501: Cobblers
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:04
I'm Molly and I'm Matthew.
Molly 0:05
And this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all and you can't have any In fact, we've just done that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:12
We just did that we just ate it all.
Molly 0:14
Did today we're talking about cobblers yeah
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:17
This episode was suggested by listener Brandon not was not former spouse of the show Brandon
Molly 0:22
is it Brandon who is married to producer Abby?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:25
It's not that Brandon either.
Molly 0:26
Oh my god, there are a lot of Brandon's popular name. Yeah, we know at least at least three this listeners
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:31
know Brandon is one of the special ones.
Molly 0:33
Oh, okay, good. Good. Thank you listener Brandon. Matthew.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:38
Yes. Let's talk cobbler.
Molly 0:40
Let's talk cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:41
Interesting thing here. Yeah. Is when listener listener Brandon said in several good episodes, topic suggestions. And I was like cobblers, we should do that. But I don't know if Molly is a cobbler person. Like, I never made cobblers and I was surprised to learn that you are a cobbler.
Molly 0:56
Oh my god. I I I have eaten enough cobbler that I am a cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:01
Yeah. Is it true what they say about how the cobblers children never have shoes or something? What is that? Exactly what proverbs opposed to me. Oh, I
Molly 1:09
totally get it. Okay. You know, like how doctors never go to the doctor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:13
Okay. Yeah.
Molly 1:14
Or how like, if you're a contractor Your house is perpetually? Yeah, right. So true.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:21
What so what is our thing that we're neglecting?
Unknown Speaker 1:23
Oh,
Molly 1:25
if you are a podcaster
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:29
Yeah. Like, what are the podcasters kids lacking? headphones, headphones. That's right. Kids are always walking around with a with a pair of like, crushed air pods.
Molly 1:47
I love the idea that your kid is still walking around with like a boombox.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:52
No headphones at all. Just Just like a classic 80s boombox like so much plastic.
Molly 1:56
Yeah, so you actually wrote here on the memory lane segment of the agenda. I don't remember eating a cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:02
Well, I mean, I definitely have eaten a cobbler before but he did. I couldn't come up with any like specific cobbler memories, except I did. I don't remember like whether this cobbler was good or not. But I think years ago, why for the show, Laurie made a cobbler recipe where you kind of mix all the stuff together and the crust rises to the top. Hmm. Oh, yeah, you're heard of this.
Molly 2:22
I think this is a particular dessert.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:25
You may not even be
Molly 2:26
I'm not sure this counts as a cappella and
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:28
yet I said Oh, so you mean it cobbles itself and so we'd like Sint ever since then. We've been describing things as cobbling themselves
Molly 2:36
into things cobbled themselves. I think
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:38
I don't even know when we say it. I was trying to figure it out. But like, you know, anytime something happens automatically, I guess.
Molly 2:44
Okay. It cobbled itself, right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:47
Like, like the taxis in Japan where the door closes by itself. cobbled itself. Yeah.
Molly 2:53
Okay, that's cool. Okay, well, I have you know, I am here to bring to the table what you lack Matthew and vice versa. I've made a lot of cobblers
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:03
okay. Yeah, no, you so you're always bringing what I lack i think
Molly 3:07
that's that's, that's why this partnership has been so lasting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:11
Yeah, that's true.
Molly 3:12
Yeah. Because eventually it cobbles itself.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:15
That's right. You bring the biscuits and I'll just be like filling oozing underneath.
Molly 3:19
Yummy. Okay, so here's the thing. I remember making my first cobbler Wow, when I was still in high school, my senior year in particular, I had this group of guy friends. I think prior to my senior year it was more sort of like a random assortment of like mostly like female friends. Sure. But my senior year I started really having almost exclusively male best friends.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:44
Is this because you started making blueberry boy bait this what this is a real thing.
Molly 3:51
Is it like a like a chapstick or something? It's a fruit desert
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:56
Are you gonna chill I'm not I'm not joking at all like you know you know fruit desserts like for whatever reason and we're not going to do this thing where we talk about all of the names of the fruit desserts although sneak preview next week we are but but they're like you know fruit desserts are like an area of of cooking where where in English like they get funny name. So there's like the slobs and the buckles and the brown baddies. And there's blueberry boy bait I couldn't tell you like what it is or what distinguishes it from another one. I can't
Molly 4:21
believe you didn't research that for this episode.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:24
I mean, you did the research for this episode. But I can't believe you didn't research.
