489: Colanders
Molly 0:04
I'm Molly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:05
And I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious eat at all, and you can't have any. And we've been doing this show for so long that I can turn my brain off while I say the intro and it still comes out.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:17
Me too. I guess what we've been doing this for so long, I could turn my brain off for the rest of the episode. And you'll never know the difference. In fact, I've been doing it for years.
Molly 0:24
I think this explains why neither of us ever remember anything. We said, Well, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:29
absolutely not. Do you have someone in your life? I'm not going to name names. Let's let's say that the person I'm thinking of rides with Judy amster, who like right after the episode is posted will like text you or call you and give their comment on something for the episode. I just like, I don't know what you're talking.
Molly 0:50
My friend Sarah is a devoted listener. In fact, she has suggested episodes before which I think we've done Sarah will often text me about something we've said in an episode and I have to like wrack my brain to even figure out what she's talking like to even figure out that she's talking about the podcast.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:06
Yeah, like, you know, like, I love weasels, too. And like, Great. Good for you, but
Molly 1:13
Okay, all right. Well, before we get started, we want to say that you have like a few more hours to register for our live show, which is airing tonight if you're listening on May 13. It's tonight at 6pm. Pacific
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:28
Yep, that's bit dot L y slash spilled milk live. 21 It is free. We'll be doing a lightning round. And if you have a last minute topic to suggest to producer Abby to pull out of her hat. Send it to topics at spilled milk podcast.com
Molly 1:43
Well, the truth is, even if we don't get to use it for the live show tonight, we can add it to the pool of possible topics for future episodes. That's
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:50
true. I mean, do we have like the the legal right to do that if someone sends in a topic for the lightning round? Or
Molly 1:56
are we allowed to turn it into a full length episode?
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:59
Yeah. Or do we need to need to like get special written permission for that? to do whatever we want. That's what I think it
Molly 2:06
seems like that's what we've been doing on the podcast so far. Anyway, so yeah, come join us. We'll be in our closets and we'll see you tonight. If you're listening to this on Thursday made Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:16
I can't decide whether I'm going to do my gonna appear from my dining room like where we usually tape or in my podcasting closet. I think I guess I should do the closet.
Molly 2:26
Wherever you're more comfortable, but it would kind of be fun if we were both in it. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:29
think I think I'll do the closet. I mean, it looks it looks pretty harrowing. So I pick that Yeah,
Molly 2:35
yeah. And plus, then you'll have the awesome kind of slightly ill looking complexion that I have from being in my closet. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:44
no, no, I've got I've got the full speed. I've got the ring light plus the like Kroger brand LED lighting. Like this is the best lighting you can get. I can't
Molly 2:52
wait for tonight. Yeah. Alright, so today's episode, we haven't even said yet. Today's episode is colanders.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:59
Yes. You've been asking for this for so long. It was suggested by listener cat. But I mean, who hasn't wanted us to weigh in colanders?
Molly 3:08
You know, as soon as this suggestion came in, we were both like, yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:13
Yeah, absolutely. I have at least 45 seconds worth of things to say about colanders.
Molly 3:20
Well, Matthew, I gotta say I'm sitting here looking at the agenda. And it is almost three Google Doc pages. So buckle your seatbelts, everybody.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:30
Is this going to be one of those episodes where we realize we have so much material, we have to break it into colanders? One and two, I think
Molly 3:36
is it going to turn into like colanders versus sieves? It might Okay, well, anyway, alright, let's get started. I'm going to take us down memory lane first, please. Okay, so I think my mom still has the colander that I grew up with. And I think of this as like, I mean, obviously, whatever you grow up with, I think is your normal in terms of anything in life. But I still think of this colander truly as like the definition of a colander. So it was about maybe 10 inches wide at the mouth. Okay, and I think I think this is a very standard size. It was aluminum and it was like adult aluminum, you know, like, and it had perforations arranged in sort of like a flower shape almost. Yeah, you
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:16
know what I mean? I know what you mean.
Molly 4:17
And it had like little metal tabs for feet. It had three of them. So I have a colander now that's the same size must
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:25
be nice.
Molly 4:26
I have a colander now that's the same size. But mine is stainless and mine has like a ring foot instead of the little like actual feet. And my mom's is still like to me the perfect colander because I hate cleaning around the ring like oh, okay, start kind of get stuck between like the seam of the bowl and the ring anyway,
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:50
we're gonna go on about this. No, I know what you mean.
Molly 4:52
But yes, the colander of my youth had these cute little feet and I mean not not, you know what I mean? feet, not I know
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:00
what you mean by feet. Yes. Sort of like sprout out?
Molly 5:03
Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:04
I'm from the ball. Yes.
Molly 5:05
Yeah. Okay, like a clawfoot tub. Exactly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:09
Only Oh, a colander. Yeah,
Molly 5:10
it had coffee feet.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:12
Yeah. If you were if you were like a like a little teeny tiny kitten, you could take a bath in it, except kittens don't like baths, you've probably wouldn't know. But you would, because the water would drain out through the colander halls?
Molly 5:22
Oh, this would be perfect. I wonder. Are there small animals? We should try using this for a guinea pig.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:28
Okay. a guinea pig, like just any one that we might see outside? That's right. No, you can talk about how that goes on calendars to next year.
