Recipe typos

[flybye023]

Don't know if this thread will be a dud or not but I'd like to hear funny/strange typos you have in your recipe box

I'll start:

I got a recipe from my mom for caramel sauce. After you've added all the ingredients, it tells you to "boil for one minute, then one minute more."

me: uh, Mom? am I just boiling it for two minutes or should there be another step in between?
Mom: No, just boil for two minutes

Then for stroganoff: after all ingredients are added, you let it simmer for a while then the recipe states "add 1/4 cup."

Me: 1/4 cup of what, Mom?
Mom: sour cream, of course!

[NotMyProblem]

it wasn't a typo, however my dad was notorious for leaving out key seasoning, if he did give out a recipe of his creation....

[Food Lady]

I have a book of recipes that was compiled before the internet was popular, and people would often get recipes from the newspaper. One entry is a cake and the introduction says when it was origionally published, the editors left out the flour. The submitter said when she got to the office, the receptionist was at the point of automatically answering the phone with "2 cups of flour". LOL

[Kogarashi]

I can't think of any fun typos in my recipe collection (such as it is), though I've always been amused by the meatloaf recipe my mom gave me shortly after I got married. Yes, I'm kitchen-insecure enough that I need a recipe for meatloaf. The recipe calls for set amounts of different ingredients, then adds, "A swirly-squirt of ketchup." Yep, real precise there.

[auntiem]

My Dad likes to make up recipes. He sent me one that called for an obsene amount of butter. I called him and sure enough it wasn't a typo. The dish is really really good.
Kogarashi - don't feel bad, I think most everyone has their Mother's meatloaf recipe in their collection. I even have my Mom's mac and cheese recipe.
As for directions - my Mom is notorious for leaving out steps. When I was a new bride I decided I wanted to make lasagna for Christmas so my Mom sent me basically the ingredient list - no directions what so ever on how to assemble, whether or not to cook the noodles first and so on. I spend a ton of money on long distance to have her talk me thru assembly. (pre internet - I'm sure now a short search would turn up a utube vid on how to assemble)

[Ironclad Alibi]

About ten years ago there was an article in the Washington Post about people who altered (sabotaged) their favorite recipes when others asked for them. At the time that article appeared, I was making a French cheese bread for a French Social Circle my wife belonged to. They all wanted my recipe, which I freely shared. None of them, and they were all excellent cooks, had it come out right, and were convinced I had sabotaged the recipes. One of them lived around the corner. She came over one day to watch me make it, with her copy of the recipe, and reported back to everyone that I had not altered the recipe. I figured they all had their own shortcuts and ways of doing things, which messed up the recipe.

The cheese bread is Gougere Bourguignonne.

In an earlier life (my previous marriage), my wife was making cookies and somehow managed to misread the recipe. She added one cup of nutmeg to the cookie mix.

[Chromatix]

A whole CUP of nutmeg?!? I don't cook much, but even I know that's insane.

[Kogarashi]

In an earlier life (my previous marriage), my wife was making cookies and somehow managed to misread the recipe. She added one cup of nutmeg to the cookie mix.

I had a friend in high school who actually managed to misread a cookie recipe and ended up swapping the salt and sugar measurements.

Oh, I just remembered another. I have a cheesecake recipe from another high school friend (not the one who goofed cookies), which she gave me (recipe and an actual cheesecake both) for my birthday one year. Her directions included such gems as "don't forget to turn on the oven" and "make sure to remove the plastic lid from the graham cracker crust before pouring in the cheesecake mixture." Yes, she made both mistakes. I've since copied the recipe onto a proper recipe card, as I originally had it in my e-mail, and ended up leaving out the funny commentary to save room.

[MadMike]

Not exactly a typo, but I almost ruined a recipe because I didn't know what a clove was. I'm not the best cook in the world, but I can usually do OK if I have a recipe to follow. Every so often, I'll see one in the local paper that I like and try it out. My wife is all for it, because she gets out of cooking for the day.

This recipe in particular called for two cloves of garlic. Somehow, I thought the whole thing was a "clove", and got two of them. Look me a helluva long time to chop it all up. I was about to dump it all in, when I thought, "Damn, that's a lot of garlic!" Then I started to wonder, "Is the whole thing a clove, or is one of those little sections a clove? Better look it up!" Good thing I did, because it's just one of the little sections.

Since all the garlic was now chopped up, I had to take a guess as to how much of it would have been two cloves. But I must have done OK, because even my wife said it turned out good. And then we both had a good laugh over my "clove" confusion.

[Becks]

I no longer remember if it was the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel or the Star Ledger out of Newark (more likely all), but on occasion there would be recipe stuff in the corrections section.

I would giggle a bit.

[flybye023]

Not exactly a typo, but I almost ruined a recipe because I didn't know what a clove was

For a second there I thought you were going to say you actually put cloves in

When I was little I decided to make pancakes for my mom so she could have breakfast in bed. I was old enough to read apparently, but had not had much cooking experience yet. So the recipe called for two cups of flour and I put two cups of flour in using the cup my mom always used. What I didn't know: it was a two-cup measuring cup.

My sister made baking powder biscuits before she knew the difference between baking powder and baking soda--she thought they were interchangeable. After that experience she knew better

[BookstoreEscapee]

My roommate once made a microwave mug cake from the recipe that *a certain member of our little community here who knows who she is* gave me. The recipe was missing the egg. She ended up with a mug of vanilla-flavored rock.

[Food Lady]

MadMike's post reminded me of this: http://www.ellysaysopa.com/2009/07/06/carrot-cupcake

[AccountingDrone]

Rob made a apple spice sheet cake from one of my recipes and totally forgot to put in the levening ... we refer to it as the 'hull' cake as it pretty much exactly resembled the ablative coating used on subs. It was ..... bouncy. And the dog wouldn't eat it. Imagine this inch thick sheet of a dull beigey rubbery material that is very resilliant, and when you cut and toss a cube the cube bounces like a rubber ball ... We remade it and frosted the correctly made one for the party

[Kogarashi]

Veering further from actual typos here....

For some reason once, Hubby ended up using either baking soda or baking powder (don't remember which) in cornbread instead of the other as the recipe called for. The cornbread came out bitter and just "off." I don't even know why he did it, because he's normally an excellent cook.

And as for goof-ups due to not understanding the recipe.... My first exposure to my own personal kitchen curse* was when babysitting one night when I was about 13. I was making mac 'n cheese for the kids I was watching. The box (Parkay brand) called for "Parkay melting sticks." Absolutely clueless as to what those were, I just left the ingredient out and added a little bit extra milk when the mac turned out a little dry. I later compared to one of the boxes of mac 'n cheese in my mom's pantry (not Parkay brand) and realized that the mystery ingredient was...wait for it...butter.l Seriously, who lists butter/margarine as "melting sticks" on the box? I've since checked Parkay brand mac 'n cheese and it seems they have wised up, as I've not seen that one since.

*My kitchen curse is that whenever I cook, unless it's one of the very few food items I can make without fail (skillet potatoes, scrambled eggs, PB&J), I either goof up the meal somehow or make a huuuge mess making it.