519: Plums

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 it all and you can't have any and today

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:11

we're talking about plums. Yay.

Is this is this like our post Thanksgiving episode?

Molly 0:18

No, this is pre Thanks. Okay. Yeah. And I mean we are taping this on Labor Day. We're we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:26

cuz I think we also have pears coming up. I think we're gonna complete the pernis trifecta.

Molly 0:32

Yeah, this episode is gonna air after fresh plum season is over. But you know what, it's just going to give you so much to look forward to,

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:41

but you know, it's always fresh print season.

Molly 0:43

That's true.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:45

We're eating a plum cake by the way. All right.

Molly 0:48

Well, I've got some stuff to say about plums. Okay, here we go down memory lane. Mo weisenberg. creator of altoids was not just an end dive man. He was also a plumb man.

Matthew Amster-Burton 0:58

Do you think if we repeat this altoids lie enough times people will believe it. I hope somebody

Molly 1:03

put it on Wikipedia. So I think if my dad as loving plums, and I don't just think of him this way he was this way. And he's not here to dispute

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:15

it. Are you sure this isn't one of those those flashbulb memories that said particularly prone to, to like, incorrect

Molly 1:23

remedies. pipe up to prove me wrong, because I don't think my half siblings listened to this show. Right?

Matthew Amster-Burton 1:29

And so, I mean, and my dad's like,

Molly 1:36

let's spread a whole bunch of lies about my dad and plums. Okay, let's do it. No, but anyway, really. I remember my dad introducing me to like the joys of eating a black plum. I just remembered this being like, you know, he like really got a lot of pleasure out of like, introducing his kid things he thought were delicious. Oh, I hate doing that. Yeah. So anyway, black plums. I remember eating with him. And it's interesting. I was in the grocery store with June the other day and she saw black plums and she she really was curious about what color they are inside. That was a fun thing to try to describe.

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:19

I mean are they sometimes kind of like like dark and rosy and sometimes were yellow ish almost like a sunset in there it is. It is kind of like a sunset. Yeah, you're right.

Molly 2:28

I now. Anyway, I've always really enjoyed plums that said, I don't buy them or eat them very much. I

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:37

don't buy this old plum thing.

Molly 2:40

I always make plum jam. I do it every fall. I always make like a plum cake. And occasionally I've made a plum crumble. crumble a plum ball we

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:53

call it Okay, what

Molly 2:54

about you? What about your memory lane?

Matthew Amster-Burton 2:56

So I wanna I want to like be able to visualize a little more of the scene of like, where your dad is introducing you to to dark plum black plums, like city have them in a bag and he like pulled it out of the bag with a flourish.

Molly 3:07

Oh God, you sound like me trying to teach writing.

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:12

That's right. Like, what are the

Molly 3:15

details here? Like what do you think he would have said? Can we get some dialogue here? So we only had Safeway, Safeway, it was our nearby grocery stores and it was called homeland. I'm pretty sure that he bought these plums at homeland and I think he probably brought them home and introduced them to me and my dad would bite into the plum as opposed to cutting it up

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:38

before handing it to you.

Molly 3:40

Yeah, that's right. Okay, okay.

Matthew Amster-Burton 3:44

I definitely ate plums as a kid I don't have much plum memory lane. But I do I do remember like as a kid like the sort of the feeling of like dragging the skin off of the plum with your teeth. And and that they were they were like denser than a peach but not as dense as an apricots

Molly 4:03

what color plums which you have their

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:06

arms with us with a sunset on the inside? I don't really remember Red Red plums from being a kid.

Molly 4:12

Do you remember the advent of like plots?

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:15

I remember advent calendars.

Molly 4:17

Do you remember like, like the dinosaur? pluot like remember when those came on?

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:22

I feel like we were already adults. By then. I mean now mature adults

Molly 4:26

know. Let's be real.

