Comments on: Brown's Eats

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:19:29 +0000

I discovered Alton rather recently myself. My excuse is that I live in the Czech Republic so it takes me a while to hear about what’s hep. The upside is that when I do belatedly discover something cool like Good Eats, there is a huge backlog of episodes to illegally download. (Then there was the time I discovered Curb Your Enthusiasm)

By: peterb

peterb — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:57:01 +0000

vlee: did you make sure it cooled to no more than around 115 degrees? Much higher than that and you’ll kill the culture. Use a probe thermomenter (should be about $15 at target) to be sure.

My 12 hours your yogurt should absolutely be done, so that’s an indication of one of three things:

(1) Culture not strong enough (use Stonyfield or Brown Cow plain yogurt, a tablespoon should be fine)
(2) The milk was too hot when you put the culture in (should be no more than 115 degrees F, use a probe thermometer to be sure.
(3) The milk is getting too cold so the culture doesn’t get a chance to grow.

Good luck figuring out which of these it is.

By: Mike Collins

Mike Collins — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:25:56 +0000

Corriher’s book is primarily about technique — it is a cookbook, and when you read it you get a very good idea of what informed Alton Brown in making his show (well, minus the cinematic parts of it). That said, her technique is formed by an extensive understanding of how the science impacts things.

By: vlee

vlee — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:19:20 +0000

I read your archived post about yogurt and could use advice when the milk after boiling and coolingand having a starter added will NOT curdle, not even when twelve hours have passed.

help, please?

By: psu

psu — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:30:23 +0000

I am not really into food “science”. I want it distilled down to technique. My feeling is that you can learn most of what you need to about cooking by watching someone’s mom. But lacking that the food science angle is a somewhat inferior substitute.

I think Brown strikes the right balance here, for the most part. Sometimes he’s a bit too uber-dorky.

By: Mike Collins

Mike Collins — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:33:47 +0000

Pete,

What you should really do is go grab a copy of Cookwise by Shirley Corriher, the food scientist who usually shows up in the episodes. Cookwise is the graduate course version of Good Eats, and I can’t express just how excellent a book it is.

By: Elle

Elle — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:00:55 +0000

meesha, new episodes air Mondays at 8 EST though right now is a slow period. the last new episode was 2 weeks ago.

By: meesha.v

meesha.v — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:58:35 +0000

the only problem with Good Eats is lack of more new episodes, but I will stop and watch an old one if it’s on.

By: Mark Denovich

Mark Denovich — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:05:28 +0000

What I like about Alton’s program is his explanations of process (like putting cookie dough in the refrigerator, so that it doesn’t melt and flatten out before the crust starts to form for thicker cookies.) This insight into why you do things, helps you learn from mistakes and adjust recipes and technique to achieve the desired results.

By: Andrew Plotkin

Andrew Plotkin — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:51:30 +0000

Not only does Brown play with time and space and so forth in his editing — he plays with them *exultantly*. It’s not something he tries to make invisible. He cracks jokes about folding time, he makes pan swaps look blatantly impossible. He puts something in the fridge and then shows up in his pajamas to announce it’s the next morning.

He’s all about process, and the process of TV-making comes up almost as much as the process of food-making.