00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeart Radio.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: I'm Annie and I'm mourned vogle bum and today we have an episode for you about prickly pear cac die.
00:00:18
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and I apologize I sort of veered off course in this one, Lauren, are normal. This is a food show, saying, yeah, a little away from me, but it was so interesting and I feel like it's related.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: It is, it is, and it's super fascinating. I feel like, yeah, yeah, we're going to talk about bug dies.
00:00:46
Speaker 1: Yes, it's great and moss a lot of insects in this episode. And I suppose was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
00:01:00
Speaker 2: Was there?
00:01:02
Speaker 1: I don't know it was some reason. I feel like super Producer Andrew at one time.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is absolutely it, thank you. Yeah, I know I had remembered that super Producer Andrew had said had been like have you done it? Like occasionally he suggests topics for us, and this was one of them. And ironically the image that he shared was for this prickly pair cactus candy that had little cartoon drawings of segurro cacti on it. But that's but that's which I've done an episode for over on brain Stuff.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: But yeah, pricklely bear cactus.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: So thank you, thank you super producer Andrew for the topic suggestion. And hey, happy belated birthday.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: Happy belated birthday. Hopefully you got some prickly paar cact candy. I don't know at some point. Yeah, I've never had it. I don't think i've seen it though I knew it existed, but yeah, I had it.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: I've definitely seen it in markets. I have never purchased it myself because I was always like, what would I do with that? And it just for some reason has never been the frequently if I see something I don't recognize in a produce section, I'm like, Okay, I'm buying that and I'm going to figure out what to do with it. And its number just hasn't come up yet. But I know I've had it as a flavoring in drinks like a like like a lemonade or a margarita or some kind of situation like that.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: Hmm. Yeah, yeah, I've definitely seen that on menus. I want to try it. I feel like I have a good idea what it tastes like from what I read, and it sounds it sounds lovely and refreshing.
00:02:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, and there's there's a lot of different varieties to try, so I love I love it when we give ourselves lots of homework.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: Yes, especially if it involves trying foods. That's always good. Mm hm oh.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: Yes, okay. You can see our previous episode on dragon fruit, also a cactus type thing.
00:03:23
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I guess that brings us to our question.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: I guess it does.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: Prickly pear cactus. What is it?
00:03:34
Speaker 2: Well, prickly pear cactus can refer to a number of species of cacti, all in the same genus that grow these big, thick pad like stems and sort of egg shaped to oblong fruit, both of which are edible. The pads, which can be anywhere from bright green to bluish gray in color, are despiked, peeled and chopped, and then eaten as a vegetable raw or cooked or pickled. Vaguely to asparagus, but tastes like green beans. Yeah. The fruits are also despiked and peeled. They'll contain a juicy pulp, usually juicy, ranging in color from yellow to orange to red to like deep purple. With these small, dark seeds that can't be chewed, who are often strained out. The fruits are sweet and can range in flavor, but tend to be sort of delicate and kind of melanie to kiwi e. They're then consumed, however you like fruit, anything from raw out of hand to juiced to cooked into preserves for use in all kinds of drinks or sweet or savory dishes or candies. It's like a it's sort of like a dragon fruit that just isn't showing off as much. That's like a little bit more humble. It's it's a plant that gives you a challenge, but it's like an oasis in the desert.
00:04:59
Speaker 1: I love that. It's it's like being all humble, but but you want to eat me.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna have to for that. Yes, it's a very eat at your own risk kind of plant. Love it, Oh so yes. The prickly pear is a member of the cactus family Cactasia, and their genus is Aupentia Aptia. I don't know. There are some like two hundred ish, maybe up to three hundred species within the genus, depending on who you ask. They're native to the semi arid and desert regions of the Americas, from provinces of Canada all the way down through parts of Argentina and Chile. They can range in size and shape from like small shrub with those pads branching off of and growing up around each other, to a height of like a couple feet less than a meter, to a large shrub like person sized to more like a tree up to twelve meters or over thirty feet. In the Galapagos, for example, they have those with like a like thick trunk like stem off the top of which the pads grow, and these sort of chains in clusters. And if you've never seen these, google it. I mean, like maybe not right now, I don't know what you're up to, but they look like a Doctor Seuss thing. It's really cool. The plants do propagate best from cuttings, not seeds. The pads can be rounder or more oblong, anywhere from a few inches to over a foot long that's around ten centimeters to like over thirty Other than their's spines, the skin is smooth. Different species have like actual spines like these like long thorns, or merely these spiny little bristles that look like fuzz poking out from nodes on the skin of the pads. Those nodes are also where new pads may sprout from. Both types of spines must be removed before eating, and should be watched out for while handling the pads, like unless you really know what you're doing, in which case I'm not going to tell you what to do, Like, do not handle any part of the prickly pear cactus without gloves or other protection before the spines are removed. Those little bristles can be hard to see and they are barbed, so they're like a literal pain to remove from your flesh. Ooh yeah, yeah. The pads will put off a ray of flowers, mostly along their top edge, but sometimes on the body, like these big pretty flowers and shades from yellow to orange to like bright pink. If pollinated, and they are pretty good atself pollinating, they'll develop into a sort of egg shaped fruit with a kind of flat end on the large top side of them. Yeah, like it would be the bottom of the egg. But anyway. Yeah, they're anywhere from a couple inches long to maybe over twice that, like five centimeters plus. They tend to make the pads look a little bit like these big old bear claws, but you know, like aigen raided bear claws because they have too many stubby little fingers on them. Yeah. The fruit will start out in shades of like white to green, and then ripen to anywhere from like green to yellow, orange, red, bright purple, or so deep purple that they're brown, some combination thereof. Perhaps I understand that when they're ripe you should just kind of like twist them off their pads because they're sort of soft, like avoid tearing them. They also have those spiny bristles that need to be handled carefully and removed before consuming. The spines can be pulled off with an implement like tweezers, or brushed off or burned off. You might see them sold under the Spanish name tunas. And if you're not eating them fresh, you'll often pulp or juice them to remove the seeds before any kind of further processing. But yeah, oh prickly pear lemonade good like jams or jellies to put in just anything that you want. Yeah, the juice is also fermented into alcohol. The seeds themselves can be ground into a flower and used in baked goods, and those pads, yes, are used as a vegetable when they're young and tender, usually harvested in the springtime. I understand that you should cut those off the plant with a sharp knife and then can remove those spines, yes, using implement like tweezers or a vegetable peeler. Yeah, I've read that there. I haven't had the pads. I've read that there's something right like the texture of asparagus or maybe okra like with a bit of slime to them and just a green vegetable flavor like green beans. I've seen recipes for the slices fried up with onion and eggs for breakfast, or maybe simmered into soups and stews, or the whole pads like grilled as a side dish. You might see those under the Spanish name nepalus or on menus as nopolitos. The plant is also used as podder for cattle and other livestock. Sometimes it's like a low cost you'd better not try it fencing around tracts of land, and it's processed for oils that are used in small care products or SAPs that's used as a thickening agent. It's also the natural source of a type of parasitic insect called a cocknile, which produces this bright red pigment called carmine that's used in everything from paints and dyes to cosmetics, to microscopic imaging to food products. Yeah, wow, yep, very briefly, because this is not a carmine episode, as hard as you tried, Annie, the cocaial insects will embed themselves in the pads of this cactus and like feed off of it while they produce eggs. So if you ever see what looks like like little white dust bunnies on the surface of a prickly pear pad, that's cocanile. More on carmine in the history section. M The plants are also, just to put it out there, like, pretty ecologically important in the places where they grow natively anyway, providing shade and shelter and a water source and calories for just all kinds of different animals.