Molly 5:38
Great. But what about the calendars of your youth?
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:40
I think the one with the ring that you have now I think is the kind that we had when I was growing up. Then as an adult, I know like wife of the show Laurie and I don't know if we bought it or if it was a gift had pretty much the same one for quite a while. Stainless Steel, the the ring that's hard to clean around, but gets the job done. And then at some point quite a while ago, I bought a green plastic asian style East Asian style colander from dicicco.
Molly 6:10
Now what makes it East Asian style. Are we going to get into this later?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:14
I mean, there isn't anything about it that makes it like you know, especially well suited to East Asian cooking. It's just like the style that you find like in in Japanese home kitchens. And I think I think probably I've seen it in Thailand. Also.
Molly 6:29
Is it possible for you to go get it and show it to me?
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:31
Yeah, absolutely. Let's do it.
Molly 6:33
Okay, be dooby dooby dooby he's back. Oh, God, I love the color of that Matthew. Beautiful foam green.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:40
It's seafoam green. It absolutely is. It's it's about 10 inches and dynamic and dynamic or dynamic. Mm hmm. How dynamic
Molly 6:49
Matthew Hold on. Okay, well, we're gonna talk more about
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:52
right whether this is a colander or a strainer is that what we're going to talk about? I'm
Molly 6:55
so glad that you Oh, I interesting that you use the word strainer. I always use sieve but that's different. Oh my god.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:04
Okay, this Oh, we may have to split this into three episodes, the colander episode, the sieve episode and the strainer episode.
Molly 7:10
Okay. Anyway, I'm excited to talk with you about the perforations in that one, but we're gonna wait a minute.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:16
Okay. Um, yeah, and it is it's also kind of a pain to clean because stuff can get like caught in the grooves and you have to really scrub it out. But other than that, I love it. It cost a buck 50 and it definitely predates spilled milk. Wow. I know, because I remember specifically using it for a column I wrote for gourmet about kimchi, which would have been like in the late aughts. Yes, yeah. So that this thing is more than 11 years old.
Molly 7:44
That's amazing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:46
thing, one, one little hole in it,
Molly 7:48
like One One little plastic piece that's missing? Yeah. So I was kind of surprised that I didn't find more history about colanders when I was looking around and granted, you know, I went to Wikipedia and I read maybe like three other articles in other places, but I was expecting to find information about like, maybe who invented them, or how, how long ago they date to or whatever I find like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:15
I mean, did you go to any university libraries, like like, the dusty old stacks, because I feel like this is this is the type of topic because, you know, because it's like a medieval European cooking tool, I guess maybe that you would go in and they would pull like a dusty tome off the shelf and blow the dust off it open it up and somehow exactly to the right page and point to a picture of someone being tortured with a colander and 1300 or whatever. Maybe
Molly 8:44
that book would be like a palimpsest or something is
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:47
that hey, now would be a palimpsest. I'm gonna pretend I know what that means. Well,
Molly 8:51
isn't it like a document where you can see traces of like something that I used to say there, but that's been removed or erased or something? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:58
I think that is what that word means.
Molly 9:02
I first came across it while watching the show a discovery of witches on stars.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:09
Where it sounds good,
Molly 9:10
then I just go write it last night. In the book I'm reading
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:13
a manuscript or a piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain Yes, by extension, something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. Example Sutton place is a pal obsessed of the taste of successive owners. Wow, I
Molly 9:31
love language. But anyway, I was thinking maybe we could find an old like creaky book in the library. That would be a palimpsest, and maybe it would like lead us to finding some sort of like
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:42
treasure, a treasure
Molly 9:44
treasure or a coven somewhere. Let's keep going with this.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:50
You know who I think can help us with this is Nicolas Cage because he he like stole the declar I haven't seen those movies or movies. I tell treasure movies, which I've never seen, but I think they're probably pretty fun movies.
Molly 10:04
Okay, well anyway, here's what I did learn about colanders. According to Wikipedia, they're also called cullanders.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:11
Yeah, you wrote this, but that doesn't make it true.
Molly 10:14
No, it does. Do you think Wikipedia is punking? us again? Anyway, some people call them pasta strainers I think that's a bit limiting. Some people call them kitchen sibs. I think that's totally reasonable. So you know, I think maybe most often, or like, historically, they've been made of a light metal like aluminum or a light stainless.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:34
Yeah, aluminum is like a newer thing than, than steel. Isn't that?
Molly 10:39
Do you really think I know the answer to this?
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:41
Well, you you you thought I would know what pal obsessed was. So I think we're even Okay, fine. Because like you hear about like the Iron Age and that's like, a really long time ago, I realized iron and steel aren't exactly the same thing. But like you do you hear about the aluminum age
Molly 10:58
is there like aluminum or like there's iron ore?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:01
There's bauxite, what's bauxite? I think it's aluminum or that's what came to mind but then when I said it, I'm like, is that aluminum or bauxite is aluminum or okay?
Molly 11:10
Yeah, is it like box like Bo x be a UX,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:14
so it's probably French. Wow.
Molly 11:16
Okay, so calendars are also sometimes made of plastic as you know, Matthew silicone. Although I've never encountered one of those myself. It's I've seen Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:26
I think it's I think it's too too floppy.
