I have two kids in middle and high school now, which means each of them is being taught the hallowed "Scientific Method" in their respective Chemistry and Life Science classes.
For those of you who have been out of school for a while, I quote here from the
Science Buddies website:
- The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.
- The steps of the scientific method are to:
- Ask a Question
- Do Background Research
- Construct a Hypothesis
- Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
- Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
- Communicate Your Results
- It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. A "fair test" occurs when you change only one factor (variable) and keep all other conditions the same.
Undeterred by the complete mayhem of
my experience last year at
KCRW's Good Food Pie Contest, I found myself once again clicking on that "enter your pie" link. But this year, things were different.
First of all, I did not enter out of some frivolous emotional impulse ("Hey, this'll be fun!"), or a deep-seated need for redemption or revenge. Nor was I "putting the band back together", as my fellow Fabulous Baker Girls were unavailable*. No, I entered strictly for the
free Emile Henry Ceramic Pie Dish (retail value: $50), which I totally needed. Clear, logical thinking. I was doing this for
profit.
I didn't stop there. I decided to apply my newfound discipline to the pie contest itself. I would use...
The Scientific Method of Pie!
Part 1: Ask a question
Here's my question: How can I win?
Part 2: Do some background research
My research covered several key areas.
What pie has been successful in the past?
Last year's winning pie was yucky**. Should I make a yucky pie? Although the data supports this approach, the sample size is too small to be valid. Plus, making a bad pie would be a violation of everything I stand for as a human being.
Why didn't I win last year?
I have no idea. My pie kicked ass. Everyone who ate it, loved it. However, with hindsight, I did notice that I was in the most crowded category (fruit pies) of the contest, so purely on a statistical basis (which of course, I should have used before), I
may have been handicapped going in.
How good is the competition?
Last year, many of the contestants were professional bakers. Science tells us that (most) people do not take up professions that they are bad at. Therefore, at least some of the competition also probably made pies that kicked ass***. However, many of the professional bakers also did not win. Therefore, there is no apparent correlation between being a professional and winning the contest, but there is strong evidence that competition is likely to be stiff.
I felt I now had enough information to move on.
Part 3: Construct a hypothesis
My theory:
Make a kick ass pie, but in a different category, and you could win.
I also made a note: It should not be necessary for me to become a professional baker in order for my theory to be true.
However, the Scientific Method also requires that a hypothesis needs to be testable***. I was a little concerned that the phrase "kick ass pie" might be too vague to test objectively, so I refined things a little further by proposing a sub-hypothesis:
A kick ass pie has an awesome crust and a super tasty filling.****
That seemed to add some much-needed specificity. My revised hypothesis was now ready:
Make a pie with an awesome crust and a super tasty filling, but in a different category, and you could win.
Part 4: Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment.
It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. A fair test occurs when you change only one variable, and keep all other conditions the same.
My first variable was the awesome crust, and I think I did a really fair test. I made 4 different crusts.
- My mom's tried and true all shortening crust, which uses boiling water and milk as the liquid.
- The crust I have in my cookbook, which is cold butter, a little shortening, and a combination of vodka and ice water as the liquid.
- The recipe from The Foster's Market Cookbook, which is 1/2 cold butter, 1/2 shortening, an egg, and a combination of ice water and vinegar as the liquid.
- An all butter crust with just ice water as the liquid.
I bagged them up, labelled them, and put 'em in the fridge overnight.
The next day, I was back in the lab. I rolled out two small circles of each kind, labelled the sheet so I could remember which was which, and baked up my samples.
I tried to take some photos. And then I gave up and just ate. I mean, tested.
The one with the egg
The all butter
Mom's all shortening
The Cheesy Pennies Mix
In order to avoid bias, I got a second opinion from my daughter. She liked the one with the egg. I thought the texture there was too hard and flat, so I dismissed her as a statistical outlier. I loved the all-butter, a result that was consistent with
tests conducted at an outside lab. I also felt the mostly-butter Cheesy Pennies crust was a very close second. Both were flaky, very tender, and flavorful without being overwhelming. My mom's crust was right up there, too, but was a little crumbly. When being served by a stranger, it could display breakage on the plate. I had no hard evidence that presentation was a factor, but I had to believe it would count for something.
Several pounds of butter and shortening later, I had two viable candidates for the awesome crust part of my hypothesis, and a bunch of extra dough for another time. This was working out very well.
Moving on to the second variable. The super tasty filling.
I had two possible custard mixtures, three possible add-ins, and two different kinds of pecans. I also needed to put my crust candidates into a real life filling situation. Doing the math****, I would clearly need at least a couple of muffin tins worth of mini pies to do a fair test.
The
custard options:
- My go-to recipe for the last several years, involving softened butter, brown sugar, whole eggs, vanilla and a mixture of light and dark corn syrup, mixed with an electric mixer.
- A recipe from Darn Good Sweet, a New Orleans cookbook that has never let me down, involving cane syrup, brown sugar, mostly egg yolks, cream, bourbon and vanilla, done by cooking a caramel on the stove and whisking that into the eggs like a more traditional custard.
The
add-in options:
- Candied pepper bacon bits
- Bittersweet chocolate chips
- Both
The
pecan options:
- Raw pecan bits and halves
- Roasted and salted pecans
This is why God invented Sharpies******. So I could write on my muffin tin.
This second, more in depth tasting phase was conducted right there in the lab setting. I should have taken notes, but I was too busy stuffing my face.
My testing of the sub hypothesis had come to an end. I
analyzed my data, and drew a conclusion: The following combination resulted in the most verifiably kick ass pie:
All butter crust
New Orleans-style custard
Bittersweet chocolate chips
Salted pecans
The fateful morning arrived, and with it, the most critical part of the experiment: Making my kick ass pie, and entering it into the contest.
As before, the array of entries was formidable.
As before, the pies were sliced and judged by a panel of "experts"*******.
And, as before, I did not win.
Part 5: Analyze the Data and Draw a Conclusion
The line of eager pie tasters snaked back to Wilshire Blvd. I looked down at my non-victorious, kick ass pie. Then at all the other gorgeous, luscious pies that also did not win a ribbon that day. I was in great company, it was a fabulous, sunny day, and lots of regular people were gobbling up my pie quite happily. The data was maddeningly inconclusive!
As I served the last sliver to a guy who closed his eyes in happiness when he took a bite, I tried a little of what was left on the plate, and wrinkled my nose. It was a tiny bit too salty, and with a margin of error this small, I at last had a scientific explanation I could cling to:
Too much NaCl.
Part 6: Communicate the Results
Done!
As a bonus, check out this slideshow of the fantastic array of pies this year. You can also see a recipe from the Best in Show winner
here, and see a version of her winning pie on
her website********. The full list of winners is
here, and
this inside story from one of the judges makes a very fun read.
