Today we're popping off on Popovers, a "cool concept" with "eggy batter" and "frissons of danger". We're talking hot cups, light rolls and poop overs as we discuss methods and recipes, and decide how best to serve them to Lady Moldy-Marmalade and Lord Stumpy-Muffins. Finally we hiss about taco pockets and Fight Club scenarios before Molly decides not to come. over.
Common Good Café’s Perfect Popovers
Matthew's Now but Wow! - Let the Kids Dance, KUOW
Speaker 1 0:00
Hi. I'm Molly. And I'm matthew.
Molly 0:05
And this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious. Eat it all, and you can't have any.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:10
And today we're talking about popovers.
Molly 0:12
That's right. Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:14
And this episode was suggested by host Molly.
Molly 0:18
Yep. Yep. I wanted to do this episode because I recently have have been or we're recording this episode, like three months before you're hearing it, but I've been, I don't know, hopping on I've been popping off. No, I have been making popovers frequently. I think that they kind of came back on my radar. Because of a trip I took last July, actually, July 2023, to attend to the burial of my uncle Arnold.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:53
Oh, who wanted to be remembered with pop hoppers. He
Molly 0:57
and I'm going to talk about this more in a minute, but he was a long time. Part of a volunteer crew of people who worked who ran a place called the common good soup kitchen and cafe. Okay, in southwest Harbor, Maine. This is on Mount desert island. One thing that the common good soup kitchen and cafe is known for is its popover. Nice. So anyway, I'll talk more about it okay, but but that's kind of what got me on a pup over kick.
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:25
All right, we should we go down memory lane. Let's do alright, so my pop over Memory Lane kind of begins I think with the popover cafe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Did you ever go to the popover cafe or ever here? So it closed in 2014 I think when we when we first when I was like 97 It was one of these it was like an upper west side you kind of Sarah Beth sort of place like that, you know, there'll be like a line for brunch. And everything was served on or, or with a popover. And there popovers were like really big as I recall and always like served hot. And you would see like big plates of them going by with or without fillings. And when I looked it up, I looked up this morning to see if it was still there, which is not, but I found like a Zagat review of it. And I had completely forgotten like, what how What a ridiculous experience it is to read one of those Zagat reviews with the quotes in Oh, yeah, it's so slightly I hadn't I hadn't read one in many, many years. But it's like, people
Molly 2:28
say it's tasty, right? And a cool concept, right? Like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:33
it's just right, this one they described someone described the decor as dusty. Anyway, so yeah, it was it was a cute playthrough but there were there a couple of times in the popovers were good. And then wotso Wife of the show, Laurie makes popovers at home at least a couple times a year. We have a popover pan.
Molly 2:53
Yeah, I have a popover pan to I don't remember where I first encountered the idea of a popover but I think that some of the first ones I made were the oatmeal popovers from the breakfast book by Marian. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:05
Oh, oatmeal. popovers I don't think I've had that sounds so good. So
Molly 3:09
yeah, there's oatmeal in the batter or not their oats in the batter, I should say rolled oats. It makes for you know, just to subtly od flavor and a little bit more of a chewy texture and the soft part of the popover. That said, if you are interested in making that recipe I have found so Marion Cunningham and we're gonna get into all the sort of varied do's and don'ts of popover making, so I'm so glad but Marion Cunningham is one of those people who says you should start popovers in a cold oven. That seems so weird seems so wrong to me. And even scientifically it doesn't make sense. I have you tried. So I think the very first time I made her oatmeal popovers I followed the recipe exactly. And they worked brilliantly. Okay, but then I made them again and I made them again. And they failed to pop they were what I have now decided to call poop overs.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:06
Oh, I thought it was a pop unders All right, no poop overs November's Yeah. So
Molly 4:09
I decided to start trying other methods with her ingredients basically with her batter. So I wound up just doing the ol hot oven and hot pan method Yes. Which is what we're going to talk more about
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:26
Oh yeah. elaborated on that today in a very satisfying way
Molly 4:30
and I love and oatmeal pop over I can't believe
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:34
I've ever had it I can't believe that isn't what you made today.
Molly 4:37
I thought about it but honestly I was whipping up the batter at like 1030 last night and I ya
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:43
know I like how you preheat the pan in the oven till it gets pretty hot. And then and then pour the batter into these hot cups. And it I love how it adds a free zone of danger does it does yeah like saying hot cups hot cups.
