Podcast
Sauced
Hosted by The Coaster · EN
What happens when two former chefs — now leading voices in the drinks world — turn the mic on their favorite topic: cooking with booze and drinking with food? That’s Sauced, a new weekly podcast from Tim McKirdy and Sother Teague.
Each week, Tim and Sother unpack a single dish: its history, the techniques that make it sing, and the drinks that belong alongside it. From Beef Bourguignon to Crêpes Suzette, we're exploring the classics — and the booze that gives them their identity.
Tim is a drinks writer, editor, and podcaster who's spent years covering cocktails, wine, and spirits. Sother is one of New York's most respected bartenders and the author of I'm Just Here for the Drinks. Together, they bring chef instincts, drinks expertise, and the kind of meaty conversation you'd want to partake in over a great meal.
New episodes every Thursday. Premium subscribers get bonus content, recipe cards, and early access to live events at https://sauced.supercast.com.
16episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Clams Casino
4d ago00:58:56Tap to summarizeClams Casino has a paperwork problem. A Rhode Island maître d' named Julius Keller claimed to invent the dish at the Narragansett Pier Casino in 1917 — but a January 1900 menu from the Central Park Casino in New York City, held in the New York Public Library, predates him by 17 years. And neither one was a gambling house.We dig into both origin claims, the Portuguese-American "stuffies" tradition in Rhode Island that may pre-date both, and how to take a working man's ingredient and dress it up — a three-way move on the pork, a strong opinion on breadcrumbs, and a rethink of which booze actually belongs in the topping.We pair it with the Central Park Casino — an aquavit dirty Martini with a pureed olive brine, named for the 1900 menu that started the argument.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week's partners:Mezcal Ultramundo: https://pkgdgroup.com/post/ultramundo/Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Tiramisu
2w ago00:58:13Tap to summarizeTiramisu's origin is contested. One claim puts it in a Treviso restaurant in 1972. Another places it in Friuli, more than a decade earlier. But zabaglione — the dish's direct ancestor — has always been defined by sweet Marsala. The booze was the family inheritance dropped at Tiramisu's birth, and added back by everyone since.This week: the 1972 Le Beccherie story, the rival Friuli claim that pre-dates it, why the original was kept deliberately sober, egg-safety concerns, and where we actually land on the booze.The cocktail: The Red Hook — Vincenzo Errico's 2003 Manhattan variation from Milk & Honey NYC, with a coffee-bitters thumbprint that ties it back to the dessert.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week's partners:Arriesgado Ancestral Tequila: https://pkgdgroup.com/#our_brands/Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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BBQ Ribs
3w ago01:29:29Tap to summarizeNobody agrees on barbecue. Memphis wants a dry rub, the Carolinas want vinegar, Kansas City wants a thick sweet sauce, and Texas thinks the conversation should be about beef. This week we listened to every region, picked apart what each one gets right, and then did the one thing two New Yorkers could honestly do: we poured a Manhattan into the sauce.We also trace how ribs went from a discarded cut in 1850s Cincinnati to one of America's defining dishes, with the story running through the Black pit masters who built the canon. Henry Perry opened the door in 1908 Kansas City, Charlie Vergos defined Memphis style starting in 1948, and Aaron Franklin and Rodney Scott carry the torch today. We also settle some home-cook arguments along the way. The membrane comes off, the wrap stays off, you cook by temperature not time, and hickory is the wood for the job.The drink is a Mint Julep made the proper way, with high-proof bourbon, demerara syrup, plenty of crushed ice, and a mint plume tall enough that your nose touches it on every sip.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week's partners:El Acabo Raicilla: https://pkgdgroup.com/#our_brandsUnderberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Jerk Chicken
3w ago01:10:33Tap to summarizeMost cooking woods are fuel. For Jerk Chicken, pimento is the seasoning — it's the smoke, not just the marinade, that gives this dish its defining flavor.This week, we dig into the Maroon origin in smokeless underground pits to evade British patrols, the scotch bonnet vs habanero deep-dive, the Boston Bay tradition that dates to the 1940s, and why Red Stripe — not rum — earns its spot in the marinade. The rum we save for the cocktails.Speaking of which: The Jamaican Jerk Daiquiri — Wray & Nephew Overproof, Allspice Dram, lime, demerara, pimento bitters, rimmed with the leftover dry rub. And the Lion's Tail — a 1930s classic: bourbon, Allspice Dram, lime, demerara, Angostura.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week's partners:Tequila El Viejito: https://pkgdgroup.com/#our_brandsUnderberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Drunken Noodles
