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Episode 71

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Published on:

10th Mar 2025

WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: Foods We Love AND Foods We Hate (Part I)

We all have our likes and dislikes, even our loves and hates, when it comes to what we eat. We want to share ours with you!

You might be surprised what two long-time cookbook authors can't stand . . . and what they love.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three dozen cookbooks. This is our podcast about our passion for food.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:35] Our one-minute cooking tip: Use a spatula (not tongs) to turn chicken in a skillet.

[03:25] The foods we love AND hate

[24:15] What’s making us happy in food this week? Cantonese fried turnip cake and passata.

Transcript
Bruce:

hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, and this is the podcast

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Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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mark: And I'm Mark Scarborough.

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And together, Bruce and I have written

36, working on the 37th cookbook.

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More about that soon.

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But this is our podcast about food and

cooking, the main passions in our life.

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We've got a one minute cut.

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cooking tip.

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As always, this is actually the first

of two episodes in which we want to talk

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about foods we like and foods we hate.

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And we're each going to share our kind

of love, hate lists and react to those.

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And then we'll tell you what's making us

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.... .

Bruce: Our one minute cooking tip.

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Stop using tongs to turn chicken and meat

in a skillet, because if you are like

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me, you know that the skin rips, the meat

sticks, no matter how much oil you put.

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So take a nice, flat, metal spatula,

and when your meat has been in that

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skillet for a few minutes, and you know

it's going to be good and brown, just

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give it a good scrape, one hard scrape.

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Pull the chicken skin right off the

pot and you've got a beautiful brown

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piece of meat without any sticking.

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mark: Okay, so the writer's

going to add all the caveats now.

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This is my job as a writer when we write

recipes is to write all the caveats.

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What Bruce is talking about is a not

using a nonstick You cannot use a

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metal spatula on a non stick skillet.

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And I'm

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Bruce: gonna interrupt to say,

and you wouldn't even need it in a

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non stick skillet because there'd

be no sticking to begin with.

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mark: Well, that could be true.

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But in any event, look at

your non stick cookware.

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If it is at all scratched, you need to

throw it out, and you need to, uh, I

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was gonna say toss it out, but throw it

out, whatever, and you need to buy new.

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And two, This is the second part of this.

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The way it works, as Bruce describes,

that you use a metal spatula to pop

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it up is you do have to leave, let's

say the chicken thigh skin side down

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long enough for it to form a crust.

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You have to be patient.

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You can't do this trick.

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by putting it in the skillet,

leaving there 20 seconds

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and then trying to turn it.

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People are very impatient with this thing.

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Oh, with browning

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Bruce: meat?

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You gotta

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mark: really brown the

hell out of everything.

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Bruce: When it says brown your beef

before you're making stew, brown it.

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Don't just gray it.

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Don't just look for a little

tinge of brown around the edges.

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And if you

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mark: brown it, then the sugars,

the natural sugars caramelize,

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and that's why you can pop it.

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off the skillet without tearing the skin

or without tearing the beef or pork or

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whatever you have into millions of pieces.

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And again, we're talking here about land

animal protein, not about fish, of course.

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So, yeah, who does?

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But, um, there you go.

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Well, well, no, I guess

people do brown salmon skin.

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So there you go.

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Stop using tongs, but use metals.

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bachelor with those caveats in place.

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Before we get to the next part of this

podcast, let me remind you that we do

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have a newsletter to sign up for that.

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You have to find our website, cooking

with Bruce and Mark or Bruce and mark.

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com.

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It is under redevelopment,

but it's still up and running.

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You'll.

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Scroll down the landing page and you'll

find a way to subscribe to the newsletter.

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It comes out.

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I don't know, a couple of times

a month, it's coming out more now

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that my leg is fully healed and I'm

walking no longer with a broken leg.

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So you can sign up for that on our

website and we certainly appreciate that.

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And it is sometimes

connected to this podcast.

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Sometimes not.

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Okay, we're going to talk about

what foods we love and what foods

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we hate, and Bruce is going to

start with his love and his hate.

