WEBVTT - Should You Be Cooking Your Food Underground? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.600 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:13.960 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that mango? Do you 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:15.360 know what a food mummy is? 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:17.920 You mean, like yummy mummy, the character who hangs out 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:18.880 with Count Chocolate. 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.000 I mean, that's a pretty good guess. But food mummies 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.119 or victual mummies are ancient meals that have been found 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.840 preserved in tombs alongside Egyptian pharaohs and their families. Like 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:32.880 ancient meals, so like mummified wheat and figs. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:34.000 What are you talking about? 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.360 So for plant based foods like grains, fruits, and honey, 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.479 the Egyptians packed them into baskets or ceramic jars, and 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.479 while remnants of those foods have been found in tombs, 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.319 most of the perishable food decomposed a long long time ago. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.880 But this was completely different for meat and poultry preserved 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.640 for the afterlife. Every cut of beef for gamebird was 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.640 given the same mummification process that was used on human 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.480 royals and their animal pets. So first the foods were 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.080 slowly dry with salt, and then they were wrapped in 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.760 strips of linens and coated with the mixture of resins 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.560 to keep out moisture and prevent decomposition. And lastly, the 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.400 mummified meats were packed into little wooden sarcopha guys, some 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.480 of which were even carved into the shape of their contents, 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.319 so you might find a leg of veal or a 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.440 shoulder of antelope in something shaped like that. I have 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.200 to ask, like, what was the goal with all of this? Well, 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:24.959 as I'm sure you know, the whole point of human 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.800 mummification was to prepare the body for the afterlife, So 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.679 you know, it's so that a person's soul could recognize 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.360 the body and continue using it forever. But the Egyptians 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.960 also applied the same principle to whatever else a person 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.120 was late to rest with. So if you buried someone 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.399 with a bunch of treasure, then they would have an 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.080 endless supply of wealth to spend in the afterlife. And 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.520 if you bury them with their favorite foods, they would 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.760 have something delicious to nibble on for all of eternity. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:51.600 So I guess in their minds they were kind of 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.840 stalking the pharaoh's eternal pantry with all his favorite goodies exactly. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.000 And because of that practice, archaeologists are now digging up 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.120 four thousand years old cuts of beef, many of which 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.280 look surprisingly good for their age. 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.120 Wait, could somebody actually still eat one of those meat mummies? 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.120 Mummified beef should technically still be edible, but so far, 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.800 no one's had the chance or maybe the courage, to 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.320 try it. Right, those kinds of food artifacts are kept 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:21.320 almost exclusively in climate control display cases at museums and 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.280 research centers, where guests are pretty strongly encouraged to look 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.919 but not taste. The other thing is that, like if 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.560 the Egyptians were right, eating that old beef could make 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.519 the pharaoh's ghost meat disappear from his table mid dinner party, 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.040 and who would want to do that? But the good 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.480 news is that the ancient Egyptians weren't the only ones 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.239 to discover the wonders of underground food storage. Cultures around 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.480 the world have been preserving, curing, and even cooking foods 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.519 beneath the soil, and many of those techniques are still 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:54.280 in use today, from bog butter to Peruvian barbecue, and 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.920 today's episode is all about shining a light on those 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.320 buried food traditions. So grab your shovels and four and 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:25.200 get ready to chow down on the best underground cuisines. Hey, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.839 their podcast listeners, Welcome to part time Genius. I'm Will 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.160 Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.280 mangesh Hot Ticketer. And on the other side of that 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.560 soundproof glass, just chomping his way through a smorgash board 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.120 of freshly dug root vegetables. That's our friend and producer 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.880 Dylan fag And now, as always, he goes above and 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:43.960 beyond with these things, because he's not only got the 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.600 spread with carrots and beets and sweet potatoes. I think 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:48.880 I see a few radishes in there. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:49.680 I'm pretty proud of him. 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:52.480 Well, and is that a turnip for a rootabaga? 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.760 That's an onion mango, So brush up on your veggies. 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:58.480 But I think you just wanted to say the word Rudebagah. 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:00.960 Pretty sure that's what's got it in twice. 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.480 But let's talk a little bit about the practice of 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.800 burying food, which of course started as a way to 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.920 keep it from spoiling. According to the National Center for 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.880 Home Food Preservation, the earliest technique for preserving food was 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.760 most likely drying it in the sun. That's a process 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.000 that's thought to have been developed by accident during the 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:18.760 stone age. 