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I just can't believe the Thanksgiving's already next week, and I could really use some tips for making my pie dough just a little bit flakier.

When the water is mixed with the flour,

you are activating the glutons,

which is great if you're making bread.

But in pie dough, it will make it fairly tough.

And it turns out that alcohol does not form gluten

when it's mixed with flour.

I'm listening.

It's Thursday, November 21st.

It's one week until Turkey Day, and this is Science Friday.

I'm John Dankoski. It's been our custom on this show to bring science to the table and the kitchen

and offer you some helpful suggestions based on cooking chemistry. Well, back in 2012, Ira Flato sat down with Jack Bishop from America's

Test Kitchen. They had just released their book, The Science of Good Cooking. Have a listen.

We're cooking in on New York studio. Welcome to Science Friday, Jack. Hi, Ira. Great to be here.

We are surrounded by cooking stuff. I know. We don't really, you know, they're wires and all the radio things with

cooking things. Let's hope it goes well. Well, let's get right to the first thing. We have a pot

of, a simmering pot of water here. It's not actually a pot, is it? It's a skillet. So I am going

to re-teach you how to poach an egg and you're going to be successful. In a, I've never done it in a skillet. Usually you take the big pot of water. That's wrong, you're saying.

The big problem with the saucepan, if you're doing a narrow pot, it's a long way down for the egg to drop into the pot. A lot of people crack it right on the side of the saucepan and then it falls apart. I mean, the challenge when you're poaching an egg is to keep the white to surround the yoke. So you end up with a set white and a creamy yolk.

All right.

The skillet makes it much easier.

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