August 30, 2016 • 52 mins
Some people might think that tasting food for a living is the best job in the whole wide world. But think again! The reality is, it can be a tedious, grueling job that destroys your very love of food.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there.
This is Stuff you Should Know the podcast. Yeah, Hey, dude, Hey,
(00:25):
what is that swetty balls? Bob Ross? Oh man, I
could sleep to that guy like no golf tournament that's
ever existed. I love that guy. Yeah, he's the lovable dude. Yeah,
and you know what, He's on our list of people
that I want to buyo on our show, along with
Dr SEUs and Mr Rogers. There's a few of those
(00:46):
icons out there that I still want to tackle. Okay,
let's do it. Yeah, let's do it right now. Let's
just scrap. What we're gonna do is start making up
stuff about Bob Ross. Probably might be better than what's coming.
This is bad food tasters. No, it's it's it's not
that bad. You know why it's not bad because everybody
(01:06):
out there who's ever even thought of the concept of
food tasters and then learned that it's a real thing,
has this great conception of it. It's a bubble that
we now get to come along and burst yeah, I
love ones like that. Yeah, that's true. You're like, oh,
you have a great fantasy about something not anymore. Yeah,
here's ugly stark reality. We should change the name of
our show to dream Squashers. Oh that's not bad like that? Yeah,
(01:32):
remember that. We could create a TV show where like
we de renovate someone's house, like we trash it. Yeah,
dream Squashers and then move a semile of the way
and be like, here's your new house. It's just a
starter home. You thought you love. It's awful. Now I
pooped on the porch. Oh, Man Cooper is gonna love
that one. Who Aaron Cooper? Oh yeah, what do you
(01:54):
mean who? It's funny because for people that don't know
Aaron Cooper one of our oldest and dearest, most dedicated listeners. Um,
and I don't mean old as an age um. Although
he's no spring Chicken um of Kansas, which is why
we make fun of Kansas lovingly. He is our photoshop
guru and does all our great funny photoshop things. Uh.
(02:17):
And I we met him in Denver, came over and
saw the show, came backstage, and I gave him a
big toothless grin and a photo and just said have
fun with that one. Coope. Yeah, and it's like been
comedy gold since then. Yeah, he's good. Let's say about
a third of our new photoshop pictures are my big
(02:37):
goofy toothless smile. Yeah, it's just hard to resist putting
that in there. He did one of my favorites of
all time, which is me over Jack Nicholson's face coming
through the door. Oh yeah, Yeah, that's a good one.
And it's uncanny what that guy can do with photoshop.
It looks like I was in the signe. Pretty great.
So I salute you Aaron Cooper. Wait, go Coop. We
(03:00):
should salute a listener for every show, yeah, or maybe
just that once. Okay, So food tasting, yes, there is
legitimately a profession out there. Whether it's full time or
part time. It depends where you are paid to taste
(03:21):
test food and it can be amazing food, chocolate, ice cream.
Ben and Jerry's have what they call flavor gurus. Yeah,
they like profile them on their website, the flavor gurus. Yeah.
So those people are not just in charge of taste testing,
they're in charge of like coming up with new flavor ideas.
There there well, let's get into it. They are they
(03:43):
represent one branch of UM food tasters, like the professional
UM educated branch. Yes, right, so if you're one of
those food tasters, you probably have a degree in food science. Yeah. Well,
the Ben and Jerry's gurus, I think are mostly food scientists.
(04:06):
Although what can they come up with it? They haven't done.
That's what I was kind of zoning out on. I
don't know, you know, I mean, no, they're trying to
still innovate with ice cream. But yeah, I'm just there's
another hippie groove band that he created an ice cream
flavor for, Like what's fart on a honeycomb? And honey
come far and stir a pot of you know, boiled
(04:29):
cherries with that honeycomb, okay, and then spit in it.
That's been a Jerry's new flavor. Wow, is that we
They do have an ice cream graveyard for real though
on their I think it's on their campus. Yeah, yeah,
where they put they have like those little funny gravestones
of of I guess like the fourth tire Honey come
(04:51):
fart that didn't work out? Right? I love Ben and Jerry's.
Oh man, I can't find e Chubby Hubby anymore. No,
no nowhere. I even looked up to see if it
was discontinued. Have you looked in the graveyard. It's not
in the graveyard. They say it's still out there, but
I do not see it anymore. I'll I'll see your
these uh, the ones with the what do they call
(05:13):
him now with the plug in the middle full of
stuff cord? Yeah, the course cords are taken over. Yeah.
I hope you like cores pal because that's all you're getting. Well,
I don't need as much ice cream now, which is good, okay,
because I can't find my chubbs hubs. Here you go.
What's your favorite? We talked about this. I like Chubby
Hubby New York super Fridge chunk Um Are you talking
(05:35):
just Ben and Jerry's because I have a different favorite
favorite now and it's besting. Robbins actually supposed which one
mom's making cookies? Wow cookie though obviously no oh no.
It's some sort of heavenly ice cream with like a
ribbon of brown sugar something else in it, And it's
(05:55):
like legitimately like when you've taken a bite out of
a sugar cookie, a buttery sugar cookie, and you've gotten
most of it, but there's still like the just a
little bit of like grit to it. Uh, that is
the sensation of eating this ice cream. All right, I
gotta try that now and chuck. What I just did
(06:16):
is what flavor tasters to quick shout out to hagen
Das chocolate peanut butter. Brother, that is about as good
as it gets. Anything chocolate peanut butter. I will eat.
But hagen Das is up there pretty far at the bottom. Man.
When you get all all the peanut butter, that sinks. Alright, alright,
(06:39):
So that is taste testing. We we could we could
have just made money had we been testing and then
saying very plainly what we liked about them, because that's
plainly what the job is sometimes. And again there's basically
two ways you can get into it. One is you
can be trained and educated and get some sort of degree,
higher degree in something like food science. You could be
(07:02):
a trained chef, somebody who knows what they're talking about
quite literally when it comes to food and taste, not
just oh this is good, I like yeah, Like they
want specificity way to go toast. You know, this is
and a very refined palette and we'll talk more about
sensory acuity. But that's a big, big part of it.
(07:24):
The other way you can get into it is you
can just basically be some everyday schlub who says, you know,
I think I could be good at this. Hook me up.
I'll come like taste food for you, and you write
a letter like that, sign it and cran mail it
off somewhere and see if they get in touch with you. Yeah.
Specifically if you live in UH or near Marshall, Minnesota
(07:48):
and you like yourself some frozen foods, yeah, you can
apply to the Schwan company and UH basically just send in,
like you said, send in your little application and you
can get hired on. They do though, UM, I believe
make you past tests. They don't just take anyone right.
(08:11):
All of them are gonna put you through some sort
of testing, if not also testing and then training because
not just anybody can do this. Some people have what
you mentioned earlier. UM, it's called sensory acuity, which is
an ability to really differentiate the different flavors and textures
and um smells associated with particular food and then on
(08:34):
top of that be able to um discuss it in
an objective smart way. Yeah, it's not always a food
company either. Um there's a company called MMR Research Worldwide
and they do Uh they're like the middleman, yeah, the
research Yeah, middle people and uh they are the ones
who will put you through the ringer with a sensory acuity.
(08:56):
And they're the ones that say, you know, you really
need to be able to not only articulate your thoughts
for a piece of paper maybe that you fill out,
but you have to be nice to your kids well too.
We'll find out if you're not. But many times you're
in a room and that kind of setting with other
people and you have to be able to get along
and not fight about it. And uh, did you ever
(09:16):
do any of those market research rooms? I used to.
I got on some list post college, and um, it's
a great list when you're fresh out of college. Most
of mine were not actual tasting of food. Most of
it was more what do you think about this ad
campaign type of thing? Like I did one for Heineken
(09:39):
one time. I was like, oh, great, you know I
get to go drink Heineken. You're like, yeah great, Uh
did you know it was just about there when they
rolled out their big red star campaign man um. And
then I used to do them for non food products
like something at home depot or like yeah, basically hold
(10:00):
it tight, how's it fit in your hands? You buy
your lower lip? How likely would you be to recommend
this hammer? Like just dumb stuff like that? Right? Okay,
so you don't any training for that, and there are
actual food tasting jobs that do you amount to that
and you leave with like fifty bucks in cash, which
is the best part. But but it's gonna be like
a thumbs up thumbs down or something like, um, I
(10:23):
think I saw like is this egg roll too spicy?
This pizza have enough cheese? Did these teens make me
look fat? It could be something. It could be something
very broad like give us your general thoughts about this product,
or if they're in the final stages and they want
to spend even more dumb money, Um, that's not true.
Market research is valid. Um. It might be something super specific,
(10:47):
like you said like is there too much cheese or
is there just a knot? Yeah, like that's it. I
don't want to hear about the tang of the sauce
or the crust. And if you're the kind of food
taster who's like WHOA, what do you want to hear?
You're not going to be very good at it. They
want to hear the Gitimately they don't care because this
company they're they're not their market researchers that they get
(11:09):
their dough either way. So we'll talk about dough, um
and how the the day in the life of a
food taster goes. Right after this, So, Chuck, there's this
(11:43):
really um interesting article on a site called bill Fold.
Did you read the interview with the food taster? No?
But I read one on vice with three food tasters.
Let's let's chat about our experience. So the one I
read about it was an interview with the food taster
named Matthew. They didn't use his last name, but Matthew
(12:06):
UM apparently is uh has a pretty decent amount of
sensory acuity because he went through the training. He said
the training, I got the impression he was trained by MMR.
They didn't actually say who it was, but I get
also get the impression that MMR is about the biggest
game in town, if not really the only game in town.
(12:27):
But what you're saying is he's in touch with his
m yes, very much so. So he said that they
give you like all these solutions to taste, but also
sense to identify as well. Um, because the old wives
tailor old rule of thumb is that taste is eight
(12:47):
smell right. So um, he passed all these tests and
apparently also they test your visual acuity as well. They
want somebody who's sensorily, very attuned to what's going on.
And then they said, okay, um, explain mayonnaise. Tell us
(13:08):
what mayonnaise tastes like, creamy, tangy, delicious? Yeah, maggy, does
it taste eggy to you? I can taste the eggs sometimes. Um.
You know how much I love mayonnaise. It's hard for
me to articulate. Do you love mayonnaise or do you
love dukes mayonnaise? Well? I do love dukes, but I
(13:30):
just I love mayonnaise. Do you love all mayonnaise? Yeah?
I mean what other manonnaise do you need besides dukes?
