My colleague Pat Whitcomb just completed the first teach of Advanced Formulations: Combining Mixture & Process Variables. It inspired me to develop a virtual experiment for optimizing my perfect peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwich. This was a staple for me and my six siblings when we were growing up. Unfortunately, so far as I was concerned, my mother generously slathered margarine on the bread (always white in those days – no whole grains) and then thick layers of peanut butter and jelly (always grape). As you see* in the response surfaces for overall liking [ 🙁 1-9 🙂 ], I prefer that none of the mixture ingredients (A: Peanut butter, B: Margarine, C: Jelly) be mixed, and I like the bread toasted. This analysis was produced using the Combined design tab from Design-Expert® software version 8 released by Stat-Ease earlier this year. I’d be happy to provide the data set, especially for anyone that may be hosting me for a PB&J dinner party. 😉
*Click to enlarge the plots so you can see the legend, etc.