What Has Been Your Biggest Cooking/Baking Disaster?
By Janey1966
@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
January 13, 2010 12:03pm CST
The one I had was a pizza for my hubby. He rang me to say that he was going to be late from work (as sometimes he works overtime) and the pizza had already been in and had cooked its allotted time. Anyhow, I decided to turn the thermostat to 50 degrees C (I think it's C, it's electric) which is the lowest the oven can be set at. Well, by the time John had arrived home the pizza was black! I think he ate it too because he didn't want me to waste it lolol.
Another disaster that springs to mind was the time Mum used her combination microwave for the first time to cook a chicken. For those of you who don't know these microwaves can use a combination of cooking in the usual manner, coupled with microwaves to speed the process up a bit. Well, we noticed that the glass turntable wasn't turning round but didn't think anything of it (never had had a machine like that before) so was a bit naive to say the least. You can imagine what it came out like...rather undercooked. Never made THAT mistake again and Mum blamed me because I was supposed to be the techno-head of the family!
Another disaster that springs to mind was the time Mum used her combination microwave for the first time to cook a chicken. For those of you who don't know these microwaves can use a combination of cooking in the usual manner, coupled with microwaves to speed the process up a bit. Well, we noticed that the glass turntable wasn't turning round but didn't think anything of it (never had had a machine like that before) so was a bit naive to say the least. You can imagine what it came out like...rather undercooked. Never made THAT mistake again and Mum blamed me because I was supposed to be the techno-head of the family!3 people like this
11 responses
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
Oh dear, it all spilled over the pan did it? Not good! Welcome to myLot my friend and hope you enjoy the site.
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
14 Jan 10
One of my biggest disasters was pizza as well. It was before my husband and I were married. I wanted to make him a homemade pizza and my mom allowed me to use her kitchen to make it. I didn't par bake the crust and I put way too much sauce on. The dough never cooked all the way through and it was just a big soppy mess, and I was so embarrassed.
The second was when I caught the oven on fire on Thanksgiving one year. The turkey was huge and with all the juices the pan got really heavy and instead of asking for help I tried to pull it out of the oven myself, and ended up spilling turkey juice on the the bottom of the oven, it must have fallen in the small hole that exposes the heat a little bit because the flames just shot up. Luckily my husband was nearby and he came and grabbed the turkey while quickly dampened a kitchen towel and beat the fire out. We were lucky we got the fire out so quickly.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
Yes, you were lucky my friend regarding the fire and I'm glad it was all sorted out quickly. As for the pizza, at least you had a go at making one, mine was a frozen version out of a box
@weasel81 (2496)
• Australia
14 Jan 10
um lets seee there's been a number of disaters, in my house. i've also got a convection oven, not had a problem with it. but it's mainly just used a microwave, i have cooked lasange in it and it came out good. pizza don't mix well with me i usually end up burning them some how. as for cakes i take the packet round to my mums place for her to cook it, easier.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
Hehe I like that comment about taking the packet around to your Mum's. Very good thinking my friend and thank you.
@checkmail (2039)
• India
14 Jan 10
Hello Janey1966 me too have experiences a few such baking disasters, mine first was with an pizza.Yeah when was new to the microwave system, tried to prepare an pizza, but didn't managed to get it right in timing and its temp settings.And to my surprise instead of pizza, it was an hard black coal in the microwave with lots of burned out smell.Another incident happened, my mom tried to fry the fish on the grill instead of the plate that too without oiling it, the result was half cooked detroited fish food.Hoep this things never happens again, as now am much good at microwave system and can prepare whole meal in it, after all we all do learn by mistakes.Happy mylotting.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
Oh dear, I think your pizza was probably worse than mine judging by the comment "har black coal" which is a very good description, actually. Conjures up all kind of images in my head! Well, I had no excuse really, as I was cooking my pizza in a conventional oven which made it even more embarrassing that it turned out how it did...er, badly hehe lol. Happy Mylotting to you too, my friend.
@ladymetal80 (191)
• United States
14 Jan 10
my biggest cooking disaster was this past thanksgiving. I had never cooked for the holidays, and to make a long story short, we didn't have any potatoes this time. I read the box wrong and put three times the amount of salt in the potatoes....All I can say was YUK!!!!!
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
Oh dear, usually what I do is FORGET the salt so they don't taste of anything at all lol. Thanks for your response.
@stand87 (664)
• Bulgaria
14 Jan 10
My biggest cooking disaster happened when I was teenager. I tried to make cookies. I was following a receipt but I didn't know what everything mean actually. So I made one but very big mistake. You know that we should use sodium bicarbonate, but only 1/2tsp. Well I used 3-4 ... :) Then after baking the cookies were as big as baps! Ha-ha . . . It was like a joke!
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
"Big as Baps!" Haha, love it! Yes, I know all about sodium bicarbonate. At first you think that it's not that important to get the measurements right..until you get them wrong lol.
