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Episode 97

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Published on:

15th Sep 2025

WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: We're talking about the weirdest foods we've ever eaten!

We've been in the food business for over twenty-five years . . . and we're involved with food long before we started to writing about it. We've eaten a lot of weird things. So here are some of the strangest things we've dared to eat. (Beware: The list includes a lot of innards.)

We've also got a one-minute cooking tip about packaged poultry from the supermarket. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week!

If you'd like to see our latest cookbook, COLD CANNING, check it out at this link here.

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

[00:42] Our one-minute cooking tip: Watch for added salt in packaged poultry from the supermarket.

[02:31] What's the weirdest things we’ve eaten? We've been writing about food and cooking for over twenty-five years . . . and have been involved with food long before it became our career. So here are some of the strangest things we've eaten over the years!

[22:57] What’s making us happy in food this week? Chicken and root vegetable stew as well as Italian prune plums.

Transcript
mark:

Hey, I am Bruce Weinstein and this is the Podcast

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Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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And I'm Mark Scarborough, and

together with Bruce, my husband,

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we have written 37 cookbooks.

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Bruce has written a couple knitting books.

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I've written a memoir, I don't know,

we're just publishing all the time.

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But this is our podcast about

our biggest passion food.

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Mm-hmm.

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And cooking the thing that drives our.

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Forward as always, we've got

a one minute cooking tip.

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We're gonna talk about the weirdest

things we've ever eaten, and we

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wanna know what is the weirdest

thing you've ever eaten in your life.

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And not to be gross out, but

just what is the weirdest thing

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you dared to try in your life?

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And we'll tell you what's making

us happy in food this week.

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So let's get started.

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bruce: Our one minute cooking tip.

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Watch out for salt in

store-bought raw poultry.

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Yeah.

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I, some of

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bruce: it is already brine.

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Brine, meaning it's been

an assault solution.

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Yep, yep.

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I think a lot of people don't know this.

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Yep.

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And you know, when you buy kosher meat,

it's always gonna be a little salty.

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Like kosher birds are always brine.

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It's part of the kosher ring

process, but not a little.

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Yeah.

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It's heavily salty.

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It's salty.

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But if you go to the supermarket

and you see a chicken that's.

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Packed there.

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It's a roaster or it's a fryer, or

you see packages of chicken breasts.

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Yep.

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You might see a little line

on that package that says May

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contain up to 10% of a solution.

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Yeah.

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bruce: That means they have injected that

chicken with a salt and other electrolytes

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solution to keep it juicier when it's

cooked and also to increase its weight.

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So you're paying for that solution.

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You are paying for the water.

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mark: For the chicken, if you're buying

mostly organic chicken, you're not

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gonna have this injection problem.

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But just standard, uh, chicken,

even the chicken you might buy in

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big packs at the big box stores.

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Yeah.

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Um, a lot of it has been

injected and it is already salty.

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Just be careful about over salting

that food once you cook it up.

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Okay.

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Before we get.

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On to the weirdest thing we've ever

eaten or each of us has ever eaten,

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and all the discussions of that.

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Let me say that it would be great if

you could subscribe to this podcast

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and even better if you could give it a

rating on whatever platform you're on.

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Can we ask for five stars?

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And if you write a review that is.

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Absolutely spectacular.

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Like nice podcast.

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Thanks for doing that because we

are unsupported and that is the way

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that, in fact, you can support us.

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Alright, we're gonna move on to the

weirdest question we've ever asked

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on this podcast, which is, what's

the weirdest thing you ever ate?

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Hmm.

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bruce: Okay.

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The weirdest thing I ever ate.

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There are so many weird things

I need, I know we've got

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a list already, so just so you

know, there's a list to go down.

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bruce: Okay.

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When I was.

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In high school, I worked at a kosher

deli on the Upper East side of New York.

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Mm-hmm.

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It's one block north of Bloomingdale's.

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All right.

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On third Avenue between

60th and 61st Street.

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And I had to do a lot of things there that

I had never done, like taste things like.

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Pja.

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mark: Okay.

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Now let me say that I know who Cha is

pja, but most people listening to this

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podcast, unless they are from a ettl

in Belarus, will not know what Pja is.

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bruce: Jollied Cal's feet.

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There you go.

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Now, here's the thing about it.

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It wasn't so weird

because I had eaten jelly.

