Good Eats: Apple of My Pie

Alton has tackled the topics of pie crust and apples before in previous shows, but he hasn’t tackled them together. And that, he realizes, is as shame, because he know of nothing as American as apple pie. Alton offers a crust recipe and an easy technique for rolling, tips on apple selection and spice choices, and technique that, as is his style, emphasizes education over rote memorization. Follow his technique and turn our your own Super Apple Pie.

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

10/10 (1 Vote cast)

Episode Info

Episode number: 11x15
Production Number: EA1115
Airdate: Monday February 04th, 2008

Writer: Alton Brown, Rob DeBorde

Guest Stars

Click here to add guest stars for Apple of My Pie

Recap

Alton opens the show seated in front of a wall-sized American flag. There he explains that he’s got nothing against culinary globalization – but at the same time he’s sick of selling families toss aside the classics in favor of new culinary traditions. To reverse that trend, Alton places a selection of American classics into a lottery drum. He’ll give that a spin and extract the classic on which he’ll focus an entire episode. The card he selects is... apple pie! He’s happy with that, because he can’t think of anything more patriotic than apple pie. But then his mom enters, wearing a baseball cap and glove. Alton can’t play baseball with her just then, because he’s working... Anyway, he concludes as he turns back to his audience, apple pie isn’t just patriotic, it’s... Good Eats!..

Read the full recap

Episode Notes

Cards

In pie lingo, the original name for a crust which enclosed a filling was coffyn.
The world’s largest apple pie, measuring 18 feet round & 18 inches deep, was made at the 1982 Hilton Apple Fest.
In England, pie birds are still considered major collectables.

The episode title, Apple of My Pie, is a sound-alike pun on the idiom "apple of my eye" which means someone held in the highest regard. Presumably, Alton holds his... pie... in high regard.

Locations: Harry’s Farmers Market, Marietta, GA

Episode Quotes

Alton: Friends... neighbors... Americans... I’ve got nothing against culinary globalization. Heck, I’m down with pad Thai and goulash and even the occasional bowl of vichyssoise.

Alton: The Good Eats treatment goes to... (reads the card) Apple Pie! And why not! I can’t think of anything that’s more American than... (Alton’s Mom enters, wearing a baseball cap and glove and tossing a baseball.) Oh, hey, Mom... I can’t play baseball with you now... I’m working. But I’ll see you back at home! (Alton’s Mom angrily tosses the glove to the floor and leaves. Alton turns to call after her.) We’ll have a really good time... then! We’ll... (Alton turns quickly to face the audience.) Join us, won’t you? Because apple pie is not just patriotic, it’s... (Good Eats theme plays.)

Alton: Technically speaking, the only native American apple is this one: the crab apple – a small, bitter, distant relative of the fruit that now dominates grocery store produce aisles, which most historians agree came to being in one of the ‘stans – most likely, Kazakhstan.

Alton: Let’s say that this fabulous seaside abode (a Barbie dollhouse) is a slice of apple, and that the lovely ladies (various Barbie dolls) inside are water molecules. Now, let’s say that we add sugar to the party (a Ken doll bearing a guitar appears). Now, being seriously hydroscopic, sugar’s silent song calls to the aqua girls, eventually coaxing them out, to meet with him to form a sweet syrup that we will then drain away (the Ken doll is now buried under Barbie dolls).

Alton: While our sugared apples drain, let’s consider the remaining software, beginning with spices.

: If you can’t find [a pie bird] in a kitchen store or online, you can make one out of aluminum foil, like this, or you can do what I did and just... well... take them, when your grandmother’s asleep!

Alton: You know, I’m really sorry we haven’t worked out that scratch and sniff television yet, because nothing stinks up a house quite as pretty as apple pie!

Alton: In closing, I just want to say that... I don’t think I really need to say anything, at all! (He brandishes a delicious looking slide of apple pie at the viewer.)

Cultural References

While at the market, Alton receives a visitor clad in homespun and wearing a pot on his head. He bears a bag at his belt. This is John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed who planted a great many apple trees in Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Contrary to legend, Chapman did not plant these trees for free, nor did he roam the country generally doing this planting.

Episode References

Alton, when discussing grains of paradise, mentions his okra show. He’s talking about Season 10’s Okraphobia.

Other Episode Crew

Click here to add other crew for Apple of My Pie

Missing Information

Click here to add Music
Click here to add Episode Goofs
Click here to add Analysis

Show Menu