SALT PIG
Lukas and Ellie really hate washing greens. We may be two professional cookbook writers, but when the aprons come off, we eat quesadillas for dinner more often than we might like to admit. Real home cooking is improvisational, intimate, surprising, creative, sometimes mundane, sometimes memorable, and always best when debriefed with a pal. Topics include: dried mushrooms and where to use them, making stock out of arguable trash, the joy of broccoli pancakes, what not to bring to a dinner party, how we really clean our cast iron pans (even when people say not to), gauging the lifelessness of one’s sourdough starter, and a seemingly neverending discussion on how to pronounce fricassee. Join us as we get together to break down the flops, the good enoughs, and the pleasures and hilarity of home kitchen life.
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Elinor Hutton has been a writer, ghostwriter, editor, and publishing and culinary consultant since 2010. She’s worked on more than 25 books to date, including four New York Times bestsellers, most recently as the co-author of Gisele Bündchen’s Nourish. She’s also judged the James Beard awards twice, ran the test kitchen for a meal-kit company, and has worked in book packaging and design.
Lukas Volger is the author of six cookbooks, including Start Simple and Bowl, and has collaborated on numerous other cookbooks, including two New York Times bestsellers. Previously, he co-founded the award-winning queer food journal Jarry, and created a line of premium, fresh, and locally made veggie burgers called Made by Lukas. He lives in Brooklyn. www.lukasvolger.com
SALT PIG
Life Beyond Tupperware
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Welcome to SALT PIG! This week, we go beyond the Tupperware drawer of yore to discuss the food storage realities of our kitchens: what containers are best for freezing our ever-present broth, what jars and packaging we wouldn’t dream of recycling, the appeal versus futility of beeswax wraps, and the best receptacles for pawning off leftovers for our husbands’ lunches. It opens up some big life questions, like, why is decanting rice so satisfying? Can gallon-sized ziplocks ever be properly washed, and are they a vice worth keeping? Plus, find out the root of one of Ellie’s romantic fantasies—all we will say here is that it involves a “sugar drawer.” Spicy!
Discussed in this episode:
Welcome to Salt Pig, where two cookbook writers chat about the ups and downs of actual home kitchen life. What are we talking about this week, Ellie?
SPEAKER_01We're talking about food storage and all the ways that we're obsessed with it, basically. Um especially as adults, I feel like I feel like my food storage needs have really changed and um maybe been a little upgraded. And we talk about some of our favorite single-use items, some of our favorite upcycled jars. We have some favorites that we're not really willing to get rid of. Um yeah, it's a fun one.
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty sure this is gonna be our longest episode ever, and maybe the first of many devoted to this topic because we really have a lot to say about food storage, it turns out.
SPEAKER_01We do.
SPEAKER_00You can find new and old episodes wherever you listen to podcasts, and check us out on Substack2 at saltpig.substack.com where you can sign up for our newsletter. All right, let's get started. So I don't know if um people who may have listened to our last episode noticed that both Ellie and I were a little bit congested and we are dealing with some seasonal allergies. And um You didn't edit all of that out. I I couldn't. I tried to. I there were a lot of sniffles that were edited out. I hope I caught most of them. But um I wanted to ask you if you had because in our hot drinks episode, it came to light. We're willing to go kind of deep with these kind of fun hot teas and tinctures and infusions and home remedies. And I wanted to know if you had any like allergy treatment hot drinks, and you said you didn't. But what came to mind was something somebody told me years ago, I've now learned it's like a pretty popular kind of like remedy treatment where you have like a spoonful of local honey every day during allergy season, and like maybe the pollen in the honey is like then in your body and helps to counteract the pollen in the air. I started doing it like that day after we recorded the last episode, and I swear to god, my it the there's still a little bit of allergy stuff happening, but it's like by and large been pretty managed.
SPEAKER_01Amazing. Um and is this like New York City honey?
SPEAKER_00This is like Yeah, so we had our friends. Like a rooftop. Well, it's actually kind of a yeah, exactly. It's not New York City honey. Our friends Tiffany and Kwan came over for dinner, and Tiffany's family um she grew up out in New Jersey on a farm, and she brought us a jar of her family's like raw local honey. And so it was just kind of a fluke that I happened to have this because I mean I love to buy honey at the farmer's market, but I don't do it that often. So normally it wouldn't have been in my cupboard, and then um then it was there and I was like, Oh, I'm gonna try that. And wow.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00It was great. That's it worked. I looked it up right before I we started recording, and there is not a lot of scientific data to back up this. Um and a lot of people call it a total myth, but I want to say for my allergy stuff, it kind of helps.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Are you like stirring it into like a tea or just like No, I'm just like licking it off the screen. Really? Do you think that's part of it?