00:11:11
Speaker 1: I really can't wait to hear from listeners about this one. I'm so excited. What about the nutrition.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: By themselves, Both the pads and fruit of the prickly pear are pretty good for you, you know, some good fiber, some vitamin C. They'll help fill you up but to keep you going pear with the protein and some fat, which sounds delicious. They have been used in traditional medicines for all kinds of things, all kinds of things, but save er moato.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yes, well we do have some numbers for you.
00:11:43
Speaker 2: Yeah. Mexico produces around eight hundred metric tons of prickly pear every year. I think that's the fruit in the pads. Both they're farmed by some twenty thousand families who make their living off of the plant, and Mexico does account for about forty five percent of globalduction, followed by Italy at around twelve percent and South Africa at about four percent. These numbers do come from sources with different timelines, and as with any agricultural product, production can change kind of rapidly. For example, the industry for prickly pair is just exploding in Tunisia right now. So some of these numbers are from like twenty thirteen, some of them are from like twenty nineteen, and I didn't find comparable numbers from both times, so I don't know, I don't know numbers. There are a couple of records listed that in this way that it seems to me that Guinness Records has just started kind of farming scientific papers or like trawling scientific papers for this sort of thing. But okay, so species of this cactus are the most northerly natively occurring cactus in the world, and other species are the most invasive cactus in the world. More on that in the history section related to the last time that I said that. Yeah, yep, this is not a number. But my favorite sentence of the day comes from a paper on prickly pair cactus from nineteen eighty six. Two sentences technically quote A wide variety of other animals have been successfully raised on the cactus pads. These include sheep, pigs, horses, ostriches grown for their feather plumes, and at least one circus elephant, at least one at least one not willing to say only one, not willing to say.
00:13:42
Speaker 1: Two, right, can't say for sure, but at least one circus elephant.
00:13:54
Speaker 2: There are a few prickly pair festivals. I saw mentions of a few that I couldn't track down more details for, like maybe they're no longer running. So if you've been to a cool one that we don't mention here, do tell us about it. But all right. One in Superior, Arizona is coming up real quick in August twenty fourth. The day starts early with foraging demonstrations, moving into educational talks, some food booths, some music and folklorecal dancing. Local restaurants are featuring some Prickly pair specials including like a lot of prickly pear sauces and jams on like tasty sounding dish like ribs like a nice pear sauce on there Shrimp Tacos. One in Albuquerque, New Mexico is in its sixth year as of twenty twenty four. Will be happening on September twenty seventh and twenty eighth. That's a Friday and Saturday. It'll feature cooking demos, craft workshops including carmine dyeing, Yeah, some gardening workshops for planting native species, and Prickly Nights programming on Friday including music and flamenco dancing, plus of course food and drink. And then another in Scottsdale, Aras is going to be on October twenty eighth. This year, it's more education based, with like lots of demonstrations and taste tests about how to work with prickly pear and other native plants.
00:15:11
Speaker 1: Those all sounds so clear.
00:15:13
Speaker 2: Right, oh right. If anyone is in the area and has the chance to go, I would I would really love to hear how all the demonstrations are going. And if you learn something cool.
00:15:26
Speaker 1: Yes, report back, please please. But I guess this brings us to our much teased history.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: Section about not food kind of it is used as a food, dye. You weren't that far off base, dude, I tried, I really did. All right. Yes, we are going to get into that, but first we're going to get into a quick break for a word from our sponsors, and.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: We're back sponsored.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you. So.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: Prickly pear cactus is native to the America's records as far back as sixty five BCE indicate that people were eating it, though some speculate people were eating it in the America's up to twenty thousand years ago. Again, that's one of those things.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, hard to say.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: Many early indigenous peoples in these areas farmed and used this cactus as a food source. The whole thing, the leaves, the pattles, the fruits as a beverage as well and yes, medicinally, including the needles. The fruits were roasted, boiled, and dried made into jams or candies, are harvested for winter, and they were a good source of water too, and they were sometimes used as a container, which I love. Oh yeah, yeah, But these peoples also used the cockonaial dye generated from the bodies and eggs of an insect that feeds on the prickly pear cactus. And that dye is yes, karmic acid and extracted and used in a variety of ways, including dyeing clothes.
00:17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, mictech people and what's now Mexico cultivated prickly pairs specifically to develop different shades of this dye.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: Rights, And there are a lot of legends around this cactus too. One tells the story of how it essentially led to the founding what's now Mexico City after the Mecas witnessed an eagle eating a snake while perched on a prickly pear cactus. Yes. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the fifteen hundreds and discovered the dye for themselves, they were immediately enamored with it, shipping clothes died with it back to Europe. The demand reached such a point that they started shipping just the die, and the dye was extremely expensive and the ships that were carrying it were targets for attack because of that, Spain maintained control of this dye in Europe for over two hundred and fifty years before other countries broke through that control and it became available pretty much around the world. I read in multiple places the red coats of the British used this dye at this time.
00:18:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's about color. Yeah, that's about the color of carmine.
00:18:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. Several European records from the fifteen to sixteen hundreds made note of indigenous people's eating prickly pear cactus and or drinking a fermented beverage made with it, often attripting it to health. They would always say, like, seems like it's good for your health. Other records are strictly about the medicinal attributes and uses, like treating burns, for instance. That was a big one. After cattle were introduced to the Americas in the sixteen hundreds, this cactus was used as feed for them and other livestock. In some areas. It was especially useful during dry seasons or in areas where it was difficult to grow much else. The plants themselves were shipped back to Europe too, but it was a bit of a struggle for a while getting them to survive the cold and wet climates. Most had never seen a plant like it ever.
