What was your worst cooking disaster?

@AmbiePam (84628)
United States
October 4, 2007 10:11am CST
The worst thing I ever did was probably leaving something too long in the oven. However, a lady I know once served chicken that wasn't all the way cooked inside. I know because I was there. Luckily, she had prepared a casserole as another main dish, but she was so embarrassed because she started noticing no one was eating the chicken after they had cut into it. What is your worst cooking disaster? Or were you just a witness to one?
7 people like this
30 responses
@nangel78 (1454)
• United States
5 Oct 07
My sister almost burned the house down trying to make doughnuts when we were kids. I was at work with my mom and the fire department called about the accident. My mom was livid. The entire ceiling was black with soot.
2 people like this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
Oh wow. Did you take any pictures? : )
@MarieJ23 (1040)
• United States
5 Oct 07
My worst cooking disaster happened on the day that hubby & I made our first Gumbo since we got married. We were very excited about it especially me because he told me that it's so yummy. We had chicken, sausage, shrimps and crab meat as the mean ingredient. Making a gumbo takes about an hour or more including all the preparations. When it was almost done, hubby realized that we are out of gumbo file' so he told me to make the rice while he will go to the nearby store. Two days prior to making our own gumbo, hubby and I ate already some gumbo in a can. With it, rice is already mixed with the gumbo. Stupid as I was, I really thought that the uncooked rice should be mixed directly with the gumbo in the pot. So, I got two cups of rice, wash it with running water and put it in the gumbo. When hubby arrived, he asked me how's the rice. I told him that the gumbo doesn't have soup anymore because I guess I put to much rice. Hubby ran to our kitchen, checked everything and he said calmly, "baby, the rice should be cook separately and everytime we eat the gumbo that's the time that we will gonna add rice to it, next time that's how we will do it, ok?" When I heard it I really cried because I hate myself for being stupid that time. I feel pity for my husband, I know how excited he is to eat it because he doesn't make one for quite some time already. Well, the good thing is it still turn out yummy, my hubby just add some chicken stock to have more soup.
2 people like this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
Aw...that's sweet, and I'm glad it worked out good anyway.
@bimal10p (1218)
• India
5 Oct 07
once i saw a cookery show in tv..in that they made cookies using a pressure cooker..and since all the incredients they told were easily available i tried it..i made the mix as they told..and as show in the program sticked the cookies inside the cooker and placed it over the stove..as my cookies were to be ready in 10 mins..but when i opened the cooker i foound that the cookies had turned black and it got sticked to the sides that i had to work one full day to get them off.. but the stains are still there..and after that i never tried makin cookies..
2 people like this
@SViswan (12051)
• India
5 Oct 07
lol...mine was when I was a teenager and hadn't really learnt to cook yet. I was using a recipe book...and did the first half of one page and didn't realize that the pages had turned...did the second half of another page. My poor father had the whole dish!Everyone else refused to have it (including me!) I've had other minor mistakes when I started cooking but nothing that couldn't be covered up or masked.
2 people like this
@sophylline (1041)
• Philippines
5 Oct 07
I remember my worst cooking disaster. Actually, it was baking. My cousin and I were excited to bake for the first time. She had the recipe. And we followed it's instruction to the dot or so we thought. This was really a long time ago. I was still in college then, freshman. So, I cannot remember everything. But, what happened was, the brownies came out really hard! And we made a lot! It was so disapponting. I really don't know what went wrong and since then, we haven't really tried baking again. We just went on to make a mango pie that didn't need to be baked. LOL Actually, I brought those brownies to school for my friends to eat! hahhaha
• United States
4 Oct 07
I was about 8 years old and made my mom lunch. It required tuna, tomato sauce and bread crumbs. She would not eat it! I don't blame her or me. That was a bad recipe from an old Good Housekeeping cookbook...
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
At least you were nice enough to follow a real recipe. My poor mom came home from work when I was six, to a snack I had made soley for her, pickles in pudding. Do you know that that sweet woman ate it?! Now I know how heroic that was, LOL.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
OK now you're just buttering me up to get your hands on my ramen noodles.
1 person likes this
• United States
5 Oct 07
Your mom is so sweet. That is how you got to be the way you are.
1 person likes this
@sherrir101 (3670)
• Malinta, Ohio
5 Oct 07
My first time making pie was Thankgiving, 1981. I made Pumpkin pies with fresh pumkin. I forgot to add sugar to the mixture. Luckily, I noticed as soon as I put the pies in the oven, so I scooped the filling out and mixed the sugar in it. Everyone told me how good the pie was that year. LOL If they only knew...
1 person likes this
• Malinta, Ohio
5 Oct 07
I was only 18. LOL I would have put some on a spoon for you. LOL
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
It would have been such a shame for the pie to have been ruined. I mean you went to a lot of effort. I'm kinda wishing I had been at that Thanksgiving to taste it personally. Unfortunately, even if you invited me I couldn't have come. I was only 6 months old, LOL.