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Bruce: I'm going to start with

my favorite food of all time,

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which has got to be prime ribs.

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My mom made prime ribs for every holiday,

. , we called the Standing Rib Roast.

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Yes, we did, too.

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In fact, we called it

the Standing Rib Roast.

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It was only as I got older that if

you go out to a restaurant, a fancy

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restaurant, they call it Prime Rib.

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Lowry's Prime Rib.

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And it was a Standing Rib Roast.

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And I always wanted the end piece.

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I still want the end piece.

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It's the deco on top.

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Do you not ever want

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mark: the end piece?

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Never, never.

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Why don't you want the end piece?

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I don't like it.

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It's overcooked.

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Oh, but it's charred.

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It's actually mooing for me to want it.

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I know, but you get all that Caramelized

meat on the outside and anyway, it doesn't

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matter because what I like and I agree

with Bruce I love prime ribs and when

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I first met Bruce This was literally

all he would make for dinner party.

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Our dinner parties are so much

different now, but when I first met

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him Eight years ago, what he made was

prime rib for every single dinner.

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And do you remember the dessert?

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Always

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Bruce: chocolate mousse.

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And yes,

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mark: indeed.

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And I like them bone in.

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I do not want the meat trimmed off

the bone and tied back on, because

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really what I want is the bones.

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mark (2): I,

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mark: I gnaw the

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Bruce: bones.

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I don't understand why butchers cut

off the bones and then tie them back on.

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I know they think they're making it

easier for you, but it's really not easy.

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And it is my favorite food, which is

going to lead me to my, probably one

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of my least favorite foods of all time.

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And this is a weird one

because, You're couching it.

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Just say it.

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Cooked oysters.

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Cooked oysters are gross.

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Why

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mark: are you couching it?

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I

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Bruce: love, because I love

oysters, but not cooked.

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Once you cook them, ew,

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mark: ew, they just get gross.

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And I totally disagree.

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I love fried oysters.

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I love oysters Rockefeller.

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I love raw oysters.

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I do not.

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think they get gross.

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I love oyster chowder.

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I love oysters and I love oysters.

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Oyster dressing.

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Oh my gosh.

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When I was a child, I would make myself

literally sick on my great aunt Viola.

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Yes, I had a great aunt Viola on her

oyster dressing, salting crackers,

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butter, and canned oysters..

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Okay.

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So I'm going to push

on and say what I love.

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One of the things that I really

love in life is fried chicken.

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And I want to tell you that I am

really picky about fried chicken.

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I do not like deep fried chicken, which

means I mostly don't like the kind of

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fried chicken that you get at chain.

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restaurants.

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I like pan fried, fried

chicken, not in a deep fryer.

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However,

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Bruce: you love the fried chicken in

Bansham, which is Korean fried chicken,

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which is always a deep fried chicken.

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I do,

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mark: but in general, if you're

going to talk about Southern fried

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chicken, I like it pan fried.

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That is, you put about.

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Oh, I don't know.

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An inch or two of Crisco.

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Yeah, indeed.

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Crisco in a skillet.

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You heat it to the proper temperature.

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You flour coat the chicken.

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That's all you do to it.

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And then you put it in the hot oil,

never crowding the pan and making

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sure that temperature remains stable.

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That's how I like it.

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Turn it over.

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I am not a fan of the big deep

fryer because it tends to lead

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to beer batters and all those.

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It's thick batters, and I don't like that.

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Bruce: Well, growing up, we

never had fried chicken the

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way you're talking about it.

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We lived on something called Chicken

Delight, which was a chain in Queens.

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Maybe they were in other places.

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And they deep fried chicken, and

there wasn't a thick batter on it.

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In fact, I don't know that they did much.

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The thing about it, it was so crunchy

and so delicious, but it got dry.

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And I think it got dry

because of the deep frying.

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But they also deep fried ribs, and we get

big buckets of Deep fried chicken ribs.

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Okay.

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I'm pushing on.

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mark: And I'm going to tell you

that one of my hates in life,

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is, , get ready, raw onions.

