Comments on: Top Ten Macheesmo Fails

By: Gena

Gena — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:21:58 +0000

Around our house the words Guinness stew will get a snort of laughter from anyone. It’s the start of our using the term “hot garbage” to describe things, like the taste of this stew, and the smell of our dog’s breath when she had a rotten tooth…
I don’t know if i made it wrong (probably) or if the recipe was off. It smelled wonderful, we couldn’t wait to try it, then I tried it and hot garbage was born. My husband put some in a bowl and put carrot sticks upright in it for eyes and left it on the counter for me to find, like it crawled out of the pot.
I would love to try this made by someone else to see what it is supposed to taste like. How does something smell good and taste so very, very bad?

By: foodjaunts

foodjaunts — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:22:58 +0000

Indian dishes. I just can't win with Indian dishes :( I've only successfully made chicken vindaloo, everything else I've tried has been an epic fail and has led to me getting takeout from nearby Indian restaurants (where I get mad all over again because I can't make it!) My recent post Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo

By: Kris

Kris — Wed, 11 May 2011 18:18:48 +0000

Love this post!

By now my favourite taste tester knows that the dinner menu will be whatever I am attempting

OR PIZZA!

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:59:50 +0000

Ha! That’s a great one Clinton. Thanks for the comment!

By: Clinton

Clinton — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:51:05 +0000

These posts have definitely brought a smile to my day. Recently I had company and decided I would surprise them with a batch of fresh cinnamon buns for breakfast. I decided to try an ‘overnight’ recipe to easy my efforts in the morning to disastrous results. I mixed up a very nice sweet dough that seemed to be a good start but it refused to rise at all. After two hours it hadn’t even budged. It was now almost 1am so I decided that perhaps some heat would assist in the rising. I placed my dough, covered with a tea towel in the oven with and turned the oven on for a couple minutes to warm it up as my house was cold. I cam back and looked in the oven to find my tea towel in flames!

Several glasses of water, a loud buzzing hood fan (but thankfully no fire alarm) the fire was out, the towel ruined, and the dough hadn’t even budged. A quick taste assured me that tea towel smoke infuses sweet dough very thoroughly and the whole thing went in the garbage.

The next morning I got up early and put together another batch of quick rise buns that turned out all right. Turns out my company slept in peaceful oblivion and never knew anything had happened.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:32:30 +0000

Oh, where do I begin. I like to experiment but because I fail so often, I don't try to cook much. I love barley like you find in Vegetable Beef & Barley soup. I found out that you could make it as a side dish, so I bought some. I was going to try to cook it in the microwave because I get a little anxious using the gas stove. Anyway, there weren't directions for cooking in a microwave, so I just put the barley in a dish, covered it in water and put the microwave on 10 minutes. It said to cook it at least that long on the stove. Well, I decided to go get on the computer for a few minutes while it cooked. About 9 minutes later, I looked up and noticed there was smoke coming from the kitchen and it had almost reached the computer room which is separated from the kitchen only by the den. Needless to say, the barley was now a charcoal brick in the microwave, and the kitchen stunk for months after. My parents actually threw away the microwave! Then a little over a month ago, I tried to make hard boiled eggs without checking the recipe. I thought that I remembered how to make them, but I didn't. It helps to follow the recipe.

By: Shauna'h

Shauna'h — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:09:24 +0000

I've had many kitchen failures, but the worst was in the early days of my now-husband and I's relationship. I was just starting to really cook on my own and was full of Food Network-induced ideas but had little knowledge or experience to back them up. Two words: Vinegar Chicken. Please learn from my mistakes. Somehow the man still married me after I subjected him to that.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:03:06 +0000

Fail – a recipe I had been dying to make for months. Nutella-Swirl Poundcake. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/nutella-swirl-…
I finally found an appropriate occasion (a friend's get together) and got baking. Well – I think my oven was too hot (I need an oven thermometer) so the cake seemed done, tester came out clean, etc. But when I flipped it out onto the cooling rack 10 minutes later – batter started oozing out! I refused to give up. I put the cooked part back in the pan, scooped up the raw batter and spread it on top of the cake, then baked it for 30 more minutes. It ended up looking OK – sort of like a babka. It tasted OK too – more like a big loaf-shaped cookie. But I definitely did NOT bring it to the party!

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:11:26 +0000

My most spectacular fail was last year. My best friend from my teenage/young adult years came to visit for the first time I'd seen him in 10 years. While most all of the food was superb, the highlight I was looking forward to was having them taste my ribs fresh out of the smoker.

I put three racks on the Egg using my normal recipes and processes. Shortly into the cook, I was having problems keeping the temperature up. I had the vents open more than normal, seemed to be burning coal at a fast rate but just couldn't get the cooking temp up to the 250f that I was wanting.

Finally after an hour and 15 minutes, I opened the Egg up and faced an inferno. My experience knew the heat was easily 450-500f and the ribs were screwed. I had bought a new thermometer for the Egg and this was the first time I was using it. It has a 4" stem vs. the 2" of my old one so the whole time, the thermometer was touching the cold meat instead of air! Embarrassing but funny.

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:54:53 +0000

Excellent post, thanks for sharing your adventures, even if they don't always work out. It makes me feel a little better about my hit or miss cooking skills!