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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show,

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Speaker 1: fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for

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Speaker 1: tuning in. If you can hear me cheesing on the mic,

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Speaker 1: it's because I'm pleased as punch to be joined with

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Speaker 1: our brain trust of host of producers, starting with super

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Speaker 1: producer mister Max Williams.

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Speaker 2: Oh hello, I'm here, and you're starting with me.

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Speaker 3: Pleased as cheese.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, so hard. That's mister Noel Brown. The condition Yeah, yep,

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Speaker 1: that's mister Noel Brown. This is gonna be uh, this

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Speaker 1: is gonna be an interesting episode for our pal Max

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Speaker 1: due to the condition. I am Ben Bolin. We are

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Speaker 1: joined vicariously with our research associate Wren and recently, off

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Speaker 1: air we had we had a brief conversation about about

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Speaker 1: foods that we're interested in. We did talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about Haggis off air after our dairy and Gap episode.

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Speaker 1: But I feel like it's fair to say conditioned aside

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Speaker 1: in principle, we're all fans of cheese.

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Speaker 3: I think, so, Max, can you have vegan cheese?

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Speaker 4: Yes, yes, vegan cheese is a go too, And I

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Speaker 4: can actually have soft cheese, so I can have like mazzarella.

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Speaker 2: It's a harder cheese. I can't have a little chevra.

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Speaker 3: You have a little chevra?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, okay, I mostly.

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Speaker 1: Played and just a little ricotta cheese. Where you at

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Speaker 1: with cottage cheese?

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Speaker 4: Oh, cottage cheese. I should be able to have cottage. Honestly,

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Speaker 4: I'm bad as gross when it comes to the condition

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Speaker 4: it is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean cheese as a concept to We were

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Speaker 1: talking about this on an episode of on a show

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Speaker 1: called Very Special Episodes about Big Parma. How cheese and

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Speaker 1: dairy became a huge part of the American diet. And

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Speaker 1: this is a natural, you know, palette complementer to that conversation. Uh,

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Speaker 1: where we at with cheese?

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Speaker 3: Whiz?

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Speaker 1: Where we at with velveta? Where we at with craft singles?

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you this, man. I know, processed cheese is

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Speaker 1: not the best thing for a human body, but I

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Speaker 1: love it. I am like I might be addicted to

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Speaker 1: velveta at some points in my life.

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Speaker 5: It's a good mac and cheese option, that's for sure.

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Speaker 5: I think I prefer it to the craft powdered mac

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Speaker 5: and cheese. Yes, I think that's right. And you can

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Speaker 5: also buy it in like these bricks, these soft bricks

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Speaker 5: of Elvida, and then you can mix it with whatever

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Speaker 5: noodles you choose, you know, so that's a lot of fun.

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Speaker 5: I'm a big fan of the Craft singles. I gotta

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Speaker 5: say cheese product because of the way that it doesn't

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Speaker 5: split when you put it on a burger. It gets

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Speaker 5: you that perfect even melts. And if anyone's seen the

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Speaker 5: movie The Menu starring Ray Fines as a maniacal what

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Speaker 5: do you like michelin E type chef, even he sings

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Speaker 5: the praises of Kraft singles. And I think even when

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Speaker 5: you go to like fancy or burger type places or

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Speaker 5: smash burger joints that are really popular right now, you're gonna.

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Speaker 3: See that cheese product because of its melting properties.

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Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah, that's true. We'll get to the melty

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Speaker 1: science behind this. There is a reason that people have,

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Speaker 1: at least in the West, held processed cheese in its

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Speaker 1: own rarefied air. It's a familiar ingredient in American cuisine.

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Speaker 1: If you travel to other countries and you are, you know,

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Speaker 1: eating a burger somewhere, the American burger is probably gonna

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Speaker 1: have processed cheese on it because it became synonymous with

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Speaker 1: the United States.

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Speaker 5: One hundred percent. The question then becomes ben as you

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Speaker 5: have alluded to, what the heck is in this stuff?

