1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind from housetop Works 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:17,919 Speaker 1: Dot Carlo. This is the secret name of butter, tongue 3 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: of the gods navel of immortality. We will proclaim the 4 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: name of butter. We will sustain it in this sacrifice 5 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: by bowing low. These waves of butter flow like gazelles 6 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: before the hunter. Streams of butter caress the burning wood agne. 7 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: The fire loves them and is satisfied. Hey, welcome to 8 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:49,720 Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind. My name is Robert Lamb 9 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:52,880 Speaker 1: and my name is Christian Seger. Bow at the feet 10 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: of butter. Yeah, I thought we needed a nice regal 11 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: opening there. And that is a quote from the rig Veda. Uh, 12 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:03,639 Speaker 1: this is from around on the fifteen hundred BCE. So 13 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:08,120 Speaker 1: we're going to really dive into butter. The episode I 14 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: wanted to do like an episode title called Holy Butter Batman. 15 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,680 Speaker 1: That seems like that might fit the best. But we 16 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: we are going to talk about religious uses of butter. 17 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: We're also going to talk about the basics food science 18 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: of preparing butter, and then butter war, which is a 19 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: very real thing, in fact, so real that it's generated 20 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: a satirical uh children's book all about Butter. Yes, I 21 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: imagine a number of you were familiar with this. It 22 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: is a Dr Seuss The Butter Battle Book, published in 23 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: and it's a It is a satire that tackled the 24 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: very serious topic of Cold War, uh, the nuclear arms 25 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: race and mutually assured destruction. It is the only children's 26 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: book that I've run across that ends with the contemplation 27 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: of mutually shured nuclear destruction. Yeah, I uh, you know, 28 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: I was not familiar with this specific Dr SEUs book 29 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: until today. And uh, I watched the Ralph Facts she 30 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: animated version on YouTube this morning and inporation for this, 31 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: and it blew my mind. It was like, I I 32 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: wonder how it would have changed me as a person 33 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: if I had seen this when I was like four 34 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:22,679 Speaker 1: or five years old. You know, yeah, I don't think 35 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:24,840 Speaker 1: I saw it when I was a kid. And this 36 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: is the this animated version, by the way, narrated by 37 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: Charles Dearning. Of anyone else who it's not familiar with it, 38 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: you can you should be able to find it on YouTube. Yeah, 39 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: it was everywhere and it's Yeah, it's such an interesting 40 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: story because to to a kid, it's just a goofy tale. 41 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: Involving these bird like people. And the basic plot here 42 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: is you have a cold war between two factions. One 43 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: side firmly believes that you put your butter on top 44 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: of the toast, on top of the bread, and then 45 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,640 Speaker 1: the other side, on the other side of this big wall, 46 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: they believe you put the butter on the bottom of 47 00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 1: the bread. And that sounds ridiculous and would never happen 48 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: with real human being. And yet when we talk about 49 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: margarine and butter and what happened with them in the 50 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:11,240 Speaker 1: nineteenth century going into the twentieth century, not that long ago. Uh, 51 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: it's not that far apart. Yeah. I think one of 52 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: the things about butter is that today especially we just 53 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:20,080 Speaker 1: take it completely for granted. It's maybe a little less 54 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 1: if you you buy really good butter, or you you 55 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: get involved in a m you know, a love affair 56 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:29,519 Speaker 1: with with with coffee with butter in it, with bulletproof 57 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: coffee all that, But for the most part, you know, 58 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: it's just is this is yellow stuff that's maybe delicious 59 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: and and certainly has a huge role in so many 60 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: different recipes, and large quantities of it go into most 61 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: you know, restaurant foods to make it delightful. But we 62 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: don't think about the wonder of butter. We don't think 63 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: about the alchemy of butter and the miracle of butter. 64 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: And it's easy to forget that we have all of 65 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 1: these wonderful examples from human history, where where as our 66 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: their introduction suggests there is there is something divine about butter. Well, 67 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: it's certainly tastes great. And I don't think I've ever 68 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: met a person who says they don't like butter, you know, 69 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: like everyone likes butter. It's it's butter. It's great. It 70 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: tastes great. But um, when you may not use better 71 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: for you know, even they made an ethical or dietary choice, right, yeah, totally, 72 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 1: but but still it tastes tastes lovely. Uh. It's funny 73 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:27,960 Speaker 1: you mentioned like the taste of it and like it 74 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,120 Speaker 1: being so ubiquitous because you're right, Like, I use butter 75 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: every day in cooking somewhere or another. Uh, And I 76 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,600 Speaker 1: just kind of always get the generic store brand, you know. 77 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: And then my wife recently splurged and she bought that 78 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: carry gold Irish butter that like it's really really good 79 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,800 Speaker 1: kind of expensive butter, and it I like reserve it 80 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: for special things like I don't just cook with carry 81 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:56,279 Speaker 1: gold butter, you know, like like that's that's special. Yeah, 82 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 1: we got into that better a lama back, my wife 83 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: and I when we we briefly did we did like 84 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:04,280 Speaker 1: a summer of the coffee butter concoction. Yeah. I remember 85 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: hearing about this from you and and it that was 86 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: that kind of went away, didn't it. Like the bulletproof 87 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: coffee thing. I heard about it for right around the 88 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:14,359 Speaker 1: time you guys were doing it, and then I it 89 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:18,520 Speaker 1: just disappeared. Well, I think it's still around. I think 90 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: a lot of people do what we did, and you 91 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: you do it for a little bit, maybe you know it. 92 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: It forces you to change your patterns a bit and 93 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: then you realize, oh, well, actually I don't need to 94 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:30,839 Speaker 1: put butter in my coffee, and it tastes grape probably, 95 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: but it's probably I would assume fattening, right, Yeah, but 96 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: part of it. I don't want to get into the whole. 97 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 1: There are a number of of claims that are made 98 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:44,839 Speaker 1: about buttered coffee that proclaimed that it hasn't almost mystical properties, 99 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:46,159 Speaker 1: which is kind of been keeping with what we're going 100 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: to talk about the day. But ultimately The main benefit 101 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: of buttered coffee that I found was that it was 102 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: very filling for someone who normally just has coffee and 103 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: smoothie for breakfast. So I was sustained all the way 104 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,159 Speaker 1: through lunch and maybe even pass lunch without needing to snack. 105 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:06,679 Speaker 1: But the curious thing is about a summer of coffee 106 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: and butter kind of cured me of that. So now 107 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:11,039 Speaker 1: a lot of the time I don't snack in the 108 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: mornings anyway. Oh interesting, okay, and you're back to just 109 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: like coffee and smoothies. Interesting, Well I might, I might 110 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 1: give it a shot. Yeah, and everything's worth a shot, right, 111 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:26,279 Speaker 1: maybe ice cream and butter. Now that that, well, that 112 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,880 Speaker 1: might not work so well. All right, well, let's let's 113 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: kick off by talk getting in a way. We're gonna 114 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:32,919 Speaker 1: get this out of the way, because I know the 115 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: one thing that that most of you are not excited 116 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,159 Speaker 1: about is to hear about the process of creating butter. 