We’re having pizza at my dad’s house and my brother shows up with his latest batch of brew. It’s a “pecan porter”. We’re all standing around talking about this when I say to my brother, “Jules, what is it about your late twenties, that has led you to this interest in fermentation?” We crack up wryly. I was teasing him, but listen up.
A few days later I get word that my brother is making his own sauerkraut. “What! You’re kidding me.” I say. “I didn’t even know my brother liked sauerkraut.” Who makes their own sauerkraut? My brother really is obsessed with fermentation.
Which gets me thinking of this story about my brother’s palate from when he was a kid.
When I was in high school my brother was in grade school. We came home from school to eat lunch everyday. One of my “jobs” was to make his lunch. The kid wanted the same thing every day. A peanut butter sandwich with all the crusts cut off. Ugh. So one day I laid down four slices of bread; two for my turkey sandwich and two for his peanut butter with the crusts cut off. I smeared a dollop of mustard across my bread and, instead of getting a clean knife to stick into the peanut butter; I just swiped the blade “clean” across one of my brother’s bread slices. Then stuck the knife in the peanut butter. A small amount of mustard lay hidden beneath the peanut butter. I cut the crusts off and brought my brother his sandwich. I don’t remember now how much of this action was intentionally mean, and how much was laziness, but let’s assume it was a mixture of the two.
The lunch hour is ticking by quickly and my mom is getting frustrated with my brother. “Eat!” she tells him for the tenth time. He looks miserable. He is ready to cry. “This peanut butter tastes funny,” he pleads. Finally, I crack. I can’t believe the kid can detect the mustard! It’s like the princess and the pea only he is the prince and the mustard smear. I confess, but oddly I’m not in any trouble. Instead we all start laughing. Or at least that’s how I remember it. Maybe it was just my mother and I laughing. My brother was relieved to be off the hook.
But look at him now – he’s making beer, he’s making sauerkraut. Then, I hear he and my sister-in-law are making marmalade and pickles!!! He is so ready to give peanut butter and mustard sandwiches another try.
