WEBVTT - Nutty for Peanuts, Part Two: Power, Industry, and Identity 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.400 Are you guys. We've gone a little nutty with this topic, 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:04.440 but there's so much more to talk about. 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:06.519 Yes, we're nuts about peanuts. 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:12.000 My name is Evel Longoria and I am Myra and 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.760 welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores are 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:18.160 past and present through food. 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.560 On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.200 of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:30.720 So make yourself at home. Even so, you grew up 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.360 with some Mexican idioms, right, because I don't. I don't 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.920 have any Mexican I don't have any detols that mentioned 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:38.760 peanut in it. Do you? 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.559 I have just one even ever heard that? 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:46.760 Like it means peanuts to. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:48.240 Me, Like it doesn't matter. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.839 It's a matter which is which is ironic, right, because 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.800 peanuts are an essential ingredient in Mexican cooking and marlaise 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:56.760 and and Santa Mata. 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.320 And they're filled with protein vitamins. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.600 But it's small and cheap and synonymous with something kind 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:04.959 of unimportant. 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:08.319 So it's like small. That's why, speaking of idioms, you know, 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.440 he's a nut job. You're a nut You're so nutty. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.280 I'm nuts about him. He makes me nuts. The peanut gallery. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.600 Like there are so many idioms in English, like so 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.080 many the nut can be a crazy person, a testicle, 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:27.680 a person's physical head. How did the nut become so 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.560 important in our English language? Right? 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.399 And even like an exclamation like, oh my god, that's nuts. 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:36.240 It's so funny. 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.679 So I love food related idioms, so it's you know. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.280 Some of them referred to the physical description of the 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.959 nut as is hard round out herself with something valuable inside, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.800 like like the brain and the skull, like if you're 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:54.680 nuts about somebody, they're like embedded in your head. But 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.520 according to some sources, this definition days back to the 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.920 eighteenth century, like early seventeen eighty five we see this reference. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.000 And then it was in a newspaper comic, right the 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.560 first time nuts were seen as like crazy. 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.680 A comic strip named Mutt and Jeff and in nineteen 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.200 oh eight, so super early to be off one's nut 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.639 meant to be separated from your head. And then if 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.120 something is nutty it developed from that as like something 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.160 is you know, silly or crazy or eccentric. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.160 Oh this one, I love the peanut gallery Like all right, 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.160 U hush peanut gallery, Like I used actually used this 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.239 one a lot and I love that it comes for 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:38.720 the vaudeville era because the cheapest seats or the gallery 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.480 were filled by the poor members of the audience who 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.440 were stereotyped as like unruly or like they were the hecklers, 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.519 and they would throw peanuts because it was like the 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.519 cheap snack sold at theaters. And then in the segregated South, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.200 these seats were largely occupied by black patrons. So this 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.400 phrase of like the peanut gallery, it was a phrase 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:06.400 that gained cultural recognition even though it's had offensive origins. 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.840 It became less obvious because it was used in a 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:15.120 children's program How Toy Doty in the nineteen forties and fifties, 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:19.040 and the show featured this boisterous studio audience of children 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:24.240 known as the penut gallery. So today it's used to 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:28.239 describe a group of people offering unsolicited comments. I do 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.840 not care what you have to contribute to this conversation, 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:36.120 you peanut gallery. But understanding its historical roots, there are 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:40.520 so many horrible phrases that we don't realize how really 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.840 dark origins, like crack the whip when you want somebody 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:44.600 to like, let's go, guys, crack the whip. We've got 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.200 to get going that I have such an allergic reaction 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:50.920 when I hear that, because I think people don't realize 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.400 where it comes from. It's important to being mindful of 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:54.640 the origins. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.080 To know what we're saying. 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:58.960 So, okay, we left off the last episode with Mexico, 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.120 so let's give a recup on how the peanut got 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:02.760 to the US. 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.880 So Portuguese conquers. It took it from Brazil to Africa 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:11.880 and the fifteen hundreds, and they rapidly spread across the continent, 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.240 you know, so much so the botanists mistakenly believed that 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.960 they were native to Africa, and then enslaved West Africans 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.960 carried peanuts to North America and we actually see the 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.800 first recorded peanut were you know, referenced in sixteen ninety 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.559 in Charleston. And so initially the peanuts were grown mainly 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.800 for animal feed, but enslaved Africans began cultivated them to 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:40.680 supplement their meager food rations, and they became integral to 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.560 Southern food traditions. They were often grown and garden plots 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.320 tended by enslaved people for their own you know, sustenance, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.520 and up until the American Revolution, peanuts were cultivated primarily 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.200 by African Americans in their own garden patches for their families. 