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Episode 47

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Published on:

12th Aug 2024

WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: We're talking about what happened to The Instant Pot!

The Instant Pot became a true craze. Even an international craze. At one point, a major department store was selling up to sixty Instant Pots per minute.

But things have dramatically changed. And we know why. We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We've written three dozen cookbooks including THE INSTANT POT BIBLE and THE INSTANT POT BIBLE: COPYCAT RECIPES. (Click those links if you're interested.)

We rode the Instant Pot roller coaster. And we're here to report back what happened. Join us for our food and cooking podcast. We're glad you're here.

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

[00:50] Our one-minute cooking tip: Trash your garlic press and use a small hand-held grater.

[03:27] What happened to the Instant Pot? It went from an international craze to a much smaller presence. We rode this roller coaster. We're here to report back, from our initial reserve about the pressure cooker to our giant, big-selling Instant Pot bibles!

[23:31] What’s making us happy in food this week: unexpected food pleasures and lemon marmalade.

Transcript
Bruce:

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

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Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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mark: I'm Mark Scarborough and together

with Bruce my husband We have written

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three dozen cookbooks not counting

Bruce's knitting books not counting

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my memoir not counting the books We

ghost wrote for celebrities back in

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the day What 40 books total we've just

turned in yet another cookbook book.

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And this is our podcast about food

and cooking our passions in life.

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We have a one minute

cooking tip about garlic.

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We're going to talk about instant pots

and all things pressure cookers and what

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in fact has happened to the instant pot.

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It used to be everywhere.

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And is it still not really, but

we want to talk about that and

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we're going to 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 tip.

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Trash your garlic press and use

your small hold grater for garlic.

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Now,

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I want to tell you, you probably,

if you listen to this podcast, you

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probably know that I was at one

time in my life connected to an

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Italian immigrant family with first

generation, I mean, real immigrants.

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I mean, the people I was connected with

were the first generation born in the U.

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S.

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and their, the aunts and uncles

and all that were Italians.

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And they thought garlic

presses were from Satan.

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Bruce: Well, they're horrible.

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Well, yeah.

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mark: just

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Bruce: I can tell

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mark: you that they thought

that was the most American

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affectation they could imagine.

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Bruce: they're horrible.

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And I'm not suggesting use a microplane.

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Just the small holes of a box grater,

or if you have a single handheld grater,

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it's the one with the small holes.

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It creates beautiful, small little

pieces that retain all the juice and

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all the oil that's inside that garlic.

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Instead of a press, which just crushes

it and squeezes all that good stuff out.

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mark: if you don't know that a press

removes the juice in the oil, it still

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gets in there somewhat if it flows

through the press, although the press

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gets gunked up with stuff, but it makes

the oil and many of the flavor esters

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separated from the pulp of the garlic.

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It's a problem.

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A garlic

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bruce (2): ever try and clean one of those

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mark: And Bruce is suggesting

that you use a handheld grater.

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Grader with a fine grating surface on it.

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Before we get to the next part of our

podcast, all about instant pots and

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what's happened to them, where they

came from and well, now where they went.

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Uh, let me say that we

do have a newsletter.

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It comes out.

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Well, Maybe about once a month right now.

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If you don't know, my mom is

in serious health decline and I

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have been back and forth from St.

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Louis dealing with her and trying to help

her as she approaches her 92nd birthday.

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So, uh, maybe the newsletter doesn't

go out quite as often as it once did.

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But if you

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bruce (2): Let's do one just about her.

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mark: Great.

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If you want to sign up for that

newsletter, which is not necessarily

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connected to this podcast, but

has recipes, cooking tips, and

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even things about our lifestyle.

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You can find that on our

website, cookingwithbruceandmark.

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com or just bruceandmark.

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com.

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There's a way to sign up for the

newsletter there on the splash page.

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And let me just remind you that neither

I, nor the mail service provider can

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capture your name, nor your email.

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I pay extra for that.

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So you can sign up there

for that newsletter, which I

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promise will soon go out again.

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All right, let's turn to the question.

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of instant pots and pressure cookers and

what we've seen over the years with them.