Molly 4:31
Well anyway. So I had this pack of guy friends and they all had like predictably guy friend name. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:37
like how you described them as a pack. Yeah. Chad and
Molly 4:41
well no, I bought them as a pack. It was like six for the price of one.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:44
Of course. They come with like a steel stick of gum like like baseball cards.
Molly 4:50
Yeah, no, I had a billy Robbie. Neil, although they weren't really close. Dustin and I weren't particularly close either. I would say Billy and Robbie were my two closest and then there was puffer who I wound up kiss. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:04
as we've talked about puffer Yeah. Are there any kids these days named Billy?
Molly 5:09
I don't think so.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:10
I mean, there's Billy I or there's Robbie. Billy has like has like crossed over the gender line.
Molly 5:16
I think that there are definitely female. Right. But yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:19
but Billy is such a great name for anybody, isn't it? Right?
Molly 5:22
I think he might go by William now on Instagram. He's William. He's an anesthesiologist. Sure.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:28
Yeah. I mean, even Billy Corgan tried to go by William for a while and it did not work.
Molly 5:36
Oh, my God. Okay. Well, anyway, all my guy friends were into things like Star Wars, which I still like made it into adulthood without seeing okay. Although I'm catching up now. All right, the way
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:49
Yeah, no, I'm not. You like to be like as advanced like Java today? No, you have to see all the Star Wars but I do not care.
Molly 5:55
Okay, great. So superior care.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:02
No, I mean, I do like a Star Wars movies. movie. I just don't want to be like one of those guys who's like, you know, you have to get into Star Wars.
Molly 6:08
Okay, we we were also all into like Shark Week.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:12
Oh, love shark. I
Molly 6:13
mean, I had really awesome guy friends. What else were we into? These are the these are the friends that I like went to bars. These are the friends I went to Brahms and Barnes and Noble with like, late at night.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:26
This sounds so great.
Molly 6:27
Except that at the time, I felt like such a fucking loser. You know, like, compared to like, I was doing exactly what I wanted to do, and hanging out with exactly the people I wanted to hang out with. But I felt like in some greater social sense. I was a fucking loser.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:43
Because you were like, comparing yourself to the popular kids. Yeah, of course. Yeah. No, I totally get that. I felt that way in high school too. And also and also like, looking back, like, you know, I was friends with like, theater kids and like, rock kids and stuff. Like, I would not have enjoyed being friends with the popular kids. And
Molly 7:00
and it's interesting because Okay, so what I'm about to say is that I remember having my friends over. So like all these guys, and then like a couple girls, at some point, like on a weekend, my senior year. They were over at night and I remember standing in the kitchen baking a rhubarb cobbler. Okay, which is what everyone does at age 18 when they've got all their friends over
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:21
what was everyone else in the kitchen with you like in the way the boys crowd into the kitchen?
Molly 7:25
You know, I'm embarrassed and disappointed to say that it was only the girls in the kitchen with me that gross?
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:31
Were they barefoot?
Molly 7:33
Probably and pregnant knows. But yeah, I feel disappointed in my guy friends looking back, like I feel disappointed in all of us that like we divided upon. Okay, well anyway, here's the thing like now, I really hope my kid grows up to be the kind of kid who has all their friends over and bakes a cobbler when she
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:54
tours. Oh, no, my kid has already done things like that. You have
Molly 7:57
raised them right? Yeah. Anyway, so I am still holding out hope for June. I think that I'm I think I've got are going in the right direction. Good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:06
Yeah. Okay. And definitely like it's up to you to mold your child into a specific type of person. That definitely will work.
Molly 8:13
Yeah. As an adult. My go to cobbler recipe for years has been one particular recipe. It comes from the Chez Panisse desserts cookbook, one particular cup, which I have actually brought with me today. Oh, okay. Wow,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:29
this is a reveal. I did not know Molly was was carrying this book. I know. Right? classic look at this
Molly 8:34
copy. This copy was given to be by my friend Hannah, who I met through flicker back in the old days.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:40
Ever flicker. Yeah. And
Molly 8:41
this copy belonged to her grandmother. And she mailed it to me one day and was like, I think this like should be yours. That is so sweet. Like the best thing ever. So I have raised
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:54
some media mail. As we call it back then book rate.
Molly 8:57
I aspire to be this kind of friend. Yeah. Anyway, so this cookbook, what a classic. It's fantastic. It's beautiful. I don't know if you noticed, but the illustrations are by Wayne Tebow.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:10
Oh, I even I know who that is.