SPEAKER_00Maybe. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Is it like a throat coat kind of vibe?
SPEAKER_00Oh, maybe that I mean it I remember one of the first cookbooks I ever got was called The Whole Food Dictionary or the Whole Food. It was not like a big book, it was a pretty small one. It was all about these types of natural remedies and treatments and things. And one of them was for a sore throat, you gargle honey. This everybody knows about that, no? Gargling honey.
SPEAKER_01I think you just like sounds sort of like a joking hazard.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think you'd consume honey and then as you don't I guess you don't gargle it, you would just like let it sort of let it sort of coat your throat. Oh wow, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. I mean that does sound like it's sort of getting to the root of the problem, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, and I just didn't want you know, do you ever take like Zertec or Claritin or something?
SPEAKER_01Literally every day of my life for the last like 15 years.
SPEAKER_00Really? Every day?
SPEAKER_01Every day. And I'm sure it's probably messed up some chemical balance in my body, but if I don't take it, like my head starts to itch. Like I I really feel it after like two days. I'm like, I gotta get a Zyrtek. So I'm I'm totally dependent on them. Yes.
SPEAKER_00These are allergies. It's allergies.
SPEAKER_01Well, I have really terrible cat and dog allergies.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Which we no longer have a dog. We had a hypoallergenic dog, which I was still kind of allergic to. Rebel, um, who unfortunately died last year. Um, but we so we don't even have any cats or dogs, and still and so it was sort of it was residual from like the time in my life when I was exposed to more cats and dogs. Both of my parents used to have dogs. I don't know. Now nobody has dogs anymore, and I'm still taking Zertec, because if I stopped, then my head starts to itch.
SPEAKER_00You really notice that you really without the presence of it. I really noticed that. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01I know. So that's why the only problem with that, it does seem to sort of keep things at bay, but the only problem with that is then if I'm having like an actual allergy, like a seasonal allergy thing, or I am going to someone's house with like a dog, say, I don't really have any ammunition. Like I could take like a bed.
SPEAKER_00You need like prescription stuff or something, something stronger.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I have I have been told that um that nose spray is very effective, but oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was looking that up. The flow nose. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I haven't used that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think you can get really addicted to it. And I think it kind of destroys your nose.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's what I that's what I read when I was researching this stuff. I just find like I mean, I'll take Claritin every now and then and I usually get seasonal allergies, but I just hate the way it like dries. Oh. It like kind of takes and for me, it's just like it anyway, I don't like the way it makes it makes me feel.
SPEAKER_01I mean, uh that's the funny th I mean this is true about me for all things, but I sort of don't notice what it's doing to my body. So I wonder if, other than my head, I wonder if n if I'd stop taking Zertec, if I'd be like a whole new person. Maybe.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, I mean, if there are doctors listening, chime in. And they want to sound the alarm. I know.
SPEAKER_01My friend Whitney is an allergist, and she recently was like, Oh, you know, I can't remember what we were talking about about allergies, but she was like, You could switch from Zertec to like Allegra, like Allegra might be much better. So I tried it, and it did seem to be better for some reason, but I was like, I had stocked up on so much Zertec that I was just I literally have like two years worth of Zertec. I was like, in two years I will be switching, but for now I'm just sticking with it.
SPEAKER_00Have you do you ever look at expiration dates on medicine? Sometimes my stepmom Pam came over one time and she was like, Do you have a Benadryl? And then I just like gave her our Ziploc bags of all the medicine that we've accumulated over the past like ten years. And she was like, Um, I'm just gonna do you a favor and throw most of this away because this is all like five, six, eight, nine years old.
SPEAKER_01That's so funny. I thought it was literally like a bag of pills, but at least there were like boxes in there. Oh no, it's all crammed into the box.
SPEAKER_00It's yeah, it's yeah that's uh that's a total tangent. Today we're actually talking about food storage, right? Is this how we're gonna get it?
