Eat Blog Talk 507: How to Make Sure Your Recipes Succeed - Real Recipe Development with Sally Cameron
In episode 507, Megan chats to Sally Cameron about the process of recipe development, including thorough testing, catering for your readers' needs, food safety and building trust through recipes that succeed time and time again.
Sally is a professionally trained chef, recipe developer, online content creator, speaker, and certified health and nutrition coach. She created all of the recipes for Dr. Mark Hyman's NYT best seller Eat Fat Get Thin, the NYT million copy bestseller "The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life" companion cookbook, and Sony Five Essentials video series. She's been blogging at A Foodcentric Life longer than she'd like to admit. Changing her diet by going gluten-free and focusing on whole fresh foods, lots of plants, nuts, seeds, healthy fats and quality proteins helped her lose weight, get healthy, detox from heavy metals, and recover from Lyme, mold, and gut issues. With all of that, it's no surprise that special diets are her forte, because healthy is a lifestyle.
Fun Fact: Sally's fun fact is they did a two week expedition to Antarctica because they like to shoot landscape photography too. It was utterly amazing.
In this episode, you'll learn the different steps of developing great recipes and why this is a crucial element to a successful, revenue-generating blog. Sally provides practical tips about recipe writing and revision, including keyword consideration and making the most of flavor profiles.
- Definition and Purpose: What is the purpose of the recipe? Is it for your blog or for a sponsored post or a client?
- Find Inspiration: Keep notes about flavors, ingredients, beautiful photos and restaurant meals and other recipes that inspire you.
- Find the Right Keyword: Before putting effort into recipe testing, research keywords and brainstorm ideas around your recipe (e.g. does your recipe fit within your niche, how is it different?).
- Be Creative: Find ways to make it easier, faster and more fun for readers or ways to cater for specific dietary needs.
- Recipe Testing and Revision: Test, revise, and make adjustments to your recipes to ensure your readers are able to reproduce it.
- Equipment Considerations: Consider readers' kitchen equipment and provide alternative methods for those with limited tools.
- Food Safety and Testing: Do a thorough test for food safety, including cooling and storage trials and check verified online resources for food safety information.
- Consistency in Recipe Writing: Be consistent in recipe writing, including clear instructions, accurate measurements, and detailed notes for successful replication.
Connect with Sally Cameron