A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is Fancy Salt A Scam?

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Today, Josh and Nicole are taking on another sodium stumper --salt! Are salt companies lying to you? The Morton Salt girl might just be all you need in your pantry! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 Check out the video version of this podcast: http://youtube.com/@ahotdogisasandwich To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Hey, you know that girl in the salt canister, the one with the umbrella or whatever? Yeah? She's a damn liar! This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense.

A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. I'm your host, Josh Scherer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inaydi. And we're internet chefs over on Mythical Kitchen. Good Mythical Morning.

When we're not making million-dollar hamburgers or whatever, we're over here breaking down the world's biggest food debates. That's right, Josh. And today we are debating the very salty topic of, are salt companies tricking you? Yes. The answer is yes. Do you feel tricked?

Salt companies are absolutely tricking. No. The reason we wanted to talk about this is because salt is the single most important ingredient in your pantry. I agree. Not only the single most important ingredient in your pantry, it is the single most important ingredient in the history of food itself. Yeah.

And like life. Other than air, water, and like maybe like- Fire. Fire. I would say salt- The water tribes. Salt is like one of them. I think top five.

I don't think you can live without salt. No, 100 percent. And like literally down to physiological level. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist. I think I could have made a great doctor. I'd be like Patch Adams. You know what?

I was going to bring this up, too. I think you and I would have been such good doctors if we just applied ourselves a little bit more. I think about that a lot. Looking back, there's several routes I could have taken. And now I'm here yelling about salt. But no, it literally makes your cells function. Anybody who has ever drank Gatorade or heard the term electrolyte, it's all because your body loses salt and you need to replenish it.

Salt throughout history, we've talked a lot before about the Roman usage of salt. Salt as currency. Salt as currency, right? The term salami comes from salted meats. The term salary has roots in salt, which is the craziest thing ever, because my brother's name is Sal, but I never, you know, I'm like, maybe

his name means salt, but it doesn't, but it's just so interesting to me. Yeah, because they used to literally pay soldier, soldier, God, every... Soldiers from salt. Everything comes from salt. Every single thing comes from salt, because salt was so important to the history of mankind. And a lot of that came from preserving foods, right? Sure, of course.

And so back then you had like if you lived near the Mediterranean, you probably harvested seawater and then boiled it, which boiling things takes a lot of energy. So that was like difficult to do. So you're probably boiling it to distill sea salt that way. If you were in, say, like Ireland, I know Ireland had a big salt mining thing. Ireland has good salt. You had inland salt deposits. They're near the sea too. I don't know.

The point is you can mine salt from the land and from water. Very cool. And people did this primarily because you needed to preserve food. It became really important in commerce. Even though salt trade is like several, several thousands of years old, your body craves the taste of it, which is really unique because we don't like taste a single chemical that way, the way that we do salt. Salt's very unique in that. Is it on your tongue map? You know how like there's a tongue? Yeah, it is on your tongue map. There's sweet, salt, umami, bitter, right? The tongue map's not real, right?

The tongue map? Tell me about the tongue map. Well, the tongue map, I remember learning about it in like fourth grade. And we actually had, it's very interesting, we were laid out a bunch of, what are those things called? Umpools? What? Little umpools. What is an umpool? An umpool is like, it's like a sachet of liquid with a little top. I don't even know if I know what a sachet is.

All I know is sachet away. A dropper. Okay, sorry. In layman's terms, a dropper. So we had droppers of each concentrated thing. So we had like liquid sugar or like liquid umami or soy sauce or things like that. What? And you would drop it on different parts of your tongue and the teacher would be like,

did it taste different? Whoa. And then we'd be like, yes or no. Probably yes because we were tricked into thinking the tongue map was real. Yeah. But yeah, I believe it's it's salt it's uh umami sweet bitter and sour sour swan yeah oh let's see maggie pulled up maggie pulled it up um what the okay there's the filiform we're looking at uh we're looking at the the map

of the tongue right now which is so bitter sour So bitter, sour, umami, salty, and sweet. So umami and salty are sometimes considered similar, but not really. A lot of, oh, God, I'm about to spread so much pseudoscience right now. There is so much pseudoscience in salt. We'll get into that, too. So one of the reasons salt is so important, you have the commercial element of salt kills bacteria. So say you're preserving, let's talk about, I don't know, salt cod. Cod's a great example.

Fish is something that spoils really, really quickly. A lot of bacteria in it. You add salt to it. The chemical composition of salt creates an osmotic reaction, which is to say it draws water out. Bacteria loves water. Bacteria thrives in water. Thrives in water. It's made of water itself.

So the salt literally draws water out and dehydrates dehydrates the bacteria itself which is how like salt cod became such a popular important important food in like so many different cultures you go uh jamaica right aki and saltfish aki and saltfish you go to portugal you got bacalao oh let me some good salt cod fritters um england salt cod's a huge thing you You go to Newfoundland, you get like salt cod gratin and stuff like that. And that was because salt was the technology to transport that down to the taste level too. Makes it taste good. Makes food. It makes food taste good.

Can you imagine like food without salt at this point in your career? Yeah, dude. Because like I think we all had, we all at least went to like a parent's house. My parents weren't very concerned with health. I still grew up eating the snack wells and the like fat-free dressing that was just like pancake syrup. The Wishbone. Pretty much. Yeah.

Oh, God. The Wishbone is like the dirt of the dirt brands. Yep, yep, yep. Eating Wishbone as an adult is weird. I'm like, I'm glad I can now afford Hidden Valley. Oh, Ken's? Oh, no, no. Ken's a little too fancy for me.