SPEAKER_01We could Ziploc bag, that could be our our transition. Speaking of Ziploc bags, um Yeah, we're talking about food storage in all in all ways. And I was like, I did sort of take a little tour of my kitchen before we recorded this, and I was like, oh yeah, there's there's a lot of storage going on in my in my kitchen. And it's kind of changed in the last, I don't know, 10 or 15 years. Oh so well, like I feel like in my youth I was like a Ziploc bag, more of a Ziploc bag person. Just had like, you know, random plastic Tupperware that, you know, it was impossible to find the lid and all this stuff. And now as a fully grown adult, I feel like I have more um more glass, definitely. Uh-huh. And just more like more systems. And I have to say, like, having more systems in the kitchen is wonderful. Critical. I love it. I love it. Like, I bought these, just to dive in, I bought these um glass, like one of those sets of glass containers and like from Costco or something. From Costco or something. And yeah, they're like maybe Pyrex brands, something along those lines. And um, they come in like all these different sizes, and one of the sizes that I really love is the like low flat rectangular size. And one thing that like nothing makes me feel more like an adult than like if I buy like a giant pack of salami at Costco or something, and it's like in one of those terrible, like really thick plastic things, and you have to like reach into the plastic to get like salami in your hand, it gets all greasy, it's like it's gross.
SPEAKER_00It's supposedly they're resealable, but they'd never actually.
SPEAKER_01What really makes me feel like an adult is to take those like little rows of salami and then put them in this flat glass thing and stack them in my fridge, and I'm like, gosh, it's like um I'm a garden or something.
SPEAKER_00I'm just like Yeah, you need to be featured in a magazine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm like, you want a sandwich? Let me pull out my glass container of salami. Because it's I don't always do that, but when I do, I'm like, man, should I be doing this all the time?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that is so nice. Those sets I've been meaning to get because I feel like every couple years I just need to do a refresh and start over with the food storage. For at least for like Tupperware that is packing up leftovers or for like the day-to-day food storage, not necessarily like dry storage in the pantry or things like that, but 'cause like I don't know where the lids go. You come to realize that there are certain sizes that are just useless to you and they take up very valuable real estate. They won't stack because they're like, they don't stack, yeah. They have like lids that are just a little bit of a different size.
SPEAKER_01I know.
SPEAKER_00Um and so I'm const I feel like it's a problem that will probably in my lifetime never be satisfactorily s uh solved. But I'm constantly thinking that there's going to be a better solution. And the glass stuff too. I just want it all to be glass now. I don't want any of the plastic stuff.
SPEAKER_01That's sort of what I do, except so like glass is what I use for all my leftovers, for all my salami stacking needs. Like all that stuff is glass, and that like lives in a drawer in my kitchen, and I use it constantly. It's probably the most constant thing that I use in my kitchen. And the real benefit of that glass stuff is I feel like it makes leftovers actually appealing and like leftover food appealing. Whereas when you put it in like a plastic Tupperware, I feel like it just feels kind of yucky.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It just doesn't it doesn't really I never thought about that.
SPEAKER_00I know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So in glass, I'm like, oh, this is a delightful piece of leftover chicken in a Tupperware. I'm like, yuck, you know.
SPEAKER_00And for reheating, it's nice with those glass ones. You can just like throw the thing right back right into the oven.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Right into the microwave, right into the it's great in that way. It's so great. But then I feel like I can't totally get rid of my like plastic Tupperware. So I used to just have like a little shopping bag that I stuffed into this closet near the kitchen that was like my like plastic stuff, where like if I'm putting like broth in the freezer, I'm not gonna use one of those glass things. I'm gonna use like a Chinese food container. Um or if I'm made pesto and I'm putting in the freezer, or I am sending some leftovers home with someone, I'm gonna give them like one of these plastic things that I don't really necessarily need back. But that I really need to go through because if you go through some sort of freezer, you're using all the stuff in your freezer, then suddenly the bag overflows, and then I can't stuff it in the closet anymore, which is where I am right now.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_01So I need to go through that and toss some stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean I I said that I want things to be all glass, but that's definitely not the reality of my of my Tupperware storage right now. Just because I give a lot of food away, I feel like there's a lot of transport of food happening in my life that I always have those quart deli containers, and I find them to be so handy and I know that and I know that they're like there's like a worry of microplastics and like they do kind of take on odors and they start to look a little weird after a little while. And I'm probably not as diligent as I should be about just getting rid of them when I'm done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But um, I do find the size to be so handy for so much type of stuff. So many different types of foods. Agreed. And especially I mean, I I feel like I got obsessed with them when I worked in restaurants because they are the default that and Cambros, those like square uh hard plastic food storage. They're just like the default storage for everything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And those those takeout ones, I mean, they stack well, all the lids are the same. Like if you're a little one or a big one, this lid's the same. It seems much you can write right on them. Those are my favorites. And they're great for liquid, which I feel like is often the thing that I'm like putting in the freezer for some reason. Like broth or soup. Yeah, soup, exactly. Saucy things. Exactly. I'm not necessarily putting like a meal in there.
