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Sometimes, despite our greatest efforts, things just seem not to go our way. On those days, whether because of inattention, rushing, ignorance, or anything else, we may accidentally mess up something that could’ve been perfectly good.
Cooking is one of the activities most prone to this kind of back luck. In this Reddit post, both professionals and amateurs share their greatest accidental kitchen misfortunes that have ever befallen them on one of those unlucky days. Scroll down to read what they wrote!
More info: Reddit
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#1
Was hosting a few people for a pretty fancy dinner. I'd prepped dessert during the day - fresh apricots poached in white wine and light syrup, to be served with marscapone. I had beautiful duck breasts for main course. Everything was superb.
After the first two courses, I went to get the dessert and the syrup looked slightly odd - darker streaks in it, which I hadn't seen on previous times I made it. I checked it and it TASTED slightly odd. Then I identified the taste... Evidently when I'd taken the duck out of the fridge to cook it, I'd managed to tilt the plate and tipped a little bit of duck blood into the fully prepared apricots. Absolutely no way to save them, straight in the bin they went. I was devastated 😭
Rob D 2 years ago
Store ready to eat food towards top, raw on the bottom of the fridge. Always. It's actually code in restaurants.
Leeza Martinez 2 years ago
just one of the many reasons why raw meat should always be stored on the lowest possible shelf
TAMI 2 years ago
That would be raw meat... something her guests didn't sign up for
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#2
Msg helps to make my savoury dishes taste good right? So 17 year old me thought it would go great in the chocolate cake I was making for my grandads birthday. I put a heaped teaspoon in for good measure too.
Folks, let me tell you, mistakes were definitely made that day.
Sally Signup 2 years ago
Reminds me of the time I accidentally used garlic butter spray in the brownie pan.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Anybody have any ideas what it tasted like?? I am hella curious
Peppy Piplup 2 years ago
I don't understand this one. What is MSG and why was adding it to a cake disastrous?
Flora Wolfe 2 years ago
Hey, have to experiment from time to time. Sometimes the combination turns out good.
Sue User 2 years ago
I miss it so much. There was an okder gentkenan who made all sorts of butters. Apple butter, peach butter. And the apple fritters.
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Tristan J 2 years ago
People still perpetuating a myth that came into existence because of racism.
Load More Replies... #3
My mom made chicken stock. And young me at 10, trying to be helpful, threw the stock away, thinking it was "waste water from cooking the ingredients" and washed the pot for her.
Needless to say, my mom was NOT pleased. And she was asian mom level displeased.
RandomEpiBioPerson 2 years ago
Honestly, I would sigh, and maybe groan a little while thinking "C**p.", but I wouldn't get mad. I'd definitely use it as a teaching moment. The shirt if response where you say something like "That was really thoughtful and I really appreciate the help. When you want to help, please let me know because unfortunately what you dumped out was not waste, but that was really great of you and I really appreciate it.", or something similar. I don't typically get mad much though, and especially not if it was just a mistake someone made while trying to do something nice. I know not getting angry about having things you were working on damaged can be really hard though.
Mary Hiers 2 years ago
I did something similar when I was 8 or 9. I did the unexpected and decided to clean the kitchen sink. In doing so, I dumped out the little glass of cloudy liquid that was sitting there. It was the coconut milk my mom had drained from a coconut prior to making a coconut cake. I felt terrible, because her coconut cake was out of this world!
Kelly Hartle 2 years ago
My husband and I were at my parents' cabin and he was making chicken and noodles, but we ran out of broth. My aunt said she would bring some over, and as he was pouring it in, he realized it was chicken broth with garlic. Even I couldn't eat it.
#4
Made fried shallots and you strain them out of the oil before putting them on paper towels to make sure they’re crispy. It all has to happen quickly because they can easily overcook.
Well, I drained the pot of fried shallots and boiling oil into a plastic strainer. Melted straight through and I was left with a rimless basketball hoop and a bowl of plasticky, shallot-y oil.
Spittnimage 2 years ago
I strained fried crumbled sausage once and it melted a nickel-sized hole in the middle of my strainer.
SonicAlchemy 2 years ago
"Fried" shallots are typically dredged in buttermilk then tossed in flour to fry, and should definitely be in a metal basket so they can be pulled from the oil, not poured into a strainer with 325 degree oil splashing around. If you're having to "drain" oil off of sautéed shallots, like the picture, then you used too much oil. That's just sad all around haha.
Marcel 2 years ago
who dredges those in buttermilk... it's fried shallots, not battered.
Load More Replies... #5
We went to Costco on Monday to get a bunch of stuff for my in-laws.