Molly 9:12
I mean, like, this is legit. We got a cookbook with illustrations by Wayne TiVo. Yeah. Anyway. Alright. So here's the deal. I think I started making this particular cobbler recipe from this particular book easily 10 years ago.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:26
That seems relatively recent.
Molly 9:28
Well, but I don't know. I mean, I I'm only 42 so you made your first cobbler in high school. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:35
there was a long period look between your first cobbler and your first shape and nice desserts. I think what were you doing during during
Molly 9:41
that time? I think I was going down a real Francophile rabbit hole
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:45
and making cobbler
Molly 9:48
making tarts. Oh, yeah, things like that. So it's hard to I made a tart in probably a decade that I have made a shit ton of cobble,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:56
I've I've made a tart more recently than you
Molly 10:00
It's true. It's true. Anyway, you can see I mean, the book falls open to the berry cobbler page. Beautiful. And here's the thing. I have never made it exactly as it's written. It calls for boys and berries, blueberries and raspberries and it calls for them in pint measurements.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:16
Sure.
Molly 10:16
I have made it with all different kinds of berries never boys and berries though. And today I made it with strawberry rhubarb. But to me What's so special about it is it makes exactly the right amount. And the biscuit i think is a fantastic this is this is one of the best things you've brought over are hungry. Good. Okay, I was hungry too. But anyway, something that I particularly love about this is so it is so easy. It's basically like a cream biscuit. Yeah, so you got the dry ingredients. You rub some butter in you add whipped cream, the dough comes together really easily. And then you basically kind of like pull out lumps of it and flatten them to like a half inch disk. Yeah, and just lay those disks over the fruit.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:00
These are like free form biscuits. You didn't cut them out, but no
Molly 11:02
no freeform biscuits. And this is one of the first recipes that I ever successfully made with June when she was a toddler. Like when she didn't like this was a recipe where it didn't feel like I was just creating more work for myself by involving my child.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:18
Plus, you were like starting down the road of rolling or into a cobbler purse. Exactly.
Molly 11:22
Exactly. Because here's the thing anyway, when when you're doing the
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:28
podcast years kids don't have
Molly 11:32
when, when you go to to you know when you've got the dough for the topping. Yeah, you're basically just kind of smashing into these freeform discs and laying it over the fruit and what a perfect job for a toddler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:46
That's that's totally true. You just put your foot on my foot for the first time since we've been back in the studio. how interested so much anyway,
Molly 11:52
but what I wanted to say is that June, around that time started calling cobblers toddler. Oh, that's
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:59
so cute. It's
Molly 11:59
stuck for a long time. So every summer as you may or may not know about me, I get very excited when the blackberries are ripe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:09
I do seem to remember you you like experiencing some sort of blackberry arousal
Unknown Speaker 12:14
I do.
Molly 12:16
I have been doing this since June was of napping age, I remember when she would go down for a nap. I would basically like grab a Tupperware and go outside and sometimes walk like up to a block away like foraging for blackberries along the road we live on. Sorry I touch anyway, but so when I do that we always eat at least one if not to blackberry cobbler. Nice because I think there's nothing more perfect for a cobbler than like just a heaping pile of fresh blackberries.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:51
No boyson Berry is a kind of Blackberry. Right?
Molly 12:54
It is but it's it's a little bit more of like a maroon color like a red wine color.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:00
Or to the point it's not like growing for free without a block of your house.
Molly 13:03
That is correct. Okay. Yeah, I mean, blackberries around here are a menace. And people really do not mind if you just walk up and down the street like taking blackberries even off their property.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:15
Yeah, no, I'm I'm kind of scared of blackberry bushes lately.
Molly 13:18
You don't you don't like go into a blackberry like fugue like I do.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:23
I do not it's I mean, like, I just don't want to get like scraped up but but also like, I just don't go out like foraging for fruit as much as I should apparently.
Molly 13:32
Okay. Well, this, you're trying to do that. Okay. Okay. All right. Anything else you want to say about memory lane?
