Hacking Stewart’s Hot Dog Meat Sauce

Posted on July 4, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Hot Dog Meat Sauce

Service area for Stewart’s hot dog meat sauce. Notice the purpose-built tongs and holder to the right of the grill.

Stewart’s Shops festoon the northeast like ripe fruit on a raspberry bush. There are 6 of them in Saratoga Springs  (which is also Stewart’s home base) alone and another 4 on the outskirts. Stewarts (often thought of without the apostrophe or affectionately as Stewies) is like 7-11 or other convenience stores but with a number of quirks that create great affection among locals.

Stewarts Waste Lid

Every Stewie’s has a trash receptacle like this one, which looks like it was made out of formica and label maker in a high school shop class.

A favorite Stewart’s item for me is the Deli Dog. I wrote about this soon after I moved to Saratoga; the price has gone up and for some reason (probably a copyright issue) the name has been changed to Hot Dog but the product is the same. You can currently get two of them for $4 and will serve yourself from a roller cooker with tongs from a special hanger on the side, and place the tube steak on a bun which comes prepackaged atop the cooker or in a drawer underneath. (In modern they times have discontinued the practice of steaming vs grilling the dogs, and no longer warm the buns. Such is progress.) You can add condiments to your heart’s content: mustard, green or spicy red relish, sauerkraut, chopped onions, ketchup… and meat sauce.

A family member is fond of Stewart’s hot dog meat sauce, which is like chili but without the beans (which of course should never be in chili to begin with) and unlike the chili is free with your hot dog purchase. You can’t always be at Stewart’s when a hot dog urge strikes so we decided to hack Stewart’s meat sauce at home.

There are lots of hot dog meat sauces on Amazon, including Coney Island, Chicago and Detroit varieties, but we guessed the Stewart’s product was heavily influenced by the sauce on the “Michigan Dog” originated a hundred miles north of us in Plattsburgh, and ladled onto the mini-dogs served at various establishments in the Capital District. Hot Dog Charlie’s, based in Troy NY, sells Hot Dog Charlie’s Meat & Chili Sauce in a jar by mail order and at local supermarkets so we were able to suss out the ingredients by reading the label: Water, Beef, Dehydrated Onions, Soybean Oil, Paprika, Salt, Chili Powder (ground Chili Peppers), Spices, Citric Acid, Garlic.

We liked that there is more water than meat, which suggests a formula for an item with very low food cost. Using first-ingredient-is-water as a criterion we hunted around for “hot dog meat sauce” recipes online. The most promising was this on TikTok from doihavetocook for “Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce” so we cooked it up. The ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (we used 85/15 mix)
2 c water
¼ c tomato paste
1 T minced dried onions
2 T mild chili powder (we used Toné)
½ t garlic powder
½ t Kosher salt
¼ t ground mustard
¼ t ground allspice
¼ t cinnamon
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t ground cumin

Method: sear meat in a saucepan, crumbling with a spoon, over medium heat to render fat without browning the meat. Drain off fat and add all other ingredients. Simmer for 2 hours or more till the sauce is reduced to the thickness of a pasta sauce that coats a spoon without dripping off. Serve warm over your favorite cooked wiener.

Deli Dog Comparison

Our hot dog with hacked meat sauce in on the top, a Stewart’s dog on the bottom. Notice their sauce is more viscous and spreads more evenly vs clumping.

Verdict: this was the same consistency as Stewart’s meat sauce but much more interesting flavor-wise thanks to the warm spices. For a more authentic Stewart’s hot dog meat sauce hack, next time we plan to eliminate the allspice and cumin (cinnamon stays because we like it in chili; unsure about the tiny amount of mustard) and substitute 1 T paprika for one of the T of chili powder. Other things we might consider:
Using canned tomato sauce or puree instead of tomato paste
Thickening/stretching the sauce with flour, cornstarch or corn flour
Adding some brown sugar (a variation since Stewart’s sauce is not sweet)
Perking it up with some cider vinegar (again, a flavor note missing in Stewart’s meat sauce).

Did we nail it in the second test? Stay tuned to find out in our next post. And happy 4th to those who celebrate!

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Cornell Grilled Corn

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Cornell Grilled Corn

Cornell Grilled Corn.

