Good Eats

Alton starts with a trip back through Brown family history - replete with dry, overcooked turkeys and unpleasant holiday meals. This is the basis of his motivation to do better.

Back in the present, he explains how Thanksgiving evolved – mostly due to the tireless forty year letter writing campaign of Sarah Hale, whose disenchantment with the Industrial Revolution led her to stump for the creation of a holiday about family.

He also takes sister Marsha through the virtual looking glass to teach her, with the help of nutritional anthropologist Deb Duchon, exactly what kind of Thanksgiving meal those first settlers really ate. Most of the foods we consider Thanksgiving fare weren't on their menu. And their menu featured items most of us have never eaten (swan, anyone?)

About then Chuck the butcher rolls up with a lecture on the specific meanings of the terms "frozen", "refrigerated", "fresh" and "Grade A" as they apply to turkeys. Alton selects a frozen bird - at fourteen pounds, the right size to feed his eight to ten guests.

Inside his kitchen, Alton describes a slow way to thaw a turkey, and a faster way, that involves immersing it in water. Proper thawing is vitally important to prevent bacterial food poisoning.

Basting is bad. It offers nothing to the flavor, and the constantly opening oven door slows cooking. No, the right answer is brine, and with the help of food scientist Shirley Corriher and her "Mystery Food Science Theatre 3000" slideshow, Alton explains how brine works. It's all about osmosis.

Inside the bird stuffing is the next to fall to Alton's debunking skills. It can dry the bird and provide a place for bacteria to grow. The right things for that cavity are aromatics like rosemary, apples, and onions. (Alton's mantra "stuffing is evil" will reappear in later episodes.)

Finally it's time for the oven, and here, too, Alton departs from tradition, which suggests low and slow baking. Alton starts with a high temperature bake, and then backs the oven down – technique that browns the bird and preserves the flavor. Alton also explains why it's a bad idea to rely on pop-up timers, why a cook should prefer a probe thermometer, and how to use such a thermometer properly.

To complete the meal, Alton makes a cranberry dipping sauce – not the can shaped jellied food most people think of. He also shares a cornbread pudding recipe that he makes blindfolded. But remember, he's a professional – don't cook blindfolded at home!

Finally, he explains the right way to freeze the leftover meat so that it will not succumb to freezer burn, nor collect funky flavors and aromas from its chill chest companions.