117 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,320 Speaker 1: But I want to really help frame this in a 118 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:43,680 Speaker 1: in an exciting way. I want you to think about 119 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,359 Speaker 1: it not so much as oh, you milked a cow 120 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:50,520 Speaker 1: or some other mammal and then you transferred. It's you transformed. 121 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: It's a milk into a solid substance. It's spread herble. 122 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:57,960 Speaker 1: Think of it as a series of three miracles by 123 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: which one turns the light of the sun into a 124 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:07,280 Speaker 1: pad of butter. Again, holy butter. Alright, So first, let's 125 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:10,240 Speaker 1: just give at least passing credit to the alchemy of photosynthesis. 126 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,080 Speaker 1: The grass in the field converts energy in the form 127 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: of sunlight into chemical energy in the form of sugars 128 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:19,400 Speaker 1: or other carbohydrates. So that's the first miracle. Second, a 129 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:23,400 Speaker 1: female ruminant being a cow, a sheep, a camel, a 130 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: water buffalo, a goat, et cetera, they consume the grass 131 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: and and truly, as Elaine cost of A points out 132 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:35,080 Speaker 1: in her excellent book Butter a Rich History, uh, you're 133 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: better off thinking of it as a of the cow 134 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: or the camel, or whatever the animal might be, as 135 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:45,000 Speaker 1: a mobile um harvester and processing unit, as opposed to 136 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:47,680 Speaker 1: just an animal that's eating. Because these ruminants are are 137 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: built to transform grass into milk. That consider the fact 138 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: that they have this three or four chambered stomach. They 139 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,120 Speaker 1: have an upper dental pad instead of teeth that's perfect 140 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: for for masticating the greens. Each animal puts its own 141 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 1: particular chemical spin on the process, but they crunch up 142 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: the greens and ferment them in their mini chambered guts. 143 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:12,680 Speaker 1: Eight hours of feeding with cows, eight hours of ruminating, 144 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: and then the remains of the day are just resting. 145 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:20,520 Speaker 1: So the maceration, the repeated chewing of the cut, uh, 146 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: you know, because they'll swallow it will come back up. 147 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: All that this helps carry out the second miracle, Okay, 148 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:30,440 Speaker 1: the transformation of a low fat diet of grass into 149 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: high fat milk. So the broken down food is even 150 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 1: further assaulted in the guts of the of these creatures 151 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 1: by microbes and this oxygen free fermentation chamber, the grassy 152 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: meal is broken down to the to its very basic 153 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: elements strings of carbon and hydrogen molecules, and uh, then 154 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: the other bacteria down there they recombine the elements into 155 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: volatile fatty acids. This is reminding me of a like 156 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,360 Speaker 1: four eight trip I went on when I was in 157 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: elementary school. You might have had a similar experience, or 158 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:04,960 Speaker 1: maybe somebody out there listening has uh you know. They 159 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: took us around like a working farm and kind of 160 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: showed us how everything worked. And there was this one 161 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:15,840 Speaker 1: cow that had like a window. Have you seen? Yeah, Yeah, 162 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: it's like it was almost like there was a um 163 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: a porthole built into its side and you could look 164 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:27,319 Speaker 1: inside and it's not like you're watching butter being made, 165 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:29,839 Speaker 1: you know. But I was like so fascinated with this 166 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: as a kid, like, why why would you do that? 167 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:34,679 Speaker 1: Wouldn't that hurt the cow? Like it was so strange 168 00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: to me. I still to this day, I don't really 169 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: think I know why, other than it's probably for health practices, 170 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:43,240 Speaker 1: right to make sure that everything's working, okay, to have 171 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: a window into the cow. Yeah, I mean I'm assuming 172 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,480 Speaker 1: an educational outreach. Yeah. Well, oh maybe that was it. 173 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:51,679 Speaker 1: It was just for us to be able to see 174 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: inside the living cow. Yeah, maybe it was. This requires 175 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,559 Speaker 1: more more. We need to come back to this. Maybe 176 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 1: maybe someone out there can can fill us in. Okay, 177 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: So we have this this wonderful fermentation process going on, 178 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: and only half of the fat is coming from the 179 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: cow's diet. The rest is coming from the cow's own 180 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: body fat. All right, So there's your second miracle. Ruminant milk, 181 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 1: a fatty liquid that's that's sole purpose is to ensure 182 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: the survival of the animals young or you know, you know, 183 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,560 Speaker 1: for a bunch of eight creatures to steal, drink, and 184 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:30,080 Speaker 1: then process into various butters and cheeses. It's also worth 185 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: noting that the exact composition of this milk is gonna 186 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: vary from species to species, with additional factors depending on 187 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:40,720 Speaker 1: environment and diet. So you produces twice the fat content 188 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:45,320 Speaker 1: of cow milk. Goat milk has smaller, more digestible fat molecules, 189 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:49,280 Speaker 1: Yak milk has less sugar and more protein. Camel's milk 190 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: has three times as much vitamin C and water. Buffalo 191 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: milk has twice the fat of cow milk. What's like 192 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: the weirdest type of butter you've ever had? Because I can't. 193 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: I don't think I've really fermented all that much other 194 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,360 Speaker 1: than like goat butter. Probably, Yeah, I don't think I've 195 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:07,199 Speaker 1: experimented much at all with with butters made from different milks. 196 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:09,920 Speaker 1: The closest I've come, I guess, is having a few 197 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:13,160 Speaker 1: different types of cheese. So yeah, right, I've had sheep cheese, 198 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 1: I've had goat cheese, cow cheese, And if you've had 199 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,679 Speaker 1: actual buffalo mozzarella, then you've had cheese made from the 200 00:11:20,679 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: water buffalo. Yeah, again, the fat content. That's why that 201 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: is the premier. I love some buffalo mozzarella. My other 202 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: favorite cheese is um from a very specific part of 203 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: the world, Zacapana, Poland. They yeah, it's I believe it's 204 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:41,079 Speaker 1: a goat cheese, but again it's just phenomenal smoked cheese. Anyways, 205 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:43,840 Speaker 1: this is making me hungry, all right. So the animals milked, 206 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: and then you have to make cream. That's the next 207 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,959 Speaker 1: step on our way to actual butter. And this is 208 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: achieved by allowing the milk to sit and then skimming 209 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,920 Speaker 1: the resulting layer of fat fat molecules that have collected 210 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 1: on the top. They've floated up to the top. You 211 00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,960 Speaker 1: skim it off, and you can make butter from whole 212 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,360 Speaker 1: milk like the rest of the milk in that vat. 213 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: But the more assured route is via the cream. Yeah. So, 214 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,320 Speaker 1: like Robert said, we're not going to really like hold 215 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: your hand and walk through the how the how it's 216 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:14,320 Speaker 1: made kind of thing. If you want to look at that, 217 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 1: there's plenty of articles online. But basically, there's just tiny 218 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: fat molecules that float to the top of this milk. 219 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:23,520 Speaker 1: They form the cream. You stir them up. That's what 220 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: the agitation is until they clump together to form wondrous butter. Yeah, 221 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: the the cow or the sheep or the camel, they've 222 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 1: made this wondrous liquid to feed their their offspring, and 223 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 1: the humans have come in and said, actually, we're gonna 224 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:39,160 Speaker 1: take just the very best of that, but the very 225 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,920 Speaker 1: top fatty and stuff, and then we're going to process it. 226 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: It seems really wasteful, but then you realize that there's 227 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 1: there's a place for all the various leftovers as well. Yeah, 228 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,280 Speaker 1: because what happens next is you agitate or stir up 229 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: the cream. This shakes the fat molecules out of position 230 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,960 Speaker 1: and cause them to clump together. Eventually, after long stirring, 231 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 1: the fat molecules clump so much that they separate from 232 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,319 Speaker 1: the liquid in the cream, and a solid mass forms. 