Today we embrace our fears and pepper our tongues as Matthew recounts the hardest thing he has ever done. Through excessive chewing sounds we discuss death by whipping cream, the best position to eat pepper flakes and Molly's new business venture before launching into a signature fiery rant. Dremel Dudes to the rescue!
Molly's Now but Wow - Red Velvet Cake recipe from Divas Can Cook
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:04
Hi, I'm Matthew, and I'm Molly. And this is spilled milk this year, where we cook something delicious, steal Molly's pepper and run away.
Molly 0:12
Today's episode is crushed red pepper, and it was suggested by listener, Bethany. And
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:17
you know what this is? Episode 700 and you know how we're gonna celebrate? Not any particular way pizza. We're gonna eat pizza with red pepper on it. I
Molly 0:27
think that's pretty great. I mean, listener Bethany, what are you gonna do to celebrate our 700th episode? Do you think she's gonna call in, since this show is not taped live? Absolutely no. In
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:39
fact, this is airing on May 29 and we're recording it on February 17.
Molly 0:45
All right, okay, hey, how about memory lane? How about it?
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:49
So I have loved crushed red pepper, and to be clear, we're talking about, like, the stuff you sprinkle on pizza, but there's also a lot of different varieties from, like, a lot of different places, and I'll, we'll do our best to talk about many of them, but definitely not all of them. I have loved this stuff for as long as I can remember. Like, if I'm eating pizza, I want to shake crushed red pepper on it, and that's been the case ever since I was maybe nine, and so, like, I remember always, you know what? I just unlocked a little bit of memory lane, which is one time I was at
Molly 1:20
a door. Would you call it a door? A memory, a long memory lane? Yeah, lanes have doors, right? Yeah, sure. Like, there's place, there's stuff on the lane, there's, there's, like, doors, and there's, there's, there's dark corners. And
Speaker 1 1:34
so this may be a bit of a dark corner, actually, because it's, it was upsetting. It was thing that was upsetting at the time, but now I can look back and finally laugh about it, which was the time I was shaking. I was at Hot Lips pizza, probably in Portland, and shaking the crushed red pepper plastic jar, and the lid came off, and all the pepper, like, spilled out, like, in a huge mound all over my pizza. They gave me another slice of pizza, of course, like, but I remember, like, you know, it was one of those, like, you know, I dropped my ice cream cone moments where I just like, oh, man, life is fucked.
Molly 2:08
It's so true. Did you, I mean, did you go for a while after that? Like, not wanting to put red pepper on your pizza? Like, in case it happened, because that was Once Bitten, Twice shot. That was what happened to me after I dropped my ice cream cone of orange sherbet when I was like four, they want a different flavor. No, after that, I didn't order cones for years. Just, just
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:30
put the scoop right here in my hand. Yield. Held out your palm like, you know, I need to be careful.
Molly 2:35
Matthew. I don't know if you've heard of these things called cups. What's that?
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:40
How about you? Memory Lane, you
Molly 2:42
know, here's the thing, I didn't grow up in a pizza town and I but like so, you know, my parents had this stuff on their spice rack, and they had pizza on their spice rack, no crushed red pepper. But when I met Brandon, who is the most pizza e person I know? Sure, and started going to New York and Brooklyn pizzerias with him. That was when I was like, oh, so those, those two canisters that are sometimes on the counter at a pizzeria, the crushed red pepper and sometimes the like, shitty Parmesan, yeah? Like, people,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:20
people use those, yeah, we did it like a shitty Parmesan episode. And as Erica, we both really liked it wasn't
Molly 3:26
bad at all, no, but I think previously, I think because Matthew, like you, I was a bit condiment phobic, yeah, as a kid, I think I just looked at the condiments, in this case, red pepper and parmesan, and was like, why would I use these? But
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:40
to me, this was different because it was dry. That's
Molly 3:43
true. It can't possibly be cold, creamy and and sweet or no savory and savory. Cold, creamy and savory. This is just dry, flaky, speaking and savory. Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:54
speaking savory. That's that's what I look for. Yeah. Lover, speaking, of cold, creamy and sweet, that's what I really look for, lover. Um, yesterday morning we had some, we had some pie from, uh, if I mentioned that I'm in a pie loves,
Speaker 1 4:15
and I wanted to whip some cream to go on my blueberry, BlackBerry, blueberry crumble pie. And we had some, like, some pretty good heavy cream, like, non ultra pasteurized. And I'm like, I'm gonna whip this by hand, because the other day I whipped some with my tennis elbow. Now I Yeah, I sure do have whippers elbow, like, and this is, like, the easiest cream to whip, because, I know, because, like, I ruined some with the with the, like, you know, electric hand blender. And so I'm like, I'm doing this by hand, and it was so hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever Wow, your hit workouts. Haven't even been helping, no, like, I need to. I've been skipping, like, wrist day, um, or forearm day. I've got like, these little, like, T Rex forearms that are no good for whipping. And I. Yeah, I said to wife of the show, Lori. Like, if I ever say that I'm gonna hand whip, like, the ultra Pasteur ice cream, you need to, like, intervene or I'm gonna die.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:10
It's, like, cut to my obituary. Like, embarrassingly enough, he died from whippy cream.
