Hopefully second time's the charm because we're loaded with hot takes! This episode is good and plenteous and explosive as our aspirational camp counselors, M and M, discuss horscuits, Cigar Golfers and Affluent Aficionados as they eat these Egg McMahons. To keep this hot and round show coming to your ears week after week, consider becoming a subscriber! We are easy to please whether you are a Little Limbertwig or Magnum Bonum Sustaining Member or even a Glycine Max Supermember!
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:04
I'm Matthew and I'm Molly, and this is spilled milk. This show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have any. That's
Molly 0:11
right. Today we are talking about breakfast sandwiches,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:16
and it is our annual pledge drive episode. But more on that later. Yes,
Molly 0:20
yes. More on that later. Wow. Okay, so this is our second attempt to to tape this episode. Okay, yeah, let's, let's
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:26
talk about where, where I went wrong last week. Well,
Molly 0:29
I went wrong there, too, but basically, so, you know, we always record at Matthew's apartment. I was to drive here, and on the way, I was to pick up McDonald's breakfast sandwiches, yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:39
And I was like, McDonald's. They have all day breakfast. I heard about this, so you should be able to pick them up at like, 1130
Molly 0:45
and I didn't 1230 I didn't even think twice about it. And I roll up to my local McDonald's at like, 12 o'clock on the dot, and I'm looking at the menu, and I'm like, wow, there is no breakfast anywhere here. And I even, like, tried to order breakfast, wow. And I was told, No, you
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:02
were probably their most difficult customer all day. I hope
Molly 1:06
so. So we had to, we had to hold off on the episode, because, hey, turns out they discontinued all day breakfast in 2020
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:14
Yeah, probably the worst thing that happened in 2020
Molly 1:17
Yeah, yeah. I can't think of anything else, but we're redoing it today. We started a little earlier, and I was in my local drive through line at approximately 9:45am
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:29
good and you delivered the goods. You brought good and plenteous bounty. Yes, I did. This episode was suggested by me, and I've been wanting to do it for a long time, because this is one of my favorite things, and I wanted to subject you to it. Yeah,
Molly 1:43
I have eaten exponentially more breakfast sandwiches in the last two weeks than ever before, because with the first time we tried to record this episode, you were already in the process of, like, making another breakfast sandwich for us to have. When I texted you and was like, Hey, we can't get McDonald's, right?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:03
So I made a homemade one, which I was already planning to make, and I'm kind of glad it turned out this way, because, like, I didn't want to have to put my homemade breakfast sandwich up next to an Egg McMuffin and possibly lose.
Molly 2:14
No, you wouldn't have lost. Okay, but we'll get there. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:17
so let's go down memory lane. So you said there's, there's been an explosion in your breakfast sandwich consumption in the last couple of weeks. What? What happened before that? So, before
Molly 2:26
that, I did eat, I think, a lot of McDonald's breakfast sandwiches as a kid, because, like in the summers, I would do lots of horse shows, sure. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:36
horses love biscuits. Horse kits. Love horse kits.
Molly 2:42
We just, just love together.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:44
This is like an insider, like horse girl term horse kits.
Molly 2:49
No, but, I mean, like, I distinctly remember being, for instance, in Albuquerque at the, like the Sandia like fairgrounds. We all know the Sandia fairgrounds, and right outside the main gate was at McDonald's, and every day my mother, bless her. I mean, there was, like, nowhere else, yeah, this was like 1990 you sound apologetic, and you don't have to be No, I don't feel apologetic. Yeah. Anyway, I always had her get me an egg and cheese biscuit, yeah, because I was a little scared of the sausage, because, you know, you get a sausage, egg and cheese. Oh, sure, which I always felt like was sort of the real way to eat. The biscuit sandwich and cheese was like the wimps version. I don't think so. Anyway, I as a child, was scared of the spiciness of the sausage, of course. Yeah. And the the other time that I remember sort of always eating McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. Was when I went to, like, summer camp at the at the school that I eventually went to for high school. Was this the summer camp with, like, the hair, no, that was the one that was like a sleepaway. This was just a regular day camp, not
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:56
new. Newer listeners will think that's, like, one of the strangest things I've ever said, right?
Molly 4:03
You mean, lovely, lovely hair, that's yeah, no. So do you remember when, when camps like used to be called day camps? Sure. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:11
mean, I think they're still called day camps. They
Molly 4:13
are. I think now it's just like bike camp or skateboarding camp or science camp, those are all types of day camps, that's right, but there used to just be like, day, generic day camp. And inevitably, like a high school would offer this, and the teenagers would be counselors, right? And you would always think they were so old, Oh, of course, so cool, and they knew everything.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:34
I still remember the feeling of being like in sixth grade and thinking the high school students were like, giant, like, hairy mutants. Yeah, that would never be me, no. And now look at you, yeah, giant, giant hairy mutant. That's
Molly 4:49
me. Anyway, there was always, even though this was a day camp, there was always a sleepover at the end of the two week session, and we would sleep on the floor in the high school gym. This, this
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:58
is still a thing. Saying, like, like, silos w is currently counseling a Girl Scout day camp, and there's a sleepover on the, like, Thursday to Friday. Wow,
Molly 5:08
that's so, yeah, I've been, I've been telling ash all summer, because we're again, we're recording this in the summer. I've been telling ash that, that I have been every day this summer, dressing for the job I want to have, which is camp counselor, yes, and Matthew, when you see my whole outfit today, wearing tivas and wearing jeans and like, kind of like a muscle shirt, I am dressed to be a camp counselor, absolutely. Anyway,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:33
what I'm doing horse get camp what
Molly 5:35
trying to say is, after the sleepover where we all slept, or really, truly did not sleep on the floor of the gym. You got your choice of one of three McDonald's breakfast items. Oh, wow, this is awesome. Yeah. So you could either have the sausage biscuit, it was not like the sausage egg and cheese biscuit, just the sausage biscuit, the Egg McMuffin, or the pancakes, okay? And like, I feel like maybe those were the only three items back then, maybe. So that's been like, 1988 maybe, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:08
I mean, we'll talk about when they started doing breakfast. It wasn't even that long before that.
