Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us for the first episode of
Speaker 2: a new season of Criminalia. This season, we'll be talking
Speaker 2: about arson, firebugs, and in this episode a creature known
Speaker 2: as the petreluse. The petreluse is at its very basics,
Speaker 2: considered to be a woman who uses petroleum fuel to
Speaker 2: set fires, according to the rumors around Paris in May
Speaker 2: of eighteen seventy one, though multiple petrulus were to blame
Speaker 2: for burning down much of the city. Of course, the
Speaker 2: story is a lot bigger than that, so let's get
Speaker 2: into it. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarki.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. And to talk about the Petreluse.
Speaker 1: And even though that sounds the same to English speakers
Speaker 1: as the singular, we are talking plural here. We need
Speaker 1: to first talk a bit about what was happening in
Speaker 1: France when they allegedly materialized, specifically the political turmoil in
Speaker 1: France in the nineteenth century, how France became a democracy
Speaker 1: after its defeat in the Franco Prussian War of eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy and the impact of the short lived radical Paris
Speaker 1: Commune that resulted. We fully acknowledge that, yes, one could
Speaker 1: easily spend a lifetime talking about the details of the
Speaker 1: commune what led up to it. You know, once you
Speaker 1: get from French Revolution into like late nineteenth century is
Speaker 1: kind of one long arc. That is a lot of
Speaker 1: things impacting one another and how things ultimately came to
Speaker 1: a fiery end. But because our focus is on the
Speaker 1: female supporters of the Paris Commune and the mythology that
Speaker 1: grew out of accusations of them being quote rebellious, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk pretty quickly through the historical timeline to
Speaker 1: get to the rise of the commune itself.
Speaker 2: Big changes happened in Central Europe after the Holy Roman
Speaker 2: Empire dissolved in eighteen oh six, and that included the
Speaker 2: unification of states. Before eighteen oh six, the German speaking States,
Speaker 2: or simply called the German States, had only been neighbors,
Speaker 2: really together, only in a very loose political entity. That
Speaker 2: political entity was the Holy Roman Empire. In the absence
Speaker 2: of that, Prince Otto von Bismarck thought he'd tried to
Speaker 2: unify all German states under the control of his northern
Speaker 2: German state of Prussia. Consolidation led to the creation of
Speaker 2: the German Confederation that was thirty nine unified states, including Prussia. Consolidation,
Speaker 2: though spawned three wars. The first war of German unification
Speaker 2: was the eighteen sixty two Danish War, the second was
Speaker 2: the eighteen sixty six Austro Prussian War, and the third
Speaker 2: and final piece of consolidation was the Franco Prussian War
Speaker 2: of eighteen seventy.
Speaker 1: And that brings us to Emperor Napoleon the Third. Napoleon
Speaker 1: Bonaparte's nephew, Napoleon the Third led what was known as
Speaker 1: France's Second Empire, and he did not much care for
Speaker 1: Otto's idea. He declared war against Prussia in retaliation. German troops, though,
Speaker 1: were ultimately better prepared than the French army, and the
Speaker 1: war ended with France's admission of defeat. France signed an
Speaker 1: armistice with the new Prussian led German Empire in January
Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy one, and remaining French government officials formed
Speaker 1: a new legislative National Assembly. Adolf Thier was appointed to
Speaker 1: lead the incoming government, a parliamentary republic rather than a monarchy,
Speaker 1: and he sat as President of what would become known
Speaker 1: as France's Third Republic. The new government set itself up
Speaker 1: at the former royal palace at Versailles, only about twelve
Speaker 1: miles west of Paris, and it remained there for several years. Today,
Speaker 1: the period of the Third Republic is considered to have
Speaker 1: been the first stable electoral democracy with universal male suffrage
Speaker 1: in Europe. This new government, though, was more conservative than
Speaker 1: the citizens of Paris were, and many were unhappy that
Speaker 1: the new rules seemed very similar to the old rule. It,
Speaker 1: like the Second Empire, was supported by the Catholic Church
Speaker 1: as well as military leaders and France's conservative population, but
Speaker 1: among Parisians there was a fear that it was just
Speaker 1: going to turn out to be a republican name only,
Speaker 1: and that the new political leaders planned to re establish
Speaker 1: the monarchy.
