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Good Eats: Egg Files VII: Meringue
The versatile egg is once again the subject of Alton's discourse, but this time his topic is egg foam – the mixture of air, egg whites and sugar we call meringue. He turns this versatile treat into three desserts: Australian favorite Pavlova, French inspired Oeufs a la Neige, and a recent American entry, Baked Alaska. Each uses a different sort of meringue, highlighting variety. Each has fallen out of favor recently, something Alton aims to correct.
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Episode Info
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Episode number: 14x13 Production Number: EA1413H Airdate: Thursday December 30th, 2010 |
Recap
At a table suggesting a swanky restaurant, Alton has just finished a fine meal. American cuisine, he says, has come a long way in the last twenty years, but those who want dessert subtlety had better have a time machine handy, because they've missed that boat. Back in the twenties and thirties... just then the dessert cart rolls up, laden with treats. On it Alton sees Baked Alaska, Oeufs a la Neige (literally: eggs on snow) and Pavlova. There's also chocolate mousse cake... at this point Alton reaches beyond the fourth wall to call for a program pause while he considers the first three dessert choices. Each is a meringue based treat that is all but gone from the culinary landscape. That's a shame, since meringue, a “magical” mixture of egg whites, sugar and air also goes by another name... Good Eats!..Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
• Meringue was called sugar puff in the 17th century.
• Ouefs a la Neige is often misidentified as “Floating Islands”.
• Early European cooks beat egg whites with birch twigs and created a dish they called snow.
• Meringue was called sugar puff in the 17th century.
• Ouefs a la Neige is often misidentified as “Floating Islands”.
• Early European cooks beat egg whites with birch twigs and created a dish they called snow.
Episode Title: "The Egg Files" parodies The X-Files, a highly successful show that explored science fiction, science fantasy, and sometimes more outré topics.
Episode Quotes
Alton: Consider the first three desserts. Alright, each is an elegant edible from a certainly more genteel age, each based upon meringue, each now all but extinct. And that is a shame, because the magical marriage of egg white, sugar and air known as meringue goes by yet another name... Good Eats!
Alton: Some say that pavlova is how Russell Crowe porked up for his role in Body of Lies, but the star couldn't be reached for comment. Ironically, neither Crowe nor pavlova are Australian, as they were both conceived in New Zealand.
Alton: The pavlova is a unique dessert that remains one hundred percent kiwi, even when it is filled with another fruit.
Alton: The pavlova doesn't really bake – it dries out. And that takes time.
Alton: Baked Alaska; it stands today as a classic juxtaposition of unrelated culinary forms.
Alton: Make yourself a cutting board in the shape of Alaska. You don't have to do that, but I had some spare time.
Cultural References
Early in the episode, Alton idly shapes a mound of meringue into the vague shape of a mountain. He is imitating Richard Dreyfus's character Roy Neary from 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Influenced by aliens, Neary constructed the place they planned to land (the top of a large butte) from mashed potatoes and other materials. This influence was designed to draw Neary (and others) to that site to meet the aliens.
Anna Pavlova was a Russian ballerina of great skill, who lived from 1881 to 1931. During that time she originated the role of The Dying Swan (said to be her masterpiece), and was the first ballerina to tour the world.
Episode References
This episode is the seventh in a series of egg themed episodes. The very first Egg Files was Good Eats's third episode. Egg Files II: Man With a Flan aired during Season 3. Technically, no episodes are named Egg Files III and Egg Files IV, but according to Alton (who answered a fan's question at a book signing), these were Season 4's Let Them Eat Foam and Mayo Clinic respectively. Season 6 sees the series resume formal numbering with Egg Files V: Quantum Foam (about soufflé). Egg Files VI: French Flop, which discussed omelets, aired a season later. Egg Files then took nearly seven years off before returning with this episode.
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