Eating Season

Over the summer Station 22 uncovered it roots in American Cuisine – partly due to the beloved holiday, 4^th of July and our love for classic American fare. Richard (owner/food enthusiast) and I (Chef, Brittany Ammon) decided, at that moment it was time to get back to eating like Americans. One of the first points of pride came when we decided to introduce the not-so traditional Foot Long Corndog! Hand made batter, with whole corn kernels, roasted jalapeños surrounding hot-link sausages. It was this take on a classic that really sparked something in people over the summer – we couldn’t make the corndogs fast enough. Sadly, due to the intensive care and precise measures that go into making these 12inchers, the S22 corndog was discontinued – until now! Our most recent seasonal menu now includes these massive mouthfuls. It is still a challenge to perfect our gnarly, knobby, kernel corndogs, but we’re not giving up. 

The problem areas of a corndog: 

The batter consists of the two tricky leavening agents in baking – Baking Soda and Baking Powder.

A lesson in Baking Soda - 

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of  carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes which call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat! – Meaning our corn dog batter can not be held for more than 30 minutes at a time. 

The other enemy against our famous foot longs -  Baking powder. 

Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already, cream of tartar, and starch (a drying agent). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. And double-acting baking powder rises in two stages but prolongs the leveling process.

Our recipe contains both baking powder and baking soda – the reason being that baking powder does most of the leavening and the baking soda neutralizes the acids in the recipe plus adding “softness” and some leavening. 

Unfortunately, due to the technical difficulties, our “dogs” are hard to tame. They can’t be frozen, held hot or cold – there really is only one way, to make them by hand every time. 

So next time you try our delectable hand-made foot long corn dogs, they’re more than fair food – they’re real American home-made fare.