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bruce (2): Before we talk about what

happened to the Instant Pot, for those who

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aren't familiar, what is an Instant Pot?

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An Instant Pot is Well, you know, people

who even use it don't even understand

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sometimes that it is a pressure cooker.

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And a pressure cooker is just a device

that has a tight, Tight fitting lid and

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mark: a small escape,

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bruce (2): a little small escape

valve and the food must have a lot

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of moisture so that it comes to a

boil and then a gasket seals it.

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It pulls that moisture and steam

in, the lid gets even tighter,

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pressure builds, the temperature

rises, and things cook much faster.

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mark: I think, I think one of the most,

uh, surprising things to me over the

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years, and you may know that Bruce

and I have written several Instant

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Pot books, we'll talk about that in

a minute, we wrote the Instant Pot

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Bible, and Instant Pot Bible Next

Generation, and a copycat for restaurant,

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copycat recipes for the instant pot

and a book all about going straight

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from your freezer to the instant pot.

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So let's just say we went

all in on the instant pot.

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But one of the things that surprised

me in following the social media

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groups is how many people didn't think

that the instant and by the way, it

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is an instant pot, not an insta pot.

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How many people didn't think?

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No, that the instant pot was

in fact a pressure cooker.

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bruce (2): you tell them that

and they'll go, no, it's not,

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it's, it's, it's an instant pot.

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mark: I know

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bruce (2): a pressure cooker.

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And the thing about a pressure

cooker is Your food is

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basically being boiled to death.

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That's what happens in a pressure cooker.

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mark: Right.

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Um, can I, can I just go back

to that point for a minute?

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I think that this speaks to the brand's

success because the brand was so

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successful instant pot that he overrode

even the definition of what it was.

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And.

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It's brand instant pot became what it was.

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I know this sounds really weird, but

it became what it was More than a

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pressure cooker more than an electric

pressure cooker My grandmother I

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used to pressure cooker all the time.

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I grew up with them and my grandmother

would oh, this will kill you She would

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set a pot roast to go in a pressure

cooker and they would go off to church

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bruce (2): the pressure cooker going.

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mark: I'm not making this up

leaving it going and then come home

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to it still going on the stove.

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Anyway, it's crazy.

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I don't do that at home.

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No, I never do that.

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But my grandmother always used

a stovetop pressure cooker.

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And of course, if you don't know, pressure

cookers are extremely popular in Europe.

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In fact, when we were doing research

for our Instant Pot books and even our

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pressure cooker book, we discovered

that the Average, average Swiss

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household owns three pressure cookers.

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That's the average.

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So that means that half the

population owns more than three.

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bruce (2): crazy?

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My grandmother also used a pressure

cooker all the time for her tongue.

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That was her big

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mark: Oh, there you go.

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And

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you use a pressure cooker for tongue.

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bruce (2): I use a pressure cooker

for tongue, and I had a bunch

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of stovetop pressure cookers

before Instant Pot came out.

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And then I actually did by a couple of

electric pressure cookers when they first

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came out just to see the difference.

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And the basic difference between the

stovetop ones and the electric ones is

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that the stovetop ones are designed to

cook at a slightly higher pressure, so

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a higher temperature, and they actually

cook faster than the electric ones.

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But the electric ones are so easy

and convenient, and you don't need

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to monitor the heat that at this

point I have gotten rid of All of

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my stovetop pressure cookers, and I

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mark: You don't even

have one of them left?

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I don't have

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bruce (2): any of them.

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All I have are electric pressure cookers.

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I also like the variety of sizes.

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So when we started using the electrics,

we had this idea that, wait a

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second, here's something that people

are really starting to talk about.

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mark: We spoke with our publisher

about writing the first pressure

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cooker book and Stimpot was just out.

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And, um, the publisher asked for what in

publishing is called a category killer.

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That is a book that is so giant and has

so many recipes that really any other

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book that comes behind it is dead because

this thing has stopped the category.

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So we did, we, we wrote what became

honestly a category killer in its day.

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And it was a book in which every

recipe told you how to do it in a

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stove top model and how to do it

in an electric, the new fangled

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electric pressure cooker countertops.

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And here's the thing that this book sold.

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like crazy on QVC.

