What was your biggest cooking mishap?

Question

Mine happened the first time I made homemade chicken soup. It had simmered for an hour and a half, the meat was done, the veggies were tender, the broth was rich. I removed the meat and veggies onto a plate, then put the strainer in the sink and poured the soup into it -- and the soup went down the drain! Duh, now I stop EVERY time before the soup is done and make sure I put the strainer on top of another pot - so the soup goes in another pot!!!

Answer 1

These stories are sooo funny. . .I'm getting a kick out of reading them!

My biggest mishap had a lot of help from a 20 pound Collie-Shepherd runt of the litter who would eat anything that she could wrap her lips around. My husband and I were in college and poorer than church mice, so a loaf of homemade bread was a big treat to us. I had a little extra money, so I bought the stuff for a couple of loaves.

I mixed up the dough, kneaded it, and put it in bread pans. The best place in our apartment to let bread dough rise was in front of the wall furnace unit, so I covered the pans with clean dish towels and set them on a chair in front of the heating vent.

Enter the aforementioned 20 lb. terror on four paws. About half an hour later, I noticed that the dish towels had been flipped up -- you got it. Molly had eaten a pan and a half of bread dough.

Now there is nothing that yeast likes better than a nice warm, dark place to expand. . .and there are few places warmer or darker than a doggy tummy. For the rest of the afternoon, I'd hear this enormous "BURP!" coming from a certain miserable little dog about every five seconds or so. Her stomach was so puffed up with rising bread dough that she looked like she needed a roller skate under her just to be able to walk!

I didn't bother scolding her -- in this case, the punishment more than fit the crime.

Answer 2

Don't feel bad hon, I've done that exact same thing with the colander.

My worse one was cooking hens for a holiday. At the last minute of course my relatives call and say come on over! Well we were expecting to stay in so we'd been drinking, so I called a cab and turned the oven to low. We of course got fed more drinks for 2 more hours before I said that my oven was still on. We got home, I turned off the oven thinking my husband had put the chicken away.

Four days later there was a strange smell in the kitchen. I couldn't figure out where it came from. It had gotten warmer and I hadn't been using the stove at all. Finally I went to put bread in the oven and there were the hens! With maggots crawling everywhere! I gagged, called my husband screaming and panicking, and he told me to turn the oven on and roast them until they were dead. I did, while spraying air freshener the whole time. Then I held a rag over my face while taking them out to the bin while gagging and I tossed the sheet pan out too. No way I was going to attempt to clean and re-use it!

That was our first holiday together. Now we laugh about it.

Answer 3

I was attempting to make Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake by Paula Deen. The cake portion of the recipe was supposed to be 1 yellow cake mix, 1 egg, 8 tablespoons butter, melted . I made the cake according to the box (note the ingredients for the cake I listed here are not the same as on a cake box). I didn't really read the recipe well enough and when the instructions said to make the cake and pat it in the pan, mine just poured in, no patting required. Then when making the filling mine was runnier than it said as well, the instructions were to spread the filling on top of the cake. When I poured my filling on top of the cake, it just slid right under the cake mixture! I had used a large can of the pumpkin instead of the small, again, not reading the recipe well. I frantically tried to scoop the pumpkin back on top of the cake mixture, what a disaster! I decided to bake it anyway. It took a while to cook, and the middle never really baked up all that well. We ate the majority of it anyway lol.

Answer 4

Oh wow, this one is good. Ok, I'm a guy, and I really like to cook. This is real. There is a freight outlet in town that sells discounted food, for various reasons. It's not a dollar store. It's strictly a food freight outlet. They have alot of big freezer sections. I grabbed a frozen corned beef brisket. I got it home, and let it thaw out like normal. I put it in a huge pot of seasoned boiling water, as the recipe goes. This was not the first time. I know the cooking routine. AS IT cooked, the worse it began to smell. I grabbed the old wrapper, and looked for info. It was light years beyond using. I had to chuckle. It WAS the buyers choice to inspect this info. first. That smell still lingers in my memory. THIS IS REAL.

Answer 5

Mine happened when I was making some bread to have with dinner. I put everything together and did the prelim kneading and put it in a bowl on top of my kitchen counter, covered it and took my two children to a day out and about. I came back and the bread had risen so much it had gone down the counter, over the linoleum and was heading out to the front door on the carpet. My children were young then so we had an amazing good time beating it back. (True story)

Answer 6

Love your story and can sympathize with you because we've all done or almost done what you did. The best story I can remember right now is when my mother was making dinner for the first time for her future daughter in law (now married 33 years) after my brother had bragged to his fiance what a wonderful cook my mother is. Anyway, my mother was making cherry pie filling and grabbed the Salt instead of the Sugar. Nobody caught it until the dessert was served! And then obviously we all knew it!

Answer 7

Ha Ha Ha thanks
mine was a first turkey at Thanksgiving,, seventeen and mom just had a heart attack.
It was golden brown,, lots of juice,, the veggies tender,, the potatoes mashed,, the giblet gravy tasty
when I went to slice the breast and it fell off ,,I had to serve it in chunks,, the legs just pulled off
Delicious but well over cooked.

Answer 8

Ok, It was 3 years ago, my dad was in for Thanksgiving the first one in like 10 years we were going to spend with him and some butter from the turkey dripped onto the oven coils- smoke started coming from the oven- oven was on fire. My husband went out to get a fire extinguisher to put it out-- It wasn't destroyed but oh my gosh- I thought it was gong to be the worst thanksgiving ever, but it still turned out good and the turkey just tasted smoked lol

Answer 9

I was working in a bakery with an industrial mixer. I though the mixer was on low but it was really on the highest speed. I turned it on and blasted about 40 gallons of chocolate brownie everywhere. I was covered and trying to get it clean b4 the boss came back!

Answer 10

I have an electric stove. I was frying chicken and the lights went out because i had way too many things plugged in the kitchen outlets (a fuse blew) my fried chicken turned into grease boiled chicken. Needless to say i threw it away.