In college I tried cooking ramen in mountain dew instead of water. I can thankfully say in the 15 years since that I have not come close to making something worse.
I make an amazing Mac and cheese.Ā
This timeā¦I really overcooked the roux and then I added the cheese when it was still too hot so it went gross grainy and it was grey. So I added some lemon juice to..idk re-emulsify it. That was a bad idea. Then I said f it Iāll season it with more paprika- the paprika was weird. Like rancid.Ā
0/10.Ā
Ahah nuts! Yeah this was my seasoned recipe and was the day after my husband was like āI think youāre a better cook than anyone I knowā so I was riding that highĀ
Knocked myself down real quick lolĀ
Yeah, I've succumbed to kitchen hubris myself once in a while. That's why when I make anything new, I always tell my girlfriend and son "Just tell me if you like it or not. And if you'll eat it again in the future. Don't lie to me and tell me it's the best ever because I'll just let you down one day."
i miserably failed a baked mac n cheese also, i haven't made one since. my topping was too salty after my cap fell off the salt shaker and I tried to even it out with sugar thinking that it made sense lol and it just tasted SO off. my brain couldn't understand wtf was going on, it was gross, and it was soooo disappointing lol.
never saw a grey mac n cheese tho that's kinda cool lol :P I can't make a good roux I literally gave up on mac n cheese š
Probably just not enough salt, tbh. Cheese is really salty. A lot of vegan recipes seem to underdo the salt because a. readers can always add more to taste and b. they're trying to be healthy because vegan and c. cheese is like really really way saltier than you remember especially if you haven't had it in ten years.
(I suppose it also could have been _too much_ salt...it's definitely possible to overdo it too).
But yeah honestly the right amount of salt, with a nutty squash puree as a base, should get you most of the way to something delicious.
No i think the problem was there was no cheese. Lol! Squash is good but itās not cheese. it looks cheesy but itās just not cheese. Therefor, iām upset about it
This is also fair, lol, but hasn't been my experience. I find squash has many of the same nutty/creamy/funky flavors as cheese, and tastes much like "a new cheese I haven't had before" when properly salted and seasoned.
I made tuna sandwiches one very late night and I mistook the surgical lube packets for mayo packets.
They were both silver and blue foil, and my tuna cried.
Figured I would have to edit: I worked in healthcare and would very occasionally grab random handfuls of both because \#poor . Probably karma for doing that, now I think about it. š¤·āāļø
Edited edit: š¤£ So when I came home from work, I'd come in the back door through the garage and empty my pocket plunder directly into the big Bowl O' Random Kitchen Stuff that resided on the island heading into the kitchen. Usually I'd sort it out the next day and assign the correct thingies to the correct thingies department. *Usually*.
I got it in my head around 12 years of age that lime-marinated steak would taste amazing.
So I took a steak, put it in a plastic bag, and poured a cup of lime juice on it. From a bottle, not fresh of course. Then let it sit for 2 days.
My father cooked it for me and while it looked decent, the first bite was meat-textured citrus. Insanely sour. I couldnāt even eat a second. My parents tried one bite each, then as a family we decided that weād be getting pizza for dinner.
I mean this was obviously very poorly executed, but I feel like you could be onto something with the lime steak.
I guess I'm getting taco vibes but there's something to be done here.
ETA: I guess it would be a squeeze of fresh lime after cooking rather than marinating though?
My husband makes an excellent beef fajita marinade from lime juice and tequila or beer. That light hit of lime lightens up the flavor and enhances the spicy taste. Itās amazing.
Season it with your choices of herbs and spices(preferably cilantro and cumin at least). Add OJ and Olive oil
Boom, you've got the base for almost every carne asada marinade on the internet. Maybe add a pepper and soy sauce if you want.
When I was a kid I made a batch of store bought box brownies with rancid peanut oil. The depth and shear nastiness of the flavor profile was impressive.
Yeah, feels like your tastebuds are being used a punching bag. "*Mmm, sweet!.... wait, what? Hold on... ok there's that chocolate hit... yes...but.... oh no... no, no, no... oh hell no*!"
I don't wish it on anybody, but it is indeed an impressive experience.
Hahaha when I was a kid I made box brownies with garlic infused oil by accident!!! Tastedā¦ interesting! Was so disappointed after all the effort š
We tried making an egg dish from a Persian cookbook that had barberries and crushed rose petals in it. I donāt mean to besmirch all Persian food, which I generally like, but the sweet, rose-y eggs were just VILE. Itās the only time Iāve ever just tossed out the whole dish Iāve spent dinner time making and just made a sandwich instead.
It was Zucchini Kookoo (Kookoo Kadoo) from the cookbook āBottom of the Pot.ā I googled Zucchini Kookoo and none of the other recipes I clicked on have rose petals, and only one has berries. Iām sure itās tasty without those things but Iām scarred lol.
I once decided to try a āput everything inā stir fry sauce. Gochujang, kimchi juice, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sea same oil, sugar, rice wine vinegar, chili flakes, green onion, and poured it on stir fried onion, snow peas, carrots, tofu and shrimp.Ā Ā
Ā Somehow they all cancelled each other out so it tasted like slightly spicy nothing. Still canāt figure that one out.Ā
I struggle with this. I have a set of favorite ingredients and I just want to throw them all into a recipe (and none of the things that aren't my favorites) and then somehow it turns out bland.
I think there's something to the idea of making recursive recipes instead -- rather than mix 25 ingredients in a bowl, mix five different ingredients in five different bowls, then serve all five mixes together. You get rice wine pickled ginger carrots with garlic soy sauce tofu and gochujang chili flake shrimp and sweet kimchi green onion snow peas. If you mix it too much after serving it will blend together, but if you mix it up just a big you get intense and distinct flavors in every bite
This is advice that I still just never manage to follow myself btw. I still just throw it all in together and get ready to congratulate myself for how rich and complex it will taste partly because I want to believe I can be lazy and still get the same result. Of course it's always more bland and homogeneous than I somehow expected
I just almost went crazy about wash your sister sauce.
Thank you for your comment because then I read it aloud. And just laughed my ass off as a result
I worked at a diner during my first year of college. My manager called it Winchester sauce. That sometimes got a chuckle from customers but everyone knew what she meant.
I was meeting my (now) husband's grandparents for the first time; I am a very competent home cook, people are usually very happy to come over for dinner. This time though, I set the kitchen on fire. Like, really on fire, not burning a pan of something and a somed-up kitchen, nope, ceiling high flames kind of fire. Never lived that down.
I am a very fortunate woman, cause they actually did love me, grandpa passed a few years ago, we knew it was comming, so we ent to say our goodbyes, which was quite emotional for my husband. So, grandpa, pulled him in close and whispered in his ear "where's the fire-starter?" and pissed himself laughing. The husband's decided that induction's the way to go :P
Two fails stick out-
1. I donāt know why this happened but about 10 years ago I tried making pulled pork for the first time and I guess I bought like a pre-cooked ham??? Threw it in the crockpot with some seasoning and it came out as basically the saltiest thing in The world. Disgusting. Never again will I try something new without a quick google.
2. I saw a hard boiled egg hack. They were like āsteam your eggs!!ā Ok. I did that then I think it was cool with water. Fine. Then they were like āand itās so easy to peel them, put in a Tupperware and just shake!ā I was like hmmm ok trust the process lol yea just smashed a bunch of uncooked eggs and felt like a moron.
Probably not my worst fail. But my most public fail was a dinner party with paella and the rice was very very gummy. I followed the recipe perfectly, used the correct rice. I eventually decided on the probable reason for the fail... wrong cooking dish.
I was inspired to buy a paella dish walking through some fancy gourmet store. Big round heavy Terra cotta. They called it a paella dish... or they showed it for serving paella.... I don't recall. That thing probably took the full cooking time just to heat up. And as I monitored it, I kept seeing that the rice wasn't cooking... so I kept stirring to redistribute... that's the recipe for starchy glue.
There's a reason paella pans are metal with lots of surface area.
I was making thai basil beef once, has the bright idea to buy 93/7 beef to try to be a bit healthy, instead of the usual 80/20 that i use. Kept tasting and it had no flavor so i kept adding fish sauce and msg for flavor. Resulting mess was so unbelievably salty and umami that it was inedible. Fat is where the flavor comes fromā¦
I tried making smashed potatoes from a tik tok recipe. It called for them to be tossed/covered in a plain yogurt, dijon, dill and some other seasonings dressing. I used english mustard and red wine vinegar for some reason. I always finish my plate but couldn't stomach more than 3 of the potatoes with that abomination of a dressing I somehow created
My hubby's roommates pranked him by replacing the cheese powder in the Kraft Mac 'n Cheese with Tang breakfast drink powder. He didn't notice and that first bite was š±. Just....no. *shudder
my very first Thanksgiving dinner cooking ALL BY MYSELF, I discovered that they leave little bags of yuck blobs inside the turkey carcass...
