Ever made something truly awful

Coffee Addict

Sat, May 13 2017, 8:51 pm

I love this thread!!!

I took a recipe from a friend. Spicy olives for shabbos , to eat with challah, like a dip. She was swearing how yumm it is. Well, for my family it was gross.

I probably have more but can't remember.

Coffee Addict

Sat, May 13 2017, 8:53 pm

devorah1231 wrote:

The first time I made challah after I got married, I had read that to save time, you can put the challah in the oven on very low to help it rise. My oven is difficult and I hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. The challah baked on super low for a half hour before I raised the temp to 350. It didn't brown properly and was super dry... and my husband proudly brought it with us to his parents for the meal. B"H I can make delicious challah but will IY"H never try that trick again!

It's happened by my in laws with other stuff too - I forgot to put the salt in the rice when I cooked for them, and made a recipe with chicken broth that was saltless (my in-laws don't salt soup) and it came out horrible.

I rise my challahs 1 hour on 170 in the oven!! Than 350 for 30 minutes. It's beautiful and yummy!

allthingsblue

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:05 pm

Here's my story:
I was making dinner for my family and for a neighbor's family; she had just had a baby. I decided to try a recipe from the Bais Yaakov cookbook because I've had success with all the recipes I've tried from that cookbook. It was the chicken-pastrami roll ups. Well, I read the recipe and it looked like waaayyyy too much mayo, but I figured "they probably know what they're talking about..."

Turns out, it tasted like chicken with mayo Sad

and my husband and I really dislike mayo... I just scraped off the sauce and ate the chicken but my husband didn't touch it; he bought takeout.
I don't know what my neighbor's did ; maybe they don't mind mayo as much as we do... Or maybe they think I'm a horrible cook... Either way, that was embarrassing!

cnc

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:15 pm

The only botch up that I remember is as follows.
I once baked chocolate chip cookies as a kid for mishloach manos. For some reason I was under the impression that parchment paper and wax paper are interchangeable and I used the wax paper because it was in closest reach. BH the house didn't burn down although the firefighters almost showed up and the cookies had a very distinct wax taste.

Now, does anyone know what wax paper is actually intended for? I never had it in my house since I'm married.

Last edited by cnc on Sat, May 13 2017, 9:45 pm; edited 1 time in total

debsey

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:17 pm

cnc wrote:

Now, does anyone know what wax paper is actually intended for? I never had it in my house since I'm married.

I use it on top of cakes with soft icing when I freeze them so the icing shouldn't stick to the foil or the bag. It peels off well, taking only minimal icing with it.

MitzadSheini

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:38 pm

Many many years ago, my mother spent a long tine me making a delicious salmon mousse for guests.

As they were eating it, my mother announced - be careful, there seems to be bones in it. My mother seemed surprised and said she had removed all the bones (I think it was from canned salmon but I'm not sure). Then my father found a piece of 'bone' with a number on it. We worked out that what had happened was that a small clear plastic measuring cup had somehow fallen into the blender and been blended (to smithereens) in with the mousse.

Amazing thing was, although my mom told the guests to stop eating it, everyone said - no, it's delicious, and kept eating, being careful to take out bits of plastic as they went.

Not sure if this qualifies as "truly awful", but I think it is a funny story.

ttbtbm

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:41 pm

allthingsblue wrote:

This is also the only recipe that didn't work for me from that cookbook either!

amother

Sapphire

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:51 pm

Thanks everyone for sharing. Made me not feel so bad about my mistakes..

I remember when I was pretty newly married and dh parents were coming for shabbos. Things werent turning out right and I panicked (everyone in dh family are excellet cooks) so ended up buying everything from the takeout. I hide all the wrapers and put all
the food in regular containers. Boy were all the compliments uncomfortable... BH I improved quit a bit since then...

justforfun87

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:52 pm

My first thanksgiving at my in-laws, while we were engaged, I offered to make a recipe I learned at overnight camp that summer. I warmed up a can of green beans and added some ketchup while simmering it on the stove. My husband still brings up that story 9 years later.

mommyla

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:54 pm

MitzadSheini wrote:

I have a friend who worked very hard baking a cake for the first Shabbos her new brother-in-law spent at their house (she was a teen at the time). She couldn't find one of the spatulas she'd used afterwards... but they all found it once they cut into the cake!

amother

Red

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:57 pm

Laiya wrote:

One of my first times making chicken soup, I let the liquid all boil down to a single bowl.