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I despise raw onions, I grew up

with my parents ate giant slices

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of raw red onion on hamburger.

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That's the way you do it.

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No, no, I can't do it.

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I am a disaster in Serbia and Russia

and places like that where they

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just cover the food in raw onions.

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I've just seen Mark when we go out to

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Bruce: eat and he gets salads and

he picks out all the red onions.

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I do.

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He sends back his plate with

piles of red onions on the side.

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But you like pickled red onions.

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I do.

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And you like grilled red onions.

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Raw red,

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mark: raw onions do not like me.

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And that's the whole

problem with the activity.

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So, uh, I am not a fan of raw onions.

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I grew up with it.

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My father.

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Eight raw onion slices with anything.

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He would put a slice of raw

onion on his plate and salt it.

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And I,

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Bruce: I can't deal with it.

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Okay, I'll put it this way.

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Onions are not a fruit.

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mark: And my grandmother, his mother,

my paternal grandmother, my grandmother

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would raise onions, would grow onions,

and she would go out in the backyard.

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I'm not making this up.

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Oh, in rural Oklahoma, she would go

out in the backyard, she would pull up

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the raw onions, hose them off with a

garden hose, and bite into one of them.

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Bruce: I'm going to repeat,

onions are not a fruit.

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So, uh, moving on from that.

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She took it as a hand fruit.

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Okay, it's not a fruit anymore,

it's a vegetable, but go on.

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Okay.

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My next love is something Mark hates,

and that is a cinnamon raisin bagel.

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Gross.

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Just gross.

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Oh, no.

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Cinnamon raisin bagel is

up there with the classics.

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It's just as good as a salt

bagel and a poppy bagel.

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I'm sorry,

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mark: I'm gonna out jew you.

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I, the Christian, is out

jewing you right now.

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I, cinnamon raisin bagels

are an abomination.

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Bruce: Oh, when I was growing up,

I used to get a cinnamon raisin

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bagel with walnut cream cheese.

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mark: Oh my god.

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And have that

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Bruce: with a nice iced coffee.

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mark: Just have a slice of cheesecake.

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No.

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Bruce: But see, the thing is,

unlike getting, you know, cinnamon

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coffee cake, the dough of the

bagel is not sweet, right?

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It's just the regular old dough.

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They just happen to put raisins in

it and a little bit of cinnamon.

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So I don't know, it's not, it's

just not as sweet as coffee cake

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and that's why I kind of like them.

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Mmm, gross.

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No, they're good.

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You

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mark: might as well have

blueberry chocolate chip.

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Yeah, they're good.

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Peach cobbler bagels, I don't

know, gross, just gross.

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Bruce: But what I don't like, now

this has nothing to do with bagels.

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This is just a flavor that, if it goes

in my mouth, I'll wipe my mouth out

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like that scene from Big with Tom Hanks

when he was like 16 years old, licorice.

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Disgusting.

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Black licorice, don't even eat it

around me, it's like secondhand smoke.

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It's just the smell of it

when you're chewing it.

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I love

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mark: licorice.

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Bruce: Like good and plenty's, my

mom used to eat good and plenty's in

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the car and I'd have to like stick

my head out the window like a dog.

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mark: Well maybe part of the reason

I love licorice is to say something

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else that I love, which is bourbon.

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And if you listen to this

podcast you probably know that

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I am a grand fan of bourbon.

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bourbon.

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Um, I must admit that as I age,

I can't drink it like I used to.

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But, uh, nice bourbon every once in

a while is a really beautiful treat.

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I don't, uh, I don't necessarily

drink many of the big brands.

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I find these little off producers

from Kentucky and I will only drink

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bourbon from Kentucky with one.

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Weird exception, and that is I love

Breckenridge bourbon from Colorado,

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and I love the caramel notes in it.

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So, mostly Kentucky bourbon,

but, um, okay, I'll make an

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exception for Breckenridge a lot.

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Here's something I really hate.

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I hate, and this is going to kill

you because this is what everybody

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loves, I hate too much garlic.