233 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:10,920 Speaker 1: The liquid is butter milk, and of course that goes 234 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:14,000 Speaker 1: on to be used as butter milk, and the solid 235 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:18,720 Speaker 1: mass is butter. Behold the third and final miracle. So 236 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:21,960 Speaker 1: little research I found this that one of the earliest 237 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,480 Speaker 1: recipes for butter involved putting the milk or the cream 238 00:13:25,559 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: inside an animal skin and just suspending it and letting 239 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 1: it swing back and forth. Until butter formed uh today. 240 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 1: To qualify as butter, it has to contain at least 241 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:41,160 Speaker 1: eight butter fat with no more than sixtent water and 242 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:45,920 Speaker 1: two percent milk solids. And you need twenty one pounds 243 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,839 Speaker 1: of cow's milk to make one pound of butter. So 244 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,679 Speaker 1: to get it to be that consistent yellow that we're 245 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:55,840 Speaker 1: all used to, it's actually artificially colored. And this is 246 00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:57,640 Speaker 1: important it will come back around later when we talk 247 00:13:57,679 --> 00:13:59,800 Speaker 1: about margarine. The way they do that is with something 248 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:02,560 Speaker 1: called a nato, which is a food coloring that comes 249 00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: from the seeds of I believe it's pronounced the aquiote tree. 250 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 1: So it's not as yellow as we're used to. That's 251 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 1: food coloring that's added to it. Okay, so that's super 252 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:16,840 Speaker 1: yellow butter. So you know, at this point, like you said, 253 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:19,560 Speaker 1: we could go into greater detail about the chemistry of 254 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: of what's going on here, but but hopefully this will 255 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: give you just a fresh, uh and new idea of 256 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:28,520 Speaker 1: what's going on Again. I love that idea that solar 257 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:32,280 Speaker 1: energy has become fatty delicious butter has become this ultimately 258 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:36,080 Speaker 1: the super food, this this premiere of food stuff that 259 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,360 Speaker 1: and you'll you'll realize why it becomes so valuable to 260 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: the humans who obsess about it. Well, and I know 261 00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: some of you out there are wondering this because I 262 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:47,640 Speaker 1: was when I was doing the research. So, if butter 263 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 1: comes from milk, is there human butter? And what does 264 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: that taste like? The answer is yes, I don't know 265 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: what it tastes like, but yes there is human butter. 266 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,880 Speaker 1: In fact, just two years ago, a woman experimented with 267 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: her own breast milk and shared photos on Reddit of 268 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: the butter that she created, and it caused a little 269 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: bit of a stir. The week that she did this, 270 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: there were people were freaking out, either saying, oh my god, 271 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: this is so cool or oh my god, that's so disgusting. 272 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, same process works with human milk. Now, 273 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: in her defense, there are people who seem to freak 274 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,360 Speaker 1: out when they realize that human breast milk exists. Oh yeah, yeah, 275 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,480 Speaker 1: absolutely by people. I mean, of course men. I got 276 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: the impression, and that was a certain segment of the 277 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:34,480 Speaker 1: male population who seems to want to remain in complete denial. 278 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 1: There definitely seemed to be like some people that were like, 279 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:39,400 Speaker 1: that is the most disgusting thing ever. I don't want 280 00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:40,720 Speaker 1: to have anything to do with it. And then the 281 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: other side was, oh my god, I want to try that. 282 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,600 Speaker 1: That's kind of that's kind of the divide and most reddit. Yeah, 283 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,640 Speaker 1: reddit known for its diversity in opinions. Yeah, all right, 284 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: we're gonna take our first break and when we come back, 285 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: we're getting going to get into this idea of holy butter. 286 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: We're gonna run through a various examples from different cultures 287 00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:05,080 Speaker 1: throughout history. Uh, the way that they've obsessed about this substance. 288 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:13,800 Speaker 1: All right, we're back. So the word butter actually comes 289 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: from the ancient Greek combination of boo and turan, which 290 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,800 Speaker 1: means couches. Makes sense. Uh, Now, we're going to go 291 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: through a couple of different uses religious experience uses of 292 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,840 Speaker 1: butter throughout many cultures around the world. First one we 293 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,280 Speaker 1: talked about here was Tibetan butter, and I couldn't find 294 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 1: a lot on this, so I'd love to know if 295 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: anybody else out there has heard about it. But apparently, uh, 296 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,240 Speaker 1: it's used in the embalming of bodies, or at least 297 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: it was used in the embalming of bodies on the 298 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:53,280 Speaker 1: those of deceased llamas and they basically would simmer their 299 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:58,200 Speaker 1: corpses in boiling butter. And these are Tibetan Buddhist holy men, yeah, 300 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:04,000 Speaker 1: not actual lamas if anyone else, Yeah, just to be clear, right, yeah, 301 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:08,520 Speaker 1: although that would be a great Lama recipe probably yeah. Uh. 302 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:12,000 Speaker 1: On this On the this subject of funeral butter usage, 303 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:15,200 Speaker 1: I did run across the fact that in ancient Egypt. 304 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:21,280 Speaker 1: Of course, ancient Egyptians were known for their elaborate rights 305 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: of embalming. We discussed this a bit on the show 306 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: and a couple of episodes at least, And they used 307 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:29,800 Speaker 1: various things. I mean, they seem to have used pretty 308 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,439 Speaker 1: much everything in this practice, anything you can get their 309 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,080 Speaker 1: hands on. It could be used to preserve the corpse 310 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,760 Speaker 1: and give it a lifelike appearance. Uh. And they would 311 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 1: use butter, along with soldust and sand as a way 312 00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:45,200 Speaker 1: to plump up desiccated flesh, either by stuffing it into 313 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: the mouth or through incisions in the skin. For some reason, 314 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:51,719 Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense to me, only in 315 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,240 Speaker 1: the sense of that, like, I know, a lot of 316 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: plastic surgery now involves injecting animal fat into skin, So like, 317 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,119 Speaker 1: if you're going to try to force warm flesh somehow, 318 00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:03,679 Speaker 1: whether it's dead or alive. That seems like a natural 319 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:05,680 Speaker 1: place to go, right, Yeah, I mean, especially for the 320 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: ancient Egyptians, who I believe we've mentioned on the show before. 321 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,399 Speaker 1: We're we're we have some of the earliest examples of 322 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,400 Speaker 1: what it's essentially plastic surgery. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So then 323 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: what about Buddha butter? That sounds like somebody's got a 324 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:24,440 Speaker 1: patent that, if they haven't already, I'm sure there's probably 325 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:27,680 Speaker 1: some company out there already a picture of the smiling 326 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:31,040 Speaker 1: Buddha with a stick of butter in his hands. Uh. Well, 327 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:36,640 Speaker 1: years ago there were butter sculptures called tomas, which were 328 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: made to celebrate Shakya Mooni Buddha's victories. Now today there's 329 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: actually still an annual butter festival that's celebrated in March 330 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,640 Speaker 1: as part of the Mono Lam Festival, I believe that's 331 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:51,919 Speaker 1: how you say it. And at this festival, thousands of 332 00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:54,840 Speaker 1: butter lamps are lit and these signify the wisdom and 333 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,359 Speaker 1: light of the Buddha. These are made from clarified yak 334 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: butter and they line this reads. Now, donating such butter 335 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: to the monasteries is actually believed to bring good karma 336 00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:08,159 Speaker 1: because these they allows the monks to craft the lamps 337 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: for this holiday. So there's another one. Yeah, this one 338 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:15,600 Speaker 1: is fascinating. Uh. In that Kosa Rova book that I mentioned, 339 00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:19,200 Speaker 1: butter a rich history, she goes into it at at 340 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: at in depth, and I'm not going to attempt to 341 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,239 Speaker 1: to share everything here. If you want to read more 342 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: about it, you should definitely pick that book up. But 343 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,960 Speaker 1: she she says that the we have this modern tradition 344 00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:35,679 Speaker 1: of creating these thomas and uh, these the modern tradition 345 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:40,879 Speaker 1: dates back probably around but I think this those refer 346 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:44,240 Speaker 1: specifically to the version that's fives today and not that 347 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: that earlier tradition that you alluded to. So turma, as 348 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,199 Speaker 1: you mentioned, traditionally yak butter, but they'll also mix in 349 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: roasted barley flower or sampa uh and then sometimes wax 350 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:00,760 Speaker 1: as i'll describe here. So traditionally this is crazy that 351 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,919 Speaker 1: the monk would use only yak butter with the sampa, 352 00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: and they would form a range of shapes and designs 353 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:10,560 Speaker 1: for tantric rituals and offerings, and the monks would have 354 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:14,280 Speaker 1: to cool their fingers uh and to sculpt the butter 355 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:17,840 Speaker 1: clay they continually dip their fingers or the clay itself 356 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,199 Speaker 1: into a bowl of cold water or the snow. And 357 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:25,440 Speaker 1: often they would be working in like a really cold room, 358 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 1: so it would be super tough. Where this is not 359 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:29,199 Speaker 1: just a thing where someone would grab some butter and 360 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,879 Speaker 1: you know, a small bowl of cold water and then oops, 361 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: have got to work around with a little bit and look, 362 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:36,639 Speaker 1: I made a sculpture. Now. They would spend months on this, 363 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,439 Speaker 1: and the the artists would often suffer illness, frost bite, 364 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:43,439 Speaker 1: arthritis and uh. And then at the end of all this, 365 00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 1: the sculpture is just going to melt away in the spring. 366 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:50,160 Speaker 1: So it's this this perfect symbol of of impermanence, much 367 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,679 Speaker 1: like the Tibetan practice of crafting mandala's out of multi 368 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,879 Speaker 1: colored sand. Wow, well, all right, so it's easy to 369 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,920 Speaker 1: do this in Tibet because it's cold. Are what happens 370 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: if you I'm gonna jump ahead in the notes here, 371 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 1: what happens if you want to sculpt butter here in America? 372 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:12,720 Speaker 1: Because it's a thing. It's not wholly necessarily but the 373 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,359 Speaker 1: butter cow, I mean, has anybody out there seen a 374 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,879 Speaker 1: butter cow before? I'm talking about a life sized butter 375 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:22,520 Speaker 1: sculpture of a cow. Uh, it might strike close to 376 00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:26,119 Speaker 1: home for some of our listeners. You might have I 377 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 1: first heard about the butter cow on The West Wing 378 00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:31,800 Speaker 1: when the character C. J. Craig does this whole celebration 379 00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:34,439 Speaker 1: talking about how great the butter cow is. But it 380 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: was actually first sculpted in nineteen eleven by J. K. 381 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,680 Speaker 1: Daniels at the Iowa State Fair. And you basically start 382 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,840 Speaker 1: with wood, metal, wire, and steel mesh to frame the 383 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:50,440 Speaker 1: six hundred pounds slab of low moisture, pure cream Iowa butter. 384 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:54,680 Speaker 1: That's at least that's what the Iowa State Fair sets um. 385 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,119 Speaker 1: They put that in a forty degree cooler and apply 386 00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:01,400 Speaker 1: more layers of butter until you've made a life as cow. Now, 387 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,080 Speaker 1: some of you out there going, WHOA, that's a lot 388 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: of butter that's wasted. Well, unlike the Tibetan practice that 389 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,560 Speaker 1: we were just talking about earlier, this butter is supposedly 390 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: recycled and reused for up to ten years after. Yeah, 391 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,960 Speaker 1: but it's interesting. Like present day, we can put them 392 00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,439 Speaker 1: inside a big cooler, but in Tibet they had to 393 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,919 Speaker 1: go outside with cold water and they're getting sick. But 394 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,919 Speaker 1: they're like still doing the same kind of you know, 395 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:33,240 Speaker 1: aesthetic practice. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's it's interesting 396 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: too to note that eventually you have Tibetan monks that 397 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:40,840 Speaker 1: are engaging in this practice moving down into warmer portions 398 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:43,400 Speaker 1: of India. So how do you do this if you're 399 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: if if it's a you know, a warmer climate, right, 400 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,440 Speaker 1: Monks now residing in India are often forced to use 401 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:52,880 Speaker 1: ge or margarine mixed with paraffin wax. So that's where 402 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:55,720 Speaker 1: the wax comes to Scotcha, okay, and that probably helps 403 00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:59,840 Speaker 1: keep it all together. Yeah. Now, another Eastern tradition I 404 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:05,000 Speaker 1: across comes from Chinese Buddhism. According to Chinese Buddhist master 405 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:09,359 Speaker 1: Tie and Tae, the successive states of soul transformations in 406 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:14,160 Speaker 1: reincarnation basically line up with the stages in the transformation 407 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,920 Speaker 1: from from milk to gee. And I think that fits 408 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 1: in rather nicely with what we read in the opening. 409 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,320 Speaker 1: You know, this idea that in the same way that 410 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: that a soul may go from life to life to life, 411 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 1: and it's kind of this refining process. Ideally, as you 412 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:30,600 Speaker 1: work towards a complete removal from the wheel of death 413 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,760 Speaker 1: and rebirth. Also, we're seeing this, uh you know, the sunlight, 414 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:42,880 Speaker 1: the grass, everything moving towards butter as the human achievement. Yeah. Uh, well, 415 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,439 Speaker 1: it's interesting because you know, when you read up on 416 00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:49,160 Speaker 1: butter and people talk about like the ancient practices involving it, 417 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: almost always they bring up the Bible because it's like 418 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:55,680 Speaker 1: one of our most read modern texts that references butter 419 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,200 Speaker 1: quite a bit. Yeah, there's there's one part in particular 420 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: that's that's that's worth pointing out, you know, not just 421 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,560 Speaker 1: for the Bible alto I mean basically Abrahamic tradition as 422 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:09,640 Speaker 1: as a whole, because it conserves Abraham. He's a preparing 423 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 1: food for three angels of the Lord who are visiting 424 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,199 Speaker 1: in Genesis eighteen. And if you think back to our 425 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,600 Speaker 1: our John d episode, we're talking angels with the Lord here. 426 00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: These are these are terrifying, beautiful beings. They've taken human form, sure, 427 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,280 Speaker 1: but these are these are the guys that the way, 428 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: you know, lay waste to cities. Yeah, what else are 429 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:31,760 Speaker 1: you gonna give them which would welcome them with the butter? Yeah? 430 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,359 Speaker 1: They said, hey, Sarah, help me fetch the bread and butter. 