You’ve just grilled off a brace of quarters or halves of Cornell Chicken. Now you’re going to do the same with some ears of sweet corn at its summer peak. Soaking the ears first to keep them moist is not a bad idea, nor is a sprinkle of chili lime seasoning. But how about this:

The bowl you used to marinate the chicken is right there next to the grill , and there’s plenty of juice remaining. So why not give each ear a bath in it before hitting the grill? The vinegar mixed with oil provides really nice flavor and the egg in the marinade helps seal it in. And no worries, the heat of the grill should lingering any food safety concerns. (Which you probably don’t have if you’re a regular reader of this blog and enjoy ake or raw foods in general.) Dig in and enjoy your Cornell grilled corn!

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Mid-century musings, or ruminating about rumaki.

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Rumaki

Rumaki, a mid century favorite.

There is nostalgia in America for “mid century” culture evoking a time when suburban moderns congregated in verdant back yards to get seriously drunk, flirt with their neighbors’ spouses, and eat rumaki. Those times are not coming back. Reason one: today’s rising potential suburban homeowners would find such a lifestyle out of reach financially. Reason two: bacon.

I have been fiddling with foods wrapped in bacon and broiled. Last week we tried scallops with a dash of lemon juice. Today it was rumaki: chicken livers and water chestnuts marinated in a soy/sugar/ginger sauce then wrapped in bacon before hitting the oven. Angels on horseback (oysters wrapped in bacon) and devils on horseback (dates stuffed with cream cheese and ditto) are tempting but I’m throwing in the Hula Hoop because the bacon I’ve used falls apart.

Notice how the bacon in the photo of a Trader Vic’s pu pu platter is meaty and thick compared to today’s thinner, stringier rashers even in premium brands. (Not shown: little crunchy nodules from dead trichinosis parasites which were ubiquitous in those gentler times.) The rumaki in my feature photo tasted fine and the bacon was crisp but Instagram is not going to come knocking at my door.

Trader Vic Rumaki

Trader Vic rumaki with improbably pink yet crisp bacon.

I’m now turning the page to more successful uses of bacon, like fried up crisp and served with eggs and pancakes or hash browns. If you’d prefer to linger in the 1950s, here is a history of Trader Vic’s pu pu platter with its faux Polynesian roots and husband-pleasing (yours, and someone else’s if you are a suburban wife with a roving eye) flavors. And here is an account of an early-aughts party in the deep south that successfully recreated the steamy decadence of mid-century. Bottoms up!

P.S. Except visually, my rumaki was a success. Here’s what I did and what I would do differently next time.

Ingredients:
½ lb chicken livers
12 water chestnuts (from a 6 oz can)
6 slices bacon, each cut in half crosswise
¼ c light soy sauce
2 t grated ginger
2 T dark brown sugar

Method: trim connective tissue and any yellow bits from the livers and marinate an hour or so in a mix of soy/ginger/dissolved ground sugar. (Online recipes say to marinate the water chestnuts too but why? The soy sauce won’t penetrate and will only discolor them.) Assemble 12 rumaki with a half slice of bacon, a portion of liver and a water chestnut on top for each then fold together and secure with a toothpick. (This part was a mess and must have been the bane of mid-century prep cooks. Whole livers are too large but they are slippery and you have to slice through a lot of strange tissue to create smaller pieces, and the water chestnuts are also too big and tend to pop out and shoot across the room. Experiment with smaller chicken liver pieces and sections of water chestnut. Good luck!)

Secure each rumaki with a toothpick (some recipes advise soaking in water but this makes the toothpicks collapse when you try to penetrate the water chestnut) and broil until bacon is crisp but chicken livers are still pink in the middle, about 20 minutes. Serve warm with other appetizers.

PPS. If you want to get in the midcentury mood with  tales of suburban infidelity, try some John D. MacDonald books. He’s best known for the Travis McGee mystery series but his other bus station paperbacks are full of sultry bedroom stuff.

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Recipe: Copycat Durkee’s Famous Sauce

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Copycat Durkees Famous Sauce

Looks like Durkee’s oozing out of this turkey sandwich but it’s really Copycat Durkee’s Famous Sauce.

Copycat Durkee’s Famous Sauce was the runaway winner in our taste test. It is so close in taste and texture to the original that we really can’t tell the difference. We used distilled (white) vinegar because that’s what is on the Durkee’s label, but if you want to get it closer to the yellowish cast of authentic Durkee’s Famous Sauce consider using cider vinegar instead. Makes about 1 ½ c.