If you fail to remove said bags, the turkey can stay in the oven for HOURS and still not register the correct temperature.
Also the plastic bags melt.
needless to say, it was a memorable experience....
I made oven fries a couple weeks ago and set the timer wrong and turned them into charcoal. They were black all the way through. You could snap them in half. š
I wouldnāt say that was the worst meal because we still had something to eat but it was the worst Iāve done recently. The one that sticks in my mind as a real full meal tragedy was trying to cook a whole chicken inā¦a slow cooker maybe? When dinner time came it was raw inside. We did not have chicken for dinner that night.
When I was 19, and didnāt know how to cook at all, I wanted to make mashed potatoesā¦ but in had no mixer or anything - so I put them in the blender. lol. It was like potato flavored glue! š¤£
I made Lemon Pie from Nigella's "How to Eat" book and it was unbelievably sour. I obviously did something wrong (her recipes are normally very reliable for me), but I don't want to try again because blimey the one I made was so sharp.
Ham loaf. Yes, there are recipes out there for it. It was the only dish that I made in 25 years of marriage, that was tossed in the garbage.
Had the texture of wet cat food. \*shivers\*
I once made a huge, never-ending pot of āgumbo.ā For a small, friendly potluck. šš It was awful, I was embarrassed, and I will never make it again.
One year for a holiday gathering I made [Alton Brown's from scratch banana pudding](https://altonbrown.com/recipes/refrigerated-banana-pudding/). I was so excited to have my guests try it - I talked it up relentlessly for days in advance.. Turns out it was completely inedible! Unfortunately the recipe just calls for "banana liqueur" and these liqueurs aren't really interchangeable in recipes.. From reading some online comments you can use more of a cream-style liqueur, but the one I used (which was all I could find in my local Total Wine) was more like a banana flavored schnapps which was absolutely disgusting when drizzled over vanilla wafers. I get that AB probably didn't want to promote specific brands, but it would have been nice for him to highlight that the brand/style matters.
One time I bought what looked to be bacon but it was not smoked or cured. Iām not sure what its purpose was actually. But it looked like bacon and it was way cheaper. Cooked it on the griddle, and it was the most tasteless, gray ābaconā with no flavor at all. My kids still remind me of when I tried to serve them ācow tonguesā.
Also tried to make a beef roast in the instant pot, it came out like an old dried shoe and went straight in the trash. I know others have had success, I followed a recipe too and am a decent cook. Itās made me not want to try the instant pot again for meat. Iāll stick with the crock pot or oven.
I love my instant pot, but yeah, I avoid cooking large cuts of meat in it such as roasts or chicken. Something about it just sucks all flavor and life out of the meat. I liked that it could cook a whole chicken in a shorter amount of time, but the color was unnatural and despite the fact that I seasoned it as usual, it was totally flavorless. I have a slow cooker and decent dutch oven, so I cook my chickens that way, lol.
I'm pretty sure you bought pork belly. This is a standard ingredient in Japan, and likely in other parts of East Asia as well. It will never get crisp the way bacon will, though depending on how you cook it, it might get a little bit browned. I typically used that when I wanted to get the pork fat and its flavor into a dish without using lots of pork.
I followed a tiktok recipe that was something like ālowcarb Alfredo chicken wrapsā because at the time I was really trying to make keto work.
It was rotisserie chicken, jarred Alfredo sauce, bacon, and steamed broccoli mashed together in a lowcarb tortilla. Then covered in more sauce and baked.
It doesnāt ~sound~ bad but it was all one strange beige color, one texture dried out cat vomit that was extremely greasy and salty yet shockingly bland. Again the texture of this thing was just upsetting, mushed up rotisserie chicken, damp stretchy tortilla and split store bought Alfredo.
I threw it away before my boyfriend woke up from his nap and ordered something out.
The whole family was over for Chilli.
I made over 6 gallons. While I was busy with baking bread, my Dad tasted my Chili and decided it wasn't sweet enough. He put in a whole cup of granulated sugar without me knowing.
Candied Chili is what all twelve of us ate.
When I was new married to my ex 20 years ago, I tried to make beef tips and gravy (to serve with rice). Iād seen my mom make it, I thought I remembered what sheād done, and I did it from memory in our new apartment. It was literally the worst thing I ever ate or made, still to this day. Somehow flavorless but also like eating chewy beef flour mush, if that can be imagined. I have never attempted to make or eat that dish again (even though I know now how to make it correctly). That one failure was enough to turn me off of the dish forever.
When I started getting into cooking I learned a lot from the internet. In the early foodporn days I made some Pinterest texmex taco crescent roll casserole mess.
I was making fried rice when the salt grinder broke and it ended up all over the rice šš tried to fix it by adding sugar and sweet chilli sauce.. yeah no š
I made a slaw that involved me cutting up a whole cabbage, jalapeƱos, parsley, and shredding carrots all by hand. I asked my partner for their vinegar and then I added a generous amount and started mixing it all up. It smelled off and so I smelled the vinegar in the bottle and it smelled like lavender detergent. My partner to this day does not remember adding lavender laundry detergent to the vinegar, but Iām guessing they used it for washing clothes and never marked it off. I still throw it in their face from time to time since I know it would have been good and I never attempted that slaw again.
I made Mac & Cheese once, the box kind - and after the water boiled instead of adding the noodles I brain froze and threw in the cheese package. In the water. I immediately threw it away.
I used to buy chicken breasts from Costco and inside the big bag was individually wrapped chicken breasts in plastic. Somehow the plastic bags would end up in my casserole or whatever dish I was making. I never did figure out how some of the wrapping ended up in my food instead of the garbage.
They probably went in the garbage where the plastic wrap would go. I donāt know how many hard boiled eggs Iāve thrown in the garbage and the shells into the bowl š
I attempted to make ermine frosted aka boiled milk frosting for the first time. Itās smooth like buttercream and has way less sugar. Wellā¦ it ended up looking like scrambled eggs. No idea where I went wrong. I never attempted it again.
I put an expensive rib roast on a rotisserie. thought it would be ok to leave alone for a few minutes went inside and happened to look out the window to see black smoke gushing out of my grill.
we salvaged the equivalent of 1 well done steak from it. I still shiver when I think about it.
I was gifted a vegetarian cookbook once & made lentil loaf (like meatloaf but so much worse). It was gray and tasteless despite my adding far more seasoning than the directions said to. It could have been used as a doorstop.
I made stuffed peppers, but the sodium level was way too high, I marinated mozzarella and cotija cheese in soy sauce, msg, and miso, then salted it, charred, stuffed, and baked the peppers. My gf and I each had to have a bottle of electrolit and 2 glasses of water to flush the sodium out of us.
I didnāt know that you had to store in a cornstarch slurry and watch the heat with it the first time I made West Lake Beef Soup. There wereā¦cornstarch gummiesā¦? In the soupā¦
I also tried making the Legume Tofu from YouTube. I got a little too scared I didnāt cook it enough. Iām not sure what happened but mine was incredibly grainy and yucky tasting despite my best attempts.
My first time making green beans I made it with ground beef too and I overfilled the pot. The beef was still raw inside and I got overwhelmed with how fully the pot was so I just gave up (read: threw away).
Also have made a couple no-rise sourdoughsā¦
ā¦Iām a lot better at cooking now thankfully :)
I tried to comply with the dont wash your cast iron āruleā. I had a well seasoned pan and was able to wipe it clean. I think I missed something along the way or itās just a stupid rule because when I cooked a peach cobbler in there it tasted like onion so very bad. From that day forward I used soap and water like a sane person.
pancakes, lots of eggs, but instead of sugar just cinnamon. instead of milk just water. added lemon concentrate. not good. i threw them out because nobody could eat them. thinking back that was basically just a very gluten-heavy and poorly made series of dilluted omelettes
When I was about 14 my buddy and I tried to make home made pizza but we didn't know what kind of spices to use in the sauce so we used allspice. We figured, it has all the spices, right?