Well you don't. But if dukes is not available, I'll
take a I'll take a craft or a or miracles
or no, that's salad dressing. It's different, but it's the
consistency of Yeah, I mean that's it's a distinction though,
(13:51):
like it's not mayonnaise because it's all artificial, right, A
sandwich just says in the sandwich without miracle whip, that's
like they disting themselves purposely from being mayonnaise. It's way tangier,
uh is it? Yeah? And I like miracle with but
I just never buy it um because I'm always getting
(14:11):
that Duke's Duke's Light actually one of the few light
products that still tastes great. Yeah, I didn't know you
love mayonnaise so much. Oh yeah, man, Like if it
was if I if it was more socially acceptable to
just squirt mayonnaise all over your plate of French fries
(14:31):
like it is in Europe, yeah, I was gonna say,
then I would be doing that every single time. What
I do is I asked for mayo for my burger,
and I'm like a little extra, and then I just look,
it's spilled over sneakily dipped the fry in there. People
think because there's some mannaise, people think it's gross, which
I never got. Uh yeah, some people do. I don't
(14:52):
get it either. Yeah, they'll eat a really like that's
any different, right, Well, it's pretty pungent with the garlic.
Not if it's not garlic a RELI, it's just fancy mayonnaise.
I thought it was all garlic. That was like a
hallmark of aoli. No, do you have any kind of ali? Yeah,
but I thought there's still garlic in the base. Alright, alright, alright,
(15:13):
we're off track here, We're not. We're kind of we're
talking food tastes, all right, so let's talk food taste.
Oh wait, no, I know we were talking about a
day in the life of a food taster, Matt Matthew
taster and his mayo description. Right, so this guy really
kind of tore the scales from my eyes as far
as um, the what food tasting consists of. It's not fun.
(15:34):
It's not a fun experience, and it can be very monotonous,
like for example, So he signed on with this um.
Actually he was through a temp agency, and the temp
agency hooked him up with a frozen food manufacturer. So
the frozen food group was mostly concerned over I think
the course of eight months, um with frozen French fries.
(15:58):
Oh he was that guy. Yes, I did read that,
and um he said he tried frozen French fries in
every different way. They would say, do you like these?
They're a little they're baked a little longer. Do you
like these with this cooking time? Do you like these
with this much oil? Do you like these with this
much salt? And he said salt was like the through
the through thread throughout the whole thing, so much so
(16:21):
that he um developed blisters in his mouth, sores in
his mouth from eating these French fries for for eight
months straight. And this is even working for only a
couple hours a day because it's all you can work,
because your palette will get worn out. Well that's not true,
but a lot of these people work all day doing it,
is that right? Yeah? Okay, um, if you're full time
(16:43):
in it, that's not what I heard. Yeah, not what
I heard. So in addition to having to eat the
same stuff prepared the different way over and over and
over again, um, you are, you were given the same
test basically because the company wants to make sure that
what you're experiencing is repeatable. Yeah, it's like a little
(17:08):
science experiment almost exactly. So they'll say, here, try this fry.
How how does the oily the oiliness hits you say?
It hits me? Like on five? Because there's this is again,
this is supposed to be objective, Like you said, it's
a science experiment. So on one end zero or oils,
on the other end ten or fruit juices, as far
(17:28):
as taste impact goes right, And so they say, okay, great,
here's some more fries. Do the same thing. But you
don't remember what you gave it. So you actually are
experiencing a certain level of stress because you feel like
you're being tested yourself. And uh, it doesn't sound like fun.
And at the end of the day, you go home
(17:49):
and you dream of French fries and you wake up
crying and you have to get up and go do
it again. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun
to me. Dream smashing. Uh. The article and vice uh
professional food tasters tell us about their jobs. They interviewed
three people and the highlights or as follows. Louise Vamber
(18:09):
is an product manager for a s d A. And
she says, in a testing week, I can be tasting
up to two hundred and fifty ice creams from eight
in the morning till eight at night. See that. I mean,
it sounds great, but she's probably taking a bite and
spitting it out. She is, she says, she spits it out.
(18:30):
She said and if I don't, that means it's a
really good ice cream if I actually swallow it. Yeah,
I imagine, so like if you're eating two something ice
cream today. Yeah. And uh, she loves her job, like
I don't think all these people are like, oh my god,
I hate my line and they all hate their jobs. Uh.
And she says she always craves like buttery mashed potatoes
and cheese and crackers and things. And she goes to
(18:51):
the dentist four times a year because we're a job. Uh.
There's a guy Peter Nixon. Um. If you think got Peter,
and then your food tasting group could use some fixing
so bad. Uh. He works at Morrison's. Um, and his
this is his day, he says, And this is all quote. Uh.
(19:15):
At eight in the morning, I have around five different
cooked meats. Half hour later I taste uh from fifteen
different Kichha's. Nine thirty in the morning is pie hour.
I taste ten different pies. Then I vomit all of
our chicken pies, all of our steak pies, plus all
of the fruit pies. And that is my day every day. Uh.
(19:37):
Then at ten on the dot, I have a bacon
buddy bu t t y. I don't even know what
that is. Might be some product they sell, it's a
misprint maybe, And then he says he actually does eat
a proper lunch and dinner um when he gets home,
just to keep his life sort of normal. But he
points out that, especially in the case of pies, you
(19:57):
have to take a bit from each part of the pie. Yeah,
so he said, you gotta taste the lid, the pastry,
the filling, and the meat content and the gravy. Are
always experimenting with gravies. Have I talked to you about
pork pies? Uh? And how much I love them? Yeah? Yeah?
From the from the trip to England? Yeah, okay, is
(20:18):
that your new obsession? Oh? Yeah, where do you buy
him here? I don't know. Oh you haven't found him. Oh,
I'm sure you can get pork pies in Atlantic I
hope so. Uh. And then finally they talked to this
guy who's a noodle taster and he is the founder
of his own Cabudo Noodles. Have you heard of those?
I haven't had him. But it's supposedly like a um
sort of a finer version of you know, cup of
(20:39):
noodles or ramen. Yeah, No, I haven't had it. Yeah,
they're supposed to be pretty good. Have you you ever had
tofu noodles? Mmm? I don't think the noodles like five calories,
very low carb um. They're they're in their noodles and
they're made from tofu um, and they are really great.
(21:02):
They're great substitute for pasta. I do like tofu. People
love the substitute though. Is spaghetti squashed? Yeah, this is gonna.
This is you. Once they're cooked, you have no idea
that they're tofu. Yeah. They taste and appear just like
um cooked past um. This dude started his own company,
(21:24):
and he said that when they were getting going, he
tasted he said, easily over two hundred noodle types. And
when they tasted their own company, he said, it's not
the kind of thing where he tasted a little bit
and spit it out, Like they require that you eat
the whole pot, he said, because it's different, the whole
five gallon pot. Yeah, he said, as different, like as
you work your way through it being a noodle in
(21:46):
a soup, don't just like take a little broth up top.
So I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah, and
that's that's actually a huge distinction for that company then,
because for the most for the most part, like you said,
you are going to take a small bite, but you
might take different small bites, are different components all across
the lid, little filling, little gravy, little meat. And then
with each of those bites, right, So for the lid,
(22:08):
they'll say, how rate the butteriness, right, spit it out,
Take another by the lid, how's the flakiness? Spit it out,
Take another by the lid? Uh is it sweet? And
then you do that. So what kind of a bunch
of different kinds, a bunch of different times, just for
the lid, And they say, okay, spit it out. Let's
start over again, and let's see if you give it
(22:30):
the same marks this time through. And that's just for
the lid. That's not just for the meat content. It's
like for all the different parts. You have to rate
them and then do it again and again. This job
is horrible. I don't care what anybody says. Well, I
can see very easily how you would grow to loathe
whatever you're eating, Like that guy probably never eats another
(22:51):
French fry again in his life. And what kind of
life is that? I can't remember if he said he
does or not. It probably took a while. At the
very least he's says I feel like at the end
he's he like he'll eat fries. Yeah, but yeah he
got mouth source and he said some people develop dental
problems that they quit. Yeah, well, the ice cream land
(23:14):
he goes four times a year like me, Um, did
you know I have to go four times a year
now because my stupid teeth. Does the insurance cover those
are just the two I should say, does Obamacare cover them? Uh?
Because two should be free? Yeah, I have to pay
(23:34):
more than your average Joe for my toothcare. And that's
not including the uh, you know, the obvious extra work
I've got going on? Is that why you've been stealing
from the office lately and stealing from the swear jar?
But I've been adding most of that. It all evens
out two more weeks new tooth. Um. So if you're
(23:57):
a professional, they there are some things that you need
to do too, to keep your mouth and just all
your senses kind of sharp. Um. One of the main
things they say do is to not be a smoker,
although I was surprised to learn that that's not just
an absolute requirement. Yeah, me too. I thought like, once
they found out you're a smoker, they'd tell you to
(24:18):
get out. I'm sure it varies, I bet you there
are plenty of companies that don't allow you to smoke. Yeah,
But I was also wondering, like with every disc everything
that disqualified you, couldn't you also make the case that
that makes you like a niche taster, Like surely there's
a bunch of smokers out there. They're gonna eat this
turkey pot pie, and they want to make sure that
smokers love it too, So maybe it's gonna uh like
(24:40):
this these high end like smoke smoker food tasters. I'm
just I'm trying to picture that as a marketing tool,
like you know, the turkey pot pie for the for
the rotten mouth, you'll love it, uh and all all
thes in that group. But can you see them? They
all look like Chris Cooper or someth something like that
(25:01):
in in adaptation. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, boy, that was
a great role for him, um he or not he um.
In the research, I was surprised to learn that you
could smoke, like I was saying, because one of the
things pointed out that they will demand that you not
smoke within thirty minutes of tasting, which just seems like
(25:21):
if you're a heavy smoker, that's torture. Yeah. Like, well
I just had like five camel menthols half hour ago.
Oh well you're good, You're good to have a seat.
Yeah you're not. So that does surprise me. Um, what else? What? Like?