Molly 11:28
Yeah. And then ceramic, which I'll share my my ceramic colander experience and about sounds dangerous. Yeah. And then sometimes enamelware, which I do think you see a lot. They're beautiful. colanders made out of? Yeah, I'm aware. Anyway, the word colander comes from the Latin called loom, but that be pronounced correctly. Don't you do a lot you in Latin?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:49
Hello. I think that sounds right, which means Civ it's pronounced palimpsest.
Molly 11:56
Anyway, so according to Wikipedia, there are broadly two types of calendars there's like the freestanding bowl shaped kind, which we're talking about. And then there's also mated colander pots like a pasta insert in a big stock pot.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:09
This is a family friendly show we can't be talking about maybe I you know what I had not thought about the mated pot style colander in years and like we used to have one we have had for ever. I think it was a wedding present from William Sonoma. Maybe it was called the multi pot. And so it's like an eight quart stock pot with a pasta insert. steamer insert and lid. We never use the pasta insert and it was big and heavy. So we threw it out years ago.
Molly 12:41
I just used to pasta insert for the first time this past week. Matthew
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:46
really it That Was it because of this episode.
Molly 12:49
No, it hadn't even occurred to me that what I was using was a colander. I was just thinking of it as the pasta insert. It was not at my house. I don't have Okay, it was at this house that we rented that belongs to a friend and she has a lot of really nice cookware and she had like a 12 quart all clad stock pot that had a pasta insert and I needed to cook some spaghetti and I was like what the hell I'll use the pasta insert I've never done this before
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:14
you really went wild. You really got your groove back there. It was crazy, crazy getaway. everyone gathered around when you pulled it out of the pod to like see the dripping water and everyone just like fainted with delight.
Molly 13:27
You know, I have to say that I was really glad that I had used the pasta insert as opposed to other options like using tongs to fish out the spaghetti noodle. Yeah, it doesn't boil water, or my God. So in my house, I don't have any stock pots larger than eight quarts.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:46
Yeah, that's what we have also,
Molly 13:47
and I had forgotten how heavy a 12 quart pot is.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:50
I mean, maybe I can imagine
Molly 13:52
I mean it was intensely heavy. If I had been planning to pour the pasta and the pasta water into the sink into a colander, I'm afraid I would have like burned myself because it was so heavy. It was unwieldy. So my first time using a pasta insert, I gotta say it was a big success because it saved me from burning myself.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:12
Okay, no, I can I can visualize that like yeah, I'm not gonna go out and get one but
Molly 14:16
Yeah, me neither. But you know if I if I somehow decide to start cooking for large groups of people, which I probably never will because that's not my favorite thing to do.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:25
No, me neither.
Molly 14:26
And if I go get like a 12 quart or larger pot a by God, I'm getting a pasta insert for it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:32
No, you know, I love I love like having people over I mean, like, maybe someday. But like whenever I have to cook for more than like three or four people. I'm just like, I can't believe how hard this is. I know I i realize how privileged that is like, right? You know, my wife grew up in a family of eight and as I assume, like, whenever you know now that her parents are retired and all the kids have moved out like I'm sure her bomb is like, I can't believe like cooking for two like I'm constantly You know, making huge amounts of leftovers. But that's what it is for me.
Molly 15:04
Yeah, we used to I know I've talked before on the show about this like Thursday night dinner thing we used to do a few years ago. Were with three other families. So there were four of us families and all and we would rotate among houses, we would each cook one Thursday night of the month, right? By the time all the families had finished having their children there were eight to nine adults depending on whether I was divorced yet. And and then there were seven children. And he was intensely stressful for me. Like I wound up withdrawing from the Thursday night dinner group because I just found it so anxiety producing Oh, yeah. And then
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:47
you were like, thank God.
Molly 15:49
I know. I was like, Oh, man. Now I don't feel so bad about pulling out of this thing anymore. Anyway, okay, Matthew, back to plastic colanders it's always seemed weird to me personally, that one would pour boiling water onto plastic and logically, I know that there's plenty of plastic that can hold up to boiling plus temperatures.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:08
This one's been holding up to it for over 11 years.
Molly 16:11
Okay. I've never owned a plastic colander because it just always kind of weirded me out. Speak to this Matthew.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:18
No, I don't I don't have like any like scientific response. Just like I when I first got this I like used it for like particular things and didn't like use it as a general purpose colander and then I realized, Oh, I just like this one best for everything. And so then then we like purge the metal colander at some point.
Molly 16:35
Isn't it funny? How so I have a colander that I think came into my life with Brandon. So so I have one colander that I've had God since at least 2006. Yeah. And it's nice because it's got really evenly distributed holes or perforations. But I never use it because it's bigger than this kind of standard, I think 10 inch size and it's just it's like too big for what I need. Okay, it's funny how like, even if we have a tool that seems really useful and long lasting and versatile, like if you don't like the way it feels in your hand or you don't like any you know, if you don't like one thing about it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:14
Yeah, that's that's how I that's how I feel about my friends. Like if there's one thing about him that rubs you the wrong way. You're out of here.
Molly 17:21
I know. We're constantly having to repair our friendship, Matthew, because there's so many things you don't like about me to like when I use the word pallet obsessed?