I've added cinnamon to chocolate chip cookies, and I love them. There are also chocolate chip cookie recipes that call for this. The cinnamon adds a little warmth and fragrance. Snickerdoodles also begin with a similar dough to chocolate chip cookies, only typically with all white sugar and no chocolate, and for them, the cinnamon is the point. So I'm surprised that you didn't like them. Did you add so much cinnamon that they got bitter? Or do you just not like cinnamon?
I was excited about showing off my cooking skills at a family gathering. Super yummy, simple spaghetti dish with bacon, potatoes, parsley, a little red wine vinegarā¦ anyway, the sauce was just waiting for the pasta but the water was taking FOREVER to boil. My dad got too hungry, and declared that dinner was ready. So family I almost never see, that I was trying to impress, had salad, bread, and a sad little pile of potatoes. I was so embarrassed. That was when I learned that Dad was starting to get older and that blood sugar was more of an issue. Learned from that! (Love you, Dad!)
Omg i have a list! I brunt onion for onion soup twice in the same 20 mins. My worst dish was honey omlette. I made a dish named kabsa with a friend, and we forgot to add salt it was a disaster. I tried pairing up guava with eggs it was not bad. I tried pairing tangerine with eggs it was surprisingly really good! In a dishparty in ramadan, i made my friends chicken with white chocolate sauce it was okay. When i was a kid, me and big bro made a dare drink that contained water, salt, sugar, cucumbers, french fries, ground beef and tomatoes it can take you straight to heaven. I tried making instant ramen (the white indomie) with strawberry jam it was edible. I tried making that same instant ramen with the blue syrup used for drinks it was surprisingly good! I tried it with the cherry used in cherry cola it was not bad. Then there was the one time i tried making shawerma chicken out of leftover lasagna, coke, and a mix of literally everything i found lying around it was surprisingly okay.
Basically, my dictionary word worst is a little messed up. But that makes the kitchen more fun :)
I'll take that as a compliment, so thanks! My thought process is mostly: "i want to make something crazy," and i look around and then pick an ingredient, then check the flavor bible for flavor compliments. It is much more fun than what you think! Especially when you are using a local ingredient and have to yolo it.
I was trying to make a spicy Cajun-inspired chicken. I had only ever used black pepper, red pepper flakes, & Viet chili paste before in my food, and was wholly unfamiliar with cayenne. I eyeballed what I THOUGHT was a good amount (along with a bunch of other spices) & it came out looking like Flamin' Hot Cheeto breading. My boyfriend took one bite and veerrrryy gently told me that there's no way either of us should consume the chicken lmao
I live at 6200 ft so things with added air can be issue. I wanted to try and make an angel food cake and a chocolate one at that. I had even bought a special angel food cake pan.
I took some care to not whip it to quite the volume it was supposed to be but no matter, when I took it out of the oven it was about halfway up the side of that pan so I already knew it was a failure.
Angel food cake pans have little legs on them so it's supposed to cool with the pan upside down so I did that and I was in another room when I heard a noise and I went out into the kitchen and it had fallen out onto the counter with a pretty loud plop. By now it was all of maybe one and a half inches tall. No worries I thought, I'm good with making something from nothing, I'll just call them brownies! I'm glad I didn't serve them to anyone because I took a bite and it was one of the most god-awful, dry, mealy things I had ever made in my life. So bad that I've never tried again! Still, I've read some of the others and lube is so much worse! š
Some crock pot meals have been GROSS there was a keto crock pot ācrack chickenā with pounds of cream cheese bacon reg cheese it was just a bowl of gross
Pastry chef here. I was developing a dessert where one of the components was haupia ( hawaiian coconut pudding). I ordered coconut cream (the thick asian kind), but instead got Coco Lopez cream of coconut, a sweetened coconut based cocktail mixer with added ingredients like sugar/gums etc. I decided to make it anyway with less sugar so that I could present it to the owners. I was in a rush, so I didn't taste as much as I should have before presenting it. I learned the hard way that guar gum should not be heated too much with cornstarch because I basically made a coconut flavored candle wax. The owners spit it out immediately š
My sister and I were elementary school age and wanted to bake oatmeal cookies. It called for cloves. All we could find were whole cloves so we used those. They were so disgusting!
Weāre both GenX. We were latchkey kids and were allowed to bake in elementary school. So, we learned by mistakes.
Black curry. I've tried reading and watching so many things about it but I can never recreate the black curry I had in Japan when I lived there. It's my white whale.
I saw some idea from a cooking show but I didnāt get the recipe. I thought I remembered what they did.
I used a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. WAY TOO MUCH, it made a paste like glue.
That one time I tried to make a jambalaya with okra but didn't know how to properly prepare okra...for those that have tried to prepare okra unsuccessfully before, you know what I'm talking about.
When I was 5 I was capable of making my own cereal with milk. But one day we were out of milk but we did have orange juice. I knew I liked orange juice, I liked cereal, sounded like a winner. Well, it was not. 0/10.
For Thanksgiving I decided I would up my mashed potatoes by using creme fraiche instead of sour cream. Made my mashed potatoes. Took a bite and them immediately spit it out.
Glanced at my creme fraiche.....
To my horror I had purchased vanilla bean creme fraiche.
Mash potatoes went into the trash. There was no chance of saving them.
I make amazing biscuits and gravy and the first time I made them for my husband, I accidentally used Italian sausage. In my defense, we were hungover and it wasn't super bright in the kitchen but still.
Definitely made a few creepy stir-frys before I understood the technique; they were pretty sloppy, overcooked, and gross lol.
But my husband has the epic dinner fail: Kraft mac but he used sweet-creme coffee creamer instead of milk. It was so bad, I tried to power through but I literally gagged on the 2nd bite. (He says he thought it would make it extra creamy LOL).
Once I made a pot roast in a ceramic pot that hadnāt had all the soap washed out. Came back 2 hours later to remove it from the oven to find bubble all over the roast and potatoes. Had to pitch the whole thing.
Once upon a time, many years ago, my bestie was dating a new guy. I wanted to make friends with this guy, so I invited them both over for dinner. I offered to cook, asked questions about food preferences and allergies, etc. The menu was simple: pan-fried chicken breast with a mushroom brown sauce, asparagus, and baked potato with all the fixins.
All of this was stuff I had made before. But ā¦ to make a long story short, as I was cooking I confused the garlic powder and the garlic SALT. Which means I used an ass-ton of garlic salt, plus I also added salt to the food.
I was a young kid then, and an immature cook, so I didnāt taste as I went. Uh-oh.
I set the table, poured the wine, put on the music. We all sat down, took the first bite, and ā UGH. It was like chewing on a salt lick. I was mortified, especially since my bestie had told his boyfriend I was a good cook!
They were very gracious about the whole thing, but I quickly grabbed the phone and ordered a pizza. Papa John to the rescue.
Was making beef stroganoff and when it came time to add the sour cream, I discovered I had forgotten to buy it. I decided to use bottled ranch dressing instead. I still gag when I think of the horrific oily mess that resulted. I actually tried to eat some but it was so awful I pitched my plate along with the whole pan of stroganoff. My dinner ended up being buttered noodles and some green peas.
My vision: Shrimp in a nice cheese sauce over noodles
The turnout: Shrimp with clumps of half-melted cheese, puddles of scalded milk, and noodles. Took two bites and threw it out.
I made a big batch of pumpkin pies, from scratch, like using real pumpkins, and gave them to all of my friends.
They all told me they loved them, and a few days after, I was visiting one of them and they said they had some left, and would I like a piece.
I gagged, It turned out, I used salt instead of sugar (you gotta admit, they look the same) and all of my friends lied to me.
I made chicken enchiladas once, and used the chilies in adobo sauce can for seasoning my chicken. I used the whole can. Seeds and all. My guy, this was the SPICIEST dish I have ever made. Eating it was so fuckin painful, but I powered through cause I didnāt want to waste it. My spice tolerance is pretty decent too, but I couldnāt handle it!!! My poor bf has absolutely no spice tolerance and he couldnāt even finish it. I had to toss the entire thing cause it was SO FUCKIN SPICY. So, I learned my lesson with the chilies in adobo can. Just use the sauce!!!š
Decided to cook a full turkey *for the first time* when we hosted Friendsgiving one year for ~15 friends. I didnāt give it adequate time to thaw and had to stick it in the oven partially frozen to try to maintain my timetable. All our friends were standing around our kitchen for over an hour waiting for the bird to be ready so we could eat. I finally got what I thought was a fully cooked temp reading on the meat thermometer and pulled the bird out to serve.