Molly 5:17
That's my story. I think there are worse ways to go, honestly, yeah. Like, yeah, for sure. Well, what is this stuff? Because I know, like, I don't even know what kind of pepper this is made from. Like, what is this? Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:29
crushed red pepper. It's dried chilies that have been crushed to a shakeable or sprinkle consistency, usually fairly coarse. They're typically like, you know, sieved. Is that the word I'm looking for,
Molly 5:42
like the ones Hold on, maybe I'm just I was about to say to you, how is it that in a jar of crushed red pepper flakes, you know, you've got the seeds, those are seeds mostly round. And I was about to say, how is it that the like the red part, the flesh of the pepper, is also round? But now I'm realizing it's not,
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:59
I think it's not really round but, but it's they, they. It's the illusion where I'm looking for sieve out, strain out, yeah, like they get out of mesh and they and they and they strain out, like the smaller pieces. So the pieces are fairly consistent in size. It's typically made from cayenne peppers, which is a medium sized, medium hot red chili, okay, but it can be made in a from a variety of chilies, in a variety of like, coarsenesses, with or without, oil, sometimes used in processing. Sometimes salt is used. And the spiciness varies from like zero to pretty spicy.
Molly 6:32
Okay, okay, so usually this, or, you know, we're talking about it here, using it as a condiment, but it's also used to make, like, chili oil. It's used in all kinds of cooking, yeah.
Speaker 1 6:42
And I realized this is one of those episodes where I realized, after I started to get into it, oh, this is a way bigger topic than I thought. And, like, this is widely used around the world. And so there's gonna be, like, whole culinary traditions that I'm gonna totally neglect. And please contact at spilled milk podcast.com if you have, like, an important use of it doesn't even have to be important if you have a use of crushed red pepper that we didn't talk about, and you think we should have get in touch. Okay,
Molly 7:08
so let's talk just a little bit about the history of these things we call peppers. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:14
So botanists tend to call them capsicums, to distinguish them from, like, black pepper, which is totally different. We've talked about the the history of capsicums before. I think we did. We did like a chili peppers episode, like there was like in the teens, or something like, like in our teens, in our teens. Yeah, that's right, we were wearing our bobby socks. We were at the at the sock hop, all the teen things I could think of, our soccer. We were at the peach pit. We were at the peach pit. Yeah,
Molly 7:46
I was in love with Dylan, dad,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:48
and I was in love with, can I think of any anyone else from that show, Brandon. Brandon and Brenda. Okay, yeah, okay. I was in love with Brenda. I don't know which one that was, but I'm sure Shannon Perry,
Molly 8:03
Dougherty, Shannon Doherty. Shannon Perry is a tattoo artist. Oh, nice.
