Official record and reporting · 25 January 2024

Kenneth Eugene Smith: Three Foods in the Record

Steak, hashbrowns and eggs, Alabama, January 2024

Steak, hashbrowns and eggs: the food occupies only a few words in Alabama’s official account of Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution. The same sentence records that he accepted a breakfast tray earlier that day. Those are separate pieces of information, and the release does not identify the breakfast tray’s contents. It gives a final-meal list without supplying a photograph, an order slip or a recipe. Alabama Department of Corrections.

A restrained human-free still life with three plain dishes representing steak, potato and eggs; no prison cell, execution equipment, readable records or invented personal possessions
Imagined still-life illustration of steak, grated potatoes and eggs in a restrained modern setting. It is not an archival photograph, a portrait or a reconstruction of Smith’s actual serving.
Steak · Hash browns · EggsThe official meal summary
A separately recorded breakfastKept distinct from the final meal

An official notice and a larger public event

The department dates the execution to 25 January 2024 at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. It identifies the method as nitrogen hypoxia and the conviction as the 1988 capital murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett. Naming the victim keeps the event attached to the life lost, rather than reducing the account to a curious menu. The department’s notice.

Associated Press reported that this was the first execution using nitrogen gas. Its account places the food within a major public controversy over the new method, while quoting Smith’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeff Hood, about the meal. Contemporaneous AP report.

The extra detail has a named source

According to AP’s telephone interview with Hood, the meal included a T-bone steak, hash browns, toast and eggs with A1 sauce. Those additions have a source, but they do not appear in the shorter department list. Neither account used here establishes an egg-cooking style or a measured portion. A recipe that chooses scrambled eggs should therefore name that as its own choice. AP, attributing the detail to Hood.

Three components, three kinds of heat

For the modern plate, use a small intact boneless steak, grated-potato cakes and a fully set scramble. The steak cut differs from the adviser’s reported T-bone. Toast and bottled sauce are omitted so the companion dish follows the three components in the official list, with every added cooking ingredient measured.

Potatoes ask for patience. Removing their loose surface moisture helps a shallow cake brown without leaving a wet, compact middle. Eggs ask for almost the opposite attention: gentle heat and a few slow movements so the curds set without becoming dry crumbs. The steak has its own endpoint and rest. A useful timetable respects all three instead of assuming that a browned surface means every part of the plate is ready.

Keep the meal distinct from the man

These foods are familiar enough to invite an easy story about comfort, appetite or defiance. The record used here does not tell us which feeling, if any, belonged to their selection. Nor does a list reveal how much Smith ate. We can retain the documented meal without pretending to interpret his thoughts through potatoes and eggs.

At home, the companion recipe teaches a practical sequence: shape the potatoes first, cook the meat near their finishing stage, and scramble the eggs while the steak rests. It is a deliberately ordinary cooking task beside a difficult historical account. The food is recognizable, the portions are new, and the limits of what we know stay visible.

The modern companion recipe

Small Steak with Crisp Potato Cakes and Scrambled Eggs

Four small grated-potato cakes cook before a low-heat scramble. The steak is a manageable boneless whole cut, chosen for this modern recipe. Scrambling the eggs, the portions and every seasoning are new decisions, not details established by the official meal record.

Read the full recipe →

Cook the recipes

Complete modern recipes inspired by the foods in this story. Each recipe explains the connection and the choices made for a home kitchen.

Famous Last Meals / Modern companion recipe

Small Steak with Crisp Potato Cakes and Scrambled Eggs

Four small grated-potato cakes cook before a low-heat scramble. The steak is a manageable boneless whole cut, chosen for this modern recipe. Scrambling the eggs, the portions and every seasoning are new decisions, not details established by the official meal record.

2 substantial plates, each with 1 small steak, 2 potato cakes and half the scrambled eggsActive 35 minTotal 65 min

Read Kenneth Eugene Smith: Three Foods in the Record →

Print recipe · PDF
One cream dinner plate with one small rested boneless seared sirloin steak, exactly two thin round golden grated-potato cakes and fully set pale-yellow scrambled eggs. No toast, sauce, tomatoes, herbs, garnish or raw/runny eggs.