But salt actually changes the way that foods interact with your mouth. That's so true. And what we're all building up to is we're trying to eventually get to the idea of like we don't talk about salt enough in terms of your pantry. We take it for granted when people write recipes sometimes. They go salt to taste even though salt is like the only ingredient you should measure. That's true. Pepper to taste. No, no, no.

Salt to the point where it's actually good. But one of the reasons it's so important throughout history is because the way that it changes foods chemically. Sure. So even like you think about cheese, right? Not only did salt make milk, salt made milk into a brick that we could put on a donkey and send to another area, right? Okay.

But not only that we get tastes like umami from salt after a while after a while yeah it's the salt and the aging but it's literally salt is breaking down the proteins and rearranging them into like glutamates it's really makes your body crave it because then that's also glutamates are associated with both probiotics and proteins which your body wants you know your body body is like, salt tastes good because your body needs it. Sugar tastes good because your body runs off sugar. I love sugar. Your body is telling you the things that are good, and it's awesome, man.

Well, how does that play into the fact that it's tricking you? Oh, because there's now a lot. That's a great question. Segway back to the tangent. Bingo, bingo. But salt is like one chemical compound right yeah it's knackle baby knackle it's knackle you throw knackles at my feet and i'll dance for you um but it's nacl in my opinion in my opinion okay i'm ready this is a terrible opinion i'm ready for

it i'm used to your terrible opinions all salt is the same and the salt that you have in your home you should only have one type of salt and whatever type of salt you have same and the salt that you have in your home, you should only have one type of salt and whatever type of salt you have, that is a salt you should always use. Josh, shut the front door. And I've gotten in fights with my significant other about this because when we combined apartments, I have one type of salt. What is your one type of salt? Most chefs, they'll tell you diamond crystal kosher, right? Okay. That's like the thing. That's the standard salt that everyone loves. I don't use that.

I use the Kroger generic equivalent. Me too! Shout out Kroger. The kernels are like a little bit bigger. They're good to pick up. You get a good pinch. This is not sponsored by Kroger, by the way. No, but we do love Kroger.

But I had been cooking with that for several years. I lived by myself for a couple of years. Then we moved in together and she has the Kirkland brand, three years old, a quarter used pink Himalayan sea salt grinder. Oh my God, don't get me started on pink Himalayan salt. She's got the Morton's iodized. She has like a thing of like pretzel salt with the giant things. Yeah.

And I was like, hey, can we throw away these salts? It's going to jam up the pantry. We're going to lose spices behind them and just use my salt. She was like, no, because I cook and my salt's the correct one. And she said, no,

and she said, no. And now I'm proud of you. And now I'm like trying to get rid of these freaking salts. So if I need to sell pasta water, use them up. Yeah, I know I'm trying,

but I can't just throw them away. Cause she gets mad. But Josh, if you're saying that all salts are the same, then why are you making such a fuss about the three extra salts? Because you got to use one. All salts are the same. You are you making such a fuss about the three extra salts? Because you gotta use one. All salts are the same. You have to use one. What matters is consistency.

If you are a good cook, again, I think that when... Not everyone's a good cook. Not everyone's a good cook. If you aspire, if you aspire to be a good cook, you should have one salt that you like. If it is iodized Morton's Fine Ground, use that. You can cook great with that.

I do think the iodization does give it a little bit of a funky flavor, but whatever. That's like a very, very small potatoes thing. But use that and get used to the feel of it. Get used to the measurements of it. Get used to the eyeball aspect of it. Because I recently switched salts again because they didn't have Kroger.

Come on, Kroger, you were out. And I had to go back to Diamond Crystal and like the feel of it is different. One teaspoon of coarse ground kosher salt is significantly less salt than one teaspoon. I actually have that statistic here. What's the conversion? Let's see what it is. One second. It is literally if I type salt in the document, I'm up. Let's look up tablespoon. Maybe it's it come up? Control F, salt. Let's look up tablespoon. Maybe it's there.

No, that's table salt. One second. Oh, I got it. One teaspoon table salt, fine salt, is equal to one and a half teaspoons Morton kosher salt, which is equal to two teaspoons of diamond crystal kosher salt. And you know what the thing about that is? What is it? It's not true at all. What?

It can't be. It's from the kitchen. They were expected. Weird, weird segue. I used to watch a show called Sport Science where they'd like hook up a linebacker to like all these electrodes and they'd have them like hit a crash test dummy and they always used to go, Ray Lewis hit this crash test dummy with

100,000 pounds of force. That's as much as That was on Spike TV. That's as much as a Mack truck. And you're like it was exactly 100,000 pounds of force. Was this on Spike? That's as much as. Yeah. It was on Spike TV. I knew it. That's as much as a Mack truck. And you're like, it was exactly 100,000? You didn't round at all? No, they had to round. How fast is a Mack truck going? They had to round.

If the number, that's what I'm saying. You're rounding on these, so you're getting an inconsistent result. One teaspoon is equal to one and a half teaspoons is equal to two. No, I would like to believe the fine people at the kitchen were weighing it out. I would like to believe that. I disagree. Josh, just let me imagine. Okay.

Well, Josh, there's one thing that I disagree with, and it's all of it. Go ahead. I think you need different salts for different things. Sometimes, you know, let me tell you, whenever I'm cooking Persian food, I need to use iodized salt because that's what my mom used. And it tastes the best used with that crappy iodized salt. Sometimes when I'm cooking at home, I'm taking a fistful of the Kroger salt because that's what I have at home. Sometimes when they're out, I go and I get the, you know, Whole Foods one because it's available. I have like three different kinds of finishing salts at my house.

I think different salts have different purposes. And I think to discount them is unfair. I do think that pink Himalayan salt is bs that's what we could agree on the pink himalayan salt i literally met with like a professional trainer and i'm like you know i don't drink a lot of water and they're like sprinkle some pink himalayan salt and it'll help hydrate your body more. And I was like, hmm, let's see. And literally all of the things that are supposed to hydrate you and like give you like magnesium and B12 and stuff, that is very minuscule in pink salt.