Speaker 1 8:07
Yeah, who's like a fusion of Shannon Doherty and Luke Perry. That's right. Okay, okay, wow, wow. Okay, okay, okay, great. So, so glad we figured all that out. Yeah. So, so these, these things we call capsicums, or chili peppers, were first cultivated in South and Central America in 3000 BCE at the latest, probably earlier than that. Okay, in Mexico, crushed red peppers are called Chile quebrado, and are a common condiment for soups and stews. Posole in particular, and seems to have been for quite a long time. It's hard to say for sure how long, but in the in the 1000s of years,
Molly 8:41
okay, Chile cabrato. Would that be? I mean, is it gonna be the same? Is it gonna be cayenne pepper, just like the, like, our pizza pepper, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:51
And in fact, like, you know, the section of the supermarket with the, like, Mexican ingredients sold in cellophane bags, yes, usually El huapo brand, which I learned, is made by McCormick, they have, like, you can get chili cabrato in in an El huapo bag, and it's pretty much the same as your there's this jar of, like, crushed red pizza peppers,
Molly 9:15
okay? And then, of course, it's also associated with or crushed red pepper is also associated with Italian cooking. I mean, I do a lot of Italian and Italian ish cooking, and that is where I use it. A lot me
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:26
too. So yeah. So I my favorite, like homemade pizza sauce. Like I will usually start by putting some olive oil in the pan, and then throw in some, like, crushed garlic and and crushed red pepper. Let that infuse a little bit before I put the tomatoes in. I
Molly 9:42
usually do that same thing when I make braised greens, yes? Like, if I'm doing braised escarole with chickpeas, it always starts out with olive oil, crushed red pepper and garlic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:53
Yeah, if I'm gonna spice something up in the kitchen, and I'm not using a fresh chili pepper, like, I'm gonna be reaching for this. Stuff in some like, one version, one version or another of this, like, almost certainly one thing I did not know. Okay, couple things, first of all, like red chili flakes on pizza is kind of a Italian American thing. It does happen in Italy. I learned in some regions of Italy, pizza served with chili oil, yes, like, which sounds awesome.
Molly 10:19
That was something that Brandon used to always have at Delancey early on. I don't know if he still does, but you could ask for chili oil. Yeah, that he just made with olive oil and crushed red I love chili oil. That's so good.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:31
One thing I did not know at all is that in Europe, crushed red chili is especially associated with the city of Bucha vo in North Macedonia, to the extent that quoting from Wikipedia here quote the name of the village or a derivative of it is now used as a name for crushed red pepper in general, in many Southeast European languages, Bucha peeper in Macedonian bukovka and serbo Croatian and Slovenian bukovo, or Bucha in Greek. So, like, I'm gonna, like, you know, put some Bucha on my I don't even know what you're gonna put it on. I think we should, I think we should start using that. Okay, I think we should go to this town. Like, one of my favorite things, retreat, corporate retreat to Bucha. It's probably quite inexpensive. Okay, well, let's go. All right, let's go and north, north Macedonia. Is that a place we should go? It's probably fine. We have no idea what's going on there right now. Okay, okay. I mean, is like the United States a place we should go? Probably not. It's also a very common condiment in Thailand, where it's called pick bone, which I'm pronouncing without the necessary tones. Sometimes you'll get like a little tray of condiments with Thai food, especially like at a better Thai restaurant, that'll have, like, some chilies and vinegar and or chilies and fish sauce and chili oil, some just dried chili powder like this, like chili flakes like this. What else? What else do you get in there? Like garlic sometimes. And we did not have the Taiwan here today, I couldn't turn some of it is way, way hotter than any of the ones we have
Molly 12:00
here too. I was gonna say I remember, you know, may the Thai restaurant in Wallington, that place, oh, my God, it was so good. And I remember going there. And do you remember they would, they would, if you ordered Pad Thai, they would mix it tableside, yes. And the red pepper flakes they used were so much hotter than I was expecting. It was delicious, but, yeah, it must have been particular, like, the particular Thai version. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:27
No, that my, like, the chili oil recipe that I make, I usually use szechuanese chili flakes, which we'll talk about in a second. Like, there's a warning on it. If you substitute Thai chili flakes, it is going to, like, knock you on your ass. And if that's what you're looking for, great in Korean, it's gochugaru, and it's what makes kimchi and many, many other Korean dishes red and spicy. Is there
Molly 12:51
any coloring added to gochugaru? Because it is, like, that's a good question. It is so red. I mean, I'm looking at it right now in this canister. Yeah, and
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:00
I did. I bought some this morning at m to m, yeah, you tell me. And I noticed that these, these are from China, yeah, I was gonna guess no that yeah, this just says red pepper is the only ingredient they also had. You could get them imported from Korea, and that was like $15 for a small jar. Would we be able to tell the difference? I doubt it. And then in Sichuan, and so in Sichuan, it's la jiao Fen, which, again, pronouncing without the correct tones. And similar, similar like chili flakes in other regions, like Hunan to medium hot crushed red pepper that's processed with oil, which is said to, like, bring out the flavor a little more. And that one is especially used for making chili oil and cooking. Let's
Molly 13:43
go ahead and taste on the pizza. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:55
we are gonna jump in and start tasting. We've got a bunch of different crushed red peppers here, and of course, we are tasting them on cheese pizza. Yeah, and I tried to make, like the simplest cheese pizza. So this is mozzarella cheese, some homemade tomato sauce seasoned with nothing but salt and sugar. That's it, perfect.
