One of the biggest, yet in some ways most beautiful, things about humans is that we err. Yep, mistakes make us unique and beautiful and while we ought to avoid them, we shouldn’t feel bad if they happen.
And some of the most entertaining mistakes we can make are those very temporary mental lapses in reasoning the way we ought to—brain farts. They happen, they’re unavoidable, so why not have some fun with them?
A Redditor by the nickname of u/BeauteousMaximus recently paid a visit to the r/Cooking subreddit with an open question urging people to share their biggest “brain farts” in cooking, and sharing how they themselves tried to make a cup of pour-over coffee into an upside-down mug.
And folks were eager to share their unexplainable cooking mishaps, making the post gain some modest attention with nearly 4,600 upvotes and over 2,700 comments.
We’ve siphoned the best responses to the call to share and created a lovely curated list below, so check it out, vote on the cooking disasters you laughed at the most, and why not share your own stories in the comment section below!
More Info: Reddit
#1 Can You Use A Colander For Soup?
made an absolutely gorgeous vegetable stock from scratch using scraps i'd been collecting & freezing for weeks & lots of beautiful fresh herbs. poured it into a colander and - yep, straight down the f******g drain. all of it. my brain forgot it was the liquid i was saving, not the colander bulls**t.i immediately just sat down, bump, on the kitchen floor, & contemplated my life choices for a while.
Image credits: catsmash
#2 Eggs Benedict Without The Eggs
Bruh I made eggs Benedict on Christmas and spent so much effort getting the hollandaise sauce right I totally forgot to poach eggs and served an English muffin with sauce
Image credits: shigglewiggle
#3 Adding An Egg Mid-Cooking Among Semi-Cooked Ones
Lololol so one time, I was boiling eggs in the morning, and one of them cracked while in the pan, so I scooped that one out. Then I added another egg in and I was like “I’ll just leave that one in a little bit longer” AS IF I WAS GONNA BE ABLE TO TELL THEM APART
Image credits: Ok_Specific6904
#4 Misplacin' The Bacon
Was really upset when I couldn't find my leftover bacon to have for breakfast. Found it the next day in the knife drawer.
Image credits: okokimup
#5 Adding Cinnamon To Cinnamon Unfriendly Dishes
Was making a stock in a pressure cooker at 2 am, accidentally dumped a couple cinnamon sticks into it for unfathomable reasons.It was godawful. Smelled like Santa had passed at a chicken restaurant.
Image credits: DrCalamity
#6 Making Hot Chocolate Using Five Spice Mix
My gf wanted a hot chocolate and asked me if I could get her one, while I get my coffee.I took the bag with chinese five spices mix and mixed it with milk. I do know that this bag contains five spices and not cocoa, because it's my only plastic bag in that shelf and it it's written on it, but my brain was like 'brown powder - close enough'.
She didn't like it.
Image credits: HappyScripting
#7 Always Forgetting The Rice
Sooooo many times when I’m making a dish served over rice I forget to start the rice until I’m almost finished cooking. Then have to keep the food warm while I wait for rice to cook. Face palm every time.
Image credits: tanksmiley
#8 Putting Sugar Into The Flour Container
I was making pancakes and put the two tablespoons of sugar into the container that holds my flour rather than the pancake bowl
Image credits: Boo_baby1031
#9 Grabbing Red-Hot Dishes Straight From The Oven With Your Bare Hands
I very frequently pull things out of the oven and forget that they're stupid hot because they are no longer in the hot place.
Image credits: kdfsjljklgjfg
#10 Using A Colander To Strain Linguine
I used a colander to strain my linguine, but the holes were bigger than the pasta so it all went through and fell into my sink.
Image credits: Beginning_Low_4385
#11 Graham Cracker Clams Casino
My father grabbed the ground up Graham Crackers instead of the bread crumbs for clams casino. You DO NOT want to eat Graham Cracker Clams Casino.#12 Using Coconut Flour For Regular Bread
Used coconut flour instead of bread flour for a loaf of bread--that didn't go so well.I also deep fried a pot holder once. I don't even know what was going on in my brain on that one.
Image credits: LyrraKell
#13 Dumping Shrimp Straight In The Garbage Can, No Cooking Required!
Went to drain some shrimp that I thawed at work. Had the strainer setup over the sink, garbage next to me to toss the bag in. Cut the bag open and dumped the shrimp right in the garbage
Image credits: Crunchy-Banter
#14 Explosive Lasagna
I once left a glass pan with lasagna on my electric stove, covering the back 2 burners. I then decided to make tea, put the kettle on the front burner, but turned on the wrong one. Walked away, but a few minutes later the lasagna pan exploded, covering my kitchen in tiny glass shrapnel.#15 Greasing The Pan With Bug Spray
Greased the pan for rice krispy treats with bug spray rather than cooking spray. Fortunately, I realized before serving them to anyone (but not after filling the pan, so I had to run to the supermarket for more ingredients).
Image credits: eilonwyhasemu
#16 Potato Chocolate
When I was a teen I accidentally put used vegetable oil in a packet chocolate cake mix. Cake tasted like baked potatoes and lamb with a hint of chocolate.#17 Use Powdered Sugar Instead Of Flour, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?!
