TASTE TESTS A panel of four people compare dozens of different packaged foods to determine which brands taste best
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NEW!!!
Fig
Newtons!
NEW!!!
Good and Fruities vs Mike and Ikes!
Eleven
more root beers tested
Cream
Cheese Frosting
Margarine
Tests
Vanilla
Frosting
King
Arthur scone mixes
Eight
turkey gravies compared
5
beef gravies compared
Oreo
Cookie Shakes
Mozzarella
cheeses compared
Nine
Types of Whole Wheat Spaghetti (and a couple of others) compared
Chedder
cheese comparison
Huge
Hot Dog Test
Pound
cake comparison
Eleven
clam chowders compared
French
Vanilla Cool Whip topping
Four
ready-to-bake pie shells compared
Betty
Crocker butter Cream frosting
Domino's
Steak Fanatic pizza IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!
Stonestone's
cake batter ice cream
The
'Better Tasting' Doritos
Five
'whole grain' flours compared for bread making
Three
egg substitutes compared
Baked
versus regular Doritos
Frozen
Ravioli test
Ham
test
Battered
Fish Fillets!
A
new root beer tested
Chicken
noodle soups!
Costco
vs Sam's Club apple pies
Lays
stackable potato chips
Walnut
Acres Blueberry juice
4
ketchups tasted
Grape
Juice
Grape
Jams and Jellies
Blueberry
Preserves
Huge
root beer test
Junior
mints vs York mini-mints
Maraschino
Cherries!
Coconut-pecan
frostings!
Frozen
lasagnas (with photos)
Ding
Dongs versus Ho Hos
Rose's
versus Jones' Canadian Bacon
Nathan
versus Oscar Meyer hot dogs
Vanilla
Pudding
Florida
Crystals Organic Sugar
The
new and improved Baby Ruth tested
Nine
vanilla creme-filled cookies compared
Six
non-dairy milks compared
Betty
Crocker versus Duncan Hines Peanut Butter cookie mixes
Boston
Brand Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake
Nestle
versus Swiss Miss Fat Free Hot Chocolate
Southern
Fried Chicken
Quizno's
meatball sub sandwiches
Chocolate
Pudding
Milk
Chocolate Frosting
Meatball
Subs
Root
Beer
Magic
Shell Syrups
Eleven
clam chowders compared
The
best frozen meatballs
Spice
cake mix comparison
The
best pitted dates
Pizzas
White
chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies
Animal
cookies
Frosted
Animal Cookies
Oatmeal
Krispy Kreams Donuts
Jelly Beans
Tater Tots
Nutty
Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Restaraunt
Apple Pies
Peanut Butter
Brownie mixes
Cheese
puffs
Frozen pizzas
Tomato soup
Carmel corn
Ice cream sandwiches
Hot fudge topping
Dry cereal
Potato chips
Barbeque chips
Peppermints
Frozen
blueberries
The
Best Bacon Cheeseburger in the World!
Raisins
Canned Baked Beans
Vanilla ice cream
Sausages
Cinnamon
Salt
Vanilla frosting
Cool
whip toppings
Peanut brittle
Orange Juice
Dry beans
The best
Store-bought cookie ever
Diet,
caffiene-free colas
Vanilla extract
Strawberry preserves
Best Pepperage
Farms cookie
The
Best Steak!
Eggs
Kellog's treats
Apple juice
Butter mints
Ginger snaps
Vanilla wafers
Summer sausage
Mozzarella
Parmesana
Regiana cheese
Blueberry
Muffin Mixes
Breakfast
sausages
Butter toffee nuts
Shortbread cookies
NEW!!! Fig Newtons!
The taste-test team tackled 14 different Fig Newtons in the hopes of discovering which was the best. They are grouped according to type.
Regular Fig Bars
From left to right: Nabisco, Stator Bros., Walmart, Healthy Valley Fig Cobbler.
Nabisco Original Fig Newtons: very dry with a weak fig flavor.
Stator Bros.: Moister, but still too dry. They also had a faint aromatic note of strawberries.
Walmart: (house brand) the moistest with the strongest, purest fig taste. Best in this group.
Healthy Valley Fig Cobbler: Moist, grainy with a hint of oatmeal.
Whole
Grain/Whole Wheat
Left
to right: Nabisco Whole Grain Newtons, Eating Right Whole Wheat,
Eating
Right Whole Grain, Barbara's Whole Wheat
Nabisco Whole Grain: Very gritty with a weak fig flavor.
Eating Right (Von's House Brand) Whole Wheat: Tough, bland.
Eating Right Whole Grain: Not too dry and the fig flavor was okay but overall this isn't a great cookie. Best in this group.
Barbara's Whole Wheat: The moistest but they had a strong molasses flavor that developed into a sour aftertaste.
Low Fat
Newman's
Own Fig Newman on the left, Barbara's Low Fat on the right
Newman's Own Low Fat Fig Newmans (Not Newton): Moist, but it had an odd non-fig note that was a put off. Best in this group.
