Count Rumford, aka the American adventurer Benjamin Thompson, is famous in scientific circles for elucidating the nature of heat, and in food circles for his invention of the Rumford stove. But seldom do the twain meet, as I discovered when I entered into correspondence with bread historian William Rubel about an early story of Thompson, and his use of grave stones to construct bread ovens, with a hilarious or disastrous result, depending on your point of view. I tell the story of this in “How to Dunk a Doughnut”. And here it is, in the image above.