1 person likes this
• Canada
4 Oct 07
Hi AmbiePam, When I was a teenager (14 or 15) I thought I would be nice and make supper for the family. I had the spaghetti cooking in one pot and the sauce in the other. My dad phoned to say he was on his way home so I cranked the sauce up to high so it would cook faster. A boy phoned and I of course got side-tracked so I went into the other room to talk to him, after I got off the phone with him I smelt something burning. The kitchen was full of smoke and the pot was BLACK! Oops lol. My dad razzed me about that for a while! Love & Hugzz, Your Friend, PurpleTeddyBear!
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Oh what a mess! I bet you had to use a lot of cleaner to get all that up.
1 person likes this
• Canada
5 Oct 07
Mess isn't the word lol. It took a LONG time to get everything clean, but I learnt from it, and never did it again ;) Love & Hugzz, Your Friend, PurpleTeddyBear!
1 person likes this
@KarenO52 (2950)
• United States
6 Oct 07
Once I bought a package of meat cubes that said mutton. It was on sale, really cheap so I figured why not try it. I looked up some recipes for mutton and tried to make mutton stew. I cooked it, simmering it for hours, and it stunk really bad, smelling kind of like a goat. The smell filled up the whole house. It took forever to get tender enough to even consider taking a bite, and when I finally tried it, I couldn't swallow it. I got everyone else to try it, and they wouldn't swallow it either. The dog wouldn't even touch it. I will never buy anything like that again.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
6 Oct 07
Oh wow, I wonder how they got the smell out.
@KarenO52 (2950)
• United States
6 Oct 07
I just remembered this, my brother's girlfriend hardly ever cooked, and one day she made some chicken in a roasting pan in the oven. She turned the oven off when she thought the chicken was done, and then forgot about it. Much later, after days or weeks, she notice a bad smell, and asked my brother to come over and help her find where the smell was coming from. He found it right away, the chicken still in the roasting pan in the oven.
1 person likes this
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
5 Oct 07
This was actually a story my mom told me about my grandmother....She was just newly married and wanted to show off to her new husband her cooking skills and this was at a Thanksgiving dinner... Now the REAL cook of the house at the time was her mother, my great-grandmother, and I must take after her as I love to cook and am a good one...but obviously my grandmother (and mother for that fact) didn't quite inherit my great-grandmother's skills. So here it is Thanksgiving, and my grandmother decided to do ALL the cooking herself for this first Thanksgiving celebrating as a newly married woman and to show off to her husband...Uh...well, I've been told it was less than perfect also...While the roasted turkey "looked" cooked, with a nice golden brown skin, once every one started cutting into it ...same thing...wasn't cooked..LOL
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
Oh no! I would have been so embarrassed. It's a common mistake for a new wife, from what I hear, but I'm sure when it happens to the person it is much worse.
• China
5 Oct 07
my worst cooking disaster is happened before 5 years.that time, i use micro-wave oven at the first time.i want to cook some eggs,and i din't read intorduce of machine.i did't break eggs,and sent eggs to the microwave oven.then,you know,after 5 minutes,blast happened.how lucky i am,at that time,i stay at other room. that is a worst disaster,do u think so.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
Oh wow, it's a good thing you didn't get hurt! How scary that must have been.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Somebody gave me this recipe for meatballs stuffed with stove top stuffing. You make the meatballs mixture....flatten it and put a spoonfull of stuffing in the middle then pull the mixture up over the stuffing....then you bake them....they were so bad that even the dog wouldn't eat it! Three pounds of ground beef....etc in the garbage...my dog however would only eat french friend from McDonalds...he wouldn't eat burger king or wendy's either..he was kinda fussy!
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Oh man! If the dog won't eat it, then it has to be really bad.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
4 Oct 07
That was one nasty pile of meat!!!! It sounded so good....I love stove top....and I love meatballs....Yikes it was bad!
1 person likes this
@Flight84 (3048)
• United States
7 Oct 07
The worst thing that ever happened to me was when I attempted to make candy. I thought I could make some Divinity because I had heard that it was good and pretty easy to make. That was a lie! Ha ha. I found the recipe in a cook book and followed it perfectly, or so I thought. I was at the stage where I was bringing the sugar and corn syrup to a boil, and all of a sudden the mixture started bubbling over uncontrolably. I started freaking out because it was baking to my stovetop. The smell was awful and it took me forever to get it cleaned up. I will never try to make candy again.
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
7 Oct 07
That must have been an awfully sticky stove top. How long did it take to get it all off? My mom loves Divinity, but I hope she never tries to make it. There's no telling what would happen to her kitchen!
@Flight84 (3048)
• United States
7 Oct 07
Ha ha. I didn't expect it to be that hard! Never again. It took me a good hour to get my stovetop completely sticky free and to scrap the burnt on mixture off. I'll buy some next time I'm in the grocery store.:P
@laurika (4532)
• United States
5 Oct 07
I was frying chicken one day and I did it probably to fast.So of corse after cuting it it was still red and I was so mad.So I put it to the oven to make it done(I couldn't fry it any more).But after frying and baking it taste terrible.So I promise to myself I would never ever fry chicken again and we would eat one only already done from KFC or so. Another one happen when I was making my tea and didn't put sugar there , but salt.I just mixed the containers.You could imagine, how it taste like.I was spitting for 30 minutes, to get thattaste away from my mouth.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
Oh man, I can understand the trauma of the salt in the tea. I've done the same thing!