Barbara's Low Fat: Too moist, almost soggy, and it tasted overly sweet with a strong apple flavor.
Fat
Free
Nabisco
Fat Free left, Eating Right Fat Free right
Nabisco Fat Free: Good flavor but very dry. Best in this Group.
Eating Right Fat Free: Hard, tough, harsh after taste.
Wheat
Free
Newman
left, Barbara's right
Newman's Own Wheat Free and Dairy Free: A little dry with an odd chemical note.
Eating Right Wheat Free: Doughy, weak fig flavor. Best in this group.
Conclusions:
Comparing the winners from each group showed that the plain Walmart house brand was the over-all winner. Everyone agreed that all of the Fig Newtons left much to be desired. It seems that Fig Newtons taste best as a memory than in reality.
A
LATE ARRIVAL!!!
The day after the taste teste I happened to visit a new Super Target store. There I discovered a 15th Fig Newton brand and promptly bought some to add to the comparison. I'm happy to report that the Market Pantry brand of Fig Newton (the Target house brand) is far and away superior than all of the other varieties. It's lusciously moist without being soggy and has a clean, pure, strong fig flavor that leaves you with a great aftertaste. This is the Fig Newton of sweet youthful memories. The other tasters agree. Our collective advice: buy some Market Pantry Fig Newtons, eat them, smile, Ahhh.... life is good.
One note about this brand is that the cookies are slightly smaller than the average. At first this is a bit of a put-off but turns out to make them perfectly bite-sized.
One way to improve Fig Newtons, except for the Market Pantry variety, is to cut the bottoms off two of them...
...and gently mush the tops together to create a double-filled Newton:
The result is very moist with a strong fig flavor.
A technique to perk up dry Newtons is to place them in a gentle humidifier, the type used to replump raisins, for several days to rehydrate the cake-like covering.
NEW!!! Good and Fruities vs Mike and Ikes!
Good and Fruities were one of the great memories of my youth: sweet, bright, and spritely flavored fruit chews that flirted with but never crossed the line into sweet-tart territory. Sadly, they disappeared from wherever I lived and I had to get by without them. Then to my delight they recently reappeared in Target stores. I'm happy to report that they are every bit as good as I remember.
In their absence I had to get along with the widely available Mike and Ike candies. With the return of Good and Fruities I felt obligated to post a comparison of these candies.
Mike and Ikes are a thin, watery pastel color and have a flavor that's mostly sweet with only a hint of citrusy fruitiness. They are larger than Good and Fruities and very tough to chew.
Good and Fruities are more brightly colored and have a much brighter, livelier, more citrusy flavor. It's almost impossible to eat them without feeling a smile tickle the corners of your mouth. The individual candies are much more tender and succulent than Mike and Ikes.
The tasters agreed that Good and Fruities were clearly superior to Mike and Ikes.
Eleven
more root beers tested!
This is the fourth root beer test posted on this page. For your convenience I've copied and pasted the three previous ones immadiately below it.
Black Jack's: Sharp, acidic flavor.
Jacksonhole: Very strong cinnamon taste overpowered any root beer flavor.
Hanks: Watery, reminded the tasters of cream soda.
Fitz's: Too sweet. Several testers stated that it tasted like it was trying too hard to be root beer.
Sparky's: Minty with a strong chemical aftertaste.
Waialua: Tasted of bad maple syrup. Vile. The worst of this group.
Triple XXX: Sharply flavored with hints of maple and vanilla.
Faygo: Very strange. Sharp, but with no identifyable flavor.
Empire: Sharply spicy. It doesn't taste like root beer but three of the testers stated it was interesting in its own right and wouldn't mind drinking it again..
Stephan's: Extremely dark. Not bad, but cream soda notes challanged the root beer flavors.
Desert Sage Root Beer: Ghastly. This one had such a sickenly strong herbal taste that it sent two of the testers running for water to wash the taste away.
Root
Beer Test #1
After comparing A&W, Barq's, Shasta, A+ (Albertson's), Stewart's, Henry Weinhard's and IBC brand root beer, the clear preference of the taste testers was IBC. Most of the family-name brands or designer brands used spices and flavorings to give their sodas a unique, although not root beer-like, flavor. I can only assume that they succeed because some people prefer the prestige of unique to simple quality.
Root Beer test #2
On January 20, I held a taste testing of 16 of the more exotic root beers (Please see further down this page for a taste test of common root beers.) and one Sarsaparilla drink that was advertised as being the grandfather of all root beers. Here are the results:
Sioux City Sarsaparilla: strong root beer taste but it left a sharp aftertaste. Two of the four testers rated this as the best.
Sioux City Root Beer: I thought it tasted the same as above but one tester thought it had a noticably molasses flavor.
Root 66: had a strong cream soda aftertaste.
Boylan: very herby.