What else are you not supposed to do? Just like
keeping like you know, if you have food allergies, then
(25:43):
you're probably not destined for a career unless you're part
of a niche food allergy food testing group, a gluten
gluten person. Yeah. And I was researching, Yeah, I was researching,
um uh, food tasting or food tasters just across Google
and and um. I found that there are not one,
but two portable food testing devices that detect gluten. Oh really,
(26:12):
There's the NEMA and the six Sensor Labs Gluten portable
gluten detectors. So this is if clearly, if you have celiac, Yeah,
you would have one of these, put some food and
not trust your restaurant that you're eating in, right, screw
the lid on and I think chack it up one
of them, like gives you a smiley face if it's
(26:33):
all good or it's like the smiles like you're gonna
get messed up in a second. And the other one
just has a toilet with a line through it. But yeah, wow,
that's weird, Yeah, I thought, But I mean it's handy
if you have like a severe gluten allergy. Well, Emily
is off the gluten and she is not celiac, but
(26:53):
she has found a lot of just positive digestive results
by avoiding gluten. But she did dabble in it in
Europe and it did not affect her. Which there are
some who say, like, you know, if you go non gluten,
you can't go back. No, there's some who say that
the wheat over there is different in that. Yeah, so
(27:14):
I don't know if it's true or not, but we
gotta do one on milk because there are two definitely
distinct types of milk available in the US, and a
lot of people think that that's why so many people
in America have um milk allergies. Yeah, because of the
milk that we're drinking. Interesting, Yeah, we got some milk.
What we're trying to do now is she's reading a
(27:35):
book called Pharmacology, and so we're very much trying to
buy not just organic, but and not just local. You're
gonna milk your own goats, organic, local, seasonal food. Basically
part of the whole slow food thing, trying to eat
things that aren't shipped all over the country. Were frozen ever,
(27:57):
h uh. And so we've been going to the local
farmers market, only getting what they have to offer. And
we got this milk from a grass fed Atlanta dairy
whole milk. It is the sweetest, creamiest, most delicious. It
tastes like dessert almost. It's so delicious. I'll bet that
would make frosted flakes really pop. Oh my god, it's
(28:18):
so good. And we bought it for our daughter, but
I drank like half of it. And then the farm
fresh eggs, Like, it's all just noticeably better. It's all good.
They ain't cheap, though, yeah, I can imagine. But putting
money in a farm, putting cash in a farmer's hand
and them handing you eggs is like a great feeling,
you know, you feel like you're participating in how things
(28:40):
should work, and not like, well, this came off the
truck and only half or broke, so let's put him
in the grocery store until they rot and then we'll
throw them away. All right, that was a little soapbox
moment for you. Um, after shaving cologne no good, perfumes
no good. You gotta put your drunk are up forever. Yeah,
(29:01):
because it all goes back to the smell and taste thing.
They don't want your your car tainting that. The roles
and then how much can you make charles? You know,
always these are always very dubious numbers when I see
articles like you can earn between thirty and a hundred
thousand dollars here depending on your negotiation skills. Yeah, I
(29:23):
mean it's that's what it says. But yeah, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics does not have a food taster category,
but they do have a food scientist category, and even
that's pretty pretty Uh, there's a pretty wide spectrum between
the two. I think the mean annual wage for food
(29:43):
scientists and technologists is sixty three, with some professionals learning
more than a hundred thousand. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right,
take exactly. You might also end up I should say
pet food taster. Oh yeah, um, people eat the thing.
People eat pet food, and the reason why is because
(30:04):
the the theory goes that if a human finds it disgusting,
there's a pretty good chance your pet's gonna find it
disgusting or awful or bad or tasteless. So humans eat
pet food as part of taste testing. Yeah. I thought
that was an interesting section because I thought it was
a joke at first, But they first point out that
there's way more testing of the product than actual taste tasting, right,
(30:27):
But that's part of it. But it is part of it,
and um, smell was a big part of it, and
it made perfect sense to me, Like, not only are
animals enticed by smell, but as a human, you don't
want to open that can of cat food and gag
because it's so strongly smells of like salmon guts or
(30:48):
whatever is in it. So um, it has to be
it has to be palatable to the human in a
smell sense, you know. Yeah, um, like our dogfood is
a little stinky because it's like all natural, like real
meat stuff, but um from that local farmer. Yeah, oh man,
(31:09):
I wish get some local dog food. But there is some,
Oh I guarantee there is some. What are the kind
of food tasters are there? There's the one that most
people think of when they think of food taster, which
is the one that is basically testing food out to
make sure that the king or these days the president
isn't being poisoned. Yeah. I saw a website, um that
(31:31):
was making fun of Obama. King Obama is what they
called them, because you know, he had someone taste his
food and blah blah blah, and they didn't they failed
to mention that every president has people who taste their food,
at least since Reagan. Yeah, when they go out from
the White House, it's a very common thing. Secret Service
doesn't give details on that because their secret service, um,
(31:55):
but they take great measures when outside the White House
to make sure the president's food to safe. Um. And
Putin took a lot of heat in two thousand and twelve,
So apparently it comes up every once in a while
and everybody makes fun of whoever it is that the
food taster. But it's actually it's actually a very very
old tradition that dates back at least to the Egyptians,
(32:18):
where there were people of great import would have somebody
eat their food first, which is stupid, it turns out,
because there are almost no poisons available to humankind that
kill so quickly that a food taster would be affected
by it before the person, the president or the king
or whoever. Eighty cyanide is the quick killer, and even
(32:43):
that takes like an hour, right, it says minutes. But
the cyanide, strychnine, atropine, trioxide, other things arsenic, things that
people have generally used in history to poison people like
you said, not like King Henry the eighth said, well,
I'll wait a day before I get that turkey leg right,
being kind of nasty, but I gotta feed my gout,
(33:06):
so bring it on. And this this person who wrote
this article, Ashley Lutheran, said that she thinks of it
more like a placebo. It just made him feel better
about tasting um. I ran across an article one of
Hitler's fifteen young girls who tasted his food during World
War Two. He had fifteen young girls tasting food. Yeah,
(33:28):
and she was the only one who survived because she
was the only one who left the wolf slayer before
the Russians rolled in and killed all the rest of them.
That seems like weirdly fetishest he had young girls eat
she was food and spit in his mouth that's kind
of fetishes. Yeah, like they didn't do that. I'm just joking.
But just bring me fifteen young girls to taste my food.
(33:48):
It seems weird. And uh, well there was a lot
about Hitler that was weird, to say the least. Um,
but that was definitely part of it. Was, Um, he
had fifteen young girls tastes food. Um, let's take a break, man,
and then we're going to tell you everybody when we
get back as maybe even you could consider it a
(34:08):
p s A. Yeah, we could do that for tax reasons.
How you at home can develop your own palate alright, chuck.
(34:40):
So if you want to go about creating a more
sophisticated palette for yourself, not even just to become a
food taste, no, but just to enjoy life more. And
and we should say it does seem like a bad
idea to teach Americans how to appreciate food more. We've
got a pretty big food problem as it is. It
turns out that if you follow some of these steps,
(35:02):
you will probably end up eating less. As a matter
of fact, Um became at savoring your food exactly, which
requires things like going slow, slowing down, and thinking about
the food that you're eating. Right. Yeah, that's uh, well
let's just start there. Uh if you think, I mean,
it's a process, the way the chemicals fire in your
(35:23):
brain from your taste buds, like we've talked about smell
and taste. Um, it seems immediate, but there's a process
going on. And if you're just shoveling, if you're drinking
that gallon or ramen down like it's gatorade on a
hot day, you're not savoring all the subtleties of that broth.
No you're not. But if you can slow down. Um.
Some of the recommendations are eat with chopsticks, use your
(35:45):
non dominant hand. Yeah, shooting thirty to fifty times per
bite is really tough. That's ridiculous. Um. Turning off the
TV or your computer or putting your phone up, that's ridiculous. Um.
Making the meal last twenty minutes, Yeah, that we should
like maybe taking breaks if you need to, if things
are going too fast. I try to eat a little
slower when I think about it, sitting down while you eat,
(36:08):
it's a big first step. Right there, Do you stand
and eat? I mean it depends on the meal and
how busy I am. Occasionally I'll stand at my kitchen island. Yeah,
I like it. You like it, and that like as
a everyday practice, but it's not by accident that I'm
standing like, I'm kind of enjoy it. Okay, So you
want to not do that so you can savor the food.
(36:30):
And when you're savoring this stuff, you you're when you're
when you're savoring it, you're eating more slowly. And by
eating more slowly, you're probably going to be paying a
lot more attention as well. And surprisingly I didn't realize this,
but this this article says that, um, your digestive process
has become thirty to less effective when you're tuned out,
(36:54):
when you're not paying attention. You're like watching TV or
something like that, you're not paying attention to your food.
That's interesting. So training yourself could actually help you become
healthier because you may get more nutrients out of your
food because you're breaking it down better. Yeah. Plus, don't
they say that like a lot of over eating is
eating too fast because you just power through that point
where you're really full, but you just don't know it yet,
(37:14):
right yeah, Yeah, and then all of a sudden you're like,
oh yeah, I can't move ye. Yeah. If you are
paying attention, you're also feeling when you're starting to get
full and you say okay, bail, bail, and that stuff
expands and all of a sudden you're fully full, but
you're not overly full. You just feel good. Do you
ever hit that sweet spot when you're eating and the
(37:35):
food is literally making you high, You're getting a body
high from it. You're just getting off on the food. Oh,
that happens to me every once in a while with
you with very fresh food, where um, I'm eating just
the right amount, like I'll feel high, not like out
of it, like I ate too much, but like invigorated.
(37:56):
And you can actually train yourself to do this very
simply too. Rather than just take and slow, you can
pay attention and just start out. This article suggests by um,
taking a slice of apple and removing all um distractions
and all that and eating the slice of apple and
like just closing your eyes and paying attention to every
(38:16):
aspect of it. It's very interesting. Yeah, it's it's all
just basically training yourself to pay more attention that um.
One thing I had never considered was medicine and prescription drugs,
especially UH in clinical studies. They've identified more than two
hundred and fifty UH scripts that will alter your taste
(38:37):
sensation and um, you might not even see it listed
on the on the side effects, but you might not
even realize it. But um, your your taste buds have
been dulled, especially if you're older elderly, take a lot
more pills and um, a lot of times they have
a harder time tasting and for other reasons as well,
but a lot of it could be due to medication.
(39:00):
Umer say that Simpsons where Marge is cooking pork chops
and everybody's complimenting it, and she's like, thank you. You
might say the extra ingredient is salt. I think it's
the least that goes vegetarian one. But um, that's a
really good point. There's it's probably an extreme, but there's
a lot of people out there who are in ruts
(39:23):
uh and who are an adventurous And I feel so
bad for people who aren't willing to to point to
a food and say that looks weird, I've never had
that before, let me try it. Instead they say that
looks weird you I'll never touch that, because they're missing
out on a whole world of stuff, not just with
(39:44):
that particular dish, but maybe the spices in it that
go with other dishes that lead you to other dishes.
