Have you ever witnessed a cooking catastrophe so epic it's forever etched in your memory? Care to spill the beans on your most embarrassing culinary fail?
Do you have a funny kitchen mishap that still makes you laugh to this day?
I am forever scarred by my attempt to make macarons. I don't know if it's because my kitchen is too hot, my house too humid or what...but after half a dozen failed attempts, I stopped. I need to see if I can dig up the pictures of my first failed batches.
My MIL brought me a king ranch casserole one day to help with the cooking as my husband, her son, had just had surgery.
I took a bite and had to spit it out! She had used cinnamon instead of chile powder! She later told us she thought it tasted funny but couldn't figure out what had happened and then proceeded to get mad because we told her we had to throw it out. 😅
Another I remembered. Popovers, I made them three times from two recipes, this is the best and none of them released from the pan. It was a challenge to clean the pan.
No pictures (partially cuz it was a long time ago; partially cuz I want to forget it) but I made a mango pudding from scratch for an important dinner with a woman I was dating and it came out like soup. It never set. We had a laugh about it at the time but I think that's the recipe that taught me to follow the recipe at least once before I start taking liberties with it. (We dated for a while but, like the pudding, it never gelled.)
I tried to make a mousse-like grasshopper pie and I remember it didn't set so I stuck it in the freezer and it was amazing. I wish I could find that recipe again but I guarantee I couldn't make the same mistakes again and that's exactly how I'd want it again. 😀
It took me a while to get a handle on using my gas oven when I moved into my current residence. I tried to do an English roast in a dutch oven one day and that poor piece of meat ended up charcoal on the exposed surfaces. I trimmed it heavily and ended up with enough edible meat for supper but I lost about 50%.
I put part of that on it being hard to find a roast that weighs more than 1.9 lbs these days due to the high price of meat. My last meat manager used to lecture me about a package costing more than $12. I was prone to lopping off a real roast in the 3 lb. range.
I no longer remember the dish, but it was one of the first meals my wife made us after we got married 37 years ago. We each took a bite and decided it was inedible. We gathered all of our spare change and went to McDonald's.
Not my moment and she will hate me if she ever sees this post. My daughter who later became a chef cooked us a meal @ 12 or 13. Mixed up T and t for the salt. The pizza we ordered was good.
There was a home ec requirement each year at my Jr. High. The first year was sewing and laundry and similar tasks. The second year was meal planning, budgeting, and cooking. I no longer remember her name but the teacher painstakingly drilled the cookbook abbreviations in class.
I think I was 10 or 11 years old and decided I'd make beef stew for supper. How hard could it be? I mean I'd seen Mom make it and it was usually pretty good. (Bear in mind that beef stew is 1 of the 3 or 4 thing she can cook well) I knew she used the beef, carrots, potatoes, and onions. She cut up the vegetables and tossed them in the crock pot, and tossed the beef in something white before putting it in. So I grabbed the first white thing in a bag I saw, tossed the meat around and dumped it in.
8 hours later I found out I'd grabbed the sugar and not the flour like Mom used and I didn't brown the meat before tossing it in.
I think I was 10 or 11 years old and decided I'd make beef stew for supper. How hard could it be? I mean I'd seen Mom make it and it was usually pretty good. (Bear in mind that beef stew is 1 of the 3 or 4 thing she can cook well) I knew she used the beef, carrots, potatoes, and onions. She cut up the vegetables and tossed them in the crock pot, and tossed the beef in something white before putting it in. So I grabbed the first white thing in a bag I saw, tossed the meat around and dumped it in.
8 hours later I found out I'd grabbed the sugar and not the flour like Mom used and I didn't brown the meat before tossing it in.
I think I was 10 or 11 years old and decided I'd make beef stew for supper. How hard could it be? I mean I'd seen Mom make it and it was usually pretty good. (Bear in mind that beef stew is 1 of the 3 or 4 thing she can cook well) I knew she used the beef, carrots, potatoes, and onions. She cut up the vegetables and tossed them in the crock pot, and tossed the beef in something white before putting it in. So I grabbed the first white thing in a bag I saw, tossed the meat around and dumped it in.
8 hours later I found out I'd grabbed the sugar and not the flour like Mom used and I didn't brown the meat before tossing it in.
I don't remember if it did, but somehow I don't think so. I asked Mom and she doesn't remember either...lol
As for Medieval recipes, if you'd like I'll be happy to post some. I've got TONS of them from primary sources. Some are redacted, some aren't, and some are adapted for the modern pallet. I'd scan the original and follow that with the redaction typed out (with my notes if any about substitutions or modifications).
I've tried most of those and they're actually quite good.
Sorry I didn't get any posted last night. I fell asleep at about 7:30 and didn't wake up until about 8:00 this morning.
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