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Pig's feet in Chinatown,

in Chinese restaurants.

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Oh, wow.

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So, wow.

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So it was just changing animals.

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Right.

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It's the same

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mark: thing.

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There's something though that's

so overwhelming about pcha.

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There's something about it.

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I, I have never ever worked up

the courage to touch it and,

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and I eat a lot of things.

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As you'll hear.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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But I have never in fact, uh,

worked up the courage to touch

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it because it's so monumental.

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bruce: Well, you just cook the feet

until they literally just turn to jelly.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they're very strong.

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You know, I think it's the

land animal version of Lu Fisk.

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mark: Oh.

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Well, no.

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Okay.

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No, you're not soaking the

cabs feed in lie and all that.

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I ha By the way, I have

had lus in my life.

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Now, explain what that is.

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Oh, well, LUS is a Scandinavian delicacy

in which you take fish filets and you

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soak them in lie to preserve them,

and you dry them and soak them in

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lie, and this preserves them forever.

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And then you lie, we'll kill you.

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And so you've gotta get the lie out of it.

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And so you do a multiple.

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Bath, rinsing, soaking problem to

get it out and then you cook it.

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And I have been to Lud Fisk Suppers

at Scandinavian churches in the

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upper Midwest when I was getting

my PhD at Madison, Wisconsin.

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And basically you get a plate of

what can only be called warm fish.

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Jello.

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Yeah.

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bruce: Tell Jelly it gets

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mark: a gelatin quality to it with mashed

potatoes and mashed rutabagas and white

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bread and butter poured all over it.

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It is the, how can you have

eaten that and not eat pecha?

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It is the ultimate white people food.

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It is just total white people.

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I mean, salt burns and so you

wouldn't dare eat salt with

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it because it's too flavorful.

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bruce: Well, peon needs

a lot of salt, I suppose.

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So that was, that was probably

the weirdest thing I ate.

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And it's funny 'cause my grandmother.

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Made Pja, but I wouldn't eat it when

she made it and she made tongue and

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I wouldn't eat it when she made it.

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Oh God, I love tongue and she made brains

and I wouldn't eat it when she made it.

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So it was really weird that I chose

to eat the pja when I worked at MITs.

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So yes, that was the name.

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It was MITs Deli.

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Okay.

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mark: Uh, well, I guess, um, since

we brought up brains, I'll talk

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about my experience with brains.

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I've had several experiences in my life,

but one time, oh, you have a big brain.

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No, not really.

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But, uh, one time these

were, uh, gustatory brains.

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So one time we went up to a place in.

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Rural, rural, rural Quebec.

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I mean, this is not Quebec City.

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This is Montreal.

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This is the middle of nowhere Quebec.

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And it was a very, very lovely,

luxurious hotel just on a lake.

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And seriously the middle of nowhere.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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And they had a lovely restaurant.

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And we would go up there and I'll tell

you, we would go in the winter 'cause

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it's the only time we could have.

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Afford to go to this hotel because

it was so expensive in the summer.

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But of course they were open all winter

long anyway, and we'd go up and get a

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room and have a couple really nice meals.

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So one night we went in the dining

room and, uh, what was his name?

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Stef Stefan.

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Stefan was the Marere d And Stefan

informed us that the special

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of the night was several Dono.

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Lamb brain, he was very

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bruce: proud of it.

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'cause they don't get them often right?

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And he thought we would really

love to have he right as

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mark: gourmet as we are.

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He knew that one of us would

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bruce: really

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mark: love to have him.

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Okay?

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So I was like, you know what?

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I'm in for penny in for pound.

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I'm gonna do this because this is

the special and he's proud of it

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and I'm here and you know, this is a

delicacy in many parts of the world.

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So here I go.

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Explain what came at you.

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I order it.

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And what comes out is, I mean,

this is a very nice restaurant, but

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essentially I'm making this more

downscale than it actually was.

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But what comes out is a plate with

lettuce on it and three cold brains.

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And they were exactly in

the shape of a lamb's brain.

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I mean, these were not, they're

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bruce: not big

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mark: braised, they were not

sliced, they were not diced.

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Nothing could happen to them.

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They were, well, they've been poached

and poached, poached whole, right.

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And then they were cold with mayonnaise.

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bruce: All those little squiggles that

brains had, there was a ventricles.

