WEBVTT - Butter Me Up! 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.360 My name is Evil Longoria and I am my deraon 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:11.240 and Welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:12.760 our past and present through food. 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:15.159 On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.799 of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture. 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:19.920 So make yourself at home. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:28.600 Even drinking my Big Red, my last one in the fridge, 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.200 I'm like freaking out. I'm like, wait a minute, it's 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.199 my weekend luxury is one. 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.040 Big Red because I don't drink them often. And then 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.720 I'm like, wait, how do I have one left? You 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.080 need to get on that. I need to get on it. 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.519 Well, I will tell you what I did make yesterday, and. 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.920 I'm so happy we're talking about it today. Is butter. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.640 Oh my gosh, I want to hear all about your 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.560 butter making process. 0:00:56.240 --> 0:01:00.480 It's not a process, you know. I'm a progressive why 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.160 I have been making my own butter for years. Just 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.120 when I heard it's like one ingredient, I was like, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.600 what I didn't know? It was just you know, heavy cream. 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.720 Although French butter is cultured, right, is that what you 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:15.080 say it? 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:17.279 Yeah, French butter's cultured. 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:19.280 So I'm gonna start doing that where I culture it 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.840 and then shake it because all you do. I got 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.600 a butter turn thing from Amazon. I was like the 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.480 worst thing ever. You just get a jar, like a 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.600 big old Mason jar. I pour a whole little carton 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.480 like the little cartons of heavy cream, and you shake 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.399 it in that jar for about fifteen minutes. And I'll 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.840 watch a TV show, I'll be watching a documentary and 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.240 I just shake it and it turns into butter. And 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.600 if my nephews and nieces are here, I make them 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.360 take turns like you go five minutes and you hold 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:49.120 it five minutes. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.000 And then because Thanksgiving, I make. 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.680 A lot of butter, and so I need like extra shakers, 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.920 but that's it. And then I put honey if I 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.320 want honey butter for biscuits, and I put Garlicok, if 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.640 I want garlic butter for a stack, I put salted 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.240 you know, obviously salted butter. But in France they culture 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.120 it and so cultured butter. You know, it just requires 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:13.640 high quality heavy cream and a live bacteria, so usually 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:18.880 yogurt butter milk, and that creates this like tangy rich butter. 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.360 And what you do is you mix the heavy cream 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:23.680 with yogurt or whatever you know, I use you. I'm 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.519 gonna use yogurt, plain yogurt, and you leave it out 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.480 for forty eight hours. But like forty eight hours seems 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:34.080 to be the sweet spot. And those live active cultures 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.440 makes it better. 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:38.000 That sounds so good. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.600 And how do when you shake it, is it room 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.079 temperature or is it chilled? 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:43.000 Well, if I. 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.320 Culture it, it'll be room temperature, okay, so you don't 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:45.880 refrigerate it. 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.960 Then once you shake it and it's like butter, you 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.520 rinse out the butter milk that comes off of it. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.520 It's like really really milky water and you're left with 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:57.880 this butter and you really have to squeeze out all 0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:58.560 that water. 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:01.440 And that's how it does and go rantsid. If you leave. 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.239 Water in it, it can go rancid pretty fast. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.320 I have a butterbell on my counter. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.520 I don't put I don't put my butter in the 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:10.280 fridge saying steak for the counter. 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.800 I have a butterbell and I love that thing. It's 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.240 the coolest thing. It keeps it fresh and spreadable. Because 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.399 the spreadable butters that we use are so processed here 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.920 in the US that it's like it's not good that 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.560 it's that spreadable. If it's cold and it's spreadable, there's 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.160 some it's not just butter. There's something else in there 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:28.680 for sure. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.799 Well, Valentine's is around the corner, and I just want 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.520 to say to you my day. 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:34.440 You're my butter. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:38.240 Half, you're my buttery. 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:44.600 We are butter together, my friend. So speak of Valentine's Day. 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:50.000 My anniversary, my wedding anniversary is November seventeenth, which is 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:51.560 also National Butter Day. 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.520 Oh my god, is it always November seventeenth or does 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.640 it move Butter Day? 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.080 It's always no November seventeenth. I just realized. I just 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.920 learned this, and I love that. It's like, now I 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:04.560 have two. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.000 Things to celebrate, to celebrate. 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.760 I love all the butter idioms, like butter, you better 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:11.480 butter them up before you ask. 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.880 It's so funny butter fingers. When someone's clumsy who drops 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.520 things all the time. I'm a total butter fingers. I'm 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.440 quite quite a klutz, quite a glutz. So let's talk 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.080 about where butter began. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.839 Okay, butter had to begin once we started, I guess 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.240 hurting animals because it had to come from milk. So 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.600 so it wasn't that long ago. How long ago was 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.159 it and who should we applaud for this amazing invention? 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.000 It was a bird long Yeah, it was a long 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.599 time ago, like ten thousand years ago, like in the 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.400 Fertile Crescent, right, So just like you said, yeah, early 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:52.240 herders they realized, Okay, milk isn't something that you just drink, right, 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:56.560 Milk could transform And they realized when they were trying 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:58.880 to keep this butter, you know, fresh, they were putting 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:04.720 it in animals skins and transporting it and this movement 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.240 right when you know your your animal skin is full 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.520 of milk and you're putting it on your animal, and 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.479 the movement, the shake, it naturally made the fat separate 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.560 from the cream right from the liquid, and it sort 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.120 of clumped together, so just the way that you make it. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:22.440 So this is how they realized. 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.600 So butter wasn't really invented, it was discovered. 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:27.720 Well, the Fertile percent is also. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:32.080 Like that that boomerang shape region in the Middle East, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.680 which is like modern day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.400 parts of Turkey, so like that that like basically the 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:43.960 cradle of civilization, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:50.760 birthplace of agriculture, right, everything everything, So of course butter 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:52.159 was discovered there as well. 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:56.400 Yes, exactly exactly, and it was really valuable. Like the 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.560 value of the butter was recognized right away because it 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:03.160 was riching calories, it lasted a lot longer than milk, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.360 and this was of course before refrigeration. It was easy 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.000 to carry. So from the very beginning it's like, oh 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:10.680 my god. 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.279 Butter is valuable. 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:14.440 Wow. 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.960 And then when did butter, I guess over time take 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.240 on a I guess a deeper meaning like it did 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.159 it ever become sacred or like ritual in some places? 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.360 Yeah, in India, especially ghe, which is this clarified butter. Right, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.800 you separate the fats from the from the solids and 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:37.560 then so the gee it's the milk solids are then caramelized, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:42.440 and so in India they start using things. 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.479 Like ghe in rituals. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:48.960 And in northern Europe it signified prosperity and they used 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.719 to make ornate sculptures and just for nomadic cultures around 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:58.760 the world, it represented mobility and survival, and eventually it 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:03.520 became one of the defining flavors of global trade and 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.800 in tables around the world, right, because everybody's just butter. 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.640 I mean, you know some places like you know, like 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.560 Italy that you see more olive oil, right, but still 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.440 like butter is really central to tables around the world. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.720 Doing searching for France when you're talking about olive oil. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:20.800 I made the mistake. We were in Provence, in the 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.920 south of France, and I said, uh, he was cooking something, 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.160 and I go let me, yes, butter, because I associate 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.840 France with butter. And he was like, no, only the 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.560 north is butter, you know, north Paris and north of 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:34.400 Paris is butter. 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:36.440 The rest of France is olive oil. 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.800 And I was like Mediterranean, yeah, which is funny because 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.040 I was like, I always just think everything in France 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:43.440 is cooked in butter. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:48.040 A lot, but maybe yeah, not everything, right, Yeah, but 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.800 there's even like so many myths and legends around butters, right, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:54.240 And so like we said, it was this ritual substance 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.760 embedded in these you know, fertility and abundance and and 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.120 I love this idea of like in Hindu traditions they 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:07.800 use that ghi for you know, for for rituals. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.200 And the god, Yes, Krishna. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.640 I was in India and saw a lot of krishnas O. 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.080 I've never been to India, but I didn't. I didn't 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:17.640 find butter. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.880 It was a big well ghee or yes, yeah, you're right, 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:21.880 you're right, you're right, yeah. 