½ c cold water
¼ c cornstarch
½ c plus 2 T distilled vineger
2 T Kosher salt
½ c white sugar
1 egg
¼ c French’s prepared mustard (the stuff in the yellow plastic bottle)
¼ c neutral oil

Copycat Durkees Famous Sauce

Texture and thickness same as original Durkee’s: very important.

Method: add all ingredients to a blender or mini-chop. Blend on high speed until cornstarch is fully absorbed and sugar and salt are dissolved, a minute or more. Transfer to top of double boiler and cook over gently boiling water, stirring often for 12 to 15 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Cool before using. I expect this will keep quite a while in the fridge, just like the original.

11/25 update: our Copycat Durkee’s Famous Sauce is still in our fridge 5 months later and will be used for our Thanksgiving leftovers sandwiches. Looks and tastes the same as when we made it; there’s a very slight separation of liquid but easy to stir that back in.

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Taste Test: Durkee’s Famous Sauce Copycat Recipe

Posted on June 8, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Durkee Copycats

Durkee’s Famous Sauce Copycat #1 on the left, original in the center, #2 on the right.*

The dry-brined turkey breast we smoked on Memorial Day required some Durkee’s Famous Sauce to make sandwiches, and our jar was near empty. Amazon does not currently stock the product and their third parties are offering punitive markups. If we lived in TX we could just stroll to the supermarket and buy a fresh jar but, north of the Mason Dixon line, Durkee’s Famous Sauce seems impossible to acquire. Time to execute a long delayed experiment and attempt a copycat.

Durkees Empty

Our jar of Durkee’s Famous Sauce is down to the last spoonful.

Here are the ingredients on the Durkee’s label which have stayed fairly consistent through changes in ownership: soybean oil, water, distilled vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt, whole egg solids, food starch-modified, xanthum gum, spice extractives. Not that helpful. Xanthum gum is a thickener you probably don’t have in your cupboard (though we do, from our molecular gastronomy experiments) so we’ll need to find another way to turn liquids into a spreadable emulsion.

We have been tracking copycat recipes online as Durkee’s availability has ebbed and flowed over the years and saved two recipes for experimentation. We will tip our hand and tell you the following recipe was not the winner but it’s pretty good if you feel like making something up right now:

Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
¼ c white vinegar
½ c plus 2 T mayonnaise
¼ c plus 1 T Dijon mustard
2 t granulated sugar
4 t dry mustard
1 t Kosher salt
½ t Worcestershire sauce

Method: whisk egg yolk and vinegar in a double boiler until temperature on an instant-read thermometer reaches 160 degrees. (For us, this happened after a couple minutes when the egg and vinegar were smoothly incorporated.) Add all other ingredients and whisk to combine while still warm. Cool before using as a spread or salad dressing.

Critique: the finished dressing (#2 in our feature photo) has a mayo-like consistency which is fine but Durkee’s is thicker. This dressing is tarter than Durkee’s so consider dialing back the vinegar. “Dijon mustard” is variable and the brand we used (Maille) maybe was more assertive than the recipe wanted. And we had misgivings about the use of Worcestershire which does not fit the flavor profile of Durkee’s in our opinion.

The other recipe? It’s almost a dead ringer and we share it here. It’s very close to actual Durkee’s Famous Sauce and is a variation of (but not same as) on the recipe we linked to way back in 2010. Check back in a few days!

P.S. If you haven’t recently visited our 2010 post on Durkee’s, scroll down to the comments and read all the way to the end. There’s a possible recipe for “3 P Salad” to check out!

*In our photo, the Durkee’s original has a yellowish cast that we didn’t try to duplicate as it makes no difference in the flavor. The yellow probably comes from the egg solids or maybe one of those spice extractives.

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Offbeat Saratoga Springs during the Belmont

Posted on June 3, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Roosevelt Mineral Baths Saratoga Springs

Serenity awaits at Roosevelt Mineral Baths. One of many offbeat things to do in Saratoga Springs during the Belmont.

The Belmont Festival is back in Saratoga Springs for a second year, with five days of racing from Wednesday June 4 through Sunday June 8. We worked as a host at a private picnic area last year and the attendees were notably more focused than the usual crowd at our own summer meet. But you can’t handicap 24/7 so here are some offbeat suggestions for things to do in Saratoga Springs.