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:29

But yes, I do. I do remember when plots appear and those are good. Like Yeah, like have plots, like the plot trend kind of peaked because I don't think about plots

Molly 4:40

right? I feel bad for whoever's in charge of marketing plots because they're failing

Matthew Amster-Burton 4:45

I also I also run around before there were plots there were plum cots, which I think is like a different hybrid and I found pluots came out I feel like did they just like drop some characters from plum cod and make it harder to say cuz like, I feel like plum cod is more fun to say. Then pluot which like I feel like my mouth sort of just yeah but blue eyes in the middle

Molly 5:04

fluid is where like like pluot for me is what comes first to mind and I think they're better clumped

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:12

when they come and try to call the plump clots that was a real bad move in that marketing department. Okay, so yes anyway as a kid like I feel like there are a bunch of fruits that I ate as a kid because my parents told me to eat a piece of fruit that I don't like very much anymore kid I still I love fruit I want to be a fruit person I'm just not I love

Molly 5:35

fruit so much in the summer it's the first thing I eat each day I ripe nectarine and my cup of

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:41

coffee Can you teach me how to be more like you're doing just fine

Molly 5:46

oh you're doing just fine but yeah, as a kid I remember thinking like I don't understand what this category of food is and why people eat it

Matthew Amster-Burton 5:54

like I'm worried that we've like gone past the the cliff of like all of the foods that I like eat and have an opinion of

Molly 6:02

the rest of all our episodes however many we have in the future will all be foods where Matthews like yeah, having

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:09

said that I do like this plum cake and I did some plum research great, tell me all about it. Okay, so we are back to genus pernis. These are very closely related to peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and the like. And some of this is going to be very familiar if you listen to our apricots episode because like an apricot plum is a stone fruit or droop, which is a fleshy fruit that surrounds a single armored seed.

Molly 6:33

Oh that's like me Yeah. Just

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:36

what what what is your What is your

Molly 6:40

fleshy fruit? Yeah, and my armored seed is it just is it just like your backbone? It's my black heart.

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:50

Okay,

Molly 6:50

but but in my What else would it be? Well, it's my ovaries. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matthew Amster-Burton 6:59

Right, what's read both of them? And we'll have to find a new video. Like, I was talking to two teenager the show December about how much I love a villain where where like, where the villain is just evil because they want to do one really dumb evil thing that everyone in the world could agree is evil. Like Cruella de Vil is kind of my favorite villain because all he wants to do is make a code out of Buffy and Hannibal Lecter is kind of vague like he just wants to eat people. Like it's so easy to understand

Molly 7:37

like to be so single minded right in here like you're you're just

Matthew Amster-Burton 7:41

like if you're if you're just the ovary mind Sure. Like you could probably get a whole HBO series

Molly 7:49

I think there's probably already been in the series I think it's called porn.

Matthew Amster-Burton 7:56

Okay, wait Wait Is there a genre of porn where you just kind of go so deep every munchin that you that you're like

Molly 8:06

is a real subset of lesbian porn

Matthew Amster-Burton 8:10

okay because because that's that's where where my luckily where my mind went also like a quickly like we did a 180 from like a horror movie to like something very essential. Okay, so a plumber is a drip like you and mature plums usually have a natural waxy coating

Molly 8:31

Oh is that natural and always feel so weird and grow

Matthew Amster-Burton 8:34

Okay, well I mean a plump I don't know if plums are given like an artificial wax coating which many fruits are but like when you go to the farmers market you'll see like blushy ashy plums and that is a natural wax

Molly 8:47

so john and i were at PCC recently and you can you know kids can get pick out like a free piece of free rice and she picked out a red plum and hers was so waxy and she was like completely undeterred by it like didn't even seem to notice that this plum felt like it had been I don't know rolled in somebodies pot of chapstick like it fell into a band the Yankee Candle fat it was disgusting and June loved

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:15

it. I don't know like if I had to guess I would say PCC probably has a policy against waxing fruits but I don't know like I guess there are some fruits that were just like maybe

Molly 9:24

maybe that was epic cuticular wax.

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:28

It might have been that that's what it's called. So it's the wax that surrounds the cuticle of the plant. Well you well you pronounce it epicuticular wax. Wow, that's tough. And lots of different plants make it so but I mean I like that look of like a dark plum that has like that silvery gray blush

Molly 9:45

I think of that is purely on prune plums or Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 9:49

and plums which we're going to talk about quite a bit great go on. And okay, so unlike the peach and nectarine which is always prunus persica, but like the apricots we eat several distinct species of plums all of which are in the prunus genus and plums are fairly diverse. Yeah, genus. Yeah. So many of the plums we eat including the prune plum, your your dad's favorite black plums, green gauges, damsons,

Molly 10:14

damsons being the tiny little one, right?

