It’s time to give a big round of applause to the unsung heroes of the culinary world – the flavor maestros, also known as recipe testers! Often overlooked, these adventurous individuals fearlessly put their taste buds on the line to ensure the quality and reliability of recipes. They’re like the superheroes of the kitchen, fighting against blandness and potential kitchen disasters, one recipe at a time.

In these short sketches, we aim to find and recognize the invaluable role these testers play in perfecting recipes. Their unwavering dedication enhances the experience for countless cookbook readers and product developers alike. While it can be challenging to find information about these recipe creators and testers, if we come across a name without information, we’ll still include it as a placeholder. For instance, Miss Sybil Stevens,* the mysterious tester acknowledged in three of Ida Bailey Allen’s cookbooks from the 1910s; her life remains elusive within our current resources.

In addition to the testers, we also have dedicated biographies and lists of works for test kitchen directors and cookbook authors, such as Marye Danhke of Kraft. Danhke made history by introducing cheese recipes to an initially unwilling and indigestion-fearing audience. It’s hard to imagine a time when cheese wasn’t a staple, but before 1928, there were very few who smiled and said, “Cheeese!”

So, let’s raise our spatulas in appreciation for these culinary detectives who make our cooking adventures all the more delicious and successful, and change history!

Lilian Dynevor Rice (1864 – 1933)

“Each recipe has been tested and approved by Lilian Dynevor Rice, the well-known domestic scientist, in her laboratories in Forest Hills, New York” was a notice in the 1928 Vegetable Book, [reddit] and other booklets in the series. The Chicago-based publisher was W. W. Manning of Woman’s World magazine.

Lilian Dynevor Rice was an editor for Delineator and The Housewife magazines, worked with Butterick company for 10 years, and was a poet and an author for Women’s Home Companion, St. Nicholas, and other magazines. She lived at 120 Puritan Avenue. Forest Hills Gardens, a beautiful area in Queens, New York.

Bertha M. Becker (1876-1940)

“It is a fact, established by many kitchen laboratory tests, that in the preparation of certain foods a marked improvement in texture, taste, and appearance is achieved by the use of Rumford Baking Powder. These tests were carried on by Miss Bertha M. Becker, the well known food specialist, in her laboratory in New York. We wanted the opinion of an outsider, an unprejudiced expert, to either confirm or disprove results achieved in our own experimental kitchen. …With the thought that we might be swayed by a certain natural prejudice, we asked Miss Becker to test our thirty recipes. She rejected six of them. In the twenty-four remaining is found the inspiration for this booklet of brand new recipes…” for Several Things Under the Sun and the 1932 booklet, 64 New uses for Rumford Baking Powder. [reddit]

The Reading Eagle, Nov 23, 1923 newspaper article outlining Bertha M. Becker’s career

“Miss Bertha M. Becker of New York, has a vocation that is rather unique even in this day of unusual occupations for women. She is a home economic expert and originates recipes for manufacturers of food and makes models of photographic illustrations to be used in advertising. Many of the delectable salads and other dishes that you see in advertisements in street cars and magazines are the work of her hands.
“A manufacturer of a certain food may want to advertise a particular article and he calls upon a home economic expert to give him a set of recipes in which this food predominates,” Miss Becker explains.” I set to work then with this article as the principal feature of my recipe and I make up a number which he usually offers free in a booklet.
“The important point of my recipes is that they are economical and they are practical and wholesome. I know what women want. There would be no object in devising recipes that looked well when served or for photographic purposes if they did not taste good and were not scientifically correct.“
“Miss Becker is a graduate of Barnard Teachers College [Columbia University] and worked into this sphere gradually. She had classes in cooking, sewing, washing and ironing. When the war started she volunteered to prepare for the Red Cross a set of menus in which food substitutes could be used. It was but a step then to the preparation of original recipes.“—The Reading Eagle, Nov 23, 1923

As far as family trees, there are so many Bertha M. Becker names, but none stand out as being her yet. Partial career information: Besides the above 1923 newspaper article, in 1927 she was representing Gulden’s, and in 1932 she worked with Rumford Baking Powder, all the while living in New York.

*Miss Sybil Stevens

When writing three books for food conservation as part of the WWI domestic effort, 1917-1918: Meat Substitutes, Sugar Substitutes, and Wheat Substitute, Ida C. Bailey Allen acknowledged her partner [husband] T. L. Allen for his unselfish competent help. Interesting that her husband Tom Allen was a farmer and an opera singer—eventually singing at the Metropolitan Opera. And in the same breath she acknowledged Miss Sybil Stevens, “who has so ably helped to carry out the experimental work connected with this book.“

I tried plenty of avenues of research to find Miss Sybil Stevens—perhaps she was a career foodie, maybe she was a neighbor, maybe a friend and/or relative. I do not know who Miss Sybil Stevens was, and because Ida Bailey Allen was an important 1900s cook, I’d like to know who helped. For one, I’ve adopted their recipe for Peanut Sausage—now a family favorite.

Dorothy W. Kirk

Booklet Duff’s Ginger Bread Mix, Made with Duff’s Molasses, no date circa 1940s, gives credit to their food consultant, “The recipes in this book will give you lots of suggestions. They have been tested and approved by Dorothy W. Kirk, food consultant.” Duff’s Ginger Bread was located in Pittsburgh, I doubt it was the Dorothy Kirk we found who in 1930 was a packer in a pickle factory! Update: We just discovered that Dorothy Kirk is a published cookbook author and that takes her out of this “Kitchen Testers” section and awards Dorothy W. Kirk a page of her own.