Costco food court hacks

Posted on August 14, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Costco Kimchi

Costco Kimchi, from our friends at The Daily Meal.

Last week Costco opened in Albany, with fawning media coverage worthy of that wedding at Madison Square Garden. We did not brave the crowds (there were long lines and a full parking lot) but are very familiar with Costco from our years in San Francisco. We love the food court hot dogs for weighing in at a fat ¼ lb but we’ll bring our own sauerkraut and crushed red pepper relish because those aren’t among the condiments offered.

That’s a very minor Costco food court hack compared to some you can read about here, like the jochizza which is a mashup of a hot dog, chicken roll and cheese pizza. And the forbidden glizzie, a weiner inserted in the chicken roll which is already stuffed with chunks of grilled chicken breast, creamy Caesar dressing, green onions and three types of cheese, wrapped in a crust made from pizza dough.

Aside from being gut busters in terms of fat and calories, these Costco food court hacks are also a poor value which defeats the purpose of getting a $1.50 hot dog with a bonus soft drink and feeling like you’ve put one over on the house. A smarter buy (because it’s free) is Costco kimchi, combining ketchup, relish and mustard from the condiment machine and chopped onions and pepper flakes which are available on request.

Costco Food Court Hot Dog

This photo is from 2010, but the Costco food court hot dog is still $1.50 with a refillable soda.

Will we try it? Quite possibly. We believe ketchup has no place on hot dogs but Korean cooking is another story; we use ketchup as a stand-in for gochujang in our Easy Korean Fried Chicken. Too bad we can’t wash it down with a shot of Kirkland Scotch or vodka, since New York’s arcane liquor laws forbid the sale of most alcohol products except in state-licensed liquor stores.

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Recipe: Amish Slaw II

Posted on August 9, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Amish Slaw 2

Amish Slaw II.

Amish Slaw II is sweet-and-sour with a vinegar base. You’ll instantly recognize the flavor profile if you’ve eaten at Dienner’s or another PA Dutch buffet. Premixing with sugar seemed a strange idea since it’s not going to react with the cabbage like salt, but all the recipes I found seem to do it. Perhaps it’s a practical step to make sure the sugar is well distributed vs adding it to the dressing where it might be too much to dissolve easily. Makes 8 cups to serve 8-12.

Ingredients:
Small head of cabbage, grated or shredded
½ green bell pepper, finely chopped
½ medium onion, finely chopped
¼ c white sugar*
For the sauce:
½ c white vinegar
½ t white sugar
½ t kosher salt
½ t celery seed
½ t prepared (yellow) mustard
3/8 c neutral oil

Method: toss the vegetables with the sugar and set aside while you make the sauce. In a small saucepan, mix sugar, salt, mustard and celery seed and stir until the mustard is incorporated and the salt and sugar are dissolved. Add oil and heat to boiling. Cool to room temperature and toss with cabbage mix. Chill at least 8 hours before serving.

*This is less sugar than the original recipe called for but still pretty sweet. Feel free to cut back further.

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Durkee’s Famous Sauce recipes

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Durkees Famous Sauce Recipes

Durkee’s Famous Sauce recipes from a brochure at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. You can download the complete document here.

Durkee’s dressing may be discontinued, but we can comfort ourselves with the many Durkee’s Famous Sauce recipes we can make using our copycat version. Our Durkee’s posts are among the most popular on Burnt My Fingers, with readers often sharing ideas for using Durkee’s in the comments. Here are a few favorites… please add your own.

Chris Stevens 2021
I am 68 years old. My father’s family moved from Montana to Arizona during WW2, so this is old information.
As far as I know, Durkee’s Dressing was for:
Turkey sandwiches*,
Bacon Lettuce and Tomato (BTL) sandwiches
Turkey sandwiches
Deviled eggs**
Turkey sandwiches
Fried Egg sandwiches
Turkey sandwiches
Potato salad***
Turkey sandwiches
*Yes, you need sturdy bread to accommodate cranberry, mashed potato/gravy and stuffing/dressing
** Recipe: Mashed yolks and Durkee’s. Optional: white pepper or a few grains of cayenne pepper. You can use black pepper if it is just family.
*** Mayonnaise + Durkee’s. I sprinkle the cut potatoes with cider vinegar and/or dill pickle juice, and included finely diced dill pickles so the ‘dressing’ does not need to be especially tart.

Eva 2025
My Grandmother had this unique recipe of equal parts sweet pickles, peanuts, and peas with Durkee’s. She called it 3P salad. I know it sounds strange, but I’m telling you… it’s amazing!

Kate Downing 2026
More than 60 years ago, my grandfather created a summer side or appetizer that consisted of a round thick slice of a summer tomato (preferably a ripe Jersey Tomato), topped with a thin slice of sweet or purple onion, a spread of Durkees Famous Sauce, then a pile of crumbled bleu cheese, salt & pepper. Serve on a plate with knife and fork. Colorful and Amazing! I have made it as a side salad with the same ingredients in a bowl. Delicious. A must for summer tomato season. He wrote to them and they sent him a thank you note and a box of bottles. Legend.