Frostie: very strong cinnamon note. Very much different than all the others. Interesting.
Dad's: sweet, herby, and rich, but oddly watery.
Olde Philadelphia: very smooth and mild, my favorite.
Tommyknocker: very spicy and woody.
Rat Bastard: very sweet with a caffiene edge. (has caffiene added)
Abita: foamy. Odd, salty flavor.
Henry Weinhard's: Fine foam. Sweet, a little harsh, oddly watery. Strong cream soda flavor
Virgil's: Biggest head but it had a sugary, medicinal taste.
Bedford's: cough medicine.
Mason's: woody and harsh.
Americana: dry tasting.
Hires: good clean root beer taste. One judge rated this as the best.
Sprecher: vile, alcohalic note.
So,
the winners were Sioux City Sarsaparilla, Olde Philadelphia,
and Hires. Please note that all of these were bottled.
Plastic or canned beverages may have a significantly different taste.
All of these were purchased from Galco's Old World Marget in Highland
Park, southern California.
Root Beer Test #3
Mr. Gregg Baker sent me an email about his favorite root beer: Thomas Kemper. I got some and all but one taster voted it the best of all 35 varieties tried in the four tastes tests. (That one dissenting vote rated Henry Weinhard's cream soda flavor slightly better.)
Thomas Kemper is everything a root beer should be: rich, full-bodied, with a perfect balance between sweetness and root beer kick. It's satisfyingly hearty with a very fine bubble that creates a creamy head. You simply can't do better. (Thanks for the suggestion, Gregg! I owe you.)
Cream
Cheese Frosting
Cream Cheese frosting is one of the great flavors of all time. The question is: "Who makes the best tasting frosting?" To answer this I purchased all the varieties I could find and compared them. Here are the results:
Brand.........color....texture.....aroma...............................taste
Pillsbury...,,,,biege....average..chemical edge....gritty, sharp cream cheese aftertaste
Stator Bros..white.....firmest..strongest, sweetest...smoothest texture, richest flavor
Duncan
Hines
Whipped...,,white........firm........no
aroma....weak
cream cheese taste, harsh aftertaste
Duncan
Hines
Homestyle
. white.......soft.....chemical
edge..............unpleasant
musky flavor
Betty
Crocker...,,,white......softest.....no
aroma.................sharp
chemical aftertaste
For
me the winner was Stator Bros. However, none of these was really
very good. For a easy to make and vastly tastier frosting simply whip
together 1 cup (2 sticks) of room temperature butter, 4-ounces of
room temperature cream cheese and half a box of powdered sugar. This
makes a frosting that's smoother and far richer than any of the
brands tested. If you want the frosting to have a lighter texture,
add 1 to 3 tablespoons of water to it one at a time, whipping
thoroughly after each addition.
Margarine Tests
For
two decades my family's favorite margarine was Fleischmann's
Original. Then in November, 2007 they started whipping it to sell
less product at the same price. We collectively decided it was time
for a taste test to find the best-tasting margarine.
We found 13 different types and compared them for color, texture and taste.
Color
comparison
From
left to right: top row
Gold
N Soft, Brummel and Brown, Canola Harvest,
Land
O Lakes, Smart Balance, Promise, Country Crock
bottom row
Move Over
Butter, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Blue Bonnet,
real butter,
Fleischmann's Original, Imperial, Nucoa
Spread on bread, all but Gold N Soft looked pretty close to butter. Gold N Soft was noticeably yellower but not objectionable.
Comparison Chart
Name________________Price__Weight_Price per ounce_Texture_______Flavor________
Gold N Soft.................$1.12....16 oz........$.07.........../ soft.......rich, salty, edgy
Brummel and Brown......$1.72....15 oz........$.11...........very soft......salty, sharp
Canola Harvest............$1.14....16 oz........$.07.........greasy, soft..strong salty burn
Gold N Soft.................$1.12....16
oz........$.07........medium
soft....rich, salty, edgy
Land O Lakes............$1.37....16 oz.......$.09.............firm.........rich and mellow
Smart Balance.............$1.76....16 oz........$.11...............firm..........slightly salty
Promise Regular...........$1.54.....15 oz.......$.10...............soft.........weak flavor
Country Crock Churn....$1.22.....16 oz.......$.088...........very soft.....salty, weak
Move Over Butter........$0.88.....16 oz........$.06...........soft, foamy.. very salty, harsh
I
Can't Believe It's
Not
Butter..................$1.72.....15
oz.......$.118...............firm..........slightly
salty
Blue Bonnet...............$0.62.....16 oz.......$.048...........medium soft........bland
Fleischmann's Original...$1.74.....11.8 oz.....$.158.........whipped, soft..salty, little edgy
Imperial.....................$1.49......15 oz.......$.138..........medium soft..........mild
Nucoa.......................$1.79......16 oz.......$.118.....very firm, like Crisco....mild
Repeated
side-by-side taste comparisons identified Land O Lakes as the best
tasting variety with Smart Balance a close second. Fleischmann's,
Imperial and Blue Bonnet tied for third. These last three were better
than the rest not because they tasted good but rather because they
didn't have an objectionable saltiness or texture.
