Alton Brown, My renew interest

If it wasn't for a episode of Good eats, I might have never got back into homebrew. He is a couple of photos when I met him fall of 05'

http://photobucket.com/albums/f208/flip143/?action=view&current=philalton.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/f208/flip143/?action=view&current=signing.jpg

For me if it wasn't for that episode I would have never gotten in to homebrewing.
Is Alton Brown as laid back as he seems to be?

Passload said:

For me if it wasn't for that episode I would have never gotten in to homebrewing.
Is Alton Brown as laid back as he seems to be?

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OMG..I think he seems really anal retentive.....have you ever watched him try to pick out a piece of cookware? I doubt most of that is an act.....

That said, he's got a pretty awesome show because of it....

BTW, cool pics flip....

He doesn't seem anal retentive to me at all. He seems goofy and silly and fun.

What he IS teaching you is how YOU should be anal retentive about your cookware. He's got a kitchen supplied to him with the good stuff. Where as my kitchen is full of ish I found at wal-mart...

meh

He seemed cool. Cooked 4 or 5 dishes and joked the whole time. Didn't get to talk much with him though. I told him my wife was a big fan but she couldn't be there because she was at Disney with my son. He tried to call her on my cell, but she was in the Pirates of the Carb. ride and could not get reception. She wanted to shoot herself afterwards.

He reminds me of Bill Nye crossed with Julia Child.

Wow you got to meet Alton Brown. The proof is in the photos. He is awesome. He taught me how to fry chicken and how to make omelettes and fritattas. He also inspired me to learn to brew. Just watched him today and liked the flounder casserole he made.

Yeah, we don't miss an episode. He signed a cool pic for my wife too. She has it hanging in the kitchen next to the Kitchenaid stand mixer... too bad I can't use it for a grain mill.

http://photobucket.com/albums/f208/flip143/?action=view&current=altonframe.jpg

He is the man. I record every episode during the week and watch them all on Saturday. The guy has taught me more about cooking than I'd ever thought I'd know. If I could just remember it all.

he prompted my wife to go buy an entire, untrimmed beef tenderloin. She's butchering it this weekend, so I'll be having a nice, thick filet.

and an IPA to go with it (compliments of BOSTONBREWIN')

-walker

Walker said:

he prompted my wife to go buy an entire, untrimmed beef tenderloin. She's butchering it this weekend, so I'll be having a nice, thick filet.

and an IPA to go with it (compliments of BOSTONBREWIN')

-walker

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That tenderloin episode made me drool.
Then I went to the store and priced them. All i could think after that was HOW IN THE HELL DID ALTON GET SIX OF THOSE!?!

Yah I wasn't real impressed with his homebrewing episode, but I really dig the scientific aproach he portrays on that show. I have learned a lot from him as well.

Sometimes it can get on peoples nerves though, especially SWMBO. I love to use my smoker, for ribs and boston butts especially. I'm so picky about both and how they are cooked. There is a very small window on ribs where they will be fall off the bone or overdone.
Now the boston butts are a lot easier, but Alton has helped some on that too. He talks about perfect temperatures for fat to emulsify in different types of meat. I like my boston butts around 180 and put them in a tupperware and cool down for an hour or so. Then the meat just falls apart. I'm cooking one this weekend too, if the rain will be gone by Sunday.

One of the people involved with the homebrewing show was quoted as saying he was a "know it all".
BUT, he is very entertaining to watch; on his own show and Iron Chief America.
Maybe knowing it all in the kitchen is a good thing?

I too am a big fan of AB, and I watched "Amber Waves" many times before my first batch (which is bottle conditioning right now). Compared to some of the other topics he's covered, I was surprised to find his knowledge of brewing seems fairly limited. For instance his brew recipe only calls for a 20 minute boil of the hops, and he refers to pouring his wort through a strainer as "sparging." The show was originally supposed to be a two-parter on yeast, with the second installment on bread baking, though I don't know if the second one ever came out.

Anyway, and at the risk of getting off the topic of beer a little, fans of AB should also check out America's Test Kitchen. It's a really great show. They take a common recipe - say, beef stew - and try making it literally hundreds of different ways until they arrive at their "best recipe." I've made countless recipes from the show and the companion book (called "The Best Recipe"), and they rarely disappoint.

Their double chocolate pudding recipe almost made me cry.

If only they had "America's Test Brewery."

After watching Amber Waves, I too was surprised at AB's misuse of terms and questionable brewing procedure, but this actually made me wonder:

Is it possibel that he's equally as wrong about OTHER things he covers on his shows, and I simply don't notice it because I am not knowledgable about those other things?

I mean, to someone who has never homebrewed, they would watch Amber Waves and think AB was a grand master and knew everything. Am I that guy when it comes to, for example, making pastry dough? Maybe alton has it all wrong, but I just don't know enough to see his mistakes?

-walker

I can vouch for Alton in that I've made many of his recipes, and they usually come out well.

But, yeah, you bring up an interesting point.

Walker said:

Is it possibel that he's equally as wrong about OTHER things he covers on his shows, and I simply don't notice it because I am not knowledgable about those other things?

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I started brewing just before the first time I watched Amber Waves, and all of his inaccuracies just jumped right out at me. I've never found any such problems with any of his other episodes or his books. I think that's because he is a cook, but he's not a brewer.

Amber Waves is on tonight on the Food Channel at 7:00pm PST.
I can't wait to see it. I brewed 6 batches and want to see what he has to say.
I enjoy his show. It'll be intersting to see if I can catch all the mistakes you guys talk about.

El Pistolero said:

I've never found any such problems with any of his other episodes or his books.

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Yeah, I don't think he's wrong about much in general, but Amber Waves did plant a seed of doubt in my head.

-walker

Imperial Walker said:

Is it possibel that he's equally as wrong about OTHER things he covers on his shows, and I simply don't notice it because I am not knowledgable about those other things?

-walker

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I watched his show on Pad Thai the other night with my Thai GF. She loves foodnetwork and all, but she is VERY picky when it comes to American cooks attempting to make Thai food.
Alton definitely jacked up his pronounciation of Thai words (but so do I).

As far as the recipe went, his ingredients and order of cooking were almost dead on.

The GF faulted him on his choice of noodle texture and his cooking theory.

Alton talked about how a wok is designed so that the high heat is at the very bottom of the wok and that a skilled chef is able to manipulate the food in the wok up onto the sides so as not to overcook.

This is flat out wrong and my GF helped me understand that I've even seen the proof. I watch the Isaan-born cook at the Thai fender-vendor in Chinatown in Honolulu cook delicious food every weekend. The heat NEVER stays at the botttom of the wok. There is always a large flame blanketing around the entire wok somehow.

All in all I think that Alton may not be 100% in his recipes and theories but is more like 85%.

I'm more than happy with that.

BTW I just got a hold of his cookbook. FANTASTIC!! He is such a great teacher. Missing the occasional mark on some trivial ethnic detail is worth it considering the benefits. But then how much Asian influence can you possibly see in Georgia? No Ka Oi compared to where I live I guess.

Yeah, I watched the Pad Thai episode the other night. I don't eat Pad Thai because I don't like nuts in my food (my wife loves it), but even I was able to see that the noodles he used did not look ANYTHING like the noodles in any Pad Thai that I have ever seen at any Thai restaurant.

-walker

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