cheese. But 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:44.480 let's do that right after a break. Welcome back to 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.000 part time Genius. All right, Mango, before the break, I 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.800 think you said something about how poetry about cheese might 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.360 be the ultimate compliment you can give a cheese. I 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.400 really I'm going to have to disagree with you on this, 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.640 So I'm curious where you're going with this, because I 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.000 think the highest compliment might be when the Virgin Mary's 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.640 face shows up on the side of your grilled cheese sandwich. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:04.880 You know, just to let you know you've got a 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.920 superior cheese on your hands. You know, I remember that 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.160 Jesus cheeto, like the one that looked like Jesus on 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.840 the cross, And I know there was a Jesus image 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.920 that someone found on a marmite lid in Australia, But 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.559 I don't really remember the grilled cheese Madonna you're talking about. 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.000 Oh man, the story was pretty incredible and I remember 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:24.360 it from the news as a kid. But it was 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.520 in this Florida woman made herself a grilled cheese. She 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.400 then cut it in half, took a bite, and then 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.520 stopped because she saw the Mother Mary staring back at 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.400 her right there in her toast. I mean, this must 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.280 have been an amazing experience. And then for some reason 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.480 she decided to box the thing that this half sandwich, 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.480 and and she put some cotton balls around it, and 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.080 she kept it on her nightstand as a good luck charm. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:50.480 And she claims the blessed grilled cheese helped her win 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.440 seventy thousand dollars in a casino, among other things. And 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.160 in that time it never actually sprouted mold, and that 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.160 just increased her faith. And it's hours you know. But 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.880 then in two thousand four, she decided to sell it 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.000 on eBay, and the auction side initially took the listing 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.160 down because I thought it was a hoax, but then 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.960 they allowed it to go back up, and the Miracle 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.920 on Toast sold for twenty eight thousand dollars to Golden 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:20.200 Palace dot Com, which is this online casino. So between 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.400 her like seventy thousand and winning and this twenty thousand 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.440 from this other casino, she basically, like milt a hundred 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.840 thousand dollars out of casinos. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.280 So was it really a ten year old sandwich? Like, 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.120 how come I didn't have any mold on it? Well, 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.040 Brendan Corner at Slate actually did this analysis on and 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.720 talked about all the factors that could have been contributing 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.360 to this. So the wonder bread would have had plenty 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.680 of preservatives. I know, you might like wonder bread, but 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:47.320 you might not be surprised to know there are a 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.480 few preservatives in there. And the margine that was slathered 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.280 on it would also protect the bread with its trans fats. 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:55.760 And you know, the cook cheese itself could have changed 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.480 the pH which would have slowed the molds growth as well. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.240 But that said, Corner did think it was pretty special 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:03.840 that there was no mold at all on this sandwich. 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.720 I mean that that is unbelievable. But there's a bigger 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.120 shock to this mego, and that was that a copycat 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.840 sandwich with Hello Kitty's face, and you think that'd be 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.120 a big deal. It only had a high bit on 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.480 it of eighties cents, So sad well, I like that. 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.840 No one saying top dollar for a miracle kitty sandwich. Actually, also, 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.280 just for the record, when she sold the grilled cheese, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.000 the Florida woman insisted that whoever the next buyer was 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:31.200 not devour the Mother Mary sandwich, and the casino not 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.560 surprisingly agreed to this. I mean, it's a ten year 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.880 old sandwich. But speaking of special cheeses, I know you 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.400 looked into the history of American cheese, so why don't 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:40.680 you take a minute just to give us a quick 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.680 rundown of it. So America rallied around making cheddar pretty early, 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.920 and Cheddar was this incredibly hearty cheese. It weathered the 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.680 temperatures and humidity really well on like some of the 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.800 other European cheeses. But it still tasted great, and by 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:58.680 the seventeen nineties, the US was exporting cheese to England 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.240 as quote Yankee cheese. It was also called American cheese 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.000 back then too, and the upper classes in England looked 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.920 down on this stuff, partially because it came from America, 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.040 but also because they didn't think it stood up to 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.640 the traditional English cheddars. And the quality really varied from 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.720 cheese to cheese. But it's sold to the lower classes 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.400 in England because it's so cheap, and America sort of 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.560 rallied around this cheddar cheese. So I don't know if 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.360 you've gone to Upstate New York. Is my mother in 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:26.960 law's from Upstate New York. But um, they're all these 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:31.600 stores there that sells store cheese in the windows. Yeah, 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.080 and I I never heard that term before. But the 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:36.680 first time I saw it, I was so confused, like, 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.760 what's store cheese? But that's just the term for local cheddar. 