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09 Sep 14 - 09:28 PM (#3658884) Subject: BS: Culinary failures From: Janie Note to self. Adding more and more salt to a balsamic dressing for a Greek potato salad recipe will not compensate for dried oregano so old it is more tan than green and olive oil that has gone somewhat rancid. It will only result in a dressing that tastes only of salt and bitterness. If you are coming to the office pot luck tomorrow, avoid my potato salad. I'm tempted to put a sign on it that says "For Display Only." |
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09 Sep 14 - 10:05 PM (#3658887) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Jeri If you make spaghetti with portobello mushrooms (and garlic + spices), the spores in the mushrooms will make the spaghetti grey-brown. If you then use the tiny bit left over as filling in an avant-garde omelet, it will taste great, but look like... I don't know--use your imagination. It was fairly brown, too. |
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09 Sep 14 - 11:13 PM (#3658896) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie This dish looks great. Tastes like rancid olive oil and the Atlantic Ocean with added salt. I didn't know about the pot luck until yesterday. Plans apparently got moved up. Last I heard (last Wednesday) the pot luck (for a doctor who is leaving) was planned for Friday. I don't work at that clinic on Fridays so donated for a gift and told some one to sign my name on the card when it came around. I had private clients last night and tonight, so no time to think or shop. I had already bought the potatoes, garbanzos and red onion for a pot luck I am hosting on this coming Sunday, had not given a thought to how long the olive oil had been in hanging around, and have a garden full of fresh basil and oregano. I wasn't about to go out and try to harvest in the moonlight, then mince enough of both to make 1/4 cup of each - I always figure on doubling the quantity of such herbs if using fresh herbs. 1/4 cup of fresh, minced oregano is a lot of fresh oregano. And the basil is flowering and looking quite scraggly - would have taken a lot of picking through = time. And stripping leaves from stems then mincing fresh herbs like oregano in that quantity is time consuming. Having said all that, here I am, on Mudcat, after 11:00 with the alarm going off at 5 am. Should say that is not how I wanted to spend my time, eh? What pisses me off is that I could not, by force of will, make bad ingredients work, and I pretty knew that, but did not want to accept it. Delusions of being a master of the universe? |
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09 Sep 14 - 11:20 PM (#3658897) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie And anyone have any helpful hints of keeping good olive oil from going rancid short of storing it in the refrigerater so it has to be "thawed" before use? |
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10 Sep 14 - 12:12 AM (#3658904) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Stilly River Sage Keep it in a cool dark place, and don't buy a container larger than you think you can use in a few months. Don't keep it in the fridge. I buy a large jug of it, 3 litres at a time, but I use a lot of olive oil. (I buy from a Middle Eastern grocery and the oil comes from a single town, let alone a single nation). SRS |
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10 Sep 14 - 07:11 AM (#3658977) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: maeve Olive oil turns rancid and loses its beneficial qualities when exposed to excessive light, heat, and air- I also take care to keep out moisture. If it's awkward to keep a large container of oil in a cool, dark cupboard, or if you buy a large container but aren't likely to use it up in a few months, try decanting portions into glass canning jars (fill 'em, and use metal lids with protective coating.) and refrigerating it. You can take out one jar at a time to keep in the pantry, or you can also just spoon out what you need when you need it. Only the best extra virgin olive oils should not be refrigerated. Another potential advantage to keeping it in smaller jars- you could infuse a couple of small portions with different herbs. In that case refrigeration is usually advised. Gently heating the oil and washed-but-air-dried fresh herbs or using dried herbs reduces the likelihood of spoilage from moisture. I prefer to strain out the herbs after a few days unless I want them in the dish I'm preparing, leaving me with infused oil, ready to use. I imagine you could also freeze the infused oil/herbs in ice cube trays, as I do various kinds of pesto, then store it in well-sealed zip bags in the freezer. Good luck with the potluck! |
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10 Sep 14 - 08:24 AM (#3658991) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Ed T I store mine in a dark, food stoage pantry, which is relatively light free for most of the time. I suspect air exposure is one factor related to the oil becoming taste rancid. So, I try to reduce the exposure of the opened oil surfaces to fresh oxygen by storing excess oil in smaller containers, where the oil level is near the top of the container. While heat extremes shoukd be avoided, I suspect temperature alone is not the bigest factor, as olive oil is stored for long periods in some fairly warm climates. Sunlight exposure seems to promote the oil degrading in taste quality (though it may not impact it for other uses, such as lubrication). :) Below is one link with info...I suspect there are many others. olive oil |
