@chrpr I gave this some thought. I think making sure the record exists in Fedora before we try to delete and then deleting and making sure it's not in there (the same instance of Fedora mind you, note the same cassette) is certainly a way to make sure delete does indeed delete. Is this the best way? Probably not, but it does actually test the functionality which is important. The following worked for me, let me know what you think:

    describe "#delete", vcr: { cassette_name: "sdr data delete" } do
      before(:each) {
        data_loader.load
        expect(Nyucore.find(pid: id).first).to be_instance_of Nyucore
      }

      it "should delete an existing nyucore record" do
        data_loader.delete
        expect(Nyucore.find(pid: id).first).to be_nil
      end
    end