431 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,879 Speaker 1: We've got three Angels of the Lord coming and it 432 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,320 Speaker 1: worked out. They apparently thought the butter was delightful. It's 433 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,760 Speaker 1: probably carried goldy. You gotta pull out the best stuff 434 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: in the Angel of the Lord. Well, that leads me 435 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:57,640 Speaker 1: to a totally opposite, unrelated to the Bible butter cultural phenomenon, 436 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:02,440 Speaker 1: and that is the Yule Lads Iceland. Now Joe, our 437 00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:04,840 Speaker 1: co host, insisted that we had to bring this up. 438 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: You recommended it to us. We've talked about the ul 439 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,600 Speaker 1: Lads before. I think it was maybe last year's Christmas 440 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 1: episode we were talking about them. But if you don't 441 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:18,040 Speaker 1: recall that the basic gist is in Icelandic lore, uh 442 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,720 Speaker 1: instead of or maybe it's along with Santa Claus. I'm 443 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,920 Speaker 1: not quite sure. There's thirteen children who visit Iceland's Kids 444 00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:29,520 Speaker 1: during the thirteen nights prior to Christmas, one each night, 445 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:34,080 Speaker 1: and they have these amazing names. There's all kinds of 446 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,320 Speaker 1: of ule Lads like Sausage Sniffer and door liquor, but 447 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,199 Speaker 1: there is one that is specifically related to butter, and 448 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,359 Speaker 1: his name is Butter Greedy. At least that's what it 449 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: translates as. Uh. So, the gist is that you're supposed 450 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,560 Speaker 1: to put a shoe out on your window sill, and 451 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,560 Speaker 1: if you're good, each day a eule lad will leave 452 00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,080 Speaker 1: you candy in the shoe, but if you're bad, they 453 00:25:56,119 --> 00:26:00,840 Speaker 1: fill it up with rotting to potatoes, rotting potatoes. And 454 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,800 Speaker 1: so I'm wondering about butter greedy, like presumably he eats 455 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 1: all your butter if you're bad, and he also puts 456 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:12,119 Speaker 1: rotting potatoes inside your shoe. But it immediately popped to 457 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,040 Speaker 1: Joe's mind when we said, hey, we're doing this episode 458 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:15,240 Speaker 1: on butter, and he was like, there's gotta be a 459 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,560 Speaker 1: you ole lad, And he was right, there was yeah, 460 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 1: because in a bit we're gonna talk about some other 461 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: um superstitions and folk beliefs that line up with this 462 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: idea of protecting that butter from you know, real world thiefs, 463 00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: but also supernatural threats because this is this, this is 464 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,800 Speaker 1: a super food stuff, and especially in in you know, 465 00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:37,600 Speaker 1: in the winter, you're gonna need this to survive, right, 466 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:42,120 Speaker 1: I mean, think about how much work goes into making it, 467 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,359 Speaker 1: especially like when you're when you're not talking about an 468 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,840 Speaker 1: industrialized process, right, like you're making it by hand, Like 469 00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:53,879 Speaker 1: you're gonna really cove it and and uh, conserve this stuff. Yeah, indeed, 470 00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,480 Speaker 1: I mean survival um real quick. Before we move on, 471 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:00,920 Speaker 1: I want to point out that Lord Krishna in Hinduism, 472 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: there's a you know, a noble important figure in so 473 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,119 Speaker 1: many of the epics, but it's uh, there's also this 474 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,679 Speaker 1: tradition of young Krishna kind of like baby Krishna. You 475 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,840 Speaker 1: may have a number of you may have seen pictures 476 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,480 Speaker 1: because he's depicted is basically this blue baby. Yeah, I 477 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:18,800 Speaker 1: kind of remember this. And he's a trickster and he's 478 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:20,600 Speaker 1: always getting into mischief and one of the things he 479 00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: would do is steel butter. Oh okay, well that's quasi 480 00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,480 Speaker 1: related to the next instance of butter, which a lot 481 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,840 Speaker 1: of you are probably familiar with, and that's ge. Uh 482 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,280 Speaker 1: my wife uses ge all the time and cooking essentially 483 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:38,399 Speaker 1: in Hindu sacrifices. Though during the Vedic period, g it 484 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: was created because it's a kind of clarified butter that's 485 00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,280 Speaker 1: made with various grains and vegetables, and back then it 486 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,479 Speaker 1: was thought to satisfy the hunger of the gods who 487 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,320 Speaker 1: would ensure order, that make sure order was maintained on earth, 488 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,679 Speaker 1: and there was a ritual called Joddak Harmon that was 489 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,680 Speaker 1: performed at the birth of a boy and involved presenting 490 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,320 Speaker 1: the baby with ge, honey and gold. Alright, so some 491 00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,399 Speaker 1: of you out there probably wondering, Well, clarified butter I 492 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,399 Speaker 1: like that. What's the difference between that and gee or 493 00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:10,640 Speaker 1: what's traditionally called it was leaky. Well, they've both been 494 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 1: made by melting butter over low heat, allowing the water 495 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,919 Speaker 1: content to evaporate so that the milk solids settle to 496 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,080 Speaker 1: the bottom of the pand then what you do is 497 00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,960 Speaker 1: you you skim the surface, you clear the fat. It's 498 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,360 Speaker 1: poured off and the residue is discarded. But here's the difference. 499 00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:29,080 Speaker 1: Clarified butter has the fat poured off as soon as possible. 500 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,000 Speaker 1: That way, it keeps the milk solids from browning. For 501 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 1: it was le ge, the butter is simmered until the 502 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:37,960 Speaker 1: solids are golden browned. And this is what gives it 503 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,160 Speaker 1: this nutty flavor. I'm sure many of you out there, 504 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 1: if you've if you've had Indian food, you're probably familiar 505 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,240 Speaker 1: with this flavor. You might not know that it's ge, 506 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,440 Speaker 1: but it's it's a it's delightful um and the vegetable 507 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,720 Speaker 1: g that was mentioned earlier that's actually made from hydrogenated 508 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:57,760 Speaker 1: vegetable oils um and it basically resembles shortening. And then 509 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,080 Speaker 1: another one that Joe brought to our attention, This is 510 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,680 Speaker 1: a weird one. He started talking about this yesterday and 511 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,640 Speaker 1: I got a little nauseous. Uh. Then I did the 512 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,960 Speaker 1: research on it. Bog butter. Yeah, this one originally came 513 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,120 Speaker 1: up a little bit in our our research for the 514 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:18,080 Speaker 1: episode we did about ritual regicide and this idea that 515 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 1: that you would have certain ancient cultures that would ritually 516 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,840 Speaker 1: murder kings or failed kings, you know, rulers or failed rulers. 517 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:31,000 Speaker 1: And one of the examples comes up in these these 518 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,880 Speaker 1: early European cultures that would utilize the bogs. You would 519 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: find these bodies and the bogs that had been ritually 520 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:39,959 Speaker 1: murdered because the bog was not it wasn't just a 521 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:41,760 Speaker 1: place you dumped something you wanted to get rid of. 522 00:29:41,840 --> 00:29:44,280 Speaker 1: This isn't like the mafia taking somebody up to a 523 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,280 Speaker 1: swamp and dumping them. This the bog was a sacred 524 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: place and it was a place where it was you know, 525 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,880 Speaker 1: it's a fitting spot to deposit the body of a 526 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,920 Speaker 1: king that had been killed in a sacrifice. Especially because 527 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 1: of its preservative qualities, it makes me like it's interesting, 528 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,920 Speaker 1: like bogs, we're sort of to Ireland in Scotland what 529 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,840 Speaker 1: the very arid desert was for ancient Egypt. It results 530 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:12,360 Speaker 1: in mummification, which is why we know so much about 531 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,760 Speaker 1: the Bog people and in this case bog butter. So 532 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:18,959 Speaker 1: you're probably going, wait, what is bog butter? What does 533 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,240 Speaker 1: that have to do with dead kings buried in bogs? Well, 534 00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:25,640 Speaker 1: four hundred thirty samples of bog butter have been excavated 535 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 1: from Pete bogs in Ireland and Scotland and they date 536 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: back as early as four hundred BC. Basically, it's buried 537 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: several feet deep in these bogs in huge quantities. Uh. 538 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,400 Speaker 1: And I first thing that popped in my mind was 539 00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:45,200 Speaker 1: is this just like raw butter or is it in something? 