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:16

Those are all prunus domestica. And none none of the plums that we eat are very similar to wild plums. Like they're all heavily domesticated. Okay. prunus cela Sina is native to China. And my impression although I am not positive is that when you see like the really small round plums, like at the farmers market, that those tend to be this species is that like mer farm Taki Oh, I wanted to talk about Mira farm talk if you want to.

Molly 10:43

Well, you you might know more about it than I do. But

Matthew Amster-Burton 10:47

I mean, I interviewed Taki A while back well, what long while

Molly 10:51

but he is a grower in Washington, Western Washington. Yeah. growing in particular, a wide variety of plums.

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:01

Yeah, I mean, metaphoric talkies is a real like stage treasure.

Molly 11:05

Oh, big time. I mean, he is growing things that no one else grows for.

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:11

Ginger, like all kinds of Japanese and other Asian vegetables. Japanese bread over Yes. Incredible profusion of plots,

Molly 11:19

okay. And also he grows I believe all the fruit used by Ayako and families to make make their jams.

Matthew Amster-Burton 11:29

Okay, so that that is really like a wonderful local ecosystem. It really is. So there's lots of different palm trees summer grand for fruit summer for ornamental blossoms, like plum blossoms are really big in Japan. And plums have been cultivated by humans for a really long time, like 1000s of years. And I was very pleased to see on the Wikipedia page for plums that listener can obala is not exactly quoted, but it says according to Ken albala plums originated in Iran and were brought to Britain from Asia. Okay. And if you want to know more about the botany of plums, it's all exactly the same as apricots. So see Episode 505.

Molly 12:06

Great. All right, so I understand we might have a visit from Mr. Etymology today.

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:11

Oh, who's that? coming through the door? I

Molly 12:13

am Mr. Etymology,

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:16

I'm in the new song. Words, words, words, and then you whisper Mister, mister.

So, the word plumb is a doublet of the word proof. What does that mean? I was not familiar with the term doublet, although it sounds like some sort of archaic like, garment, right?

Molly 12:42

Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, but Sure. Like a singlet something like Yes. That's like what you were when you're wrestling,

Matthew Amster-Burton 12:51

right. So who would be if you were to have that, right? Yes, I'm wrestling I always double up during COVID times you should definitely wrestle you should double up on your singlet and wear a double. A doublet is when two words in a language come from the same etymological root via different paths. I was hoping to come up with like the full story on how this happened for plum and prune, and I didn't really find both of the paths, but the original word in Latin was Poonam, which became a pluma in proto Germanic and plume in Old English, but the word prune at the same time was retained and referred to both a plum that can be dried without spoiling and the dried plum itself of course. So this this word, like bifurcated the word in Latin bifurcated and came into English twice as two different words that mean kind of the same thing at sound kind of the same interest. Isn't that interesting?

Molly 13:49

I mean, not really.

Matthew Amster-Burton 13:50

I think it I, I'm mister etymology this week, and I think it is.

Molly 13:55

Okay. Okay. So have you noticed the increase in maybe we talked about this on the prune episode.

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:04

100 episodes ago literally.

Molly 14:05

Do you remember us discussing how they increasingly call prunes? Dried plums, and I find this sad as though prunes were not, but delicious sound.

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:17

Okay, a couple things about that. First of all, I came when I was thinking about this last night, I came up with a great slogan for dried plums, which is dried plums. Have you tried some? Huh? Okay. It's a great slogan. But I think they failed in the in the dried plum effort. I mean, I think they got a lot of press at the time when they announced prunes are now dried plums. We're gonna try and make this happen, but they didn't make it happen. like nobody calls them dried plums. Everyone still calls them prunes. And it's fine. Yeah, right. No,

Molly 14:45

it's it's great. Everything's great.

Matthew Amster-Burton 14:47

I mean, I do think we talked about that in like 2013 when we did the prune episode, and now like nothing here. Well, I mean, I think maybe at the time, it seemed like like you could still find like a package. That's Dried plums on it, but I don't think anymore.