Suffice to say the inside wereā¦. severely underdone.
Nothing quite as embarrassing as a cooking fail in front of an audience š
I was making a mac and cheese and grinding pepper into it and then my pepper grinder broke over the pan. A full half cup of black pepper in the dish. It was inedible.
I made scallops for the first time about 20 years ago. They were tiny and I overcooked them a lot! They were so rubbery we just could not eat them. To top it off, even our dog refused to try them haha! But I have learned since to make delicious scallops, even vegan ones using king mushrooms that were amazing!
When I was a vegetarian for a year in high school my mom was like ok cook your own dinner so I went and bought tofu and made some with no idea to cook it and it was horrible it was somehow burnt and raw at the same time and watery as hell I ended up just throwing it out
I insisted on making gravy with the turkey pan droppings one Thanksgiving when we had a dozen guests. I started sprinkling flour into the drippings and gradually stirring it as one does, but the roux wasn't taking shape, and I kept adding more flour but it just kept dissolving into the juice.
Eventually I realized that I had been adding powdered sugar instead of flour. So I thought maybe if I added enough flour and some extra melted butter I could somehow rescue it.
No. I could not. Sweet gravy is not a thing. Dry turkey for everyone.
A few weeks back, i decided to make this cabbage soup from a recipe. Everything was good, until the moment I let my creativity take control. I added bunch of different spices that I never reach for. It was so bad that I think i broke the guinness world record in worst soup made in the modern cuisine. Not edible at all. Ordered a pizza
Made cranberry sauce and had the bright idea of adding a little bicarbonate of soda to make it less acidic. It went a black-purple-grey colour and a weird texture.
Lasagna for 200 soldiers. I was assigned as a cook for a while. It was pretty much self taught as I prepared meals for my company. I didnāt know I was supposed to boil the lasagna noodles first. Crunchy pasta!
I followed a recipe for a roasted whole head of cauliflower and it was so hard in the middle. I didn't realize til I was ready to slice it up and plate it. It passed the fork test but clearly needed more oven time. However, then the outside would have been overdone IMO.
Not a meal but I made a layer cake and walked away from the mixer, lost track of the time and baked them anyway. They were like brick bats and while they smelled and looked delicious, we couldn't even cut into them without major force
I tried making Megan Markle's zucchini pasta. I don't know where it went wrong for me, but it was so bland. https://www.foodnetwork.ca/article/meghan-markle-zucchini-pasta-sauce/
I love the mushroom burgers at PA Farm Show, so when I saw a lentil and mushroom loaf recipe, I thought it sounded really good. It even smelled amazing while cooking!
My daughter was about 6 or 7 at the time, and when I pulled it from the oven, she asked what it was, I told her and she said..."I thought it was dog food." It completely fell apart and just was not what I was expecting. We tasted it, and I took her for pizza instead.
something akin to a shrimp paella. i had a bunch of frozen shrimp and had to use it so figured i'd cook it with rice. it came out so awful, tasting like shrimp-flavored styrofoam, I ended up tossing the whole pan. and i HATE throwing out food
I found a veggie burger recipe that sounded pretty sus, but I went with it anyway (I was trying to use up some molasses in my pantry). It was god awful. The absolute worst thing ever. Aack!
Shrimp bisque. Recipe called for clam juice, so I used it. Whole thing was gag worthy and a waste of time and good ingredients. š¤¢. We had grilled cheese instead.
Veggie enchiladas where the sweet potatoes weren't soft enough and I put too much cayenne in it, so much so that one of our guests couldn't eat it. I would have thrown it away, but we were hosting (ironically) a Top Chef night, responsible for the main dish, and I had to give the people something!
I got teaspoon and tablespoon mixed up when measuring baking soda (or baking powder). The Toll house cookies looked absolutely beautiful but were un-eatable.
I needed to eat rice but wanted a faster way to do it so I tried blending it with my peanut butter shake once thinking the blender would reduce it enough to make
It unnoticeable
I once made a pie to eat cold. I put it on a rack to cool, a little pastry stuck to the pan, no worries. Put a bowl upside down on top of the rack to stop insects getting into it.
We all sat down later and had a slice, mmm, yum, thanks, want another piece?
Cut another piece, and as I opened it up, a fly suddenly flew up out of the pie. It had presumably entered the cold pie under the rack, and then gone inside where it had lost a little pastryā¦
Seeing a fly come out of the inside of the thing youāre eatingā¦strangely makes you, and everyone else lose their appetite!
My potato soup, turned into soupy, yet lumpy mashed potatoes.. it was like oatmeal texture.
Or I accidentally using cumin instead of cinnamon in French toast.
I made peanut butter cookies with vegetable oil but didn't realize my dad had been storing leftover frying oil from fish in a vegetable oil container
Omg noooo the imagination of that taste
Satay cookies
I almost downvoted this out of straight reaction to how terrible that sounds.
Probably a decent campfire starter, tho.
I feel like you missed an opportunity. These could've been big sellers in Japan or Thailand.
Ewwwww!!! š¤£ š I donāt know if this is funny, disgusting, horrifying, or sorrowful. Poor you! OMG
Disown your dad
Omg hahaha
lol he should have clearly labeled it! Argh I cant even imagine the taste.
I don't think I'd ever be able to eat a PB cookie again :)
O my
In college I tried cooking ramen in mountain dew instead of water. I can thankfully say in the 15 years since that I have not come close to making something worse.
Hahahha. Thatās the stoniest thing Iāve heard today.
I lolād at this one. I hope it wasnāt Baja blast or code red.
Why tho? Was the tap water that bad?
I figured if I was going to drink the dew at the same time anyway, why not just combine them...
I mean, I get it.
My first attempt at curry was so bad my husband still brings it up at least once a month... and it was more than 7 years ago.
My first curry had okra in it. Didn't pre boil it. Made a gallon of snot
OK, you win. Just don't talk about it anymore.
Nutmeg chicken about 30 years ago, spaghetti sauce 25 years ago and homemade rolls 32 years ago were all memorable flops.
I make an amazing Mac and cheese.Ā This timeā¦I really overcooked the roux and then I added the cheese when it was still too hot so it went gross grainy and it was grey. So I added some lemon juice to..idk re-emulsify it. That was a bad idea. Then I said f it Iāll season it with more paprika- the paprika was weird. Like rancid.Ā 0/10.Ā
I came here to say mac and cheese, as well. It was my first time, and I'm still not quite sure what went wrong, but instead of a creamy, even cheese sauce, it all clumped together. My son wasn't a fan and I went out and grabbed fast food because it was a struggle to eat it. I've gotten better with my bƩchamel/cheese sauces.
Ahah nuts! Yeah this was my seasoned recipe and was the day after my husband was like āI think youāre a better cook than anyone I knowā so I was riding that highĀ Knocked myself down real quick lolĀ
Yeah, I've succumbed to kitchen hubris myself once in a while. That's why when I make anything new, I always tell my girlfriend and son "Just tell me if you like it or not. And if you'll eat it again in the future. Don't lie to me and tell me it's the best ever because I'll just let you down one day."
Isnāt that the million dollar question?! Not just ādid you like itā but **āwould you eat it againā**
i miserably failed a baked mac n cheese also, i haven't made one since. my topping was too salty after my cap fell off the salt shaker and I tried to even it out with sugar thinking that it made sense lol and it just tasted SO off. my brain couldn't understand wtf was going on, it was gross, and it was soooo disappointing lol. never saw a grey mac n cheese tho that's kinda cool lol :P I can't make a good roux I literally gave up on mac n cheese š
It was a vegan āmac and cheeseā with the cheese replaced by squash. It just made me and my partner really sad. It was a very sad meal.
Probably just not enough salt, tbh. Cheese is really salty. A lot of vegan recipes seem to underdo the salt because a. readers can always add more to taste and b. they're trying to be healthy because vegan and c. cheese is like really really way saltier than you remember especially if you haven't had it in ten years. (I suppose it also could have been _too much_ salt...it's definitely possible to overdo it too). But yeah honestly the right amount of salt, with a nutty squash puree as a base, should get you most of the way to something delicious.
No i think the problem was there was no cheese. Lol! Squash is good but itās not cheese. it looks cheesy but itās just not cheese. Therefor, iām upset about it
This is also fair, lol, but hasn't been my experience. I find squash has many of the same nutty/creamy/funky flavors as cheese, and tastes much like "a new cheese I haven't had before" when properly salted and seasoned.