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.000 Oh, I can definitely see that. Like some guy forgets 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.479 about the mammet steaks he left out on his rock yep, 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.240 he comes back the next day, he finds him dried 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:26.920 out and decides to eat him anyway. 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.680 I mean, that is kind of exactly what would have happened, 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.200 And it's easy to imagine that our ancestors and colder 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.760 climates may have stumbled upon the freezing. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:35.880 Method in much the same way. 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.839 So somebody forgets about a stash of food, finds it 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.480 in the debt of winter, thaws it out, and finds 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.719 that it still tastes just as good as it was 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.480 when it was fresh. And so basically there were discoveries 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.480 of culinary carelessness. So some random Neanderthals were bad at 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.280 resource management and desperate enough to eat something that might 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.360 have killed them. But without those mistakes, there's a strong 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.000 chance that human civilization wouldn't exist today. 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.000 That's the ability to preserve food through winter allowed humans 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.520 to plant roots and form communities instead of just endlessly 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.400 roaming from place to place in search of food. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.840 That's right, and the reason why things like drying food 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:12.599 in the sun or burying them in the ground and 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.080 freezing temperatures is so effective is that they both slow 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.599 down microbial growth. Thanks to microbes in the air, food 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.560 begins to spoil as soon as it's harvested, but those 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.560 microorganisms require moisture to carry out their cellular functions, and 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.760 so without that they'll either die or go dormant. So 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.440 whether you evaporate the moisture by drying the food in 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.719 the sun or turn it into ice by freezing food underground, 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.120 the process wipes out the microbes and slows down that 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:40.200 process of decay. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.760 So I am curious though, what about food that's buried 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.159 in non freezing temperatures like it still contains moisture, So 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.640 wouldn't it spoil just as fast as food above ground. 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.320 Well it's not just about temperature control. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.240 That's a big part of it, but there are other 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.360 environmental factors that are at play too, namely. 0:05:58.120 --> 0:05:59.640 Light and oxygen. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.200 Those can trigger natural reactions between air and food molecules 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.279 that hasten decomposition. But when food is buried underground, the 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.240 exposure to air and light is much less of an issue. Additionally, 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.440 if the soil is dry and salty, that can also 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.359 help reduce the food's moisture level. Even if the ground 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.400 isn't cold enough to freeze. 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.560 That's really interesting. I do want to mention, though, that 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.400 under certain conditions, it is possible to preserve food underground 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.719 in a cool, moist environment, and the best example for 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.919 that that I can think of is something called bog butter. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:32.600 Bog butter, I'm just. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:33.200 Like saying it. 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.479 I'm so curious about this because I've definitely heard of 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:39.240 bog bodies, which are those super old preserved corpses that 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.560 people keep finding in European peat bogs, but I don't 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:44.000 know how much about this bog butter. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.040 Weirdly, bog bodies and bog butter are both created for 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.680 the same natural process, so for anyone I'm familiar at, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.560 bog is a shallow kind of wetland where the ground 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.200 is composed of all this soft, spongy material called peat. Now, 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.440 peat is formed by the partial decomposition of moss and 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.240 other plant matter, and it's that abundance of rotting vegetation 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.200 that gives bogs their preservative power. They become so clogged 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.520 with peate that water can't flow in and out easily, 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.520 and that results in extremely low oxygen levels. On top 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.600 of that, the decomposition process makes the bogs highly acidic, 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.160 and because most bogs form in cold temperate climates, peat 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.240 bogs also have the preserving power of cool temperatures, and 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.880 these factors combined to create a unique environment that's good 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.400 for preserving things, which is how we wound up with 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.320 those perfectly preserved human bodies that you mentioned, most of 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:36.680 which were laid to rest way back in the Iron Age. 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.160 Actually it's like nearly three thousand years ago, and it's 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:43.560 also wide. People in Scotland and Ireland keep finding giant 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.760 wads of butter from around the same era. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.760 Wait, I am curious about this, Like, so is bog 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:50.360 butter actual butter? 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.840 It is actual ancient butter. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:53.440 Wow. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.600 Yeah. Some specimens are from as recent as the sixteen hundreds, 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.880 but most are much older, from as far back as 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.000 six hundred BCE. Now, over the last decade or so, 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.560 bog workers in the UK have stumbled across hundreds of 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.520 examples of bog butter. These slimy chunks of yellowish dairy 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.080 that are typically found wrapped in animal skins or inside 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.760 wooden crates even and they range and weight from about 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:20.160 fifteen pounds to well over one hundred pounds of this stuff. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:21.240 Wow, that's crazy. 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.000 So why were people dumping so much butter in their bogs? 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.560 Like, if they were, I just want to say that, But. 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:28.240 If they were wrapping it up, they must have wanted 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.280 to come back for it, right, Yeah. 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:32.400 So historian instinct that locals were using the bog as 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.400 a natural refrigerator, and the custom clearly persisted for thousands 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.240 of years. And along the way, it seems that more 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.719 than a few people just kind of lost track of 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.839 their butter stash. I never found it again, So tryptocurrency 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:45.560 event happened. 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.000 Sometimes you just lose your butter, you know, and their 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.160 losses are gain I guess, but I can't imagine a 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.400 chunk of old, rancid butter is worth that much to 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:53.520 anyone at this point. 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.440 Yeah. So what's interesting is that, according to nat Gio, 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:58.280 and this is what I was kind of hinting at, 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:00.880 people in the area actually treated butter as a substitute 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.560 for cash, using it to barter or even pay their taxes. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.679 So not only was the bog this big like communal refrigerator, 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.440 it was also people's savings accounts, which means that you know, 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.960 misplacing your butter was every bit as much a financial 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:17.680 loss as it was a culinary one. 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.200 I do love butter. I sort of get it at 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:20.880 the same time. 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.280 Actually, a question for you, do you leave your butter 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:24.680 out on the counter or do you keep your butter 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:26.760 on the refrigerator. I leave it on the counter, man, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.480 it's so good, just the way to do it. I 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:30.960 have no idea whether it's the right thing to do, 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.360 but it's definitely taste here. All right, We've got much 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.680 more buried food to uncover. But before we do that, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:46.520 let's take a quick break. 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:53.800 You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.360 the many hidden benefits of burying your food. Okay, Well, 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.240 so we've looked at food burial as this really just 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.960 right and as a preservation method and kind of a bank. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:05.760 But where do you want to go next. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.480 With all this talk about microorganisms and temperature control. I 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.440 can't help but think about fermentation, which is a very 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.080 different approach to buried food preservation than what we've talked 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:15.720 about so far. 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:17.360 Yeah, So, so tell me a little bit about this. 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:17.840 All right. 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.520 Well, instead of trying to eliminate the microbes in a food, 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.640 fermentation does the opposite. It spurs the growth of certain 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.320 bacteria and yeast and causes them to produce lactic acid, 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.480 which in turn alters the flavors and textures of the food. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.000 And that's also what helps preserve. 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.400 These foods, right, that's exactly right. So all the lactic 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.520 acid from fermentation prevents the growth of harmful bacteria, effectively 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.600 preserving the food for longer. And because it's the acidic 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:45.880 environment that makes this kind of preservation possible, you can 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.280 ferment foods in hot or cold weather. In fact, Korea 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.000 and kimchi was traditionally made in the colder months so 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.720 families would have access to vegetables throughout the winter. Large 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.440 batches were prepared in ceramic pots and then buried in 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.720 the ground to slowly ferment had a more steady temperature. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.440 So in a way, fermentation was kind of the next 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.400 step in the evolution of varied cuisine because not only 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.320 are you preserving food underground, now you're preparing it too. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:12.839 And the thing you put in the ground isn't the 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:14.839 same as what you dig up, right, Like, there's a 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.680 real change there. The look, the taste, the texture, it's 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:18.880 all completely different. 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.520 Yeah, and traditional kimchi isn't the only example of a 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:25.200 food that's forever changed by its time underground. For instance, 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:28.520 in Greenland, the native people's prepare a dish called kiviak 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.000 and that involves stuffing a seal skin with hundreds of 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.080 tiny seabirds and placing it in a hole covered with 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:36.920 rocks to ferment for eighteen months. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:37.959 Have you ever made this before. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.880 It's just it's just a seal skin and then hundreds 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.360 of tiny birds and eighteen months later. 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.280 I've tried it with like twenty or thirty birds, but 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.400 has a lot of birds no, I mean, I've heard 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:50.960 of it, but it's not appeeling to me. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.520 It's basically like a seal turducan, right kind of, but 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.439 unlike the tur ducan, you don't consume the outer layer, 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.720 only what's inside of it. And another important differences that 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.680 the dead birds in kivak actually get stuffed into the 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.640 cavity with all their feathers and their beaks still attach. 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.720 Then you have to coat the whole thing with oils 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.840 to ward off maggots and bury it seam side up 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.800 so that any gases can vent through the rocks there. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:18.960 It sounds like a sort of a growth process. 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:24.600 Yeah, so the starting evolved and you said they buried 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:25.800 this thing for like over a year. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.640 Technically you can dig it up after just three months. 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.640 But if you want those beaks to get good and gelatinous, 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.439 you definitely don't want an aldentate beak like you gotta 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.160 wait a little bit longer, so be patient. But the 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:39.920 goal in any case is to have it ready for 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.560 Christmas time, when kivak is eaten as part of a 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:47.000 traditional holiday feast. Now, understandably, many families choose to enjoy 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.240 this winter delicacy outdoors to keep its powerful smell from 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.760 lingering in the house. And this can linger for weeks afterward. 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:56.760 And if you're wondering what the dish tastes like but 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:59.640 would rather not try for yourself, a BBC producer named 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:03.559 Bethan Evans once described it as a cross between licorice 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.880 and the strongest cheese I've ever had. 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.000 Those are not things I think of pairing together for 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.600 together well, so thinking of like other combinations that are 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.439 a little bit odd. I feel the same way about gravlocks, 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:22.160 which is another strong smelling Nordic dish that involved buried fermentation. 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.360 And actually that's the salmon dish that Julia Child made 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.959 famous isn't it. Yeah, I've seen it on minis before, 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.040 but I've never actually realized it was fermented. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.000 Yeah, so that's the thing. The modern take on gradlocks 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.560 doesn't involve fermentation or even much of a burial. Instead, 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.480 the salmon is just buried in a dry rub of salt, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.200 sugar and dill, and then it's cured in a refrigerator 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.120 for a few days. But that is very different from 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.440 how Swedish fishermen first prepared the dish, and this goes 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.640 way back to the Middle Ages. They'd been looking for 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.240 a way to preserve their summer catch without the use 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.280 of salt, which at the time was very expensive, and 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.080 this led to the development of a technique called gravlocks, 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.360 which literally means buried salmon. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:03.520 You know, it's actually just occurring to me right now. 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:05.120 That grave is right there in. 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.600 The word, yeah, and true to the name. Peasants and 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.360 fishermen would wrap the fish in birch bark and then 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.120 bury it in a wet, sandy grave, and the cold moisture, 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.240 the lack of oxygen, and the acidity from the birch bark, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.480 all of that would cause the salmon to ferment instead 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:22.280 of robbing. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.720 It does feel like such a risky way to ferment, 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.520 something like there's no air tight container and your only 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.880 defense against spoilage are a few strips of birch bark, 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.120 Like I'm surprised people didn't get sick from eating it. 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.840 People absolutely did, and if you even died from it. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.840 The dish is considered a delicacy today, but in its 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:42.720 original form, eating gravlocks was an act of true desperation, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:46.320 and no matter how horribly it smelled or how iffy 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:49.480 it tasted, the chance to not starve was It was 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:50.640 kind of worth the gamble. 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:51.800 That makes sense, all right. 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.880 Well, now that we've covered the aromatic delights of animal fermentation, 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.680 I've got another resourceful buried food tradition for you, and 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.920 this one's actually vegetarian. So, according to an old piece 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.640 of Appalachian wisdom, if you bury heads of cabbage upside 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.520 down in the dirt, they'll stay crisp and crunchy all 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.240 winter long. The mountaineers discovered the trick over a century ago, 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.160 and many families in the regions still swear by it today. 