Cooking Mistakes And Fixes

doomsdave

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If you cook, you’ve likely made an error or two. Or three four etc.

Sometimes a fix is simply a matter of adding a bit more of something or cooking it a bit longer.

But sometimes you cross the Rubicon of error and ruin something expensive. Or think you did.

So maybe share your fumbles and saves? Or add to someone else’s? It can be anything: repurpose, add to something else, even use as cat or dog food.

I made a huge pot of seafood pasta and the pasta got over cooked. Ugh. Tossing it in the garden would have been expensive and encouraged more scavengers.

So I spread some of it on a plate or cookie sheet and nuke or bake till it’s brown and crusty. And palatable. And it’s getting eaten, bit by bit. (Thoughts on other uses?)
 

Furballsmom

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Years back, i'd just gotten a fryer with a set of cookware. Feeling ambitious and also wanting to prove myself to some new friends/roommates, I decided to try my hand at frying chicken.

It turned out completely awful, and in this case there literally wasn't any way to recover, it was simply nasty tasting.

Since then, every now and then I'd think back to that disaster and wonder what went wrong. A few months ago, wandering around the internet I happened to see something that made mention of vegetable oil going rancid. I use cooking oil frequently enough that this has never been an issue for me personally, and I suppose that's why I never even thought of it.

However, the household I was cooking for at the time didn't have any particularly good cooks, and I can only assume that I was using veg oil that had been in a pantry of staples that weren't used very frequently, and I'm guessing that, there, was my rubicon :)
 
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Winchester

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I frequently make an upside-down two-layer pineapple cake. The top layer is the actual pineapple-cherry layer. The two layers are filled with a crushed pineapple filling. It's a very pretty cake and it's delicious. When it works. We were having friends in for dinner and I had decided to make this cake. I had the first layer on my cake plate, had spread the filling on top, and gently placed the top layer on the filling. And there it was. Pretty. Until the top layer completely split in sections and slid down the side onto the cake plate. Well, dang.

So I stood there for a couple minutes, doing my best Make-A-Sailor-Blush routine (if you left out all the cuss words, I never said a thing). And then I crumbled the bottom layer into my trifle dish. Made some French vanilla pudding and spooned that on top of the crumbles. Followed by the top, broken layer crumbled. Followed by more pudding. And served with whipped cream and more cherries. I called it Pineapple Upside-Down Trifle.

Nobody ever knew I had screwed up. Everybody raved about that dessert. It worked! If y'all ever come to my house for dinner, and I give you Pineapple Upside-Down Trifle, you'll know I messed up my cake.
 

Winchester

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And then there was the time, I was making chicken and dumplings. I was at the dumpling stage when the phone rang; it was my neighbor, who was having some issues and needed to talk them out. So there I was, listening to her and making dumplings. For some reason, the dumplings were really, really runny and, for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. I kept adding flour, but, if anything, it made the batter even worse. Finally, in desperation, I spooned the batter into the chicken mixture, thinking the dumplings would cook.

But they didn't. And I had no clue why. Finally, I grabbed a spoon and tasted the batter. Walked over to the sink and spit it out. You know, dumpling batter will not cook when you add confectioners' sugar instead of flour! Lord, it was awful stuff! Rick got home from work and I told him what I had done. He took a taste, walked out of the house and went to McD's and brought supper home.

He also forbade me from talking/listening to my neighbor when I was cooking. He told her never to call me during suppertime because it's was fairly obvious I couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. To this day, our son reminds me of the Sugar Dumplings.

And my confectioners' sugar jar now says "10X SUGAR" in big red letters.
 

Winchester

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Oh, and let's not forget the Day of the Tuna Fiasco. Our son had moved out and was living in an apartment downtown. He knew I was off work one day, so he called home, said he wanted to come home for dinner and would I make him tuna and noodles? Sure!

I made some cupcakes with a Reese's peanut butter cup inside. The cupcakes were cooling down to be frosted. I had opened three cans of tuna, which were draining in the sink. Our cats always get a wee taste of tuna, so when Ms. Pepe heard the cans open, she hopped down from lying on the television. She got her claws caught in a doily and the doily and the crystal basket came crashing to the floor. Shards of glass everywhere. I started checking paws to make sure they were all OK. Picked up the pieces of glass, got them thrown away and vacuumed the living room.

Well, when I was done, I went out to the kitchen and BooBoo was plopped on the kitchen counter, carefully removing the peanut butter cups from the cupcakes and chowing down. Oh crap. Got Boo down from the counter, grabbed the phone and called the vet to see if Boo was going to be OK. I was on the phone with the vet tech and I walked out the hallway into the kitchen and Banshee had her front paws in the kitchen sink with her little fat butt in the air and she was feasting on tuna. "Banshee, get your butt outta the sink! That tuna is not for you! Banshee! Did you hear me? What did I tell you?" And not thinking, I hung up on the vet tech. Got the Queen B back on the kitchen floor, threw the tuna away, cleaned the drainer, and opened 3 more cans of tuna. Got the cupcakes cleaned up and threw the "eaten" cupcakes away.

And then I remembered. I had hung up on the vet tech! Called the vet tech back and she thinks this whole thing is hilariously funny. Turns out that Boo would be OK, but that I should keep an eye on him. I thanked the vet tech (who was still laughing at me) and hung up. Got the tuna casserole made, frosted the cupcakes and we had dinner.

Honestly, sometimes I truly wonder how my furkids ever made it to adulthood.
 
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doomsdave

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Well , that fixed pasta looks...ummm...
:tongue:
It tastes a lot better than it looks! ;) It has shrimp, octopus, crab claw meat, mucho garlic, tomato and butter in it. Nice and filling on a cold nor-hem winter's day.
 

Elphaba09

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I love cooking and baking. The biggest error I can remember was from last year. While we celebrate Yule at our house, we celebrate Christmas at my mother-in-law's. I always make desserts (and bread and a vegetable or two) for family gatherings at her house. Last year, one of the desserts was a cheesecake. The water from the bain-marie had leaked through the foil. I have no idea how, but it did. I was extremely upset because, as much as I love cooking and baking, standing long enough to mix everything can be painful. I had been baking/cooking for a couple of hours by that point and my legs were swollen horribly. Needless to say, I did not have the ambition to make another cheesecake.

My fix? I scooped out all of the filling, added a thin layer of leftover cookie crumbs that I pressed into the horrific mess of a crust, turned the heat up by 15 degrees, and baked it for about 10 minutes. Then, I turned down the heat, scooped the filling back in, smoothed it out, and put that sucker back into the oven for 20 minutes. The top looked a little wonky, but I was covering it in raspberries, so it really did not matter. No one would have suspected it if I had not told them.
 

Winchester

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Elphaba09 Elphaba09 That truly is an awesome save! Kudos!

K Kflowers Peanut butter cupcakes. With a mini peanut butter cup. And tons of chocolate frosting or peanut butter frosting, if you prefer. That way, the peanut butter cup is a "surprise". And they're really good!

doomsdave doomsdave That looked......interesting? :) It sounds darn good.
 
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