1
00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:08,240
Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My

2
00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:10,800
Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb. Today is Saturday, so we have

3
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:13,720
Speaker 1: another one of those old vault episodes for you. This

4
00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:15,920
Speaker 1: is going to be Food Storage Mad Science, Part two,

5
00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:19,759
Speaker 1: originally published seven four, twenty twenty five. This again is

6
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,800
Speaker 1: one that Joe did with the host of the Saber

7
00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:25,400
Speaker 1: podcast while I was out on vacation. But it's a

8
00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:27,800
Speaker 1: real fun discussion of the weird things that can happen

9
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:30,800
Speaker 1: to your food when you store it correctly or incorrectly.

10
00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:35,280
Speaker 1: So let's jump right into the episode.

11
00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:40,239
Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio.

12
00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,239
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My

13
00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:52,560
Speaker 3: name is Joe McCormick. My regular co host, Rob Lamb

14
00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 3: is not with me today. He's going to be back,

15
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,320
Speaker 3: I think, for tomorrow's episode. So instead of Rob today,

16
00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:00,880
Speaker 3: I am being joined once again by my friends and

17
00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,240
Speaker 3: colleagues Annie Reese and Lauren Vogelbaum, hosts of the food

18
00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,280
Speaker 3: podcast Saver. Today we're going to be recording part two

19
00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:15,280
Speaker 3: of our series called Food Storage Mad Science, all about weird, spooky,

20
00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:18,479
Speaker 3: and surprising things that can happen to leftovers and other

21
00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,240
Speaker 3: foods during storage. If you haven't heard part one of

22
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:24,920
Speaker 3: this series that was Tuesday of this week, I'd recommend

23
00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,080
Speaker 3: going back and listening to that one first, though I

24
00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,240
Speaker 3: guess I don't know. The stuff we're talking about is

25
00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:31,760
Speaker 3: not fully sequential, so if you'd rather listen to this

26
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:34,600
Speaker 3: one first, that that's okay too. But Annie and Lauren

27
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:35,319
Speaker 3: welcome back.

28
00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:38,200
Speaker 2: Hi. Yeah, thanks for having us back.

29
00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:39,080
Speaker 4: Yes, thank you.

30
00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,399
Speaker 3: Okay. So in part one of the series, we talked

31
00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:49,000
Speaker 3: about two main food transformation phenomena. One was based on

32
00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:52,400
Speaker 3: an anecdote that actually happened to me, where a tray

33
00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,920
Speaker 3: of leftover baked pasta eight holes in a sheet of

34
00:01:56,960 --> 00:01:59,720
Speaker 3: aluminum foil while I had it stored in the refrigerator.

35
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:01,760
Speaker 3: We spent a while getting to the bottom of what

36
00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:06,440
Speaker 3: exactly happened there and ended up discovering a pretty firm,

37
00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:10,359
Speaker 3: but fascinating and bizarre answer. And then the other thing

38
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,639
Speaker 3: we talked about last time was the chemical process by

39
00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:18,000
Speaker 3: which cooked or pickled garlic sometimes turns blue or jade

40
00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,320
Speaker 3: green turns out. As long as this is not caused

41
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 3: by mold, it is perfectly safe to eat, and in

42
00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:27,480
Speaker 3: some food traditions such as Chinese lava garlic it's even

43
00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,679
Speaker 3: an effect that people create on purpose. And we're back

44
00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:34,600
Speaker 3: today to talk about more food transformations. So I think

45
00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:36,280
Speaker 3: a major theme we're going to be looking at in

46
00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:42,720
Speaker 3: this episode is the unexpected either explosion or combustion of

47
00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,800
Speaker 3: food and drink. And if it's okay with y'all, I

48
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,120
Speaker 3: wanted to start by looking at a series of initially

49
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:55,440
Speaker 3: unexplained restaurant fires back around twenty nineteen. Yeah, we put

50
00:02:55,480 --> 00:03:00,919
Speaker 3: on your fire investigator hats with shore done here. I'm

51
00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,120
Speaker 3: relying on a few news articles to get the facts

52
00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,480
Speaker 3: of the case. A July twelfth, twenty nineteen Wisconsin Public

53
00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:12,200
Speaker 3: Radio article by Rob Mentzer, a July fifteenth article in

54
00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,919
Speaker 3: The New York Times by Neil Vigdor, and a July

55
00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:19,160
Speaker 3: sixteenth article for ABC News by Ela Torres. And so

56
00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:23,280
Speaker 3: the story goes like this. In twenty nineteen, fire investigators

57
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:29,000
Speaker 3: in Wisconsin noticed a recent pattern of what appeared to

58
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:35,520
Speaker 3: be spontaneous combustion leading to fires in local restaurants. Primarily

59
00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 3: it was in places that served sushi. There were fires

60
00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,600
Speaker 3: in two different sushi restaurants in the city of Madison, Wisconsin.

61
00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:46,320
Speaker 3: And to get a little color on what happened here,

62
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,880
Speaker 3: I'm gonna read from the ABC reporting quote. One blaze

63
00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:53,480
Speaker 3: broke out at Sumo Steakhouse and Sushi Bar on April fifth,

64
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:57,560
Speaker 3: at around two thirty am. Firefighters entered the restaurant, threw

65
00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 3: a hatch on the roof, and found the kitchen in flames.

66
00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:03,800
Speaker 3: A sprinkler managed to prevent the fire from further damaging

67
00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:07,520
Speaker 3: the building, and the restaurant has since reopened. Another fire

68
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,560
Speaker 3: occurred on May tenth at the Madison restaurant to Kara,

69
00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:15,560
Speaker 3: just before midnight. Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire,

70
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,320
Speaker 3: though the damage was extensive. To Kara remains closed, and

71
00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:23,640
Speaker 3: that was as of July twenty nineteen. Again, so fortunately

72
00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:26,040
Speaker 3: no one was injured in these two incidents, but the

73
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,800
Speaker 3: damage was extensive, totaling more than five hundred and seventy

74
00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:33,240
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars combined at the two restaurants. Yeah, so

75
00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:37,000
Speaker 3: like serious fires, both of them happening in the middle

76
00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,640
Speaker 3: of the night. That's kind of interesting, Like after the

77
00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:42,359
Speaker 3: restaurants had closed, fires picked kicking up in the kitchen.

78
00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:45,599
Speaker 3: So this is not from somebody actively cooking and setting

79
00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,880
Speaker 3: fire to something. But this was not all These two

80
00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:54,200
Speaker 3: fires were linked to a pattern of similar restaurant fires

81
00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:56,960
Speaker 3: across the state of Wisconsin. I think there were five

82
00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:00,200
Speaker 3: total in Wisconsin, and then more across the rest of

83
00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,200
Speaker 3: the United States, including in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Ashburn, Virginia,

84
00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:08,440
Speaker 3: and at least one fire in Canada. So big question

85
00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:12,800
Speaker 3: what was causing these fires. Authorities got on the case,

86
00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,800
Speaker 3: and these articles I mentioned all include interview material with

87
00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:20,040
Speaker 3: a particular Wisconsin based fire investigator who I think was

88
00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:24,960
Speaker 3: the lead investigator on this case, named Kara Nelson. Nelson

89
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,640
Speaker 3: coordinated with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to

90
00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,239
Speaker 3: determine the cause of these blazes and ended up tracing

91
00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:37,720
Speaker 3: them back to a form of what investigators call spontaneous combustion.

92
00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,920
Speaker 3: Now we could quibble about whether spontaneous combustion is a

93
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:45,640
Speaker 3: misleading term or not. I know sometimes people trying to

94
00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,880
Speaker 3: be scientifically accurate don't like that term because it could

95
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,440
Speaker 3: suggest that it's like without a cause somehow, you know,

96
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,840
Speaker 3: and they're usually various causes you can identify. In any case,

97
00:05:55,880 --> 00:06:00,080
Speaker 3: I think it's definitely accurate to say surprise combustion. So

98
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:04,560
Speaker 3: a case of some surprise combustion which was occurring in

99
00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:08,400
Speaker 3: all of these restaurants in the same food material, which

100
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:14,000
Speaker 3: was deep fried tempura flakes. Okay, y'all, y'all have feelings

101
00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,960
Speaker 3: about uh tempora generally or deep fried tempora flakes. You

102
00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:18,719
Speaker 3: know the crunch they put on the sushi rolls.

103
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:20,279
Speaker 4: Well, now I'm a little nervous.

104
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:23,640
Speaker 3: There's not I don't think you have anything to be

105
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,720
Speaker 3: afraid of from eating it. It's no, it's not an

106
00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,000
Speaker 3: eating problem. It's a storage issue. And we'll get in

107
00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:32,479
Speaker 3: we'll get to the bottom of it. But uh but yeah,

108
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:34,279
Speaker 3: are you tempora fans at least?

109
00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:38,400
Speaker 2: No? No, I I don't want fried in my sushi.

110
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,040
Speaker 2: It's I understand that it's a thing that some people enjoy.

111
00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:43,880
Speaker 2: I'm there for raw fish.

112
00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,160
Speaker 4: I agree with Lauren, but I like tempura as a

113
00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:47,800
Speaker 4: separate thing.

114
00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, that's that's where I am.

115
00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:50,679
Speaker 4: Annie.

116
00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,159
Speaker 3: I'm not so big on the tempora in sushi, but

117
00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:55,760
Speaker 3: I love like tempora shrimp or tempora vegetables.

118
00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,360
Speaker 2: They're fine, they're often a little soggy for me. It's

119
00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:03,599
Speaker 2: using temp tempora flakes specifically at home can be nice,

120
00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,280
Speaker 2: Like I enjoy a timpora batter, but you have to

121
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,160
Speaker 2: do it really care I'm picky about my fried food.

122
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:14,040
Speaker 2: If I'm going to invest the caloric undertake of of

123
00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:16,480
Speaker 2: fried food, I want to be real excited about it.

124
00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:19,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, well I get that, but yeah, I appreciate

125
00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:23,000
Speaker 3: at least tempura fried things on their own, but so

126
00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,920
Speaker 3: timpura deep fried tempora flakes are known in Japanese as

127
00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:33,240
Speaker 3: aga dama or tinkasu, meaning tempura dregs, and as I

128
00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:35,440
Speaker 3: think I just said, sometimes on menus you will see

129
00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:38,280
Speaker 3: them described as crunch because it's mainly used to add

130
00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:43,120
Speaker 3: a crispy textural element to certain sushi rolls. Tempura batter

131
00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,520
Speaker 3: is typically made with some combination of wheat, flour and water,

132
00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:48,880
Speaker 3: like a lot of batters, but you can have other

133
00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,640
Speaker 3: things in there as well. Sometimes there will be other

134
00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:56,160
Speaker 3: flowers or starches like corn starch. You might have baking powder, egg,

135
00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:59,320
Speaker 3: so it's you know, it's nothing all that unusual as

136
00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:04,320
Speaker 3: far as batter composition goes. Normally, when you're making tempura,

137
00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:07,280
Speaker 3: you would dip your food in the batter and then

138
00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:09,440
Speaker 3: deep fry it so that the batter forms a crispy

139
00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,440
Speaker 3: coating on the fried food. But to make timpura crunch,

140
00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:15,720
Speaker 3: you're just going to be frying the batter itself. So

141
00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:18,480
Speaker 3: you make these flakes by ladling a bunch of little

142
00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:20,640
Speaker 3: drops of batter into the hot oil, and then you

143
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,360
Speaker 3: scoop them out with the strainer and deposit them into

144
00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:27,080
Speaker 3: a storage vessel. And here's where the problem comes in.

145
00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:32,520
Speaker 3: When these fried flakes are stored densely packed in a

146
00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:36,000
Speaker 3: bowl or a pot, the heat cannot escape very well.

147
00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:41,160
Speaker 3: And adding on that hot oily batter, when exposed to oxygen,

148
00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:46,920
Speaker 3: can undergo a self accelerating chemical reaction that gives off

149
00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,719
Speaker 3: even more heat. And if this heat cannot be removed

150
00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,760
Speaker 3: fast enough, it just keeps building up until this fried

151
00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:57,480
Speaker 3: food ignites, catches on fire, and then you have a

152
00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:02,000
Speaker 3: kitchen fire. Karen Nelson, the fire investigator, quoted in the

153
00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,720
Speaker 3: New York Times, says quote, it is no different than

154
00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:07,840
Speaker 3: the chemical reaction that causes more well known substances to

155
00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:11,679
Speaker 3: spontaneously combust. It can happen in hay bales, it can

156
00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:15,920
Speaker 3: happen in mulch piles, and apparently also in timpero flakes.