Molly 15:02

Oh, I for sure think oh well Matthew is consulting the closet.

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:08

Okay so that's called the root cellar and I've got I got a Kroger prunes package here and you're right, it does say dried plums in tiny print under the word prunes, which is giant. Okay, so So yeah, no I was I was thinking it wouldn't be there at all so so I guess we're like 90% of the way to killing the dry the word term dried plums.

Molly 15:28

Okay, let's forge onward for that final 10%

Matthew Amster-Burton 15:33

Alright, so um plums are a fairly popular fruit. And this got me and wife of the show Laurie into a serious discussion about like, what determines whether something is a popular fruit is it like whether people eat it out of hand a lot, or whether we grow a lot of it? Because those are very different question. Yeah, yeah. So the the two most popular fruits in terms of total cultivation, if you're wondering, are bananas and watermelons.

Molly 15:57

Really? Yeah. That's very interesting. And and

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:01

Hillary said, Well, well, of course, watermelons they're really heavy. And I'm like, that doesn't necessarily mean they're popular.

Molly 16:07

Wait, wait, wait, it was Laurie thinking that like if we're going by total weight, like mass produced, like mass? Yeah, I've told I've said

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:16

mass and she made fun of me for saying mass instead of weight. Fine. So yeah, now I'm gonna pass that off.

Molly 16:23

I really love your pillow talk.

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:26

Yeah, this was this was all on the pillows. I was on the pillows here. We made a big pillar for for this conversation.

Molly 16:32

Go on. Um,

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:35

so Okay, so plums are less less grown than papayas. But more than strawberries, okay. Which was surprised because strawberries are seem like a very popular fruit, right. But I think the thing about strawberries is like they're less likely to be dried or made into brandy, which prop plums are very likely to do banana

Molly 16:54

is likely to be done with, I think it's likely to be done with banana it is

Matthew Amster-Burton 16:58

likely to be done with bananas, because I think that the first thought was maybe bananas are like combined with plantations. And it's like a staple food, but no plantains are listed separately in the list that I found. Okay. Um, I don't know. I think people just eat a lot of banana.

Molly 17:13

Wow, somebody out there is eating my share. I don't eat a lot of bananas.

Matthew Amster-Burton 17:18

I do like bananas. I mean, I don't Yeah, I don't know how I'm doing that part. I don't know. Like, what what, like the the, you know, per capita consumption of bananas or plums is for that matter? Okay. Okay, so yeah, so a lot of plums are used to make slivovitz. And similar brandies in Eastern Europe. I remember when I was a kid, memory lane. It's back. Okay, just reopened. It's gonna be shut down again. Just a minute. When I was a kid, every Christmas my dad, my mom would get my dad a bottle of Christmas booze, and she would always pick something interesting and what I remember one one year it was a slivovitz and I would always get a taste

Molly 17:56

Christmas booze. Yeah, okay, I sort of even remember what it tasted like what was it like Was there anything plummy about it? Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:05

there there was like so I mean, it was a pretty strong brandy with so so like it most you know, because I was kidding mostly tasted like alcohol but like with some lingering plum flavor.

Molly 18:17

Have you ever had va pollun? No, I've heard of it. That is That tastes like grandmas are moire and it's delicious.

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:27

But I thought grandma's arm where was a type of variety of apples? No tomato sorry. No,

Molly 18:33

that was grandma's recliner. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, um Oh, VA plane is delicious. It's really good. And I think I've had it twice in my life. Okay,

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:44

I want to try it sometime.

Molly 18:45

I think it's probably going to be really expensive. We can find it Yeah, maybe we can go in on it together and give it to each other as to each other as a Christmas boos

Matthew Amster-Burton 18:56

Okay. All right. Christmas is coming up soon. Yeah, by the time you hear this episode, it'll be quite sad.

I had a question. This is another thing that we were wondering about during plumb pillow talk. Okay. I mean, first of all, like what do you and your spouse talk about during plumb pillow talk?

Molly 19:20

Well, let's see here. Oh, last night, I told my spouse about the bonus episode you and I taped yesterday I was retelling jokes. Always a successful pillow talk.