Molly 6:13
Okay, I always got, I think it was always a bit of a challenge for me, because I was scared of the sausage. Okay, you wanted the egg and cheese biscuit. I wanted the egg and cheese biscuit. There was no difficult child. There was no way I was gonna get the Egg McMuffin that had too much stuff going on. Sure. I think I might have gotten the pancakes. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:30
and I've had McDonald's pancakes, pretty good. I mean, are they, like, as good as homemade pancakes? No, but like, in a pinch, sure.
Molly 6:38
Okay. But I have one other thing on my memory, which is that the week before we first tried to tape this episode, just by chance, I made my first ever egg sandwich.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:48
Tell me about it, why and what format. Okay. Well, I
Molly 6:52
am the primary cook in my household, and this was one of those nights. It was summer. It was hot. We had just gotten home from a camping trip, and we had some hamburger buns or something flying around. And I felt really uninspired for dinner, but I was like, Hey, we could just fry some eggs. We could toast these buns, melt a little cheese on them. We've got hot sauce, we've got Mayo to love. So it was a very basic egg sandwich. How
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:22
did you do the egg?
Molly 7:23
So we did regular old, like, over medium fried eggs. And it was shocking how much yolk, like, way more yolk than a single we'll talk free to come out of each of these sandwiches. Yes,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:37
yes, that's exactly it. It seems like somehow somebody yolk expands to like baseball size,
Molly 7:43
but June and I had so much fun, like mopping up the yolk and Oh god, I put a little bit of butter on my toasted bun before the mayo. It was so good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:52
That sounds great. Okay, so my memory lane is I have loved breakfast sandwiches for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I always wanted them without the American cheese. I don't know what I was thinking. I love the American cheese now.
Molly 8:05
I like that. You're calling it the American cheese,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:07
the the one and only American cheese. So, yeah, so I would, I would get these, like, you know, this would be a treat, like any, any time I could get my hands on an Egg McMuffin type thing. I was, I was so excited. Have you noticed
Molly 8:21
how much the word Egg McMuffin resembles Ed McMahon?
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:24
I knew exactly what you were saying as soon as you started saying it. And I have noticed that rip Ed McMuffin,
Molly 8:36
there was something about the way you said
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:40
as it came out of my mouth, said it came out more Ed than egg. More More Ed than egg. Rob, zombie. Okay. Anyway, so like, like many kids, I love these things, I have a few specific more like adult, adult, adult sandwich memories, like corny erotic egg sandwich memories. Okay, so there was this place called bakery bar in Portland, which is now out of business, but that did kind of fancy ish breakfast sandwiches. So they made their own English muffins. I had one that had roasted green chilies. And like my, my media person took me there when I was on book tour. For
Molly 9:24
you remember media like, media escorts, oh yeah, oh wow,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:29
yeah. Like, your
Molly 9:30
mom was a, was a literary s or an author escort, oh yeah, escort, or whatever,
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:35
yeah. Like everyone, that's how, that's how she became friends with Anthony Bourdain.
Molly 9:40
Did everybody know this that Judy Amster was friends with Anthony Bourdain? I mean, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:44
don't think it's gonna surprise anyone. Oh, she was friends, who's friends with everybody, it's true. But
Molly 9:50
was she friends with Ed McMahon?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:52
Maybe not. I mean, wait, Ed McMahon didn't do the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. He was a different he was like American family, public. Sures because I used to love entering those sweepstakes when I was a kid. Did you? I don't remember this. You'd get, like, a big, giant check. Yeah, yeah. So you didn't have to do anything. Ed McMahon would just come to your house with a giant check and then you try to
Molly 10:14
cash it. Well, Ed McMahon would there
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:18
were, right? There were multiples of these. I know Ed McMahon did one of them. And I think the thing is, everyone remembers that Ed McMahon did Publishers Clearing House. What actually was publishers clear Publishers Clearing House was just like a thing to get you to subscribe to magazines that you didn't actually want. Publishers.
Molly 10:32
Clearinghouse was one of those words that like, or, you know, two words that you you've said, like I've said so many times in my life without ever thinking about the meaning of it. What is a
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:44
clearinghouse, right? I don't know. Are they just,
Molly 10:47
I mean, I'm thinking of it as, like, magazines come in and they're just like, you go over there and you over there, and you out there, and you like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:53
it sounds pretty exciting when you put it that way. I've told this story on the show so many times, but like, I swear this is true that I still laugh about once a month. About the time I was looking at a magazine rack, there was a magazine called affluent golfer. Really, I promised I really saw this instant thought was like, why didn't they just call it asshole magazine?
