# Cooking defeats - What have yours been? Did you learn anything from them.



## Mel! (Mar 14, 2012)

One that comes to mind right  now, is my attempt to deep fry home made samosas, and getting oily mush as a result. 

I was too stubborn to admit defeat so tried cooking all of them in the fryer despite seriel failure, rather than stopping after the first one, and then also had the unpleasant task of cleaning the gunk out of the deep fryer, and then not knowing where to dispose of it without making a leaking disgusting bag of garbage, so I put it in the toilet, which blocked the toilet as the oil congealed on hitting the cold toilet water. 

*What I learned*
I learned to bake samosas, rather than fry. I suppose, I could try shallow frying them, but baking seems better, because shallow frying would probably still cause the pasty to become soggy with fat.


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## Andy M. (Mar 14, 2012)

When making batter dipped onion rings, don't drop a whole handful in the hot oil at one time.  They will cook up as one multi-coiled onion ring mass the size of a softball!

*WHAT I LEARNED:*  Drop batter dipped onion rings into the hot oil one at a time so the coating on the first one has a chance to set before the second one hits it.


Lest you think that's my only mistake:

Never break an egg into a flat dish and microwave it.  It will result in an explosion (no, I am not exaggerating)  and little particles of cooked egg all over the inside of the microwave, including in all those tiny little holes used for venting.

*WHAT I LEARNED:*  Break the yolk first, then microwave.


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## GLC (Mar 14, 2012)

No matter what else you worry about falling into it, NEVER put a lid on a pan in which you're heating oil. When you take the lid off, superheated oil will immediately flash. 

And when it flashes, put the lid back on. Do NOT try to move the pan off the burner. Other lessons that go with that are that burned skin never tans again, and physical therapists are sadistic.


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 14, 2012)

When I was very young all of my defeats revolved around attempting to make "gourmet" meals when I invited people to my home.  I finally wised up and started making TNT country meals that I had made a hundred times.  So I guess I really learned to be myself.


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## 4meandthem (Mar 14, 2012)

I tried a whole wheat pasta dish with homemade pasta. We went out to eat that night.

What I learned......I am just fine with dried store bought pasta.
What else I learned....Whole wheat pasta sucks even the store bought kind.


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## DaveSoMD (Mar 14, 2012)

Never ever ever cook ham studded with cloves in a crock pot with orange juice for 10 hours.  

What I learned.
1. Orange juice will get a burned taste that is over powered only by the overwhelming taste of clove. 

2. Keep the number for pizza delivery handy at all times!


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## CraigC (Mar 14, 2012)

Fails always make you a better cook! Mine are too many to mention. Best thing, being able to look back and laugh at yourself!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Mar 14, 2012)

Never boast about a dish you have made a few times and think you can wing it without referencing the recipe at least once.

*What I Learned* Shrek will always use the phrase "Harvard Beets" to wind me up...at least until one of us goes.  I better go last or he'll tell the story at my wake.


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## buckytom (Mar 14, 2012)

do not take pizza dough from the fridge and try to stretch it to make a pizza right away.

it will never stretch out when cold no matter how hard you try.


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## Siegal (Mar 15, 2012)

There was that one time I tried to make my baby eat steamed puréed celery Babyfood. My poor baby! How I tortured her.


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## Orryette (Mar 15, 2012)

Winging it and making something fantastic but forgetting to write the recipe down and trying to do it again. Never works for me

And letting my bf cook haha


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## blissful (Jun 2, 2012)

My tahini sauce had gone rancid. I decided to outsmart myself by buying sesame seeds and keeping them in the freezer.

Guess what. I made some tahini sauce with those sesame seeds, it looked so good, today, and the sesame seeds had gone rancid! No tahini sauce today.


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## blissful (Jun 2, 2012)

Today was not exactly my day. I have stickers and a permanent marker on the shelf ready at all times to mark food going into the freezer.

Today I found a UFO, unidentified frozen object. No idea what it is.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jun 2, 2012)

blissful said:


> Today was not exactly my day. I have stickers and a permanent marker on the shelf ready at all times to mark food going into the freezer.
> 
> Today I found a UFO, unidentified frozen object. No idea what it is.



Shrek can;t believe I have an individual container for each type of cut in the freezer.  But of course, you still can't find anything, because they are all covered with popscicle boxes...