00:19:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, cactuses in general are native to the Americas, and so this was basically the first one that made it back over to Europe. And so people were like whoa, yeah, cool, Okay, we didn't know that plants came like this rad It did find some purchase in places like the southern Iberian Peninsula other areas around the Mediterranean coast. People were hoping originally to farm cocknil insects for that carmine. It never really worked out because for whatever reason, the insects did not thrive in those environments. But yeah, from Spanish territories. Over the next couple centuries, it was naturalized around the coast of the Mediterranean, in places like Palestine as a fencing and for its fruit and where specifically. It is still something of a national symbol.
00:20:04
Speaker 1: Right as Europeans traveled through the Western US. Meanwhile, there are several accounts you can find around the spines the quills of some types of cacti causing all sorts of trouble, sticking in fingers, mouths, or throats, and even, according to some records, leading to death. Yeah, there are records from the Lewis and Clark expedition that makes several mentions of them and the trouble they had with them, if you want to look it up. Oooh yeah, speaking of trouble, the story of the prickly paar cactus in Australia is a different one. According to the written record, the first known instance of the prickly pair cactus in Australia was in seventeen eighty eight, and it was introduced primarily to kickstart their own cocknail dye industry. A few species were growing by the eighteen forties, but it soon became invasive and the government had to intervene, beginning with the eighteen sixty six Prickly Pair Destruction Destruction Act passed by the New South Wales government. Yes, this act made people responsible for the destruction of the cacti on their land, which was not easy. No, No, that was the problem.
00:21:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I really need to emphasize here how much of a failure this was because because it became so invasive and also it definitely no one ever got a crop car mine.
00:21:37
Speaker 1: Out of it, no, no, and people were losing their land in places they could grow stuff.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: Like yeah, no, I'm like, we're giggling about it, but it's it was actually a very serious issue. It was it really sucked.
00:21:53
Speaker 1: It really sucked, and you can find archival pictures of it and it's it's striking. Yes.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: So that didn't work.
00:22:03
Speaker 1: So the Crown offered a five thousand pounds reward for anyone who could come up with a way to control these cacti in nineteen oh one. They doubled it in nineteen oh seven, an equivalent of about two million Australian dollars today. Yes. In nineteen twelve, the Prickly Pair Traveling Commission formed to go around and study the Prickly pair for potential weaknesses. Again, it's you're a situation but saying I'm just imagining them with like magnifying glass looking at these cactime. By the nineteen twenties, the Prickly pair cactus had overtaken fifty eight million acres, meaning that yeah, this land was no longer available for agriculture. Controlling the population became really, really important, and people working on solutions tried chemicals dangerous to the land, including about thirty thoy tens each of arsenic pentoxide and Robert's improved pair poison, though the needs of World War One temporarily put a halt to all of that because that all got redirected. While these chemicals did work, they weren't great for the land, as I said, and they were difficult to implement and didn't do much to stop the spread of the cacti, like they might kill some but they still spreading. Yeah, yeah, But the Commission had another idea up their sleeve. They found the answer in the form of the Cacto blastis moth after botanists traveled to the US and we're talking to botanis there and they were like, you should check out this moth though from Argentina. So they did, and they had to import this moth from Argentina pre air travel and run several tests before distributing ten million eggs in the nineteen twenties and billions more in.
00:23:59
Speaker 2: The fall years.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: And I just want to note here their first test failed, but they've tried it again. Wow, this could be a mini series of itself.
00:24:10
Speaker 2: Apparently.
00:24:11
Speaker 1: Yes, the eggs were wrapped in paper quills and a pin to attach it to the cactus like they had to be transported carefully, but it works. Nearly seven million hectares of land was freed up from the cacti by nineteen thirty two. It's considered a huge success story in terms of controlling an invasive plant with biological means. The moth even has a memorial hall named after it in Australia. Wow in the headlines. I recommend looking at the headlines because I when I saw it, I was like, I must know more about this story.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, this, I'll say Australia has the best worst track record of getting so out of control so quickly. I'm reminded of the Ostrich Wars, like or I'm sorry, the EMU wars. Wrong. Giant bird that will kick the guts out of you.
00:25:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yeah, I do recommend looking up the pictures because the prickly pair cactus had taken over.
00:25:22
Speaker 2: It has everywhere it was not to be tamed.
00:25:27
Speaker 1: No, what a story. Well again, thanks for indulging me. Food show all right. Ostensibly extensibly in the twentieth century, in Mexico, the population of prickly pear cactus was significantly impacted by the crop being snatched up and sold to other markets. In response, there was a slew of efforts to industrialize and commercialize this industry, including banning the foraging of the prickly pear cactus in some instances and research into improving the DNA of the cactus. By nineteen seventy five, several new varieties were introduced. This is one of those things though that it sounds like it negatively impacted some communities that had been harvesting it without.
00:26:20
Speaker 2: Messing things up.
00:26:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:26:22
Speaker 2: Sure, but it also.
00:26:24
Speaker 1: Helped that it was like a complicated it worked in some places and then hurt in other places.
00:26:30
Speaker 2: A lot of it, Yeah, yep.
00:26:33
Speaker 1: The prickly pair cactus was adopted as Texas's state plant in nineteen ninety five, and.
00:26:41
Speaker 2: Starting in the two thousands, some researchers started really promoting the adoption of prickly pair for use as a livestock fodder in the deserts of the Middle East through South Asia, as Yeah, it can grow better with fewer resources than lots of other types of fodder plants in those sort of situations.
00:27:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, again, we would love to hear from listeners who have experience with this cooking it.
00:27:09
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, all of vegetables, all of your recipes. I you're if you have a method, if you have a method for despining it. Yes, the one, the one that I've seen popularized is just like taking a little bit lighter and like burning off every little every little node on a fruit.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: But wow, okay, but.
00:27:35
Speaker 2: I've also seen people with brushes. I've seen people with tweezers. I've seen right the vegetable peeler method, all kinds of things.
00:27:45
Speaker 1: I love it. I love again where humans are like you couldn't try to keep me from eating you, No, Nope, I would find a way. I'll do what I have to do.
00:28:01
Speaker 2: Well.
00:28:01
Speaker 1: I guess that's what we have to say about the prickly pear cactus for now.
00:28:05
Speaker 2: Yes that we do already have some listener mail for you, and we are going to get into that as soon as we get back from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors. And we're back.
00:28:24
Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with snool Spiky.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: I was desperately trying to follow you on.
00:28:38
Speaker 1: That I love it. I think you did a good job.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: I took thank you.
00:28:47
Speaker 1: Even if you did it, that's all good. Every catch eye. The spikes are in different place.
00:28:55
Speaker 2: There they are, they are.
00:28:57
Speaker 1: You have to watch out for them. You don't always succeed. Yeah, that's exactly. There you go, There you go. That's the true meaning. We have two messages about potato salad.