Molly 11:23
Wait a minute, affluent golfer. Yes. Was it not enough just to call it golfer? Because it seems to me affluent is just like, yeah, I want to be
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:33
clear, like, I have no problem with anyone being affluent or a golfer or either it's just, it's just putting these two things together on the cover of a magazine and someone big, like, Yes, this is the magazine for me,
Molly 11:45
I have to say, though it's kind of the sports version of Cigar Aficionado. It is, for sure, right? I mean, if there ever were a magazine called like, I am a dick, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:55
I feel like Tom Selleck could be on the cover of both of them. Not that Tom Selleck is a dick. Just like, no, he seems like he would be an affluent golfer and Cigar Aficionado. So glad they Yeah. Then, like, when, when the magazine industry had hard times, they had to merge and become a cigar smoking golfer.
Molly 12:17
No, I was thinking of it as a cigar golfer or affluent of fish.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:25
All right, so I haven't even gotten down to Memory Lane yet, okay, yes, I was bakery bar. It was great. It now closed. It really inspired my own approach to breakfast sandwiches, which we'll talk about at interminable length, one time, many, many years ago. And was December, was little, we were flying somewhere, and got a breakfast sandwich at the airport, and I refer to it as a plane snack. And so, like, for a long time, we called breakfast sandwiches plane snacks, even though we made them at home. And then there's this stand that comes to the Seattle farmers markets called nature's last stand that makes breakfast sandwiches. And they're they're good. They do them on, like, kind of a hearty burger bun and with a with a runny egg and like a sausage patty, and they have vegetarian version. Also, they're very tasty. But the main thing I remember about them is that the the time that December had one of these, it was like they went instantly from being skeptical of runny eggs to having runny eggs be their favorite thing. Like, it just, like, turn on a dime. Like, after that, like, they're, like, give me a sunny side up egg. That's, oh,
Molly 13:27
nice. Yeah, nice. Is a breakfast sandwich. Do you have to have it for breakfast? Is that part of the definition? Like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:34
I will have them for lunch frequently. Okay, I still call it. So it's really about the combination of ingredients, yeah, and yet, like, it's, it's kind of a, know it when you see it thing, like, like, affluent, like, affluent golfer, you know when you see it, right? So, so, I mean, so let's try and define a breakfast sandwich. Because, like, it's a sandwich you eat for breakfast, but it doesn't have to be for breakfast, and it usually includes egg, but I don't think it has to,
Molly 14:03
Oh, that's interesting. I was gonna say I think that it has to, but, like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:07
the McDonald's, like, you know, sausage biscuit doesn't have a like, but it's obviously a breakfast sandwich that's right there. And, like, you know, if you try and order it at lunch, they'll laugh at you. Well, they
Molly 14:19
didn't laugh at me. Oh, that's no. I mean, that would have been pretty fun, actually, if we could have laughed together instead. I was, you know, like, pulling over, like, Matthew, I've got bad news.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:28
That's true. The way you texted me about this, it was, it was like, You're, you're like, telling me that someone died. I did
Molly 14:35
begin with bad news. Bad news,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:37
like, like, oh shit. Like, I mean, my first, my first thought was, like, we couldn't like you you like, you know, had a fender bender. Or, like, you know, we couldn't tape today for some reason. Like, like, Molly's definition of like, the worst news is like, they stopped doing all day breakfast. So I'm gonna define it as a hot, round sandwich that includes egg and or some other. Breakfast protein, like a ham, bacon or sausage. I
Molly 15:03
get this, and I like these. I like that you specified hot, because I agree it does need to be hot. I also like that you specified round, because this would never be on sandwich bread, right? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:13
think round is kind of key, okay, yeah. I think now they think about it, I can think of one square breakfast sandwich that I really like, Wait, what
Molly 15:20
about a croissant? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:22
but, but, but, when they do it on a croissant, it's usually a croissant that's been made into, like, form to cut kind of a circular Yeah, that's
Molly 15:29
right where the the two arms, like, are hugging each other, exactly. Okay. It
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:33
can be on a lot of different types of types of bread, like an English muffin, biscuit, Bagel, burger bun, Kaiser, roll, croissant, others. Yeah, I have to go back to memory lane for a minute because, oh God, we're never gonna get off star range. Starbucks used to have this one that was like, like, chorizo and Swiss cheese, maybe on on, like a square kind of, like bolo roll type of bun. It
Molly 15:54
was so good. And was it a breakfast it was breakfast sandwich, even
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:57
though it was on a square roll, even though it's on a square roll. But that's the one exception that I will make. Okay, we
Molly 16:03
should say here that you know, while you do love making breakfast sandwiches, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:06
do love making, yes,
Molly 16:09
I think we made that joke for the first time for like, episode two, yeah. So I think of it all the time. Whenever I think of it all the time, whenever I say the words love making
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:22
which you do every day. I love making, yes, it's a, it's a really funny word too, right? That's so dumb. Anyway, it's like something, uh, something like a preacher would say, yeah, yeah. Anyway, we, of course, of course, we're graduating. We call it boinking.
