Good Eats: Dill-icious

Alton begins as a mysterious helmed figure, imploring a humble cucumber to seek its destiny as a crisp dill pickle, to erase mushy mouth feel and insipid flavors. To become... Good Eats! From there he drops through a trap door into his cellar where he explains the difference between fresh packed and dill pickles. Then its to the market for a lesson in selecting the right sort of cucumber (and a little bit of the cucumber’s history). Back in the kitchen, Alton explains the role bacteria play and how the right brine is crucial as he shares his Dill Pickle recipe. But what to do with the finished product? Alton asks what Elvis might do, and from that inspiration devises his recipe for Deep-Fried Pickles. Finally, competition with an ice cream vendor leads Alton to employ a Popular Drink Mix to create Cherry Flavored Pickle Pops as a lucrative treat.

Source: Food Network

Currently 8/10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

8/10 (2 Votes cast)

Episode Info

Episode number: 11x8
Production Number: EA1110
Airdate: Monday October 08th, 2007

Writer: Alton Brown, Rob DeBorde

Guest Stars

Click here to add guest stars for Dill-icious

Recap

A mysterious figure wears a large metal pot on its head. A blue glow spills onto the figure’s chest from inside the impromptu helm. The figure raises gloved hands and begins to speak. Although the voice is mechanical and sinister, it is clearly Alton, and he is speaking... to a pickle. He beseeches the vegetable to complete its transformation, for together they can out and end to mushy mouth feel and insipid flavors. It can achieve its destiny to become... Good Eats!..

Read the full recap

Episode Notes

Cards

The namesake of this country, Amerigo Vespucci, was once a pickle peddler.
“Oh Hamlet, how camest thou in such a pickle?” – William Shakespeare
If at any time you notice the pickles becoming soft or taking on odors, it’s a sign that something’s gone wrong.
Americans consume about 9 pounds of pickles per person annually.

Locations: Whole Foods Natural Market, Atlanta, Georgia

Music

Artist	Song Title	Played When
Edvard Grieg	In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt)

Episode Quotes

Alton: Surely you have felt it all your life. A knowledge that you could be something... more. Look in your heart; you know it to be true. Join me and complete your transformation! Then, with our combined strength we can put an end to mushy mouth feel and insipid flavors. Ah, I feel your power growing. Even the Emeril has foreseen this! Let go of your fear and fulfill your destiny to become... (Good Eats theme plays)

Alton: If you ask me, no magical metamorphosis is more spectacular than the transformation of cucumber to pickle.

Alton: Our primary control agent when it comes to fermented pickles is... salt. Think of it as a traffic cop that regulates which bacteria get into the pickles and to some degree what they produce when they get there.

Alton: I guess you... shouldn’t send a bacteria to do a biped’s job.

Alton: From here on out, think of this crock as your virtual pet. It does not need to be walked or talked to or scratched behind the ears, but it will need to be skimmed of scum each and every day.

Alton: Having gone through all this pickling effort, what can you do with the final product? Well... besides out of hand eating, you can slice them up for sandwiches, you can cube them for potato salad, you can bake them on pizzas or maybe mix them into a nice ice cream sundae for you pregnant wife. Or, of course, if your insurance is paid and you have no sense of personal responsibility and access to some rudimentary electronic equipment... you can make yourself a lamp!

Alton: The real trick in frying pickles is in getting the correct marriage of dip and dredge.

Alton: (trying to sell pickles on a hot day) Ever since I started making my own pickles I’ve become pretty popular with my neighbors. Why? Because they know that on a scorching hot day like today, nothing is more refreshing than a cool dill pickle. Their children, on the other hand, have been duped by Irving the Ice Cream Man. (waves) Hi, Irving.
Irving: Hi, Mr. Brown! How are things on the lonesome side of the street? (laughing)

Alton: (after devising a scheme to steal Ice Cream Irving’s business using cherry flavored pickles) Revenge is a dish best served... pickled!

Cultural References

Alton begins the episode with a large pot over his head, heavy gloves on his hands. We also hear a rhythmic hissing as Alton speaks in a mechanical and menacing tone. All of these things draw inspiration from Star Wars character Darth Vader. Alton’s speech about transformation draws particular inspiration from a speech Vader gave to Luke Skywalker during their fight on the planet Bespin’s Cloud City. Alton replaces “Emperor” in Vader’s speech with “Emeril.” He refers to Emeril Lagasse, who hosts several shows on Food TV and owns a number of restaurants of various styles; Lagasse was one of the better known celebrity chefs at the time this episode aired.

Alton notes that cleanliness is next to pickle-ness. This is a variation on "cleanliness is next to godliness", an ancient proverb known to date back to the very early seventeenth century and the works of Francis Bacon. Its lineage may go all the way back to ancient Hebrew writings; over the years many have paraphrased it (like this) and even mocked it (e.g. cleanliness is next to... impossible).

Alton advises cooks to treat their crock of pickles like a virtual pet. Digital, or virtual pets are pieces of software that run on (usually) specialized computers. They simulate the sorts of pleasant interactions humans enjoy with real pets, but discard the unpleasant interactions – its not usually necessary to clean up after them, they generally don’t die, and so forth. The craze gained tremendous popularity with the advent of such collections as Pokémon, but has faded somewhat in recent years.

Alton doesn’t want to tell viewers outright what brand of drink mix to use for his recipe. But he shows a glass brim full of a red drink bursting through a brick wall as it belts out a hearty, “Oh, yeah!” This is an unsubtle reference to a series of Kool-Aid ads featuring an enormous pitcher bursting through various walls and yelling, “Oh, yeah!”

Alton’s trip up the Mississippi, chronicled in season two of Feasting on Asphalt, included a stop where he sampled cherry pickles. This probably inspired the cherry pickles he developed for this episode.

Alton contends that revenge is a dish best served pickled. He’s referring to the success of his scheme to steal Ice Cream Irving’s business with sweetened cherry flavored pickles. The original phrase, “revenge is a dish best served cold” suggests that detachment and planning yield the most satisfying vengeance for a wrong; this proverb may date as far back as 18th century France, but its origins are mysterious – a Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan, even attributed it to the fictional Klingon race...

Episode References

Alton refers to a previous trip down “the pickled path.” That occurred all the way back in Season 3’s “American Pickle.”

Other Episode Crew

Click here to add other crew for Dill-icious

Missing Information

Click here to add Episode Goofs
Click here to add Analysis

Show Menu