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:29
No, I love that. That's my favorite thing about you. That you that you feel like I'm the person who would know a word, the definition of a word. Okay. Okay, so now as you say something in Latin and expect me to know what it means.
Molly 17:42
You know what you're really not gonna like about me now, Matthew.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:44
I gotta pause
Molly 17:45
the recording and go use the bathroom.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:47
Alright, cool.
Molly 17:48
I'll be right back. Hey, you know, you could vamp a little bit.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:52
I could like I think I feel like that's your thing. I don't really know how to vamp.
I'm back. Welcome back.
Molly 18:06
Thank you. I have an exciting announcement. Oh, okay. Great. Okay, so I've been getting really tired of the shitty toilet paper that I've been finding at the store. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:17
well, and also like, I recommend a toilet paper that's going to change our lives.
Yeah,
I had already I'm up for this.
Molly 18:24
I have one of those tushy bidets. And you know, like, if you're gonna use it today, you need to have like a good toilet paper that doesn't like fall apart. Okay, with wetness. We can cut this part. I don't know. No,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:37
never. Anyway, so what's the what toilet paper should we buy?
Molly 18:41
I decided to try ordering that who gives a crap like toilet paper delivery thing?
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:45
Ah,
Molly 18:46
I got some like $10 off thing for my first delivery. And so it made it such that 48 rolls was $42
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:55
Okay,
Molly 18:56
this stuff is really good. All right, it tears really cleanly at the perforations. So if you want to try to use like a minimum of it, like it's easy to do that you have some toilet paper tears really badly and it's hard to just take off like three squares.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:12
Oh, yeah, no, I know exactly what you mean.
This tears really well and also it just holds up really well. Okay, this this has been our toilet paper episode. This
is a thing people have asked for. I'm not joking. And that's all you're gonna get. I think
Molly 19:27
okay. Well, how do you feel about toilet paper?
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:30
Are you are you choosing in favor of it? I use it daily
Molly 19:32
to have strong feelings about like, you know, buying two ply or one ply or whatever imply
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:38
Oh, yeah, it's gotta be two ply.
Molly 19:40
It's hard to get two ply these days,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:42
Matthew. I don't think we've been having trouble getting it Kelly.
Molly 19:46
noticed my local grocery stores. It's like either I need to get one of the like single, individually wrapped things. way they're
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:57
individually like one roll.
Molly 19:59
Yeah. As my local grocery store has consistently since the pandemic began, sometimes that's the only toilet paper they have is actually wrapped rolls. And I'm like, Not on your life because it's one ply. And Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:13
that sounds that sounds like an institutional product.
Molly 20:16
It is. It's an institutional correct? Yes, it on there. Anyway, so I was really pleased with this. I've only placed one order. I don't love the idea of you know, like, the old carbon footprint or whatever. But I mean,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:28
it's more of a carbon footprint,
Molly 20:31
a carbon footprint. I'm keeping my footprint clean is what I'm doing. Okay, good. All right, back to the colander.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:37
What is a colander? Like what makes a colander different from a sieve? Or a strainer? And like, Why do some of them have like a mash and some of them have small holes? Why do both of those exist?
Molly 20:49
I believe that if it has mesh that it should be called a sieve. Okay. I mean, I think by definition, a sieve is a tool that allows you to pour into it something and some items are going to run through the sieve, but what you want will remain so it's almost like you could use it if you're like panning for gold.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:11
Okay, okay. Yeah, okay. Okay, so I do in my kitchen often
Molly 21:16
when I'm panning for gold, I always use mesh sieve. Have
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:20
you ever gone panning for gold? Oh, I have you have? Yeah, cuz, Oregon. Yeah, I was like eight. Okay, cool. Did I find gold? Yes, I did.
Molly 21:32
So I like to use a mesh strainer for things where the hole holes of my colander are maybe a little bit too big.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:40
So okay,
Molly 21:42
I like to rinse rice in a mesh sieve. But this is not our mesh sieve show.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:47
But but it's so closely related now. So
Molly 21:50
Matthew, you define? No, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:53
don't really know. So so I'm kind of wondering like, why isn't one of them like just inherently better than the other? Like, why do they both exist? So
Molly 22:02
I think they exist because they tend to have different perforation sizes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:06
Well here's what I'm here's what I'm trying to say. Let's put the colander on trial.
Molly 22:11
Oh God, I had no idea. This was what this episode is gonna turn. Yep, one voir, dear,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:16
let's impanel a jury.
Molly 22:18
Hold on. Wait a minute. I have another thought about cash. sieves versus colander. Okay, here's the thing. You know, some mesh sieves have like, kind of an aluminum wire or sort of tube underneath. That's Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:31
know what you mean.
Molly 22:32
But a lot of them don't. And so if you were to if you were making kimchi or something like that, or if you were making sauerkraut and you needed to be able to press down, whatever sieve to push out liquid, you might break your mesh sieve like it's not as sturdy as a colander.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:53
Yeah, now they do make mesh tubes with with a foot though, right? They
Molly 22:56
do they do it by the nose. I've managed to break. Yeah, no, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:01
see what you mean. Like the thing. The thing I was trying to figure out is like, why would you want a colander that drains kind of like slowly compared to a mesh sieve when you always just want stuff to drain quickly. But it sounds like durability is a big part of it.
