Comments on: The kitchen save; or, backing up from the inevitable boo-boo.

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:22:50 +0000

Guess I’m a few years late for this thread…

For 9th grade biology we had to make yeast bread, and instead of using the honey wheat recipe our teacher gave us, I decided to use a recipe out of my mom’s 1970s Betty Crocker book that I knew would work. I made an absolutely gorgeous loaf of bread. It was the perfect shape and a lovely golden color. I was so proud of it! All the other kids’ breads looked like little bricks, and I think one or two used bread machines (I don’t think we were supposed to). Then, of course, I tasted it… It was terrible, way too salty. Everyone was supposed to go around the room and rate each loaf on various factors including looks and taste. I wrote a note at my station saying “tastes better with jam or apple butter!!” trying to salvage it… Needless to say, I got As for looks and Fs for taste… I had no idea what had caused the problem, I knew I had put all of the ingredients in correctly. When I got home, we noticed that my dad (no cook or baker himself) had bought self-rising flour by mistake. I had no idea such a thing existed! And right at the bottom of the bread recipe it said “if using self-rising flour, omit salt.” But it was a good lesson in humility, I suppose!

The other thing I can remember doing as a teenager was cooking a whole meal from scratch for my friend. We made twice baked potatoes with broccoli and carrots inside. After an extremely crunchy mouthful of potato, I realized I had forgotten to steam the veggies, and threw them in raw!

Never too late to share a good laugh, Heather – thanks! PJH

By: thurner

thurner — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:57:04 +0000

I just read this and everything is so true! I have been baking, decorating, and cooking for 48 years – my stories of saves and near disasters would filll a book. One of my favorites was when I was delivering a wedding cake to western MA. I drove three hours and alll was fine until the last 1/4 mi. when I had top bounce down a dirt road and the top layer rolled. I took the cake in and set it up. At the time I was 22 and looked younger. Although I had been baking and decorating wedding cakes for 6 years by that time, I don’t think my long hair, blue jeans, and T-shirt instilled confidence. As I turned to wal to the car (leaving the smashed player behind me) everyone in the reception hall started sceaming and shouting. Of course I was just going to the car to get my reserve icing and decorating kit, but the looks on their faces were priceless.
Two days ago, I had my most recent challenge. I was halfway through baking 2 dozen Stollen. The first 12 were great, but I was rushing to start the second 12 rising – something seemed wrong. I started 1/2 the batch rising and then the second. And then I realized that I had left out the 8 eggs from the batch! I then beat some eggs and kneaded them into the completed batches. What a mess! In the end, one batch worked and the other not so much. Next time I will use your tape trick or simply apply my usual “mise en place” and just make sure there is nothing left on the counter!

I’m sometimes asked how I think about staying out of trouble in the kitchen; it comes from screwing just about everything up at least once! I would have loved to have seen the looks on their faces at the wedding Susan

By: nrigg

nrigg — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:10:13 +0000

My mother had gone into hospital and my grandmother was in her house next door. My 8 year old self decided to bake cupcakes to comfort them and my brother aged 6. I colored them pink and green and put them in the coal-fired oven. My brother and I fled for our lives when the fluorescent pink and green mixture oozed out of the oven, under the cooker and across the floor. I had misread a level teaspoon of baking powder as 11 teaspoons of baking powder, and being a generous soul, I heaped the spoons. It took us days to clean up ther mess after waiting for the oven to cool!

Many moons and mistakes have passed since then and my family and friends boast of my baking skills. The most valuable lesson I have learned is that serving the mistake warm with a good rich custard or sauce covers a multitude of sins and keeps your reputation intact!

Thank you for sharing your goof and for the smile! You are so right! There are many ways to cover our mistakes. Trifle is always a way out, too! Elisabeth

By: Dana Adams

Dana Adams — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:46:34 +0000

That is a great idea about the ‘yeast revival yell’. I should do that at home! Very funny, thanks for the laugh and the tip:)

By: robinwaban

robinwaban — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 23:03:12 +0000

I made a chocolate cake in a springform pan that was very labor intensive. It took me about an hour just to make it. When I went to put it in the oven I tried to balance it from underneath, forgetting that the bottom was only an insert. Needless I scraped up all that I could off the floor and put it back in the pan. I’d be damned if I let all that effort and good ingredients go to waste. Thereon after, it was known as ” dump” cake. Actually very tasty!