In comparison to real butter, Land O Lakes and Smart Balance had a slightly stronger buttery flavor with a very slight edginess to them.
Whipped or foamed margarines like Fleischmenn's have another downside. Because they contain so much air, measuring them by volume for cooking doesn't always work very well. You may start with half a cup but end up with only a third of a cup after the margarine melts.
Vanilla
Frosting
Because Pillsbury discontinued its outstanding French Vanilla frosting in 2007, I decided it was time to retest the three main brands to see which of them was the best.
Betty Crocker's was very thin, almost liquid and tended to droop off the sides of cakes. It was excessively sweet. Pillsbury's was slightly thicker and not quite as sweet. Both of these frostings had a fine grittiness. Duncan Hines was the smoothest and although it was still easy to spread, the firmest texture. It also had the best flavor.
While Duncan Hines was the clear winner, it still doesn't come close the matching the depth of flavor of Pillsbury's French Vanilla frosting.
The Duncan Hines can be improved by adding one drop of yellow liquid food coloring, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of imitation butter flavor and 1 teaspoon of real vanilla extract. This still isn't as good as Pillsbury's French Vanilla but it's clearly better than the others.
King Arthur Scone Mixes
I found the King Arthur raisin scone (upper left) and apple cinnamon scones (upper right) not overly sweet and in general good. However, I noticed a slight baking soda taste and couldn't taste the raisins or apple bits at all.
Eight turkey gravies compared!
One of my family's favorite meals is a large round loaf of warm, fresh bread torn into chunks and dipped in hot turkey gravy. Though simple, it has a rustic heartiness that's the epitome of comfort food. Essential to the success of this meal is using the best turkey gravy. Here's the results of a taste test we used to find our preference:
Campbell's was a little salty but not bad. We rated this as the second best-tasting gravy.
Franco American had an odd off flavor and a hint of herbiness that detracted from the turkey flavor.
Heinz had a very unpleasant sharp edge to it.
Boston Market was very sharp and herby.
Albertson's was rated the best overall with a pure rich turkey flavor.
Lawry's (mix) was extremely sharp and sour.
Knorr (mix) was very sharp and oniony.
McCorrmick (mix) vile! The worst tasting of all eight.
5 beef gravies compared
While developing a recipe to copy Domino's Steak Fanatic Pizza, which uses beef gravy instead of tomato sauce, I tried several beef gravies to see which was the best. Here are the results:
Albertson's: A burnt aroma and a burnt, harsh, bitter flavor.
Boston Market: Little aroma and a sharp, salty, harsh flavor.
Heinz: The beefiest aroma and flavor, though the strong herby note was distracting.
Campbell's: Smelled and tasted more like mushroom gravy than beef gravy, bland.
Campbell's Fat Free: Odd chemical note in the aroma and flavor. Like the regular Campbell's it tasted more like mushroom gravy than anything else.
While the Heinz was the best, none of these gravies had the deep, rich, mellow beef flavor I was hoping for.
Oreo Cookie Shakes!
For five years Jack in the Box had a lock on the Oreo Cookie shake. Then in mid-2006 Carl's Jr. started offering a "Hand Dipped" Oreo Cookie Shake. Since this happens to be my favorite shake I decided to subject them to a side-by-side comparison.
Carl's Oreo cookie shake is 14 ounces by weight, 16 ounces by volume and costs $2.89.
A medium Oreo cookie shake from Jack in the Box weighs 16 ounces, is 22 ounces by volume and only costs $2.29. Clearly, the Jack in the Box shake wins the quantity/cost comparison. But, what about taste?
The Jack in the Box shake has a good balance of ice cream-to-Oreo taste so that you can clearly differentiate and enjoy each. The Carl's Jr. shake has much more Oreo bits in it, so much that it almost looks like a chocolate shake, and tastes almost completely like an Oreo. If you want chocolate and don't mind paying for it, Carl's is the way to go. (The Carl's shake also comes with a penny's worth of whipped cream on it.) If you want a larger drink with a more interesting flavor, try Jack in the Box.
Texturally, the Jack in the Box shake is much thicker and the Oreo bits come in larger chunks so from time to time you're rewarded with something to chew. The downside to this is that the shake is really too thick to drink even with the extra-large straws available. The larges Oreo chunks also tend to jam in the straw.
For myself the Jack in the Box Oreo Cookie Shake is the clear winner: it's bigger, cheaper, thicker, and tastes better.
