BREADBENCH(1) Open Call 2027 FAIR SEASON
breadbench - bake the frontier AI models at the county fair
Ask a model for a bread recipe. Bake exactly what it says. Enter the loaf in Open Class at your fair. Post the ribbon with #BreadBench.
We bake one loaf in a bread machine almost every day. I gave that recipe to a few AI models and asked each to make it something the kids would go crazy for. Every model answered with confidence, and every answer was different: honey-butter potato bread, brown butter and sour cream, Japanese milk bread with condensed milk.
Which is best? My family is a sample of one. But every summer, in nearly every county, trained volunteer judges score hundreds of loaves on shape, crust, crumb, texture and flavor, for a few dollars of entry fee. That is a free, distributed, real-world evaluation system. It has been running for over a century. Let's point it at the models.
Enter Open Class, not 4-H. 4-H and other youth divisions are for young people showing their own work. An adult entering an AI recipe there takes a ribbon from a kid. 4-H members: ask your club leader or extension office first. They make the rules.
1. Pick your class first. Read the premium book: class name, pan or
size rules, hand- or machine-made, recipe card required or not.
2. Start a fresh chat. No custom instructions, no memory. Record the
exact model name and version, the app or website, and the date.
3. Use the standard prompt below. Fill in the blanks. No extra hints.
4. Take the first complete recipe. No regenerating. If the model asks
a question, answer it plainly.
5. Bake it as written. Write down anything you had to change.
6. One practice bake is allowed. You may tell the model once what
happened ("top caved in", "too pale") and use its revision.
Mark the entry R1. No revision is R0.
7. Be honest with the fair. If a recipe card is required, say where
the recipe came from. If the fair doesn't allow it, don't enter.
8. Photograph the loaf, the crumb, the ribbon and any score card.
9. Post publicly with #BreadBench, the results card, and the full
chat transcript.
I'm entering a loaf of bread in the Open Class at my county fair, and I want to win. Write me one complete recipe for this class. Fair and class: [fair name, class name and number] Class rules from the premium book: [paste the rules exactly] How I'll bake it: [oven / bread machine make and model] Pans I have: [list] Altitude and climate: [e.g. 1,200 ft, dry] Ingredients I can't get or won't use: [or "none"] Give weights in grams, every step, the timings, and how to tell when each stage is done. Tell me how to cool, store and transport the loaf so it looks its best at judging.
Best of show / grand or reserve champion 5 Blue / first 3 Red / second 2 White / third 1 No placing 0
If the judge used a 100-point score card, post that number too. Say whether your fair ranks entries or uses the Danish system, which gives every entry a blue, red or white for quality.
#BreadBench Model: [exact name and version] Used through: [app / website / API] Date of chat: [YYYY-MM-DD] Run: [R0 or R1] Fair: [name, state, year] Class: [name and number] Entries in class: [number, if known] Placing: [ribbon] Points: [0-5] Judging system: [ranked / Danish] Score card: [e.g. 87/100, or none] Judge's comments: [word for word] Changes I made: [or "none"] Transcript: [link]
Most fairs allow one entry per class per person. So bake as a household or club, with each adult entering a different model. Or spread models across classes and swap next year. One ribbon proves little. Hundreds, from different bakers and judges, start to show something.
Bread is hard to fake. A recipe can read perfectly and still collapse. It has to get the chemistry, the timing and the instructions right, and then someone who has judged bread for thirty years cuts it open. The money goes to local fairs, and the bread gets eaten.
This page. No accounts, no forms, no data collected, no leaderboard. If you want to build one from #BreadBench posts, please do, and share the raw data.
CC BY 4.0. Use, share and adapt anything here; credit longproof and link back.
Your county fair premium book. Your local extension office. longproof(7), the rest of this site.
Not connected to 4-H, any fair, or any AI company. Follow your fair's rules and thank your judges and volunteers.