You would have to have toxic amounts of pink salt in order to get any benefits from the pink salt. So I don't really believe that pink Himalayan salt is like a big deal. I think it's pretty on a countertop, but I'm not using, I do not use it. My mother-in-law

bought me salt and pepper shakers whenever I went to my first home. So nice. I threw that away. It's in the garbage. I love throwing away gifts from people who love you. No, like I threw out the salt.

I kept the shaker. But like the pink salt phenomenon is insanity to me. And I think that's a big trick. I think that's a lie. And I think a lot of health and like wellness influencers have pushed this kind of pseudoscience that pink Himalayan salt is the best salt for you to use because it's pink and it has stuff in it. But I don't really I don't I don't find I don't find those findings very interesting. And I don't, I don't find, I don't find those findings very interesting and I don't, and I don't connect to those at all.

I have a couple of points to address. One, we've talked some crap on iodized salt, but we need to say the history of iodized salt. It's necessary. It was necessary for society at the time. It was necessary for 1920s Michigan because no, no, no, this is, this is a real thing. Also, I grew up cooking with iodized salt. And again, you can be a great cook with iodized salt.

And the reason that it exists, it was a big, incredibly successful public health effort I don't know. This is a real thing. Also, I grew up cooking with iodized salt. Of course. And again, you can be a great cook with iodized salt. You can. And the reason that it exists, it was a big, incredibly successful public health effort. There was a huge outbreak of goiters. I don't know why I'm laughing about goiters. Goiters are the worst. But, you know, the giant growth that comes from an iodine deficiency. And so it was happening in Michigan. And so, you know, a public health administration was like, hey, everybody eats salt. Add iodine to your salt.

It's the same reason they add fluoride to the water. Despite what Alex Jones might say, it's the reason you add vitamin D to milk. The frogs are gay! It's because you have – and we love gay frogs here at Mythical Kitchen. I love all frogs. I only love gay frogs. I'm an inclusive frog lover. I hate the straight frogs.

I think frog sexuality is a spectrum if you really break it down. But no, so iodized salt is really cool. Number two, you have three kinds of finishing salt? Yeah. What? Why? I have Maldon. Okay, the Maldon.

Tell them about Maldon. Maldon is, I actually don't know where it's from. It's French, right? No, it's not. It's not French. Maggie, where's Maldon salt from? I think it's, I'm pretty sure it's from the US&A. What?

Yeah, it's like from these cool mines somewhere in like Colorado or something. I'm not kidding. I swear, I googled it. Oh, never mind. It's from Maldon, Exit. Oh, it's from Maldon, Essex. Oh my God, the Maldon salt is from Maldon, Essex. What kind of salt?

It's just such a lovely salt you put on top of your biscuits and jam. The Maldon, Essex. What kind of salt did I have? It's just such a lovely salt you put on top of your biscuits and jam. What salt? The Maldonese. What salt did I have that was clearly like from the caves of Colorado? Was it Jacobson? Yeah. Jacob, okay. Thanks, Josh.

Thank you for finding me. I realized I am a hypocrite. Yeah, no freaking duh. Because I have. Oh, but can I tell you the salt I have? I have a Maldon salt. I have an Aztec sea salt, and I have some sort

of saffron salt. Aztec, huh? Yeah. Not Toltec? No. Not Zapotec? No, no, no. The Olmecs, they didn't...

Can I... Did I say that or did I say Toltec? I don't know what the frick you're saying, but I use it for like, you know, finishing a cocktail

or like, you know, topping like a hamachi if I have like... Stop laughing. What are you making sometimes i buy raw fish and i slice it nicely for my loving husband sorry about it but how does the aztec sea salt differ from the maldon it's crunchy the maldon is crunchy no maldon is flat crunchy oh flat pyramid crunchy is different than pebble crunchyy. Maldon is crispy, whereas the Aztec Sea Salt is crunchy.

But fun fact, I used to actually... Stop laughing! This is a serious podcast about salt trickery. I used to work at a chocolate store, as you know very well. And of course, your girl used to lead salt and chocolate tastings. So I would have different percentages of chocolates i would have 32 48 madagascar columbia switzerland whatever and i would pair it with these really unique salts and we would just i would just sit there with like a group of like seven people and i would just lead them through like oh you, you're going to eat it. I'm laughing. And it'd be like, oh, like, do you feel how the 32% just melts perfectly alongside the

crystalline compound of the maldon? And do you see how the crunch of the acidity of this Celtic sea salt works with this gorgeous, stunning dark chocolate from like Cambodia? It was all alive. Trickery. Chicanery. Tumfoolery. I could have moved the salt one level down and pushed it up and no one would know the

difference because of the way it's sold to you. Have I ever told you about like the ultimate form of power suggestion food trickery that I've ever experienced? I would love to hear about it. It involves, what's that beer that I don't particularly love? Stella. Stella Artois. Oh that I don't particularly love? Stella. Stella Artois. Oh, you don't like Stella?

Stella's a perfectly fine beer. It's, people think it's fancier than it is. It's like the Bud Light of Belgium in a way that I love. I love a good light beer. I'd probably take certain things over Stella.

Peroni. Peroni is my beer, my go-to beer when I see it. Same. Absolutely love it. They taste identical. Don't think I could

tell it apart in a distance. Anyways, I was at a food event. I was probably like 24 years old and it was a big fancy one hosted by Stella Artois. And Stella, they had a whole booth there with like a VW bus painted like Stella or something. I love when they do that. And they had like these dudes in like chef's coats with Stella Artois on the logo, and they were both Belgian. And this dude comes up to me and goes, do you want to see a magic trick?