In my family, using Durkees is the only way to make devilled eggs or egg salad, tuna salad, grilled swiss cheese and onion sandwich (another grandfather special), chicken or turkey salad, and post T-day sandwiches, etc.

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Recipe: Southern Style Greens

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Southern Style Greens

Southern Style Greens.

Southern Style Greens are a classic accompaniment on a platter of barbecue or fried southern goodness. Today I cooked mustard greens, but the same process works for collards and turnip greens as well. (If there are small young turnips with the turnip greens I’ll peel and dice and add to the pot.) Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:
2 T bacon grease
½ medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large bunch greens, stems removed and chopped into 1 inch or larger pieces
1 c chicken stock (or ham juice if you have it)
1 T cider vinegar
1 t sugar
1 t kosher salt

Method: sauté garlic and onion in bacon grease till translucent; add mustard greens and stir to braise all sides. (They will barely fit in a 2 quart pot initially but will cook down quite a bit.) Add stock, vinegar, salt sugar and cook over low heat until well done, 30 minutes or so. Taste for seasoning; might need salt, more vinegar or sugar, some heat. Southern Style Greens are traditionally served with a shaker of pepper sauce.

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Recipe: Southern Style Cheese Grits

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Southern Style Cheese Grits

Southern Style Cheese Grits.

Southern Style Cheese Grits comes from a recipe card in my mother’s collection and is attributed to J. Ross. It’s tasty but very rich; feel free to cut back on the butter or cheese to your preference. The final step of baking is something I have not seen elsewhere and it is optional but makes for a nice presentation.

Ingredients:
1 c grits*
4 c water
2/3 stick butter
8 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
1 ½ t “Savory” (can sub a BBQ rub)**
1 t Kosher salt
Few drops of tabasco
2 eggs, well beaten

Cheese Grits Casserole

If you were serving at your canasta club, the extra baking step makes for a more formal presentation.

Method: add grits to water in a pan with deep sides. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens. This might take 5-15 minutes depending on the grits you are using. Remove from the heat and stir in butter, cheese and seasonings. Stir in eggs after temperature has reduced so they won’t curdle immediately. Serve immediately, or transfer to a greased pie plate and cook 1 hour at 250 degrees.

*I used Anson Mills Quick Grits which required the additional steps of skimming chaff off soaking liquid and soaking overnight.

**J.Ross’ recipe calls for “Savory”, not the herb but a spice mixture which was popular at the time. Ingredients include salt, sugar, paprika and cayenne so a typical BBQ rub would be a good substitute.

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Poppyseed hot dog bun hack

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Poppy Seed Hot Dog Buns

Hacked! Our poppyseed hot dog buns.

You want to make a Chicago-style hot dog in your non-Chicago kitchen but you lack the essential poppy seed bun. What to do? You could order S. Rosen buns from Vienna Beef at a somewhat elevated price, or you could try our entirely acceptable poppyseed hot dog bun hack. We borrowed it from this King Arthur Poppy Seed Bun recipe, which produces a delicious product that is more like a breadstick than a puffy compliant hot dog bun.

Start with a pack of grocery store hot dog buns. Potato buns are tempting, but store brand buns are so cheap and will get the job done. Separate an egg white from the yolk and mix with equal amount of water. Brush generously onto tops of buns (one egg white + water is enough for 16 buns, easily) then sprinkle on poppy seeds to your preference. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes to set the seeds and you’re done.

Poppy Seed Buns Ingredients

Ingredients for our poppyseed hot dog bun hack.

José Andres, in his Wirecutter hot dog critique, disparaged poppy seed buns because he thought the seeds belong in the dough, not on the crust. We emphatically disagree. The occasional crunch as you bite into a poppy seed is yet another layer of a complex experience, as is the tactile feel of the seeds on your hands as you are loading the dog into your pie hole. As Jeff Probst says on Survivor, “worth it!”

By the way, we baked our poppyseed hot dog buns using the unseparated layers of buns as they come out of the package. A bonus of this setup is that you will waste fewer poppy seeds because they can’t spill between the buns. But the buns will be too soft to eat when they come out of the oven and you need to let them cool off/dry out a bit before using. Or separate the buns before seeding and heating.

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Taste test: Seattle-style hot dogs

Posted on July 14, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers

Wirecutter did a cook-off and declared Seattle-style hot dogs the winner, so of course we had to do our own taste test. The dog they presented had a toasted potato bun spread on one side with cream cheese, a grilled and butterflied beef hot dog, caramelized onions, squirts of sriracha and spicy brown mustard, and a topping of sliced jalapeños. We had to improvise somewhat, using a supermarket roll with our poppyseed bun hack and a natural casing Kayem beef and pork frank because that’s what we had on hand, but I don’t think it had a major effect on our judging.

Seattle style hot dog

Here’s our rendition of the Seattle-style hot dog.