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We were on multiple times on QVC.

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It was even on without

us with just the hosts

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selling It on QVC without

our presence there.

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bruce (2): Let me also just say it's

called The Great Big Pressure Cooker Book

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in case you want to go and look at it.

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Right.

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It is still in print.

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It still sells.

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mark: it's still on.

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here

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was our decision.

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We saw the Instant Pot.

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It was brand new out.

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We got connected to the CEO of

what then the CEO of Instant Pot.

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He sent us a couple.

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We looked at it and we

dismissed it out of hand.

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We said it was a novelty toy

because he didn't have the kind of

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bruce (2): culinary credentials

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mark: of some of the other machines,

but he had a lot of bells and whistles

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and buttons and you know, we were

being very snotty and we're like, well,

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you don't need bells and whistles.

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You just need an on off

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bruce (2): It reminded me of one of

those children's toys that has all these

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buttons you could press that do nothing.

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And that was kind of what I thought,

because the Instant Pot has a

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button for chicken and a button

for beef and a button for soup.

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mark: The buttons on the Instant Pot, all

bring it to exactly the same pressure.

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The only difference is the

manufacturer has set timings at

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that temperature at that pressure.

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So that's the difference.

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As Bruce said, we kind

of dismissed all that.

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I'll look at all these fancy buttons.

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Nobody needs this.

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bruce (2): And yeah, we

also dismissed Bitcoin

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mark: Bitcoin when it first

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came out We still dismiss Bitcoin

because I still don't know what it is.

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I just can't.

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I'm too old to buy something that

I don't understand what it is.

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So, um,

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so

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yes, we dismiss that too.

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So, , we, did dismiss the Instapot.

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And then the book, the great big

pressure cooker book sold really well.

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And the publisher came back

to us and said, how about,

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well, different publisher.

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We jump publishers and they said, how

about writing an instant pop book?

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And so by that point we were, okay, we're

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bruce (2): Yeah, we were in.

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At that point, I realized how popular

they were, and we could do the same thing.

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Let's make a category killer that's

just about the Instant Pot, and

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we wrote the Instant Pot Bible.

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And what we did differently in that

book, and what I love about the Instant

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Pots are all the sizes they come in.

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So, we have a three quart, a six

quart, an eight quart, a ten quart,

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and that's something I never had

in my stovetops, and none of the

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other electric pressure cookers are.

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So it was kind of cool

to be able to play with

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mark: think that one of the things

that's really interesting here about

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the Instant Pot and while we're talking

about it is, The Instant Pot was

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really one of the first giant social

media hits of kitchen appliances.

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And they went all in for influencers

and social media advertising.

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And this is part of their success.

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They exploded on Facebook,

on Instagram, particularly on

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Facebook, but also on Instagram.

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They exploded.

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uploaded in the social media landscape,

and they got influencers involved

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to make recipes, contribute recipes,

et cetera, before influencer was

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even such a big name as it is now.

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And this is how they made their success

is through social media connection.

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And they just overwhelmed the category.

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So when we published the Instant

Pot Bible, the category was firmly

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established in social media circles.

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Um, I just should tell you, in case

you don't know, we were, of course,

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connected to the Instant Pot, and our

contract with them actually stated

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how many times a week we could post.

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So they were taking people like us,

cookbook authors, and they were limiting

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our access to allow just, um, you

know, somebody making an Instant Pot

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stew at home to not be able to post.

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overrun by us.

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bruce (2): And part of that is

their social media presence was so

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popular that like, for instance,

on Facebook alone, they had over

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3 million people in their groups.

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That's a huge audience that

we were trying to reach.

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And so they did have some

power to try and control that.

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And it's fascinating also when

they first started selling, they

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made a choice that the audience.

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The only place they were

going to sell was Amazon.

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And that was a really strategic point.

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Once it became super popular, then

you can get them at department

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mark: stores.

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I think that is because, uh,

Robert Wang came out of tech.

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He had retired from tech, the

guy who essentially invented the

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Instant Pot and started the company.

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He came out of tech and I think

he understood the power of tech

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more than maybe some traditional

companies like Whirlpool or

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the traditional manufacturers.