Molly 4:57
Well so for those among you who may have never had a popover, or whatever, we should say, we should say what these things are. Yeah, Wikipedia is description is kind of baffling to me or like, okay, so Wikipedia says a popover is a light roll,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:18
which feel I don't hear things COVID as a role, but then when then, but then like, what? Like, what did I say? Yeah, it's just a pop up.
Molly 5:25
It's just a popover. So Wikipedia says a popover is a light roll made from an egg batter, typically baked in muffin cups or an elegant, dedicated popover pan, which has a deeper well, okay, and straighter sides to the well than the usual kind of sloped side of a muffin. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:44
And the cups are like, for some reason, like in a popover pan, the cups are like sort of suspend or like, like, welded to Rails. That's right, rather than like one
Molly 5:53
sheet that they've pressed into. That's a really good point. Why?
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:58
I don't know. I don't know either.
Molly 5:59
According to Wikipedia,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:01
I got important news. Hang on breaking news here. I just got it. I just got a message from Watson who's working in the other room? And she says good popover great, because she just ate one that you that you made.
Molly 6:12
Okay. I think that this was an okay effort on my part, and we'll get to that. Okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:17
I thought it was pretty tasty. Alright, so
Molly 6:19
Wikipedia says that popovers can be served as like a sweet, like a dessert that you could serve them with fruit and whipped cream, which is sure I guess you could like a cream puffs, sort of Oh, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:30
I've definitely I've put like mascarpone or whipped cream in a popover with jam usually. Okay,
Molly 6:34
of course, you can also have them for breakfast with butter and jam, which is my preference. Or you can have them at lunch or at dinner. And here is where they sort of converged with the idea of Yorkshire pudding. I was going to ask about Yes. So Yorkshire pudding is basically like a popover batter and ag batter. But instead of putting either butter pudding instead of putting now instead of putting either butter or oil in the cups of the popover pan, you're going to use some beef fat from a roast
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:10
Oh like meat, drippings, meat drippings, and
Molly 7:12
then you're going to serve the Yorkshire pudding with the roast.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:16
I think when I was a kid I thought meat drippings were going to be a bigger thing in my life going how kids always think you're gonna run into quicksand a lot like their recipes, like you know, where people talked about doing things with meat, drippings, and like adults, they're always slugging around meat drip. Yes.
Molly 7:30
So I don't know, maybe this is something about like the socio economics of my background, but I felt like adults were also always cooking big pieces of meat. Yeah, joints. They were always they were always cooking like a row square. They were always cooking. tenderloin or they were always cooking like a crown roast. Where there were so many rows.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:51
I mean, this wasn't like I think I actually ran into as a kid. It was a thing that I read about in books. Yeah. And so yeah, so like I don't, I don't really actually do things with meat drippings very often and almost never make a roast. Yeah. But if I did, I would probably want Yorkshire pudding, which is a beefy pop over to go with it. And I
Molly 8:10
have also seen people make a Yorkshire pudding in a skillet. Sure. Which brings us to the idea of a Dutch baby. So you could make Yorkshire pudding and a skillet right, you could take a cast iron skillet, put a little bit of beef drippings in it and then pour in the ag batter. What you would have is a slightly savory Dutch baby and a Dutch baby is very similar to a popover. It's just cooked in a skillet. And so it kind of winds up looking like a puffy ag pancake right? So
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:40
you can kind of see its innards in a way that you can't with a popover.
