Taste Testing Pretentious Ingredients Vol.12 | Sorted Food 

Exactly! For me, truffle and morels aren't pretentious. Solely because they're not artificially rare (to my knowledge, neither can be farmed). But, and this isn't a food example, a diamond IS pretentious. Because the only reason why they're rare is because one family owns all the diamond mines and only lets so many be sold at once. But then, the marketing of individual products from these ingredients can totally change my opinion. Like the purple salt. It jumped to pretentious for me with all the unproven (and often times in these cases, unproveable) health claims. But a (to use another non-food example) grinding wheel coated in diamond dust isn't pretentious, because it's just letting the product speak for itself.

@@MissingmyBabbu also the marketing for diamond has been, buy this expensive thing to show how much you truly love her. So if diamonds are cheap they are less interesting due to how effective the marketing has been.

@@MissingmyBabbu Morels are not pretentious. My grandparents live on a small farming plot and you would not believe the amount they can get every spring. They just have a rather narrow time slot for growing (after thaw but before getting real warm), which is what leads to their low production for commercial selling (if you can get the people who have them to part, those things are delicious). The diamond craze was started in the late 1800s upon the discovery of mines in Africa which made the formerly rare commodity suddenly abundant. The engagement ring was their advertising campaign that drove the prices back up and the industry has even called a cartel.

When scarcity starts being an impactful quality it changes the meaning of the product and put an unquantifiable value in its worth that is status, therefore pretentiousness.

Yes for me it's pretentious if it's deliberate, e.g. gold leaf on food

Honestly, as a european (Switzerland), I'm also shocked they don't know morels.... It's decently common to search for them and they are pretty popular as dishes!

I really don't like Morels, tbh. (Indiana born and raised.) I'm more of a shiitake/porcini kind of guy.

They usually don't grow in England id assume

I’m from the Midwest and I knew what they were right away 🤦🏾‍♀️ Never hunted them tho.

Oh yes! Every spring in Michigan. We always wait to mow our lawns too, living near the woods. There's always a few that pop up in random spots every year.

or, in the case of the stuff Barry doesn't know, "raiding Barry's future kitchen" (time machine sold separately)

@@MercenaryPen oh yeah, “giving Barry ideas” or “the reason Barry went broke: $135 salt” lol

Or we can even name it "does Barey have it?"

Brilliant!

They need to actually raid his kitchen in an episode , go through his cupboards and see how many pretentious ingredients he has in his kitchen

Hahaha sounds YUMMY!

@@SortedFood haha. It does right? 😂

Your dad is hilarious 😂

We got a Dad joke after all that! Missed those!

@@janmay3901 I thought the Dad jokes were "toast". 😇

Also in our frontyard in Estonia.

Same, they say it is "rare", but in France by going in the woods near my village you can easily find a Kg in a few hours in Spring. We dry them just because we can't eat that much during the season, not because it is "rare". (it is rare for city dwellers only ^^) There are rarer mushrooms with more complex cooking process etc... (coprins, truffles etc...) Having a UE/Non-UE pot is a huge red flag though. There are 3 varieties of morels and clearly the chinese and yellow ones taste poorer. You want the grey ones. (just like how black truffle from France is way more tastier than summer truffle from China or Italy, they are just not the same products)

Morel pickin' is a tradition for a long spring family walk in my neck of the woods too. (Central US)

Here in Montana the season for morels is late May and June. Most people go to the mountain forests and foothills. They tend to grow especially well in area where there have been fires to clear the forest canopy and underbrush.

@@etienne8110 You're just falling for the typical French attitude of "it's French, so it must be better", Italian truffles aren't better or worse than French ones, if French ones were better, all the top restaurants would use exclusively French truffles, but that doesn't happen.

Or everyone gets told different country when they come to the kitchen. Making it ultimate fusion pass it on. 😂

@@Aquelll con-fusion

No. Remember the paella burrito incident?

@@Fyreflier I think that is why I want that, just for the chaos 😂

@@Fyreflier but thats what makes it funny

Pain hurts but victory is sweeter

"this is the original form of true pure mustard" *Barry takes a full f**** forkfull*

...while wearing a shirt literally saying "Wild Ones"

if only.

Proceeds to beat Jamie in excitement over the sandwiches lmao

Oh you lemon and herb boys…

I said 100, but I meant euros, so I wasn't even close.

I was literally just like we have morels all over in michigan!

We have them all over Ohio also

Haha so you wouldn't try it for yourself?

@@SortedFood I'd try it once, but probably be laughing at it the whole time

@@theotherVLF i think a mustard ball is still better than the small wooden handmade barrel i once got my mustard in

@@suppersdinner119 ok now that's a pretentious mustard

Most pretentious things ARE weird!

"Butt first..."