Mozzarella cheeses compared
When Kraft changed the formula for their fat free mozzarella cheese (my previous favorite) from rich and hearty to sour and bland, I decided a new taste test was in order. Albertson's, Stator Brothers, and Ralph's collectively provided 11 different types. Here's how they fared:
Precious Low Fat Tough, rubbery, unpleasant translucent color, slight sour note
Precious Reduced Fat Softer but still a little rubbery, sharper edge, creamier color
Precious Low Moisture-Part Skim The trend continues: softer, edgier, whiter
Precious Whole Milk Softest so far, weak flavor, bland, very white and creamy
Stator Brother's Low Moisture-Part Skim Meatier flavor than the Precious, smoother but oddly a little too dry, powdery
Organic Valley THE WINNER!!! Very soft and creamy, smooth flavor with no edge, pleasantly rich, best color of all the cheeses tested. This wasn't just the best mozzarella cheese, it was one of the best cheeses of any type I've found. Great even for snacking.
Cicique Low Moisture-Part Skim Mild, better than most of the others but it had a very slight sour aftertaste
Albertson's Low Moisture-Part Skim Mild, with a sharp aftertaste
Sargento Low Moisture-Part Skim Not bad, but it had a slight chemical taste
Kraft Low Moisture-Part Skim A little sharp, edgy
Frigo Low Moisture-Part Skim Sharper than Stator Brother's
All the cheeses tested improved when melted, they tasted richer, milder, meatier and had a creamier texture. The only problem was that the Precious whole milk and Organic Valley mozzarellas were so soft they tended to melt to much even at low heat and turned into translucent puddles. They need to be treated carefully when melting them.
Nine
Types of Whole Wheat Spaghetti
(and
a couple of others) compared
I tried nine different whole wheat, or whole multi-grain, types of spaghetti: Westbrae, Hodgson Mills, Ronzoni, Ezekiel 4:9 (multi-grain spouted), DeBoles, Eddies, Racconto, Nutrition Kitchen (soybean), and Dreamfields. All had had about the same fiber content (6 grams for 2 ounces of dry noodles, 3 times that of regular spaghetti) and from 7 to 9 grams of protein. One exception was Nutrition Kitchen's soybean spaghetti, which had 11 grams of fiber and 23 grams of protein. All but two produced cooked spaghetti that was course and grainy. They also tended to be very slippery and difficult to serve and had the bad habit of breaking up into small pieces, especially after cooling. Dreamfields and Racconto were every bit as smooth as the best regular spaghetti and tasted just as good. Dreamfields also claims that their spaghetti is formulated with special types of fiber that reduce the glycemic index by two-thirds. Nutrition Kitchen's soybean spaghetti was the least pleasing of the group.
Chedder
cheese comparison!
Three people compared Borden, Tillamook, Albertson's, Sargento, Kraft, and Land-O-Lakes mild (or medium) cheddar cheeses and found that the two winners were Sargento and Kraft. Both had rich cheesy flavor with just enough edge to make things interesting. All of the others were too sharp and had harsh aftertastes that quickly soured on the palate.
Huge Hot Dog Test!!!
Since I was having most of my extended family over for my birthday I decided to use them as test subjects for a hot dog comparison test. Six agreed to participate. I cut up samples of 14 different types and brands of hot dogs (3 not shown in picture above) and labeled them only with numbers so no one could see what variety they were tasting. The samples were warmed up and each person asked to state whether they liked or disliked each variety and then decide which was their overall favorite. Only one variety got a majority nod of approval. One other brand was rated as acceptable and the remaining 12 languished in various levels of disapproval. Here are the results:
Farmer John Beef Franks: everyone disliked them
Oscar Mayer Beef Franks: half liked, half disliked, 0 favorite votes.
Dodger Dogs (all pork): five disliked them, one liked it, 0 favorite votes.
Oscar Mayer Smokie Links: 4 liked, 2 didn't, 4 favorite votes OVERALL WINNER!!!
Ball Park Beef: 6 disliked this brand.
Oscar Mayer Beef Smokie Links: 2 liked, 4 disliked, 0 favorite votes
Albertson's Turkey and Pork Franks: 6 disliked them
Nathan's Beef Franks: 4 liked, 2 disliked, 2 favorite votes
Oscar Mayer Turkey, Pork, and Chicken Franks: 6 disliked them
Farmer John Pork and Turkey Franks: 6 disliked them
John Morrell Chicken and Pork Franks: 6 disliked them
Bar "S" Beef Franks: 1 liked, 5 disliked, 0 favorite votes
Hoffy Beef Franks: 2 liked, 4 disliked, 1 favorite vote
Hebrew National Beef Franks: 2 liked, 4 four disliked, 0 favorite votes
The
most interesting result of this test was how bad many of the hot
dogs tasted. Everyone was surprised that out of 14 varieties only one
(Oscar Mayer's Smokies) got a majority "thumbs up."
Pound
cake comparison
When I went looking for ready-made pound cakes I was surprised when I could only find two: Sara Lee (frozen) and Entemmen's (fresh.) After trying both all the taste testers agreed the Sara Lee's was the clear winner. It was rich and buttery, with solid gold color, dense, solid, with a very fine grain. Delightful!
