What's The Worst Cooking Mistake You've Made?

[jennyl772003]

When I was a kid, our local paper had a "ccoking class" in it. Every week they would put a progressivly harder recipe in the paper for the kids to make.

I decided this was something I wanted to do. One of the first weeks, the recipe was some sort of cake. I mixed up the batter, pre heated the over, poured it into the pan, stuck it in the oven, and set the timer.

Sounds like everything was going good, doesn't it.

After the timer went off, I checked the cake, still practically raw. Put it back in. Checked again in 5 minutes, nothing.

After going through this routine forever, I called my mom to help me.

My problem, instead of setting the oven for 350, I had it set for 250.

My husband cooks in my family...

 

[orangeblossom]

My S.O. just told me that the first year he and his ex-wife were married, she was making turkey and they had heard about cooking turkey in a bag in the oven and she did but when she opened the oven a great big fire ball came out.

 

[smilingmouse]

basically.
My mom didn't think it was so funny. lol

Sparx--I have to ask--how did you manage to do this? I'd love the details....

 

[denisem]

When I was a kid decided to save a step in making fried bologna, so I just put the bologna in the toaster. Not a pretty sight.

More recently, decided to surprise my DH with flan ("my grandmother made the best flan"). Was ok until I got to the carmelizing sugar part - I'm not kidding, I had about 6 or 7 pans in the sink. I either ended up with rock candy or burnt mess (but I kept trying!).

He came home and got it right on the first try.

Denise < --- DH makes better fried eggs, too

 

[pfishgirl]

ok so I have 3 stories to tell....

1st.. when I was young we use to use a brown paper bag with popcorn in it for the microwave...turn microwave on, popcorn pops...walla..right?? well, I never knew twisted ties had wire in them..sooooooo instead of popping popcorn I was throwning water into the microwave to put out the fire..oh and noone ever told me, duhhhhhh it's plugged in, it's electric, ummm lucky you didn't shock yourself....

2nd.. I was boiling eggs to make Hard Boied eggs for our Salad..well I forgot all about them on the stove..I was on the phone and I hear BANG... I yelled..Oh My God My Eggs...dropped the phone and went running.. Yup egg guts everywhere...

3rd.. I was melting swiss cheese on top of an opened tunafish sandwhich in the toaster oven..the cheese dripped over and wouldn't ya know.. it caught fire in my toaster oven.. I am assuming the oil in the cheese made it catch on fire instead of just burning to a crisp...

sooooo now I have a on duty 24/7.... he lives next door..

 

[Sparx]

Sparx--I have to ask--how did you manage to do this? I'd love the details....

I was making pan cakes. I thought that i turned the stove off, but I had knocked it on to high, instead. I stupidly left the can of cooking spray on the stove top. About 10 minutes later... boom.

 

[MrsKreamer]

I was recently cooking red beans(kidney beans for you Yankees) and rice for dinner. Well I have a 6 month old and didn't stir the beans as much as I should have. Burnt red beans taste aweful !

I love cooking in a slow cooker, for reason stated above, so I got a brand new slow cooker recipe book. I read a recipe to DH and it sounded good. Well Dijoun Pork roak tastes worse than feet!

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

The worst cooking mistake I have ever made was attempting to cook

 

[Stitchfan]

At first I only thought I had made one big cooking mistake: Pouring 4 cups instead of 1/4 cups of water into a cake mix when I was little ( I ended up realizing what I had done and dumped the extra water out and baked the cake anyway- you'd never imagine how many compliments I received on how moist the cake was).

And then I read this thread, and I learned something new, and realized that I had made one other bad cooking mistake...

I had to make a Spanish rice dish for an event in a class I was taking last year that called for 2 cloves of garlic. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very popular dish at the event . Upon reading this very thread, I now realize that the downfall of this rice dish may have been the simple fact that I used two bulbs rather than cloves of garlic.

No worries though friends, I solemly swear to only cook PopTarts from now on

 

[phillybeth]

DH once grabbed the wrong spice container and added cinnamon to home fires instead of paprika

 

[cadburysmom]

Trying to cook AT ALL has been my biggest mistake

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

Trying to cook AT ALL has been my biggest mistake

That's what I said!

 

[remyandhollandsmommy]

These weren't my mistakes, they were my step-dad's. My mom normally cooks (she's a chef) but the few times she had to work late Bob tried to cook himself dinner. First he tried boil in a bag rice. Easy, right...I mean it says it all right there. Boil in a bag. Bob emptied the rice out of the bag into a pot and somehow burned it. He made hard black rice. Yumm! The second time he tried to cook himself some boiled eggs. Yep, boiled eggs in a bowl of water in the microwave. Have you ever seen eggs explode? Very messy.

Now my mom pre-cooks dinner on nights Bob has to fend for himself LOL.

 

[pfishgirl]

Oh and there was the exploding eggs.

I was boiling a dozen eggs - I wasn't sure how long to boil them and just let them go. I got busy doing something and all the water boiled out.

Scared the crap out of me to hear the *pop* *pop* *pop*

I was sure they were exploding and didn't want to go in the kitchen.

OOOooOOO and and smell of burnt egg shells - ugh

and i thought i was the ONLY one that exploded eggs....
i was lucky i only exploded 1 out of 4...
i think my DH watching me try to get the pan off the stove (scared to death of another one popping while holding the pot) had way too much fun...

 

[slo]

I used a parnsip once in a receipe. It was so bad, DH and I threw it away and got Burger King for dinner.

 

[FINFAN]

Biggest mistake was thinking I could cook in the first place! Not even close to improoving either Just saw Cadbury's post...nice to have company in this area! Another goof was coming in from work and starting dinner before I even had my coat off...became a BAD habit of everyone thinking dinner was going to be ready right away (no matter how pathetic it was )


Pam

 

[goofygirl]

My mom left the bag in the turkey too

Nothing major, just one time I was making pancakes with my "non-stick" pan, which was no longer a non-stick pan since the batter stuck to the pan, it got burnt, and set off the smoke alarm. I got a new pan the next day.

Not a cooking mishap, but a kitchen mishap- I opened a big bottle of soda and it exploded all over the place. Of course it had to be black cherry!

 

[pajamommy]

My worst cooking mistake? Cooking!!

 

[FroggyinArk]

you mean besides letting dw know i could cook? and not to badly?


would have to be the time i mistakenly made gravy and used poultry seasoning,, we still joking ly ( yeah right shes serious) judge erroneous recipees by the green gravy scale i've made af ew things that while probably ok , just didnt suit us after they were done. never make meatloaf by mixing it in a food processor to save time,, noi matter what rachel ray says that stuff had one nasty texture,, tasted like meatloaf,, but felt like fried mud pies

 

[Fantasmic303]

I either haven't had any huge blunders or I've just blocked them from my mind - either option is equally plausible.


With that being said, keep the stories coming - I'm taking notes, cause if I don't learn from your mistakes I'm bound to make the same ones myself!!!