540 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,960 Speaker 1: And we turned to an academic article about it and 541 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 1: it's It turns out it's both. Uh. It's either just 542 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: a lump of butter, like a big lump of butter, 543 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:57,760 Speaker 1: or it's in a container that's usually made of wood, 544 00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 1: or it might be wrapped in animal bladders. And you're 545 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,240 Speaker 1: probably going, why are these people Okay, I get why 546 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,720 Speaker 1: they're preserving their dead kings, but why are they dropping 547 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,920 Speaker 1: butter in the bog. Well, it's probably because the bogs 548 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,960 Speaker 1: have a well documented ability to preserve that. And butter 549 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:17,120 Speaker 1: was really valuable. I mean it was so valuable that 550 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: it was used to pay rent and taxes, and in 551 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,880 Speaker 1: some areas it was actually used to help waterproof fabric, 552 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: and it was used in everything from building materials to candles. 553 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:31,320 Speaker 1: So burying it in a bog while you could have 554 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,640 Speaker 1: been doing that to preserve it, or or maybe it 555 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:35,880 Speaker 1: was a way to change its flavor. And I wrote 556 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 1: next to this in the notes because I'm thinking, like, 557 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:42,240 Speaker 1: what does bog butter taste like? It's so it seems 558 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,280 Speaker 1: like nobody's really eating bog butter. I mean maybe they have, 559 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:47,080 Speaker 1: but I don't think it's like the ideas, like you 560 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,040 Speaker 1: dig it up thousands of years later and it's so 561 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:52,360 Speaker 1: much better, you know, Like, it's not like that. But 562 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: the butter. Here's the other thing. It was also thought 563 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,160 Speaker 1: to cure illness, So some people placed it next to 564 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,000 Speaker 1: a person who is ill at the time, and they 565 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,960 Speaker 1: thought it might absorb their disease. But what happens if 566 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,480 Speaker 1: the victim dies, well, then you take that butter and 567 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,760 Speaker 1: you bury it in the bo Okay, so maybe you 568 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,760 Speaker 1: really shouldn't eat that butter then because it's filled with butter. Yeah, exactly. 569 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: Oh man, that should be like a that should have 570 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:20,440 Speaker 1: been like a full Moon entertainment directed EVD movie, like 571 00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,840 Speaker 1: Attack of the Bob. Butterre still time, there's still I 572 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:28,920 Speaker 1: can see it like moving and crawling around, maybe even 573 00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 1: animating a butter cow. Oh oh yeah, that's the culminating 574 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:35,800 Speaker 1: scene as a butter cow comes to life and chases 575 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:38,960 Speaker 1: somebody into the bog. All right, let's see what else 576 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 1: we have here real quick in passing that if we 577 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:46,040 Speaker 1: did find an African example in remote regions of Ethiopia, 578 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,960 Speaker 1: there's still some cultural use where of butter, where the 579 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:54,920 Speaker 1: bride to be is lacquered with butter and red clay. Okay, 580 00:32:55,040 --> 00:33:00,240 Speaker 1: kind of you know, a preparation for marriage. But one 581 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,120 Speaker 1: of the more fascinating examples that we came across, and 582 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,280 Speaker 1: this ties back into this idea of butter theft. Are 583 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,720 Speaker 1: these just various traditions and beliefs that are where one 584 00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:14,959 Speaker 1: would protect the butter or attempt to steal butter through magic. 585 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 1: So in Norwegian, uh it's something called the small cat 586 00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:24,719 Speaker 1: or the butter cat, and uh it's a bajara, i 587 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:30,800 Speaker 1: believe in Swedish and a tilberry or snuck er in Icelandic. 588 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: It was a creature of spun yarn that you know, 589 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: sorcerer would make. And uh it sucked milk from other 590 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:42,720 Speaker 1: people's cows and returned it to its master, butter homunculi 591 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,480 Speaker 1: native yarn. That's pretty cool, that's crazy. And there's like 592 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,840 Speaker 1: a whole tradition of a various like thread based weaving 593 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:55,960 Speaker 1: based magic. Very very curious because you think about the creation, 594 00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:58,880 Speaker 1: the creation aspect of all of this, like we're talking 595 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 1: about using one like a magical use of one technology 596 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: to tap into another technology, right. Yeah. So I've also 597 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,000 Speaker 1: read and of course you know, traditions are going to vary, 598 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: but I've I've read some accounts that the until Barry 599 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:15,080 Speaker 1: was created from a human rib dug up from a 600 00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:19,840 Speaker 1: graveyard and brought to life when the commune communion wine 601 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,600 Speaker 1: is spit on it three sundays in a row. This 602 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:25,800 Speaker 1: is again, this has to be in our butter horror movie. 603 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:29,399 Speaker 1: So you take a human rib, you spit on it 604 00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:33,880 Speaker 1: for three weeks, and then you presumably you've at yarn 605 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,840 Speaker 1: and then you've got your butter homunculous cat being that 606 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,560 Speaker 1: goes and steals butter or milk, at least milk. But 607 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:43,600 Speaker 1: the but the butter is still very much at risk, 608 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,480 Speaker 1: and so you have all these magical protections that are 609 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,200 Speaker 1: utilized to protect the butter, including the magical butter not. 610 00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:52,840 Speaker 1: And this was a symbol that was used to magically 611 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,520 Speaker 1: protect a butter in Icelandic traditions, and uh, I had 612 00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,759 Speaker 1: an image of it that it kind of looks like 613 00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:03,440 Speaker 1: what a pentacle, except one that is kind of skewed 614 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,359 Speaker 1: so that the base is is broader and wider than 615 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,640 Speaker 1: the top, so it looks like, you know, a kid 616 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:14,480 Speaker 1: misdrew a pentacon or something. So this is a symbol 617 00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:17,080 Speaker 1: that's drawn near the butter to protect it, or is 618 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,280 Speaker 1: it is it drawn in butter um. I think both 619 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: understanding because they had kind of varied you would just 620 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,719 Speaker 1: the symbol had to be associated with the butter. But 621 00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:31,160 Speaker 1: I did see some other examples of various things you 622 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,839 Speaker 1: would do to the butter to safeguard it, including one 623 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:38,120 Speaker 1: right that involved driving a rusty nail from a coffin 624 00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:41,120 Speaker 1: into the side of your butter that would protect it 625 00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: from going bad or being stolen. Interesting, all right, Yeah, 626 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,520 Speaker 1: I'm just collecting more ideas for my butter movie now. Yeah, 627 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:51,239 Speaker 1: and and if anyone out there really wants to make 628 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,279 Speaker 1: a go at the butter horror movie again, check out 629 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:57,560 Speaker 1: that book by A. Lane Kosa Rova, Butter, A Rich History. 