We had just been there over the weekend for ourselves so we didn't really need anything but realized we didn't get any boneless skinless chicken breasts so we decided to grab some. Fast forward to today and my wife complains about her car smelling funky on her drive into work. On her way home it's gotten even worse, she asks me to smell it - it's pretty unbearable. Yup, we'd left like 10lb of chicken in the trunk for two or so days at 85F.
Luckily only air had escaped the packs, though they were all ballooned up and looked like they were ready to blow.
Opening the trunk was an experience I don't want to have again - her car is RIPE right now, we have the garage open with the trunk open and all the windows down with a couple sticks of incense burning.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago (edited)
How the helll would they clean a permeated odor like this?? I'd be afraid that unfortunately they'll only do something to cover it up
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Barbara Cassidy 2 years ago
I had this happen to me. Two pounds of burger meat fell behind a box in my trunk. We just thought the we forgot a bag. After five days I come out to vultures sitting on my car and circling overhead. You could smell it before we reached the car. We had to power wash the trunk and have the whole interior cleaned.
Spittnimage 2 years ago
My ex went fishing and left a fish in his trunk not realizing he did. He found out a couple days later. Hehehe.
Sans Serif 2 years ago
Had a friend bring a bottle of some special fish sauce home from an overseas trip in his suitcase. It broke when he threw the bag into the back of his SUV but didn't realize until he retrieved it the next morning. He sold the car after much effort in trying to neutralize it...
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Bob Brooce 2 years ago
I've sometimes wondered if there are relatively small mishaps with results so big that your insurance company should total your car.
Brian Droste 2 years ago
So went to Costco to get chicken breast. Once got home totally forgot them and why you went to Costco in the first place. But I did that before. Got some groceries before and once got home forget had them in the vehicle. Never forgot them for days though. Usually remember them within a short period of time. The longest was maybe 3 or 4 hours.
Potato 2 years ago
No, they went to Costco to get stuff for in-laws. Got the chicken too while they were at it. Probably went to in-laws right after to drop off their stuff, stayed for a chat and forgot they had extra stuff (chicken) in car. You probably remembered your food bc you needed to eat, they didn't remember because they had food from an earlier grocery run.
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Stephanie Barr 2 years ago
I had a chest freezer in the garage and a easily tripped GFCI circuit in the garage. Once it tripped and I didn't discover it for several weeks. Lots of meat and everything in there. That was the most disgusting thing I've ever cleaned out. I put a sign of apology on the trash can I put it all in, with a sign saying toss everything INCLUDING the can and my deepest apologies. I did get the freezer unstunk eventually (coffee, which I don't drink) helped, but I was so disgusted I could never use it again and gave it away, getting a stand up freezer (one I'll never have to bend into to clean) with a loud alarm and put it in the house where I could hear it.
Sue User 2 years ago
Worked in food service for years. Seen some nasty stuff. But the one that makes me nauseous to this day was an industrial freezer that had 4 cases of chicken that had lost power for days.
Load More Replies... #6
Made a big batch of tzatziki sauce once at work and accidentally used the vanilla yogurt instead of the plain. Absolutely disgusting.
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
I can see howchocalte or butterscotch tzatziki (can you even get chocolate or butterscotch yogurt? -apparently you can) would be a problem, but I'd have to sample vanilla tzatziki because it doesn't sound problematic.
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Thomas Ewing 2 years ago
Once I followed a cookbook recipe EXACTLY and the result was inedible. Apparently, some meals don't belong in cookbooks! Another time, I threw some leftovers and a little this-and-that (no recipe) together and made a culinary masterpiece that I could never duplicate. The vagaries of cooking.
Alison Hell 2 years ago
I did this with pizza dough. I noticed it didnt smell right and figured out I used vanilla yogurt. Remade the pizza dough and used the vanilla dough for cinnamon sticks.
Kathrin Pukowsky 2 years ago
LOL, my dad called my sister and me to dinner, it was a huge bowl of salad (lettuce/onion rings/olives/cucumber/tomato/cheese/ham/boiled egg) with a yogurt dressing and bread on the side. Sis and I took a first bite and I wish there was video footage of our utterly bewildered faces! We exchanged a look across the table, confirming that something was off, and it was my sister that finally asked our dad what yogurt he had used for the dressing. It was the one with the yellow lid - yep, vanilla yogurt. We ate a little bit, but dad, unable to admit he made a mistake, finished the rest and kept saying that it was so good! I know that some chefs say vanilla is just a flavor like any other, it's not limited to sweet dishes, and there's stuff like vanilla salt and whatnot... but just because you CAN use it in savory dishes doesn't mean you SHOULD.