May 701:20:12Tap to summarizeDrunken Noodles is misnamed twice. There's no booze in the dish, and the original version had no noodles either. The only word in the name that's accurate is the eater.This week, four etymology theories, the noodle-less origin, the holy basil vs Thai basil debate, the wok hei science, the LA pastrami variant — and why we ended up with no booze in the dish.Two cocktails: The Krapow — gin, lime, palm sugar, holy basil, topped with ice-cold lager. And Thai Sabai — Mekhong, lime, Thai basil, blended over pebble ice.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week's partners:Palomo Mezcal: https://pkgdgroup.com/post/palomo-who-we-areUnderberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Bonus Episode: Garlic
May 301:00:08Tap to summarizeThis is a bonus episode that first went out to our premium subscribers in March. We're dropping it in the public feed today so you can hear what bonus episodes are like. They typically feature deep dives into a single technique, ingredient, or side dish, and the subject of this episode is garlic.Garlic changes more dramatically based on how you process it than almost anything else in the kitchen — crush it and you get a pungent, volatile hit; slice it thin and it softens into something almost sweet; roast it and it turns into spreadable butter; confit it low and slow and it becomes unrecognizable from where it started.We break down the science behind why, walk through six preparations, bust multiple myths, and debate whether the garlic press deserves its bad reputation. Plus: the 10-minute rule that might change how you prep garlic forever.Want more like this? Premium subscribers get bonus episodes, ad-free weekly episodes, digital recipe cards, and early access to live events and tastings. Sign up at sauced.supercast.com.Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.pod
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Bananas Foster
Apr 3001:18:45Tap to summarizeBananas Foster was invented in a single night in 1951 to honor a man fighting French Quarter police corruption, inspired by an Irish-American breakfast, and made with a banana that vanished from American supermarkets in the 1960s. Seventy-five years later, Brennan's still flambés 35,000 pounds of bananas a year for it.This week, we dig into the Big Mike-to-Cavendish swap that quietly rewrote what the dish tastes like, the Paul Blangé method of sauce building, and the science of why the vapor burns, not the liquid.Two cocktails: The Commissioner — a Godfather riff with Jamaican rum, crème de banane, and Sother's Driftwood Bitters. And The Big Mike — a hot caramel-cream-foam Irish-coffee-style closer.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week’s partners:G4 Tequila: https://pkgdgroup.com/g4-tequila/Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Shrimp Scampi
Apr 2301:25:00Tap to summarizeThe name says shrimp twice — except it doesn't. "Scampi" is Italian for langoustine, making shrimp scampi a translation accident that's been hiding in plain sight on every red sauce joint menu in America.This week, we unpack the dish that Italian immigrants rebuilt with a different crustacean in a new country. The real identity behind the name, why the sauce is actually a beurre blanc, the salt-and-baking-soda cure that changes everything about shrimp texture, and the 90-second window where it all comes together or falls apart.The cocktail: Lo Scampo — gin, fresh Ruby grapefruit juice, marjoram syrup, and seltzer. Garnished with a brûléed grapefruit slice.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week’s partners:El Ateo Tequila: https://pkgdgroup.com/#our_brands/Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Carne Asada
Apr 1601:17:52Tap to summarizeCarne Asada isn't a recipe — it's a verb, a noun, and an event, and in Northern Mexico and Southern California the gathering IS the dish.This week, we dig into the communal fire ritual that built its own language. Why "asada" is feminine and Mexican while "asado" is masculine and Argentine, the flap steak cut that beats skirt, the two-agent marinade that uses beer and mezcal as flavor delivery, cooking directly on white-hot coals, and why Enrique Olvera's idea of "perfectly imperfect" is the whole point.The cocktail: Sauced Michelada — chamoy and Tajín rim, Clamato, lime, Maggi, Worcestershire, Valentina, and a secret spoon of eel sauce.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week’s partners:Asil Raicilla de la Sierra: https://pkgdgroup.com/#our_brands/Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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Carbonnade Flamande
Apr 900:59:30Tap to summarizeA Flemish dish with a French name. A stew named for coal, where nothing is cooked over fire. And a thickening technique that involves floating mustard-slathered gingerbread on top of the pot. Carbonnade Flamande is Belgium's answer to Beef Bourguignon — same method, different drink, entirely different class.This week, we break down the beer-braised stew that fueled Flemish laborers for centuries — why it's all beer and no stock, the ossobuco-cut shanks that give it body, Julia Child's wrong beer choice, and the peperkoek bread lid that makes this dish unlike anything else in the European canon.The cocktail: Le Charbon — aged Jamaican rum, Falernum, dry curaçao, and a ginger-molasses syrup.For the full recipes and more, become a premium subscriber at https://sauced.supercast.com/Follow us on Instagram: @sauced.podThanks to all of this week’s partners:Mezcal Ultramundo: https://pkgdgroup.com/post/ultramundo/Underberg: https://underbergamerica.com/
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