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.920 And it's almost like a house wine. But Upstate New 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.240 York's love affair with cheese really took off in the 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.800 eighteen fifties and eighteen fifty one in particular. That's when 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.680 this gentleman named Jesse Williams started a cheese revolution by 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.440 starting the first big cheese factory in upstate New York. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.320 Like his son wasn't a very good cheesemaker, apparently, and 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.360 he decided to help him out by buying look from 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.840 the surrounding areas, and together they made this more consistently 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.879 quality cheese. And according to David Clark, who was our 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.080 you might remember who was our cheese historian at Mental Floss, 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.800 the factories just took off in the region from there, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:16.680 and by the eighteen seventies, the US was sending over 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.880 three hundred million pounds of cheese back to England every year. 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.160 So Cheddar sort of became the default cheese. That's really interesting, 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.480 and I like that we claim we had a cheese 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.400 historian at Mental Flaws. That's pretty great. He was awesome, though. 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.240 So I do want to touch on things like Monterey 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.080 Jack and other American cheeses, But how do we get 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.119 from Cheddar to craft singles? Like? Is there actually a 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.679 thread there? Yeah? Definitely. So one of the things I 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.639 was stunned by was how early James Kraft was in 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.240 the business. And actually Canada kind of comes to their 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.320 love of craft honestly because he was a Canadian who 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.240 moved to the States and saw this opportunity in whole 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.160 selling cheese. I guess he was trying to figure out 0:17:57.160 --> 0:17:59.879 how to reduce waste, because at first he was just 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.640 trying to cram cheese into jars and then into cans apparently, 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.960 which just seems so gross. But then in uh in 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.160 nineteen sixteen, he stumbled into this genius idea and here 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:17.000 I'm quoting Clark again. By shredding refuse cheese, repasteurizing it, 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:21.320 and mixing in some sodium phosphate, Kraft produced the strange 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.520 wonder we now know as American processed cheese, and apparently 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:27.560 it was this huge success from the start, right, Like 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:32.080 Kraft was this true American salesman. He marketed his cheese, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.680 which was obviously made from scrap cheese, as this superior 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:39.400 product because it was more consistent. And by the nineteen thirties, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.359 over the cheese consumed in America was craft, which is crazy, right, 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.720 So naturally this processed cheese had this much longer shelf 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.280 life than anything that was natural, and when he got 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.720 into supplying cheese for the troops, his business really took off. 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.720 Of course, later cheese manufacturer's lobby to have Crafts product 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.359 called a cheese product instead of a natural cheese. Yeah, 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.600 that's right, because you know, anything with less than I 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.920 think it's fifty one cheese and it can't legally be 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.879 called cheese, which which to me seems pretty fair if 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:13.280 it's less than that. But you know, whatever, I hear 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.720 the phrase cheese product, I always think of cheese whiz 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:18.520 and how you told me that story about when the 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.840 inventor of cheese was tried a jar of it. Decades later, 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.760 he actually called up the hotline for the company because 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.720 it tasted so terrible. Yeah, they changed the formula to 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.240 not use any cheese, and he called up the hotline 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.919 to tell him it tasted like axle grease, like his 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.159 exact words. But back to the graft single. So that 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:41.240 was James's brother, Norman's invention. Norman Craft and he knew 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.399 that sliced cheese from the store was pretty inconsistent, like 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:46.720 it came in all sorts of sizes and thickness. So 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.480 in he started playing with ways to make a more 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.560 convenient cheese and this was going to be a godsend 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.080 to people, but it actually took him fifteen years to 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:57.960 do it, but the way he did is kind of cool, 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.720 Like he had these ribbons of cheese like hot cheese 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.240 that would get poured and then cut by a machine 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.480 and packaged in a block of eight peelable slices. It 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:10.199 was a huge improvement, and the press actually raved about it. 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.000 They called him Mom Deluxe Process slices. And according to 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:15.919 the New York Times, cheese slices used to curl and 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.240 dry out and this solved those problems. So sales of 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.840 Craft just skyrocketed after the innovation, all thanks to Norman. 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:24.399 That just sounds like the name of the guy that 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.800 should have invented Craft cheese, or should have invented this 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.600 process cheese. But so so when did they actually start 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.240 coming individually wrapped? Yeah, so I looked at that too, 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.399