Did you know that humans have on average 10,000 taste buds that are replaced every two weeks? Some people tend to be more sensitive to various tastes than other people. This may be due to the number of working taste buds
In order to really determine the quality of the taste of a pie crust I set-up a blind taste test for my family. The participants: my husband, my dad, and my daughter. Granted, this was not a large sample group; however, they have been on the side-lines on my journey to make a perfect pie crust and this was a great way to keep them interested. I decided to actually make pies and not just the crust because I felt it was wasteful to use the ingredients for the crust just to taste part of it and toss the rest. November happens to lend itself perfectly for pie crust sampling as there are typically multiple events where pie might be served. I wanted to avoid having three pies around my house, or else my next project might be: "How-to-loose-the=15-pounds-gained-from- learning-how-to-make-a-perfect-pie-crust!" So I jumped at the opportunity to sign-up to bring pies for the two potlucks I was invited to.
I made 3 pies, which I will identify as follows: Carla's Crust (the recipe from my mother-in-law), William-Sonoma's crust (William Sonoma's recipe), and Aida's crust (recipe from the Food Network's Aida Mollenkamp). These were all pumpkin pies so the filling was exactly the same for each. The only difference was the crust. After I flipped the crusts into the pie dishes I used a butter knife to trim off the excess crust. This is what we used for the blind tastes test. I rolled out each bit of scrap individually. I brushed them with a little butter and then sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the top. I placed them on parchment paper, which I labeled so I would know which crust was which. After they were nice a toasted I removed the pan from the oven, put the actual pies in the oven to bake and then I rallied my tasters. The tasters only knew the crusts as #1, #2, and #3.
Observations from working with the dough:
#1 rolled out a little dry this time. I think I should have added more water. Last time it was airier.
#2 This crust was very dense, but not dry to work with.
#3 This crust was very fluffy to work with. It was slightly sticky, but rolled out well.
Observations from the tasters about each crust:
#1 Carla's Crust: flakey, a slightly salty, melts in your mouth.
#2 William-Sonoma Crust: not flakey, but buttery and melts in your mouth, more of a crispy texture, sweet
#3 Aida's crust: flakey, buttery and slightly salty and sweet, crunchier, but not hard.
My husband quickly picked out his mother's crust from the three, which surprised me since I thought #1 and #3 tasted very similar. He reminded me that he'd been eating that crust his whole life and he has always been able to pick it out in a crowd.
Conclusions:
I really liked the texture of the dough for crust #3. I'd picked this recipe because it was a nice mix of the recipes for crust #1 and #2. It called for butter and crisco! It had less sugar than the William-Sonoma recipe, but it did not contain baking powder like my mother-in-law's recipe. However, I preferred the saltier favor of Carla's crust, especially with a sweet filling. The flavor of crust #3 was a nice balance between #1 and #2. I think crust #2 or #3 would be nice with a cream or custard type of pie. The final task I want to tackle is creating a lattice top pie crust. I think I will use crust #1 for this since it seemed to be the sturdier between crusts #1 and #3.
References:
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/taste_buds.html
1.
In order to really determine the quality of the taste of a pie crust I set-up a blind taste test for my family. The participants: my husband, my dad, and my daughter. Granted, this was not a large sample group; however, they have been on the side-lines on my journey to make a perfect pie crust and this was a great way to keep them interested. I decided to actually make pies and not just the crust because I felt it was wasteful to use the ingredients for the crust just to taste part of it and toss the rest. November happens to lend itself perfectly for pie crust sampling as there are typically multiple events where pie might be served. I wanted to avoid having three pies around my house, or else my next project might be: "How-to-loose-the=15-pounds-gained-from- learning-how-to-make-a-perfect-pie-crust!" So I jumped at the opportunity to sign-up to bring pies for the two potlucks I was invited to.
I made 3 pies, which I will identify as follows: Carla's Crust (the recipe from my mother-in-law), William-Sonoma's crust (William Sonoma's recipe), and Aida's crust (recipe from the Food Network's Aida Mollenkamp). These were all pumpkin pies so the filling was exactly the same for each. The only difference was the crust. After I flipped the crusts into the pie dishes I used a butter knife to trim off the excess crust. This is what we used for the blind tastes test. I rolled out each bit of scrap individually. I brushed them with a little butter and then sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the top. I placed them on parchment paper, which I labeled so I would know which crust was which. After they were nice a toasted I removed the pan from the oven, put the actual pies in the oven to bake and then I rallied my tasters. The tasters only knew the crusts as #1, #2, and #3.
Observations from working with the dough:
#1 rolled out a little dry this time. I think I should have added more water. Last time it was airier.
#2 This crust was very dense, but not dry to work with.
#3 This crust was very fluffy to work with. It was slightly sticky, but rolled out well.
Observations from the tasters about each crust:
#1 Carla's Crust: flakey, a slightly salty, melts in your mouth.
#2 William-Sonoma Crust: not flakey, but buttery and melts in your mouth, more of a crispy texture, sweet
#3 Aida's crust: flakey, buttery and slightly salty and sweet, crunchier, but not hard.
My husband quickly picked out his mother's crust from the three, which surprised me since I thought #1 and #3 tasted very similar. He reminded me that he'd been eating that crust his whole life and he has always been able to pick it out in a crowd.
Conclusions:
I really liked the texture of the dough for crust #3. I'd picked this recipe because it was a nice mix of the recipes for crust #1 and #2. It called for butter and crisco! It had less sugar than the William-Sonoma recipe, but it did not contain baking powder like my mother-in-law's recipe. However, I preferred the saltier favor of Carla's crust, especially with a sweet filling. The flavor of crust #3 was a nice balance between #1 and #2. I think crust #2 or #3 would be nice with a cream or custard type of pie. The final task I want to tackle is creating a lattice top pie crust. I think I will use crust #1 for this since it seemed to be the sturdier between crusts #1 and #3.
References:
http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/taste_buds.html