Food Testing Methods

You want a tastier or better-looking result with a recipe. Sometimes you have an idea of the taste you are looking for and sometimes you are just following your curiosity. In your kitchen, you can experiment with a wide range of ingredients and procedures to get to your goal.

Ingredients

• Substituting one ingredient for another makes a difference in the taste and the texture of the food. Butter, margarine and oil can each be used in cake and cookie recipes. To tell how each ingredient works with the recipe, make up three batches, each with a different fat. Have family or friends taste from each batch and comment on which they prefer. Keep notes. You can test a second time with the preferred choice from round one and a blend of fats, say half butter and half oil, to see how that changes the result. Applesauce may be substituted for oils in some recipes.
  You can test the same recipe with various flours (white, whole wheat, whole wheat pastry flour), sweeteners (white sugar, brown sugar, honey, Splenda), flavorings (almond, vanilla, lemon, orange, peppermint) or additions (nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruits). It's really helpful when you keep good notes so when you find what you really want to do again, you have the changes you made written out.
  Freshest ingredients will produce a better result.

Procedures

• Experiment with how the food looks and tastes by how you handle it. For example, browning meat on the stove top before adding liquid for a stew or a roast changes the taste. Drying mushrooms before sautéing them or cooking them in batches instead of all at once achieves different results.

  Test whether or not there is a difference in outcome when you vary the temperature of the ingredients. For example, does adding butter or eggs at room temperature rather refrigerator cool alter the food? Vary the cooking temperature for the entire recipe, or start at one temperature and change part way to a different temperature.
  Alter the order in which ingredients are added to a recipe or the method by which they are added for variations. Folding into stiffly beaten egg whites comes to mind.

Tools

• Change the quality of the food by the tools you use to cook it. For stews and chilis, a well-fitting pan lid makes a difference. Recipes cooked in ceramic or glass will not be exactly the same as if they are cooked in metal or silicone. The coating on the bake ware makes a difference as does its thickness, whether or not there are air pockets, the position in the oven and whether or not there is more than one thing in the oven.