Molly 23:15
So durability and ease of cleaning is why I often will reach for a colander when I think a mesh sieve probably would drain faster and more effectively.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:26
Like Yeah, okay, I
Molly 23:27
hate cleaning starchy pasta water off of a mesh sieve.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:34
I don't I'm glad you mentioned pasta because I think I once had someone claimed that the point of a colander is that when you're making pasta, it doesn't drain as much pasta water off. And so you get you get to like keep a little pasta water behind to thicken the sauce. But like you can just like reach in and grab some pasta water if you want that.
Molly 23:53
Yeah, I mean, I don't. I do sometimes appreciate that. But I don't I don't think that was what it was designed to do. Like, let's design this thing to not work very well.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:03
Yeah. But then at the same time, I see what you mean about cleaning because like my, you know my light green baby here that I keep holding up. It I should probably like like take a picture of this and like link to it in the show notes somehow we'll figure out how to do that. This sometime this week, I'm going to I'm going to make DAN DAN noodles, which is one of my absolute favorite things to make and they're pretty thin noodles. And I know some of them are gonna get like caught in the grooves of the colander here. And I'm gonna I'm gonna have to really scrub to get them out.
Molly 24:34
The other thing I'm noticing about that plastic colander and that I that I observed about my metal one as well is that if you have a really delicate noodle, the surface of the colander is quite smooth, right? Whereas the surface of a mesh sieve I think has a little bit of texture to it that can kind of scuffed up a noodle I mean yeah, no
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:54
I think like when I when I've been served as scuff noodle like I will storm out of a restaurant.
Molly 24:59
Although it does The sauce clings to it nice.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:01
That's true. No, no, you're right. Like, there are two ways to get that sir is either get bronze dyes for your pasta extruder or you scuff it up with a mesh sieve.
Molly 25:10
Great. Do you like well clearly neither of us tends to reach for a colander that has like a long handle.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:18
No, although I do I do have like two mesh strainers with handles I do to use sometimes I use those for like, like if I'm making myself a single serving of pasta I will usually reach for one of those because it's smaller and I can just kind of pour and the dump the pasta, the noodle it scuffs my noodle up a little bit, and then I can put it in the dishwasher and they dish wash pretty well. Oh, this can go in the dishwasher. But it takes up so much space that I usually don't and it doesn't even always get clean in the dishwasher.
Molly 25:48
Okay, so do you think you could live without one of these tools like your plastic like so I have like you I have a colander that I use as a colander and then I have what you're calling a strainer and I'm calling a mesh sieve with a longer handle that I use for for other things. Like Yeah, would you be fine without one or the other of them?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:09
No, I don't overlap. There are a couple things that I think that I really would want to have you know this this one unlike the the the mesh strainer with the handle like doesn't sit up straight. So I wouldn't like put that in the sink and pour pasta into it would fall over the side. Does it have a pointed bottom as opposed to doesn't have a pointed bottom? Like a? I don't What's that thing called? A she was there she was Yeah, but it's got a rounded bottom so it will roll over it my mess trainers learn to rollover it's a crib, which is what I call the sink.
Molly 26:45
Do you ever prop it up like between you know, like balance it on your sink on the rim of your sink?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:52
No like my sink? typography doesn't really allow for that. Okay, so no so I wouldn't I don't want to use that for like like three servings of pasta because it'll fall over. But the thing that I wouldn't use this plastic you know 10 inch colander for is like I'm making pod tie tonight I'm going to be straining some tamarind paste this would not work well for that at all the the holes are big and it would be impossible to clean.
Molly 27:17
So there you need like a sieve like something that produces that action of like separating out something that you do want or don't want.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:25
Yes, I have like a medium mesh strainer and a fine mesh strainer. Do I need both of those? Probably not.
Molly 27:33
You know what I have like a tiny. It's probably designed to be used for tea like fine mesh strainer. And I actually really like it every now and then for random things whether it's like someone somehow I've come into some loose tea, which I don't usually buy. Or I've used it for doing like a final strain of some chicken broth. I mean, yeah, yeah. By the time I saw with chicken broth, oh, this is interesting. Maybe not, but maybe interesting is
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:06
no, I think this whole show is the most interesting show we've ever done.
Molly 28:10
Okay, but like when I'm making chicken broth, what I will usually do is strain, like kind of dump it into a colander that's over a large bowl or something and use the colander to catch like the bones and large pieces.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:25
Have you ever accidentally poured the chicken stock down the drain that way?
Molly 28:29
I think why have Yes, yeah. Okay. But then once I've strained out all the big stuff, you still have to get out the small stuff. Now if I'm smart enough to have cheese cloth in the house. That's the ideal. Yeah, like pour it through a couple layers of cheese cloth. Mason jars or something. If I don't have cheese cloth in the house, then I'll use that little fine mesh strainer and it doesn't matter that it's like tiny because I've already gotten all the big stuff out of the chicken stock. I'm just trying to pour what is essentially just a liquid
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:59
through it. Yeah, you know, I know we are a pouring homemade stock through cheese cloth into mason jars kind of podcast, but I still don't like it.
