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Speaker 1: Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm

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Speaker 1: Joe McCormick. And uh, you know this episode is titled

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Speaker 1: Bread Toast Toasters because we're going to take you on

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Speaker 1: an odyssey of human invention. Oh. I never thought about

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Speaker 1: this as an odyssey, but it really is one spanning generations.

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Speaker 1: It's like two thousand one of space Odyssey, it is.

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Speaker 1: But of course the middle part of that is toast.

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Speaker 1: So I just wanted to take a second for us

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Speaker 1: artist to consider the slice of toast a thing that,

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Speaker 1: when done right, is absolutely exquisite in its own right,

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Speaker 1: but also serves as an excellent base for so many

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Speaker 1: other fine taste sensations. Wouldn't you agree? Oh? I absolutely would.

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Speaker 1: I there is a food combination that I don't know

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Speaker 1: if it can be topped. It might especially be a

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Speaker 1: Southeast United States kind of thing. But we're in tomato

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Speaker 1: season right now, you know, it's July, especially getting in

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Speaker 1: to August. That's like peak tomato season. And I just

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Speaker 1: want to say, as a message to you young folks

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Speaker 1: out there, if if you have never tried like a

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Speaker 1: delicious like thick, juicy, vine ripened you know, farmers or

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Speaker 1: garden tomato. You've only had tomatoes from the grocery store.

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Speaker 1: You do not understand what a tomato tastes like like.

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Speaker 1: It is not just better to get a good from

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Speaker 1: you know, summer tomato from a farmer or a garden.

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Speaker 1: It's a completely different food, yea. And sometimes it looks

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Speaker 1: like a different different species altogether, you know, because it

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Speaker 1: will be like an organic tomato you've had a farmer's

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Speaker 1: market will sometimes be kind of like weirdly grotesquely bloated

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Speaker 1: looking and have lines on it. It's not as pristine

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Speaker 1: as your you know, your grocery store tomato, but that

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Speaker 1: the taste experiences is beyond yes. And so if you

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Speaker 1: want to have the most perfect tomato experience, there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of ways people do it. People make a

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Speaker 1: crazy salad it or just eat it, you know, sliced

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Speaker 1: with salt and pepper or something like that. But here

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Speaker 1: here's something i'd recommend. Get some good bread, toast the bread,

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Speaker 1: you know, lightly toasted, a little bit of mayonnaise, and

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Speaker 1: fresh sliced summer tomatoes. That is the best meal you

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Speaker 1: will ever have in your entire life. Oh, I believe it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we've we've been doing a lot of these. We don't

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Speaker 1: do bacon anymore, but we've basically been doing b lts,

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Speaker 1: but with sausage standing in for the bacon. And it's

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Speaker 1: but with the with really good tomatoes and it's fabulous.

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Speaker 1: But even without tomatoes, I mean, think of all the

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Speaker 1: things that toast is great with. I mean, you can

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Speaker 1: put some marmalade, some butter on toast and that's a

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Speaker 1: home run. Avocado toast has been a huge hit in

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Speaker 1: recent years, and because for a great reason it is wonderful.

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Speaker 1: Avocado toast is basically just another form of buttered toast,

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Speaker 1: because avocado is like fruit butter. Yeah, but it's exquisite tasting.

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Speaker 1: I'm also reminded of toad in the hole of your head.

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Speaker 1: Toad in the hole, you cut a hole out of

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Speaker 1: the toast, you to agon it. Yeah, yeah, it's great,

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Speaker 1: it's it's amazing. Yeah. So we're gonna before we get

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Speaker 1: back to toast and what toast is, we should talk

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Speaker 1: about what comes before toast, and eventually we'll get into

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Speaker 1: what comes before that. But let's talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about the other great wonder one of the greatest inventions

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Speaker 1: the humanity has ever devised, that being bread itself, right,

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Speaker 1: and it's possible to argue that bread is one of

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Speaker 1: the inventions that made human civilization. It's sort of a

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Speaker 1: culinary chemistry project because it's not something you find in nature.

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Speaker 1: Bread is a thing that certainly had to be invented,

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Speaker 1: and it's this thing that turned the seeds of hardy

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Speaker 1: grass plants into a scalable staple food that could provide

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Speaker 1: lots of calories to feed settled populations and and big

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Speaker 1: settled populations. And before the cultivation of grain crops, most

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Speaker 1: of the time humans wouldn't be able to grow and

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Speaker 1: store enough food survive in large numbers in one place.

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Speaker 1: Like in settled cities, you have to keep moving around

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Speaker 1: and constantly foraging for food through the hunting of animals

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Speaker 1: or the gathering of wild plants. The main strain of

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Speaker 1: thinking about the origins of cities and settled human population

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Speaker 1: is the cultivation of grasses. Yielding grain crops massively increase

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Speaker 1: the efficiency of human food production, so you can get

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Speaker 1: like way more stores of ready calories with less work,

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Speaker 1: and the thinking usually goes that this is also what

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Speaker 1: made possible the diversifying of human labor. Since not everybody

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Speaker 1: had to be involved in getting food all of the time,

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Speaker 1: more people could be able to spend more of their

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Speaker 1: time on other types of projects, so crafts like pottery

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Speaker 1: and weaving, and the creation of tools and weapons and

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Speaker 1: other technologies, the education of children, the creation of literature

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Speaker 1: and music, religious rights and duties, and all these other

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Speaker 1: things that we come to associate with human technology and culture.

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Speaker 1: And there's st only a case to be made that

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Speaker 1: cereal crops and the bread that was made with them

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Speaker 1: played a huge role in making all this possible that

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Speaker 1: led to the modern world. Now. As for bread itself,

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Speaker 1: of course, there are a bazillion different ways to make bread, right.

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Speaker 1: The most essential components, uh too. Pretty much all bread

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Speaker 1: recipes are water and a flower based on some type

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Speaker 1: of grain from a grass plant like wheat. So to

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Speaker 1: make wheat flour, of course, you you've got to take

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Speaker 1: the fruiting body of the wheat plant, which is the

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Speaker 1: kernel or the seed, and the wheat plant. By the way,

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Speaker 1: if you've never actually looked up close at the part

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Speaker 1: of the wheat that you eat, you know wheat is

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Speaker 1: a grass. It's like this huge, tall grass, and it's

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Speaker 1: got this thing on the end that's got the seeds,

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Speaker 1: and it looks kind of like a furry rattlesnake tail

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Speaker 1: at the top of the stall. So it's got all

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Speaker 1: these rattlesnake tails, and you've got to take those rattlesnake

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Speaker 1: tails off, get the seeds out of them, and then

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Speaker 1: process those seeds and grind them into a powder. And

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Speaker 1: of course that powder is the flour. And then to

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Speaker 1: turn the flour into bread, you have to hydrate it

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Speaker 1: with water. And if this is like a flat or

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Speaker 1: unleavened bread, you can just add any other seasonings you

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Speaker 1: want and bake it as is in an oven or

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Speaker 1: on a hot surface, and this will tend to produce,

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Speaker 1: of course, a relatively like flat, chewy bread, like kind

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Speaker 1: of like a peda or like a tortilla. But the

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Speaker 1: most common type of bread we're familiar with, and the