SPEAKER_00And I do the same thing where I like empty the open bag of frozen blueberries or frozen peas or whatever and stick them in one of those core containers and throw it back in the freezer. Oh, that's civilized. It is really nice because then you just kind of like tip them into the blender or into a Oh, I might try that. The only thing is that the round containers they just they from like an organizational perspective, yeah. You really I this is something that must be very difficult to solve from uh if you're uh making like designing food storage, but like most there's so many round containers out there, and round is so frustrating in a square or rectangular shaped cupboard or freezer. There's so much wasted space around it. Like I want I would really love just cubes.
SPEAKER_01I hear you. This is a business idea, Lucas. Cubes.
SPEAKER_00This is yeah, I wonder if it's like food cubes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That does exist. Like the freezer cubes, you know what I'm talking about, where you like this company makes these like silicone molds of like bricks or like big blocks, and you like it's like a soup cube.
SPEAKER_01Oh, oh yes, I do know those. That kind of thing. Oh, oh, okay. Not describing it, right? Yeah, there goes the business. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, that's not the same thing though. It's like it's the um when I had my veggie burger business, which I know I bring that up all the time, but I found for the original package that um we designed, it was some kind of a Nordic company that made them. They weren't they weren't perfectly rectangular, but they were sort of a rectangular shape, and you could fit like a pound of the mixture in there, so it was like around a pint size, and then a plastic lid. And the fact that you could it was like a rectangular shape meant that I held on to those things for so long because I loved them so much. You could just stack six of them in a cupboard and then just like push it all the way into the back corner. And it was so satisfying too, because you can it's plastic, you can see through it, you can turn it either the wide side out or the narrow side. I don't know. It was really, really good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That would be a great thing to manufacture and so it would be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I have yeah, why why is that so hard? I guess they're harder to clean. I guess that would be a negative. Is that like the edges? You could round the edges pretty easily.
SPEAKER_00I wonder if making a lid for a tight corner is uh hard to seal or something like that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, maybe.
SPEAKER_00Whereas like a round a rounded, even if it's just rounded and not a perfect circle, if that like makes an airtight sealer seal easier to and easier to achieve.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like a physics problem. Which does um does remind me of one thing I definitely wanted to bring up. My absolute favorite upcycled plastic container is a Talenti Gelato container. Do you have a lot of people? People love those.
SPEAKER_00I don't have any of them, but I see them in all my friends' houses.
SPEAKER_01It's almost worth just buying the gelato and like eating the gelato, which is okay, but the containers are top notch because the lid screws on. Yeah. So it's like one of the only containers I can convince Tom to take like leftovers to work in because it won't spill in his bag. Like for sure will not spill in his bag.
SPEAKER_00Tom and Vincent must be similar. He'd never trust me. I'm like, Vincent, don't worry about it. It's fine. He's like, I'm gonna put this in an extra bag and then I'm gonna like saran wrap it so that it's doesn't bust open inside my bag. Oh, I'm always overpromising on the uh airtight ceiling.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh yeah, me too. It's like literally like the last words I say to Tom every day. I'm like, do you want some lunch? Like there's half of an eaten turkey sandwich and some pasta I can put into a Tupperware. He's like, no thanks.
SPEAKER_00I know. That's I know. It's like, oh, it sounds delicious, but um, I think uh we're we've got a lunch meeting today. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01There's a lot of mythical lunch meetings that I feel like our husbands are very, very busy with.
SPEAKER_00Um do you I wanted to ask, do you use Ziploc bags or resealable bags?
SPEAKER_01So I do use Ziploc bags, but I have to say it we use them so rarely because I'm so opposed to them. But we reuse them pretty often. And so we have some I wanted to bring up silicone bags as sort of a subtopic. I have bought some silicone, I've bought a few different silicone bags, and the ones that I have now I do not love, and they don't work great. And they claim that they could go in the dishwasher, and then the ones that I've put in the dishwasher have shrunken, and then you could absolutely never seal them again.
SPEAKER_00Wait, are these um the sort of thicker type of material or the more flimsy? They're similar to like a plastic Ziploc?
SPEAKER_01They're s I'd say somewhere in between. They're not like these super thick ones that I feel like are on the market now that can like stand up by themselves. They're not those, but they're not they're not totally flimsy. I hate washing them. I mean, who wants to wash that or a regular Ziploc bag? It's a total drag.
SPEAKER_00Um anything that just refuses to ever dry. Like hanging it on a wooden spoon.