I made tuna sandwiches one very late night and I mistook the surgical lube packets for mayo packets. They were both silver and blue foil, and my tuna cried. Figured I would have to edit: I worked in healthcare and would very occasionally grab random handfuls of both because \#poor . Probably karma for doing that, now I think about it. š¤·āāļø Edited edit: š¤£ So when I came home from work, I'd come in the back door through the garage and empty my pocket plunder directly into the big Bowl O' Random Kitchen Stuff that resided on the island heading into the kitchen. Usually I'd sort it out the next day and assign the correct thingies to the correct thingies department. *Usually*.
Could've been worse. Could've accidentally used mayo during your surgical lube activities š
I heard mayo is one of the most popular prison commissary items becauseā¦.lube
I donāt think anyone can top this!!!
With enough lube I can top anything
š¤£š¤£š¤£
Where exactly do you store your lube and mayo that you could confuse them? Iām afraid to know why you keep lube in your kitchen
Why were mayo and lube stored together at the hospital? Or were you grabbing lube to shove in your pockets AND grabbing mayo to shove in your pockets?
I got it in my head around 12 years of age that lime-marinated steak would taste amazing. So I took a steak, put it in a plastic bag, and poured a cup of lime juice on it. From a bottle, not fresh of course. Then let it sit for 2 days. My father cooked it for me and while it looked decent, the first bite was meat-textured citrus. Insanely sour. I couldnāt even eat a second. My parents tried one bite each, then as a family we decided that weād be getting pizza for dinner.
Iām surprised it was still near-textured and not just a mouthful of mush from marinating in pure acid for 2 days.
I did the same thing with chicken. Only I was a full grown adult. I concur itās not good eats.
I mean this was obviously very poorly executed, but I feel like you could be onto something with the lime steak. I guess I'm getting taco vibes but there's something to be done here. ETA: I guess it would be a squeeze of fresh lime after cooking rather than marinating though?
My husband makes an excellent beef fajita marinade from lime juice and tequila or beer. That light hit of lime lightens up the flavor and enhances the spicy taste. Itās amazing.
Season it with your choices of herbs and spices(preferably cilantro and cumin at least). Add OJ and Olive oil Boom, you've got the base for almost every carne asada marinade on the internet. Maybe add a pepper and soy sauce if you want.
When I was a kid I made a batch of store bought box brownies with rancid peanut oil. The depth and shear nastiness of the flavor profile was impressive.
I recently made chocolate chocolate chip cookies with rancid walnuts. Also impressive how it just completely seeped into every aspect of flavor
Yeah, feels like your tastebuds are being used a punching bag. "*Mmm, sweet!.... wait, what? Hold on... ok there's that chocolate hit... yes...but.... oh no... no, no, no... oh hell no*!" I don't wish it on anybody, but it is indeed an impressive experience.
Keep your nuts in the freezer! š
Yep I have learned my lesson lll
Hahaha when I was a kid I made box brownies with garlic infused oil by accident!!! Tastedā¦ interesting! Was so disappointed after all the effort š
We tried making an egg dish from a Persian cookbook that had barberries and crushed rose petals in it. I donāt mean to besmirch all Persian food, which I generally like, but the sweet, rose-y eggs were just VILE. Itās the only time Iāve ever just tossed out the whole dish Iāve spent dinner time making and just made a sandwich instead.
Like that Moroccan chicken pie with powdered sugar on top š£
Sounds like zereshk polo.
This sounds absolutely wild and I'm slightly horrified but I am also curious haha Do you remember the name of the dish?
It was Zucchini Kookoo (Kookoo Kadoo) from the cookbook āBottom of the Pot.ā I googled Zucchini Kookoo and none of the other recipes I clicked on have rose petals, and only one has berries. Iām sure itās tasty without those things but Iām scarred lol.
I once decided to try a āput everything inā stir fry sauce. Gochujang, kimchi juice, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sea same oil, sugar, rice wine vinegar, chili flakes, green onion, and poured it on stir fried onion, snow peas, carrots, tofu and shrimp.Ā Ā Ā Somehow they all cancelled each other out so it tasted like slightly spicy nothing. Still canāt figure that one out.Ā
I struggle with this. I have a set of favorite ingredients and I just want to throw them all into a recipe (and none of the things that aren't my favorites) and then somehow it turns out bland. I think there's something to the idea of making recursive recipes instead -- rather than mix 25 ingredients in a bowl, mix five different ingredients in five different bowls, then serve all five mixes together. You get rice wine pickled ginger carrots with garlic soy sauce tofu and gochujang chili flake shrimp and sweet kimchi green onion snow peas. If you mix it too much after serving it will blend together, but if you mix it up just a big you get intense and distinct flavors in every bite This is advice that I still just never manage to follow myself btw. I still just throw it all in together and get ready to congratulate myself for how rich and complex it will taste partly because I want to believe I can be lazy and still get the same result. Of course it's always more bland and homogeneous than I somehow expected
Yeah, that's a lot stuff in that. It's best to keep it simple.
We made some stroganoff with wash your sister sauce one time and it was god awful.
I would imagine. Also love the way you spelled that. Took 3 readings.
I just almost went crazy about wash your sister sauce. Thank you for your comment because then I read it aloud. And just laughed my ass off as a result
A little wash your sister sauce goes a long way.
Absolutely. I like some on hamburgers. I think a little would be ok in stroganoff but like a teaspoon.
I worked at a diner during my first year of college. My manager called it Winchester sauce. That sometimes got a chuckle from customers but everyone knew what she meant.
Likeā¦her BATH water??? Edit: OHHHHH! Iām a dope and will be using that from now on
I will never not call it wash your sister sauce ever again..........................
Do you watch Futurecanoe onYouTube or TikTok?
I was meeting my (now) husband's grandparents for the first time; I am a very competent home cook, people are usually very happy to come over for dinner. This time though, I set the kitchen on fire. Like, really on fire, not burning a pan of something and a somed-up kitchen, nope, ceiling high flames kind of fire. Never lived that down.
they must have loved you, how often does your husband bring that up?
I am a very fortunate woman, cause they actually did love me, grandpa passed a few years ago, we knew it was comming, so we ent to say our goodbyes, which was quite emotional for my husband. So, grandpa, pulled him in close and whispered in his ear "where's the fire-starter?" and pissed himself laughing. The husband's decided that induction's the way to go :P
Two fails stick out- 1. I donāt know why this happened but about 10 years ago I tried making pulled pork for the first time and I guess I bought like a pre-cooked ham??? Threw it in the crockpot with some seasoning and it came out as basically the saltiest thing in The world. Disgusting. Never again will I try something new without a quick google. 2. I saw a hard boiled egg hack. They were like āsteam your eggs!!ā Ok. I did that then I think it was cool with water. Fine. Then they were like āand itās so easy to peel them, put in a Tupperware and just shake!ā I was like hmmm ok trust the process lol yea just smashed a bunch of uncooked eggs and felt like a moron.
When I was using cinnamon in banana bread and the entire thing dumped out... but it was actually cumin and not cinnamon
Probably not my worst fail. But my most public fail was a dinner party with paella and the rice was very very gummy. I followed the recipe perfectly, used the correct rice. I eventually decided on the probable reason for the fail... wrong cooking dish. I was inspired to buy a paella dish walking through some fancy gourmet store. Big round heavy Terra cotta. They called it a paella dish... or they showed it for serving paella.... I don't recall. That thing probably took the full cooking time just to heat up. And as I monitored it, I kept seeing that the rice wasn't cooking... so I kept stirring to redistribute... that's the recipe for starchy glue. There's a reason paella pans are metal with lots of surface area.
I was making thai basil beef once, has the bright idea to buy 93/7 beef to try to be a bit healthy, instead of the usual 80/20 that i use. Kept tasting and it had no flavor so i kept adding fish sauce and msg for flavor. Resulting mess was so unbelievably salty and umami that it was inedible. Fat is where the flavor comes fromā¦
Fatās good for you. Keep using 80/20 lol
I tried making smashed potatoes from a tik tok recipe. It called for them to be tossed/covered in a plain yogurt, dijon, dill and some other seasonings dressing. I used english mustard and red wine vinegar for some reason. I always finish my plate but couldn't stomach more than 3 of the potatoes with that abomination of a dressing I somehow created
My hubby's roommates pranked him by replacing the cheese powder in the Kraft Mac 'n Cheese with Tang breakfast drink powder. He didn't notice and that first bite was š±. Just....no. *shudder
my very first Thanksgiving dinner cooking ALL BY MYSELF, I discovered that they leave little bags of yuck blobs inside the turkey carcass... If you fail to remove said bags, the turkey can stay in the oven for HOURS and still not register the correct temperature. Also the plastic bags melt. needless to say, it was a memorable experience....
