Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold

Dryads: Spirits of the Trees with Brian Hoefling

October 14, 2026·59 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Author Brian Hoefling joins Dave and the crew to explore Dryads: Spirits of the Trees, his deep dive into distilled spirits made from tree sap and other tree-derived sugars. They get into Sri Lankan arrack, Filipino lambanog, maple spirits, wild fermentation, palm sugar, garum, Roman cooking, and the surprising range of things humans have figured out how to ferment and distill.Along the way, Nastassia reports from the road on bus-made pickled eggs, pot roast, and a newly delivered Searzall Pro; Dave recaps eating and drinking his way through Houston; Quinn experiments with sesame focaccia; and the group considers the theoretical possibilities of chicken-poop vodka. Plus: maple syrup grades, why fresh sap and cooked sugar produce radically different spirits, ancient methods of concentrating maple sap, and Dave’s ongoing war against bad culinary terminology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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