Today we have a special episode from our friends over at Mystery Recipe, a podcast from America's Test Kitchen Kids for young chefs ages 4-10. This episode features Proof host Kevin Pang! If you like Mystery Recipe, you can find their fourth season anywhere you get your podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Proof

[Bonus] Mystery Recipe Season Four

Old Bay Seasoning is a hallmark of mid-Atlantic food culture. The yellow and red branding has stood the test of time, and remained unshakably present in grocery stores across the country. It's sprinkled on seafood, fries, and even used in ice cream. But despite its renowned fame and recognition, very few people actually know the man behind this iconic seasoning and his battle with the spice industry. Reporter Claudia Rosenbaum digs into the the David-and-Goliath origins of Old Bay Seasoning, and how the spice blend has endured today.Take our season 8 survey to get a 30% off coupon code at the America's Test Kitchen online shop.A note from our sponsors:Listeners get 15% off of their first order at porterroad.com/proof.Get high quality cured meats and charcuterie in stores and online at Veroni USA.Use code ATK15 for 15% off on OXO.com.Visit nakedwines.com/summerproof for $100 to spend on wine.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One Man's Fight for Old Bay Seasoning

How we speak, what we wear, and what we eat are influenced by our upbringings, our cultures, and our roots. But what happens when we peel the curtain back on all the things we thought we knew about ourselves? What would we find? In this episode, reporter Sheila V Kumar interrogates her own vegetarianism and asks what consequences our food choices have in the political sphere and in our own lives. Take our Season 8 survey here.A note from our sponsors:Get high quality cured meats and charcuterie in stores and online at Veroni USA.Use code ATK15 for 15% off on OXO.com.Visit nakedwines.com/summerproof for $100 to spend on wine.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why Be Vegetarian?

Few drinks have gone through the ringer the way Chartreuse has. Since the 1700s, a silent group of monks in the Southeast of France have produced and protected this elixir-turned-liqueur through evictions, natural disasters, and other trials and tribulations of history. Today, Chartreuse is a crucial ingredient that helped spur the modern craft cocktail movement. Proof's managing producer and self-professed "pro-sumer" of cocktails, Yumi Araki, digs into the history of the spirit that just wouldn't die. Take our Season 8 survey here.For further reading on the history of Chartreuse: Chartreuse the Liqueur.A note from our sponsors:Listeners get 15% off of their first order at porterroad.com/proof.Get high quality cured meats and charcuterie in stores and online at Veroni USA.Use code ATK15 for 15% off on OXO.com.Visit nakedwines.com/summerproof for $100 to spend on wine.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Drink that Wouldn't Die

The smell of certain foods imprint themselves in our brains and can transport us to different places and our past. One scent in particular--the smell of za'atar--brought two Palestinian women together through social media. Nadia Tommalieh and Lulu Abura instantly shared a bond over their love for the herb and the spice blend that reminds them of their homeland. Reporter Haley Gray reports. Take our Season 8 survey here.Follow Nadia Tommalieh on Instagram here.Follow Lulu Abura on Instagram here.A note from our sponsors:Get high quality cured meats and charcuterie in stores and online at Veroni USA.Use code ATK15 for 15% off on OXO.com.Visit nakedwines.com/summerproof for $100 to spend on wine.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Spice Blend That Takes You Home

On a cold night in January 2017, five comedians gathered around a table in the back of a cramped restaurant in New York’s Greenwich Village called the Olive Tree Cafe. The comedian weren't scheduled to perform at the downstairs Comedy Cellar that night, but they had come to hang out at a place they called home: a family dinner around the most important table in American stand-up comedy. This restaurant--and the famous comedian's table--have long served as home base for comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, and Dave Chapelle--the five comedians who ended up performing at what would be remembered as the Billion Dollar Comedy Night. Reporter Stephen Calabria digs into the history of the Olive Tree Cafe and how it fuels some of America's most famous stand-up comedians.A note from our sponsors:Listeners get 15% off of their first order at porterroad.com/proof.Get high quality cured meats and charcuterie in stores and online at Veroni USA.Use code ATK15 for 15% off on OXO.com.Visit nakedwines.com/summerproof for $100 to spend on wine.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Food Here Is No Joke

June Pinks. Candy Stripes. Leather Britches, and Fall Roses. These are the names of just a few apple varieties that have been lost to time. But one man, Tom Brown, is on a mission to find them—and especially one variety called the Junaluska—before it’s too late. Will Tom Brown succeed? Claire Donnelly reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How Far Would You Travel for An Apple?

