Kinda Blue - Recap
In the produce section of a local mega-mart, there is a flash of lightning and a cloud of smoke and suddenly, Alton is there, warning a strangely wired helmet and standing on a machine constructed from an old bathroom scale. The scale’s balance arms are calibrated in months and other dials adorn it. Leaping off, Alton accosts a nearby customer, asking when it is! The man tells him it’s summer and he’s ecstatic, dancing around peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, heirloom tomatoes, avocadoes, and the berries... raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, “those round things over there” and of course... blueberries. Equal parts tart and sweet, blueberries, Alton says, are tiny little time bombs of flavor.
For people who scoff, Alton boards his contraption and operates it and... the berries disappear! People wear heavy coats and scarves; it is winter. Peaches are plentiful. Shelves hold squash, citrus and even tomatoes ready for purchase. But blueberries? Not so much. A few exist at prices that reflect the difficulty of obtaining them from far away countries. And their quality reflects that long shipping time – they are wee little blue marbles, not juicy time bombs of flavor. Alton’s goal, then, is to learn where to find the berries, when to find them, and how to maximize their culinary potential as... Good Eats.
A megaphone wielding Alton apologizes to children expecting the aquarium, but it is closed. So they’re going to pick berries at the Happy Berry Farm instead. He instructs them to find firm, dry and wrinkle-free berries. Size doesn’t matter, but color does: the berries they want are deep indigo blue and faintly dusted with a sort of frosty coating called fruit bloom, a natural waterproofing also found on grapes and plums.
Blueberry bushes are rather small, about as tall as a man, and they are easy to harvest. That’s why “you pick” blueberry farms dot the countryside during summer, at least in the eastern United States.
But despite their origin on this continent, they only became commercially available about one century ago, thanks to a lady named Elizabeth White. Lizzie (as her friends called her) almost single-handedly started the commercial blueberry business, Deb Duchon tells Alton. Until the early twentieth century blueberries sat on the fringes because farmers did not understand how to propagate them. Then Frederick Coville contacted Lizzie White, then a cranberry farmer. She supplied pickers who found many varieties of wild blueberries in forests. Coville developed the modern high bush blueberry plant from these samples. Their first crop went to market in 1916. Deb admits that she prefers the wild blueberries that grow on low bushes, prompting Alton to order his teams of berry pickers into the woods (with their snake bite kits)...
Alton stores blueberries without washing them in his chill chest for as long as a week. Leaving the berries unwashed discourages mold. Of course, that’s bit of knowledge doesn’t help in January. Fortunately, almost every kitchen in America has a time machine built in...
Their size, shape, and sugar content means blueberries freeze well. The trick is to freeze them quickly, which yields smaller ice crystals and therefore less damage to cell walls. That means less weeping when thawed. Alton places a single layer of berries on a metal pan in the freezer, and moves them to a plastic bag (or similar vessel) for more compact storage. Zip top bags work well. In the bottom of the freezer, these berries will last a year. Elsewhere in the freezer they’ll last three to six months.
Alton starts to make a buckler by spraying a 9” x 9” baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Next, he measures cake flour into it by weight. Alton prefers to weigh flour because it compacts so readily. This is especially true of cake flour because it is so finely milled. Baking powder, kosher salt and a little ground ginger make up the balance of the dry team. The wet team is unsalted butter and sugar mixed until very fluffy. This, Alton reminds viewers, is the “creaming method.” When the mixture is creamy, Alton mixes in an egg. Then he drops speed to low and adds the dry team, alternating it with milk. This process of alternating ingredients yields a smoother mixture and a better buckle. If he’s using frozen blueberries, Alton does not thaw them, but does let the batter sit in the for about a half hour so the berries can thaw.
Coffee cakes (and buckles) feature a crunchy topping called a streusel. To make one, Alton adds sugar, cake flour and a little nutmeg (freshly ground, of course) to a bowl. Then he works some butter into the mix with his fingers. Those who dislike using fingers can use a fork. This is the biscuit method. When this mixture forms a crumb texture, Alton sprinkles it onto the buckle batter, keeping it nice and loose. Once covered, Alton slides his pan into a 375º F oven for 35-40 minutes (or until golden brown and delicious). Alton just can’t think of anything better for breakfast, unless... it was pie!
Alton believes a vote would reveal that pie is Americans’ desert of choice. Sure, folks like cake, but cake is an uptown dessert compared to pie, which summons memories of Huck Finn and Aunt Bee. And that brings Alton to a large food store cold case at Whole Foods Market containing boxes of frozen pie. Alton removes one, and declares himself a fan of frozen pies, and also a fan of homemade pies – and then claims this is not a contradiction. Furtively, he returns the frozen pie to its box and the box to the case before leaving for home.