00:29:09
Speaker 2: Yeah we do.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: Hearing about all of your potato salad thoughts is so good, so good? Okay, so Bart wrote, you asked for an Irish perspective on mashed potato salad. So here's my on the ground experience. It's definitely not the case that all potato salad here is mash, but it is true that salads with waxier cubed potatoes are much rarer and treated with suspicion by some, because we all learn as kids that under cooked potatoes are dangerous, though we never seem to be told why. American potato salad tends to lean into sour and tanky flavors with lots of acid and mustard, while the coal saws I grew up with were all mashed and all dominated by creamy, oniony flavors from mayonnaise and scallions. A more exotic coal saw might reply place the scallions with fresh parsley, but mustard was just not a flavor I ever remember encountering. Potato salads were pearly white with bits of green. Personally, I like to mix it up and make some more traditional Irish potato salads, some mayonnaise free, German style ones with oil, vinegar, mustard and lots of dill, and some American style ones with mayo, vinegar and mustard. I primarily make potato salad to avoid throwing out leftover potatoes, so when I have waxier leftovers, I favor American or German styles, And when the leftovers are flower rear, I take out my fork, mash them up and go Irish. It's stunning how tasty a really simple Irish style potato salad can be. My base recipe is one and a half tablespoons of mayo for each one hundred grams of potato, and either one scallion per one hundred grams, or one tablespooned gentle fresh herbs like parsley, chives, or dill per one hundred grams, or one teaspoon of opinionated fresh herbs like tarragon per one hundred grams. If all else fails, even dried herbs work, but you need to reduce the amount and add a little more mao to make it for the dryness. Mind you, If you boil your potatoes and properly salted water, they're delicious cold with literally nothing added.
00:31:13
Speaker 2: I yeah, see above, Rea, I want to eat potatoes, yes, genuinely, Yeah, yes, oh yeah, right, Oh this is all great, great, great information. Yeah. We had a minor debate in the middle of this. If the word coles law was intentional does that mean potato salad?
00:31:41
Speaker 1: Yes, we did, and either way, love this so good? Yes, And I love that you mix it up. I like that you rit you know some days you're feeling one way, if some days you're feeling another based on ingredients, perhaps, Oh sure, Yeah, this is fantastic. People can be so strong and their opinions, which we appreciate. But I like this too. If you know what today I'm feeling, right, there's room for all of them. There is, unless you don't think there are, and then I support you in your strong.
00:32:12
Speaker 3: Opinion, immediate backing it unless it's true.
00:32:23
Speaker 1: I think it's fine to have a strong opinion it's this way. I also think it's great to be like, you know what, I like all these different varieties. Yeah, yeah, I'm also curious about this. Undercooked potatoes are dangerous. I'm gonna have to look into that. Oh yeah, I never heard that as a kid.
00:32:44
Speaker 2: Oh oh, I definitely did. Yeah, you shouldn't eat raw potatoes. That's a true statement. But I'm pretty I'm pretty sure that it's due to the fact that if the eyes have started to produce sprouts, then that that those sprouts are toxic. But I'm not totally positive, and I probably shouldn't say anything. We should just do an episode on potatoes and suss it out.
00:33:10
Speaker 1: Now. That is one we have been shying away from.
00:33:13
Speaker 2: Oh yes on purpose that No, I don't.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: Know if the ambition has reached that one. Like not today potatoes, we will do in your orbits, like potato salad, yes, but not today potatoes.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: All right, Florence wrote catching up on a few episodes, and with the potato salad and lemon episode being so close to each other, I had to write in I'm a Canadian living in London, and most of my friends here are from all over, including a few Americans. A last year, we rented a house in Oxford to visit a manor house nearby, and as we were planning our meals, they had a barbecue. I offered to make a potato salad. My French friend was immediately on board. My American friends not so much. They told me afterwards that none of them is a fan of that classic. But all of them were absolutely blown away, and one even asked for the recipe to cook for her family. It's my ant's recipe and it's truly the best. Okay, it's as follows. The zest and juice of half to one lemon to taste, olive oil, vinegar. I usually use white wine or apple side or vinegar, old fashioned mustard and salt and pepper. Emultify the dressing and pour over boiled baby potatoes, skin on spring onions and arugula, and eat warm. It's absolutely delicious, with the tang from the lemon and the mustard, the bitterness from the arugula, and the softness of the potatoes. We also introduced the non North Americans to s'mores. As graham crackers are not the easiest to come by, we decided to try using chocolate hobknobs a sweet oak cookie with one side coated and chocolate. I might say it might have been better than the classic s'mores. Also, Hobknobs could be an interesting episode for you guys. It's a quintessentially classic biscuit here in the UK, but I'm pretty certain it was introduced in the nineteen eighties and they just had a lot of marketing to present it as a traditional UK sweet. Anyway, looking forward to more episodes to keep me company while I craft.
00:35:14
Speaker 1: Hobnobs. I've never heard of that, but it made me laugh.
00:35:17
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, you've never had one. Oh, I've definitely had those. Yeah, yeah, that's that's one of those biscuits that you kind of like can't avoid when you're when you're in England.
00:35:27
Speaker 1: So somehow I did or maybe I had one and it just didn't know it was called a hobnob. Who knows. I'm glad it turned out well. I feel like a lot of people outside of when I introduce people to some wars, it's not it doesn't go over well.
00:35:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, this might This sounds like it was maybe a little bit less a lot like a little bit less sweet and so much perhaps and yeah, because right like having a whole piece of chocolate and a whole marshmallow. I'm just like, whoa, yeah, I'm hypogcemic. I can't.
00:36:06
Speaker 1: I love some mores, but I feel like it's like halfway in. I'm good, that's it. Yeah, so this maybe that's what it was. But yes, that would be a good topic. Definitely, absolutely, Also, this potato salad sounds delicious to me.
00:36:21
Speaker 2: I will generally speaking, that is approximately my recipe for any kind of salad dressing, more or less like maybe add some herbs in there, but that's pretty much it. And it's so good. And I've never thought about putting it on warm potatoes with arugula, but that sounds amazing. I'm like mad about how amazing that sounds due to the fact that I'm not eating it right now.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: We have so many potato salads.
00:36:53
Speaker 2: I love it. It's fantastics. The best problem it really really is.
00:37:02
Speaker 1: Yes, I all keep the potato salad recipes coming, please, please, please, Thank you so much for both of these listeners for writing in. If we would like to write to us, you can our email us Hello at savorpod dot com.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeart Radio.
00:00:11
Speaker 2: I'm Annie and I'm mourned vogle bum and today we have an episode for you about prickly pear cac die.
00:00:18
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and I apologize I sort of veered off course in this one, Lauren, are normal. This is a food show, saying, yeah, a little away from me, but it was so interesting and I feel like it's related.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: It is, it is, and it's super fascinating. I feel like, yeah, yeah, we're going to talk about bug dies.
00:00:46
Speaker 1: Yes, it's great and moss a lot of insects in this episode. And I suppose was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
00:01:00
Speaker 2: Was there?
00:01:02
Speaker 1: I don't know it was some reason. I feel like super Producer Andrew at one time.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is absolutely it, thank you. Yeah, I know I had remembered that super Producer Andrew had said had been like have you done it? Like occasionally he suggests topics for us, and this was one of them. And ironically the image that he shared was for this prickly pair cactus candy that had little cartoon drawings of segurro cacti on it. But that's but that's which I've done an episode for over on brain Stuff.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: But yeah, pricklely bear cactus.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: So thank you, thank you super producer Andrew for the topic suggestion. And hey, happy belated birthday.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: Happy belated birthday. Hopefully you got some prickly paar cact candy. I don't know at some point. Yeah, I've never had it. I don't think i've seen it though I knew it existed, but yeah, I had it.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: I've definitely seen it in markets. I have never purchased it myself because I was always like, what would I do with that? And it just for some reason has never been the frequently if I see something I don't recognize in a produce section, I'm like, Okay, I'm buying that and I'm going to figure out what to do with it. And its number just hasn't come up yet. But I know I've had it as a flavoring in drinks like a like like a lemonade or a margarita or some kind of situation like that.
00:02:41
Speaker 1: Hmm. Yeah, yeah, I've definitely seen that on menus. I want to try it. I feel like I have a good idea what it tastes like from what I read, and it sounds it sounds lovely and refreshing.
00:02:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, and there's there's a lot of different varieties to try, so I love I love it when we give ourselves lots of homework.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: Yes, especially if it involves trying foods. That's always good. Mm hm oh.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: Yes, okay. You can see our previous episode on dragon fruit, also a cactus type thing.
00:03:23
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I guess that brings us to our question.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: I guess it does.
00:03:29
Speaker 1: Prickly pear cactus. What is it?
00:03:34
Speaker 2: Well, prickly pear cactus can refer to a number of species of cacti, all in the same genus that grow these big, thick pad like stems and sort of egg shaped to oblong fruit, both of which are edible. The pads, which can be anywhere from bright green to bluish gray in color, are despiked, peeled and chopped, and then eaten as a vegetable raw or cooked or pickled. Vaguely to asparagus, but tastes like green beans. Yeah. The fruits are also despiked and peeled. They'll contain a juicy pulp, usually juicy, ranging in color from yellow to orange to red to like deep purple. With these small, dark seeds that can't be chewed, who are often strained out. The fruits are sweet and can range in flavor, but tend to be sort of delicate and kind of melanie to kiwi e. They're then consumed, however you like fruit, anything from raw out of hand to juiced to cooked into preserves for use in all kinds of drinks or sweet or savory dishes or candies. It's like a it's sort of like a dragon fruit that just isn't showing off as much. That's like a little bit more humble. It's it's a plant that gives you a challenge, but it's like an oasis in the desert.
00:04:59
Speaker 1: I love that. It's it's like being all humble, but but you want to eat me.
00:05:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna have to for that. Yes, it's a very eat at your own risk kind of plant. Love it, Oh so yes. The prickly pear is a member of the cactus family Cactasia, and their genus is Aupentia Aptia. I don't know. There are some like two hundred ish, maybe up to three hundred species within the genus, depending on who you ask. They're native to the semi arid and desert regions of the Americas, from provinces of Canada all the way down through parts of Argentina and Chile. They can range in size and shape from like small shrub with those pads branching off of and growing up around each other, to a height of like a couple feet less than a meter, to a large shrub like person sized to more like a tree up to twelve meters or over thirty feet. In the Galapagos, for example, they have those with like a like thick trunk like stem off the top of which the pads grow, and these sort of chains in clusters. And if you've never seen these, google it. I mean, like maybe not right now, I don't know what you're up to, but they look like a Doctor Seuss thing. It's really cool. The plants do propagate best from cuttings, not seeds. The pads can be rounder or more oblong, anywhere from a few inches to over a foot long that's around ten centimeters to like over thirty Other than their's spines, the skin is smooth. Different species have like actual spines like these like long thorns, or merely these spiny little bristles that look like fuzz poking out from nodes on the skin of the pads. Those nodes are also where new pads may sprout from. Both types of spines must be removed before eating, and should be watched out for while handling the pads, like unless you really know what you're doing, in which case I'm not going to tell you what to do, Like, do not handle any part of the prickly pear cactus without gloves or other protection before the spines are removed. Those little bristles can be hard to see and they are barbed, so they're like a literal pain to remove from your flesh. Ooh yeah, yeah. The pads will put off a ray of flowers, mostly along their top edge, but sometimes on the body, like these big pretty flowers and shades from yellow to orange to like bright pink. If pollinated, and they are pretty good atself pollinating, they'll develop into a sort of egg shaped fruit with a kind of flat end on the large top side of them. Yeah, like it would be the bottom of the egg. But anyway. Yeah, they're anywhere from a couple inches long to maybe over twice that, like five centimeters plus. They tend to make the pads look a little bit like these big old bear claws, but you know, like aigen raided bear claws because they have too many stubby little fingers on them. Yeah. The fruit will start out in shades of like white to green, and then ripen to anywhere from like green to yellow, orange, red, bright purple, or so deep purple that they're brown, some combination thereof. Perhaps I understand that when they're ripe you should just kind of like twist them off their pads because they're sort of soft, like avoid tearing them. They also have those spiny bristles that need to be handled carefully and removed before consuming. The spines can be pulled off with an implement like tweezers, or brushed off or burned off. You might see them sold under the Spanish name tunas. And if you're not eating them fresh, you'll often pulp or juice them to remove the seeds before any kind of further processing. But yeah, oh prickly pear lemonade good like jams or jellies to put in just anything that you want. Yeah, the juice is also fermented into alcohol. The seeds themselves can be ground into a flower and used in baked goods, and those pads, yes, are used as a vegetable when they're young and tender, usually harvested in the springtime. I understand that you should cut those off the plant with a sharp knife and then can remove those spines, yes, using implement like tweezers or a vegetable peeler. Yeah, I've read that there. I haven't had the pads. I've read that there's something right like the texture of asparagus or maybe okra like with a bit of slime to them and just a green vegetable flavor like green beans. I've seen recipes for the slices fried up with onion and eggs for breakfast, or maybe simmered into soups and stews, or the whole pads like grilled as a side dish. You might see those under the Spanish name nepalus or on menus as nopolitos. The plant is also used as podder for cattle and other livestock. Sometimes it's like a low cost you'd better not try it fencing around tracts of land, and it's processed for oils that are used in small care products or SAPs that's used as a thickening agent. It's also the natural source of a type of parasitic insect called a cocknile, which produces this bright red pigment called carmine that's used in everything from paints and dyes to cosmetics, to microscopic imaging to food products. Yeah, wow, yep, very briefly, because this is not a carmine episode, as hard as you tried, Annie, the cocaial insects will embed themselves in the pads of this cactus and like feed off of it while they produce eggs. So if you ever see what looks like like little white dust bunnies on the surface of a prickly pear pad, that's cocanile. More on carmine in the history section. M The plants are also, just to put it out there, like, pretty ecologically important in the places where they grow natively anyway, providing shade and shelter and a water source and calories for just all kinds of different animals.