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Speaker 5: This cheese product, processed has a real negative connotation in

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Speaker 5: general when we're talking about nutrition. Is this stuff as

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Speaker 5: plastic as the thin plastic coating that it comes in?

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Speaker 1: That is the question for the court today, mister Brown,

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Speaker 1: I believe we can begin with good dues. A lot

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Speaker 1: of us will be relieved, hopefully to learn that the

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Speaker 1: main ingredient in all processed cheese is still to this day,

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Speaker 1: actual cheese.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 5: They just can't call it cheese because it's the percentage

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Speaker 5: isn't enough for it to be considered pure cheese. It is,

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Speaker 5: in fact cheese product you'll see often listed on those packages.

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Speaker 5: According to Food the Alex Delaney in a twenty eighteen

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Speaker 5: article for a Bon Appetite, this is what they have

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Speaker 5: to say about it. Processed cheese isn't one hundred percent cheese.

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Speaker 5: Most of the time. It hovers around fifty percent cheese,

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Speaker 5: sometimes more and sometimes less. But at a base level,

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Speaker 5: processed cheese is real cheese cut with other non cheese ingredients. Okay,

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Speaker 5: we stepped on a little.

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Speaker 1: Bit, they stepped on the products. Yes, shout out to

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Speaker 1: the wire and all the hip hop that I love.

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Speaker 1: But there's good news still because these non cheese ingredients

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Speaker 1: are a mission critical factor in the meltiness that we

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Speaker 1: all adore. Right, the word process, as you mentioned, has

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Speaker 1: a negative connotation, kind of like saying scheme in US

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Speaker 1: English book callback callback. But really it's it's unfair to

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Speaker 1: immediately condemn something just because the word processed is used

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Speaker 1: to describe it. You know, butter is processed milk, grape

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Speaker 1: juice is wine too, I guess is just processed from grapes.

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Speaker 1: You have to have some sort of intervention to create

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Speaker 1: the end thing.

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Speaker 5: Well sure, I mean you could even go so far

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Speaker 5: as to say the process of fermentation could fall into

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Speaker 5: this category.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 5: So the buzziness and the negative connotation of the term processed,

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Speaker 5: you know, causes quite a bit of hullabaloo. And I

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Speaker 5: think maybe something ado about nothing.

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Speaker 1: M Yeah, yeah, I think that's a very fair point because,

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Speaker 1: you know, depending on the kind of processed cheese food

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Speaker 1: products that's one for the Americans. Depending on the type

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Speaker 1: of fig you're looking at it could be made entirely

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Speaker 1: of ingredients that the ordinary consumer would consider natural. If

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Speaker 1: we're talking processed cheese, it usually does begin with a

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Speaker 1: shredded our pal Lurin would say actual facts cheese, colby

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Speaker 1: or cheddar. Right.

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Speaker 3: It's then melted and mixed with water, milk, and oil.

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Speaker 3: This is added to the hot cheese, hot cheese.

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Speaker 5: I love that phrase hot chee good, just you should

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Speaker 5: use it in regular conversation to refer to something that's awesome.

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Speaker 5: At this stage, the ingredients start to separate from one

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Speaker 5: another because dairy and oil have different properties, sort of

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Speaker 5: the way olive oil sits on top of the rest

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Speaker 5: of the liquid inside salad dressing and you have to

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Speaker 5: shake it up, or like the way the blobbies and

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Speaker 5: lava lamps can exist inside the same container but never

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Speaker 5: actually combined. It's sort of a is it a suspension?

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Speaker 5: Is that the terms it means.

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Speaker 1: That they they are segregated. Basically, they're not mixing into

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Speaker 1: one homogeneous substance. And the reason that you have processed

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Speaker 1: cheese at all, Folks, is due to emulsifying agents. And

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Speaker 1: emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that

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Speaker 1: would ordinarily be in that lava lamp situation, and you

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Speaker 1: are able to include some intervening factor or substance that

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Speaker 1: brings them together. In the case of processed cheese, we're

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Speaker 1: thinking stuff like sodium citrate. That would be one of

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Speaker 1: the most famous examples that I can conjure up. Also,

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Speaker 1: bonus points, sodium is a preservative, so this makes processed

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Speaker 1: cheese lasts longer than the fresh cheese you would get

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Speaker 1: at the farmer's market.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely mean.