Molly 16:42
We also, so dope. We're also, we're mostly going to be talking about McDonald's, yeah, quite a bit. And we're going to talk a little bit about some other breakfast sandwiches that we enjoy in Seattle, but, but let's, let's dive into
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:56
McDonald's. Let's dive into McDonald's. So we got to start with the Egg McMuffin, because that's kind of what started it all. Okay, we got to move this little long. We got to move this along. I did so much research on breakfast, just like, is, like four pages of single spaced breakfast sandwich lore. Is that lore? Heavy episode? Okay, just get to it. Okay. So the
Unknown Speaker 17:19
faster
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:21
I got, I got, I got over excited, and I said, Ed McMuffin again. It was invented in 1972 by a formal former McDonald's advertising exec and franchise owner named herb Peterson. I love that just herb Peterson is like, the perfect game for like, an executive from 1972 Yep, it's perfect. Uh, Peterson and his assistant, Donald greedle, why is that a it is a funny name, Peterson and Donald greedle, yes,
Molly 17:51
okay, no, I'm I'm right there in the seven Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:54
Demoed the the Egg McMuffin. I'm just gonna lean into it. It's the ED McMuffin now, okay, for Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc is this. It's not funny for me anymore, because it says, because I've heard it too many times. Oh, I don't know that one. Okay. Ray Kroc is the, not the founder of McDonald's. Well, okay, but he was, he was the subject of the movie, the founder. He was like the person who stole the idea for McDonald's from the McDonald's brothers and made it a big thing. Ray Kroc was sold on the on the McMuffin as demoed by Peterson and greedle. Every time when I say greedal, I don't know if you're gonna know who this is, but I imagine Greedo from Star Wars. I don't know. Okay, Peterson was a fan of eggs Benedict, and wanted to create a breakfast item that was like eggs Benedict, but easier to make, and could be eaten on the go. Okay? It was first sold at a McDonald's in Goleta, California. There is a plaque there, okay, commemorating the first McMuffin. Okay? And before this fast food, breakfast wasn't really a thing like fast food, like burgers, had been around for a long time already, but breakfast, not so much. And
Molly 18:59
let's reiterate, this was 1972 1970 relatively recent. Yeah, you know culinary history,
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:06
right? When I was born, the Egg McMuffin was three years old. Wow, just a baby. Both babies. Guess what time of year it is Molly. Oh
Molly 19:17
my gosh, it's pledge drive time. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:20
was gonna say leaf peeping season, but pledge drive as well.
Molly 19:23
Yeah, it's, well, it's not quite leaf peeping season. Isn't that like October? I
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:28
honestly don't remember which day the pledge drive goes out, but I'm gonna say whatever it is. It's leaf peeping season, and it's today. Okay, today only. So, yeah, okay. So if it's not yet time to peep leaves, keep us instead. Yeah, yeah. Go get your leaves. Hold a leaf in each hand and listen to this pledge drive message. Drive message, because keep us with your ears. Yes, we want you to support the show with your monies. That's
Molly 19:50
right. And here's the thing, we recognize that like pledge drive probably isn't the most fun time for listeners, but here's it is. Well, we do it. Pretty fun pledge. It's because they're looking at these beautiful fall colors, that's true. We do this only once a year, but here is what the pledge drive does. All right, it allows us to make so far over 666 episodes, yeah, of this show. All right, no joke, it also has allowed us now to have producer Abby as an employee for 10 years. Yes, this. I couldn't believe that when producer Abby told us that, I'm shocked. I'm truly shocked. Time has flown. We didn't even verify whether it's true. Time has flown because we've been getting produced in a really fun way. Yes, and
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:38
like you know, it enables us to to pay producer Abby a fair rate. Periodically, producer Abby will raise her rate, and we are delighted to be able to pay her new rate. We
Molly 20:47
also have gotten through this entire time to be an independent comedy show, so we
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:52
have never joined a Podcast Network. Have we been invited a couple times? Yeah,
Molly 20:56
we decided to keep it just us, because it enables us to have more control over what we do, and also to be responsible only to you our listeners. And we're just not very responsible. We don't have enough responsibility to go around. So it's just for you guys.
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:11
Yes, and so here is how this works. You're gonna go to spilled milk podcast.com/donate, and there will you will be presented with three options. Now, if you're already a subscriber and you want to upgrade, we're going to tell you how to do that in just a minute. But say, say you've been listening to the show for a while, and you're like, I want to fling a little money every month at these people so they can keep doing what they're doing and and like, make my ears tingly in that good way. Every Thursday,
Molly 21:34
we have three membership levels. One is $5 a month, and then there's $10 a month and 20 bucks a month. For those of you who are new to the pledge drive, the $5 and $10 levels are named after types of apples, yeah, the little, little, little, little little, we have
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:49
a new level called little little limber twig where you don't pay us anything and you just get the regular
Molly 21:56
show at the $5 a month. Little limber twig level, you not only get the thrill of supporting the show at five bucks a month, but you get a handwritten thank you postcard from us. You also get our newsletter, which comes out three times, three times a year. And you also get access to three bonus episodes a year, and those are for subscribers only,
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:16
yes. Plus you get all of the previous bonus episodes, which I think is like 27 of them at this point, so you are going to be drowning in spilled milk. Yeah?