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So he just decided to throw it all in

for social media and for, uh, Amazon.

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But then, of course, they, began

selling elsewhere and it exploded.

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And by

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bruce (2): 2018 in

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mark: the 2018 holiday season,

this, this may be peak instant pot.

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The Coles, the department store claimed

that they were selling 60 Instant pots per

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minute over Thanksgiving weekend of 2018.

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If you just think about that,

you can see it's absolutely

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exploded across the landscape.

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bruce (2): at that point, even

QVC had instant brands create

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an instant pot just for them.

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So you can get an exclusive

design instant pot just on QVC.

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And that was really good for

us because then we were able to

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sell our book on QVC as well.

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mark: And, um, the brand exploded,

and then here's what happened,

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and you may know this already.

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There's a lot of talk online

about, oh, they got too popular.

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They overplayed their hand.

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They, uh,

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bruce (2): it to too

many other appliances.

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Right,

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mark: They got other appliances.

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They got a blender for a while and

other stuff that they expanded to.

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All of that is not true.

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Here's the truth.

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What happened is that Instabrands,

which is a Canadian company, Brands

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essentially, as you probably well know,

was sold to, well, they were sold to

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an old manufacturing concern that owned

corral, but when Pyrex, but really

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what it was sold to was the hedge fund

that controlled Pyrex and corral, isn't

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bruce (2): that the nature

of business these days?

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Every company out there is now

controlled by a hedge fund.

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mark: Wang made billions now.

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Well, I'm not sure he didn't make

it with a B, but he made lots of

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money off the sale of instant brands.

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bruce (2): and

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mark: he sold it.

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And then not to be gross, but

just to tell you what happened.

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It's not that they overplayed

their hand in popularity.

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This hedge fund that is behind Pyrex

and Corel and other brands that

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owns them did what they always do.

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They took instant brands and

they loaded it with debt.

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I mean, they just leverage that thing.

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out of oblivion into debt.

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They sucked that money, the capital

off from the debt, and then put

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the company into receivership.

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And that's, that's

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exactly how it worked.

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They loaded up with debt, pocketed the

money of the debt, and then put it into

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bruce (2): into,

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mark: bankruptcy.

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bruce (2): And what happened after

that is that this company that

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was now bankrupt, went on the

auction block and was bought up.

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And it is now called Instant Pot Brands.

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It used to be Instant Brands.

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Now it's Instant Pot Brands, which

tells you something also about

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their focus as a new company.

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That I expect it will be mostly just

Instant Pots and not other appliances.

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And it is a standalone

company under new ownership.

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So we'll see this.

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mark: This is exactly what Bruce

and I saw happen with Craftsy.

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As you know, we recorded a lot

of cooking videos for Craftsy.

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We have a lot of classes

still up on Craftsy.

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Craftsy still exists,

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bruce (2): It does.

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mark: but Craftsy was a standalone company

in Denver started by a couple of, uh,

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retired tech post tech entrepreneurs.

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They started this company with

all kinds of knitting and I

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don't know, furniture making and.

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Cooking all kind of DIY content

and you could subscribe and get

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all these DIY classes and buy them.

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And then that eventually grew

exponentially and it got bought by

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NBC's parent company and NBC had

this decision, Universal, yeah,

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the NBC had this decision that they

were going to put their celebrities.

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bruce (2): on it.

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mark: So we're going to watch Amy

Poehler make a cake, I don't know.

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Like, I really don't care what cakes

Amy Poehler makes, but okay, whatever.

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But I know I'm not the

target audience for this.

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So, they were going to do

that, that didn't really work.

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Then the thing got sold

off, again, to a hedge fund.

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It got loaded up with debt,

it got put into bankruptcy.

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And now it's out.

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owned by a small company in

Minnesota, which is maintaining

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the Kraftsy brand, but the whole

thing has shrunk dramatically.

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They're not really creating

a lot of new content.

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They're recycling their old content.

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You know, this is the thing.

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These things grow big.

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They attract the attention of

venture capitalists and hedge funds.

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They get bought up.

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They get loaded with debt.

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They get put into bankruptcy, and

then they re emerge as a much, much

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tinier entity, back kind of to the

original focus, except smaller.