There’s a lot to like about this dog. The cream cheese adds substance and a background richness I’d like to try with other toppings. The jalapeños offer a vegetal freshness your nose will appreciate as you load it into your mouth. (The finished Seattle-style hot dog is bulky enough that you have to insert it end-forward like a torpedo going into its launcher.) Judge José Andres described the various ingredients as “diplomats” in the sense that they work well together, but the combo seemed a little… Seattle for us. We’ll stick with the street smarts of a New York dirty dog with a generous amount of onion sauce, or a Chicago-style dog when we want to kick up our heels a bit. (And note that the Chicago dog is topped with sport peppers to give those jalapeños a run for their money with a bonus kick of vinegar.)

Incredibly, the Chicago dog and New York dog were paired against each other in the first round of judging. That’s like seeing France and Spain paired up in the group stage of the World Cup. New York won but was knocked out in the next round by the Cincinnati dog, which is essentially Cincinnati Chili on a bun finished with a huge amount of grated cheese. (José Andres loved the cheese and is obviously swayed by muchness.)

You can watch the full video of the Wirecutter hot dog cook-off here.

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Recipe: Mamo’s Rich Chocolate Cake

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers

Mamo's Rich Chocolate Cake, served as a layer cake.Our grandmother (Mamo) made Rich Chocolate Cake for our birthdays and it was always a high point of the celebration. Her recipe (found among my mother’s recipe cards) differs from similar recipes by using chocolate squares instead of cocoa powder and 5 whole eggs to make it super moist. Our favorite part was actually the icing which was a thick hard shell that cracked when you bit into it; this first attempt was too soft and we’d use this recipe next time which includes precise temperature measurements. Makes one 9×13 sheet cake or equivalent.

Ingredients:
¾ c Crisco or neutral oil
2 ½ c white sugar
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
5 eggs, beaten
1 t baking soda dissolved in 1 T hot water
1 c buttermilk
2 c all purpose flour
1 t vanilla

Rich Chocolate Cake

Our 9×13 baking pan had gone missing, so we improvised with a couple of Pyrex storage containers.

Method: cream eggs and sugar together then add other ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined. Baked in a greased 9×13 cake pan at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. When cooled, transfer to a serving plate and add icing to your preference.

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Recipe: Amish Slaw 1

Posted on July 3, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers

Amish Slaw 1 (on a plate with some barbecue).“Sturdy” is an unusual descriptor for a cole slaw, but it fits for Amish Slaw 1. (Amish Slaw 2 has a vinegar base and will be posted shortly.) It’s the slaw that eats like a meal, thanks to the dense sweet-and-sour dressing that reminds us of our Amish Creamed Celery. (That recipe used béchamel as the binder, this uses eggs.) I expect that I will hear from William Woyles Weaver who will tell me this is Pennsylvania Dutch, not Amish, but the name and original recipe come from Grandma  2969 who says she snitched the formula from an Ohio salad bar which was perhaps Amish-run. Anyway, this is the sort of hearty fare that sets you up for a long day in the fields. Makes about 16 servings.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
3 T sugar
1 ½ T all-purpose flour
1 ¼ t Kosher salt
½ t ground mustard
2 T celery seeds
½ t ground black pepper
¼ c cider vinegar
¼ c water
1 T butter or olive oil
3 T whole milk or cream
8 c shredded cabbage
1 large carrot, grated
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
¼ c onion, finely chopped
Half a green bell pepper, finely chopped
¼ c minced parsley
cup minced parsley

Method: have cabbage and other veg ready in a large bowl. Combine eggs, sugar, flour and spices in a small saucepan* and beat until sugar is dissolved. Stir in vinegar, water, butter and milk and heat over a low flame, stirring constantly, till the sauce thickens enough to coat a spoon. Immediately pour over the veg and stir well to combine. Refrigerate Amish Slaw 1 at least 2 hours and preferably overnight before serving.

*Yes, you could make this in a double boiler but Grandma 2969 saves a dish by making the sauce right in the saucepan and it works well as long as you are very attentive.

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It’s true. Durkee’s Famous Sauce is discontinued.

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Burnt My Fingers
Durkee Discontinued Email

Durkee’s manufacturer, B&G Foods, sent this heartbreaking email to a customer. A check of the Durkee website shows food coloring and various spices and extracts, but no more Durkee’s Famous Sauce. Discontinued.

Reader Lin confirmed the dark news: Durkee’s Famous Sauce has been discontinued by its current owner, B&G Foods. The production line has been closed (Lin thinks as early as 2023) and the Durkee’s found online (at high prices) is leftover stock which will soon be gone forever.

Durkee's jars through the decades. Click for a larger version to read the ingredient lists.

Durkee’s jars through the decades. Click for a larger version to read the ingredient lists.

Fortunately, we have our Durkee’s Copycat Recipe which is about as close as we are ever going to get to the original. It’s a fine substitute in all the places you’re used to using Durkee’s, like after Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches, in deviled eggs and potato salad and so much more.

Google’s AI recognizes the above recipe as the best answer for Durkee’s seekers, which may be why this post (along with the taste test that helped us get there) is consistently the top performer on Burnt My Fingers with close to 2K monthly views.

Now, if only someone could come up with a substitute for the similarly lamented Lan Chi Garlic Sauce…

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