Entemmen's was tasteless in comparison. It had a texture more like an angel food cake than what one usually thinks of as a pound cake and the color was a pale, insipid yellow.
Clam Chowder
The best clam chowder I ever tasted was served up in a sourdough bread bowl at Rapa's at the end of Fisherman's Warf in Montery, California. It was so delicious; meaty, hearty, and not overly salty like most clam chowders, that it inspired the following taste test:
(Note: condensed soups were reconstituted with milk.)
Campbell's Chunky - the thickest tested and the second-best tasting. It was too salty.
Campbell's Select, 98% fat free - too salty, herby, and weak clam taste.
Campbell's Condensed, 98% fat free - watery, salty, ugly gray color.
Campbell's Classic - watery, salty, ugly gray color, better tasting than the Campbell's Condensed.
Homestyle - strange chemical off-taste like sour cream. Very bad.
Progresso - BEST TASTING!!! Outstanding in every respect: very rich with a solid clam flavor. (Note: The Progresso "Chunky" style is best for eating straight. The "Traditional" style is slightly thinner and better for bread bowl serving because it provides more sauce for the bread. Both have the same superb flavor.)
Pepperage Farms - very thin and so salty it burned.
Healthy Choice, 99% fat free - tasted more like potato soup than clam chowder and was too salty.
Snow's - gray color, too salty but good clam flavor.
Wolfgang Puck - too herby and salty, weak clam flavor.
Book Binders - salty, strange sour taste.
For
a knock-out soup, try mixing in one small (6-ounce) tin of chopped
or minced clams without the juice into a one-serving can (18-ounces)
of the Traditional Style Progresso. Serve steaming in a bread bowl
made from a warmed sourdough round loaf, eat and smile... ah, life is good.
I prefer adding chopped clams over minced clams because chopped clams have large pieces that increase textural interest.
(It may sound odd but a glass of cold milk goes very well with clam chowder because its coolness and sweetness provides interesting contrast to the soup's warmth and saltiness. For the same reasons, vanilla ice cream makes a perfect desert.)
French Vanilla Cool Whip topping
Both my wife and I rated this product as poor because it tasted more like margerine or buttery Crisco than a desert topping.
Four ready-to-bake pie shells compared
Pillsbury: The thinnest of the three, almost too thin to support a pie filling. Cooks the fastest and may burn if not watched. Not much flavor.
Albertson's: The lightest of the three. Acceptable thickness and was very tender. Like the Pillsbury shell it didn't have much flavor.
Marie Calendar's: The thickest and somewhat less tender than the other two. Takes the longest to bake. Because of its thickness, thorough baking is necessary to avoid chewiness. A very slight buttery flavor makes this crust the best tasting, but still not great. This crust also tended to melt the most so if you're baking it blind you might want to fill it with beans to prevent the sides from caving in. The other two shells held their shapes without support.
Mrs.
Smith's:
Medium thickness, slightly chewy, not flaky, a little greasy and salty.
Betty Crocker butter Cream frosting
Unless you enjoy the taste and texture of raw Crisco I recommend you avoid this frosting, because that's about what it tastes like. Yes, it's sweetened and has a slight vanilla flavor (but strangly little butter flavor considering its name) but overall I'd have to rate it as very poor.
Domino's
steak pizza
In Fall of 2005 Domino's Pizza advertised the Steak-fanatic Pizza, a pizza with thin slices of grilled steak. Simply put, this is the best pizza I have ever tasted. There is something about the mellow rich beefy flavor that satisfies in a way no other pizza can. in general I prefer Pizza Hut pizzas but in this case Dominos walks away with top honors. In a frustrating and, in my opinion, rediculous move Dominos stopped offering this delicious pizza in early April of 2006.
IMPORTANT UPDATE!!! Want a Steak-fanatic pizza but can't find one? Make your own! I developed a recipe that very closely matches the great flavor of the original. To see how to make it click on COOKING and see how easy they are to make!
Stonestone's cake batter icecream
Coldstone's is a chain of icecream parlors where you select a flavor of ice cream and any added ingredients you want and they hand mix it to your order. One of the stand-out ice creams is called "cake batter." This ice cream has the most unique flavor and texture of any in my experience. You swear that you're eating fresh, cold cake batter: rich and sweet with that special something only cake batter has. Better still, the texture of the ice cream is different in some indescribable way. It actually feels a little like cake batter. This ice cream is so good that it's the one I order plain. Toppings or mixings would only serve to distract my taste buds from perfection.
Three
egg substitutes compared
BETTER & EGGS: Very light and foamy texture. Slight.peppery taste.
EGG BEATERS: Best color and appearance. Okay texture. Flavor and aroma hints of.onions.
EGG PRODUCT: The clear winner. The color and appearance was almost as good as.Egg Beaters but the flavor was far superior. In a blind text I could not.tell the difference between these and real eggs. (Available in Stator.Brother's stores.)