And I was like, yeah, can I have a beer? And then he puts like a thing of sriracha on a Popsicle stick. And he goes like, put this in your mouth. And I'm like, yes, Danny. I have a question. Is one of the national languages of Belgium French? Yeah, let's get into Belgian languages. Is it?

It's in Belgium. So, you know, French is the most spoken language in Belgium. They also speak a little bit of Dutch, some German. Continue your story. Flemish is interesting. Your story. So he goes, put this in your mouth. And then I do it.

And then he's just like, now take a sip of Stella Artois. And then he's like, and now in four seconds, you will feel the peppercorn berries going over your mouth. And you will get the essence of bay leaf. And then when I count to five, one, two, three, four, zinc. He switches to French on that. Zinc. Zinc.

The spice will be gone. And I watched him like do this with other people and there's like, oh my God. It's all right. It's all right. And I was like, one, what is the point of this exercise? Two, yeah, it's going to be gone. It's because everything're everything's so subjective it's so subjective yeah you know yeah of course it takes roughly 15 seconds for you know

beer to wash out spicy food everyone who has ever drank beer and ate chicken wings could have told you that but that's a lot of the the trickery with the salt stuff right yeah no i i was a charlatan once now i am ancalled girl. Only honesty over here. And we've talked about that with liquor, with pale jewelry, with wine. That's what makes life so fun. That's right. And I agree with that because these salts, they bring balance to your life. You love it.

Yeah. I mean, it's nice to have. The one thing I will say that annoys me about salt companies in particular is kosher salt. Like you were saying how kosher salts are different for different brands. That's annoying. Stop doing that. Like the crystalline compound is different and the way that it like melts into food I feel like is very different. What's kosher salt? Kosher salt?

Because there's legal protections on what kosher salt. It has to do with the size of the granules, right? You take the beef. You buy the beef. Rabbi comes and watches you. Baruch atah. Enjoy your hamburger. Welcome to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Shut up. You literally take it and you salt it with kosher salt so all the blood gets drawn out. And then once all the blood is drawn out, you rinse it off. And then the rabbi says, oh, it's good. And you stamp it and you take it out. But the process of koshering, like drawing the blood out, which I don't think it's not actually blood you're drawing out. Heme. Heme.

It's heme. It's something. It's something. You're drawing out stuff that the Jews don't want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the size of the granule and the porousness, right? Yeah, it needs to be. That makes it kosher salt versus non?

It needs to be a specific, I think it's, I don't know if it's the granule size or if it's the salinity level. I don't know. But there are strict guidelines and you cannot budge on either of them. But it just pisses me off that like my kosher salt from Kroger is different than my diamond crystal salt. I agree with that. It's different from my whole with that. It's different from my whole food salt. It's different from

labilene salt. And it's just, remember one time I gave you labilene salt instead of regular salt? And you're like, what is this? Yeah, little shards of glass.

I hate it. I liked it. I think that salt's good. But like that's one thing that I wish it was a little bit more standardized. Yeah. There should be one salt.

No, no, no. There should be one salt that the world uses it's called salt no give me the illusion of choice just have the brand of salt no just josh we're all gonna turn to gray blobs if that happens just i want i want the salt to be the same across the board and then i could have the illusion of choice and that would make me happier you know what what else I hate? People giving me gifts. How many, Nicole, as a foodie, how many food-themed gifts have you gotten and just been like, I don't want this.

I'm going to throw it away. I can't say. It's a lot though, right? It's going to make people upset. I'm the same. I've had a few. A lot of them are salts. They're almost always salts.

They give me so much salt. It's a kelp-infused salt. It's a truffle-infused salt. It's a vanilla bean. You probably have the same ones that I do, dude. They all got them from williamsonoma.com. Yeah. And thank you for giving me a gift.

Just give me money. I don't know. Please give us money instead. We have so many of those little salts. These are the other salts. These are the other salts that Julia came with. There's a kelp salt that stares at me every single day. And the problem is you try it and you're like, yeah, it tastes

like kelp a little and you don't use enough salt. What are you using it on? Yeah. I don't know. If I were to think about curing a fish with kelp salt, but What's time to cure a fish? Hold on. I do. I cure fish at home. You cure your own fish? I cure my fish a

weird amount. I really love making smoked salmon or cured trout. You have like the energy to do that? Yeah, I cook in the kitchen so little here that like I'll take up little weekend projects. Okay, that's good. And curing fish is easy. You set it and forget it. But you'll do things like my favorite thing.

Oh, my God. Like mezcal and grapefruit. And here is another. You're making a Paloma cured lox? Yeah, I want to be able to drink my cured fish. That sounds good. But no, these little salt infusions, they don't do enough for me. Just give me a good salt and then put the other flavors on it.

No, that's fine. So those annoy me. So I hate that those are in my cupboard. And I resent Julia every day more and more because of it. What about black salt? You ever see black with the volcanic ash and stuff? You ever see the black salts? Yeah. stuff? You ever see the black salt? Yeah. How do you feel about the black salts?

Stupid? Stupid. Actually, well, okay. It looks cool. It looks cool. It looks cool. Looks cool, but if you put it on a steak, then you don't know if it's burnt on the outside or not because it's just black. So I don't get that. I just think black salt's a little bit stupid. I think that's a little bit extra. Selgrit? What about selgree hold

on french gray sea salt ladies and gentlemen it's good who used to be on food network that used to cook exclusively with gray salt i don't know it was a man that's a very man thing to do he was he was a great man and he would always say quarter teaspoon salgreece really yeah was it like very french was like mich Michael Chiarello or something? Oh my God, it might have been. Was it?