@laurika (4532)
• United States
5 Oct 07
Oh and I forgot one more.My mum was in the hospital and I wanted to cook for my father and brother.We had potatoes from other night and some meat.So i wanted to heat potatoes in caserole but didn't put there any water or butter and they just turn all black.And my brother was given me s**t for that for 2 months.
1 person likes this
@mamasan34 (6518)
• United States
5 Oct 07
I have had cooking disasters. I was making a meal for the family of my ex-husband and I didn't have milk and all I had was heavy creamer to use to make mashed potatoes. The store was over 10 miles away and I just figured I would do my best with what I had. Well, the potatoes came out like glue lol. I was so embarrassed! I had never had that happen before and no matter what we tried to do, it wouldn't come out right. My ex-brother-in-laws wife was very judgmental about my cooking and I didn't want to make any mistakes so I wouldn't have to hear her insults. But of course I did and resigned myself to it for the rest of the evening. On another occasion, I was a witness. My friends invited us over for a BBQ, and we had chicken and it was not cooked all the way. My friends brother took a bite of his chicken and blood came running out of the corner of his mouth and I was thinking to myself OMG! The chicken isn't done. So I told my friend he needed to cook it longer. We ended up having charred chicken for dinner, but at least it was fully cooked lol.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
5 Oct 07
It sounds like your ex brother-in-law's wife DESERVED to eat glue like mashed potatoes.
@gwendovere (1279)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Well, I've caught the stove on fire a few times. Does that count? ;)
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Yes, but sshh...I've done that too. ; )
@jessemt35 (294)
• Qatar
4 Oct 07
The worst cooking disaster I have made is when I cook a chicken casserole for our picnic the next morning but I am too sleepy to watch it cook I went for a nap and the nap turns out to be a full sleep when I wake up I smell something burning and lo! I found my chicken casserole all black and burned that smoke begins to spread all over our flat luckily the fire alarm didn't turned on. We ended up with some crabs and chicken liver for our picnic. Funny and frustrating isn't it. Lol!
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
4 Oct 07
It sounds like you had a good menu for the picnic after all. Although I don't think I've ever had a chicken liver.
@thefortunes (2367)
• Netherlands
4 Oct 07
Hi AmbiePam, I cannot think of any also because I almost never cook. i don't like to cook even though I can and am fairly good at it too, just don't like to do it and all these years my partner has done it, so happy me. I might coock 2 to 3 timkes a year, if even that. I was witness to one however when we had New years evening at his mothers. Well, the meat was so hard, like the under side of a shoe, and no one continued after the 1st small bite, LOL, his mum was so embarassed and there was nothing else to eat , so me and him went to a restaurant near by and ordered some food to take with us, and so we still had a dinner, even though 2 hours later than planned ;) TheFortunes
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Oh his poor mom! I'm glad you guys were there to save the day though. : )
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
4 Oct 07
I witnessed a good one the other day. I was over at the folks home and dad was trying to cook a few marinade steaks in the oven. Well, one hour passes and I see a large wall of smoke everywhere. The folks were fine, but there was so much smoke I couldn't stay inside. They got use to it pretty quick though, I'm a different case. The smoke and stench remained in their house for several hours. At least I got to relax outside and enjoy the old neighborhood.
1 person likes this
• United States
5 Oct 07
Im soooo happy that everyone was ok Gamer!! This reminds me, my hubby was cooking some home made french fries and he had just put them in the oil and came to sit down to watch the game, this was Monday evening. The kitchen is somewhat seperate from the living room so you cant really see the stove from where we were on the couch. Im reading a book, and I can hear the oil frying away at the potatos and all the sudden he mutters "Oh sh!t" and jumps up off the couch. I look up, and from the wall I can see the reflection of flames coming from the stove. The oil had popped out and caught fire on the burner. Its electric. lol I said "everything ok in there honey?" "Yeah yeah I got it babe" I start to laugh. "Was ther a fire in there?" "Yeah", chuckles, "How did you know?" Smiling at me. I said, "I could see the reflection off the wall." He said "Yeah thats how I knew it was a fire too" LOL Bay xx
• United States
4 Oct 07
I had to smile when I thought of things that have happened in the kitchen to me =) There are 2 times that have stuck with me forever though. The first is when I was about 12 yrs old and trying so hard to impress these 2 brothers that my friend & I liked. We had planned to hang out at my sister's house while she was out and I tried to make lasagne for the first time. I didn't even cook the noodles so they were like cardboard when it came out of the oven! The other is when we got invited to a good friend's house for Thanksgiving one year. She doesn't cook much so I helped her in the kitchen. It was her first turkey and I didn't think much of it when she told me that it was in the oven already when I got there. I guess she put it in a smaller baking pan than she should have and when I went to take it out the oil & juices spilled out which caused a fire in her oven. We put the fire out & all w/o any problems but we always laughed about our smoked turkey. LOL
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (84628)
• United States
4 Oct 07
Nobody will ever forget that celebration! : )