MythBusters

Please don't try anything you're about to see us do at home.

Ever!

On this combustible episode of "Mythbusters"...

Oh, that's pretty!

... Adam and Jamie try a little tenderness.

Red meat and high explosives!

They're testing the myth

that blasting the heck out of low-grade steak

with high explosives makes it so much softer.

That's awesome! I love results!

Then Kari gets to torture Grant and Tory...

I knew that we were gonna make him angry,

but I didn't realize he'd be this angry.

... to see if stressed-out drivers

really do use more gas.

Where did those rats go?!

I didn't know -- l-l really --

Who are the mythbusters?

Adam Savage...

Hail, people of Earth.

...and Jamie Hyneman.

Mush.

Between them, more than 30 years

of special-effects experience.

These things are always catching on fire.

Joining them -- Kari Byron...

I feel so sci-fi.

...Grant Imahara...

Warning, warning!

...and Tory Belleci.

All right, release the hound.

They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

Adam, I thought we talked

about doing that while you're at work.

Ha ha! Oh, Jamie, mon frère,

you know, many fans have written to us over the years and said,

"Mythbusters, is a hammer the best way to tenderize my steak?"

Now thanks to a viewer submission,

we may have a new technique,

for we might replace this...

avec this.

The question we'll be answering is --

Can you tenderize a steak with explosives?

Oh, it went out.

Over the years, we've used explosives...

...to answer all sorts of vital questions.

Can they clear a clogged-up cement truck?

Can they help cushion a fall?

And can they make a surfable wave?

Now it's time to open the fridge on combustible condiments.

So, Adam, if we were using explosives on steaks,

wouldn't it just blow up the steak?

I'm going to go without the accent now, okay?

-lt's too hard. -Okay.

No, it won't. The technique we'll be testing

involves putting the meat into a vacuum-sealed bag,

putting that into a barrel of water,

and then detonating a small amount of explosives

in the water.

The theory is that the shock wave created by the explosive

will actually tear apart

microtissue fibers within the meat,

rendering it a heck of a lot more tender.

A steak's tenderness

depends very much on where it's cut from the cow.

Meat from the short ribs is super soft.

Meat from the neck and the rump -- not so squishy.

It's all due to the strength

of the connective tissue between muscle fibers.

The weaker the tissue, the softer the meat.

Two common ways to break those bonds

are powdered-pineapple enzymes and a sound thrashing.

But the fans want to see

this third method thoroughly investigated.

If you're gonna tenderize meat with explosives,

it's not like you're just gonna throw

a stick of dynamite on the steak and expect it to work.

You've got to put it in water

because the water is actually gonna transmit

the pressure of the blast wave a lot more effectively.

And you also don't want to contaminate the meat.

You've got to seal it in something.

So we're gonna vacuum-bag this meat

in some really tough plastic.

These crash-test steaks

are all relatively low-grade select cuts.

So there's plenty of room for improvement.

They're sealed and delivered --

not to the kitchen, but the bomb range.

By popular demand,

today we are joining two of my favorite things --

red meat and high explosives!

What we're creating here

is a shock wave that is traveling at supersonic speeds,

and it is just ripping apart all those little fibers

that make up the muscle of the meat -- Hence, it's tender.

As to how much explosive they need --

well, they'll find that out by trial and error.

Tenderizing steak with explosives in 3...

2... 1...

Whoa!

Jamie, I think that was too much explosives.

Some chefs add too much salt.

Some go nuts with the garlic.

But Frank's added way too much C-4.

What can you say? This recipe is just plain wrong.

Everything else is gone, but the steak is here...

Sort of.

So, while Adam and Jamie recalibrate,

let's jump-start our second myth.

Aah! Okay, I'm relaxed!

What does a shoulder massage have to do with fuel efficiency?

Well, according to this myth,

the idea is that if you're driving and you're relaxed

and you're happy, you'll save a lot more fuel

than if you're angry and stressed out.

So, if you want save fuel, don't drive angry.

Precisely.

It's a widely accepted fact that bad driving habits

like stopping and starting abruptly

result in less fuel efficiency.

But could the simple act of driving stressed

turn an otherwise careful motorist into a gas-guzzler?

You know, I really like the sound of this myth.

We get to relax, kick back, and then take a little drive.

You know, it's not gonna be all easy, though.

It sounds like we're gonna have to get stressed out, too.

In fact, I think it's gonna be dangerous.

So we're not gonna do this on the road.

We're gonna go to an abandoned neighborhood,

and I'm gonna set up a course.

And this is the test track --

a once-thriving California suburb

that someone pulled the plug on.

This is Cypress Knolls.

It's an abandoned military-housing neighborhood,

and the city of Marina has agreed to let us use it.

And there are plenty of neighborhood streets.

And we are gonna be tearing around these streets

to see if you use more fuel when you drive stressed.

These streets haven't seen traffic for 15 years.

So for the test car, we've gone retro-rusty.

This is the car that we're gonna use for our test.

Now, it's pretty old and it doesn't get great gas mileage,

but that doesn't matter.

What we're trying to test here

is whether or not driving stressed out or driving calm

has a difference on whether or not you use more fuel.

And to get a precise reading on fuel usage,

they'll bypass the car's gas tank for a gas bag.

What we're doing is measuring

the fuel before and after, but not by volume,

but actually by weight so that it's more precise.

Now for a few practice laps,

just to get a feel for the car and the old neighborhood.

All right, who goes first?

Rochambeau. -All right.

Dynamite.

There's no dynamite!

You're pointing at me. That means I go first.

Kari's marked out a four-mile course that,

like most racetracks,

finally brings you back to where you started.

Grant's the first to try a test lap.

Approaching playground on right.

Playground on the right, then turn left.

Then Tory tries cruising the cul-de-sacs.

It's like a modern-day ghost town.

Turn left on Lindsay Street,

then arrive at smashed computers.

All right, looking for smashed computers.

Does this GPS sound condescending, or is it just me?

Am I the only one that feels this way?

Turn right on 4th Avenue.

And I'm the sole survivor,

searching -- searching for a lone survivor.

Hopefully, it's a female so I can start procreating.

That's enough of that,

though it might surprise Tory

to learn that a rather more wholesome fantasy

awaits him just around the corner.

Home, home on the bomb range.

Whoa! Adam and Jamie

are testing a viewer myth

that low-grade steaks can be tenderized with high explosives.

So far, it's a total bust.

Now we're gonna pull it back in the other direction

and detonate what is essentially an extra-large firecracker

full of aluminized black powder,

which is a fairly low-speed explosive,

as opposed to what we just used.

It requires a fuse to light it.

Now, getting a fuse to light into water

is not undoable, but it's a little finicky.

Finicky for some, but for Jamie,

it's just like shooting fish in a barrel.

That was a nice, little blast.

It sure was.

The bucket's destroyed.