Molly 8:44
That's right, that's right. Whereas a popover kind of so so to get back to this idea of a light roll. Battery, the
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:51
light roll is pretty funny. It's
Molly 8:53
dumb. So the idea with a popover I mean when you look at it, it looks like this crazy shaped like this misshapen roll
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:01
of swords really fun to see what they're gonna come out. Like that's golden brown
Molly 9:06
on the outside often has a bit of a shine to it. beautiful golden brown and the outside but
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:13
I didn't say sheen because we would have gotten tired talking about our favorite jeans again. Glad
Molly 9:17
I didn't say it. That's right. The outside should be like lightly crispy not we're not talking like a thick crust like a sourdough. We're talking like a thin crispy exterior. And the inside should be airy, like, like a very light custardy Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:36
It's very moist filling. Yeah, everybody loves that word. Yeah. Yeah, no. And there's like, there's like kind of layers and like, like, you know, we are yeah,
Molly 9:49
there's almost like a custody where, exactly, yeah, where that was going. Yeah. And part of what I think is so great about about popovers is that textural contrast between the like, be outside and then this like, wonderfully tender, soft ag inside. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:06
what makes them pop? Alright, let's
Molly 10:07
talk about how you make these things. So the basic recipe is just milk, egg, flour and salt. And sort of a basic formula is like equal parts by volume, not by weight, equal parts milk and flour. So say one cup flour, one cup milk, all right, maybe two a cup salt. Maybe two eggs and like a half teaspoon of salt. And the recipes vary a little bit from there. But in general, it's going to call for equal parts by volume of flour and milk and two or three eggs. Okay, so sometimes I've seen recipes call for butter. This is something that people diverge on in their thinking, when I do see recipes call for butter, it's like one tablespoon.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:56
So not not not a big contribution. It's not gonna
Molly 10:59
make a big contribution. And I also found somebody being like, well, that you know, the butter is going to weigh it down. It's not going to pop properly. And I have a hard time believing a tablespoon of butter. Do that. But anyway, you know, maybe another way in which popovers in Dutch babies differ is I when I've made Dutch babies, there was more butter than that in the batter. Yeah, melted butter.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:20
Although, I feel like when I've been a Dutch baby, there was like a lot of butter in the pan. Oh, maybe
Molly 11:25
that was it. Maybe that's what I'm thinking. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:27
know. Dutch baby episode. No, like my mom's Dutch baby recipe. I think he calls for melting a stick of butter. I
Molly 11:34
think that you're right. You're right. I was mistaken in my memory there. I do think it's a very similar bat. Yatir. But it's almost like fried in butter. Right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:43
So like when we think of things that pop up a lot like a bread or a pancake or a quick bread. Like usually there's some sort of leavening involved here. There isn't so what what gives it its airy, puffy lightness? So
Molly 11:57
here's the thing. Most popover recipes will have you start them in a really hot oven like 450 which much hotter than we usually use for baked goods. Yeah. So you start them in a really hot oven. And most recipes will also have you preheat your popover pan in that oven. Yeah, which I did before you pour the fat and the batter in. Molly texted
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:23
me to say she was on her way to the studio here. And I put the popover pan into the hot oven as soon as I as soon as I heard from her, and I'm gonna start doing that every time she comes. I can't wait. So
Molly 12:35
the idea is that the batter needs this like blast of heat for the moisture in that batter to begin to turn to steam. Yeah. And when I read some stuff online, there are multiple different like cooks illustrated articles and recipes for servers
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:57
and cooks country. Yeah. And
Molly 13:00
in one of them, I read something about like, basically the gel structure. The batter, sure. But I don't remember what it was. Okay, okay. But basically, you need this like initial blast of heat to take all the moisture of this batter because this is a wet batter. It's like a like a pancake batter or even thinner than that. So you need all that heat and like a blast of it to create steam right away. And so the first thing that you notice, when you put your popovers in this hot pan is you will see them within a few minutes, you'll see the batter just start to rise a little bit. And so while they're in this hot oven, what happens is they're going to rise they're going to brown and the structure sort of sets,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:46
right? So yeah, you need the outside to like kind of set at the right time.
Molly 13:49
That's right. And then after about 20 minutes of baking, you're going to lower the oven temperature to like a more moderate heat like 350 or 375. And continue to bake them for 15 minutes. And during that time, what you're doing is you're baking the ins or you're letting the inside continue to bake without burning the outside. Wow. So yeah, you need this initial blast of heat. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:12
and yeah, you've you've made them successfully starting with a cold oven once. Yes,
Molly 14:16
but they are not going to do it. They're not going to rise consistently Yeah, in my experience, my limited experience. But that also makes sense to me scientifically, why? There are so many different things that could contribute to whether or not popovers are going to rise well in less than super hot conditions.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:38
I mean, probably they're not going to rise very well. If you don't if you just like Leave it leave the batter out on the counter for a few hours. Well,
Molly 14:45
so here's the thing, actually. So you do want to rest the batter. That's true. Yes. So pretty much every popover recipe will tell you that after you've mixed up the batter, you should let it sit on the counter for like 30 minutes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:57
What do you think's going on there? Well, so
Molly 14:59
what I think is going on as the gluten in the flour is relaxing okay or it's chilling out a little bit but I also think what's going on is the ingredients are getting less cold they're coming toward room temperature okay, which also is gonna I would think give give the steam like that much higher thresholds to start from right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:20
Yeah, I think so. I don't know. Like I I'm gonna guess it probably doesn't make that much of a difference just because the difference between like 45 degrees and 70 degrees is not very much compared to the differences between 70 degrees and 400 degrees Yeah, well, I mean, like, like not for entry degrees like 200 degrees because you know,
Molly 15:38
gosh, I looked at a lot of stuff about Papa yours a lot of people get worked up about like don't over mix the batter, but kind of like pancakes what you have to do a lot over mix the bad Yeah, seems like surely if you're mixing by hand right with like a whisk. You gotta whisk a lot
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:56
I've never had a pop over that. I was like, This is tough.