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Speaker 5: Think of the way naval rations are preserved, and like

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Speaker 5: salt barrels, you know, and salted meats and all of

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Speaker 5: that stuff, very much the same situation. The final consistency

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Speaker 5: of the cheese is ultimately determined by the amount of

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Speaker 5: emulsifier that's used, the temperature, the moisture content, and the

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Speaker 5: degree of blending that takes place throughout this process.

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Speaker 1: Okay, this is already sounding a little complicated for some

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Speaker 1: of us in the crowd, But also remember, folks, if

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Speaker 1: you introduced or described natural cheese to anyone who had

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Speaker 1: never encountered it before, it would sound pretty crazy, right.

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Speaker 1: You would say, you know, we got milk, right, we

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Speaker 1: get milk from these other animals and then we do

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Speaker 1: this weird process to it, right, as you said, Noel,

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Speaker 1: all cheese is processed milk, right and then and then

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Speaker 1: sometimes we just let certain bacteria go go hogwild on when.

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Speaker 5: You're really unpack it like that, Ben, it is kind

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Speaker 5: of gross if it weren't so delicious and crack like

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Speaker 5: that is the thing. There have been studies that say

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Speaker 5: that cheese can be as addictive as crack cocaine.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, well, good thing. I tried cheese first. I'll

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Speaker 1: be addicted to that one. I think we both will.

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Speaker 1: We also have to, as Ren points out, address something

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Speaker 1: called easy cheese. Easy cheese is different from cheese whiz,

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Speaker 1: which we're gonna spend some time on. Easy cheese does

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Speaker 1: come in an aerosol can, but apparently it's not a

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Speaker 1: true aerosol.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 5: And that's because a thin layer of plastic at the

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Speaker 5: bottom of the can prevents the propellant that is included

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Speaker 5: from mixing with the cheese, so it does have that

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Speaker 5: separate component. This separation allows the cheese to emerge from

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Speaker 5: the can in a nice ropey strand rather than a

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Speaker 5: fine mist like a traditional aerosol spray like.

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Speaker 3: A rope strand I said what I said, you said.

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Speaker 1: What you said, and I've got your back, I got

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Speaker 1: your thank you. So easy cheese is interesting because there

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Speaker 1: is natural cheese in it, but it is not the protagonist.

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Speaker 1: It's not the main character of the ingredient list. Instead,

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Speaker 1: you're going to see stuff like wave protein concentrate and

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Speaker 1: of course canola oil. It also gets its fluorescent orange

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Speaker 1: color from naturally derived sources. So we're already seeing that

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Speaker 1: processed cheese has its own panopoly of very distinct entities.

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Speaker 1: If we want to talk about the current state of cheese,

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Speaker 1: I guess we have to do a little ridiculous history

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Speaker 1: about cheese in general.

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Speaker 5: Yes, cheese, one oh one, So let us venture together

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Speaker 5: to the Swiss Alps.

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The earliest mention of what we would call processed

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Speaker 1: cheese actually comes from Homer, comes from the Iliad, and

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Speaker 1: this is written in around like eight hundred BCE, and

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Speaker 1: it talks about how you could goat or sheep milk

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Speaker 1: with wide and flour, kind of a precedent for fondue.

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Speaker 1: And that's where we get to, as you were saying,

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Speaker 1: Switzerland the thirteen hundreds, this is where we see the

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Speaker 1: real versions of cheese exist everywhere, but this is where

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Speaker 1: you see the real fancy cheese, guys.

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Speaker 5: And this was created in the Mental region of Switzerland

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Speaker 5: and the thirteen hundreds. And you may have heard of

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Speaker 5: mental cheese, which I believe is the well, there's raklets,

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Speaker 5: of course, but menthal cheese is another kind that is

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Speaker 5: used and melted down if I'm not mistaken for a

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Speaker 5: fondue situation. So Swiss cheese is considered an early example

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Speaker 5: of processed cheese because rennet is one of the main ingredients.