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Speaker 1: kind we think of when we're making toast, is of

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Speaker 1: course bread that has some kind of leavening, which is

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Speaker 1: an agent that will create gas bubbles inside the dough

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Speaker 1: that cause it to rise. And these bubbles, of course

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Speaker 1: increase the volume of the dough they make it rise,

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Speaker 1: but they also give the bread a softer texture. And

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Speaker 1: in the modern world, we've got tons of different kind

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Speaker 1: of ways of getting bubbles into bread. We've got chemical

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Speaker 1: agents like baking powder, baking soda, and they create gas

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Speaker 1: bubbles through chemical reactions that happen after the substances are

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Speaker 1: added to the dough. But you can also create a

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Speaker 1: kind of forced mechanical leavening just by like incorporating something

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Speaker 1: like whipped egg whites, where like the air whipped into

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Speaker 1: the egg whites forms gas bulls that expand when you

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Speaker 1: cook it. But of course, the more traditional method of

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Speaker 1: levining is to use biological agents like yeast. And here

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Speaker 1: for for listeners of invention and stuff to blow your mind,

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Speaker 1: we bring things back to the fungal allegiance is this

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Speaker 1: is zug timoy here, Yeah, this is the Kingdom of

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Speaker 1: zug awesome. Yeah, zugtimoy comes in yet again with so

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Speaker 1: many of our best inventions. There's zug timoy derive. So yeast,

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Speaker 1: of course, is a type of single celled fungal microorganism

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Speaker 1: found all throughout nature and even in and on our

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Speaker 1: own bodies. Uh. And the strain most often used today

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Speaker 1: is Baker's yeast, which is the fungal species Scara micey

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Speaker 1: serivsy uh So, baker's east actually also serves as the

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Speaker 1: fermentation agent in the making of beer and wine. So

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Speaker 1: like when yeast consume carbohydrates, the yeast produced waste products.

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Speaker 1: Those waste products include C O two, which is the

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Speaker 1: gas that makes bread rise. But they also include ethanol,

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Speaker 1: which is alcohol, which of course that's what adds the

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Speaker 1: alcohol content to beer in wine when it for mints.

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Speaker 1: And I do think it's generally true that that uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, bread made with yeast is alcoholic to a

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Speaker 1: small extent. It's not alcoholic enough to get you drunk,

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Speaker 1: but but it's but it's there, yeah, yeah, uh and

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Speaker 1: is of course, there's so many cultural variations of bread

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Speaker 1: all around the world, using different grains to make the flour.

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Speaker 1: Like the different grains include like oats or rye, barley, millet, maize, sorghum.

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Speaker 1: And you've got all the different cooking methods, different leavening agents,

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Speaker 1: different seasonings. It's an entire world of cuisine. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think there's a good reason that you've got like

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Speaker 1: cooking and baking, you know, like baking is it's not

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Speaker 1: just bread, is you know, pastries and stuff too, but

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Speaker 1: like this whole other sort of half of the cooking

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Speaker 1: world is focused on bread like things. And is it

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Speaker 1: any wonder that some of the bread like things end

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Speaker 1: up taking on magical or spiritual potency be it you know,

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Speaker 1: be it as part of say, uh you know Western

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Speaker 1: Chris tradition of of taking holy communion or or certainly

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Speaker 1: examples from aso American culture where uh where where the

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Speaker 1: the use of maize in in food products, you know,

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Speaker 1: and in some sort of a flatbread and all it

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Speaker 1: was considered the you know, the the body of a god.

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Speaker 1: It was something that you ate in silence because you

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Speaker 1: were partaking of something holy. Oh wow, Well there is

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Speaker 1: something mystical about bread, because I think I was hinting

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Speaker 1: at this a minute ago. But you know, it's not

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Speaker 1: apparent in nature. Bread is something that was truly an invention.

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Speaker 1: It's not like something you discovered that was already out

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Speaker 1: there waiting. Like you had to put together a bunch

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Speaker 1: of different uh like steps in this process. You know,

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Speaker 1: you had to get the seeds from these grasses, and

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Speaker 1: you had to grind them up into powder, and you

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Speaker 1: had to get that powder wet and make a dough

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Speaker 1: out of it, and if it's leavened bread, you had

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Speaker 1: to add some kind of leavening agent to make it

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Speaker 1: rise or allow you know, natural yeast to get into it.

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Speaker 1: The would let it rise, and then you had to

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Speaker 1: bake it at the right temperature and all is just like,

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Speaker 1: it's not something that's obvious, So you have to wonder

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Speaker 1: who invented this, Like where did all this knowledge and

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Speaker 1: process come from? Well, let's talk about it. Unfortunately, it's

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Speaker 1: another one of those that is that is lost to history, right,

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Speaker 1: there's no known inventor of bread. It's one of these

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Speaker 1: great world changing inventions like the wheel that we can

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Speaker 1: get some clues about, but which, you know, the the

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Speaker 1: ultimate origin vanishes into prehistory with no single point from

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Speaker 1: which all of it comes. But we do have some

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Speaker 1: general knowledge about the origins of bread and bread like products.

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Speaker 1: So for a long time, it was believed, based on

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Speaker 1: artistic and archaeological evidence, that bread emerged as a human

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Speaker 1: invention roughly ten thousand years ago, and this would be

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Speaker 1: during the Neolithic period, meaning the last part of the

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Speaker 1: Stone Age, and it would have been in a place

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Speaker 1: called the Fertile Crescent now the Fertile Crescent is this

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Speaker 1: sickle shaped expanse of arable land is land where you

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Speaker 1: can grow crops stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean over into Mesopotamia,

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Speaker 1: and so from west to east. It sort of starts

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Speaker 1: down in the Nile River valley in Egypt, and then

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Speaker 1: it travels up along the Eastern Mediterranean coast through like Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria,

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Speaker 1: and it goes up through southern Turkey, and then it

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Speaker 1: goes back down through Mesopotamia through a rock in parts

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Speaker 1: of Iran. And the first wheat crops that were domesticated

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Speaker 1: in in the Fertile Crescent to make the earliest bread

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Speaker 1: during the Neolithic Revolution would have been ancestral grasses like

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Speaker 1: m air wheat which is e M M E R

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Speaker 1: M R wheat or iron corn wheat. These are grasses

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Speaker 1: that they are. They're basically other strains of wheat, kind

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Speaker 1: of like the wheat we we grow today, which is

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Speaker 1: just known as common wheat. And I think it's not

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Speaker 1: a it's not a coincidence that this is where many

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Speaker 1: of the world's oldest and earliest civilizations arose, meaning that

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Speaker 1: even though there were people all over the world. These

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Speaker 1: were the places where people first started settling down in

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Speaker 1: one place, making cities with big populations and diversified economies.