157
00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:18,800
Speaker 3: So what does it look like when this happens.

158
00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:19,160
Speaker 1: Well?

159
00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:23,040
Speaker 3: The New York Times article includes security camera footage from

160
00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:26,280
Speaker 3: inside one of these restaurants where the Timpero flakes were

161
00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,240
Speaker 3: made earlier in the day, in the afternoon and then

162
00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,720
Speaker 3: left in a colander in the kitchen to cool. And

163
00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,560
Speaker 3: you can see from the time stamps on the video,

164
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,199
Speaker 3: about six hours after they were first cooked, the flakes

165
00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:42,800
Speaker 3: starts smoking, and then something like ten hours after cooking,

166
00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:45,480
Speaker 3: they actually catch on fire. And then the fire gets

167
00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:48,360
Speaker 3: bigger and bigger, and then the walls are covered in flames.

168
00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:50,840
Speaker 3: And then the part I found really scary is you

169
00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:53,360
Speaker 3: see the sprinkler system come on and it starts dumping

170
00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:55,680
Speaker 3: water all over the kitchen, but the fire does not

171
00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:59,240
Speaker 3: immediately go out. It keeps flaming, kind of sputtering against

172
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:01,800
Speaker 3: the spray of water from above. I think the sprinklers

173
00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:05,520
Speaker 3: can eventually douse the fires, they cool them off and

174
00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:08,600
Speaker 3: deprive them of oxygen, but for a while it looks

175
00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:10,000
Speaker 3: like the fire is fighting back.

176
00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:14,200
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, kits are terrifying, terrifying, yeah, for that reason.

177
00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:18,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So what exactly is this chemical reaction in

178
00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:21,280
Speaker 3: the tempera battery that's causing it to act this way?

179
00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:25,239
Speaker 3: Once again, like in the last episode with the aluminum

180
00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,120
Speaker 3: anode in the Lasagna battery, we are looking at the

181
00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:33,160
Speaker 3: process of oxidation at the molecular level. The fats and

182
00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:37,920
Speaker 3: oils used in cooking are mainly composed of molecules called triglycerides,

183
00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,199
Speaker 3: which in turn are made of a core lipid molecule

184
00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:46,960
Speaker 3: called a glycerol bonded with three fatty acids. Triglycerides are

185
00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:48,960
Speaker 3: found throughout nature. They're one of the main ways that

186
00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,960
Speaker 3: animals and plants store energy for later use. So animals

187
00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:56,320
Speaker 3: store these as fats in their adipose tissue. Plants often

188
00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:59,320
Speaker 3: store them in seeds or fruits. It's a very very

189
00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:02,400
Speaker 3: efficient way to store a lot of energy in a

190
00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,600
Speaker 3: small amount of matter, which is the main reason that.

191
00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,040
Speaker 3: Also that fats are very calorically dense as a food,

192
00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:10,960
Speaker 3: So you know, you're trying to store a lot of

193
00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:14,040
Speaker 3: food in a small space and a small amount of weight.

194
00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,800
Speaker 3: You want to have as many fats as you can. Also,

195
00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:20,559
Speaker 3: that's delicious, right, and they taste good, yeah, for evolutionary

196
00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:22,720
Speaker 3: reasons because their energy dense exactly.

197
00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:25,240
Speaker 4: Yeah.

198
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:30,120
Speaker 3: So when oils made of triglycerides are exposed to oxygen,

199
00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:32,520
Speaker 3: such as in the atmosphere in the air around us,

200
00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:38,160
Speaker 3: they undergo a chemical reaction called autooxidation. The oxidation reaction

201
00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:43,319
Speaker 3: with the air. The oxidation of triglycerides can sometimes result

202
00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:45,720
Speaker 3: in It can do different things. It can sometimes result

203
00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:50,880
Speaker 3: in polymerization, which is when small isolated lipid molecules called

204
00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:56,000
Speaker 3: monomers bind together to form long chain molecules called polymers.

205
00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,240
Speaker 3: And this is not the main process at play in

206
00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:01,760
Speaker 3: Timpura flame combustion, but I did want to stick on

207
00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:03,720
Speaker 3: this for a second because it relates to our conversation

208
00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,440
Speaker 3: in the last episode about food reacting in interesting chemical

209
00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:11,320
Speaker 3: ways with cooking pans. Polymerization is what happens when you

210
00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,360
Speaker 3: season a cast iron or a carbon steel pan to

211
00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,880
Speaker 3: create a rustproof and non stick surface. So, you know,

212
00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:20,080
Speaker 3: you rub oil all over the iron and then you

213
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,600
Speaker 3: apply high heat to it. This heat helps oxidize the

214
00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:26,760
Speaker 3: oil really fast, and it makes the oil molecules bond

215
00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:30,880
Speaker 3: together into a big sheet of plasticky polymers coating the metal.

216
00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:33,360
Speaker 3: And that does multiple things. It both protects the metal

217
00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,320
Speaker 3: from exposure to oxygen, and it also makes the cooking

218
00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:40,720
Speaker 3: surface more non stick. Are y'all very protective of cast

219
00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:43,360
Speaker 3: iron and carbon steel cookware? I know some people in

220
00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:45,840
Speaker 3: their kitchens are like, you know, I don't let anybody

221
00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:48,959
Speaker 3: use my cast iron pan. I'm afraid they might wash

222
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:50,840
Speaker 3: it the wrong way and get my seasoning off. Some

223
00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:53,480
Speaker 3: people are very protective. My mom's like that.

224
00:12:54,240 --> 00:13:01,200
Speaker 4: One time. I'm not great at it. Once before I

225
00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,080
Speaker 4: knew more about cast iron pans, I was trying to

226
00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,080
Speaker 4: help out a friend of mine who had made dinner,

227
00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:11,560
Speaker 4: and I washed her cast iron pan and she looked

228
00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,800
Speaker 4: at me and was like, oh my seasoning. You were

229
00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:19,719
Speaker 4: like that because you are supposed to wash them, but

230
00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:21,959
Speaker 4: I had really gone in for the scrub.

231
00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:24,920
Speaker 3: Like, oh, dish detergent and steel wool.

232
00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:28,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I still feel a lot of guilt about

233
00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:29,400
Speaker 4: that whole thing.

234
00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:31,880
Speaker 3: If you really go hard, you can you can do

235
00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:34,200
Speaker 3: a lot of damage. But also I think people are

236
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:37,120
Speaker 3: a little overly precious about that. Like, you know, a

237
00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:39,240
Speaker 3: quick wash with a little bit of soap, you usually

238
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:41,439
Speaker 3: still retain most of the seasoning. It's not going to

239
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,360
Speaker 3: be too bad. But yeah, can really scrub at it

240
00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:46,840
Speaker 3: and use a lot of detergent in there, it'll strip it.

241
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:48,720
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, even if you use a little bit

242
00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,319
Speaker 2: of steel wool on there, unless you know, if you're

243
00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:55,600
Speaker 2: just using it to lightly scrape the surface, not dig

244
00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:58,600
Speaker 2: into it. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you know,

245
00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:03,040
Speaker 2: I But that being said, I do washvine with hot water,

246
00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:05,880
Speaker 2: maybe a little bit of salt on a clean sponge.

247
00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:07,319
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I do that.

248
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:09,640
Speaker 2: Then I just yeah, I just rub. I'll oil into it,

249
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:11,719
Speaker 2: pop it in the toaster oven for like half an

250
00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:14,480
Speaker 2: hour at two hundred go nice.

251
00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,160
Speaker 3: I wish I could say I re season every time

252
00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:20,320
Speaker 3: I use it. I know, they say, ideally that's what

253
00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:22,520
Speaker 3: you do. Instead, I tend to have more like seasoning

254
00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,560
Speaker 3: days when I have a day when I can set

255
00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:27,200
Speaker 3: aside a few minutes to get out all of my

256
00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,240
Speaker 3: all of my carbon steel and cast iron cookware, rub

257
00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,240
Speaker 3: it all with oil, put it all in the same oven.

258
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:35,320
Speaker 3: So that kind of saves energy if you do it

259
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:38,120
Speaker 3: all in the oven at the same time. But yeah,

260
00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:40,360
Speaker 3: I try to take care of it, but I could

261
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:41,560
Speaker 3: take better care, I guess.

262
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:43,920
Speaker 2: I will say that the cast iron that I use

263
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,920
Speaker 2: in my home belongs to my roommate, and I'm more

264
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,960
Speaker 2: precious perhaps with her cast iron cookware than I would

265
00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:52,920
Speaker 2: be with my own.

266
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:59,240
Speaker 3: So in addition to this, we're like baking oil onto

267
00:14:59,280 --> 00:15:02,920
Speaker 3: our pans, intentionally using very high heat to polymerize it.

268
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:06,000
Speaker 3: There are some special types of oil known as drying oils.

269
00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:09,160
Speaker 3: Like this includes linseed oil or walnut oil, things like

270
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,640
Speaker 3: that that when exposed to oxygen, especially in the presence

271
00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:16,640
Speaker 3: of heat, but when exposed to oxygen, naturally undergo oxidation

272
00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:20,600
Speaker 3: and polymerization as they dry or people sometimes call this

273
00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:24,880
Speaker 3: curing maybe drying. Normally, when we think about liquids drying,

274
00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,360
Speaker 3: we're imagining water based liquids or maybe alcohol or something

275
00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:31,760
Speaker 3: which dry by evaporating into the air. Of course, oils

276
00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,600
Speaker 3: don't evaporate. When these oils dry, we're typically talking about

277
00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:38,960
Speaker 3: them oxidizing in reaction with the air and then forming

278
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,840
Speaker 3: a hard polymer. So drying oils are often used as

279
00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:44,320
Speaker 3: the baselipid and substances like paint.

280
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:47,080
Speaker 2: This is also why you can rub some walnut oil

281
00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,400
Speaker 2: into like a hardwood floor if it's getting a little

282
00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,600
Speaker 2: patchy in places, and it will help help reseal the floor.

283
00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:57,520
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly totally. So these they have the sealent quality

284
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:01,920
Speaker 3: because they form the polymerization surface. But a different oxidation

285
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,280
Speaker 3: process is more important to consider in the case of

286
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:07,440
Speaker 3: food and also in the case of fires, and that

287
00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:11,840
Speaker 3: is decomposition. This is when oil is exposed to oxygen

288
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,160
Speaker 3: start to break down at the molecular level, So triglycerides

289
00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:21,680
Speaker 3: react with oxygen to form these unstable molecules called hydroperoxides,

290
00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:25,760
Speaker 3: and then the hydroperoxides, because they are unstable, break apart

291
00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,520
Speaker 3: into smaller, volatile molecules of many different kinds. You get

292
00:16:29,720 --> 00:16:35,200
Speaker 3: short chain fatty acids, aldehydes, esters, ketones, and as a

293
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:38,320
Speaker 3: side note, a lot of these breakdown products smell and

294
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:43,240
Speaker 3: taste bad. The oxidation of cooking oil is the main

295
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:48,040
Speaker 3: cause of oil ransidity. So when oil is old or

296
00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,440
Speaker 3: it's been sitting too long in the fryer and starts

297
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:52,800
Speaker 3: to taste bad, that usually means that a lot of

298
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,480
Speaker 3: these oxidation byproducts are mixed in with the oil and

299
00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:01,200
Speaker 3: they produce these unpleasant, sometimes bitter or metallic flames and aromas.

300
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:03,520
Speaker 3: But then, on the other hand, I do believe that

301
00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:08,480
Speaker 3: some of the pleasant aromas and flavors we associate with

302
00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:12,440
Speaker 3: fried foods also come from some oil oxidation and break

303
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,240
Speaker 3: down products, like that kind of you know, festival food,

304
00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:18,720
Speaker 3: fried food smell. I think that that's some of that too.

305
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:21,240
Speaker 3: But if you get too much oxidation, I think that

306
00:17:21,320 --> 00:17:24,920
Speaker 3: is when things start to be overwhelmingly unpleasant. You ever,

307
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,720
Speaker 3: you know, you smell the oil in the bottle and

308
00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:30,000
Speaker 3: something just smells like metal or something mm hmmmm.

