PrintWhen Good (Seeming) Recipes Go Bad...
I made a recipe that seemed like it would be delicious, and it just WASN'T. Has this ever happened to you? What recipes have you spent a bunch of time on that in the end bollixed you up? Here's a recounting of my annoying experience.
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13 Comments:
Eh, this has happened to me too many times to count. The most recent experience had to do with a curried tofu dish. I used to be a vegetarian and I ate plenty of tofu, but now that I'm once again in the meat eating world I've come to the conclusion that I used to convince myself that I actually liked tofu. Anyhow, the dish fell flat. It would have been really good had I used chicken for a tofu substitute, but it was just an awful, mushy disaster.
PumpkinBear at 2:51AM on 04/25/08
Karenita - What recipe did you try that turned out so badly? Ingredients? Method? Just curious.
I tried a recipe many years ago for what was called Cornbread Topped Enchilada Pie or something like that. I prepared it to the letter and when I went to dig in, I noticed the corn mixture was soft. There was no leavening! I didn't notice this until it was too late (wow...how many years ago??). I wrote the magazine to let them know of the mistake...And they stood by the recipe! No falling on their sword to accept responsibility... Ugh. Serves me right for getting recipes from Woman's Day but I was a new stay-at-home mom at the time.
chiff0nade at 5:17AM on 04/25/08
Hehe PumpkinBear. Y'know the funny thing about tofu that I think a lot of people don't realize early on is that it's not a substitute for meat in cooking. Tofu is only as good as it's surroundings, as it doesn't impart flavor but incorporates flavor. I know that you know that now...but I'm sure while you were eating that dish back then. Ugh. lol
I made cole slaw and didn't have most of the ingredients. I know, it's kind of shocking considering you only put in a handful of things. It was as edible as raw cabbage is edible. My husband asked me what the heck I was doing when he took a bite.
Cassaendra at 7:59AM on 04/25/08
This has happened to me so many times! Things aren't really bad so much as bland. I was especially disappointed with a recipe I read on the Amateur Gourmet (Adam raved about this dish), which he got from Lidia Bastianich. It was a garlicky pasta with cannelini beans. Mine turned out super starchy and flavorless. I piled on the parmesan and consoled myself for spending the evening cooking just to end up with starchy noodles and cheese. I was especially disappointed because these are seemingly great sources for recipes and cooking tips. I don't know what went wrong.
Plus I've noticed that cooking time for me often takes much longer than the recipe states. I read recipes several times through before I start, I have a small kitchen so things are where I can find them, and a good, working stove, yet I'm always stuck cooking longer than I expected. So, basically lately I've been too discouraged to cook anything more than breakfast at dinner.
LiveToEat at 8:00AM on 04/25/08
I have truly believe that cooking ethnic food is partly genetic, I really do. For example, my friend's Puerto Rican mom makes THE MOST FANTASTIC rice and beans. I've helped her make them, I've got her explicit instructions, the type of rice and the type of beans she uses, and I cannot for the life of me make them taste like hers. It's the same thing with my family recipe for meatballs: my mom, who isn't Sicilian, can't make them the way my grandmother, my aunts or I do. Also, I cannot make Asian food for the life of me, though I've ALMOST mastered the pinky-measuring method of cooking rice, because my Korean roommate taught me several times.
embolini9 at 10:29AM on 04/25/08
A couple of weeks ago, a friend (in her home) asked me to make a breaded mushroom dish I make often. It only takes mushrooms, garlic, breadcrumbs, parm cheese and butter/olive oil. I did not salt as usual because the parm was already shredded and I wasn't familiar with the brand. I should have tasted it. The breadcrumbs were gluten free, but unsalted. Unsalted butter. You guessed, didn't you? One taste and I had to spit it out - so salty. Unexpectedly, it also tasted like there were hard pieces of bone in there. It was the gluten free breadcrumbs - never saw anything like it. They could break your teeth! It was two large boxes of mushrooms, just totally ruined.
PerkyMac at 10:50AM on 04/25/08
I agree with LiveToEat - when recipes don't work for me, they're usually just too bland. The example that comes to mind is when I made "Spicy Eggplant" from a certain magazine (I won't name names...) -- and it wasn't spicy AT ALL. Not like, it wasn't spicy enough for us because we like spicy food. It was actually bland. I wondered if they left out an ingredient! I mean, just don't call it spicy!
CookiePie at 12:02PM on 04/25/08
This happens to me often with particular cookbooks/authors. Tamasin Day-Lewis especially. Her books are beautiful and the recipes sound amazing, but they never seem to quite hit the expectations (and sometimes fall short). I keep her book around because, as I see it, if a book at least motivates me to get into the kitchen with the basic idea, it's doing something worthwhile. And it challenges my own skill as a cook to get the result that I'm after.
renzata at 12:31PM on 04/25/08
@pumpkinbear--I've had curried tofu at a little Vietnamese restaurant and I love it! I'm not even remotely vegetarian. Did the recipe call for firm or extra firm tofu with as much water pressed out as possible? And then pat dry, dust with flour, and fry the tofu to give it even more texture. Then put into the curry sauce and simmer to allow flavors to absorb into tofu. Won't turn into a mush.
@embolini9--I don't know about your genetics theory. LOL-- My sisters can't make a decent Korean meal without buying prepared marinades and sauces from the Korean market. LOL, but my southern gentleman husband, who incidentally does believe the south will rise again, can make a mean spicy pork bulgogi. Oh, God, I wish you all could meet my family, everybody would be stuffed and happy.
wookie at 12:40PM on 04/25/08
My chili usually turns out nicely. I have several different recipes/ styles. I made a batch a few weeks back, and it was just...flat. When I made it, my heart just wasn't in it- I was mainly trying to use up some ingredients before they went bad. So yeah. I think it was the lack of love.
Kerosena at 4:21PM on 04/25/08
haha, livetoeat, another failed recipe from the amateur gourmet! he raved on and on about a simple and delicious quick dinner you could make by sauteeing canned beans with onions, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, and parmesan, so i tried it. it was soooo incredibly nasty!
cybercita at 11:55PM on 04/25/08
I'm often able to tell, but sometimes I get totally blindsided. I found this amazing looking recipe for orzo salad. The ingredients were all things I liked and seemed to go together, the photo was page lickable. So I made it. It was so revolting I took one bite and tossed it. It was a textural thing. Even though I undercooked the orzo, it was still so - mushy. You can play with seasonings, but texture is often a lost cause. I should have known. I don't think there's any way humanly possible that I would ever like orzo in a pasta salad.
chisai at 7:39AM on 04/26/08
I made the curried butternut squash recipe from here and it was so spicy, I was dying!
daniellak at 11:07AM on 05/09/08