Or I've never tried this nation's cuisine. I don't. I
don't eat any food it smells funny. Yeah, it's like, oh,
the missing out on so much? Yeah, said, of course
there are certain I don't get super adventurous with certain
(40:04):
animals and stuff, but that's a different deal because of cruelty. Yeah,
just you know, I might not want to eat shortbreads,
and I don't think I'm like missing out on something
you're not. Uh. I think personal taste comes into play
as well. Have you said you've never had shortbreads? Uh? No,
like they're they're they're sweetbreads. I'm sorry, Yeah, what's the
(40:25):
same shortbread? Yeah? Shortbread is disgusting, you know, fruitcake, sweetbreads, sweetbreads,
some of the brainful and brains and organ meats. I'm
just not a big fan of And I tried them
enough to know I don't need to try them more. Boom,
(40:46):
there you go. You tried them. That's the many I
have not because I don't need to What you're saying,
you've had enough tripe to know you don't want stomach. Yeah,
I had a tripe taco once, did you. Yeah, yeah,
that's a thing. Although I think that I've got a
great that's a great example. I tried tongue before, and
(41:08):
I'm like, holy cow, I really like tongue. I tried
cheeks before. Tongue freaked me out. And well, it depends
on how could you tell it was tongue. You're not
supposed to be able to tell its tongue had that texture.
Oh yeah, it's no, it's supposed to be much more
chopped up than that. Like you don't want the X here,
you want the stuff that's inside. No, it was. I
(41:29):
just I think you had poorly prepared tongue. No, this
is good stuff. Well, I've never had it where you
could tell it was tongue, you know what I mean.
But I tried it, and I'm like, holy cow, tongues great.
Same with cheeks great. Um. They're like probably the tastiest
part of any animal. And you know where I learned that,
Hannibal Elector your own personal taste, Well, I first heard
(41:50):
about eating cheeks from Hannibal Elector. Yeah, but as far
as it being the best part of the animal, right,
that's your personal taste. No, no, it's it's objectively true,
Like we should make that clear. But the point is
here is that had you never tried tongue, you wouldn't
know you didn't like it, and you just kind of
be uh breff for not having tried it. I'd be
(42:12):
super breff for not having tried it because I do
like it. But we're adventurous and that's the point. Go
be adventurous with your food. And if Indian food is
the threshold of your adventurous oh, I don't understand how
you can eat what you want to eat. Everyone doesn't
have to be like you. No, no, no, no, no,
that's fine. Like, if you don't want to be adventurous,
(42:32):
I agree with that. I feel bad for you if
you're not adventurous of food. Yeah, I don't think you
should take pity on someone for liking what they like. No, no,
I don't and knowing what they don't want to try.
But I think a lot of people think I think
a lot of people who don't want to try something.
If you if you look at their diets, they're probably
(42:55):
pretty limited, you know what I mean. It's not expansive
and then just this off like, oh, fal and try.
I'm not big one, but that's okay too. Whatever. Sure,
I'm not going to come to your house and make
you eat anything, but I do feel bad for you
because I think you're missing out and some really great
sensory pleasure. I think the people that aren't like that
will say, you know what, don't feel bad for me
(43:18):
because I'm great, and I'll say t s for you.
I feel bad for you, and there's something you can
do about it. Uh. I'm just always very conscious about
putting my stuff on other people and saying like, I
can't believe you're missing out. I'm not. I'm not doing that.
I'm saying I pity them, that's all. And I'm not
like a foodie either, like I hate food. He's I
(43:40):
think food he's are annoying. It's not at all what
I'm saying. I'm just saying from personal experience, when I've
been adventurous nine times out of tenants paid off. Well,
that works for you, that's great. Uh. Cleansing the palate
is a big deal, especially if you're a taster. Um
you've got to neutralize it. And they say lemon way
edge and orange segment can do that, which explains why
(44:02):
they give you orange segments at the end of the
Chinese meal. Sometimes never understood it. I thought it was
just like supposed to be a sweet treat. But I
guess it's the cleansing before your dessert or whatever. And
that also explains sorbet too, because it's usually like a
citrusy Yeah, it's usually citrusy, So I guess that's why
(44:23):
I always knew it was ford cleansing the palette. I
just never understood how it did it or they say.
And I hate the word tepid, especially with water. Do
you but like moist tepid water? Just I don't know.
I like cold water, but tepid water. They say it
can be a good palate cleanser as well. And you
mentioned salt earlier. Uh, I'm a big advocate for saltea um,
(44:47):
but the proper amount, of course. Yeah, And it's salt
I've found you can use not just as a seasoning
but almost like mechanically, Like I have this great new
secret for guacamole, Like guacamole is probably the greatest squad
comole anyone's ever created. Do you make it in a mocohete.
Yeah sometimes, Um, but the first step I found I
(45:08):
recently figured this out. Cut the onion and um, put
it in the bowl or the mocahette and salt it.
Salt the onion and let it sit there and the
salt starts to like masserate or I guess break down
because I don't know if mess rates specifically of sugar
and vinegar, but it breaks down the the structure of
(45:29):
the onion and really lets those end times out so
you can really taste the onion. It's a great first step.
And then do the same thing with the tomatoes and
let the tomatoes and onions sit there salted for a
little while, and before you move on and make the
rest of the guacamole. Dude, it's like a brand new day.
I make a good guawk. It's very popular in the household.
And you know, it's a great substitute for tortilla chips,
(45:52):
radishes for for guacamole. It's a great sub you know,
like my tortia chips. I'm a traditionalist. Yeah, um, I
mean I can dip anything in guacamole and like it. Yeah,
you know, give me a thumb, give me a cauliflower
floret and I'll dip that in there. What do you say,
a dirty thumb? Uh? A farty honeycomb? Has this episode
(46:18):
totally gone off the rails? Or is this good stuff?
It's totally gone off the rails? It has it started debate?
It's just like, what do you mean? I mean, should
we just go back and edit it out? No, that's
up to you. Why is it up to me? Because
you were the one taking the hard line, so I
stand by it. Well, great, then leave it? Uh So anyway,
(46:40):
salt is the the the right amount, Like an under
seasoned meal, UM with no salt is not good. You
want salt, sad And if you don't use a lot
of salt at home. And you wonder why restaurant food
always tastes better, it's because they're salting their food correctly.
But too much salt is no good. And if you
(47:00):
use too much, you need even more and then it's
a problem. Yeah, it's it's better, I think, not to
cook with a lot of salt, but to um, start
to add it a little bit at the end, like
when you're making like a stew or something like that,
because it's easy to over salt it and then you're
totally screwed. Um. And then I've never figured out why
this is true. But there's finishing salt, which is basically
(47:21):
just salt, but applied like right before the meal is served.
So if you take a steak and you just sprinkle
this a little bit of salt on it before you serve,
it does something magical that goes way beyond just adding
salt to a steak. Should And I don't understand what
it is. It's delicious, yeah, but I mean there's something
(47:42):
to it for sure. I'm from the South, so I
eat too much salt. Yeah, salt and butter have a
good taste for it. Um, I'll just get a salt
like like a horse I haven't mounted on my guting
room wall. Well, speaking of eating too much salt, apparently
the average human needs something like fIF teen hundred milligrams
a day, and Americans eat between two thousand and eight
(48:03):
thousand a day, which is nuts um. And this article
points out that quitting salt for a week and quitting
sugar for a week and just saying I'm not gonna
eat anything with this this stuff for just like just
a week, it might seem like a lot. By Wednesday,
but just make it to the rest of the week
(48:24):
and you will basically re calibrated your palate and all
of a sudden, um, like junk food tastes cloying, but
you can really appreciate the like more subtle sweetness of
some stuff from more subtle saltiness of other stuff, and
like you really appreciate salt rather than bombarding your tastes
with you know, too much salar, too much sugar. Um.
(48:46):
It's it's definitely an exercise worth doing well. And all
that package garbage food that we talk about is just
loaded with sodium and sugar, you know, like even a
can of soup. Look at like sodium content on just
a can of soup. It's true, terrible sad. Do you
get anything else? No, man, It's always good to quit
(49:07):
something that you're addicted to for a week, just to
make sure you can do it. Yeah, I agree, unless
it's good deeds, unless it's tongue or cheeks. Just eat
that anytime you can. Okay, I'm ready. I liked your
good deeds thing those good. Now you should quit that
for a week to treat people poor, like see how
(49:28):
it goes, dream smashers, Uh, if you want to know
more about food tasting. Type those words in the search
part how stuff works dot Com. Since I said search parts,
time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Butte detail. Ah.
This is from Chelsea and Butte, Montana. And we've talked
a lot about evil. Can evil be in from Butte? Uh?
(49:51):
He said? Really stood out to me how frequently you
guys commented on evil growing up in the rough Butte
community and how it affected his personal presentation. Here are
a few things it might help you understand all this.
Number one, nobody calls it Butte, Montana. It's called Butte America.
What how about that? Beaute? Number two. Butaute was a
huge mining town that saw tremendous growth, wealth and decline,
(50:14):
and still very much tied to its mining past. Number three,
Montana's political campaign contribution laws were in large part passed
in response to the copper kings and the wealth resulting
from the copper mining operations. Also, the Montana Capitol building
had electricity for many parts of the country. Fun fact.
Number four, Beaute has an incredible history tied very closely
(50:35):
to the history of unionization. Number five. Finally, Butte had
and still has a very Irish population. You don't go
there for St. Patty's Day unless you're there at a party. Hard. Yeah,
I didn't know that America. Yeahn't that weird? Um? So,
in short, beaute history is very much still tied to
its current identity. It's still a very scrappy place. But
(50:58):
that being said, some of the best of us loyal
people I knew, I know, grew up in beauty. I
hope this shop clarify as all evil became who he was.
Please keep making podcasts forever so we never run out
of content to binge while it works. That is, Chelsea,
Thanks Chelsea. There was an awesome email Chelsea from Beauty
America Planet Earth. Why do they hate Montana? H Maybe
(51:21):
it's just its own own thing, I guess. Yeah. Well,
if you want to get in touch with us, you
can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
You can hang with me at Josh Underscore UM Underscore Clark.
You can hang out with Chuck on Facebook at Charles W.
Chuck Bryant, or you can hang out with both of
us that um Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know, right,
(51:41):
that's right? Send us an email the Stuff podcast at
how stuff Works dot Com and has always joined us
at our home on the web. Stuff you Should Know
dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Does it, How stuff works dot Com
Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there.