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And you can hear this

with Instant Pot brands.

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They're going to do away with, you

know, the blenders and all this other

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air fryers and all this other stuff,

and just really focus on the core

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business, which was the pressure

cooker, the electric pressure cooker.

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bruce (2): Well, it's interesting.

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During this sort of slow, decline

in popularity of the Instant Pot

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over the last year, year and a half,

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mark: we

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bruce (2): have actually noticed

an uptick on the sales of our non

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Instant Pot pressure cooker book.

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So that great big pressure cooker

book has actually started selling.

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more copies again, and we're selling

fewer copies of the Instant Pop Bible.

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So it is sort of in real time.

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We're seeing that feedback of

what's happening out in the world.

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mark: And it's, it's indicative.

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of, um, U.

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S.

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Canadian culture, I think.

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It's more U.

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S.

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than Canadian, but both together.

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It's indicative of the culture, and

maybe even a little bit of the U.

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K.

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And that is this thing to, uh,

what do I want to say, to run

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after the shiny new object.

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So here's the shiny new object.

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And people run after it and they embrace

it and grab it and love it and hold it.

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And then of course the shine wears off

and something else shiny comes along

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like an air fryer or, you know, whatever

else it is that that comes along.

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And that thing that used to be the hot

it thing suddenly starts to fade away.

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And it.

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It is just the arc of so many, I think

about, um, Ron Popeil and the thousands

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of things that Ron Popeil, the inside

the egg, egg scrambler, think about the

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thousands of things that Ron Popeil made.

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What was it?

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Set it and forget it.

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The

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bruce (2): Uh, the, it was some rotisserie

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mark: the rotisserie oven.

387

:

You know, I mean, he rode those waves,

Popeil did, made himself billions, riding

388

:

those waves over and over and over again.

389

:

Because it is the nature of, um, what

do we want to say, a really highly

390

:

developed consumer culture that you

find the shiny new thing, you love it.

391

:

And then, you know, it kind of

runs its course and it falls back

392

:

to a more moderating position.

393

:

It's like, right, and then you

have, you know, suddenly it's a much

394

:

smaller thing, but it still exists.

395

:

Instant bots are still

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:

around.

397

:

Malibu

398

:

bruce (2): Stacey has a new

hat, and it's, you know,

399

:

mark: most people are not

going to get that reference.

400

:

bruce (2): It's a Simpsons reference.

401

:

The references on this

podcast are always from the

402

:

mark: Okay.

403

:

Most people are not going to catch that.

404

:

Um, and even old people are not

necessarily going to catch that.

405

:

So, uh, but what Bruce is saying is

that, that they change a little bit

406

:

of something to make it shiny and new

again, which they did, but there's

407

:

not really anything left to change

408

:

bruce (2): They changed that entire thing.

409

:

So many times they put so many new hats

on it until there was nothing else to do.

410

:

mark: Right, but that's not

the reason it collapsed.

411

:

It collapsed because of the

nature of consumer society, and it

412

:

collapsed because of hedge fund debt.

413

:

And that's why it has kind

of collapsed as it has.

414

:

And, you know, I mean, I think

that Instant Pots are great.

415

:

I love them.

416

:

When Bruce sings with his Baroque

group, I make dinner after the concert

417

:

for all of our friends who can't,

uh, who can't come to his concerts.

418

:

And I always make chilies and make a

vegetarian chili and a meaty chili.

419

:

You know, I always make several different

kinds of chili and I always drag out

420

:

all the instant pots and I always make

chili in an instant pot because it's

421

:

easy cause I can get it out on the

counter and get all the fixings out with

422

:

chilies and I can make a big buffet and

tada, I'm done and our friends are fed.

423

:

So I love the instant pot for what

it's worth, but again, it's, Giant

424

:

fame has deteriorated partly from

financial reasons and partly because

425

:

of the nature of consumer society.

426

:

bruce (2): Well, I'm hoping that they

are able to sort of resurrect their image

427

:

a bit in this new Instant Pot Brands

company because it is a good product.

428

:

Um, as Mark says, we love them.