Alton’s pie plan starts with blueberries, rinsed and patted dry. Dividing them roughly in half, he mashes half of them by squeezing them between a bread pan and the half sheet they’re on. That releases flavor and a jelling agent called pectin, which is responsible for making jam set up. These berries won’t be quite enough to thicken the pie by themselves; for that, Alton will add some starch.
Amidst a collection of common culinary starches, Alton notes that how much a starch thickens depends on the proportion of two forms of starch. Starches high in amylose create strong gel across a narrow temperature range. A starch containing more amylopectin creates a somewhat thinner gel, but a gel that will tolerate sub-freezing temperatures. Since Alton wants a pie that he can freeze, he chooses tapioca flour, rich in amylopectin. To that he adds sugar, orange zest, a small pinch of kosher salt. He whisks that to combine, then adds a bit of orange juice and all of the berries. A plastic bowl scraper works well to get berries and juice moved into the bowl. He lets that rest for a few minutes so the pectin and starch can combine. Then he lines 9” pie plate with foil, fills it with the berry mixture, and slides that into the freezer. When it’s rock hard, he peels off the foil and transfers the frozen disc it to a plastic zip top bag for further freezing.
Alton’s pie workstation features a long metal ruler, a 9” pie pan, a basting brush, a fork, and a pair of clean shears. He has laid all that hardware out neatly so that he can find it later. There is also some software: an egg yolk beat with a teaspoon or so of water, some all-purpose flour, and 15oz of pie dough, divided in half and rolled into two 11” rounds. Although Alton prefers homemade dough, he realizes not everyone has the time, and he’d rather see the pie made with store bought dough than not made at all.
One piece of dough goes into the pie pan. Alton pushes it down and crimps the edges, then docks it with the fork. Docking creates small holes that permit steam to escape from within the dough, discouraging bubbles. Then he drops in the frozen fruit disk and sets the pie pan aside. Using the ruler, he makes strips, flipping the ruler over the dough to ensure each strip is the same with and cutting the dough with the edge of the ruler. He’ll use seven of these strips. He lays four of them across the pie in parallel. Then he folds back strips one and three and lays a strip perpendicularly across strips two and four. He replaces one and three, then rolls back two and four before adding the next perpendicular strip. Then two and four go back in place, and he rolls back one and three before adding the last strip and laying one and three back down. This creates a woven effect with the strips. He crimps the strips to the lower crust where they touch, and trims the edges where that’s necessary. Finally, he brushes the strips with egg wash to promote browning.
Alton’s pie is ready for the oven. He puts it onto a sheet pan (in case of boil over) and parks that on the lowest rack in a 325º F oven for an hour and a quarter. If it needs more browning, Alton will broil it for a few minutes (no more than three) and a distance of not less than 6” from the broiler element.
Alton seals his pie in a safe-like box for the hour and a half it will take to cool and set. Disturb the pie early, he cautions, and it interrupts the gelling process, resulting in blueberry soup inside a pie crust!
Alton, now in a pharmacy, extols the nutritional virtues of the blueberry. Low in calories, high in Vitamin C and fiber, these berries are in demand for their anthocyanins. These pigment chemicals, besides being responsible for the hue of the berries, provide antioxidant protection that neutralizes free radicals. Scientists have implicated free radicals as possible contributors to a number of disorders. Since such radicals form during many vital biochemical processes, they will always be present. But antioxidants like the anthocyanins can help render them harmless. A customer asks about memory loss; Alton offers blueberries – oxidative stress (from free radicals) may play a role in age-related brain disorders. Another customer needs help with his heart. For him, Alton prescribes – blueberries! They’ll even help keep skin looking young. A daily dose of blueberries, at least as much as apples, may keep the doctor away!
Back in the kitchen, Alton wonders about blue food, and blue beverages. He rinses and drains blueberries and adds them to a saucepan with some water, then brings all that to a boil over medium high heat. Then he drops the heat to low and simmers for fifteen minutes. He kills the heat and drains his berries into a cheesecloth lined colander sitting atop a bowl. He lets that cool for about fifteen minutes so he can wrings out the cheesecloth. The juice goes back into the saucepan with some sugar and some lime juice, then he turns the heat to medium high and brings that to a boil, then stirs until the sugar has dissolved and for two more minutes. He pours the syrup into a suitably heat proof vessel and lets it cool for an hour. Sealed, this syrup will keep for quite some time. When he wants a blueberry soda, Alton combines some of this syrup with some carbonated water – delicious and nutritious! Blueberries, fresh (or nearly so) may be enjoyed throughout the year. And given their health benefits, they probably should be.