This is Stuff you Should Know the podcast. Yeah, Hey, dude, Hey,
(00:25):
what is that swetty balls? Bob Ross? Oh man, I
could sleep to that guy like no golf tournament that's
ever existed. I love that guy. Yeah, he's the lovable dude. Yeah,
and you know what, He's on our list of people
that I want to buyo on our show, along with
Dr SEUs and Mr Rogers. There's a few of those
(00:46):
icons out there that I still want to tackle. Okay,
let's do it. Yeah, let's do it right now. Let's
just scrap. What we're gonna do is start making up
stuff about Bob Ross. Probably might be better than what's coming.
This is bad food tasters. No, it's it's it's not
that bad. You know why it's not bad because everybody
(01:06):
out there who's ever even thought of the concept of
food tasters and then learned that it's a real thing,
has this great conception of it. It's a bubble that
we now get to come along and burst yeah, I
love ones like that. Yeah, that's true. You're like, oh,
you have a great fantasy about something not anymore. Yeah,
here's ugly stark reality. We should change the name of
our show to dream Squashers. Oh that's not bad like that? Yeah,
(01:32):
remember that. We could create a TV show where like
we de renovate someone's house, like we trash it. Yeah,
dream Squashers and then move a semile of the way
and be like, here's your new house. It's just a
starter home. You thought you love. It's awful. Now I
pooped on the porch. Oh, Man Cooper is gonna love
that one. Who Aaron Cooper? Oh yeah, what do you
(01:54):
mean who? It's funny because for people that don't know
Aaron Cooper one of our oldest and dearest, most dedicated listeners. Um,
and I don't mean old as an age um. Although
he's no spring Chicken um of Kansas, which is why
we make fun of Kansas lovingly. He is our photoshop
guru and does all our great funny photoshop things. Uh.
(02:17):
And I we met him in Denver, came over and
saw the show, came backstage, and I gave him a
big toothless grin and a photo and just said have
fun with that one. Coope. Yeah, and it's like been
comedy gold since then. Yeah, he's good. Let's say about
a third of our new photoshop pictures are my big
(02:37):
goofy toothless smile. Yeah, it's just hard to resist putting
that in there. He did one of my favorites of
all time, which is me over Jack Nicholson's face coming
through the door. Oh yeah, Yeah, that's a good one.
And it's uncanny what that guy can do with photoshop.
It looks like I was in the signe. Pretty great.
So I salute you Aaron Cooper. Wait, go Coop. We
(03:00):
should salute a listener for every show, yeah, or maybe
just that once. Okay, So food tasting, yes, there is
legitimately a profession out there. Whether it's full time or
part time. It depends where you are paid to taste
(03:21):
test food and it can be amazing food, chocolate, ice cream.
Ben and Jerry's have what they call flavor gurus. Yeah,
they like profile them on their website, the flavor gurus. Yeah.
So those people are not just in charge of taste testing,
they're in charge of like coming up with new flavor ideas.
There there well, let's get into it. They are they
(03:43):
represent one branch of UM food tasters, like the professional
UM educated branch. Yes, right, so if you're one of
those food tasters, you probably have a degree in food science. Yeah. Well,
the Ben and Jerry's gurus, I think are mostly food scientists.
(04:06):
Although what can they come up with it? They haven't done.
That's what I was kind of zoning out on. I
don't know, you know, I mean, no, they're trying to
still innovate with ice cream. But yeah, I'm just there's
another hippie groove band that he created an ice cream
flavor for, Like what's fart on a honeycomb? And honey
come far and stir a pot of you know, boiled
(04:29):
cherries with that honeycomb, okay, and then spit in it.
That's been a Jerry's new flavor. Wow, is that we
They do have an ice cream graveyard for real though
on their I think it's on their campus. Yeah, yeah,
where they put they have like those little funny gravestones
of of I guess like the fourth tire Honey come
(04:51):
fart that didn't work out? Right? I love Ben and Jerry's.
Oh man, I can't find e Chubby Hubby anymore. No,
no nowhere. I even looked up to see if it
was discontinued. Have you looked in the graveyard. It's not
in the graveyard. They say it's still out there, but
I do not see it anymore. I'll I'll see your
these uh, the ones with the what do they call
(05:13):
him now with the plug in the middle full of
stuff cord? Yeah, the course cords are taken over. Yeah.
I hope you like cores pal because that's all you're getting. Well,
I don't need as much ice cream now, which is good, okay,
because I can't find my chubbs hubs. Here you go.
What's your favorite? We talked about this. I like Chubby
Hubby New York super Fridge chunk Um Are you talking
(05:35):
just Ben and Jerry's because I have a different favorite
favorite now and it's besting. Robbins actually supposed which one
mom's making cookies? Wow cookie though obviously no oh no.
It's some sort of heavenly ice cream with like a
ribbon of brown sugar something else in it, And it's
(05:55):
like legitimately like when you've taken a bite out of
a sugar cookie, a buttery sugar cookie, and you've gotten
most of it, but there's still like the just a
little bit of like grit to it. Uh, that is
the sensation of eating this ice cream. All right, I
gotta try that now and chuck. What I just did
(06:16):
is what flavor tasters to quick shout out to hagen
Das chocolate peanut butter. Brother, that is about as good
as it gets. Anything chocolate peanut butter. I will eat.
But hagen Das is up there pretty far at the bottom. Man.
When you get all all the peanut butter, that sinks. Alright, alright,
(06:39):
So that is taste testing. We we could we could
have just made money had we been testing and then
saying very plainly what we liked about them, because that's
plainly what the job is sometimes. And again there's basically
two ways you can get into it. One is you
can be trained and educated and get some sort of degree,
higher degree in something like food science. You could be
(07:02):
a trained chef, somebody who knows what they're talking about
quite literally when it comes to food and taste, not
just oh this is good, I like yeah, Like they
want specificity way to go toast. You know, this is
and a very refined palette and we'll talk more about
sensory acuity. But that's a big, big part of it.
(07:24):
The other way you can get into it is you
can just basically be some everyday schlub who says, you know,
I think I could be good at this. Hook me up.
I'll come like taste food for you, and you write
a letter like that, sign it and cran mail it
off somewhere and see if they get in touch with you. Yeah.
Specifically if you live in UH or near Marshall, Minnesota
(07:48):
and you like yourself some frozen foods, yeah, you can
apply to the Schwan company and UH basically just send in,
like you said, send in your little application and you
can get hired on. They do though, UM, I believe
make you past tests. They don't just take anyone right.
(08:11):
All of them are gonna put you through some sort
of testing, if not also testing and then training because
not just anybody can do this. Some people have what
you mentioned earlier. UM, it's called sensory acuity, which is
an ability to really differentiate the different flavors and textures
and um smells associated with particular food and then on
(08:34):
top of that be able to um discuss it in
an objective smart way. Yeah, it's not always a food
company either. Um there's a company called MMR Research Worldwide
and they do Uh they're like the middleman, yeah, the
research Yeah, middle people and uh they are the ones
who will put you through the ringer with a sensory acuity.
(08:56):
And they're the ones that say, you know, you really
need to be able to not only articulate your thoughts
for a piece of paper maybe that you fill out,
but you have to be nice to your kids well too.
We'll find out if you're not. But many times you're
in a room and that kind of setting with other
people and you have to be able to get along
and not fight about it. And uh, did you ever
(09:16):
do any of those market research rooms? I used to.
I got on some list post college, and um, it's
a great list when you're fresh out of college. Most
of mine were not actual tasting of food. Most of
it was more what do you think about this ad
campaign type of thing? Like I did one for Heineken
(09:39):
one time. I was like, oh, great, you know I
get to go drink Heineken. You're like, yeah great, Uh
did you know it was just about there when they
rolled out their big red star campaign man um. And
then I used to do them for non food products
like something at home depot or like yeah, basically hold
(10:00):
it tight, how's it fit in your hands? You buy
your lower lip? How likely would you be to recommend
this hammer? Like just dumb stuff like that? Right? Okay,
so you don't any training for that, and there are
actual food tasting jobs that do you amount to that
and you leave with like fifty bucks in cash, which
is the best part. But but it's gonna be like
a thumbs up thumbs down or something like, um, I
(10:23):
think I saw like is this egg roll too spicy?
This pizza have enough cheese? Did these teens make me
look fat? It could be something. It could be something
very broad like give us your general thoughts about this product,
or if they're in the final stages and they want
to spend even more dumb money, Um, that's not true.
Market research is valid. Um. It might be something super specific,
(10:47):
like you said like is there too much cheese or
is there just a knot? Yeah, like that's it. I
don't want to hear about the tang of the sauce
or the crust. And if you're the kind of food
taster who's like WHOA, what do you want to hear?
You're not going to be very good at it. They
want to hear the Gitimately they don't care because this
company they're they're not their market researchers that they get
(11:09):
their dough either way. So we'll talk about dough, um
and how the the day in the life of a
food taster goes. Right after this, So, Chuck, there's this
(11:43):
really um interesting article on a site called bill Fold.
Did you read the interview with the food taster? No?
But I read one on vice with three food tasters.
Let's let's chat about our experience. So the one I
read about it was an interview with the food taster
named Matthew. They didn't use his last name, but Matthew
(12:06):
UM apparently is uh has a pretty decent amount of
sensory acuity because he went through the training. He said
the training, I got the impression he was trained by MMR.
They didn't actually say who it was, but I get
also get the impression that MMR is about the biggest
game in town, if not really the only game in town.
(12:27):
But what you're saying is he's in touch with his
m yes, very much so. So he said that they
give you like all these solutions to taste, but also
sense to identify as well. Um, because the old wives
tailor old rule of thumb is that taste is eight
(12:47):
smell right. So um, he passed all these tests and
apparently also they test your visual acuity as well. They
want somebody who's sensorily, very attuned to what's going on.
And then they said, okay, um, explain mayonnaise. Tell us
(13:08):
what mayonnaise tastes like, creamy, tangy, delicious? Yeah, maggy, does
it taste eggy to you? I can taste the eggs sometimes. Um.
You know how much I love mayonnaise. It's hard for
me to articulate. Do you love mayonnaise or do you
love dukes mayonnaise? Well? I do love dukes, but I
(13:30):
just I love mayonnaise. Do you love all mayonnaise? Yeah?
I mean what other manonnaise do you need besides dukes?