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:38
No, just cobbles itself was the main thing. Okay,
Molly 13:41
great. Okay. So what is cobbler? Please tell me. All right. So I basically just cut and pasted a bunch of stuff from Wikipedia, and then read some questions in response to Okay, okay, so Wikipedia says that a cobbler is a dessert consisting of a fruit or less commonly a savory filling. Interesting that is poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter biscuit or dumpling. In the UK, especially before being baked. Some cobbler recipes, especially in the American South, resemble a thick crusted deep dish pie with both a top and bottom crust never heard
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:19
of so. So that would just be like kind of a square pie. Or it doesn't have to be square like your
Molly 14:25
Yeah, I've never seen this. That
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:26
sounds It sounds like you're describing a pie.
Molly 14:30
Well, it sounds like I'm describing a pie that's got biscuits on the bottom on top.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:33
It's sort of like is it like you know, some some guy some horses have four wheels and that are made of metal.
Molly 14:41
I think that if we have any listeners in the American South, I would love to hear from them about whether or not they have encountered this kind of cobbler like a double crust cobbler and
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:51
also if we have any listeners in the south don't go anywhere because we have more questions for you next week.
Molly 14:56
Okay, great. So also from Wikipedia, cobbler is part of the cuisine of the United Kingdom and the United States and should not be confused with a crumble. Okay, under pain of death
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:08
we're watching series one of the Great British Bake Off which I had to download. I was gonna say I was trying to think of a cool word for illegally but I had to download illegally. The word that came to mind was listed obviously which is now what that means.
Molly 15:23
Anyway downloading it like Wow, well, yes, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:27
was I was like, I was like getting all turned on by the thought of these cobblers and they actually recorded an episode in the town of Bakewell and talked about Bakewell tarts and Bakewell puddings. But also they made a bunch of fruit desserts and like tried to sort of get into the distinctions and I was just thoroughly confused.
Molly 15:43
Okay, well, let's keep going. Let's keep going. So right off the bat, I mean, since Wikipedia is so insistent that a cobbler should not be confused with a crumble. I just want to set out here a definition that crisps and crumbles almost always include rolled oats in the topic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:01
Now I was told that one of those includes oats and the other one doesn't. My god, I make rhubarb crumble all all spring long, and I don't put out
Molly 16:11
so that's what I was gonna say. I think a crisp. Oh God I was doing mom's apple crisp. It doesn't have oats in it. What am I talking about?
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:20
Watson's apple crisp does have oats in it. I think just all of these terms can be used interchangeably. I
Molly 16:26
don't think so. So I think Chris, let's just forget about that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:29
I think it's just all a pie.
Molly 16:31
No, no. Now let's talk about crisps really quick because this is the cobbler episode. So I think of crisps as having a topping that is usually made by like kind of squeezing dry ingredients together until it's kind of lumpy and you sprinkle it over the top and often has oats. Okay. I think of a crumble as being truly like a streusel topping.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:55
Now I know that a streusel is like a sweet crunchy topping, but I don't really know what makes it a streusel. Do you? Didn't we do a streusel episode maybe? Do we do a whole
Molly 17:06
episode here. I would like to refer all our listeners to the book classic German baking by Louisa Whitehead. Perfect, which goes deep on streusel. So just you know, ignore us. Let's get back to cobblers.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:16
Yeah, let's go back to copper.
Molly 17:17
So basically. Okay, I want to pause for a second here before we move on in our definition of cobbler to talk about this idea of a savory cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:25
Yes. As soon as you said that. I was like, Huh, that sounds interesting.
Molly 17:29
Well, so I started it first I wrote on the agenda like savory cobbler. WTF. Yeah. And then I went back and toned it down to what
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:37
the thank you for toning it down.
Molly 17:40
So because I realized even as I was typing the WTF that like, I think of chicken pot pie is a savory cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:48
I think you're right, because it's like, a dumpling. Yeah, there's like biscuits on top of stuff.
Molly 17:53
Yeah. Also, I remembered that I've seen recipes for like a tomato cobbler. Even in like, like recent cookbooks.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:03
So you know, like tomato is really a fruit.
Molly 18:06
I did. June just told me that the other day too.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:09
I try. I tried to do the voice of like a kid who thinks they're going to teach you something.
Molly 18:13
She also told me that about avocado. So there's also a thing as like a tomato cobbler and here check this out. This sounds really good. So often there is cheese and or cornmeal in the biscuit topic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:27
You know what I tell me? Good. There was years ago, there was a cookbook called pot pies. And I haven't made it in a while but I made this dish where it's like chili on the bottom and like a like a cornmeal biscuit on top. I think that sounds like a cobbler sounds like a savory cobbler.
