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

[DisneyAddict_M]

I made chocolate chip cookies once without flour. They slid off the pan when they were done.

My first attempt at making pumpkin pie, I misread teaspoons for cups when adding baking powder (or was it baking soda?) It came out hard as a rock.

 

[jx3smom]

I know I've made many mistakes but I can't think of them right now. One time I forgot to put yeast in the mixture in the bread maker. I had one hard lump for bread. It could have been used as a weapon.


The first time I made meatballs I used 2 cans of tomato paste instead of 2 tablespoons and I wondered why they were mushy.

 

[jx3smom]

Oh, I also remember roasting a chicken up side down once.

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

I hae had a few missteps on my way to my current cooking proficiency! These days, I am actually a good cook, but getting there was interesting.

I have smoked up my kitchen several times. The worst was when I wa trying to make a "rolled" cake. Since that cake has to be thin, I do not advise putting it in the oven, setting the timer, then running across the street for a second and coming back an hour later. I opened the front door to a smoky haze. Nothing on fire, but a rock hard and black sheet cake!

The peppercorn story reminded me of picklinng hot peppers. 3 years ago, DH decided he wanted to grow hot peppers. The first 2 years, he did OK and we had a few peppers, but he was disappointed. He thought the plants should be producing more. Turn out he was right. Last year, he got it right! We had pepper (jalpenos, habaneros, hot banana peppers, serranos, thai chili) coming out our ears. I made close to 500 jalapeno poppers (each pepper makes 2!) and we still had jalapenos left! It was incredible. So I spent 2 full weekends making various pepper jellies and pickling hot peppers. I also spent 1 weekend coughing from all the fumes. The second weekend, I got smart and wore a mask. Not 100% effective, but much better. Speaking of that, does anyone want a peppers?? I still have tons left!

 

[Missy1961]

I was making a crumbcake. The crumb topping included brown sugar, flour, walnuts, butter. After I used each ingredient, I put it away, congratulating myself for having less of a mess when I was done. Well, the cake also needed flour, but for some reason I left it out. I realized it before I baked the cake, but after I put the batter in the pan. I tried to add it, but it didn't really mix in. I put the crumb topping on and baked it anyway. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. The next time I made it, and added the flour to the batter, the cake was awesome--it was eaten in 5 minutes!

 

[Papa Deuce]

Not me but an EX GF..... brought macaroni salad to our party. Looked great! Took a bite and almost broke a tooth! She didn't cook the macaroni!

AAhe said she thought that the mayonaise would soften it up!

 

[welovedisneyx4]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I figure there are others who have done this.

When we moved into our new house (w/ all new appliances) in 2003, I went to pop some microwave popcorn and just punched in 2:45 like I always did on our at least 15 year old microwave w/ out noticing the "popcorn" button on our new model!! Our new model, of course, didn't need 2:45 for popcorn. Man did it ever stink!!!

 

[orangeblossom]

I hae had a few missteps on my way to my current cooking proficiency! These days, I am actually a good cook, but getting there was interesting.

I have smoked up my kitchen several times. The worst was when I wa trying to make a "rolled" cake. Since that cake has to be thin, I do not advise putting it in the oven, setting the timer, then running across the street for a second and coming back an hour later. I opened the front door to a smoky haze. Nothing on fire, but a rock hard and black sheet cake!

The peppercorn story reminded me of picklinng hot peppers. 3 years ago, DH decided he wanted to grow hot peppers. The first 2 years, he did OK and we had a few peppers, but he was disappointed. He thought the plants should be producing more. Turn out he was right. Last year, he got it right! We had pepper (jalpenos, habaneros, hot banana peppers, serranos, thai chili) coming out our ears. I made close to 500 jalapeno poppers (each pepper makes 2!) and we still had jalapenos left! It was incredible. So I spent 2 full weekends making various pepper jellies and pickling hot peppers. I also spent 1 weekend coughing from all the fumes. The second weekend, I got smart and wore a mask. Not 100% effective, but much better. Speaking of that, does anyone want a peppers?? I still have tons left!

I'll take some

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Busting a pan while trying to make soup

 

[helenabear]

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!).