Well you don't. But if dukes is not available, I'll
take a I'll take a craft or a or miracles
or no, that's salad dressing. It's different, but it's the
consistency of Yeah, I mean that's it's a distinction though,
(13:51):
like it's not mayonnaise because it's all artificial, right, A
sandwich just says in the sandwich without miracle whip, that's
like they disting themselves purposely from being mayonnaise. It's way tangier,
uh is it? Yeah? And I like miracle with but
I just never buy it um because I'm always getting
(14:11):
that Duke's Duke's Light actually one of the few light
products that still tastes great. Yeah, I didn't know you
love mayonnaise so much. Oh yeah, man, Like if it
was if I if it was more socially acceptable to
just squirt mayonnaise all over your plate of French fries
(14:31):
like it is in Europe, yeah, I was gonna say,
then I would be doing that every single time. What
I do is I asked for mayo for my burger,
and I'm like a little extra, and then I just look,
it's spilled over sneakily dipped the fry in there. People
think because there's some mannaise, people think it's gross, which
I never got. Uh yeah, some people do. I don't
(14:52):
get it either. Yeah, they'll eat a really like that's
any different, right, Well, it's pretty pungent with the garlic.
Not if it's not garlic a RELI, it's just fancy mayonnaise.
I thought it was all garlic. That was like a
hallmark of aoli. No, do you have any kind of ali? Yeah,
but I thought there's still garlic in the base. Alright, alright, alright,
(15:13):
we're off track here, We're not. We're kind of we're
talking food tastes, all right, so let's talk food taste.
Oh wait, no, I know we were talking about a
day in the life of a food taster, Matt Matthew
taster and his mayo description. Right, so this guy really
kind of tore the scales from my eyes as far
as um, the what food tasting consists of. It's not fun.
(15:34):
It's not a fun experience, and it can be very monotonous,
like for example, So he signed on with this um.
Actually he was through a temp agency, and the temp
agency hooked him up with a frozen food manufacturer. So
the frozen food group was mostly concerned over I think
the course of eight months, um with frozen French fries.
(15:58):
Oh he was that guy. Yes, I did read that,
and um he said he tried frozen French fries in
every different way. They would say, do you like these?
They're a little they're baked a little longer. Do you
like these with this cooking time? Do you like these
with this much oil? Do you like these with this
much salt? And he said salt was like the through
the through thread throughout the whole thing, so much so
(16:21):
that he um developed blisters in his mouth, sores in
his mouth from eating these French fries for for eight
months straight. And this is even working for only a
couple hours a day because it's all you can work,
because your palette will get worn out. Well that's not true,
but a lot of these people work all day doing it,
is that right? Yeah? Okay, um, if you're full time
(16:43):
in it, that's not what I heard. Yeah, not what
I heard. So in addition to having to eat the
same stuff prepared the different way over and over and
over again, um, you are, you were given the same
test basically because the company wants to make sure that
what you're experiencing is repeatable. Yeah, it's like a little
(17:08):
science experiment almost exactly. So they'll say, here, try this fry.
How how does the oily the oiliness hits you say?
It hits me? Like on five? Because there's this is again,
this is supposed to be objective, Like you said, it's
a science experiment. So on one end zero or oils,
on the other end ten or fruit juices, as far
(17:28):
as taste impact goes right, And so they say, okay, great,
here's some more fries. Do the same thing. But you
don't remember what you gave it. So you actually are
experiencing a certain level of stress because you feel like
you're being tested yourself. And uh, it doesn't sound like fun.
And at the end of the day, you go home
(17:49):
and you dream of French fries and you wake up
crying and you have to get up and go do
it again. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun
to me. Dream smashing. Uh. The article and vice uh
professional food tasters tell us about their jobs. They interviewed
three people and the highlights or as follows. Louise Vamber
(18:09):
is an product manager for a s d A. And
she says, in a testing week, I can be tasting
up to two hundred and fifty ice creams from eight
in the morning till eight at night. See that. I mean,
it sounds great, but she's probably taking a bite and
spitting it out. She is, she says, she spits it out.
(18:30):
She said and if I don't, that means it's a
really good ice cream if I actually swallow it. Yeah,
I imagine, so like if you're eating two something ice
cream today. Yeah. And uh, she loves her job, like
I don't think all these people are like, oh my god,
I hate my line and they all hate their jobs. Uh.
And she says she always craves like buttery mashed potatoes
and cheese and crackers and things. And she goes to
(18:51):
the dentist four times a year because we're a job. Uh.
There's a guy Peter Nixon. Um. If you think got Peter,
and then your food tasting group could use some fixing
so bad. Uh. He works at Morrison's. Um, and his
this is his day, he says, And this is all quote. Uh.
(19:15):
At eight in the morning, I have around five different
cooked meats. Half hour later I taste uh from fifteen
different Kichha's. Nine thirty in the morning is pie hour.
I taste ten different pies. Then I vomit all of
our chicken pies, all of our steak pies, plus all
of the fruit pies. And that is my day every day. Uh.
(19:37):
Then at ten on the dot, I have a bacon
buddy bu t t y. I don't even know what
that is. Might be some product they sell, it's a
misprint maybe, And then he says he actually does eat
a proper lunch and dinner um when he gets home,
just to keep his life sort of normal. But he
points out that, especially in the case of pies, you
(19:57):
have to take a bit from each part of the pie. Yeah,
so he said, you gotta taste the lid, the pastry,
the filling, and the meat content and the gravy. Are
always experimenting with gravies. Have I talked to you about
pork pies? Uh? And how much I love them? Yeah? Yeah?
From the from the trip to England? Yeah, okay, is
(20:18):
that your new obsession? Oh? Yeah, where do you buy
him here? I don't know. Oh you haven't found him. Oh,
I'm sure you can get pork pies in Atlantic I
hope so. Uh. And then finally they talked to this
guy who's a noodle taster and he is the founder
of his own Cabudo Noodles. Have you heard of those?
I haven't had him. But it's supposedly like a um
sort of a finer version of you know, cup of
(20:39):
noodles or ramen. Yeah, No, I haven't had it. Yeah,
they're supposed to be pretty good. Have you you ever had
tofu noodles? Mmm? I don't think the noodles like five calories,
very low carb um. They're they're in their noodles and
they're made from tofu um, and they are really great.
(21:02):
They're great substitute for pasta. I do like tofu. People
love the substitute though. Is spaghetti squashed? Yeah, this is gonna.
This is you. Once they're cooked, you have no idea
that they're tofu. Yeah. They taste and appear just like
um cooked past um. This dude started his own company,
(21:24):
and he said that when they were getting going, he
tasted he said, easily over two hundred noodle types. And
when they tasted their own company, he said, it's not
the kind of thing where he tasted a little bit
and spit it out, Like they require that you eat
the whole pot, he said, because it's different, the whole
five gallon pot. Yeah, he said, as different, like as
you work your way through it being a noodle in
(21:46):
a soup, don't just like take a little broth up top.
So I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah, and
that's that's actually a huge distinction for that company then,
because for the most for the most part, like you said,
you are going to take a small bite, but you
might take different small bites, are different components all across
the lid, little filling, little gravy, little meat. And then
with each of those bites, right, So for the lid,
(22:08):
they'll say, how rate the butteriness, right, spit it out,
Take another by the lid, how's the flakiness? Spit it out,
Take another by the lid? Uh is it sweet? And
then you do that. So what kind of a bunch
of different kinds, a bunch of different times, just for
the lid, And they say, okay, spit it out. Let's
start over again, and let's see if you give it
(22:30):
the same marks this time through. And that's just for
the lid. That's not just for the meat content. It's
like for all the different parts. You have to rate
them and then do it again and again. This job
is horrible. I don't care what anybody says. Well, I
can see very easily how you would grow to loathe
whatever you're eating, Like that guy probably never eats another
(22:51):
French fry again in his life. And what kind of
life is that? I can't remember if he said he
does or not. It probably took a while. At the
very least he's says I feel like at the end
he's he like he'll eat fries. Yeah, but yeah he
got mouth source and he said some people develop dental
problems that they quit. Yeah, well, the ice cream land
(23:14):
he goes four times a year like me, Um, did
you know I have to go four times a year
now because my stupid teeth. Does the insurance cover those
are just the two I should say, does Obamacare cover them? Uh?
Because two should be free? Yeah, I have to pay
(23:34):
more than your average Joe for my toothcare. And that's
not including the uh, you know, the obvious extra work
I've got going on? Is that why you've been stealing
from the office lately and stealing from the swear jar?
But I've been adding most of that. It all evens
out two more weeks new tooth. Um. So if you're
(23:57):
a professional, they there are some things that you need
to do too, to keep your mouth and just all
your senses kind of sharp. Um. One of the main
things they say do is to not be a smoker,
although I was surprised to learn that that's not just
an absolute requirement. Yeah, me too. I thought like, once
they found out you're a smoker, they'd tell you to
(24:18):
get out. I'm sure it varies, I bet you there
are plenty of companies that don't allow you to smoke. Yeah,
But I was also wondering, like with every disc everything
that disqualified you, couldn't you also make the case that
that makes you like a niche taster, Like surely there's
a bunch of smokers out there. They're gonna eat this
turkey pot pie, and they want to make sure that
smokers love it too, So maybe it's gonna uh like
(24:40):
this these high end like smoke smoker food tasters. I'm
just I'm trying to picture that as a marketing tool,
like you know, the turkey pot pie for the for
the rotten mouth, you'll love it, uh and all all
thes in that group. But can you see them? They
all look like Chris Cooper or someth something like that
(25:01):
in in adaptation. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, boy, that was
a great role for him, um he or not he um.
In the research, I was surprised to learn that you
could smoke, like I was saying, because one of the
things pointed out that they will demand that you not
smoke within thirty minutes of tasting, which just seems like
(25:21):
if you're a heavy smoker, that's torture. Yeah. Like, well
I just had like five camel menthols half hour ago.
Oh well you're good, You're good to have a seat.
Yeah you're not. So that does surprise me. Um, what else? What? Like?