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Were there a pot

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mark: of mayonnaise in the middle of

the plate with three brains around it?

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I'll give you credit.

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You got through a whole brain.

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I did.

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I got you a brain.

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And a little bit of a second before

I was like, I can't, I just can't.

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I can't do this anymore.

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I did it.

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I drank all the wine.

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I got this down as much as I can get it

down, and then I got to leave it alone.

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I, I actually grew up, uh, Bruce

says his grandmother made brains.

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I grew up in a German immigrant

family where brains were common,

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and I had them as a kid, but I

hadn't had them again as an adult.

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And if you've never had brains,

they have an extraordinarily

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unique and identifying flavor.

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Mm-hmm.

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It is not like liver.

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It's not like organ meat.

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It has a very.

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Basically, there's absolutely not one

sweet note to it, and it has of course,

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as you know, a very disturbing texture.

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bruce: It's funny, the texture

is what turns me off, but yet

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I also like sweet breads, you

know, which is, it's different.

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The thymus gland, it's

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mark: different.

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Sweet breads are softer than brains.

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Brains are a little.

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bruce: Firm.

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I know it's the texture of sweet breads

and sweetbreads are a little sweet also.

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They're different.

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Oh, they're delicious.

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And so I, I guess they could be

on the list of weird things, but

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I don't see sweet breads as weird.

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We, we had sweet breads in

Madrid when we were there.

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We, two years ago, we went to this

Israeli restaurant, um, in Madrid.

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They, this.

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This family owned an

Argentinian, uh, ranch.

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Right.

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And uh, what do you call that?

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And

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mark: Estan.

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Yeah, estan.

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Yeah.

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Estancia

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bruce: eia.

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And they brought all the meat

up from South America to Spain

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and they grilled wood, wood

grill, smoked those sweet breads.

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Oh, that was one of, I thought

you were gonna tell another

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Madrid story.

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bruce: Oh, okay.

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This is a Madrid dish, which,

uh, didn't seem weird to me,

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but seems weird to everybody.

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I show the pictures too.

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So we went to a restaurant that

specialized in innards, in ville,

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in oval, and we had a tasting menu.

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And so of course, one course was a plate

of a bunch of little duck hearts and

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they were in a sauce and that was lovely.

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Lots of tripe.

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And then there was a little tripe

thing, but there was a side dish.

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Side dish.

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The buffet that you can, not a side dish.

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Well, it was on the sides.

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Menu, right?

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Yeah.

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You can order it extra.

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You can order it extra on the side,

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right?

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bruce: And it was called Pig Head, and

what you got was a very small baby pig

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head that had been confid, meaning slow

cooked in oil to the meat is falling

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off, but it's not totally falling off.

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Then it was coated in

crumbs and deep fried.

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That's true.

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Had had a deep fried fake head,

deep fried comb, feeded pig head,

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and it was baby piglet head.

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It was one of the most unusual things

ever served to me in a restaurant, but.

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Boy, was it good.

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So

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mark: I I, so in all this talking

about innards, I'll tell you a

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story about me and innards, and

it's not childhood, it's adult.

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So we have a friend who lives

up here in New England near

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us, and they keep chickens.

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And of course they've got bru, roosters,

and they need to always dispatch

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the roosters because you can't have.

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A ton of roosters.

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They'll fight and kill each other and

all that stuff, so you do kill them.

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Chickens are nasty.

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They, well roosters are particularly

disturbing birds at times.

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Nasty birds.

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And anyway, um, he had dispatched

to roosters and, uh, you may know

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that I have another side of my life,

which is literary teaching, and I had

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been teaching an eight week course

on the short stories of Flannery

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O'Connor in the library in their town.

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So on the way home one day

from one of those courses.

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He said, stop by me, my house.

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I dispatched a couple roosters

and we can sit around the table in

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his kitchen and eat the innards.

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So I did.

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Yeah, you're not getting the lovely

meat, you're just getting the innards.

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At about four o'clock I

stopped at their house.

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Um, his wife did not take part

in any of this, but he and

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I sat at the kitchen table.

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We drank a really nice bottle

of red wine over the course of

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like two hours while he fried up.

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Yes, the testicles, the lungs, the

spleens, the livers, the brains.

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The Cox Combs.

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Cox Combs.

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Good.