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.080 Yeah, it's the ge. It's the ge. What was it 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:24.520 used for? 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:24.880 GHI? 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.680 So they use it for cooking, but they also use 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.840 in rituals and Krishna, the god Krishna is described in 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.839 devotional literature as stealing butter as a child. So it's 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.840 used in ceremonies, you know, as an offering. 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:39.640 So it's used a. 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.679 Lot in Southeast Asia, and even in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:49.319 they use butter to create these ritual sculpture called tormas, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.200 and they displayed these they would made them out of 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:57.360 butter and roasted barley and these are just they transformed 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.000 them into these sacred offerings as the symbol food for 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:05.520 for deities and spirits. And so it's sort of central. 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.120 I will say, if it's not French butter, the second 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.520 one that I that comes close other than my own 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.120 is Irish butter. I don't know why, Like does Ireland 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.400 do something different? They also kind of have this ritual 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:21.640 religious thing behind butter. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.240 Too, right, Yeah, Ireland really has an interesting history. They 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.160 have like some really ancient butters have been discovered in Ireland, 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:35.640 something called bog butter, and it's like like two thousand 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.200 year old butters have been discovered. So they put them 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.079 in these like animal skins or clay pots or something 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.920 and bury them in peat and so it's like this 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:50.079 moss and it would kind of transform them into like 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:56.600 a sort of waxy substance, and it represents these stored 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.960 labor and wealth. And people sometimes used to hide it 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.679 because it was so valuable, like so that nobody else 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.720 would steal them, and also to preserve them underground. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.120 So Latin America because we're not a big butter I 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.160 mean I think we are in Texas because we have 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.400 flower tortillas and like, let me tell you something, and 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.720 flower tortilla with French butter in the morning, there's nothing better. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.160 My son does that all the time. He's like, you know, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.079 gett on a darbia but with French butter. That's so funny. 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.719 Well there's that Texas better than the fan Furia's butter. Yeah, 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.680 good butter. There are ranches firm that's a good butter. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.280 Fan Furia. But in Latin America. 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.240 It was only because of colonialism that that butter arrived. 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:41.360 It never really took off. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.680 It didn't take off. We don't really see it in 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.040 native cosmologies like we do in other parts of the world. Yeah, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:47.679 we see it in. 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:48.679 The in the Pandulce. 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.000 We did a whole Bandulte episode and we talked a 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.360 little bit about better there, but we don't really see 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:53.839 it again. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.480 A lot of the Banducee was influenced by the French bakeries. Yes, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.960 papers in Mexico, so they brought their. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:01.640 Butter with them. 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:06.839 In Ireland and Scotland, early modern folklore records, there was 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.920 this belief that butter production could be harmed by witches 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:10.640 or fairies. 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.040 So if butter didn't churn, they would. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.640 Use these productive practices that just you know, placing an 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.200 iron near churns or were signing prayers during churning just 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.160 to make sure that the butter was okay. 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:24.600 You knew you had a witch in your house. Yeah, 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:25.679 it was valuable. 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.600 You said it was pretty valuable, So it was obviously 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.160 traded that had value. 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:30.800 It was super valuable. 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.280 Like by the Middle Ages in Europe, butter was just 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:37.559 this major commodity it was packed in barrels tax traded 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.480 across Ireland and Scandinavian, you know, Normandy. There were trading 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.000 ports in northern Europe that had entire markets devoted, you know, 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:50.600 just to butter. But even like before that in ancient India, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.760 in Egypt, it was a symbol of wealth, right, and 0:11:54.800 --> 0:12:00.800 these butters were export or imported from cooler regions and 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.320 it was prized for medicine and ritual use. 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.640 So they've been you know, butter is something. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:10.160 That has been traded at scale for literally thousands of years. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:19.920 So when did we start using it in baking? Because 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.199 that was a good idea, Yes, that was a really 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.240 good idea. I us that's what I think of butter. 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:25.400 I think baking. 