What goes into developing and testing a recipe? Just how complicated is it? I suppose it is a lot like a science experiment.
I might have a few ingredients in my kitchen just staring at me, wanting me to put them together. I have many years of cooking experience that helps me understand what flavors and foods combine well, so I make an educated guess. That's right. I form a hypothesis that those flavors and cooking techniques will form a tasty dish. Next comes the testing of that hypothesis. I prepare the food, making sure to note all of my measurements, temperatures, and ingredients.
And then, to conclude the experiment, I feed the dish to my family. Often just my husband and children are forced to taste the experiments, along with me. But many times, my parents, siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews and close friends have all been forced to try my experimental foods too. I experiment on all of my volunteer 'guinea pigs', and my less-voluntary ones as well. Want to come and join us for Yom Tov (major holidays)? You will be forced to try all of my new recipes.
If everyone is lucky, that hypothesis was good and the recipe is approved. Sometimes, it is a big fail never to be made again (there was that one marmalade dessert-yuck). And often, the experiment needs to be repeated over and over again, making slight adjustments until it is just right. For example, I made a certain carrot kugel recipe 7 times before getting it just perfect (and then promptly lost the paper I wrote the recipe on. Now I wrote all recipes in a notebook instead of paper scraps.) Once the recipe is tweaked enough, my experiment is concluded and I can move on to the next one.
This past week, I had a delicious muffin recipe experiment fail. The flavor was good, yet the texture needed work. But I am not willing to give up on it. I will keep adjusting until it is just right, with the next trial as soon as my current batch of bananas becomes overripe. But in the meantime, I will enjoy the already perfected recipe for the muffins in the photo. That recipe is in my soon-to-be-released cookbook. Yum!
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