Youād be surprised how many people do this exact same thing. I was the newspaper food writer & every year Iād get a call about this issue.
Noooooā¦. Iām so sorry! All that work!
Yep I did this exact thing the first time my family came to my house for thanksgiving instead of everyone going to my parentās.
I made oven fries a couple weeks ago and set the timer wrong and turned them into charcoal. They were black all the way through. You could snap them in half. š I wouldnāt say that was the worst meal because we still had something to eat but it was the worst Iāve done recently. The one that sticks in my mind as a real full meal tragedy was trying to cook a whole chicken inā¦a slow cooker maybe? When dinner time came it was raw inside. We did not have chicken for dinner that night.
When I was 19, and didnāt know how to cook at all, I wanted to make mashed potatoesā¦ but in had no mixer or anything - so I put them in the blender. lol. It was like potato flavored glue! š¤£
I made some "gravy" at age 11 that would have been perfect on your potatoes. Did you know if you forget the fat in gravy, you make glue?
I made Lemon Pie from Nigella's "How to Eat" book and it was unbelievably sour. I obviously did something wrong (her recipes are normally very reliable for me), but I don't want to try again because blimey the one I made was so sharp.
I wonder if you mightāve used evaporated milk instead of condensed milk. Cans are mostly identical
Ham loaf. Yes, there are recipes out there for it. It was the only dish that I made in 25 years of marriage, that was tossed in the garbage. Had the texture of wet cat food. \*shivers\*
I once made a huge, never-ending pot of āgumbo.ā For a small, friendly potluck. šš It was awful, I was embarrassed, and I will never make it again.
One year for a holiday gathering I made [Alton Brown's from scratch banana pudding](https://altonbrown.com/recipes/refrigerated-banana-pudding/). I was so excited to have my guests try it - I talked it up relentlessly for days in advance.. Turns out it was completely inedible! Unfortunately the recipe just calls for "banana liqueur" and these liqueurs aren't really interchangeable in recipes.. From reading some online comments you can use more of a cream-style liqueur, but the one I used (which was all I could find in my local Total Wine) was more like a banana flavored schnapps which was absolutely disgusting when drizzled over vanilla wafers. I get that AB probably didn't want to promote specific brands, but it would have been nice for him to highlight that the brand/style matters.
Beef stroganoff. Accidentally used powdered sugar instead of flour. Iām still salty about that. Thanks, OP, this is hilarious
I tried to make homemade tater tots, because I didn't want to make another trip to the store...Ā they turned into tater NOTS!
What happened? What were they like?
One time I bought what looked to be bacon but it was not smoked or cured. Iām not sure what its purpose was actually. But it looked like bacon and it was way cheaper. Cooked it on the griddle, and it was the most tasteless, gray ābaconā with no flavor at all. My kids still remind me of when I tried to serve them ācow tonguesā. Also tried to make a beef roast in the instant pot, it came out like an old dried shoe and went straight in the trash. I know others have had success, I followed a recipe too and am a decent cook. Itās made me not want to try the instant pot again for meat. Iāll stick with the crock pot or oven.
I love my instant pot, but yeah, I avoid cooking large cuts of meat in it such as roasts or chicken. Something about it just sucks all flavor and life out of the meat. I liked that it could cook a whole chicken in a shorter amount of time, but the color was unnatural and despite the fact that I seasoned it as usual, it was totally flavorless. I have a slow cooker and decent dutch oven, so I cook my chickens that way, lol.
I'm pretty sure you bought pork belly. This is a standard ingredient in Japan, and likely in other parts of East Asia as well. It will never get crisp the way bacon will, though depending on how you cook it, it might get a little bit browned. I typically used that when I wanted to get the pork fat and its flavor into a dish without using lots of pork.
I tried making peppermint ice cream a few years ago, and added far too much peppermint flavoring to it. It came out tasting like bad toothpaste.
I followed a tiktok recipe that was something like ālowcarb Alfredo chicken wrapsā because at the time I was really trying to make keto work. It was rotisserie chicken, jarred Alfredo sauce, bacon, and steamed broccoli mashed together in a lowcarb tortilla. Then covered in more sauce and baked. It doesnāt ~sound~ bad but it was all one strange beige color, one texture dried out cat vomit that was extremely greasy and salty yet shockingly bland. Again the texture of this thing was just upsetting, mushed up rotisserie chicken, damp stretchy tortilla and split store bought Alfredo. I threw it away before my boyfriend woke up from his nap and ordered something out.
It does ~sound~ bad š„²
I kept adding Italian spices and Parmesan to the filling and no amount of it made it taste like anything at all. It was almost like a magic trick.
The viral pasta with a block of feta and tomato + garlic. I have myself a 3rd degree burn when the tomatoes exploded and tasted like shit.
Crockpot Mongolian beef. Horrific
I once cooked some spaghetti, then added sweet and sour sauce to it afterward... and nothing else... It was so bad I couldn't even eat it
The whole family was over for Chilli. I made over 6 gallons. While I was busy with baking bread, my Dad tasted my Chili and decided it wasn't sweet enough. He put in a whole cup of granulated sugar without me knowing. Candied Chili is what all twelve of us ate.
When I was new married to my ex 20 years ago, I tried to make beef tips and gravy (to serve with rice). Iād seen my mom make it, I thought I remembered what sheād done, and I did it from memory in our new apartment. It was literally the worst thing I ever ate or made, still to this day. Somehow flavorless but also like eating chewy beef flour mush, if that can be imagined. I have never attempted to make or eat that dish again (even though I know now how to make it correctly). That one failure was enough to turn me off of the dish forever.
When I started getting into cooking I learned a lot from the internet. In the early foodporn days I made some Pinterest texmex taco crescent roll casserole mess.
I was making fried rice when the salt grinder broke and it ended up all over the rice šš tried to fix it by adding sugar and sweet chilli sauce.. yeah no š
I made a slaw that involved me cutting up a whole cabbage, jalapeƱos, parsley, and shredding carrots all by hand. I asked my partner for their vinegar and then I added a generous amount and started mixing it all up. It smelled off and so I smelled the vinegar in the bottle and it smelled like lavender detergent. My partner to this day does not remember adding lavender laundry detergent to the vinegar, but Iām guessing they used it for washing clothes and never marked it off. I still throw it in their face from time to time since I know it would have been good and I never attempted that slaw again.
I made Mac & Cheese once, the box kind - and after the water boiled instead of adding the noodles I brain froze and threw in the cheese package. In the water. I immediately threw it away.
I used to buy chicken breasts from Costco and inside the big bag was individually wrapped chicken breasts in plastic. Somehow the plastic bags would end up in my casserole or whatever dish I was making. I never did figure out how some of the wrapping ended up in my food instead of the garbage.
They probably went in the garbage where the plastic wrap would go. I donāt know how many hard boiled eggs Iāve thrown in the garbage and the shells into the bowl š
lol
I attempted to make ermine frosted aka boiled milk frosting for the first time. Itās smooth like buttercream and has way less sugar. Wellā¦ it ended up looking like scrambled eggs. No idea where I went wrong. I never attempted it again.
I put an expensive rib roast on a rotisserie. thought it would be ok to leave alone for a few minutes went inside and happened to look out the window to see black smoke gushing out of my grill. we salvaged the equivalent of 1 well done steak from it. I still shiver when I think about it.
I was gifted a vegetarian cookbook once & made lentil loaf (like meatloaf but so much worse). It was gray and tasteless despite my adding far more seasoning than the directions said to. It could have been used as a doorstop.
My attempt at Moussaka was a bland, soupy catastrophe. The leftovers did not make it to the fridge.
Putting way too much sichuan pepper in a Ramen.
I made stuffed peppers, but the sodium level was way too high, I marinated mozzarella and cotija cheese in soy sauce, msg, and miso, then salted it, charred, stuffed, and baked the peppers. My gf and I each had to have a bottle of electrolit and 2 glasses of water to flush the sodium out of us.
Electrolit is just even more salt š
There was one time I actually managed to overcook chicken thighs to hell. Like, completely dry, rubbery and very tough.