#7
Accidentally made icing with corn starch instead of icing sugar. It tasted "zippy" ;)
SonicAlchemy 2 years ago
Ooof! Yeah, that wouldn't taste very good and the texture after it set would be like Smarties.
Mickipickie 1 year ago
And you don't mean the chocolaty Canadian kind either!
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Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
We had Thanksgiving at my sister's new house years ago. I am the family gravy maker (it's practically a food group) and asked her for the Wondra (it's a finely sifted flour). So I was scraping up all the gorgeous brown bits, stirring the flour and slowly added the stock. Looks amazing. Then I went to taste it for seasoning. Um, something is terribly wrong. My dumbass sister had put the Wondra in an unmarked Tupperware container, right next to the unmarked POWDERED SUGAR container. I threw everything I could in there to try and save it: salt, pepper, sage, a bouillon cube, some garlic, etc. It was edible, but just barely. She never has lived it down.
TeenieMeanie 2 years ago
Made gravy with powdered sugar (looked the same as flour). The only one happy in the house was the dog who got to eat sugared gravy over turkey.
#8
Had extended family over for Thanksgiving. Decided to make (for the first time) fresh home made gravy from giblets, onions, carrots, celery, sage, etc etc. Simmered it lovingly and carefully on the back burner the entire time was roasting the turkey, preparing the sides, etc etc. Finally it was time to serve it. Got out my trusty colander..... and watched helplessly as I accidentally poured the entire saucepan of gravy down the sink
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
The first mistake here was thinking the gravy could be made while the turkey was still roasting and giving up all of it's juicy graviness in the roasting pan.
Fat Harry 2 years ago
Why do people do this? Even when I make gravy like this, I just pour it straight into the jug. You get most of the gravy this way, then you can strain out the bits you don't want without risking doing this sort of stupid thing.
Mark Fuller 2 years ago
Me too. I did this with a Thai curry. Can't quite think why I decided to strain it - that doesn't makes sense in the first place - but did so and ended up with all my ingredients in a sieve, and no sauce. Total brain fart.
#9
My boyfriend looked up substitutes for nutmeg in a savory chicken dish. He used cloves. A full teaspoon of cloves.
He also sent me a text once asking if I liked grilled cheese "with or without the bones" followed by a picture with the plastic twist tie from the bread melted into the grilled cheese.
#10
This weekend I made a lovely mushroom soup - [https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-minnesota-wild-rice-mushroom-soup-recipes-from-the-kitchn-164295#post-recipe-10445](https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-minnesota-wild-rice-mushroom-soup-recipes-from-the-kitchn-164295#post-recipe-10445) - my first soup of the season! Right towards the end I realised I had left a bit of the stock from the rice in a cup in my sink (had drained the rice and left the colander sitting on the cup in my sink, as I often do), having intended to put the stock in the soup along with the rice. So I threw it in the soup and continued on. Of course I had completely forgotten that I had already squeezed soap over the dishes in my sink and then got distracted.... so I made soap soup. Had to throw it all out, F- do not recommend.
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
Depending on what it was used for I'll sometimes grab a knife, fork or spoon out of a bowl in the sink but I always give it a rinse before using it. Partly because of whatever food residue might be in the bowl, and partly because i frequently put a drop or two of detergent in the bowl when I put water in it. If I specifically want to use something I've strained it's not going to have made it to the sink yet.
#11
In my early days of cooking I was determined to make sesame chicken When confronted with garlic I learned the difference between a "clove" and a "bulb" that day, christ that dark, garlicky sludge still haunts my taste buds
Fuzzdinkel83 2 years ago
Something similar happened to a friend of mine. They were making potato soup and it called for 6 cloves of garlic and by the time I intervened they had added three bulbs. Most garlicky thing I've ever tasted lol.
Mental Liberals 2 years ago
Hehehe! Recipe calls for 3 cloves - 1 bulb. Everything is in bulbs for me! :) Love it! Grow it by the hundreds!
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
I need more details about the "dark, garlicky sludge" because its nearly impossible to ruin something by using too much garlic. Maybe if you're making garlic ice cream you could use too much, but for most things it's impossible.
Leeza Martinez 2 years ago
so millions of Italians over millions of years are wrong? You can have to much garlic?
Cass 2 years ago
My husband, who does not like garlic at all, decided to make us a fancy dinner. A lamb roast. The recipe called for garlic cloves to be stuck into the roast and I don't know if he read it wrong or if it was a terrible recipe. I've never seen so much garlic in a piece of meat. The whole surface was covered with deep cuts filled with garlic cloves. I can't remember anything else about that roast, not if there was any other seasoning or what it was served together with. He still talks about the amazing roast he made and how good it tasted, but whines if I use half a clove when I cook something.