Molly 18:43
It does. I think that God that's fantastic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:46
Yeah, really good.
Molly 18:47
And then also, you know, the more I started thinking about it in the UK, you know, they're like lamb pies, mutton pies. Often these have apparently according to Wikipedia, like a scone type toppings. So maybe a biscuit type topping but maybe a little bit with a little bit less fat in it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:05
All right. Sounds good. Doesn't that button i don't think i have
Molly 19:10
i don't think i've had mutton either. Anyway, so that that hopefully will allow us to all understand what the idea of a savory cobbler might be. Alright, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:19
can we do like a follow up savory cobblers episode we do. We do a Popeye episode. I think we did.
Molly 19:25
Yeah, but can we do like a savory cobblers and like maybe I'll do a tomato cobbler. And you could do like this
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:29
chili. Oh, yeah.
Molly 19:31
Let's do it to air like in October or something like that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:35
And we open like a shop called the savory cobbler and you can hear and
Molly 19:40
move down. Yeah, the agenda.
cobblers originated in what Wikipedia refers to as the British American colonies, so they weren't any more specific than that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:57
So my could have been anywhere from like Maine to Virginia
Molly 20:02
well I think British I mean, if you're thinking American as in like North American It could also be Canada.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:07
It could also be Canada. That's true.
Molly 20:09
See, anyway, English settlers. This again is according to Wikipedia, and I don't know what the hell they're talking about English settlers couldn't make their traditional sweat puddings because they didn't have the right ingredient IANA and equipment. So instead, they covered a stewed filling with a layer of uncooked plain biscuits, scone batter or dumplings fitted together.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:30
And then did they bake it? Or did they just eat hybrid dough?
Molly 20:33
I believe they baked
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:34
the Seward puddings I find very puzzling.
Molly 20:37
So why wouldn't they have had what they needed for Sue it puddings don't just need an animal for Sue it. Oh, yeah, you
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:43
need you need a beef and like a bowl to steam it in. Right?
Molly 20:47
How is Sue it putting different like, extract it? Like let's say that you've got a big beef. Okay, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:54
I have a big beef with
Molly 20:55
this. Let's say that you cut like some some pure fat off of a part of it the way that you might be able to take like backfat from a pig. Yes. Can you do this from a cow?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:04
Yeah, I mean, they I'm sure they had access to sue it if they had if they
Molly 21:09
had Why didn't they just like rub it into some flour? Can you not do that with su it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:13
You can? I do not know what that means? Great.
Molly 21:17
Thanks, Wikipedia.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:19
Anyway, yes, ingredients and equipment. Okay.
Molly 21:22
Yeah, I know. perplexed by that. I was also a little perplexed by the reference to a stewed filling that gets covered with a layer of biscuits, because I've never stewed or otherwise pre cooked a fruit cobbler filling. I can imagine doing that if you're doing a savory cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:39
Well, but I feel like this could mean it could mean a couple different things either that people like their cobblers mushy or in the past and so they did pre cook the filling or just that they're considering the cooking that happens along with the topping to be stewing.
Molly 21:51
Maybe I can. I can imagine how if you're making you know, we'll get to this later, but I've never actually made an apple cobbler.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:58
Okay, and you made a Apple brown Betty? No. And I but I can imagine that you might have to, or it might be best if you pre cook the apple maybe I feel like what we're sort of saying is that people will combine fruit and dough in any way you can possibly imagine whether it makes sense or not. There's probably there's probably one of these things where people like inject dough into the center of a hollowed out fruit and bake that
Molly 22:23
I can't wait to find out. Okay, cobblers and crumbles are promoted by the Ministry of Food. Wikipedia didn't say whether this what country's Ministry of Food this was this
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:36
was this was in the book 1984 it was it was Orwellian, but that's the kind of by definition,
Molly 22:44
has the US ever had a ministry of food with the soup in the UK?
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:47
It would have been the UK. Okay,
Molly 22:49
so apparently cobblers do have an FDA, FDA,
cobblers and crumbles were promoted by the Ministry of Food during World War Two, because they're filling but they require less butter than a traditional pastry and can be made with margarine.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:01
Okay, they were talking on Bake Off about how like stewed puddings were like a like a savior of the Industrial Revolution because like people didn't have enough food, but then there was stewed pudding. I wasn't super paying attention during that part of the show. I Never mind that.
