Written by adam on Feb 14, 2007
More of Our Cooking Mistakes
Last year I wrote a short post about how we learn as home chefs by burning or otherwise ruining perectly good food. The topic is on my mind again as I have royally messed up an attempt to bake a cake in a camp dutch oven. Sometimes my ego gets in the way of me following instructions. I'm a man, what can I say. Some days, the rules just don't apply.
This is when most of my mistakes happen. There are times where a recipe is not like instructions to building a bookshelf. A bookshelf can be put together in any number of ways, but cakes are a different matter.
See, I thought I was going to be clever and make this pineapple upside-down cake a right-side up cake. Personally, I don't like how the pineapple gets all brown and gross when it's on the bottom of a cake. So I figured it would be cool to do it on top. Look how nice it looks before I closed the lid:
Problem was the cherries sank through to the bottom, and the pineapple rings busted the batter's surface tension and barely sank beneath the surface, leaving me with a final product like this:
It tasted just fine, of course, but the visual presentation was not what I had hoped for. It's the screw-ups like this that make us the cooks that we are today. Believe me, I will never do this again.
I know I'm not the only one that has fouled up a recipe or smoked out the kitchen. Chime in and let me know what your cooking mistakes have been.
Responses to "More of Our Cooking Mistakes" ...
The worst mistake I ever made? Accidentally using Bavarian cream instead of heavy cream when making Alfredo sauce. It was SO not right.
adam
I'm sorry, that one just made me laugh. A nice *sweet* alfredo. Good one.
I once made an attempt at making chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I doubled the recipe, but forgot to double the flour. That was the first and last time I did that. It was a huge chocolate mess.
mine has to do with buttermilk biscuits. several years ago, i decided that i was going to perfect the buttermilk biscuit. so i made one batch that turned out okay. i went to make the second batch, figuring i didn't need a damn recipe! i could do it on my own....well apparently i did need a recipe - i put in something like 2 tbsp of baking powder and 1 tbsp of baking soda AND salt on top of that! they were totally unedible. so salty and hard t and i decided we couldn't even feed them to the ducks! oops!
I put salt in my coffee instead of sugar! last week...man that woke me up.
Good try though Adam.....
adam
Amanda ... I think the old sailors used to call that hardtack.
Brady ... dude, we need better stories. You mean to tell me you haven't totally screwed up something at Le Cordon Bleu?
TheWife
One time, at band camp . . . Umm, no. Actually, at Grandma's House. I decided to make some instant chocolate pudding. I measured out water instead of milk. Took me FOREVER to figure out why it wasn't thickening. Even after rereading the box, I still didn't realize that it said MILK. Just ask my bro' about that one. He'll never let me forget it. Or ask the resident man in apron about mt sugarless Coca-cola cake. Mmmm. Yummy!
adam
Wow, a comment from TheWife that doesn't invlove dissing me in some way.
Irene Norse
I have made a dish where the sauce is way too sour - How do I fix this
adam
Ummm ... would need to know more about your dish. My first instinct is to not put so much vinegar in it.
Since winter of 2004, I have been exploring the world of cooking and helping out my fellow men in their quests to better themselves in the kitchen. My name is Adam Byrd, you can learn more about me and my mission on my