Molly 22:24
I mean, recently, we've done bonus episodes on French kissing, cough
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:28
syrup,
Molly 22:29
garbage cans.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:30
Yes, I did not remember that we did that, but I bet it's a good episode. Yeah? So
Molly 22:34
okay, that's, that's five bucks a month, the little limber twig level. Now, if you want to give 10 bucks a month, you get an even better name, which is you become a Magnum bonum sustaining member. That's
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:46
right, you get everything at the previous level, the newsletter, the postcard, the bonus content, plus a peach, peach plus a peach, only one, and by that I mean a butt,
Molly 22:59
just kidding. What do they get? Matthew,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:01
they actually get a piece of merchandise, which can be a t shirt, a tote bag or a mug with our logo, and some funny closing jokes that were selected by, I think, by producer, Abby, or possibly by us. It's really
Molly 23:15
good. I like our merch. I do too. All right, if you want to give it the $20 a month level, you are a glycine Max subscriber, Glycine Max super member, oh, sorry, Glycine Max super member. And Matthew, what does glycine Max refer to? I have to
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:30
look it up to remind myself every time it is the Latin name of the soybean plant. There we
Molly 23:34
go. All right, so if you are a glycine Max super member, 20 bucks a month, and you get all the things that the previous levels get. So postcard, newsletter, bonus episode, a piece of merch, and you get a five minute personalized, custom episode, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:50
so you can write to us and say, like, I've always wanted a spilled milk. Episode about, like, lids, pot lids, and we will make an impromptu five minute episode sent literally just to you that you could do whatever you want with. That will just be about lids. That's right. So anyway, Matthew, and to be clear, it doesn't have the your bonus episode doesn't have to be about lids. You could choose any topic you want, but I recommend lids. Yeah,
Molly 24:17
yeah. Anyway, so Matthew, how do they do this again? Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:22
so you go to spill milk podcast.com/donate, and this is valid anywhere in the world, all you need is a is a credit card or debit card, and we could not possibly appreciate it more. And there is, there is zero chance that we would still be doing this show weekly at this point, if not for the
Molly 24:38
support of our subscribers. That's right, it'll be 15 years in January. Yeah, we
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:42
started January 2010, a time long enough ago that like it's mentioned in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. It's true. It's true. Go look it up. The reason that came to buy is because I saw a set of those books in a little free library in my neighborhood recently, and I'm like, I want to. Eat the nerd who's gonna pick this up? Yes, right? Yeah. Thank you so much for considering supporting this show. If you're already a subscriber to the show you are, well, gosh, please continue, but you can upgrade. That's right. Matthew. How can they do it? Okay, so say you're at the $5 level and you want to move up to $10 the Magnum bone of sustaining member level and get a piece of merch along with the stuff you're already getting. Every month, you get an email that says, hey, thank you for supporting spilled milk. We just processed your payment. There's a link at the bottom of that email to your payer portal, and you can go there. It's the same place you would update your credit card number or update your mailing address. You can update your membership level there too. You'll hit save an email will come to me and I will send you something cool,
Molly 25:44
awesome. All right. Thank you so much. It is truly a joy. I know Matthew and I both feel that this job is the best job we will ever have. Yeah, don't tell my other boss. But it's true. Don't tell my other boss. Who's
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:59
me? Tell your other boss, who's a baby.
Molly 26:02
It is truly a joy to make this show and and thank you so much for supporting it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:07
That link one more time, spilled milk podcast.com/donate, back to the show.
Molly 26:15
So what was on the original Egg McMuffin?
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:18
What's the concept? So it's a round egg, which I'll define in just a second, American cheese and Canadian bacon on a toasted English muffin. Okay, okay, all right, that's what we ate today, a round egg. And like, McDonald's. People who are into McDonald's talk a lot about the eggs and like, which, which is better, like the round egg or the folded egg. And should you, like, substitute the type of egg? We'll get very shallowly into that. Okay. Round egg is an egg cooked, cracked in the store, cooked in a ring mold, with the yolk broken, okay? And the yolk is cooked all the way through, all the way through, and so and so. There's like, obvious patches of pure white and pure yolk, okay, which some people like, and I'm not so fond of, yeah.
Molly 26:59
I Okay, we'll get there. But, yeah, all right,
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:02
but the original egg mcbuffin was served open faced with a side of strawberry jam.
Molly 27:08
I am okay, so the open faced thing I can see given that this this sandwich, derives from the concept of an egg's Benedict, but it would be very difficult to eat, I think, in the way fast food is meant to be eaten out of
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:22
hand, imagining someone eating an open faced jam covered
Molly 27:27
while walking around. I'm intrigued by the side of strawberry jam. Well, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:30
was gonna, I was gonna ask you to request it, and I completely forgot. But okay, so according to Wikipedia quote, one reason the sandwich was served open face was that a small tub of strawberry preserves was provided along with a knife. The sweet and savory approach did not catch on, at least in the US, although a packet of strawberry preserves will still be provided upon request. Oh,
Molly 27:48
I'm sad that we didn't do it, but I don't really want to order another egg McMuffin, speaking which you have to go get one right now. Let's talk about our experience of the Egg McMuffin today. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:58
we ate three McDonald's breakfast sandwiches before we started recording today, and one was the original Egg McMuffin.
Molly 28:05
That's right, so my visual on it was that there was way too much egg white.