Spent a bunch of time making filet mignon with an herb and Cabernet gravy out of the leftover fat in the pan and on the final bit of thickening the gravy, I added powdered sugar instead of flour.
Image credits: RudeCamel
#18 Uncooked Chickpeas And Hummus Don't Mix
Started blending my hummus with soaked but uncooked chickpeas. 3/10, would not repeat.
Image credits: fire_loon
#19 Problems With Soy And Worcesterhire Sauce Bottles
I've done the gravy thing, total duh moment.Soy Sauce and Worcesterhire bottles sometimes have a pour spout when you uncap them and sometimes they don't. I've made messes a few times by not checking before pouring. most recently I put half a bottle of soy sauce into my soup.
Sometimes I lose count of how much flour I've already measured and have to re-measure it, which is odd because I bake often, sometimes I just totally blank.
Image credits: ClementineCoda
#20 Pouring Vanilla Extract Into A Salad
I accidentally started to pour vanilla extract in salad dressing instead of vinegar.I guess it's not the stupidest mistake since it was clear imitation vanilla extract in a bottle that looked extremely similar to the vinegar, and I realized pretty quickly and only put a tiny bit in, but after tasting it out of curiosity, I have to say that the flavor was certainly... memorable. It turns out that vanilla can taste amazingly horrible in savory stuff.
Image credits: BunnyEruption
#21 Fried Pan Toast
I was making French toast for too many people and forgot to dip a batch in the egg stuff…. Enjoy your pan fried toast.
Image credits: jbeth74
#22 This Bit Of Equipment Is Not Designed For This Purpose, Mam
I once used my blender plunger to push something into the food processor.Those replacement plastic plungers are surprisingly expensive
Image credits: DefrockedWizard1
#23 White Wine Vinegar And White Wine Are The Same Thing, Right?
I used white wine vinegar instead of white wine. In a lasagna. Just mindlessly following a recipe.Needless to say, the substitution didn’t work. But it was still edible, at least!
Image credits: nostradweebus
#24 Why Does This Flour Taste So Sweet?
Was making homemade cheese sauce for mac/cheese and accidentally used powdered sugar instead of flour#25 20 Minutes, 20 Seconds, What's The Difference?
I accidentally put a plastic jar of peanut butter in the microwave for 20 minutes instead of 20 seconds. Came back to a molten puddle#26 60 Grams Of Salt Added With A Whole Lot Of Regret
I was deep in thought when I realized I added 60g of salt into the pan.
Image credits: Meri_Stormhood
#27 Cooking Plastic For 9 Hours
I once slow cooked a large ham for 9 hours, came to get it out and it was still wrapped up in its plastic.#28 Banana Bread Without Flour
Tried making banana but bread… was a soupy mess. Turned out I forgot to put the flour in
Image credits: clemoon717
#29 Baking-Soda Chicken Wings
Absentmindedly dusted chicken wings with baking soda instead of baking powder before cooking. The wings were inedible.#30 Throwing Scraps (And Not Only That) Into The Sink
When prepping veggies i throw the scraps in the sink from the cutting board. I cant tell you how many time ive thrown my peeled garlic in the sink.#31 5× More Pasta Flour Than Necessary
Thought I was being so smart weighing my flour for homemade pasta. But I used the weight for an entire recipe instead of per cup. Had five times as much flour as needed. The pasta was not good.
Image credits: EatMorePieDrinkMore
#32 Using Baking Soda Instead Of Corn Starch
A few different times while making sauces, my brain has entirely turned off and I've grabbed the baking soda instead of the cornstarch to thicken them.
Image credits: JHunz
#33 Who Knew Garlic Powder Is Not A Good Substitute For Cinnamon?
I once made a yogurt parfait and sprinkled garlic powder on top instead of cinnamon. Such a dumb mistake when I was in a rush lol
Image credits: madjerz23
#34 Don't Go Shopping Or Cooking While Drunk
I recently put parsley into a curry instead of coriander. The moral of the story is 'don't do your shopping/cooking while drunk'
Image credits: Ancient_Thanks_4365
#35 How About Some Nut Grey Tea?
I used to have a bowl of oatmeal and nuts with a jasmin tea for breakfast. I chopped the nuts and poured them in the tea cup that was full of boiling water.
Image credits: ExtremeBaker
#36 Adding Cheese Packets To Boiling Water
I was making Kraft Mac and cheese for my kids and dumped the cheese packet in the boiling water. It exploded everywhere.Another time, I was making homemade carrot cake for a family dinner and left out the baking soda. It didn’t rise and was dense AF.
Image credits: Interesting-Basis856
#37 Skin Lotion In Soup
squirted skin lotion into the soupput coffee in the dishwasher detergent dish
Image credits: StickyCarpet
#38 Chili Powder And Cayenne Mix Up
ahhhh the great chili powder-cayenne mix up of 2019
Image credits: rhinestoned-tampon ·
#39 TBPS vs TSP
3 Tbsp instead of 3tsp of vanilla in the cream sauce for my Irish apple cake#40 Uncooked Egg Dump
Was making breakfast sandwiches at work and dumped a raw egg out of my egg cooker thinking it was cooked, right onto my English muffin with cheese.
Image credits: BeesoftheStoneAge
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