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.240 So we start seeing it in baking around the ninth 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.120 century or so in medieval Europe we start seeing it, 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.360 you know, butter. You know, monks and town bakers they 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.400 start incorporating butter into tarts and cakes and they would 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.719 mix it often with like dried fruits or nuts or 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:47.200 you know, honey, and this butter added like not only flavor, 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.200 which we know butter is so Liverpool, but richness and 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.840 moisture that other animal fats like lard or other you know, 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:59.080 animal fats couldn't, and the butter allowed bakers to create 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.920 just lighter and flakyar pastries. And then the North and 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.199 Northern Europe dairy really thrived, so they sort of let 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.760 the lead the way, and then French bakers refine these techniques. 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:17.320 So we start seeing associating French pastries with you know, 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:23.240 croissants and just beautiful tarts and just this just deliciousness. 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:26.840 Well, you know, I bake, I make my like today 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.119 it's Sundays for me or like the food prep. 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:30.240 For the week. 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:34.560 I make my chodal beans which will turn into refrent beans. 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.720 I make my creamer, my coffee creamer, I make my butter, 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.040 and I make my bread, and the whole house every 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.280 Sunday just smells like butter. 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:43.440 Gosh. 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:49.640 Yeah, so butter just transformed every day baked goods into 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:51.080 delicious treats. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:53.840 Yeah, and we covered some of this, we covered some 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.640 of this in our earlier in the season. But when 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.600 pastry shops first open, the oldest one being in Paris, 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:07.720 the pastry chef of Louis the fifteenth and you know, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:13.320 when the monarchy fell, all of these amazing talented artisanal 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.600 people like needed to do something, so they ended up 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.160 opening shops. The chocolate tear opened a shop, the baker 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.680 opened a shop, the chef opened a restaurant because it 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:22.640 wasn't really a thing. 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:23.960 Before that in the monarchy. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.480 Lots to do with butter, yeah, and also just just 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:31.320 really quickly, like the banavedias, they feed sort of everyday staples, 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.200 right that have my gets and you know rolls, just 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:35.280 staples that feed. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:36.120 A community based. 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.440 Pastry shops are much more indulgent things with butter, like 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.440 croissants and night claires and like things that are butter 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.200 full and beautiful as well. It's like when you look 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.760 at a little fruit tart, it's it's a work of art. 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:54.640 Yeah yeah, So who really like who brought I guess 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.040 who elevated baking to high art? 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.320 Because when you go to France, like one. 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.600 Of these concoctions at one of the highest you know, 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.880 patisseries or pastry shops can run like forty dollars. I mean, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.080 like for this one little gorgeous little thing. I remember 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.160 I paid eighty five dollars for this like Mango creation. Like, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.280 who who said I'm gonna elevate baking to high art? 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.720 Oh my gosh, this guy. His name is Marie Antoine Karem. 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.800 He's also known as Antonym Karem. And he is such 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:31.120 an interesting character, right, he was like a true rags 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.480 to riches story. He was born in seventeen eighty three. 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.600 He was born in the slums of Paris. They believed 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.440 that he was one of twenty three children. And in 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.440 when he was nine years old during the French Revolution, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:44.840 and he was taken in by the owner of a 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.560 chop house, right, a top house near the gaillotine. 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.240 What's it like a meat? Like a steak like they 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.120 would they would butchery, but like a butchery, yes, okay. 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.840 And he he washed dishes right in exchange for a 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.400 roof over his head. And when he turned sixteen, he 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:05.200 was apprenticing at a patisserie. Right, so he was apprenticing 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.280 his super bright. His boss encouraged him to get an education. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.480 He taught himself to read and write, and he would 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.640 go to the library and he would study architecture and 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:20.600 classical you know, arches like Greek architecture and Roman architecture 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:25.360 and columns, and he started recreating this architectural forms with 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:26.760 sugar and pastry. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:28.160 Wow, which of. 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.080 Course, butter is what helps you know, keep these things, 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.760 you know, give things their shape and their texture and 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.680 their wow, their their their shininess and everything. And so 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.080 he started staging thees in window displays and eventually he 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.720 opened up his own pastry shop. He was reviewed by 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.080 Grimaud de la Arronier. We talked about him in our 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.840 Food Critics episode. He called his pastries exquisite in crisp 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:52.520 to perfection. 