Recipe Testing: Who helps you?

[Anna N]

First, Dorie, let me say that this has been truly a "conversation" as your answers have been thoughtful and thorough and so on behalf of all us at eG, I thank you for that.

Can you discuss a little about how your recipes are tested and by whom? Are they tested in a variety of home kitchens with a variety of ovens, i.e., gas, electric, convection?

How many times is each recipe tested?

Do you welcome input from your testers to "tweak" recipes?

Do you ever ask baking novices to test a recipe or are your testers experienced bakers?

Paula Wolfert asked selected members of eGullet to test recipes for her last book. Would you consider doing the same? If not can you explain why. (We will understand that you may already have a stable of trusted and reliable testers.)

Many thanks for your participation.

[Dorie Greenspan]

Thank you for your kind comments, Anna. I've loved doing this conversation, I just wish I had more time for it. I'm on book tour, so the time that I'm free and have an internet connection available is limited -- aaarrrgh.

I test recipes in lots of different ways. Sometimes I have someone working with me in my kitchen, but most often I send recipes to other people to test them once I have worked on them, gotten them to where I want them to be and written the recipe. I always send out fully written recipes because I want both the formula and the directions to be tested.

The only oven that is not used for testing is a convection oven. While two of my ovens have convection capability, I never use it for baking because I assume that most home bakers don't have convection ovens. Also, since convection ovens bake so differently from still ovens, I think I'd have to give double directions if I used both kinds of ovens.

That said, I think ovens are the trickiest part of writing and testing recipes. Not the differences between gas and electric, but the differences between one oven and another. Ovens, even ones that are well calibrated so that they heat to 350 when you set them to 350, cycle up and down. How often they cycle and how low the temperature goes before the heat gets cranked up again, can affect baking times and in turn textures. This is why I always give visual clues to doneness along with baking times. It's really so hard and so out of an author's control.

To answer your other questions -- yes, I welcome suggestions of "tweaks" from testers. I listen to everything. I think I'd have to be foolish not to.

I often have novices testing my recipes and I never have professionals -- the recipes I develop are for home bakers, so I want home bakers to be the testers.

I'm a great fan of Paula Wolfert's work and now, knowing that she has used egulleters to test recipes, I admire her even more. What a great idea! Although judging from the pictures that have been posted on the Pastry & Baking forum, egullet bakers might be way too professional to be testers!

[Anna N]

Thank you, Dorie for such a detailed and valuable answer.

I have to agree with you on ovens. When my daughter's turkey cooked way faster than it should have, we did some temperature testing on her oven and the cycling was quite an eye-opener. If set at 350F it would heat to as high as 390F before cycling down and then it might cycle down as low as 320F! And it's not an old oven by any means. It rarely "rested" at the set temperature of 350F.

There are most certainly some truly professional bakers who are members of eGullet and some home bakers who could hold their own in a professional setting. I, too, am amazed at their baking and cooking skills. I am sure Paula chose with care when she asked members to help test her recipes.

Thank you again for your time and willingness to participate in this conversation.