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Good Eats: Choux Shine
Steam, Alton contends, might be the most influential physical force on Earth. When water turns to vapor, that pressure can do work – like push a locomotive, or make a really great pastry called pâte à choux. During baking, steam expands the pastry, and when it cools and sets, the steam leaves behind holes one may fill with delicious flavors. Alton explains the importance of water and of weighing flour (not measuring it by volume), detouring to a cooking store to study scales with help from ‘W.’ Back in the kitchen, Alton explains Sweet or Savory Pâte à Choux (which it is depends on a minor change to the ingredients) and explains how to make éclairs and cream puffs. He also demonstrates that delight of the carnival midway, Funnel Cake.
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Episode Info
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Episode number: 6x10 Production Number: EA1F09 Airdate: Wednesday November 13th, 2002 Writer: Alton Brown
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Recap
Alton, as a train engineer aboard the Great Smokey Mountain Railway in Dillsboro, North Carolina (USA) suggests that physicists, industrialists and historians would likely all agree on the most influential physical force – steam. Water transformed to steam by heat increases in volume 1600 times. If there is no room for expansion that steam will be under pressure, and if that pressure can be harnessed that steam can do work, converting heat energy to kinetic energy. Or, it can make a light pastry called pâte à choux. Pâte à choux starts as choux paste, then expands and sets when baked. The resulting cavernous middle can be filled with all manner of sweet or savory things, all of which are... Good Eats...Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
- Water creates steam and the right amount is vital to pâte à choux.
- The Parisian favorite, gâteau Saint-Honoré, is made from a giant cream puff.
- Replacing one or two whole eggs with egg whites will produce a much lighter, crisper éclair or cream puff.
- Remember, pâte à choux is leavened by steam, so don’t peak!
- Profiteroles are minature choux pastries used in the holiday classic croquembouche.
- The French pastry, religieuse, consists of chocolate mousse surrounded by chocolate and coffee éclairs.
- Besides deep frying, the dough can be made into gnocchi and pan fried, or dropped into boiling water to create dumplings.
The title is a play on "Shoe Shine" based on the proper pronunciation of "choux" which is very close to that of "shoe."
Locations: Great Smoky Mountain Railway (Dillsboro, NC); Harry’s/Whole Foods (Alpharetta, Georgia)
There is a brief blooper at the end where Alton tries to point at some bread but the glass door of the case is still closed.
Episode Quotes
Alton: If you were to ask a historian, an industrialist and a physicist to vote on the most influential physical force on planet Earth, I’ll bet they’d all say the same thing: steam.
Alton: Luckily, the only scary thing about pâte à choux is saying the name. This stuff is easy to make, versatile to use, and delicious to eat. Hey... that sounds kinda like... (Good Eats theme plays)
Alton: Use a pot that’s a little bigger than what you think you will need, or later on you’ll end up with choux on your shoes!
Alton: Of course, if we’re going to talk about scales, it makes sense to talk to someone who sheds them from time to time.
(Alton is searching for a food weighing scale)
Alton: Weight has become an issue for me.
W: Lay off the girl scout cookies.
Alton: Weight has become an issue for me.
W: Lay off the girl scout cookies.
Alton: (To W, after examining scales) How come the price range on these things is wider than your mood swings?
Alton: That gives me an idea. Come with me…
W: (to the viewers) Be afraid. Be very afraid.
W: (to the viewers) Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Alton: I think I’m going to go weigh.
W: I’d settle for go away.
Alton: I heard that!
W: I’d settle for go away.
Alton: I heard that!
Alton: (as a bagpipe player walks by) Now that’s a traditional piping bag I can agree with! This one... (holding up an icing bag) ... I don’t like so much. It’s fabric, it’s hard to clean, it’s a unitasker which is never very smart. In other words, if you use one of these, you’re a… (puts bag on head like a dunce cap) Go sit in the corner!
Alton: Believe it or not, the faster you do this [pipe choux dough], the less likely you are to have inconsistencies in shape and size. And that’s good, because you want the éclairs, cream puffs, whatever you’re doing, to be all the same size when they come out and done at the same time.
Alton: Now, let’s have a look inside, shall we? (to himself) Just slice this down the slide... (to the viewers, as he opens the pastry) There you go! Empty as a cave. You know what? It’d be a real shame not to fill that with something...
Alton: We hope that we’ve given you the desire and confidence to try your hand at some of our favorite steamed eats: pâte à choux. Despite the fussy French name it is as much fun to make as it is to eat, and I assure you – it is fun to eat! See you next time, on Good Eats.
Cultural References
Gadgeteer W and her interactions with Alton spoof James Bond’s armorer Q. A faint James Bond theme can usually be heard as a bed during scenes with W, and this scene is no exception. Here she helps Alton select a scale.
Jackson Pollack was an American expressionist painter who painted from 1944 or so until about 1953. His highly abstract paintings polarize viewers; people seem to like them or hate them. Alton invokes Pollock's name to describe a technique for icing éclairs by dripping chocolate frosting from a bottle; this is similar to some of the techniques Pollock used to create his canvasses.
During his short closing speech, Alton claims pâte à choux is as much fun to make as it is to eat. This tagline comes to the world from Jiffy-Pop, a kind of popcorn and disposable popper combination. The foil top of a Jiffy-Pop package puffs out as the corn pops (which happens for the same reason pâte à choux puffs up), and the company pitches the product as fun to make for this reason.
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