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I just hate it.

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When people say, oh, in

every recipe I quadruple the

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garlic, I'm always like, why?

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Why would you do such a thing?

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I like garlic, it's not, it doesn't have

anything to do with not liking garlic.

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I just don't.

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Get this whole thing of five million

cloves of garlic for one chicken breast.

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It

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Bruce: depends what you do with it.

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If you really brown it and you

get the garlic nice and toasty.

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I like, I like a lot of garlic.

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It's toasty.

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But some dishes need garlic.

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They need a lot of garlic.

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See,

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mark: you're taking it to the other.

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See, I didn't say I hate garlic.

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I know, but.

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I hate.

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I don't like too much garlic.

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I hate it when it is the

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Bruce: flavor.

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Well, but some dishes, it is the flavor.

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Well, like Like a lamb

with 40 cloves of garlic.

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mark: But I don't like those dishes.

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I never liked chicken

with 40 cloves of garlic.

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I don't like too much garlic.

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I love garlic with chicken.

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A good chicken braise in a skillet

deserves a couple cloves of garlic in it.

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People routinely say, Oh, I

triple and quadruple the garlic.

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I don't get it, because it becomes just

this dominant, overwhelming flavor.

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Bruce: Did your grandmothers

ever cook with garlic?

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No, not really.

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mark: Yeah, isn't that funny?

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I

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Bruce: mean, is it a

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mark: generational thing?

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No, no grandmother.

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I have both of my grandmothers.

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One had a garden, and one

spent summers on a farm.

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And neither of my grandmothers

grew garlic either.

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Bruce: I mean, and mine didn't.

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I know it's not a Jewish thing.

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I know a lot of Jews cook with garlic, so

my grandmothers just didn't have garlic.

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Garlic bagels.

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Garlic bagels, but for whatever reason,

they never ever cooked with garlic.

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Isn't that funny?

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Okay.

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One of the things I love.

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Maple syrup and it's something I

shouldn't eat too much of it is pure

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sugar is pure carbs now maple syrup

The thing is I don't love the super

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super dark I don't like what they used

to call grade B the stuff that almost

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looks like molasses and everybody prizes

the first syrup of the year, right?

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The first sap and they boil

it down and it's so light in

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color and light in flavor.

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Fat.

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I want a nice, bold

syrup, but not too dark.

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I like like an amber ale.

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I like my syrup to look like that.

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mark: Let me say I love maple syrup too.

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And let me say we live in New

England where so much maple syrup

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is produced, although less and less.

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It's with climate change.

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It's moving more and more to Canada.

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But a lot of syrup is still

produced around us and we're

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recording this now in early March.

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And just so you know, what they call

sugaring season, that's when they're

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drawing the sap out of the trees.

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Sugaring season is almost over.

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And I think people often think

of maple syrup as a fall thing,

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like when the leaves are turning.

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No, it's when the sap first starts to run.

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And we're just about done

in our part of New England.

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Bruce: I know we're almost out.

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I should go find a nice local

producer and get us some new maples.

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They're just not

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mark: the first run.

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Vermont stuff's really good.

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Oh, it is, yeah.

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I do like that Vermont stuff.

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Okay, anyway, yes, so I agree

with you on maple syrup.

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I believe that a waffle should set sail

on a sea of maple syrup on a plate.

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But you're

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Bruce: not going to agree with me on the

next one because I cannot stand root beer.

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Almost as much as I cannot stand licorice.

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Oh my gosh,

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mark: I love root beer so much.

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I will

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Bruce: let you drink it around me.

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secondhand smells that

bother me like the licorice.

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Oh, come on.

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I'm going to get some licorice

and just eat it around

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mark: you.

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Um, come on.

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Secondhand smells.

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I guess this bleeds into my love too,

because I actually love root beer.

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You even made

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Bruce: your own root

beer syrup a few years

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mark: ago.

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I did.

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And in fact, in the book we have

coming out this summer, there's

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a recipe, my recipe, for small

batch root beer syrup that you

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can add to soda and make your own.