Was it Michael? He did some sexual misconduct. Oh, was it? I don't know, but like he would always use salgris and I think he inspired me to buy salgris

and I loved it. My mom's like, what is this? She did not let me use it anymore. I'll tell you, the reason I love gray sea salt

and again, these are these weird intangible moments in food. Sure. I was probably like 19. My older brother, he was like only 23 at the time. He took me to Fogo do Chão. Fogo do Chão, Brazilian barbecue. Fancy.

It was like for my birthday. And I was just so enamored with it. I was asking the servers questions. The guy like took me into the kitchen and showed me how they did their beef ribs. What a precocious teen. I was such a precocious teen and it was really interesting. And I was like, hey, there's so much flavor developed off this. Where does that come from? The guy's like,

gray sea salt. And I was like, oh my gosh. And to this day, I don't know if it's true, but I know that I see cell gray, I see gray sea salt. I get very excited because I have a cool memory associated with it. So is that another salt that you have in your house? I don't.

Can I tell you about the other salts I have real quick? I thought you only had one. I don't. I lied. I said I'm a hypocrite. I said I'm a hypocrite. I'm just, I like singularity in my life. Okay, go ahead.

Sorry. We were talking about the Jacobson sea salt. Yeah. And I realized that I have Alderwood smoked Jacobson sea salt. You love that stuff. And here's, I endorse that product. You love it.

I realized most of my salts are for cocktails. That's what I'm saying. That's what I use my saffron salt for. Though the other day I was making a rack of ribs. I don't have a smoker at home. I live in an apartment. And so I use the Jacobson salt to cure the ribs. Is it good?

And it was really good. You taste the smoke on it. If I would have mixed liquid smoke with normal salt, probably would have gotten me there. to cure the ribs. It's good. And it was really good. You taste the smoke on it. If I would have mixed liquid smoke with normal salt, probably would have gotten me there. And then the other one that I have, I feel like you know, if I gave you three guesses.

Okay. It's a fancy, it's salt that's ground and infused with something and it's from Mexico. Sal de gusano. Sal de gusano. I know you, Josh. Damn right, I got sal de gusano. Tell them a gusano.

So there's worms that live inside of the agave plant. Yes. And what you do is you smoke the worms, you dry them, you grind them with chili powder into a salt and it creates an incredible seasoning that you will often like shoot mezcal, take the sal de gusano

and then eat an orange with it. I have a lot of mezcals at home and I'll put sal de gusano on the rims of cocktails around it. And then I'll cook with it too. Does it taste, okay, because I've tasted it before too. It doesn't taste like worms. Umami. No, it tastes like umami.

It doesn't taste like worms. Because you smoke the worms, you salt them, you get the proteins that are getting all rearranged because of the magic properties of salt. And then you get a really incredible product and flavor. Maggie, put a sound over this. Like, you know, like a twinkle. I'll do it. I'll do Foley.

No, no, no, no, no. Okay, okay. No, I got this next time. I got this next time. Twinkling stars. I get it. I get it. Twinkling stars. Ready? I get it.

Josh. I'm trying to. I don't know how to make a twinkle in this. Josh, make the stars twinkle, or don't do it at all. Ready? Last chance. If you can't do it, it's done. Ready? One, two, three. Josh, make the stars twinkle or don't let them, don't do it at all. Ready? Last chance. If you can't do it,

it's done. Ready? One, two, three. That was so good. Thank you so much. That was so good. Maggie fixed it in post. Thank you so much.

But no, salted guasano is a wonderful ingredient that more people need to know about. I agree with that. So thanks for bringing it into the world.

What is the most practical salting advice you have for people at home? Practical? Yeah. Impractical? No, practical people at home? Practical or impractical? No, practical. Oh, do both. I want to be a little impractical. So on Tumblr a long time ago, I used to follow this like hashtag called like chef life.

And I saw someone have a tattoo on their palm that was teaspoon and tablespoon. So all you have to do is just get a lifelong tattoo on your palm that says teaspoon and tablespoon. So all you have to do is just get a lifelong tattoo on your palm that says teaspoon and tablespoon and then that'll be a measure for your salt for the rest of your life. There's no way that works though, right? Because like, what do you mean? The salt, different salts are going to fall

in different levels. So that's my impractical advice. You get the tattoo because it looks cool and it's a good conversation starter and that's what life's all about, conversation starters. But that's what life's all about. Conversation starters. But for practical advice, find a salt you like and use it. And use it well.

Just one. No, you can't. No, no, no. You don't need to. You get two as a treat. Okay, fine. You get one salt that you use every single day. And then you get another salt that you can top things for fancy occasions.

That's actually good. That's a good advice. What's yours, Josh? Salt foods earlier in the process than you normally do. That has changed the way that I cook. I disagree completely. What do you mean? No, okay.

Well, we got in fights about this because I marinated my chicken. I marinated my chicken. I cure my own damn fish at home, Nicole. You think I'm not salting things as early as I can? I buy meats from the grocery store. Not red meats. Not red meats. I don't really eat red meat in the home because I'm better than you.

But I, no, I have heart disease in the family. But I get chicken. I guess I only do this with chicken and pork, really. I do eat red meat in the home. I just made a lovely pork tenderloin Is pork red meat? I thought it was the other white meat

That's another podcast Oh I have so much to say about that one Pork is red meat? Question mark? That's good, how have we not done this one? I'm going to burn the pork industry to the ground. We're friends with the pork pork.

Yeah, no, we love the pork pork. Sorry, continue. I'm so sorry. Continue. I'll take chicken or pork and I'll immediately salt it and I just eyeball it. But I'll salt it and then just put it back in the fridge because the salt is what, sometimes I'll do a sugar cure. I did a quick sugar cure on a pork loin too.