309
00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:32,639
Speaker 2: Or if you come home from a dive bar and

310
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,280
Speaker 2: your shirt is just you're like, oh, this is bad

311
00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:39,680
Speaker 2: fryer smell. Oh why and I ate those fries?

312
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:46,320
Speaker 3: Oh no, yeah, yeah, But okay, So anybody with some

313
00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:48,520
Speaker 3: experience in the kitchen is going to be familiar with

314
00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,639
Speaker 3: these cases of oil oxidation, like oil ransidity, if the

315
00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,160
Speaker 3: oil is old enough, it's gonna smell weird, taste bad,

316
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,200
Speaker 3: or seasoning cast iron pans and stuff. But how does

317
00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:02,800
Speaker 3: oil reacting with oxygen actually result in a fire. So

318
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:09,120
Speaker 3: the autooxidation of unsaturated fats is what's called an exothermic reaction,

319
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,800
Speaker 3: meaning the chemical reaction releases heat. It takes heat to

320
00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:18,080
Speaker 3: get going, but it also releases more heat when it happens.

321
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,760
Speaker 3: So if a bunch of oily material like oily fried

322
00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:26,160
Speaker 3: bits of batter or oily rags another common example here,

323
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,640
Speaker 3: if a bunch of that material is kept bunched up

324
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,919
Speaker 3: tightly in space somewhere, the heat from that exothermic reaction

325
00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:38,040
Speaker 3: gets the oil around it hotter, which makes the oxidation

326
00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,160
Speaker 3: happen faster in the surrounding oil, and then it releases

327
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:43,760
Speaker 3: more heat and the heat can't escape because it's all

328
00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,000
Speaker 3: packed together in a bowl, and you get runaway thermal

329
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:51,159
Speaker 3: escalation until it starts smoking and then catches fire. So

330
00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:54,840
Speaker 3: coming back to the sushi restaurant fires, this article by

331
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:59,880
Speaker 3: Wisconsin Public Radio describes some tests that fire investigators used

332
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:04,040
Speaker 3: to confirm their theory about the spontaneous combustion of tempura batter.

333
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,479
Speaker 3: One of the restaurants agreed to make a test batch,

334
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:11,520
Speaker 3: and according to Karen Nelson, the investigator from Madison, when

335
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:14,040
Speaker 3: they measured the temperature in the middle of the bowl

336
00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,320
Speaker 3: of fried batter, it had reached two hundred and seventy

337
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:20,040
Speaker 3: seven degrees. The article does not say fahrenheit or celsius.

338
00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:22,800
Speaker 3: I think this has to be fahrenheit because oily batter

339
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,640
Speaker 3: at two hundred and seventy seven celsius would probably already

340
00:19:25,640 --> 00:19:26,280
Speaker 3: be on fire.

341
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:29,000
Speaker 2: Yes, no, no, yeah.

342
00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:31,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, that sounds like a very bad situation.

343
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,439
Speaker 3: But that's still I mean even fahrenheit, that's that's hot inside.

344
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 3: That's starting with a lot of heat packed in there,

345
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,360
Speaker 3: and then if you just leave it sitting you would expect,

346
00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:43,720
Speaker 3: and naturally, when you leave hot things sitting, they cool

347
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:46,920
Speaker 3: off over time. But this one, the heat starts triggering

348
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:50,400
Speaker 3: this rapid oxidation reaction with the air, and it gets

349
00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:53,200
Speaker 3: hotter instead of cooling off, and it just gets hotter

350
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:56,680
Speaker 3: and hotter until you have a fire. In Karen Nelson's

351
00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,640
Speaker 3: words quote as they deep fried in batches, they put

352
00:19:59,640 --> 00:20:02,119
Speaker 3: it into a colander or mesh strainer in batches, so

353
00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,439
Speaker 3: they're basically adding heat every time. So the heat builds

354
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,600
Speaker 3: and builds once it hits ignition temperature, that's when a

355
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 3: fire occurs. Now, one question I had about this is

356
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:18,960
Speaker 3: why is it that oily rags or fried batter can

357
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:23,920
Speaker 3: spontaneously or again, spontaneous combustion is used throughout this reporting,

358
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,959
Speaker 3: so maybe to put aside spontaneous, why is it that

359
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,800
Speaker 3: oily rags or fried batter can go under surprise combustion

360
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:35,359
Speaker 3: but a mass of oil on its own does not,

361
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,440
Speaker 3: because it is the oil that's oxidizing reacting with the air.

362
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:42,000
Speaker 3: And I believe the answer here is mainly about surface area.

363
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,800
Speaker 3: Oily rags or oily craggy bits of fried food expose

364
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,159
Speaker 3: more oil to the air all at once than you

365
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,399
Speaker 3: would be able to with just a volume of oil

366
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,560
Speaker 3: stored on its own. When oil is in a container,

367
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:59,640
Speaker 3: most of the oil is submerged and only the top

368
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,520
Speaker 3: surf is exposed to the air. And then on top

369
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:06,159
Speaker 3: of that, oily rags or timpura flakes also accelerate the

370
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:10,359
Speaker 3: reaction because the air pockets inside these masses of rags

371
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:13,760
Speaker 3: or food provide insulation and they keep the heat trapped

372
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:14,960
Speaker 3: inside for longer.

373
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 2: I wonder if you also have in there the factor

374
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 2: of some kind of combustive material that gets the whole

375
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:24,639
Speaker 2: process kind of started once it gets hot enough, like

376
00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:26,960
Speaker 2: you've got the flour or you've got cotton in the

377
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,160
Speaker 2: case of rags. I mean there have been without oils

378
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 2: particularly present. There have been all kinds of fires and

379
00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:35,040
Speaker 2: flower factories over the course of history.

380
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 3: So yes, yeah, grain fires can be a big thing,

381
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,240
Speaker 3: especially when the grain is I know the big thing.

382
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 3: There is a lot of powdered foods can cause fires

383
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,200
Speaker 3: when they're dispersed in the air. So like this can

384
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:49,880
Speaker 3: happen with flour or any kind of grain. It can

385
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:54,919
Speaker 3: happen with powdered milk. If you know, dairies and creameries,

386
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,600
Speaker 3: they can have powdered milk fires, So yeah, that is

387
00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 3: certainly a risk too, probably does not hurt that the

388
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 3: thing that's being fried also is a pretty ready fuel source,

389
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 3: you know, It's not like something that won't burn being

390
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:10,399
Speaker 3: coated in oil.

391
00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:12,920
Speaker 2: We should be making flakes of meat for sushi.

392
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,320
Speaker 3: But so okay, Let's say that maybe I'm a person

393
00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:20,480
Speaker 3: who loves tempera crunch and I want to make temper

394
00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:22,640
Speaker 3: a crunch, but I don't want to start a fire

395
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 3: in my kitchen. What are some ways around this? One is,

396
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:30,840
Speaker 3: if you're making fried tempera batter or any similar fried substance,

397
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:35,320
Speaker 3: don't store it in a densely packed way right after

398
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:37,680
Speaker 3: you cook it. So don't dump it into a bowl

399
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 3: or anywhere that it is densely piled up on itself.

400
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 3: Spread it out on a baking sheet or some of

401
00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:46,960
Speaker 3: their surface where it can cool more efficiently. Another piece

402
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:49,159
Speaker 3: of advice they give is don't make a batch of

403
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:51,520
Speaker 3: fried batter and then like at the end of the

404
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,600
Speaker 3: night and then leave it unattended overnight. That is what

405
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 3: happened in some of these cases. These articles recommend that

406
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,199
Speaker 3: restaurant owners ach fried tempura batter in the morning. So

407
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 3: that you will be around in the kitchen to observe

408
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,199
Speaker 3: it during the danger window, which these articles suggest is

409
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:10,840
Speaker 3: something like maybe ten to twelve hours after cooking.

410
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 2: So well for a danger window, yeah, yeah.

411
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,359
Speaker 3: I do want to clarify that it's nothing about the

412
00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:22,399
Speaker 3: tempura specifically that is the cause here. It seems that

413
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,960
Speaker 3: this could be any piece of you know, fried something

414
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:28,800
Speaker 3: that you're frying, a bunch of little pieces of something

415
00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:30,919
Speaker 3: and then pouring it in a bowl and storing it

416
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 3: like that. I think the same thing could happen there.

417
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,320
Speaker 3: So if you're getting little crispy bits off of your

418
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 3: I don't know if you're working in a fish fry

419
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:40,399
Speaker 3: shop or something like that, you could probably get a

420
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 3: similar thing. If you have a bunch of little bits

421
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 3: of fried something and you're storing them in a way

422
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,639
Speaker 3: that does not evaporate, that does not allow heat to

423
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:48,840
Speaker 3: radiate away efficiently.

424
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:53,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, and generally speaking, by spreading things out on for example,

425
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 2: a baking pan or something, you're gonna get them to well.

426
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 2: I mean, okay, So the point is that your point

427
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:03,160
Speaker 2: in not catching your kitchen on fires that you're going

428
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 2: to get it to cool more efficiently. My point hinges

429
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,400
Speaker 2: on the same thing, and it's going to stay crisper longer, yeah,

430
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,679
Speaker 2: because it's not going to just kind of be sitting

431
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:12,439
Speaker 2: in oil.

432
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 3: Right. So yeah, Generally, when you want to keep things crispy,

433
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:17,719
Speaker 3: don't you don't pile them on top of each other

434
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 3: because that leads to sogginess. That is my experience as

435
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:33,439
Speaker 3: a cook as well. Yeah, all right, well that is

436
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 3: all I have on the surprise combustion of tempura batter.

437
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 3: What do you all have next? In terms of food transformations?

438
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 2: Uh? Okay, can we talk about fermentation?

439
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:45,879
Speaker 3: Absolutely?

440
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,639
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, Oh, fermentation is my favorite. Anyone who is

441
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 2: here from Savor knows exactly how much I like going

442
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 2: on about bacteria and yeast poop because, like I said

443
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,360
Speaker 2: in the last episode that we were here for, they

444
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,919
Speaker 2: really do make the world go round. Most of my

445
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 2: favorite foods have some form of fermentation involved. And also

446
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:10,680
Speaker 2: microbes are really cool. And for my first example of this,

447
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 2: I want to talk about Boston's Great Molasses Flood of

448
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen. But okay, let me let me paint the

449
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:21,120
Speaker 2: whole story for you. And also note at the top

450
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 2: here see my Dearly Departed podcast American Shadows for a

451
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 2: dramatic reading of this story with like a nice SOUNDBD

452
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 2: in it, and like the whole thing. I got to

453
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:34,360
Speaker 2: really use my like schweaty Ball's voice in that one.

454
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 2: So it was a fun It was a fun thing

455
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 2: to do. But Okay, basically, it's nineteen nineteen and there

456
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:48,479
Speaker 2: was this two million gallon tank for molasses hanging out

457
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 2: in Boston in the North End. That's about seventy five

458
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 2: million leaders for our metric friends. This thing stood fifty

459
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 2: feet tall and ninety feet across. That's like fifteen by

460
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:06,960
Speaker 2: twenties seven meters, And okay, molasses, if you're unaware of

461
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 2: what molasses is, it's this like thick, sticky, cooked down

462
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 2: type of sugar syrup. It was invented as a byproduct

463
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:16,560
Speaker 2: of industrial sugar refining, in which you convince a liquid

464
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:20,879
Speaker 2: sugary juice from sugarcane or sugar beets to crystallize into

465
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:26,080
Speaker 2: pure white sugar using some heat and some seed crystals.

466
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:30,200
Speaker 2: What you're left with is this sugary syrup that you

467
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,119
Speaker 2: can keep cooking and crystallizing as much sugar as possible

468
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,640
Speaker 2: out of, and it will darken in color and develop

469
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:40,120
Speaker 2: all kinds of like rich bitter flavors from caramelization, and

470
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 2: that is molasses.

471
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:44,680
Speaker 3: Can I add a misconception I used to have, which

472
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:48,200
Speaker 3: is I used to think that brown sugar and white

473
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,680
Speaker 3: sugar worked like brown rice and white rice, that like, oh,

474
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:56,360
Speaker 3: white sugar was just further refined brown sugar. But that's

475
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,679
Speaker 3: not true from what I understand. Correct that brown sugar

476
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 3: is actually crystallized sugar that has had some amount of

477
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:06,120
Speaker 3: molasses mixed in, and the presence of molasses is why

478
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,160
Speaker 3: it has that more complex flavor than white sugar. It's

479
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 3: a little you know, it tastes a little bit more caramelized.