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Speaker 5: Is itself a preservative traditionally found in the stomach lining

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Speaker 5: of livestock. It is an enzyme that causes the protein

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Speaker 5: and milk to coagulate. So I'm sorry I may have

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Speaker 5: been off base and calling it a preservative. It is, however,

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Speaker 5: a chemical additive and the same way that preservatives are.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And because of that rennet, because of those

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Speaker 1: enzymes added to the original product, Swiss cheese is considered processed. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's let's stick with fondue. I've got I've got some

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Speaker 1: I almost said I have some rennet. I've got some

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Speaker 1: mmental in the fridge right now. So we're interested in

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Speaker 1: learning more about this. If you go a little bit

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Speaker 1: forward in time to the eighteen hundreds, you'll see the

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Speaker 1: next iteration of fondue. It arrives to us from the

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Speaker 1: Swiss Alps, and at the time, just like we were

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Speaker 1: talking about off air with Hagis, at the time, this

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Speaker 1: was not considered a fancy special occasion thing like going

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Speaker 1: to the melting pot or another fondue restaurant. Instead, this

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Speaker 1: was what we would call a struggled meal like people

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Speaker 1: ate it because they had to work with what they possessed.

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Speaker 5: One hundred percent. Winter in the Swiss Alps was rough, long, harsh,

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Speaker 5: and freezing, so the peasants had to use this aged

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Speaker 5: cheese and bread because fresh produce just wasn't on the

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Speaker 5: table literally and figuraly. By combining their cheese with flour, wine,

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Speaker 5: and some herbs like you mentioned earlier, ban over an

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Speaker 5: open flame, these peasants were able to create a very

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Speaker 5: tasty and long lasting food item that would take the

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Speaker 5: edge off winter's chill. According to the Dairy Farmers of

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Speaker 5: Wisconsin website at Wisconsin Cheese dot.

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Speaker 1: Com, m yeah, the method that people use to make

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Speaker 1: American cheese today largely was also created by a couple

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Speaker 1: of Swedes, Swedish guys named Walter Gerber and Franz Stettler.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen eleven, they said, all right, let's make something

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Speaker 1: that we can ship off to warmer areas of the world.

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Speaker 1: And our super move will be to ship this without

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Speaker 1: its spoiling. And they added sodium citrate to this melted

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Speaker 1: emmentol to this hot cheese. And they did you know,

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Speaker 1: their experiment was successful. They made a product that could

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Speaker 1: last longer on the shelf. But there was someone else

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Speaker 1: in the game, someone who was living across the pond,

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Speaker 1: as we say, who grew his own kind of hot

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Speaker 1: cheese science experiment hot cheese, resulting in a business empire

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Speaker 1: that is worth over thirty seven billion US dollars as

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Speaker 1: we record today, It's time to metium noll oh big Cheese.

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Speaker 5: In nineteen sixteen, Canadian American immigrant James Lewis Kraft with

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Speaker 5: a K you know it, obtained his first patent four

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Speaker 5: processed cheese. Along with his little brother Norman, the Crafts

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Speaker 5: would transform the landscape of the supermarkets. In its very

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Speaker 5: first iteration, craft cheese was slightly different from the line of.

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Speaker 3: Products that we know today. How is it different?

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Speaker 1: You know? First off, it's sold in jars or cans

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Speaker 1: because it doesn't have a mulsifying salts Noel. Before we continue,

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Speaker 1: I have a pitch for the Ridiculous History Cinematic Universe.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, please, okay, dude, what if we make

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Speaker 1: a film, a movie about James and Norman Kraft and

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Speaker 1: how they created this process cheese Empire, and we just

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Speaker 1: call it the Craft with a k light is a

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Speaker 1: feather stiff as a board? Throw in some occult reference.

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Speaker 3: Why not? You know we could make them like Vampire

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Speaker 3: Hunters too or something.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the Craft, only.

