What crust size for a test tasting

[Smokin]

I am having a taste testing party for around 15 ± people. My plan is to make A and B pies with same toppings. I will be using different sauce and cheese on A pie than B pie. Topping will be the same. Planning on doing a Cheese, Pepperoni, sausage, veggie, Ham and deluxe with all the fixing. I am seeking feedback on the sauce and the cheese. I want to be able to have the guests taste from A and from B on each pie and provide feedback. My question is what size of pies should I build? 10 inch or 12 inch? I think if I do a 14 inch they will get full and not be able to sample all of the different pizza’s. I could do 8 inch but think that may be too small to get 15 or so small slices. I don’t want the slices to be a meal but enough that they can sample from A and B. I do thank you all in advance for the replies.

 

[Joe]

I do 10" everytime. Big enough to get the proper results from the crust on the edge and middle so you can get an idea of what it’d be like in bigger sizes as far as taste, crispness, and finish. Also keeps costs of doing taste tests down but overall it depends on the sample size of the group.

 

[bodegahwy]

We do 14" and cut the pizza in 16 slices.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

I like to do a 10-inch pizza for my taste testing and slice it into 8-pieces. This provides sufficient bottom and edge crust as well as toppings for a fair evaluation. If it is much larger we have found that the first pizza tested by the panel members tends to get the highest preference so it is not as accurate as we like. The very largest pizza that I will use is a 12-inch format sliced the same way.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[GotRocks]

Just to make sure that I am understanding this correctly.
You are trying to determine which sauce and which cheese is more preferred?
I’m thinking you may not want to add anything besides the cheese and sauce.
Then also mix up the sauce & cheese combo between the pizzas.
I’d split the group in half, serve one half one of the group on combination, and the other half the other combination, then repeat with a switch up to get a more meaningful overview.
As Mr Lehmann stated; Most people will always pick the first pizza that they taste so by giving the different groups, different combinations, it may give a more truthful review if they like the 2nd offering better.

If I was trying to figure out sauce, I wouldn’t put any mozz on it, i’d just hit it with some some light Romano or Parmesan, once you get a preference on sauce, then bake a few cheese pizzas to determine which cheese is preferred, or which works better with the sauce choice

 

[Smokin]

Some very good suggestions and I do thank you!

@GotRocks, I am trying to determine several things. 1st off I am doing 2 different cheeses and I like the idea of tasting it separate like you and Tom suggested. 2nd is I am testing the take N bake concept. Pizza’s will be made in front of the guests just like I would be doing in a shop making for a customer. They will be baked in a residential oven just like the customer would be getting them and baking them. 3rd is taste testing my meats, pepperoni, Italian sausage, Honey Ham and Pork Butt. My meats are my own recipes as I don’t plan to use any store bought meats. 4th is I am wanting feed back on how they like the crust and pizza in general. Do they like the concept. Would they buy the product. What would make them buy the product. I am still doing DD on this concept and I am wanting feed back. I am having adults as well as children doing the tasting. I am trying to find out if they would be more interested in buying a quality premium Pizza that they can bake at home vs a oven baked pizza from a pizza place take out. Wood fired pizza is a big rage down here. I have developed a way to produce a smoked wood fired pizza flavor using a residential oven. All they have to do is plop it in the oven and bake it.