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Episode 50

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Published on:

2nd Sep 2024

WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: We're talking about Girl Scout cookies!

Girl Scout cookies! We can't resist. They've got a storied history. And they've changed over the years.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We've written three dozen (and counting!) cookbooks. We're up for anything food and cooking. And this is our podcast to explore that passion--including Girl Scout cookies! Thanks for coming along on our journey.

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

[00:52] Our-minute cooking tip: Use tweezers in the kitchen!

[02:38] All about Girl Scout cookies. Where they came from. What happened to them. And how they taste now.

[14:57] What’s making us happy in food this week: grilled peaches and homemade kimchi.


Transcript
Bruce:

Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, and this is the Podcast Cookie with Bruce and Mark.

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mark: And I'm Mark Scarborough, and

together with Bruce, my husband,

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we have written 36 published books.

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We're working on the 37th.

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It is turned in.

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It has come back from editorial.

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It has dropped like a stone

on my desk, all nine of them.

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125 manuscript pages, good grief, um,

which just seemed to be writing longer

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and longer cookbooks as we go along.

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Anyway, this is our podcast

about food and cooking, which are

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the major passions in our life.

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And we're glad you're here with us.

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As always, we've got a

one minute cooking tip.

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We're going to tell you about cooking.

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Girl Scout Cookies, and we've got a

taste test of Girl Scout Cookies here

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with us, and as always, we will tell you

what's making us happy in Food This Week.

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So let's get started.

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Our one minute cooking tips.

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Tweezers.

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They are the unsung hero

of the home kitchen.

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Oh, God.

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No, no, no.

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No, um.

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Not for placing micro greens.

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Not for doing No, I'm

thinking about nose hairs.

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No, you get And I'm

thinking about ear hair.

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Don't go and get those tweezers.

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Buy a set just for the kitchen.

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Oh, okay.

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Ew.

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You're going to use them for removing

fish bones and We are such old

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men that we worry about ear hair.

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So, please go on.

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Also, please Picking little

bits of eggshell that fall into

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your eggs or even to a batter.

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You gotta get them out with a tweezer

Okay, I'll allow it But these tweezers

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have to be dishwasher safe because you

have to be able to really wash them I

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don't I don't pre judge or have any say

on these one minute cooking tips there

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Bruce's thing says he's the best And

this one I think I would have balked at.

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Because, again, I'm just picking lint from

between my toes and then somehow putting,

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getting cherry seeds out of tomatoes.

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I don't know.

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It's gross.

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I'm not using those tweezers.

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Oh, okay.

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So, anyway, removing fish bones

and picking bits of eggshell.

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I suppose you can have one in your drawer.

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Just make sure nobody

in the household knows.

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Uh, to use those tweezers.

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for other purposes.

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Okay, I'm going to get off.

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We're going to go on to our next

segment about Girl Scout cookies.

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Before we do that, let's just say, uh,

we do have several social media feeds.

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We're on Instagram under our own names.

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There's also an Instagram

channel cooking Bruce and Mark.

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There's a TikTok channel cooking

Bruce and Mark, and there's a

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Facebook group cooking Bruce and Mark.

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You can join any of those groups.

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We are thrilled to connect with you there.

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Okay.

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Our big major segment of this podcast,

not only a question of where to

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Girl Scout cookies come from, but a

taste test of the current varieties.

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I have wondered for a while about

what happened to Girl Scout cookies.

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What happened?

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Well, because it used to be

that you'd see them every year.

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Someone's kid was always selling them.

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But where we live, that

just doesn't happen.

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We don't run into people.

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with Girl Scout aged girls

selling Girl Scout cookies.

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Okay, so here's the deal.

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Uh, when we first started in the cooking

career, we lived in Manhattan and we

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sang with the nation's first, I was the

president of the board, of the nation's

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first gay and lesbian cooking group.

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Chorale and believe it or not.

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We didn't do show tunes.

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No, we did Mozart.

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So it was that kind of choir So

I was the president board of that

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choir And of course there were always

people in that choir who had kids

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and Girl Scout cookies showed up

I don't know several times a year.

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It seemed like yeah, you've got the

order form you ordered them and I

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remember them We live in super We're in

super rural New England that you can't

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even see another house from my house.

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Our driveway is a quarter mile long.

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There is nobody selling Girl

Scout cookies around us.

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And you know, you cannot

buy them in a store.

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You cannot buy them online.

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In fact, the one that you're

going to Wait, wait, stop.

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I don't know this part.

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You can't buy them online?

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You can't buy them from the Girl Scouts.

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The ones I have that we're

tasting today are last year's

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cookies, and I got them on eBay.