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Speaker 1: And these cities had to be supported by grain agriculture,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of that grain was of course used

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Speaker 1: to make bread and and this has sort of been

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Speaker 1: the story for a long time, but really interestingly, just

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Speaker 1: in the past couple of years, it's been revealed that

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Speaker 1: at least some humans were making bread thousands of years

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Speaker 1: before this Neolithic agricultural revolution, before all the farming in

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Speaker 1: the Fertile Crescent started. So the papering question here talking

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Speaker 1: about this discovery was published in P and A s

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Speaker 1: in eighteen by Ammia ranzoteg we at All And uh So,

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Speaker 1: basically the story goes like this. A few years ago,

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Speaker 1: there's this archaeobotanist, somebody who studies ancient plants named uh

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Speaker 1: Amaya iran's oteg we I hope I'm saying that right,

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Speaker 1: uh And she was studying ancient human campsites in Jordan's

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Speaker 1: and specifically she was looking at an excavator did cooking

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Speaker 1: site from about fourteen thousand years ago, and this would

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Speaker 1: have been a camp of people known as the New Tuffians,

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Speaker 1: who were a culture of hunter gatherers who lived in

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Speaker 1: this area in the time between the Paleolithic, the Old

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Speaker 1: Stone Age, and the Neolithic. The more recent Stone Age

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Speaker 1: between these two technology regimes would have been roughly four

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Speaker 1: thousand years before settled agriculture started to take over, before

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Speaker 1: we believed previously that humans invented bread. And then the

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Speaker 1: Natufians survived on a hunter gatherer basis. They did a

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Speaker 1: lot of hunting, and their fire pits and food waste

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Speaker 1: sites were full of bones of wild animals that have

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Speaker 1: been killed during hunts and eton But at this particular site,

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Speaker 1: Aronzo teg we also found charred remains of some kind

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Speaker 1: of plant matter, and so I was reading about how

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Speaker 1: what she did. She took it to a colleague named

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Speaker 1: Lara Gonzalez Cartero at University College London and they discovered

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Speaker 1: these charred food remains were breadcrumbs. These hunter gatherers were

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Speaker 1: making some form of bread thousands of years before we

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Speaker 1: previously assumed bread had been invented. Now, the flower used

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Speaker 1: in this ancient bread had two main ingredients. It was

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Speaker 1: in corn wheat, which is again it's a wild strain

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Speaker 1: of wheat grass and then it was the roots of

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Speaker 1: club rush tubers, which is a type of flower um,

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Speaker 1: and then it was a lot. There was some other

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Speaker 1: things in there also, like some spices like mustard and

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Speaker 1: other trace ingredients like barley, and the researchers think this

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Speaker 1: dough would have been made to stick to the hot

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Speaker 1: stone walls lining fire pits. I was reading an NPR

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Speaker 1: article describing the discovery and h it compared it to

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Speaker 1: the way that Indian non bread is made to stick

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Speaker 1: to the walls of a tendur oven. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if you've ever seen how that's made. There's like, no,

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Speaker 1: I've never seen this. I just always assumed it was

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Speaker 1: put in their flat like a pizza. No, there's like

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Speaker 1: so there's like this vertical hollow oven. It's got the

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Speaker 1: you know, this fire at the bottom gets extremely hot

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Speaker 1: and then it's got the walls all around the sides.

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Speaker 1: And if you see the traditional way or I don't

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Speaker 1: know if it's the traditional way, at least the way

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Speaker 1: a lot of like Indian restaurants and Indian kitchens will

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Speaker 1: make the non bread is they get the dough and

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Speaker 1: the dough sort of goes on a hook and then

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Speaker 1: the hook gets uh, the dough gets flung up against

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Speaker 1: the wall of the oven, which is extremely hot, and

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Speaker 1: that's why you see like the blackening and browning, you know,

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Speaker 1: the and the and the big bubbles in non dread

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Speaker 1: because it's extremely rapid cooking. It's kind of like pizza making, right,

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Speaker 1: and there's rapid expansion of the dough that makes these

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Speaker 1: big bubbles in it and charge the underside and then

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Speaker 1: it gets pulled off with a hook and then of

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Speaker 1: course it's delicious. I'm a big fan of non bread.

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Speaker 1: It makes me wonder what this fourteen thousand year old

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Speaker 1: bread tastes like. I mean, I wonder if it was

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Speaker 1: non bread. Probably not quite because I I doubt they were,

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Speaker 1: you know, putting butter on it or any um. But

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Speaker 1: but it's fascinating that this discovery is because when you

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Speaker 1: think about it, it reverses is the order of technological

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Speaker 1: adaptation that had long been assumed. Like we long thought

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Speaker 1: that people developed agriculture first, which allowed them to grow

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Speaker 1: large amounts of grain, and having all this grain led

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Speaker 1: to the invention of bread and baking. But this discovery

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Speaker 1: makes it look like the opposite is the case. Instead.

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Speaker 1: Ancient hunter gatherers probably gathered grain from wild grasses and

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Speaker 1: figured out how to turn it into bread. Then they

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Speaker 1: settled down and developed farming to grow the grain. Thousands

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Speaker 1: of years later. On this model, baking preceded agriculture. You

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Speaker 1: had bread first and then farming. That is incredible. We

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Speaker 1: had to think about it now. In researching the origins

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Speaker 1: of bread, I ended up turning to a wonderful book

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Speaker 1: by Michael Pollen that is also a wonderful Netflix series

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Speaker 1: titled Cooked, which I recommend either you know, watch watch

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Speaker 1: the show. It's fabulous, but also the book is tremendous

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Speaker 1: as well, and is also like available for a very

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Speaker 1: reasonable price right now. But he points out that a

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Speaker 1: whole grain loaf is full of flavor and air, so

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Speaker 1: it's it's also and it's also so much more than

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Speaker 1: the sum of its parts. He points out that if

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Speaker 1: you gave someone the ingredients for bread and they had

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Speaker 1: to consume them as as is, they'd stuff. But give

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Speaker 1: them the bread, you know, or there at least the

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Speaker 1: Promethean knowledge of bread baking and that they will eat

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Speaker 1: and survive. Um, you know, it's it's again we have

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Speaker 1: to just come back to We take it for granted,

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Speaker 1: because it's everywhere, but bread is it's almost like this

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Speaker 1: neolithic or paleolithic space shuttle, you know, in terms of

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Speaker 1: of what it does with invention. Um Paullen has an

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Speaker 1: excellent passage in the book where he he discusses the

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Speaker 1: invention of bread, and he points out that the pre

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Speaker 1: bread way of consuming these various grass seeds was to

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Speaker 1: simply toast them on a fire, or to grind them

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Speaker 1: between stones and boil them into a very basic porridge,

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Speaker 1: uh quote. And we should pour it out by the

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Speaker 1: way that a lot of people throughout history that ate

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Speaker 1: cereal grains as as as a food stable did eat

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Speaker 1: them in some kind of porridge form that would kind

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Speaker 1: have always been made into a bread. A lot of

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Speaker 1: times they'd be just like boiled in some liquid. Right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so Pollen says quote. The inert mush that resulted might

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Speaker 1: not have made for inspiring meals, but it was simple

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Speaker 1: enough to prepare and nutritious enough to eat, providing us

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Speaker 1: with the energy of starch as well as some protein,

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Speaker 1: vitamins and minerals. But of course, then you know, at

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Speaker 1: some point those ancient people began to realize that you

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Speaker 1: could do something else with this thick gruel, because we

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Speaker 1: can only assume they got rather tired of it, you know,

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Speaker 1: as tiresome as it sounds, right, So they found that