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.440 Well, so there were such sustenance, like it was such 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:02.840 an easy way to get nutrition. 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.359 And so for many years they were dismissed as animal 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.240 fodder or poor people's food. But then after the Civil 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:14.480 War they started gating wider acceptance because soldiers on both 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.120 sides they needed them for nutrition. They relied on them 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.120 for energy and protein. But they also really liked them. 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.360 They're fun to eat. I will say that they are. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.080 They are there's something very I don't know, they're festive 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:27.719 about it. 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:30.720 But the soldiers this makes sense because they would provide 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.400 energy and protein for them, right. And then after the 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.560 Civil War, what happened? How did they stay and demand? 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.720 They just you know, soldiers really liked them. And then 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.480 they started becoming popular everywhere. The South started shipping more 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.000 and more peanuts to the North as urban demand for 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.520 peanuts and these growing cities, they just sort of boomed 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.240 like people wanted peanuts. And then we slowly start seeing 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:00.760 peanut based recipes in cookbooks for white you know, elite, 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.480 And one of the earliest was Sarah Rutledge, this woman 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.400 who wrote Carolina Housewife in eighteen forty seven. She has 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.839 a ground nut soup, and ground nuts is what the 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.280 peanut was called in Africa, and it was beaten peanuts 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.880 simmered with a pint of oysters and Chile. 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.719 Oh wow, Chile, says a seed pepper or two, so 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.320 a chilo o some sort of Chile. And then we 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.520 did mention the last episode. By the eighteen eighties, like 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.479 the late eighteen hundred, streetcart vendors and traveling circuses were 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:38.080 offering these hot roasted peanuts to fair goers and audience 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.880 members across America. So then that kept it alive as. 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.479 Well, right, and street vendors. 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.280 That's a really important part of the story of the 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.960 peanut everywhere really, because they were sold in mes amarkets 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.080 as well. But in the US there's street vendors have 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.680 always had their finger on the pulse, right, They know 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.159 what people want and they get instant feedback. 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.320 Yeah no. And so when these American cities experienced all 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.400 this rapid growth of like mass migration in the late 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.719 eighteen hundreds nineteen hundreds, it feels like this created a 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:11.400 market that needed a convenient and affordable street snack, especially 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.560 in places like New York City or Chicago and things 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.480 like that. So I always think, you know, all good things, 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.520 at least good food come from immigrant communities, right totally. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.760 And a lot of these immigrants who didn't have, you know, 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:29.200 weren't proficient in the English language, or didn't have a 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.240 capital to start, you know, a business, they turned to 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.560 push cart vending to survive because the startup costs for 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.880 a simple cart and a sac of peanuts were really, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.200 really low, and so peanut vending became a. 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:43.200 Very viable option for a lot of people. 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:48.880 And this trade provided this entry point into entrepreneurship in 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.320 these bustling American cities. 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:04.040 So we can't talk about peanuts without mentioning George Washington Carver. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.240 George Washington Carver born around eighteen sixty five, nobody really 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:14.240 knows exactly, and he rose from this sickly orphaned child 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.400 he was born in a Missouri farm to become one 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:23.400 of America's most influential scientists and educators. He transformed agriculture 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:27.040 and the perception of peanuts in the US to a 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:31.680 really important product. So this guy was born in a 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.120 one room cabin in Missouri on a farm owned by 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:39.319 these German immigrants, Moses and Susan Carver. His mother had 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.160 been enslaved. We don't know who his father was. And 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.319 when he was a child, George and his mom were 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.760 kidnapped and taken to Arkansas, and he was eventually returned 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:55.199 when Moses Carver traded a horse for him. He never 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:59.720 saw his mother again. It's this crazy story, like crazy story, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.760 but he was educated. He earned a Masters of Agriculture 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.319 in eighteen ninety six and started working at the Tuskegee 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:12.040 Institute in Alabama as head of the agricultural department. So 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:17.600 Carver he saw that tobacco and cotton farming had just 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.640 exhausted southern soils. So he started teaching poor farmers to 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:26.720 grow peanuts and sweet potatoes to improve the soil. You 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.120 know this like monoculture never really works, So to improve 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.160 soil and to earn a living. And in nineteen fifteen 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.000 he published a bulletin on peanuts. And this is at 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.080 a time that the boil weavil had devastated Alabama's cotton crops. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.199 If farmers couldn't sell the peanuts that they had grown, 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.240 at least they could just eat them, right, and they 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:50.439 had a nutritious food source. And so his research identified 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.680 over three hundred uses for peanuts, including like oils and 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:59.480 dyes and soaps and like even peanut based sausages. And 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:06.000 so he promoted agricultural sustainability and economic independence, helping black 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:11.280 farmers shift away from exploitive cotton farming while elevating the 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:16.080 reputation demand for peanuts. And so his legacy is one 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.200 you know, of science and education and innovation, and he 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.800 helped bring peanuts to the mainstream. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:27.080 So it was his research and agricultural efforts that really 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:32.439 put peanuts on the big stage in the US exactly. Well, 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.320 then by the twentieth century, peanuts were everywhere. They weren't 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.120 on the margins anymore. They were in mainstream and mostly 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.280 in the vaudeville and music halls. So if there was 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:46.640 any type of entertainment, somebody was selling peanuts. And the 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.600 cheapest seats were famously filled with the patrons eating peanuts 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.439 and throwing peanuts at performers, and it kind of cemented 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:58.320 the snacks association with like mass entertainment. So then cinema 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.600 exploded in you know, around the nineteen twenties, and movie 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.320 theaters began selling peanuts with popcorn and candy because they 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.800 were very inexpensive concessions, and so then they were a 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.719 fixture in theaters by the nineteen twenties. So so interesting 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.840 that peanuts became this like standard fair at anything entertainment 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:24.360 and especially at baseball games and festivals. And this was 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:28.800 thanks to improved harvesting technology that allowed for mass production 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:32.600 and distribution. So I knew something had to happen totally, 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:37.760 and something had to happen with like industrial mass production 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.520 of peanuts because they became they were everywhere. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.720 They were everywhere circuses, the circus peanuts, and like elephants 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.920 eat peanuts, that was a total circus thing. Elephants don't 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.160 naturally eat peanuts, they eat grasses. 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:53.720 But it's like give it a peanut, all right. So 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.880 when does peanut butter come into the picture. I know 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.800 it has something to do with doctor Kellogg. 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.840 So we established in part one the peanut butter or 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:05.559 peanuts have been part of pre Hispanic diets for centuries 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.600 and they were ground into paste. But peanut butter got 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.960 this boost thanks to this vegetarian doctor named John Harvey Kellogg. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.640 In eighteen ninety five, he patented this food compound which 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.400 was basically peanut butter and he designed for his patients 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:27.160 at his Battle Creek Sanitarium, and he launched this health 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.720 focused adventure creating plant based alternatives to meat, and one 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.920 of its stars was something called protos, which was a 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:40.640 peanut and wheat meat substitute. And this helped American see 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:45.640 peanuts as this protein packed, easy to digest food even 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:49.040 those who could not to meat. And it was advertised 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.760 as a food for the toothless, which is so old, 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:55.280 which is not at all appetizing. 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:01.360 John Kellog was really about this kind of vegetarian, plant 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.439 based alternative. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.280 And people This is in the late eighteen hundreds, they 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:10.680 started telling people like magazines like Good Housekeeping telling readers 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.600 to make their own peanut butter with a meat grinder. 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.760 And then in the nineteen hundreds, of former Kellogg employees, 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.760 a guy named Joseph Lambert invented machines to roast and 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:25.479 grite peanuts, and this made peanut butter cheap and wildly 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:30.040 available around the country. And then the Saint Louis World's 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.080 Fair in nineteen oh four was a turning point because 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.520 people tasted it along with peanut bread ale and roasted 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.000 peanuts and other health foods. It's always a world's fair, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:46.160 that always always, it always is the world always a 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.640 turning point, always and it's always either the Chicago one, 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.600 the or the Saint Louis one or the London one, 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.640 like it's always the turning point of something. And they 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.080 had these advertisements that boasted the ten cents worth of 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.839 peanuts pecks six times the energy of a porter House steak. Interesting, 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.880 and then during the Great Depression, the peanut butter, because 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.640 it was so cheap, it became a lunch box favorite. 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.839 Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which emerged around this time 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.640 because during World War One, meat rationing made peanut butter 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:24.400 basically the protein alternative, and then this meatless mondays became popular. 