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For people who scoff, Alton boards his contraption and operates it and... the berries disappear! People wear heavy coats and scarves; it is winter. Peaches are plentiful. Shelves hold squash, citrus and even tomatoes ready for purchase. But blueberries? Not so much. A few exist at prices that reflect the difficulty of obtaining them from far away countries. And their quality reflects that long shipping time – they are wee little blue marbles, not juicy time bombs of flavor. Alton’s goal, then, is to learn where to find the berries, when to find them, and how to maximize their culinary potential as... Good Eats.
A megaphone wielding Alton apologizes to children expecting the aquarium, but it is closed. So they’re going to pick berries at the Happy Berry Farm instead. He instructs them to find firm, dry and wrinkle-free berries. Size doesn’t matter, but color does: the berries they want are deep indigo blue and faintly dusted with a sort of frosty coating called fruit bloom, a natural waterproofing also found on grapes and plums.
Blueberry bushes are rather small, about as tall as a man, and they are easy to harvest. That’s why “you pick” blueberry farms dot the countryside during summer, at least in the eastern United States.
But despite their origin on this continent, they only became commercially available about one century ago, thanks to a lady named Elizabeth White. Lizzie (as her friends called her) almost single-handedly started the commercial blueberry business, Deb Duchon tells Alton. Until the early twentieth century blueberries sat on the fringes because farmers did not understand how to propagate them. Then Frederick Coville contacted Lizzie White, then a cranberry farmer. She supplied pickers who found many varieties of wild blueberries in forests. Coville developed the modern high bush blueberry plant from these samples. Their first crop went to market in 1916. Deb admits that she prefers the wild blueberries that grow on low bushes, prompting Alton to order his teams of berry pickers into the woods (with their snake bite kits)...
Alton stores blueberries without washing them in his chill chest for as long as a week. Leaving the berries unwashed discourages mold. Of course, that’s bit of knowledge doesn’t help in January. Fortunately, almost every kitchen in America has a time machine built in...
Their size, shape, and sugar content means blueberries freeze well. The trick is to freeze them quickly, which yields smaller ice crystals and therefore less damage to cell walls. That means less weeping when thawed. Alton places a single layer of berries on a metal pan in the freezer, and moves them to a plastic bag (or similar vessel) for more compact storage. Zip top bags work well. In the bottom of the freezer, these berries will last a year. Elsewhere in the freezer they’ll last three to six months.
Alton starts to make a buckler by spraying a 9” x 9” baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Next, he measures cake flour into it by weight. Alton prefers to weigh flour because it compacts so readily. This is especially true of cake flour because it is so finely milled. Baking powder, kosher salt and a little ground ginger make up the balance of the dry team. The wet team is unsalted butter and sugar mixed until very fluffy. This, Alton reminds viewers, is the “creaming method.” When the mixture is creamy, Alton mixes in an egg. Then he drops speed to low and adds the dry team, alternating it with milk. This process of alternating ingredients yields a smoother mixture and a better buckle. If he’s using frozen blueberries, Alton does not thaw them, but does let the batter sit in the for about a half hour so the berries can thaw.
Coffee cakes (and buckles) feature a crunchy topping called a streusel. To make one, Alton adds sugar, cake flour and a little nutmeg (freshly ground, of course) to a bowl. Then he works some butter into the mix with his fingers. Those who dislike using fingers can use a fork. This is the biscuit method. When this mixture forms a crumb texture, Alton sprinkles it onto the buckle batter, keeping it nice and loose. Once covered, Alton slides his pan into a 375º F oven for 35-40 minutes (or until golden brown and delicious). Alton just can’t think of anything better for breakfast, unless... it was pie!
Alton believes a vote would reveal that pie is Americans’ desert of choice. Sure, folks like cake, but cake is an uptown dessert compared to pie, which summons memories of Huck Finn and Aunt Bee. And that brings Alton to a large food store cold case at Whole Foods Market containing boxes of frozen pie. Alton removes one, and declares himself a fan of frozen pies, and also a fan of homemade pies – and then claims this is not a contradiction. Furtively, he returns the frozen pie to its box and the box to the case before leaving for home.