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Speaker 4: If it's a spiritual sequel to the episode we're going

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Speaker 4: to do about the Kellogg Brothers.

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Speaker 1: Oh have we not done the Kellogg Brothers episode yet? Oh?

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Speaker 2: We've well, movie correction, we'll make were gonna make the

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Speaker 2: movie also?

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Speaker 5: Oh okay, Yes, and they're also vampire Hunters, great rival

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Speaker 5: vampire Hunters.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and the way they kill vampires, but.

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Speaker 3: You can't write that. You can't say that, right.

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Speaker 1: I like the idea though, that they're both using dairy

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Speaker 1: to fight vampires. I will say this is a very

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Speaker 1: anti vampire stance we're taking. And there's reason because vampires

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Speaker 1: can't eat cheese.

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Speaker 3: Is that true?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they can't eat change.

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Speaker 3: Okay, they're lactose intolerant then.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, that's the that's the real problem with vampires.

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Speaker 1: You heard it here first, folks. In nineteen twenty one,

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Speaker 1: we know that the Craft Company did patent or patent

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Speaker 1: applications for multifying salts.

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Speaker 5: In nineteen forty four, however, Craft secured another patent, this

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Speaker 5: time for the process that led to the delightful little

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Speaker 5: Craft singles that we know and some of us love today.

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Speaker 5: This was a major improvement to the former loaf situation.

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Speaker 5: These little slices account today for roughly seventy four percent

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Speaker 5: of all processed cheese sales in the entirety of the

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Speaker 5: United States.

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Speaker 1: Wild right, wild. This goes into some of our other

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Speaker 1: explorations about how the US government in particular got so

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Speaker 1: deep in bed with big Dairy, Big Parma Man.

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Speaker 3: Check out that episode, by the way, was it called

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Speaker 3: very special Episodes?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Big How cheese got in everything?

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Speaker 2: Yep?

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Speaker 3: Featuring Ben Bolin and his buddy Alex French.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, man. It's it's a weird one,

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Speaker 1: for sure. It is a true story, and Craft does

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Speaker 1: occur within that story. We also learned something we mentioned

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Speaker 1: on previous episodes of Stuff they Don't want you to know, Noel,

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Speaker 1: which is that the US government, as we record, is

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Speaker 1: currently storing one point four billion pounds of processed cheese

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Speaker 1: in this underground cave syte them in Missouri.

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Speaker 3: A bunker situation. Yes, b bro, I've got a pitch

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Speaker 3: for you.

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Speaker 5: What if when Elon Musk blows the doors off of

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Speaker 5: Fort Knox, it's not full of gold bricks at all,

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Speaker 5: but just bricks of velveta.

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Speaker 1: I love it, oh, because they would look like gold

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Speaker 1: you've thought about. That's smart.

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Speaker 3: Liquid gold is what we call it.

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Speaker 2: Cheese.

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Speaker 1: This is this is weird. We have to dive into this.

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Speaker 1: Why does Uncle Sam have over a billion pounds of

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Speaker 1: cheese hidden weigh in caves? That is true. You know

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Speaker 1: it sounds weird, but it is true. It's because in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, the US had a milk shortage, but

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Speaker 1: the demand for dairy did not decrease, and as a result,

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Speaker 1: dairy products, everything that falls under the category of dairy,

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Speaker 1: the prices for those spiked by thirty percent. It's kind

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Speaker 1: of similar to what we're seeing with eggs in the US. Today.

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Speaker 3: Is this the government cheese everyone's always talking to this

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Speaker 3: gets to it.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, great, So as we're currently seeing with eggs.

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Speaker 5: Like you said, when inflation impacts the cost of an

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Speaker 5: important staple food, A, people get irritated because they can't

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Speaker 5: afford one of these common items that are relied upon

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Speaker 5: for sustenance, and B they buy less of that product

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Speaker 5: because they just don't have any other choice. But then

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Speaker 5: enter our hero in the situation. I guess our buddy,

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Speaker 5: President Richard not a crook, Nixon, who did have a

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Speaker 5: bit of a plan here, Old.