(Note: all three egg substitutes have around 225 milligrams of salt per serving already mixed into them.)
Five
'whole grain' flours compared
for
bread making
More and more pressure is being put on people to eat whole grain products. Since one of the easiest, most flexible and healthiest ways to do this is in the form of homemade bread, I decided to compare bread made from five different whole grain flours. Some of these stated that they were 'whole grain,' others said 'whole wheat' and I had to read the ingredient list or description to learn that they were whole grain. (Regular flour contains only the endosperm or starchy part of the grain, whole wheat flour contains the endosperm and the outer bran layer that's rich in fiber and nutrients, whole grain flour contains everything in the entire seed: the endosperm, bran and the nutrient rich germ. Because the germ also contains a small amount of oil (the healthy kind) these flours can go rancid and it's usually recommended to keep them in a refrigerator. However, the fact that all these flours are typically marketed on unrefrigerated shelves and have expiration dates of around three months suggests that unless they are in the tropics the rancidity issue may not be an immediate issue. Consumers are recommended to conduct their own research and use their own judgement in this regard.) I verified that all five of the flours I tested were 100 percent 'whole grain.'
All the breads were made using the exact same recipe.
From left to right:
Bob's Red Mill Stone Ground: Slightly grainy, slightly sharp flavor
King Arthur Traditional: Finest grained of all five flours, rich yet mild flavor. The Best.
Arrowhead Mills Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour: Very heavy, coarse texture
Arrowhead Mills Kamut Whole Grain Flour: Grainy, mealy texture; yellowish, normal flavor
Bob's Red Mill Spelt Flour: slightly grainy, normal wheat bread flavor.
The 'Better Tasting' Doritos
In April of 2005 I noticed the bags of Nacho Cheesier Doritos were sporting a new label claiming that they were now Better Tasting. Since these are my favorite chip I got a bag to see what had changed.
The new chips are much spicier and remind me of tacos. The cheese flavor is all but overpowered. I've had five people try them and they all agreed that the older chips were better. The biggest complaint was that the Nacho Cheesier name suggestes that they are going to taste like cheese. Since these new Doritos have very little if any cheesiness to them, the name of this product should be changed or better still, they should go back to the old recipe.
Baked
versus regular Doritos
The baked Doritos, on the left, have an odd salmon-pink hue that wasn't as appealing as the original Doritos on the right. Everyone agreed that the regular Doritos had a richer, better flavor and firmer crunch. The baked Doritos were extremely light and foamy textured and had a sour after taste. The regular Doritos had a much stronger "cornmeal" aroma.
Frozen Ravioli test
Comparing Stater Brother's house brand fozen ravioli to Rosetto showed that the Stator Brother's was meatier and milder. Rosetto's had a spicy edge to it that got annoyingly hot after eating ten raviolis.
Ham test
This turned out to be one of the most disappointing taste tests I've ever conducted. Not one of the hams I tried had a clean rich flavor, good texture, a pleasant aroma. In the end I couldn't honestly declare one as the best, merely the least offensive.
Hormel Deli-cut: Off odor and very salty. Good texture.
Carl Budding: Ground ham product, smelled chemically, poor texture.
Albertson's Low Salt: Okay flavor but a little sharp. Excellent texture.
Alberton's Premium: Weak taste, peppery note. The Albertson's Low Salt was better.
Danola: Best texture, a little salty and sharp.
Oscar Mayer: Weak flavor with an off tang.
Farmer John: Salty, good texture, slight edge to the after taste.
Hillshire Farm Deli Select: Very Moist, good texture, not too salty, very slight edge to the after taste but over all the least offensive of them all.
Battered Fish Fillets!
Albertson's: Very small fillets, weak flavor, unsatisfying.
Gorton's: Lightest, crunchiest coating, best fish flavor, beautiful golden brown color.
Va de Kamp's: Thickest coating, but it never got crunchy, okay flavor.
Van de Kamp's Breaded: Gritty texture, insipid flavor.
As frozen fillets heat in the oven they give off a lot of steam, which can make the batter coating soggy. Turning halfway through cooking helps crisp both sides but the side that's down last is sure to lose its crispness. To get the batter coating crisp all around, place the fillets an a rack several inches above a foil-lined cookie sheet to catch drips.
This allows free air circulation around the portions, which prevents any steam from making the coating soggy.
A new root beer tested!
In early March of 2004, Mr. Gregg Baker sent me an email about his favorite root beer: Thomas Kemper. He said I could find it in Starbuck's coffee shops so I ran out and got some... and discovered a new favorite. Thomas Kemper is everything a root beer should be: rich, full-bodied, with a perfect balance between sweetness and root beer kick. It's satisfyingly hearty with a very fine bubble that creates a creamy head. You simply can't do better and it is well worth the price. (There are two other root beer tests comparing many different brands farther down this page.)
(Thanks for the suggestion, Gregg! I owe you.)