Take the waters: reserve a mineral bath in Spa State Park. The Roosevelt Bath House operates very much as it did in the time of FDR when the park was created, offering a soothing and therapeutic soak in murky waters. Make a reservation here; you can choose from a 40 minute soak as a “singular treatment” or a 20 minute bath to be combined with massage or another therapy.

Taste the waters: tour our many mineral springs. Here’s a guided tour that starts in Congress Park, right across the street from the Visitor Center where you can pick up a printed brochure with history and location of springs in town and in Spa State Park. (You can also download the brochure here.) If you’re short on time, head for the Geyser Loop Trail where you can experience a variety of springs (including one that’s mildly radioactive) on a short loop hike.

Take a rolling feast to the track (Wednesday and Sunday only). This year NYRA is relaxing its Belmont policies to allow rolling coolers and outside alcohol (no glass bottles) on those two days only. So follow a favorite Saratoga tradition and pack your chest with beer from Treehouse Brewing (skip the crowds by using the efficient take out ordering process) or canned wine from the big selection at  Purdy’s. Add an Italian mix sub (here they call it the “Big D” and it’s delicious) or other sandwich from Cardona’s (order in advance because they will be swamped) and, of course, a bag of Saratoga Chips.

Hang out with the locals at Mittler’s Market. There’s plenty of strolling and people watching to be had on Broadway and in Congress Park, but don’t overlook this bodega which is a short block down Phila at the corner of Putnam St. It’s a new place which has quickly caught on with a full bar, light meals and snacks, music and creative events like a Saturday Morning Dads Club where fathers gather to share activities with their kids.

Akazumi Marinated Tuna

Akazumi Marinated Tuna from the lunch menu at Omakazi Sushi.

Take in a show at Caffé Lena. The longest continually operating folk music venue in America offers legendary and local performers in an intimate setting with shared tables and great acoustics. At 47 Phila St, right in the heart of the action. Daily schedule is here.

Check out our Farmers Market. It’s a good one, with scores of farm stands, live music and plenty of snacking. Under and around the pavilion at 112 High Rock Blvd in High Rock Park, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm Saturday (so you can visit and still make the first post time). Don’t miss two world class bakeries, sourdough creations from Night Works Bread and laminated pastries from Bakery Suzanne. If you are up for a quirky adventure, Bakery Suzanne has a retail location at 4282 Rte 50 east of Wilton Mall. They’re open 8:00 am – 2:00 pm Friday-Sunday and are next door to the X-Files Museum which is open 11:00 am – 5:00 pm on the same days.

Get creative with your dining options. Saratoga Springs is packed with dining venues, most of which are likely to be fully booked during the Belmont Festival. Familiar Creature is a newish wine bar with inventive food from a former head chef at Hamlet & Ghost and they focus on walk-ins with only a limited number of reservations each night. Omakaze can set you back hundreds of dollars with add-on like wagyu beef sushi, but you can enjoy the same atmosphere and magnificent chef’s selections at lunch for just $35; specify Omakase Sushi Bar when you reserve here.

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Texas Monthly BBQ Guide is at it again.

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Peach Tea Glazed Pork Belly

Peach-tea-glazed pork belly burnt ends at #6 Interstellar BBQ.

Four years ago, we accused Texas Monthly of jumping the shark when they published their Texas Monthly BBQ Guide and anointed a place serving Laotian sausage as the best in the Lone Star state ahead of Snow’s, Franklin, Kreuz, Mikelthait and other icons. The 2025 guide is out (turns out it’s every four years, so this is a big deal) and they’re at it again.

This year’s #1 is Burnt Bean Co in Seguin, a town of 30,000 an hour north of San Antonio. They have Korean beef ribs as an occasional special and “brisket-stuffed croissant sandwiches dubbed Blue Octobers” and a variety of Mexican dishes and serve all day long including breakfast specials… actually that sounds pretty good. The rest of the top 5 places (two of which repeat from the previous ranking), also rate high for traditional dishes (i.e. brisket, sausage and maybe some turkey smoked long and slow) with a few quirky outliers. It’s not until we get to blueberry-gouda sausage at #7 Dayne’s Craft Barbecue and gluten-free baked goods at #10 Evie Mae’s Pit Barbeque that we want to throw in our mopping towel. So maybe it’s us, not them.