Matthew Amster-Burton 19:39

I think you're right. You ought to hear a joke I made earlier today. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's gonna be a good episode.

Molly 19:46

I think it is too. I we were talking about the parachuting part of it.

Matthew Amster-Burton 19:49

Oh yes.

Molly 19:52

If you want to know what we're talking about, become a subscriber, you know, like a monthly donation subscriber to the show.

Matthew Amster-Burton 20:00

Become a monthly donation subscribers Bilbo podcast calm slash donate we claimed that we only we only bug you about this once a year but it turned out we lied whoops okay go on that alright so oh my actual question was and I don't know the answer to this like right now it is plum season it's late summer fall and so you can get plums at the supermarket Do they have like out of season? Do they have like year round plums

Molly 20:22

oh yeah and it tends to be the more obvious varieties black plum yeah sometimes a red plum okay in there Yeah, yeah Yeah. All right, but you definitely can't get my favorite plum which is the prune plum

Matthew Amster-Burton 20:35

okay well let's let's talk about that because that is the plum that grows most widely in Seattle Yeah. Where this episode is being recorded. No,

Molly 20:42

I think that so So actually this month Matthew? No, sorry this month when we're taping this. So last September Yeah. For our listeners marked my 19th anniversary of moving to Seattle. Oh, congratulate Thank you. Thank you and I have become so accustomed to the like ready availability of prune plums in September in Seattle that I forget that prior to living here. I don't think I'd ever encountered a prune plum.

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:11

Yeah. Wait for the show. Laurie brought me one from from Cylons W's. backyard plum

Molly 21:18

tree this afternoon. I'm trying to find front yard this afternoon. I'm driving to a friend's house. specifically to take some of her plumps. That's great. Yeah. With her permission with her.

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:29

Don't don't don't tell her. No, no, she'll

Molly 21:31

be thrilled. Yeah, yeah, because as everyone knows, people who have plum trees have a real love hate relationship with their plum trees.

Matthew Amster-Burton 21:40

A friend of the show Rebecca Dan wrote an article recently for the Seattle Times which will link to about Italian prune plums and and she starts off by writing you've heard the apocryphal late summer joke where neighbors neighbors drop drop a bag of zucchini on the porch ring the doorbell and run away here in Seattle we'd substitute Italian plums

Molly 21:57

yeah because the thing is is when they fall on the ground they make a total mess

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:02

yeah no this is I learned that like the city discourages like the planting of fruit trees like over the right of way so that because it gets gross relief.

Molly 22:12

Yes. So anyway, yeah, prune plums around here are a very common plum, but I yeah, I thought that they were something very special when I first encountered them.

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:23

I mean, and they kind of still are, I think like they're very, they're very attractive.

Molly 22:27

They're they're the ones you often see on a package of prunes. Yeah, which stands because that's probably what they're made from small oblong, dark purple plums

Matthew Amster-Burton 22:38

kind of ovary shaped.

Molly 22:39

Yes. Yes. I mean if you're an ovary mature you would know And anyway, they are they are definitely a type of plumb that you will see that kind of dusty skin Yeah, on. They're gorgeous. I think they are most delicious when they still have a bit of crunch to them. I don't like them when they get too soft. Yeah, I

Matthew Amster-Burton 23:00

think that's true. Whereas like a black plum, I want it to be pretty like trippy and yeah,

Molly 23:06

I like the particular the tartness of prune plum is in my opinion, almost never as tart as like an unripe black plum Yeah, I think that's true and so I like a prune plum on the tart end of the prune plum tartness scale.

Matthew Amster-Burton 23:22

Okay, so in the in Rebecca Dan's article she talks a lot about Marian burrows is plum torte which apparently is a famous recipe that I had never heard I have made

Molly 23:31

it a million times and wrote about it on yield blog back in yield 2005 or six Is

Matthew Amster-Burton 23:39

that okay? So this is a favorite of yours as well.