429

:

My favorite thing to do in it is to take

the Eight or the 10 quart pot, which

430

:

are big enough to cook spaghetti without

breaking them, and you could make a nice

431

:

tomato sauce or a meat sauce, and you

put the raw pasta right in that sauce.

432

:

It cooks.

433

:

mark: especially for

like Cincinnati chili.

434

:

bruce (2): and it cooks in six

minutes under pressure, and the

435

:

pasta's cooked right in that sauce.

436

:

Uh, yeah, I still love my Instant Pot.

437

:

mark: Yeah, it's, it's a great tool in the

kitchen, and part of what happened to it,

438

:

you know, as it got increasingly popular,

the word popular, Prolonging this bit to

439

:

also say it became increasingly popular.

440

:

So people were trying to do Everything

and it's about we would see videos of

441

:

people claiming to fry chicken We can't

fry chicken in a pressure cooker So,

442

:

I don't know what little tricks they

were using that suddenly there's fried

443

:

chicken sitting there because in a steamy

pressure cooker You cannot fry chicken.

444

:

So people would just making

videos like crazy claiming.

445

:

Oh, look at me I made you know something

that we know why I made candy fudge in

446

:

an instant pot and it's like Come on,

447

:

give me a break.

448

:

The

449

:

bruce (2): syrup and was a big thing.

450

:

mark: Right, I remember

451

:

bruce (2): I tried cooking

452

:

mark: iced tea.

453

:

Remember the thousands of videos

for iced tea in the instant pot?

454

:

bruce (2): there something about putting

that teabag under pressure that helps?

455

:

mark: I don't know.

456

:

I really don't.

457

:

I mean, I make, I make a lot of

iced tea because I'm a southern

458

:

boy and in the summer we drink

a lot of iced tea around here.

459

:

And it didn't take me any time

to boil some water and pour it

460

:

over teabags in the morning.

461

:

So I don't know what the

function of the instant pot is.

462

:

bruce (2): Well, it became people's

463

:

mark: It did?

464

:

wanted to be that was the

465

:

success of the brand.

466

:

bruce (2): when you create a product

that people want to identify with,

467

:

boy, have you made a success.

468

:

So when you reach that point,

People want to do everything in it.

469

:

mark: sure you know this, but it's,

it's the, it's the dream of every

470

:

brand is that you become, I mean,

the famed one of this in modern

471

:

culture is Apple, you become an Apple.

472

:

Apple person.

473

:

You have an iPhone.

474

:

You have an iMac.

475

:

You're an Apple.

476

:

I'm Bruce and I are both Apple people.

477

:

And it's not, we love apples, of course,

but it's also something about us.

478

:

It says something about who we are.

479

:

It's the same thing.

480

:

People who buy Teslas, right?

481

:

It's supposed to say something about you.

482

:

It's

483

:

bruce (2): the tribal quality we all have.

484

:

mark: absolutely is.

485

:

And the Instant Brands wrote that to

great success and now, unfortunately,

486

:

that success seems to be ebbing.

487

:

Will it still be around?

488

:

Yes.

489

:

Will it be much, much, much smaller?

490

:

Yes.

491

:

bruce (2): it will.

492

:

But if

493

:

you still have an Instant

Pot, please keep using it.

494

:

We use ours.

495

:

There's plenty of resources out

there, plenty of recipes, plenty

496

:

of good stuff, including our books.

497

:

So give those a look.

498

:

And that is what happened

to the Instant Pot.

499

:

mark: So before we get to the final

segment of this podcast, let me

500

:

say that there is a Facebook page.

501

:

group cooking with Bruce and Mark.

502

:

There's also a TikTok channel

cooking with Bruce and Mark.

503

:

There's all sorts of ways to find us.

504

:

There's even a small, it's

really small Instagram feed

505

:

cooking with Bruce and Mark.

506

:

You can find us in any of those places.

507

:

We are delighted to connect

with you there right now.

508

:

We seem to be on a jag of posting recipes

for various chocolate cookies, lots of

509

:

chocolate cookies, particularly on TikTok.

510

:

Uh, check that out.

511

:

And we would love to connect

with you in whatever way we can.

512

:

Okay.

