Recipe typos

[Parrothead]

No one gonna mention the "ground black people" typo?

[Cazzi]

You mean this one?

It was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the thread title

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Somehow, I thought the whole thing was a "clove",

My husband did this the first time he made me spagetti sauce. I told him that it would keep the vampires away

[Ironclad Alibi]

One mistake I made back in college was when I made some brownies from a box mix. I got all the ingredients together OK, and baked it. It came out charred on the top and liquid on the bottom. That was when I noticed the oven was set to broil, not bake.

[AccountingDrone]

I am croggled by our roommate occasionally. Southern girl but she doesn't comprehend 'chicken fricassee' and frequently I will actually write out or print out a full recipe and give it to her because she is making dinner that night and what she makes is nothing like the recipe Honestly, I am sitting in the next damned room, if she has a question she could just stick her head in and ask.

and just a tease ...

[ArcticChicken]

She added one cup of nutmeg to the cookie mix.

You had a whole cup of nutmeg in the house?

[dalesys]

My mother had a friend (maids, butlers, cooks, chauffeurs...) who made her first cake with whole eggs. Kinda crunchy.

[MaggieTheCat]

I have a friend who was not an experienced cook and wanted to make French Toast. He ended up putting the bread in the heated skillet and dumping the egg/milk custard mix on top of it.

Not really a recipe bungle, but the same friend was once loading the dishwasher and accidentally used hand-washing dish soap (like Dawn or something) instead of dishwasher soap. He and his girlfriend spent the evening mopping up the kitchen floor.

[ArcticChicken]

My uncle once tried to make my aunt a red velvet cake for her birthday. The recipe called for separated eggs. He had no idea how one separates eggs, so he put them in the freezer. I'm not quite sure what the next step was meant to be.

[firecat88]

Not really a recipe bungle, but the same friend was once loading the dishwasher and accidentally used hand-washing dish soap (like Dawn or something) instead of dishwasher soap. He and his girlfriend spent the evening mopping up the kitchen floor.

...... I have done this before. We had no dishwasher soap, so I thought I might use regular dish soap instead. The bubbles...oh, the bubbles. I was terrified that I'd broken the dishwasher permanently, but it was just fine the next day.

[Ironclad Alibi]

You had a whole cup of nutmeg in the house?

No. She went to the store and bought more.

[Pagan]

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.

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.

I wouldn't worry about it either, cooking is not an exact science. Watch Rachel Ray, she rarely measures anything. Baking is the only thing you need to be somewhat precise on.

My mom took some cooking classes long years ago. She decided she needed to when she made Bisquick biscuits. Recipe said that you should get a dozen, she got way more than that and apparently they more resembled hockey pucks.

One of the instructors said, if cooking was an exact science, there would be only one formula book.

And for something like meatloaf, there are endless variations. Like we say around here, you ask 12 abuelitas for an enchilada recipe, you'll get 13 answers.

My Dad likes to make up recipes. He sent me one that called for an obsene amount of butter.

Cooks like Paula Deen, does he?

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.

Don't try to cook with margarine (Parkay). If you're melting it and it burns....that is one of the nasty tastes and smell on the planet.

You had a whole cup of nutmeg in the house?

I actually do. I buy it in bulk from a place called "Natural Grocers" in town. Fill up my container in the kitchen and package up and store the rest somewhere cool.

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.

Gougères aren't bread, it's more of a pastry. And how do you short cut a pâte à choux recipe anyway? For gougères, it's only got 5 ingredients and about 5 steps to begin with!

[ArcticChicken]

No. She went to the store and bought more.

I actually do. I buy it in bulk from a place called "Natural Grocers" in town. Fill up my container in the kitchen and package up and store the rest somewhere cool.

OK, fair enough.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Gougères aren't bread, it's more of a pastry. And how do you short cut a pâte à choux recipe anyway? For gougères, it's only got 5 ingredients and about 5 steps to begin with!

And a delicious pasty at that.

As for short cuts, that was my speculation. For example, the recipe calls for the oven temperature to be reduced twice. Maybe they didn't do that. Or they used the wrong kind of cheese. I know if I use too much cheese, they don't rise properly. It is a simple recipe, but some people can mess up boiling water.

[dalesys]

but some people can mess up boiling water.

You rang, tuan?