Pineapple cakes. Pork-wrapped pineapple. Pineapple bento boxes, and beef pineapple noodle soup. Reporter Kai McNamee started seeing the spiky fruit everywhere—at restaurants, at convenience stores and at bakeries—after China banned pineapple imports from Taiwan earlier this year. A pineapple-related hashtag also took social media by storm. So what was the #FreedomPineapple campaign all about? Kai investigates in this episode of Proof.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How Pineapples Became A Hashtag

Ethereal, contained, and rife with ingredients like cottage cheese, whipped cream, and fruit. The Jello salad was a mainstay of many American households throughout the 1950s and the '60s. They were a feast for the eyes, with mixed results about whether they were a feast for the stomach. Still, housewives made them, until a shift happened that upended the way women--and men--thought about cooking. In the season eight premiere of Proof, producer Karen Given tells us about the rise and fall of Jello and gelatin. It’s a story that begins in the Middle Ages, features handsome door-to-door gelatin salesmen on horseback, and goes all the way to Julia Child.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why Did Jello Salad Go Out Of Style?

This season, we're back with a new lineup, and a new host, Kevin Pang! We kick off the season with a story about gelatin and the heyday of Jell-O. We ride along an apple hunter’s journey in search of a lost apple variety. We look at the place--and the food--that’s nurtured some of the best comedians in America, and how a drink made by a silent group of monks has survived over centuries, against all odds. All that, and more on season 8 of Proof from America’s Test Kitchen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Season 8 Starts July 29 with a new host!

 In the town of Yamanaka in Western Japan, wild boars are a threat to local farming. With the extinction of natural predators, the boars run rampant, leaving hunters like Sakura Yoshida to patrol the area. This pits boars against humans, but Sakura approaches the boars with veneration and a deep understing of the ecosystem they both inhabit. In this episode of Proof, author Hannah Kirshner takes us along for a ride with Sakura and recounts the history of meat eating in Japan.This episode draws on the "Year of the Boars" chapter in Hannah Kirshner's Water, Wood, and Wild Things. For further reading about human-wildlife relations in Japan, read The Lost Wolves of Japan by Brett L. Walker and Waiting For Wolves in Japan by John Knight.

Sakura and the Wild Boars

Our five senses--sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell--can feel intrinsically linked to who we are. But when aspiring chef Molly Birnbaum lost her sense of smell in a traumatic accident, she resolved to get it back through smell training and learning how our olfactory systems are connected to the brain. In this episode of Proof, Editor-In-Chief of ATK Kids Molly Birnbaum, walks us through her journey, and talks to others who lost their sense of smell--from Covid-19 and other causes--along the way.Read Molly's book, Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way.

Reclaiming the Fifth Sense

Hospitality and and serving others were at the heart of Damián Diaz and Othón Nolasco's bar consulting business in Los Angeles. When the pandemic hit, the duo noticed that undocumented workers, who serve as vital back of house staff at restaurants and bars, weren't eligible or able to get the help that they needed. The two decided to start a nonprofit organization and called it No Us Without You. In this episode of Proof, reporter Jean Trinh talks to two individuals who have been helped by No Us Without You and chronicles how Damián and Othón resolved to serve those who have served us for years.A version of this story was originally reported in The Washington Post.

No Us Without You

Baloney is one of the most well-known--and divisive--meat products in the United States. Many synonymize it with "fake" or "synthetic," but there are some who defend the maligned meat to its core. What makes this iconic American food so controversial, and how did it fall from its former glory? In this episode of Proof, Reporter Rebecca Rosman travels to Bologna, Italy to trace the origins of the city's namesake meat, and talks to the people in the United States who are at the forefront of revitalizing the meat's reputation.Take our show survey here: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6274752/Proof-Season-7-Survey

A Baloney Redemption Story

Tortillas, tortilla chips, and tamales—these are all foods that are easy to enjoy but not as easy to make from scratch. There's a process called nixtamalization that occurs, which unlocks nutrients from corn and makes it ready to use in the foods we love. Nixtamalization is a crucial step, yet it's not well-known. It's a testament to the ingenuity of Indigenous science, which has been subject to erasure throughout history. In this episode of Proof, Navajo reporter Andi Murphy walks us through her journey of nixtamalizing blue corn, and embarks on an Indigenous information exchange with chefs, scholars, and poets in the process.

Nixtamalization and Indigenous Science

We tell the weird and surprising and funny backstories around food and drink. The tales we haven’t all heard yet, the ones that have been lost, the under-told. This is not a recipe show. And this is not a show about celebrity chefs or what they like to eat. Proof goes beyond recipes and cooking to investigate the foods we love (tiki drinks) and don't love (the grain bowl); ask the big questions (where do food cravings come from?); and uncover the hidden backstories that feed your food-obsessed brain. Hosted by Bridget Lancaster. A production of America's Test Kitchen. 

hubhopper

Proof

hubhopper