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Speaker 1: you could spread the out the gruel on a hot

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Speaker 1: cooking stone and make simple unleavened flatbread, or perhaps to

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Speaker 1: bring back to our example, you know, throw it in

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Speaker 1: on the side like splatted, like maybe somebody just got

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Speaker 1: sick of their over thick porridge one day and we're like, like,

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Speaker 1: screw this, I'm not eating it, and threw it in

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Speaker 1: there and flow and behold, flatbread was born. But Poullen writes,

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Speaker 1: and he's talking, he throws out the date six thousand

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Speaker 1: years ago in ancient Egypt. He says that that roughly

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Speaker 1: six thousand years ago in ancient Egypt, something happened. Perhaps

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Speaker 1: someone left a bowl of porridge in a corner of

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Speaker 1: the kitchen for a few days. Um, you know that

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Speaker 1: matt might have been what happened, something like that. But

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Speaker 1: then bubbles began to rise up. Right, the mask grew

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Speaker 1: like a living thing. Dough was born, and when it

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Speaker 1: was heated in an oven, it grew larger still, quote,

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Speaker 1: springing up as it trapped the expanding bubbles in an

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Speaker 1: area yet stable structure that resembled a sponge, and so

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Speaker 1: Paullen writes that it was it probably seemed like magic

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Speaker 1: at the time, with the food increasing threefold and volume. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, you can imagine the fairy tale of this,

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Speaker 1: like the porridge that was forgotten and then grew threefolds.

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Speaker 1: You know. Now, of course the expansion is due to

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Speaker 1: the air, as we've previously discussed. But you know, this,

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Speaker 1: this invention of bread, this invention of of baking, he says,

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Speaker 1: constituted quote the world's first food processing industry. And and

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Speaker 1: I do want to I just want to read one

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Speaker 1: more quote he has from the book, just summing up

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Speaker 1: what we've been discussing here. Quote. Most foods, even the

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Speaker 1: whole hog, are altered versions of nature's already existing animals

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Speaker 1: and plants, which more or less retain their form after cooking.

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Speaker 1: But a loaf of bread is something new added to

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Speaker 1: the world, an edged object, wrestled from the flux of nature,

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Speaker 1: and specifically from the living, shifting Dionysian swamp that is

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Speaker 1: dough bread is the Apollonian food. So I love that

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Speaker 1: just bringing out this into the mythic qualities of this

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Speaker 1: and the idea again that that bread is an invention.

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Speaker 1: It is not part of the natural world. It is

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Speaker 1: a thing that we made and invented out of the

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Speaker 1: natural world. Bread is order out of chaos. All Right,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break, but when we come back,

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Speaker 1: we will turn our attention to toast. All right, we're back,

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00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,159
Speaker 1: so we've got bread. The next logical step is to

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Speaker 1: make some toast. Let's discuss how that came about. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: first of all, it appears that toast is also a

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Speaker 1: tradition stretching into the ancient world. We don't know for sure,

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Speaker 1: but it's probably, I mean, we just have to assume

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Speaker 1: not much younger a tradition than bread itself, right, because

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Speaker 1: in a way, toast is just a continuation of the

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Speaker 1: cooking process of bread by you know, you slice it

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Speaker 1: and further expose the bread to heat, scorching it, and this,

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Speaker 1: of course, uh, you know, we do it because it

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Speaker 1: contributes to changes in both the texture and the taste

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Speaker 1: of bread. So it further dehydrates the bread and helps

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Speaker 1: make it crisp, which is useful for some some things

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Speaker 1: we want. But also the flavor changes or a big

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Speaker 1: thing going on there. You know, toasting bread causes browning

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Speaker 1: of the sugars and the amino acids that make up

401
00:21:56,119 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: the natural proteins within within the bread, and this complex

402
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,040
Speaker 1: set of chemical reactions all taking place during browning is

403
00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:08,480
Speaker 1: collectively known as the Myard reaction, and it's generally why

404
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 1: browned food tastes so good, like different versions of the

405
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,800
Speaker 1: same thing are taking place, whether you're toasting bread or

406
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Speaker 1: searing steak on a grill. The browning is the evidence

407
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 1: of this huge suite of complex chemical changes that produce

408
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:27,760
Speaker 1: new compounds with interesting flavors and aromas that we associate

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Speaker 1: with roastinus, toastinus, nuttiness, meetin nous, and all these other

410
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:34,760
Speaker 1: flavors that that are so good when we when we

411
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Speaker 1: give food a good browning, but not so much when

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Speaker 1: we blackened food completely and turn it into burned food,

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Speaker 1: which tends to yield a kind of bitter charcoally taste. Yes, toast,

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Speaker 1: good burnt toast. Now, it's not known for sure why

415
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 1: toast was invented, but obviously one candidate explanation seems pretty

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Speaker 1: promising to me at least for the invention of toast

417
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Speaker 1: is that it began like so many other great culinary

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Speaker 1: techniques like smoking and curing, like pickling, as a method

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Speaker 1: for extending the life of foods. So we all know this,

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Speaker 1: right you have you have a loaf of bread in

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Speaker 1: your house, and the day you get it, especially if

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Speaker 1: you get it you know, fresh baked, to the day

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Speaker 1: the day was baked, it's amazing. You've you've got this

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Speaker 1: freshness window. And the second day maybe it's still okay.

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Speaker 1: But like it's like a mayfly, It flourishes for a

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Speaker 1: day or two, and then it declines as the bread

427
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 1: grows stale, and it takes on this unappealing taste and texture.

428
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,520
Speaker 1: And here's where toasting comes in. It's a perfect resurrection

429
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,480
Speaker 1: method for fresh bread that is no longer fresh. Toast,

430
00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: you know, toast some less than fresh bread, and it's

431
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:43,399
Speaker 1: a whole new thing, right Yeah, it's a way of

432
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 1: it's sort of bringing it back to life. I can

433
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 1: also imagine that if one were in a particularly frigid climate,

434
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,040
Speaker 1: that it would make sense to resurrect your bread that

435
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 1: might not not not only might it be going of

436
00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 1: its stale, but it also might be rather cold or

437
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: even rock hard, and would need to be reheated is

438
00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:06,480
Speaker 1: for comfortable consumption, Yeah, totally. But while so, of course,

439
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: of course toasting does remain a good way to resurrect

440
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,400
Speaker 1: bread that's fallen beyond its peak of freshness. Of course,

441
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,360
Speaker 1: we we toast perfectly fresh bread as well for purely

442
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,600
Speaker 1: you know, culinary aesthetic reasons, reasons relating to the way

443
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: it feels and tastes and looks in the texture. And

444
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,719
Speaker 1: it's just for enjoyment. We just like toast. It's good. Yeah.

445
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:28,439
Speaker 1: One of one of my favorite recipes that again involves

446
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:31,959
Speaker 1: a tomato but also involves toast, is a panzanella salad,

447
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:35,199
Speaker 1: which is which is rather a bread resurrection recipe and

448
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: of itself often calling for stale bread, uh, but that

449
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: is then soaked in oil and vinegar. And this seems

450
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 1: to date back to at least the sixteen hundreds when uh,

451
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,760
Speaker 1: an Italian artist by the name of Bronzino saying it's praises.