630 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:00,279 Speaker 1: It's in print right now, it's in digital form. I 631 00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: can't recommend it strongly enough, best butter book you'll ever read. 632 00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,560 Speaker 1: On that note, let's take a quick break, our final break, 633 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:08,880 Speaker 1: and then when we come back we will discuss butter 634 00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:18,040 Speaker 1: and war. All right, we've returned. So we started off 635 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:21,120 Speaker 1: by talking about that Dr Seus's story about the butter War, 636 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:27,560 Speaker 1: and it sounded vaguely ridiculous, right, that these two cultures 637 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,760 Speaker 1: would fight each other over which side of the bread 638 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:32,640 Speaker 1: they would put their butter on. Yeah, it was the 639 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: UK versus Zooks. And his one propaganda poster in the 640 00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:39,040 Speaker 1: book reminds us, yuks are not zooks. Keep your butter 641 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:43,760 Speaker 1: side up. And it sounds crazy, but we came pretty 642 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,960 Speaker 1: close to something similar here in the US. Maybe not 643 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,440 Speaker 1: a war necessarily, but there was some hysteria for sure 644 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: surrounding butter. Uh. And it all started in France in 645 00:36:56,160 --> 00:37:00,360 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine, Emperor Louis Napoleon the third offered a 646 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: prize to whoever could make a low priced version of 647 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,239 Speaker 1: butter for the lower classes and for the military. So 648 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:12,280 Speaker 1: it was butter butter four war. The winner, Oh yeah, exactly. 649 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,440 Speaker 1: The winner was French chemist I'm going to get this 650 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:21,799 Speaker 1: name wrong, Hippolyte Maje Moray uh. And he invented margarine, 651 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,640 Speaker 1: which we all know and used today. Yeah, it's pretty 652 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: interesting how he figured it out because he basically made 653 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:29,640 Speaker 1: a connection that we we pointed out earlier that a 654 00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:31,879 Speaker 1: lot of the fat is coming from the animal itself, right, 655 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,680 Speaker 1: so he said, why not process it from the animal itself? Yeah, 656 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,200 Speaker 1: it's made from well, at least his version was made 657 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,960 Speaker 1: from beef tallow um. And he sold this patent to 658 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,080 Speaker 1: the Jurgen's Butter making company and they eventually became part 659 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,080 Speaker 1: of Uni Lever, and Uni Lever is still one of 660 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:52,680 Speaker 1: the world's leading producers of margarine. So when it arrived 661 00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:55,840 Speaker 1: here in the US in the eighteen seventies, there was 662 00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:00,719 Speaker 1: a political economic battle between manufacturers of marge gerine and 663 00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:06,080 Speaker 1: manufacturers of butter, and it led to in eight six, 664 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:10,160 Speaker 1: the federal government had to pass the Margarine Act, which 665 00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:14,000 Speaker 1: put a restrictive tax on margarine and demanded that its 666 00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:19,440 Speaker 1: manufacturers pay a prohibitive licensing fee. This is a quote 667 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,200 Speaker 1: from the article that I read about it in National Geographic. 668 00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 1: It said pro butter. Political cartoonists pictured factories dropping everything 669 00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,680 Speaker 1: from stray cats to soap paint, arsenic and rubber boots 670 00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:35,400 Speaker 1: into the margarine mix, and a barrage of dubious scientific 671 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:40,560 Speaker 1: reports hinted that margarine caused cancer or possibly lead to insanity. 672 00:38:41,320 --> 00:38:44,120 Speaker 1: What's that remind us of that we just talked about. 673 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:49,320 Speaker 1: Also from this same period of time, Green tea. Yeah, 674 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:51,440 Speaker 1: people were saying that it made you crazy, it made 675 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:57,000 Speaker 1: you hallucinate, or it was ultimately because the manufacturers were 676 00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:59,840 Speaker 1: putting illicit substances in it, like iron filings. But in 677 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,960 Speaker 1: a sense the cartoonists, I think this was propaganda. I 678 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,560 Speaker 1: don't think necessarily that this margarine had a stray cats 679 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,600 Speaker 1: dropped into it. But why did this happen? Well, Okay 680 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,879 Speaker 1: State politicians began fighting over the color of margarine. They 681 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:21,320 Speaker 1: were saying that coloring yellow was false advertising because margarine 682 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,479 Speaker 1: is naturally white. It's made from talow and that's after 683 00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:28,640 Speaker 1: it's processing. But thirty two states here in the US 684 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:34,040 Speaker 1: passed laws to demand that margarine be dyed pink instead 685 00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,200 Speaker 1: of yellow, and the Supreme Court actually had to intervene 686 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,239 Speaker 1: and they overturned the laws because they said, look, it's 687 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 1: illegal to enforce the adulteration of food. Yeah, that's it 688 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,560 Speaker 1: sounds like some straight up Dr SEUs nonsense right there. 689 00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:49,919 Speaker 1: The idea to someone to say, actually you're gonna sell 690 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000 Speaker 1: that margarine, you gotta diet pink. Yeah, it's just straight 691 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:56,360 Speaker 1: up uh, right out of the Doctor SEUs. But clearly 692 00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 1: must have inspired this story. They they must have known 693 00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:03,279 Speaker 1: about it. But yeah, it's just crazy to me. You know. 694 00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:06,400 Speaker 1: I think about like all the insanity that's going on 695 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,800 Speaker 1: in our government right now and the back and forth 696 00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:12,360 Speaker 1: like haggling and uh, kind of just nasty rhetoric, and 697 00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,440 Speaker 1: it feels like, oh, this is just a product of today, 698 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,359 Speaker 1: and then you look back a hundred hundred and fifty 699 00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:19,160 Speaker 1: years ago and you're like, oh, no, Like it was 700 00:40:19,239 --> 00:40:21,680 Speaker 1: just as silly people were yelling at each other about 701 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,680 Speaker 1: making margarine pink. Yeah, yeah, you can, because I can 702 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:27,799 Speaker 1: imagine the way like modern headlines and social media would 703 00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,240 Speaker 1: pick up on it, like, oh, this legislator just introduced 704 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:32,879 Speaker 1: a bill to die all of our margarine pink. What's 705 00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:37,080 Speaker 1: going on exactly? So all right, you think this story 706 00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:39,840 Speaker 1: is over, it's not. By the time we get to 707 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:43,200 Speaker 1: World War two, the United States needs margarine because the 708 00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:46,319 Speaker 1: depression in the war have led to butters shortages. Like 709 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:51,319 Speaker 1: we said, that's a valued commodity. So margarine became more 710 00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:55,560 Speaker 1: palatable to Americans because it was made with hydrogenated vegetable 711 00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,480 Speaker 1: oils instead of animal fats like the one we were 712 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,240 Speaker 1: just talking about with the gee. Yeah, so that's interesting. 713 00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:06,279 Speaker 1: But during the war, margarine was even sold with capsules 714 00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:10,080 Speaker 1: of yellow food coloring to get past all the fury 715 00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: about dying. So it came white, but then you would 716 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:14,759 Speaker 1: add the yellow, so when you put it out on 717 00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:20,440 Speaker 1: your table, it looked like butter. Except in Wisconsin. Wisconsin 718 00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:25,360 Speaker 1: wasn't having any of this because using yellow margarine in 719 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:29,080 Speaker 1: Wisconsin was a crime that was punishable by fines or imprisonment. 720 00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:33,600 Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So you look at the Yuks and 721 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:38,000 Speaker 1: the zooks and you think, well, that couldn't happen. Well, 722 00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,640 Speaker 1: we got pretty close. We we were at least imprisoning 723 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:43,319 Speaker 1: people and in finding them in one state in the 724 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:48,719 Speaker 1: United States for how they used butter and or Margarine. Well, 725 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,840 Speaker 1: you know, to bring it all back around to the 726 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,560 Speaker 1: Yuks and the Zooks and the Butter Battle Book. Uh 727 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,359 Speaker 1: and and as I was getting ready with my notes 728 00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,960 Speaker 1: for this episode, I ended up going to the library 729 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,520 Speaker 1: checking out a copy of this book because we we 730 00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:04,000 Speaker 1: have a number of sus books in the house, but 731 00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:06,279 Speaker 1: we don't have the Butter Battle Book. So I thought, all, 732 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:07,680 Speaker 1: I need to read this to my son. He loves 733 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,399 Speaker 1: Dr Suits, I love Dr Susy. Did he like it? 734 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,000 Speaker 1: He liked it, He had certain he had questions about it, 735 00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:18,920 Speaker 1: questions that I could only vaguely answer because the spoiler. 