Cooking Fails - do share!

I posted a few months ago that I got a mystery box from Burlap & Barrel for Chanukah. 6 unusual spices chosen by my family to, I guess, challenge me!

One of them is “Wild Hing” and for reasons unknown, I got it into my head that it was Li Hing. I know Li Hing somewhat from travels to HI, where they sprinkle the powder on fruit, dry and fresh, and sometimes as a syrup for shave ice. I had already tried the incredibly potent spice once before, adding a little sprinkle to paella. It’s diluted with turmeric, and looks/smells kind of fruity-saffrony, so I thought it made sense. But yesterday, a couple month later, I made a real booboo. I added 1/4 tsp to a batch of nectarine-ginger muffins. Hooboy. It was not good. I’ve eaten 2 of them and could not figure out why the heck my muffins taste like fruit and onions. So I did the google. It turns out Wild Hing is used tremendously often in Indian savory cuisine as a substitute for onion & garlic, and is particularly useful for people who have allergies to those alliums. Doh! Nectarine/ginger/onion muffins. They’re really terrible. But at least now I know what to do with Hing. Gotta find me some Indian curry recipes!

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I had to Google “hing”, to find out that I’d know it as asafoetida.

As you say, quite common in Asian dishes, particularly those involving lentils or beans because it counteracts the, ahem, effects of intestinal wind. But a pinch or two in almost any vegetarian dish from the region will give it a lift.

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Just don’t use it in a breakfast sweet pastry!

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The B&B wild hing is 80% turmeric and 20% wild hing, just to keep inmind while making a dish, like curry. So far, I bloom a small amt in avocado oil and toss in either asaparagus or whole green beansuntil al dente. I use a blend for curry.

Fails, if I didn’t keep baking soda and baking powder labeled, the fails would be endless.

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My most recent complete fail:

Thawed a tub of marinara, realized it wasn’t enough for the pasta bake I’d intended, and started another batch thinking to combine the two.

Once the frozen tub had thawed I went and dumped it into the simmering pot. Thought that it looked a bit odd, but chalked that up to lousy eyesight … stirred everything together and tasted a spoonful.

That tub was puréed strawberries!

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Oh no! Strawberry tomato spaghetti :slight_smile:

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This sort if thing has happened to me enough times that everything in my freezer is labeled with painter’s tape. Is it mozzarella? Is it tofu? These are not interchangeable!

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I once tried to make instant ramen during a blackout.

Let’s just say that ramen was not intended to be al dente.

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Good one!

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To many to mention. Like kicking the game winning field goal . Wide left .

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My last two pots of precious Rancho Gordo beans. First one (scarlet runners) I turned up high to boil the Steve Sando-recommended 5-10 minutes, failed to set a timer, wandered away and got distracted, and incinerated the beans. What a mess! Second one (cranberry) I somehow cooked way too long to the burst apart soggy stage. Couldn’t save as they were watery and tasteless. Wah!

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As a young innocent and naive bachelor I grilled some ribs and near the end, thinking I was a genius, I put a can of bbq beans on the grill to heat up.

Little did I know about the tremendous pressure that builds up in unopened heated cans. :cry:

As I punctured the super heated can with the opener molten bean liquid shot out like a Saturn V rocket :rocket:. I tossed it in the sink and it flew around in circles like a pinwheel spraying the walls, ceiling, counters, etc… I escaped with minor injuries. What a fiasco.

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Oy!

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Thank goodness you weren’t seriously harmed!!

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Thank you. I wasn’t really harmed at all. Just some hot splatters and lots of cleaning.

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This as a corollary thread to this one certainly has legs. I think most of us remember our failures not as injuries but as additional kitchen clean up hours.

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Like when you drop your knife to the floor. Don’t move . Pulling a lid off boiling water . Carefully. Also when pouring off the water . Hot pan in the oven . Slowly . The handle is extremely hot . Hot pads Working in the kitchen is no different from wood shop . Tools that provide excellence but will bite when not careful with them .

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There are worse. My BIL, when he moved out from parents home (I bet already in his 30s) complained on phone to his mother that the baking recipes he used never worked. He explained, well, I did exactly as indicated, did my preparation and cooked as the time indicated. MIL asked how long did he preheated the oven? Answer: Oh I didn’t, just popped the preparation and switched on the oven.

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Ugh - like making sure the lid is securely on the blender, and not turning on the mixer until the beaters are fully in the bowl (er, and being careful when scraping the sides of the bowl, if the mixer is running, to keep the spatula away from the beaters).

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