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Good Eats: Hittin' the Sauce
Sauce can make or break an entrée. Properly made, it’s a delicious amendment to food. Alton explains how to create Strip Steak with Pepper Sauce and (with the help of an irascible former instructor) Hollandaise Sauce. Along the way, he teaches viewers the basic history of sauce and the food chemistry of starches (commonly used to thicken sauce and other foods), showing how a little starch can go a long way.
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Episode Info
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Episode number: 8x1 Production Number: EA1H01 Airdate: Wednesday June 16th, 2004 Writer: Alton Brown
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Recap
Alton begins with a short history lesson: In Rome, 257 BC, Romans put garum on everything. This mixture of wine, water, salt and, yes, fermented fish entrails appeared on all sorts of Roman food, where it would seek out and destroy any flavor! Centuries later, in 1195 AD, Medieval palates prefer sweet sauces that showcase spices – cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, mustard and honey. The more exotic herbs, the better. If the sauce wanted thickening, there was always stale bread laying around. Perfect, Alton claims, for that après-joust party! In 1813 France, Antonin Carême developed a system of sauces based on a handful of “mother sauces” – white and brown sauce from stock, béchamel from milk, a tomato based sauce and hollandaise. From these he developed hundreds of “lesser sauces.”..Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
- The words sauce and salsa both come from the Latin world for salt – ‘sal’.
- Steak served with a pepper sauce is known in France as Steak au Poivre.
- To prevent a skin from forming on a savory sauce, place plastic wrap lightly over the surface.
- Hollandaise was originally called Sauce Isigny after a town in Normandy known for its butter.
The name of the episode puns on an idiom, hitting the sauce that describes drinking; in the idiom “sauce” substitutes for an alcoholic beverage. In Alton’s case, of course, sauce refers to the real thing.
Episode Quotes
Alton: Armed with a handful of tools, a couple of basic ingredients, and a quarter cup of know how, and you, too, will be able to convert the liquid of your choice into seriously… (Good Eats theme plays)
Alton: Hi, Thing! Nice lookin’ steaks you got going there! You’re cookin’ those in a little butter, I can see… very continental, um… how you plan on finishing those?
(Thing disappears from behind the range, and reappears in a cabinet holding a bottle.)
Alton: Ah, yes. B.2. Steak Sauce. Nothin’ else like it. (sotto voce, to viewers) Nothin’ edible, at least… (normal volume) I’ll tell you what, Thing… we’ll put this away and you give me ten minutes and I’ll make you a steak sauce so good it’ll make your head spin. (Realizing Thing does not have a head) Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean it.
(Thing disappears from behind the range, and reappears in a cabinet holding a bottle.)
Alton: Ah, yes. B.2. Steak Sauce. Nothin’ else like it. (sotto voce, to viewers) Nothin’ edible, at least… (normal volume) I’ll tell you what, Thing… we’ll put this away and you give me ten minutes and I’ll make you a steak sauce so good it’ll make your head spin. (Realizing Thing does not have a head) Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean it.
Alton: Did you hear somebody call for a nutritional anthropologist? Because I know I didn’t call for a nutritional anthropologist.
Deb Duchon: Well we NAs have to shop, too!
Deb Duchon: Well we NAs have to shop, too!
Alton: I don’t know why this is called arrowroot? Of course I do – because when you hold it like this it looks… no, I don’t.
Deb Duchon: It was first found by the Indians who lived in the Carribean, and they found they could make a paste out of that they could put on a wound that had been made by a poison arrow and it would pull the poison out. Hence, arrowroot!
Alton: Just another reason to keep this stuff at home at all times!
Deb Duchon: It was first found by the Indians who lived in the Carribean, and they found they could make a paste out of that they could put on a wound that had been made by a poison arrow and it would pull the poison out. Hence, arrowroot!
Alton: Just another reason to keep this stuff at home at all times!
Chef Paul: (to audience) This is always how it is with him. Always has to do things his own way. Thinks he’s a genius… moron’s more like it!
Chef Paul: Control? You want to see control? Look at me, not killing you!
Alton: (to construction workers) Heyyy, you guys want me to explain how a thermos keeps hot things hot and cold things cold?
Construction Workers: No!
Alton: Okay, it has to do with heat transfer…
Construction Workers: No!
Alton: Okay, it has to do with heat transfer…
Cultural References
B.2. Steak Sauce
Thing produces a bottle of “B.2.” steak sauce he intends to use as a finish for his strip steaks. The style of bottle and the name of the sauce clearly send-up the famous “A.1.” brand of steak sauce.
Thing produces a bottle of “B.2.” steak sauce he intends to use as a finish for his strip steaks. The style of bottle and the name of the sauce clearly send-up the famous “A.1.” brand of steak sauce.
Chef Paul
Alton’s irascible sauce instructor (with, Alton assures us, a heart of gold) parodies the appearance and style of Paul Teutul, Sr. on his show American Chopper. Just like “Chef Paul,” Mr. Tuetul is frequently irritated, sometimes to the point of distraction, by the actions of his sons and others on the show.
Alton’s irascible sauce instructor (with, Alton assures us, a heart of gold) parodies the appearance and style of Paul Teutul, Sr. on his show American Chopper. Just like “Chef Paul,” Mr. Tuetul is frequently irritated, sometimes to the point of distraction, by the actions of his sons and others on the show.
Thing
Alton's "handy" friend and helper is an homage to the similar character from The Addams Family (1964)
Alton's "handy" friend and helper is an homage to the similar character from The Addams Family (1964)
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