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:11
Yeah? That that was kind of the thing like, that's that is the thing that I don't love about the original Egg McMuffin is that I'm always getting a mouthful of pure white or pure yolk, and I want it mixed. Yeah,
Molly 28:22
I enjoyed the Canadian bacon. I enjoy the American cheese. No complaints with the English muffin, which I think does a really nice job of being both substantial enough to hold the round egg, etc, while also being easy to bite through. But I found, overall, the textural experience was very weird, yeah? Like, the the Canadian bacon, you know, it has its own discrete texture. It doesn't like blend into the egg, right? And the the cheese kind of does even less than American cheese usually does, yeah, it's not good American cheese.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:01
No. But overall, like, I still, I still think, like, you know, if you, if you, like, came over tomorrow with one, would I eat it? Yeah, and I invite you to do so, okay,
Molly 29:09
yeah, I felt like, texturally, it was a bit weird.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:13
I would substitute the folded egg. Personally, I think that that could help me. Yeah, and most, most like, people who are into this sort of thing. Hate the folded egg I get the I get the really, yeah, folded egg is, it's like a mini omelet, and it is not made in the store. It's like, it comes in, like, frozen, and they and they, like, heat it up on the griddle or microwave or something. So
Molly 29:35
I like the idea of the freshness of the round egg,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:39
but it still has to be cooked. Well, I just did not, I didn't like it. Okay, we also had a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddles, that's right, and I put on the agenda. I bet Molly has never had one of these. And I was right. So I want you to talk, talk us through your McGriddles experience, and then I'll tell you more
Molly 29:57
about so I really wished that we were recording. Recording after the fact. Because we're recording after the fact. When I first brought it to my mouth, I was really turned off by the smell of pancake syrup, like that smell of fake maple syrup, like maple flavoring. So yeah, describe what it is. Okay. So what we've got here the McGriddle is basically, it is a round breakfast sandwich where, instead of an English muffin or a biscuit, you've got a pancake on the bottom and a pancake on the top, the pancakes have been somehow, like, impregnated with maple, yep, pancake flavoring
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:35
and and, like, branded with the McDonald's logo, that's right.
Molly 30:39
And then you've got a sausage patty, American cheese and the folded egg. Yes, that right, yep. Okay, so, yeah, I brought it to my mouth. I hated the smell of the maple flavoring. I bit into it texturally, far superior to the Egg McMuffin. I gotta agree in that, like, all the textures worked separately together, whereas the Egg McMuffin, all the textures were sort of like, I'm gonna do my thing over here and I'm gonna do my thing over here. Like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:10
this is a hot take, but I'm completely with you. The more
Molly 31:15
I ate, the more I was like, wow. These flavors are working so well together. Like, weird ass maple flavoring with the kind of, like, creamy waxy American cheese with the, you know, classic pork sausage flavor. It's a, I don't know if it's a perfectly engineered food product, but
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:33
for me, it is. I
Molly 31:34
basically went from hating this thing to, like, four bites later being like, Okay, that was really, it was,
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:41
it was really fun to watch, yeah, okay, the big griddles was introduced in 2003 I remember when it launched. It was a pretty early, like, fast food viral marketing sensation in the sense that, like, they got everyone to talk about, like, you know, this, this sounds crazy, like, you know, fake maple, etc, impregnated pancake. Like, you know, people are gonna try this once and never try it again. Or, like, this is everything wrong with it? With food in America and it's hung on, it is a popular product, and it is really tasty. It's
Molly 32:10
really tasty. And in the same way that American cheese is never gonna fool anybody into thinking that it's sharp cheddar. Like, yeah, the McGriddle is never going to be, I don't know, a homemade tasting breakfast sandwich, but it's perfect, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:27
and it's funny, because, like, the I feel like the previous time McDonald's got every everyone talking about their new product. It was the mcdlt in 1984 Do you remember this hot side? Hot in the cold side, cold. No, this was a thing where they served you, like, like, a double sized, like clamshell burger container. So, like, the hot stuff was on one side and the cold stuff was on the other side, which, which did not catch on,
Molly 32:52
okay, I do remember the hot, hot, cold packaging. Yeah, I
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:57
bet there are people today who talk about keeping the hot side hot and the cold side cold. And don't even know what they're referring to. I think you're
Molly 33:04
probably right. Matthew, the third sandwich we had is, is the one that was my, my favorite as a kid, which was the egg and cheese biscuit. Yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:12
Now, did that have the folded egg? Or was that like a third kind of egg? Oh, sure.
