Sign Up to Test Smarty-Pants Recipes For Our Latest Contest

It's time to help us pick the contest finalists for Your Best Recipe with a Smarty Pants Trick or Technique!

Need a refresher on how contests work? Head here!

Your Smarty Pants Cooking Trick Could Win You $500

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Any Food52 member can help us test our Community Pick candidates. All you have to do is take a peek at the candidates listed below and call dibs on the recipe you'd like to test! We accept up to 3 testers per recipe. And, if the recipe ends up being a Community Pick, we'll publish the best headnote, so make your notes count! Don't forget to email us your notes (no more than 100 words) to [email protected] by next Monday, May 15, at 5 P.M. (EST).

Here's how to call dibs on a recipe:

When you've figured out which recipes are calling your name, sign up by following the link to that recipe's page. There, just above the comments, you'll see a "Test This Recipe" button. Click the button, and you’ll receive a confirmation email that officially crowns you a Food52 community tester. If for some reason you decide you cannot test, simply press the button again, and your name will be removed from the list. Act fast—this button will disappear on the Sunday before your testing notes are due.

Tips for testing:

When you test, we encourage you to consider (and write about!) your experience testing the recipe—every step of the way. Did you think it needed more salt? Was the cake a little dry? Think the oven temp should have been a bit higher? Please tell us! Constructive criticism is always encouraged. And as a reminder, please test the recipe exactly as it is written. (You can riff on it later if you like it, but for these purposes, the more authentic the experience and the more honest the feedback, the better.)