452
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,080
Speaker 1: But you also find rather recipes that call for like

453
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: for for fresh bread that is toasted and the bread

454
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: takes on in in in my opinion, a very like

455
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 1: meaty consists. Can see and uh, you know, and I

456
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 1: guess it's because you have you know, these these flavors

457
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 1: coming together. You know, you have some basalt mac you

458
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 1: have some olive oil, you have the tomatoes themselves, and

459
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 1: then the the just the texture of the toast or bread. Yeah, well,

460
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:17,760
Speaker 1: so toasted bread, because it's undergoing the myard reaction to

461
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: a degree, it gets that kind of roasty flavor, which

462
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:22,919
Speaker 1: in some ways tastes kind of meaty to us. Then

463
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 1: also if you've got tomatoes in the salad, tomatoes have

464
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 1: a lot of glutamates and that, and that's also something

465
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 1: we associate with the kind of meaty taste. But again,

466
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: the end result is like just another level beyond bread,

467
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,640
Speaker 1: you know, and the toast just feels that much more

468
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: removed from the you know, the original and just grains

469
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 1: that have been collected from these various grasses. Yeah, it's

470
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: a wonderful journey through human history. Now, I guess we

471
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,360
Speaker 1: should maybe turn to the toaster, because while we have

472
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 1: some clues about the circumstances in which bread and toast

473
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: a rose, we don't know who ultimately invented them that,

474
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,199
Speaker 1: you know, that that's just in the fog. But we

475
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: do have some indications about toasters in history, right, we

476
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,960
Speaker 1: know where these came from. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, obviously

477
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: there are plenty of just very standard ways you could

478
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:11,680
Speaker 1: toast a piece of bread. Put it on a stick,

479
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:15,159
Speaker 1: leave it on that baking stone, grill it, you know,

480
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,440
Speaker 1: put it in one of these ovens that you've constructed,

481
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: and so forth. But at least in the early nineteenth

482
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, we begin to see specialized toasting apparatus is

483
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: for toasting bread over or adjacent to open flames, And

484
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,879
Speaker 1: many of these were pretty straightforward, just a metal framework

485
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,159
Speaker 1: in which to brace slices of bread, all at the

486
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 1: end of like a long handle, so you're not burning

487
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 1: your fingers off. And some of some of these hearth

488
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:41,680
Speaker 1: toasters even had a swiveling mechanism so that you could

489
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 1: like toast one side of the bread, then swivel it

490
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:46,640
Speaker 1: around and toast the others. And these methods all work

491
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 1: perfectly well today, just as they worked in their inception.

492
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: So why invent a toaster in the modern sense of

493
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: the word, Well, it all comes down ultimately to our

494
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,959
Speaker 1: busy lives in the kitchen and beyond the kitchen, Because

495
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,679
Speaker 1: the beauty of a toaster or a toaster, then is

496
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,640
Speaker 1: that it allows us to automate our toast making somewhat

497
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,560
Speaker 1: stick the toast in, start the machine, busy yourself with coffee, eggs,

498
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: or what have you, and not have to worry as

499
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 1: much about the house burning down in the process. Um,

500
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:14,879
Speaker 1: you know, in a way we're talking about building towards

501
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,919
Speaker 1: a toasting automaton or you know, toasting robot. So a

502
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 1: few key features factor into all the of our various

503
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,400
Speaker 1: attempts to elevate toasting technology. But the first and most

504
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: important was the creation of an electric heating system to

505
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 1: eliminate the need for gas or open flame. Yeah. Now

506
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: we kind of take electric heating elements for granted today,

507
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: don't we. We don't realize that this was was a

508
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: difficult problem at one point. Yeah, it was trickier than

509
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,639
Speaker 1: you might imagine, because you need to create a heating element,

510
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: you know, something that can be heated up due to

511
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 1: an electric current. But it also it has to come

512
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: it has to be able to sustain repeated high temperatures

513
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: and not fail. You know, it needs to be able

514
00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 1: to heat up, heat back and then cool back down

515
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: and up again and back down on and uh. And

516
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 1: so you know, that was something people worked at for

517
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:08,400
Speaker 1: a while in the history of making toast from Hagley

518
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 1: dot Org. The author's point to Albert Marsh's nineteen o

519
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:16,679
Speaker 1: five uh nichrome filament wire with an alloy of nickel

520
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 1: and chromium, being like the key advancement here, it was

521
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 1: both safe and durable when heated by the electric current.

522
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: Then in nineteen o six, the first US patent application

523
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: was filed for an electric toaster using Marsh's wire, and

524
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 1: this was by George Schneider of the American Electrical Heater

525
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: Company of Detroit. And then in nineteen o eight, General

526
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: Electric patented the General Electric D twelve toaster and rolled

527
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: it out in nineteen o nine, and this one used

528
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: Marsh's uh nichrome technology as well. And Gail L. Goudie

529
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: has an excellent blog post about this model at the

530
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: College of Charleston's Architecture and Art History Club. Uh. It's um,

531
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 1: it's it doesn't look like a toast. It looks like

532
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: a porcelain has like a porcelain base in this kind

533
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: of tesla coil looking post trapped right on top of it.

534
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 1: Uh and it looks like a torture cage for bread. Yeah,

535
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: And Gaudi drives home that this item was a luxury.

536
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 1: It costs four dollars in nineteen o nine, which she

537
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 1: says is roughly a hundred dollars today. So this would

538
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,239
Speaker 1: have been this would have been something, uh that the

539
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,640
Speaker 1: elite had. I just want to read a quote from

540
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 1: her summary quote. A General Electric advertisement from eight taken

541
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 1: from the Library of Congress, depicts two well dressed women

542
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: setting at a table leisurely having breakfast with their D

543
00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 1: twelve toaster, complete with a floral design and the ceramic

544
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: base setting beside them. Women were the main target for

545
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: General Electrics advertisements because they were seen as the consumers

546
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 1: of the household. One major selling point was the ability

547
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 1: to quote get out of the messy kitchen and be

548
00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: able to join your company in quote the comfortable dining room.

549
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 1: This made the D twelve tote not only a more

550
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 1: practical and efficient way to toast bread, but also a

551
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 1: way to show off to others, so, you know, conspicuous

552
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: toast consumption. Yeah, you know. And it's like it's a

553
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 1: way of like, oh, well, we can make bread at

554
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 1: the tape. It's almost like a like a fondue pot

555
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 1: for toast, you know. But it was a hit, and

556
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: it proved the first commercially successful electric toaster. But one

557
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: of the problems with the D twelve was that you

558
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 1: had to turn the toast yourself. So enter the Copeman

559
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: Electric Stove Companies nineteen thirteen or possibly I Whole se

560
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen. So we may be dealing with patent versus

561
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: actual rollout. But this model turned the toast for you,

562
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 1: and it was designed by Lloyd Groff Copeman. Then in

563
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen Minnesota, Minnesota mechanic named Charles Perkins Strite created

564
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 1: a restaurant grade toaster, and in nineteen one he patented

565
00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 1: the automatic pop up toaster. Ah, this is the one

566
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 1: that's in all the movies. Yeah, this was This was

567
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: a key advance. But no longer was it merely a

568
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,720
Speaker 1: little like a gadget that allows you to toast bread

569
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: at your table and like this kind of fonn do manner.