Molly 23:16
Anyway, according to Wikipedia, which I'm really having some big beefs with today cobblers are usually made with a single type of fruit, though I have never thought of them that
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:25
What about bumbleberry?
Molly 23:27
Here, here is where I think we're going to get some important information. Okay. Okay. cobblers are always baked in the oven. Not on the stove. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:35
put that fact in your hat and keep it there until next week.
Molly 23:39
Okay, Grant. Now it's time for Mr. Etymology.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:43
Abby, can you play that Mr. Etymology theme please.
Molly 23:51
The name cobbler was first recorded in 1859. But its origin is uncertain. It may be related to an archaic word for wooden bowl. I'm not sure what that archaic word
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:03
was. cob. cobbler.
Molly 24:07
Others say it might come from the fact that the topping looks like a cobbled stone pathway a duck right? Yeah, as opposed to imagine like a rolled out pastry dough that's like a smooth path pathway so that that's why that's why pastries that use like a rolled out pastry dough are called smoothies. These are called
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:30
cobblestones are funny if you think about it, because like they're so it's so appealing, like to think of like a cobblestone pathway. But it's like the kind of the worst thing you can use to pave a path or
Molly 24:42
like really hard on wheels and
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:44
accent feet and wheelchairs and like anything that wants to use the pathway for like transportation. But it
Molly 24:53
looks pretty to look at. So Matthew, what do you look for in a cop?
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:59
I Whatever the thing you made this morning and brought over that is what I look forward to copper I want I want the top to look like a like a quaint cobblestone pathway in an English garden. I want there to be some some stewed single fruit underneath or multiple fruits. Whatever floats your boat.
Molly 25:16
Okay. All right. I want a topping that is formed in like discrete lumps or biscuit shaped. I like that too. Yeah. And ideally I want it to be like an actual biscuit kind of dough with minimal sugar.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:30
Yeah, and the fact that you sit you serve me like one biscuit underneath was super satisfying.
Molly 25:36
Yeah, I don't want a cakey topping. Sometimes people make a batter that's more like a cake batter and dollop it on top. Like you can imagine it makes the use or dollops and spreads more to look like in cake top and i i don't like the flavor of it. And I don't like the texture of it nearly as much because I like the way the biscuit is a little bit dry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:56
Yeah, but the handling is very moist,
Molly 25:59
the like the Stewie filling and then especially if you are serving it with cream, which we're going to talk about in a minute. Yes. So anyway, I also did
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:08
like when you said looser dollops, that was a very nice phrase.
Molly 26:11
Thank you. Thank you. I'm fine with a single fruit, but I do tend to make my cobblers with multiple fruits. Okay, I think especially berries like like, I think blueberries and I don't know, I think this is going to come up in next week's episode. But I think blueberries some blueberries are just like kind of sweet and don't have enough tannins and I scan I got good blueberry.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:31
Okay, we'll see. I mean, I do also have some raspberries that I could throw in if you think I should. Oh,
Molly 26:35
that would be fun. I always love combining blueberries and raspberries. Okay, well, anyway. Alright, so Matthew, let's get into what types of cobblers we like to make? What have you made?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:45
I've never made a cobbler unless you count that that chilli cobbler.
Molly 26:48
Okay, okay, great.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:50
So chili is my answer. Great. Okay,
Molly 26:53
well cobblers I have made well, we've already discussed Blackberry. Yeah, we've already discussed the shape Penny's desserts, berry cobbler. Although I don't make it with boys and berries. I usually do a mixture of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. Hi, I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:05
berry cobbler. My kids don't have shoes. Or, or headphones. But they're doing fine. You like to bake with their friends.
Molly 27:17
Oh, anyway, um, I have also made apricots Blackberry, which was pretty nice. Okay, that's it. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:23
can I can taste that with my mind's tongue.
Molly 27:26
This one is a strawberry rhubarb. I've also made just straight up rhubarb.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:29
Yeah, this is really good. I'm sometimes kind of skeptical of strawberry rhubarb. Because I'm like, why does rhubarb need a strawberry? But this is this was so good.
Molly 27:36
Good. Okay. cobblers that are common but have not been made by me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:40
Okay, is this a new segment?
Molly 27:43
Okay, peach. I've never made a peach cobbler. All right. I don't really like peach baked goods. Do I like really like peach flavored things?
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:52
Yeah, like I want just like a good peach to eat over the sink.
Unknown Speaker 27:56
Yeah.