Speaker 2: Working class Parisians, who were both angry at the armistice
Speaker 2: with Germany and with Tierre's leadership, established a new revolutionary
Speaker 2: political authority, the Paris Commune. Its delegates, known as the
Speaker 2: commune Ards, were considered among Parisians to be a group
Speaker 2: of low class, ruthless radicals. They were actually mainly comprised
Speaker 2: of Jacobin's but also included Blancists as well as members
Speaker 2: of Karl Marxi International Workingmen's Association. The Paris Commune lasted
Speaker 2: for sixty four days. Though it existed for just two months,
Speaker 2: the Commune made a big impact and it's where we
Speaker 2: find the beginnings of the Petrulus. Concepts and ideas that
Speaker 2: in many countries are considered pretty commonplace in modern democracies.
Speaker 2: Things like women's rights, workers' rights, as well as separation
Speaker 2: of church and state. These were radical concepts that were
Speaker 2: not accepted in France in eighteen seventy one, but they
Speaker 2: were accepted ideas within the commune.
Speaker 1: The creation of the Paris Commune introduced more anger and
Speaker 1: aggression to the city. We're going to jump ahead a
Speaker 1: few months to April of eighteen seventy one, when the
Speaker 1: Versaie those are the troops who had remained loyal to
Speaker 1: Tiars's new government began amassing outside the city, fearing an
Speaker 1: impending attack, and rightly so, the leaders of the Paris
Speaker 1: Commune ready to mountain offensive. Louis Rossel, a soldier unhappy
Speaker 1: at the armistice with Germany, felt the new commune offered
Speaker 1: a quote lifeline, and he wrote to the Minister of
Speaker 1: war quote. I do not hesitate to join the side
Speaker 1: which has not concluded peace and which does not include
Speaker 1: in its ranks generals guilty of capitulation. Early offensive attempts failed, though,
Speaker 1: and Commune leaders called off their attacks on the Palace,
Speaker 1: but this.
Speaker 2: In turn then emboldened Tiers's troops, who attacked, entering the
Speaker 2: city through an unguarded city wall. At the time, Paris
Speaker 2: had roughly two million residents, and the war was being
Speaker 2: fought literally on their streets, in their front yards. By
Speaker 2: May twenty second, more than fifty thousand of tiers troops
Speaker 2: had moved into the city, and he hoped that suppressing
Speaker 2: the insurrection would ultimately strengthen the position of the Third Republic.
Speaker 2: In response, the Paris Commune issued a call to arms,
Speaker 2: and this is what brings us to the Paris and
Speaker 2: what's known as lass Amene Saint Blanc or the Bloody Wheat.
Speaker 1: Paris, as you can imagine, had turned into chaos at
Speaker 1: this point. By May twenty third, the third day of
Speaker 1: the Bloody Week, Tirs's troops were targeting and killing supporters
Speaker 1: of the Commune in earnest communards, Catholic clergy. Let's just
Speaker 1: go ahead, and say anyone and everyone who lived in
Speaker 1: the city feared being shot or killed day and night
Speaker 1: and without cause. In one truly terrible statistic, more than
Speaker 1: three hundred suspected Communards were killed inside the church of
Speaker 1: Saint Marie Madeleine by Versailles troops. French poet Augustine Malvina
Speaker 1: Blanche Cotte described in her work Tablette dunfem pond'n la
Speaker 1: commune that's writings of a woman during the commune, the
Speaker 1: smell of gunpowder and the overwhelming terror around her. On
Speaker 1: May twenty four, she wrote, quote, the night has been dreadful,
Speaker 1: with reciprocal fury shells, shrapnel, cannonade, musketry all kept on
Speaker 1: bursting in a frightful concert. The sky itself is red.