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## Hoot (Jun 3, 2012)

I have had many a failure in the kitchen. I reckon the worst was when I first tried my hand at cooking, many, many years ago. I was trying to make a cheesecake from scratch. Misread the recipe TWICE!!! Instead of a 1/4 tsp of salt I read 1/4 cup. 
I thought that was too much, but......that's what I thought it read. 
Holy Mackerel!!! 
It was, needless to say, inedible and to this day when I read a recipe and if I ain't sure about a measurement, I trust my gut feeling as I should have done the day of the cheesecake fiasco.


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## blissful (Jun 3, 2012)

PF--what child are all those Popsicles for? 

Hoot--stuff like that only happens once.  Holy Moley.


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## lyndalou (Jun 3, 2012)

Never try cutting corners by first browning meat on top of the stove in a Pyrex dish before finishing off in the oven

Lesson learned: Glass shards are dangerous and hard to clean up. What a mess. Now I'm not so lazy.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jun 3, 2012)

blissful said:


> PF--what child are all those Popsicles for?
> 
> Hoot--stuff like that only happens once.  Holy Moley.



Child?  I eat them!  They are all Pomegranate, Pineapple or Lime.


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## blissful (Jun 3, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> Child?  I eat them!  They are all Pomegranate, Pineapple or Lime.



Child--you--child--you, hmmmm.....young at heart!

Those sound delicious, I've never seen those flavors, I'm deprived.

Linda-I've done that, only once.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Jun 3, 2012)

blissful said:


> Child--you--child--you, hmmmm.....young at heart!
> 
> Those sound delicious, I've never seen those flavors, I'm deprived.
> 
> Linda-I've done that, only once.



Dreyer's makes them, quite yummy and only 90 calories a bar, no artificial sweeteners.


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## Bella99 (Jun 6, 2012)

Got a 10lb bag of cheese curds last week.  Tried to use some in a mac & cheese.  Turns out curds don't melt very well, and I had a big lump of cheese and mushy pasta from me trying to stir it..  

What I learned : Stay shredded for when it needs to melt


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## LPBeier (Jun 6, 2012)

I think the biggest one for me would have to be when I was making chicken cacciatore for a wedding I catered.  I gave it to one of my staff to look after because I trusted him to get it done.  He took on the chicken and had other, inexperienced helpers doing the chopping.  It took them forever to get the onions and peppers ready and my staffer seared the meat well, but when he put it in the oven he didn't allow extra time for it to cook as the original recipe said 20 minutes (for 8 servings in a skillet on top of the stove).  We had to do it in the oven which takes much longer.  My bad was I never checked it and several servings were reported as being "pink".  I had to pull the dish, nuke the chicken, put it back in the sauce but by this time no one wanted to eat it.  I ended up refunding the amount of the chicken on a wedding I really wasn't making much on anyway.  

What did I learn?  Even if I trust my staff, always do my own quality control.  It was a moot point, however, because that was the last event I did as I put my leg out in the middle of it and realized my body had had enough!  Now I just consult and do cakes.


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## taxlady (Jun 6, 2012)

Bella99 said:


> Got a 10lb bag of cheese curds last week.  Tried to use some in a mac & cheese.  Turns out curds don't melt very well, and I had a big lump of cheese and mushy pasta from me trying to stir it..
> 
> What I learned : Stay shredded for when it needs to melt


Make poutine!


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## LPBeier (Jun 6, 2012)

taxlady said:


> Make poutine!


+1!


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## didiod (Jun 7, 2012)

First time I tried to impress a boy with my cooking - Marinated a rump steak in tobasco sauce. That put a whole new meaning to the words HOT DATE. 

Lesson: There is a reason why a label says only use a few drops !


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## Siegal (Jun 7, 2012)

didiod said:
			
		

> First time I tried to impress a boy with my cooking - Marinated a rump steak in tobasco sauce. That put a whole new meaning to the words HOT DATE.
> 
> Lesson: There is a reason why a label says only use a few drops !



Omg! This is the best story I ever heard. What did he do?


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## CWS4322 (Jun 7, 2012)

LPBeier said:


> +1!


+2 Cheese curds don't work for mac and cheese, but they are essential for poutine!!!! YUMMMY!!!


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## CWS4322 (Jun 7, 2012)

I cannot make those unbaked chocolate-oatmeal cookies. My grandmother used to make those all the time. They do not work for me. I don't know what I do wrong, but they don't set.