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.320 I can't believe that that became popular in World War 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:31.760 One so long ago, but during this time or a 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.520 little after the war, families began pairing peanut butter with 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:41.240 these sweet fruit spreads. And then sliced bread was invented 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.720 in nineteen twenty eight, and that revolutionized sandwiches because they 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.120 you could do it quick and easy. You could assemble 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.000 this quick and easy. And then at the same time, 0:14:53.280 --> 0:15:01.560 Joseph Rosefield pioneered partial hydra enation, which created this like creamy, 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:07.080 shelf stable peanut butter that could be shipped nationwide, and 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.840 that paved the way for Skippy peanut butter and Peter 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:16.360 Pan peanut butter, which if I eat peanut butter, I'm 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:21.360 usually I'm usually eating Skippy. Really, yeah, I don't know 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.800 which one's better by because there's there's Skippy, Jiffy, Peter Pan. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:27.840 I don't like the sweet lies. I like the salt 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:29.400 sells one like it. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:31.920 I like you, Yeah, I like I don't like this 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:32.640 sweet one. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.400 World War two, again, peanut butter was included in soldier 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.600 rations uh and Skippy Skippy was actually included in the 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.160 peeb and Jay sandwiches that then became a staple and 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.320 kitchens across the US. Ninety percent of US households enjoy 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.200 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sandwiches. Wasn't it Elvis's favorite 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:57.480 peanut butter and banana? Elvis's favorite sandwich? Yeah, I was banana. 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:58.080 Peanut butter and banana. 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:08.280 You're right. Well, since it's Halloween, let's talk a little 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.960 bit about the history of some of our favorite peanut 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.440 based candies. Yes, I well, this is the only way 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.520 I need a peanut is if it's in a candy 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.640 chocolate bar, sugar chocolate coated. Like, I'm not eating it 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.000 by itself. I'm just not doing it. 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.920 But I'm like the opposite. But I do like goobers. 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:26.560 So, oh, what's a goober? 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:28.960 Oh my god, you've never had goobers in movie theaters. 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.160 It's usually the snack that I get in movie theaters. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:33.960 Nope, you've never had the goobers. 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.160 They have them in all of the movie theaters in La. Yeah, 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.360 it's basically an eminem without the candy coating. So it's 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.280 the original movie candy. So movie theaters they were booming 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.119 in the nineteen twenties, and it was there were popcorns 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.640 so it opp and nuts and these goobers. They were 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.240 easy to share, perfect for snacking in the dark. And 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.400 it was this combo of chocolate and crunchy peanut butters. 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:01.640 This combo was very novel and in algent. But just 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.960 to backtruck a little bit. In eighteen ninety four, Milton 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:09.120 Hershey a caramel maker from Lancaster, Pennsylvana, and he bought 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.520 a chocolate making machine and created the Hershey's Chocolate Company 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.840 and peanuts were not among the ingredients in his early 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.520 candy wars, but he kind of opened the path to 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:24.840 this sort of chocolate and peanut combo. And so this 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.400 Goober was originally the original candy, and the name Goober 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.080 made it memorable because it's kind of fun to say. 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.560 And the word comes from the Goula word goober, which 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.520 means peanuts. So you see this African connection. And then 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.480 there's a Baby Ruth, Baby Ruth. I do like a 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:43.200 Baby Ruth. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.840 Where does that? What? Movies that Baby Ruth? 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:47.199 I don't know. 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:58.480 Goonies, of course, the goonies. I love that baby. This 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.080 one is one of my favorite candies because it's like 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:07.560 peanut caramel nougat bar. It coded in chocolate I did. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.679 What I didn't know was that in nineteen twenty one, 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:15.520 the Curtis Candy Company repackaged and rebranded a one called 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.199 Candy Cake, and they launched it as Baby Ruth. So 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.240 it was called something else before it was called Baby 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:25.880 Ruth and Curtis Candy Company. Curtis claimed that the name 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:31.200 came from Ruth Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.520 who had died in nineteen oh four, and at the 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:39.000 same time, Baseball's Babe Ruth was becoming America's biggest sports star. 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:44.520 So many historians view this as a legal marketing ploy, 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.159 and it allowed Curtis to avoid paying baseball legend Babe 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:53.840 Ruth for the use of his name while still benefiting 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:58.679 from the public's like mental association with him. And so 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.000 when Babe Ruth tried to launch his own candy bar, 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:07.520 Curtis sued him for trademark infringement and one snicky Oh 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.560 my God, Baby Ruth was one of the earliest examples 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.320 of clever branding and marketing in US candy history because 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:16.080 it wasn't just sold as a sweet, it was like 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:20.919 also marketed as fuel, like an energy bar for working Americans. 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:24.639 Can you imagine no Baby Ruth today, Like eat this, 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:30.800 it's an energy bar. No. No, So by the late 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.440 nineteen twenties, Baby Ruth was the number one five cent 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.880 candy bar in America. There's more important ones. We got 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:38.879 to get to the more important ones. Peanut butter cups, 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.679 Reese's Pieces, peanut em and M's right which I have 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:44.639 quit about those. I have a question about those. But 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:46.680 let's talk about the peanut peanut butter cup. Because when 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.200 was this born, This brilliant invention. 