Molly 33:17
That's the folded egg.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:18
I thought that was really tasty. I
Molly 33:19
think it's really tasty. So that was the first one I tasted. I kind of tried to cheese plate it. I started there. I went to the Egg McMuffin, and finished with the McGriddle and came back around cheese plate order. After having had the McGriddle, like working my way all the way around the breakfast sandwich plate, I came back to the egg and cheese biscuit and felt that it was a little like one note and salty, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:41
but I still like it like that soft, soft biscuit texture is really good. And I
Molly 33:47
mean, talk about, like the the textures all coming together to sing in harmony. It really becomes one. Those three things become one in the bacon cheese biscuit. I truly feel that that Well, I don't know when I was first eating it. I was like, This is what I want to eat when I'm stone. But I now wonder if it might be the McGriddle.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:10
I mean, the McGriddle does seem like, like stoner food par excellence. Oh, right time,
Molly 34:15
big time. I mean, just like hitting all the pleasure senses, censures,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:19
dude, we do not censure pleasure around here. We
Molly 34:23
are pleasure positive, music, negative, exactly. That's right, yep.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:29
So McDonald's not the only, not the only fast food breakfast sandwich in town, but clearly the leader McDonald's plays with a lot of different bread. They got the biscuit, they got the English muffin, they got the McGriddle. Sometimes they do a bagel sandwich, which is pretty good. And weirdly, as far as I know, they have never done a burger bun breakfast sandwich, which is something I really like. I really
Molly 34:51
enjoyed the one that you made. Wait, no, I know you made us an English muffin one. I enjoyed the one I made. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:57
Wendy's does a burger bun breakfast sand. Which, overall, I don't think it's as good as what McDonald's does, but I'm glad they have a burger, a burger bun, one I love the Burger King Chris sandwich. Like, what a real, like, soft, greasy American croissant as the bun, real tasty. That was, that was a big favorite when I was a kid. Oh, I was trying to, I was, like, trying to look up fast food breakfast menus to see, like, what are they even still making the B cake for sandwich? Like, what does Wendy's have on the menu? If you try and look up a fast food breakfast menu in the afternoon, they treat you like a criminal. Like,
Molly 35:30
yeah, no. It's like, they are they like, slap your hand away, yes.
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:33
Like, the website is like, like, you know, don't you want a burger? Like, don't you know, it's 2pm and I'm like, I just want to look at the breakfast menu.
Molly 35:43
Yeah, you know, Matthew, our listeners who live in New York are going to be in absolute disbelief that we have not yet discussed the New York like, what is it called the
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:53
bacon, egg and cheese? Or do they just call somewhere? Is
Molly 35:57
it called, like a just an egg sandwich or an egg Sure? Bagel? No, an egg bagel is its own thing. Yeah?
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:01
No, this is, this is on, like, a poppy seed kaiser roll, usually, yeah. So my shameful admission is, I've never had one of these. Have you? I have not, okay, so I just know a little bit about it. And people can school us like, yeah.
Molly 36:14
I mean, we are not at a New York based show. That's true,
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:18
yeah. Have you noticed? Yeah. I mean, but we are walking here, and what are some other New York things I don't know, like Yellow Taxi. We're Scarface. No. Forget
Molly 36:32
about it. Forget
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:33
about it. There you go. All right, so I've never had a New York BC I've learned through some research that the classic is the BC, SPK, which is bacon, egg and cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup on a poppy seed kaiser roll. That
Molly 36:46
sounds really good. It's, I'm
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:47
not a ketchup fan, but other than that, yes, it's cheap and widely available at delis, bodegas and carts. I would try the ketchup one if it's, if it's the classic like and it looks really good. The eggs. The eggs are kind of like a big flat omelet. Ish thing made on a made on a flat top, and, like, not overcooked, which, so that looks really good. Yeah, so,
Molly 37:08
Matthew, when you make a breakfast sandwich at home, well, let's talk about how you do it, because you really have have it dialed in. How you like it. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:16
I'm gonna do and, yeah, there's one of my favorite things to make. Like, if I've got all the stuff for lunch like this is really exciting day for me. I've been described by Watson as easy to please. Okay, so the bread, it's gonna be either an English muffin or a burger bun. And if it's a burger bun, it's gonna be like the smaller Frans or store brand burger bun, with or without sesame. And I will toast either the English muffin or the burger bun in the slot toaster, all right? And then, and then put a brush a little butter on there. Okay. The meat is going to be either Ulis breakfast sausage, which is a really good local, locally made sausage brand, or Jimmy Dean in the in the one pound chub, also like good in kind of a trashier way, or bacon. The cheese is a slice of American cheese. Preferably
Molly 38:03
hold up so you form it in. You form the sausage into a patty. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:06
formed the sausage into a patty. Okay, let's be clear and how? Just one link on there, just No, but no, but how? How
Molly 38:13
thick Do you want the patty? Not very. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:15
this is important. This is not a hamburger. You don't want it even as thick as, like you want, as thick as maybe, like a smash patty. But like, you know, once you start imagining like a juicy burger, that's that's gonna get the ratio wrong, because breakfast sausage is really rich and really salty, and so you want a pretty thin layer of it in there.
Molly 38:35
And so do you kind of do it like a smash burger? Do you make sort of a loose ball and then smash it? Not really, because
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:41
you can't really make a loose ball with breakfast sausage, because it's very sticky. Okay, so I will, I will sometimes roll it out under under plastic wrap with a rolling pin, or usually just smash it between my hands.
Molly 38:53
Okay, do you need to put any fat in the pan? I mean, it's gonna give off so much fat. Yeah. Okay. For
Matthew Amster-Burton 38:57
the egg, I will usually do either over medium with some yolk drip or broken yolk and cook. It almost cooked through, but not quite. Okay. So I do usually want some yolk drip, but sometimes, sometimes I want, like, a more even layer of egg and not have that, like yolk pop in the middle. That's what I'm in the mood for. I love a little hot sauce on there. My favorite for quite a while has been Portland's secret Aardvark original flavor, abanyro sauce, maple syrup as instead of hot sauce, also an excellent option. I think that sounds fantastic. Yeah, either fake or real maple syrup both good in their own way. So
Molly 39:31
Matthew, I've heard a rumor that you don't always use the egg, yeah. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:35
this is another of my hot takes in an episode loaded with hot takes like my our hot takes so far, it's okay to combine a horse with a biscuit. Ed McMahon is a sandwich.