Molly 14:11
Great. What more could we need? So, okay, so first we do a just a plain old bite, just plain old bite, very good. You know, it's like the size of Celeste pizza for one, but it doesn't behave behind my front teeth the way Celeste does.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:26
Celeste, you gotta behave. Okay, okay, throwback, like we're eating on Mike, wow.
Molly 14:32
Let's start with the individual packet of Roselli brand, yes,
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:38
pepper. I got this last night. We ordered pizza from hop fine pub on 15th, and they always include some little packets. Okay, I've never, I've never applied crushed red pepper in, like a, like a scientific way before, but now I am. I
Molly 14:55
hope I've applied enough. I really don't taste anything. Yeah, me neither. Okay, let's try one of the ones that I brought Matthew. Smell these and see if
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:04
you think I should have made a bigger pizza. We're gonna, we're gonna run out of pizza before we run out of peppers. We are
Molly 15:09
okay. What I will say about this Roselli one is I have a little lingering warmth on the roof of my mouth,
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:15
same okay. I think the McCormick has has more of a fresh pizzeria smell.
Molly 15:20
Okay, great. Let's, let's open it up and, yeah, shake it Okay, which is the most exciting part of our audio, wow, I got it on my tongue. Okay. I'm getting a lot of heat in a nice way, like a real physical
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:34
heat. This is the one that, yeah, that reminds me exactly of, like, this is what I used to put on my pizza at Hot Lips pizza back in Portland growing up.
Molly 15:42
That's nice, and it's hard for me to even define the flavor of it, because it is so sort of like the neutral red pepper face flavor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:50
So I think maybe next, what's that one? This is the this is the pensies, very hot Indian style crushed red pepper. Maybe, maybe we should do Aleppo pepper next, because it's known to be fairly mild and save the spicy one for later. Okay, and I've got more over here. But,
Molly 16:06
I mean, nobody, does anybody put Aleppo pepper on pizza? I bet someone does. I mean, the world is, is big. Yeah, it's pretty big. Oh, yeah. So Aleppo. I should have made so much more pizza. This is as in, like, Aleppo Syria. Here we go. I almost
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:21
wonder for tasting, I should have made, like a white pizza.
Molly 16:25
I taste nothing. Let me put some on my tongue. It's got a sweetness. More of it maybe like a more of a fragrance, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:33
Oh, there we go. There we go, yep. Oh, I like
Molly 16:36
that. But it is more, um, it's much more fragrant.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:41
Okay, I'm gonna try some, some gochugaru, Korean red pepper flakes. Like, again, does anyone use this as a pizza topping? I guarantee someone does, and that someone is me right now. Okay, what tongues are for? You say this is what tongues are for? Yeah, I'm sending my hit single mostly like Bruno Mars and sexy red. This song is gonna be so old by the time this episode comes out, like wet and juicy or something. We are so tuned into pop culture, they've got that new pop culture Jeopardy. They wouldn't let us come on because they said we'd be too good.
Molly 17:17
Yeah, it would be unfair. I'm just not tasting anything, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:21
not like, I think this, this, this particular go to garu is, like, meant to be used, like, in large quantities for color and flavor, like when making kimchi or a stew or something like that. Smells good, yeah?
Molly 17:35
I mean, it smells wonderful, actually, but I'm Yeah, it is completely lost in the the rich, savory tanginess of Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:44
next up, got some szechuanese chili flakes. This is it's processed with oil, which similar to the Aleppo.