570
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 1: This was a design that times you're toasting to prevent

571
00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 1: burnt toast popping it out of the heated interior. When

572
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 1: it was finished. Waters Genter of Minneapolis began selling a

573
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: redesigned version in nine and this was called the Toastmaster.

574
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: And in this we had a pop up home toaster

575
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: that browned both sides at once via timed heating element

576
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 1: with ejection, the modern toaster was born, and really it's

577
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,840
Speaker 1: essentially the same design that's widespread today, though this was

578
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: much bulkier. It looks huge, Yeah, it does. It looks

579
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: like it looks like like a huge toaster on top

580
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: of another apparatus. It looks like like its own little oven.

581
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: It looks like a toaster on top of a slot machine. Yeah,

582
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 1: now you Now. We could easily spend the rest of

583
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 1: the episode just discussing the various technological improvements, then bridge

584
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,400
Speaker 1: the gap between the toastmaster and whatever you have in

585
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 1: your own kitchen. We could also focus on its siblings,

586
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 1: like the toaster oven, which is much much the same principle,

587
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: except it's a since a small oven and it's a

588
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,400
Speaker 1: lot more versatile. I'm more of a toaster oven kind

589
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 1: of person. Uh. Yeah, you can do a lot more

590
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 1: different kinds of stuff with it. Yeah, that's what we

591
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 1: have in our house. Um. Then there's also the conveyor toaster,

592
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: which dates back to ninety eight or so. And is

593
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:18,479
Speaker 1: I'm sure anyone who's ever enjoyed a continental breakfast at

594
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:21,040
Speaker 1: a hotel you've seen this you know, it has a

595
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: little conveyor and it it takes the toast on a

596
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 1: little journey that heats it and then drops it out

597
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 1: at the bottom. Uh yeah. Unfortunately, at one time, I

598
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: remember it was around some high schoolers who were fooling

599
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,480
Speaker 1: around with one of these things, and it's sort of

600
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 1: caught on fire. Oh. I think they were putting stuff

601
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 1: in it. This shouldn't go in. It gets stuck in there.

602
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 1: Usually the only place you encounter it is in you know,

603
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:45,959
Speaker 1: like a continental breakfast situation. But I think the beauty

604
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: of this episode is that at this point we returned

605
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 1: to bread itself and consider the way that the toaster

606
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: changes bread. And we've already discussed how baking was, you know,

607
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 1: again in Pollen's words, quote world the world's first food

608
00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 1: processing industry. And in the nineteenth and twentieth tree this

609
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: all continued and we saw what Poullen referred to as

610
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: quote the reductive logic of industrial bread baking, because to

611
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 1: feed the needs of the toaster, you need rather standardized

612
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 1: bread slice sizes, and this led to the invention of

613
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: machines to pre sliced loafs. So otto Frederick Roy Vetter

614
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: is credited with inventing the world's first commercial bread slicing machine,

615
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: and this was installed in a Chillicothe, Missouri, at the

616
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: Chilicothe Baking Company. And on July seven this when this

617
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 1: thing fired up and began slicing loaves of bread into

618
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 1: regimented slices, uh, you know, pre sale. And this was

619
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: two years before Wonderbread started marketing its own pre wrap

620
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 1: pre sliced bread nationwide. Now, one thing that comes about

621
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: with this era of you know, the bag sliced bread,

622
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 1: is where people begin to assume the uniformity of bread

623
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: as a product. Whereas bread, as we were saying earlier,

624
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 1: is is something with such an amazing diversity of forms

625
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: and recipes and flavors. I mean, bread is sort of

626
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:09,400
Speaker 1: half the cooking world, and its diversity reflects that. But

627
00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,280
Speaker 1: if you go down the bread aisle in the grocery

628
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: store and see all the industrial made bread that's all

629
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 1: pretty much the same shape and size, you wouldn't get

630
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 1: that impression. No, no, I mean it. You end up

631
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 1: with this very again regimented uh slice situation. And you know,

632
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:25,879
Speaker 1: generally that's that's a lot of times, that's the bread

633
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 1: we grew up with. Maybe perhaps that's still the bread

634
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: you kind of get today. But you know, there have

635
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 1: been some commentators who have really lingered on the sadness

636
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,239
Speaker 1: of all of this. And I believe you found out

637
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:40,879
Speaker 1: a wonderful paper that some some of this up. Oh yeah,

638
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:43,800
Speaker 1: it was. It was a paper by a communications scholar

639
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: named Arthur asa Berger who was writing about toast as

640
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 1: something that's sort of like emblematic of the sort of

641
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 1: like industrial alienation of the modern world. And it was

642
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,919
Speaker 1: a paper just called the Toaster from et cetera orvie

643
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 1: you of general semantics, and published in nine And I

644
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 1: want to read a quote from his From his conclusion here,

645
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: Burger writes, Ultimately, the toaster is an apology for the

646
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:15,880
Speaker 1: quality of our bread. It attempts heroically to transform the

647
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:20,640
Speaker 1: semi sweet, characterless, plastic package bread that we have learned

648
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 1: to love into something more palatable and more manageable. Perhaps

649
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: our handling this bread and warming it up gives us

650
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 1: a sense that the bread now has a human touch

651
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 1: to it, is not an abstract, almost unreal product. The

652
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:37,640
Speaker 1: toaster represents a heroic attempt to redeem our packaged bread,

653
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,799
Speaker 1: to redeem the unredeemable, but the toaster, despite its high

654
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 1: tech functions, is doomed. The continual repetition of Adam and

655
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:50,360
Speaker 1: Eve's fall for an unregenerate bread cannot be saved. Every

656
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:56,400
Speaker 1: piece of toast is a tragedy. I love that, you know,

657
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: agree or disagree, But the good news is that they

658
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,560
Speaker 1: you can buy bread that wasn't baked by a machine,

659
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,280
Speaker 1: and you can toast it in a variety of ways,

660
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 1: essentially using your own hand. I'd i'd encourage everyone to

661
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:11,799
Speaker 1: try that. I'd encourage everyone to at least make some

662
00:36:11,840 --> 00:36:13,840
Speaker 1: sort of bread at some point in your life, because

663
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: it it allows you to sort of tap into that

664
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 1: feeling of magic that must have accompanied, you know, the

665
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: the initial creations, the initial invention of bread. Now, if

666
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,279
Speaker 1: you have wanted to bake bread at home, by the way,

667
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,000
Speaker 1: but you're like, hey, I don't have one of these

668
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 1: commercial bakery bread ovens, you know, I don't have the equipment. Uh,

669
00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: there are actually great recipes you can look up online

670
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:38,919
Speaker 1: that just require a Dutch oven inside a normal kind

671
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 1: of oven that you'd have at home to make like

672
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: a really good boulangerie style loaf. So I recommend looking

673
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 1: that up. All right, Well, it looks like we need

674
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:48,959
Speaker 1: to take a quick break, but we will be right back.

