Heads up! MYTHBUSTERS season premiere tonight at 9 Eastern!

[Christopher]

I'm a bit disappointed. Not as much Alton as I'd hoped for. Maybe there will be some deleted footage on the website. I would've liked to see more of a Mythbusters/Good Eats hybrid where Alton presented some actual recipes, or have him do more of the hosting. The popcorn segment came closest to what I wanted to see, with Adam, Jamie, and Alton all tag-teaming as presenters and geeking out together on the technicalities of the experiment -- although that wasn't so much testing a myth as testing a product. Plus we got a bit of an Alton Brown food-science lecture with the popcorn, though I wish he'd worked with Adam and Jamie to concoct one of his cheesy large-scale models for demonstrating the physics or chemistry of cooking. Or maybe buit some kind of large popcorn-kernel analog which they would heat until it blew up.

Oh, and the slow-motion shot of the popcorn falling was very pretty. I wouldn't want to eat it after that, though.

The car-cooking myth was kind of fun, though, even if Alton seemed a bit more marginalized there. It was really more about logistics and preparation, I guess. It's impressive how successful they actually were at cooking the whole meal. But while this myth would count as plausible, I doubt your average person could pull it off without the right kind of old car, a lot of thermocouples and appropriate software, and the aid of a skilled and creative chef.

The other guys' myths were kind of basic. Nothing very elaborate this week, just straightforward (if messy) tests of rather simple questions. The main thing I wonder about the tryptophan myth is whether it was appropriate to test the guys' reaction time immediately after eating. I think it would take the tryptophan a while to kick in fully. Still, I'm sure it's true that just eating a large meal is a greater component in the sensation of relaxation or sleepiness. For one thing, your energy's going into digestion, so there's less available for the rest of the body and mind.

On the "tastes like chicken" myth, I wonder if it was appropriate to test the foods side by side with actual chicken. I think it might be more likely for an exotic meat to remind you of chicken if you hadn't just tasted the real thing. Then you'd be more aware of the similarity than the difference. So maybe they should've started out with a taste test of the exotic meats without any chicken to compare them to, and then done a test combining both chicken and exotic meats, and compared the results.

[Trekker4747]

Still, I'm sure it's true that just eating a large meal is a greater component in the sensation of relaxation or sleepiness. For one thing, your energy's going into digestion, so there's less available for the rest of the body and mind.

Yeah, again, particularly with the complex carbs and other heavy foods your body has to deal with after a large Thanksgiving Day meal. Tryptophan levels in turkey is pretty low all and all.

A 20lb turkey has about 5 pounds of edible meat on it.

100 grams of turkey has .333.. g of tryptophan in it.

100 grams ~ .25lb

1 lb of turkey = 1.333 g rams of tryp.

1 lb of turkey then being about two pills worth of tryptophan.

So eating more than three times a serving of turkey gets you almost as much tryptophen as you'd get in a couple of pills. Which is a LOT to eat.

[Mr. Adventure]

I wasn't aware the car thing was considered a myth, I mean it was kind of fun but the results were never really in question. Good to see Alton though, and I thought he looked pretty good here and it was good seeing him more in his element than his cranky overseer role he has in newer Food Network programming.

I thought the B-team or whatever they're called had the more entertaining myths/testing but they could've used a few less disgusting shots of Grant and Tory eating. That was killing my appetite, lol.

[Trekker4747]

I dunno, watching Kari always makes me hungry for apple pie.

[Brent]

Mr. Adventure wrote:

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I wasn't aware the car thing was considered a myth, I mean it was kind of fun but the results were never really in question. Good to see Alton though, and I thought he looked pretty good here and it was good seeing him more in his element than his cranky overseer role he has in newer Food Network programming.

I thought the B-team or whatever they're called had the more entertaining myths/testing but they could've used a few less disgusting shots of Grant and Tory eating. That was killing my appetite, lol.

I dunno, Alton seemed kind of out of it IMO, he looked like he was either annoyed, or not interested, or just angry to be there. I felt like he was disconnected from the whole thing.

[Trekker4747]

Brent wrote:

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I dunno, Alton seemed kind of out of it IMO, he looked like he was either annoyed, or not interested, or just angry to be there. I felt like he was disconnected from the whole thing.

According to the Aftershow him and Adam are friends and collaborated in the creation of this episode (at least the M5 portions.)

LINK to a removed segment where Jamie, Adam and Alton cook a lasagna inside a dishwasher.

Cooking on the Engine Block Aftershow

Tastes Like Chicken Aftershow.

[Christopher]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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LINK to a removed segment where Jamie, Adam and Alton cook a lasagna inside a dishwasher.

Cooking on the Engine Block Aftershow

Tastes Like Chicken Aftershow.

Thanks for the links. The aftershow questions this week were kind of lame ("What's your favorite food?"), but the dishwasher segment was fun. I wish they'd included that and trimmed down the B team's myths.

[Mr. Adventure]

I like the dishwater mini-myth, pretty fun.

[Mister Fandango]

Brent wrote:

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I dunno, Alton seemed kind of out of it IMO, he looked like he was either annoyed, or not interested, or just angry to be there. I felt like he was disconnected from the whole thing.

Unfortunately, that's just the way he is now. He's trying to play up the 'goofy scientist' schtick, hence his new wardrobe including bowties, as opposed to the old everyday guy vibe he had going on during Good Eats. He was the same way on the Craig Ferguson show as well as a few other appearances recently.

I much preferred the old Alton.

[Redfern]

I haven't seen the dishwasher clip yet, but addressing anyone who has, did they make mention of Vincent Price on Merv Griffon using a similar technique to steam fish? Besides being a reknown actor of macabre roles, Price was a rather adept chef and would present his culinary skills on the venerable afteroon talk show. He threw Merv for a loop when he placed fish (I think wrapped in foil) within a typical dishwasher. He was even more astounded when he tried the fish and found it quite delicious, light and flaky.

Sincerely,

Bill

[Christopher]

No mention of Vincent Price, no.