Molly 29:08
Yeah, you don't you wish I hadn't said it, don't you?
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:11
Like I wish we could keep that part of ourselves. Yeah,
Molly 29:15
I know. I know. Okay. Anyway, so Matthew,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:19
yeah, yeah,
Molly 29:19
all told. I mean, we've talked about a lot of ways that we use calendars. But surely there are other things we do that we haven't talked about yet. Like for instance, I teased earlier. This little ceramic colander that
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:31
I have. Yeah, tell me about this.
Molly 29:33
So this was a gift from my friend Leisha who gives like the most thoughtful gifts. She has given me like my favorite mug. She gave me like this little ceramic bell that I hang from a window like just really beautiful little things. She gave me a small it's maybe the size of like a cereal bowl, a small colander with a handle and it's like a handle that would be on a mug. It's made of ceramic And it has holes all around it like a really good number of holes and it's designed for rinsing berries like a portion of berries. Okay, and I love it because previously like if I was eating blueberries or something like that I would put them in a mesh strainer or sieve and rinse them. Yeah. But then I've got to dump them into something else to eat them or whatever. Anyway, this way, what I tend to do is put my berries in there, rinse them, and then set that whole colander on like a saucer and take it to the table. And so we wind up kind of serving out of that little colander and it's pretty, I mean, it is one of those things that is totally unnecessary,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:41
but it is very appealing.
Molly 30:42
very appealing. I love using it and it's one of those things too that I only tend to use in certain seasons like when we're actually buying berries, so I'm always like oh time to get out the berry colander. Yeah. Oh, this turns out to be a show not only where we strain stock through cheesecloth, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:58
where Barry Collin ties to get out the berry but that can only be used on a seasonal basis because this show is nothing if not seasonal. Yeah. Like we had to wait until until May to do this calendar episode because everyone knows may is the start of colander sees
Molly 31:12
Matthew, what else do you do with your wait? I have some more precious things I do with my car.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:17
Please Please do okay. Yes, you will note I want to read what you wrote here on the on the agenda then I want you to tell me what it means. Making Corolla cram without a Corolla cram mold. Okay,
Molly 31:29
yeah. All right. So when I was growing up and my mother was a subscriber to like, Bon appetit and gourmet magazines in the now she's a subscriber to spelled milk. She is Thank you, Tony Negroni. She somehow found a recipe for something called a Corolla cram. It's basically
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:44
like, we've talked about this before.
Molly 31:46
Yeah, it's a mousse that's made with whipped cream, cream cheese, maybe in like white chocolate or something.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:53
Yeah. And formed into a heart shape and like drizzled with fruit syrup,
maybe? Yes.
Molly 31:58
So if you're one of those people who really likes having specialized cooking stuff, you may have seen in like, sir, sir laptop or something like that. This ceramic, harsh a laptop. You know, okay. Mold actually looks a lot like a colander really. But it's ceramic. It's heart shaped. Hence like co which means heart in French. Anyway, and you would line it with cheese cloth. God here we go cheese cloth, again, applying this mold with cheese cloth. And then you would put in there the mixture for this like mousse. And you would wrap it the cheese cloth over the top, set it over a plate or something and put it in the fridge overnight. So basically, you're straining any any liquid out of this mousse.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:46
Sort of like how you make Greek yogurt.
Molly 32:48
Yes, yes, exactly. And in the process. The the mousse also takes the shape of the mold. Yeah, so it's very pretty. My mom used to serve it with like a raspberry puree. And it was it's delicious. I think I put a recipe for it actually in my first book.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:03
But if you're right yeah,
Molly 33:04
the thing is, is that I am not the kind of person despite the fact that I am a berry colander kind of person and a straining stock through cheesecloth kind of person. Sometimes
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:16
you're not a specialized Corolla, cram mold kind of person.
Molly 33:20
No. So I have used my colander for it just lined my colander with cheesecloth. Put my stuff in
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:28
there. And what you wind up with is just kind of a low dome, but you learn like like cut a little triangle out of it to make a heart.
Molly 33:35
No, absolutely. Because
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:36
you can write a circle with a triangle cut out of it is what a heart looks like. Yeah.
Molly 33:40
That's a great idea. Yeah, so anyway, if you want to make a delicious dessert, but don't want to be precious about it, you can make a Corolla cram in a colander and it's every bit is delicious.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:55
Okay, we actually have some white chocolate in the house. We bought a pound of it for like one snacking cake or something. And a pound of white chocolate goes a long way so maybe we should make this cream cheese too.
Molly 34:07
Oh my god, you should totally make it you just need some cream I think to probably powdered sugar maybe. Yeah, and then like frozen berries colanders and sibs.
Unknown Speaker 34:16
Oh my god,
Molly 34:16
I'm so excited for you. In truth like the sieve is probably gonna yield a better shape. Because like the 10 inch colanders that you and I have make a pretty like low dome.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:29
But really, I don't even have that colander anymore. This This one is flat on the bottom.
Molly 34:32
Ah, well anyway, who cares? It'll still be delicious. It's just gonna be ugly. But yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:37
know. I've been into a bowl anyway. It's like my heart is probably pretty ugly, but but it's still full of love.