Speaker 1: The flashes of the massacre have set it on fire.
Speaker 2: The city really wasn't prepared for conflict at this level.
Speaker 2: Many street barricades went unmanned. There wasn't enough ammunition. The
Speaker 2: city was defended not by the French army, those were
Speaker 2: Tier's forces, but rather by the local national guard called
Speaker 2: the Federat, which had roughly four hundred thousand volunteers among
Speaker 2: its forces. The national Guard had played a major role
Speaker 2: in previous wars, including the Franco Prussian War, but was
Speaker 2: disbanded by TIER soon after the establishment of the Third Republic.
Speaker 2: That job loss contributed to recent economic losses throughout the city,
Speaker 2: sparking additional anger among Parisians. When the Guard was reactivated
Speaker 2: to defend Paris during the eighteen seventy one uprising, it
Speaker 2: wasn't the unit Tier had known. It was a a
Speaker 2: newly radicalized national Guard that wasn't above say, burning down
Speaker 2: the Hotel Deville.
Speaker 1: Fires were intentionally set around the city during the uprising,
Speaker 1: and many during the Bloody Wheat. Targets included the Hotel
Speaker 1: de Ville as we just mentioned, the Palais de Justice,
Speaker 1: Tuilieri Palace, the Richelieut Library of the Louver, dozens of
Speaker 1: smaller buildings near the Rue Royale and the Rue de
Speaker 1: Faubourg Saint Honore, as well as the commercial docks along
Speaker 1: the Seine. Anything that had a whiff of the monarchy
Speaker 1: about it was considered a target, and among one of
Speaker 1: the first marks set ablaze was the Vendome Column. That's
Speaker 1: a monument that Napoleon Bonaparte had erected to honor well himself.
Speaker 1: The commune arts called it quote a monument of barbarism,
Speaker 1: and the idea to destroy the tower is sometimes credited
Speaker 1: to French artist Gustave Courbet, who had held leadership positions
Speaker 1: on the commune's arts and education councils, although he had
Speaker 1: broken with the commune before the Vendome column was attacked.
Speaker 1: Some private homes were looted and burned, including the residence
Speaker 1: of Adolph Thierre. In the days and months that followed
Speaker 1: the uprising, the fires and those who set them took
Speaker 1: on a story all their own.
Speaker 2: The Bloody Week ended on May twenty eighth, when Tierre's
Speaker 2: forces took control of the city, and a final act
Speaker 2: of brutality, roughly one hundred and fifty commune ards were
Speaker 2: executed and buried in a mass grave at Perlische's cemetery
Speaker 2: the night of May twenty seventh. More than forty three
Speaker 2: thousand Parisians were arrested in the aftermath of the uprising.
Speaker 2: Some leaders of the newly defunct commune fled France. Others
Speaker 2: were exiled to the French territory of New Caledonia in
Speaker 2: the South Pacific. Some were executed for their role in
Speaker 2: the uprising, though many members in the commune were eventually
Speaker 2: granted amnesty.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 1: our sponsors, and when we return, we will talk about
Speaker 1: how the story of these Parisian arsonists just doesn't hold up.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how the female
Speaker 2: Communards became a scapegoat for the violence that happened during
Speaker 2: the uprising and the misogynistic coverage of the trial that followed.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the fires. We know from modern
Speaker 1: historians and some not so modern historians that the fires
Speaker 1: set around Paris during the uprising were likely set by
Speaker 1: Tiers troops as well as the National Guard and those
Speaker 1: who were striking out in political anger, but that is
Speaker 1: not how the story of these fires was told. The
Speaker 1: widespread arson, according to the original narrative, was attributed to
Speaker 1: the women Communards, who were given the nickname les Petrolus.