Alton’s pie plan starts with blueberries, rinsed and patted dry. Dividing them roughly in half, he mashes half of them by squeezing them between a bread pan and the half sheet they’re on. That releases flavor and a jelling agent called pectin, which is responsible for making jam set up. These berries won’t be quite enough to thicken the pie by themselves; for that, Alton will add some starch.
Amidst a collection of common culinary starches, Alton notes that how much a starch thickens depends on the proportion of two forms of starch. Starches high in amylose create strong gel across a narrow temperature range. A starch containing more amylopectin creates a somewhat thinner gel, but a gel that will tolerate sub-freezing temperatures. Since Alton wants a pie that he can freeze, he chooses tapioca flour, rich in amylopectin. To that he adds sugar, orange zest, a small pinch of kosher salt. He whisks that to combine, then adds a bit of orange juice and all of the berries. A plastic bowl scraper works well to get berries and juice moved into the bowl. He lets that rest for a few minutes so the pectin and starch can combine. Then he lines 9” pie plate with foil, fills it with the berry mixture, and slides that into the freezer. When it’s rock hard, he peels off the foil and transfers the frozen disc it to a plastic zip top bag for further freezing.
Alton’s pie workstation features a long metal ruler, a 9” pie pan, a basting brush, a fork, and a pair of clean shears. He has laid all that hardware out neatly so that he can find it later. There is also some software: an egg yolk beat with a teaspoon or so of water, some all-purpose flour, and 15oz of pie dough, divided in half and rolled into two 11” rounds. Although Alton prefers homemade dough, he realizes not everyone has the time, and he’d rather see the pie made with store bought dough than not made at all.
One piece of dough goes into the pie pan. Alton pushes it down and crimps the edges, then docks it with the fork. Docking creates small holes that permit steam to escape from within the dough, discouraging bubbles. Then he drops in the frozen fruit disk and sets the pie pan aside. Using the ruler, he makes strips, flipping the ruler over the dough to ensure each strip is the same with and cutting the dough with the edge of the ruler. He’ll use seven of these strips. He lays four of them across the pie in parallel. Then he folds back strips one and three and lays a strip perpendicularly across strips two and four. He replaces one and three, then rolls back two and four before adding the next perpendicular strip. Then two and four go back in place, and he rolls back one and three before adding the last strip and laying one and three back down. This creates a woven effect with the strips. He crimps the strips to the lower crust where they touch, and trims the edges where that’s necessary. Finally, he brushes the strips with egg wash to promote browning.
Alton’s pie is ready for the oven. He puts it onto a sheet pan (in case of boil over) and parks that on the lowest rack in a 325º F oven for an hour and a quarter. If it needs more browning, Alton will broil it for a few minutes (no more than three) and a distance of not less than 6” from the broiler element.
Alton seals his pie in a safe-like box for the hour and a half it will take to cool and set. Disturb the pie early, he cautions, and it interrupts the gelling process, resulting in blueberry soup inside a pie crust!
Alton, now in a pharmacy, extols the nutritional virtues of the blueberry. Low in calories, high in Vitamin C and fiber, these berries are in demand for their anthocyanins. These pigment chemicals, besides being responsible for the hue of the berries, provide antioxidant protection that neutralizes free radicals. Scientists have implicated free radicals as possible contributors to a number of disorders. Since such radicals form during many vital biochemical processes, they will always be present. But antioxidants like the anthocyanins can help render them harmless. A customer asks about memory loss; Alton offers blueberries – oxidative stress (from free radicals) may play a role in age-related brain disorders. Another customer needs help with his heart. For him, Alton prescribes – blueberries! They’ll even help keep skin looking young. A daily dose of blueberries, at least as much as apples, may keep the doctor away!
Back in the kitchen, Alton wonders about blue food, and blue beverages. He rinses and drains blueberries and adds them to a saucepan with some water, then brings all that to a boil over medium high heat. Then he drops the heat to low and simmers for fifteen minutes. He kills the heat and drains his berries into a cheesecloth lined colander sitting atop a bowl. He lets that cool for about fifteen minutes so he can wrings out the cheesecloth. The juice goes back into the saucepan with some sugar and some lime juice, then he turns the heat to medium high and brings that to a boil, then stirs until the sugar has dissolved and for two more minutes. He pours the syrup into a suitably heat proof vessel and lets it cool for an hour. Sealed, this syrup will keep for quite some time. When he wants a blueberry soda, Alton combines some of this syrup with some carbonated water – delicious and nutritious! Blueberries, fresh (or nearly so) may be enjoyed throughout the year. And given their health benefits, they probably should be.
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