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10 Sep 14 - 08:52 AM (#3658995) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Raggytash Many years ago working as I Chef I was making Crème Patissiere. I got a bowl cracked sixty (yes 60)added cornflour and the whole lot frothed up over the side of the bowl, over the table ..... strange I thought, cleaned up the mess and started again, this time watched by 6 or 7 other chefs. Cracked 60 eggs added the cornflour .... the whole thing started to froth up violently over the bowl, over the table ...... bloody strange. OK, third time lucky, cracked 60 eggs ...... it was then I noticed I'd been using baking powder instead of cornflour !! |
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10 Sep 14 - 09:01 AM (#3658999) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Ed T A friend of mine once told me his new wife used gladiolus bulbs (that were stored in a cold cellar, near vegetables) in preparing a spaghetti sauce, I suspect thinking they were garlic? I dont recall how he rated the sauce's flavour? |
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10 Sep 14 - 09:08 AM (#3659002) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Rapparee I once made creamed tuna on mashed potatoes and learned that you should always drain off the oil the tuna is packed in. I also learned that this is a very, very monochromatic dish. |
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10 Sep 14 - 10:41 AM (#3659024) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Ed T One should always drain off can fluids, as the coatings combine with them during heat retorting and through age. |
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10 Sep 14 - 11:25 AM (#3659032) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: wysiwyg I dunno if it was epic, but it was hilarious. In my checkered yoot I used to hold regular Lasagna Parties-- people would come, cook, drink, smoke, eat. People would then take home a portion commensurate with as much as they had eaten, to stow in their freezer. It was a rolling, drop-in affair-- I'd be at the stove sometimes for days making the small-batch sauce flavored especially to each arrival's taste. One year I enjoyed a few of those activities so much that when it was time to dine with one group, THAT was when we all realized NO ONE HAD TURNED ON THE OVEN. And for that meal I'd hauled out some of my OWN frozen batch. I think the new kitchen in Ohio will suit this kind of party perfectly! ;-) ~Susan |
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10 Sep 14 - 11:41 AM (#3659036) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Stilly River Sage My cousin learned how to use her pressure cooker on the occasion of inviting us over for dinner and then realizing she hadn't turned on the crock pot with the chicken, the main ingredient in the dish she was preparing. She had received one as a wedding present but didn't know how to use it, but mom was a pro. Dinner was later, but not that late, and whatever she had been planning to add the cooked chicken to tasted just fine. SRS |
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10 Sep 14 - 11:59 AM (#3659044) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST Learn the difference between a garlic clove and a garlic bulb! A colleague's mistake rather than mine. The worse one that happened to me was a cheap corkscrew snapping when I tried to draw a cork the first time we ever had people to dinner. |
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10 Sep 14 - 12:01 PM (#3659045) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Mrrzy A few years ago when mom was really getting old, somebody made (or tried to make) cornbread for Thanksgiving once... it never solidified but remained kind of saucy, and mom could apparently not understand that it was supposed to be cornbread and was just rather confused... so "who med ze cornbread" has become a phrase in the family now, for an unacknowledged milestone like if you miss someone's birthday, oh, did someone make cornbread? Also once when we made mechoui, which is an entire animal (in this case I think lamb, but it might have been a pig) stuffed with couscous and a bunch of other stuff roasted over a fire all day being turned by hand... and something on the spit itself turned the couscous black wherever it had touched. We were in southern India at the time and had taken the animal away into the kitchen to cut up once it was cooked, so we just kind of took all the black stuffing out and didn't tell anybody and nobody got sick but we still don't know what it was, we'd made a lot of mechoui over the years but this only happened the once. Oh and once somebody was bringing out a sliced ham just as the wedding reception guests were arriving, beautifully arranged back on the bone, when they tripped over the basset hound and the whole thing went flying. I went and stalled the arriving guests by chatting madly in the garden while mom and dad quickly piled all the ham the dog didn't get back on the plate all anyhow and my sister got the dog out the back door... nobody said anything about the dog hair at least. Thank you for getting me to remember that! I must have been 12 or so... |
