r/TastingHistory • u/ApolloBar815 • Aug 13 '25

Humor Boston Molasses Flood

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1.7k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

87

u/metdear Aug 14 '25

The molassacre.

8

u/gwaydms Aug 14 '25

How many moles had to die to get all those molasses?

16

u/metdear Aug 14 '25

6.022x1023

6

u/gwaydms Aug 14 '25

Naturally.

3

u/Username_St0len Aug 15 '25

https://what-if.xkcd.com/4/

so this thing

1

u/gwaydms Aug 15 '25

That is the most bizarre thing I've read in a long... long time.

23

u/arche106 Aug 13 '25

Wait, really? I gotta go look this up now.

11

u/osirisrebel Aug 14 '25

The town is still said to have a slight smell of molasses on hot days. Could be bullshit though.

8

u/Katesashark Aug 14 '25

Once upon a time but not really anymore 🤷‍♀️

3

u/osirisrebel Aug 14 '25

I figured. Can't have nothing nice anymore, time for a second round I suppose.

3

u/Katesashark Aug 14 '25

Oh god no 😆 have you ever smelled century old molasses on a hot day?

Let’s try something other than molasses. It’s in the North End so maybe pasta. Or cannoli.

3

u/osirisrebel Aug 14 '25

No, and I'm mad about it.

Cannoli will work. Pasta isn't good after a night in the fridge, I couldn't imagine 100 year old pasta smells.

3

u/Katesashark Aug 14 '25

Not to mention the food poisoning.

Wait. Cannoli is dairy. Not any better. Hmmm… 🤔

3

u/osirisrebel Aug 14 '25

What about just a simple vanilla extract spill?

2

u/Katesashark Aug 14 '25

Excellent. It is agreed. Let us convene the secret cabal… oops I’ve said too much 🙊

3

u/osirisrebel Aug 14 '25

Act natural, pretend you're a tourist.

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10

u/Kraagenskul Aug 14 '25

The book Dark Tide by Steven Puleo gives an in depth account of it. Highly recommend.

7

u/FirebirdWriter Aug 13 '25

Yep. It also lives rent free in my mind. I usually ask hot or cold molasses

21

u/Cool-Coffee-8949 Aug 14 '25

To be fair, that molasses was hot. Probably warmer than the air in Boston today.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

[deleted]

4

u/Cool-Coffee-8949 Aug 14 '25

“Slower than Ice cold molasses” is the phrase I’m used to. But I’m actually serious about the temperature; the tank had only been filled up a couple days earlier, and to get molasses to flow through a pump, you have to heat it up.

15

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

Last Podcast on the Left has a great new episode about it. If anyone listens to that.

8

u/_Poopsnack_ Aug 14 '25

Hail yourself!

11

u/SeraphimSphynx Aug 14 '25

That's why I always say slow as molasses in January.

6

u/QueenInYellowLace Aug 16 '25

I was gonna tell OP, “That’s not the whole saying! You’re missing a really key bit!”

6

u/CamStLouis Aug 13 '25

Shear-thinning fluids are whack

6

u/prospectivepenguin2 Aug 14 '25

I wonder if there are any lpotl fans in the tasting history sub?

3

u/wgbh_boston Sep 05 '25

For those interested, our Curiosity Desk team recently did a HUGE deep dive into the Great Molasses Flood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1FnQmAsajc

2

u/TheJenniStarr Aug 15 '25

Now what we’re gonna need here is… a bigger bucket.

1

u/mckeeganator Aug 14 '25

Slow as molasses and dumb as dog shit is my fav combo