Molly 17:53
Okay, so is that? Does that like? Help in theory, bring out the flavor in theory, Hmm, oh, I like that one. I feel like, I feel a little bit that my senses are kind of dulled. Well, I'm having some trouble. None of these.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:09
None of these is like, you know, if you just sprinkle a little on, none of these really like punches you this. This is the punchiest one so far. And I really, I get some like, distinct flavor from it. This is my favorite so far. I think,
Molly 18:21
extremely flavorful, less hot than the crushed red pepper, like the pizzeria kind but the heat is really delayed, and I'm getting it on the roof of my mouth, not just on my tongue. It feels like it really
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:35
like this is what I typically use for making chili oil, as heard on our chili oil episode, probably
Molly 18:39
I need to make some chili oil
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:41
today for a soup. Let me send you home with some of this. I love that. Okay, cool. Next up we've got Pimentel desplatis,
Molly 18:49
Matthew. As you can see, this is ancient stuff, but smell it. It's got a particular smell.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:54
Yeah, I really stick my fingers in the bottle. Absolutely go for it. Now, I'm just
Molly 18:58
gonna do this. I really love this stuff on, like, avocado toast, COVID
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:04
vibe. What do
Molly 19:06
you think I like that very distinctive flavor? There is
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:11
something kind of, kind of like, you know, throaty, Husky, musky, wow. Yeah, I think, I think I may still be on the drugstore, drugstore fragrances. Episode, bonus episode, okay,
Molly 19:26
skin musk. I think my
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:28
soul may be maybe trapped there for a while, like maybe a groundhog day length of time.
Molly 19:34
You know, if anybody wants to know what we're talking about, and you're not yet a paying subscriber, if you become a subscriber, you'll know.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:40
You'll know all about skin musk. Bonus episode. So last one, I think, is this Penzias very hot crushed red pepper Indian side, which I don't think is really gonna turn out to be like, much hotter than any of the others, okay, but I don't know. We'll find out.
Molly 19:55
Well, I'm not using it sparingly. See what happens. Hmm. So. Supposed to be twice as hot?
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:00
No, it's fine. I get some heat from it. And, I mean, it's none of these are bad.
Molly 20:07
No, hold on. I'm gonna put it on my plate, and now I'm just sort of turning like, upside down. The like, kind of oily.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:15
Yeah, I can report Molly is turning upside down. She's now hanging from her Gravity Boots. If you ever, if you're running from gravity to get it on, yeah,
Molly 20:26
that's right, remember when we watched how to build a sex room? Yeah, two episodes like San Andrews cross, or the Cross of St Christopher, or whatever it was that what are you s, m room. Okay, it was, like, a, all right, yeah, like, a, like, A, X type thing, yeah, I'm on, I'm on that thing and, like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:46
and can you, like, rotate it so the person's upside down? Yeah? All right, are you and you're, you're selling these at your at your website,
Molly 20:53
what's my website called? Again, it's called
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:57
Molly's good gear.com. Com, okay,
Molly 21:03
I did get a real concentration of the twice as hot one. It was not twice as
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:10
hot. This is, this is fascinating, though. It was not twice as hot. Like, I'm so glad we did this, because, like, I typically reach for this one, the pensie is very hot, twice as hot crushed red pepper for pizza, and it is good. It like spices up my pizza. I'm gonna start reaching for this szechuanis, one that's got the most flavor, or the espallette was my second favorite, really, I think so, wow, God, you're fancy, I don't know. Because, like, there is something to be said for, like, something that just kind of, like adds some heat without, like, always bringing its own flavor. But this one is really good.
Molly 21:45
I also feel like anybody who likes red pepper flakes on their pizza is gonna enjoy
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:50
this. It's a little bit finer ground which, which is gonna make it shake easier, because we may have already talked about or if not, we will how annoyed I get when the holes in the shaker are too small, yeah,
Molly 22:01
yeah, this is really interesting. I I'm amazed at how inferior the little packet from that came with your take out pizza is. I mean, whatever. It's probably a cheap little thing, but, and yet, that's kind of what you would expect. Yeah. Where do you buy these Sichuan chili flakes? I got
Speaker 1 22:19
these on Amazon, but the best ones are from Mala market. So, oh, Mala market, yeah, Mala market. Okay, cool, okay. Oh, all right. So we'll be, we'll be back to talk more more pepper flakes after the break.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:34
Well, we're back from tasting on the pizza. Oh, we're tasting on the pizza. Tasting on the pizza. Okay, so I
Molly 22:40
want to talk a little bit more about like Aleppo pepper. It occurs to me that I just don't know much about this stuff. So
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:46
Aleppo pepper is kind of the International English name for what's called Full fool Halabi in Arabic, Halabi meaning from Aleppo pool, be bear in Turkish, which just means flake pepper and is considered like the standard like crushed red pepper is used a lot in Turkey, like, as a condiment and in cooking and, like, it's typically what we call Aleppo pepper, Halabi ber in Armenian. And according to an article in Los Angeles magazine, like, you know, this has been, like, kind of considered, kind of like, you know, a hipster American ingredient for a while and that, but that this started in the mid 90s, because it was mentioned in the 1994 edition of the cooking of the eastern Mediterranean by friend of the show. Paula Wolfert, do you think we can call her friend of the show? I think they do. You think you think they do? I think
Molly 23:33
everybody calls her friend of the show. Paula Wolfert, wow. 1994 that's earlier really.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:38
What I really mean is, is friend of my mom's, Paula Wolf, okay, yeah, although I have met her several times.