480
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:13,680
Speaker 3: There's something more complex to it.

481
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 4: Yeah.

482
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, and light brown sugar has less molasses than dark

483
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 2: brown sugar, and that's that also has to do with

484
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 2: the moisture level of those two products. But yeah, so

485
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 2: molasses is tasty on its own or added to baked

486
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 2: goods or what have you. But it's also great for

487
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 2: fermenting into like a kind of sugar wine that you

488
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 2: can then distill into alcohol, either for drinking like rum

489
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 2: or for absolutely not drinking, like industrial grade ethanol that,

490
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,480
Speaker 2: for example, went into munition production during World War One.

491
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 3: So you could say molasses then could be thought of

492
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 3: as an industrial product, not just a food product.

493
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 2: It is absolutely an industrial product. You do not get

494
00:27:56,359 --> 00:28:02,159
Speaker 2: molasses without the industrial production of white sugar. So yeah,

495
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 2: you can kind of mock it up in your own house,

496
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:06,680
Speaker 2: but that's that's a different Go see our episode about

497
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:14,600
Speaker 2: Golden Truckle for that one. Uh. So, okay, super brief

498
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 2: rundown on fermentation. Uh, fermentation is what happens. And I

499
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 2: don't know how often y'all go over that on this show,

500
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,439
Speaker 2: but but I love doing the spiel. So okay. So,

501
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,719
Speaker 2: fermentation is what happens when microscopic fung gui yeasts in

502
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:36,400
Speaker 2: particular eat sugar and poop carbon dioxide and alcohol and flavor.

503
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 2: And this is why yeast bread rises in the oven

504
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 2: and also has that particular scent, like a like a

505
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 2: very slightly like warm, almost boozy scent to it. It's

506
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 2: why there are bubbles and alcohol in beer. Usually you

507
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 2: can also get them in there in a few other ways,

508
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 2: but that's another that's another topic. Some times the carbon

509
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 2: dioxide is a waste product and you let it release,

510
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 2: like for example, if you're making a still wine, but

511
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 2: with these bases in place. Back to Boston, So Purity

512
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 2: Distilling Company in Boston made ethanol for the Great War Effort,

513
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 2: also a little bit of run, but mostly mostly ethanol.

514
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 2: And so they had this steel tank at Boston Harbor

515
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 2: at North End, just off Commercial to receive shipments of

516
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 2: molasses from the Caribbean. Like every couple of days. They

517
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 2: had these big hoses. The ships would come in, they'd

518
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 2: fill in new molasses at the top of the tank.

519
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 2: They had valves at the bottom so you could pour

520
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 2: it out and then transport it by train over to

521
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 2: the factory.

522
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 3: A lot of molasses changing hands, a lot.

523
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:55,960
Speaker 2: Of molasses coming in and going out. And this tank

524
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 2: was like a known entity in that part of town

525
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 2: that only built it in like nineteen fifteen, and it

526
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 2: leaked in some places, like kids would come filch some

527
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 2: that had just kind of spilled out onto the ground.

528
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 2: Totally sanitary, but you know, the tank was big, and

529
00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 2: it made the whole street smell like sweet and heavy,

530
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 2: especially in the heat of summer. And the tank groaned

531
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 2: and it was getting louder. So molasses is so good

532
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 2: at fermenting that it was just doing that in the tank.

533
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 2: Like the yeasts that make fermentation happen are living everywhere,

534
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 2: all around us. They are in the air. There is

535
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,240
Speaker 2: a reason that humans invented alcohol a couple thousand years

536
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 2: before we invented the wheel, and that is that alcohol

537
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 2: happens spontaneously or by surprise, if you just leave sugary

538
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 2: stuff out.

539
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 3: I think I was just reading recently speculation that you know,

540
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 3: while we think of alcohol as a drinking product, now

541
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,120
Speaker 3: it is thought just as likely that early alcohol products

542
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 3: may have been food products, like a kind of gruel

543
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,479
Speaker 3: left out to ferment that would become a kind of

544
00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 3: alcoholic gruel.

545
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 2: I mean, at a certain point, you're you're letting you're

546
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 2: letting microbes do the work. They didn't know it at

547
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:16,400
Speaker 2: that point, but you're letting microbes do the work of

548
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: breaking down your food so that some of the nutrients

549
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 2: are more accessible to your body when you consume them.

550
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 3: So, but people they figured out, they liked it, and

551
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:28,959
Speaker 3: they start learned how to do it on purpose.

552
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, anyway, so uh so. One of the workers

553
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 2: who was attending to this tank, by the name of

554
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 2: Isaac Gonzalez, he had nightmares about this tank. He was

555
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 2: venting the gas every day. He would sneak over in

556
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 2: the middle of the night and siphon molasses into the harbor.

557
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 4: Uh.

558
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 2: He told his bosses about the vibrations and the creeks

559
00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 2: and the groans he showed. He showed them flakes of

560
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:02,760
Speaker 2: steel that were coming off of the inside of the tank.

561
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:05,720
Speaker 2: He told them that the leaks were springing up bigger

562
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 2: and more often, like he wound up quitting. He was

563
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 2: so worried about it. He was like, I would rather

564
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 2: go to war than be part of whatever this mess

565
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 2: is about to be.

566
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 3: And to be clear, you said he was siphoning parts

567
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 3: of it off, so like on his own initiative, out

568
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 3: of safety concerns, he was dumping product.

569
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 2: Dumping product and just hoping that it was wasn't that

570
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 2: it was enough to relieve the pressure, and not so

571
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 2: much that he would get caught and fired.

572
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:33,480
Speaker 3: Wow again.

573
00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:35,719
Speaker 2: Until he quit, he was like, screw you guys, I'm

574
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 2: going to war. And his bosses ignored him. They did

575
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 2: have bigger things on their minds, like the war did

576
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,200
Speaker 2: end in late nineteen eighteen, which meant that they needed

577
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 2: to pivot to making drinkable alcohol. But then the Prohibition

578
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 2: Amendment was ratified just a few months later in early

579
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen, which meant that they had a clock running

580
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 2: down to January of nineteen twenty, after which they could

581
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 2: not legally produce alcohol anymore. And faced with this, they

582
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 2: decided to just go ham on production up until they

583
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 2: had to stop. So they ordered more molasses. They filled

584
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 2: up the tank and it exploded like there was a roar.

585
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 2: I've heard it described like a train mounted with machine guns.

586
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 2: The earth shook, rivets and other shrapnel from the tank

587
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 2: sliced through nearby train cars. It was twenty six million

588
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 2: pounds of molasses. It like ripped a nearby firehouse off

589
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 2: of its foundation, trapping the firemen inside for days. It

590
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 2: crushed freight cars. It wasn't moving all that fast after

591
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,640
Speaker 2: the initial rush, but it was like a roving tar pit,

592
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 2: you know. And people died, Like twenty one people passed

593
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,640
Speaker 2: in the immediate aftermath, and I think more passed later

594
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 2: from resulting injuries. And the company. The company was like, oh,

595
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,959
Speaker 2: maybe Italian terrorists blew it up. We don't know, no

596
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 2: way of knowing.

597
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:11,319
Speaker 3: But they had been told that this tank was not

598
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 3: up to code.

599
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah, like a lot, like a bunch

600
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 2: of times.

601
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 4: Yeah.

602
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 2: The survivors wound up launching a class action lawsuit against them.

603
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 2: Isaac Gonzalez testified the survivors won. The whole thing led

604
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 2: to engineering safety reform laws. It turns out that the

605
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:30,239
Speaker 2: construction had been a rush job and like not the

606
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 2: best possible design, as the company was just racing to

607
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 2: prepare for that war contract in nineteen fifteen, So it

608
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:40,760
Speaker 2: has a better ending.

609
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 4: Questions, are I'm surprised?

610
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, a good turn after the tragedy that, yes,

611
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:51,799
Speaker 3: led to some safety reforms. But so we think that

612
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 3: we know that there were problems with the safety of

613
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 3: the tank as constructed, And then the question would also

614
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 3: be was fermentation contributing to the danger posed by this tank?

615
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I would strongly suspect yes, because it's

616
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,319
Speaker 2: just going to build the pressure. I mean that the

617
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 2: pressure of that much molasses is already going to be

618
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 2: pretty intense, but once you add build up of carbon

619
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,760
Speaker 2: dioxide and other gases, than sure.

620
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 3: We know lots of other examples of where food products

621
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,560
Speaker 3: under the right or I guess the wrong conditions can

622
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 3: undergo fermentation that causes them to build up pressure when

623
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 3: they're inside some kind of closed container, rupture it and

624
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 3: cause an explosion.

625
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,399
Speaker 4: Yes, and so this is where I want to talk

626
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 4: about exploding watermelon, which I know might be a technicality

627
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 4: when it comes to our theme, but I feel like

628
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 4: the rind is sort of a storage container.

629
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 3: Sure, it's nature container. It is nature's steel pan with

630
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 3: the Yeah, so we're getting there. Yeah, this is fine.

631
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:07,280
Speaker 3: I rule it in bounds.

632
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 4: Thank you, Joe, appreciate it. Okay. So back in twenty

633
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 4: twenty three, there were these reports circulating with really menacing

634
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:21,600
Speaker 4: headlines about exploding watermelons. Essentially, the news stories went as follows,

635
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 4: leave your watermelon on your counter at your own peril.

636
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 4: It could explode at any moment. And we were talking

637
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,840
Speaker 4: about this before, Joe, and you actually have some experience.

638
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 3: Weirdly enough, just like with the the lasagna tray I had. Yeah,

639
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 3: I've had this happen, not to me personally, but to

640
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 3: two different members of my extended family. So my mother

641
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 3: in law and my sister in law, both I think

642
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 3: this was in twenty twenty three, both had watermelons explode

643
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 3: on them in different ways. So the story from my

644
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 3: wife's parents' house was that, I think in the early morning,

645
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,839
Speaker 3: in the pre dawn hours, they had had a watermelon

646
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,320
Speaker 3: sitting in the kitchen and they suddenly just heard a pop,

647
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,200
Speaker 3: you know, some kind of pop sound. They went down

648
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,839
Speaker 3: to the kitchen to investigate, and my mother in law

649
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 3: found the guts of a watermelon everywhere, just all over

650
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:25,360
Speaker 3: the ceiling and the walls, like massive explosion of a watermelon.

651
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 3: I think it was a big clean up job. And yeah,

652
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:30,719
Speaker 3: nothing had happened to it. It was just a watermelon

653
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 3: that I don't know exactly where it came from. I

654
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,319
Speaker 3: think just the store as far as I know. And yeah,

655
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,480
Speaker 3: it's been sitting on the counter and exploded and went everywhere.

656
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 3: But the other story was my wife's sister also, I

657
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:48,279
Speaker 3: think within like weeks of that original story happening, also

658
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,239
Speaker 3: had a watermelon at her house and it didn't do

659
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:55,160
Speaker 3: anything on its own, but when she cut into it

660
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:57,719
Speaker 3: with a knife, she like stuck a knife into the watermelon,

661
00:37:57,719 --> 00:37:59,880
Speaker 3: and as soon as she pierced it, it went like

662
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:05,320
Speaker 3: pump and then a huge crack split the rind across

663
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:09,239
Speaker 3: it transverse to where the knife cut was. So yeah,

664
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,240
Speaker 3: and she said it felt like it had been under pressure,

665
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 3: and when she released the pressure, it cracked and split apart,

666
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 3: which is a little bit scary in that case, because

667
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 3: I don't know if this would really happen, but I

668
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 3: would be scared of like piercing something with a knife

669
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 3: that is under pressure. I wonder, is that going to

670
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 3: like blow the knife back at you. It didn't happen

671
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 3: in this case, so I don't know if that's really

672
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,120
Speaker 3: a concern, But so, yeah, this apparently happens often enough

673
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 3: that like, two totally different, unrelated cases both happened to

674
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:39,399
Speaker 3: my wife's family within a few weeks of each other

675
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:42,880
Speaker 3: a few years ago. I do wonder kind of about

676
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 3: the about how close in time and space these two

677
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 3: different exploding watermelon stories were, Like, is that a result

678
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 3: of I don't know, watermelons coming from the same farm

679
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,400
Speaker 3: or field being more likely to explode? I have questions

680
00:38:57,440 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 3: about that, but maybe maybe you can help answer them.