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Oh, oh, seriously?

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Wait, so you have to have a Girl Scout?

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You have to be able to get

them from a Girl Scout, yeah.

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Wow, okay, so, see, I learned

something in my own podcast.

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Um, let me say that, uh, I know this,

and Bruce didn't know this until now.

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If you don't know this, I'm here

to tell you that Girl Scout Cookies

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actually started in Mesquite.

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Gogi, Oklahoma.

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Yeah, the mistletoe troop.

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It was the mistletoe Girl Scout troop.

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Yeah, I knew this growing up as a Texan.

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This troop baked cookies and

sold them in its high school

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cafeteria as a service project.

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And it was crazy.

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These cookies were baked by

these Girl Scouts and their moms.

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They volunteered.

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And the sale of cookies went

to finance troop activities.

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And this was as early as 1917.

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In fact, I I think that Juliette Gordon

Low, Girl Scouts of the United States,

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was only started a few years earlier.

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Yeah, like 1912.

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Right.

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So, it was just a few years, and then

they started doing this, and then I

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should just say, in case you don't

know, that in July of:

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Girl Scouts of the USA magazine, there

was an article by one Florence E.

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Neal.

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I hope that it was Mrs.

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Neal.

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Florence E.

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Neal, but Florence E.

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Neal, and she was the local director

of the Chicago, Illinois Girl Scout

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group, and she, or one of them, and

she published a recipe for cookies,

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and she claimed that this would be a

great way for troops to make money.

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And so she gave that out to troops.

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2, 000 Girl Scout troops, she even

estimated the cost of making six to

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seven dozen cookies, which was 26 cents.

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In 1922 money, 26 cents.

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And she suggested they should be sold

for that 26 cents per dozen so they

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can make six to seven times a profit.

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Right.

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And it was a great idea and that

started, now there was a little bit

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of a problem here with World War II.

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Oh yeah, that.

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And especially the problem of sugar,

flour, and butter were rationed.

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My mother still has a ration

card from her childhood, uh,

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from World War II rationing.

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I think it's still got

a butter stamp in it.

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Oh, can I use it?

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Can I take it to Stop

and Shop and get butter?

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I don't think so.

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So for a while, the Girl Scouts started

selling calendars as a way to make money.

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It was an alternative,

of course, to cookies.

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But once the war was over and the

rationing had stopped, let's say

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by 1948, there were all kinds of

Girl Scout cookies being baked.

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And they were being baked by

professional bakeries, 29 of them

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around the country were licensed

to bake the Girl Scout cookies.

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And in the fifties, there were three

varieties of Girl Scout cookies that

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were sort of nationalized, right?

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So they wanted to sort of

make a even playing field.

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Everyone was selling the same ones.

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They had these shortbread

cookies, these chocolate mints.

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Now we know they're thin mints.

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Right.

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And it kept going.

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And, you know, there were some,

I believe, the cookie factory in

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Marietta, Oklahoma, as I remember.

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Now, this is out of my memory,

and I haven't fact checked this.

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But I believe there was a cookie

factory in Marietta, Oklahoma, where

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some of my dad's family was from.

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And I think they were one of the

makers of Girl Scout cookies.

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At the cookie.

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Uh, we, uh, I always had this thing we

would pass by the cookie factory and they

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had a sign out front that said, you know,

um, come in for fresh broken cookies.

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And I'm like, I don't want

my cookies freshly broken.

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I want them.

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So it was the cookie outlet.

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Mark doesn't like going

into cookie outlets.

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No, I'm not cookie outlets.

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Mark doesn't like any kind of outlets

because he thinks everything's used.

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I don't wear used underwear and I

don't wear used jeans and I, I'm

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sorry, I know that someone has

had that pair of underwear on.

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And now it's in an outlet store.

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Those 1950s sandwich cookies became

peanut butter sandwich cookies in the 60s.

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Thank you, boomers.

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And by the early 80s, we were down to

four national bakers making cookies.

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And whatever flavors they made had

to include thin mints, the peanut

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butter sandwich, which now is called

do si dos, and the shortbread.

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Okay, so now it's gone so far that there

are actually kosher and halal versions

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of good Girl Scout cookies I mean it's

become a national phenomenon and It's

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hard for me to know whether it still is

as big as it used to be because again

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that we live so Remotely in New England.

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I know you think and before we get to

the taste test I know you think of New

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England as part of the East Coast and the

East Coast is you know Jammed with people

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and it's true if you're on the coast But

the minute you leave the coast of even

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the East Coast and start inland, where we

are, the population thins dramatically.

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And where we are, there

ain't many people around.

