• Eat Your Books

  2003 James Beard Award Winner

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Skirt steak: the master recipe

  • rionafaith on May 21, 2020

    Perfect basic technique for seared skirt steak. Pretty smoky in a apartment without exhaust, but worth it and only takes a few minutes anyway.

• Cast-iron duck

  • rionafaith on July 21, 2016

    p. 33 -- This is so simple as to be barely a recipe, it's more a method. I think my duck breasts were bigger than Alton's as they took longer to cook than indicated. The recipe didn't state a temperature, so I cooked them to 130* and that seemed pretty good, maybe a touch on the rare side (whereas the outside was very well seared). I might try cooking them more slowly, partly in the oven, next time. After removing the breasts to rest, I cooked some thinly-sliced fingerling potatoes in the fat remaining in the pan until they were tender... delicious!

• Blackened tuna steak

  • TimothyJames on February 03, 2025

    The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt. While this may be true to the style of blackening spice that Paul Prudhomme made famous back in the 90's, it just seemed too salty. Try it with just 1 tablespoon of salt.

• Marinated flank steak

  • pecken on May 03, 2010

    Marinated 7 hours in fridge and sat out 30 minutes before grilling. Very salty - probably will not make again as there are much better tasting marinades.

  • ellabee on February 23, 2013

    p. 63. Excellent, reliable marinade and recipe for London broil cooked in broiler; have always used top round rather than flank steak. Fresh ginger makes a big difference. Marinated 1.5 lb top round for 18 hrs. Six minutes broiling usually perfect.

• Chicken in garlic and shallots

  • IowanCorn on May 22, 2026

    Very good, very easy to make, very garlic-ly! I used a cast iron frying pan with foil for a cover, which cut 20 minutes off the cooking time.

• Carrots and zucchini with garlic and ginger

  • IowanCorn on August 04, 2024

    Used summer squash/crookneck squash for most of the zucchini, because they needed to be used up, and I think that zucchini, being a smidge firmer is a better choice for this recipe as the crookneck softened up too much for my liking. That said, this is a decent lunch. There is mint in this recipe, although not on the ingredient list, and the taste of it is more of an aftertaste, with the ginger/garlic coming in strong at the front. Don't leave it out, as it does help the dish.

• Bean and garlic sauté

  • IowanCorn on September 30, 2025

    I used wax beans, since that's what I found at the farmer's market, and walnuts instead of pecans because I like them better, but this is a good way to make snap beans. Quick, tasty, without getting mushy beans.

• Alabama alchemy

  • rionafaith on February 12, 2017

    Used the pressure cooker instructions in the side bar and made in Instant Pot -- 5 minutes on high pressure with quick release ended up being perfect timing. Good, basic collards.

• Shrimp soak

  • Bloominanglophile on February 12, 2014

    I found this recipe when surfing the internet--a ton of people raved about how it perked up less-than-stellar shrimp, particularly frozen shrimp. I was disappointed in some frozen shrimp I had bought from Whole Foods, and I still had half of the 2 lb. package to use up. Well, I may be doing this from now on to all frozen, raw shrimp that I buy--both the texture and the flavor improved! A word of warning--it did take about an hour for the ice to melt in the mixture before I could add the shrimp. I did thaw, peel and devein them before brining them for 20 minutes. He recommends brining shrimp in the shell for 30 minutes, and 1 hour for "jumbo" sized shrimp in the shell.

• Kitchn

  ...a pleasurable read and a reliable, well-tested first take to boot. The info-packed front section is funny, even a little earnest, but will make you feel like a more confident cook instantly.

  Full review