Chicken noodle soups!
When colds laid my wife and I low, our first thoughts were for that classic comfort food: chicken noodel soup. "But," our cold-fogged minds asked, "which brand?" Ah... this looks like an opportunity for another taste test!
The local supermarket provided the following brands:
Albertson's Chunky: Best looking, okay flavor.
Progresso: A little herby and peppery.
Wolfgang Puck Chicken and Egg Noodle: Greasy looking, herby, thin.
Wolfgang Puck Honey Roasted Chicken with Penne: Weaker flavor than the Egg Noodle soup, very little chicken.
Healthy Choice: Very peppery, best meat texture, greasy.
Campbell's Classic Homestyle: Watery, thin, mild flavor, almost no chicken, tiny, thin short noodles.
Albertson's: A lot like the above, but thinner.
Campbell's Healthy Request: Mild, bland, I could hardly taste chicken.
Campbell's Chunky: Thickest, meat was very dry, slightly herby.
And the winner was... none of the above. Not one of these soups filled the soul with the rich warming sensation we expect from chicken soup. They were all too peppery, which masked the chicken flavor. They all skimped on chicken.
Costco vs Sam's Club apple pies!
Five tasters agreed that the Costo apple pie (above left) had dry, tart apples with a runny brown liquid on the bottom that oozed out when the pie was served. The pie had a harsh chemical edge and wasn't sweet enough. Sam's Club (above right) had moist sweet apples suspended in a thick creamy delicious binder. The pie had a perfect sweetness level was the hands-down favorite.
Lays stackable potato chips!
Lays, which normally produces an outstanding chip, really missed the boat with this chip that comes in a blue plastic tube. Inside I found the chips to be Pringles clones of inferior quality. The chips are thicker than Pringles, heavier and have a coarser texture. The single-curve shape is boring and the real killer is that the chips I tasted had a burnt flavor. Maybe I got a bad batch, but for my money I'll stick with Lays real chips or buy the much better Pringles.
Walnut Acres Blueberry juice!
Walnut Acres' grape juice was so good I decided to try their blueberry juice: a mistake. It didn't even taste faintly like blueberries. When I read the ingredients the first item listed was apple juice, that means there was more apple juice in it than blueberry juice. I can't recommend this product.
4 ketchups tasted!
Hunts: sharp acidic flavor
Albertson's (Stator Brother's): Sweet, vinegary (Half the tasters preferred this one)
Del Monte: Mildest flavor (The other half preferred this one)
Heinz: spicy
Grape Juice
From left to right:
Welches: a little tart, but it had the purest grape flavor. It was also the darkest purple.
Juicy Juice: watery, with a sharp chemical taste.
Robert and James: sweet, with a strong woody note.
Albertsons (same as Stator Bros.): Sweeter and slightly drier than Welch's, very good.
The first four samples are the brands available in grocery stores for $1 to $2 per quart. The next four are high-end ($5 per quart) grape juices from a gourmet store:
Walnut Acres: Excellent. Perfect sweet-tart balance with a pure grape flavor. The lingering aftertaste hints at being watery, but I'd rate this as the best of all eight juices.
Lakewood: Contained a lot of sediment. Sour, foul taste. Vile.
Santa Cruz: Very similar to Welch's, but a little drier and sharper
R. W. Knudsen: Slightly sour with a sharp edge.
And
the winner is... none of the above. I couldn't find any that had a
strong grape flavor with a good taste punch that wasn't also too
sharp. But, I dicovered that if I mixed 2 parts Welch's and one part
Walnut Acres I got the perfect taste I'd been looking for.
Grape Jams and Jellies
Grape jelly is the quintessential jelly, but which is the best tasting? I tried six grape jams and jellys and discovered that none of them had a clean, pure grape flavor. This surprised me because many grape juices are excellent. I suspect that something in the process to turn grape juice into grape jam or jelly sours the grape flavor.
Tropical: Terrible. Vile. Sour chemical odor and taste.
Stator Bros. Grape Jam: Coarse, doesn't taste like grapes. Sharp edge to flavor.
Stator Bros. Grape Jelly: Typical smooth jelly with all the negative flavors as their jam.
Welch's Concord Grape Jelly: Tart, acidic, sharp flavor.
Welch's Concord Grape Jam: Not as sharp as above. Not good, but the best I tasted.
Smucker's Concord Grape Jelly: Too sugary.
Blueberry Preserves
The results of this test were almost as disappointing as the Grape Jam test. None of the brands tasted had a pure clean blueberry flavor, I assume because many use grape juice as a sweetener and its flavor overpowers the blueberry essence.
Harry and David Wild 'N Rare Blueberry Preserves: Lots of whole blueberries, clean taste, good sweet/acid balance, pleasant aftertaste. My pick for the best.
Dickinson's Organic Blueberry Fruit Spread: Blueberries were a little hard and the jelly runny, the taste was sharp and only weakly blueberry-like.