SPEAKER_01I know, I know, I know. And then turning it. It takes also takes days. It's like you dry it on one side, then you reverse it and then dry it on the other. I know, it's so gross. Everything's like all festering and uh and I have to say I do not trust anybody to clean a Ziploc bag except myself. And um and even with me, I'm like, this is not really getting clean.
SPEAKER_00I'm not a big fan of those either. We have a few of them that we'll use primarily use them for like pantry storage when I have like, I don't know, some like dried chilies or something. And I can just cram them in there and throw them up in the cupboard. I don't use them for like day-to-day leftovers.
SPEAKER_01I think that's the best thing to do and dry things.
SPEAKER_00And dry things, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Any yeah, I think that's right. We had like some leftover tortilla chips and the other day. I was like, what can I I was like, I've just put a rubber band around these, but the bag was all screwed up and I was like, oh, I'll put it in a silicone bag, and I was like, perfect. That's the perfect use for one of those. But once anything else goes in there, I mean I use them for like fruit with the kids, like cut-up fruit. It works okay. It doesn't really they don't really close necessarily and then they get all sticky and gross.
SPEAKER_00I ran into um a friend who has kids about uh your kid's age, and uh she was saying like how exhausted she is from just cleaning all the reusable containers from the packed lunch. I was like, oh, that was not a problem when I was growing up because everything was in a zip disposable ziploc bag, and you could just like take the lunch box and like flip it over over the trash can and be like, here it's ready to be refilled. And now I think everybody is trying to minimize all that, which is great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But a lot of work for the parents.
SPEAKER_01I know. I mean, I I remember when I was a kid, my mom made my lunch every day, but I would just literally have it in a brown paper bag. Like this sort of refrigerated concept just it didn't cross over into my childhood. It was just like it will be fine four hours later. Um And it was and it was, yeah. And now I'm like, me too, am putting my kids at lunch like in with an ice pack and a you know, Tom puts ice in their water in their liquor bottles, and I'm like, this is a step too far. I'm like, of course, it's great, and I want them to drink water and they need encouragement to drink water, but I'm like, I'm not running like a catering company here. Like, what the hell?
SPEAKER_00But the water is so much more delicious when it's ice.
SPEAKER_01It's so much more delicious. I mean, don't get me wrong, the parallel is so ridiculous that I'm thinking of, but um, there are these stupid things that you can buy when your kids are babies that are like that warm the wipes that you use when they change their diaper. Oh, really? And it's like, I don't know how much they cost, however much they cost, and whatever it was. I was like, I will not be doing this. I was like, once you get used to having a warm wipe, then like then where does it end, you know?
SPEAKER_00And I was Yeah, this is setting this is a bad precedent to set when they're like not only not even a few months old.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. But I guess I feel like ice in your water bottle is sort of similar. I'm like, yeah, we'd all like that, but can we can we focus on something more important? I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I think I side with Tom on that. Really? It's just one extra step.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's such I mean it's such a puny extra step.
SPEAKER_00I feel like my nieces don't drink a ton of water. I'm like, if if having it be ice cold will make them drink it, I'm like, you're right.
SPEAKER_01Maybe I should start.
SPEAKER_00Especially in the canoe. Yeah. And um we we have an ice machine in our refrigerator for the first time. In the door? Inside. Making its own ice cube. Totally life-changing. Like it used to drive me nuts when I had to like shock vegetables in an ice bath because I'm like popping them out of the ice cube trays. I'm like, now my ice supply is fully depleted.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00And but now with ice machine in the freezer, I can just like scoop a bunch as much ice as I want. It's so fun. And so even like in the water bottle, I'm now putting ice in my own water bottle when I go out or when I travel or something, because I'm like, why not? It's right there. It's just gonna be sleeping.
SPEAKER_01So I mean, yeah, an ice machine is the best. It's the best.
SPEAKER_00Um back to Ziploc bags. So I've I've gone through a journey with the Ziploc bags. They're so handy. It's so nice to have them. They're so handy. But at some point, I they're also very expensive. It's like six, seven dollars for you know, ten of them for like the you know, gallon size ones that I those are the ones that I need the most. Okay, and then so I had them and I'd buy them. Um, but I'd be like, all right, these I have to reuse as many times as possible. But then I think I saw something online where you're like, you really shouldn't be reusing them because that type of plastic is just leaching microplastics into the food. Sorry, I don't know. Maybe that's not true. Well, it just like degrades really quickly. Yeah. Like that it's meant to be a single use sort of thing. I know. Um and so I read that, and like I'm not a super freak about microplastics, but uh that was compelling to me. And so I was like, all right, having these around, I do use them because they're there, and you're you know, when you're scrambling for some kind of storage solution and it's just sitting before you're like, I'm gonna take one of these Ziploc bags. So I started just not buying them and not having them around, and so you're forced to kind of like figure out a workaround. And that's where I am right now. Yeah, but and how's it going? I really miss having them in the drawer where you can just whip one out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, we have like little paper bags that I use for like kids' snacks. But the problem is like they don't like if you put like some crackers or something greasy in there, it's it goes stale. Yeah, they get stale definitely, like immediately. Crackers and all this stuff will leach through the paper. Fruit just the whole bag dissolves in like an hour. So that doesn't really work. Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like just drop the whole thing into the compost.