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10 Sep 14 - 12:32 PM (#3659055) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Stilly River Sage Mrrzy, here is a favorite scene from A Christmas Story. SRS |
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10 Sep 14 - 12:52 PM (#3659057) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Sandra in Sydney once upon a time when I had not long left my family home & was embarking on the world of cooking ... The recipe said bring the sugar & water to the boil & boil for 5 mins (or similar time) so I brought it to the boil, & left to do something else. Clouds of black smoke everywhere & I had a very interesting mass of black stuff in my aluminium saucepan that looked something like slag furnace steel - photo 2 result 1 dead saucepan Well, it didn't say I needed to stir the boiling syrup ... |
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10 Sep 14 - 01:07 PM (#3659061) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: ranger1 Once my mom was sick and my step-dad made dinner that night. He'd followed mom's instructions for tuna noodle casserole to a "t", or so he thought. We kids were all at the table digging in and he asked how it was. Silence for a moment while we older kids tried to think of how to tactfully tell him what my youngest sister suddenly blurted out: "Hey! You forgot the tuna!" |
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10 Sep 14 - 02:30 PM (#3659095) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bill D "Learn the difference between a garlic clove and a garlic bulb!" Ummm... right. 55 years ago, found a recipe for Turkey dressing. Bought garlic...(it did seem like a lot) Picture 4 adults spending an hour or so picking garlic bits out of cooked dressing with tweezers AFTER Mom explained the difference. It was still not too bad... |
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10 Sep 14 - 02:58 PM (#3659099) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek when my brother married a second time, they housed as many family members as they could at their house. So he made a huge pot of tomato sauce and had boxes of pasta to feed everyone. Well, after three days of reheating, the Italian sausage links had every bit of fat sucked out of them. As hubby said for years after, "I never knew you could snap a sausage link in two." I was just happy that my brother didn't meltdown dealing with his future in-laws. |
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10 Sep 14 - 06:40 PM (#3659148) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Ed T ""Learn the difference between a garlic clove and a garlic bulb!"" I expect his new wife learned that lesson the hard way:) |
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11 Sep 14 - 06:16 AM (#3659258) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Dani Am loving this thread, and realizing I've caused enough of these to keep it going all year : ) Chapter One: leaving the sugar completely out of the Thanksgiving coconut custard pie. Which everyone wanted more than anything. First bites, polite stares, then PFLOOY around the table. .... I'll work my way up to the exploding Pyrex sagas. With an 's'. Dani |
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11 Sep 14 - 06:30 AM (#3659262) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST Toffee made with salt in place of caster sugar doesn't work and, as far as I can tell, is without remedy. You may know better. |
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11 Sep 14 - 06:49 AM (#3659267) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: sciencegeek "Toffee made with salt in place of caster sugar doesn't work and, as far as I can tell, is without remedy. You may know better." and is part of the legend of "salt water taffy" from Atlantic City, NJ LOL |
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11 Sep 14 - 10:55 AM (#3659348) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Rapparee Well, there was the time we found a big unlabeled can of something in the street. One night my mother couldn't think of anything for dinner so she opened the of...roofing tar. |
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11 Sep 14 - 11:35 AM (#3659363) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bill D My brother--- 3 years younger-- used to like mustard a lot. He tried it on baloney, hamburgers, hot dogs, on plain bread... almost anything. He then decided mustard was good on anything Then he tried it on ice cream. He 'revised' his theory..... nothing like experimental science to advance culinary knowledge. |