Salt, sugar, put it in the fridge, and then you can add any spices you want because salt is the only thing that needs time to penetrate meat. But not only that, if I make a salad, I'm probably going to salt the greens directly. Some people don't do that because it'll leach moisture. If I'm making a coleslaw, if I'm making a cucumber salad, I'll lightly salt it, rub it in, let it dry out. Yeah, to leach out the moisture. Salt, baby.

But like everyone says with soups and stews and sauces, you should wait to salt it last. But that's only because you run the risk of over-salting. Oh, man. If you're sautéing onions, you will actually caramelize them quicker by salting them immediately in the pan because it draws out the moisture and that's where the sugars are hiding. You're right. Salt early, salt often. Also, the research on whether or not excess

salt intake is bad for you is a little muddled out there. I know every doctor probably says differently, but do your own research. Oh, God, I just said that phrase unironically. Okay, okay, okay. Enjoy salt. Put salt on your food. But if you have medical

problems, please consult your doctor. That's a good one. Because we're not doctors. We could be if we applied ourselves. Get the legal liability. You know what I'm fascinated by? Hold on. I know we're like over time, but check this out.

What's up? So back in the 80s, they said that fat was bad for you. So like salad dressing companies, they took the fat out of stuff and they added a bunch of sugar. There's kind of this theory right now where if the FDA is getting packaged food companies to remove salt from their foods, right? Interesting. And they're advertising it 30 percent less salt than last year or whatever. What's the replacement to the salt?

What's the replacement? And is it going to be something worse than salt? We haven't really seen it yet, but it's kind of like, is salt actually that bad for you? I just want something to justify my own lifestyle choices. And that's really what this podcast is about. Thanks for listening. Stay salty, my friends. All right, Nicole. All right, John.

We've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other work it is around in the universe. Time for a segment we call opinions what was that you did what do they call it it's like um i could do whatever i want mlb mouth like butthole what are you talking about first you live like that major league that. That means Major League Baseball, you freak. That's what MLB means? Yeah, where have you been? That's what I've been watching on Fox? Yeah, you've been watching?

That was the mouth-like butthole league. That'd be the MLBL, I guess. All right, well, let's listen to our first. Hey, Josh and Nicole. Hi. Dave. I live in Redding, Pennsylvania, very close to Josh's old stomping grounds in Allentown.

Wondering what you guys think of Scrapple. Scrapple. I think it's a little delicious. No one that's not from this area seems to know what it is. I'm sure Josh does. Talk about Scrapple. Great show. I know, too.

I am on the show. What's Scrapple? It's pork parts and cornmeal. Pretty much, yeah Pushed into a nice little loaf pan Oh, hell yeah it is And then it's cooked And then you slice it

And then you put it on a griddle Yeah I like to griddle mine And of course the classic way to eat it You can deep fry it as well Oh, really? I knew that, but I didn't want to say it The classic way to eat it

Is with a side of grape jelly And yellow mustard, I believe That might be a classic way to eat it is with a side of grape jelly and yellow mustard, I believe. That might be a Pittsburgh way to eat it. What's a Pittsburgh? So, so, so. Western PA. Pittsburgh's basically Ohio. Let's be real here.

No, I happen to love Scrapple. I actually love a lot of it. I went to an awesome meat market. Cannot remember the name, but up near Lancaster County. Here? We was driving. No, no, no. That's Lancaster. This is Lancaster in Pennsylvania. I'm dead serious. There's a difference. the name but up near like lancaster county um like here we was driving no no that's that's

lancaster this is lancaster in pennsylvania i'm dead serious there's a difference but big like amish mennonite country out there because we're up in allentown and we were driving over to wherever the freaking uh yingling brewery i don't know anything about that the area of the united states we went to this amish meat market and they have like Lebanon sweet bologna. There's a city called Lebanon up there. They just have so many awesome cured meat products. They have cool names around there. They got like Arab, Pennsylvania, like Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

Yeah. Bethlehem. Yeah. It's all Bible stuff. Listen, Pennsylvania is, it's a very weird state. I mean, founded by the Quakers and a lot of religious dissidents. Pennsylvania. I love Pennsylvania so much. Go birds, baby. We almost did it. Next year we lot of religious dissidents. Pennsylvania. I love Pennsylvania so much.

Go birds, baby. We almost did it. Next year we're coming. Scrapple. I love. My favorite way to eat Scrapple. Reading Terminal Market. You go there.

Can't remember the name of the Amish vendor. A lot of names that I forgot. But they will. Probably. Hezekiah's shack. There's this like Amish diner. And you go there. You get a slice of pie.

You can get like chicken and waffles, but Amish style where it's a chicken and a cream gravy served on waffles. I have seen that before. I have seen that before. But the scrapple, they take it, they deep fry it. And there's so much fat and cornmeal in scrapple that it just like, like you get all the funk from the organs, but you don't, it's a mush at that point. You don't taste it, yeah. But it's crispy cornmeal and fat so good

it just explodes your mouth you put it on a crusty like kaiser roll with cheese and egg like a sandwich oh it's like a sandwich I've always seen it served like on a plate

with like little sides of sauces for dinner you can certainly do that and I love that I love it with grape jelly I love just a scrapple sandwich with grape jelly and mustard that's a nice treat for me

but to me like the breakfast sandwich it's just oh it's like a crispy meat and organ hash brown at that point. Oh, yum. That sounds good.

Love Scrapple. Big fan. We made Scrapple on the show. We did. I mean, like we cooked it for Mythical GMM.