SPEAKER_01Exactly, exactly. So it's hard to know because the thing is sometimes sometimes, yes, it doesn't you can wrap something up in like a well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00With the Oh, have you used any of the beeswax wraps?
SPEAKER_01Uh so I yes. Years ago I got some of the beeswax wraps, and then I stupidly, even though I knew you're not supposed to use warm water on them, I just couldn't not wash it with the water. How does that get clean? Exactly. So then I did that, and then all the wax came off, and then I was outraged.
SPEAKER_00And then oh, see, I would use the not not the hottest water.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it would make them soft. But I found that I they got kind of groaty after a couple of washes. I was like, this isn't really something.
SPEAKER_01It's like totally it's like it's permeable. I don't know, it's sure it takes on odor and things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I did really like having that for bread where you could just wrap it around the cut edge. Because like bread you don't want to be in an airtight bag. So isn't but you don't want the like cut part of it to be exposed because then it gets really stale. So I just take a square of the beeswax wrap and then wrap that around the cut edge of the loaf of bread, and that works really well.
SPEAKER_01Does it? Because yeah, is that what you use for your bread now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00That or I just keep it in like a paper bag.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I have a bread box that I found on someone's stoop, and I have to say it's great.
SPEAKER_00Really? Yeah. And it's just like one of the ones with a rolling. It's not that kind, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01Like the oak, like, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. No, it's like uh garage store. Yeah, exactly. This is like a coated metal um thing with like a wooden top. But it's great. And it fits, you know, like a loaf and a half of bread. It's pretty handy. Oh, that's perfect. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's I mean, that's great. If you eat a lot of bread, that's a super handy thing to have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Because otherwise, yeah, I guess the beeswax thing would have been, I'm sure I would have asked you, the beeswax thing would have been a good solution. But yeah, then do you put it like in a bag or something?
SPEAKER_00No, I would just keep it on I mean, I love to have food like that I try to keep visible so that I'm reminded to eat it or snack on it and stuff. So it's like out on the counter in a big bowl with on the top of the apples or something. But sorry, not to go back to Ziploc again. Ziploc adjacent adjacent is uh Do you find sometimes like the method of food storage gives me agita?
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_00And I find that Ziploc bags or like any type of like flimsy type of plastic food wrap, when it doesn't like create a container that can be like stacked or stand up straight or like easily sort of slot into its spot in the cupboard or in the fridge, it drives me nuts. Like I hear you. Like like the spring roll wrappers that we were talking about a few uh episodes ago. Like how to fit them into my cupboard is something that actually keeps you up at night. It keeps it doesn't keep me up at night, but every time I like see them there, I'm like, oh it's like it wants to tip over and be flat. Or like roll off your or roll off, or like and then it's one of those types of plastic packaging where you have to like cut open the edge, and then what is the best way to reseal something like that? I feel like plastic wrap or a Ziploc bag is really the only option.
SPEAKER_01See, I think in that case, mine are in a Ziploc bag, and it's just because it's like it's literally like what else do you do with that? What else do you do? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes only a Ziploc bag will do, but it's true that yeah, that's one thing about those glass containers or that is that they stack so well and that they look neat. And like in the fridge, yeah, I'm with you. If there's like a little cup of something that I've put saran wrap over and stuck it in the fridge, it makes me crazy. It's just like this thing that I'm just like really trying to pawn off on anybody who walks past the fridge. I'm like, Do you want a half a cup of smoothie? It's right here. Like, can we get rid of this thing?
SPEAKER_00Um but yeah, because it takes up so much more space than it should. I recently did like a little bit of an IKEA shop with an eye for like kitchen organization, and I think I saw something online where uh an organizing expert recommended getting like bins, like small bins that can fit in your cupboard, but you like group like items. So I took like um I didn't do this with the spring roll wrappers, though I should just combine that with like the nori, with the like tubs of sesame seeds, with some of these like dry things, and like get them all in one thing so that then you reach into the cupboard, you pull out the bin, and then just grab what you need, but it all kind of stays in one place. Interesting. And I did do that with a bunch of spices that like I have a spice drawer for um my go-to spices that I use frequently, but there's a bunch of them that I have that I like rarely cook with, but I want to hold on to. So I just put them all in a bin and then slid it into a top shelf in the cupboard. Oh, that's and it's so great because it's like so easy just to take everything out, yes, and then I don't have a bunch of little bottles rattling around every time I get into the cupboard.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do that with my like dried chilies, whereas like in like one big plastic container, I just put all the plastic bags of the different kinds and then put a lid on the code. Yeah, I do the same thing. Yeah, yes. Yeah. That's interesting. I I haven't tried that, and maybe I should because my pantry is like very deep and it's it's just there's stuff back there that you just can't access. Um, it makes everyone crazy if you're trying to find something and everything tumbles out and yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, it's so much easier to pull out one bin and then like set it on the counter and rifle through it than it is to be like hunched over in the pantry with a flashback. Trying to sort through stuff. Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Have you ever noticed people I've noticed some people online that have um that have those bins actually in their refrigerators, and that for me feels like a step too far.
SPEAKER_00I have seen that too, and I feel like that's for like photo purposes only.
SPEAKER_01I don't wash my produce right away. Do you?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I do when I'm like being my best seller.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really? I am always worried that it's gonna like degrade it a little bit. Like some of those things, I feel like sometimes keeping them dry is better than getting them. That's probably true.
SPEAKER_00I find that like for greens, if I can wash them all at once, I'm more likely to use it.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's for sure. That is for sure.
SPEAKER_00And then cucumbers I wash and store in a container because do you get like the Persian cucumbers? Well, do you find that they get really slimy quickly? Like they turn into weird little really grossie blobs. Yeah. I think I read somewhere that if you just take them out of that whatever the pl the styrofoam tray and plastic wrap, take them out, wash them, and then store them with like a paper towel in some type of airtight container, they'll keep for much longer. I've totally found that to be true.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Maybe I'll that because we do go through a ton of cucumbers in this house. Huh. That's interesting. Yeah. I I try not to like use those bags when I go to the veggie store. Like I just buy them without bags and then just throw them in my veggie drawer at home, but I don't I don't do anything beyond that.
SPEAKER_00Does your veggie drawer become kind of dirty?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, it does. And I have to wipe it out once in a while. Yeah. Yeah, it does get kind of dirty in there. Huh.
SPEAKER_00Do you um do you do that with herbs as well?
SPEAKER_01I do that with herbs as well, herbs, herbs sometimes I do put in a bag and then they get really disgusting. I know there's all these different ways that one should be storing one's herbs. It just feels like a big drag. I don't know. I don't Oh, I did want to mention glass jars, because I know glass jars do seal. I do too. And even though they're round, they they do the job well enough in my seal well. Yeah, they seal really well. You can get them, they're really huge. I do find, again, sort of in my adult life, the idea of like decanting some rice into a giant glass container is deeply satisfying. Um and having them all sort of together, brown rice, basmati rice, whatever, oatmeal all in this section is is great.
SPEAKER_00It is. It's very satisfying to like see that in I mean, all this I feel like what this does like getting your s food storage under control, it makes like cooking more pleasurable. Like seeing your food stored properly makes you more excited to eat it and to play with it and cook it.
SPEAKER_01For sure. I know I've mentioned Laura Engels Wilder on this podcast before, but um in the like last Laura Engels Wilder of the series when she gets married and she and I think his name is Almonzo, like move out to like their homestead. He builds her this kitchen and it's this very it's like it feels deeply romantic to me. He builds her this kitchen and he builds her all these like different drawers for like one for oatmeal, one for sugar, one for flour. And I was like that's amazing. It was like a I think it was like an early, early sort of romance standard that was set up where like find a partner who will appreciate your kitchen organizational needs.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I'm gonna give you a sugar drawer.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00I will say with the glass jars, I recently um because I bought a bunch of wek jars years ago. Yeah. Just because I liked how they looked, they stacked those are glass jars that actually stacked very well in the cupboard. Yeah, they really do. Um but I got the I don't know if it's the traditional type of lid, but it's like the ring, the um rubber ring, and then you have the clamps. And I love the way it looks, but functionally for something that you're like, like I put my like coconut sugar in that and my chia seeds and stuff, and it's like I make a smoothie or I cook stuff regularly and like pulling the little plastic too much. Yeah. And I found that you can get little plastic lids for the wet jars that just pop on and off. Yeah. And so I ordered some of them, and it's a total game changer. You can do the same thing with mason jars.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I've done that with mason jars, and I agree, because it's like the lids used to get all rusty, and we'd use them for like pickles or whatever, and they got all funky. But yeah, the plastic ones are great for that. But I didn't know wek ones have them too. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00And they just pop on and off. They aren't, um I actually have some right here with some preserved lemons I'm making. They aren't as airtight, I will say, for liquids. But um, because it's not a screw top, it's uh but I actually found that to be true even for the rubber, the original lid contraption. So I don't I don't think it's necessarily like a it makes it a worse product, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The Bon Meme, you know that is is that what how you say? Oh, those jars. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love those.