Speaker 1: American historian Albert Boehm once wrote that these women quote
Speaker 1: often symbolized the commune as a militant female, the mythical petruluse,
Speaker 1: the female incendiary who flouted her true nature.
Speaker 2: Women did have an active role in the Paris Commune,
Speaker 2: and that included everything from caring for the wounded to
Speaker 2: fighting in their revolution. There were a number of feminist
Speaker 2: initiatives proposed in the Commune, including equal wages for women,
Speaker 2: the right to divorce, and professional education for women, yet
Speaker 2: there were no women in leadership positions in the Commune.
Speaker 2: In her book The Fury Archives, Female Citizenship, Human Rights
Speaker 2: and the International Avant Garde, author Jill Richards writes that
Speaker 2: at the time, women who were active in politics would
Speaker 2: have been at the same time excluded from any kind
Speaker 2: of political recognition. That was the climate, and that was
Speaker 2: true within the Second Empire, the Third Republic, and the
Speaker 2: Commune's Central Committee. Richards calls these women political actors, human
Speaker 2: but not given the rights of men.
Speaker 1: At a time in France when women had no political
Speaker 1: rights and little to know liberties, the idea of the
Speaker 1: Petreloeus of the Paris Commune was one that represented the
Speaker 1: emancipated woman that was the usual term for a feminist
Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century. The petrelieuz was considered among Parisians
Speaker 1: to be dangerous. According to Gay Gullickson, professor Emerita at
Speaker 1: the University of Maryland and author of the book Unruly
Speaker 1: Women of Paris images of the Commune. Quote. They were
Speaker 1: women who had left the domestic sphere for the political arena,
Speaker 1: where feminism challenges bourgeois men's sense of order, power and
Speaker 1: well being. There was and is no evidence that there
Speaker 1: was an all girl arson gang.
Speaker 2: Female commune arts were on trial for their alleged arson
Speaker 2: activities during the uprising. French journalist Leonce DuPont recalled that
Speaker 2: the women were ugly, to be sure, but not quite
Speaker 2: ugly enough, or not as ugly as one might have expected.
Speaker 2: And though we paraphrased him a little bit there, all
Speaker 2: those ugly words were his, and it's his words, those
Speaker 2: ugly words that went on to become pretty much the
Speaker 2: default record of the fourth Military Tribunal of the Paris
Speaker 2: Commune that was the first of the trials to be
Speaker 2: devoted to female commune arts.
Speaker 1: Five women appeared in court, Elizabeth Gretife, Leontine Souetin, Josephine
Speaker 1: mauche Eula li Papavoine, and Lucie Marie Bouquamp. And of
Speaker 1: all of them, DuPont wrote, quote, they were not hideous enough,
Speaker 1: not old enough, not criminal enough to inspire horror. He
Speaker 1: had more to say on the subject, and reportedly knowing
Speaker 1: a little about physiognomy, he deliberately focused on any facial
Speaker 1: markings or perceived deformities the women had. So physiognomy, in
Speaker 1: case you do not know, is a pseudoscience. It's the
Speaker 1: practice of assessing a person's character or personality traits from
Speaker 1: their physical characteristics, and specifically their face. DuPaul reported Elizabeth
Speaker 1: had a quote large nose and beast like grin. He
Speaker 1: also wrote that she was overdressed for court and perspired
Speaker 1: too much. Leontine's left cheek, he noted, was scarred, and
Speaker 1: he went on to speculate that this may have happened
Speaker 1: in a brothel. There's no evidence at all to suggest
Speaker 1: that Josephine, he observed, seemed dirty and withered, and he
Speaker 1: wrote that she looked angry, quote like a fury. He
Speaker 1: found twenty four year old ulales face to be too large,
Speaker 1: and of Lucy well, her mouth was just too big.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for any evidence that these women were arsonists, though,
Speaker 1: do not look to DuPont. His account sort of reads
Speaker 1: like a Petrelouze fanfic.