681
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:04,839
Speaker 4: Yes, I think we can. Also, you have provided two

682
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 4: of the most common examples of how this happens. Okay,

683
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,040
Speaker 4: of just a watermelon on your calendar exploding, or when

684
00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:15,120
Speaker 4: you go to cut it and it explodes. All right,

685
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,760
Speaker 4: but what is going on here? It is our friend

686
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 4: fermentation largely behind this whole watermelon rind exploding thing, and

687
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 4: it is spurred on by high summer temperatures and or

688
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 4: the age of the fruit. So the older the watermelon,

689
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 4: the more likely it is to explode. But the heat

690
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,360
Speaker 4: kickstarts a process similar to that in alcohols like beer,

691
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:44,840
Speaker 4: where the sugar converts into alcohol, releasing CO two in

692
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,760
Speaker 4: the process, which builds up inside the fruit.

693
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 2: And what's happening here is that if the skin of

694
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:57,760
Speaker 2: the fruit is even slightly imperfect during the growing season,

695
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 2: microbes can get in and start eating the flesh of

696
00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:05,480
Speaker 2: the watermelon before you have a chance to That's what

697
00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 2: we mean when we say that food is spoiling, and

698
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 2: this can happen due to damage to the rind or

699
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 2: due to a normal but unfortunate flub in growth where

700
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 2: the fruit starts growing from a pollinated flower and eventually

701
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 2: the like non fruit parts of the flower will fall

702
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 2: off and there's like a little hole there that's supposed

703
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,879
Speaker 2: to close up, And if it doesn't at first, then

704
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 2: fungi like yeasts and other stuff like bacteria can get

705
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 2: in and grow with the watermelon, feeding on that developing

706
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 2: fruit and putting off gases like carbon dioxide. And then

707
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 2: if that initial hole or wound closes up, the gases

708
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 2: will build up inside the now sealed melon.

709
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 4: Yes, and once the pressure reaches a certain point, the

710
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:56,480
Speaker 4: watermelon can explode, either left on the counter or when

711
00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 4: someone goes to cut into it. This is kind of

712
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:01,960
Speaker 4: the fruit version of shaking a can of soda and

713
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 4: having it explode on you. From what I've read, it

714
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:09,719
Speaker 4: can be pretty dramatic, a loud bang fruit everywhere, like

715
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 4: you were talking about, Joe. I, when we were discussing

716
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:17,320
Speaker 4: doing this topic, I delved back into some old emails

717
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,600
Speaker 4: for Savor from listeners, and I found a lot of

718
00:41:21,640 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 4: stuff about exploding things, actually, but specifically in this case,

719
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:29,840
Speaker 4: I found some about exploding fruit. So a Savor listener

720
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 4: wrote into us about a watermelon exploding in her It

721
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:37,920
Speaker 4: was like their shared She had a roommate and it

722
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:41,480
Speaker 4: was their shared kitchen in twenty eighteen. She described a

723
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 4: loud pop and the sound of gushing liquid coming from

724
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,840
Speaker 4: the kitchen. She also left it to her roommate because

725
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,120
Speaker 4: it was her roommate's watermelon to clean up and it

726
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 4: was a month old watermelon.

727
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,000
Speaker 2: Ooh.

728
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 4: And then in twenty seventeen, a listener wrote in about

729
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:02,799
Speaker 4: a quote pine apple grenade that exploded, leaving behind a

730
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,839
Speaker 4: strong smell of alcohol from fermentation, and.

731
00:42:06,800 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 2: That was canned pineapple, like home canned pineapple.

732
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,320
Speaker 4: I believe I think it was a whole pineapple.

733
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:13,760
Speaker 2: Oh really, Oh god.

734
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 4: I thought somebody else wrote in about a can of pineapple.

735
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 4: Oh okay, cabinet too.

736
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:21,400
Speaker 2: Many exploding pineapple products. Sorry, I got confused.

737
00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:27,760
Speaker 4: You got to watch out as what I've learned. Okay,

738
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 4: But in these twenty twenty three watermelon incidents, which is

739
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 4: when news was going wild reporting about this, a bacteria

740
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 4: may have also been involved. This bacteria interacted with the

741
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 4: yeast and sugar inside the watermelon, and perhaps the exterior

742
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 4: heat as well, to speed up the fermentation. In this case,

743
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 4: toxic pathogens can be introduced, which is part of the

744
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:53,400
Speaker 4: issue here, other than the whole exploding thing, because fermentation

745
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 4: isn't bad, but in this instance, harmful bacteria can be introduced. Okay.

746
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:02,439
Speaker 4: Sometimes this whole thing can be combated by a crack

747
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,440
Speaker 4: in the rind, which does allow the pressure to release slowly.

748
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:11,480
Speaker 4: If you see a foaming watermelon, avoid it or dispose

749
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:11,799
Speaker 4: of it.

750
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 2: No, no rabid watermelons in this house. That's a motto.

751
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:21,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, boaming watermelon. I think I'm going to eat that one.

752
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:28,040
Speaker 4: It looks strikingly more menacing than I thought it would

753
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 4: when I read about it, and I was like, no, actually,

754
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 4: I probably would stay away from that.

755
00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:34,840
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we established last time. You're a food daredevil,

756
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 3: you would not touch the foaming watermelon. Okay.

757
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:43,439
Speaker 2: Also, I strongly believe that would not smell appetizing.

758
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:50,320
Speaker 4: Yes, I listeners, go look up the images. It's quite something.

759
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 4: It really really is. Cold temperatures slow the process, so

760
00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 4: storing a watermelon in the refrigerator can help delay, but

761
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:04,720
Speaker 4: not totally prevent explode. Experts recommend cleaning the rind before slicing,

762
00:44:04,719 --> 00:44:06,759
Speaker 4: which I think is just good practice.

763
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:07,160
Speaker 1: Yep.

764
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,359
Speaker 4: One of my favorite quotes reading about this was from

765
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:13,839
Speaker 4: the Daily Meal quote the only real way to deal

766
00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:17,239
Speaker 4: with this issue is to monitor your watermelons closely.

767
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:22,879
Speaker 3: Or I'm getting a security camera exactly.

768
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:26,560
Speaker 4: I love this. Or here's a quote from Food Network.

769
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 4: This is the summer that sweet red fruit is taking

770
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,960
Speaker 4: on a sinister tinge. We're being warned that the backyard

771
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,959
Speaker 4: barbecue staple may start foaming in a threatening sort of way.

772
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:45,879
Speaker 4: I'm telling you, they really really ran with this whole thing.

773
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:52,720
Speaker 4: They loved it. But it does, Like I said, the

774
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 4: foam does look threatening, and it leaks out of any

775
00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:00,320
Speaker 4: cracks of the riind, so you can get strange patterns.

776
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 3: So I have questions in several ways. One, I'm just

777
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm no expert in fruits, but I'm just

778
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:13,400
Speaker 3: surprised that the rind of a food like a watermelon

779
00:45:14,520 --> 00:45:18,040
Speaker 3: would be air tight enough that it would fully be

780
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:22,920
Speaker 3: able to contain expanding gases from fermentation. I would just

781
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,200
Speaker 3: think that, I don't know, the gases would be able

782
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 3: to permeate it an escape somehow. It's just surprising to

783
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,680
Speaker 3: me that it's that tight. It actually functions like a

784
00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 3: balloon basically.

785
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:36,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it's they're meant to be waterproof

786
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 2: from the outside, like most a lot of I'm not

787
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 2: an expert on watermelon rindes, in particular, a lot of

788
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:47,120
Speaker 2: fruit skin will allow moisture to leave but not enter.

789
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 2: Think about an orange, for example, and how they might

790
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:52,239
Speaker 2: like dry out if you have it sitting in the

791
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:58,520
Speaker 2: fridge without some kind of protective covering. But yeah, melons

792
00:45:58,560 --> 00:45:59,839
Speaker 2: their whole thing.

793
00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:04,640
Speaker 4: You can also have. Do you know what a vodkamelan is? Yes?

794
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 3: I had those kind of friends. Yeah, yes, me.

795
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:17,759
Speaker 2: So you know how a melon can hold liquid that

796
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:18,600
Speaker 2: you put inside of it.

797
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:23,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true, you know, yeah, I should I should

798
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:27,200
Speaker 3: have used my vodka melon memories to better analyze this.

799
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:31,880
Speaker 3: It's just it's counterintuitive. It seems surprising, but I mean,

800
00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 3: that's also cool that the ryan can function that way. So,

801
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:40,160
Speaker 3: but my question would be, like, I'm surprised kind of

802
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 3: in the same way that I'm surprised there were so

803
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 3: many sushi restaurant fires so close in time and space

804
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 3: to each other. I wonder if this is just like

805
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 3: a you know, in that case, I wondered if it

806
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 3: was just kind of a salience bias thing that you know,

807
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 3: this actually happens more often, but people don't group together

808
00:46:58,239 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 3: the incidents or analyze them in and so maybe that

809
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:02,600
Speaker 3: led to the impression that there was kind of a

810
00:47:02,640 --> 00:47:06,040
Speaker 3: clustering of it. In this case, I would really be wondering, like,

811
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 3: how common are exploding watermelons that you would get. You know,

812
00:47:10,520 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 3: people who live in the same city having exploding watermelons

813
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:15,799
Speaker 3: a few weeks apart from each other, when they'd never

814
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 3: dealt with this phenomenon ever in their lives before or since.

815
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:21,759
Speaker 2: I would assume it has something to do with the

816
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:27,240
Speaker 2: particular growing season and growing conditions, you can get different

817
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:30,440
Speaker 2: populations of microorganisms in the air and in the soil.

818
00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:34,400
Speaker 2: So maybe if the melons were coming from a particular farm,

819
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 2: maybe if there were just the right conditions for the

820
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:41,840
Speaker 2: rind of that melon to grow along with the expanding gas,

821
00:47:42,719 --> 00:47:46,439
Speaker 2: because melons can grow quite quite quickly, and so maybe

822
00:47:46,480 --> 00:47:49,280
Speaker 2: if they were just just growing right along with the

823
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:54,840
Speaker 2: interior biome, it just leads to just the right conditions

824
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:56,720
Speaker 2: to let it happen more often.

825
00:47:57,920 --> 00:47:59,760
Speaker 4: Yes, And a lot of the news at the time,

826
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,480
Speaker 4: accurately or not, was reporting that the heat it was

827
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 4: like a particularly hot growing season and particually hot summer,

828
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 4: and that was contributing to it in twenty twenty three.

829
00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:14,759
Speaker 2: So that can that can affect the growth of the

830
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 2: melons and also the growth of the bacteria and easts.

831
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 3: So yeah, as we said in the last episode, in chemistry,

832
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:22,960
Speaker 3: most things happen faster when it's hot.

833
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 4: Yes, all of that being said, though this isn't really

834
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,040
Speaker 4: a common thing, I think it grabs a lot of

835
00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 4: people's attention, and that that being said, Historically, there is

836
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 4: a time in recent history that there was a space

837
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,799
Speaker 4: of watermelons exploding. In twenty eleven, there were a lot

838
00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,640
Speaker 4: of reports of watermelons exploding in China after the use

839
00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:48,120
Speaker 4: of chemical growth accelerators were applied on some farms.

840
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 2: This one is partially a case of like over enthusiastic

841
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:57,600
Speaker 2: media reporting these watermelons were splitting open from like a

842
00:48:57,680 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 2: lack of structural integrity do to too rapid growth. It

843
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 2: wasn't They weren't exploding. It was not that dramatic. They

844
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:06,959
Speaker 2: were just cracking open.