SPEAKER_00They're the best.
SPEAKER_01The only problem is they really don't hold like if you turn them upside down, everything will just pour out, even with the lid on. I don't know if it was a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a I always make salad dressing in that because it's so cute. And then I think that's led to my uh shaking it up, yeah, to my non-emulsification as time goes on because when you shake it, salad dressing just gets all over you. So then I don't really shake it very well, and then that problem. But I can't stop myself because they're so cute. Maybe it's that I've used them so much that they've become not airtight. I don't know. Mine never do it. I have I have an extra tall one that um I think I got it like Costco. Costco. Costco. I know what you're talking about, yeah. And they are the ultimate like smoothie remainder jar. Because again, it's so pretty and it's tall and it has a lid, but again, you can't shake it. I've tried, and then I get green smoothie all over myself every time. I'm like, I'll do it really carefully and slowly, and then it's still, but I can't give it up. I love that jar.
SPEAKER_00Um, I mean, part of me wants to just continue and make this our like the. But now I have I feel compelled to ask you what is what's the plan for dinner tonight?
SPEAKER_01You know, I should have thought about this before. I literally don't have a plan for dinner. There's nothing really in the house. Tom's out tonight. So yeah, good question. We ate all the leftovers yesterday, so the cupboard's sort of bare. Casidias.
SPEAKER_00Maybe you'll have to consult our mildly desperate dinner sometimes.
SPEAKER_01That's true, actually. That's true. Maybe I'll make some caramelized tuna.
SPEAKER_00Oh, there you go.
SPEAKER_01Because I have been really trying to I have been really thinking about doing it, and then I haven't. So if I make like a bowl, like some rice and some caramelized tuna, some cukes. So good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Put an egg on it. You know what I made just yesterday? Have you done those like Korean? I don't think it's even exclusively Korean, but like the marinated soy sauce marinated boiled eggs.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I have never made those, but they sound amazing.
SPEAKER_00So good. So good. Okay. Um and on rice with that tuna would be so good, too.
SPEAKER_01I have some hard-boiled eggs in the fridge, actually, or sort of jammy eggs, I guess. Maybe I'll do that this morning and then get it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's basically like equal parts soy sauce and water, and then whatever throw a little sweetener in there, some ginger garlic stuff, sesame seeds, sesame oil. Um, mix it up and just let it sit for like up to 48 hours.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I might try that and see, because I bet that could be sort of the sushi bowl, the new sushi bowl experience that the kids would get into.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and like a little avocado too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And avocado's been so good lately. And so what's up with it?
SPEAKER_01What's going on?
SPEAKER_00We've been no, it must be a glut.
SPEAKER_01I know. Henry had a dream last night about like guac world, and he came into bed this morning and he was like, Let me tell you about my dream. I went to Guac World, and I was like, Is this like a guacamole a world of guacamole? He was like, Yes, it was so great.
SPEAKER_00That sounds like heaven. It does. You just had a religious dream.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. What are you making for dinner?
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna be traveling. I'm flying to Cleveland this evening to see my friend Megan, who made a short film that's in the Cleveland Film Festival, and so I'm gonna go see that. I don't really know what the dinner plan is. I think we're eating something out, but I'm excited for that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that'll be so fun. And just the two of you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Vincent was gonna come, but he has to stay here. Um it's just gonna be the two of us, which is great. Megan and I have been friends for something like 25 years now. So it'll be really fun. And she's she has uh a daughter and her husband's home, and so it'll be like a fun little friendly guys. Okay, well, close out part one of food storage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. To be continued.
SPEAKER_00To be continued. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Cool. Okay, well, um drop safe. Thanks. Enjoy your dinner. Have fun tonight. Okay, bye.
SPEAKER_00Bye.
