Alton: Now, I hate to tell you, but this altar to the god of fire isn't here just so you got a place to snuggle with your sweetie while enjoying soft hits.

Alton: Baking... sans electricity... it's not just crazy talk, it's Good Eats!

Alton: (about the gluten mesh in bread) However, agitation is not the only way to create this. We can also do it with good old fashioned time, which also creates a lot more flavor. So, nineteen hours it is!

Alton: Since the curing process can create a fair amount of smoke, the grill may actually be the perfect place to do this. Now, if we were using an oven, I'd be shooting for 350°, but as long as you can maintain, say, between 325° and 375°, we'll be okay.

Alton: In the Limousin region of France the abundant cherry crop is celebrated with clafoutis, a dish that's a cross between a pie, a custard and a pancake. Most Americans won't go near it, 'cause it sounds like something you'd have to get a shot for!

Alton: Benjamin Franklin once wrote that nokehicks, or hoecakes, were finer than any English Yorkshire pudding, and I intend to agree. When you add a little maple syrup, they are absolutely late-night... Good Eats.

The episode title is a play on “Dutch date” or “going Dutch” which refers to a restaurant visit where each diner pays for his or her own meal (as opposed to the traditional date arrangement where the man pays for the woman's meal). Alton, of course, means using a dutch oven to cook his own food. The term possibly originated as one of many English perjoratives directed at Dutch ideas and customs, during a period when the English and Dutch competed fiercely for economic and territorial gains.

Itchy and Twitchy, Alton's lawyers, may take their names from Itchy and Scratchy. This cat and mouse pair (Itchy is the mouse) are the stars of a “cartoon within the cartoon” that appears from time to time on episodes of The Simpsons. Invariably, the episode names are puns that suggest violence, and invariably, Itchy gets the better of Scratchy with horrific results that often involve Scratchy's bloody dismemberment. Only once did the characters get along, an unpopular episode crafted in response to Marge Simpson's attempt to reduce the level of television violence in programs directed at children.