Molly 15:59
No, I haven't either. But I think that it might not rise quite as high if you didn't let it rest a little bit.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:06
Yeah, no, I agree. Like and you want you want like consistent gluten formation, but also like, like a relaxed texture. Yeah, if that makes any sense. I made that up the batter
Molly 16:16
that I cooked from this morning. What I did something I'd never done before which is I mixed up the batter last night okay, and left it in the fridge but then I pulled it out like three hours before I was coming over today to really let it come to room temp and
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:30
it worked great. It works great. It puffed up nicely and it got it got some like weird like ornamentation like like some like swoops and curls that formed like on the outside Yeah, one of them had like a like a pompadour Yeah, I don't even know what's going on there. We need we need like a material. So I
Molly 16:47
wonder if those are the ones you know how so? So you know one batch is one batch of pop over batteries usually calibrated to make like six popovers you're gonna say and I say yes. So I You're right, I filled up the wells, but then I had a little bit more batter and I went back into some of the wells of the popover pan and put a little more batter in and I think that's what made the top now especially
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:08
since like when you pour you brush we brushed the cups with a little butter and so like that butter kind of like rises up and like you know forms you can see like like a little layer of butter forming over the top. Yes. And then I think when you put it in a little more like it comes like a slightly separate low dough lump. And I
Molly 17:26
think that you know, I wonder if the pan wasn't pre heated. I wonder if it would have that same Yeah, maybe not. Because probably even though it seems crazy probably the instant that we poured the batter into this hot fat in a hot pan there was something that started to happen in terms of the batter setting along the wall. Yeah, we
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:45
want to like experiment with like sort of like dotting additional batter on it. See what happens. You can like you can get like various hairstyles. Yeah, see, we can like make a total row pop over various hairstyles, like Yeah, like like pigtails. French braid. Yeah. What? Any other hairstyles, like the
Molly 18:05
wolf. That's what that's all the kids are in today really are into today.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:10
What can you describe it?
Molly 18:12
I think it's kind of like the haircut that Joan Jett had. I mean, it's like sort of a shag meets.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:20
I don't know. Yes, shag is like a cormorant. Right?
Molly 18:25
Oh, Matthew. Well, hold on. I'm not dying. I'm not died. Clearly I am. I'm not done. What I wanted to say is that you you don't have to preheat the pan. You do not have to preheat the pan there are over recipes that won't that are like you don't need to preheat the pan. That said I do think that you get it makes a lot of sense that if the popovers need this blast of heat to get the steam going, you might as well to blast them
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:01
have you made pop overs in a muffin tin and how to if so how do they compare? I
Molly 19:06
have not made them in a muffin tin some sources that I saw online said they weren't great. And some said you just don't get that great arise.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:13
Um, yeah, I imagine it's probably like almost as good but not quite. Yeah.
Molly 19:17
Here's the thing. I mean, I had like a real like rash of pop over experiences a few months ago where we got a lotion for that where they didn't pop where they pooped. Yeah. And they're still delicious. Like they're still totally delicious. They just look like kind of tall stumpy muffins. Like, but they're still delicious. It's like not a big deal
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:45
it's not even funny, but when you did the jumping off it's I imagine is like a hyphenated name of like a stuffy English Lord. stumpy muffin.
Molly 19:54
So cute.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:56
What do you what do you have there?