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11 Sep 14 - 01:21 PM (#3659392) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek too many fiascos - but here is one that's not too painful to recall... lol We enjoy a nice sauerbraten every now and again, so I marinated the meat... but things got busy that week so it marinated way longer than usual. Well it was tender alright... the darn thing melted when I cooked it. Think pulled beef "braten"... Mike called it the best gravy I ever made... we poured it over the boiled potatoes. sigh... |
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11 Sep 14 - 01:32 PM (#3659396) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Morticia Didn't have tinned tomatoes last night to put in the spag bol. Used Passata instead, they are both tomato type product, should be no difference, right? Wrong.....one of the most disgusting dinners I have ever made, ever. |
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11 Sep 14 - 04:14 PM (#3659447) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Stilly River Sage With four kids to raise, my mother was always looking for new recipes that called for inexpensive ingredients. She visited the county agriculture extension agent for recipes one time and came home with a couple of lulus - the "liver and kidney teriyaki" was awful - and we kids renamed it "liver and kidney harikari" - so she got the hint and didn't make it again. Another recipe she tried only once was the concord grape flavored tapioca pudding. The recipe made enough for a small army and she didn't think to reduce it for the first time. We threw away a lot of pudding. SRS |
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11 Sep 14 - 05:12 PM (#3659464) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bill D My mother never had the opportunity to learn serious cooking, as our family was 'on the road' the 1st 8-9 years of her marriage. She did basic stuff, and managed pretty well..... except for meatloaf. Meatloaf was a fairly cheap thing to fix in the 1940s & 1950s, and there are many easy ways to do it... but Mom always managed to make it into a dense, hard to chew mass. I used to tell people that one could take a 1/4" slice and slap an enemy across the face with it. Her secret? She never 'quite' believed her recipe on how many bread crumbs to add. She'd mix things up, look at it, and decide "it needs a little bit more". It came out pretty bland and tough. My brother & I would douse it with ketchup and manage to eat it... ketchup made lots of stuff palatable for kids. When I left home, my wife suggested meatloaf, and I decided to wing it! I did some basic stuff in some recipe and went light on additives, and voilà! decent meatloaf! |
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11 Sep 14 - 06:35 PM (#3659484) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: ChanteyLass Janie? What happened to that potato salad? I think some of it can be found in another thread. (Grin.) |
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11 Sep 14 - 08:55 PM (#3659509) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie Well....a good bit of the salt was dealt with by the potatoes absorbing it overnight. Not enough of it, but it no longer tasted like the sea. It did not all get eaten. (did I mention I went outside and forgot to watch the pot, so overcooked the potatoes?) So it wasn't a visually attractive dish either. 3 people who were brave enough to try it did come by my office door and asked for the recipe. I could still taste the bitterness and the lack of robust oregano - but these folks had never eaten it before....And I kept my mouth shut and passed along the recipe. They will be pleasantly surprised when they fix it with good ingredients. Regarding the recipe - I simply said "add salt to suit your taste." |
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11 Sep 14 - 09:05 PM (#3659510) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie For big holiday meals my mother and both usually don't try to make bread or rolls from scratch and buy frozen, heat-and-serve french or sourdough rolls. I learned most of my cooking from her, including popping the rolls in the oven at the last minute then forgetting they are in there in the rush to get the meal laid out on the table - The smoke alarm has served as the dinner gong more than once. |
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11 Sep 14 - 09:54 PM (#3659524) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie Microwave popcorn anyone? During what was supposed to be an afternoon break at work I put a bag in and turned it on - receptionist called and needed me to go up front for some reason. I forgot all about it. Suddenly she says "I smell something burning." Me. "Oh no, the popcorn!" I dash back to the kitchenette where there is some smoke seeping out around the door of the microwave, but no flames. I open the door to remove the charred bag. The smoke billows out and sets off the fire alarm. 150 people working or visiting 5 county agencies housed in the building and two fire trucks responding to the alarm. Talk about embarrassed! |
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11 Sep 14 - 10:25 PM (#3659526) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Jeri Somebody at work once torched the toaster with an incendiary Pop-tart. I have a hard time thinking that a flaming toaster-with-p-tart is worse than the smell of burnt popcorn, though. Even when you cook microwave popcorn right, it smells burnt. |