736 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 1: But the book ends with a standoff as this arms 737 00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:26,279 Speaker 1: race over how how best to spread your butter has 738 00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,520 Speaker 1: led to essentially the development of these little pill sized 739 00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:33,279 Speaker 1: nuclear weapons, and the Yuks and the Zooks are to 740 00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:37,399 Speaker 1: standoff who's gonna drop theirs first? And and other other 741 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,839 Speaker 1: Yuks and Zooks are going into bomb shelters, and it's 742 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,880 Speaker 1: it confronts mutually assured destruction the idea that have nuclear 743 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:48,360 Speaker 1: weapons are ever deployed, uh, in a in a large 744 00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:52,720 Speaker 1: scale manner, it's just gonna be complete destruction on both sides, 745 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:57,040 Speaker 1: not to mention environmental um destruction as well. So I 746 00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:59,520 Speaker 1: haven't read the book, but I watched the cartoon version 747 00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:02,960 Speaker 1: this morning, and if it's similar, what really impressed me 748 00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,200 Speaker 1: was that it's a story that doesn't hold your hand 749 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,839 Speaker 1: or a child's hand by saying like, this is what 750 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:12,719 Speaker 1: you're supposed to learn from this, because both sides are 751 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,680 Speaker 1: hysterical in their rhetoric against one another and how they 752 00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,160 Speaker 1: use butter, and they basically are amping up their their 753 00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:23,200 Speaker 1: technology in the like kind of silly Dr. Seuss like 754 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,919 Speaker 1: weaponry way right there, like weird sling shots and things 755 00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:30,560 Speaker 1: that catching shots and throw them back. But like it's 756 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,280 Speaker 1: it's interesting in the cartoon because it's like a father 757 00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,759 Speaker 1: telling his son, like, this is why we hate them, 758 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,880 Speaker 1: this is why you have to destroy them, and here's 759 00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:41,880 Speaker 1: my personal story as to why. And usually in a 760 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:44,520 Speaker 1: children's cartoon or a story like that, you go, oh, well, 761 00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:47,000 Speaker 1: that's the authoritative figure. I will listen to him, and 762 00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:49,280 Speaker 1: I will learn a lesson from him. But the lesson 763 00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,080 Speaker 1: to be learned is like these people are all crazy 764 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:54,759 Speaker 1: and they're they're gonna end up killing each other. Yeah, 765 00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:56,960 Speaker 1: like you read Seuss the Lorax and they have that 766 00:43:57,000 --> 00:43:59,400 Speaker 1: wonderful environmental message at the end, it's also kind of 767 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:03,160 Speaker 1: darth that's as look, the things are bad and it's 768 00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:05,960 Speaker 1: up to you to to change it, to make it better. 769 00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:08,600 Speaker 1: And here's something you can do, Like it's all symbolized 770 00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,240 Speaker 1: in the planning of the seed. You can plant more trees, 771 00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,360 Speaker 1: you can care about the environment, and we might be 772 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:16,719 Speaker 1: able to reclaim some of what's lost. But at the 773 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,440 Speaker 1: end of the butter Battle Book, there's no suggestion. It 774 00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:22,080 Speaker 1: just shows you, like how crazy the world has gotten 775 00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,480 Speaker 1: and what kind of state we're in. And SEUs doesn't 776 00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:29,760 Speaker 1: have an answer. I can totally bastion being like, um so, 777 00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:32,120 Speaker 1: who was right the yooks or the zooks or what 778 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,600 Speaker 1: am I supposed to do? It raises a lot of 779 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,440 Speaker 1: a lot of questions. Uh, And it's I was tempted 780 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:41,759 Speaker 1: to say what It raises more questions now and it's 781 00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:43,839 Speaker 1: more of a potent story now because we have this 782 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:49,640 Speaker 1: renewed discussion of a potential nuclear arms race and and 783 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,279 Speaker 1: nuclear tensions once more. But this is, but it's never 784 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:58,880 Speaker 1: This is a story that's never become unimportant, like right, 785 00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:01,200 Speaker 1: I don't think it'll ever be pass a right, like 786 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:03,160 Speaker 1: you and I will be deadened in the ground two 787 00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:05,640 Speaker 1: hundred years from now. The butter Battle Book in the bottom. 788 00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:09,600 Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, maybe that's the Yeah, yeah, it's still it's 789 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,880 Speaker 1: still a wonderful book, but also a terrifying book for adults, 790 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,880 Speaker 1: because the threat of nuclear war is terrifying and the 791 00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:20,000 Speaker 1: threat hasn't gone away. And so, in continuing this this 792 00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:25,520 Speaker 1: effort to to highlight nonprofits organizations that depend on donations 793 00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,279 Speaker 1: on our our episodes, I wanted to do a call 794 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,399 Speaker 1: out to the Arms Control Association. Okay, you can find 795 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:34,560 Speaker 1: them at arms control dot org. They were founded in 796 00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:39,719 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one. They're in national, nonpartisan membership organization dedicated 797 00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:44,120 Speaker 1: to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms 798 00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:48,879 Speaker 1: control policies, so that they have public education and media programs. 799 00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:52,800 Speaker 1: It has a magazine, Arms Control Today. They provide policymakers, 800 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:57,640 Speaker 1: the press, and just the interested public with authoritative information, analysis, 801 00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:03,400 Speaker 1: and commentary on arms control proprobe proposals, negotiation, negotiations and agreements, 802 00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:06,959 Speaker 1: and related national security issues. So maybe that's what you do. 803 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:09,040 Speaker 1: If you've got a kid who reads the Butter battle 804 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,400 Speaker 1: Book and says, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, 805 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:15,400 Speaker 1: I suspect the Arms Control Association probably has some media 806 00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,480 Speaker 1: materials that, at least for us as adults, helps us 807 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:22,600 Speaker 1: to sort of better think about arms races and mutually 808 00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:26,640 Speaker 1: a shared destruction. Indeed, so there we go from from 809 00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,880 Speaker 1: butter to mutually sured destruction. That's what we bring you 810 00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:33,280 Speaker 1: here us have to blow your mind dot com. And hey, also, 811 00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:36,239 Speaker 1: I want to know some answers because we couldn't find 812 00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:38,960 Speaker 1: them here. If you know what human butter tastes like, 813 00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:41,279 Speaker 1: I want to know if you know what bog butter 814 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,240 Speaker 1: tastes like. I want to know what's the weirdest butter 815 00:46:44,480 --> 00:46:47,799 Speaker 1: that you've had, like from from an animal. Uh, there's 816 00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:49,640 Speaker 1: all kinds of places to tell us. You can go 817 00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:53,800 Speaker 1: on social media where on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, and Instagram 818 00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:56,399 Speaker 1: you can write us at blow the mind on all 819 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,080 Speaker 1: those platforms, or you can go visit stuff to blow 820 00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:00,839 Speaker 1: your mind dot com. You want to learn more about 821 00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:05,160 Speaker 1: mutually assured destruction or butter, Well, that's where we've got 822 00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,560 Speaker 1: all of our podcasts. We've got all of our videos, 823 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,919 Speaker 1: every blog post that we've ever written. Check it out. Yeah, 824 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,040 Speaker 1: and as always, you can reach out to us you 825 00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:16,680 Speaker 1: want to. You want more episodes they focus on food products. 826 00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:18,840 Speaker 1: You want want on cheese. Let us know you want 827 00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:22,239 Speaker 1: some more episodes that focus on the threat of nuclear annihilation. 828 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,319 Speaker 1: Let us know we can do that as well. We 829 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:27,000 Speaker 1: walk both sides of the street here. It's stuff to 830 00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:29,120 Speaker 1: blow your mind. Send us an email. Let us know 831 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:41,840 Speaker 1: at Blow the Mind and how stuff works dot com. 832 00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:44,400 Speaker 1: Well more on this and thousands of other topics because 833 00:47:44,400 --> 00:48:02,920 Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com. He is graduated prop