Molly 19:57
Well, so what I have here is so the rest pay that I made for you today. Matthew is a version of the recipe from the common good soup kitchen and cafe. And we'll link to it in the show notes. Okay, so this is so the common good soup kitchen and cafe in southwest Harbor, Maine, such a cool idea. So in the winter months, it operates as basically a soup kitchen for you know, for low income people, people who need a hot meal come in, get your free meal, the way that they raise money to be able to do that is through in the warmer months when there's also like a lot of tourism in the area. They have a like cafe in the mornings. And it still is by donation only. So you can you can come and eat there even if you don't have money. But basically what they offer is a very small menu, there's a carafe of coffee, there are popovers there are little containers of salted butter and little containers of a really good jam that I think they've made. Okay, and then there's like a big like pressure cooker pot of oatmeal. Nice. And if you've been to I've been we went one morning when when my whole family was sort of assembled there to bury my uncle Arnold's in July of 2023. And oh my god, it was such a wonderful vibe. So you're in this like little town? On this island in Maine? Yeah, your roll up and there are these it's mostly staffed by I would say seniors and you pay what you can the suggested donation is $10. Sure, but it is eat all you want. Drink all you want. And they had a live band there. Wow. On the morning that we were
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:41
there like, like sea shanties?
Molly 21:43
No, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:45
I imagined I imagined that's like the music you run into in Maine. It was
Molly 21:48
so delightful. It felt so good. And it was such a cool business model to I love making use of the fact that they would have a lot of people coming through that area in the summertime. And they could serve these like delicious, like locally famous popovers and make a little money doing it. Yeah, that's
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:09
really cool. Ivan, as we record this, not as as you listen to it. I'm about to go to Cape Cod for a few days. And it's kind of the off season. And I'm really curious what Cape Cod and the off season is going to be like I have no sense of it. Yeah,
Molly 22:23
maybe they're I'm excited for the beach coming. You
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:26
might do I might do some beach combing. Yeah. Is that is that like, just when you find stuff on the beach? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no, I'll bring I'll bring you a shell. And maybe like, what?
Molly 22:37
I don't know, maybe. Maybe they have sand dollars out there. But yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:41
can we think of anything a beach cover might find it's not a shell maybe a diamond ring? Yeah, it could be Yeah, glass, glass? Glass. Yep, driftwood. But hang
Molly 22:51
on. I want to say a few more things about the press. Yes. So we'll share this recipe. Anyway, the common good cafe, they don't preheat their popover pans. Okay. But they do of course, start them in a really hot
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:02
oven. It seems like preheating the past would be a tricky thing to do, like in a high volume, high volume restaurant setting. Yeah. Another
Molly 23:08
thing that they do is they do recommend that you either warm the batter to room temperature before pouring it in the popover pan or that you make it the night before and then let it come to room temp. And I think that both of these things also achieved the goal of letting the gluten relaxed. Yeah. But anyway, one thing I will say is that if you look at the recipe, it doesn't specify what type of salt and I have made them with both like a fine salt and kosher salt. And I think you need the fine salt when I think I'm with kosher salt. I felt like they were a little under salted. Do you think
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:42
that's because of the volume of salt that you put in or because of different characteristics of the salt,
Molly 23:47
the salt? I used diamond crystal kosher salt, which is
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:51
about about one half as dense as as fine table salt or sea salt?
Molly 23:57
Yeah. So you know, I think that it's probably both I mean, I think the better tasting measurement to use is your with fine salt. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:08
no, I we I'm sure we've talked about this before because like I this is something I've always often wonder and like, I've had this conversation with a few people where I felt like I could bring it up without sounding like I was being a jerk about it, which is if you use diamond crystal kosher salt, which many when he cooks do, and you come across a recipe that you think was written for table salt? Do you double the volume of salt? I always do. Okay,
Molly 24:30
you know, I haven't really ever been that scientific about it. I often kind of consider when the cookbook was published. Yeah, sure, or the or the source of the cookbook and sort of guess as to whether they would have meant Kosher salt or like table salt or another like fine grain salt, right? Yeah. So I think in this case, if what you have is diamond crystal kosher salt, I think you're gonna want to use more than the recipe calls for Yeah, so So Laurie makes popovers and what's her recipe
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:59
so She uses the recipe from the Grand Central baking book, which is from a great small bakery chain in Seattle that like she's cooked every cookie bake every cookie in this book and a bunch of other things. It's a terrific baking book. I think this recipe also is like Fannie farmer. Influenced which which I assume the Marian Cunningham on is also it is it's so, so simple. Like when I looked at it, I was like, really? That's like the whole ingredient list. Yeah, it is. One cup of whole milk, three eggs, half teaspoon salt, one cup all purpose flour. Yep, there you go. That is it. And yeah, she's made these a bunch of times, and they always come out really tasty.