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.000 They claim that buried cabbage is more flavorful than its 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.600 top side cousin. Wait, so these cabbages aren't fermented or 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.160 seasoned or anything. They're just like pulled from the garden 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.640 and then plopped back into the ground, just upside down, 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.240 pretty straightforward. And that's not to say that there was 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.080 nothing clever about the process. I mean, the leafy greenheads 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.840 have been a staple crop for mountaineers since the Blue 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.479 Ridge area was first settled, and in the days before refrigeration, 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.600 a homesteader's best bet for storing their cabbages through the 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.720 winter was by digging and framing out a root cellar 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.200 somewhere along the way, though enterprising families realized they could 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:52.280 skip that step by simply sticking their cabbages in the dirt. Now, 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.360 the preferred method, known locally as holing it up, was 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.920 to dig out a shallow trench just below the frost 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.280 line and then place the cabbages in it upside down, 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.400 so that the dirt wouldn't get in the leaves once 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.240 the hole was filled in if you think about the 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.640 direction of the leaves, and so those underground stores of 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.840 cabbage could be tapped into as needed throughout the season, 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.080 adding a welcome crunch of texture to the families. Otherwise 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.040 mushy meals of you think about things like canned beans 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:19.680 and corn pudding and stuff like that. 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:22.040 So I know you can do a lot of things 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.960 with cabbage, like you can saute, fry it up, chop 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.400 it into a slab. But did mountaineers try burying anything 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:30.920 besides cabbage, because that seems like it's a technique that 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:32.960 would work for other foods pretty well as well. 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.120 So they did experiment with bearing other kinds of vegetables, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.120 but without added preservatives, most of them just rotted after 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.560 a few days. Underground cabbage proved the exception. Because of 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.520 the plant's tough outer leaves, that protective layer would gradually 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.200 dry out, but the plant's inner core could remain crisp 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.400 and fresh. In fact, proponents of buried cabbage claim the 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:56.040 process concentrates all the flavor in those inner leaves that 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:57.800 makes the plant taste much sweeter. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:01.240 That sounds delicious actually, And you said this is something 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.720 people still do in the Appellations, Yeah, I mean most residents. 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.280 Don't see the point now, and it's just about everyone 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.800 has a refrigerator. But that said, there are still some 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.359 old timers and diehard cabbage fans out there who. 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:12.399 Are still holding it up. 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.679 Like the good old that's fascinating. Okay, well, we've got 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:17.840 a whole lot more to cover, but before that, let's 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.280 take a quick break. 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:33.479 All right. 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.159 Well, so no offense to our listeners in the blue ridge, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.200 but raw cabbage is just about the most low effort 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.280 buried food I can think of, right, Like, it is 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.880 so simple to do, and I thought we could head 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.760 north and talk about one that requires just a little 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.639 bit more elbow grease. It's an old New England specialty 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:53.640 called a bean hole supper. Have you actually heard of this? 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:53.840 No? 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:54.359 I have not. 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:56.919 This is something that our friend Mary turned me on too. 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.600 She's a Native maner and she says it's one of 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.080 her favorite summer traditions. Let's get into it. Tell me 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.200 about it. So the cooking itself is not too complicated, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.359 but it does take a fair amount of prep. First, 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.399 you have to get your beans ready by soaking and 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.760 par boiling them. Then you add all your fixens like pork, onions, 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.359 dry mustard, molasses as well. The next step is where 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:19.439 things start to get interesting. You go outside and you 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.560 dig a hole a few feet deep, and then you 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.679 start a fire at the bottom and you keep it 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:25.960 burning till you have a nice bed of coals. You 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.440 need something that's about eight inches thick. Next, you lower 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.680 your sealed pot of beans into the hole and line 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:33.879 the walls with rocks to keep the heat in. And 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:35.640 then you fill in the hole with soil and let 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.840 the beans cook for a good long while, generally overnight. 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.320 And at that point there's really nothing to do but 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.040 wait till morning. Then you dig up the pot hoist 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:45.560 it out of the hole, which is usually a two 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.320 person job, and then you help yourself to some warm 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:49.280 beanie goodness. 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:51.960 Wait, so are these breakfast beans? I thought this was 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:52.959 a bean hole supper. 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:54.840 Well, it's really up to the people with the shovels. 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.880 Some people cook the beans all day, eat them at night, 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.760 and then reheat the leftovers for breakfast. Others tuck in 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:02.280 first thing in the morning and then go back for 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.520 seconds at dinner time. We're talking mass quantities of beans here, 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.520 like they're actually like about nine or ten pounds of 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.400 beans per pot, So most people will make a few 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.879 meals out of it regardless of when they start eating. 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.560 And not to mention, the bean whole supper is really 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.119 a communal event. You might wind up burying a dozen 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.080 pots or more depending on the size of your guest list. 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:25.439 That's a lot of beans. And it does make me 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:27.640 wonder though, like why beans this is main? 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:29.600