Same Recipe, Different Outcome

Have you ever had this happen? You find a recipe, you make it, you love it. Then you make the same recipe again at a later point in time and it just doesn't live up to the memory of the first time you made it.

I had this happen to me last night. I had found a recipe for Cincinnati Turkey Chili a while ago (like months) and I had made it, and Eric and I loved it. Then I had made it again for my parents when they were visiting, and we loved it then too. But I made the same recipe last night and I just did not think it was as good as I have made it in the past, and I want to know WHY!?!

So I have been thinking back over what I may have done differently. Here is what I have come up with:

1. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth 

2. I used 80/20 ground turkey instead of the 93/7 that I usually buy

3. I didn't measure the amount of chocolate I added at the end

Now, I am not a food expert. I typically struggle to understand the way that things work together and "flavor profiles" and fancy cooking terms (I have been watching a lot of Worst Cooks in America lately), but if I had to rank those in order of impact on the taste of my dish I would guess that the fat content of the meat probably had the biggest affect, followed by the broth.

Tonight I am planning on making baked ziti with Italian sausage. We need to get our meat fix in before Lent starts and then we can't eat meat on Friday's (or I guess this Wednesday). 

Anyway, if you have ever had the issue that I am having (making the same thing multiple times and having it taste different) let me know why, or what happened.

Until our next adventure,

C