What else are you not supposed to do? Just like
keeping like you know, if you have food allergies, then
(25:43):
you're probably not destined for a career unless you're part
of a niche food allergy food testing group, a gluten
gluten person. Yeah. And I was researching, Yeah, I was researching,
um uh, food tasting or food tasters just across Google
and and um. I found that there are not one,
but two portable food testing devices that detect gluten. Oh really,
(26:12):
There's the NEMA and the six Sensor Labs Gluten portable
gluten detectors. So this is if clearly, if you have celiac, Yeah,
you would have one of these, put some food and
not trust your restaurant that you're eating in, right, screw
the lid on and I think chack it up one
of them, like gives you a smiley face if it's
(26:33):
all good or it's like the smiles like you're gonna
get messed up in a second. And the other one
just has a toilet with a line through it. But yeah, wow,
that's weird, Yeah, I thought, But I mean it's handy
if you have like a severe gluten allergy. Well, Emily
is off the gluten and she is not celiac, but
(26:53):
she has found a lot of just positive digestive results
by avoiding gluten. But she did dabble in it in
Europe and it did not affect her. Which there are
some who say, like, you know, if you go non gluten,
you can't go back. No, there's some who say that
the wheat over there is different in that. Yeah, so
(27:14):
I don't know if it's true or not, but we
gotta do one on milk because there are two definitely
distinct types of milk available in the US, and a
lot of people think that that's why so many people
in America have um milk allergies. Yeah, because of the
milk that we're drinking. Interesting, Yeah, we got some milk.
What we're trying to do now is she's reading a
(27:35):
book called Pharmacology, and so we're very much trying to
buy not just organic, but and not just local. You're
gonna milk your own goats, organic, local, seasonal food. Basically
part of the whole slow food thing, trying to eat
things that aren't shipped all over the country. Were frozen ever,
(27:57):
h uh. And so we've been going to the local
farmers market, only getting what they have to offer. And
we got this milk from a grass fed Atlanta dairy
whole milk. It is the sweetest, creamiest, most delicious. It
tastes like dessert almost. It's so delicious. I'll bet that
would make frosted flakes really pop. Oh my god, it's
(28:18):
so good. And we bought it for our daughter, but
I drank like half of it. And then the farm
fresh eggs, Like, it's all just noticeably better. It's all good.
They ain't cheap, though, yeah, I can imagine. But putting
money in a farm, putting cash in a farmer's hand
and them handing you eggs is like a great feeling,
you know, you feel like you're participating in how things
(28:40):
should work, and not like, well, this came off the
truck and only half or broke, so let's put him
in the grocery store until they rot and then we'll
throw them away. All right, that was a little soapbox
moment for you. Um, after shaving cologne no good, perfumes
no good. You gotta put your drunk are up forever. Yeah,
(29:01):
because it all goes back to the smell and taste thing.
They don't want your your car tainting that. The roles
and then how much can you make charles? You know,
always these are always very dubious numbers when I see
articles like you can earn between thirty and a hundred
thousand dollars here depending on your negotiation skills. Yeah, I
(29:23):
mean it's that's what it says. But yeah, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics does not have a food taster category,
but they do have a food scientist category, and even
that's pretty pretty Uh, there's a pretty wide spectrum between
the two. I think the mean annual wage for food
(29:43):
scientists and technologists is sixty three, with some professionals learning
more than a hundred thousand. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right,
take exactly. You might also end up I should say
pet food taster. Oh yeah, um, people eat the thing.
People eat pet food, and the reason why is because
(30:04):
the the theory goes that if a human finds it disgusting,
there's a pretty good chance your pet's gonna find it
disgusting or awful or bad or tasteless. So humans eat
pet food as part of taste testing. Yeah. I thought
that was an interesting section because I thought it was
a joke at first, But they first point out that
there's way more testing of the product than actual taste tasting, right,
(30:27):
But that's part of it. But it is part of it,
and um, smell was a big part of it, and
it made perfect sense to me, Like, not only are
animals enticed by smell, but as a human, you don't
want to open that can of cat food and gag
because it's so strongly smells of like salmon guts or
(30:48):
whatever is in it. So um, it has to be
it has to be palatable to the human in a
smell sense, you know. Yeah, um, like our dogfood is
a little stinky because it's like all natural, like real
meat stuff, but um from that local farmer. Yeah, oh man,
(31:09):
I wish get some local dog food. But there is some,
Oh I guarantee there is some. What are the kind
of food tasters are there? There's the one that most
people think of when they think of food taster, which
is the one that is basically testing food out to
make sure that the king or these days the president
isn't being poisoned. Yeah. I saw a website, um that
(31:31):
was making fun of Obama. King Obama is what they
called them, because you know, he had someone taste his
food and blah blah blah, and they didn't they failed
to mention that every president has people who taste their food,
at least since Reagan. Yeah, when they go out from
the White House, it's a very common thing. Secret Service
doesn't give details on that because their secret service, um,
(31:55):
but they take great measures when outside the White House
to make sure the president's food to safe. Um. And
Putin took a lot of heat in two thousand and twelve,
So apparently it comes up every once in a while
and everybody makes fun of whoever it is that the
food taster. But it's actually it's actually a very very
old tradition that dates back at least to the Egyptians,
(32:18):
where there were people of great import would have somebody
eat their food first, which is stupid, it turns out,
because there are almost no poisons available to humankind that
kill so quickly that a food taster would be affected
by it before the person, the president or the king
or whoever. Eighty cyanide is the quick killer, and even
(32:43):
that takes like an hour, right, it says minutes. But
the cyanide, strychnine, atropine, trioxide, other things arsenic, things that
people have generally used in history to poison people like
you said, not like King Henry the eighth said, well,
I'll wait a day before I get that turkey leg right,
being kind of nasty, but I gotta feed my gout,
(33:06):
so bring it on. And this this person who wrote
this article, Ashley Lutheran, said that she thinks of it
more like a placebo. It just made him feel better
about tasting um. I ran across an article one of
Hitler's fifteen young girls who tasted his food during World
War Two. He had fifteen young girls tasting food. Yeah,
(33:28):
and she was the only one who survived because she
was the only one who left the wolf slayer before
the Russians rolled in and killed all the rest of them.
That seems like weirdly fetishest he had young girls eat
she was food and spit in his mouth that's kind
of fetishes. Yeah, like they didn't do that. I'm just joking.
But just bring me fifteen young girls to taste my food.
(33:48):
It seems weird. And uh, well there was a lot
about Hitler that was weird, to say the least. Um,
but that was definitely part of it. Was, Um, he
had fifteen young girls tastes food. Um, let's take a break, man,
and then we're going to tell you everybody when we
get back as maybe even you could consider it a
(34:08):
p s A. Yeah, we could do that for tax reasons.
How you at home can develop your own palate alright, chuck.
(34:40):
So if you want to go about creating a more
sophisticated palette for yourself, not even just to become a
food taste, no, but just to enjoy life more. And
and we should say it does seem like a bad
idea to teach Americans how to appreciate food more. We've
got a pretty big food problem as it is. It
turns out that if you follow some of these steps,
(35:02):
you will probably end up eating less. As a matter
of fact, Um became at savoring your food exactly, which
requires things like going slow, slowing down, and thinking about
the food that you're eating. Right. Yeah, that's uh, well
let's just start there. Uh if you think, I mean,
it's a process, the way the chemicals fire in your
(35:23):
brain from your taste buds, like we've talked about smell
and taste. Um, it seems immediate, but there's a process
going on. And if you're just shoveling, if you're drinking
that gallon or ramen down like it's gatorade on a
hot day, you're not savoring all the subtleties of that broth.
No you're not. But if you can slow down. Um.
Some of the recommendations are eat with chopsticks, use your
(35:45):
non dominant hand. Yeah, shooting thirty to fifty times per
bite is really tough. That's ridiculous. Um. Turning off the
TV or your computer or putting your phone up, that's ridiculous. Um.
Making the meal last twenty minutes, Yeah, that we should
like maybe taking breaks if you need to, if things
are going too fast. I try to eat a little
slower when I think about it, sitting down while you eat,
(36:08):
it's a big first step. Right there, Do you stand
and eat? I mean it depends on the meal and
how busy I am. Occasionally I'll stand at my kitchen island. Yeah,
I like it. You like it, and that like as
a everyday practice, but it's not by accident that I'm
standing like, I'm kind of enjoy it. Okay, So you
want to not do that so you can savor the food.
(36:30):
And when you're savoring this stuff, you you're when you're
when you're savoring it, you're eating more slowly. And by
eating more slowly, you're probably going to be paying a
lot more attention as well. And surprisingly I didn't realize this,
but this this article says that, um, your digestive process
has become thirty to less effective when you're tuned out,
(36:54):
when you're not paying attention. You're like watching TV or
something like that, you're not paying attention to your food.
That's interesting. So training yourself could actually help you become
healthier because you may get more nutrients out of your
food because you're breaking it down better. Yeah. Plus, don't
they say that like a lot of over eating is
eating too fast because you just power through that point
where you're really full, but you just don't know it yet,
(37:14):
right yeah, Yeah, and then all of a sudden you're like,
oh yeah, I can't move ye. Yeah. If you are
paying attention, you're also feeling when you're starting to get
full and you say okay, bail, bail, and that stuff
expands and all of a sudden you're fully full, but
you're not overly full. You just feel good. Do you
ever hit that sweet spot when you're eating and the
(37:35):
food is literally making you high, You're getting a body
high from it. You're just getting off on the food. Oh,
that happens to me every once in a while with
you with very fresh food, where um, I'm eating just
the right amount, like I'll feel high, not like out
of it, like I ate too much, but like invigorated.
(37:56):
And you can actually train yourself to do this very
simply too. Rather than just take and slow, you can
pay attention and just start out. This article suggests by um,
taking a slice of apple and removing all um distractions
and all that and eating the slice of apple and
like just closing your eyes and paying attention to every
(38:16):
aspect of it. It's very interesting. Yeah, it's it's all
just basically training yourself to pay more attention that um.
One thing I had never considered was medicine and prescription drugs,
especially UH in clinical studies. They've identified more than two
hundred and fifty UH scripts that will alter your taste
(38:37):
sensation and um, you might not even see it listed
on the on the side effects, but you might not
even realize it. But um, your your taste buds have
been dulled, especially if you're older elderly, take a lot
more pills and um, a lot of times they have
a harder time tasting and for other reasons as well,
but a lot of it could be due to medication.
(39:00):
Umer say that Simpsons where Marge is cooking pork chops
and everybody's complimenting it, and she's like, thank you. You
might say the extra ingredient is salt. I think it's
the least that goes vegetarian one. But um, that's a
really good point. There's it's probably an extreme, but there's
a lot of people out there who are in ruts
(39:23):
uh and who are an adventurous And I feel so
bad for people who aren't willing to to point to
a food and say that looks weird, I've never had
that before, let me try it. Instead they say that
looks weird you I'll never touch that, because they're missing
out on a whole world of stuff, not just with
(39:44):
that particular dish, but maybe the spices in it that
go with other dishes that lead you to other dishes.