Molly 23:43

It was a favorite of mine I haven't made it until no I haven't made it in years. I feel like it is always delicious somehow like when somebody else makes it for you haven't had it in a whole year. I prefer however a plum cake like the one you've made today which involves a bit of almond flavor

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:05

yeah and the the creator of this recipe which was made by wife of the show Laurie from yasir yasir reefy snacking cakes book the recipes on Monday plum cake and she says it's inspired by the Marian Burroughs recipe but it has um it's I mean it's called Alma de plum cake does

Molly 24:21

it have almond extract or almond paste or both? It is made

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:24

with almond extract and it calls for sliced almonds on top and I think Laurie said that she tried it with with sliced almonds and they and they kind of got soggy quickly. Yeah, I

Molly 24:35

think I don't care about sliced almonds.

Matthew Amster-Burton 24:37

I think I don't I don't either. Like I don't want them like both of the both of the commercial the slivered almonds and the sliced almonds. Like I don't really go in for either of those. I don't understand, but I do like almonds in baking a lot.

Molly 24:51

Yes, me too. Me too. Anyway, I think this recipe that Laurie made is delicious and I really good. I prefer Read over the Marian burrows one which to me just gets like the cake part of the Marian Burroughs one isn't that special?

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:06

Okay That makes sense but I'm feeling it must have had it so you've

Molly 25:10

definitely had it I mean there were years like when I first learned about it and started making it I thought that it was a total revelation. And now I feel a bit more critical wanting just wanting the cake to do more

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:24

do you do you think it's just that you're getting old and crotchety?

Molly 25:27

I am I definitely am.

Matthew Amster-Burton 25:30

I did notice when you Google plum recipes which I did for this for while researching this episode, people also ask what do I do with all these plums? legit question. Do you make plum jam

Molly 25:42

i do i do i make my I take my usual jam formula. Which is one kilo of fruit okay to 500 grams between 405 100 grams of sugar and the juice of half a lemon okay and I mix that all up and let it sit for like two hours and massarray and then I cook it until it starts to gel or passes like you know the the freezer test is that where you like you put it I put a saucer in the freezer so it gets really cold and then when the jam starts to be setting a bit I take out that super cold saucer and dribble a little bit of jam on it and if you can peel it off like a sunburn no and if the saucer so the saucer cools the jam down instantly right and then if you can drag your finger through it and leave a clean trail nice that there are many many books out there about making jam a really great website called food in jars Yeah. So that Marisa McClellan it is yeah, if you want to make jam definitely you know, read up on the basics of canning etc but I make plum jam from Italian prune plums every summer just using this simple formula and it is my kids favorite jam Have you done it yet? This year? I haven't I'm gonna get the plums today awesome. Yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:04

okay all right, you're gonna go go plunder I'm gonna go plunder Yeah. Like a plum cobbler.

Molly 27:10

I have made a plum crisp now cobbler yeah

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:14

that that same sort of seems more correct so yeah,

Molly 27:17

I don't know I feel like I want the nubble or the flavor maybe Yeah, I

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:21

want the double Yeah, I

Molly 27:22

want the nipple.

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:24

plum pudding I was wondering what is plum pudding and it's it's one of those English steamed puddings it is not necessarily made with with plums it's just another name for Christmas pudding and the plum is used in an archaic sense that just refers to a tasty dried bit

Molly 27:39

Do you think that that this use of Plum has anything to do with like the like plumb as an adjective?

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:47

Oh for like like, like a plumb tuckered out?

Molly 27:51

No no plumb like a choice? Yes.

Matthew Amster-Burton 27:53

Yes it does.

Molly 27:55

Okay, what what is the synonym? I'm looking for what is it? Is it choice? Is that like top quality? Yeah, yeah,

Matthew Amster-Burton 28:02

okay, I think it's choice

Molly 28:03

I think it's maybe been like a cousin of Mr.

Matthew Amster-Burton 28:08

homologies cousin is about is knocking on the door and it's about to come in Okay, okay. Yeah, so have you ever had I mean I bet you have right had one of those those steamed English puddings I feel like this is a thing I've had it a couple times and this is this is a thing that is that is beloved by many people in in the UK, and really perplexing to most Americans. Yeah,

Molly 28:31

we just don't do a lot of steamed puddings here. Yeah, no, we don't do steamed desserts.

Matthew Amster-Burton 28:36

It's something it's something that comes up sometimes I'd Bake Off and like as an American watching just like all these people seem to think what they're doing is totally normal and we're just like, what is happening in this tent? spotted dick is a steamed spotted dig is absolutely esteem putting that said that's dotted with currents. Is that right?

