How does America's Test Kitchen decide how to run taste tests?
May 31, 2018 12:41 PM Subscribe
America's Test Kitchen's taste tests are awesome, but have they ever explained how they decide to conduct their tests? For instance, in their most recent test of vanilla extract, they say that "vanilla experts" taste it in milk, and they also tasted it in pudding. Seems pretty straightforward. But in an older test, they tasted it in panna cotta. Why panna cotta? That's just one example—curious more generally about their choices, and particularly if Jack Bishop has ever discussed this topic in any detail.
ATK's customer support email (cooks@americastestkitchen.com) has gotten me weirder answers to weirder questions when I was a paid member. You should call/email them. You could probably tweet at Kenji López-Alt, who used to work for ATK, but now works for Serious Eats. He would likely have a ton of insight on the topic.
I've heard them explaining this before, but can't remember where; it might have been on a podcast interview with Dan Souza? For your Vanilla extract example, I've heard they do milk, panna cotta and cookies. They'll usually do a baseline test, and then the product put into up to two categories where one demonstrates the product as a 'primary flavor' component, and the other as a 'secondary flavor' component. IIRC, with vanilla in particular they suggest just using whatever for baking, and had a few higher end selections for more vanilla-forward applications. Especially with products that are more components, like spices, they'll do several extensive tests. The only issue is that for the TV show they edit it down dramatically from what they actually do.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:01 PM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've heard them explaining this before, but can't remember where; it might have been on a podcast interview with Dan Souza? For your Vanilla extract example, I've heard they do milk, panna cotta and cookies. They'll usually do a baseline test, and then the product put into up to two categories where one demonstrates the product as a 'primary flavor' component, and the other as a 'secondary flavor' component. IIRC, with vanilla in particular they suggest just using whatever for baking, and had a few higher end selections for more vanilla-forward applications. Especially with products that are more components, like spices, they'll do several extensive tests. The only issue is that for the TV show they edit it down dramatically from what they actually do.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:01 PM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
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Here's an interview with him about the recipes, though not specifically about their ingredient comparisons, though it is touched on briefly.
posted by ananci at 1:32 PM on May 31, 2018