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I love root beer more than I can say.

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When I was a little kid, we

would go to A& W Root Beer.

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This is, oh gosh, this is the early 60s.

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So we would go, this is when they would

come out on roller skates to your car.

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I'm not making this up,

this is how old I am.

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They come out on roller skates to

the car and put the tray on the

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window, and we would order hamburgers.

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and root beers and we thought

it was the finest thing.

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I mean, I would sit in the backseat

of the car and we'd all order burgers.

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And of course I come from this

very Protestant family and A& W had

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the Papa burger, the mama burger,

and the baby burger, and we would

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literally order based on what we were.

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So I got.

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The baby burger and my

mother got the mama burger.

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I know it's ridiculous, but

we followed the rules always.

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And we can't rip here.

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Well, I loved her.

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And

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Bruce: maybe as a Christian thing,

cause my father loved celery

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sodas, maybe that's the Jew thing.

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I can't stand celery soda.

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Sweet celery soda.

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Add that to another thing I don't like.

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mark: Since we're talking about what

I hate, and since I agreed with Root

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Beer and said I loved it, I'll tell you

what another thing I hate is sweet tea.

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And I am from the South,

and I despise sweet tea.

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Like with a passion, I do not

want sugar in my iced tea.

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Here's a really weird thing, and

what I want, I say before I say the

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weird thing, when I was growing up,

my mother made Ice tea every day.

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There was always a pitcher of

ice tea on the kitchen counter,

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and we only drank it with lemon.

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My mother tended not to put lemon in it.

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The rest, my father and I, we put lemon in

it, but my mother just drank it as it is.

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And here's what's so weird.

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So I grew up in the South, and it was

the mid 60s, and my mother used to

409

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say that Sweet tea, well don't yell at

me, that sweet tea was low class, and

410

:

that we were a high class southerners

and we did not put sugar in our tea,

411

:

that's what she used to say, and I

will tell you when we would go to

412

:

restaurants in the south and get iced tea.

413

:

It was not sweet.

414

:

They would put the

sugar down on the table.

415

:

Now it seems like sweet tea

has taken over the South and

416

:

it's all sweet tea everywhere.

417

:

I just don't like

418

:

Bruce: it.

419

:

Okay, and here's the thing.

420

:

They put sugar on the table and you

know it's a nice ice cold drink.

421

:

You put the sugar in and it all falls

to the bottom and it doesn't dissolve.

422

:

Well, your mother would've thought

we were really low class because

423

:

my mother and my grandmother, both.

424

:

The only kind of iced tea

they made was from the packet.

425

:

Oh no.

426

:

It was the instant.

427

:

Oh no.

428

:

Sweet tea.

429

:

Oh, no, no, no.

430

:

In fact,

431

:

mark: my mother would in restaurants

when I was a kid, my mother

432

:

would ask, is the tea brewed?

433

:

She would want to know that,

and then it would come.

434

:

And if someone around us.

435

:

put sugar in there.

436

:

I said, like, get another table.

437

:

My mother would kind of look over at

them and then remark about, Oh my God,

438

:

you know, from such low class roots.

439

:

I mean, really, seriously, it was a thing.

440

:

And I didn't know until I

became an adult and moved.

441

:

Out of the south and

went back to the south.

442

:

The sweet tea had just taken over the

whole landscape and it was everything.

443

:

I guess it's just part of my raising.

444

:

I just don't like sweet tea.

445

:

All right.

446

:

And so

447

:

Bruce: one of the things that

I have learned to love as I've

448

:

gotten older is smoked salmon.

449

:

mark: Oh, well, why don't

you say what you didn't like?

450

:

Bruce: So as a child, I would not eat.

451

:

Anything that lived in water.

452

:

Mm.

453

:

mark: As a

454

:

Bruce: child.

455

:

Mm-hmm . When

456

:

mark: I met you and you were in your mid

thirties, you when I was still a child.

457

:

Really, it was anything

in that lived in water.

458

:

It was my

459

:

Bruce: identity.

460

:

I, it was like I threw

this out in front of me.