845
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:12,520
Speaker 4: Yes. The chemical in question is forchler fenuron, which is

846
00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:15,880
Speaker 4: a legal chemical that helps the cells of the fruit separate,

847
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:18,240
Speaker 4: but in the case of watermelon, can lead to less

848
00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:21,200
Speaker 4: desirable results in terms of white seeds and kind of

849
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:26,839
Speaker 4: a wonky fruit shape. Reporters blame the farmers for using

850
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 4: this chemical too late in the game when the weather

851
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 4: was wet, which led to the watermelons exploding. Some farmers

852
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:36,200
Speaker 4: lost entire acres of watermelons, and at least one reported

853
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:38,839
Speaker 4: not being able to sleep due to images of these

854
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 4: fruits exploding. And we're talking like one hundred a day,

855
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 4: so it was a pretty substantial loss forchler fenuron, which

856
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 4: has been used in China since the nineteen eighties. Is

857
00:49:50,200 --> 00:49:53,480
Speaker 4: generally considered to be safe for consumption, but when interviewed,

858
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:57,000
Speaker 4: some experts suggested that watermelons are kind of finicky and

859
00:49:57,080 --> 00:50:01,240
Speaker 4: not suitable for this chemical. On top of that, though

860
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 4: some watermelons not treated with this chemical in China were

861
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 4: exploding at the time. According to some reports, it may

862
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:09,879
Speaker 4: have been the weather or the size of the watermelon

863
00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 4: that caused the explosions in those cases.

864
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll put in here that, like any number

865
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:21,680
Speaker 2: of things can cause a loss of structural watermelon integrity,

866
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:24,880
Speaker 2: Like the grinds are good at their job, but only

867
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:27,439
Speaker 2: to a certain point, right.

868
00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:31,319
Speaker 4: And you can see the experiment that involves wrapping river

869
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 4: bands around watermelons until they explode, which videos that honestly

870
00:50:35,719 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 4: make me nervous. But people love exploding watermelons on the internet,

871
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:43,680
Speaker 4: and it does look cool in slow motion watermelons.

872
00:50:43,719 --> 00:50:46,920
Speaker 3: It has good goop, you know, like different types of

873
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:50,000
Speaker 3: I think, if you're gonna have a fruit explode in

874
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:52,360
Speaker 3: an interesting way, like a watermelon's a good one. It

875
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,400
Speaker 3: seems like the goop has the right amount of moisture

876
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:58,400
Speaker 3: and consistency to really just turn into kind of guts

877
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:00,399
Speaker 3: that go everywhere. That seems that way to me.

878
00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:13,840
Speaker 2: It's so bright and festive, festive guts.

879
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:18,120
Speaker 4: Moving on to aluminum cans, so a similar thing happens

880
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,080
Speaker 4: that's going on with water melons, as we've been discussing,

881
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:24,920
Speaker 4: when aluminum cans of beer carbonated sodas explode in cars,

882
00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:29,640
Speaker 4: hot cars, specifically, the interiors of cars can be quite

883
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:33,000
Speaker 4: a bit hotter than the outside, especially over time, and

884
00:51:33,040 --> 00:51:35,879
Speaker 4: this can lead to the carbon dioxide molecules separating from

885
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 4: the liquids and putting more and more pressure against the

886
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:40,080
Speaker 4: aluminum container that they are in.

887
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 2: Yes, and note that these cans are already under pressure,

888
00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:50,920
Speaker 2: and that's that's because basically carbon dioxide has no interest

889
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:53,960
Speaker 2: in getting itself permanently mixed up with water or with

890
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:56,719
Speaker 2: like water plus whatever sugar syrup you've got going on

891
00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 2: in a can of soda, like little bits of carbon

892
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 2: dioxide will dissolve into water, but the water molecules can't

893
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:06,160
Speaker 2: really hold it. Most of the gas of its own

894
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:08,799
Speaker 2: accord would just float on top of the liquid. So

895
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:11,920
Speaker 2: to convince it to stay put, you have to apply pressure.

896
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 2: And when you and when you apply that pressure, it

897
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:20,719
Speaker 2: forms sort of cages of water molecules around carbon dioxide.

898
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,080
Speaker 2: Molecules holding them in place.

899
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:27,760
Speaker 3: Which is why when you open a carbonated beverage suddenly

900
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 3: you see all these bubbles escaping. They've been held in

901
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:32,000
Speaker 3: place by the pressure, and you just released it by

902
00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:33,520
Speaker 3: opening the vessel exactly.

903
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, when you're applying that pressure, it helps

904
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:39,600
Speaker 2: a lot to do so at cold temperatures, as we've

905
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:44,120
Speaker 2: been talking about, because all of the molecules involved will

906
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 2: be less active and like more willing to pack it in.

907
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:49,960
Speaker 2: You can. You can think of it sort of like

908
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 2: a busy elevator, like if the ac is out, you

909
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 2: might be less willing to crunch in with a bunch

910
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 2: of people in there because and and right, and and

911
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:03,000
Speaker 2: and As you may know, as temperature increases, pressure also increases,

912
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:05,880
Speaker 2: so you can dissolve a lot more carbon dioxide in

913
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:11,799
Speaker 2: water at cold temperatures with less pressure in use. If

914
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:16,040
Speaker 2: you've done all this right, your carbonated water will contain

915
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:21,280
Speaker 2: like five times as much carbon dioxide as water by volume.

916
00:53:22,440 --> 00:53:26,440
Speaker 2: This is what we call a supersaturated solution, meaning that

917
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 2: as long as you keep it under pressure, like until

918
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 2: you pop the top on that can or leave it

919
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:35,879
Speaker 2: in a hot car, you can let the can heat

920
00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:39,040
Speaker 2: up to room temperature or a little bit above without

921
00:53:39,080 --> 00:53:43,200
Speaker 2: any gas escaping front from the water, from the matrix

922
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:46,839
Speaker 2: of water that's in. But we're not talking about a

923
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:49,360
Speaker 2: little above room temperature in a hot car.

924
00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:53,120
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no. This pressure can increase up to

925
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 4: five or six times during this process when left in

926
00:53:55,760 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 4: a hot car. Most cans are designed to withstand this

927
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:02,000
Speaker 4: amount of pressure, but of course there are some that aren't,

928
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:05,919
Speaker 4: or imperfections or flaws that could lead to failure. Most

929
00:54:05,960 --> 00:54:08,120
Speaker 4: of the time, this occurs at the top where the

930
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:10,800
Speaker 4: scene meets the body of the can. And I'm sure

931
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:12,920
Speaker 4: all of you have seen the lids of these cans

932
00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:16,520
Speaker 4: with a bubble or a distended bit at the top.

933
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:20,040
Speaker 4: That's often what's going on. It doesn't mean the can

934
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:23,000
Speaker 4: is going to explode if you open it. That's relatively rare.

935
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 4: Usually the bubble is just a way to really pressure.

936
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:30,280
Speaker 3: Does that usually mean that it's because the can got

937
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:33,280
Speaker 3: hot at some point or is there another main cause?

938
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:33,560
Speaker 1: You know?

939
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:39,360
Speaker 4: Of h I think it's usually it's either damage, some

940
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:45,960
Speaker 4: kind of damage happened, or imperfection happened, or heat. Yeah, yes,

941
00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:49,440
Speaker 4: I know that that is a story that I see

942
00:54:50,000 --> 00:54:52,160
Speaker 4: every couple of years. Pop up where people are freaking

943
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:54,640
Speaker 4: out about like, what does this bubble.

944
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:57,520
Speaker 3: Mean in my can and confusing that in the case

945
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 3: of carbonated beverages with the really the dane in jurist thing,

946
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:03,759
Speaker 3: which is bulging cans that might have batchulinum toxin in them.

947
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:10,720
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you can drink from a bulby can. But

948
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 2: if your food can has gone bulby, that's that is

949
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:15,759
Speaker 2: a no. That is a no go.

950
00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:16,239
Speaker 3: Good to know.

951
00:55:16,719 --> 00:55:20,080
Speaker 4: Again, we aren't this is these are all good facts

952
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:22,719
Speaker 4: right here, but we're not food experts.

953
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:24,080
Speaker 2: We're not medical professionals.

954
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:30,160
Speaker 4: Yes, but this is what the science tells us. Oh

955
00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 4: and speaking of In July twenty twenty four, news outlets

956
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:38,840
Speaker 4: were reporting about exploding cans of soda on south West

957
00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:43,040
Speaker 4: flights due to heat. Many of the hub cities for

958
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:47,480
Speaker 4: Southwestern cities that broke their temperature records that year. That

959
00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:49,920
Speaker 4: was one of the things they speculated might be the

960
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:54,279
Speaker 4: cause of it. When reached for Comet Southwest expressed that

961
00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:58,360
Speaker 4: the possibility of these exploding cans had been communicated to

962
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 4: employees and no incidents involved customers.

963
00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:05,960
Speaker 3: I would have to imagine the cans couldn't be getting

964
00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:09,120
Speaker 3: that hot in the cabin with the passengers, right, that

965
00:56:09,160 --> 00:56:12,799
Speaker 3: would be in some kind of storage, because if the

966
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 3: passengers were that hot, that sounds like a bad flight.

967
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:20,359
Speaker 4: Yeah, hold my comments to myself.

968
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:23,320
Speaker 3: Yes, oh, do you have experience with Southwest?

969
00:56:25,200 --> 00:56:26,720
Speaker 4: I have experience with bad flights.

970
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:30,680
Speaker 3: Oh okay. It truly is like I I don't mind

971
00:56:30,719 --> 00:56:33,759
Speaker 3: being hot when I'm outside, but there is something that

972
00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:37,360
Speaker 3: is It makes me feel like I'm losing my mind

973
00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:40,239
Speaker 3: if I'm feeling too hot inside an airplane. That is

974
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:44,920
Speaker 3: one of the most horrible types of just basic uncomfortable feeling.

975
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:47,280
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is about the airplane environment.

976
00:56:47,640 --> 00:56:51,080
Speaker 3: It When you're hot in an airplane, it feels like

977
00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:57,240
Speaker 3: it means something, and it means something dangerous and yeah, threatening,

978
00:56:57,360 --> 00:56:59,120
Speaker 3: like the threatening foaming watermelon.

979
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:05,640
Speaker 2: I've got a lot of good threats in this episode.

980
00:57:06,280 --> 00:57:07,920
Speaker 2: I did. I did want to put in here that

981
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:12,239
Speaker 2: an entirely different thing than what we've been talking about

982
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:15,640
Speaker 2: with these exploding cans is happening when a can of

983
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:21,919
Speaker 2: soda explodes in your freezer. And that happens because water

984
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:26,640
Speaker 2: molecules have to be liquid in order to contain carbon dioxide.

985
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 2: So when they start to freeze, they can a increase

986
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:35,959
Speaker 2: in size and B push the gas molecules out, both

987
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,640
Speaker 2: of which will eventually explode the can.

988
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:42,360
Speaker 4: And there have been a couple of recalls around craft beer,

989
00:57:42,640 --> 00:57:47,080
Speaker 4: especially those with fruit involved, around concerns of exploding cans.

990
00:57:47,720 --> 00:57:51,000
Speaker 4: Wild beers and sours involve ferments that can be difficult

991
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:51,880
Speaker 4: to predict.

992
00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 2: Oh okay, and so fermentation in the can is a

993
00:57:56,920 --> 00:57:59,840
Speaker 2: thing that I have kind of a side quest about,

994
00:57:59,840 --> 00:58:02,840
Speaker 2: and that is about champagne danger.

995
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:07,919
Speaker 3: Yes, do either of y'all know anything about like good

996
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:10,800
Speaker 3: champagne as a consumer of it. That's just something I've

997
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:13,800
Speaker 3: never I've never pierced that that, you know. I like

998
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:16,880
Speaker 3: good beer and good wine, but the only champagne I

999
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:19,400
Speaker 3: think I've ever really had is just whatever the cheapest

1000
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 3: stuff you get for New Year's is.

1001
00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 1: Uh.

1002
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:27,920
Speaker 4: I've learned through the show, and I feel like I

1003
00:58:27,960 --> 00:58:31,160
Speaker 4: have a good like medium tier and I've had really

1004
00:58:31,240 --> 00:58:36,640
Speaker 4: fancy champagne before. But I feel confident my If I

1005
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:38,440
Speaker 4: need a cheap one, here's a pretty good one. If

1006
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,320
Speaker 4: I need a medium tier one, here's a pretty good one.

1007
00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:44,040
Speaker 4: I usually don't go beyond that unless it's an extremely

1008
00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 4: special occasion.