Speaker 2: Renee de Polges, a journalist for the French Daily newspaper,
Speaker 2: le Figero also expressed disappointment with the looks of the
Speaker 2: accused arsonists. In his coverage of the trial, he reported
Speaker 2: that a crowd had gathered outside the courtroom quote with
Speaker 2: some excitement, no doubt, because the very word petreluze summoned
Speaker 2: the most sinister menace, that is to say, savage hordes
Speaker 2: of she devils. However, to the audience's dismay, the persons
Speaker 2: led to the bench were ruined girls, ragged, grown pale
Speaker 2: from their night watches or darkened by the sun. Their
Speaker 2: voices hoarse, their eyes dull, no longer feminine or masculine,
Speaker 2: beings without sex, without morality, without conscience, without even cynicism.
Speaker 2: He never uses the word ugly, as DuPont like to
Speaker 2: throw about quite liberally.
Speaker 1: But he really.
Speaker 2: Doesn't have to, does he. He doesn't even describe these
Speaker 2: women as human.
Speaker 1: Writers were not the only ones describing the accused this way.
Speaker 1: The Petrelius were also vilified through visual art. Misogynistic caricatures
Speaker 1: of women were printed in publications and newspapers, most depicting
Speaker 1: female Commune art supporters as mustachioed women carrying torches and
Speaker 1: watering cans full of gasoline. Some women were drawn with
Speaker 1: pig like features. The writing and the imagery had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with evidence, but it did directly reflect societal
Speaker 1: fears at that time, fears concerning the fight for female
Speaker 1: independence and agency, and in this instance, through women's participation
Speaker 1: in revolution.
Speaker 2: Captain Juan, prosecutor at the trials, stated of the accused women,
Speaker 2: quote the horrible campaign against civilization begun on March eighteenth
Speaker 2: by people who believe in neither God nor country, and
Speaker 2: alas in great number unworthy creatus who seem to have
Speaker 2: taken on the task of becoming an opprobrium to their sex.
Speaker 2: And she becomes a moral monstrosity, then woman is more
Speaker 2: dangerous than the most dangerous man. What began with what
Speaker 2: you might consider like low hanging fruit among misogynists, such
Speaker 2: as referring to women as a she devil, became a
Speaker 2: larger and uncomfortable question of how female commune ards mattered
Speaker 2: in regard to much bigger issues such as women's legal personhood.
Speaker 2: The accused women of the Commune emerged from the flames
Speaker 2: as a mythical creature, but they also emerged as a
Speaker 2: scapegoat whose role in the Commune, say modern historians, was
Speaker 2: exaggerated in reaction to the threat they posed.
Speaker 1: Since the nineteenth century, researchers and historians have tried to
Speaker 1: estimate the number of commune Ards killed in the uprising.
Speaker 1: Current estimates suggest that at least ten thousand people most
Speaker 1: during the Bloody Week, but as many as twenty thousand
Speaker 1: deaths may have happened.
Speaker 2: We are going to take a break forward from our
Speaker 2: sponsor now, but when we're back we will talk more
Speaker 2: about the depiction of the petreluse and the misogynistic narrative
Speaker 2: that formed around the female commune arts.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's continue talking about the way
Speaker 1: female commune arts were treated after the uprising and how
Speaker 1: their story became mythology.
Speaker 2: Even before the trials began, the press had fixated on
Speaker 2: a perverse idea of the petroluse. In their writing, reporters
Speaker 2: invoked descriptions including things like she wolves, the hydra, and
Speaker 2: other mythological monstrosities to describe the accused women. Early political
Speaker 2: cartoons printed newspapers portrayed women from the commune as ghoules
Speaker 2: carrying cans of gasoline. Propaganda postcards showed the petrulus as
Speaker 2: a witch, usually holding a water can and quote watering
Speaker 2: the fires of destruction because they violated traditional gender rules.