Molly 34:45
Yeah, yeah. Do you want to read the other thing that I wrote about my colander
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:49
taking out to the yard when I harvest cherry tomatoes or green beans etc. Yeah.
Molly 34:54
So last summer was my first summer really trying to grow like edible food and I I found that a colander with you know, with like the little handles on each side was kind of the perfect thing to take out to the yard. It's a
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:07
bowl with a handle.
Molly 35:08
Yes. Because most like mixing bowls that I have don't have a handle, so it felt easier to carry. And I could put all that stuff in there and bring it in and rinse it. Yeah, that was pretty cool.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:19
Can I talk about a couple of colander things idea, do it. As I mentioned, I'm making pad thai tonight, I'm going to be peeling some shrimp to put in there. Whenever I peel shrimp, I always put it in the colander. Yeah, because I'm gonna like I'm gonna rinse it. But also it just feels like I can put that in the sink and have it sitting there and it just feels cleaner somehow. Yeah, big time. Big like i don't i don't want the shrimp like touching the surface of the sink. But I don't want it like accumulating water in a bowl either. So it's like if there was there was a bowl with holes in it. It's perfect. And like, I think my favorite thing to do with a colander is if I'm making like coleslaw or kimchi, and I have a bunch of cabbage that I'm going to salt and leave to wilt and collapse over the course of an hour to like I will pile that up in the colander. And I love like you know, kind of you just like turn your back on it for a few minutes. And when you look back, it's got like food and like collapse to like half its size. It's great. Cabbage is so cool.
Molly 36:15
It's really important to have either a colander that has a foot on it or a flat bottom so it can stand upright, or you need to have as you phrased it a sink typography that lends itself to having like a handle balanced across.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:30
I mean, some people have like like a colander or mesh mesh sieve that that is designed to like sit on the sink that sort of rectangular and has maybe extensible legs.
Molly 36:41
My mom has one of those and you know she actually uses it as a dish drainer for clean dish.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:45
Okay, that makes sense. All right. Anything else about colanders? I feel like probably a lot. Well, I
Molly 36:51
do have one ridiculous thing which is on the Wikipedia page. As you'll see here, Matthew, I included a picture in the agenda. So the colander was adopted as the religious headgear of the religion, pasta Aryan ism, this is the religion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:10
goddess. So
Molly 37:11
we've got a picture here on Wikipedia of a pasta protester wearing a colander while showing an icon of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:20
But I think this was a thing that already existed as like, you know, if you if you wanted to portray someone who was like afraid of aliens, or like government mind control, like
Molly 37:31
that was like a tinfoil hat.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:33
But I know I think I've seen a colander version of that also. Okay, maybe not. Maybe it's just a tinfoil hat.
Molly 37:39
Okay, this guy's got nice forearms.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:41
Yeah, true.
Unknown Speaker 37:42
I'm taking all right. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:44
I'm whatever. Whatever. He's, he's protesting in favor of I guess I'm on board. Yeah. Based on the arms.
Molly 37:50
Yeah. Sign me up. Okay, Matthew. So let's let's get into some segments. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:55
How about spilled mail.
This one got a just under the wire, like, hit us up contact at spilled milk podcast calm, and we'll probably use your your question on the show. This one comes from listener Yara, who asks, What are your favorite recipes that don't contain onion or garlic? Hmm, this was this was a fun one for me.
Molly 38:21
Go ahead, Matthew, you go first. Okay, so
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:23
the first thing that came to mind was bread and cheese, which is great. But I wanted I wanted to come up with an answer that was more like like a full cooked meal. And so I came up with two one is Tonkatsu. So like Tonkatsu, like with a big pile of cabbage and maybe some miso soup that doesn't have scallions in it. I think tonkatsu sauce typically does have garlic or probably onion in it. But like I would just do a squeeze of lemon. That would be a terrific meal. And then the other thing is mapo tofu, which I make all the time and doesn't have any onion or garlic in it until I sprinkles some scallions on at the end and it could just leave those off and it would be 100% satisfying.
Molly 39:01
The first things that come to mind for me are God I make cacio e pepe all the time that has no onion or garlic insight. The other thing is, I know a lot of people put garlic or shallot in their vinegar Brett, I do not. So my basic vinagrette is just Dijon mustard, either red or white wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and it keeps on the counter indefinitely. I try to always have a jar of it on the counter. And the nice thing is is because I haven't put anything fresh in it like garlic or an onion. It really does keep forever and the flavor doesn't change a lot. So you know, I know a lot of people wouldn't dream of making vinegar without some sort of Allium but I do it all you know
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:44
my basic vinaigrette is olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and I will often put that on a salad that doesn't have any garlic or onion because I'm not a big fan of raw and
Molly 39:55
no I don't like raw onion either. The other thing I was going to say is I've been cooking a ton like a ton from Julia tertians. new cookbook. Simply Julia god, there's tons of great stuff in there with no onion or garlic. Like I didn't even happen to notice it. But now that I think about it, wow, take a look at that cookbook. I feel like I've made everything I've made in there. I don't think has had onion or garlic. Okay, great way. Yeah. Thanks, listener, Yara.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:22
Let's talk about a cute animal you need to know.
I'm so excited about this one comes to us from host Molly.