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I like that.

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But that's not an ind, that's an

outward, all the kidneys, that's an

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bruce: ind.

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mark: We fried it all up one by one and

we would try each piece and then drink

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more wine and talk and they, so I suppose

that is one of those hallmark moments.

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I'm not opposed to in cells.

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So here's my, uh, thing about gross out.

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Um, innards actually don't gross me out.

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Mm-hmm.

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Ful doesn't gross me out, as you can tell.

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What really, really grosses me out

is fermented Roddy vegetable matter.

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And while I love kimchi, if you

listen to this podcast, you know

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how much I love kimchi on burgers.

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And while I love sauerkraut

German immigrant family, after

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all, I love all that stuff.

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Sometimes Bruce uses preserved and

fermented Chinese vegetables in stir

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fries, and it passes a line for me.

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bruce: You have that reaction

when I put too many different

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kinds of fermented things in.

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Yes, and it gets so confusing.

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Last week my mom was visiting and I

made a siwan style braised brisket,

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and so what made it Siwan style?

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I used.

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Dojang, the fermented broad

bean chili paste in it.

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I also used fermented urging tatau

chilies in it, and that probably was

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enough fermented things for Mark.

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Um, but then I also put some other

fermented soy saucy paste into it.

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Mm-hmm.

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And then I opened up two packages.

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Mm-hmm.

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Pickled fermented mustard tubers.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I dumped those in.

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There's something

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mark: about, there's too many

fermented vegetables that, again,

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I love sauerkraut and sauerkraut,

as my grandmother would say.

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I love sauerkraut.

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I love kimchi.

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I think all of that is brilliant.

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Our book called Canning has all

kinds of small batch Kim cheese in

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it, and Sauerkrauts, I love them.

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There's this, uh, um, uh, celery

root, uh, sauerkraut that's in

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the book that I think is just.

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Brilliant cabbage and cel, uh,

celery root mixed together.

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I love all of that stuff.

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It's the question of when it

starts to, I'm gonna be gross.

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I'm sorry.

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This is a food podcast and I'm gross.

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But it's when it starts to smell like your

garbage can and I just can't handle it,

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it starts to smell like a compost pile.

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And

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bruce: I will admit when I made

that brisket, I had opened.

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The packages of the fermented mustard tubs

and they were in a bowl next to everything

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else and there was a smell coming off

the counter and I, the sulfur smell and

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I kind of associated that with the onions

and I think it was the mustard tubers.

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It was too far.

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Ferment.

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I should have left.

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I couldn't eat it.

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I should left it.

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It just got.

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mark: Too Roddy, and so I, so

you can hear, I have no problem

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with eating like Leopold Bloom

in U in James Joyce's Ulysses.

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I eat with relish, the inner

organs of beasts and fouls,

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but it's vegetable matter.

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When it starts to go too far.

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I love vegetables, I love fresh

vegetables, I love fermented vegetables,

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but there's just this way it can cross a

line with me and I start to back up from

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bruce: it.

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And it's really interesting too,

because one of your favorite

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cheeses is a POS I love.

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And you always say to me,

a POS is like a cheese.

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You leave until it's liquified, you get

rid of it, and the liquid there is what's

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left in the bottom of your garbage can.

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mark: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It tastes like, like the

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bruce: cheese tastes like the liquid

at the bottom of your garbage can.

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Yeah,

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mark: it does.

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My, my, my friend Allison refers to

how you eat a pos, you leave it on

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the counter all day until it festers

and then you eat it, but you like

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that and it smells like garbage.

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I love a pos, but it smells like garbage.

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I think that that goes with, uh, red wine.

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I think what pos goes beautifully

with a really inky, dark red wine.

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My problem with the vegetable

matter is that it is not only.

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Fermented, but it also

includes this sour component.

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And it's that, it's that cross

between the fermented savory and the

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sour rye start to back up from it.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I can't handle it anymore.

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It, it, i, it crosses a boundary for

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bruce: me.

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That makes sense.

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I wanna go back to my grandmother's

Shabbat kitchen for a second.

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'cause there's something she

would make every now and then.

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Which Shabbat?

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mark: Not everyone on this podcast.

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Never.

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Friday

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bruce: nights Sha Jewish Shabbat.

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It's your Sabbath.

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It's okay.

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There you go.