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12 Sep 14 - 12:13 AM (#3659537) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie Is this where I confess that I am one of those weirdos who really likes somewhat burnt popcorn? Especially if burnt in butter? (Honest, though, that is not what I was trying to achieve on that particular occasion.) Interesting to note from doing a brief and non-discriminatory google search re: gladiolus that some species are used as food in Africa, as well as for medicinal purposes. I'm a wild foods buff, so was curious when from reports above, it was clear that they at least are not significantly toxic -well- no one is reported to have died:>) Really like the idea of using a wide-mouthed jar to store olive oil in the frig. Thanks. Living alone, I rarely cook these days. That last batch of olive oil was stored in a dark cupboard, in a tin and was towards the end of the tin, but was probably close to a year old from when the tin was opened. I do use olive oil often to spritz salads (I love my 'misto') but rarely cook. Tossed what was left in the tin and bought more olive oil today, in a very small bottle - but will probably take 6-12 months before I go through that even. From the bonafide chefs among us - vulcanic eggs and hints of stories of exploding pyrex?! Tell more. |
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12 Sep 14 - 03:58 AM (#3659562) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: JennieG I still have nasty memories of The Exploding Pressure Cooker way back in 1975 when I was expecting Number One Son. |
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12 Sep 14 - 04:27 AM (#3659568) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: MGM·Lion Very early in my first marriage, way back in Spring 1959, Valerie, who was finding her nurturing-wife feet, came across two recipes submitted to the Fleet St women's magazine she was sub-editor of, and had the bright idea of combining elements of White-Fish-In-Cider and Cod's-Roes-With-Something-or-other-else. The resulting concoction was so spectacularly, horribly inedible, that, thenceforward, right throughout our ½-century marriage, "Cod's Roes In Cider" became our eternal all-purpose private-language phrase for, or denunciation of, any particularly spectacular booboo or flopperoo... I'd call that "epic"! ≈M≈ |
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12 Sep 14 - 06:09 AM (#3659589) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Dani Well, I'll work up to the exploding glass by telling you about First Duck. Meant to impress Father-in-Law, and I was very excited about the possibilities of that rotisserie thingy on the grill. Do you have ANY idea how much flippin' fat is on even the skinniest looking duck?? I do now, but didn't then, until the fire trucks showed up. Dani |
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12 Sep 14 - 10:22 AM (#3659648) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bill D Culinary failure snobbery: When I was young, I was over at a friend's house when we heard fire trucks on the next block where another friend lived. Of course we ran over to see...there was a blackened pot sitting in the driveway, and the embarrassed family apologizing to the firemen. It was not a big city, so the fire 'report' made the "daily happenings" column in the newspaper. "Burned pot roast causes small fire"... something like that. I had looked in the pot... it was a dozen hot dogs that had boiled dry. (The father was a well-known captain on the police force.) |
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12 Sep 14 - 10:42 AM (#3659655) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek LOL... the original blackened dishes... my mom would fall asleep and burn the tea kettle... I've had mine own disasters that way... too sad, but I've even burned soup... sigh |
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12 Sep 14 - 05:29 PM (#3659763) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Rahere Well, there was the boy scout who put a can of spaghetti in the camp fire - without piercing it. The bang was heard in the next town and the entire campsite covered in worms. Or me bruvva who was a custard addict - so was challenged to make something different with it. Two drops of blue food ccolour did it, ever tried eating green custard? Peculiarly unappetising. |
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13 Sep 14 - 12:50 AM (#3659800) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: dick greenhaus There once was a gourme from Crediton Took som pate d foie gras and spread it on A chocolate biscuit And murmured "I'll risk it" His grave bears the date that he said it on. Epic enough? |
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13 Sep 14 - 03:16 AM (#3659809) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST My pressure cooker exploded and embedded green beans in the kitchen ceilling. |