#12
I was on a baking spree this past weekend. I baked a cake, 30+ waffles and homemade pasta. Turns out my flour was sour.
Janos Schumacher 2 years ago
I've never had flour go rancid on me. I have had a few flour beetles but they sift out easy.
weirdo biatch 2 years ago
one time i were making cookies and the baking soda was sour so when we tasted it it tasted horrible do not recommend
#13
I was making myself an Old Fashioned with a pretty good single barrel bourbon. Added the simple syrup, bitters, and orange peel to the glass to muddle, then added 4 ounces of the $80 bourbon. Dropped in the ice, stirred, and dropped in 2 Luxardo cherries. This is gonna be a high class cocktail experience, let me tell you! Went to take my first sip and noticed a distinct smoky nose to it, which was definitely not right… Tasted it and got a mouthful of deep chemical smoke flavor…
Went to the cabinet and retrieved my “bitters”, and realized that I had instead grabbed a bottle of liquid smoke!
$15 worth of bourbon down the drain… Devastating 😂
Tim 2 years ago
Why use $80 liquor to make cocktails? The whole reason they were invented was to mask the taste of poor liquor during prohibition.
Potato 2 years ago
THIS. I hope he never recounts this tale at a bourbon or whiskey tasting, especially if he lives in the south.
Load More Replies... Hippopotamuses 2 years ago
With additional bourbon, It would probably would have improved as you drank it.
#14
Was babysitting my sisters when I was a teenager, made them scrambled eggs for lunch. Was grumpy with them for a bit when they said it tasted really weird. Unfooortunately, turned out I had used lamb’s milk (as in milk formula for hand-reared lambs) that my parents had prepped and left in an old milk jug identical to the cow’s milk jug….whoops 🤣😂
#15
Used too much sesame oil first time trying it.. inedible..
Passerby 2 years ago
I hate sesame oil. There was a period when my dad was crazy about sesame oil because he heard somewhere about its health benefits. He ordered my mom to cook everything with sesame oil instead of the usual vegetable oil. It lasted for a while, but it was long enough to turn me off from sesame oil for life.
R. McTavish 2 years ago
You aren't really supposed to cook with it though; it's a finishing oil. You just add a few drops right at the end.
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Fun Fan 2 years ago (edited)
Yaps, can happen, sesam oil in smaller quantities is great for asia-style dishes, but dipping the food in it, will make stink from sesam, and also taste nothing than sesam. Not really nice.
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Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
Sesame oil has a very low "smoke point", so it really shouldn't be used for frying in the first place. It's more a TBSP for flavor, type of oil.
Flora Wolfe 2 years ago
Sesame oil is hard to work with in small batches. The difference between "mm good" and "ah heww nah" is very very little.
Andrej Rizer 2 years ago
No s**t. Fan fact. Sesame seed oil had been used as a lamp oil right until people learned how to extract commercial oil from crude oils. No one in their right mind would had used any of seed oils for cooking.
Potato 2 years ago
Except that many chefs do use seed oil. Cottonseed, grapeseed, safflower, sunflower, avocado. There is no hard evidence that it is toxic, despite what you may have seen on Tik Tok. Oils for cooking have been refined and processed, and were probably used for lamps due to their high smoke point.
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Dorothy Reiser 2 years ago
Sesame oil is more of a flavoring than cooking oil, most of the time.
#16
My Rottweiler ate my linguine as I was feeding dough through my KitchenAid. Does that count?
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
Only in the broad sense that leaving food (or lots of other things) where your dog can reach it is often a mistake. It's going to delay things by 20 minutes or so, but having to cook more pasta isn't a very consequential mistake.
Bryn 2 years ago
They were literally making it. They were putting it in one side and the dog was eating it as it came out the other side.
Load More Replies... #17
A couple of weeks ago, my local store had a bunch of 16oz ribeyes on special sale for $5 each. They were all “sell by” that day and they were just trying to get them sold. I seasoned them perfect, seared them, and finished them in the oven. They were beautiful. For some reason I couldn’t get them up to temp. TWENTY minutes later, I realized my thermometer had its Celsius/Fahrenheit settings switched. My beautiful steaks were shoe leather.
trollingergirl 2 years ago
That is indeed a very sad story. But, at least, you did go metric 🙃.
Papa 2 years ago
. . . and look what happened. It should be a lesson for us all. :)
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Thomas Ewing 2 years ago
Buying things on sale at their 'sell by' date can be disastrous. Crab legs, for one.
#18
My best friend once spent hours making the perfect, clear turkey stock. You could see the bottom of the pot, it didn't boil once. All the leftover goodness from the holiday condensed into liquid bliss.
He then put a colander in the sink and strained the lot down the drain, saving the bones and waste. His dear mother was sitting in the kitchen and she said 'X, did you just...? Oh, honey, you better just go outside to your mancave'.
The pain is still there in his heart.
Potato 2 years ago
"Go to your man cave" does not mean "commit suicide" omg smh
Load More Replies... #19
Was making a tuna noodle casserole, and added crushed up potato chips on top. Put it under the broiler on the top rack and proceed to wait. A minute or two later the oven starts making some weird beeping it's never done before and the display is just blinking FIRE. Sure enough, open the oven and the chips are on fire. I tried scraping off the top half of the casserole, but the burnt oil flavor had seeped through the whole thing. In the garbage it went. It seems so dumb in hindsight-putting it on the TOP rack under a GAS broiler. But I am proud to say I haven't set any casseroles on fire since then :)
Sue 2 years ago
I pulled a roasted chicken in a glass pan out of the oven and set it on a burner that I had forgotten to turn off. just as I realized it, I went to pick it up and it broke in half and hot oil went everywhere and caught fire. my dumb EX was just running away, so put it out myself with wet towels. and I've seen too many people freak out when something in the oven is on fire just turn the oven off. if you have a pan or something on a burner and it catches fire,ppu a lid on it or put it in the oven and turn it keep off. Never use water on a grease fire. the oil floats on top of the water and the fire just spreads
Jessica Reitzell 2 years ago
I did the same thing and kids remind me about it every, and I mean, EVERY, time I put something in the oven. They were literal babies when it happened so I don't know what they think they remember but surely it's not necessary to notify the fire department whenever I cook
#20
In my early 20s and as a young wife, I tried to make fried chicken. Once the crust became pale yellow, I felt it looked as good as churches chicken, a fast food place that has a light golden crust. It was completely raw on the inside and wasted lots of chicken, hours of my time, and my dignity. Lol
TheGoodBoi 2 years ago
All of these pics are making me hungry, then reading the posts makes me not hungry 🙃 vicious circle.
SonicAlchemy 2 years ago
This one is as simple as knowing how to do it. You can't base the readiness of chicken on its exterior color. It's like a microwave burrito. Might be scalding hot on the outside but frozen solid on the inside. Use a thermometer, they're a cooking accessory for a reason.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
This is why you always use a meat thermometer, especially with chicken. I learned the hard way, too.
Brian Droste 2 years ago
A trick I was taught many years ago is you take a toothpick and poke it in the chicken or for that matter any meat. If it goes in easy the meat should be done. If there is any resistance the meat is not cooked all the way. I have used that guide for many many years.
#21
Really early in learning to cook; I was prepping a beautiful Capon. I reached for a can of cooking spray to give a the bird a spray & after giving it a good long once over,realized too late I'd hit it with Lysol. Tried rinsing it but it still reeked of Lysol so yep,in the trash it went. Grilled cheese anyone?
Kookamunga 2 years ago
I call BS on this story. Who keeps their cooking products and cleaning products together?
Victor Botha 2 years ago
Cooling spray is vegetable or olive oil in a pressurized aerosol can that you can spray onto cookware or food before cooking it
Brian Droste 2 years ago
Who keeps cooking oil and cleaning products together or close by each?
#22
One of the first times I was making stroganoff and my broth wasn't thick enough. I remember my mom adding flour to it to thicken it. Well, I kept pouring flour in. Probably close to a cups worth. It was thick alright but tastes awful. Totally ruined it. I affectionately named it "glue-ganoff"
Libstak 2 years ago
Cornflour thickens sauces...1 teaspoon, maximum 1 tablespoon for generous sized sauces does the trick.
The Other Guest 2 years ago
When my widowed dad tried to make stew for the first time, he asked his sister how to thicken it. I don't know where the communication breakdown happened, but he swore she told him to use a whole cup of cornstarch. It did get thick, though. Very, very thick.
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#23
I didn't ruin it, but I made a wedding cake that the groom said only going 2 blocks and 2 turns so a box isn't needed. The best man was holding it. It made it 1.5 blocks and one turn. Luckily one store in town had a decent size cake and could decorate it quickly. The cake made it to the reception 15 minutes before the bride and groom got there.
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago (edited)
If I was the one who baked it, I would have insisted on a box or no cake.
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
That sounds like a fairly easy fix. Somebody I used to know worked at a photo store/lab/studio and said the owner once tripped and fell into a wedding cake while shooting the reception. That's much harder to fix.
#24
I was following a Food Network recipe for Carbonara by Marc Murphy and he said to make the water "as salty as the sea." Seemed a tad excessive, but I wasn't going to question a good network chef. I know what seawater tastes like, so I seasoned accordingly. My God it was inedible. And I had made such a big batch too, a whole box of noodles, several eggs, a pack of bacon (only bacon was available in my town, we had no proper meat market.) I had to toss it out. I was so disappointed.
Alethea Fletcher 2 years ago
I suspect that's the same thing I watched. And tried. Let me say that salting the water to be as much as the sea... nope nope nope. Ruined dinner...but it was a memorable mistake that we have learnt from.
idraax poission 2 years ago
Clearly the chef didn't know what sea water tasted like
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HangryHangryHippo 2 years ago
If it's fresh pasta, makes sense for a very salted water as the pasta will be in the water just for a few minutes and the dough is usually prepared without salt. But for boxed pasta, big nono.
#25
I have been making meat loaf for years and have perfected making it to my taste. Part of that is to add some Worcester sauce to the mixture. I distractedly reached into my pantry for a brown bottle of sauce and chucked it into the mixture. It was not Worcester. It was toasted sesame oil. At that point, there was no point of return.
I’d like to say that I had somehow fumbled my way into a new and exiting concoction. One that would spawn a cooking blog, success and recognition as an innovative home chef.
Yeah. No. It was not good. I got through a bit of it because I was super hungry. It was worse on day 2, when I thought I’d try one of my favorite things, a delicious meat loaf sandwich. Ew.
Cyndielouwhoo 2 years ago
Whoever chose the stock art with this has clearly never even seen a meatloaf...cuz this pic ain't it!
Kookamunga 2 years ago
Yeah, that looks like a pork loin. Here's a lovely meatloaf. batoutofhe...631c55.jpg 
#26
I made peach cookies that smelled fantastic while baking. Had to spit out my first bite it was so salty. Went back to the recipe and noticed I quadrupled the amount of baking soda. It pained me to toss them because they were made with fresh peaches a friend had grown. My mom once added liquid dish soap to a cake she was making for my sister's class party. She was supposed to add oil...
The Other Guest 2 years ago
Baking soda is another name for sodium bicarbonate. Sodium is an element of salt, so yes. Baking soda is very, very salty.
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Mary Hiers 2 years ago
There's a recipe in my old (1985) edition of Joy of Cooking called "One-Egg Cake" because it's a good cake, easy, and only needs one egg. I used to make it all the time. Welp, one time, guess which ingredient I forgot to add to my "One-Egg Cake." Go on, guess! It turned out like a giant, non-tasty pancake and I had to throw it away.
The Other Guest 2 years ago
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you forgot the baking powder 🤣🤣
Load More Replies... Brian Droste 2 years ago
Why would dish soap and cooking oil next to each other? All my cleaning supplies and cooking stuff are in two different areas. So should not get mixed up.
Ovata Acronicta 2 years ago
No one anywhere is addressing the soap. Let's speculate. Grabbed the wrong container? brainfart? assumption that all liquid things of a certain viscosity work the same?
#27
I've almost entirely quit buying spice mixes for that very reason. Every damn one seems to have salt as its first ingredient...And I love salt but god damn.
ƒιѕн 2 years ago
Grabbed some lemon pepper at the store. Read the label after tasting it and it has salt in it.
Sue User 2 years ago
Dash ( formerly mrs dash ) has a huge variety. And before you all say " just buy the spuces and mix yourself", being single means huge jars of spices go to waste.
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Roxy222uk 2 years ago
It's far to easy to buy the spices individually and create your own mixes, but also, where are you buying spice mixes that have salt as the first ingredient??
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
I have no idea why garlic salt even exists, let alone why anyone with sense would buy it instead of garlic powder. You like salt more than you like garlic but don't have salt in the house?
#28
One time I bought like 30 dollars worth of ingredients for a HUGE pan of Mac n cheese. Used a recipe, followed it to a T, and it turned out absolutely horrendous. So eggy and dry. It was such a waste. I’ve ruined/burned plenty of things but that one always stands out to me.
The Other Guest 2 years ago
"Who the hell needs a recipe for macaroni cheese?" Someone who's never made it before. Someone who isn't a good cook, or is still learning. Someone who came across an interesting variation and wants to give it a try. There are billions of things to know, and to know how to do, in this world. Don't shame someone for not knowing the same ones you do.
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#29
When I was a kid I put buttermilk on my cereal.
Ovata Acronicta 2 years ago
...I'm gonna go get some cereal and buttermilk and get back to you. Especially on, what looks like, cinnamon toast crunch. Or the french toast ones if I can find them.
#30
I burn garlic more than I are to admit. And there’s fewer things as toxic as burnt garlic
Beth H 2 years ago
Almost every damn recipe tells you to add garlic when you add onions..that's always too soon.
Roxy222uk 2 years ago
Add the garlic when all the other ingredients to be fried are ready. Stir the garlic into the other ingredients only for long enough for the heat to start releasing the flavour. Then it's time to add the liquid ingredients (tinned tomatoes, stock, can of coconut milk etc). Another ingredient that benefits from a minute's stir to heat and release the flavour before adding the liquid ingredients is tomato puree. And, obviously, spices.
#31
Made a beautiful chicken stock, strained it through a colander but forgot to put a pan under it. It went down the drain. 😢
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago
There would have been a little bit recoverable from the P trap under the sink.
Bored Trash Panda 2 years ago
This seem like a common thing people do as it is on this list several times.
#32
I wouldn’t say ruined, but not wasting avocados can be annoyingly tricky
#33
A whole Costco pork shoulder. Was on the smoker overnight, I missed my middle of the night alarm and woke up to it being in the danger zone with no idea how long. Not worth the risk to give a whole party food poisoning. I felt terrible.
#34
Ate anyway but nutmeg chicken with 3 tablespoons of nutmeg. Spaghetti sauce starter.
Not edible though a friend loved them, hockey puck rolls.
#35
Big pot of Cajun shrimp pasta with WAY too much cayenne. I don't mind some heat but it was too much. Thought I'd be okay eyeballing it as I usually do but I was just way f*****g off lol.
Jan Moore 1 year ago
Made fajitas yesterday, put mine together including the store brand guacamole. First bite was so, so spicy. My husband said he got the one I pointed at. There were 2 different kinds there, mild and spicy. Due to an auto immune disorder I can't handle any spicy, even a little too much pepper hurts.
#36
I just made a soup recipe that called for frozen ravioli, but my store was out, so I subbed frozen tortellini. It turned into one large and sloppy tortellini in the instant pot, but the bottom was burnt. It was....very gelatinous.
Momten Jillian 2 years ago
You added it way too soon. Wait until the end. Sample it as it cooks to ensure you don't boil it to death
#37
He accidentally swapped Cinnamon for Cayenne once. This was in my earliest forays in the kitchen. To be fair, they are very similar in consistency and color. Ruined a whole batch of chili. A dash of Cinnamon would've probably been ok, but that was all you could taste.
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago
Cinnamon is the transatlantic computer code of the spice world. A little bit goes a long way.
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
I suspect that the potential power to run things with cinnamon or cayenne have a fair amount of symmetry.
Dorothy Reiser 2 years ago
My mom mistook the cayenne for paprika for the chicken she served our guests and wondered why no one was eating her famous chicken paprikash.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 2 years ago
My roommate puts a cinnamon stick in his chili. Don't care for it honestly
#38
salt is probably the most common culprit. ruined a batch of pasta using salted water, too much to salt to use with parm later in pan. now salt is accounted for at every step.
made mole with some friends one night. no one had ever had mole before other than myself. none of us had tried making it ever. used a well rated recipe. called for whole clove. too much was used so how (?) and the whole pot tasted like a chocolate tomato djarum cig. it was edible but overall very unappealing for how much work went in.
#39
One time I made a burrito with fried rice, homemade general tso chicken, fried cabbage, and water chestnuts and wanted just a splash of soy sauce one I bit off the top… Worcestershire is what I grabbed… Like, even the relatively small bit of Worch in that burrito f****d it to the point I couldn’t stand to eat.
#40
Did something similar with Cajun spice mix. Generously sprinkled it on some chicken breast. It was soooo salty. We powered through it. It was not quite inedible. But close. My most memorably ruined food item was peanut brittle. I mistakenly thought I could substitute sugar water for corn syrup. I lived pretty far from civilization at the time (30 minute drive minimum to the nearest store) and still hopped in the car to go get more ingredients to try again. What a disaster that was.
#41
tried to make a cake but used a pan that was too big and i think i forgot something. it just smoked up the whole place.
#42
Awww, you could have used that chicken in a soup! Simmering it in water would've drawn some of the salt out, I'm sure. I once bought like 8 packs of tofu at once thinking they were shelf stable. I don't know why I thought this... maybe the water they're packed in reminded me of pickle brine. So I kept them in the pantry. Opened one after 3 weeks, noticed it had an off smell and immediately realized what I'd done 😭 So much tofu... wasted. I still feel so bad.