1009
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:49,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've tried really hard to not teach myself what

1010
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:52,560
Speaker 2: good champagne tastes like, because I don't want I don't

1011
00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:58,480
Speaker 2: want to be burdened with that knowledge. Also, as an

1012
00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:01,040
Speaker 2: expert in the field, to this one time, Like there's

1013
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:03,560
Speaker 2: a certain point at which, like you won't be able

1014
00:59:03,600 --> 00:59:07,640
Speaker 2: to appreciate it if you're not seriously into wine, So like,

1015
00:59:07,840 --> 00:59:08,960
Speaker 2: don't don't bother with that.

1016
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:15,000
Speaker 3: I will say, like we need to intentionally inculcate an

1017
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:16,200
Speaker 3: expensive passion.

1018
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:23,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, ain't got time for that. Although I will say

1019
00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 2: that if you're if you're looking for a decent bottle,

1020
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 2: if you look for words along the lines of me

1021
00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:35,360
Speaker 2: told CHAMPAGNOI the champagne method, or some translation of that,

1022
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:39,400
Speaker 2: perhaps in Spanish or Italian, that's a pretty good marker

1023
00:59:39,560 --> 00:59:42,320
Speaker 2: of decent quality in a champagne. It means it was

1024
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:45,960
Speaker 2: made through the traditional method, which is what I'm going

1025
00:59:46,040 --> 00:59:50,080
Speaker 2: to talk you through a tiny bit right here. It

1026
00:59:50,120 --> 00:59:52,640
Speaker 2: means that the second fermentation occurred in the bottle. But

1027
00:59:52,680 --> 00:59:56,600
Speaker 2: we're not ready for that yet. So all right, let

1028
00:59:56,680 --> 01:00:01,960
Speaker 2: us start by by explaining that before a couple of

1029
01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 2: technological advancements happened in like the sixteen to eighteen hundreds,

1030
01:00:06,400 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 2: sparkling wine, especially if it was bottled in glass, was

1031
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:17,440
Speaker 2: probably accidental and definitely dangerous. Like if you've heard of Dampignon,

1032
01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:23,320
Speaker 2: that name is the name of this monk who legendand

1033
01:00:23,440 --> 01:00:27,520
Speaker 2: or history has it was assigned to stop the sparkle

1034
01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:33,360
Speaker 2: in sparkling wine. Oh yeah, yeah, so so enter Levin

1035
01:00:33,400 --> 01:00:40,800
Speaker 2: Dudab the Devil's wine. That's what this phenomenon was called

1036
01:00:40,800 --> 01:00:46,880
Speaker 2: at the time, this phenomenon that sometimes seemingly spontaneously kind

1037
01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:51,800
Speaker 2: of a whole wine cellar would just explode. But okay,

1038
01:00:52,320 --> 01:00:55,720
Speaker 2: let's back up. So you get the intense sparkle in

1039
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:59,479
Speaker 2: sparkling wine by making a normal wine and then putting

1040
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:02,720
Speaker 2: it through a secondary fermentation in which you add more

1041
01:01:02,840 --> 01:01:04,760
Speaker 2: yeast and a little bit more sugar to each bottle,

1042
01:01:04,920 --> 01:01:07,360
Speaker 2: and then let the yeast do their thing. They eat

1043
01:01:07,360 --> 01:01:10,640
Speaker 2: the sugar, they produce carbon dioxide and a tiny bit

1044
01:01:10,640 --> 01:01:12,280
Speaker 2: more alcohol. But at this point it's really just the

1045
01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:15,480
Speaker 2: CO two that you're looking for, and before you sell

1046
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:17,640
Speaker 2: the bottle, you carefully get the dead yeast out of there.

1047
01:01:17,680 --> 01:01:22,200
Speaker 2: But yeah, keeping that much carbon dioxide dissolved in the

1048
01:01:22,240 --> 01:01:25,600
Speaker 2: wine means that again the bottle, the interior of the

1049
01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:28,360
Speaker 2: bottle is under a lot of pressure like five to

1050
01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 2: six atmospheres or seventy to ninety psi, which is something

1051
01:01:33,640 --> 01:01:35,280
Speaker 2: like the pressure inside of a truck tire.

1052
01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:35,960
Speaker 1: Wow.

1053
01:01:37,160 --> 01:01:39,440
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, So you have to have a sturdy

1054
01:01:39,440 --> 01:01:43,440
Speaker 2: bottle and a sturdy fastener to keep it contained. So

1055
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 2: what was going on with these exploding wine cellars? The

1056
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:54,000
Speaker 2: vindudiel is that temperatures in some wine regions, like Champagne

1057
01:01:54,600 --> 01:01:58,640
Speaker 2: will get cold enough early enough in the season that

1058
01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:04,320
Speaker 2: cellared bottled wine would stop fermenting in the winter before

1059
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:08,320
Speaker 2: the yeast was done doing its thing. Oh and then

1060
01:02:08,360 --> 01:02:10,520
Speaker 2: when it warmed up again in the spring, it would

1061
01:02:10,640 --> 01:02:15,240
Speaker 2: undergo the second wave of fermentation, which would dramatically raise

1062
01:02:15,280 --> 01:02:19,000
Speaker 2: the pressure inside the bottles and make them go fizzy

1063
01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:21,960
Speaker 2: and also make them explode, which was actually like a weird,

1064
01:02:22,120 --> 01:02:25,680
Speaker 2: huge and scary problem. I've read that between four and

1065
01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:29,800
Speaker 2: ten percent was like a common loss in wine cellars

1066
01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:33,600
Speaker 2: due to bursting, and that bad warm fronts would lead

1067
01:02:33,640 --> 01:02:38,640
Speaker 2: to some thirty to forty percent breaking. Other sources say

1068
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:41,160
Speaker 2: that sometimes the majority of a cellar could be lost,

1069
01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:45,720
Speaker 2: but basically like a single bottle going off could start

1070
01:02:45,760 --> 01:02:51,440
Speaker 2: a chain reaction around the cellar. Workers in these in

1071
01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:55,680
Speaker 2: these particular wine producing regions would wear heavy iron masks

1072
01:02:55,760 --> 01:03:00,360
Speaker 2: and full body padding to go into the cellar case.

1073
01:03:01,040 --> 01:03:02,680
Speaker 3: I'm trying to look that up right now.

1074
01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:07,439
Speaker 2: They looked sort of like medieval beekeepers, if the bee

1075
01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:09,000
Speaker 2: keepers were like a little more.

1076
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:12,200
Speaker 3: Metal looking at hard in stellar iron masks, you know.

1077
01:03:13,720 --> 01:03:16,400
Speaker 3: Oh okay, I see, Oh I see. It's more of

1078
01:03:16,400 --> 01:03:18,959
Speaker 3: a more kind of a mesh kind of thing.

1079
01:03:19,320 --> 01:03:21,080
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well yeah, yeah, not like the man in the

1080
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:22,400
Speaker 2: iron mask. Iron mask.

1081
01:03:23,440 --> 01:03:26,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, so if I was mislead.

1082
01:03:28,560 --> 01:03:33,160
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, So this all got solved because like

1083
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:35,800
Speaker 2: a few dudes in England worked out how to make

1084
01:03:35,920 --> 01:03:40,800
Speaker 2: stronger glass with these super hot cool coal fueled furnaces

1085
01:03:40,920 --> 01:03:45,760
Speaker 2: by the sixteen twenties or so, and those higher temperatures,

1086
01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:49,880
Speaker 2: plus like the cosmetic but useful additions of iron and

1087
01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:53,320
Speaker 2: manganese to the glass made the bottles just much stronger.

1088
01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:57,280
Speaker 2: The coke fuel being developed around the same time, would

1089
01:03:57,280 --> 01:04:01,760
Speaker 2: eventually help glass making down the line. And also the

1090
01:04:01,760 --> 01:04:05,200
Speaker 2: wire cap that goes over the cork when you open

1091
01:04:05,240 --> 01:04:07,080
Speaker 2: a bottle of champagne, you have that you have that

1092
01:04:07,160 --> 01:04:09,400
Speaker 2: wire cap over the cork. Yeah, it hooks under the

1093
01:04:09,440 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 2: lip of the bottle to secure the cork in there.

1094
01:04:11,960 --> 01:04:14,760
Speaker 2: That was patented in the eighteen forties. It genuinely does help,

1095
01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:19,160
Speaker 2: and starting around the early nineteen hundreds of there were

1096
01:04:19,200 --> 01:04:22,760
Speaker 2: also fewer cellar explosions because the crown cap hit the scene.

1097
01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:26,280
Speaker 2: You know, the little notched bottle cap, Nukem cola cap

1098
01:04:26,320 --> 01:04:28,680
Speaker 2: you know, Yeah, yeah, that hit the scene in the

1099
01:04:28,680 --> 01:04:32,440
Speaker 2: early nineteen hundreds. So secondary fermentation these days takes place

1100
01:04:32,480 --> 01:04:37,680
Speaker 2: with a crown cap on, which is pretty secure. But yeah,

1101
01:04:37,800 --> 01:04:40,840
Speaker 2: it just it's it's a lot of pressure in this bottle,

1102
01:04:41,040 --> 01:04:44,200
Speaker 2: and that extreme pressure in a bottle of sparkling wine

1103
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:47,960
Speaker 2: is partially why you want to serve it chilled, other

1104
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:52,360
Speaker 2: than it being delicious, Like the cork is less likely

1105
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:55,000
Speaker 2: to go flying when you take off that wire cap

1106
01:04:55,440 --> 01:05:00,760
Speaker 2: if the bottle is chilled. This is also why professional sabrors,

1107
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:04,720
Speaker 2: you know, people who hack the tops off of champagne

1108
01:05:04,720 --> 01:05:08,880
Speaker 2: bottles for fun and profit, why they're fairly meticulous about

1109
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:13,160
Speaker 2: keeping bottles chilled, because you're when you subrah open a

1110
01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:16,160
Speaker 2: bottle of champagne, you're you're looking to induce a clean

1111
01:05:16,320 --> 01:05:19,160
Speaker 2: break in the glass at a weak point in the neck,

1112
01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:22,720
Speaker 2: and you're less likely to get glass of flying if

1113
01:05:22,720 --> 01:05:25,000
Speaker 2: the pressure is slightly lower due to the temperature being

1114
01:05:25,040 --> 01:05:25,680
Speaker 2: slightly lower.

1115
01:05:25,960 --> 01:05:26,200
Speaker 1: Hmm.

1116
01:05:26,560 --> 01:05:29,880
Speaker 3: Interesting. I had no idea. Yeah, I thought it was

1117
01:05:29,920 --> 01:05:31,760
Speaker 3: just a taste thing. Well, I did not know any

1118
01:05:31,760 --> 01:05:33,120
Speaker 3: of this about the Devil's Wine.

1119
01:05:35,880 --> 01:05:40,400
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, wine making. Fermentation in general is full of danger.

1120
01:05:40,960 --> 01:05:43,160
Speaker 2: There's a lot of stuff that can go weird.

1121
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:46,960
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I had been aware of fermentation explosions

1122
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:49,640
Speaker 3: as a possibility because I've made fermented foods at home.

1123
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:52,280
Speaker 3: I've made kim chi and saur kraut and stuff. And

1124
01:05:53,240 --> 01:05:56,160
Speaker 3: of course I've got some special little bottle of jar

1125
01:05:56,280 --> 01:05:58,280
Speaker 3: caps that I use there that have like a flap

1126
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:01,840
Speaker 3: where they just pop open. You get those pretty easily.

1127
01:06:01,920 --> 01:06:03,920
Speaker 3: But you know, i'd always read like, you don't want

1128
01:06:03,960 --> 01:06:05,640
Speaker 3: to if you're making it in a jar, you don't

1129
01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:07,320
Speaker 3: want to do it with a tight screw on cap,

1130
01:06:07,360 --> 01:06:10,560
Speaker 3: because your jar can actually explode, like the gas builds up,

1131
01:06:10,560 --> 01:06:14,040
Speaker 3: it's that strong. And I'm sure a lot of people

1132
01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:16,680
Speaker 3: if probably like if you buy kimchi or sauer kraut

1133
01:06:16,680 --> 01:06:18,320
Speaker 3: in a jar or something, you might have had it

1134
01:06:18,360 --> 01:06:20,040
Speaker 3: explode in your fridge. That can happen.

1135
01:06:20,600 --> 01:06:24,480
Speaker 4: Yes, And when I was researching this, I found an

1136
01:06:24,560 --> 01:06:29,280
Speaker 4: article about kombucha doing that, which I had recently confessed

1137
01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:31,680
Speaker 4: to Lauren. I have this kombucha that's really really old,

1138
01:06:31,720 --> 01:06:35,680
Speaker 4: and I was like, surely it's fine. That's what it does.