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Unlike what they say in

Massachusetts, where it is thickly

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settled, we are thinly settled.

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Yes.

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In Massachusetts, when you enter a town,

any town from Boston, which is insane, or

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let's say Springfield, Massachusetts, down

to some po don't know where town, the town

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name will be there, and it'll always say

thickly settled, which just cracks me up.

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Yes, Boston is thickly settled.

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But, um, much of New England is not.

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And I mean, our town has 600, 610 people,

I think, in it, something like that.

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And we don't have a stoplight

and we don't have any police.

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We have a volunteer ambulance

from the next town and we have

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a volunteer fire department,

but there is no police present.

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And we don't have a single

stoplight in our town.

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So I mean, it's Very rural.

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Thinly settled.

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Thinly settled.

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Okay, so, that's enough about New

England, let's talk about how you

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got these cookies from Oh, well I

got them From used cookies from eBay.

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I got them on eBay, but I made sure

that they were within their expiration

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date, and so Were the packages opened?

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No, they were not opened.

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Did they have drool on them?

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No, they did not have drool on them.

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And I checked, I checked for needle

marks to make sure nobody injected

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anything into But I will say what I

thought someone might have injected

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into these is shrinkage liquid

because maybe it's just that when

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I was a kid, my hands were smaller.

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No no no.

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These cookies look tiny.

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No, the samosas have shrunk.

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These, I'm looking at, I'm

holding a do si do, which is the

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peanut butter sandwich cookie.

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And this is about the

size of a Ritz cracker.

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Okay, so we're going to try a do si do.

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Mm hmm.

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Um, no.

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That's a big no out of me.

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No.

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I'm eating it right now and I

can tell you that is a hard no.

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It's a hard pass.

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I should be clear, I

don't like soft cookies.

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So, I bit into that.

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And it was soft, and, no, I don't like it.

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Well, it's also humid,

and it's New England.

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No, okay, that cookie is meant to be soft.

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And, listen, no shine on

people who like soft cookies.

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A lot of people like rich, soft cookies.

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I like crunch.

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So that's who I am, and when I bit into

that, I was expecting the thing to break,

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because it's a peanut butter cookie,

and it didn't, and I don't want it.

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I also have to say, these are all dairy

free, and that's part of the deal.

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So now I'm going to try the what used to

be my favorite, which is the thin mint.

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Oh, the thin mints.

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Okay.

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Now I'm looking at it again.

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It's about the size of a Ritz cracker.

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It has holes that you can see

through the chocolate layer.

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So it actually looks like a Ritz

cracker covered in chocolate.

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Okay.

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Those indentations.

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I've been around the

food business too much.

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It has a little indentations,

like a domino on the top of it.

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You know those are so they

can use less chocolate.

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There are fewer grams per chocolate

per wafer with those dots in them.

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Really?

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You don't think those dots are like

where the batter was squirted out

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into the circles and No, I don't.

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I've been around the

food business too much.

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Um, this tastes like the standard

Thin Mint and I like Thin Mints.

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I will always like Thin Mints.

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I like them because they're crunchy

and as you can guess, I prefer them

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out of the freezer because once out

of the freezer they are super crunchy.

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Well, maybe the Dosey Dose

should go in the freezer.

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Ugh.

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I just don't like soft cookies.

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So what are these milk chocolatey

things that have peanut butter.

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So what are these called?

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These are called Tagalog.

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Oh, so they're kind of like

squashed versions of Malam Mars.

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But inside, instead of marshmallow,

there is a shortbread cookie topped

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with a little peanut butter, and the

whole thing is dipped in milk chocolate.

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Yeah.

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Very sweet.

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But crunchy.

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You said dairy free, but now

you're saying milk chocolate.

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I know.

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So I'm not sure When I say dairy free,

I mean they're not cooked with butter.

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They're all cooked with like

palm oil and shortening.

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Okay.

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Um, those are okay.

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I wouldn't write home about them.

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Um, they're just okay.

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Now, now the Samoas, which always

used to be my absolute favorite.

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Oh, they were everyone's favorite.

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Right after Thin Mint.

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They're with the coconut and

the caramel and the chocolate.

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I like that.

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They used to be chewier.

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There's like a cookie ring

that's dipped in caramel.

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The top is dipped in coconut and

the bottom is dipped in chocolate.

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So, carry on with the podcast.

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Well, I can say that my A1c is going to

probably go up in my next blood test,

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but And we'll say this, um, While I like

them, and I understand the point of them,

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They do have a slightly chemical tang.

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They have an industrial quality.

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They do.

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These are definitely an

industrial cookie at this point.