675
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,439
Speaker 1: All right, we're back. So we've talked about the birth

676
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: of bread. We've talked about hoasting, We've talked about this

677
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 1: fabulous invention the toaster. We've talked about one kind of toasting,

678
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:08,400
Speaker 1: but then another kind of toasting of what kind of

679
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: tough Yes, of course we haven't talked about the toast.

680
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,880
Speaker 1: Here is to your health, right, which it's easy to

681
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 1: just assume that there's no connection between the two. I know,

682
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 1: I never really thought about there being a connection between

683
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:23,160
Speaker 1: a a piece of toast and a formal you know, uh,

684
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 1: you know, glassware clinking event at a fine dinner or something,

685
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 1: you know, along those lines. If you had asked me,

686
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: I probably would have assumed it was a false cognate,

687
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 1: one of those things that's just like a word that

688
00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: happens to sound like another word but has unrelated roots. Yeah,

689
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,080
Speaker 1: But as it turns out, it looks like there's there

690
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 1: are some firm connections there, and then there's kind of

691
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 1: an argument on both sides. But I was looking looking

692
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,360
Speaker 1: at an article, an excellent article on Atlas Obscura's gastro

693
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: obscura um section, which is kind of almost like a

694
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,759
Speaker 1: subsite that they have which is food related and it's

695
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: really good. I think I even wrote a piece for

696
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:00,920
Speaker 1: them a while back. What I said about it is

697
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: about Marichino cherries. Marichino cherries. But anyway, this particular pieces

698
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: by and You Bank and it was titled Toasting your

699
00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:12,640
Speaker 1: Friends once involved actual toast. Okay, convinced me, all right,

700
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:15,399
Speaker 1: So but here's how it goes, as e Bank lays

701
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,879
Speaker 1: it out. Basically, there are a few different theories about

702
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:21,440
Speaker 1: where toast comes from, as in like toasting someone. One

703
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,560
Speaker 1: relates to a sixteenth century German practice of shouting the

704
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: Latin word proceed, meaning may it do you good? But

705
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 1: another is that it ties in with the history of

706
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 1: putting toast in alcohol. That sounds weird. Well, but but

707
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 1: but does it? What? What do you be here? More

708
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:44,720
Speaker 1: specifically toasting with beer or wine that is garnished with bread. Okay,

709
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,440
Speaker 1: that somehow beer or wine makes more sense. What I

710
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 1: was imagining was vodka martini like James Bond drinks, except

711
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:54,560
Speaker 1: instead of the little toothpick with an olive in it,

712
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:56,920
Speaker 1: it's just a piece of toast. Well, I'm all up

713
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 1: for some inventive garnishes, and in fact, a few year

714
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: is back, I found a cocktail recipe on It was

715
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,840
Speaker 1: on the Hendrix Gin website. You know, generally these you know,

716
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: big alcohol brands will have recipes on their website, and

717
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 1: Hendrix is is no exception. Uh, And they had a

718
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 1: recipe for a cocktail that I don't think it's hosted

719
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:18,720
Speaker 1: on the current version of the side. But it called

720
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:23,439
Speaker 1: for some sparkling wine. It called for I believe some bitters, uh,

721
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:25,880
Speaker 1: some marmalade I want to say, kind of muddled in

722
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,239
Speaker 1: the bottom, some gin, of course, and it was a

723
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 1: really good drink. But it also called for a garnish

724
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,359
Speaker 1: of a small piece of toast, which at the time

725
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 1: I was like, well, that's weird, and I'm I'm just

726
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 1: gonna skip that part because I don't really understand it

727
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 1: and I don't want to, like additionally like make toast

728
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 1: for the drink, So you know, I just kind of

729
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 1: skipped over it. I would have probably been into it

730
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,400
Speaker 1: had I had it at a restaurant, but I just

731
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:51,800
Speaker 1: hadn't thought about it since until I started reading this article.

732
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,400
Speaker 1: So when we get into this idea of beer and

733
00:39:55,480 --> 00:40:00,400
Speaker 1: wine combined with toast. It relates to SOPs. Yes, ops

734
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: as in as in too like sop up something, And

735
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:08,319
Speaker 1: SOPs were chunks of of sodden toasted bread in a

736
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:10,800
Speaker 1: bowl of warm wine if you were you know, medieval

737
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:14,440
Speaker 1: upper crust uh and a mere high calorie piece of

738
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:16,640
Speaker 1: ale soaked toast if you were part of the ample

739
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 1: underclass at medieval times in medieval Europe. And the author

740
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:25,040
Speaker 1: also adds quote the English even covered apple trees insider

741
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:27,680
Speaker 1: dipped toast as part of an ancient ritual for a

742
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 1: good harvest. So with SOPs were generally talking about white

743
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 1: bread toasted and then flavored with sugar, ginger, or herbs.

744
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 1: And then the British supper and soup even derived from sop.

745
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:44,879
Speaker 1: Apparently milk sop as an insult is also derived from

746
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:48,680
Speaker 1: this word. While sop became less essential to European cuisine,

747
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:52,560
Speaker 1: French onion soup is supposedly a survivor of the custom

748
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,480
Speaker 1: French onion soup. Of course, you know, it generally has

749
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:57,840
Speaker 1: like that big piece of bread in there, which I

750
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,239
Speaker 1: think is something that either you love it or that

751
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: turns you off a little bit, there being like essentially

752
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 1: a big soggy piece of bread in your soup, which

753
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:08,720
Speaker 1: camper you in. I like it. I do think it's

754
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 1: it's definitely a soup that needs to be I like

755
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: to eat it right away. I don't think you should

756
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:15,279
Speaker 1: let it completely disintegrate in your soup, right. Well, I

757
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:16,799
Speaker 1: think it's one of those where it helps to have

758
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:20,120
Speaker 1: one of those uh, you know, crustier, chewier kind of

759
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:23,760
Speaker 1: high protein breads, you know, with like a chewy gluten matrix,

760
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:25,879
Speaker 1: that those work better in that kind of thing than

761
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 1: like a you know, a soft, cakey kind of bread. Right.

762
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:31,880
Speaker 1: And of course it's a it's traditionally a neat based soup,

763
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: but there are some excellent mushroom based recipes for it

764
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,359
Speaker 1: out there, because yeah, usually they would have a beef

765
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: broth piece. Yeah, that's generally true though, that that mushrooms

766
00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 1: make an excellent substitute, like a vegetarian substitute for beef flavor,

767
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:49,840
Speaker 1: like anything that calls for beef broth or anything beefy.

768
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:52,359
Speaker 1: You can put mushrooms in there, and I think you'll

769
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: have more textural differences than taste differences. Actually, yeah, I'll

770
00:41:56,040 --> 00:41:59,760
Speaker 1: bring out like an neunami kind of flavoring, right, mommy, mommy,

771
00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 1: you know me. Uh yeah, I mean I remember even

772
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 1: like growing up, like occasionally we would have when we

773
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:08,840
Speaker 1: were you know, eating meat as a family, like the

774
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: mushroom gravy would be brought out as a way to

775
00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:14,400
Speaker 1: enhance the cut of meat. You know. Yeah, so you

776
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:16,400
Speaker 1: know it makes sense that even even in if the

777
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 1: meat is completely gone, the mushroom or mushroom grave you're

778
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:21,879
Speaker 1: some sort of mushroom based of flavoring will do the job.