Molly 27:57
I mean, I won't like throw it out. I do like canned peaches.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:02
Sometimes like it can't be especially if it's like ice cold.
Molly 28:05
That's great. Okay, but anyway, I don't really ever tend to make peach baked goods. I just want to eat my peaches. apple cobbler. also super common never been made by me. All right. I bet apricots and raspberry would be nice, but I've never made it sounds nice. And peach and raspberry i think is kind of a classic never been made by me.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:23
All right. Yeah. Are there any other cobblers that have never been made by you? Well, we'll get back to this side a future episode. This is our new segment.
Molly 28:30
Okay, great. All right, Matthew. What What do you like to serve with a cobbler all the times that you've not made or eaten cobbler?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:37
I was a little surprised what happened here because I whipped some cream before you came over and we are going to use that whipped cream on next next week's episode. But so I said should should we put some whipped cream on this cobbler and you were like no, let's pour just cold cream. Yeah, not Pons. cold cream now cold whipped cream.
Molly 28:55
And it's interesting. I whenever I think of it, I think of it as like cold cream. I don't just think of it as like, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:01
I like I like that phrase.
Molly 29:03
Anyway, I so a million years ago, when Brandon was a lunch cook at both street kitchen here in Seattle. We we learned a lot from Brandon cooking at both street kitchen and one of the things one of the like little tricks we picked up was how good like just plain old cream is poured on top of a dessert particularly a fruit dessert now
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:26
do you like this was just kind of boring like ultra pasteurized dairy gold cream Do you think like do you like look for a special cream?
Molly 29:33
I don't because I am the kind of person who is skeeved out by dairy that tastes to dairy. Okay, so no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:39
I mean I do I do think any cream is good.
Molly 29:42
Yeah. So what I like about this as opposed to whipped cream is the way that it like kind of begins to soak into things. The way in which it it just kind of spreads itself more evenly than whipped cream does. I also like that like as opposed to ice cream. cream. It's not sweet. Yeah, I love pouring just like straight out of the fridge cold cream on any kind of fruit dessert.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:07
Now I do kind of wonder like, last, when what would this have been maybe last summer sometime? I had my first experience of apple pie with chatter. Hmm. And I wonder if like an apple cobbler with cheddar would be going. I thought it was
Molly 30:24
like a cheddar biscuit. Oh, yeah. Wouldn't it be good? I mean, I think like I could make what if what if I made like a really good apple sauce that maybe you know was kind of chunky? And then made like a cheddar biscuit and baked those.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:39
That sounds great. Right? That'd be delicious. Coming back tomorrow.
Molly 30:43
Yeah, I'll be back tomorrow. Okay, Matthew, I think this wraps up our cobbler segment.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:47
I love this. I
Molly 30:49
mean, our our cobbler segment.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:52
Yes. No, this. This episode is like eating its own tail and oroboros like the episode has become the segment.
Molly 31:00
Yeah, I was trying to find a way to work this back into like not having any issues or headphones.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:04
But what it does the entire show like all 502 episodes, that's the show and each episode is a segment. Like it's like it's a gigantic like millipede. Wow, this is arthropod and all our weight. If we back up further, this whole time we've been doing the show is just like one segment of our lives. To be fair, it's like by far the longest.
Molly 31:29
It's like the thorax.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:31
thorax of our ally. Yeah. All right. Okay. Okay. Um, let's, let's go ahead and move on into segments.
Molly 31:39
segment. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:41
All right. Let's move down into the abdomen. Okay.
I am so excited for this event. I don't know if we're gonna have a good answer to this question. Okay. This is from listener May, longtime listener from China.
Molly 31:59
Hello listener May.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:00
I traveled back to China in December 2019 and was unable to come back to the US until recently, while I was spending most of the time binge eating or old episodes to ease my anxiety. During the lockdown. I was also doing a ton of online shopping on Taobao. Taobao is the largest e commerce website where you can basically buy anything, it is just like eBay, but the Asian version, there are lots of interesting food items that popped up in 2020. Anyway, there is a household brand called by now translated to white cat that has been established for a long time, my family used to use their lemon flavored dish soap, they launched a soda in the same sound as their beloved detergent. I'm wondering if you were to choose one cent from one brand to flavor a soda? What would you choose?