Yeah, we got it pre-made, right? Yeah, yeah. We're not going to make Scrapple from scratch. I do. I want to try it. You should make

Snapple Scrapple. I don't want to do that. Also, I hate wordplay. Josh! Peach iced tea flavored organ meats? Honestly, in the comments, just write how badly you want to see that. Also, I hate wordplay. Josh! Peach iced tea flavored organ meats? Honestly, in the comments, just write

how badly you want to see that happen. I know you do. Hey, Josh and Nicole, this is Andrew from New Jersey. I love the show and got a quick debate for you guys, a very Jersey-specific debate. Let's go. There is a wonderful breakfast food, just processed pork. It comes in a log, you cut it up, you slice it,

you put it on a roll, it's a wonderful breakfast. However, there is one debate about this type of food that rages between North and South Jersey. Is that food is it called Taylor ham or is it called pork roll? Now, my opinion, pork roll all the way. Pork roll is the product. Taylor ham is the brand. However, this is one of the most divisive topics here in New Jersey, more divisive than politics, and people will yell at you, get angry at you if you do call it the wrong name. So I need your opinion. I need you to decide for New Jersey, is it Taylor Ham or is it pork roll?

Oh, God. Two Southern California people. Okay. This is a micro podcast within a podcast like Inception. Are you ready? I'm ready. Do it. Okay. It's obviously Taylor Ham. What? Why? Because- No, that's the brand. Like he said, it's like I'm ready. Do it. Okay, it's obviously Taylor Ham. What? Why? Because it's like... No, that's the brand, like you said. It's like calling it Oscar Mayer.

It's because it's a bologna. Exactly. Do you say like, oh, I need a tissue? Or do you say, I need a Kleenex? You say, I need a Kleenex! No, but Kleenex makes multiple products. What are the products? I see your point.

What are the products? I use Kleenex. Behole wipes. No, you don't. You're lying just for the sake of lying. I use Cottonelle. No, it's Taylor Ham because it is what it is, and it's iconic, and I've seen the packaging. I've purchased the packaging many times, and I know what it is.

And when I see it, I know what I'm getting. I'm getting a pork roll. I don't need the extra pork roll. I know that. It's Taylor Ham. My Nana used to send us pork roll. She would freeze it and then send it from Allentown. Because, like, you get Eastern Pennsylvania Jersey

is this a Pennsylvania podcast? no okay they're talking about it I'm asking questions and last time I went to the Jersey Shore with Julia because she grew up

going to like Margate Ventnor that area her family's from Cherry Hill I met my Nana in like Maple Hills or something I don't know what the hell you're talking about

last time I was in Jersey I fly into the Newark airport all the time I know nothing else about Jersey but talking about. Last time I was in Jersey, I fly into the Newark airport all the time. I know nothing else about Jersey, but I call it pork roll. And at the Jersey Shore, they had a pork roll sandwich that was just like three thick slices of pork roll. Gotta score it so it doesn't curl

on a soft bun with American cheese, and it was so good. I ate it on the beach just sweating. Just drunk off of Trulies. I'm so sorry. It is all about Taylor Ham and it is called Taylor... New Jersey, I know you're listening. The country of New Jersey?

State of New Jersey. Chris Christie, you're out there. State of New Jersey, I know you're listening right now. Bruce Springsteen, the boss. Guess what? It's called Taylor Ham. Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss. It's called Taylor Ham. I don't even know if he's from Jersey. It just seems like it. Next opinion.

Is it 99 Ranch or Ranch 99? What? It's 99 Ranch. There's a big debate. Nah, we'll get to it. What? We'll get to it later. People think it's Ranch 99.

You say 99 Ranch. No, people from NorCal say Ranch 99. People from SoCal say 99 Ranch. I don't associate with people from NorCal. It has to do with the signage because all the stores in NorCal, the 99 is after Ranch. It says Ranch 99 Market, but it's supposed to be above it. Josh, you know what sucks? You never asked me about my experience at Salt Bae's Restaurant.

And we had a whole podcast about salt. How was Salt Bae's Restaurant? It was decent. Great. Next opinion. Hi. I just watched your entire episode on busting a chocolate chip cookie myth Thanks for watching

And you guys said to leave them in the refrigerator But you did not tell me how long And in the description you also didn't tell me how long So how long do I refrigerate my cookie dough for Please Inquiring minds want to know Your recipe writing needs work Mr. Sharer You're correct

Alright so here's the thing Sometimes we do a bad job. That's it. Sometimes we're not so good at what we do. But here's the thing about how long to leave something in the fridge. And a thing that I think, this isn't to put blame on you, a thing that I wish people would sort of recognize, right, is like it's not about how long you leave in the fridge.

People say you can leave this in the fridge for 2 to 12 hours. They're making that up. The 12-hour limit on how long you can brine chicken for no i'll leave it in for four days you don't like these numbers are all made up people aren't testing them they're not going like oh i took this out at 11 hours and 41 minutes and that seemed to be the limit no they're making it up uh so yeah between 2 and 12 hours is my official recommendation that's's not true at all. What I mean to say is it has to do with the internal temperature of your cookie dough, right? However long it takes for cookie dough to get down to fridge temp,

because that's called stasis, right? It'll stay there in the fridge for forever. Cookie dough is literally all what? Fat and sugar and refined flour. That stuff are all natural preservatives. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week. It'll probably get to temp in an hour. So between one hour and 137 hours is my official answer.

I'm just going to say an hour. Like until it's cold is the answer. An hour. An hour is fine. An hour is fine. Don't wait any. You don't need to wait. An hour is good.

When I used to scoop cookies on a massive scale, I would let them rest for 12 hours. Yeah. But you don't have to do that. You don't have to do anything. You don't even need to make your own chocolate chip cookies. You can just buy them from a store. We have the technology now. Yeah.