Not a complete failure though because that bowl had lots of flavor!

I actually burnt the chicken soup first time I made it as a newlywed. I was trying to make a small pot just for the 2 of us but it didn't quite work.

amother

Cobalt

Sat, May 13 2017, 9:58 pm

MitzadSheini wrote:

I once made a cheese cake very quickly on Friday afternoon. I realized shabbos morning when I cut into it that I had thrown the farmer cheese into the blender without removing the paper wrapping first 😂. So yeah, the cheesecake was full of bits of paper... But it was so good we ate it anyway and picked the paper out of our mouths. Never made that mistake again!

lech lecha08

Sat, May 13 2017, 10:50 pm

I was newly married and made some pasta dish with corn and black beans. DH had taken a few bites and then I took one. Almost spat it out and told him he didn't have to eat it. He looked so relieved I think he was trying to eat it just to spare my feelings.

PinkFridge

Sun, May 14 2017, 5:09 am

mommyla wrote:

"Oops. This was supposed to go to my cousin in prison."

amother

Lawngreen

Sun, May 14 2017, 5:33 am

As a teen, I cooked a rice dish that called for paprika, but my mother had not told me how much, "just add it for color".

Well, it wasn't turning orange, so I kept adding more and more... cayenne pepper!

I don't eat rice, so I discovered my mistake when my sisters began spitting and screaming.

This epic fail has since been enshrined in family lore.

(Anonymous in case my sisters are on here.)

amother

Papaya

Sun, May 14 2017, 6:05 am

amother wrote:

I actually burnt the chicken soup first time I made it as a newlywed. I was trying to make a small pot just for the 2 of us but it didn't quite work.

My husband burned the soup erev pesach. I put it on the fire to boil and went to work without telling him the flame has to be lowered when it comes to a boil. I thought he'd realize on his own....

Amarante

Sun, May 14 2017, 7:05 am

chavs wrote:

As a mid teen and newly allowed to cook by myself I decided to make a new dish that I figured everyone would like. It. It was rice, potatoes and pasta with some spices. I figured that everyone liked all of that so why not put it together. No one ate it and it was a while after that before my mother trusted me alone in the kitchen.

Reminds me of sleeping over at my girlfriend's house at the same age. I have no idea why we decided to make spaghetti sauce on a Saturday night but I do remember that we had no recipe but thought it would be a good idea to add every spice in her mother's cabinet to the concoction that was brewing on the stove. Feh Feh and Triple Feh. Not even adolescent appetites could down that swill.

And I also remember the first cookies my cousin and I baked. Neither of us had any idea that cookies were supposed to be soft when taken out of the oven and that they hardened up as they cooled. So we baked and baked those cookies in the oven waiting for them to harden. And harden they eventually did until they were a dark almost black color. LOL

The amazing part was that my cousin and I then had the temerity to peddle those cookies on the front stoop and the even more amazing part was that adults actually bought them. Very Happy

Sadie

Sun, May 14 2017, 7:15 am

Amarante wrote:

And I also remember the first cookies my cousin and I baked. Neither of us had any idea that cookies were supposed to be soft when taken out of the oven and that they hardened up as they cooled. So we baked and baked those cookies in the oven waiting for them to harden. And harden they eventually did until they were a dark almost black color. LOL

The amazing part was that my cousin and I then had the temerity to peddle those cookies on the front stoop and the even more amazing part was that adults actually bought them. Very Happy

Ha, this reminds me of the "lemonade" stand I opened with my sister once, except we didn't want to be constrained by boring old lemonade and created a concoction mixed up of all the juices in the refrigerator plus seltzer and vanilla flavoring (the kind for baking). We lived on a very unpopulated street but finally a construction worker who was working nearby came and bought a glass and actually drank it. And pretended to like it. What a guy!