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And she would often make L and stew.

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Oh, if it sounds like lungs it is.

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It's just L and stew.

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Mm-hmm.

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Mm-hmm.

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I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

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Mm-hmm.

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You couldn't have given me.

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Anything to make me eat it as a child.

415

:

However, I love

416

:

lungs.

417

:

bruce: Once Mark and I went with an

Asian friend of ours, a Chinese friend

418

:

to Chinatown in Flushing in Queens.

419

:

Yep.

420

:

And we went to one of those

underground food malls.

421

:

Yep.

422

:

And we found a stall selling.

423

:

Chinese lamb, lung in chili oil cold.

424

:

And it was cold.

425

:

Cold lamb lung in chili oil.

426

:

I tasted it and I loved

it, and it's the texture.

427

:

It was like eating what killed me.

428

:

It's like gummy candy.

429

:

So we

430

:

mark: went with a friend, a Chinese

friend to this mall, and the Chinese

431

:

friend would not touch mm-hmm.

432

:

The cold lung in chili oil and we ate it.

433

:

Mm-hmm.

434

:

So there you go.

435

:

bruce: Yeah.

436

:

But she was unusual.

437

:

I couldn't serve her a whole lobster.

438

:

She wouldn't take it apart.

439

:

She was a little squeamish

440

:

mark: maybe so.

441

:

But I think that this as

part of a cultural matrix.

442

:

Mm.

443

:

Um, that's made, uh, I guess a lot of

my gross out foods, if when people hear

444

:

them are all about innards as I say.

445

:

And, uh, there's other things

that, um, I, I, I, it's not

446

:

that they're gross out for me.

447

:

I've learned to like them, for example.

448

:

Um, and I suppose there's

a lot of people this way.

449

:

I used to be completely

cilantro averse mm-hmm.

450

:

And not be able to handle any cilantro.

451

:

Now I'm okay with it.

452

:

Mm-hmm.

453

:

And now.

454

:

I'm fine with it.

455

:

I eat it on guacamole.

456

:

I eat it in Mexican food.

457

:

I don't, I I eat it in Thai food.

458

:

I have no problem with cilantro anymore.

459

:

bruce: Yeah.

460

:

But you never had that sensation

that it tasted like soap?

461

:

Yes, I did.

462

:

Oh, you

463

:

bruce: do?

464

:

Yes, I did.

465

:

I still do.

466

:

You have that genetic thing

so it tastes like soap?

467

:

I do.

468

:

I thought you just didn't like it.

469

:

Oh, you think it tastes like soap?

470

:

Yeah, but it's because

that's a genetic thing.

471

:

I might, but it's okay.

472

:

I'm okay with you.

473

:

You're okay to, to, for me to

grate soap on top of your tacos?

474

:

Yeah.

475

:

mark: Whatever.

476

:

I'm, I'm top.

477

:

Just don't put any preserved

vegetable root on there, or

478

:

at least too many of them.

479

:

I think keep it, keep it more

in the realm of vegetable, not.

480

:

Fermented sour vegetable.

481

:

Yeah.

482

:

bruce: There is one thing still in a

Chinese restaurant that I have not had.

483

:

We've seen it a number of times.

484

:

In fact, the first time we saw it was,

uh, when we still lived in New York and

485

:

that place across the street from us,

grand Sesh went international, started a.

486

:

Opening up those Chinese menus that used

to go only to the Chinese people and they

487

:

started giving them to white people too.

488

:

And one of the things they were very

famous at this restaurant for was their

489

:

sea cucumber, which is not a vegetable.

490

:

So it's not a salad.

491

:

It's a little slug like

animal that lives in not

492

:

a little.

493

:

bruce: It's a big

494

:

slug lie

495

:

bruce: animal, basically.

496

:

And then you buy them dried, so they

look like a bag of turds and you have

497

:

to soak 'em and they clean them out.

498

:

Now you can go to an Asian fish

market and get them fresh, and

499

:

then they look like life turds.

500

:

But I've never had one.

501

:

And what I eat one at this point,

sure, I'd probably eat one, but

502

:

they're just called sea cucumbers.

503

:

So look 'em up there.

504

:

mark: Uh, yeah.

505

:

And sea squirts.

506

:

There's less sea squirts in

Korean cooking and in coastal

507

:

Chinese cooking, I've never.