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
13 Jan 10
Hello, Janey. As a 17 year old bride, I decided to cook toad in the hole. The recipe was for 4 servings, so I halved all the ingredients - or so I thought. After almost twice the suggested cooking time, the sausages were rock hard, but the batter was still runny. That was when I realised that the one ingredient I hadn't halved was the milk for the batter. 
My new husband tried manfully to fight his way through it, but most of it ended up in the bin and we went out for fish and chips. We were married for 20 years, and if ever I mentioned cooking toad in the hole again he went very pale. 
My new husband tried manfully to fight his way through it, but most of it ended up in the bin and we went out for fish and chips. We were married for 20 years, and if ever I mentioned cooking toad in the hole again he went very pale. @Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Jan 10
Haha, what a great story, thanks for sharing! I've never cooked Toad In The Hole myself but I do know what it looks like lol. Oh dear, what a shame about the milk but I'm sure you've made up for it many times since.
@much2say (53958)
• Los Angeles, California
13 Jan 10
My biggest baking disaster: When I was a teen, I saw in a magazine a recipe for these adorable teddy bear breads. They were breads shaped like stuffed animal sized teddy bears and I thought they'd make great Christmas gifts. Well, I made the breads - but I guess I overmixed the dough or something. Sure they turned out almost cute, but they were hard as rocks. I did gift them though - to our dogs - ha ha.
I haven't had many true cooking disasters. But when I was a kid, I was determined to cook and tried to make soup (my recipe that I made up). Back then I didn't even know how to cook - but my mom humored me. And so, I made some gross, salty vegetable soup . . . um, non-edible too. Good thing my mom had already made a real meal for us!
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Jan 10
Ha Ha! I like it my friend. At least your dogs got a tasty treat lol. I don't remember cooking much with Mum when I was younger although I have observed her loads of times and - even now - am amazed at how quick she is at making things...especially anything involving pastry. She does work in a school kitchen after all and cooks all the food! I don't know how she does it. I've only worked with her for a couple of weeks a few years ago to earn some money and I was exhausted...and I was only serving the kids and washing up!
@jewels49 (1776)
• United States
13 Jan 10
The year I forgot to put the sugar in the pumpkin pies for thanksgiving dinner..I never caught my mistake until I found the plates of pie with only a bite or so out of them on the counter..I knew something had to be wrong because we have a bunch of people in the family that love pumpkin pie.Uneaten pie could mean only one thng, I tasted the pie and knew immediately what I had done.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
13 Jan 10
Oh dear, what a shame
I don't think you shall be repeating that mistake in a hurry. At school (years ago) my friend put icing sugar in the dumplings instead of salt because the two shakers were made out of steel so it was hard to figure out which was which...until she tried one of them. All I can remember is seeing a load of icing sugar on her dumplings hehe lol but we all had a good laugh about it, which I suppose is the best way of learning things!
I don't think you shall be repeating that mistake in a hurry. At school (years ago) my friend put icing sugar in the dumplings instead of salt because the two shakers were made out of steel so it was hard to figure out which was which...until she tried one of them. All I can remember is seeing a load of icing sugar on her dumplings hehe lol but we all had a good laugh about it, which I suppose is the best way of learning things!
@ramos7881 (344)
• United States
13 Jan 10
Oh, wow. My worst cooking disaster was actually in this last year. My husband was not at home, so I decided to make my kids some fried chicken nuggets. Our fryer was broken, so I simply heated up the oil in a saucepan and cooked them. I had also had a hard day at work, so after supper I was sitting on the couch trying to relax when I noticed a flash of light from the kitchen - the pan was on fire and the flames were already close to the ceiling. After one failed attempt to put out the fire, I yelled at my oldest daughter to call the fire department while I grabbed my 3 year old (who was in the bathroom) and took off running towards the front door. It was a nightmare and I bought a fryer the next day, but we still haven't been able to bring ourselves to actually eat that same kind of chicken nuggets since then. (And my kids still tease me about that incident when I or my husband happens to burn something - which, thankfully, is not that often!)
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
14 Jan 10
That sounds like a frightening experience, I must say! I have a fear of oil for that very reason but would love a Tefal Actifry because they use only 3 spoonfuls of oil at a time...and you can use whatever type of oil you like (apparently)! Way out of our price range at the moment but I can dream..
Glad everyone is OK in your household and Happy MyLotting!
@julia28 (140)
• India
5 Mar 10
Disaster or disasters .......!!!!My first rice dish after my marriage was a disaster.I have never cooked before marriage so i was a silly cook for few months.I added more then required quantity of water in the rice and it became
a porridge.my second disaster was potato peas chop that i tried to grill in microwave.The chops instead of being soft and spongy became crispy spicy cookies..
That mistakes were made decade ago now i think i have improved a lot .
