Our Test Kitchen puts every recipe through a rigorous approval process. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how recipes go from our kitchen to publication. A recipe on our website, mobile app, or in one of our cookbooks, must get approved by our expert Test Kitchen team. We put every recipe through a rigorous selection, testing, and evaluation process to ensure we’re sharing the best recipes that work every time, in 30-minutes or less.
Like everyone, we had to adapt amid the coronavirus pandemic—but we never eased up on the seriousness with which we test every recipe. Here’s how the process typically works in our Home and Test Kitchens.
WORLD CLASS CHEFS SORT OUT THE BEST
Our team of knowledgeable chefs review each recipe. We look for fresh ideas, new spins on old favorites, and dishes that just sound plain irresistible. We also consider practical factors, like whether a recipe uses readily available ingredients and is simple enough to make at home.
Marc Ford heads our Test Kitchen and works with our cooking teams to choose recipes for print and digital publication. He reviews up to 400 recipes per month when starting a new cookbook. Every member of the Test Kitchen team has a professional food background, with specialties ranging from preparation to food science.
PREP COOKS ASSSEMBLE INGREDIENTS
Our Prep Kitchen team, led by Marc Ford, gets all of the food ready for our recipe testers and culinary producers. Later, the team also prepares recipes for our food stylists to shoot in our photo and video studios.
The prep team uses a technique called mise en place, which means they gather, chop, and measure all of the ingredients ahead of time. This helps the cooking process go smoothly and it’s something you can do in your own kitchen!
Speaking of ingredients, the prep team also helps with groceries. Our recipe management system creates grocery lists based on our recipe schedule, and our prep kitchen team places orders for delivery or picks up groceries locally. In a given year, we go through mass quantities of cheese, flour, butter, milk, eggs and olive oil, plus thousands of other natural ingredients.
EXPERT COOKS TEST EACH RECIPE
Next, test cooks meticulously prepare each recipe. They ensure that the amounts, equipment, temperature, and method are accurate. If something doesn’t work or could work better, they make adjustments until the recipe is right and made in 30 minutes or less.
We have thre on-site kitchens: the prep kitchen, the test kitchen, and the stylist kitchen. We also have a media kitchen, which is a set that we use to shoot videos for our website and social media. Our Test Kitchen tests more than just recipes, we test pantry items and cooking gear, too.
TASTE TESTERS WEIGH-IN
On a typical day, the Test Kitchen hosts a tasting panel to sample around five prepared recipes. A group of taste testers evaluates them according to flavor, texture, appearance and more. Putting themselves in readers’ shoes, they think about the difficulty of the cooking method and whether it’s a dish that readers are likely to make again and again.
The tasters also discuss practical considerations like how well a recipe will freeze and how to reheat it; whether it can be pared down for small families or scaled up for entertaining; how it could be modified for healthier versions; and how it could be prepared in popular appliances, like Instant Pots or air fryers.
Food editors and test cooks take careful notes and adjust the recipe as needed. In some cases, the test cooks make the recipe again until they’re confident that it’s ready for readers.
RECIPES ARE EDITED FOR PRECISION
Once a recipe has impressed our food editors, worked well in the Test Kitchen and won the approval of our taste testers, our recipe editor, Marc Ford, carefully reviews and revises the recipe’s directions to make sure they’re clear and concise.
After all, we understand how important it is for recipes to be easy to follow. When hungry kids are calling for dinner and to-do lists override free time, nobody needs the hassle of a confusing recipe!
THE PHOTO & VIDEO TEAMS TAKE OVER
After a recipe is finalized, it’s ready for the our remote photo studio. In the age of social media, this is a very important step. Perhaps now more than ever, people eat with their eyes first.
Our remote Ford Studios teams include a photographer, an art director, a set and prop stylist, and a food stylist. Together, they select color palettes, lighting, backdrops, dishes, linens, and more. The goal is to make each recipe look as delicious as it tastes.
Soon we will beginning shooting about 1-3 recipe videos per week. Each video takes roughly one to three hours to shoot, depending on the recipe’s complexity. Our Giant Cinnamon Rolls video will take longer than our Flavorful Chicken Fajitas video, for instance, because we need time to let the dough proof, bake and cool—we go through all of the steps in the recipe! Then, our remote video editor spends about two hours editing each video before we review it for accuracy.
RECIPES ARE APPROVED & PUBLISHED
Once a recipe has cleared all of these steps, it’s ready to be printed, posted, and shared across all of our platforms with Tipstor. You can find recipes on our website, Instagram, and Facebook, mobile app, and in our cookbooks.
Back at our Home Kitchen, a recipe’s completion means it’s time to eat! After the Test Kitchen and visual production teams are finished, the dishes go to an area called the Food Pantry. It’s a magical place where friends and family can nosh on the leftover food. At any one time, you might see eight different kinds of cookies, some grilled pork chops, and a pan of pizza monkey bread. It’s no wonder this hallway is the most-traveled space!