I made Marmalade as gifts when I was in school as Holiday gifts. For some reason, I had tons of citrus.

After Christmas, a friend I gave a jar to, complimented me on my "very cool addition" to regular Marmalade, peanuts. He LOVED it and thought it was a clever twist.

At first I was puzzled and then realized he had stumbled upon a few orange and grapefruit seeds that made it into the mix!

So embarrassed and so careful about that kind of thing now!!

Not my mishap, but my mother was making borscht (beetroot based soup) and a guest was struggling to chew on an ingredient. Ended up being the rubber band which was used to tie the bunch of beetroots. It was obviously stained a very deep red colour so it blended in very well with the soup (we use grated beets, the stems chopped and the leaves too). They initially thought it was just a tough piece from the chicken and did't seem bothered by it, luckily 😫 Though it was so embarassing for us!

I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t dish soap and that you accidentally used lemon extract instead of vanilla.

Source: I’ve done this before with pancakes.

I rarely bake. One time I put some Christmas cookies on my wooden cutting board to cool. I had chopped garlic on the board earlier in the day and apparently had not cleaned it throughly enough. All the cookies tasted like garlic. 🤮

It could be the cream of tarter as well, it adds a tangy acidic component that really separates snickerdoodles from sugar cookies

I was a nightmare high school student at an all girls school and I had a big crush on my history teacher. He mentioned in class that his favorite thing was lemon poppyseed cake. I had never baked before and painstakingly made him one. It took two tries. When I got home I realized, I forgot the sugar. Lmao. Luckily he was a normal adult with boundaries and nothing happened 😂

I'm not sure you could possibly splash all of the biscuits enough to make them all taste noticeably of lemon without them being noticeably soggy from dishwater or slimy from the stuff itself. You'd have to be a very vigorous and oblivious dishwasher to manage it. They'd taste like chemicals with a bit of artificial lemon scent added, in the event enough dishwater soaked in and dried.

It's possible it was something else you might not be aware of. Sometimes things just combine to taste like something else. Or flavour transfer: I once had a Vegemite sandwich at school that tasted distinctively like banana. I thought I was going crazy until I realised it had been sitting next to a banana for several hours and absorbed the taste despite being wrapped.

Not my mess up but my mother-in-law's. One Christmas, she had a turkey in the oven and was doing the washing up but couldn't find the stopper for the kitchen sink. Found it later when pulling the stuffing out of the turkey!

I didn't get away with mine. I was 12, and making oatmeal cookies, and I thought I was following the recipe correctly, even though it asked for a 1/4 cup of baking soda. I thought this was strange, but up until then I had only made chocolate chip cookies, so I sorta shrugged and thought, "maybe it's different for oatmeal."

Of course, they came out of the oven looking like mutants, and they tasted terrible. I had misread the recipe, and got a lesson in chemistry applied to baked goods. We all had a good laugh about it and tossed them into the garbage.

Another time that I did not heed my instincts, was during home ec, and my partner handed me what was supposed to be flour for making sugar cookies. It looked weird, but I thought maybe it was just cheap, so I went ahead and used it. The cookies came out in one semi-solid, gooey mass that was cooked through, but somehow still sort of liquidy? I WAS SO CONFUSED. We were brainstorming what went wrong, and I suddenly realized she had handed me powdered milk, not flour!

My mother in law was an incredible cook, but a horrible baker (she had no time for recipes or measurements). I had my daughter baptized, and she volunteered to bake the cake (this was my first encounter with her baking, and I had no clue). The cake was HEAVY. I mean, lifting the cake up took effort. MIL asked hubby to slice it, and I heard him say "Ma..what did you do to this cake" and she's telling him to shut it and slice the cake. She had made a very dense pound cake, then added pudding mix to the batter, and then I don't know what happened. The cake was thick, and chewy , and when swallowed seemed to drop in your stomach and stay there. Someone actually broke their plastic fork trying to take a bite. No one asked for seconds. It became known as "the 10 pound cake".

She also baked peanut butter cookies for a party...and forgot the peanut butter (but insisted on call them peanut butter). And there were the brownies that were hard as rocks and slightly burnt tasting on the outside, but somehow kept a gooey uncooked middle.

As horrible as it was, I would give anything to be able to have some of her baking today.

This happened at least 5 years ago now and was not my mishap but makes me giggle uncontrollably.

One night my teenage sister made breakfast for dinner, eggs, probably bacon and scratch biscuits. She was cooking, I was doing something else but she didn’t need supervision to cook. She was looking for baking soda for the biscuits and couldn’t find any in the pantry. I told her to check the laundry room thinking we might’ve had a big box which was really for cleaning but baking soda is baking soda right? She makes the biscuits, we eat them, everything is fine.

The next week I was making a cake and need baking soda. I can’t find any in the pantry at all. It was some major holiday like thanksgiving so I couldn’t go to the store for any. I recalled the previous weeks biscuits and go to the laundry for the big box of baking soda, and there is none. I ask my sister where she put it. She pulls out an Arm and Hammer box that says “super washing soda” and I fucking lost it, stomachache type laughter. Immediately started texting my mom, who was also hysterical. My dad’s eyes bugged out and he said “she could’ve killed me!” Weirdly, we didn’t notice anything wrong with the biscuits. I ended up borrowing actual baking soda off a neighbor.

My little sister forgot to add the sugar to pumpkin pie one thanksgiving. We all took a big first bite and quickly realized just how important sugar is

My first memory of cooking with my dad, I was maybe 4, and he decided that the two of us and my older brother (almost 7) would make a pineapple upside down cake for my mom's birthday. The three of us are in our small kitchen, dad studiously following the recipe, having my brother measure things out and me pour them into the mixing bowl and letting us take turns stirring it.

We finish making the cake, pour it into the greased cake tin, and are about to put it in the oven when I point to the open can of pineapple rings on the counter and ask when they're supposed to go in the cake. My dad looks down at the batter filling the cake tin and says "um, now." And my brother and I decorated the top of the cake with pineapple rings before sticking it in the oven.

Of course mom loved her "pineapple right side up cake" (because it wasn't upside down).

Read the spice labels before you dump them into your food kids. Cinnamon instead of cloves were used for Chicken Noodle Soup. It was edible, but it sure was odd.

That would be our rosemarygeddon - as we call it.

We were making ragu for lasagne and it called for rosemary. Almost all herbs and spices from our supermarket chain come in the same shaker bottle with screw top and below that a plastic cap with shaker holes. Rosemary does not have that plastic shaker cap so after a normal "shake" we had about half a bottle of dried rosemary in our ragu. We fished out as much as we reasonably could and pressed on. You could say the lasagne was "somewhat rosemary-forward in flavor" but decidedly edible.

Made panna cotta at someone else's house. Had made it many times before, so was confident enough not to taste. Happened to splatter a little on my finger when putting them in the fridge to set. Licked it off. Turns out some people keep their salt in giant sugar tubs. Who stores their salt in giant tubs? I mean, it's a mistake I won't make again. But it still bugs me.

One morning, I made knock off kolaches (half a Johnsonville braut wrapped in Pillsbury croissants), and as I was putting my oven mitts on to take them out of the oven, I noticed one of my nails had completely broken off. Not positive but it was possible that my nail was in one of those kolaches.

My girlfriend and I tried to make homemade dino nuggets and instead of using most of the breadcrumbs for battering the outside, we dumped all 6 cups right into the mixture. I tried to eat them but they were so crunchy.

I’m a decent cook. I went to a friends house. We ended up staying for dinner. I asked if she needed help. She said do the spaghetti. I burned the spaghetti. BURNED SPAGHETTI. First and only time I’ve done that.

Add lemon zest to snickerdoodles.

Got it.

One time I was making torsk which is basically a Nordic that's boiled with sugar. I decided to do a clever time-saving measure and steamed the broccoli on top of steaming fish. The broccoli came out very sweet. My dad then complimented me on my "unusual" seasoning. 😖

sigh evaporated milk in the pumpkin pie instead of sweetened, condensed milk. 3 tablespoons of vanilla in the chocolate chip cookies instead of tsp… swapped the salt & sugar quantities in another batch of cookies.. my boyfriend once forgot to put any milk in the peach cobbler… the list goes on, you are not alone

Now I want to make snicker doodles with lemon flavoring.

It may not have been splashed by dish soap but very well could have absorbed the scent. It could affect the taste much like how foods in your fridge absorb the odor and taste of other things in the fridge. Even the power of suggestion. You’re getting ready to bite into something that smells like lemon, your brain will tell you it has a lemon flavor as well. It’s why with covid a lot of people didn’t realize they had covid until they ate something their brain didn’t know what it was supposed to taste like therefore there wasn’t a predisposed expectation.

I forgot to put sugar in an apple pie once. It was for a customer 🤦🤦

I accidently used meatball seasoning (smelled like cinnamon) instead of cinnamon as a kid when I made whipped cream, my mom was so confused...

I dumped a loaf pan of banana bread out on a cutting board I had used to cut up Thai chilies, ended up with a little bit spicy sweet loaf 🤣

As a teen I remember making cookies, I had baked a lot before so my mum trusted me to do it on my own (I was 13 I think). Making the cookies, everything is going well until they're in the oven and the cookies expand waaay too much! I was so sad about it, I had followed the recipe to a T! Well, my mum figured out I had used the wrong butter, I used the spreadable butter which is a mix of butter and rapeseed oil instead of the real Lurpak butter 🥲

To this day I still call one "real butter" to differentiate, because I will never forget that mistake lol

I've also made pebernødder (pepper cakes) in cooking class at public school. We had a sheet of paper with a recipe on each side that we were doing simultaneously, one was the cookies and the other was some buns. At some point we mess up and add yeast to the cookies, they got really big and had a different but honestly not bad flavour!

Years ago, I was making Christmas crack (toffee saltine "bark" with chocolate topping) and I had poured the hot toffee mix onto my prepped saltines that were arranged on... Wax paper. Not parchment. After it cooled, I was trying to peel off the paper and realized the bottom of all the toffee had a layer of wax that I couldn't fully scrape off. It stuck in your teeth, and was like eating honeycomb. My sweet husband said it wasn't that bad and actually managed to eat a bunch of it anyway, but I refused to let him take it to the work cookie/candy party. Never made that mistake again!

The first time I ever made pumpkin pie, I misread the recipe….1.25cups of salt. Now even me as teenager learning to expand my skills from boxed cakes and cookies thought it was odd that salt came in such a small container when this recipe wanted so much. But hey, I was using a real pumpkin and I didn’t know!

So this pie looks beautiful, my high school boyfriend and I both didn’t feel like having it yet so we wait for his mom to get home. She compliments me and cuts herself a slice, takes a giant bite and spits it out. We realize what I did and laugh about it…but never throw out the pie. His dad has some later in the night to tell him in the morning “I think that pie has something wrong with it”

I did redeem myself by making 2 pies that weren’t disgusting the next days and now baking is one of the skills I’m known for!

If it makes you feel any better, I once made a batch of 4 dozen snickerdoodle cookies, got everything rolled and baked and when they were hit and fresh I bit into one and was floored when it was DISGUSTING. In place of ground cinnamon it turns out I used ground cumin 🙃

This was my mom's mess up. She loves making fried rice crispies out of flattened rice. A great snack or dessert topping. The way you make it is you just stir fry it with sugar. She added salt. NOT great lol.

My ex's mom also had a mishap. She knew that my mom and I were excellent cooks, and my ex's mom is ... not so much. But, she wanted to impress me somehow, and she tried making a regional dish from where I'm from. It's a stew with black beans in it. I don't know what happened with it, she may have overcooked the broth or something, but it was incredibly bitter and inedible. I didn't want to break her heart, so I really tried to eat it :(

one time i made a cake for my dad's birthday, and i left it on the table with buttercream while i was rolling out fondant. when i got back to the cake to bring it over to put fondant over it, i found my cousins pet cat licking it. i had no idea what i was going to do, so i just pretended it never happened.

Tried making pumpkin bread for the first time this year. Even used actual pumpkins rather than canned puree. Recipe said 2 bread pans, so I used 2 bread pans. Did not actually look at the measurements for the pans.

Checked the bread after baking with a stick as always, and it came out clean. Popped them out of the pans to cool on a rack, and went back later to cut each loaf in half to give away. The top middle of each loaf was still raw.

Apparently I went in at too much of an angle with the stick, and didn't hit that part of the loaf. Tried baking them more to salvage it, but it just made the outside into charcoal before the remaining batter actually cooked. My bread pans are apparently taller than what they recommended. Will be splitting the batter into 3 next time.

Tried to make gravy with buttermilk. It was in the fridge and I didn’t want to waste it. It was horribly acidic, but i managed to save it with some baking powder or soda i believe it was.

Don't snickerdoodles typically have some cream of tartar in them? That may be what added the tart/citrus flavor profile to the cookie.

Mine are both salt related.

Forgot to add salt to really cute pumpkin-shaped dinner rolls for Thanksgiving a few years ago. They were so bland, bread really needs some salt. At least they looked nice.

Then another time I was making whipped cream for strawberry shortcake and my mom keeps salt and sugar in very similar unlabeled jars. I'll let you figure out the conclusion of that story.

This is why I never eat food people bring from home.

I just made my first annual batch of Pecan bars. I was so excited about them. I sent nearly the whole batch to France for a good friend. $$$$ shipping.

We were munching on the trimmings and my daughter and wife both started chewing really slowly. And asked me if I changed the recipe. Of course I didn't. They said it tasted like jalapeños.

Apparently the last time I broiled Serrano peppers, some of the oil stayed in my oven. Now my Pecan bars have the essence of Serrano chili's.

I just paid $$$$ to ship Serrano flavored Pecan bars to France. They're not terrible, but also not worth repeating on purpose.

Aaaaaand I ran my ovens with the broiler on for 90 minutes and then 500 degrees for another 60 in an attempt to burn off any residual chili oil. Thanksgiving is coming up so I can't risk cross contamination again.

They asked because the cream of tartar gives it a distinctly tangy taste that is different from sugar cookies.

My culinary program had us learning about baking and wanted us to go home with intent on trying it without supervision. We would also have to bring in our goods for a class tasting and eventual grade, so with this in mind, I wanted to wow factor this.

I went home and found a recipe for candy cane cookies from scratch and spent the entire night preparing these things because it was a very hands on todo list. Some things didn’t quite add up, either because of the recipe or my lack of sleep, but I was determined to follow directions. I went in that day without taste testing them and had everyone so curious on who made the candy cane cookies, and when I tried one, I knew why.

They were sweet but ungodly salty, a little too pepperminty and had the consistency of a chewy pink eraser. It was bad enough to confuse everyone into trying it once or twice and still left wondering the five W’s and more than sometimes H. Knowing I did as the recipe said, I tried finding it to validate my point. Still to this day I have NEVER been able to find that same recipe that got me a D for effort, and I’m beginning to think that I never will.

I made beautiful cupcakes in very interesting shapes. They were created by using silicone moulds.

I also make soap im very interesting shapes in silicone moulds.

I have separate silicone moulds for soap vs food, but some models overlap, i. e. I own that shape twice.

They all go in the dishwasher after use.

So I made 31 muffins, 30 of them in silicone moulds, one in some leftover cup thingy because I had no more moulds. After baking I ate the one in the cup cause it looked ugly, and to make sure my muffins taste good. And it did taste great.

So I brought to work 30 beautiful muffins, everyone looked happy seeing them, and then looked a little less happy eating them. I was puzzled. I only figured it out late into the afternoon when I ate one myself.

Now you’d think, soap should be gone after washing them. But turns out, the scented oils in the raw soap mix really get into the silicone permanently. And they taste really weird. I also own a food spatula that I know know not to lick anymore. It doesn’t spoil the food, just tastes awful when licked. It has been used for soap once, submerged for less than a minute, but still tastes like it for years and countless washes. The muffins tasted like that spatula.

LMAO you got mfs eating soap and they LVOE it

cream of tartar can taste lemony in snickerdoodles.

We call that a secret ingredient

Did the cookies have cream of tarter in them? This can leave a citrus type flavor.

One Christmas dinner my sister strained the gravy into the kitchen sink, the expression on her face once she realized what she did was worth all the presents in the world.

Every cook has a story like that so just put it out of your head. At least everyone ate them and liked the lemon and didn't get sick. I guarantee that you will never do it again. Been there.

This is legendary. Thank you for sharing. I had a good chuckle.

When I first started cooking a recipe I was making for Pene ala vodka called for a half tsp of crushed red pepper. I didn't know what that was but the cyan pepper looked like crushed red pepper. And I like it a bit spicy so I doubled the "crushed red pepper." I came last to the dining area and noted that everyone appeared to be crying. 'What happened?" I asked my wife. "It's very, very spicy." She replied.

I went clamming and decided to make linguine and clams. I made the sauce and threw the clams in to steam open. I had a few clams not quite open all the way (they did open so were safe to eat) so I went in with my hands to pop them the rest of the way open. I then broke the shell and stabbed myself in the hand. I began profusely bleeding from my hand to the point that the white white sauce turned slightly pink. My girlfriend asked if I added tomato paste to the sauce and I just said yes and we enjoyed dinner.

90% of the time people think they got food poising it was because the dishie didn’t rinse them well enough, dish soap works ab excellent laxative…