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Good Eats: True Grits
Cornmeal, claims Alton, is a worldwide favorite. From the grits of the southern United States to the polenta of Italy, everyone likes it in some form or another - even if they don't realize it. Alton shares recipes for Cheese Grits, Savory Polenta and Pineapple Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake. Along the way, he discusses the similarities, and differences between these dishes (simultaneously earning the wrath of Southerners and Italians).
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Episode Info
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Episode number: 8x11 Production Number: EA1H08 Airdate: Wednesday November 03rd, 2004 |
Recap
Alton stops his motorcycle near a small shack whose best days are long gone. Frustrated by his map and lost, he knocks on the door. Before he can explain his problem he’s dragged inside, set before a breakfast plate and served grits. The family is surprised when he claims to be a southern boy who has always loved grits. They’re suspicious when he starts describing various countries and regions where cornmeal is also a staple. The last straw is when Alton claims grits and polenta are the same dish. Out he goes followed by his map. No matter - cornmeal has three times the culinary potential of rice and pasta put together. Whatever you call it, it’s... Good Eats...Read the full recap
Episode Notes
Cards
- Most stone ground meals are whole grain and as such contain the fatty germ which will eventually go rancid unless used quickly or wrapped and refrigerated.
- Maize was eaten in Italy for the first time in 1650.
- In the 1st century Romans made polenta with pearl barley.
- Every year at the end of Carnivale in Tossignano, Italy the town consumes over 440 pounds of polenta.
- China is second only to the United States in corn production.
- Upside down cakes originated as “skillet cakes” because they were cooked on top of the stove instead of in ovens.
Episode Quotes
(Alton has stopped at a hillbilly shack for directions.)
Hillbilly: (suspiciously) How is it you come to like grits, stranger?
Hillbilly: (suspiciously) How is it you come to like grits, stranger?
Alton: Although there are many, many differences between here – the southern United States – and here – Northern Italy – the absorption rate of water into a tiny grain of cornmeal is not one of them. And that means that grits and polenta are exactly the same thing. (A window breaks.) What... what in the world? (Alton picks up the brick that broke the window and reads it.) Well, I suppose I should have seen this coming. (He holds the brick so the viewer can read the message: U a big fat liar, boy. Then another window breaks.) What in the blazes? (A piece of fine marble sits amid the shards of a second pane. On it someone has written, “Lei un grande bugiardo.” A subtitle helpfully reveals that this translates as “You are a big fat liar.”)
Alton: If there is a difference between grits and polenta, it’s not in the cornmeal. It is in the liquid used, the method used, and the flavors that are added.
Alton: Here we have one common vessel of coarse ground cornmeal and... two sauciers, each alike in dignity, here in fair kitchen, where we set our scene.
Alton: If the grill is not scrupulously clean, the polenta is going to stick – and that’s going to get really ugly. I take out some anti-stick insurance by rubbing down the grill grates right over the fire with just a little bit of vegetable oil on a towel.
"Colonel Bob Boatwright": Now, I imagine that by now, you good people are wondering if cornmeal is good for anything other than making up and ol’ bowl o’ mush. Which... IS good, but... perhaps inappropriate when one is hankerin’ for somethin’ that is sweet, tropical, and yet still genuinely southern – such as myself.
"Colonel Bob Boatwright": Great gosh goodness almighty, that’s pretty!
(Alton has returned to a shack where he met a southern family and ate delicious grits at the beginning of the episode. He has a plate of his own grits to share with them.)
Alton: (loudly) Nothing says Good Eats quite like old-fashioned grits, certainly not that high-falutin’ citified old polenta! Nosiree! Grits are the thing!
(Two Italian men come to the door.)
Alton: Um, hi... I was looking for the people that live here?
Italian Father: They don’t live here no more. Liked the ponies. A little too much if you know what I’m saying...
Alton: Yessss... I think I do know what you’re saying. (quickly) Okaybye!
Italian Father: What was that you were saying about polenta?
Alton: Polenta? I was saying... that I have some, right here!
Italian Father: Well, great! Come in! We’ve always got time for some Good Eats!
Alton: (loudly) Nothing says Good Eats quite like old-fashioned grits, certainly not that high-falutin’ citified old polenta! Nosiree! Grits are the thing!
(Two Italian men come to the door.)
Alton: Um, hi... I was looking for the people that live here?
Italian Father: They don’t live here no more. Liked the ponies. A little too much if you know what I’m saying...
Alton: Yessss... I think I do know what you’re saying. (quickly) Okaybye!
Italian Father: What was that you were saying about polenta?
Alton: Polenta? I was saying... that I have some, right here!
Italian Father: Well, great! Come in! We’ve always got time for some Good Eats!
Cultural References
Like most of the episode names, this one is a pun. It refers to the movie True Grit, a 1969 film starring John Wayne.
Alton Brown: "Two sauciers, each alike in dignity, here in fair kitchen where we set our scene."
Alton's paraphrasing the first couplet from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which tells the story of two lovers whose families were murderous enemies. It ties to the episode's running them of conflict between lovers of grits and lovers of polenta.
Alton's paraphrasing the first couplet from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which tells the story of two lovers whose families were murderous enemies. It ties to the episode's running them of conflict between lovers of grits and lovers of polenta.
Colonel Bob Boatwright's white suit, beard and mustache, southern accent, and use of the catchphrase "finger-lickin' good" summon memories of Harlan Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) and to many people, stereotypical "southern gentleman." He often appeared in advertising (especially in the early years) and his chain used "finger-lickin' good" as an advertising slogan before it became a wiser idea not to emphasize how much fat the product contained.
“Colonel Bob Boatwright” asks viewers if they can say “Pineapple Upside Down Corncake” and follows with, “I knew that you could.” This basic turn of phrase originated with Fred Rogers, on his enormously popular teaching show, “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
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