461

:

If I'd go out to eat, I don't,

you know, please tell your server

462

:

if you have any food issues.

463

:

I don't eat anything that lived in water.

464

:

So . It was so weird.

465

:

So weird.

466

:

And my, yet my family.

467

:

ate all of it.

468

:

My family ate smoked salmon and white

fish salad and even lobster and shrimp.

469

:

We weren't koshers.

470

:

My family ate all that stuff.

471

:

And now I love it.

472

:

And I think back to all those years,

all those beautiful, we called it

473

:

appetizing smoked fish dinners, all

those dinners with the platters.

474

:

I love it.

475

:

You call smoked

476

:

mark: fish dinners appetizing, or

you go to the appetizing store.

477

:

Bruce: Yeah.

478

:

The appetizing store.

479

:

Okay.

480

:

Go on.

481

:

And, and All those years of not

eating the lox, and not eating the

482

:

smoked salmon, and the whitefish,

and the herring, and oh, I'm glad

483

:

I ate it now, but I really regret.

484

:

mark: Not too long after we moved in

together, uh, Bruce's paternal grandmother

485

:

died, and I went to the shiva, I went

to the funeral, and then the shiva.

486

:

Afterwards, at, at, uh, the funeral

at the lunch that was served.

487

:

Of course, it was appetizing.

488

:

Of course.

489

:

And I had for the first time, sable.

490

:

It's a deep water, very oily,

white fish sable on a salt bagel.

491

:

And I thought to myself, I have

moved in with the right family.

492

:

What is this

493

:

Bruce: smoked sable?

494

:

mark: thing that I'm having.

495

:

I love smoked salmon.

496

:

I love all that stuff.

497

:

I love, Bruce has taught me

to love eggs, lox, and onions.

498

:

We fry it all together in a skillet.

499

:

I, I, I can't get enough smoked salmon.

500

:

Well,

501

:

Bruce: you taught me to eat

fish, so I thank you for that.

502

:

mark: Sure.

503

:

Okay.

504

:

Sure.

505

:

Bruce: And one more thing, I can't stand.

506

:

It's another beverage, and

it's in the sort of category

507

:

of licorice and root beer.

508

:

It's Amaro's, and it's those.

509

:

Bitter, bitter aperitifs

after dinner, you drink

510

:

mark: them.

511

:

There's a theme here, licorice root

512

:

Bruce: beer, Amaro, that I don't like.

513

:

Yeah, I don't care for them,

but I like bitter things.

514

:

So, there's just some, there's gotta

be one herbal ingredient in all

515

:

of them that's just getting to me.

516

:

mark: I, Amaro, I have to admit, is a,

is a take it or leave it thing with me.

517

:

I mean, I'll drink it if

somebody offers it to me, but

518

:

I won't seek it out on my own.

519

:

It, it's a little bit

too astringent for me.

520

:

Um, I'd rather have an espresso

after dinner than an Amaro,

521

:

but I know those aren't.

522

:

Mutually exclusive, but I

won't necessarily turn down

523

:

Bruce: an

524

:

mark: Amaro,

525

:

but, um, that's the

bitterness that I want.

526

:

There's something about Amaro that's got

a sweet edge despite the bitterness that

527

:

I kind of, that's my take it or leave it.

528

:

See, I've got a theme too about sweetness.

529

:

So, okay, but, but, given that

sweetness, here's something that I love.

530

:

Okay.

531

:

I love fudge.

532

:

I do love fudge in almost

all of its incarnations.

533

:

I'm less excited about white

chocolate fudges, but I do love fudge.

534

:

Bruce and I have this theory that

when you go into any tourist town,

535

:

Any tourist town, Algonquit, Maine,

Estes Park, Colorado, I don't care,

536

:

any tourist centered town, that

the real money must be in fudge.

537

:

That's where the lines are.

538

:

It's where the, there's

always a fudge shop, so.

539

:

And there's always a line.

540

:

The real money's gotta be in fudge.

541

:

When

542

:

Bruce: fudge is made well, it's

creamy and smooth and fabulous.