Molly 25:40
You know, I have never regretted having a popover pan. And in fact, I'm so glad I have one that I actually have to because if you're having even like, if you're making popovers for even for people Sure. I think you need more than I think you need at least six popovers if not more, there's
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:59
like practically four people in your family.
Molly 26:01
There are four people in my family. One of them sort of just eats like a handful of blueberries at a time and that's about it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:09
But I bet he's gonna get into popovers at some point. Yeah,
Molly 26:12
yeah. What what do you eat them with?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:15
So I my favorite is is like jam and something creamy like if we got whipped cream. That's That's great. Yeah, and you don't like spreading butter on it. I don't like spreading butter on things because I'm because I'm condiment phobic like mascarpone and jam is also great. Like those are both condiments. Matthew is massacre opponent condiment. We should have talked about this on the masker Pong episode. But yeah, like, No, when I say condiment phobic I like I just mean like there are a few condiments that most people like that I don't. Okay, like softened butter. Like, like chip melted melted butter. Like like if I if I was gonna, like spread, like, like brush some melted butter on that seems like kind of a weird thing to do to pop over but like it doesn't skeeve me out. Interesting. Okay, but like if I if I have like an English muffin, I'm gonna brush melted butter on that. Really? Yeah, not
Molly 27:05
Wow. Okay, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:06
do it all the time. This is fascinating. I do it without a care,
Molly 27:10
which that's great. Okay, well, I'm with you. I want something
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:15
about this, that I liked in this recipe is that it says Once the oven is hot, put the pan into heat until it's quote hissing hot. And that's actually in quotes in the book. Like a Zagat review exactly.
Molly 27:25
Well, when you add the when you take the hot pan out of the preheated oven and add the fat, whether it's melted butter, or a little dribble of vegetable oil that it's going to hit. Yeah. Matthew, I love butter. I love putting butter on my popovers and I particularly like salted butter on a pop. Oh of course, which I didn't know of salted butter and popover jam. Of course, I'm not always a big marmalade person. But Marion Cunningham recommends marmalade with her oatmeal popovers and I did it and I liked it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:59
That sounds really good. Like the number of times I've eaten marmalade in my life is probably less than a dozen and it's not because I don't like it. I just never think about it. Yeah,
Molly 28:08
yeah, I bought some not too long ago. Then I forgot about it. And it was moldy
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:13
by the time I went back to it. Yeah, maybe that's maybe that's why I don't like no I do like it's so hard. Yep. Moldy Mark Lord moldy marmalade and
Molly 28:22
stumpy some peach dumpy willikers. Sweaty fingers. What was it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:28
Stuffy muffin sick. All right, so I will get some marmalade up in here. I did get some jam, but we didn't end up eating it. Okay, do you want to take some jam home? Yeah, okay, fine. Let me think I feel like I had one other thing to say about popovers but I don't know. Have you had Yorkshire pudding? I don't know if I ever have. I don't think I have it. Like we should do that as an episode. We should do that. But I think we would need to like, I feel like let's do it in winter and I'll roast I'll make a big manly roast. Okay, and I'll and I'll collect the drippings and I'll drip them onto my pudding.
Molly 29:06
I think that hold on to go back to the idea of a light roll. I think popovers would be delicious with a bowl of soup. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:16
I mean especially like are they served soup at the popover cafe?
Molly 29:20
I feel like that is the ultimate like you know I feel like if somebody were going to cook a meal for me to like welcome me in from a cold walk. I would want it to be soup at a popover
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:34
Is this like a Hansel and Gretel kind
Molly 29:37
of situation then I would want them to cook me okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:40
Yeah. Could you make wow
Molly 29:46
I don't even know what that would be very excited now.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:50
Do you You know how sometimes you get soup served in a bread bowl. Do you think you can make a pop over bowl just Sure. Yeah, okay,
Molly 30:00
I think you could have like a little, like a little, a little pop over bowl shooter. It's like, oh, you
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:07
know what I mean? You just take the bottom oyster and,
Molly 30:10
you know, you just take the bottom part of the popover like that's at the bottom of the cup. Yeah. And you put a little bit of soup in there. You slice it off using like a little buzz so like if you were gonna do like a tea party for your kids stuffed animal I think
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:24
I don't think the structural integrity is there. That's fine, but you
Molly 30:30
bite into it. It's like a soup dumpling gone wrong. Yeah, no, no,
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:33
definitely. You should. You should like serve this to some stuffed animal.
