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Good Eats: Don't Be Chicken Of Dumplings
Another spin of the American Classics barrel finds Alton drawing a card bearing a recipe he does not want to make: chicken and dumplings. But, stung by email “criticisms” that his selection process is, ah, less than random, he takes on the challenge. Unfortunately, his family's idea of good dumplings and his wife's family's idea of good dumplings aren't the same, leading Alton to attempt both sorts: Chicken and Rolled Dumplings and Chicken and Dropped Dumplings. A cooked chicken (with a side order of science explaining the concept of pressure cooking) completes this American Classic – both versions – and restores family harmony. Well, until they start discussing the holidays...
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Recap
Alton appears before a large flag backdrop to deliver a dose of humble pie – not the actual humble pie made of animal entrails in a crust and baked – but an admonishment. He gently scolds the viewer for failing to keep up with his “culinary civics classes.” He proposes a solution: the view should face the spinning vessel of redemption. This, of course, is his drum full of cards, each bearing the name of an American classic. And because of some emailed complaints that he has, ah, rigged previous draws, he has added to the procedure...Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
- Global dumplings:
- Germany – Konigsberger klops
- Italy – Gnocchi
- France – Quenelles
- Korea – Mandoo
- Mexico – Albondigas
- Germany – Konigsberger klops
- Denis Papin, a French physicist, invented the “steam digester”. The pressure cooker exploded on its first demonstration, in 1679.
- On the 29th of every month Argentines father for a good luck dumpling dinner called “night of the ñoquis”.
The title is a play on the phrase “don't be chicken” used as a taunt or dare by school children. In context, the phrase refers to the fact that chicken are easily startled and flee anything they think threatens them, probably because we humans aren't the only creatures that find them tasty!
Food Network calls this show Don't Be Chicken of Dumplings but Alton's chalkboard refrigerator bears the alternate title American Classics 7.
Characters who appear but for whom there is no actor information include the lawyers Itchy and Twitchy, Robin Hood, and Ivanhoe.
Episode Quotes
Alton: I trust that when you see this flag behind me, you know that humble pie is on the menu. Not literally a crust filled with animal entrails and baked, mind you, but a dose of humility hefted upon you... and by you, I mean YOU. You have not exactly kept up with your culinary civics classes, have you?
Alton: (in Twitchy's grip) No, I don't want... No, no, no, I don't wanna do it... OW! Okay, okay, okay, I'll say it – today's American classic is... chicken and dumplings! There, you happy?!?
Alton: This is clearly epic stuff, and these rifts are not about to be mended, so we're just going to have to make both dumplings.
Alton: (about drying) If you skip this step, your noodles will fall apart, and your impatience will be punished!
Alton: The stewing hen has lived long enough to develop real poutry flavor, and connective tissue which we can dissolve into gelatin, a process that can take hours. Unless, of course, you have a time machine. My favorite time machine, of course: the pressure cooker!
Alton: Do not add water above the maximum fill line or something may happen! I don't know what – but it probably wouldn't be good!
Alton: For a show about comfort food, I'm not very comfortable!
Cultural References
The American flag background in front of which Alton starts the episode, calls to mind George C. Scott's soliloquy as George S. Patton in the 1970 film, Patton. Scott delivered his speech while standing in front of such a flag.
After several times being beaned by pillows of various sorts that represented different varieties of dumplings, Alton finally tells someone off stage that if he throws another pillow, they're done professionally. This is a sly reference to a rant available all over the web. Fed up by a series of mistakes made by a particular lighting rigger during the filming of Terminator Salvation, actor Christian Bale lost his temper and berated the man. Among other things, he told the offender that “they're done professionally.”
The elevator Alton uses to descend 3.7878 miles for the purpose of demonstrating the effect of air pressure on boiling point resembles, in sound and appearance, the turbolifts from the various Star Trek television series (and in particular, the one used in the first series). The doors make the same sound, and there is a bar of light within a window. Both of these effects appeared in turbolift elevators.
Analysis
This is not the first time Alton has presented recipes for making essentially the same food in more than one way. Another example is the episode Three Chips for Sister Marsha which discusses chocolate chip cookies. The alternatives allow viewers to select what they think they will like the best or what they have the time and skill to prepare.
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