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13 Sep 14 - 03:50 AM (#3659812) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Sandra in Sydney Way back in the 70's my colleague decided she wanted a piece (or maybe 2) of toasty cheese so got out the old office toaster something like this with sides that open out toasted the first side, covered the other side with cheese, then popped it in to the toaster. Unfortunately the cheese did not stay in place (DUH!) & the office was filled with the smell of burning cheese. Some decades later with new technology, all staff received a very terse email from Office Operations forbidding microwaved popcorn. The note also reminded everyone that the fee for a false-alarm fire brigade call-out was $600, & that staff members who cause such alarms will pay it in future. And finally all users of the microwave had to watch it the whole time it was operating. sandra (wondering what a false-alarm callout costs now) |
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13 Sep 14 - 08:01 PM (#3660008) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: LadyJean My sister and I were told to cook a turkey for a large Thanksgiving dinner. Which meant I cooked the turkey. I fixed stuffing, pulled the plastic bag full of turkey innards out of the front end of the bird. Put in the stuffing. Wrapped the bird in foil, and put it in the oven. A few minutes later my sister's partner stopped in and asked if I'd taken the bag of turkey innards out of the BACK of the turkey. In my defense, I'd cooked turkeys before, but they only had one bag of innards, in the front! And my sister spent the whole time watching a Woody Allen movie. |
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14 Sep 14 - 12:56 PM (#3660161) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Rahere Ah, reminds me of the Christmas turkey not long after I moved home, turkey bags still in an unidentified box, and none available anywhere. So I begged one off a major quality UK supermarket, who swore it was fine. Except it wasn't, we had the most excellent bird, none of the juices escaped because the plastic shrank to fuse with the skin... |
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14 Sep 14 - 10:48 PM (#3660287) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bill D Ah.. I am reminded of my German teacher in college! He told of spending a couple years in Germany as an exchange professor. Came the holidays, they wondered if they could find a turkey to remind them of home. Went to the local butcher shop. "Yes," said the butcher, "we don't get many requests, but I can special order you a turkey.. if you don't mind if it's frozen." Fine, they said, so 3 days before Christmas they went to the shop to get their turkey. It was frozen, just as promised.... not cleaned and plucked... just frozen after it's head was removed. If I remember correctly, turkey dinner was a couple days late as they worked out how to defrost the bird, scald it, pluck it, clean it and finally cook it. |
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14 Sep 14 - 11:48 PM (#3660291) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie Ouch! |
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15 Sep 14 - 08:27 AM (#3660386) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Rahere And then there was the sad fate of a rather fine bottle of limoncello I bought, had one drink from, and then it disappeared. I later discovered my daughter had snaffled it for a sleepover with some of her girlfriends (aged 16), who helped themselves to a wineglassfull each...most of which went down the sink, followed by the rest of the bottle. |
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16 Sep 14 - 07:46 AM (#3660760) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Dani Many, many years ago, when on a new job, in a new city, I invited a few new co-workers over for a dinner party, featuring the Famed Charleston 13-Bean Soup. Can you tell I went to the Bootstrap College of Culinary Arts? No one told me you needed to SOAK beans BEFORE cooking. After a few hours of beers, waiting for the pebbly beans to do ANYTHING, we ordered in pizza : ) Dani |
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16 Sep 14 - 10:17 PM (#3660988) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Mrrzy Hee hee another memory from long ago - I heard my mom yell and went running into the kitchen and thought she had accidentally somehow slit her throat with the can opener she was brandishing in one hand, there was what I thought was blood not only in huge swaths across her throat but in great jets across and into cupboards and the walls and everything, and I had just time enough to realize nothing was dripping when she burst out laughing and, holding a rounded can of tomato paste in the other, said Never try to open a spherical can that used to be cylindrical! The gas from the spoiling paste had distended the can but she didn't realize that opening it under pressure would cause jets of it to erupt, startling her (thus the yell) and spraying tomato paste upward under her chin, and then everywhere else when she jumped... |
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17 Sep 14 - 05:48 AM (#3661083) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Sandra in Sydney brilliant! recently I noticed a small can of tomato paste about 4 years past it's use-by date had left a thin trail of yucky black sludge round the top & down the cupboard wall. I didn't investigate exactly where the sludge came from & just threw out the can & contents. sandra |