I actually miss the comment of the week days...

i envy you, they go for 60-80 bucks a gallon and I never find any when i go out, and my hometown is the mushroom capitol of the US, in Missouri. Make sure you use a mesh bag dude, not a walmart bag, its because off all the people who go out and take 100% of every morel they find and dont spread any spores that they are so rare anymore.

My mom has them growing wild in her front yard. We get a ton every year

I have friends and family who forage for them! In Kansas, they have pretty good luck, but thanks to the fires in Washington, my more local friends are getting luckier. The fact they'd never heard of morels blows my little mind!

Western WI on the Mississippi - us too! Couldn't believe I knew what the pretentious ingredient was! :)

Which parks do you go to? I rarely find any mushrooms in Illinois

Truffle boy!!!! Love that!!

take it from the truffle boy himself, "sometimes I wake up, with a craving for truffle, and it hits the spot."

Who's truffle boy?

Yeah, I recognised them straight away but could only remember the name started with M.

@@OK-mv4ih Starts with B, rhymes with Scary

SO ACCURATE

My thoughts exactly.

I get them all the time where I live at local farmers markets I didn't realize they were so hard to find but they are awesome.

I'm surprised that they didn't taste them during their trip to Washington and Oregon.

Yep, I thought the same as I knew what they were. But then I watched the Epicurious video on all different types of mushrooms last week, so maybe I just sub-consciously retained morels from there. Loved seeing Ben’s dish using them though - that looked epic... Edit: I lived in the US mid-west for 10 years, so reading other comments below, I just realised I prob know them more from restaurants and meals there, as they are v plentiful.

And here I sit, reckognizing them by shape from Stardew Valley...

You're not wrong! A spicy ball of history

@@SortedFood is that Ben?

Looking at your profile avatar and readi g this comment...I can see that face saying that

Meanwhile, me, who lives where coral grows: "Barry.... no.... no Barry... its not coral. Coral, although living, has the same consistency as a rock. Its not squishy."

@@TheLoreSeeker And meeee, in similar to both of your situations...agreeing with you both! lol Barry, don't eat coral!!

Haha can relate

They grow wild where I live, so I see them quite a bit! I never really thought of them as pretentious, just a lucky find lol

May be more talk here in the US but they aren't common... Just the nature of the morel.

Well known but not common. That is why you have to hunt for them! It is so expensive because they are much harder to cultivate commercially than other popular mushrooms. They are so finicky about conditions. I have great memories of morel hunting in the midwest with my dad as a kid.

@@amberp8835 Yep. I live in central Illinois, USA, and the first really warm day in spring after a rain everyone is out in the woods hunting for morels. At best, you've got 2 to 3 weeks to harvest and then they're gone till next year. I'd rather eat morels than nasty, dirt flavored truffles any day!

@@mattnemitz6558 it's not just talk, at least not in Texas and certain other parts of the US. They may not be as common as other mushrooms but in the spring after the first rains they can be found if you know how to find them. The issue is having the land to go mushroom hunting.

@@Jaqen-HGhar I didn't say Morels are just talk. I said there might be more talk about them in the US than the UK, referring to what they said in the video. I know how they grow and when etc... It's just hard to find. Hence why I said not common.

Thank you for sharing! An intrigued American!

So is there a place to learn about all the mushroom types? Or have someone verify that they're safe to eat? Just curious since poisonous/hallucinogenic mushrooms might be accidentally used...unless people are into that stuff (no judgement)

We do the same thing in Australia but we make a tea

@@cocolao6954 Because it is popular, there are many books about mushrooms that are found in czechia, on how to recognize them, where they are usually found and if they are safe to eat and things like that.

@@mrcrabmoney Morels are mostly found in America... My hometown in Missouri is known as the morel capitol of the US.

But...(No pun intended!)that would mean it went through an actual process in the marsupials intestines to get that specific taste, like kopi lupak, which is rare and therefore expensive?

And someone had to clean the beans and then dry them so it's actually a process that takes a while plus if your cleaning poo beans all day you deserve a good pay 😅

Hence why the mustard balls are pretentious

Fully agree!!

@@Marysart Or it didn't. As I explained, if it just tastes like coffee then it's pretentious, if it is actually a unique flavor that creates a unique experience then it isn't pretentious.

And they grow rather large too, found a few on some hunts here in Montana as big as my forearm.

Yeah, i grew up hunting them around the neighborhood. Around here they are common but still pricey because that short window of growing and everything having to be just right. Some times we get tons and sometimes we get a handful.

Exactly! MY favourite way to make it is to stuff them with prunes, wrap them in bacon and cook the in the oven. :)

I live in Georgia, USA and my father-in-law goes on a scavenger hunt to harvest morels every year! He keeps a lot and then he sells the rest. He can sell them for a pretty penny! I don't think that morals are pretentious, they are just not very common and not sold in many places because they are not a mainstream ingredient. The expensive price is bc of the labor to pick them & the process of trying to find them in the same place every year. Pretentious ingredients take the extra step to impress (e.g. the purple salt). Morels don't need that extra step because they are delicious at they are.