Goldees Pork Rib

Pork ribs at #3 Goldees, which was #1 in the previous guide.

As we recognized in 2021, there’s a new generation of customers who are interested in experiences beyond standing in line for hours at grubby shacks and seek out foods for their inventiveness and Instagrammability as much as for flavor. Our Burnt My Fingers Texas barbecue rating system doesn’t mean much to these folks and they are entirely willing to accept a variety of foods that are grilled or otherwise cooked without smoke as “barbecue”. But it rankles us to see Snow’s and Franklin and Mueller as also-rans (the runner-up list is organized by city, not rating, which I guess is meant to be kind), and Kreuz’ gone entirely. And Mikelthwait has never made the list… we still don’t understand that omission. Also the guide opines* that “brisket might be an afterthought when the 2029 or 2033 list rolls around”. No. Just no.

The 2025 Texas Monthly BBQ Guide is here, and the 2021 guide is still available here. Both require you to register with your email at some point after you start reading, but it’s free.

*This might not be BBQ Editor Daniel Vaughn talking but one of his many chirpy associate  tasters. Though in 2025, vs 2021, Vaugh avers that he personally visited each of the top 50 establishments.

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Wet brining vs dry brining vs rub

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Memorial Day BBQ

Memorial Day BBQ 2025: brisket and turkey breast dry brining vs wet brining plus rub. Threw on some corn for the hell of it.

It’s a bit clammy in upstate NY, but tradition demands that I pull out the Weber Bullet for the first smoke of the summer on Memorial Day. I have a nice brisket I will cook in my usual manner: rubbed with salt, refrigerated overnight, then rubbed with brown sugar mixed with pepper before it goes on the grill. I’ll also smoke a turkey breast I have tucked away; this will be dry brined overnight as well, then rubbed with a Salt Lick blend (salt, pepper, sugar, spices) I was gifted by  my sister.

What’s the difference between dry brining and wet brining, and between brining and a rub? In wet brining the protein is soaked overnight in water to which a large amount of salt and sugar has been added; I use a 3:1 ratio and add some bay leaves, juniper berries and garlic. In dry brining the salt/sugar mix is rubbed into every available surface of the bird, including under the skin.

Two Thanksgivings ago I dry brined my turkey out of necessity; the bird traveled across the country with me in a suitcase but not the bucket I use for wet brining. I failed to report back, but the bird turned out just fine: crisp flavorful skin and tender juicy meat. Thanksgiving 2024 was an unsettling time, so I went back to wet brining for comfort’s sake. But I expect I will be dry brining from now on.

The main reason is laid out in this Serious Eats article: dry brining is just easier. No solution to mix up, no bucket to clean afterward. (There’s also the need to keep the turkey at a food safe temperature overnight, something that’s rarely a problem in Saratoga Springs with a bucket left on the porch in November.) Serious Eats also claims a wet brined turkey can become water logged with diluted flavor, something I’ve never encountered in brining my turkey every year since SFGate published the Chez Panisse brining recipe in 1999. But if I can get equivalent results with dry brining (and maybe tuck a few juniper berries and bay leaves under the skin), why not?

As to the brisket, dry brining is what they do at Snow’s so I will continue to do the same though in recent years I have saved the pepper to be added to the rub. A rub (as we define it anyway) is applied before the meat goes on the fire. It seasons and tightens the outer surface and maybe flavors the first half inch inside, and also flavors the fat drippings which fall onto the coals. Nothing wrong with any of these things but it’s a different reaction than brining of either kind.

And if you were wondering if the irrepressible Kenji has done his own brine experiment, of course he has … including a chicken breast soaked in plain water as a control. The plain-water breast ended up the driest of the bunch, with nothing added but maybe a touch of salmonella in the absence of a cure. Don’t try this at home.

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Food for Thought: Special Edition Oreos

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Mothers Day Oreo

Give Mom her own Oreo for Mother’s Day.

While brand extensions have faded from grocery shelves in these tough times, Oreos have if anything expanded. When I saw in a foodservice newsletter that they were introducing a Selena Gomez Oreo with horchata-flavored filling, I had to check it out and was off to oreo.com. (Oreos.com is occupied by a squatter and Norton advises us we should not proceed.)