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They're, to be honest, if I'm

going to eat an industrial cookie,

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I'd probably rather eat an Oreo.

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I mean, I breathed in, I finished

my, I did eat the whole Samoa.

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And I finished it, and when I breathed

in just now, I did get that kind

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of, Aerosol like flavor in my mouth.

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I can't explain it exactly.

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It's kind of like the old

aerosol deodorants It has a

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very chemical quality to it.

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It's a Okay.

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Yeah.

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So, as we can see, we kind

of like the Thin Mints.

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We're not fans of the other ones

that we just tried, but The Samoas,

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I can't give up on, because I

love them so much from years past.

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We're going to have to do a follow

up, because since these were last

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year's cookies, and the expiration

date is not for another month

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only, I am going to get some fresh

That explains the aerosol taste.

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I am going to get some fresh

Girl Scout cookies this year.

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I'm going to have to find a Girl Scout.

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I'm going to have to go out Oh.

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Oh, that kind of podcast then?

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Okay, go on.

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I'm going to go out and

find me a Girl Scout.

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Oh, God.

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And I'm going to make

her sell me some cookies.

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Oh, gosh.

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Okay.

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Oh, gosh.

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And then we're going to taste them on

our own, and we're just going to do it

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as a what's making us happy in food if

we like them better than we like these.

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Before we get to the final segment

of this podcast, let me say that it's

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great to have you on this journey.

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It'd be great if you could rate

this podcast and subscribe to it.

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All you need to do is whatever service

you're on, give it a star rating.

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Can we ask for five stars, please?

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Um, and if you can take the time

and just write nice podcast on

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whatever platform you're on,

Audible, uh, on, uh, Apple Podcasts.

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They don't let you do this on

Spotify, but other places they do,

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Podchaser, other places, it'd be great.

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A rating and a review really helps

us and we are otherwise unsupported.

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Okay, the final traditional

segment of the podcast, what's

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making us happy in food this week?

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Grilled peaches.

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It is still stone fruit season around

here, and to be honest, Mark and I buy

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the best peaches possible at Costco.

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They sell big boxes of peaches

that are juicy and yummy.

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And for dessert the other night, I cut

one in half and I threw it on the grill

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for about five minutes over high heat.

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It got charred and caramelized.

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I drizzled it with honey and aged

balsamic and shaved fresh Parmigiano

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Reggiano, and that was dessert.

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So grilled peaches are

what's making me happy.

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Your food this week.

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Okay.

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What's making me happy

is something I asked for.

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I mean, one of the benefits of living with

a chef and marrying a chef is that you

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can ask for dinner and you get dinner.

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So, um, I said that I wanted

something Korean and the point of this

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something Korean, I got a grilled.

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pork tenderloin.

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But the point of this is what I

really wanted was rice and kimchi.

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It is the time of year in

which Bruce is making kimchi.

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We have a big bottle of kimchi

going in the back refrigerator.

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It's nicely soured and frozen.

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And I so just wanted a big blob of

rice and kimchi on the top of it.

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And I should tell you that this

year's kimchi is super hot.

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It's, wow, it's hot.

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Yeah, I just, I just

like dumped it all in.

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Oh my gosh, it's hot.

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If you want to see how Bruce makes kimchi,

check out the YouTube video on our YouTube

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channel, Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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You can see him make kimchi there.

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I love kimchi, and by the way, I

should just add, and this is something

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that's interesting, we only make it

in the fridge, so you don't have to

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worry about room temperature ferment.

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I know it's much, much more traditional

to do a room temperature ferment, but

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if you're patient, that is 10 days, 7

days, 10 days, somewhere along in there,

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you can get it to ferment in the fridge.

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You just have to be very

super patient with it.

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You do, and I will say that I use

fish sauce in mine instead of like

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salted octopus and all that raw fish.

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Yes, you do, you do.

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It's fish sauce for that umami wang

in it and, um, I, I just really wanted

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a big pile of rice with kimchi on it

and that's basically what I ate with

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a little pork last night for dinner.

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Okay.

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That's the podcast for this week.

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Thanks for being part

of this journey with us.

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Thanks for spending your time with us.

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We hope you've made your day or

your drive time or wherever you are.

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We hope we made it more enjoyable

and we hope we've encouraged

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you to go buy some gross cut

cookies and try them on your own.

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And we tell you what's making

us happy in food every week on

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Cooking With Bruce and Mark.

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So please, please go to our Facebook page.

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Group Cooking with Bruce and

Mark and share what is making

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you happy in food this week.

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We want to know, we want to read about it.

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We want to even try it and maybe make

it here 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

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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!