00:11:11
Speaker 1: I really can't wait to hear from listeners about this one. I'm so excited. What about the nutrition.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: By themselves, Both the pads and fruit of the prickly pear are pretty good for you, you know, some good fiber, some vitamin C. They'll help fill you up but to keep you going pear with the protein and some fat, which sounds delicious. They have been used in traditional medicines for all kinds of things, all kinds of things, but save er moato.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yes, well we do have some numbers for you.
00:11:43
Speaker 2: Yeah. Mexico produces around eight hundred metric tons of prickly pear every year. I think that's the fruit in the pads. Both they're farmed by some twenty thousand families who make their living off of the plant, and Mexico does account for about forty five percent of globalduction, followed by Italy at around twelve percent and South Africa at about four percent. These numbers do come from sources with different timelines, and as with any agricultural product, production can change kind of rapidly. For example, the industry for prickly pair is just exploding in Tunisia right now. So some of these numbers are from like twenty thirteen, some of them are from like twenty nineteen, and I didn't find comparable numbers from both times, so I don't know, I don't know numbers. There are a couple of records listed that in this way that it seems to me that Guinness Records has just started kind of farming scientific papers or like trawling scientific papers for this sort of thing. But okay, so species of this cactus are the most northerly natively occurring cactus in the world, and other species are the most invasive cactus in the world. More on that in the history section related to the last time that I said that. Yeah, yep, this is not a number. But my favorite sentence of the day comes from a paper on prickly pair cactus from nineteen eighty six. Two sentences technically quote A wide variety of other animals have been successfully raised on the cactus pads. These include sheep, pigs, horses, ostriches grown for their feather plumes, and at least one circus elephant, at least one at least one not willing to say only one, not willing to say.
00:13:42
Speaker 1: Two, right, can't say for sure, but at least one circus elephant.
00:13:54
Speaker 2: There are a few prickly pair festivals. I saw mentions of a few that I couldn't track down more details for, like maybe they're no longer running. So if you've been to a cool one that we don't mention here, do tell us about it. But all right. One in Superior, Arizona is coming up real quick in August twenty fourth. The day starts early with foraging demonstrations, moving into educational talks, some food booths, some music and folklorecal dancing. Local restaurants are featuring some Prickly pair specials including like a lot of prickly pear sauces and jams on like tasty sounding dish like ribs like a nice pear sauce on there Shrimp Tacos. One in Albuquerque, New Mexico is in its sixth year as of twenty twenty four. Will be happening on September twenty seventh and twenty eighth. That's a Friday and Saturday. It'll feature cooking demos, craft workshops including carmine dyeing, Yeah, some gardening workshops for planting native species, and Prickly Nights programming on Friday including music and flamenco dancing, plus of course food and drink. And then another in Scottsdale, Aras is going to be on October twenty eighth. This year, it's more education based, with like lots of demonstrations and taste tests about how to work with prickly pear and other native plants.
00:15:11
Speaker 1: Those all sounds so clear.
00:15:13
Speaker 2: Right, oh right. If anyone is in the area and has the chance to go, I would I would really love to hear how all the demonstrations are going. And if you learn something cool.
00:15:26
Speaker 1: Yes, report back, please please. But I guess this brings us to our much teased history.
00:15:33
Speaker 2: Section about not food kind of it is used as a food, dye. You weren't that far off base, dude, I tried, I really did. All right. Yes, we are going to get into that, but first we're going to get into a quick break for a word from our sponsors, and.
00:15:59
Speaker 1: We're back sponsored.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you. So.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: Prickly pear cactus is native to the America's records as far back as sixty five BCE indicate that people were eating it, though some speculate people were eating it in the America's up to twenty thousand years ago. Again, that's one of those things.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, hard to say.
00:16:20
Speaker 1: Many early indigenous peoples in these areas farmed and used this cactus as a food source. The whole thing, the leaves, the pattles, the fruits as a beverage as well and yes, medicinally, including the needles. The fruits were roasted, boiled, and dried made into jams or candies, are harvested for winter, and they were a good source of water too, and they were sometimes used as a container, which I love. Oh yeah, yeah, But these peoples also used the cockonaial dye generated from the bodies and eggs of an insect that feeds on the prickly pear cactus. And that dye is yes, karmic acid and extracted and used in a variety of ways, including dyeing clothes.
00:17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, mictech people and what's now Mexico cultivated prickly pairs specifically to develop different shades of this dye.
00:17:14
Speaker 1: Rights, And there are a lot of legends around this cactus too. One tells the story of how it essentially led to the founding what's now Mexico City after the Mecas witnessed an eagle eating a snake while perched on a prickly pear cactus. Yes. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the fifteen hundreds and discovered the dye for themselves, they were immediately enamored with it, shipping clothes died with it back to Europe. The demand reached such a point that they started shipping just the die, and the dye was extremely expensive and the ships that were carrying it were targets for attack because of that, Spain maintained control of this dye in Europe for over two hundred and fifty years before other countries broke through that control and it became available pretty much around the world. I read in multiple places the red coats of the British used this dye at this time.
00:18:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's about color. Yeah, that's about the color of carmine.
00:18:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. Several European records from the fifteen to sixteen hundreds made note of indigenous people's eating prickly pear cactus and or drinking a fermented beverage made with it, often attripting it to health. They would always say, like, seems like it's good for your health. Other records are strictly about the medicinal attributes and uses, like treating burns, for instance. That was a big one. After cattle were introduced to the Americas in the sixteen hundreds, this cactus was used as feed for them and other livestock. In some areas. It was especially useful during dry seasons or in areas where it was difficult to grow much else. The plants themselves were shipped back to Europe too, but it was a bit of a struggle for a while getting them to survive the cold and wet climates. Most had never seen a plant like it ever.
