The Whopping Number Of Times Ina Garten Tests Her Recipes

One of the many reasons Ina Garten is so beloved by celebrities, foodies, and home chefs alike is her easy-to-follow recipes. Even people without a lot of cooking and baking experience find her recipes foolproof, with results that belie one's lack of culinary skills. The key reason for this consistent quality in Garten's recipes is her dedication to testing them over and over and over again. One of the most eye-opening facts about Garten is that she and her team test each recipe up to 25 times before it is approved for publication.

As Garten said in an interview with CBS News, she tests recipes "sometimes 10 times, sometimes 25 times" to make sure they are just right. She also says that she is "really not a confident cook," and that she even follows her own recipes to the letter. There is a huge benefit to her testing method, as it results in recipes that anyone can follow and understand, even other home cooks who aren't confident.

Garten, who has a degree in economics and analyzed nuclear energy policy at the White House at the age of 26, taught herself how to cook using Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Garten never went to culinary school, instead perfecting her skills hosting dinner parties with her husband, Jeffrey Garten. Her passion and dedication to the craft have resulted in the development of 13 cookbooks containing more than 1,200 recipes.

Many things can affect the outcome of a recipe, from inconsistent oven temperatures or the quality of ingredients to environmental conditions like altitude, humidity levels, and temperature. When creating an original recipe, the recipe developer wants to make sure it will work consistently for a large number of people in a wide range of environments, so it must be tested many times. Testing recipes under different circumstances or just to make sure they get consistent results each time can help developers verify that the methods and measurements are correct.

It also helps developers uncover errors or discover potential problems so that they can offer recipe users helpful tips. Developers test recipes over and over, comparing results and fine-tuning details, so that anyone who later uses the recipe has a better chance of getting quality results. When a recipe isn't properly tested, it can result in a dish or dessert that doesn't taste that good, doesn't work consistently, or even causes major health and safety risks.

As Garten explained to CBS, "I'm really a nervous cook. And I'm sure every recipe's gonna turn out wrong. So I'm incredibly precise." Rather than developing complex recipes, she perfects simple meals that the average person can enjoy at home. This striving for simple consistency is what makes her recipes such a joy to use, and what drives both seasoned chefs and those new to cooking and baking to use them.