Molly 28:55

Like the idea of a steamed pudding? Maybe I'll try a plum pudding this year but probably not

Matthew Amster-Burton 28:59

okay, yeah. I if I had to bet like Vegas odds I would say you are not going to I think you're right. Okay, do you? Next question. Do you know what a plumb bob is?

Molly 29:08

Is it does it have to do with a plumb line? And is there something that floats up on top of the surface of water?

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:15

No, that's that's sort of the opposite of a plumbob. A plumbob is in air and you are it has it's a string with a weight at the end in order to establish a vertical line. Yes. So Mr. etymologies cousin is here Okay. Mr. endermologie his cousin's name is Oh come in. Hi,

Molly 29:36

I'm gonna come up with the name

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:40

this is this is a new a new style of improv Where are you say Hi, I'm an I have to come up with your name. Jill Jill etymology.

Molly 29:51

Etymology what is is that dead dictionary? No.

Matthew Amster-Burton 29:55

Okay, gel dictionary. spotted dictionary. Oh, okay. Come in your your job he

Molly 30:08

spotted a dictionary yeah yep, yep

Matthew Amster-Burton 30:11

spotted dictionary let's talk about the word plumb with a B and how it's related or unrelated to plumber.

Molly 30:17

Yeah, tell me all about it.

Matthew Amster-Burton 30:18

Okay, you're spotted dictionary. Why am I telling the dictionary about words

Molly 30:24

on the agenda and I don't know what the answer is

Matthew Amster-Burton 30:27

okay, let's let's okay this time I'm gonna knock it's my dictionary. I'm here to tell you more about words. You may know my cousin Mr etymology we're both going to be staying at your house in depth. Okay, all right, come on in. Alright, so the word plumb with a be like as in plumb tuckered out or plumbing the depths or plumbob or plumbline comes from plumbum in Latin which is means lead because you would use a lead Wait Wait a minute, Bob

Molly 31:04

I'm not sure if this is spotted dictionary or Mr.

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:08

spotted dictionary document. Okay, okay, so plumbum yeah plumbum which which is you know how LED is PB periodic table well is for plumbum

Molly 31:19

and I'm pretty sure that isn't led in French something like PLMBE or so yes.

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:25

Yeah. How do you say plumb like the fruit in French punto. punto okay

Molly 31:31

who know who know I'm struggling with my French right now

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:35

it's okay so um we'll get misu at mo at Moto Z

Molly 31:42

How about miss you

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:46

miss you

Molly 31:48

yes still do move there we go

Matthew Amster-Burton 31:51

okay, so this was the thing I thought was cool it has absolutely nothing to do with plums the fruit but so like the plumb line is used for establishing that something is perfectly vertical so like like on the nose like on the dot like you nailed it right so from that meaning which came from the the lead weight that you would use to establish the vertical line then we get plumb as in like that's that's plumb terrific? Or like I'm plumb tuckered out like like completely totally perfect like perfectly on the mark. And also from there we get the word a plumb which is the same thing just kind

Molly 32:23

of do something like a plot with a plumb Yeah, like

Matthew Amster-Burton 32:28

while holding a plot well yeah means to do well holding a plan like if you if you're so good at something you could do it while holding a plum in one hand without draw. You're doing it with a Petunia with a plum. Yep. All right. And that's it. Oh,

Molly 32:39

great. Okay, that's our plan.

Matthew Amster-Burton 32:41

Would you say we've plumbed the depths

Molly 32:44

that we have tackled plums with a plum.

Matthew Amster-Burton 32:47

Okay. Right, because the Ayako family family preserves like there are many they have like many different Oh yes, sir.

Molly 32:54

Oh yeah. There's like thinking of if they've got Of course Damson plum they've got I think beach plum something plums there so I think we're all I think oh black pearls.

Matthew Amster-Burton 33:05

I think we had that in our fridge for a bit and like I I don't even think of myself as much of a jam person but like every time I would toast something I would go in the fridge like oh, this stuff's good. I'm gonna use

Molly 33:14

this I know my my own Italian prune plum jam is nowhere near as good as theirs. Have

Matthew Amster-Burton 33:20

you seen that movie? My own private Italian prune plum jam.

