3 replies to this topic

[Lizzy Borden]

Was it a total disaster or were you able to salvage the mess?
Was it a huge embarrassment because other people were involved?

Since I'm not a 'cook', I've only done minor stupid things over the years like adding baking soda to beans while cooking them because I had heard somewhere that it might make them less gas-forming -- foamy mess.

Then many years ago I tried adding(healthy)lecithin granules to tomato soup -- ewww -- slimy yellow stuff in red soup.

[Lawrence Wheeler]

the worst mistake i made was fun. i wanted to make donuts. and i didn't have a deep fryer. so i just heated some oil on the stove. but i also didn't have a candy thermometer to see what the temperature was, and i had never deep fried anything before, so i thought the oil was supposed to be actually boiling. so yeah, the put the dough in the boiling oil and it exploded everywhere. then to make things more fun, i tried to pour the boiling oil down the drain. which was another explosion. so i thought i should cool it down with some cold water, which was a nice hot oily steam explosion. (please note i was still in my teens when this happened)

[JulyJames]

A new bride of one week, I decided to make chicken cacciatore and, with the knowledge that "if a little is good, a lot is better," I dumped in an entire spice jar of oregano. All was well until about an hour into the cooking and the smell was so bad that I actually had to go outside. My husband came home from work about five minutes into my sitting on the front steps and I just was bawling! He laughed, went inside and dumped the entire dish into the disposal and called out for Chinese. I think I really fell in love with him that day! I've had a few other disasters but none equalled that horrific experience and it was 30 years before I made chicken cacciatore again, much more successfully I will add!

[MuffinLover]

Aluminum saucepan of water. Electric stove on High. Several hours later, pool of molten aluminum in the drip pan of the burner.
During a similar incident I discovered that hard boiled eggs will explode dramatically all over the kitchen if the water boils away and you leave them for awhile.
Readers will probably be relieved to know that I have since learned to use a timer and discovered I'm actually a very good cook, when the ADD is kept in check.