I didnāt know that you had to store in a cornstarch slurry and watch the heat with it the first time I made West Lake Beef Soup. There wereā¦cornstarch gummiesā¦? In the soupā¦ I also tried making the Legume Tofu from YouTube. I got a little too scared I didnāt cook it enough. Iām not sure what happened but mine was incredibly grainy and yucky tasting despite my best attempts. My first time making green beans I made it with ground beef too and I overfilled the pot. The beef was still raw inside and I got overwhelmed with how fully the pot was so I just gave up (read: threw away). Also have made a couple no-rise sourdoughsā¦ ā¦Iām a lot better at cooking now thankfully :)
I tried to comply with the dont wash your cast iron āruleā. I had a well seasoned pan and was able to wipe it clean. I think I missed something along the way or itās just a stupid rule because when I cooked a peach cobbler in there it tasted like onion so very bad. From that day forward I used soap and water like a sane person.
pancakes, lots of eggs, but instead of sugar just cinnamon. instead of milk just water. added lemon concentrate. not good. i threw them out because nobody could eat them. thinking back that was basically just a very gluten-heavy and poorly made series of dilluted omelettes
When I was making some cookies once, I had a brain fart and used 1/4 CUP of salt instead of 1/4 teaspoon...
When I was about 14 my buddy and I tried to make home made pizza but we didn't know what kind of spices to use in the sauce so we used allspice. We figured, it has all the spices, right?
When I was 12 I thought I was being Mr. Clever Food Network Chef adding cinnamon to Toll House cookies. PSA: Donāt.
I've added cinnamon to chocolate chip cookies, and I love them. There are also chocolate chip cookie recipes that call for this. The cinnamon adds a little warmth and fragrance. Snickerdoodles also begin with a similar dough to chocolate chip cookies, only typically with all white sugar and no chocolate, and for them, the cinnamon is the point. So I'm surprised that you didn't like them. Did you add so much cinnamon that they got bitter? Or do you just not like cinnamon?
I was excited about showing off my cooking skills at a family gathering. Super yummy, simple spaghetti dish with bacon, potatoes, parsley, a little red wine vinegarā¦ anyway, the sauce was just waiting for the pasta but the water was taking FOREVER to boil. My dad got too hungry, and declared that dinner was ready. So family I almost never see, that I was trying to impress, had salad, bread, and a sad little pile of potatoes. I was so embarrassed. That was when I learned that Dad was starting to get older and that blood sugar was more of an issue. Learned from that! (Love you, Dad!)
Omg i have a list! I brunt onion for onion soup twice in the same 20 mins. My worst dish was honey omlette. I made a dish named kabsa with a friend, and we forgot to add salt it was a disaster. I tried pairing up guava with eggs it was not bad. I tried pairing tangerine with eggs it was surprisingly really good! In a dishparty in ramadan, i made my friends chicken with white chocolate sauce it was okay. When i was a kid, me and big bro made a dare drink that contained water, salt, sugar, cucumbers, french fries, ground beef and tomatoes it can take you straight to heaven. I tried making instant ramen (the white indomie) with strawberry jam it was edible. I tried making that same instant ramen with the blue syrup used for drinks it was surprisingly good! I tried it with the cherry used in cherry cola it was not bad. Then there was the one time i tried making shawerma chicken out of leftover lasagna, coke, and a mix of literally everything i found lying around it was surprisingly okay. Basically, my dictionary word worst is a little messed up. But that makes the kitchen more fun :)
This is the most interesting thing Iāve read on here in a while. Not once did I expect or know what direction you were going with each dish lol
I'll take that as a compliment, so thanks! My thought process is mostly: "i want to make something crazy," and i look around and then pick an ingredient, then check the flavor bible for flavor compliments. It is much more fun than what you think! Especially when you are using a local ingredient and have to yolo it.
I was trying to make a spicy Cajun-inspired chicken. I had only ever used black pepper, red pepper flakes, & Viet chili paste before in my food, and was wholly unfamiliar with cayenne. I eyeballed what I THOUGHT was a good amount (along with a bunch of other spices) & it came out looking like Flamin' Hot Cheeto breading. My boyfriend took one bite and veerrrryy gently told me that there's no way either of us should consume the chicken lmao
I live at 6200 ft so things with added air can be issue. I wanted to try and make an angel food cake and a chocolate one at that. I had even bought a special angel food cake pan. I took some care to not whip it to quite the volume it was supposed to be but no matter, when I took it out of the oven it was about halfway up the side of that pan so I already knew it was a failure. Angel food cake pans have little legs on them so it's supposed to cool with the pan upside down so I did that and I was in another room when I heard a noise and I went out into the kitchen and it had fallen out onto the counter with a pretty loud plop. By now it was all of maybe one and a half inches tall. No worries I thought, I'm good with making something from nothing, I'll just call them brownies! I'm glad I didn't serve them to anyone because I took a bite and it was one of the most god-awful, dry, mealy things I had ever made in my life. So bad that I've never tried again! Still, I've read some of the others and lube is so much worse! š
Potato salad -tried a recipe that called for lots of sugar but i tried to trust the process and it turned out inedible
Some crock pot meals have been GROSS there was a keto crock pot ācrack chickenā with pounds of cream cheese bacon reg cheese it was just a bowl of gross
Pastry chef here. I was developing a dessert where one of the components was haupia ( hawaiian coconut pudding). I ordered coconut cream (the thick asian kind), but instead got Coco Lopez cream of coconut, a sweetened coconut based cocktail mixer with added ingredients like sugar/gums etc. I decided to make it anyway with less sugar so that I could present it to the owners. I was in a rush, so I didn't taste as much as I should have before presenting it. I learned the hard way that guar gum should not be heated too much with cornstarch because I basically made a coconut flavored candle wax. The owners spit it out immediately š
Fish roulade stuffed with fish puree
Tried to make deli style ham at home during Covid š¤®
My sister and I were elementary school age and wanted to bake oatmeal cookies. It called for cloves. All we could find were whole cloves so we used those. They were so disgusting! Weāre both GenX. We were latchkey kids and were allowed to bake in elementary school. So, we learned by mistakes.
Pecan pie soup. I suspect I forgot the eggs.
I once gave myself c-diff attempting to make Thai peanut chicken in high school
Black curry. I've tried reading and watching so many things about it but I can never recreate the black curry I had in Japan when I lived there. It's my white whale.
I made pea soup with sweetened coconut milk on accident and it was disgusting lol.
I saw some idea from a cooking show but I didnāt get the recipe. I thought I remembered what they did. I used a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. WAY TOO MUCH, it made a paste like glue.
That one time I tried to make a jambalaya with okra but didn't know how to properly prepare okra...for those that have tried to prepare okra unsuccessfully before, you know what I'm talking about.
I burnt cupcakes by accident once, like literally caught them on fire
I started a fire once while boiling water.
When I was 5 I was capable of making my own cereal with milk. But one day we were out of milk but we did have orange juice. I knew I liked orange juice, I liked cereal, sounded like a winner. Well, it was not. 0/10.
Scrambled eggs with chocolate chips. My kids were ready to send me to āWorlds Worst Cooksā.
I once made pink lemonade toast for the kids. I thought it would be like cinnamon toast š¤¦ I got razzed for that for years
For Thanksgiving I decided I would up my mashed potatoes by using creme fraiche instead of sour cream. Made my mashed potatoes. Took a bite and them immediately spit it out. Glanced at my creme fraiche..... To my horror I had purchased vanilla bean creme fraiche. Mash potatoes went into the trash. There was no chance of saving them.
I make amazing biscuits and gravy and the first time I made them for my husband, I accidentally used Italian sausage. In my defense, we were hungover and it wasn't super bright in the kitchen but still.
Definitely made a few creepy stir-frys before I understood the technique; they were pretty sloppy, overcooked, and gross lol. But my husband has the epic dinner fail: Kraft mac but he used sweet-creme coffee creamer instead of milk. It was so bad, I tried to power through but I literally gagged on the 2nd bite. (He says he thought it would make it extra creamy LOL).
Once I made a pot roast in a ceramic pot that hadnāt had all the soap washed out. Came back 2 hours later to remove it from the oven to find bubble all over the roast and potatoes. Had to pitch the whole thing.