Or I've never tried this nation's cuisine. I don't. I
don't eat any food it smells funny. Yeah, it's like, oh,
the missing out on so much? Yeah, said, of course
there are certain I don't get super adventurous with certain
(40:04):
animals and stuff, but that's a different deal because of cruelty. Yeah,
just you know, I might not want to eat shortbreads,
and I don't think I'm like missing out on something
you're not. Uh. I think personal taste comes into play
as well. Have you said you've never had shortbreads? Uh? No,
like they're they're they're sweetbreads. I'm sorry, Yeah, what's the
(40:25):
same shortbread? Yeah? Shortbread is disgusting, you know, fruitcake, sweetbreads, sweetbreads,
some of the brainful and brains and organ meats. I'm
just not a big fan of And I tried them
enough to know I don't need to try them more. Boom,
(40:46):
there you go. You tried them. That's the many I
have not because I don't need to What you're saying,
you've had enough tripe to know you don't want stomach. Yeah,
I had a tripe taco once, did you. Yeah, yeah,
that's a thing. Although I think that I've got a
great that's a great example. I tried tongue before, and
(41:08):
I'm like, holy cow, I really like tongue. I tried
cheeks before. Tongue freaked me out. And well, it depends
on how could you tell it was tongue. You're not
supposed to be able to tell its tongue had that texture.
Oh yeah, it's no, it's supposed to be much more
chopped up than that. Like you don't want the X here,
you want the stuff that's inside. No, it was. I
(41:29):
just I think you had poorly prepared tongue. No, this
is good stuff. Well, I've never had it where you
could tell it was tongue, you know what I mean.
But I tried it, and I'm like, holy cow, tongues great.
Same with cheeks great. Um. They're like probably the tastiest
part of any animal. And you know where I learned that,
Hannibal Elector your own personal taste, Well, I first heard
(41:50):
about eating cheeks from Hannibal Elector. Yeah, but as far
as it being the best part of the animal, right,
that's your personal taste. No, no, it's it's objectively true,
Like we should make that clear. But the point is
here is that had you never tried tongue, you wouldn't
know you didn't like it, and you just kind of
be uh breff for not having tried it. I'd be
(42:12):
super breff for not having tried it because I do
like it. But we're adventurous and that's the point. Go
be adventurous with your food. And if Indian food is
the threshold of your adventurous oh, I don't understand how
you can eat what you want to eat. Everyone doesn't
have to be like you. No, no, no, no, no,
that's fine. Like, if you don't want to be adventurous,
(42:32):
I agree with that. I feel bad for you if
you're not adventurous of food. Yeah, I don't think you
should take pity on someone for liking what they like. No, no,
I don't and knowing what they don't want to try.
But I think a lot of people think I think
a lot of people who don't want to try something.
If you if you look at their diets, they're probably
(42:55):
pretty limited, you know what I mean. It's not expansive
and then just this off like, oh, fal and try.
I'm not big one, but that's okay too. Whatever. Sure,
I'm not going to come to your house and make
you eat anything, but I do feel bad for you
because I think you're missing out and some really great
sensory pleasure. I think the people that aren't like that
will say, you know what, don't feel bad for me
(43:18):
because I'm great, and I'll say t s for you.
I feel bad for you, and there's something you can
do about it. Uh. I'm just always very conscious about
putting my stuff on other people and saying like, I
can't believe you're missing out. I'm not. I'm not doing that.
I'm saying I pity them, that's all. And I'm not
like a foodie either, like I hate food. He's I
(43:40):
think food he's are annoying. It's not at all what
I'm saying. I'm just saying from personal experience, when I've
been adventurous nine times out of tenants paid off. Well,
that works for you, that's great. Uh. Cleansing the palate
is a big deal, especially if you're a taster. Um
you've got to neutralize it. And they say lemon way
edge and orange segment can do that, which explains why
(44:02):
they give you orange segments at the end of the
Chinese meal. Sometimes never understood it. I thought it was
just like supposed to be a sweet treat. But I
guess it's the cleansing before your dessert or whatever. And
that also explains sorbet too, because it's usually like a
citrusy Yeah, it's usually citrusy, So I guess that's why
(44:23):
I always knew it was ford cleansing the palette. I
just never understood how it did it or they say.
And I hate the word tepid, especially with water. Do
you but like moist tepid water? Just I don't know.
I like cold water, but tepid water. They say it
can be a good palate cleanser as well. And you
mentioned salt earlier. Uh, I'm a big advocate for saltea um,
(44:47):
but the proper amount, of course. Yeah, And it's salt
I've found you can use not just as a seasoning
but almost like mechanically, Like I have this great new
secret for guacamole, Like guacamole is probably the greatest squad
comole anyone's ever created. Do you make it in a mocohete.
Yeah sometimes, Um, but the first step I found I
(45:08):
recently figured this out. Cut the onion and um, put
it in the bowl or the mocahette and salt it.
Salt the onion and let it sit there and the
salt starts to like masserate or I guess break down
because I don't know if mess rates specifically of sugar
and vinegar, but it breaks down the the structure of
(45:29):
the onion and really lets those end times out so
you can really taste the onion. It's a great first step.
And then do the same thing with the tomatoes and
let the tomatoes and onions sit there salted for a
little while, and before you move on and make the
rest of the guacamole. Dude, it's like a brand new day.
I make a good guawk. It's very popular in the household.
And you know, it's a great substitute for tortilla chips,
(45:52):
radishes for for guacamole. It's a great sub you know,
like my tortia chips. I'm a traditionalist. Yeah, um, I
mean I can dip anything in guacamole and like it. Yeah,
you know, give me a thumb, give me a cauliflower
floret and I'll dip that in there. What do you say,
a dirty thumb? Uh? A farty honeycomb? Has this episode
(46:18):
totally gone off the rails? Or is this good stuff?
It's totally gone off the rails? It has it started debate?
It's just like, what do you mean? I mean, should
we just go back and edit it out? No, that's
up to you. Why is it up to me? Because
you were the one taking the hard line, so I
stand by it. Well, great, then leave it? Uh So anyway,
(46:40):
salt is the the the right amount, Like an under
seasoned meal, UM with no salt is not good. You
want salt, sad And if you don't use a lot
of salt at home. And you wonder why restaurant food
always tastes better, it's because they're salting their food correctly.
But too much salt is no good. And if you
(47:00):
use too much, you need even more and then it's
a problem. Yeah, it's it's better, I think, not to
cook with a lot of salt, but to um, start
to add it a little bit at the end, like
when you're making like a stew or something like that,
because it's easy to over salt it and then you're
totally screwed. Um. And then I've never figured out why
this is true. But there's finishing salt, which is basically
(47:21):
just salt, but applied like right before the meal is served.
So if you take a steak and you just sprinkle
this a little bit of salt on it before you serve,
it does something magical that goes way beyond just adding
salt to a steak. Should And I don't understand what
it is. It's delicious, yeah, but I mean there's something
(47:42):
to it for sure. I'm from the South, so I
eat too much salt. Yeah, salt and butter have a
good taste for it. Um, I'll just get a salt
like like a horse I haven't mounted on my guting
room wall. Well, speaking of eating too much salt, apparently
the average human needs something like fIF teen hundred milligrams
a day, and Americans eat between two thousand and eight
(48:03):
thousand a day, which is nuts um. And this article
points out that quitting salt for a week and quitting
sugar for a week and just saying I'm not gonna
eat anything with this this stuff for just like just
a week, it might seem like a lot. By Wednesday,
but just make it to the rest of the week
(48:24):
and you will basically re calibrated your palate and all
of a sudden, um, like junk food tastes cloying, but
you can really appreciate the like more subtle sweetness of
some stuff from more subtle saltiness of other stuff, and
like you really appreciate salt rather than bombarding your tastes
with you know, too much salar, too much sugar. Um.
(48:46):
It's it's definitely an exercise worth doing well. And all
that package garbage food that we talk about is just
loaded with sodium and sugar, you know, like even a
can of soup. Look at like sodium content on just
a can of soup. It's true, terrible sad. Do you
get anything else? No, man, It's always good to quit
(49:07):
something that you're addicted to for a week, just to
make sure you can do it. Yeah, I agree, unless
it's good deeds, unless it's tongue or cheeks. Just eat
that anytime you can. Okay, I'm ready. I liked your
good deeds thing those good. Now you should quit that
for a week to treat people poor, like see how
(49:28):
it goes, dream smashers, Uh, if you want to know
more about food tasting. Type those words in the search
part how stuff works dot Com. Since I said search parts,
time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Butte detail. Ah.
This is from Chelsea and Butte, Montana. And we've talked
a lot about evil. Can evil be in from Butte? Uh?
(49:51):
He said? Really stood out to me how frequently you
guys commented on evil growing up in the rough Butte
community and how it affected his personal presentation. Here are
a few things it might help you understand all this.
Number one, nobody calls it Butte, Montana. It's called Butte America.
What how about that? Beaute? Number two. Butaute was a
huge mining town that saw tremendous growth, wealth and decline,
(50:14):
and still very much tied to its mining past. Number three,
Montana's political campaign contribution laws were in large part passed
in response to the copper kings and the wealth resulting
from the copper mining operations. Also, the Montana Capitol building
had electricity for many parts of the country. Fun fact.
Number four, Beaute has an incredible history tied very closely
(50:35):
to the history of unionization. Number five. Finally, Butte had
and still has a very Irish population. You don't go
there for St. Patty's Day unless you're there at a party. Hard. Yeah,
I didn't know that America. Yeahn't that weird? Um? So,
in short, beaute history is very much still tied to
its current identity. It's still a very scrappy place. But
(50:58):
that being said, some of the best of us loyal
people I knew, I know, grew up in beauty. I
hope this shop clarify as all evil became who he was.
Please keep making podcasts forever so we never run out
of content to binge while it works. That is, Chelsea,
Thanks Chelsea. There was an awesome email Chelsea from Beauty
America Planet Earth. Why do they hate Montana? H Maybe
(51:21):
it's just its own own thing, I guess. Yeah. Well,
if you want to get in touch with us, you
can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
You can hang with me at Josh Underscore UM Underscore Clark.
You can hang out with Chuck on Facebook at Charles W.
Chuck Bryant, or you can hang out with both of
us that um Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know, right,
(51:41):
that's right? Send us an email the Stuff podcast at
how stuff Works dot Com and has always joined us
at our home on the web. Stuff you Should Know
dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Does it, How stuff works dot Com
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Josh Clark
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