Oreo Shipping Box

Anonymous shipping box for my special edition Oreos.

It turns out oreo.com, aka Nabisco aka Mondelez which acquired the brand portfolio in recent years, has quite a cottage industry going. There are special edition Oreos for events like graduation in a gift tin that looks, of course, like a giant Oreo. I found myself enraptured by the concept and when I saw that the Mother’s Day Tin (with special icing to tell Mom you love her) is now half off I clicked Add to Cart. I assumed there would be a hefty shipping charge but turns out shipping was free. And just one day later, an anonymous packing box (suggesting this is indeed a small time operation) was on my doorstep.

Oreo Gift Tin

Impressive Oreo Gift Tin.

The tin is beautiful, metal not plastic and embossed vs printed. The cookies inside are individually wrapped so mom can draw out the pleasure. I like it so much I’m going to order another one, even though it turns out the free shipping was a special offer for this product only; other items have a Fedex charge starting at around $8 for next day delivery (which is why the shipment arrived so quickly.)

Oreo Mothers Day Cookies

Inside the tin, special edition cookies for Mom.

So why is this food for thought? Maybe you’re a marketer, or maybe you just want to see an example of a brand that does a beautiful job of presenting itself and thereby protecting its market position. On the about page we learn almost immediately Oreo has a partnership with “PFLAG, the country’s oldest LGBTQ+ ally organization, to create #ProudParent, a year- long initiative designed to shine a spotlight on the powerful impact love & acceptance can have on LGBTQ+ youth”; no DEI shaming here. There is also a robust foodservice page with influencers who share the ways they are using Mondelez products including Ritz Crackers and Chips Ahoy cookies as well. (Speaking of which, check out the magic that local Chef Brady Duhame was serving up at Sperry’s a couple years back.)

Oreo.com is doing it right, and it doesn’t hurt that I am actually quite fond of these little snacks (as is master kaiseki chef Hiroo Nagahara, whom we met at the @inter Fancy Food Show last year). Whether you’re a mom, have a mom or just want to be pampered like a mom on Mother’s Day, get one of those Mother’s Day tins before they’re gone.

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Recipe: Acme Olive Bread II (improved!)

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Olive Bread Comparison

Real Acme Olive Bread on the left, Acme Olive Bread II  on the right.

Today’s Acme Olive Bread II recipe is a step forward in trying to duplicating the original, which we will never completely succeed at because we don’t access to the same olives and marinating brine. We upped the amount of olive oil and reduced the oven temp, both to create a more tender crumb. Makes one 2 lb loaf.

Ingredients:
125g starter, refreshed and lively, made with all purpose flour
75g whole wheat flour (to offset white starter since Acme uses whole wheat starter)
300g purified water
425g all purpose flour
3 T olive oil (use a good quality fruity variety)
1 T diastatic malt powder
2 t kosher salt
1 c olives (we used mostly Kalamata, some castelvestrano), coarsely chopped
2 T brine from the olives

Olive Bread Comparison

Two olive breads compared. Ours is a bit darker with the whole wheat; we might dial it back next time.

Method: combine starter, water and flours and mix with a spoon; autolyze 30 minutes or more. Add diastatic malt powder, salt, olives and olive oil and knead 7 minutes or so until a gluten window develops, then knead a couple minutes longer. C0ver the dough in the bowl and rest 4 hours, during which time you should see moderate expansion. Transfer to a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, take the dough out of the ziplock bag (when cold it will come out easily vs sticking) and shape into a ball on counter. Rest 20 minutes or longer then transfer to a banneton which has been heavily dusted with rice flour. Cover and proof until it starts to rise but pressing a finger into the dough causes it to come back slowly, not immediately.

Half an hour before you expect the dough to be ready, preheat oven to 460 degrees with cast iron dutch oven inside. (Heat the lid as well, on a separate oven shelf.) Dust the bottom of the dutch oven (handling it carefully with oven mitt) with polenta then flip the dough out of the banneton and transfer to dutch oven. Cover and bake 15 minutes, then uncover, reduce heat to 430 degrees and bake another 25 minutes or so until the bread makes a nice “thump” when you tap the bottom and internal temperature reaches 206 degrees. Cool to room temperature before enjoying.

 

 

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