Molly 40:34
This This actually was shared with me by my child. Okay, who learned about it from her teacher? Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:42
this is this how things go viral? It's it's a beaver eating cabbage at its desk,
Molly 40:47
and you said it's desk but it's like a picnic table.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:50
It's like a picnic table. It looks like the beaver it looks like like I've been like gone into the office like to get chewed out by my boss and my boss is this beaver who is chomping on cabbage while dressing me down for you know, not getting the reports done on time. Let's
Molly 41:06
look at his little hands. Matthew. And he eats it like like you imagine a beaver would like like he feeds it in there. Like his mouth is like a juicer or something. Yeah, exactly. But his little hands he reaches onto the top of the table and just keeps grabbing piece after piece of this cabbage.
Unknown Speaker 41:24
Oh my god, hold
Molly 41:25
on. We got to watch till the end. Because
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:27
Yeah, and I like there are no humans in this video. And and I like that because I'm not not a huge fan of humans. Yeah. And also because it makes it makes it seem like like they're clearly people around like this is happening like in a classroom or something. But that that beaver is just like doing its thing.
Molly 41:43
Well, and what I love is if you watch till the very end, you know, you can see at one point like he runs out of cabbage. And so he just kind of like slowly lowers himself down from the picnic table. It's just like he just disappears from the camera.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:55
Oh, god, it's
Molly 41:56
so cute. This is. I mean, I know I'm biased because I brought this to you. But this is like my favorite cute animal ever.
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:03
It's pretty wonderful. I think I think maybe we started No, the first thing was whisper the stowed. But like one of the earliest ones like you sent along with this video tag. Maybe we should do this one. And I'm like we already did that on the show. It was a baby beaver from the point defiance zoo. It was like, Oh, yeah, we've come full circle on beavers. Yeah,
Molly 42:22
I gotta say, this is a cute animal that I believe everyone needs to turn up to full volume to
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:28
the crunching is a really important part of this video.
Molly 42:31
Yeah, don't try to watch it without the sound. I mean, you'll get like, 70% of the cuteness. But the remaining 30% is like crucial.
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:39
Yeah, that seems about right. Like I'm gonna crunch the numbers. Yeah. 7030.
Molly 42:44
Okay. All right, Matthew. So this week, you're gonna do now but wow, what you got this week?
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:56
All right. I've got a great book called The address book by Deirdre mask, which is a super cool name. It is the history of street addresses and why they matter. And it is incredibly on boring it Seymour, right. Okay. So I'm maybe like 100 pages into the book at this point it like i've you know, it's a real like I it's hard to put down like, I've been like staying up late reading this book. addresses. Yeah, I'm completely serious. I'm not I'm not being facetious about this at all. Like in this few pages. We've already been to Calcutta, ancient Rome and Haiti. And most importantly, we have met an expert on British streets with names that sound dirty, including one that I absolutely will not say on the show, but I'll tell you afterwards.
Molly 43:39
Oh, my God. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:40
Yes. So if you want to know what what that street name that I don't feel, like I can say on the show is you have to read the address book by Deirdre mask.
Molly 43:49
And we will, maybe we can put up a link to it on bookshop.org. Yeah. In our show notes. All right.
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:56
Let's talk about colanders for 47 more minutes. God.
Molly 44:01
All right, Matthew. Well, this was super fun. And I I'm relieved to say I don't feel like we have to do another one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:07
No, I think
Molly 44:08
again, like not another spilled milk every
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:11
Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for having listened to spilled milk. Yeah, we're, you know, forget 500 episodes. Just like yeah, you know, I think I think once we got to colander is clearly the well had run dry next next week. We'll do well, water.
Molly 44:26
Oh, good. No, but anyway, I think that we covered colanders. really well, and I think we don't have to do it again.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:32
Yeah, to be clear, we will be next neck backswing.
Unknown Speaker 44:36
Oh, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:39
To be scrupulously clear. We will be back next week.
Molly 44:44
All right. Our producer is Abigail Cerquitella. who wishes that we would maybe just do a last show
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:52
but can continue paying or salary. Okay, find us on Reddit. It's a great place to talk about the show with with like minded lives. nors that's reddit.com slash are slash everything spilled milk. people share cute animals with each other. Yeah, you can find all the stuff we said we linked linked to will be in the show notes in your podcast player, including a
Molly 45:13
link to our live show tonight. That's may 13.
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:16
Yeah, it if you're listening to it to this, it might not be too late. And if the live show is good, I think we'll probably publish it as an episode.
Molly 45:25
If it's bad. Well, we'll never speak of it again.
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:28
we'll toss it right. It'll be digital ash and a digital urn like that. Bright Eyes album.
Molly 45:34
Okay. Thank you for listening to spilled milk.
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:37
The show that goes into your ear, which then sieves out all the good stuff
Molly 45:43
from your ear or from the show.
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:45
I'm not sure like, I guess I guess I made it sound like you're just like it was your wax lumps.
Molly 45:50
I'm Molly weissenberg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:52
And I'm Matthew Amster-Burton. Oh,
Molly 46:00
hey, look, he's left a recording. I wonder what I'm going to do while he's gone. Maybe I'll sing a little song. I don't have a song in my heart today.
Did it beat it. Beat h