Molly 23:45
And so Aleppo pepper. Is it? Is it like processed with oil? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:49
oil and sometimes salt. Okay, hold on, I want to smell it. Yeah,
Molly 23:55
time for me to smell it. Just handed Molly a little sachet of Aleppo pepper. Where does this stuff come from these days?
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:01
So I am gonna say that's imported from Turkey, because we import a lot of spices from Turkey. That is, that is my educated guess. This
Molly 24:10
it smells. Hold on. I just have to do a little comparison here. I love the smell of that. Yeah. Isn't that great?
Speaker 1 24:16
I'm just like, sprinkle on my tongue. I think the tricky thing about this is, because it is a dried ingredient, the flavor doesn't really like bloom on your tongue right away. Maybe what we've what we were realizing, is that if you want to put crushed red pepper on your pizza, you should sprinkle it on and, like, leave it there for like, 30 minutes, for it to what do you call it? When things get wet, macerate. Leave it for to macerate, yeah. What. 100% not the word I was looking for, but better leave it to masturbate, yeah. I mean, that definitely wasn't the word I was looking for, but
Molly 24:53
leave it to
Speaker 1 24:56
hydrate. Delic quest. Delic quest, yeah, so Delic. Why he's gonna, like, it's gonna pull it so much water from the air that it's gonna dissolve. Okay, great. Wait
Molly 25:07
a minute. I just want to, I want to kind of reflect on this for a minute. I put this Aleppo pepper on my tongue, and I thought that after a minute or so, you know, it would, it would warm up. I would get the flavor. I would get the heat. I wonder if this really needs, like, more heat. Like, well, it didn't really need to be bloomed in oil. Or, Can I use it as, like, a finish? It
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:31
means more more like, like, temperature, heat. Yeah, that is a good question. Like, I, my impression is that this is widely used in Turkey as a condiment, as well as in cooking. It is really fragrant. If we have any Turkish listeners, or listeners of Turkish descent, or listeners who have spent some time in Turkey, I would love to know more about this. I'd love to know more about Turkish food in general, because I don't know enough.
Molly 25:52
It has a, like, a sweet, fruity, like a very fruity smell. Oh yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:57
it's really, it's really good. Like, there were none of these that I didn't enjoy. But yeah, clearly the one, the one that really spoke to me was the Szechuan use one, sometimes sometimes dried ingredients speak to me. It's my doctor says it's normal. So
Molly 26:12
I want to talk a little bit about the seeds, because some of these have visible seeds, so it looks
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:18
really nice, like, I really like that kind of like white and dark red contrast. I would say
Molly 26:24
that the crushed red pepper flakes, like the pizza type ones, have way more seeds than than the usual ratio of flesh to seeds. Yeah, the Aleppo has, like the occasional seed. I also saw seeds in the Szechuan chili flakes. But what about are the seeds the hottest part,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:45
I think, like this is, this is a common belief that I think is not correct. So this, the seeds are not the hardest part, the
Molly 26:53
waiting Exactly. Should have
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:59
known that Matthew, I know I my friend, my friend Tom has been telling me that for a while, and I just don't listen. I'm good at giving advice, not as good at taking it. What were you talking seeds? So, like, the hottest part of the chili is, like the ribs, and like the flesh adjacent to the ribs, like, that's kind of where the seeds are also. So like, some of the capsaicin gets, like, splashed onto the seeds. But the seeds are not inherently very spicy. I think they are in there, partly because it would be a pain to to, like, remove them, and they're not hurting anything, and they look nice.