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.480 And he didn't just open anyway. He opened near Plus Bondome, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.440 which is like to the spot today. It's where the 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:01.640 it's carl it is. It's like it's one of the 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:07.480 most famous plazas and so it's so it's it's so 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.040 interesting that in the seventeen hundreds, you know, this was 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:11.200 where his shop was. 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.800 Wow, even then it was the place he was so 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:19.399 you know, his art. He elevated, you know, food to 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:24.520 this fine art. And he's the one that really transformed us. 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.800 He even made Napoleon's wedding cake. Like he invented the 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:31.720 pastry bag. He illustrated his own cookbooks. He claimed to 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.760 have invented the shoe pastry and volevants and perfect souit 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.520 fls like you know, he he and he was also 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.840 the first chef to gain wealth and fame through publishing 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:48.600 and through his through his creations. And so yeah, we 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.200 can the eighty dollars pastry that you got, you could, 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.879 you could, You could thank Karrem for that. 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.280 I will bank Koram for that price as well. 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.960 Yeah, pastry is only good as it's butter, not only 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:03.240 it's ingredients. 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.199 But like, really the real star is butter. It is. 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.840 It is my favorite bakery in la Is Petti Grand 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.560 bu Lingerie in Santa Monica, owned by a really good 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:13.080 friend of mine. 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:14.760 Her stuff is unbelievable. 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.240 Last week I had to sit down with my friend 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.439 Clemonsta Loots from the Santa Monica bakery pettigran Bulanerie. We 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.720 talked about the current political climate, her presence in the community, 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.879 and she taps into bread's long history of labor care 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:34.040 and quiet revolution. 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.399 Today I'm talking to her about butter. 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.919 So why is butter such a foundational ingredient in baking, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.240 especially compared to oils or margarine. 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.000 So the reason that I prefer butter over margarine is 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:55.359 because butter contains lactose, which contains sugar, which creates drowning, 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.040 which creates the Mayas reaction, which gives you a depth 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.240 of flavor and color that you cannot get from a 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:07.000 hydrogenated fat. So margarine and shortening are hydrogenated, which means 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.440 that there are oils with oil does not contain any water. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.400 Oils that are hydrogenated partially or fully and go from 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:21.359 liquid to solid. But oils lack the ability to really 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.360 brown in the same way that butter does and has 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.320 a very different mouth feel because they don't contain water. 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.240 So what butter does is because butter is made of 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.679 eighty to eighty four to sometimes eighty six percent fat 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.720 and the remaining part being water and milk solids. When 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.520 it reaches your tongue, butter can melt at a certain 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:47.640 temperature and with a certain mouthfeel that you cannot recreate 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:52.840 with solid fats. So when you're consuming a product that 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.960 has margarine or shortening, it can't really melt. It just 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.280 kind of coats your mouth rather than sort of having 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.000 those properties that butter has. 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:06.880 Oh interesting, that makes perfect sense. I never really understood 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:08.240 the why that makes. 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.199 Perfect If you have like a shortening butter cream, it 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:11.800 just kind of sticks to the roof of your mouth 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.840 a little bit and the sugar crystallizes a lot because 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:16.200 it can't dissolve as well. 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.440 Your croissants are the best croissants ever, the most amazing. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.119 So can you walk us through the steps of the 0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:29.520 lamination and how laminated dough turns butter into these edible amazingly. 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.280 Okay, yeah, oh, I love talking about this because making 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:34.959 clos is actually not that difficult. 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:36.080 It starts for us. 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:38.400 It's a three day process that starts with a sponge 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.160 with like whole grain flowers, yeast and flour and water. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.399 And then the next day we mix our dough with 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:48.119 more whole grains, bread, flour, water, yeast. We use organic 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.840 dark brown sugar and that preferment, and then we lay 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:53.720 it out in a pan. We do this thirty two 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.199 times on most days, and then we put in a 0:20:57.359 --> 0:20:59.880 kilo block of butter. And the butter that we use 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.880 is eighty two percent fat, and it's super important because 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.840 some butters that are lower in fat, like your regular 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.560 typical grocery store butter, has too much water content. And 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:12.680 then when you go to laminate, which is the process 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.119 of putting the butter on top of the dough, folding it, 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.320 rolling it out, folding it, rolling it out, folding it, 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.399 rolling it out. If it has too much water content, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.080