You just buy them. Yeah, don't make them anymore. Yeah, however long you want to leave them in the fridge. They're still going to be good cookies. I say an hour at least, and then the rest, if it has mold on it, don't cook it. Also, I don't know what your oven works like. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We just made cookies. We tried our best to find answers.

I don't know how to cook or bake. There's so many variables. Just kidding. I have a children's baking book. You can pick it up on Amazon. There's so many variables that when people in recipes say 2-12 hours, it makes you feel comforted, but I need you to know out there that there's no one there for you. It's just you and the

cookies and your own wits and guile and equipment. Your oven probably doesn't work. That's the new name of the podcast. Your cookie sheet's probably bent out of shape. You probably got three hot spots in your oven. I do. My oven sucks, dude. Talk so much. All my cookie sheets

are booty. Josh, you talk so much. Next opinion. Hi, Josh. Hi, Nicole. My name's Kay. They, them pronouns. This is the weird family food that has been passed down to me from holiday to holiday that people question me on and I'm going to eat it

for the rest of my life. What is it? A fat block of cream cheese. Oh, I know what's coming. Smothered in A1 steak sauce. Oh, no, I don't. And you just eat it with wheat thins. You were going to say pepper jelly, huh? Y'all can fight me on it, but I know I'm right.

So let me do it. Thanks. Hope you all have a good day. Okay, let's fight. Let's fight. I already cracked my knuckles and like did the whole neck thing about New Jersey. Did they say where they're from? I don't remember.

Maggie, did they say where they're from? It's a family thing. It's a family thing. Where's the family from? I don't know. What region of the world do you think they do this? Massachusetts! Southeastern Massachusetts.

Okay, I would have picked Oklahoma. According to your phone number, you're from Massachusetts. And according to your address, your room is dirty. Clean it up. We see you on Google Street View. Oh my gosh. This sounds gross. I wish is dirty. Clean it up. We see you on Google Street View. Oh my gosh. This sounds gross. I wish it had pepper jelly on it.

I thought pepper jelly was coming. Yeah, I like pepper jelly and cream cheese. I mean, I honestly put a little bit of cream cheese in just about everything. So anything is possible. I like the wheat thins angle. I just don't like A1. I don't like the Worcestershire. I love, you know I love A1.

You've seen me. I just don't like A1. I don't like the Worcestershire. You know I love A1. You've seen me. Yesterday, I was holding a steak in my fist like a baseball. Eating it like an apple. Eating it like an apple that Nicole insisted that I do. It's a leftover steak on set. I'm looking out for you always. And I was like, can I have a steak? She's like, only if you eat it like an apple.

And I was like, no prob, Bob. And then I asked her for the A1. Why are you like this? So here's the thing with that cream cheese dip, right? What you're saying to me is all you want is a more voluminous A1. You want A1 but volume. You want your A1 to be lupinesque. You're trying to dilute.

You want your A1 sauce to be voluptuous like Fergie in my humps. And how do you get voluptuousness in like a dip for a cracker? Cream cheese. Cream cheese. And how do you get voluptuousness in like a dip for a cracker? Cream cheese! And so what I would do, I bet the play of the sharp, salty A1 like works with, you know, the nice creaminess of the cheese. I would blend it in.

I'd blend it in and I'd top it with like slivered almonds, baby. No, no, no. I think the whole point of this is that there are going to be uncovered cream cheese parts and covered cream cheese parts. Yeah, so you can get more A1 and 1. That's the whole point. It's like it's a mystery basket. And when you dip it in, you never know what you're going to get. I want A1 flavored cream cheese so badly right now. Ew.

What I want to do is I want to take a nice steak. I want to make like a steak bagel melt with like dressed arugula, horseradish, and A1 cream cheese. Oh, that sounds really good. Oh my god. That sounds really good. Yeah, that you've awoken something in us. Thank you so much for that.

This is where inspiration comes. On that note, thank you for listening to A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. We got new audio-only episodes every Wednesday and a video version over on YouTube on Fridays. That's right, Josh. And if you want to be featured on Opinions Like Casseroles, you can hit us up at 833-DOG-POD-1. Again, the number. This is where I get sexy. The number at 833-DOG-POD-1. Again, the number, this is where I get sexy. The number is 833-DOG-POD-1. Stop laughing, Maggie!

I'm sexy! And for more, if you have to yell, I'm sexy, that's how you know it's true, folks. For more Mythical Kitchen, check us out. We have a little page that has the things, but like, it doesn't mean anything. Like, we're on YouTube. You know where we are.

You know what I forgot to say? What? I was, my initial idea for an intro was just to go salt, salt, salt, salt, and pepper is indeed here. Salt, salt, salt, salt, and pepper's here. Oh, you were singing. And I'm glad we didn't do it. I'm glad we didn't do it. With that response.

Who was singing that song? Um, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony? Josh. I'm glad we didn't do it. I'm glad we didn't do it. With that response. Who sang that song? Bone Thugs-N-Harmony? Josh. I got that bone, bone, bone. It's the thuggish, ruggish bone. It's the thuggish, ruggish bone. It's the thuggish. It's the thuggish, rugg bone. It's the thuggish.

It's the thuggish, rockish bone. You know what Maggie's going to do? She's going to cut this and send it to us later. I love that. I'd be like, listen to this, you freaks. It's the thuggish, rockish bone. It's the thuggish, rockish bone. That's a good karaoke song. Is all you say, thuggish, ruggish bone?

Yeah, I don't know the lyrics. No, it's not a good karaoke song. That's all the girl says, but then the guys are rapping over it. Yeah, I kind of want to do that part, but I'd come as you go. It's a thuggish, ruggish bone. It's a thuggish, ruggish ball. It's a thuggish, ruggish ball. I'd come in and I'd really get sensual with it. You know?

Oh my God, I'm crying.