Speaker 2: Female commune ards were considered by journalists and illustrators to
Speaker 2: be unfeminine, and we saw the quote unnatural so many times.
Speaker 2: They were certainly not welcome in joining the political discourse.
Speaker 2: French novelist and poet Arson Hussai, who was a contemporary
Speaker 2: to the Commune, disparagingly wrote that quote with a kick
Speaker 2: to their skirts, we should cast into the hell of malediction,
Speaker 2: all these horrible creatures who have dishonored women in the
Speaker 2: saturnalias and impieties of the Commune.
Speaker 1: Of the misogynistic press coverage. Author Gaye Gilixen writes that
Speaker 1: quote virtually overnight, this representation of the dangerous, unruly female
Speaker 1: incendiary came to symbolize the evils of the commune. For
Speaker 1: its critics, she could not have been imagined without the
Speaker 1: fires that burned furiously in parts of the city. But
Speaker 1: she was also the heir of the female representations already circulating,
Speaker 1: the gun wielding Amazons, furies, viragos, female orators, and cantinier. Instead,
Speaker 1: the Petrulus lingered in people's minds, a powerful personification of
Speaker 1: evil with which to condemn the commune and to question
Speaker 1: the very nature of woman.
Speaker 2: Not all coverage of the women came from outside the commune,
Speaker 2: though in her memoirs completed in eighteen eighty six, female
Speaker 2: communore Louise Michelle described her mindset at the time as
Speaker 2: quote all or nothing of the events. She wrote barbarian
Speaker 2: that I am I love cannon, the smell of powder,
Speaker 2: machine gun bullets in the air. In contrast to the
Speaker 2: circulating propaganda, In real photographs of Luise, she appears to
Speaker 2: be a no nonsense woman dressed in a National Guard uniform.
Speaker 1: Summarized by French writer and male communard Benois Mallon, quote,
Speaker 1: above all, one important fact that the Paris Revolution brought
Speaker 1: to light is the entry of women into politics. They
Speaker 1: felt that the cooperation of women was indispensable to the
Speaker 1: triumph of the social revolution, which had reached the fighting stage.
Speaker 1: The woman and the proletariat, those ultimate victims of the
Speaker 1: old order, could not hope for their emancipation except by
Speaker 1: forming a strong union against all the forces of the past.
Speaker 2: Gullixon explains that quote vengeful proletarians were dangerous enough, but
Speaker 2: women posed even greater threats to the social order. She continues,
Speaker 2: explaining that there were damaging ideologies that grew up around
Speaker 2: the female commun art stories which show us today the
Speaker 2: extent of the fears around French women's potential political power
Speaker 2: and agency. During the Proletariat's civil war and revolution, they
Speaker 2: were punished for existing outside of the traditional domestic rule.
Speaker 2: Some were exiled and others were killed when the Commune
Speaker 2: fell to the Third Republic.
Speaker 1: Activist and founder of the Union des Femme Elizabeth Mitriev,
Speaker 1: a contemporary of the Paris Commune, once stated that these women,
Speaker 1: these radical women, felt that they could achieve quote the
Speaker 1: creation of a new social order founded on equality, solidarity
Speaker 1: and of freedom, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead
Speaker 1: of improving women's rights, female supporters of the Commune were
Speaker 1: demonized for daring to involve themselves in politics. Long after
Speaker 1: the Commune was gone, spite lingered and the women, or
Speaker 1: more accurately, the idea of what these women represented, became
Speaker 1: a successful scapegoat for the French state regarding the burning
Speaker 1: of Paris and atrocities committed during the uprising. These women
Speaker 1: are forever immortalized in the image of the Petreloeus and
Speaker 1: their mythology went beyond the borders of Paris and France.
Speaker 1: American politician and diplomat Elihu Washburn, for example, is known
Speaker 1: to have brought home tales of the quote savage petrelus
Speaker 1: in Paris, imagine that dinner party conversation.