779
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,280
Speaker 1: A great cooking tip if you ever use dried chitaki

780
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,920
Speaker 1: mushrooms in your home, uh and you you know, reconstitute

781
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 1: them in hot water to heat them up. Don't just

782
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,800
Speaker 1: use the mushrooms and throw out the broth. That broth

783
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 1: that you reconstituted them in is gold. Now you can

784
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 1: like reduce it, you can freeze it, you can use

785
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: it in soups and anything. It tastes amazing. Another survivor

786
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: of this, uh this SOPs legacy is apparently was s

787
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 1: ale Um. I don't think I know what that is.

788
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:54,120
Speaker 1: You know, it's in the traditional like holiday punch type

789
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:58,080
Speaker 1: type beverage. Here we go whostling that that's sort of

790
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 1: well like taking the punch out or getting punch or

791
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,640
Speaker 1: well yeah, kind of like you know, the holiday sharing

792
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 1: of the punch the wall sale tradition, but apparently like

793
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 1: traditionally it also had toast in it. Here here we

794
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:14,160
Speaker 1: go aboozing is what that means? Yes, okay, and then

795
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 1: toasting each other's health became apparently became more of a

796
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 1: fat in the seventeen hundreds, and the name indeed may

797
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:23,440
Speaker 1: derive from the fact that these beverages that people were

798
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,839
Speaker 1: toasting with we're often topped with SOPs. It does make

799
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: me wonder if if SOPs will ever make a real comeback,

800
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 1: you know, if say, twenty years from now, like the

801
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:37,080
Speaker 1: new trendy restaurant in New York will be all sop space,

802
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 1: you know, because because the other you know, other toast

803
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: items have never really gone out of style. I think

804
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:46,240
Speaker 1: I think there has been kind of a resurgence of

805
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: of toast in recent years, and avocado toast, but then

806
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: also just uh, you know, some chefs kind of like

807
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: focusing in on something uh in some cases toast and saying,

808
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 1: all right, what is it about a good slice of

809
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:00,920
Speaker 1: toast that works? And what how can we deconstruct that?

810
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:03,319
Speaker 1: And and and maybe even put some sort of new

811
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 1: twist on it. Oh yeah, now that you mentioned that

812
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:07,360
Speaker 1: there there's at least one kind of hip restaurant in

813
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:09,840
Speaker 1: town here that we go to sometimes. It does it.

814
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:13,080
Speaker 1: It's got like a whole toasts section of itself. It's

815
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 1: just like toasts with you know, it'll have like a

816
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 1: like a salmon spread topping, or like a like a

817
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:23,120
Speaker 1: mushroom and ricotta topping or something. Yeah. I wonder if

818
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:25,160
Speaker 1: this would be interesting to hear from anyone out there,

819
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:28,080
Speaker 1: who is you know, who's who's active in the culinary

820
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:30,880
Speaker 1: world or the mixology world. I would I would love

821
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,000
Speaker 1: to know if anybody is attempting to bring back the

822
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:37,560
Speaker 1: toast garnish. Was that Hendricks drink that I saw online?

823
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:38,919
Speaker 1: Was that just kind of a flash in the pan,

824
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:43,719
Speaker 1: or just like a you know, a lone survivor of

825
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: the tradition, or is there anybody out there saying, Hey,

826
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 1: we used to put toast in our drinks and we

827
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:51,839
Speaker 1: should do it again. It's essential. Stop trying to make

828
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 1: toast drinks happen, Robert, It's not going to happen. I

829
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 1: don't I don't know. I I want to try a

830
00:44:57,960 --> 00:44:59,319
Speaker 1: good one. I want to I want to try an

831
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 1: authentic one. Well, you know what, I can actually imagine

832
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:03,440
Speaker 1: more so than I guess. It would depend on the

833
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:06,080
Speaker 1: consistency of the drink. Like, if it's like an eggnog

834
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 1: kind of thing, you definitely see using toasting that if

835
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:11,160
Speaker 1: it's like a if it's like a more watery, consistency

836
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:14,280
Speaker 1: type drink, I'm having a harder time imagining actually dipping

837
00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 1: the toast in it to any good effect, but I

838
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:19,440
Speaker 1: could imagine it would be a nice pairing of aromas.

839
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:21,400
Speaker 1: I mean, there are some drinks that call for just

840
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,959
Speaker 1: like scenting a glass with an aroma. Like sometimes people

841
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:26,840
Speaker 1: will make a drink where they smoke the glass, you know,

842
00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 1: like burn aboard and put the glass on it, and

843
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:31,239
Speaker 1: then there's smoke on the glass that gives it this

844
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:33,400
Speaker 1: kind of scent, and then they add the drink to

845
00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:36,160
Speaker 1: the glass. I could see a similar thing happening with toast,

846
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,120
Speaker 1: because toast is such a pleasant aroma that smell might

847
00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:42,480
Speaker 1: pair well with some types of drinks. I don't I

848
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:44,600
Speaker 1: don't know with what liquors, but you know, you can

849
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:47,080
Speaker 1: imagine that. Yeah, well, maybe we can get to the

850
00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: point where it's like kind of like the bread bowl

851
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 1: that you have for for spinach dips. Sometimes like the

852
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:58,640
Speaker 1: bread chalice, the bread bowl is actually the ultimate stop

853
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:03,359
Speaker 1: that stopped to the stream. Right whoever thought that up

854
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:07,279
Speaker 1: as a genius? Huh, yeah, this is We really only

855
00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:10,279
Speaker 1: scratched the surface on like bread traditions and all that

856
00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 1: we said. You know, we didn't devote the whole episode.

857
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:14,800
Speaker 1: You just bread. And every culture has its own spin

858
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:18,040
Speaker 1: on particular uses of bread. Uh, you know the things

859
00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:21,400
Speaker 1: certainly you stick into bread. Basically there's a hot pocket

860
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:25,239
Speaker 1: of some form and just about every culture. Uh and uh,

861
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:26,560
Speaker 1: you know we don't we don't have time to go

862
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,040
Speaker 1: into all of those today. But but bread is an

863
00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 1: important part of of human culture, of human history and uh,

864
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 1: you know, even though it's just our everyday sustenance most

865
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:41,280
Speaker 1: of the time, we should stop and appreciate this fabulous invention,

866
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:45,320
Speaker 1: well said Robert. All right. If you would like to

867
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:47,799
Speaker 1: check out other episodes of Invention, head on over to

868
00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:50,640
Speaker 1: invention pod dot com. And if you want to support

869
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Speaker 1: the show, really the best thing you can do is

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Speaker 1: a rate and review us wherever you have the power

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00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 1: to do so, and make sure you have subscribed. Huge

872
00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:00,439
Speaker 1: thanks to our audio producers for this episode O Seth

873
00:47:00,520 --> 00:47:03,960
Speaker 1: Nicholas Johnson and Maya Cole. If you would like to

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Speaker 1: get in touch with us to let us know feedback

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Speaker 1: on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic

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Speaker 1: for the future, for just to say hello, you can

877
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:17,840
Speaker 1: email us at contact at invention pod dot com. Invention

878
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,560
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