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Speaker 1: Tricky he says. He says, Look, we're going to pass

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Speaker 1: the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of nineteen seventy three.

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Speaker 1: This did have price controls, it did have subsidies. It

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Speaker 1: said milk should only be, you know, at this reasonable price,

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Speaker 1: and if you're a farmer and you're struggling, we're going

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Speaker 1: to give you a little cash on the side to

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Speaker 1: help you make it to the next year. We're also

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Speaker 1: getting rid of all these crazy import quotas we had

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Speaker 1: from the Great Depression. This band aidd the discrepancy between

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Speaker 1: supply and demand. But you know, Nixon probably had some

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Speaker 1: back room smoky deal.

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Speaker 5: I think that's kind of a thing.

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Speaker 3: I guess, wouldn't it.

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Speaker 1: It's something in the eyes.

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Speaker 5: I think you're right, very shifty tricky. But if you

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Speaker 5: know anything about tricky, Dick Nixon probably isn't cheese related

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Speaker 5: or dairy related. A bit more of that old that hotel. Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 5: I gate some water. So President Jimmy Carter, classic Georgia boyp.

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Speaker 3: Only just recently thought he was going to live forever.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we had all hoped. He took office in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven, and it looked like the Nixon administration had

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Speaker 1: over corrected with dairy products and supply and demand. Because

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Speaker 1: now dairy products are so cheap that farmers are losing

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Speaker 1: money by running their businesses. You can't move the milk

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Speaker 1: fast enough. The economics no longer makes sense. So production

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Speaker 1: is still continuing at the same rate because they already

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Speaker 1: have all these cows, right, they already have all these

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Speaker 1: dairy cows, and they're going to keep making milk. Congress

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Speaker 1: and President Carter, they get incredibly concerned that if they

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Speaker 1: allow these farmers to go into other businesses, they're just

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Speaker 1: going to create another dairy shortage. So now we see

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Speaker 1: another big government act, the Food and Agriculture Act of

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven.

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Speaker 5: Right, it supply more subsidies to dairy and with the

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Speaker 5: government buying all of that access product, farmers were able

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Speaker 5: to continue on as usual. But the government did now

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Speaker 5: find itself with a bit of a cheese glut.

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Speaker 1: Hot cheese, hot cheese. They got that hot cheese. They

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Speaker 1: had so much stuff. First off, I would point out

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Speaker 1: they had so much milk, and milk is cartoonishly perishable, right,

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Speaker 1: so they had to transform it into something that would

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Speaker 1: last a little longer, which means their next move are

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Speaker 1: going to be things like butter and cheese. And by

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Speaker 1: the time Ronald Reagan comes after President Carter in the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties, the government has bought up five over

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Speaker 1: five hundred million pounds of processed cheese just to keep

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Speaker 1: the dairy industry going.

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Speaker 3: That's wild.

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Speaker 5: That does not seem like the best arrangement. What on

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Speaker 5: earth did they do with all of this cheese? According

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Speaker 5: to a USDA official in nineteen eighty one in an

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Speaker 5: article in the Washington Post, probably the cheapest and most

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Speaker 5: practical thing to do would be to dump it in

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Speaker 5: the ocean. But Reagan was a frugal man. He did

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Speaker 5: not believe he was a waste not, want not type fellow.

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Speaker 5: He wanted that hot cheese the trip down.

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Speaker 1: He wanted that hot cheese to trickle down in ropy string.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, thank you man, thank you.

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Speaker 1: So it's nineteen eighty one, then President Reagan is coming

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Speaker 1: to the public in December, and he says, at a

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Speaker 1: time when American families are under increasing financial pressure, their

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Speaker 1: government cannot sit by and watch millions of pounds of

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Speaker 1: food turned to waste. This is where his administration founds

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Speaker 1: the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program. This is the government cheese.

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Speaker 1: They took all the cheese they had made in this

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Speaker 1: deal with the dairy industry, and they distributed three hundred

401
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Speaker 1: million pounds of it to populations that they saw as

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Speaker 1: in need. At the same time, by the way, they're

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Speaker 1: putting cheese in every kind of military like everything the

404
00:24:58,000 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 1: army eats is getting cheese.

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Speaker 5: If you look images of this stuff, it looks like

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Speaker 5: a brick of plastique, you know, some sort of like

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00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:11,680
Speaker 5: explosive putty. It says pasteurized process process not processed. By

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00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 5: the way, cheddar cheese keep under refrigeration. And then there's

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Speaker 5: a little sign off purchased and distributed by the United

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Speaker 5: States Department of Agriculture, Washington DC and.

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Speaker 3: Ian DC cheese.

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Speaker 5: The idea of you know, maybe it's certainly antiquated now,

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Speaker 5: but I remember growing up it was sort of like

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Speaker 5: a joke kind of thing to talk about people being

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Speaker 5: on government cheese, sort of a crassway referring to maybe

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Speaker 5: people that were less fortunate than others.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. There was some insensitivity in those

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Speaker 1: days and in the present day, because the government has

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Speaker 1: once again begun buying up a lot of cheese, and

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Speaker 1: it's entirely because they have to prop up and assist

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Speaker 1: the domestic dairy industry. Public demand for dairy products has declined.

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Speaker 5: Ben, where do you think the use of the word

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Speaker 5: cheese referring to money came from. Do you think it

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00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 5: has anything to do with this whole like we've got

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Speaker 5: way too much cheese situation.

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Speaker 1: I wonder that is a good question. Let's see, if

427
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Speaker 1: we're looking at cheese as money slang, maybe it does

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00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:23,520
Speaker 1: go back to welfare and assistance. Maybe that's when people

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Speaker 1: started talking about having the cheddar, having the cheese.

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Speaker 3: Yep, if you look at urban Dictionary.

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Speaker 5: One of the entries refers to it as slang for money,

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Speaker 5: referring to a form of welfare where people would get

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Speaker 5: government cheese handed out to people in what we're referred

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Speaker 5: to as poverty lines. And I think that's a bit

435
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,280
Speaker 5: of an antiquated term as well. But cheese comes from

436
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,159
Speaker 5: the term government cheese, but in slang it's referring to money,

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00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 5: because that's where you get your welfare checks as well

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00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,640
Speaker 5: as that government cheddar.

439
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: Makes sense, right, beautiful cheese as cash money you can

440
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,239
Speaker 1: eat right now. Farmers have so much extra milk that

441
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: they're reportedly dumping it into fields into lagoons.

442
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 3: Not in the ocean at least, right.

443
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 5: No, oh, and Ben, just doubling back to what you

444
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 5: mentioned about the excess milk being dumped into lagoons. These

445
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,359
Speaker 5: are referred to as anaerobic lagoons and are a way

446
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 5: of I believe, storing and treating livestock manure because of

447
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 5: the anaerobic ability for it to be broken down by

448
00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:30,440
Speaker 5: that products.

449
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, you absolutely nailed it. It's a way to sort

450
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: of mitigate the waste or the potential for other nasty

451
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,880
Speaker 1: things to happen when you throw a bunch of animal

452
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: junk and milk into the environment. So right now the

453
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,080
Speaker 1: US government has more cheese in its caves than it

454
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: did when Ronald Reagan was doing his best to give

455
00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 1: it all away. Big Parma is realss Cheese is awesome.

456
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:07,520
Speaker 1: We have to thank everybody who's listening to this in

457
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,520
Speaker 1: the dairy industry. Thanks for tuning in.

458
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 5: Folks, oh Ben, Before we wrap up it being I

459
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:17,200
Speaker 5: believe as this publishes National Cheese Steak Month.

460
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 1: National cheese Steak data is March twenty four.

461
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 5: Okay, we Ben, You and I have traveled to Philadelphia

462
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 5: on numerous occasions and have enjoyed authentic Philly cheese steaks.

463
00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 5: If you're in Philly, you just call it a steak.