#43
You can sometimes make like chicken salad with mayo and it can help. One time my dad put so much garlic salt on a pork tenderloin and it was also inedible. Needless to say the garlic salt was thrown out and now we just have garlic powder and salt. We also have a fresh garlic too but that’s given.
#44
I found a recipe online for a cheesy chicken crock-pot meal. I put all the ingredients in the crock-pot before I left for work. When I got home, the entire house smelled like vomit. I'm not sure what happened in the cooking process, but the food not only smelled like vomit, but looked like it, as well. The whole meal went into the trash. It stank up our outside garbage cans so bad that our landlord said something to us about it. The garbage cans had to be bleached after the trash pick up that week.
What do you think ?
The Scout 2 years ago
I made a batch of chili once. When I took out the dried chili peppers to carefully season it, the lid got off. In my panic I somehow managed to drop the whole glass into the pot. Opinions were divided: Of twenty people, twelve declared the chili inedible, while the other eight insisted it was the best chili they had ever tasted.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Yep. Hot stuff is like that . I personally loooove it <3
Load More Replies...
Brainmas 2 years ago (edited)
I made peanut butter cookies one time and forgot to add the flour. It held together when I scooped it because of the peanut butter, then turned into puddles in the oven. My daughter still loved them, I couldn't eat them.
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
My sister was making Italian rainbow cookies and accidentally used anise extract instead of almond; she didn't realize until they were baking. They weren't horrible but just too much anise for me to consume. I tried to eat the cookies since I'm the guilty party who bought anise extract (we never had it in the house before) but I just couldn't.
TheElementalGod️️ 2 years ago
My dad was making sugar cookies in Sweden (He was visiting a friend.) He poured in a bunch of sugar. Then the friend asked him if he was going to put in any sugar for the sugar cookies. He looked and... He had poured salt in, not sugar.
Margrete Sonnenberg 2 years ago
I didn't mix all the flour lumps in a cherry loaf, so after it was baked and cut opened there were was a big clump of flour just hanging out in the loaf.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 2 years ago (edited)
When I was a teen, I lived in an apartment with one of those electric stoves that had an electric outlet on it. Gotta be sure you're turning on the right burner or you'll burn though the cord to the crockpot, that's been on and cooking all day. You'll never figure out how I discovered this.....
Manuel Delgado 2 years ago
I'd, as a child, fill empty yoghurt cups with orange juice and put them on the freezer, and then unmolded them an chew on them on hot days. Few months passed, I was with a friend probably doing some experiment, when I open the freezer and found two cups. "Try it! Orange juice, it's delicious!" I said. The friend eagerly bit his and his expression decomposed. So I tried mine and I almost threw up... Until I recognized chicken's broth taste.
The Scout 2 years ago
I made a batch of chili once. When I took out the dried chili peppers to carefully season it, the lid got off. In my panic I somehow managed to drop the whole glass into the pot. Opinions were divided: Of twenty people, twelve declared the chili inedible, while the other eight insisted it was the best chili they had ever tasted.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Yep. Hot stuff is like that . I personally loooove it <3
Load More Replies... Brainmas 2 years ago (edited)
I made peanut butter cookies one time and forgot to add the flour. It held together when I scooped it because of the peanut butter, then turned into puddles in the oven. My daughter still loved them, I couldn't eat them.
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
My sister was making Italian rainbow cookies and accidentally used anise extract instead of almond; she didn't realize until they were baking. They weren't horrible but just too much anise for me to consume. I tried to eat the cookies since I'm the guilty party who bought anise extract (we never had it in the house before) but I just couldn't.
TheElementalGod️️ 2 years ago
My dad was making sugar cookies in Sweden (He was visiting a friend.) He poured in a bunch of sugar. Then the friend asked him if he was going to put in any sugar for the sugar cookies. He looked and... He had poured salt in, not sugar.
Margrete Sonnenberg 2 years ago
I didn't mix all the flour lumps in a cherry loaf, so after it was baked and cut opened there were was a big clump of flour just hanging out in the loaf.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 2 years ago (edited)
When I was a teen, I lived in an apartment with one of those electric stoves that had an electric outlet on it. Gotta be sure you're turning on the right burner or you'll burn though the cord to the crockpot, that's been on and cooking all day. You'll never figure out how I discovered this.....
Manuel Delgado 2 years ago
I'd, as a child, fill empty yoghurt cups with orange juice and put them on the freezer, and then unmolded them an chew on them on hot days. Few months passed, I was with a friend probably doing some experiment, when I open the freezer and found two cups. "Try it! Orange juice, it's delicious!" I said. The friend eagerly bit his and his expression decomposed. So I tried mine and I almost threw up... Until I recognized chicken's broth taste.
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