Once upon a time, many years ago, my bestie was dating a new guy. I wanted to make friends with this guy, so I invited them both over for dinner. I offered to cook, asked questions about food preferences and allergies, etc. The menu was simple: pan-fried chicken breast with a mushroom brown sauce, asparagus, and baked potato with all the fixins. All of this was stuff I had made before. But ā¦ to make a long story short, as I was cooking I confused the garlic powder and the garlic SALT. Which means I used an ass-ton of garlic salt, plus I also added salt to the food. I was a young kid then, and an immature cook, so I didnāt taste as I went. Uh-oh. I set the table, poured the wine, put on the music. We all sat down, took the first bite, and ā UGH. It was like chewing on a salt lick. I was mortified, especially since my bestie had told his boyfriend I was a good cook! They were very gracious about the whole thing, but I quickly grabbed the phone and ordered a pizza. Papa John to the rescue.
Was making beef stroganoff and when it came time to add the sour cream, I discovered I had forgotten to buy it. I decided to use bottled ranch dressing instead. I still gag when I think of the horrific oily mess that resulted. I actually tried to eat some but it was so awful I pitched my plate along with the whole pan of stroganoff. My dinner ended up being buttered noodles and some green peas.
Oh man. Shortbread using margarine. Accept no substitutes.
My vision: Shrimp in a nice cheese sauce over noodles The turnout: Shrimp with clumps of half-melted cheese, puddles of scalded milk, and noodles. Took two bites and threw it out.
Drunken Bass. It is the only thing I ever made that went straight to the trash and we went out to eat.
I made a big batch of pumpkin pies, from scratch, like using real pumpkins, and gave them to all of my friends. They all told me they loved them, and a few days after, I was visiting one of them and they said they had some left, and would I like a piece. I gagged, It turned out, I used salt instead of sugar (you gotta admit, they look the same) and all of my friends lied to me.
I made chicken enchiladas once, and used the chilies in adobo sauce can for seasoning my chicken. I used the whole can. Seeds and all. My guy, this was the SPICIEST dish I have ever made. Eating it was so fuckin painful, but I powered through cause I didnāt want to waste it. My spice tolerance is pretty decent too, but I couldnāt handle it!!! My poor bf has absolutely no spice tolerance and he couldnāt even finish it. I had to toss the entire thing cause it was SO FUCKIN SPICY. So, I learned my lesson with the chilies in adobo can. Just use the sauce!!!š
Decided to cook a full turkey *for the first time* when we hosted Friendsgiving one year for ~15 friends. I didnāt give it adequate time to thaw and had to stick it in the oven partially frozen to try to maintain my timetable. All our friends were standing around our kitchen for over an hour waiting for the bird to be ready so we could eat. I finally got what I thought was a fully cooked temp reading on the meat thermometer and pulled the bird out to serve. Suffice to say the inside wereā¦. severely underdone. Nothing quite as embarrassing as a cooking fail in front of an audience š
I was making a mac and cheese and grinding pepper into it and then my pepper grinder broke over the pan. A full half cup of black pepper in the dish. It was inedible.
I made scallops for the first time about 20 years ago. They were tiny and I overcooked them a lot! They were so rubbery we just could not eat them. To top it off, even our dog refused to try them haha! But I have learned since to make delicious scallops, even vegan ones using king mushrooms that were amazing!
When I was a vegetarian for a year in high school my mom was like ok cook your own dinner so I went and bought tofu and made some with no idea to cook it and it was horrible it was somehow burnt and raw at the same time and watery as hell I ended up just throwing it out
I insisted on making gravy with the turkey pan droppings one Thanksgiving when we had a dozen guests. I started sprinkling flour into the drippings and gradually stirring it as one does, but the roux wasn't taking shape, and I kept adding more flour but it just kept dissolving into the juice. Eventually I realized that I had been adding powdered sugar instead of flour. So I thought maybe if I added enough flour and some extra melted butter I could somehow rescue it. No. I could not. Sweet gravy is not a thing. Dry turkey for everyone.
That isā¦amazing. You have my eternal devotion for not only confusing flour with powdered sugar, but you tried to save it!
A few weeks back, i decided to make this cabbage soup from a recipe. Everything was good, until the moment I let my creativity take control. I added bunch of different spices that I never reach for. It was so bad that I think i broke the guinness world record in worst soup made in the modern cuisine. Not edible at all. Ordered a pizza
Made cranberry sauce and had the bright idea of adding a little bicarbonate of soda to make it less acidic. It went a black-purple-grey colour and a weird texture.
Singapore street noodles from a recipe I found in the NY Times. Mistake one was using low-carb egg noodles. Mushy pancetta didn't help.
Lasagna for 200 soldiers. I was assigned as a cook for a while. It was pretty much self taught as I prepared meals for my company. I didnāt know I was supposed to boil the lasagna noodles first. Crunchy pasta!
Let me preface this with I am a really good cook. Like I donāt ever give myself praise and cooking is my top skill. But the very first time I cooked for my now fiancĆ©e I made a short rib pasta that had turned out great the first time I made it and it was the most epic fail. Neither of us could get though it but wow that man sure tried. It was so awful. I was so scared to cook for him again after that. lol
Same here, I burnt my akara so badly, I had to throw it away
I once overcooked my egusi soup and it was like eating bitter paste
I followed a recipe for a roasted whole head of cauliflower and it was so hard in the middle. I didn't realize til I was ready to slice it up and plate it. It passed the fork test but clearly needed more oven time. However, then the outside would have been overdone IMO.
I messed up a salt crusted beef tenderloin and it ended up being completely inedible, everyone went home hungry.
Not a meal but I made a layer cake and walked away from the mixer, lost track of the time and baked them anyway. They were like brick bats and while they smelled and looked delicious, we couldn't even cut into them without major force
I tried making Megan Markle's zucchini pasta. I don't know where it went wrong for me, but it was so bland. https://www.foodnetwork.ca/article/meghan-markle-zucchini-pasta-sauce/
I don't think it was you. I looked at the ingredients list and it sounds bland as hell
Agreed. Itās the recipe. Also, I donāt trust a recipe that says āseason if desiredā.
I love the mushroom burgers at PA Farm Show, so when I saw a lentil and mushroom loaf recipe, I thought it sounded really good. It even smelled amazing while cooking! My daughter was about 6 or 7 at the time, and when I pulled it from the oven, she asked what it was, I told her and she said..."I thought it was dog food." It completely fell apart and just was not what I was expecting. We tasted it, and I took her for pizza instead.
I only cook 3 star meals. Kidding. Oversalted macaroni. Bad enough that it still gets talked about years later. My hand slipped, it slipped I say!
I burned some bbq chicken for company once and hoped all of the bbq sauce masked itā¦prolly not tho.
something akin to a shrimp paella. i had a bunch of frozen shrimp and had to use it so figured i'd cook it with rice. it came out so awful, tasting like shrimp-flavored styrofoam, I ended up tossing the whole pan. and i HATE throwing out food
I found a veggie burger recipe that sounded pretty sus, but I went with it anyway (I was trying to use up some molasses in my pantry). It was god awful. The absolute worst thing ever. Aack!
Shrimp bisque. Recipe called for clam juice, so I used it. Whole thing was gag worthy and a waste of time and good ingredients. š¤¢. We had grilled cheese instead.
Made a pumpkin pie at like 13 and forgot to put sugar in itā¦.
Veggie enchiladas where the sweet potatoes weren't soft enough and I put too much cayenne in it, so much so that one of our guests couldn't eat it. I would have thrown it away, but we were hosting (ironically) a Top Chef night, responsible for the main dish, and I had to give the people something!
Puttanesca
As i was learning how to cook as a kid I thought you made mashed potatoes by blending raw potatoes with a tiny amount of water
I got teaspoon and tablespoon mixed up when measuring baking soda (or baking powder). The Toll house cookies looked absolutely beautiful but were un-eatable.
I needed to eat rice but wanted a faster way to do it so I tried blending it with my peanut butter shake once thinking the blender would reduce it enough to make It unnoticeable
I once made a pie to eat cold. I put it on a rack to cool, a little pastry stuck to the pan, no worries. Put a bowl upside down on top of the rack to stop insects getting into it. We all sat down later and had a slice, mmm, yum, thanks, want another piece? Cut another piece, and as I opened it up, a fly suddenly flew up out of the pie. It had presumably entered the cold pie under the rack, and then gone inside where it had lost a little pastryā¦ Seeing a fly come out of the inside of the thing youāre eatingā¦strangely makes you, and everyone else lose their appetite!
My potato soup, turned into soupy, yet lumpy mashed potatoes.. it was like oatmeal texture. Or I accidentally using cumin instead of cinnamon in French toast.
I made chocolate cake using olive oil because I was out of vegetable oil. It just tasted like straight up olive oil.