Molly 32:41
Oh my god, I love this question. listener.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:44
ground rules have to be like this. It can't be like a food set, right? No,
Molly 32:48
no, this has to be. Well, this is like a lemon dish soap that was turned into a soda. It can't be like we have to think of a cleaning product.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:58
Right? Oh, has to be a cleaning product? Well, I think so. Okay, all right. Because I the first thing that came to mind for me was gasoline, which is not a cleaning product, but I would drink a gasoline.
Molly 33:09
I love the smell of gasoline.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:11
Yeah. And just think of like how well it would work as an energy drink.
Molly 33:16
Yes,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:17
it will do for you what gasoline does for a car?
Molly 33:19
You know what, actually, if we're going down this line, I'm gonna say rubber cement.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:26
Oh,
Molly 33:27
wow. Because I cannot get enough of this smell of rubber cement. We have some and if I look oh my god. Yes. No, I can't imagine like consuming it. Like, like, have you ever noticed that? So I don't really like scotch. Especially when I was working in the restaurant world. And I would like you know, encounter scotch that I otherwise would never encounter because I don't keep it in my house. I could never get over the fact that Petey scotches smell like Sharpies like they smell exactly like Sharpies. Like I can't imagine consuming that flavor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:04
Yeah, I don't like the Sharpie smell.
Molly 34:06
So I'm not sure if I really want actually to consume a rubber cement smell.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:12
Okay, you know what soda I would try? Is Dove soap flavored So, like the taste like the smell like it tastes like a soap smells smiled Dove soap smell. Okay. That's a good idea. What about like, like, the smell of fresh hay? Again, I know it's not a cleaning product.
Molly 34:32
I smell a lot of fresh hay because we have a guinea pig.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:35
Okay,
Molly 34:36
I'm over it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:38
I just sort of it's the smell of a guinea pig.
Molly 34:42
Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:43
ah,
Molly 34:43
gosh. Hold on. Just give me a second.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:45
Yeah. What about a soda? What about a crossover between like a soda brand and the makers of like the the car air freshener that looks like a tree?
Molly 34:53
I hate that. I hate that stuff. What about tide detergent?
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:59
Oh, We would end up here Yeah,
Molly 35:01
yeah tide detergent says to me like you are loved.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:05
What about not the detergent? But oh wait, what about dryer sheets? I don't even use dryer sheets. I don't think they really do anything and yet yeah, like when I take someone else's clothes out of the dryer, the dryer sheet dryer she'd like, you know, you know I'm stiff in that dryers. Yeah, you're
Molly 35:21
huffing that dryer sheet. Maybe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:24
Like heartland
Molly 35:28
I love the smell of it. nibbling
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:30
hotlink coke. Alright, I still haven't gotten that Cherry Coke we were talking about. We should go get a cherry coke.
Molly 35:36
Okay. It's my week to do now. But Wow.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:39
Yeah.
Molly 35:47
So this week, I'm breaking the rules a little bit. Okay. So this week, I want to talk up a short story collection that I actually have not gotten my hands on yet.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:55
All right, that's fair.
Molly 35:56
for no other reason. Then I want to buy it in an actual bookstore. I don't want to order it online. So I keep meaning to stop at the bookstore. But I want to get Brandon Taylor's new short story collection filthy animals that
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:07
listener Brandon.
Molly 36:09
That's not listener, Brandon.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:10
But do we know that for sure.
Molly 36:12
No, we don't. But I doubt Brandon Taylor listens to this podcast. He's got better things to do. Anyway, Brandon Taylor is the author of real life, which I imagine some of our listeners have read. It came out in 2020. I'm pretty sure. Nominated for a ton of awards. To be honest, I didn't love real life.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:32
Is it also a short story collection? Or no, it's okay.
Molly 36:34
I didn't love it. I didn't finish it. But I love the name filthy animal. Yeah. And I love reading anything like like a shorter form essay or a tweet or even an Instagram caption written by Brandon Taylor. Okay, so I'm looking forward to checking out this short story collection filthy animals. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:53
think we should all strive to be filthy animals at least. Right? Absolutely. Okay. Our producer is Abbi, sir. catella. Please rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. You can talk to other people who listen to the show and on our Reddit it's reddit.com slash are slash everything spilled milk. And until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk. The
Molly 37:12
show that will limpin down the cobblestone street of your heart.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:20
I'm Matthew Amster-Burton.
Molly 37:22
I'm Molly weissenberg.
All right, I like to hit it like that. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:31
let's hit it like
Molly 37:33
we taste it first. To make sure it's not okay. gonna kill you.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:38
Make sure you hit it and quit. Yeah.