00:19:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, cactuses in general are native to the Americas, and so this was basically the first one that made it back over to Europe. And so people were like whoa, yeah, cool, Okay, we didn't know that plants came like this rad It did find some purchase in places like the southern Iberian Peninsula other areas around the Mediterranean coast. People were hoping originally to farm cocknil insects for that carmine. It never really worked out because for whatever reason, the insects did not thrive in those environments. But yeah, from Spanish territories. Over the next couple centuries, it was naturalized around the coast of the Mediterranean, in places like Palestine as a fencing and for its fruit and where specifically. It is still something of a national symbol.
00:20:04
Speaker 1: Right as Europeans traveled through the Western US. Meanwhile, there are several accounts you can find around the spines the quills of some types of cacti causing all sorts of trouble, sticking in fingers, mouths, or throats, and even, according to some records, leading to death. Yeah, there are records from the Lewis and Clark expedition that makes several mentions of them and the trouble they had with them, if you want to look it up. Oooh yeah, speaking of trouble, the story of the prickly paar cactus in Australia is a different one. According to the written record, the first known instance of the prickly pair cactus in Australia was in seventeen eighty eight, and it was introduced primarily to kickstart their own cocknail dye industry. A few species were growing by the eighteen forties, but it soon became invasive and the government had to intervene, beginning with the eighteen sixty six Prickly Pair Destruction Destruction Act passed by the New South Wales government. Yes, this act made people responsible for the destruction of the cacti on their land, which was not easy. No, No, that was the problem.
00:21:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I really need to emphasize here how much of a failure this was because because it became so invasive and also it definitely no one ever got a crop car mine.
00:21:37
Speaker 1: Out of it, no, no, and people were losing their land in places they could grow stuff.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: Like yeah, no, I'm like, we're giggling about it, but it's it was actually a very serious issue. It was it really sucked.
00:21:53
Speaker 1: It really sucked, and you can find archival pictures of it and it's it's striking. Yes.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: So that didn't work.
00:22:03
Speaker 1: So the Crown offered a five thousand pounds reward for anyone who could come up with a way to control these cacti in nineteen oh one. They doubled it in nineteen oh seven, an equivalent of about two million Australian dollars today. Yes. In nineteen twelve, the Prickly Pair Traveling Commission formed to go around and study the Prickly pair for potential weaknesses. Again, it's you're a situation but saying I'm just imagining them with like magnifying glass looking at these cactime. By the nineteen twenties, the Prickly pair cactus had overtaken fifty eight million acres, meaning that yeah, this land was no longer available for agriculture. Controlling the population became really, really important, and people working on solutions tried chemicals dangerous to the land, including about thirty thoy tens each of arsenic pentoxide and Robert's improved pair poison, though the needs of World War One temporarily put a halt to all of that because that all got redirected. While these chemicals did work, they weren't great for the land, as I said, and they were difficult to implement and didn't do much to stop the spread of the cacti, like they might kill some but they still spreading. Yeah, yeah, But the Commission had another idea up their sleeve. They found the answer in the form of the Cacto blastis moth after botanists traveled to the US and we're talking to botanis there and they were like, you should check out this moth though from Argentina. So they did, and they had to import this moth from Argentina pre air travel and run several tests before distributing ten million eggs in the nineteen twenties and billions more in.
00:23:59
Speaker 2: The fall years.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: And I just want to note here their first test failed, but they've tried it again. Wow, this could be a mini series of itself.
00:24:10
Speaker 2: Apparently.
00:24:11
Speaker 1: Yes, the eggs were wrapped in paper quills and a pin to attach it to the cactus like they had to be transported carefully, but it works. Nearly seven million hectares of land was freed up from the cacti by nineteen thirty two. It's considered a huge success story in terms of controlling an invasive plant with biological means. The moth even has a memorial hall named after it in Australia. Wow in the headlines. I recommend looking at the headlines because I when I saw it, I was like, I must know more about this story.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, this, I'll say Australia has the best worst track record of getting so out of control so quickly. I'm reminded of the Ostrich Wars, like or I'm sorry, the EMU wars. Wrong. Giant bird that will kick the guts out of you.
00:25:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yeah, I do recommend looking up the pictures because the prickly pair cactus had taken over.
00:25:22
Speaker 2: It has everywhere it was not to be tamed.
00:25:27
Speaker 1: No, what a story. Well again, thanks for indulging me. Food show all right. Ostensibly extensibly in the twentieth century, in Mexico, the population of prickly pear cactus was significantly impacted by the crop being snatched up and sold to other markets. In response, there was a slew of efforts to industrialize and commercialize this industry, including banning the foraging of the prickly pear cactus in some instances and research into improving the DNA of the cactus. By nineteen seventy five, several new varieties were introduced. This is one of those things though that it sounds like it negatively impacted some communities that had been harvesting it without.
00:26:20
Speaker 2: Messing things up.
00:26:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:26:22
Speaker 2: Sure, but it also.
00:26:24
Speaker 1: Helped that it was like a complicated it worked in some places and then hurt in other places.
00:26:30
Speaker 2: A lot of it, Yeah, yep.
00:26:33
Speaker 1: The prickly pair cactus was adopted as Texas's state plant in nineteen ninety five, and.
00:26:41
Speaker 2: Starting in the two thousands, some researchers started really promoting the adoption of prickly pair for use as a livestock fodder in the deserts of the Middle East through South Asia, as Yeah, it can grow better with fewer resources than lots of other types of fodder plants in those sort of situations.
00:27:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, again, we would love to hear from listeners who have experience with this cooking it.
00:27:09
Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, all of vegetables, all of your recipes. I you're if you have a method, if you have a method for despining it. Yes, the one, the one that I've seen popularized is just like taking a little bit lighter and like burning off every little every little node on a fruit.
00:27:33
Speaker 1: But wow, okay, but.
00:27:35
Speaker 2: I've also seen people with brushes. I've seen people with tweezers. I've seen right the vegetable peeler method, all kinds of things.
00:27:45
Speaker 1: I love it. I love again where humans are like you couldn't try to keep me from eating you, No, Nope, I would find a way. I'll do what I have to do.
00:28:01
Speaker 2: Well.
00:28:01
Speaker 1: I guess that's what we have to say about the prickly pear cactus for now.
00:28:05
Speaker 2: Yes that we do already have some listener mail for you, and we are going to get into that as soon as we get back from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors. And we're back.
00:28:24
Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with snool Spiky.
00:28:36
Speaker 2: I was desperately trying to follow you on.
00:28:38
Speaker 1: That I love it. I think you did a good job.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: I took thank you.
00:28:47
Speaker 1: Even if you did it, that's all good. Every catch eye. The spikes are in different place.
00:28:55
Speaker 2: There they are, they are.