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17 Sep 14 - 06:18 AM (#3661097) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Rahere It's odd how parts of one's career can be perfect echoes one of the other. The first individual task i was given on joining a major food supplier was to sort out the fate of a consignment of canned orange juice on a ship which had lost its steering in the Med, and was salvaged. All goods on such a ship share the same fate, falling into the hands of the salvager, and so I attempted to contact them, only to be told the matter was in the hands of a Spanish Court, who would let us know. Orange juice being perishable, I told them not to bother, by the time that was sorted out it would be unusable, and sent the thing off to the insurance. End of story, or so I thought. Years went by, and I prepared to move to a new job. As I put the last thing on my desk in the box, the phone rang, it was the harbourmaster of the port the ship was brought back into, complaining that he had a load of tins marked with the company's name on the end of a pier and they were going bang. Ten gallons of orange juice left in the Spanish sun for a couple of years ferments most magnificently, and there were thousands of the things. I explained they were almost certainly the lost consignment, and nothing to do with us - but what can we do, pleaded the poor sob. You probably can't move them, so the only remaining option is to bulldoze them over the edge into the dock - which occasionally gurgles evilly to this day, I am told. |
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17 Sep 14 - 09:18 AM (#3661174) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Sandra in Sydney brilliant. |
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17 Sep 14 - 10:17 AM (#3661200) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: MGM·Lion I remember that very early in my first marriage, Valerie left an egg boiling on the stove & forgot it. Ultimately, the pan having boiled dry & the heat maintained, it exploded. The ceiling of the kitchen of the upstairs flat at 9 Hayes Crescent, off Finchley Road at Temple Fortune, London NW11, was stained with dried egg yolk until we left 18 months later. Still is, 53 years later, for aught I know of the matter. & we had to buy a new egg saucepan. The one I am still using, I believe! ≈M≈ |
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17 Sep 14 - 10:34 AM (#3661206) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Rahere Mind you, it does run in the family - skipped a generaton to me, but I do recall the day my gran was on the phone in utter hysterics. Now, she was a belly-laugher naturally, but this time she was peeing herself. It turned out my uncle had bought her a food processor, she'd loaded it with the ingredients for a chocolate sponge, and switched it on. How the lid came off we'll never know, but the effect was that instead of being smashed against the sides of the hopper by the blades, going up the sides and the lid dropping it back onto the blades, the absence of a lid meant it climbed out in a pillar of dark brown you name it, spreading out until it not only hit the ceiling, but the walls and floor of the kitchen as well. Whence the hysterical nan... |
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17 Sep 14 - 11:13 AM (#3661222) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek ah equipment failures... the mental picture of chocolate decorating the kitchen brought back two memories... my aged grandmother, who was losing her eyesight to glaucoma, attempting to surprise my mom with potato dumplings... she left dried out potato mixture on the handle of every cabinet door, flat surface, etc. at the end of the process. Mom was surprised alright and was cleaning that up for some time afterwards. then there was my dad's great snail stampede... he and mom loved escargot and he picked up a paper bag full of the little darlings... and then left them on the table overnight. Amazing how far those little guys can travel in that amount of time... snails on the floor, counters you name it... we even found a few dried out specimens on the back of the refrigerator months later... At least when you bring home clams or mussels they stay put! LOL |
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17 Sep 14 - 11:33 AM (#3661225) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Dani Yeah, turns out equipment is very reliant on science. Playing with my new NutriBullet mixer, I first violated the maximum limit, then forgot that pancake batter WILL expand. The friend I'd invited over for pancakes that morning walked in just as it exploded and sprayed certainly 50 times more volume than what I'd put in there. She endeared herself to me forever by immediately grabbing chairs and rags to begin the kitchen scrub-down. Dani |
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17 Sep 14 - 01:16 PM (#3661261) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bert It was in the Members kitchen at High Roding Youth Hostel, way back in the fifties. The girls had cooked dinner and I wanted some rice pudding for dessert. Ya know, rice, milk, sugar, and raisins. So I gets me a small pot and a can of milk. Opened the one pound bag of rice and dumped that in. It soon got solid so I added more milk, then I had to get a bigger saucepan, then another saucepan... Finished up with enough to feed the whole Hostel, and then some. |