Speaker 2: In the aftermath of the Paris Commune, a general feeling,
Speaker 2: like a general undercurrent throughout the city allowed for the
Speaker 2: concept of femininity to become greatly distorted among the public, politicians,
Speaker 2: and among the press covering the events. To quote Gallixen again,
Speaker 2: and this is because she really hits the nail on
Speaker 2: the head here. Bourgeois men and women were obsessed with
Speaker 2: representations of the women on the barricades as immoral and unnatural.
Speaker 2: For conservatives, the fires and the sinister Petreloeus were a
Speaker 2: godsend since they distracted attention from the army's slaughter of
Speaker 2: the Parisians.
Speaker 1: Everyone from historians to politicians to Parisian citizens has a
Speaker 1: differing view on the significance of the Petrulus, the violent uprising,
Speaker 1: and the commune. Revolutionary Karl Marx described the Paris Commune
Speaker 1: as the first proletarian revolution, one that rejected the authority
Speaker 1: of the French Third Republic. Vladimir Lenin, founder of the
Speaker 1: Russian Communist Party, was impressed by the quote revolutionary passion
Speaker 1: of the Commune arts. Chinese communist revolutionary and the founder
Speaker 1: of the People's Republic of China Mau Situng spoke of
Speaker 1: being inspired by the Commune Arts.
Speaker 2: But those women accused of using nineteenth century Molotov cocktails
Speaker 2: to burn down Paris, that's right, they didn't exist.
Speaker 1: All right, Maria. Yes, it's a new season and a
Speaker 1: new drink segment, so we're calling this one Lighter Fluid.
Speaker 2: Which I love.
Speaker 1: I can already tell that the challenge of this season
Speaker 1: is not making everything a spicy fire.
Speaker 2: Drink exactly, can we Let's just set all the drinks
Speaker 2: up and we'd get boring.
Speaker 1: They may all be spicy. We'll see what happens, We'll
Speaker 1: see what feels correct. So in this case, I started
Speaker 1: to think about flavors common in French foods. French food
Speaker 1: not really known for its spicy, fiery dishes, so that's
Speaker 1: one thing. But what French food is known for, among
Speaker 1: other things, is it's beautiful pastries. And so I started
Speaker 1: thinking about French fruit tarts. So usually like a fruit tart,
Speaker 1: there are obviously different variations, but there's a base like
Speaker 1: a crust that's usually a cookie type thing, like a
Speaker 1: very buttery crust, and then there's a creamy layer and
Speaker 1: then there's fresh fruit on top. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: do something that conjured that but also seemed like maybe
Speaker 1: you put a very mild hot sauce on top of it. Oh,
Speaker 1: So to start, you have to do a little prep
Speaker 1: on this one, which is that you have to take
Speaker 1: about four ounces of vodka. You're not gonna use all
Speaker 1: four ounces, this is just for prep.
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is a big drink, used it.
Speaker 1: Across multiple projects. But it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: we've talked about before if you if you go lower,
Speaker 1: your proportions of ingredients get a little harder to control
Speaker 1: as they shrink. So we're starting with four ounces of
Speaker 1: vodka and about a tea spoon or like a pretty
Speaker 1: rounded barspoon of paprika. You're gonna put that in the
Speaker 1: vodka and you're gonna let that sit not for a
Speaker 1: long time. This isn't like a multi day.
Speaker 2: Thing, and this is like a sweet Hungarian, not a smoky.
Speaker 1: It can be whatever paprika you have on hand. Truthfully,
Speaker 1: because the thing that you're pulling out of it that
Speaker 1: really gets left in the vibe cut is almost the same.