Yep. Once you’ve trudged through the woods with a couple old wonder bread bags picking morels and then go home and pick the ticks off yourself you got while morel hunting, pretentiousness is out the window.

Midwest here and it is definitely the thing we rurals go out for every year. I have great memories of mushroom hunting with my dad as a kid. And you don't share your spots when you find a good one.

You know when you put it in that situation absolutely pretentious.

And cups of warm beer to dilute 😂

Same with Morels or truffle from our pretentious head boy Barry Taylor… like how do you even justify truffles as not pretentious?

Yeah, if you are eating hot dogs and someone asks for mustard. If someone pulls out that ball and a cup of water I am getting the hell out because I am absolutely in the wrong place.

Well yeah then they are just pretentious. I would use it as an ingredient. The first thing that comes to mind is rubbing it on a pork roast.

But what would they do, when they have two of almost everything?

This is such a good one!

@@gibuttersnaps2538 thanks! I hope it reveals some musical guilty pleasures

We would LOVE to see that

I doubt that they'll be able to get actual wasabi, though.

@@BeardedDanishViking there's a company in London that sells real wasabi root! I've purchased from them before and it tastes delicious! The Wasabi Company :)

That would be great, good fresh horseradish is something you can't help but react to as it burns through your brain.

@@BeardedDanishViking It's not *that* bad, horseradish can be a lot stronger to be fair. Then again, I adore sitting there scoffing handfuls of wasabi peas so I might be mildly resistant now.

Try watching Tasting History

@@MtnNerd I've done so and love it! Though it's be an utter delight to see these lads dip into their culinary heritage and relate that to the world! They've gone to great lengths to show us cusiine and culinary experiences from accross the globe (for better or worse), and a touch of their locality to add to that would be lovely to see And! Who are we kidding, more Ben Nerdisms???? Please!

love this!

Also Townsends! He tries to keep everything as authentic as possible, including the methods and utensils.

I'd love to see a Sorted take on a Heston Blumenthal like series

1 Chef, 2 Normals, 1 pretentious individual

@@rebel4466 yes! Add that to his pass it on title page for sure.

I think biased will do

or just normally pretentious

Sounds delish!

Now that's pretentious

I've been wondering why I instantly recognised morels, having never seen or eaten one. You have solved that mystery!

It does work on garlic bread but it lacks that distinct garlic flavor so it won't be the same. It's also easy to make at home.. Just takes a long time as you have to slowly cook it at a low temperature.

😉 Bob thinks it's great on a burger

This was all I was thinking during the discussion on black garlic!

@@SilvaDreams yeah, I use black garlic, and for me, it's not at all unusual to use black garlic and non-black garlic in the same dish. However, unlike regular garlic, there's not any one dish where I always use black garlic, I often use it for a change of pace.

I've used it in a recipe for ramen. Also it's not that hard to make on your own. It's just gently heating the garlic until it caramelizes.

People here on Vancouver Island also forage for Morell as well as other wild mushrooms. Chantrel (spelling?) is also yummy

Yes very cool. Chanterelles are a real delicacy also. Cheers to you 🇨🇦

Yes! I always just saute them in butter, sometimes flour them sometimes don't! It's a great time of year when the morels start.

@@laakins We always soaked them and THEN fried them, but some people didn’t bother. It’s just extra protein, right? Haha.

@@laakins haha, no. Fresh as in not dried.

It could be jamie , cuz after the paella burito, the articles did call jamie chef🤭🤭🤭🤭

No, Jamie revealed last video, that he has been Running a Food channel for 10 years. Baz is just there to photograph things, and leave hobs on.

Also if it was versus then the chef (as there is only one) should be tasting stuff to !

Yeah, this doesn't feel like a "vs" episode really.

@@hrithikasarvodayan Jamie did work in the test kitchen under James for a long time. That's practically an apprenticeship.

Instant pot can be used too.. I heard the smell can be very strong so to do it in the garage or on a covered patio

I laughed so hard!!

Ah lucky you! How would you serve them?

@@SortedFood clean them, then dredged in seasoned flour, quick pan fry in brown butter! Great with steak or served over a grain like cooked buckwheat. Eaten with quinoa and zucchini is delicious as well!

They are fairly common here in Illinois as well. We either lightly bread them or saute them in butter.

Tons in the river bottoms in Nebraska and Iowa, for about two weeks or so in spring. It's tough to get any, as many people around here treat morel harvesting as a contact sport.

You can find morels in northen Europe too (scandinavia, Finland). I have not eat morels myself but some say that you can find them in burnt places/forests (like swidden) and new garden areas at spring (when the soil is new).

Oooh that's an interesting one! Do you have any particular books/novels in mind?

@@xdgirl8886 well, that particular thought came up during Macbeth/ Shakespeare, I always wondered about lambas bread ( lord of the rings… or maybe just a hobbit food schedule feast), in a little princess by burnett it’s more of a generell description of rich hot tasty soup and sandwiches and blueberry muffins, a moveable feast by Hemingway describes very good chicken … I think de bresse(?!), the Queen of hearts tarts stolen by the knave of hearts in Alice adventures in wonderland by carroll, maybe the chocolate cake from mathilda by r Dahl, or maybe from pippi longstocking „and they shouted with delight when they saw all the good things pippi had set out on the bare rock. There were lovely little sandwiches of meatloaf and ham, a whole pile of pancakes sprinkled with sugar, little brown sausages and three pineapple puddings“, …. Maybe a duck rochambeau from the moviegoer by walker percy, I think there were some amazing potatoes mentioned in the secret garden by burnett, in the secret life of bees there are a few references to classic southern dishes (since the author put the whole story in South Carolina), or maybe the „normals“ could make lane cake from to kill a mockingbird by Harper lee „I’ll make a lanecake. That Stephanie s been after my recipe for thirty years, and if she thinks I’ll give it to her just because I am staying with her, she got another thing coming“(no clue what a lanecake is, but why not?!) , or maybe a twist on the Turkish delights from narnia, …. Or just recipes out of nanny ogg s cookbook ( part of terry pratchetts epic discworld series), … Any book recommendations would be welcome for my reading list too 😉 Most stories have some food in them, it’s a big part of social interaction and even buisness…. And for historical ideas, well has beer probably the oldest recipe from 3500 BC, or maybe the meatpie recipe from Mesopotamia dating back to like 1700 BC,…

how about.... no.

If you're looking for adaptations of famous recipes in Media, maybe give Binging with Babish a try. He does movies and Shows so idk how that translate to your list but I'm fairly certain he tackled the cake in Matilda at least

@@BlueGangsta1958 thanks for the rec, I check it out :)

We would all be getting pretty wasted (depending on what you're drinking) and this is not approved for doing at work. LOL

Sorry but I'm gonna have to copyright strike you for copying my profile picture 😂

Presumably it'd have to be a shot of Meloni?

Double shot when hes super sure but suuper wrong too 😅

Mate, they'll end up on the floor within minutes!

...except the raid is real.

I’m glad to see i’m not the only one who find him a little different than usual. It looks like he lose some weight. He looks brighter and fresher for some reason.

@@avariceseven9443 Could it be that a certain something that rhymes with hamchemic is tapering off in England?

Honestly I wonder if it's James.

👋 👋 Hello from Ontario! We too used to go "mushrooming" every spring. My dad knew every wild mushroom growing so no fear of getting a wrong one. Morels often have a LOT of dirt and sometimes worms, so soaking them took care of that. I never could bring myself to eat puffball though. The rest of my sibs and dad couldn't get enough of them. Not me. And not my mum. But she'd have a big cast iron frying pan with a tonne of butter in it to fry the shrooms and puffball up. That was over 50 years ago and I still think of that as a great time.

@@rhijulbec1 Hi from Texas I would read my dad's book on mushrooms when I was Little and always enjoyed the wild mushrooms that would pop up every year just in the back yard where we hung out the laundry.

@@windyhawthorn7387 Great memories~right? ☺

@@rhijulbec1 Yes especially the fact that knowing too much about poisonous mushrooms made you stare at them wondering if you made a mistake one day you would die horribly. But we also gathered up the wild greens with mom that will kill you vary painfully if you don't know how to cook them mostly listed as poisonous in field books with skull and crossbones ☠️. They are the best of greens vary tasty.

@@windyhawthorn7387 Now that's something I haven't tried doing! Foraging. There are so many edible greens that grow right under our noses, yet we treat them like weeds instead of food. I know you can eat things like stinging nettles as long as they're young and well cooked. Dandelion greens are excellent when they're young as well. So are the flowers. I've seen them made into a jam! Now I've never eaten a dandelion flower, but it really doesn't have a strong smell, so I can't imagine what it tastes like. I absolutely love greens of all kinds~spinach, kale, collard greens, watercress, chard and more. Love them. I usually just boil them, either for a short time~like spinach or a long slow boil for collard greens. All I add is salt and a big slice of lemon and cook them. Do you know what greens you used to pick? I'd love to know. Just in case I can find them. Thanks for your reply! Nice to meet you! Jenn

I thought that when they said that the salt was eggy.

Yup, they have! I think in the ramen battle

Like, zucchini? The things people literally give away in August?