Okay i have to say, that carmelizing sugar is NOT the easiest thing in the world. A trick is to add just a little bit of water in with the sugar and cook it slow and on a lower heat. I always buy kraft caramels just in case

I've really only had small cooking mishaps... of course they feel like the end of the world when they happen (mostly involving getting the cooking time/temps right). The worst though wasn't even my fault. My spatula started to melt (it was *supposed* to be safe up to 500°... guess not) and so I wanted to wash out the pan before the plastic stuck to the pan. Did y'all know that Dawn dish soap burns quickly and smells nasty? It does... we'll leave it at that

 

[Growin'upDisney]

Not too many mishaps.

Once read tsp. for cups - those cookies were awful.

But a funny one happened when I was making fondue. You are supposed to lightly toss the grated swiss cheese with cornstarch to counteract some of the oils. Well all my powders (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, powdered sugar) are all in tupperware type containers with labels on them. Well the cornstarch and powdered surgar are in the same size container. I grabbed the wrong one and tossed nearly two pounds of grated cheese in powdered sugar. I would never have known but I guess instinct kicked in and I tasted the cheese before tossing it in the pot to melt - It was awful. so I wracked my brain trying to figure out what to do. I threw the cheese in a strainer and quickly washed it under water. Patted it dry and then tossed it in cornstarch. Melted the cheese, threw in a lot of garlic and wine and viola - it was pretty darn good in the end.

 

[pettyone]

Well...

Mom's Birthday Cake-First Attempt

My recently departed Nanna used to always make my Mom an Italian Cream Cake for her birthday...I decided one year to make one for Mom since she hadn't had one since we moved away from Nanna. I called Nanna on the phone so that she could talk me through the process...when we got to the part about "folding in the egg whites", I "poured" mine in instead--had no idea what she meant by "folding". When the cake was finished, it was about 1/4 inch thick!!

Mom's Birthday Cake-Second Attempt (the next year)

I was determined to make this cake!! Again, called my Nanna...had a discussion about the previous year's disaster...I beat the egg whites until they were stiff (!) and "FOLDED" them in. The cake came out beautifully! I put it on a pretty plate & frosted it with cream cheese icing. I was soooooo excited that I had actually BAKED a cake (that looked edible), that I ran upstairs with the cake to show my roommate. She was tickled & humored. I turned to go back down the stairs with the cake AND FELL!! There was a stripe of cake & icing all the way down to the stairway landing, but I was sitting on the bottom step still holding the plate, stunned. My dear roomie helped me up & took me in the bathroom to get the cake off of me--had cake from ear to knee--she then exploded in laughter (WAS NOT FUNNY, I WAS NOT AMUSED!). You gotta love Moms for all that they do...Mom told me to salvage what I could from the stairway, put it in a bowl & bring it to her anyway...

What I do now: ORDER FROM A BAKERY!!

 

[briannesmom]

I hadn't been married very long and I wanted to make my husband a nice dinner. I found a recipe for Hawaiian Chicken that sounded really good. The recipe called for orange juice, pineapple juice and honey. I didn't realize we were out of orange juice until I started cooking. We had Sunny Delight so I figured orange juice-orange drink same thing. Turns out they are not even close. The Sunny Delight began to foam while cooking and stained the chicken bright orange. So we ended up with very foamy orange chicken.Dh ate it and didn't complain but I couldn't touch it. Thankfully in almost 9 years of marriage that is the only major cooking mistake I can think of.


Amy

 

[Tina]

I turned to go back down the stairs with the cake AND FELL!! There was a stripe of cake & icing all the way down to the stairway landing, but I was sitting on the bottom step still holding the plate, stunned. My dear roomie helped me up & took me in the bathroom to get the cake off of me--had cake from ear to knee--she then exploded in laughter (WAS NOT FUNNY, I WAS NOT AMUSED!). You gotta love Moms for all that they do...Mom told me to salvage what I could from the stairway, put it in a bowl & bring it to her anyway...

 

[Patty3]

I had my inlaws for dinner and wanted to splurge and make a filet mignon roast. While checking on the roast, I pulled the roasting pan rack towards me and I pulled to far because the roast fell off the rack and my roast hit the floor. The juices from the roast were leaking all over the floor. I tried to grab the roast as it fell and I slipped and fell on the floor because of the grease. At the exact time the roast hit the floor, MIL walked in and saw the entire thing. In fact, she helped me up off the floor. I wanted to crawl in a hole.

 

[Amberle3]

I had my inlaws for dinner

Sorry, I just found this really funny. Now that would certainly be a cooking mistake!

 

[orangeblossom]

LOL...I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that way.