Speaker 1: Either way. Smoky is great in my opinion. You're gonna
Speaker 1: give it a little shake in, like a little jar
Speaker 1: or whatever you got. If you only have a cup
Speaker 1: and you stir it, that's fine too. You really only
Speaker 1: need to let that set forty five minutes, not a
Speaker 1: long time. Go have lunch while you do that. That's
Speaker 1: what I did. So then when you are ready, when
Speaker 1: that has set for a minute, you are gonna make
Speaker 1: your drink, which I am calling the gasoline goules. These
Speaker 1: women were incorrectly and rudely called ghoules. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: make something delicious out of it. You are going to
Speaker 1: in a shaking tin with plenty of ice, put in
Speaker 1: a half ounce of simple syrup, a half ounce of
Speaker 1: lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce Creme de violette,
Speaker 1: three quarters of an ounce of low sugar apple juice,
Speaker 1: one ounce of shambour See we're getting lots of fruit
Speaker 1: flavors in there, one ounce of that paprika infused vodka.
Speaker 1: And when you do it, I would say, let the
Speaker 1: paprika settle to the bottom a little bit where you
Speaker 1: pour it, because you don't want that particulate in there.
Speaker 1: It's a little tricky to strain off, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: double strain it on the pour out so you'll be okay.
Speaker 1: And then you're gonna add to get that slightly creamy situation,
Speaker 1: an ounce and a half of the milk of your choice.
Speaker 1: I did oat milk and a drop of vanilla extract, okay,
Speaker 1: because you just want to give it that bakery sensation
Speaker 1: without getting too heavy. You are gonna shake this with
Speaker 1: ice like crazy, and then you'll double strain it so
Speaker 1: whatever your usual cocktail strainer is, and through a mesh
Speaker 1: strainer that for me, got almost all the particulate out
Speaker 1: that was coming from the paprika. And you're gonna strain
Speaker 1: that into a pre chilled glass. And then you have
Speaker 1: your gasoline gul which is this really fun, fruity, creamy
Speaker 1: drink that has a lot of body to it. And
Speaker 1: then part of your brain goes, do I smell smoke like.
Speaker 2: That smoky paprika.
Speaker 1: I'm like, but in a very faint background y kind
Speaker 1: of I'm.
Speaker 2: Very excited about the idea of paprika vodka.
Speaker 1: If you are a bloody mary drinker I am. I'm
Speaker 1: not really into them, but I highly recommend because it's
Speaker 1: a fun way to make a bloody mary have a
Speaker 1: little bit more kind of base tone to it. It
Speaker 1: just gives it a little bit more flavor. For the
Speaker 1: mocktail on this, it's super easy. We're just doing some
Speaker 1: switch outs. So in lieu of krem to violette, you'll
Speaker 1: do violet syrup, in lieu of shambour, you'll do a
Speaker 1: raspberry syrup. And in lieu of your paprika vodka, you're
Speaker 1: gonna do a paprika infused kim emialte. Oh so easy,
Speaker 1: very nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: You may want to, depending on your interest in sweetness,
Speaker 1: dial back your simple syrup since you're using other syrups here.
Speaker 1: That's one of those tests it in sea, but otherwise
Speaker 1: it's pretty similar it. In my opinion, the mocktail carries
Speaker 1: the fruitier notes a little harder, because alcohol will sometimes
Speaker 1: undercut a fruity note if it's not the prominent ingredient
Speaker 1: of a thing. So that is the gasoline ghoul, which
Speaker 1: was pretty darn tasty and I'll probably make again, and
Speaker 1: I hope. If you make it, you enjoy it. We
Speaker 1: are very excited for this season. Ahead of fire, firefire.
Speaker 2: Smoking, all the drinks.
Speaker 1: Smoking all the drinks. It'll be nothing but cinnamon and smoking.
Speaker 1: I promise, I want you that every time. Also pretty
Speaker 1: sure it will come up. He will be right back
Speaker 1: here again next week with another hopefully fascinating story of
Speaker 1: arson and another hopefully yummy drink. Criminalia is a production
Speaker 1: of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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