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17 Sep 14 - 01:53 PM (#3661271) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bill D LOL... many years ago, I had a copy of "Impoverished Student's Book of Cookery, Drinkery and Housekeepery by Jay F. Rosenberg." published by Reed College. In it, they had cheap things to do with rice... preceded by an explanation that X cups of 'rice' = X3 cups of *RICE* |
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17 Sep 14 - 11:54 PM (#3661377) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie Loving the tales - good to know I am not terminally unique. The first (and perhaps the last) time I decided to make a meat stock to make a scrumptious soup or something from leftovers, I ended up with a gelatinous mass in a large pot. We all have psychological defenses and mine come into play here - I think, but am not certain, it was a lovely, free range turkey carcass and was at the tail-end of failing enthusiasm for cooking from scratch and being frugal after a marathon and stressful Thanksgiving with too many in-laws I was trying to impress. I think we ended up having pizza delivered on a Friday night. |
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18 Sep 14 - 09:19 AM (#3661495) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek Janie... you did OK, just cooked it long enough to get everything out of it. "Sometimes when I make chicken stock it gets gelatinous. Does that mean it has gone bad?" No, in fact the opposite is probably true! You have likely made wonderfully flavorful stock. Properly made stock becomes gelatinous from the collagen in the bones. The gelled texture has nothing to do with fat content, as many people erroneously believe. A well-skimmed stock can be just as (or even more) gelled than one which contains fat. Fat will thicken the stock, but it will not cause it to gel. I take a portion of the gelled stock and dilute it enough to cook whatever vegetables, etc. I plan to add to the soup. Or freeze it in small batches for use later on. Or give the pets a real treat with their meals. |
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18 Sep 14 - 10:38 AM (#3661509) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek the hubby has decided he likes to make soup... but he does not get the fact that the broth needs to have the excess fat removed. Having to dive below the floating oil to ladle out a bowl doesn't work... and if i want a bowl, I end up taking a portion and putting in the fridge long enough to harden the fat & remove it myself. ugh... greasy food is not my thing... |
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18 Sep 14 - 03:16 PM (#3661591) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Bert X cups of 'rice' = X3 cups of *RICE* Trouble is Bill, that the formula doesn't work too well when X=1. :-) |
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18 Sep 14 - 08:54 PM (#3661669) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,Rahere Loughborough University in my day was mostly Science - about 10 men to every woman, and she was a librarian in the making. So the cookery was scientific. An example was the recipe for icecream. 1. Ingredients: 1 pint milk, one packet of icecream powder. 2. Equipment: 1 teapot, 1 power drill, 1 pair of scissors, 1 freezer 3. Empty the milk into the teapot. Cut the top off the packet of icecream mix, and add it. 4. Put the scissors point-forwards into the chuck of the power drill and secure. Put the handle into the teapot and wisk slowly. Except slow on a power drill is a relative concept. 5. Put it in the freezer overnight and suck it out through the spout. |
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19 Sep 14 - 07:37 AM (#3661783) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: Janie I didn't realize that, sciencegeek! I thought it was ruined and tossed it. Should have realized that with reheating and dilution it would turn back into broth. |
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19 Sep 14 - 08:42 AM (#3661803) Subject: RE: BS: Epic culinary failures From: GUEST,sciencegeek well, next time you'll know, Janie... :D I find it's more likely to happen when cooking down a chicken or turkey carcass... loads of cartilage waiting to be rendered. I don't recall it happening with beef, probably because so little cartilage available except in really cheap cuts. when making stock you can place your selection of vegetables in a large roasting pan and place the bones or seasoned meat on top and then roast in a medium heat oven for an hour or so... add enough water to keep from burning and cover with foil or lid. When the meat is done, deglaze the pan and add the contents of the pan along with the bones and cooked vegetables to a large stock pot... now you are ready to make a rich stock. The roasted meat is ready for the table - but you can take any trimmings and add them to the stock pot. Waste not, want not. |