464
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,400
Speaker 5: But the traditional way of eating a Philly steak is

465
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 5: with cheese whiz, not with I mean, we love a

466
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 5: sharp provolone excellent edition as well, but the classic style

467
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 5: is with grilled onions and cheese whiz. Ben, you found

468
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 5: a great article that explains the origin of that.

469
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 1: Ah. Yes, the oral history of the Philly cheese steak

470
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: with Big Big thanks to our pal Victor fiel Real.

471
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: You can find this on phillymac dot com. It's a

472
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: fascinating story that might be an episode all its own.

473
00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 1: We did something about Philly cheese steaks. Was it on

474
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 1: ridiculous history?

475
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 3: I think it was. Maybe it just was part of another,

476
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 3: a larger broader topic.

477
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 5: But I swear we talked about the history of Philly

478
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 5: cheese sticks at some point or another. Because I I

479
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 5: know way too much about it. We should look back

480
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 5: on that and maybe do an update.

481
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to ask you, inquiring minds want to

482
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: know Noel Max again, condition aside, what's your take? What's

483
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: the right cheese for a Philly cheese steak.

484
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 5: I don't think I've ever had it with Wiz. I

485
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 5: really like it with sharp Provolone. I just think it's

486
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:46,760
Speaker 5: a superior cheese. I'm not a huge canned cheese kind

487
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 5: of guy, though I do like a craft single melted

488
00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 5: gently over a delicious smash burger.

489
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 3: How about you Max, with especially it's been.

490
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 1: You're gonna keep going with that? Huh.

491
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 4: I'm gonna beat them both out now.

492
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: So folks, folks, we would love to hear your opinions

493
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:14,560
Speaker 1: on cheese steaks. I did mess up one time. Nol

494
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: and our pal Matt Frederick and I were doing a

495
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 1: live show in Philadelphia, and at the very end I

496
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: asked people to recommend which Philly cheese steak shop we

497
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: should go to, and they were very they were very

498
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 1: strident and contradicting opinions.

499
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 3: Right, there's the two kind of you know, classic ones.

500
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 5: There's Pats and then the other one that's right across

501
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 5: the street from it. But those are almost like locals

502
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 5: think those are sort of like played out, and everyone's

503
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 5: gonna have some kind of off the beaten path steak

504
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 5: joint that they will recommend. I think Dallassandro's is a

505
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 5: popular one, if I'm not missing.

506
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: It's the good ones are always some person's name. That's

507
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 1: the rule of thumbs.

508
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 5: There, Dallasandro's Steaks and Hogies Philly Slvania.

509
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 3: I have heard really great things about that.

510
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 5: But then if you go to Reddit, someone says, here,

511
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 5: Delasandra sucks, go to Angelo's or John's Rose.

512
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:12,760
Speaker 1: Exactly what happened, dude? When I asked people in Philadelphia,

513
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: you know, I thought they wanted to talk to us

514
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 1: about the show, but they were just going, no, beat

515
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 1: me your Max, everyone, Na mank you nicks, Na Delesandra.

516
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 3: We like we went to Knicks.

517
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, so with that, folks, thank you, as always so

518
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Thanks to our research associate Ren,

519
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 1: thanks to our super producer mister Max Williams. Who else,

520
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: who else?

521
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 5: Oh geez, Alex Williams to compose our theme. Christophrasciotis needs

522
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 5: Jeff Coates here in spirit.

523
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: The Rude Dudes at Ridiculous Crime. Tune in. If you

524
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: like our show, you'll love theirs. And thanks also, of

525
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: course to everybody with an opinion of a cheese steak.

526
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,040
Speaker 1: This episode has made me so hungry. I think we're

527
00:31:58,080 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 1: trending toward lunchtime.

528
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 3: Big time. It is proper lunchtime.

529
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 5: As we wrap this episode up, Ben, thanks for cheasing it.

530
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 1: Up with me, man and also with you.

531
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:11,280
Speaker 3: We'll see you next time, folks.

532
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:18,480
Speaker 5: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

533
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 5: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows