DEVELOPING NEW RECIPES

Eating habits of people have changed around the world. Students can have an idea of the extent of
this change by simply picking up cookery books of the last 20 years and see how food has developed
from the braised coq au vin to deconstructed chicken recipes. To be on the top of business or, at least
be seen as modern and updated, one must constantly develop new products, new processes, and
new ways of doing things.

Developing new recipes is a common feature in almost all entities in food business, especially among
branded food chains such as McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC. These food chains need to
constantly evolve their products to suit the market segment they are catering to. For example,
McDonald's standards and processes would be same around the world, but in India, they do not
serve beef burgers due to sensitive religious constraints. Instead, products suitable to the Indian
palate are developed by a team of recipe developers who work as a separate team and may consist
of chefs, food technologists, scientists, etc. and each one of them has a distinct job role. In hotels,
chefs are essentially responsible for developing new recipes that are profitable and creative and can
easily be made and dispensed by the kitchen staff. Recipe development comprises various stages,
which differs on the basis of the organization. Thus, recipe development in hotels and restaurants is
different from that in food chain segment

According to the pyramid in Fig. 18.1, level 1 depicts the basic level of a cook where he/she is honing
the basic cooking skills and scrupulously following recipes as specified to them. Level 2 is the
comprehension stage when the cook begins to understand how a particular dish has to be done.
He/She might still need to refer back to the recipes for clearing doubts. Level 3 is a stage of analysis;
understanding the role of various ingredients in cooking, the way it will adapt to a cooking principle
and what texture changes would it undergo. Level 4 can be described as the level where the cook can
develop new recipes and products that can create an impact on the market segment. There is no
particular time limit of each level as it solely depends on the kitchen professional as to how
committed and passionate one is to advance his/her career in food production operations. Chefs
create new recipes by different methods; the most common method is the trial and error method,
where based on culinary knowledge and skills, a chef combines flavours and textures to create a new
product that is first offered to eminent guests for food tasting.

The feedback is collated and the recipe is further refined and then launched into the new menus.
Many factors are built into the new recipe when it is ready to be listed on the new menu. The factors
include production planning, forecasting the number of portions to be sold, and also creating a menu
specification sheet.

Figure 18.2 clearly explains the methodology that will be undertaken to develop a product or a
recipe for a food chain. For this, the first step is to evaluate the objective of the organization as to
what it wants to develop, and whether it is a product for long term or short term. The next step is to
develop an action plan, may be in the form of Gantt charts, to be able to plan the things in a
sequential manner. This step would include the making of the product as it would be done in a basic
kitchen. Thereafter, the team of developers will figure out how this product can be made in bulk and
deconstructed and reconstructed at the food premise. In a fast-food operation, the staff does not
have much time at hand to cook the particular product from scratch as that would create
inconsistencies besides leading to a huge business loss. Thus, products have to be prepared in such a
way that it allows only reheating, frying, and dispensing from the counter. In order to achieve this,
the product is tested for the temperatures and time that it would be cooked for at the premise, to
make it look as original and close to the one that was crafted originally in the kitchen in the first step.

During the various steps, the judgement of physical factors such as environment, communication,
and marketing, have to be kept in mind for the success of the launched product. Have you ever
wondered how fast-food chains launch new products in the market and how much work and
planning goes behind the same to achieve the desired results? All the activities shown inside the
circle are guided by external factors such as time, resources such as people, equipment, raw
materials, and even the budgets.

The recipe is thus created in a monitored environment by food technologists and scientists to see
how it should be stored and dispensed to avoid microbial growth and contaminations. The biggest
challenge is to obtain a product, which despite having undergone immense processes, is
flavoursome, moist, and as fresh as it was when initially, at the time of delivery.

ORGANOLEPTIC AND SENSORY EVALUATION

Quality is the ultimate criterion of desirability of any food product. It can be evaluated by the
following two methods.

* Sensory/subjective/organoleptic method

* Objective methods

Organoleptic Method

It is a combination of the different senses sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. The organoleptic
senses are very perceptive in nature as everybody has their own perception of appearance, flavour,
and mouth feel. This reaction is highly conditioned by a variety of psychological and social factors
and the results of this tasting are different from one person to another. Therefore, it is important that
a tasting panel of at least three to four persons are formed for an average scoring. Let us now discuss
each organoleptic factors separately.

Sight

The appearance of the food to our eyes is most crucial, as it is an age-old saying that one eats with
the eyes first. It is this feature of our senses that judges the features of the food such as freshness,
colour appeall, dull, glossy, or juicy, etc. and can fairly indicate the texture of the food. Our mind is
attuned to a particular colour and taste for a particular food that we have been eating for a while
now. For example, we as Indians will not complain of a sweet fritter like apple fritters, but in our
mind pakora can never be served or eaten sweet. An Indian will dislike pakoras if they were served
sweet, but at the same time we have no issues with French apple fritters. Another aspect where the
eyes judge the food is colour. A brown-coloured food would mean it is crusty and crunchy and a black
surface would indicate burnt and over-flavoured food. The other attributes of the colour indicate the
ripeness of fruits and vegetables, the strength of tea or coffee, and the sight of cooked spices in a
curry.

Smell

The smell of the food is defined as flavour in cooking and the smell in a food can be of the following
three major types.
1. Odour

2. Taste

3. Aroma

Odour

Odour contributes immensely to the pleasure of eating. Volatile molecules stimulate olfactory organs
and they invigorate our perceptions of food being either sweet, bitter, astringent, spicy, sour, or
acidic. All these perceptions are associated with taste.

There are various food items which cannot be tasted, when they are raw. It is the flavours that can
indicate to us whether the milk has gotten sour or the raw meat has turned acidic and is spoilt.

Taste

Taste is registered on the taste buds in the tongue. The taste buds register the sensation of the food
being sweet, salty, acidic, bitter, spicy, or pungent. There is another taste known as the sixth taste,
which is an undefined taste and hence, does not fall into any category. It is often known as
kinaesthetic taste or umami, as known in Japanese. This taste actually cannot be described as it is a
mix of many tastes that coat the tongue but one can feel the sensation on the palate for a long time.
Chefs are researching continuously and trying to find the foods that are naturally rich in mami
flavours.

Aroma

Aroma is the smell of the food mixed with the taste buds. Flavour alone can be obtained by smelling,
but for judging the aroma of the dish, it is mandatory that the food is smelt and tasted at the same
time. Many a times the spices are categorized into being flavoursome and aromatic. In such cases,
the natural scent of the spices is associated with aroma. For example, green cardamom, cloves, etc.
can be eaten without being cooked, whereas flavouring spices, such as red chilli powder and
turmeric, can never be eaten raw.

Touch and sound

This feature of food can be defined in many ways such as texture, mouth feel, and even temperature
of the food. We all expect tea, coffee, or soup to be hot and if cold, we will not like to eat or drink the
same. However, it is iced tea, cold coffee, or cold soup, we will expect it to be chilled. Many
adjectives, such as crunchy, soft, brittle, and smooth, describe the texture of the food. The texture of
the food in a prepared dish is as much desirable as it is an indication that the correct method of
cooking has been applied to the dish. If roast chicken does not have a crispy skin or samosas are soft,
it will immediately indicate that the cooking methods applied are not correct.

Objective Evaluation
Apart from sensory evaluations discussed earlier, many food processing industries and, sometimes
hotels and restaurants, resort to the objective method of evaluation. In these tests, the quality of
food is measured along various parameters such as moisture, freshness, specific gravity, viscosity,
and microbial contaminations. Such tests are conducted with sophisticated equipment and gadgets
and are more reliable than the sensory evaluations, which differ from person to person. Nontheless,
objective testing has its own pros and cons. Table 18.1 highlights the advantages and disadvantages
of the same.
With this chapter, we conclude the third volume of food productions. The first volume titled Food
Production Operations taught you the basics of food production techniques and processes with
regard to ingredients, storage, cooking principles, and basics of Western, pastry, and Indian cooking
skills.

Organoleptic Tests
In large food industries, organoleptic tests are grouped into various categories such as the following.

Discrimination tests

These types of tests are performed to differentiate products from one another. There are three major
types of discrimination tests.

Paired comparison test

Several pairs of coded samples are given, which are different from each other. The testing is done to
arrive at some criteria. For example, if a supplier gives us four to five samples of Basmati rice, we will
do the testing by boiling all of them to arrive at the right texture and consistency. We will then
decide which one suits our operation better with respect to quality and price.

Duo-trio test

In this testing, the panel is presented with three samples, of which one is an original product, the
second is similar to the original, and the third is the sample product to be tested. The job of the
testing panel, in this case is to assess which of the two products resembles the original product the
most.

Triangle tests This method of testing employs three samples, two of which are identical while the
third is different. The testing panels have to pick up the odd with the degree of difference.

Hedonic test

Also known as consumer tests, hedonic tests are based on pleasant/unpleasant experiences of
consumers, or in short an honest expression of a consumer's personal feeling or liking.

These tests are generally carried out on more than 50 end-users. Hedonic testing gives an idea to a
producer about the general likes of the end-user. It is also limited to a particular market segment.
These tests can be conducted for a single product or for comparing two or three products, wherein
an evaluator has to judge which of the given samples is more acceptable and appealing to him/her. In
such cases, it is important that just a blind test is conducted or the samples are not labelled. If a
sample is known, then there is a danger of the evaluators' perceptions and prejudices creeping in
and rendering the whole exercise futile. Figure 18.6 shows the format of a hedonic rating test card.

Numerical scoring test

This testing is done by a trained panellist who follows the sensory characteristic corresponding to the
agreed quality descriptions and scores. Such a testing is followed when a standard product is known
and the evaluators judge the end product and give a numerical value as to how close it is to the
standard product.