I think it wouldn't really taste that interesting, because it's only meant to be used as a standardized point of comparison for other manufacturers when they're testing batches of their own products. I recall NileRed did a video making cookies out of a bunch of standard reference ingredients, and I don't remember if he said at the end they were bland or awful, but he didn't like them. The reference stuff simply isn't meant for eating or for use in cooking.
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
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Precisely. They also explained why that's the case. Basically the reference stuff isn't pure. It's just they are exactly what they're saying in the label.
the nilered video was so precious. here we have a guy thats handling extremly dangerous substances (even radioactive ones) on the regular, yet he totally loses his cool over a cookie cracking in the oven
It's not for cooking, it's for tool testing.
If you want to test how well someone's fancy cleaning detergent works on stains, or if their claim that a new knife shape makes spreading easier, you want a very standard peanut butter.
Yeah, you’re paying for consistency, not quantity. The standard reference material will contain exactly what it says on the label. No more, no less. It’s meant to be a reliable and dependable product, with absolutely zero variation between batches. And that consistency costs a lot of extra time and testing to guarantee.
In addition to what others have said there is an interesting video from Veratasium about that NIST department, they have a wild variety of items.