Molly 39:49
The the Egg McMuffin has some textural,
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:53
textural problems, and it's fine to make a breakfast sandwich without egg. I think to me, the egg is maybe the most optional. Element, like, often if I'm not hungry enough, or if I'm lazy, I will just do like, sausage, cheese and and bread. And it's great. That's
Molly 40:09
interesting, because I agree the cheese is really important if you're going to have sausage, especially well, the cheese is really important. It's interesting to me the sauce. It's interesting to me that the sausage biscuit at McDonald's does not have cheese. Yeah, that is
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:24
interesting. I mean, I'm sure you can ask for it. Sure, when I'm using an English muffin, I want it like, well, toasted, but not super crispy, so like, I let it soften a little bit after toasting. And sometimes I will do this by, like, having a nice, hot, crispy English muffin, building the sandwich and then wrapping it in foil and letting it sit for a minute, and then I'll, like, cut it in half through the foil, which makes me feel like I'm working at a diner. Wow, that's so fun. Not a diner like a, like, a, you know, a deli,
Molly 40:51
you know, then there's the whole world of, like, fancy egg sandwiches. And I know, for instance, that friend of the show, Kenji Lopez alt, recently did a thing about recently, as in recent to the time that we're recording this, about the breakfast sandwich at St bread here Seattle. So you know, a really, really lovely bakery in Seattle, you might go there today. Yeah? That happens to do a breakfast sandwich on melon bread. Yeah. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:19
Japanese meron pan is not, does not have any melon or melon flavoring in it. It's just one of those, like sweet rolls with a with a crispy topping. To me, this is, this is like Japanese style McGriddle. So it's like a very sweet, fluffy bread that that is gonna go really well with, like a salty sausage patty. I would say, overall, I'm kind of skeptical of fancy breakfast sandwiches. I've had more of them. Like, I've never had one that I hated. But like, often I'll be like, Yeah, this is good. But, like, I really just want the, you know, sausage, egg and cheese McMuffin. You
Molly 41:55
know, one place that you've mentioned on here, that I forgot about is B side. B side
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:00
is a great little cafe in Seattle that does a fancy breakfast sandwich that really works. It's
Molly 42:08
on an English muffin, and they make kind of a like an egg crepe,
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:13
sort of really, really thin omelet. Basically,
Molly 42:16
you get the one that's got green onion beachers, flagship cheddar House made Daikon pickles and, like, an onion aioli, yeah, and then country ham on there. Oh, that's right, I usually have gotten just the basic egg cheese and country ham, and it has been very good. They also, I think, do one with mushrooms. Maybe, yes,
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:39
yeah, I can get mushrooms, ham, neither or both. Anyway, I forgot
Molly 42:43
about that. It is very good. Yep, egg
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:46
slut was a big thing for a while. Have you been there? I've never been there, and I think that's it for breakfast sandwiches. Wow, wow. Well,
Molly 42:54
I would love to hear from our listeners on Reddit. So that is everything, spilled milk.reddit.com. I would love to hear from listeners how you feel about the three McDonald's breakfast or, like, do
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:07
you make them at home? Like, can
Molly 43:09
you know, I want to hear about McDonald's. Okay. How do you guys feel about the texture of the of the Ed McMahon, yeah, that's
Matthew Amster-Burton 43:18
good question. I mean, like, the used to be the only way to find out was to sit on sit on his lap when you were a guest on Johnny Carson. That's how that show worked. I
Molly 43:29
don't make the rules, Matthew, we do have one spilled mail hit me.
This is from listener Kathy, and this one made me so happy, too. Listener, Kathy says I just had to chime in and tell you and Molly, that I am listening to your podcast while on vacation here in France with family, instead of the hot dog ads that have been showing up on your podcasts for a while now, here all the ads are peacock ads, which I remember you knew about on a past episode. It's so weird. The fact
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:03
that pica, they still today, is advertising on our show. There's nothing that would make me feel more like we've made it
Molly 44:10
I think that. I mean, listeners may be surprised, like so, yeah, when our podcast goes into, for instance, a foreign market like we may not always know what ad is gonna be. We don't even know what ads are gonna get slapped on in America. Well, we do have an ad broker, and we do get to choose something, some things, but, yeah, but anyway, oh, my god, I'm so excited that was advertising on spilled milk, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:33
And I hope, I hope they did that toys. I hope so too, probably required by like the French constitution. Our producer is Abby cercatella, and you can rate and review us wherever you get your podcast. Please do Hey, thanks
Molly 44:44
for listening to the pledge drive episode, which I think is maybe one of our most ridiculous pledge drive episodes ever. I
Matthew Amster-Burton 44:51
hope so. Yeah, one more time that's spilled milk podcast.com/donate, please become a subscriber, or upgrade your subscription and until. Next time I'm a horse, I'm
Molly 45:01
a biscuit. Horse kit, horse kit.
Unknown Speaker 45:11
Ah, I
Molly 45:12
hate it when my mic has this drift. I think it's gravity. Honestly, it could
Matthew Amster-Burton 45:17
be gravity. I can turn that off. Okay.
Molly 45:19
I.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai