Hotbox: The Oven From Turnspit Dogs to Microwaves

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Humans are the only animals that cook their food, an innovation that changed the course of our evolution and the trajectory of the planet. But how did we tame those early cooking fires and put them in a box—and what can subsequent leaps forward in heating technology tell us about cuisines and culture? This episode, we’re taking you on a whirlwind tour through oven history and science, from the legendary roast beef of Old England—and the special dogs bred to turn the spits on which it hung—to the curious origins of the microwave in military radar technology. What do we gain and lose when our ovens change—and how might understanding that help with the quest to bring better cookstoves to the developing world? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Microwave cooking units are indeed revolutionary.
0:07.0	For a main course, how about a delicacy like lobster tails?
0:10.5	Ready in less than a minute with no shrinkage or shriveling,
0:14.3	since there is no furnace-like blast of heat.
0:17.0	This is cooking by Microwave, cooking without heat.
0:21.0	I'm not sure I agree with this 1969 promotional video from the microwave company, Litten.
0:26.4	Revolutionary? I bet those lobster tails tasted like rubber, the part that wasn't raw.
0:30.4	Hold your skepticism, Cynthia, because this episode is all about humankind's magical journey from that open fire
0:38.4	to ever-tiny-your-boxes-covered-in-button.
0:41.4	We are talking about something a lot of you have asked us to cover.
0:44.4	Ovens! It may seem like your least fabulous appliance,
0:47.4	but once we started looking into this topic at your request, we realized we have a lot of questions.
0:51.4	Just in case you started playing this podcast by accident, we are Gastropod,
0:55.4	the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
0:59.4	I'm Nicola Twilly, and I'm Cynthia Graber,
1:01.4	and so why didn't Microwave's revolutionized cooking as promised?
1:04.4	And how in the world did they actually heat up my bowl of leftovers?
1:07.4	You're winding just a tiny bit.
1:09.4	Why did we first start using fire to cook our dinner?
1:12.4	And what changed when we did?
1:14.4	How did we get to the modern oven where you don't see a fire at all?
1:17.4	And finally, what about the billions of people in the world
	...

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