Molly 27:34
Matthew, I heard that you have a fiery rant. I do.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:38
I'm so glad you teed me up for one of my signature fiery rants. And this, this fiery rant is 100,000 Scoville units. Whoa. Look out. I can't stand it when I'm trying to shake some chili flakes onto my pizza, and I'm like, at the pizza place, and the holes in the shaker are too small for, like, more than a what do you call that? I feel
Molly 28:02
like they're almost always too. I know. Come on, like restaurant manufacturers of the world make the holes bigger. You
Speaker 1 28:10
know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna start bringing a drill into restaurant. You need, like, a Dremel. I think I need a Dremel. Okay, okay, so let's so we're gonna be the Dremel gang, the Dremel duo, we're gonna come to your restaurant. The Dremel dudes, we're gonna be the Dremel dudes are coming to your restaurant to enlarge the holes of your shakers.
Molly 28:30
I was gonna say we're gonna reap
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:34
we're gonna ream out your holes. Like it's gonna be. You're never gonna be the same after a visit from the Dremel dudes, but should be so glad, but, yeah, like, but your customers are gonna be delighted, like, it's gonna do wonders for the bottom line. Because you don't, you don't know how much business you're losing, because customers are storming out because your holes are too small.
Molly 28:59
I just love how mature this show always is. I can always count on it for a dose of sophisticated humor. Okay, hey, Matthew, Listen, I gotta tell you, I've got it now, but wow,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:11
let's hear about it. Is there anything else we were supposed to say about crushed red pepper? I don't think so. Like I I'm gonna start putting the szechune stuff on my pizza, and I'm pretty excited about my new life,
Molly 29:22
and I'm gonna take some home and make chili oil to put on a soup tonight. Would you just tell me roughly how to make chili oil? Yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:29
I'll send you. I don't know. I don't remember the ratio I use off top my head, but I put some, like, vegetable oil in a saucepan with like, a couple of slices of ginger. Okay, heat it to not that hot, like 275, or something. The ginger will be like, sizzling a little bit, and then pour it over a bunch of chili flakes in a heat proof bowl, cool and let it sit for at least an hour. And how long would you say that keeps it is the kind of thing that people warn you about, like, well, what could get a little botulism? Me at. Some point, but a few weeks. Yeah, okay, all right, Molly, what's your now? But wow.
Molly 30:11
Matthew, yeah, you know, as you mentioned earlier in the show, it's, it's mid, like mid February right now. And for Valentine's Day, we had my mom over for dinner, and I was like, June, let's make a special dessert, smart. And so June has the idea. It's true they do. June was like, we should make a red velvet cake. I had never made one before. This has
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:35
been a requested episode. Could we do it? No, no. I'm not saying don't do it for now, but wow, I'm saying do it and then let's do an episode. Yeah, let's
Molly 30:43
do it. Okay. So anyway, I'd never made one before, so I looked in my various cookbooks, and I just wasn't super convinced that I had to try any of the recipes I had on my bookshelf. So I went looking for, you know, really good red velvet cake online, and found that some blogger had baked like nine different ones from nine different blogs. I'm talking about so good. The winner was the the red velvet cake from divas. Can Cook. Okay, I think I've run across that blog before. I think she probably have two. She specializes in southern recipes, and, oh my god, I made this red velvet cake. It was fabulous. And part of, and I want to say it was fabulous too, in like, texture, moisture, flavor, tanginess of the the cream cheese frosting, like I was gonna say, cream cheese frosting, that's what I'm all about. It checked all the boxes. And I think part of what made the flavor so great is, and I'd never seen this before, she calls for some coffee in the cake. Oh, I like that, which, you know, if you figure red velvet cake has cocoa in it, but it's usually only, like, very lightly chocolatey. This really in a very subtle way, like, kind of turned up the chocolate flavor. Ah, it was so good, so good. So highly recommend. We'll link to it in the show notes, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:05
I notice in the URL, it says the best red velvet cake recipe, easy, homemade, moist with Southern flair. That's also how I like my lover, singular lover, singular lover. I hope it's Laurie you're talking about. Does not, to be honest, bring a lot of southern flair to the relationship. For one flaw,
Molly 32:25
yeah, our producer is Abby sercatella.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:29
You can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts, and
Molly 32:32
you can chat with other spilled milk listeners at reddit.com/r/everything,
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:39
spilled milk. Yep, I need to update that, because they took away the short URL, but yes, the thing, the thing Molly said, Is correct, and until next time, thank you for listening to spilled milk. We think your ear holes are just the right size. We
Molly 32:52
sure do. Yep. I'm Molly Weisenberg And I'm Matthew Amster Burton.
Molly 33:02
You actually, I'm just, I'm trying, oh God, come on Molly, get it together. Here we go.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai