Recipes NOT to be repeated!!

Skint_Catt

daydreambeliever wrote: »

HI ampersand,
It was 1 egg, 4 oz flour and half a pint of milk cooked at 220 for 40-45 minutes. I cooked it for longer than that because it was in a glass dish and I could see it wasn't done underneath but couldn't leave it any longer as the top was burning.

Glass/pyrex doesn't get hot enough - needs to be a metal type baking tray and VERY hot when you put the batter into the heated oil and tin.

moanymoany

I love toad in the hole. If it looks done on top but I can see squidgy in the middle I turn the oven down to 160/170 and leave it to dry out. It works.

FZwanab

Heres a few other of my disasters

Bread maker recipe book suggested 3/4 cup water, I thought it was 3 or 4 cups of water, and was wondering why it was about to go over the top of the tin!!

I can never get potatoes gratin to work out for me, potatoes remain hard even with hours cooking. Maybe I am supposed to parboil them first. Anyway, first time I made them, I served them up at a dinner party when I was much younger, one of the guests was a chef in a pub!! I was mortified, but everyone ate them as they did not want to offend me. ( Bridget Jones blue soup scenario!!)

Special Cottage pie ala Delia - did this only the other day, put in a heaped teaspoon of cinnamon instead of a quarter teaspoon as I had doubled/trebled ingredients. OH came home and asked had I been baking cakes! Anyway we ate the dinner but it reeked of cinnamon.

squeaky

The usual problem with undercooked toad in the hole (or yorkshire pudding - same recipe after all) is not hot enough.

Place the recommended amount of fat/lard/oil your recipe recommends in the dish you want to cook in.

Turn your oven to the maximum and put the dish in - on a shelf that's near the top (but not too close to the top! )

Give it at least ten minutes until your oven is up to full temperature - if it takes longer in your oven... then take longer.

Carefully take the hot dish out of the oven (using oven gloves etc) and pour your batter in. The fat should sizzle when the batter goes in.

As for the sausages - I always brown them in a frying pan before adding them

daydreambeliever_3

squeaky, do you turn the oven down when you've put the tin back in?

squeaky

Normally no.

I ignore the recipe cooking temp and just watch the top of the toad in the hole or the yorkshire puds. Once it's golden brown - it's done.

Triker

Ahhh cooking disasters, I think I've made this my life's work.

What I lack in skill I more than make up for in enthusiam....much to my families dismay.:D

Where to start, at school my cakes in Home Economics were always so bad that the cookery teacher (not famed for her sympathy) made me a cake to take home after yet another flat rock hard number emerged from the oven.

My 'light sponge fingers' made a definate clunk noise when dropped onto the plate.

One year I was determined to make Delia's christmas cake from 'Delia's Christmas', to the letter. No shortcuts, bought every ingrediant and determinedly followed her recipe to the letter.

With a gasp of expectation I took my first ever home baked christmas cake out of the oven and out of the tin. It was perfect in every way except for the slight fact that instead of being a good couple of inches high it was about 4 cm high.:o

I was absolutely distraught but my ex husbund to be fair, sliced himself a sliver and announced that it was the most delicious christmas cake he had ever eaten, despite it's dwarven statue.

I also made a delicious shepherds pie, with a twist, my own special creation. My OH took one look and said, 'pile my plate up high that looks really nice'.

I did and he started eating his first mouthful which he then promptly spat out, I again looked distraught and asked 'whats up with it', he said 'it's disgusting what's in it?,'

'It's my shepherds pie with a twist' say I, 'whats the twist?' he asks, his eyes narrowing, 'Lime pickle' say I.

Never made it since.

Had a stand off with jelly in the fridge for about 4 days before I faced up to the fact that it was not going to set.

Made a 'flourless chocolate cake' made from oil, it looked like chocolate cake and tasted like ......oil.:D

Cannot ever, ever get chicken drumsticks or pieces to cook thoroughly by frying in oil, I usually spent ages stabbing the chicken to reveal more blood and end up cremating it in the oven with loads of bits hanging off where I've repeatedly stabbed it to make sure its cooked.

Tried Nigella's supposedly really easy sweetcorn pudding which according to Nigella bites is a 'rich, heavy, airless souffle'.:rolleyes:

Never sets I think it should take about an hour to cook, I kept checking and after about 3 and a half hours it still hadn't set.......just a gloopy unsetting mess which promptly rushed to meet Mr Bin.

Churchmouse

Good job I was about to remove my makeup anyway! Thanks for the *laugh until you cry* post:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Sorry, that's not kind. With a straight face * I'm soooo sorry you've had the odd problem with your cooking*;)

competitionscafe

Primrose wrote: »

And modern ovens and microwaves all have different power settings these days, which can influence the way something cooks.

One of the best purchases I made recently was an oven thermometer (got it for around £4 just before Xmas as I had never cooked turkey before and my oven was playing up!!) http://www.decuisine.co.uk/cookshop/bakeware/oven-thermometer.html
Anyway, that way at least I now know if my oven temp is correct as per the recipe so if something is still not cooked in the time given I know the recipe needs adjusting. I can also make sure that the oven has warmed up to the correct temp before putting the food in.

wherediditallgo

Triker, are you sure you're not Ria reincarnated?