Molly 30:35
Definitely serve this piping hot to children. Yeah. Like
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:39
get him get him. You know, if you've got like a like a toddler and like a bunch of small children in your house. Definitely, like throw some popover pans in the oven. And
Molly 30:49
popovers are a great thing to make with young children. Especially if you've pre heated Exactly. Yeah. I love the sound of hissing hot.
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:57
Just get your face to this. All right,
Molly 31:00
so Matthew, we've got some spilled mail today and it is from listener Becca
and you're chewing a popover
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:13
Well, I got up to get my laptop to read the email from listener Becca which is still loading. It's still loading because it's 100,000 words long. And I walked past the the cooling rack of popovers. And I was like, Well, I can't walk past the popovers without tearing into one. That's right. What are there other foods that that are like so satisfying to tear into with your hands? Like I mean tearing tearing off like like a piece of rustic bread is very satisfying. But like other things that you really like gouge open.
Molly 31:44
Not really. Your hands. I mean, I'm thinking of you know, when people not that any of us are making or serving souffles but you know how they would bring like, Did You Ever Have you ever ordered a souffle in a restaurant? Yeah. Okay, so you bring over like two big spoons, plunge them into the middle, pry it open and maybe like pour in some crema on gloves or something like that. So for that out
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:13
the like ovenproof gloves. Yeah.
Molly 32:16
People love to be nervous. Exactly. Yes. And I've improved gloves.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:25
Man, we should open this restaurant concept like
Molly 32:28
when they toss your Caesar salad by
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:33
the side the hand gesture you're making is I've seen okay, this this spilled mails from a listener Baca who writes just listen to your fast food taco episode and was casually going through my email when a subject line caught my eye. Wild Thing we sold out of the taco bell times wild Fang coveralls are no moss. What the heck Wild Thing is a badass LGBTQ founded clothing brands started here in Portland now international known for their coveralls and very stylish I guess the talk about clothing is still the tits. Sadly, it's no moss and so there's this in the in the emails there's this this big advertise Cobell meets wild Fang Limited Edition cover all sold out. That was fast who knew? Thanks for keeping me entertained for seven eight years backup
Molly 33:24
hold up what are these even look like? You can't even see it let
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:27
me see all right so i did i we have we're gonna link to it because there is a link to the product they can no longer buy. I want to know what these look like today. Here we go. Like I don't what makes this attack Joe noise and talk about my guess was they had the boat. They have some like pretty big, hefty pockets on the front plate. Each of them has a crunchy taco.
Molly 33:49
But yeah, delivered piping hot.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:51
Yeah, like and the spokesperson, the model for this is Hayley Kiyoko. So I don't know. You they not? Do
Molly 34:00
they not have pictures down below. Like even though it's Oh,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:03
yeah, here we go. Oh, yeah. So here's people. Alright, so they've got no I still don't know.
Molly 34:08
Still don't understand. So it's like there's a little kind of,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:10
there's little taco bell purple. But it's mostly just like people were I mean, these are really cool. First of all, they're like, like, something that I would see someone wearing and be like, well, that person is like, way cooler than I've ever been. don't really see too much of where the where the Taco Bell tie in comes in. And they're like eating tacos, or they're not even eating tacos. They're like sort of holding tacos near their mouths.
Molly 34:34
The connection between these two things is too tenuous but Oh, but but I think they do. They did. Yes, you can fit their products in the pocket
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:45
pockets our Taco Bell
Molly 34:47
sighs Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 34:48
Okay. Oh, they
Molly 34:50
even have a sauce pocket. Yes, fire sauce.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:53
Let's check out their other collabs Urban Outfitters boring.