OUCH! I can imagine the thoughts going through your head as your hand and wrist went up through that cake batter! Thanks for sharing. PJH

By: lauried

lauried — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:45:53 +0000

Thanks to everyone who has shared their stories! One problem I have had occasionally is forgetting to serve something. It used to happen more frequently during big holiday meals like Thanksgiving. Now I always write out a list of dishes/condiments and check that they have made it to the table or buffet.

I also write a detailed account of major family dinners–what we ate, how everything tasted, who came, how I set the table, what the flowers looked like, etc. After years of doing this, I have a history of all of our Thanksgiving meals and Passover seders. Some funny things have happened over the years, and it’s a great way to remember them.

One of my daughter’s elementary school science-fair projects was to test what happens when you leave out an ingredient when baking cookies. She baked four batches of “toll house” chocolate chip cookies. One batch had no salt, one had no baking soda, and one had no egg. The fourth batch had all the ingredients. All had different results. She didn’t win that year, but it was a very fun project.

Thanks for sharing your tips about the upcoming big-food holiday celebrations! Also loved your CC Cookies experiment as well – learning by doing is often the best teacher! Happy Baking! Irene @ KAF

By: amauer

amauer — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:29:43 +0000

What an entertaining post idea!! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these mishaps and saves. One of my boo-boos involved too much butter in the cookie recipe. I was making “Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies”. I had made the cookies a couple of times before, so I don’t really know why I made the mistake. The recipe calls for 1 3/4 sticks of butter. I measured out 1 3/4 CUPS if butter. You’d think that I would have noticed that the batter was a little, shall we say, greasy. I baked one tray, and needless to say, the cookies were thin, but not crispy!! They were more like a soft, chewy toffee. Since I didn’t have a clue as to what to do with them, I threw them out with the rest of the dough. After reading some of the brilliant save ideas, maybe I could have used them as a crust ingredient, or maybe as a topping. We’ll never know on that one. I don’t plan to make that particular mistake again! Thanks again for a fun and informative post!!

By: aiscaro

aiscaro — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:12:16 +0000

I love reading the boo-boos (most of which I have made), and love the saves even more. Every time I make an ingredient boo boo, I tell myself that in the future I will always measure out all my ingredients in ramekins before adding to the bowl. I know this will help… but rarely do I listen to my own advice! Another way is to put all ingredients on one side of your bowl, and after adding, transfer to the other, so you know nothing was missed!

By: alenxa

alenxa — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:15:55 +0000

This is how my family got into the habit of quadrupling the recipe we use for snickerdoodles. The first time we tried to double it, both my mom and I managed to forget how much butter was in a stick, and we ended up with double of everything else but four times the butter. Fortunately, the dough needs to be shaped by hand, and we realized before rolling anything in cinnamon that the texture was way off. Sixteen dozen cookies later, we regretted nothing.

I, too, use the “count the blobs” method of tracking ingredient addition. When it’s flour or sugar I’m measuring, I count the cups out loud and don’t care who hears me. When I’m cooking without a recipe, I group the “add to taste” ingredients on one side of the bowl and move them to the other after adding them. And when I’m making up my own recipe to remember and refine, I have a dedicated pad of paper and write down each ingredient as I add it. For bread, I use hash marks to count cups of flour added to the sponge. Works pretty well so far!

By: Sue Epstein

Sue Epstein — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:46:51 +0000

When I studied catering one of the instructors used to say, “Doctors bury their mistakes, caterers cover them up with frosting.” “Mis en place” was drilled into our heads but do I always do it? Of course not! I think the most mistakes are made when doubling or halving recipes and not putting the right amounts of ingredients in.

One mistake I made recently was when I was baking cookies that called for raisins, chocolate chips and toasted slivered almonds. The cookies are so yummy that I doubled the recipe (which would make 80+ cookies). I found a bag of toasted slivered almonds in my freezer and was so happy to cut out one step. But after baking all the cookies and tasting one I discovered that my slivered almonds were a mixture of toasted slivered almonds and toasted garlic (which I sometimes make and keep to sprinkle on salads). Have you ever tasted garlic-flavored chocolate chip/raisin cookies? Blech! It all went into the garbage!