543

:

It's crazy.

544

:

I agree with you.

545

:

But.

546

:

Too often the fudge is grainy.

547

:

No.

548

:

And it's not good fudge.

549

:

mark: No, no it's not.

550

:

And or it's been sitting too long

and it hasn't moved outta the cave.

551

:

So it's dried

552

:

Bruce: out on the edges and No, no,

553

:

mark: no, no, no.

554

:

It has to be super creamy.

555

:

And the thing about fudge is

I can eat a little bit of it,

556

:

but I can't eat very much.

557

:

Bruce: Well, last December when we were

in Missouri, we had, uh, Mark's mom

558

:

died and we had to drive to Oklahoma.

559

:

We, oh my God,

560

:

mark: you're gonna tell this story

561

:

Bruce: Bucky's.

562

:

Now, I had never been to a.

563

:

Bucky's before.

564

:

Okay.

565

:

Bucky's is what I thought you were going

to tell, but have to tell that now.

566

:

So Bucky's Bucky's is this road

stop gas station with anybody

567

:

mark: in North America,

except you knows what I didn't

568

:

Bruce: know it was.

569

:

And they had a fudge bar with about

a hundred flavors of fudge, including

570

:

banana pudding fudge, where they

fold it in bits of Nilla wafers

571

:

and dried bananas into their fudge.

572

:

And I don't want stuff in my fudge.

573

:

mark: So if you're traveling down

the interstate, laterally northeast

574

:

to southwest across Missouri, you

will call through, I'm not making

575

:

this up, the town of Uranus.

576

:

And the

577

:

Bruce: best fudge comes from Uranus.

578

:

And all their billboards say.

579

:

mark: Best fudge comes from Uranus and

we'll have big fun in Uranus Uranus

580

:

Bruce: fudge factory,

581

:

mark: right?

582

:

And it's amazing what

you can find in Uranus.

583

:

And it's a whole big trip

584

:

Bruce: joint behind Uranus.

585

:

Of

586

:

mark: course there is.

587

:

There Okay.

588

:

So I do love fudge, but I did not get

any fudge from Uranus, nor did I get any.

589

:

fudge from Bucky's, but I do

love really well made fudge.

590

:

And here's my final one.

591

:

I get the last one and it's, you're

going to hear a theme here with me.

592

:

Uh, something that I hate.

593

:

I hate sweet cornbread.

594

:

I despise cornbread that tastes like cake.

595

:

When I grew up, my mother did not.

596

:

put sugar in cornbread.

597

:

Again, I grew up a Southerner and my

mother did not put sugar in cornbread.

598

:

She thought that was low class.

599

:

Oh,

600

:

Bruce: just like the sweet tea

601

:

mark: neck to be a crash.

602

:

He thought that was part of my dad's

family, which were low class rural people.

603

:

My mother did not put sugar in my

grandmother, my mother's mother

604

:

did not put sugar in cornbread

because the corn is naturally sweet.

605

:

So what do you have to put sugar in it?

606

:

Bruce: Well, you need a little bit

of sugar for the structure, right?

607

:

Because you want that nice crumb to it.

608

:

So you need a little sugar, but not much.

609

:

mark: Oh, now it's a

whole different thing.

610

:

My grandmother made cornbread.

611

:

What we call corn pone, which means

she fried the batter in a skillet.

612

:

Oh, yum.

613

:

Um, but mother made cornbread and

maybe mother put a little sugar in it.

614

:

But I just, when I bite into it

and it tastes like cake at barbecue

615

:

joints, I just don't get it.

616

:

I totally don't get it.

617

:

Um, I want it.

618

:

taste corn, cornbread.

619

:

I don't want to just taste sure.

620

:

Okay.

621

:

Well, there's our whole list of what we

like and what we hate and a little bit

622

:

self indulgent, but we're going to do this

again in the next episode of the podcast.

623

:

So what can I say?

624

:

Hey, just to remind

you, we have a Facebook.

625

:

group called Cooking with Bruce

and Mark, and we would love to

626

:

know what you love and hate.

