21 Users Of This Online Community Forum About Their Cooking …
Article created by: Denis Krotovas
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
I was on a baking spree this past weekend. I baked a cake, 30+ waffles and homemade pasta. Turns out my flour was sour.
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
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.
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
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?
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”
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.
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.
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.