508

:

Scene, sea squirts on a menu?

509

:

Um, I probably would try it.

510

:

Uh, 'cause I don't, again, I'm

not averse to most living things.

511

:

I, uh, I eat with relish the

inner organs of Beast and Fells.

512

:

So Mark

513

:

bruce: and I once went out

for Dim Sum in San Francisco.

514

:

And we ran across something we

had never run across on a menu.

515

:

So it's not even

something we hadn't tried.

516

:

We had never seen this item listed

on a menu and it was called shutters.

517

:

And we Yeah, like, like

518

:

the shutters on your house.

519

:

bruce: Mm-hmm.

520

:

So we asked the woman what it was, and

she didn't speak much English at all.

521

:

No.

522

:

And she just.

523

:

Put her fingers together to

make this somewhat overly shape

524

:

and put it at her midsection.

525

:

A little low bike below her belly button.

526

:

And she kept saying, shut

her, shut her, shut her.

527

:

Well it turns out they didn't have any

that day, so we didn't get to eat them.

528

:

Um, and we ended up getting, uh,

some, I don't remember tripe.

529

:

I think we ended up with tripe 'cause

she told us it was a similar texture.

530

:

And it turned out that, you

know, shutters are the cow's part

531

:

where the baby cow comes out.

532

:

mark: I think we could say

that word on this podcast.

533

:

It's cow

534

:

bruce: vagina.

535

:

It is shutters are vaginas.

536

:

And I didn't know that was an old,

it's a butcher turn, a culinary term.

537

:

I didn't

538

:

mark: know that.

539

:

And so I looked at the menu and I

was like, ah, what our shutters.

540

:

And she held it up to her

lower abdomen in her hands.

541

:

Like, what is that?

542

:

I don't know what it is

that I'm supposed to be.

543

:

Your belly button.

544

:

So, uh, yeah, we didn't try that.

545

:

Uh, that was beyond us.

546

:

That would've been the

547

:

bruce: strangest thing.

548

:

Uh,

549

:

mark: yeah.

550

:

And I'm sure that stuff has gotta

be braised for like 5,000 years.

551

:

Oh, I would think

552

:

bruce: so.

553

:

You know, and this isn't a

strange food, but you've overcome

554

:

your aversion to cilantro.

555

:

I am not getting over my aversion.

556

:

To root beer and to licorice that is

not, and they're related, strange.

557

:

And they know.

558

:

It's strange to me that anyone

would eat them because they

559

:

think they taste so terrible.

560

:

My God.

561

:

Love root

562

:

mark: beer.

563

:

Oh, I love root beer and I love licorice.

564

:

I, oh my gosh.

565

:

And I love birch beer.

566

:

I love all of that stuff that sasper.

567

:

So in fact, one year I went

and made a root beer syrup.

568

:

So I bought all of the.

569

:

Parts, the ginseng and the, uh,

sapar root and all the various

570

:

pieces that make upper root beer.

571

:

And I made a syrup and I, we gave that

away as a Christmas gift to people.

572

:

So you poured a little glass

and added, uh, seltzer to it.

573

:

And by the way, that recipe's

in cold canning there, it's,

574

:

it made it into cold canning.

575

:

Mm-hmm.

576

:

'cause it is something you can make

and save back is root beer syrup.

577

:

It's

578

:

bruce: one of the most.

579

:

Delicious and I'm gonna, I want to end

with my most delicious and unexpected

580

:

thing was served for me dessert in Kahan.

581

:

Back when Mark and I were writing

for Wine Spectator, we did an

582

:

article on what it's like to be in

Kahan without the film festival did.

583

:

So we were at LA Palm

Door having dinner and.

584

:

I had eaten so much in that dinner.

585

:

We had such crazy things to eat and I was

so full and I didn't want a heavy dessert.

586

:

May, may I just say this is

back in the days when magazines

587

:

had generous expense accounts.

588

:

Mm.

589

:

Someone else paid for that

dinner at the front door.

590

:

Yes.

591

:

Generous expense accounts.

592

:

And

593

:

bruce: so, no.

594

:

The way they said, let me,

let's, trust me, let me bring you

595

:

something that's very special.

596

:

It's only of the moment,

and they brought over.

597

:

What can only be called a cauldron

of the tiniest, when I say tiny,

598

:

these were f deis wild strawberries.