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## Alix (Jun 7, 2012)

Mine is cream puffs. Hockey pucks every time. I can make the best pie pastry in the world, flaky and tender. Choux pastry defeats me. My Mom even stood over me and watched and I did everything EXACTLY as instructed. Still rocks. Oh well, I'll buy mine at costco!


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## bakechef (Jun 7, 2012)

CWS4322 said:
			
		

> I cannot make those unbaked chocolate-oatmeal cookies. My grandmother used to make those all the time. They do not work for me. I don't know what I do wrong, but they don't set.



I either make them too runny, or so dry that they crumble.  My mom made them perfect every time when I was a kid.  Every recipe I've seen says to boil for 2 minutes, but I may need something more precise than that, using a candy thermometer.


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## CWS4322 (Jun 7, 2012)

bakechef said:


> I either make them too runny, or so dry that they crumble.  My mom made them perfect every time when I was a kid.  Every recipe I've seen says to boil for 2 minutes, but I may need something more precise than that, using a candy thermometer.


+1 

I have the same results! I have given up! And I use a candy thermometer. I've used butter, I've used margarine, but I've never been able to make them like my grandmother did.


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## Steve Kroll (Jun 7, 2012)

Bella99 said:


> Got a 10lb bag of cheese curds last week.  Tried to use some in a mac & cheese.  Turns out curds don't melt very well, and I had a big lump of cheese and mushy pasta from me trying to stir it..
> 
> What I learned : Stay shredded for when it needs to melt


I'm not in the poutine camp. In my mind, cheese curds are tasty all on their own (especially if they are fresh and squeaky).  They don't need a supporting cast.


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## CWS4322 (Jun 7, 2012)

Steve Kroll said:


> I'm not in the poutine camp. In my mind, cheese curds are tasty all on their own (especially if they are fresh and squeaky).  They don't need a supporting cast.


Steve--10 lb of curds are a lot of curds. Poutine would use up some of them. Locally, you can buy fresh curds at the gas station--I have been known to grab a bag and eat them on a road trip...as is, just curds.


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## Bella99 (Jun 7, 2012)

taxlady said:


> Make poutine!



Oh I did,  way too much...


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## Claire (Jun 7, 2012)

My paternal grandfather was a Quebecoise cheesemaker, and I don't think Daddy (who now is in Florida) had had them until we moved to this very, very cheesemaking area.  Now I can't go to Florida or send a winter package home without curds.  We even know a place where if you visit on certain days, they' have a sign out letting everyone know it is curd day and people come in and buy them straight out of the vat of whey (I may have incorrect terminology).


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## Dawgluver (Jun 7, 2012)

Steve Kroll said:
			
		

> I'm not in the poutine camp. In my mind, cheese curds are tasty all on their own (especially if they are fresh and squeaky).  They don't need a supporting cast.



Mmmm.  Squeaky cheese curds, haven't had them since I was in Wisconsin many moons ago.


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## Siegal (Jun 8, 2012)

Never had a cheese curd but they sound like something I want to try. What are they and how do I get them?? I live in S. Florida??


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## CWS4322 (Jun 8, 2012)

Siegal said:


> Never had a cheese curd but they sound like something I want to try. What are they and how do I get them?? I live in S. Florida??


You can order them on line, not sure if they are available in FL or not. To learn more about cheese curds:

Cheese curds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Bella99 (Jun 8, 2012)

Oh look what i've started


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## Claire (Jun 9, 2012)

OK,  as far as I know, cheese curds are not available in Florida, period.  A climate thing, But I am NOT an expert, and may be wrong, and willing to admit it.  I don't send them to Dad in the warm months, because they wouldn't be curds, they'd become a mass off goo.  I believe cheese curds are probably a fresh cheese thing, Little Miss Muffett, Sit on her Tuffet, Eating her Curds and WHey.  I never understood what that meant.  When I was a child, Dad tried to tell me about curds and whey, but I didn't get it until I moved here.

Now Dad counts on those curds.  A taste from his childhood.


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## Kazz (Jun 10, 2012)

- Make sure the mozzarella for mozzarella sticks is completely coated. It was my first attempt at making them and it resulted in a greasy, cheesy mess. 

- Don't try to make hummus with a blender. It will not work. 

- Go with your gut even if the recipe says other wise. I made falafel crusted chicken and the recipe said to place a rack on a baking sheet and bake the chicken on that. After a while I decided to take the rack out and use the sheet alone. 



What I learned: That the food processor that hasn't been used in years still works! I transferred my hummus mix and it turned out great 
*eating the hummus and chicken right now*


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