627

:

So why don't you go out to that

Facebook group, Cooking with Bruce

628

:

and Mark, and tell us what you love

or what you hate or if you agree

629

:

with us on any of these items.

630

:

Okay.

631

:

Up next, as is traditional, what's

making us happy in food this

632

:

...

Bruce: called turnip cake.

633

:

Oh, right.

634

:

And there's actually no turnips in it.

635

:

It's made from grated daikon radish.

636

:

Right, right.

637

:

You squeeze the moisture out of the

radish and you fry up dried shrimp and

638

:

Chinese sausage and shiitake mushrooms.

639

:

And then you.

640

:

Stir fry up the radish

things until they're dry.

641

:

Then you add some stock and a slurry

mixture of rice powder and cornstarch.

642

:

It's thick and pasty.

643

:

It's a lot of steps here because

then you have to put it in an

644

:

oiled pan and steam it and then

you cool it and cut it and fry it.

645

:

mark: And why do you like this so much?

646

:

Bruce: Because I've always loved

it but I made it for the first

647

:

time for a dinner party last night.

648

:

And it is a lot of work and it gives He

649

:

mark: served it with pickled celery and a

650

:

Bruce: sweet Soy bean, a sweet

bean paste with chili crisp and the

651

:

celery was pickled with star anise.

652

:

It was delicious.

653

:

It was just as good as I've ever

had it in any dim sum house.

654

:

Oh, not to pat yourself on the

655

:

mark: back, okay.

656

:

I'm good at what I do.

657

:

All right, then.

658

:

I tell you what's making me happy

in food this week, and that is

659

:

something that we've probably talked

about before, and that is mootie.

660

:

Passata.

661

:

If you don't know about passata,

passata is essentially the

662

:

true Italian tomato sauce.

663

:

Mutti brand is some of the

best there possibly is.

664

:

And just to tell, cue you in on

this, you can find Mutti brand

665

:

passata, P A S S A T A, passata.

666

:

You can find it At world market

and sometimes at home goods

667

:

for cheap, believe it or not.

668

:

It is still more expensive than the

canned stuff from the supermarket.

669

:

But Bruce has been making a lot of passata

stews this winter, always with fish.

670

:

So, a nice piece of cod or a mahi mahi

or something inside this deep, complex

671

:

tomato sauce with fennel and onions.

672

:

It braises for just a few minutes

on the stovetop, and we have been

673

:

eating that like crazy this winter

as my leg healed, and I love it.

674

:

Okay, that's the podcast for this week.

675

:

Thanks for joining us.

676

:

Thanks for being part of this podcast.

677

:

We certainly appreciate your

being with us on this journey

678

:

and spending your time with us.

679

:

Bruce: And as Mark said, go to our

Facebook group, Cooking with Bruce and

680

:

Mark, and tell us what you love and hate.

681

:

But also, every week we tell you

what's making us happy in food, so tell

682

:

us what's making you happy in food.

683

:

There will be a question there every week.

684

:

You'll see a post that says, What's

making you happy in food this week?

685

:

Let us know, because we want

to know what you like in food

686

:

on cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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About the Podcast

Cooking with Bruce and Mark
Fantastic recipes, culinary science, a little judgment, hysterical banter, love and laughs--you know, life.
Join us, Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, for weekly episodes all about food, cooking, recipes, and maybe a little marital strife on air. After writing thirty-six cookbooks, we've got countless opinions and ideas on ingredients, recipes, the nature of the cookbook-writing business, and much more. If you've got a passion for food, we also hope to up your game once and a while and to make you laugh most of the time. Come along for the ride! There's plenty of room!

About your host

Profile picture for Mark Scarbrough

Mark Scarbrough

Former lit professor, current cookbook writer, creator of two podcasts, writer of thirty-five (and counting) cookbooks, author of one memoir (coming soon!), married to a chef (my cookbook co-writer, Bruce Weinstein), and with him, the owner of two collies, all in a very rural spot in New England. My life's full and I'm up for more challenges!