599

:

They were so tiny.

600

:

They were, uh, like a quarter inch.

601

:

They were at the, at the most, they

were very tiny, and he spooned, and

602

:

these are so precious and so expensive.

603

:

And he spooned out a spoonful onto

my bowl, and then he set the cauldron

604

:

down and told me to help myself.

605

:

And it was.

606

:

Outrageous.

607

:

It was the most unexpected, but yet one

of the most delicious things I'd ever

608

:

had.

609

:

Uh, at that same restaurant, um, I had

something that I found delicious and

610

:

mark: that I never thought existed

and that I had pheasant fo gras.

611

:

Mm-hmm.

612

:

So pheasants had been force fed mm-hmm.

613

:

Until their livers got giant and bloated

and sick and fatty and delicious.

614

:

All that stuff, and delicious.

615

:

And then they had taken the pheasant

fo gra these livers and, um, chopped

616

:

them up and wrapped them in call fat.

617

:

Mm-hmm.

618

:

Which is the fat around

the kidneys of a pig.

619

:

And they put it in C fat and then they

serve that with the pheasant breast.

620

:

And it was, was in, that was an

insane, it was pretty good set

621

:

of organs going on that plate.

622

:

It was pretty good.

623

:

Yeah, it was really good.

624

:

Okay.

625

:

So those are some of the

weirdest things we've ever eaten.

626

:

We would love to know.

627

:

Yeah.

628

:

The weirdest things

that you've ever eaten.

629

:

bruce: Yeah, we do go to our Facebook

group cooking with Bruce and Mark

630

:

and you could share pictures if

you have it or just stories of some

631

:

of the weird things you've eaten.

632

:

'cause we wanna know what you're eating

633

:

mark: here.

634

:

I'm cooking with Bruce and Mark.

635

:

Okay.

636

:

Up next, the last part of this podcast,

as always, what's making us happy?

637

:

And food this week.

638

:

And I'm gonna start.

639

:

Okay, I get to go first.

640

:

Okay.

641

:

Uh, so it's that chicken stew.

642

:

Remember we talked about watch

the salt content of chicken?

643

:

Mm-hmm.

644

:

So I made a huge chicken stew.

645

:

Bruce's mother was here with us

for about two and a half weeks.

646

:

She's moved from the west coast

back to the east coast and she was

647

:

staying with us for about two and a

half weeks before she gets settled.

648

:

And one night I made a

giant pot of chicken stew.

649

:

It was so good.

650

:

Butternut squash, yellow beets.

651

:

Mm-hmm.

652

:

And something, there was

a third root in there.

653

:

Mm-hmm.

654

:

Butternut squash, yellow beets, and.

655

:

I don't know what you put in there.

656

:

Did you put

657

:

bruce: celery react?

658

:

I think you put celery react.

659

:

Yes.

660

:

Celery React.

661

:

Celery root.

662

:

Celery.

663

:

It was good.

664

:

And I had just picked those

yellow beets at a friend's

665

:

garden and that was delicious.

666

:

And it was super, super comforting.

667

:

Fall food.

668

:

Yeah, something else from

that friend's garden is what's

669

:

making me happy this week.

670

:

And that is Italian prune plums

because this friend has an orchard

671

:

in her garden and I was just there

this morning and I picked about 40.

672

:

Pounds of Italian P prune

plums and I've been eating them

673

:

and I am going to make jam.

674

:

You be so

675

:

mark: regular, everything is gonna

be so working like clock lot, my god.

676

:

Well anyway, yes indeed.

677

:

I love Italian Pune plums.

678

:

I think they're so great and it's

hard to find them at the store

679

:

where they're not too hard and sour.

680

:

So it's great to see them on the

trees and actually get 'em that way.

681

:

Well, that's the podcast for this week.

682

:

We really appreciate your making

us part of your podcast world.

683

:

Thanks for doing that, and thanks

for being on this journey with us

684

:

bruce: and thanks for checking

us out everywhere we live.

685

:

I already mentioned Facebook, but go

to TikTok and check out our TikTok

686

:

channel Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

687

:

There are a ton of videos there.

688

:

You get to see us cooking in our kitchen,

cooking for each other, just having a lot

689

:

of fun with food, which is what we love

to do here on cooking at Briton Market.

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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

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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!