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Tweet Eats: Our Twitter Cook-off Winner!

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jbfauthor

August 24, 2009

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The recipes have been made, the dishes have been tasted, and the results have been tabulated. We have a winner for our first ever Twitter Cook-off! Before we announce the results, we thought it would be fun to give everyone a taste (pun intended) of what went down at the Beard House on Friday afternoon. judges Despite the steamy and sticky heat outside, our four Judges arrived ready to sample and score the five finalists that you picked earlier in the week. We asked them to rate each dish on a scale of 1 to 5 in two categories: first, the effective and creative use of Twitter as a medium to convey the recipe, and second, taste. The JBF office/kitchen team, tasked with translating the recipes and executing the dishes, scored each tweet on a scale of 1 to 5 for “cookability.” Did anyone walk away with the full 45 points? Check the end of this post for the final breakdown of scores. To whet everyone’s appetite, the Rye cocktail courtesy of @ndiceglie was served first. 2oz rye; 0.5oz lime; 0.5oz sryup(in 1:1 sugar:H20 steep 5each cardamom & *anise pod, 1 stk cinnamon/12hrs); 2– Peychaud : SHAKE cocktail-prep Everyone loved this cocktail. Not only was the tweet creative, the flavors were delicious. One judge commented, “I would drink this any day or night!” Another complemented the recipe’s “clever use of characters in Twitter.” The first food course served was @CMFoster23’s stuffed Quahog clams. 10quahogs,steam,chop/ chopchorizo,onion,greenpepper,saute 1/4#butter, add quahog,clam stock,ritz crumbs, putinshells, bake10@400 clam In the spirit of full disclosure, it should be noted that we couldn’t find Quahogs at our seafood counter, so Cherrystones were substituted. One judge noticed the switcheroo. However, this last minute change up didn’t have anyone complaining. The judges declared this “classic” delicious, despite some drawbacks, like pushing the limits of tolerance for butter. There was some concern about the lack of details in the tweeted recipe and it was noted that some ingredient amounts were left out. Next up, seared scallops from @Maskren. SEAR>1TclrfdBttr+CScallps+dashSlt/Ppr~WSK>2T:RceVngr/H2O/Lime+1T:GrnNyn/Clntro/Jlpno+1t:FshSauc/Grlc+2tSugr+dashSlt~SRVEw/Scallps scallops This recipe had the judges butting heads. One described it as “light and fresh,” while another said it was a “little bland.” They also disagreed on whether there was effective and creative use of Twitter. Some judges were impressed with the number of ingredients the creator was able to squeeze into the tweet, others were looking for more than just sheer numbers. To pat ourselves on the back, one judge noted “the scallops were perfectly cooked.” The fourth dish was @kitchengrl’s salmon. 1# slmn filet 3 prtns. 2t ea(grm msala+grnd criandr+cmn)+slt+ppr->rub slmn/drzl oil. 400F 8min. 1/2c grk ygrt+slt+ppr; mnt chfnde salmon The judges loved the crust that the spices created on the salmon. One commented, “nice combination of spices with the yogurt and fresh herb—mint really nice, especially as choice of fresh herb.” Despite the raves, one judge mentioned that the dish would benefit from the addition of some acid, “just a little lemon.” To finish things off, we served another @kitchengrl recipe, the hanger steak. 1# hngr stk slt>coat 1tsp ea(crndr/cmin/ppr/pmntn)>ck med r, rst>dglz w/rd wn/shlt>pmgrt mlas>wsk bttr>strn ovr slcd stk&rst figs steak Although this dish scored high in the taste department, it lost points for the tweet’s lack of clarity. “The red wine/molasses ratio is important here but not spelled out,” one judge complained, “some things are not completely clear, especially for the home cook.” So, which recipe walks away with our grand prize? Drum roll please.... anita-cocktail The Rye Cocktail, with a total score of 39.5 out of 45! In close second was the Salmon with 37 points, followed by the Stuffed Clams with a score of 34, the Seared Scallops with 32 points, and the Hanger Steak bringing up the rear with a score of 31. Not only will @ndiceglie and a friend be guests at the Jack Daniels Birthday Bash, the extended (non-Twitter) version of his Rye Cocktail will be available in the James Beard Foundation Recipe section, so everyone can enjoy the winning recipe! We here at the Beard Foundation thought that all of the recipes were delicious. Not one dud in the bunch. Thanks to everyone who participated by submitting recipes and voting. We had a blast and we hope you did too. Want to see us do more recipes contests? Let us know!