Ingredients

  • About 2 medium potatoes, scrubbed and peeled (400 g/14 oz prepared), coarsely grated
  • Cold safe drinking water for rinsing grated potatoes, drained away
  • 2 plain intact boneless beef sirloin steaks, about ¾ in/2 cm thick (5¼ oz/150 g each; 300 g total), not minced, rolled or stuffed
  • 4 large eggs (200 g edible contents)
  • 2 tablespoons milk (30 ml)
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon neutral cooking oil (20 ml), divided: 15 ml potatoes and 5 ml steaks
  • 2 teaspoons unsalted butter (10 g), for eggs
  • ½ teaspoon fine salt (3 g), divided: 1.5 g potatoes, 0.75 g steaks, 0.75 g eggs
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (0.5 g), divided between potatoes and steaks
Set out

Stovetop with 2 burners, 12-in/30-cm heavy skillet with flat cooking base at least 10 in/25 cm across, for potatoes, 10-in/25-cm heavy skillet, for steaks, Small nonstick skillet, for eggs, Box grater, Clean kitchen towel and bowl for squeezing potatoes, Mixing bowl, fork and flexible spatula, Thin-probe food thermometer, Tongs and clean steak-resting plate, Knife, separate raw-meat board and clean serving plates

Allergens

Egg; Milk. Milk and butter are included in the scramble. Check actual packaged ingredients and any substituted oil for additional allergens or cross-contact.

Make it

  1. Rinse the grated potatoes briefly in cold drinking water, drain and squeeze firmly in the clean towel over a bowl. Discard the starchy water. Mix the squeezed potato with its 1.5 g salt and half the pepper. Divide all the potato into 4 equal piles and press into thin cakes about 4 in/10 cm across and no more than ⅜ in/1 cm thick. Wash hands and keep the towel/used water away from finished food.
  2. Heat 15 ml oil in the large skillet over medium heat. Add all 4 cakes only if they fit without touching on the stated flat base; otherwise cook in batches and extend the total. Cook 7–9 minutes on the first side, then turn carefully and cook 7–9 minutes more. Lower heat if the outside colors before the middle softens. Split one to check that the shreds are fully tender, with no hard raw center; continue if needed. Transfer to a clean plate and cover loosely while finishing the other components.
  3. As the potatoes near their finishing stage, blot steaks with disposable kitchen paper without rinsing raw meat. Keep raw-meat utensils and board separate. Season with their 0.75 g salt and remaining pepper. Heat the steak skillet over medium-high heat, add the 5 ml oil and lay in both steaks with a gap.
  4. Sear about 3–4 minutes per side, lowering the heat if browning too quickly, then continue as needed until each thickest center reaches at least 145°F/63°C before removal. Insert the thermometer from the side away from fat and pan. Use clean tongs to move the cooked steaks to the clean resting plate. Rest at least 3 minutes before slicing or eating; do not rely on color alone.
  5. Whisk eggs, milk and their 0.75 g salt. Once the potato pan is off its burner and the steaks are resting, melt butter in the separate small nonstick pan over low heat. Add eggs and draw the spatula slowly across the bottom. Cook about 4–6 minutes, or as needed, until the curds are fully set with no liquid egg and the combined mixture reaches 160°F/71°C.
  6. Serve one rested steak, 2 fully cooked potato cakes and half the eggs per person. Rest the steak longer while eggs finish if necessary. The short interval on a clean covered plate is part of this continuous cooking sequence, not permission to hold cooked food warm for a later meal. No toast, bottled sauce or garnish is included.

A useful detail

The 65-minute total allows beginner preparation, 14–18 minutes per potato batch, steak cooking alongside near the end and the scramble after a burner becomes free. Pan fit, thicker steaks or another potato batch extend the clock. Whole-cut beef 145°F/63°C plus 3-minute rest and egg-dish 160°F/71°C are separate endpoints.

Keep it well

Refrigerate leftovers in separate shallow containers within 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F/32°C, at 40°F/4°C or below. Use within 2 days. Reheat only the portions needed to 165°F/74°C throughout; protect eggs from drying with gentle covered heat. Do not put cooked food back on the raw-steak plate.

How this recipe relates to the story

The official department list names steak, hashbrowns and eggs, but not portions, steakcut or eggstyle. This original plate chooses small bonelesssirloin, grated cakes and fully set scrambled eggs; it is not the actual reported T-bone/toast/sauce service.

Another way

  • Use two intact boneless strip steaks of the same150 g weight and2 cm thickness, retaining the temperature check and rest. Do not treat ground beef patties as the same whole-cut method.
  • Leave steaks whole on the plates after their full rest if preferred; slicing is a presentation choice and is not required for doneness.

Sources for this story

  1. Execution Carried Out for Kenneth Eugene Smith · Alabama Department of Corrections
  2. Alabama executes a man with nitrogen gas, the first time the new method has been used · Associated Press, original contemporaneous report with adviser interview