Molly 34:56
I feel like this collaboration is truly so Um, thanks so demented. It seems unreal that somebody would make it Tegan
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:04
and Sara and wild Fang. That's cool. But
Molly 35:08
they have like pockets that can hold microphones or like guitar
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:11
picks into pockets. Tegan and Sara. Yes. They had microphone pockets. Yeah, none of the other ones are funny in the way that Taco Bell is funny one is really yummy. But okay, thank you very much listener Becca to for bringing this product that we can't buy to our attention. Yeah, thank you. That was we will link to the page where you can see it for yourself in the show notes.
Molly 35:36
Matthew. I'm pretty psyched about your now but wow.
I have listened to the first one and a half episodes. Oh, isn't it good? It's really good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:51
So okay, this is a podcast produced locally by que yo w. And Jonathan's Wickel is the name of the host and producer. It's called let the kids dance. And it is a seven part limited series podcast about the teen dance ordinance era in Seattle. And this is a thing that if you did not live through it in Seattle is very hard to believe was real. But it was and like Lori and I moved here kind of near the tail end of it. It was a law that basically was inspired by and pushed by like a bunch of nervous parents, because of like a club where kids were getting in trouble. And the law banned teen dances in Seattle. And what that meant effectively was that no one under 21 could see a concert in Seattle from like 1985 to 2001 Huh, that's right. So when Laurie and I moved here I first moved here we were 20 and could not see live music.
Molly 36:51
That's when you would take a parent with you. Yes, exactly.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:54
No even then you like yes,
Molly 36:57
part of what I found so fascinating. On the first episode in particular is if you have ever been driving on i Five are riding in a car on i Five and you have noticed this like four storey glass house on the eastern side of i Five overlooking the highway and the lake union. And it has like crazy, like neon lights and signs and stuff outside. You will learn who owns that. Yes, I had no idea behind that person asked us to live like two doors down from that person. And we were always like, what is the deal with this house?
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:35
So yeah, so this this podcast is so good like it is I would describe the tone as kind of appropriately overheated, like everything. Everything is kind of like, you know, a big idea. Like it really goes for it. It is it is such an amazing story. There was so much of the story that I didn't know. It's just about like sort of weird injustice.
Molly 37:57
It is delightful. I've really enjoyed it while taking the dog for a
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:02
walk. Yeah, so let's let the kids dance wherever you get podcasts.
Molly 38:05
Well, our producer is Abbey circuit tele.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:07
Molly's got a newsletter called I've got a feeling that you can and should subscribe to it. Molly weisenberg.substack.com. Matthew
Molly 38:14
makes music with his band, which is called early to the airport. And I think they have a new EP out.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:21
I think it will probably I sure hope it's out by the time you hear this because I think I think I've finished all my parts and I think Matt has finished almost all of his parts of which is which is like it sounds like I'm throwing shade like my parts are way easier.
Molly 38:33
We should also say that the names of the people in the band art Matthew and Matt. Yes, yeah. Yeah. So you're not referring to yourself in the third person?
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:41
That's right. No, no, this is this is like a Fight Club scenario. Really?
Molly 38:46
I really hope Matt has done his part.
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:49
I'm gonna find out like much later that actually I did the whole thing myself. Spoilers. But yeah, so that EP is called arrivals and I think I think we made a last minute addition of my cover of Lana Del Rey's Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard, which I'm really proud of
Molly 39:09
awesome. So again, the band name is early to the airport and you
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:13
can hang out with other spilled milk listeners and chat at everything spilled milk.reddit.com And talk about I don't know like what what what do you what do you put in a hot oven and and then pull out to possibly brand your friends? Yeah,
Molly 39:29
you can chat with other people at everything spilled milk.reddit.com
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:32
I just remembered the thing that I forgot to ask you about popovers when were you nervous, like bringing like a loose runny batter in your car.
Molly 39:41
I wasn't actually because I have like rubber floor mats. Okay, and I had it I had it in a large measuring cup with like a wide base and with plastic wrap really nicely sealed over the top.
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:57
Okay, well that was a trick question since it's no Big deal. I want you to break over some kind of batter every time. I'll be free Heaton and wait. Oh,
Molly 40:06
wow. I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:07
Matthew so yeah, I'm
Molly 40:09
not coming.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:12
Oh dear. Someone's gonna. Someone's gonna definitely pull that quote out.
Molly 40:16
I'm not coming over.
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:18
I'm Matthew Amster-Burton
Unknown Speaker 40:26
Did you start it off last time? Okay
Transcribed by https://otter.ai