Molly 33:24

It's time for segment Let's

Matthew Amster-Burton 33:25

begin with spilled mail.

Molly 33:34

All right, so listener Rochelle writes in with Autumn upon us. What are your all time favorite but less common soups to make and why?

Matthew Amster-Burton 33:42

Good question, Rochelle. I I'm not a huge soup maker. And I don't know if either of my picks is a less common soup. They both feel like pretty common soups to me, but I really like making them and eating them. So my two are split pea with ham and tortilla soup.

Molly 33:58

Ah, okay. Again, I don't know about the less common thing I don't Yeah, I don't I don't know how common my soups are. But hands down. My households favorite soup to eat and my favorite soup to make is the ED Fretwell soup from my first book, homemade life. It makes a truckload it freezes beautifully. My child loves it. Everybody loves it. It's a vegetable and bean soup. So yeah, Ed Fretwell soup. I also love to make a soup that I wrote about on my blog several years ago. It was a winter squash soup with like coconut milk and siracha and lime. That sounds good. It's a pureed soup. And recently I have been making it with a little bit of red curry paste in it.

Matthew Amster-Burton 34:47

Oh yeah.

Molly 34:48

And you know quite a bit of lime juice. So delicious. I want to make this it's really warming in your mouth and on on your body if

Unknown Speaker 34:57

you spell Israel

Molly 35:00

Let's see here. Oh, and then I also love to make my sort of my own cobbled together version of the chicken soup from a restaurant here in Seattle called la carta de wahaca. Yes, so it's just their chicken soup. They call it sopa de poyo. That's what I think I called it on my blog a million years ago, the recipe was given to me by a wonderful guy named Pedro who used to work at DeLand, C and whose cousin I think owns la carta. Okay, I should go read my own blog and be reminded of what I just did anyway yeah, so put a pojo ad for it well Sue soup and that winter squash soup that's also somewhere on the blog with coconut milk siracha and like

Matthew Amster-Burton 35:43

you know what's a less well known soup? I bet unless you live in Hungary many years ago we made this soup mostly because we liked the name that was the recipe was in fine cooking magazine and it was called soup of the bicone outlaws wow and it was a mushroom I think a creamy mushroom soup from Hungary that maybe has like some bacon or like salt pork in it I don't remember the details very well it was pretty It was pretty intense like real like all day cooking challenge to make it and it was very tasty cool. So that's my recommendation soup of the mckone outlaws

Molly 36:18

great Matthew.

Matthew Amster-Burton 36:20

Matt yes yes. Oh sorry. I was still I was still fully in character as what was it Gil dictionary

Molly 36:28

dictionary. So Matthew you you've got now but wow, this week.

Matthew Amster-Burton 36:39

I've got an avid well because I'm reading a book called version zero by David Yun. And David Yun writes YA novels I've enjoyed both of his previous books, frankly in love and super fake love song I think I might have recommended frankly in love on the show at some point. Anyway, those are both like kind of ya coming of age books. And this is new one version zero is different. It is still a why a novel but it's about a guy who works at Facebook realizes that Facebook is evil and like gets fired for whistleblowing on an evil project they're doing which so so far like kind of sounds very real realistic and but like then it spins wildly out of control in ways that you are not expecting and are really fun and thought provoking and I'm only a few chapters in but I'm really excited to pick it back up as soon as we're done recording this episode.

Molly 37:29

Okay. Well, our producer is Abby circuit tele please rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts and if you'd like to chat with other people who listen to this show you can do that on Reddit at Reddit comm slash are slash everything spilled milk.

Matthew Amster-Burton 37:47

And until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk our heart is is it like a dried black plum, but inside it's full of blood like a sunset? bird and I'm a dictionary. Why would that be a hard name to remember?

Molly 38:06

No, you keep saying Jill dictionary.

Matthew Amster-Burton 38:09

It's spotted dictionary sister.

Molly 38:18

Molly, I'm prunus Are we all good on our levels? It

Matthew Amster-Burton 38:24

looks so good. I can't even believe it. They're the best levels in the world.

Molly 38:29

Yes.