513

:

The final.

514

:

and traditional last

segment of this podcast.

515

:

What's making us happy in food this week?

516

:

I'm going to start.

517

:

So, here's what's making me happy.

518

:

It's not actually a

thing, it's an attitude.

519

:

Um, we were invited to a

friend's birthday party uh, this

520

:

week as we're recording this.

521

:

Uh, he's turning 89.

522

:

And so, wow.

523

:

So, we were invited to

his 80th birthday party.

524

:

89th birthday party.

525

:

They were taking us and some other people

out to dinner and they suggested we

526

:

go to a restaurant that was connected

to a country club, a public country

527

:

club, a public golf course, and

there's a restaurant connected to it.

528

:

And both Bruce and me, as well

as the other couple who was

529

:

invited, were very sneering.

530

:

We were so unbelievably sneering

about being invited to the

531

:

clubhouse of a public golf course.

532

:

I know this is not paint us in

a nice light and it shouldn't.

533

:

So we ended up going, of course,

and we went to dinner with them.

534

:

The place ended up being really nice.

535

:

We had a really great dinner.

536

:

We had a lovely booth that was like

couches and a table that was really comfy.

537

:

We had a great time together.

538

:

The food was delicious.

539

:

And all I can say is we had.

540

:

Beautiful food, lovely time together

and my food snobbery almost stopped

541

:

me from having that good time.

542

:

So, Mark, uh, learn to

be better in the future.

543

:

And that's making me happy in food this

544

:

bruce (2): Wow, what's making me happy

seems so shallow compared to that.

545

:

Lemon marmalade is making me happy.

546

:

mark: Wow, I

547

:

love lemon marmalade.

548

:

Good

549

:

bruce (2): God.

550

:

I made it yesterday, and I made

about 18 jars of lemon marmalade.

551

:

I'm going to be very honest, and I cheat,

and I don't use lemons from scratch.

552

:

There is a British.

553

:

Product called home cook and they

produce tins of ground up lemons with

554

:

pectin and you just dump that in a

pot with four pounds of sugar and

555

:

some water and boil it up and there's

your lemon marmalade problem is you

556

:

cannot buy that product in the U.

557

:

S.

558

:

I

559

:

mark: believe we believe it's

illegal from some lemon board rules

560

:

bruce (2): You can't get it imported.

561

:

Like if you go to Amazon UK, it tells

you we cannot ship this to your area,

562

:

but I found this in some DIY crafty

store in the UK that ships to the U.

563

:

S.

564

:

and they clearly didn't know the

rules and I bought a case and

565

:

it just showed up in three days.

566

:

mark: We used to have friends who would go

to the UK, and we would always buy stuff.

567

:

Oh, get us a can of this lemon for lemon

marmalade, these lemons and pectin all

568

:

mixed together for lemon marmalade.

569

:

And they would come home with this

giant 32 ounce can in their luggage for

570

:

us, which was really, really generous.

571

:

But then Bruce found a place that

just sent it to us totally illegally.

572

:

bruce (2): So yeah,

573

:

mark: we got to keep it.

574

:

case of these cans.

575

:

bruce (2): We did.

576

:

So I made like 17,

577

:

mark: I love lemon marmalade, even

I love marmalade and I love it more

578

:

than orange marmalade because it's

so sour and slightly more bitter and

579

:

bruce (2): more interesting.

580

:

mark: Lemon desserts are just my kingpin.

581

:

So lemon marmalade would be my kingpin.

582

:

Delicious stuff.

583

:

Okay, that's the podcast for this week.

584

:

Thanks for being a part

of our podcast landscape.

585

:

We certainly appreciate your

taking the time to be with us.

586

:

thousand million podcasts out

there, and we appreciate the

587

:

time that you spend with us.

588

:

Thank you for that.

589

:

bruce (2): Every week we tell you

what's making us happy in food here

590

:

on Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

591

:

So go please to our Facebook group

Cooking with Bruce and Mark and

592

:

share what's making you happy in

food there where we could see it,

593

:

we could talk about it, and we might

even make it if it sounds fabulous

594

:

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

Profile picture for Mark Scarbrough

Mark Scarbrough

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