00:28:57
Speaker 1: You have to watch out for them. You don't always succeed. Yeah, that's exactly. There you go, There you go. That's the true meaning. We have two messages about potato salad.
00:29:09
Speaker 2: Yeah we do.
00:29:11
Speaker 1: Hearing about all of your potato salad thoughts is so good, so good? Okay, so Bart wrote, you asked for an Irish perspective on mashed potato salad. So here's my on the ground experience. It's definitely not the case that all potato salad here is mash, but it is true that salads with waxier cubed potatoes are much rarer and treated with suspicion by some, because we all learn as kids that under cooked potatoes are dangerous, though we never seem to be told why. American potato salad tends to lean into sour and tanky flavors with lots of acid and mustard, while the coal saws I grew up with were all mashed and all dominated by creamy, oniony flavors from mayonnaise and scallions. A more exotic coal saw might reply place the scallions with fresh parsley, but mustard was just not a flavor I ever remember encountering. Potato salads were pearly white with bits of green. Personally, I like to mix it up and make some more traditional Irish potato salads, some mayonnaise free, German style ones with oil, vinegar, mustard and lots of dill, and some American style ones with mayo, vinegar and mustard. I primarily make potato salad to avoid throwing out leftover potatoes, so when I have waxier leftovers, I favor American or German styles, And when the leftovers are flower rear, I take out my fork, mash them up and go Irish. It's stunning how tasty a really simple Irish style potato salad can be. My base recipe is one and a half tablespoons of mayo for each one hundred grams of potato, and either one scallion per one hundred grams, or one tablespooned gentle fresh herbs like parsley, chives, or dill per one hundred grams, or one teaspoon of opinionated fresh herbs like tarragon per one hundred grams. If all else fails, even dried herbs work, but you need to reduce the amount and add a little more mao to make it for the dryness. Mind you, If you boil your potatoes and properly salted water, they're delicious cold with literally nothing added.
00:31:13
Speaker 2: I yeah, see above, Rea, I want to eat potatoes, yes, genuinely, Yeah, yes, oh yeah, right, Oh this is all great, great, great information. Yeah. We had a minor debate in the middle of this. If the word coles law was intentional does that mean potato salad?
00:31:41
Speaker 1: Yes, we did, and either way, love this so good? Yes, And I love that you mix it up. I like that you rit you know some days you're feeling one way, if some days you're feeling another based on ingredients, perhaps, Oh sure, Yeah, this is fantastic. People can be so strong and their opinions, which we appreciate. But I like this too. If you know what today I'm feeling, right, there's room for all of them. There is, unless you don't think there are, and then I support you in your strong.
00:32:12
Speaker 3: Opinion, immediate backing it unless it's true.
00:32:23
Speaker 1: I think it's fine to have a strong opinion it's this way. I also think it's great to be like, you know what, I like all these different varieties. Yeah, yeah, I'm also curious about this. Undercooked potatoes are dangerous. I'm gonna have to look into that. Oh yeah, I never heard that as a kid.
00:32:44
Speaker 2: Oh oh, I definitely did. Yeah, you shouldn't eat raw potatoes. That's a true statement. But I'm pretty I'm pretty sure that it's due to the fact that if the eyes have started to produce sprouts, then that that those sprouts are toxic. But I'm not totally positive, and I probably shouldn't say anything. We should just do an episode on potatoes and suss it out.
00:33:10
Speaker 1: Now. That is one we have been shying away from.
00:33:13
Speaker 2: Oh yes on purpose that No, I don't.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: Know if the ambition has reached that one. Like not today potatoes, we will do in your orbits, like potato salad, yes, but not today potatoes.
00:33:34
Speaker 2: All right, Florence wrote catching up on a few episodes, and with the potato salad and lemon episode being so close to each other, I had to write in I'm a Canadian living in London, and most of my friends here are from all over, including a few Americans. A last year, we rented a house in Oxford to visit a manor house nearby, and as we were planning our meals, they had a barbecue. I offered to make a potato salad. My French friend was immediately on board. My American friends not so much. They told me afterwards that none of them is a fan of that classic. But all of them were absolutely blown away, and one even asked for the recipe to cook for her family. It's my ant's recipe and it's truly the best. Okay, it's as follows. The zest and juice of half to one lemon to taste, olive oil, vinegar. I usually use white wine or apple side or vinegar, old fashioned mustard and salt and pepper. Emultify the dressing and pour over boiled baby potatoes, skin on spring onions and arugula, and eat warm. It's absolutely delicious, with the tang from the lemon and the mustard, the bitterness from the arugula, and the softness of the potatoes. We also introduced the non North Americans to s'mores. As graham crackers are not the easiest to come by, we decided to try using chocolate hobknobs a sweet oak cookie with one side coated and chocolate. I might say it might have been better than the classic s'mores. Also, Hobknobs could be an interesting episode for you guys. It's a quintessentially classic biscuit here in the UK, but I'm pretty certain it was introduced in the nineteen eighties and they just had a lot of marketing to present it as a traditional UK sweet. Anyway, looking forward to more episodes to keep me company while I craft.
00:35:14
Speaker 1: Hobnobs. I've never heard of that, but it made me laugh.
00:35:17
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, you've never had one. Oh, I've definitely had those. Yeah, yeah, that's that's one of those biscuits that you kind of like can't avoid when you're when you're in England.
00:35:27
Speaker 1: So somehow I did or maybe I had one and it just didn't know it was called a hobnob. Who knows. I'm glad it turned out well. I feel like a lot of people outside of when I introduce people to some wars, it's not it doesn't go over well.
00:35:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, this might This sounds like it was maybe a little bit less a lot like a little bit less sweet and so much perhaps and yeah, because right like having a whole piece of chocolate and a whole marshmallow. I'm just like, whoa, yeah, I'm hypogcemic. I can't.
00:36:06
Speaker 1: I love some mores, but I feel like it's like halfway in. I'm good, that's it. Yeah, so this maybe that's what it was. But yes, that would be a good topic. Definitely, absolutely, Also, this potato salad sounds delicious to me.
00:36:21
Speaker 2: I will generally speaking, that is approximately my recipe for any kind of salad dressing, more or less like maybe add some herbs in there, but that's pretty much it. And it's so good. And I've never thought about putting it on warm potatoes with arugula, but that sounds amazing. I'm like mad about how amazing that sounds due to the fact that I'm not eating it right now.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: We have so many potato salads.
00:36:53
Speaker 2: I love it. It's fantastics. The best problem it really really is.
00:37:02
Speaker 1: Yes, I all keep the potato salad recipes coming, please, please, please, Thank you so much for both of these listeners for writing in. If we would like to write to us, you can our email us Hello at savorpod dot com.
00:37:17
Speaker 2: We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
