Good Eats: Yes, We Have No Banana Pudding

Visiting the grocery store, Alton discovers a display of vanilla wafers. These cookies take him back to his childhood, and his mother's banana pudding recipe. She'd told him he would get that only when she was... and there's the recipe, right on the box! Alton resolves to make a batch, and discovers himself disappointed. He realizes that to get the right nostalgic effect, he'll need to start from scratch, and he does, first developing his own Vanilla Wafers, and then using them in Refrigerated Banana Pudding and Baked Banana Pudding.

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Episode Info

Episode number: 14x6
Production Number: EA1406H
Airdate: Thursday July 01st, 2010

Director: Alton Brown
Writer: Alton Brown

Guest Stars

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Main Cast

Alton Brown
As Himself

Recap

Alton wheels his cart through the food store as a muzak arranged version of the Good Eats theme plays softly. He stops at a large display of “Old Yella Vanilla Wafers” which has reminded him of banana pudding his mother used to make. She'd told him back then he'd have to wait until she dropped to get the recipe. Alton's chagrined to see it right on the back of the box, and sets out to cook himself a batch!..

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Episode Notes

Cards

Bananas are by far the most popular fruit in the United States.
The first printed recipe for pastry cream dates back to “Le Patissier Francois”, published in France in 1690.
Bananas in space? Banana pudding was served aboard Apollo 12.

Episode Quotes

Alton: I'm in the mood for 'take one bite and be transported back to my childhood, only not really my childhood, but some romantic notion of what my childhood might have been if I'd grown up in a storybook!'

Alton: (about banana pudding) It is, in fact, a curiously comforting construct with an old world pedigree.

Alton: Behold: the primal swamp of sweets from which our banana pudding crawled!

Alton: The paper plate? I like that, because it's a lot easier to deliver these goods into that mixer without making a huge mess.

Union Soldier: Wellll, perhaps I should just have my close, personal friend William Tecumseh Sherman come down there and teach you boys a thing or two about the meaning of the word 'superiority'!
Confederate Soldier: Well, bring him down, and we'll be sure to serve him a heapin' helpin' of Southern hospitality!
Union Soldier: I got your hospitality right here you rebellious jack-a-nape! (He begins to wave his fists at the Confederate soldier)
Confederate Soldier: I'll teach YOU a think or two about fisticuffs, you red-nosed rum barrel! (He begins waving his own fists around.)

Alton: (comparing the hot and cold banana puddings). They are both amazingly delicious. They are both completely lucious. And yet, they are undeniably different puddings. It's kind of like – I don't know – dating sisters, only, a whole lot safer I imagine.

Cultural References

Yes, We Have No Banana Pudding takes its name from a 1922 novelty song, Yes! We Have No Bananas, from a Broadway show titled "Make It Snappy". The song overshadowed its source, becoming extremely popular in 1923 and eventually being covered by many of the top acts of that decade and subsequent eras. It traveled overseas to at least Ireland and England, reappearing over subsequent decades there.

The Old Yella Vanilla Wafers parody Nabisco's Nilla Wafers. The yellow box, red triangular logo in the upper left corner, and upsweeping left to right printing are all characteristics of the box. Nilla Wafers, like Old Yella Wafers, contain vanillin, not vanilla extract.

The “time elevator” that Alton uses to visit Victorian times and then the port of New Orleans copies many elements from the original Star Trek “turbolifts” - elevators that could travel both horizontally and vertically, and reached everywhere in the ship. These include the sounds of the doors, the sounds of the original Enterprise, and the flashing light bar in the back.

Alton's copy of Classic Dishes has the same red/pink/white checked cover that has been featured on most editions of The Joy of Cooking, one of the most popular cookbooks ever produced.

Episode References

Alton explains how to make vanilla sugar in the episode titled “My Pod” which covers the uses of vanilla.

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