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:50.399 The peanut butter cup. 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:52.840 That's probably my favorite peanut butter can't because I don't 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.560 love me candies, but I do love to be Reese's 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.040 peanut butter bar. So it was born in nineteen twenty 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.560 eight in Pennsylvania in a basement kitchen by a man 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:05.240 named Harry Burnette Reese, who was a former dairy farmer 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.199 who worked for Milton Hershey and Hershey Pennsylvania, and so 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.280 in nineteen twenty eight he left the Hershey's dairy farm 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:16.800 to start his own candy business, and among them were 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.440 penny cups, these little chocolate cups filled with sweet peanut butter. 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:26.399 And this combo was an instant hit, and by the 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.560 nineteen thirties, Reese's peanut butter cups became his signature candy. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.280 They were really inexpensive, they were totally indulgent, and this 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.920 was at a time when the Great Depression made people 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.000 crave these affordable luxuries. 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.480 And so he kind of found a niche. 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.640 He created a niche, and by nineteen sixty sixty three, 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.720 the Hershey Chocolate Company acquired Reese's business for twenty three 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.480 point five million dollars, and it was this kind of 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.360 balance of sal d, sweet, creamy, crunchy, and it was 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.800 there was nothing like this, and it was. 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.960 Packaged individually, and so they felt like shareable and personal. 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.280 And it's still one of the most popular candies in 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:13.600 the US, inspiring lots of spin offs, including Reese's Pieces, 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:17.640 which was made popular during an et the movie ET 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.560 when Elliott lures Et out of hiding, leaving a trail 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:22.840 of Reese's Pieces. 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.280 Wait, so did you know that? Originally Steven Spielberg wanted Eminem's. 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:31.280 Yes, I did know this, and they declined yes, oh 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:35.080 my god. But after the movie was released, sales of 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.880 Reese's Pieces skyrocketed, and the et that the product placement 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:44.719 is cited as one of the most successful product placements 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:45.760 in history. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:46.679 It's fascinating. 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:47.280 It's so yeah. 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.600 I can't think of Recent's Pieces without thinking about ET. 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:54.040 I saw this argument on the TikTok or Instagram, one 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:58.400 of those places. And the peanut Eminem, which was invented 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.639 by Forrest Mars, which was the side of the Mars 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:05.080 Chocolate Empire. Founder. He got this idea from seeing soldiers 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:09.200 eating chocolate pellets coated and sugar during the Spanish Civil 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:14.200 War and this kind of prevented the chocolate from melting. 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.240 So the original Eminem's were plain chocolate with a candy 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:23.080 shell designed to survive the heat and transport, and that 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.320 was nineteen forty one. In nineteen fifty four, peanut m 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:29.320 and ms were introduced as a new variety, and then 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:32.240 it became the brand's top seller. But I saw this 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.760 argument on the Instagram or the TikTok where somebody said 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.200 the peanuts are the original, and this wife was like, no, 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:42.639 the original is just the chocolate, and he's like no, 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:44.560 and this husband and wife were fighting about it. So 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:47.240 just to let you guys know, the original m and 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:50.800 ms were plain chocolate, and peanut m and ms were 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:55.040 introduced almost fifteen years later, but it is the top seller. 0:22:57.320 --> 0:22:59.560 I would like to settle this argument. 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:00.159 Once and for our. 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.159 So we went a little nutty on this topic. But 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.600 who knew this small and mighty peanut had so many 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:09.480 stories to tell? 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:10.600 Are you a convert? 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:10.880 Now? 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:12.320 Do you love peanuts? 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:15.359 I don't like peanuts by themselves, but I will say 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:19.880 I love our peanut peanut based candy history. I'll eat 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:22.160 a peanut butter and jelly I'll eat a peanut butter 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:24.560 and jelly sandal like I will say, I sometimes do 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:27.119 crab it, but I didn't go as nutty on this 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:33.280 topic as you. Next week, what are we talking about? 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:37.680 Next week? We're talking about our favorite condiment, mustard. Plus 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:41.359 I'm putting even to the test. Does she know her mustards? 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:43.800 I do know my mustard because I just got back 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:48.400 from France, from Dijon and learned all about mutad. So 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:52.120 leave us a message on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:54.679 iHeartRadio app. We love hearing from you. We'll see you 0:23:54.680 --> 0:24:02.080 next week. Goodbye. Hungary for History is a Hyphenite media 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:05.800 production in partnership with Iheart'smikultura podcast network. 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:08.800 For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app, 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:13.480 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.