1139
01:06:36,560 --> 01:06:39,360
Speaker 4: This article is like, baby, be a little careful you

1140
01:06:39,440 --> 01:06:40,200
Speaker 4: open it.

1141
01:06:41,160 --> 01:06:43,600
Speaker 3: You open it under a towel, Like that's what I do.

1142
01:06:43,680 --> 01:06:47,200
Speaker 3: And I'm opening champagne under a towel. That always works.

1143
01:06:47,240 --> 01:06:47,479
Speaker 1: Fine.

1144
01:06:47,560 --> 01:06:49,240
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it helps you to get a grip on the

1145
01:06:49,280 --> 01:06:52,360
Speaker 2: cork too. Yeah, so good though, if you ever do

1146
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:56,800
Speaker 2: need a bottle of champagne sabered open it. So happens

1147
01:06:56,840 --> 01:07:02,280
Speaker 2: that Annie and I are Dames of We were knighted

1148
01:07:02,520 --> 01:07:03,400
Speaker 2: by hey Day.

1149
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're certified Dames of subs.

1150
01:07:06,600 --> 01:07:10,479
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think Annie is slightly more certified than I am.

1151
01:07:10,120 --> 01:07:15,360
Speaker 2: Mine didn't go as well as hers did, but but tries.

1152
01:07:16,680 --> 01:07:17,920
Speaker 2: But you got a good clean break.

1153
01:07:18,800 --> 01:07:19,160
Speaker 4: Wow.

1154
01:07:19,640 --> 01:07:22,040
Speaker 3: Well, hey, next time we we We've been meaning to

1155
01:07:22,040 --> 01:07:24,240
Speaker 3: get our D and D group back together sometime, and

1156
01:07:24,360 --> 01:07:26,240
Speaker 3: next time we do that, I think we should have

1157
01:07:26,280 --> 01:07:29,040
Speaker 3: a bottle of champagne and see y'all slice it open. Yeah,

1158
01:07:29,040 --> 01:07:31,880
Speaker 3: maybe with a magical sword, a magical item of some kind.

1159
01:07:32,200 --> 01:07:34,160
Speaker 2: See, and you don't it's it's not again, it's not

1160
01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:37,320
Speaker 2: a slice, it's a break. So you can sabrage open

1161
01:07:37,400 --> 01:07:42,560
Speaker 2: a bottle with any any like heavy enough object. You're

1162
01:07:42,600 --> 01:07:46,320
Speaker 2: basically just looking to really tap it in the correct place.

1163
01:07:46,400 --> 01:07:47,920
Speaker 2: You can do it with a golf club. You can

1164
01:07:47,960 --> 01:07:49,720
Speaker 2: do it with a totally blunt object.

1165
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:50,200
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1166
01:07:52,000 --> 01:07:56,080
Speaker 4: Yes, And actually the person Laurren mentioned earlier about developing

1167
01:07:56,120 --> 01:07:59,480
Speaker 4: your taste, Harry contents to Escu. Yeah, yes, he was

1168
01:07:59,520 --> 01:08:03,800
Speaker 4: the person who tautas. But he also he told us

1169
01:08:03,800 --> 01:08:06,959
Speaker 4: that story in reference to the fact that he had,

1170
01:08:07,760 --> 01:08:10,480
Speaker 4: according to him, a bottle of champagne from the Titanic,

1171
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:15,680
Speaker 4: and he was waiting to develop his taste buds enough

1172
01:08:15,920 --> 01:08:20,040
Speaker 4: to appreciate this bottle. But that also shows you how

1173
01:08:20,080 --> 01:08:21,479
Speaker 4: strong these bottles are.

1174
01:08:22,200 --> 01:08:25,120
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's a good point. Wait, from the Titanic

1175
01:08:25,240 --> 01:08:28,400
Speaker 3: as in as in rescued from the bottom of the ocean.

1176
01:08:28,840 --> 01:08:34,559
Speaker 4: Yes, what really? Yeah, okay, that's what he told him.

1177
01:08:34,600 --> 01:08:35,479
Speaker 3: I have to look that up.

1178
01:08:35,920 --> 01:08:41,320
Speaker 4: Okay, yes, a report back. If he is told as

1179
01:08:41,320 --> 01:08:43,240
Speaker 4: a fallacy, I'll reach out to him and be like,

1180
01:08:43,760 --> 01:08:44,439
Speaker 4: how dare you.

1181
01:08:45,720 --> 01:08:48,679
Speaker 2: Have to look again? That the pressure inside a bottle

1182
01:08:48,720 --> 01:08:51,599
Speaker 2: is equal to a couple hundred feet of ocean depth.

1183
01:08:51,720 --> 01:08:54,920
Speaker 3: So that's amazing. Okay, No, I seriously will look into

1184
01:08:54,920 --> 01:08:59,240
Speaker 3: it any Lauren. It has been such fun talking to

1185
01:08:59,240 --> 01:09:01,679
Speaker 3: you to you today. We are hitting our time limit,

1186
01:09:01,760 --> 01:09:03,680
Speaker 3: I think, so we're going to need to bold But

1187
01:09:04,000 --> 01:09:06,240
Speaker 3: anything else you'll want to talk about with food storage,

1188
01:09:06,240 --> 01:09:08,080
Speaker 3: mad science before we wrap things up.

1189
01:09:09,080 --> 01:09:12,320
Speaker 4: Yes, but we don't have the time right now.

1190
01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:16,120
Speaker 2: I do want to put in a shout out to

1191
01:09:16,880 --> 01:09:19,040
Speaker 2: this book that I've been meaning to read since it

1192
01:09:19,160 --> 01:09:23,280
Speaker 2: landed on my desk in twenty nineteen about the Boston

1193
01:09:23,320 --> 01:09:27,000
Speaker 2: molasses flood. It's called Dark Tide the Great Boston Molasses

1194
01:09:27,040 --> 01:09:32,760
Speaker 2: Flood in nineteen nineteen by one Stephen Puelo. And so yeah,

1195
01:09:32,960 --> 01:09:35,160
Speaker 2: I have not I still haven't read the whole thing.

1196
01:09:35,320 --> 01:09:39,360
Speaker 2: So any errors in my material above was mine. But

1197
01:09:39,439 --> 01:09:41,519
Speaker 2: it's a really cool book. Go check it out.

1198
01:09:42,520 --> 01:09:45,880
Speaker 3: All right? Well, well, thanks again so much, Annie Reese

1199
01:09:45,960 --> 01:09:48,439
Speaker 3: and Lauren Vogelbaum. Hey, can you say once again where

1200
01:09:48,439 --> 01:09:49,519
Speaker 3: people can find your work?

1201
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:54,080
Speaker 2: Sure you can find the podcast savor wherever you get

1202
01:09:54,080 --> 01:09:57,120
Speaker 2: your podcasts. I'm also on a short form show called

1203
01:09:57,200 --> 01:10:01,040
Speaker 2: brain Stuff that's science and history and whatever I'm interested in.

1204
01:10:01,040 --> 01:10:05,360
Speaker 2: That week. Annie is on Stuff Mom never Told You,

1205
01:10:05,439 --> 01:10:09,960
Speaker 2: which is a feminist, intersectional cultural show, lots of NERD

1206
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:14,760
Speaker 2: references in there. Also, I'm doing a new show with

1207
01:10:14,880 --> 01:10:18,559
Speaker 2: Dan Bush called Alive Again, which is a non fiction

1208
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:23,840
Speaker 2: show about what happens when people have a near death

1209
01:10:23,880 --> 01:10:29,000
Speaker 2: experience and how sometimes something about the near death experience,

1210
01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:31,640
Speaker 2: but often more about how it informs the way that

1211
01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:35,639
Speaker 2: they live from then on. So that's a heavy one,

1212
01:10:35,680 --> 01:10:39,360
Speaker 2: but a fun one. Also, if you would like to,

1213
01:10:39,760 --> 01:10:42,160
Speaker 2: if you are listening to this as it comes out

1214
01:10:42,200 --> 01:10:44,280
Speaker 2: and you're in the Atlanta area, We're going to be

1215
01:10:44,439 --> 01:10:47,560
Speaker 2: at the pr X Podcast Creator Summit on a panel

1216
01:10:47,840 --> 01:10:51,280
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, July thirtieth from seven to nine pm. It's

1217
01:10:51,280 --> 01:10:55,680
Speaker 2: going to be about telling food stories in Atlanta with

1218
01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:58,920
Speaker 2: a couple of really amazing other panelists. And it's free

1219
01:10:58,960 --> 01:11:02,640
Speaker 2: and open to the public and located Plywood on the

1220
01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:06,519
Speaker 2: West Side with a reception afterwards at Monday night Browing

1221
01:11:06,600 --> 01:11:11,559
Speaker 2: with free drinks and food. So come gauck at us.

1222
01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:14,760
Speaker 2: We're awkward and we would love to see you and.

1223
01:11:14,760 --> 01:11:16,439
Speaker 4: Make your food opinions known.

1224
01:11:16,680 --> 01:11:18,920
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, tell us all of your tell us, all

1225
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:21,400
Speaker 2: your weird ones. We want strong opinions.

1226
01:11:21,760 --> 01:11:25,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Well, Lauren Annie, Thank you so much.

1227
01:11:26,840 --> 01:11:28,840
Speaker 3: Let's see. What do we usually say at the end

1228
01:11:28,880 --> 01:11:31,240
Speaker 3: of the show is if you are new to the

1229
01:11:31,240 --> 01:11:33,000
Speaker 3: show and you want to know what we do here,

1230
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:35,600
Speaker 3: this is stuff to blow your mind. We are a

1231
01:11:35,680 --> 01:11:39,759
Speaker 3: science and culture podcast with core episodes publishing on Tuesdays

1232
01:11:39,800 --> 01:11:43,200
Speaker 3: and Thursdays of every week. On Fridays, my regular co

1233
01:11:43,280 --> 01:11:46,639
Speaker 3: host Rob Lamb and I do an episode called Weird

1234
01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:50,360
Speaker 3: House Cinema where we just watch weird movies. They can

1235
01:11:50,400 --> 01:11:54,040
Speaker 3: be old, new, good, bad, well known, or obscure. The

1236
01:11:54,040 --> 01:11:57,120
Speaker 3: only real criterion is they've got to be weird. No,

1237
01:11:57,320 --> 01:12:00,439
Speaker 3: let's see. We do short form episodes on Wednesday, and

1238
01:12:00,479 --> 01:12:04,240
Speaker 3: then on Mondays and Saturdays we run older episodes of

1239
01:12:04,320 --> 01:12:07,559
Speaker 3: the show, either from the vault of core episodes or

1240
01:12:07,600 --> 01:12:10,920
Speaker 3: a Weird House Cinema rewind. If you want to follow

1241
01:12:11,000 --> 01:12:13,240
Speaker 3: us on social media, I'm sure you can find us

1242
01:12:13,280 --> 01:12:15,280
Speaker 3: on there with some variation of stuff to Blow your

1243
01:12:15,320 --> 01:12:18,320
Speaker 3: Mind or blow the mind or something. You can follow

1244
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:21,439
Speaker 3: us on Letterboxed for our Weird House Cinema account that

1245
01:12:21,520 --> 01:12:24,800
Speaker 3: is just called weird House and I think that about

1246
01:12:24,840 --> 01:12:28,920
Speaker 3: does it. Huge. Thanks as always to our excellent audio

1247
01:12:28,960 --> 01:12:32,439
Speaker 3: producer JJ Posway. Thanks once again to Annie and Lauren

1248
01:12:32,479 --> 01:12:34,599
Speaker 3: for joining me today. If you would like to get

1249
01:12:34,640 --> 01:12:36,600
Speaker 3: in touch with us with feedback on this episode or

1250
01:12:36,600 --> 01:12:39,120
Speaker 3: any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or

1251
01:12:39,240 --> 01:12:42,120
Speaker 3: just to say hello, you can email us at contact

1252
01:12:42,200 --> 01:12:52,320
Speaker 3: at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

1253
01:12:52,439 --> 01:12:55,360
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1254
01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:58,240
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1255
01:12:58,400 --> 01:13:15,160
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you of me. Two favorite shows